Digital Nomads & Content Creators

In 2010, I quit my job as a lawyer, bought a round the world ticket and planned to see the world for a year. That year turned into nearly 6 years. It was the early days of people working online as they traveled around the world and being a digital nomad was only just becoming a thing.

From coping with the challenges of starting a travel blog to living in a cave while I built up a stock of clients as a freelance writer to deciding to monetise my blog, it was an exciting and whirlwind experience.

Learning to work and travel was more difficult than I thought given the travel life is full of temptations from sightseeing to tequila. There were definitely highs and lows.  And then tore my ACL (knee ligament) and had to come home. For a while but then the nomad life took me back on the road again.

In this section, I share my experiences, tips and personal stories if you’re entering the world of blogging, content creation and living as a digital nomad.  Or if you’re already immersed in the lifestyle but are looking for some guidance because, really, the dream life can be harder than people think it will be. (Like not owning your own washing machine and forever searching for internet connection). The struggles really are real.

Want to understand more about Indiana Jo? I have a whole section if you’d like more of my personal stories. Otherwise, check out my About Me page.

Digital Nomad Guides

On The Road Again – The Path Back To Nomadic Life

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My heart is at the beach nomad life

“I don’t think it’s for me,” I say to the estate agent as I poke my head into the en-suite.  She takes it to mean that I don’t want to buy this house. But I can’t help feeling like I’m saying something more profound. That this – the home owing and the fixed location and the routine lifestyle – isn’t for me.  “Don’t worry. You’ll find somewhere,” she says as she hands me her card. I smile to reassure her and wonder if I should be worried. After all, I’ve already agreed to sell my own home. If that goes to plan, … Read more

Reverse Culture Shock – Coming home after being a digital nomad

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If you follow this blog, you’ll know that I left the UK in 2010 and have been roaming the globe, living the digital nomad lifestyle ever since. You’ll also know that a ridiculous knee injury in the British Virgin Islands has put me on less glamorous British National Health Service waiting list for ACL reconstruction. It involves hamstrings and scalpels and several months of recovery. I’ll be honest, while the digital nomad lifestyle has its obvious advantages, it’s not the easiest lifestyle to maintain and I’ve thought many times about quitting that life to return to the other life I’d … Read more

10 Myths About Travel Blogging for Money

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Mix of currency and money

Think you know the truth about travel blogging for money? Here are 10 myths…and the reality. Working as a digital nomad and travelling the world is the modern-day dream job for those with wanderlust  particularly if your vision of a travel blogger is someone who spends all day sitting on the beach, interspersing their tanning with a few tweets and sipping piña coladas as the millions roll in. As someone who has been travel blogging for the past four years and has turned her hobby blog into a (small) money-making entity, let me start by dispelling a few myths. If you’re … Read more

15 Best WordPress Plugins for Blogs

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I seem to spend a lot of time talking about the best WordPress plugins for blogs, particular people who are just starting out. So, to save me some jaw ache, it’s time I made a proper list. If you’re in the early stages of starting a travel blog, you may want to check out my related post: So, you want to start a travel blog? 10 things I wish I’d know There, I talk about the 10 most important things you need to focus on when starting a blog including choosing the right platform, selecting a name, getting your social … Read more

How to Work and Travel – 20 Tips For Digital Nomads

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how to work and travel

Want to find out how to work and travel …without driving yourself insane? Read on… Last week marked 4 years since I set off to travel the world. From then to now – the last four years Year 1 was a hedonistic year of pure travel indulgence. Year 2 was the year I decided to see if I could make a go of work and travel as I tried my hand as a freelance writer – you can read about the ups and downs in my article Why Being A Freelance Writer Online May Not be the Dream Job You’d Hoped … Read more

The Challenges of Going From A Gap Year to Digital Nomad

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I recently wrote about why I don’t regret quitting law to travel and it seemed only fair, as I make my final preparations for my next travel plans (where I’ll be heading back to Latin America for at least the rest of the year), to present the flip-side of the story because long-term travel isn’t always sweetness and light. The truth is that I’m excited for my next adventure but I’m also a little freaked out because I had my worse travel year yet and I’m not keen for a repeat performance. Overall I love my travel-work lifestyle yet there … Read more

Why Your Shouldn’t Regret Quitting Your Job to Travel

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It was my birthday this week. It’s a date that always prompts a bit of navel gazing, and this year my thoughts were focused on my career. I’ve never been the kind of person who draws up and maintains a five-year plan (my commitment issues are too great). However, even it I had, there is no way my plan would ever have anticipated my current lifestyle as a traveller and writer. Five years ago I was a lawyer. I’d invested eight years of my life (and money) studying and training, and after a further eight years of practising, I reached a point where … Read more

Fears, Failures – My Worst Travel Year Yet

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I used to be crazily superstitious. I wouldn’t walk under ladders, I’d salute magpies (damn things never saluted back) and Friday 13 was a flat-out reason to stay in bed (were it not for the fact I was aged 13 at the height of my superstitious years and didn’t have the autonomy to choose not to go to school). Fortunately, like most teenage fads, my superstitions receded to nothing as I entered adulthood and the Indiana part of Jo actively seeks out ladders to walk under, just to disprove the point. So, the idea of 365 days with the number 13 … Read more

10 Tips: How To Be a Better Blogger (From the Experts)

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Bansha Castle for Bloggers at BlogHouse

I wasn’t sure if it was usual behaviour for men on the 2.14pm train from Dublin to Limerick to wear underwear over their day clothes, but there he was, parading up and down the aisle with pride. Like most people in the carriage, I took a picture on my phone and, upon the strict instructions of the woman who bravely claimed to be the man’s wife, I hit Tweet (I later found out that in her thick Irish accent, she’s actually said delete). Yet I couldn’t fully process the anomaly of the man in underwear because at the end of … Read more

My Round The World Trip – 10 Things I’d Do Differently

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If you read my recent post 101 Ways Travel Changed Me, you’ll know that this month marks the third anniversary since I set off on an around the world trip that would change my life, career and home forever. And what a trip it was. However, every adventure has room for improvement, so, with the benefit of hindsight, here are 10 things I would have done differently on my around the world trip. 1. Taken a different camera I bought a relatively expensive point and shoot camera for my trip, a Sony Cybershot DSC-TX5. It cost around $350 at the … Read more