This travel website, VagabondJourney.com, is now bringing in over 80,000 monthly visitors, it is breaking into the top ranking tiers of the internet, and it is beginning to show signs of maturing. I, as owner of this website, now stand at a terminal interchange: Do I continue going as I am, do I continue doing [...]
This travel website, VagabondJourney.com, is now bringing in over 80,000 monthly visitors, it is breaking into the top ranking tiers of the internet, and it is beginning to show signs of maturing.
I, as owner of this website, now stand at a terminal interchange:
Do I continue going as I am, do I continue doing all of my own coding, data entry, public relations work while producing 95% of the content on the site and continue to slowly raise my revenue and traffic?
Or do I take this project seriously, invest in the site, and transform it into a real business?
I chose the later option, and have decided to make a relatively large investment into the site: for the next three months I will take each dollar that I make from Vagabondjourney.com and put it back in. I am now making $500 to $600 a month from this website, so this means that I will now reinvest this amount back into it.
My budget:
$600 per month
Current expenses:
Server fees – $50 per month.
Blackberry with global data- $65 per month
This leaves $485 to invest.
Vagabond Journey to hire employees and interns
The bulk of this money will go towards hiring employees and interns.
Positions available at Vagabondjourney.com
- PHP coder- Finding a good php coder to work on the site long term is my first priority. I am looking for someone to help build the site with, someone that I can communicate with effectively, and with whom I can share a common vision and plan. This is an essential step in the progression of this business, having a coder who can take my ideas and turn them into reality would give the site wings.From asking other webmasters who have their own full time coding staff, I am told that it is possible to hire an India, Asia, Eastern Europe based coder to work 4 hours a day for $200 a month. This is the amount of money that I am willing to pay.
- Data Entry Workers- There are a few sections of the site that would greatly benefit and grow with the help of data entry personnel. In point, this project has grown beyond my ability to keep up with it, I began VagabondJourney.com as a platform to write about my travels, it then grew into something that I could make money from, and, eventually, a good living. There are too many sections of the site now for me to handle — we already have over 8,000 pages — so it is time to hire some data entry workers. This work will be paid “by the piece” with more information available to the applicant.
- Public Relations Intern- We are looking for a team of public relations interns to write and send out press releases, secure interviews, and to handle social media and web promotion. This is the kind of work that involves communion with the business side of travel writing, a side which I have no taste for. But, luckily, this is the type of work that could build a resume, so I am looking for a few university students who would be able to tie this work into their school projects.
- Travel News Reporters- This position consists of finding and confirming happenings in the travel world on a new section of Vagabond Journey at Travel News. This is an active journalism position and involves finding and interviewing sources and writing original articles for daily publication. I am mostly looking for university journalism students looking to build their resumes and experience to act as interns, and, in exchange, I can offer support, advice, and lessons in the real world of travel journalism. I possess a BA degree in journalism as well as anthropology, have work as a copy editor, written for a handful of magazines and newspapers, and run a successful travel website.
- Destination guide writers- I am looking for a few travelers/ study abroad students/ foreign workers to work on destination guides, restaurant, and hotel reviews for WIKI Vagabond. I am looking for original content for cheap and good travel resources around the world to be written up in classic guidebook style. For university students or fledgling travel writers, the work that you do for the destination guides could be used to build work experience for future ventures. I can pay $5 per destination guide, $3 per travel tip, $2 per restaurant/ hotel/ attraction review. A traveler could completely fund their travels from doing this work.
- Destination Bloggers- Are you interesting in writing about travel but are currently in one part of the world long term? Are you teaching English/ working/ or studying abroad and are currently looking for work experience as a travel writer? Then please apply for a job as a destination specific travel blogger with VagabondJourney.com.
- Misc Jobs- There is always a pile of little jobs to be done on VagabondJourney.com — including everything from working on the forum to doing background research to making graphics. If anyone is interesting in working for me on an ongoing basis, please tell me what you can offer and how you would like to be compensated.
I will hire employees and pay for work for the next three months as a test, and if it proves profitable I will keep going; if not, then I will scale back the operation to where we are now.
In travel, there is no fear to move ahead, for you can usually always return to where you came from.
Independent travel blogging has turned into a business, and once a site gets a top 100,000 ranking it stands to bring in the advertisers, which is to mean: the money. What I am currently making from Vagabond Journey is only the crumbs off of the cookie that I could be making.
There is real money to be made from an independently operated travel website — we are a part of the modern media, and advertisers know this. I know that this website has the potential to make me $30,000 a year, but I can’t do it alone.
I am now investing into the site, hiring workers, looking for interns. If any of the above positions sound like something you would be interested in, please go to Travel Jobs with VagabondJourney.com to apply.
Walk Slow,
Wade Shepard
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About the Author: VBJ
I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. VBJ has written 3723 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.
VBJ is currently in: New York City
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