Since the beginning of her journey on the Croudie Network, Greta has provided our teams with PPC support, all while working remotely and travelling to different parts of the world. In this blog, Greta shares her experience on the Network, particularly during her year-long trip around the world.
Turning an unrealistic idea into a very real plan
It all started towards the end of 2016, when my friend and I decided it was time to take travelling ideas that we’d often discussed, and make it all happen. At first, we had no idea what type of trip we wanted to take, but after a little bit of research online, we got caught up with this fancy-sounding idea of a round-the-world (RTW) trip.
At the time, I was already working as a freelance pay-per-click (PPC) specialist, with Croud being my main source of income for nearly a year. After three months of being a Croudie, my income became quite stable, to which I felt secure in terms of what to expect and how many tasks I would be able to complete. This feeling of security allowed me to begin thinking about exploring and living in countries outside of Lithuania, my home at the time.
Conveniently, the trend of ‘digital nomads’ was growing, and I was interested in becoming one of them; the idea of working remotely while travelling the world was extremely exciting to me. I bought a couple of books about RTW trips and ‘The Rough Guide to First-Time Around the World’ by Doug Lansky appeared to be the best guide (highly recommend it to anyone planning such a trip, as it includes a step-by-step guide of what to pack, where to go, and loads of great tips on nearly all aspects of travelling).
Leading up to my trip, I tried to work as much as possible to save up for my travels, and thankfully, the Croudie Network continued to provide me with substantial projects. With this steady flow of tasks regularly being assigned to me, I knew I could comfortably plan and financially support my desires to explore the world – and the planning started a whole six months prior to my departure date. Planning the trip as early as I did was both convenient and necessary, as it allowed me to save loads on gear, clothes, toiletries, etc. and receive any vaccinations that were required to enter some countries.
And the adventure begins…
I flew to the States on June 25th, 2017, beginning my year-long journey away from home. During this time period, I visited 26 countries and travelled 83,762 kilometres to different corners of the world – that’s about two times the circumference of the Earth. I split my trip into two parts; the first five months were spent in North and South America, while the second half of the trip covered Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. Unfortunately, we decided to completely skip past Africa, as trips to this part of the world tend to require more time and extensive preparation.
We planned our trip in this way to help us maintain the budget we had set aside for our travels. Flights are the most expensive part of RTW trips, which accounted for 19% of my total budget. Depending on the distance, however, planes were not the only way of moving from country to country, and we definitely took advantage of some of the cheaper forms of transportation, like trains or buses, to hop around when we could. For anyone embarking on a RTW trip for the first time, I highly recommend my approach, as it is a really interesting and safe way to travel – plus, it’s one of the cheapest ways to take a RTW trip.
So, how much would you spend on the day of your trip?
In total, one day on the road for two people costed us about €65. Travelling alone is typically much more expensive, and you can save a lot of money on accommodations if there are two of you to share a room and split costs. Working on the Croudie Network helped me earn about half of all of my income while travelling, with additional money coming from a few other small freelance jobs and rent payments from the temporary tenants of my apartment back at home. It’s needless to say that without Croud, my trip would have been much harder to achieve.
Wi-Fi around the world
When living in a country with one of the fastest internet services in the world, I find it to be slow everywhere else I go. Admittedly, it wasn’t easy to get good WiFi connection everywhere I travelled to, but this wasn’t much of an issue. It actually made me realise how many things you can do offline as a digital marketer.
One of the biggest benefit of travelling whilst working on the Croudie Network is that you get tasks with ample time to meet deadlines, which allows you to be flexible with your travel plans. After being on the Network for some time, I can now plan my assigned tasks in line with my personal schedule. For example, with most projects I’m working on, the first week of the month is always the busiest due to all the necessary reporting involved, so while I was travelling, I avoided places with poor WiFi service during those portions of the month. But with the last week of the month typically requiring less tasks, I filled my time with long hikes or getaways to remote areas. I quickly warmed to the idea of downloading everything I needed for tasks when I had good internet connection, and then carried out work offline until I could later access good WiFi again to upload my tasks.
The Croudie Network
I am more than grateful to the great team at Croud, as they are an amazing bunch of people who are always happy to help, provide flexible deadlines, and answer all your questions in such a friendly manner. I have been on the network for nearly five years now, and there is no other client I have worked with for so long. They’ve given me a sense of stability and trust that has ultimately allowed me to take one of the most exciting trips of my life. So to lighten the mood during such odd, rapidly changing times, here are the best five pictures from my trip – one for each year I’ve been with Croud!
Everest base camp trek, Nepal
Morning coffee in NSW, Australia
Amazing temples of Bagan, Myanmar
The Amazon Jungle in Colombia
Costa Rican currency
P.S. If you want to know more about the trip itself, here is our travel Facebook page called @theroadofadventures. While it hasn’t been updated for some time now, feel free to check it out as it holds a lot of content from our trip.
Also, to learn more about the Croudie Network and how you can join us, please get in touch with our team!
