Interview with Perpetual Traveller Craig Martin of IndieTravelPodcast

Today’s interview is with Craig Martin of IndieTravelPodast.com. Craig and his wife Linda have been travelling full-time for more than 5 years now and are funding their adventure through their websites, podcasts and the occasional English teaching. Craig talks about how they got started and how they have bulit their location independent lifestyle.

0:22 Tell us about your travels, where are you now and where have you been?

(Currently in Vietnam, their first time in S.E. Asia. They have been to 22 countries this year including South America, Europe and New York. Craig shares how he and his wife funded their travels by working hard to save money and then teaching English around the world. )

1:48 Do you have a homebase?

(Only a P.O Box where Linda’s father collects mail. “Home is where the backpack is.” He talks about why they started their travels in Malta. )

3:26 What did you do in Malta?

(They taught English. They got into English teaching in order to work around the world.)

4:24 Is Malta a good country to teach English?

(“Not if you want to earn any money.” Two weeks teaching in Italy earned the same amount of savings as three months in Malta.)

5:03 Tell us about IndieTravelPodcast.

(They started the site after they left Malta. They realized they made many dumb travel mistakes that guide books didn’t cover. They wanted to create a website for independent travellers that plugged the gap that guide books weren’t covering. The now have over 170 podcasts. They are looking at practical ways that people can travel long term.)

7:20 Why the podcast focus?

(That was almost by accident. Blogs were quite saturated but no one was really doing a podcast.)

8:17 Are there any advantages or disadvantages to podcasting?

(It’s very time intensive. He goes into detail about what is required. 20 minutes of audio often represents 5 to 8 hours of work.)

9:32 Do you find your listeners value the podcasts more than just a blog post?

(It’s something very unique. People can download it and take it away. “You really get in their ear and they begin to trust you.”)

10:29 Is IndieTravelPodcast funding your travels?

(It is now covering 70 to 80% of their costs with the rest being made up by English teaching. They now have about 25,000 unique visitors a month and they have half a dozen other websites as well. They reckon they will be up to their goal of US$100 per day by the end of the year which will cover all of their travel and living costs.)
Links
IndieTravelPodcast.com
Follow Craig Martin on Twitter