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Money for Travel Writing

Answers to questions for De Pers Journal interview

Why are you travelling?

I travel because this is what I love doing. I travel to learn about the world that I live in and about myself. I travel to meet new people and to learn new things. I travel to be confused, shocked, angered, made happy, frustrated, and entertained. Basically, I travel to feel all of the emotions of life in rapid fire sequence every single day. In one day of travel you can go from feeling overjoyed to feeling lonely to becoming angry to being amazed to making a lifelong friend. I travel to feel alive.

Most of the great stories from folklore and fiction begin with a journey. Traveling is the grand impetuous for adventure. Travel can make a story just as it can make a person’s life. Life is just a great collection of impressions and experiences, and traveling is the best way that I know of to make this collection as large as possible.

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Hello Chantal,

Thank you very much for your interest in my travels and Vagabond Journey.com and for including my responses in De Pers Journal. I answered your questions below. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Also, feel free to use any photos from Vagabond Journey.com that you would like to accompany your story (I can send large resolution images if you want), and please visit the press/ media page at, https://www.vagabondjourney.com/press-kit.shtml if you would like more information about the site or would like to find a photo of me to publish.

Could you please just include the following two urls in your article: www.VagabondJourney.com

www.VagabondJourney.com/travelogue

I am currently traveling in Syria and through the Middle East now, and internet access is a little more difficult to come by than in many other places of the world, but I will try my best to answer any follow up questions that you may have as soon as possible.

Thank you very much.

Walk Slow,

Wade Shepard

Answers to your questions


Why are you travelling?

I travel because this is what I love doing. I travel to learn about the world that I live in and about myself. I travel to meet new people and to learn new things. I travel to be confused, shocked, angered, made happy, frustrated, and entertained. Basically, I travel to feel all of the emotions of life in rapid fire sequence every single day. In one day of travel you can go from feeling overjoyed to feeling lonely to becoming angry to being amazed to making a lifelong friend. I travel to feel alive.

Most of the great stories from folklore and fiction begin with a journey. Traveling is the grand impetuous for adventure. Travel can make a story just as it can make a person’s life. Life is just a great collection of impressions and experiences, and traveling is the best way that I know of to make this collection as large as possible.

How come you have so many readers on your blog?

I really hope it is because readers enjoy what I write and read the site as if they were traveling along with me. I try to include readers as much as possible on the site and I take their advice and try out their ideas and suggestions about where to travel to and what to do there.

Vagabond Journey.com is currently pushing around 1,500 daily readers, but I have had to work really hard for a couple of years to get this kind of readership. I try diligently to publish on the travelogue every single day with the goal of having the travelogue become a part of its reader’s daily life. I consider myself successful each time a reader emails me to let me know that they read my travelogue each morning with their morning coffee or before they go to sleep at night. I like to publish new articles every single day so that readers can get into the habit of checking the site daily as if they were traveling right along with me. The readers of Vagabond Journey.com are an integral part of my journey.

My goal is to have 30,000 daily readers.

Why do you think they would be willing to donate money?

I hope that readers are willing to donate money because they enjoy reading vagabond journey.com. I try to write the full story of perpetual world travel, and I publish the ups as well as the downs of this lifestyle. I also publish with the intention that the site can be used as a “how to” guide for readers who wish to start a journey and never have to return home. It is my biggest desire for Vagabond Journey.com to be used as a trail of bread crumbs that other travelers can follow and learn from.

I also hope that readers donate money because they know that I live and travel almost solely off of the proceeds from Vagabond Journey.com, and that I really need contributions to be able to continue publishing. If it were not for reader donations, I would not be able to put as much time as I do into writing for the website (at least 5 hours a day, everyday). I try to publish three travelogue articles, a dozen photos, and answer at least one question from a reader every single day as I travel. This is a lot of work to do from the Road, where my circumstances and location is constantly changing. I would not be able to do this if I did not receive contributions from readers.

Readers are an integral part of Vagabond Journey.com. They not only contribute money, but they also give me advice, ask questions, and request me to write about certain things, take certain photos, and visit certain places that they want travel information for. In this way, Vagabond Journey.com serves as a medium for a true two way conversation: readers often give me ideas, and I try them out in real life to see if they work. . .for better or worse. Often, I become really good friends with readers as we virtually travel the world together.

I am proud to say that I have at least 1,500 travel companions.


Did you already receive donations, and if so, how much is that?

Yes, I began requesting donations from readers around one year ago, and I have been receiving them regularly ever since. It was not until recently that I began relying almost solely upon reader contributions to keep traveling and publishing Vagabond Journey.com. Regular readers often donate between $20 to $30 at a time and do so a few times a year. I have recently began requesting readers to donate 15 cents a day, or 1 USD a week. If every reader was able to make this $52 a year donation, I would be able to continue traveling and writing about it forever.

Nobody has to donate to vagabondjourney.com, but, if readers are able, their help is greatly appreciated. I take publishing this website as a full time job, and I often work a full a day (5 to 8 hours) like everybody else. I am not a loafer. Reader contributions allow me to continue working this ever mobile job.

I am currently receiving around $300 a month in reader contributions, and this is luckily just enough money for me to continue traveling and publishing. I really need to try to raise this amount to $500 a month, but mountains are not made over night. With time and continuous effort, I hope that I will be able to continue making enough money working on Vagabond Journey.com to travel far into the future.

Hello, I live and travel off of the proceeds from this website, so if you like or use this information and are able, please consider making a contribution. Thank you.

Filed under: Money, Travel Help, Travel Writing, Work

About the Author:

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. has written 3699 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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VBJ is currently in: New York City

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