I can't begin to tell you how amazing it is to live a travel lifestyle. The freedom to go or live anywhere is something I hope you can experience some time in your life. It's extremely liberating and the exact opposite of the suburban rat trap.
Everyone wants to know how we pay for this independent nomadic lifestyle, so I felt compelled to write this post as part of a group writing project to help others discover how they can realize their dreams.
We are commonly referred to as "digital nomads". Digital nomadism is a relatively new concept where people, like us, use the Internet to make an income that permits us to live a bohemian lifestyle. We are also known as mobile bohemians (mobos) or location independent professionals (LIP).
Digital nomads typically make money online as freelance writers and bloggers, photographers or artists, web developers, software geeks, affiliate marketers, graphic artists, and many other types of Web commuters and entrepreneurs. Digital nomads usually can work anywhere as long as they have a computer and Internet access.
In our case, we make our living by blogging. We write about things we're passionate about and post them to free blogs that we maintain, which means we have no boss to answer to, no set schedule, and generally no rules to follow.
But that does not mean we get to slack off or be lazy. Okay, maybe we get more free time than the average worker bee, but we still must be disciplined to earn enough money to live on and to travel the world. Granted, we've also adjusted ourselves to live quite simply in order to be able to afford a nomadic lifestyle (See our breakdown of our nomadic travel expenses).
The fantastic thing about blogging is that literally anyone can do it, from anywhere in the world. All of the tools and resources are available for free. All you need is passion for your niche, a laptop, internet, and some know-how. However, just because it's free and easy to set up and anyone can do it, doesn't mean success will happen overnight.
Well before this hobby family travel blog, we spent many long hours working on other blogs; learning about techniques to write good content, to get traffic and search engine recognition, and ultimately how to make money from blogging. It took about three years to get to where we are today.
In hindsight, it would have been much easier if we got a good book about blogging instead of learning through trial and error. We could have significantly sped up our plans to live as digital nomads if the knowledge was spoon fed to us. (See this link for the best book about blogging)
But now that we have the knowledge to make money with free blogs, it's fairly easy to set up new ones and make them successful. The key is finding a niche that you will enjoy writing about whether it's your travel adventures, your hobby, your professional expertise, or any topic that offers valuable or entertaining content to your audience.
And that's also perhaps the most rewarding part of blogging for a living, getting paid to rant about things we're passionate about, from travel to even something like dogs. It's certainly much more fulfilling than working some random job, for somebody else, just to pay the bills.
If you're like everyone else we meet, you probably want to know precisely 'how do you blog for money?'
Well there's no quick answer for that, but the basic ways to monetize a blog are with ads that pay you when a reader clicks on it, ads that lead to a product that the reader buys and you get a commission, advertisers that rent space on your blog, by writing sponsored posts or reviews, or by hosting a store of some kind.
All of those ways to make money are fairly easy to set up and manage but, first, you must get some traffic to your blog by building a following. This will primarily come from producing enjoyable content that you share far and wide, but there are also some proven techniques to improve your blog's search engine optimization (SEO) and traffic.
Successful blogging is as simple as following a formula. Although nearly any blog has the potential to make some money, if you want a full time income, you'll have to treat your blogs like a business and put in the time to build it up.
Even if you don't have plans to make a full-time living from blogging, you should start one just to learn a new skill and to have your own webpage where you aggregate your interests -- a sort of homebase for your internet activity.
For us, we couldn't be more grateful to have discovered this path to provide our independent lifestyle. Blogging allows us to work in our underwear, any time of day or night, on a beach in Costa Rica or on a secluded island in Malaysia. We recommend blogging to anyone seeking freedom from the rat race.
And remember that if you’re travelling & working some countries require you to have certain documents to work, America has their social security, the UK has National insurance cards & India requires you to get a Pan Card from www.pan-card.org.in/.
To see how some other traveling families make it work financially check out the families below:
Gabi Klaf at The Nomadic Family http://thenomadicfamily.com/2012/06/you-would-die-if-you-knew-just-how-rich-we-are
Molly From South America Living http://www.southamericaliving.com/nine-years-living-abroad-how-weve-funded-our-travels-6/
Molly From South America Living http://www.southamericaliving.com/nine-years-living-abroad-how-weve-funded-our-travels-6/
To follow our adventures like us on facebook!
MOBOS?? I am learning so much! Love that Im a mobo lol.
ReplyDeleteLove this! I am currently weening myself into the bohemian lifestyle, first step, throwing away my phone! check out my blog on how Im coping.. Histroy Of Felicity :) peace!
ReplyDeletewhy throw away phone, digital nomad remember? ha.
DeleteTransitioning from a 9-5 job to becoming a digital nomad is a very exciting process! I'm currently in that transition phase now myself :)
ReplyDeleteTransitioning from a 9-5 job to becoming a digital nomad is a very exciting process! I'm currently in that transition phase now myself
ReplyDeleteYeah it can be tough but once it's all set and done with you'll be forever happier!
DeleteThanks for the information. Always great when others share their stories for the benefit of others.
ReplyDeleteThe digital nomad life is a damn good one!
ReplyDeleteCould not agree more! We love it!
DeleteWe are living the life, but need to figure out that income part. LOL Perhaps I should buy your book? :-)
ReplyDeleteAll our income comes from blogging so the book is really helpful. It just shows basically exactly how to get itgoing and make money.
DeleteSo glad to have found this post! I found you guys on Twitter last night and have been checking out your blog. I'm new to blogging but full time travel has always been my dream! I traveled a lot before kids and now that they're getting bigger I can't wait to get back to it and bring them along :) I'm hoping I can figure out this blogging business and make it happen!
ReplyDeleteHi Cassandra, How exciting! Wishing you good luck and let me know if you have any questions. You can contact me through the contact form!
DeleteThanks