It’s been around six months since I monetized my travel blog. Since December 2010 when I earned my first dollar I have quietly earned a steady, consistent income with little effort. I’m a travel writer now, woo!

Show me the money

• Sales (January 1 – May 10, 2011): US$5,625.02
• Expenses (January 1 – May 10, 2011): US$676.00

• Total Profit (January 1 – May 10, 2011): US$4,949.02
• Daily Income: US$38
• Monthly Income: US$1,142.08

The “Work Hours”

According to a time tracking software I work an average of 22 hours per week. But most of that is spent on my other business which accounts for more than 80-85% of my income. If I were to estimate I probably work an average of 3 hours per week on my travel blog. This accounts for communication with advertisers, obtaining advertising leads, bookkeeping, assigning sponsored articles to my writers, and writing my own non-sponsored articles.

Last month I don’t recall writing any non-sponsored articles and the advertising dollars still came. I’d say this blog can run on autopilot with only sponsored content. I don’t want to do that of course.

While advertising alienates readers, from a business standpoint it should not effect the blog’s income. My blog does earn money not because its attracts readers but instead from an SEO perspective,  for most advertisers. Sadly this probably means I won’t be getting any press trips in the near future. Still, SEO is better on many competing travel blogs but I am certain I outearn many of them because of my strategy for selling advertising. This is still a secret.

The Future

I could quit my real job and live in a developing country working 2 hours per week. Beat that, Tim Ferris! But that would be a silly thing to do. Rather, i’ll continue to think about my short term earning potential and monetize the crap out of this blog. You want to buy a text link from me? Sure Mr. Advertiser.

My sponsored articles, though written well and entertaining, are a nuisance to many readers who visit this blog for my perspective on travel and business. In the future-future i’d like to make money from not from my blog’s SEO, but my audience. That means thinking about writing more seriously and more often. I am starting to think more seriously about that because I can clearly see the money will keep coming and to be honest this could be a really fun and rewarding job.

But before this i’ll want to change up the blog with a new website design and better writing standards. In the meantime i’m going to begin posting articles on other blogs for greater exposure. But does any of that really matter when what I am doing is not unique. I can name dozens of travel bloggers living a very similar life as mine. It’s an interesting lifestyle and readers who appreciate what I do is nice. I will and have always published the same number of non-sponsored articles each month. But now with sponsored articles they may be a little more difficult to find.  But I do this because while followers are nice, money is preferred.

I wanted to share some new content many of you probably haven’t seen. A few weeks ago I was interviewed by John Bardos over at www.JetsetCitizen.com about life as a ‘Digital Nomad’.

I answered questions about my travels, favorite country, the least expensive country I have visited, if I had a lot of savings to begin with, how I earn an income now,  how I get customers, are retail internet sites a good business, what my travel budget is like, am I getting tired of traveling, how I deal with banking, bills, health care, and other administrative things,  and my advice for people considering long term travel.

You can read the interview here.

After that interview, Rolf Pott’s blog picked it up also. I think that’s pretty cool that he noticed the interview as he’s pretty much the guy who popularized Round The World Travel.  The blogger wrote,

“He outlines his methods and gives good advice.  While Jason certainly believes you can fund your travels from working on the Internet, he avoids making outrageous claims of fast and easy riches. For a techno-age entrepreneur, his principles are decidedly old-school: finding a need, providing a solution, and offering good customer service.  Good rules to do business by, online and offline.”

Besides Rolf Potts, the interview was also highlighed at ProjectHitchhiker and LastStanding.

Recently more people have taken notice of this site and I think that’s a pretty great thing. People care enough about what I am doing to read what I write. For instance, in the past 31 days 85 people have come to this website after searching for my full name on a search engine. My full name is the only one in existence so I am sure they aren’t really looking for someone else.

Then someone posted a link to one of my articles on Reddit. The original poster commented that,

“This guy’s entrepreneur timeline is unbelievable. I’m beginning to doubt the authenticity.”

I don’t think there is anything greater than this. People actually think I am lying about what I do. That’s a pretty big compliment I think.

Moving on, the same article I wrote was discussed by 18 members on another internet forum. Some posters called me a “criminal and “con man” while others had more positive things to day.

“The dude is a hustler, because he kept on going and didn’t give up on making a living online. He knew it was possible so he tried different things until he found out what worked for him. That is a true hustler indeed.”

Besides the internet chatter, the traffic to this blog is up 156% in the past 31 days and RSS subscribers have nearly doubled. And likely because of this I get an email or two from a stranger at least once a week complimenting the writing or asking for advice. It means a lot to me when people do this. I am thankful to everyone reading the blog. Thanks.

A

But most importantly has been the success in turning this hobby into a business. During my first month in business I earned 4 figures and am set to double that income in its second month. This means you guys will be reading more advertisement articles than is probably fair, but hey, money is money.

On September 20, 2007, I received an order for Helmut Lang – Cuiron cologne from my eCommerce store. The cologne was out of stock but I didn’t want his $226.67 to go to waste.

Instead I called the customer to see whether a different sized cologne bottle might be an acceptable substitute.

Hello Jeffrey, this is Jason from (Company Name). I am calling about your recent order for…….blah blah.

As always I tried to represent my company formally but after settling the order a minute later he could sense that my company was probably a little more informal than I was trying to represent. It was at that point that he asked me about my company.

Are you the only one running it?

Yes.

He was interested so I gave him a little background that I was 19, a freshman in university. I ran this and a few other businesses on the side. Once school was out I continued to work but used the money to go travel.

He interrupted me and said that I had given him a great idea for a new TV show. He thought it would be cool to profile a few young entrepreneurs. That’s when he told me he was a Hollywood producer having played a big role in producing Ally McBeal, The Practice, and a few more. He also acted as the Hendricks character in Jaws.

Jeffrey told me that he would seriously think about this idea but in the meantime to send him some more detailed information about myself. I emailed him right away and he thanked me by email a few days  later.

I followed-up on the TV show idea a few weeks later but never heard from him again.

I began writing this post last February during the first week of my full-time travels and living abroad. At the time I had recently graduated university and was just enjoying the beginning of what I had set out to do for many years. Pretty much non-stop travel was the goal and all of my efforts were finally realized. I was hesitant to publish the content right away. Although extremely excited with what I had accomplished a lot of my thoughts were based on assumptions of what I anticipated would happen. As a reminder you can read about how I earn my income here.

Earning a Living:

It was an easy choice to work for myself straight out of university. I had already been doing it successfully since high school and after six or so years developing multiple businesses I had finally hit my stride come January. In 2009 I had my first really successful year while taking 21 credit semesters, a part time internship, and running three businesses. This meant I earned a very livable, though quite average income, for living in a first world country.  But 2010 started at an insane level as I furiously worked on expanding my career consulting business. Even a few months into 2010 it looked like I would earn over six figures for 2010. I felt like a hot shot but this extreme success meant it was time to relax and enjoy my surroundings.

Business Failure:

Of course the career consulting business didn’t maintain that pace.  It didn’t decrease much either. But what really kept me away from six figures was the forced closure of a retail clothing business I had started in high school. With access to a wholesale account I had been undercutting the name brand clothing company for six years by reselling individual items on a private forum. I sold to individuals at a price well above wholesale but well below retail. The brand eventually caught on to the hundreds of others doing this and shut us all down. They also threatened to sue me. Eight months later I haven’t been sued so I think I am in the clear! But this passive income is gone forever.

Coasting on Autopilot:

Down to just two businesses I pretty much ran on autopilot for months. My online retail store provided a small but consistent stream of real, passive income. I forwarded each order to some American guy I hired to ship the few goods I actually stocked – cologne and t-shirts. The rest of the orders for other products were processed in minutes and shipped individually by the wholesale companies. I didn’t actively market the business and like the past few years most products moved slowly. There’s not much effort I am willing to put in when the business doesn’t excite me. It’s also just a business that I know has very little potential. Why bother?

But the career consulting business continued to do exceptionally well. It’s not passive by any means. I rewrite documents and exchange emails with clients every day. It’s actual work that challenges me. But at times I kind of like doing it. And then in return I am rewarded with positive feedback from clients who landed many interviews and jobs. In the end it’s worth doing and has become something which helps make me feel good about myself because I truly believe I am helping others. It’s rewarding.

Meanwhile, for a good portion of the year, about ten months, I coasted along business-wise. When people asked if I planned on expanding my current businesses or start a new one I laughed and said no. I actively avoided trying to develop anything. I continued making great money on pace to double my 2009 income. Only $1,500US away from literally doubling last year’s income with 11 days left in 2010 it’s pretty much a sure thing.

New Business Out of Nowhere:

The only reason I am going to end up reaching the meaningless goal of doubling my 2009 income is because of my latest business I created by monetizing travel blog. I saw an easy and mostly effortless way to turn this into a significant side business which has since overtaken my retail store as my second most profitable business. The income milestone is meaningless but what’s nice is that once again I am truly excited about working on this new business. It really feels great with each new advertising sale I earn and the even the less exciting administrative duties I look forward to…coordinating new articles with my writer, negotiating deals, etc.

Savings

Just as my earnings have increased so have my savings. Just the other day with less than half a month left in the year I hit another big milestone – a significant figure. Living the way I do means easily saving a good amount each month without even trying. Without a car and rent between $250-$1,000 a month my expenses are pretty low. I don’t buy the latest HDTV or more than a couple nice shirts because I have nowhere to put these things. Though that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to have them. I probably would if things were different.

Though I keep stashing all of this money in savings account I have no plans to use it for anything. I’m not going to invest it in anything risky like stocks or gold because i’m really conservative that way. I can’t stand the thought of losing money I earned. Buying a house or car is pretty much a joke at this point. One way or another when the time comes I will find a way to use it; whether towards my family or a new business.

But for now it’s buying my freedom. It gives me the peace of mind. I don’t worry about what would happen if my insurance found a loophole and dropped my policy. Or if my income stopped completely I could still continue traveling for say the next five years.

In the past twenty or so days I have transformed this travel blog from a hobby into a serious business in the black to the tune of over $1,000 US. I sold out! But the potential earnings from this new business is well worth it. At least I am not trying to sell a dumb travel or money making ebook. Right?

How the business works:

I am earning money from advertisers.

The key to this business is that I figured out a surprisingly simple method of finding quality sales leads. I am not cold emailing these leads but how I find these leads will remain a secret. Just know it takes very minimal effort. At the end I am dealing with online marketing companies who have clients in the travel business. Clients include airfare search engines, hotel chains, and others.

At this point each company has paid for sponsored travel articles or reviews with a few links to their companies. It is this reason you may have noticed some out of character articles published on this blog. Some companies provide me with an article while others have me write them.

That’s when I outsource the writing to an NYU English major graduate for a small but fair sum. He logs into my website to write, format, and ultimately publish each article. Outsourcing the writing means I get to continue spending my time writing as a hobby rather burning out while writing about places I have never been nor care about. This particular copywriter is also a way better writer than I am which means these articles are actually pretty interesting, even if its just a long advertisement.

I can easily see myself outsourcing the entire business in the near future to either the copywriter or another person. They would negotiate with leads and manage the other processes.

Results

Since I began every single lead has responded to me within three days. I believe around 3/4 of all leads contacted have agreed to advertise on this website. The amount of leads I receive now is quite small but there is no limit to how many I will receive in the future. I have a proven process for finding leads which is very easily scalable to hundreds of times larger than it is now.

What I find incredible is that this travel blog is pretty tiny with relatively few regular visitors. What I am getting at is that there are tons of travel blogs with a lot more visitors that I receive. They should obviously be earning more. But somehow my blog will earn more money than those blogs 100-500 times larger than mine, even though they are also actively seeking income.

I never in my wildest imagination thought i’d earn more than a few cents from this hobby. I started my travel blog around five years ago. I never really enjoyed writing but kept at it for years because I felt good sharing my travels. It’s kind of funny to me because in the past year reached a level of satisfaction with my other businesses. I completely gave up on developing them more and went along for the ride with no intention to work anymore than I needed. If someone asked me a month ago what new business idea was in the works I would have laughed. And a few weeks later I now have another thriving side business.