{"id":3274,"date":"2016-11-04T12:30:25","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T19:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milestonerides.com\/?p=3274"},"modified":"2016-11-04T12:30:25","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T19:30:25","slug":"make-money-bike-touring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milestonerides.com\/2016\/11\/04\/make-money-bike-touring\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Make Money Bike Touring"},"content":{"rendered":"

On April 17, 2014, I announced<\/a> that I was leaving my full-time career to pursue other bike touring related endeavors. Fast-forward to present day, 2 \u00bd years later, you\u2019re probably wondering how I make money bike touring. Even if you don\u2019t care, I want to go through this exercise for my own selfish insight. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ever since I lost my steady income stream, I\u2019ve been living off of 3 income sources.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The savings that I had carefully stashed away for a rainy day or a wedding.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. The income I gained from selling my stuff, like a house.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. The earnings as an independent contractor.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I do earn some money every year working at a prop house, helping to build movie and tv props, but I\u2019m not going to talk about those earnings here. I will be focusing more on point #3 in this blog post since it is income related to bicycle touring or just bicycle in general. We do want to stay on topic here.<\/span><\/p>\n

    My income as a sole proprietor for my company, Milestone Rides, derives from 6 categories.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Bicycle Education<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Adventure Cycling Association<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
    3. Cyclocross<\/span><\/li>\n
    4. MeetUp<\/a> Membership Fees<\/span><\/li>\n
    5. Affiliate Commissions<\/span><\/li>\n
    6. YouTube<\/a> Earnings<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Let\u2019s talk about each of these categories in-depth.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \"TS<\/a><\/h2>\n

      Bicycle Education<\/span><\/h2>\n

      When it comes to the bicycle education category, these are jobs that I use my training as a League Certified Instructor (LCI)<\/a> or I am helping out organizations, like the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition<\/a> or the Walk N\u2019 Rollers in Culver City. <\/span><\/p>\n

      While I typically teach bicycle and pedestrian safety for these jobs, I am also compensated for time spent helping at community events, like CicLAvia<\/a> or watching over the kids rodeo or helping with bike valet set up.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \"Made<\/a><\/h2>\n

      Adventure Cycling Association<\/span><\/h2>\n

      If you\u2019ve been keeping up with my blog, this is an ideal way to make money for me. In fact, I have mentioned that I wanted to do more of this kind of work when I left my full-time work in a previous blog post<\/a> [link to blog]. I suppose I am well on my way as I have had opportunities in both 2015 and 2016, as well as next year. <\/span><\/p>\n

      To be paid to go on bike tours and have all your basic living expenses provided for, like food and shelter, are all worth my time while taking care of participants.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \"SLO<\/a><\/h2>\n

      Cyclocross<\/span><\/h2>\n

      In southern California, the cyclocross scene is dominated by one organization and one woman, Dorothy (Dot) Wong<\/a>\u00a0of SoCalCross<\/a><\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

      When cyclocross season starts in the Fall and runs through to the new year, she is constantly looking for people to help. I jumped in during the 2015 and now 2016 season to help her manage the race timing and results delivery. <\/span><\/p>\n

      \"Group<\/a><\/h2>\n

      MeetUp Membership Fees<\/span><\/h2>\n

      For those who don\u2019t know about my MeetUp that I started in October 2014, I wrote about it here<\/a>\u00a0but if you want a short explanation, here it goes. I wanted to go on bicycle tours on my own, so I went to MeetUp to find a group to do this. Unfortunately, nobody was organizing this activity or if they had a group, they didn\u2019t do it as often as I liked.<\/span><\/p>\n

      So I started my own MeetUp group and charge a $2 a month subscription fee to be part of my MeetUp (30 days are free). This was in response to the bloated inactive members I was seeing from other MeetUp groups. I knew I wanted to filter out the serious riders over the casual browsers. <\/span><\/p>\n

      This worked very well and now I am able to fulfill 2 goals: have raving fans who love bicycle touring and cover the annual costs of Meetup. I have to confess that I am actually making some income from this. I am conscious of this and have been treating my group to an occasional campfire or snacks. <\/span><\/p>\n

      \"Camping\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

      Affiliate Commissions<\/span><\/h2>\n

      I have 2 affiliate program that I am part of.<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Amazon <\/span><\/li>\n
      2. Avantlink for REI<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        The primary reason for this blog was always to be able to share my passion with you for bike touring, but what came out of this was an opportunity to use affiliate links to products I use or talk about. <\/span><\/p>\n

        The Gears & Gadgets links were created to share my personal favorites and review things I am interested in. You will notice that there are affiliate links scattered across all those posts as well as on my YouTube videos. <\/span><\/p>\n

        I haven\u2019t pursued this opportunity as in-depth as I would like, but this has been generating some passive income through the years for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

        \"Camera<\/a><\/h2>\n

        YouTube Earnings<\/span><\/h2>\n

        This last category was something I never thought I would be collecting money from. At the beginning of 2016, I decided to put in some effort and have weekly videos uploaded on my YouTube channel. I am happy to say, that this has paid off as a few of my videos are popular and have been generating income.<\/span><\/p>\n

        I was happy to receive my first check last month and have noticed that I continue to earn ad revenue every month. Not too shabby for just making fun and helpful videos, right? <\/span><\/p>\n

        How Much Did I Make?<\/span><\/h2>\n

        Here\u2019s the climax of the story, my total earnings for 2 \u00bd years was a little over $12,000<\/strong><\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

        This pie chart should give you a better idea of income for each year.<\/span><\/p>\n

        \"Income<\/a><\/p>\n

        2016 isn\u2019t over yet so that number can only get higher. <\/span><\/p>\n

        Here is the category breakdown.<\/span><\/p>\n

        \"Income<\/a><\/p>\n

        Making Sense of It All<\/span><\/h2>\n

        Here are some important takeaways from these 2 charts. <\/span><\/p>\n