When we set off on our life's journey on 01.01.2014, we would never even dream of calling ourselves web nomads or digital nomads. At that time these terms did not exist yet and so we were simply hikers or pilgrims of life, who tried to master their everyday life without having to have a permanent residence or a permanent job.

The webnomads Heiko Gärtner and Franz Bujor wander through Hamburg

Travel as a lifestyle becomes popular

But we were not the only ones with this idea. More and more people feel restricted by our everyday social life and therefore look for alternatives and often also for nomadic ways of life. And every freedom seeker who gave up his social life with a fixed location had his own survival strategy. Some had saved all their money before and were now ready to leave to live on their reserves. Others, on the other hand, had chosen professions that they could do on the road. Or they looked for ways to make money online. And still others were looking for ways to build a business during their journey that would keep them afloat.

At home all over the world: Heiko Gärtner lives as a webnomad

Digital nomadism as a new trend

Whereas in the past it was mainly craftsmen and moving farmers who roamed around and financed their journey with a wide variety of works, it was now mainly the digital sector that offered undreamt-of travel opportunities. Designers, programmers, writers, search engine optimizers, editors and translators no longer necessarily needed a permanent office. All you needed was a computer, Internet access and a telephone, and you could work for any client from anywhere in the world. Why, as if one should stay in one place even longer? Especially in a location such as Germany, which, in addition to inconsistent weather, offered high prices and relatively poor Internet rates?

A laptop and Internet access is all that a web nomad needs for his mobile office

save money through travel

We found that by traveling abroad instead of having a permanent office in Germany, we saved about 90% of our monthly fixed costs. In our case, health insurance fees alone fell from €200 to €400 per month to around €50 per month. So if you live and work in Bali, Fiji, the Philippines, Morocco, India or Peru, you can live well there with a fraction of the salary you would need in Germany as an absolute minimum. As a result, working hours and everyday stress are reduced, while comfort increases and, in addition, one lives where others go on holiday. That sounds almost a little too good to be true.

As a webnomad you can enjoy life and save money at the same time.

How do I build an online business?

And indeed, it is not quite as simple as it sounds at first. Because a functioning online business, like any other business, needs good preparation, planning and implementation. The Internet is full of offers of all kinds. If you want to survive here, the first thing you need is a strategy that will make you interesting for your potential customers. We had the advantage that our trip around the world was planned from the beginning without money, so that we were not dependent on the success of their internet business, at least at the beginning. This allowed us to take our time and find out how many ways it doesn't work.

Setting up your own online business is the first, important step towards becoming a web nomad

What difficulties do I face as a webnomad?

For many who are dependent on the profits from their online business from the very beginning, the dream of a life as a web nomad often comes to an end after just a few months. Namely, when their saved credit is used up. For others, it works out that they can travel and earn money on the road, but often the amount of work involved is even greater than if they were working from home. For this reason, it is important to make a plan and develop a strategy before setting off.

• What skills do I have with which I can make a real contribution?
• What can I offer that gives others an added value that makes them pay me?
• Which target group do I want to address?
• Who or what am I?
• What makes me special?
• What makes me special?
• What is my brand, i.e. the brand with which I attract others' attention and draw them into my business area?
• Which advertising strategies can I use?
• How do I make sure that my website is found by search engines?
• Which platforms are there through which I can make my services known?
• How do I get myself into the conversation?

Occasionally one has also as a Webnomade with tidy headwind to fights

Learning from mistakes

First of all, we set off without asking ourselves any of these questions. This led us to create a travel blog with several thousand articles, without even once paying attention to whether these articles could be found at all. Only with time did we come up with the idea that a blog had to be optimized for search engines as well, if you didn't want to remain completely invisible. Later we discovered possibilities to earn money with the help of the blog. With it, we could then cover the remaining fixed costs more and more and accumulate a cushion for future projects. However, we also felt that due to our earlier failures we had a lot to catch up on after a few years, which could have been avoided from the beginning with an elaborated strategy.

Through breakdowns and misfortunes one learns something new over and over again

From permanent pilgrims to cyber-nomads

However, after the first five years of our journey, our concept of life changed once again very much. Now we had already made many experiences as nomads. So the question arose once again in which direction we should go in the future. Our journey had started as a pilgrimage, with the path itself as the main focus. With time, however, research and work has become an increasingly important part of the journey. So has the desire to pass on the knowledge we have researched to others and at the same time to dive even deeper. The question of how to travel to other, more difficult regions of the earth now also arose.

Franz Bujor with handheld outdoor computer

Because of these questions, the idea of digital nomadism came into focus once again. So the pure travel diary was turned into a knowledge platform and the Galaxy of Experience was added as a charity shop portal.