From dead broke English teacher to pro blogger and digital nomad: my journey

A few years ago, I was a dead broke English teacher, just one of many in Madrid.

I worked from 8 AM to 10 PM…

And spent most of the day on transport, schlepping from office to office around the city, and giving private classes in people’s homes.

It was superficially fun, but also deeply soul-crushing.

And despite all the hard work, my bank balance never made it out of the mid 3 figures.

That’s when a friend suggested I start a blog for my students to follow.

Teaching classes I’d be seeing a couple of dozen people a day, tops.

But with a blog, he explained, I could reach thousands.

Summer was coming and I knew I was going to have a lot of free time – plus virtually zero income – so I took his advice.

What did I have to lose?

I bought the domain madridingles.es for 14 bucks – a huge investment for me, at the time – and set up a free blog on tumblr.

No tech knowledge required. And no startup capital beyond those $14 for the domain.

I started posting a couple times a week, then nearly every day. My original articles sucked pretty bad…

But it worked better than I ever would have hoped!

People started reading my blog, asking me questions, and saying things like “if you did an online course I’d totally buy it”.

Fast forward a few years and I was able to quit my teaching job for good. So long, semi-poverty. So long, 14-hour days.

Finally! I could afford to fire my boss…

And life is good. Now I have no boss, no alarm clock and no schedule. I work when I want and where I want – anywhere with an internet connection. It’s still work, but much more flexible. And my bank balance has never been better!

But if you had told me that all this would happen 5 years ago, I would never have believed you. Blogging is much more powerful than I thought – if you do it right.

And guess what?

I’m ready to share my wisdom with the world…

In my new book The Zen of Blogging you’ll discover what I did to make money with my blog, become a best-selling author in Spain and Latin America, and finally become my own boss.

Buy it now on pre-order for Amazon Kindle. If you do, I’ll buy you three beers next time I see you – that’s literally a 200% return on your investment (plus all the wisdom you’ll get from the book, of course.)

If you have any questions, get in touch here.

Yours,

Daniel AKA Mr Chorizo.

P.S. I’m working more on storytelling these days, and less on list posts. Of course, I’ll keep writing list posts, because they’re awesome. But I also hope to write more hero’s journey type stuff.

P.P.S. If you’re more interested in living in Madrid or teaching English, here are some pros and cons and here’s salary expectations. And if you want, I’ve also got some information about the cost of living. ‘Cause I love being informational like that. Have fun!

P.P.P.S. All this begs the question: Is working as an English teacher for losers? Well, no, it’s not. But it’s good to have a backup plan as well. You don’t want to be making 12 bucks an hour forever.