Blogger: Johnny Ward
Blog: One Step 4Ward
Networth: USD $1 Million
Johnny Ward travel blogger was brought up in Northern Ireland, a place called Kilkeel. Johnny Ward was brought up by a single-mother.
His hometown is relatively a small town in an island country. John Ward travel blogger was had a passion for travel but his family would not afford that kind of lifestyle. He reflected that his family took only two holidays outside Northern Ireland in 18 years. He visited France with his mother and sister.
His close friends on the other hand, would visit other countries such as United States, Spain and Italy for vacation.
John Ward travel blogger attended university and pursued finance in his undergraduate. He wanted to become a banker in the global city of London. He grew up in a humble background but he had hope that this will one time be history.
Immediately after his graduation in 2006, he traveled to the United States where he taught at a summer camp. Afterwards, he spent another one year teaching English in Thailand. He never resumed his normal schedule in Northern Ireland. He has been traveling.
As John Ward travel blogger operated online business to support his travels. He was inspired by a story he heard about Nomadic Matt (a blogger) who earned $3,000 per month from his blog focusing on travel.
Nomadic Matt launched his blog and documented his travel experiences. The first income was USD$85 in the first six months. Then he started earning $500 per month afterwards. Then a few months later, he upgraded to $1,000 per month. On the process he acquired more websites and once they paid off, he bought many more.
He is now the proud owner of 100 websites. He also registered a digital media company called Step 4 Ward Media which generates approximately $30,000 every month.
For the last 3 years, John Ward travel blogger earned USD $1 million from his online media enterprise. He is now 31 years old and his objective is to break the world record as the youngest person who has visited every country on earth. According to his twitter account, he has visited 197/197 countries around the world. Mission accomplished. This man has truly made a living traversing the world on budget.
John Ward’s Lifestyle
He is a digital nomad since graduating from university in 2006. Travelling has created great memories in his life.
The starting of his blog was the turning point in his financial lifestyle. After generating handsome amount of money from blogging, he got the confidence to tour the world.
John Ward travels full-time for 9 to 10 months every year. He spends 3 months in Thailand to recover from his busy and exhausting travels around the world. He actually owns an apartment in Bangkok City. He gets to a normal routine of going to the gym, eating healthy and learning Thai language.
When travelling, John Ward travel blogger always checks his emails every morning to make sure he is updated on what is going on. He engages in case diving, fly-boarding, walking around new towns and diving with sharks. In the evening, he spends time in his hotel room doing some work.
Business Enterprises
John Ward travel blogger runs a popular blog on travel. The blog generates income from advertisements and affiliate commissions. He has learnt a lot about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), corporate blogging, content creation, social media management and online marketing. These are the skills that he is using at his digital media company.
He has hired remote workers from around the world. He manages the team through Skype or Facebook chat.
The beauty of his lifestyle is that there is no formal office and working hours but he gets the work done.
Monthly Income
Averagely, Ward takes home $30,000 per month. That is approximately $1,000 per day.
Expenditure
Ward does not spend a lot of money as we may expect. He grew up in a poor family and that taught him how to manage his finances well. It is encouraging to learn that his blog and social media footprint is expanding every single day.
Johnny Ward travel blogger travels on budget and as a result he does not spend more than $2,000 every month. He always goes for the cheapest way to travel around the world. The fact that he owns his own home means that he does not spend his money on expenses such as mortgage repayments.
When he is in Thailand, he eats food on the streets. He therefore spends as little as $10 per day when he is in Thailand.
Common Expenses for Travelers
Travelling has its own expenses such as transportation, accommodation and food. At the start of his travels, he used to spend a maximum of $30 per day. This means that he would spend a night at the cheapest guesthouse in town. He would spend on two meals a day.
Income Trends over Time
His first income when he taught at a summer school in the USA was $800 for the entire time he spent there. This means that he traveled back home broke. Therefore, he was forced to find a job with a medical research firm for 5 weeks which paid him $3,000.
John Ward travel blogger worked with an events company in Australia in 2010. This was his first and only experience working from an office. At the last month working for the Australian company John Ward launched his website and started sharing his stories. He had already traveled to 30 countries since 2006 and as a result he had numerous interesting stories to tell the world. He had saved $30,000 which he used to fly direct to Zimbabwe and then to Cape Town from where he traveled on public transport to Cairo Egypt.
Duration in one country
At the start of his travels, Ward moved slowly because he was largely broke. He avoided flights as much as possible.
John Ward has a goal of reaching all the countries recognized by the United Nations. After reaching that goal, he plans to cycle from San Francisco to New York City.
Memorable Experiences
During his time travelling, Johnny Ward the travel blogger has seen a lot around the world. A number of experiences do stand out. He wanted to visit China but he did not have enough resources. He has a few options such as taking a ride on a cargo boat from Bangkok to Beijing. That was in 2007. He got a Chinese visa and the trip to Beijing started in earnest.
The search for the cargo ships started in Chiang Saen. He spoke to 10 ship captains who all turned down their request for a ride. Finally, he was lucky when a younger captain allowed him on board. The travelers slept on the floor in a spare room with terrible conditions.
It is illegal for cargo boats to transport passengers. Therefore, Johnny Ward travel blogger signed up as a sailor. He was the only non-Chinese. He was the only one who wrote his name in English.
En-route the boat spent some illegal time in Burma. When they arrived in China, police boarded their boat and the strangers were locked up in a cupboard. After this incident, the sailors decide that the strangers on board should alight at the next stop. This was not the original plan. They were dropped in a rural town which had never seen foreigners. It took them one week since they left Thailand to Kunming. What an incredible experience!
Making money online according to John Ward the travel blogger, is not easy at the start. The money trickles in slowly. He was nearly quitting. He advises people working online that nothing is guaranteed in this environment. That is why he is investing most of his money on real estate.
A travel blogger keeps minimum amount of clothes or gear. Ward lives in flip-flops and shorts. This lifestyle raises eye-brows when he walks to the reception of big hotels.
What does John Ward Carry for his travels?
He travels with his laptop, international chargers, Smartphone and a few debt cards. Now that he is a rich man, he carries with him high quality products.
Relationships and Travel
John Ward finds it very hard to maintain a stable relationships due to the nature of his lifestyle. Despite that he has a girlfriend in Bangkok who works as a flight attendant. She real understand that he is chasing a certain goal in life. They have been together for the last 4 years now. John wishes his girlfriend would have been working with an international airline.
Read More: TIPS ON HOW TO MAKE MONEY TRAVELLING
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