Your click matters for my dream

Timothy Ferriss has changed my life. Or rather, his book "The 4-Hour Week" did this. Ferriss describes how you can leverage the Internet to work less, to live more and still earn well. My sister gave me the book and I took it with me to the summer vacation to Crete. I began to read and did not stop until I had turned the last page. And then I began to change my life.

Suddenly I had realized how I wanted to live and more importantly: how I did not want to live any further. I wanted to spend time with people outside in the sun instead of sitting in a dark office with a computer. I wanted to experience exciting, new things instead of just going through the daily routine. I wanted to earn money with my own creativity instead of enduring the whims of my boss because of the prospect of a monthly salary. And I wanted to live out my passion for traveling instead of being limited by the number of holidays.

Arrived in the blogger life
Today, less than 18 months after I read the book, I realized these goals. As a travel blogger, I live my dream. Manila, Madagascar, Malaysia - I visit the world’s most amazing places, learn about the country and the people and write about it. My readers like my style, and accept that I rather take a photo of the Eiffel Tower from below, and I am proud that I have already made a difference to some of them by inspiring them to an exciting journey.

I have not reached the goal expressed by the title of Ferriss’ book: I work much more than four hours a week. If I am honest, I even work more than before as an employee. Usually I get up at 6 in the morning, have a quick breakfast and then process observations and encounters of the previous day in a new blog article. The matching photos must be found as well as an exciting teaser, which encourages people to read on. A new, inspiring article per day is my goal and so far I am mostly able to accomplish it. After writing, I answer to mails of my readers, plan the balance of the day and organize further steps of the journey. Usually it is early afternoon when I leave the desk.

This may sound surprisingly exhausting, but I like it that way. I am aware that the Internet is different than a bookstore. People who plan a dream trip do not only have 3 travel guides to choose from, but a sea of independent reports and promotional items. So I have to get out of the crowd every day and make sure that my new blog entry is found on the net and that people are immediately interested to read it.

From the feedback I am getting, my articles usually deliver what the teaser promises and readers often hold on to the end. I try to inform people somehow "differently", write personally and I aim to inspire. I want to pass on information that goes beyond normal tourist knowledge, with emotions and authenticity. The combination of traveling and writing is my life. Usually, this spark jumps over. Already some readers have written to me that they realize that I am investing a lot of passion, and that they have become blog-fans after initially just being travel-fans.

Through blogging to wealth?
Investing a lot of time into a blog may not correspond to your image of a digital nomad. But I enjoy it and it does not feel like work. When I walk around in a new city, I always get ideas what I could write about. Everywhere are new impressions, new people, new photographs, which stimulate my creativity and increase my energy level.

By the way, my working hours are not the only thing that is different from the expectations of others. On one of my last visits to family and friends in Germany, a good friend summed up: "Your dream has become reality and somehow I envy you. You can do what you love, and you’re getting filthy rich! "-" How? Why rich? "I asked. "Well, with all the ads on your side and in the articles, you must earn a lot!"

I had to clarify this misunderstanding: part of my travel is now sponsored by partners, but the ads bring only money, if they are clicked on by the reader (even though if he/she only briefly looks at them). Ignoring the ads, on the other hand, brings me nothing. So far, my readers are either not aware of this or they are reluctant to click, so I was happy and thankful that my friend paid the dinner on that particular evening.



But next time it will be my turn to pay, because I am sure that if I continue to write excellent articles, the financial success will come one day. And lastly, wealth was not the goal behind my dream, which I enjoy (almost) every day.

Yours, Rainer