Over the past 2 years my life has changed unimaginably. I went from being stuck in an office in Australia to being able to travel the world continuously and live the life I always wanted.
Now I want to share with you how I've done it.
Just over 2 years ago, I was on my working holiday visa in Australia and it wasn't working out. I'd been living and working in Perth for 6 months and I'd begun to realise that it wasn't for me. I'd already been travelling for a year previously, after selling my stuff and quitting my job to travel the world , and now it was 18 months later and I was in exactly the same position just in a different country (nice work genius). The problem was that I never made a long term plan – I just saved up a certain amount of money, went to a few countries and watched the money I'd saved slowly disappear (maybe some of you can relate?).
I decided I needed to change my mentality. I WAS NEVER GOING TO WORK ON SOMETHING I DIDN'T WANT TO AGAIN. That was my mission. I was going to do whatever it took to earn money online and live wherever I wanted, working on what I wanted. I realised that the best place to do this in the short term would be South East Asia. It's beautiful, cheap, has a good infrastructure (meaning mostly decent wifi and good hostels) and I'd been there before so knew what to expect.
I started out offering web design to friends and family and picked up a few gigs, earning enough to keep me going with the savings from my job in Australia (roughly $4000). This is when I began my video blog about learning to 'Travel the World Continuously'. I had limited video editing experience as I'd half-heartedly tried to create a YouTube channel before but really, I was a complete beginner. I made a video compilation of my previous year's travels and I asked just about everyone to share it. With the help of my friends and family that video then started to go viral. It wasn't that I was a master editor – I just took a long time to edit it, using video tutorials whenever I ran into trouble. WATCH IT HERE
So I traveled and worked online for the first few months, picking up a few gigs here and there. I even picked up a client that wanted to pay me $2500 to create them a website! I worked long hours to make sure I finished the website but... the client never paid. To this day, I haven't seen a cent of that money. Obviously that was a big setback and didn't help my dream of travelling continuously, but I kept going regardless and carried on with the video blog, trying to upload at least every 2 days.
The most important thing about this part of the story – I CARRIED ON AND KEPT GOING.
After about 3 months my video blog was beginning to pick up some traction and people were finding me. I lived as cheap as I could and found anything I could online to make small amounts of money. With 6 months of continued effort and learning, I had reached about 7000 subscribers and was making a couple hundred dollars a month from my videos.
I don't believe it wasn't because my videos were amazingly shot or edited that I was gaining popularity, I think it was because I was continually improving and trying to make each video better than the last (mainly through trial and error and watching YouTube tutorials).
I was now 6 months into my journey and running low on money. I'd been living as cheaply as I possibly could but still my savings were running low and I wasn't bringing in enough revenue with my current strategy. I decided that I could either spend more time doing web design or double-down on what I really wanted to do and spend more time and effort on the video blog. I went for the video blog. This decision was when my life started to change.
All my time was now devoted to making videos and other content. Through my efforts on social media and approaching sponsors, I lined up my first press trip! It was an all expenses paid trip to China for a 2 month residential Jiu-Jitsu course. I had just about 8000 subscribers at this point and the opportunity was incredible (thank you to GJJ China, Ferdinand and Alison for all their support). It wasn't paid but all expenses were covered i.e. food, accommodation and training included.
Not only was this an incredible experience but it also allowed me to really concentrate on growing my video blog without worrying about the money. I believe this was instrumental in creating the YouTube channel I have today and although I understand that it was a fortunate opportunity, I also believe that you have to recognize these opportunities when they come along and make the most of them.
From here it just snowballed. I continued to create videos every two days, constantly trying to improve my quality and relate back to what my growing audience wanted to see. I made the most of any money-making opportunities I could i.e. licensing videos, ad revenue, affiliate links (more about all of this in a future post) and soon enough my next sponsorship came along – a luxury cruise with Royal Caribbean!
I won't go through all of the companies I've worked with and places I've been since, if you are really interested then you can check out my channel HERE
The point I am trying to make is that my luck began to change when I REALLY went for it. It was when I really committed to the video blog and began to put all my effort into it that I started to notice the rewards. I would happily work 12 hours days behind the laptop in order to make it work. I would share my videos absolutely everywhere, constantly thinking of new ways I could find subscribers. I employed the idea of daily gains, making sure I found new subscribers every day, in order to create a larger audience in the long run.
From my experience, that is what I would say is the essence of growth on social media – CONSISTENT MARGINAL GAINS. Making sure that you are growing every day, making sure that you are making new connections or learning something new EVERY DAY. That has been, in short, my secret to success over the past 2 years. There are always some days where you grow more and some days where you grow less, but as long as you are consistently putting in the effort every day then you will always be moving forward.
If you consistently put your content out there then people will find it. Keep going, keep creating content and employ the philosophy of marginal gains and who knows where you will be in a years time.
Tips to remember:
- Continual improvement & learning
- Make an upload schedule (at least once a week, more frequent the better)
- Share everywhere
- Make consistent marginal gains
- COMMIT.
If you want to learn more then make sure to check out my YouTube channel
Great insights, I couldn't agree more. People underestimate small gains done with consistency for a long period of time. I suppose you have read The Compound Effect by Daren Hardy.
Haven't actually read it! But perhaps I've heard others talk about it.. sounds like I should!
It's about this principle. Small gains for example 1% for long periods of time compounded.
Most probably my Monday article.
Have a nice day . :)
Great Post @thelifeofjord I left full-time work a while ago because of the downturn in oil industry and have been looking around for something to do. I did some consultancy, though like yourself, still not been paid for it. So I have started with my other interests mainly photography. I spent a year on microstock and earned 100USD. It became like work. Taking pictures for a client you didn't know and didn't know what they wanted.
I really have no idea about video, blogging and all the other issues that have to be managed to make a on-line presence.
But I have started on steemit and so far I am enjoying it.
Keep at it.
the blockchain world is a way better way to earn real value currency!
I'd love to but Youtube demonitizes my vids randomly for no explanation and wont review it until they get 10 thousand views which is hard in the beginning. But good on you for doing it successfully . I think about quitting my job in Canada and going to teach in Asia daily
This is definitely a problem at the moment. YouTube keep suggesting they're going to provide a fix but it's still happening to everyone!
I think the best thing to do is diversify your social media and also move people across to other channels i.e. mailing list, website etc. That way if one revenue stream really f*cks up then you still have the others!
This is such a inspiring post! I would love to live the way you do, and I will do my best to be able to do so one day. I am starting with steemit, but I am thinking about creating a YouTube channel at some point. Right now I am doing an exchange in California and I am experiencing so much, but because of my busy school schedule I do not have the time I need to focus on blogging and creating videos. I am thinking about not returning to my summer job next year and instead focus on blogging daily.
Oh, and I had a look at the "Quit My Job To Travel The World" video and noticed that I stayed at the same hostel as you in Barcelona ^_^. I really enjoyed the video, and there is such a difference between that one and the more recent ones! You have come a really long way. I look forward to reading more tips from you and seeing more of your videos, you helped me realize that my dreams are achievable so thank you for that! :)
Very nice!!!upvoted and followed!!
Thanks !
Cheers man, sounds like an amazing journey so far. Hehe if you're still struggling with the editing I can help. I'm an editor.
Thanks for the offer! I actually love editing so it's not something I'd outsource just yet, really enjoy it :)
Sure man, I meant if you have questions, or just general help I'd be happy to talk. Here's some of my youtube work
Awesome stuff!
wow
that's great
i am a kind of jealous 😂😂
Haha well part of what I want to do here is share how I've done it so other people can too
This was a great post. Thank you for sharing. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for you future work!
Thanks for reading!
wow,thats quite a story! congrats! upvoted and fallowed. @darius1993
Thanks! :)
you can vist me you will have a lot of fun here
in tunisia :)
if you accept my ivitation we can manage a meetup :)
Hey after reading this post (and up voting) I feel like I have just started the same journey you took any advice or tips you would give to yourself starting out knowing what you know now (apart from the ones in this post)?
Appreciate the comment and taking the time to read it!
The main thing I would say to myself is to keep posting things THAT I WANT TO regardless of feedback. It's easy to get wrapped up in other people's comments and change your style, but the most important thing in the long run is to stay true to yourself (corny but true)
That is a very cool and inspiring story. The most important is that You are doing something You Love for a living. :D
100% agree - thanks for commenting!
You're welcome. It is a pleasure :D
Nice☺😍
For sure getting an upvote from me!
Dedication and determination is key, in whatever line of sports your are in..keep it up!
Come to the Caribbean for videos!
Completely agree, if you never give up you can never fail!
(and I'd love to..)
Definately an insight experience! Good luck for your job and keep travelling!
Hello, welcome to the Steemit community, it's really great to have you here with us, i hope you have a great time here and achieve great success.
I would be looking forward to reading your post. Interesting introduction you got there and great pictures.
I'm @Janrotas, would be great If you could check out my page and follow back. I have some interesting write ups I'm sure you would or can relate to. Welcome again talk more later.
Cheers
Followed you since 2016 Jord whilst I was still having my soul crushed in the daily 12 hour grind of a UK office, then set up my website with some advice from your buddy Jonny Ward.
Glad to see you made it on to Steemit and you're doing some written posts to accompany your Vlogs.
Loving your work, keep it up!
This has been very useful, thank you! If you would be willing to share your strategies of outreach, I would really appreciate it. We are now trying to spread the word about our project but really have no idea where to start! Thanks again! :)
Nothing is sweeter than traveling the world aint it...
Some day your gonna wonder what you did all these years and all these travels...make em count.
I say you keep your eyes open and try to find what you are looking for buddy, or at least, what needs to be found !