This has been the most common question so far,askedby many different people. Iwalked through my local woods in the pouring rain to mull over my answer and find a cafe*to write it down.
Ihope that this article might be helpful to you if you are interested in earning a living in an unconventional way, or beginning to think about multiple income streamsvia the internet.
First of all let me clarify that this is “howIearn money” not “howyoushouldearn money” nor “how can you earn a livingfrom adventure.” They might well become future questions. I am going to simply take the question at face value and answer it as such, in an un-politician way.
I’m not a financial expert, nor am I very interested in money. So consider this as a curious snoop into my desk drawers (for who doesn’t enjoy a snoop) rather than useful strategies to follow!
Even though you did not ask me for any advice about earning money for adventures, I’m going to offer some anyway:
- “If you want enough cash to go on adventures, find a well-paying job with plenty of time off to go and climb your mountains.”
- “If you want to earn money out of adventures directly, first go and tackle a massive adventure with zero regard for earning money out of it. That ought to come before anything else.”
- “If you want to get paid to spend as much time as possible in exciting places become an outdoor instructor, a mountain guide, a research scientist, a soldier, or get a job that posts you overseas.”
Is it good to be paid for what you love doing or a shame whenwhat you love becomes work?
Earning your living from what is normally a hobby (and a hobby whose values liefarfrom making cash) is not always straightforward. It’s worth reading thisarticleabout quitting a life of adventure to become an accountant.
I sometimes worry I’m grubbying my love of being in the hills by using those experiences to pay my bills.It also irks other people occasionally and prompts agood trolling rant. So I apologise if you find this article distateful!
I’m also aware that I am my own Golden Goose – once I stop being interesting, my career is over!Am I destined then for decades oftelling the same old stories to ever-dwindling audiencesin village halls up and down the land? I hope not! I fear so.
I am a relaxed fellow and pretty hard to offend. (I grew up in environments where you would never dream of saying kind things to your friends. Instead you express your affection by insults. The ruder you are to someone, the more you like them!)
However,there is one occasional misassumption about my adventuring ‘career’ that drives me mad.Here it is in the list of questions I’ve been receiving for this series:
- “Isn’t your wife rich? Would you be able to be a ‘full time adventurer’ if you actually had to pay the bills? The whole adventure scene is un-realistic.
It’s only rich kids who can afford to do it ‘full time’… It’s not a real job or something that will pay a continuous wage.”
Yes, my wife does have a proper job, with grown-up things like dress-down Fridays. But this has actually resulted in me working more and earning more than I ever intended to when I set out on this path!
Knowing she is working hard in an office means that I would feel guilty if I just lazed around all morning (which, by the way, I have never done even once. Nor have I ever had a sick day.) Yes, if the sun shines, I go for a run.
ButI work so much more consistently than I imagined an ‘adventurer’ would.I feel a responsibilityto prove that I am pulling my weight.
The assumption that I’m a ‘rich kid’, or sponging off my wife, or that it is not a ‘real job which pays a continuous wage’ is wrong and Idon’t like it!
When I decided to try to earn a continuous wage from adventure I quit my job as a teacher. To measure whether the idea was viable, sustainable and responsibleI set myself the challenge of matching my teaching salaryin the next year. I just about managed that (alotof talks in schools).I then used the teachers’ pay scale as my target benchmark for the coming years to reassure myself that the work I was doing counted as a ‘proper job’ and was on the right trajectory. My aim was to always keep above the teaching curve and Iearn more now than Iwould if Iwas a teacher.
Until I got settled with the work I was often nervous, formy income is much more haphazard, seasonal and unpredictable than when I had been teaching.Thankfully, over time, I gradually arrived at the level where I can now safely assume that enough work will come my way without having to worry too much about it (aided by a slow build up of passive income streams (aka ‘books’).
I have been very happy to leave behind the years of hustling and chasing and worrying, and these days Ican focus instead on getting on with the stuff that I enjoy, that feels meaningful and that also pays the bills.
Over the years I have earned more (and worked more) than I predicted I would,in no small part to prove to myself that I could make this happen by myselfand that I certainly wasn’t being bankrolled by anybody.
*
Being an ‘adventurer’ for a job entailsbuying my freedom, independence, creativity at the expense of income levels, future security and the self-employed curses of tax returns, invoices, self-promotion and so on.
It’s a choice between getting rich vs getting the life of my choice.I don’t do it for the money. However I have ended upearning a comfortable living mostly from drinking tea in my shed or riding my bike.I am a lucky man!
- OK, Here is how I currently earn my money, listed alphabetically…
- Affiliate links–I nearly always forget to set this up when recommending a book for people (like this). Consequently it only brings in about a pound a day!
- Books– although only an optimist or a celebrity would sit down to write a book and assume it will earn much money, books are useful ways to bring in a steady trickle of passive worldwide money throughout your life (and for 70 years after your death) in a variety of formats. These include:
–Audible– Six of my books are now available asaudio books)
–Kindle
–Paper versions–I’ve published 12 books now, though frustratingly they are almost never stocked in book shops. Therefore Amazon and other online shops are key to my sales.
–Selling books on my website. Because I can order my books at half-price from the publisher this avenue has a decent profit margin (though also higher hassle.) - Brandcampaigns– Sometimesawesome. Sometimes a wee bit of “oh well, this will pay the bills!”
- Brandfilms–I began making films out of sheer enthusiasm, curiosity, enjoyment and hope. They have eventually become one of my main income streams. Sometimes I work alone, sometimes they are a fabulous opportunity to get out of my shed andcollaborate with good friends.
- Event Talks– These can be fun, a chance to raise your profile, or sell some books. But they rarely pay well. For example I recently declined £45 to speak at one of the main travel shows, although I did also agree to speak for £0 at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.
- Kofi– a way for people to ‘buy me a virtual coffee’ if they enjoy a blog post or newsletter.Like a digital tip jar.
- Magazine articles– I remember the first time I got paid to write an article after a year of cycling through Africa. I was proud and amazed that I could get CASH for WRITING! It is increasingly hard to make a living from paid freelance writing, and I don’t really pursue these any more.
- Partnerships and brand Ambassador programmes– gear at first, then money. At the momentAlpkitand The North Face pay me an annual fee to use their gear, promote them and support them.
- Podcast sponsorship– komoot pay for an advert on mypodcast.
- Selling travel photos– when I was first trying to earn a living from adventure I had to stick my fingers in as many pies as possible! I onlyinclude thison the list because I can never be bothered to close it down, and it still earns about £100 a year.
- Talks– corporate events make up the majority of my speaking work these days for the pragmatic (if not noble) reason that I don’t have as much time as I used to and they pay better than schools.
- Talks– schools (the longest, steadiest income I’ve ever had.)
There are a few typical ‘adventurer’ money-earning activities that I personallydon’tdo, for various reasons: guiding, leading trips, writing guidebooks, TV, practical ‘how to’ workshops, building hiking trails.
And there are also some avenues that I’ve tried but stopped doing…
- Blog ads– back in the glory days of blogging I managed to earn a few grand a year from adverts. No longer, alas!
- Busking– I once lived off the 120 Euros I earned ina month of playing my violinin Spain!
- Corporate microadventures– so many people email me asking if I’ll take them on microadventures. I know the benefits of sitting round a fire to sort out life’s conundrums. I do a lot of talks to businesses and they are always on the lookout for interesting bonding projects. So taking small groups out for the night seemed like a good idea (and I think itisa good idea.)Butit also felt weird getting people to pay for sleeping on a hill: it needed to be expensive to be worth bothering with, it didn’t feel compatible with all my shouting that adventure is for everyone and easy to do, and it was a bit of a hassle. So after a few trips (which were really successful and everyone loved), I shelved the idea. It’s fair to say that a few peoplegotveryirateat this experiment. (It’s worth mentioning that people often get miffed at the idea of earning money from adventure, but they tend not to offer alternative ideas for how I can get paid!)
- eBaying stuff– marginally unethical / not quite the right spirit of things, but in the early days when companies would give me free gear I used to eBay the stuff I didn’t need. A man’s gotta eat, as well as stay warm in a nice jacket up a hill!
- Expedition advice– One of the constant wars of my life (and yours, I suspect) is against the tyranny of email and the license it gives people to make demands on your time with negligible effort on their part. So many people emailed me for expedition planning advice beyond the articles I had already written on myblogthat I experimented with charging for Skype calls to help people. In reality whenever anyone was willing to pay I felt so honoured / guilty that I just spoke to them for free! Therefore I made zero money from this, but it did act as a good filter for finding people who were serious about their plans and also respected my time enough to consider paying.
- Magazine column– I wrote a monthly column forTrailmagazine for a year. I quite enjoyed it, but stopping doing it freed up a lot of mental bandwidth, time and enthusiasm that I could dedicate to work I was more passionate about.
- School worksheets– I spent a little time doing some freelance writing work forHope and Homes for Children, creating educational worksheets around my bike trip round the world.
- Selling #microadventure T-shirts– let’s just say that there are quite a lot of headaches involved when you bulk order, have loads of options and sizes, and have to deal with all the orders, shipping, problems! On the upside, I now have enough t-shirts to last me throughout my life!
- Sustrans talks– For a few years I used to charge Sustrans a day rate then do as many talks as they could fit in to that day. The record: eight schools in a day! Exhausting! (And fun and worthwhile.)
- Weddings– I really enjoyedphotographing a few weddings.I have an unerring tendency to spread myself too thin, rather than doing one thing well.
For the first four years of my adventuring (i.e. cycling round the world) I survived on £7000 of life savings. Once I began earning money from adventure it was, for many years,90% from speaking(mostly schools, latterly corporate), with about10% from book salesand a sprinkling of little bits mentioned above.Books and speaking are an interesting way to pay for a life.Year by year the income increased (thankfully!), but the percentages were pretty consistent.
Over time the mixture has changed. Today I earn about40% of my money from speaking work, 40% from working with brands, 10% from books and 10% from podcasts.
If I could pickmy dream income in the futureit would become 50% passive income of books, newsletters etc and 50% projects I enjoyed like podcasts or making films.
