With my social media depicting me traveling the world pretty much non-stop I am often asked if I get paid to travel, or if I am just really rich. I can fundamentally say that it is the former, rather than the later (although I am working on that).
How I got to the stage of getting paid to travel is a long one that took a heck of a lot of work, but I will not only detail how I made it happen, but also how you too can achieve this.
What the get paid to travel?
Getting paid to travel can take on many forms and there is no fixed format to it. Generally speaking though you can say it is finding a job, or starting a business that involves you traveling around – ideally to places that you want to go. Where you go of course depends greatly on what it is you do, with more choice usually coming after you have found some degree of success.
For many, certainly myself at the start I wanted to get paid to travel and to me this was more important than the money element. I am sure if I had different priorities inn the early days then I would be richer now, but would have not had half as much fun as I have had.
How do I get paid to travel?
While I now have many business interests that allow me to travel the central one is Young Pioneer Tours this is an adventure travel company that I founded in 2008. And while starting a travel agency is obviously a great way to get paid to travel it is far from plain sailing and will require extremely hard work and a decent t amount of luck. I have loved and lost in this job and for a while it did not pay much at all.
Also whilst starting a travel agency is a good way too travel it is not always the best way to do diverse travel. I have for example been to North Korea over 100 times, as well as Nauru a whole heap of times.
Now though as time has gone on and the company has grown more successful I now have much more chance in where I go and indeed when I go. And it is for this reason that I am predominantly in the road and in really cool places.
How can you do this? Well starting a travel agency is not exactly for everyone and ideally should come when you have some experience or an idea to share with the world. One way to get experience and indeed get paid to travel is to become a tour guide. There are of course many different ways to do this, but at top companies such as YPT very few applicants end up with a full time job with us. This is a tough market place.
Personally I have used my platform as YPT to set up other projects or companies, all of which generally have a travel theme to them such as LetsBuyAnIsland.com, MediaPioneers.net and even NauruSoccer.com. These were not set up explicitly with the intention of helping me to travel more, but they certainly have.
Move abroad
The best thing that I ever did was leave England to move to the Cayman Islands when I was 21 years old. I duly became a bartender in paradise and I see doing things like this as akin to, or as a forerunner to getting paid to travel. I personally followed this up with working on cruise ships and teaching English in China.
My personal living abroad journey has taught me that living in other countries with people who have decided to also be an expat is where you meet people and gain opportunities. It was as an English teacher in China that I got to start YPT and it was whilst an expat in Cambodia that I was able to start my journalism career.
Essentially if you want to set at home in the comfort of your home country without any risk then you will not put yourself in the places where you might get rewarded. This is for a number of reasons, but in essence do not expect people to gamble on you if you will not gamble on yourself.
Can I get paid to travel as a social media “influencer”
This is a tough one to answer with the simplest and most honest answer being that yes indeed you can and that plenty of people do. The problem with this answer though is that now this is what EVERYONE wants to do. What few realize though is that while everyone wants this it is not all that easy to attain and takes either a lot of work, a lot of luck or a combination of both.
I have previously had to sack two young staff because they did not realize that I had given them a job and it was not all about just getting paid to travel. I tried to explain it as such. I personally could get paid to travel even if I did not have YPT as I have honed by writing skills to such a degree, as well as managed blogs that these can now be monetized. This though did not happen overnight and took a lot of work.
People though sadly tend to be quite lazy and do not practice things related to getting paid to travel. This is why I always tell people that they should start a blog about something they are interested in. This is for a few reasons. One is to practice the work that is involved in managing get paid to travel and while you travel, but before it is monetized. This will teach one really important lesson and that is that nothing happens without hard unpaid work.
Secondly it will also help you practice writing, to find your own niche and voice, as well as potentially start something that will one day make money. As crazy as it sounds you are unlikely to starting blog or internet business that will make money from the get go. Therefore to one day make money you have to start at the bottom. I have personally sold a lot of websites that started at zero, this has since allowed me to now buy other websites that are already making money. Again and much like moving abroad, if you are not prepared to take a risk on yourself and work without being told to then do not expect others to do the same.
The Get Paid To Travel website
It is for these many reasons and more that I have decided to start a new website namely www.PaidToTravel.net and what is the aim of this website?
Essentially it is to help share my wisdom about something I am very good at and that is getting paid to travel. With this new site I am to not only inspire, but also help you to do the same. This will be done through me not only sharing my own help and advice, but also highlighting and interviewing other people that have achieved at this.
When it comes to getting paid to travel, or even moving abroad the only thing that really stops people is themselves. Through this site I aim to change all that and to help you beat the biggest obstacle there is, being fearless enough to take the leap….
The site is currently in beta, but if you do require my mentoring service then I can be contacted at contact@paidtotravel.net