This broke backpacker earns ~$50k/month
Because, well, he teaches others to travel the WORLD on $10/Day ;)
This is a GUEST POST — a debriefing of a fellow entrepreneur that I thought you’d find fascinating & inspiring:
by Niall Doherty
Will Hatton is the founder of a travel blog called The Broke Backpacker 🎒
How it started…
The Broke Backpacker officially sprung into existence on January 30th, 2013. Before this, it had existed as an email newsletter to 40 or so friends at home who encouraged me to take it to the next level [to start blogging].
Our mission is to provide a blueprint for others to ditch their desks and discover the world. We want to show you that it’s possible to travel the world on a budget of $10 a day.
💬 In a recent interview, Will says…
[The site] was making about $1,000 in 2015.
I then launched a tour company which would give me cash injections of between $12K to $16K pretty easily while I was basically spending two weeks in the country leading a tour, and that enabled me to grow things further.
By the time we got to 2018 we were hitting $3.5K-$5K/month from all affiliates.
And then that just exploded… it quickly went to 5 figures and then it went to 6 figures [per month] and then it just kept climbing. [full interview]
He got initial traction by…
[Writing] around a theme that really wasn’t being covered on the internet at the time which was extreme budget travel.
Elsewhere, Will writes…
As The Broke Backpacker gained traction and became one of HostelWorld’s largest affiliates, it was clear that there was an opportunity to use the success of the blog to create something truly special.
The idea of building the ultimate hostel for aspiring entrepreneurs and digital nomads to [begin] their online journeys had been a dream of mine for many, many moons
That eventually led to Will opening Tribal Bali in 2021. More on that here.
Sounds like the website is still the core of Will’s business, but the pandemic hit hard…
we’ve recovered to about 50% of where we were which is good money it’s not the crazy money we were on before
I’m assuming then that he’s still earning around $50,000 per month from the site 🤑
Mainly via…
Affiliate revenue
Display ads
However, Will thinks it’s a lot harder to start a travel blog nowadays 👇
Travel blogging is the most visible digital nomad job, and it’s what most people think of when they think of creating some kind of online income.
It’s also one of the most competitive and one of the most difficult ones to actually do well in. It’s a lot sexier than doing local SEO for, I don’t know, a lawnmowing business, but you might be able to build that up much faster and get it onto autopilot much quicker.
… to do well on [as a travel blogger] you’re going to need to work for 2 years with no expectation of making any money, and you’re going to need to do something a bit different.
If you do start a travel blog, Will recommends niching down…
Go out somewhere special. Central Africa hasn’t been done properly, parts of South America still aren’t properly covered. There’s still opportunity out there for sure.
Or you could take on a big travel challenge 💪
For example…
Get a motorbike and drive it from the top of the world to the bottom, people will love that.
Last words from Will…
Discipline eats intelligence for breakfast… Forge a strong routine that ensures you have dedicated work time each day and keep chipping away. It takes TIME to build anything worthwhile, be consistent.
For more briefings on how people are finding unique ways to earn money, subscribe to ebizfacts here…
By the way, speaking of Travel, here is a superb 5-min film to help remind you why you don’t travel to actually “see” the world:
🗨️ Questions / comments / feedback? Lay ‘em on me:
That video is spot on. I remember the first, and only time I went on a cruise. The #1 thing I remember from that trip was during a multi-day trip across the open waters of the Caribean... on that trip I was on our balcony and saw the deepest blue water I'd ever seen. In a moment I went from hearing about or reading poetry that talked about an indigo blue sea... to FEELING it.
Same when I first came out of the tunnel that leads from the busy Honolulu side of Oahu to the North shore side... and you experience those rugged cliffs and waterfalls for the first time and realize this sprung up out of the depths of the Ocean and has been here longer than me and will be here long after me.
Or when I went to Haiti on a mission trip back in high school and watched as the little village kids played soccer barefoot in a filed full of sticks and briars.. and laughed the whole time.
Yeah, you don't travel to see the world, you travel to feel it and to BE a part of it.