Johnny Ward (travel blogger)

Johnny Ward
Ward, in 2012.
Born Galway, Ireland
Residence
Occupation
Home town Kilkeel, Northern Ireland
Website onestep4ward.com

Johnny Ward (born 1983) is an Irish entrepreneur and travel blogger[2][3][4] known for visiting every country in the world.[5][6][7][8]

Early life and education

Ward was born in Galway, Ireland to a single mother.[9] His family moved to Kilkeel, Northern Ireland soon after, and Ward largely grew up there.[2][10][1] His family often subsisted on welfare during his childhood.[11] Ward studied international economics at university in England and graduated in 2006.[10][12]

Travel and career

After graduating from university in 2006, Ward began to travel. He initially flew to New York City[10] and worked as a summer camp counselor in the United States for a brief period.[2][6][5] He returned to Ireland and took part in a medical research experiment to earn more money to travel.[5] He then travelled to Thailand where he taught English for a year before moving to Sydney, where he worked as a telephone sales representative.[1]

Dissatisfied with office work, Ward left his job and sought to make a living from travelling full time. In 2010, Ward started a blog named "OneStep4Ward" to document his travels.[13] By 2012, he had expanded this to a media company, earning money through ad revenue to fund his trips.[2] By the end of that year, he was reportedly earning an average of $40,000 per month,[11] working around 10 hours per week from his laptop to manage his staff and run a portfolio of websites.[14] During this period, Ward based himself in Bangkok, Thailand, and also began investing in property.[3][14]

By August 2012, Ward had visited over 80 countries,[14] and over 100 countries by the end of that year.[15] In 2014, Ward was a founding member of the Professional Travel Bloggers Association,[16] and on several occasions in that period, sources have identified OneStep4Ward as a top travel blog.[13] By 2015, he had earned a total of around $1 million and had visited 152 countries.[2][12] Over the course of his travels, Ward "broke an ankle in Korea, his leg in Thailand, [and] had been in hospital about 20 times".[17] Ward has recounted entering several countries through questionable or illegal means; it was reported that he "entered China illegally after a five-day trip up the Mekong River while stowed away in a cargo boat",[3] that he was arrested after paying a smuggler to take him from Liberia to Ivory Coast during the Ebola epidemic,[7][10] and that he was able to enter Yemen during an ongoing civil war by meeting a dignitary who "bribed Yemeni officials and I ended up hitching there on a cement cargo ship".[5] Shortly after arriving in Angola, Ward witnessed a person being shot only a few meters away from his taxi cab, which quickly left the scene.[1][10]

In 2017, Ward visited his 197th and final nation, Norway, chosen because its proximity to Ireland made it convenient for friends and family to join him for the occasion.[5][6][18] As of 2017, Ward claims to have earned around $1.5 million through his media company.[8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Durston, James (30 June 2016). "How travel blogger Johnny Ward became a millionaire on the go". CNN. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Shin, Laura (4 September 2015). "How This Blogger Made $1 Million in 3 Years And Is Visiting Every Country on Earth". Forbes. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 Elejalde-Ruiz, Alexia (30 April 2013). "The vagabonds: No home, just travel". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
  4. ↑ Street, Francesca (27 June 2017). "World's top 10 travel influencers, according to Forbes". CNN.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Meltzer, Hannah (16 March 2017). "From Ireland to Yemen and South Sudan: Meet the Man Who's Just Visited All 197 Countries in the World". The Independent. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 Meltzer, Hannah (29 March 2017). "This man has visited every country on Earth and made $1m – and you can do it too". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  7. 1 2 Rizzo, Cailey (29 March 2017). "How One Man Became a Millionaire While Visiting Every Country in the World". Travel + Leisure. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  8. 1 2 Lakritz, Talia (31 March 2017). "This 33-year-old traveled to every country in the world and made $1.5 million doing it". Business Insider. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  9. ↑ "Blogging Brought Me Here" (PDF). OneStep4Ward.com. 2016.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Flanagan, Eimear (17 March 2017). "Irishman Johnny Ward visits 'every country in the world'". BBC. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  11. 1 2 Elkins, Kathleen (27 January 2017). "How one 33-year-old went from welfare to making over $1 million traveling the world". CNBC. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  12. 1 2 Schneider, Kate (10 August 2015). "I became a millionaire while travelling". News.com.au. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  13. 1 2 "Top 100 Travel Blogs". Nomadic Samuel. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
  14. 1 2 3 Doherty, Niall (8 August 2012). "Wish you were here?". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
  15. ↑ A, Chanel (31 January 2012). "Travel Blogger Interview with Johnny Ward". Cultural Xplorer. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  16. ↑ "Founding Members". Travel Blogger's Association. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
  17. ↑ O'Shea, Cormac (18 March 2017). "Irish travel blogger completes worldwide travels – just before St Patrick's Day". Daily Mirror.
  18. ↑ Ruggiero, Nina (4 July 2017). "How to quit your job and travel the world, according to people who have done it". CNBC.
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