Johnny Ward is not your average millennial. At just 33, he has already made over $1.5 million (£1.16 million), invested in property in the UK, Ireland and Thailand, heads up a media company and he’s done it all by traveling the world. “I always wanted to be my own boss, so it’s not a massive surprise that I ended up going into business for myself,” he says. Here's how he did it.

“I always wanted to travel, it was always my dream. I had never really traveled or gone on holiday growing up – I grew up in a single parent family on welfare, so traveling wasn’t really an option.” He got his chance after university when he traveled to the US to work in a summer camp for disadvantaged children in upstate New York.

But after a bit of traveling, Johnny found himself broke again, so he returned to Ireland where he volunteered for medical research programs. “I was locked in hospital for five weeks while they tested experimental drugs on me,” he writes in his blog, One Step 4ward. It was a challenge that paid off though, as he used the proceeds of the drug trial to get back on the road.

“I had to work as I traveled but I didn’t know how to do that either. I literally Googled ‘how to get money from traveling?’ and that’s when I learned I could teach English abroad.” Johnny then headed to Chiang Mai, Thailand to teach. He got paid “around $520 (£400) a month only”, but it was a way to continue traveling.

For the next couple of years Johnny taught English, saved his income and went traveling. When his cash ran out, he went back to teaching. “I managed to travel for around two years throughout Asia on a budget of around $10-$15 (£8-12) a day,” he says. By the age of 26, though, he wanted more. “I ended up in Australia, getting worried about what I was going to do with my life.”

In Australia, Johnny got himself a conventional office job. But it wasn’t long before he got itchy feet again. It was during this time that his highly-successful blog, One Step 4ward, was born. By day, Johnny toiled and saved his income, and by night he wrote his blog and planned his next adventure. “Never again.” he wrote. “Life wasn’t meant to be lived in an office, working 5/7 days, asking bosses for permission to go on holiday.” 

He headed to Zimbabwe to do some more travelling and that’s when blogging became his central occupation. He started making a few hundred pounds a month from advertising, then a few thousand.

Johnny’s big break came when he decided to undertake an epic journey: he would travel from Bangkok, where he’d been living, back to his homeland in Ireland. No flights. “Business had been alright and I had $10,000 (£8,000) in the bank. I was going to do it all by land," he says. “Though business was doing OK, I when you work for yourself you worry about the next month. But I thought ‘OK, that should be enough to take me from Bangkok to Ireland by land. It’ll take a year.' So I set off.”

It was during this trip that interest in Johnny’s blog exploded. Business had been ticking over for a couple of years, but as he traveled more and blogged more assiduously, his traffic spiked – and so did his revenue. “I was producing loads of content, and that organically created loads of traffic.”

Johnny quickly figured out that if he could monetize one blog, he could monetize two, or ten. “I started my travel blog, started making around $7,000 per month from that site, so I started a few more blogs, and hired a couple of writers, before long I was making $50,000 per month” he explains.

Within a few years years Johnny had made over $1.5 million (£1.3 million) in advertising from his blogs. One Step 4ward is his main vehicle, but he has dabbled in fitness and automobile blogs, among other things. He has a team of writers he trusts implicitly and who keep things ticking over. Johnny himself continues to travel the world and run the business from his laptop.

“I’m terrible with all these internet things,” says Johnny. “When you’re starting out, just focus on building an audience. That’s all that matters in the beginning. In the long run you’ll figure out the advertising, and the analytics. If you have traffic, people will approach you with advertising.”

Though traveling is his passion and main pastime, Johnny doesn’t pretend his fortune came from traveling alone. He is a cunning businessman, who has learned how to play the internet game, but he has also invested the bulk of his earnings in real estate and other businesses.

Even though he is based in Bangkok, Johnny is different from your average ex-pat. He only spends about a third of the year in the Thai capital. The rest of the time he spends globetrotting. He says he has visited every single country in the world!

Of all the travel gadgets in the world, the one thing he will not leave the house without is his laptop. Though his lieutenants keep his business going, and do a lot of the writing, he has managed everything every step of the way.

“Back when I was building my brand I focused the blog on what people wanted to know, like ‘where to get drunk in Thailand’.” That way he could capitalize on search traffic. “Now that people know who I am, they are interested in the weird stuff that I do as well.” Indeed they are! Johnny has over 66,000 Instagram followers, and frequently partners with other brands as a bona fide digital influencer.

“I started my company with a hundred bucks, and anyone can turn around tomorrow and start their own company too.” Johnny advises having patience, and build up your blog with content that you are passionate about. And give it time – no one makes money from blogging in the first six months. Johnny even teaches others how to do it.

“It’s really not that complicated,” he says. “Anyone can do it. It just takes a bit of courage to turn your back on the status quo. When it comes to money, people think about going into an office, working 9 to 5, then hopefully getting a promotion. If you turn your back on it, you can create your path, and come up with your own creative methods to generate revenue.”

“There’s no barrier of entry to make money online,” he advises. “That’s what I love about it. The internet doesn’t care what religion you are, where you come from, what color your skin is. There are no excuses to succeed or fail, you just do what you want.”

Today, he heads up One Step 4 Ward Media, helping others create and run successful blogs. But for Johnny, the wealth and luxury are only part of the appeal. It’s about living a life of freedom. “I always thought there was a difficulty in making money while also remaining free,” he says. “You know, we’re always told that young people are cash poor but time rich, and as you get older it switches.” But he took the step to make sure he can enjoy life all the time.

“Take risks,” he says. “The thing about working online is that 10 years from now I could be rich, or I could be broke – you never really know.” But for now, at least, Johnny’s enjoying the ride.