It didn't take Johnny Ward long to realize a 9-to-5 office job wasn't for him.
After graduating from university in England, he taught English in Asia for two years before landing a sales job in Australia. Ward, who grew up on welfare in Ireland, started earning more money than he had ever imagined: With his commission, he sometimes brought home $20,000 a month.
But something was missing. "[I] knew that there was more to life than a 40+ hour work week, a bland social calendar and a two-week break in the sun each year," he writes on his blog, OneStep4Ward.
"Now I work 10 to 20 hour weeks from my laptop anywhere on the planet, whilst on a full-time journey to travel to every country in the world."
And he's doing well for himself. The 33-year-old has earned over $1 million blogging on the road. He gets paid to run advertisements on his original blog and the hundreds of other sites he's bought or built.
Ward, who is very close to reaching his goal of visiting all 196 countries, has one piece of advice for those who want to lead a similar life: Start a blog.
"The worst case scenario is that you have a diary, which is cool anyways for your grand-kids in 100 years," he tells CNBC. "And the best case scenario is people read it, it gets popular and you can monetize it and leverage your position with brands.
"I'm not even a very good writer or photographer, but I'm honest and I'm passionate about what I do. As long as you're honest, passionate, and willing to take a risk, anyone can do what I've done."
You don't have to travel full-time to make money off blogging. You don't even have to blog about travel, he says: "Fitness, family, food, any topic you want. And yes, there are a lot of blogs, but most people quit within a year, whereas the ones who succeed suck it up, work hard for one to two years, and now they're living the dream.
"Imagine living the life you always wanted to live, and talking about it online — that's your job."
