Steve James

Steve James is an adventurous and creative nomad. He traveled around the world in 2005 and published his travel journal online. It’s full of wit, sarcasm, and character development—a great read. He makes passive income from it. He now travels the world, while making money online.

Objective

To have variety.

Background

Steve was a single, software engineer in London.  He was stuck in a rut; he needed variety. Steve, 26 then, bought a round-the-world ticket in autumn of 2004. He resigned the following week. Within three months, he began traveling. Steve left in January 2005 and covered several countries that year.

Steve returned to his life in the UK in January 2006. He consulted Tony Page in February 2006 about becoming a digital nomad.  “Good luck and never give it up because it can be done,” Tony told him. He published his travel journal, in April 2006, recounting each day of his trip.  Within a year, he grew his online income to $1400/month.  He resigned again in September 2007. He started his nomadic life in November 2007.

Travels

Steve took his first round-the-world trip through 12 countries in 349 days. He visited Japan, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the US, and Canada. He began in Tokyo, Japan in January 2005. He had several run-ins with swindlers in Shanghai (day 39).  He experienced timeless heaven in Laos (day 83).   He felt like a celebrity in Vietnam (day 128), and he found romance under its starry sky (day 144).

Steve returned to London in January 2006. He lived there for the next 18 months.

He began life as a digital nomad in November 2007. He biked through France, Switzerland, Lichetenstein, Austria, and Germany; yes, he biked long distances in the frigid cold. He challenged himself and saved money by biking.  He stopped journaling in mid-December. Presumably, he returned home for Christmas and resumed traveling through Europe and further east.  He made it to Japan by July 2008.

Steve encourages others to travel. He said on day 84 of his first trip:

Don’t let anyone tell you traveling is hard. The hardest thing I have had to do is to be brave enough to up and go on my own. Then on the road, difficulties coping with a few lonely periods and in some places the language barrier. The rest is dead easy and all laid out there for you: guidebook, guesthouses, English language restaurant menus. Anyone, any age can do it.

Income

Steve makes money online by publishing websites. He supplements this passive income with freelance software development.

Steve published his travel journal in April 2006. He put Google Adsense on the site right away and made $5.08 that month.  He promoted the site and worked on its SEO. Six months passed, and he only raised his online income to $8/month. Then his site’s Google PageRank increased.

Steve started selling links on his website. He added affiliate links to it, too.  His online income soared to $1400/month by April 2007. Link sales were his primary source of income, followed by affiliate sales, and then Google Adsense.

Steve gave advice to aspiring website publishers in April 2007. He said:

My message is simple: stick at it. Do a little, often; keep regularly building links at a steady rate and keep refreshing your content. Experiment with lots of different income streams and see which one works for your site(s). If it ever becomes a chore, take a break. But keep coming back to it, because eventually you will make it.

Tools

He published his daily journals on TravelPod.com during his 2005 trip. He ported them to his own website, Year in the Life, after his trip ended.

What I learned from Steve

Networking is the solution to the solo traveler’s loneliness.  Tell other travelers where you will be over the next several months. Ask them the same. Your path may cross theirs again. You can travel together for a while.

Steve often met travelers in one country and traveled with them again in another.  For instance, he met a girl in Thailand in March and reunited with her in Australia six months later. He drove a car with her across most of Australia’s eastern half. He avoided numerous hours of lonely driving in Australia by networking in Thailand.

Network with people in popular destinations. Ideally, you start in a popular destination and build a base network of traveling friends.  Reunite with them as you go.  Recruit them to join you off the beaten path.