How I Make Money Online To Support My Travels

Derek June 17, 2013 Personal Stuff. Work & Travel 136 Comments

Ever since 2008, which is when I decided to stop working on board cruise ships, something I had been doing on and off for several years prior, I’ve known no other work but the kind that can be done on the internet. But at the same time, I understand that saying “I work online” doesn’t really give others much insight into how I actually earn my money and consequently, how I fund my travels these days.

The question that a lot of people want to know is: “What does ‘working online’ really mean?”

First, let me give you a quick background about how I got started. After saving up a decent amount of money during my time on cruise ships, as soon as I ended that stage of life I immediately decided to put all of that money into a savings account that was not to be touched for a long time. This forced me to start looking for new income opportunities right away because it was as if I had almost no money at all. This really put the pressure on and so I started reading a few books about other people who managed to earn money while traveling.

And it was the books about those people who were able to make money online that really caught my attention and so, I decided to give it a try myself. I chose a couple of options that appealed to me (there are thousands of ways to earn money online) and got to work.

For the first 4 months I failed miserably. I earned a grand total of $0.00 during that period of time, something that certainly made me doubt my decision. I was working/learning every day for at least 8-10 hours but my efforts yielded no results. However, it has always been my belief that those who fail at something are those who give up and that if you can push through the obstacles and continue to learn as much as possible, success will eventually be achieved.

Fast forward a few years and here I am, earning all of my income online, an income that allows me to continue traveling around the world as much as I want.

And now I’m going to try and explain exactly where that money comes from as best I can in the hopes of giving you a clearer picture of how ‘working online’ works for me.