Dave Lee

Do favor life experiences over materialistic wealth? Do you need more variety in your daily life?  Dave Lee felt the same way. He left a steady managerial job for the unknowns of world travel. Dave has been traveling since November 2007. He is enjoying variety and independence.

Objective

Acquire life experiences.

Background

Dave’s wanderlust dates back to 1998.  He backpacked Europe from July to September 1998, following his college graduation. He journaled daily. He compiled his journals into a website, GoBackpacking.com, in 1999. He also added articles about budget travel.

Dave’s adventurous mindset eventually led him to Buddhism.  In March 2002, Dave was laid off from his first job out of college.  In a moment of clarity, he realized that life experiences are more important than materialistic wealth. In April 2002, he set a goal to start a round-the-world trip by December 2006. He had $82,000 in debt then—mostly student loans.

In May 2005, he traveled to Costa Rica for three weeks. In May 2006, he traveled to Belize. His fire to travel the world rekindled. In August 2006, he made a budget and itinerary of his upcoming trip. He posted it on the BootsnAll forum to get feedback from other travelers. A news reporter caught wind of Dave’s plan and interviewed him for a story about professionals taking mid-career breaks.

In January 2007, he started a blog on GoBackpacking.com.  Preceeding his travels, he shared his experiences planning, saving, hoping and fearing. He tracked his trip itinerary, budget, savings, and pre-departure tasks for a full year before he left.

Travels

He bought a multi-way ticket from AirTreks on November 5, 2007. Dave, 31 then, resigned as a customer service manager in Arlington, Virginia.  He had no relations tying him down. He started traveling on November 30.

While he had done much planning, he only made a firm commitment to the first four places.  They were Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, and Indonesia. For each place following Indonesia, he bought a one-way ticket (and sometimes collect a visa) only a few days in advance.  Dave then traveled to Singapore, China, Nepal, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and South Africa.

He has posted travel journals almost every day.

Income

Kirsty Henderson inspired Dave to make money online while traveling.  He first read about Kirsty’s success from her guest posts on WorkingNomad.com—a website about living and working from anywhere.

Dave makes money from affiliates, ad programs, and direct ad sales. He uses Google AdSense, Text Link Ads, TEFL courses, and World Nomads insurance.  He sells links directly to advertisers via the Digital Point forums. He found his first advertiser within 24 hours of using the forum.

Dave gave us a peek into his earnings on BlogToTravel.com.  He reported his online income from August 2007 through January 2008.  He made money from ads, reviews, and donations on his website: GoBackpacking.com.  He averaged $272/month over that timespan.  He made 48% of his income from Text Link Ads; 41% from direct link sales; 6% from “Review Me” posts; and 5% from reader donations.