A lot of people, and travel blogger

A lot of people, and travel bloggers in particular, talk about the romance of being broke and traveling. And it’s true, it is a beautiful thing. Not knowing where you’ll end up, scoring some cheap flights on a whim and traveling to a new continent. It’s exhilarating. But forever? No chance. Being broke is fun when you’re young and in my experience, the novelty of a broke, nomadic existence didn’t last forever. I found myself dreaming of something a little more. Marrying both the lifestyle of a traveler, with the income of a businessperson. I might have been dreaming, but it was a dream I would strive for. Every day. Until I reached it. Digital nomadism and lifestyle design were on the up, rumours of people working from their laptops, traveling the world were being whispered about in hostel dorms. Tim Ferriss was getting famous. I wanted a slice. I had to do it.

I read an article by a blogger called Nomadic Matt about making $3000USD a month from his travel blog. When I delved a little deeper I realised he wasn’t doing anything particularly special. I figured I had experienced a lot more of the world than most travel bloggers, and if all I have to is write about it, then there’s no reason why I couldn’t hang up my English teaching hat and blog instead. One small flaw, my tech skills are on power with my singing and dancing skills – non-existant. To cut a long story short, I hired an awesome Filipino guy, gave him $100 and onestep4ward.com was born in 2010, here’s the first version I blogged on:I had moved to Sydney, Australia and had a ‘real’ job. In an office. With a shirt and shoes. It was my first and only ‘real world’ experience, and although I loved Sydney, loved my friends there, and am hugely grateful for the experience, I hated the nine to five. So, from the office, I started my blog. Before long I quit and flew one way to Africa.

I had saved some cash from my job in Australia, but hadn’t made a penny online yet. Then, one very special day in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia I went to an internet cafe to check my mail. Boom. A guy called Baba Bojang wanted an advert on my site. I literally didn’t believe it, convinced my friends had hatched a plan to tease me. $85 in my paypal later and something big had changed. I had made my first little chunk of money on the internet. I now believed it was possible. Wow.