I’m sitting in a little office-like room at my temporary home here in Gonaives, Haiti with a wicked fast internet connection and loads of stuff to do. Am I getting any work done? Hell no.

People who eagerly flock to supposedly dangerous places to shovel mud for weeks or months on end tend to be just a little bit crazy, and those are the people I usually get on with really well. The volunteering project I’m on right now has 22 people on it right now and the numbers will keep increasing from here on in until it ends in January. It might creep up to as high as 40 volunteers at once, all of whom are interesting in one way or another and most of whom enjoy chatting each night over a few beers.

It makes sitting here in this little office pretty tough. There are people to get to know outside and I am finding it hard not to pack up my computer and head out to join in the conversations. It’s really hard when the people I’m around are so much fun. It’s obviously a good thing but it makes getting work done pretty difficult.

People tend to come home and pass out for two hours during lunch so maybe I can use that time to get some productive stuff done. Unfortunately, I’d prefer to pass out durng lunch as well. I am going to set myself a goal of getting my living in Sydney site complete befor ethe end of November and then set another couple of goals for December. It’s the only way I think I will be able to motivate myself to sit in front of the computer instead of enjoying good company, a few drinks and the beautiful starry skys.

This working on the road thing is great but it can certainly be challenging at times like these. Ok, blog post done… time to go socialise!

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Last night was one of those crazy nights I seem to have from time to time. As a volunteer with Hands On, we get Sundays off and have to work the rest of the week which usually means that on Saturday we might have a few drinks and stay up a bit later than normal. Wild and crazy! But we seem to have had a recent wave of arrivals who like their booze and, as a result, it was deemed that on this Saturday night some serious partying would be done.

It started out innocently enough for me with a few rum and Cokes on our balcony chatting about civilised things like politics and other things that required brain power. I was pretty happy staying put where I was but a big group of volunteers, probably spurred on by the mystery alcohol they were all drinking, decided that an outing to a local nightclub was to be the plan for the evening.

Another rum was downed and soon after a gang of about 15 of us were marauding our way down the mean streets of Gonaives to take the local disco by storm. A few of the local Haitian volunteers were leading the way and it was shaping up to be a fun night. The club was more like a small bar with a mysterious pitch black room off to the side where everyone danced.

The bar was pretty hot so a bunch of people moved outside where there was, inexplicably, a half full swimming pool. It didn’t take long for a couple of guys to wrestle each other into it and that was the cue I needed to jump in after them. A few more people jumped or were dragged in an suddenly we had ourselves a pool party. The Haitian guys were singing and the rest of us were splashing around like idiots. The entire bar emptied and were watching our antics. A bar full of blan (white people) is probably unusual enough… a pool full of them splashing around fully clothed for hours is probably not something that is seen every weekend. The whole night was pretty ridiculous. The local guys we have working along side us were having as much fun as we all were and it was awesome to escape the balcony and check out the local bar scene. I spent most of today in recovery mode and did nothing but I guess that’s what Sundays are for.

I’m still having a blast here after two weeks. I’ll be leading up a painting team tomorrow at a local school, on Tuesday I’ll be helping some of the local guys write resumes and I have no doubt that the week will be filled with some more mud shoveling as well. I’ve got a couple of the guys attempting to teach me Creole and I did pretty well this morning practising down at the local market. We’re having Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday for about 60 people including the local volunteers and staff so that should be another big party.

Bring on the next couple of months, I say! It should be loads of fun if the first couple of weeks are anything to go on.

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I was Twittering the other day and came across a tweet (is that what they’re called?) by Lea Woodward from Location Independent, a really good blog about taking your work with you on the road that I’ve been following for a while. She posted looking for contributors for her blog and I replied asking for more details.

I’ve written a few articles here and there in the past for small amounts of money and I’ve enjoyed it. I’m not interested in taking on a lot of paid writing projects, but I think having one or two on the go will be great for a few reasons.

• Money - Extra money is never a bad thing… that’s all I can really say about that.
• Diversifying my income streams - Most of my earnings are split between one affiliate program, ever diminishing Adsense earnings and paid links and I’d like to branch out a little bit more, even if just for a small amount each month.
• Publicity - By writing on other blogs associated with the working and travelling niche, I can work towards establishing myself as a bit of an expert in the area which might come in handy at some point.
• Backlinks - Getting inbound, one-way links from an established, popular blog will help my own blog with PR and search engines. At least that’s what they’re supposed to do.
• Sky is the limit - If a popular blog continues to do well I can write articles, forget about them and ride the wave of their success by reaching new readers and having very strong backlinks.
• Gets me into a routine - Normally I wouldn’t be too interested in being accountable for producing a set number of articles per month but I think a little bit of structure can be a good thing and I’m willing to give it a try.
• Force me to focus on my niche - Writing articles on living a location independent lifestyle will mean that I’ll have to know a lot about it. I think there are a lot of things I can write already but I would look most forward to doing some research and expanding my knowledge in this area.

I know loads of people who would dream about being able to make a living through their writing. I’m not one of them. I like writing but it’s not something I would want to spend day after day doing and certainly not under the pressure of having to make a living from it but I think throwing a few writing projects in here and there will be a big benefit to this blog and to my business overall.

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Today saw a group of about 10 volunteers, half locals and half international, heading out to a mud-encrusted neighbourhood to deliver sets of tools to 50 families. Oxfam is behind this programme and the idea is that each set of tools (a wheelbarrow, 2 shovels, a rake, three pairs of boots, some gloves, a bucket and a pick) will be shared with five families who are nearby so that 250 total families in the community can work together in cleaning up the mess.We had to wait a couple of hours for the truck with the tools to arrive and, in the meantime, the Oxfam group got the local kids singing songs about hand sanitation. It’s amazing how quick a child will learn a song about hygiene when there are balloons involved as prizes. The children in this neighbourhood are all really fun and smiley but the reality of the situation hits home after witnessing them fight over empty cardboard boxes that the rubber boots came in. People here have so little that even a box is considered worthy of a brawl.

It’s sort of a desperate situation in Haiti and the local volunteers will tell you so. They are the first to say that Haiti is ‘very bad’. Every Saturday we have a meeting for the local guys to voice their concerns, to keep them updated on news about the jobs sites and to award a volunteer of the week. I’m blown away each meeting at how well spoken, thoughtful and bright these young guys are. I’m told that, at first, their volunteering started as a ‘what can I get out of it’ sort of thing. In my first week of being here though, I’ve seen as much dedication and hard work from the locals as the international volunteers, if not more. They really love their role in helping out their own community and are able to see the benefit of volunteering beyond just what it’ll do for them.

I can’t really say enough about the locals we have working beside us and it is sad to think that there might not be much opportunity for them in Haiti, despite their intelligence, leadership skills and work ethic. Haiti is just a screwed up kind of place but I really hope that Hands On will be a stepping stone for some of them. One of the guys, Samson, recently got hired on by Oxfam as a Spanish to Creole translator and this is a perfect example of that. There is an opportunity tomorrow for them to volunteer with the UN and another chance soon to work with Save the Children. I really hope that they can use these sorts of hooks ups to their benefit and turn them into paying jobs.

So, as you can probably tell, I am once again blown away by my Hands On experience. If this sounds like your sort of thing, check them out and keep an eye out for volunteer opportunities in the future. I will post some photos soon!

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I’ve been in Gonaives, Haiti for a week now and I have seen a lot of mud. A LOT. The entire town is covered in it. I’m not sure exactly what happened after the area was hit with four hurricaines but the result is serious amounts of mud in people’s homes, piled in the streets, covering schools and just everywhere. Having volunteered with Hands On in Bangladesh, I had a good idea of what the setup would be like and I know quite a few people from there too. I wasn’t at all sure what Haiti woud be like, though. I’d heard about kidnappings, food riots, revolts againsts the government and all sorts of things so I was kind of apprehensive about the whole thing, to be honest.

Well, I’m a week into this adventure and I really couldn’t have asked for more here. True, the situation in the city is pretty dire and the poverty isn’t something that’s easy to look past, but the work here has been really rewarding. There are a lot of local Haitian volunteers involved in this deloyment and working side by side with them is really what’s made this first week so great.

• Day One - Arrival. Went out to a job site for a couple of hours in the afternoon and witnessed a man sort of attack one of the local volunteers for dumping mud in front of his house. We regrouped and continued the work after finding a new mud dumping site but it was a bit of a harsh introduction to the area. The volunteer was ok but a bit shaken.
• Day Two - Oxfam tool distribution. This was an interesting day consisting mostly of waiting around with a few hours of furious activity in between. Hands On teamed up with Oxfam Spain to distribute sets of tools to fifty families with the idea being that they would work together with other families in the neighbourhood to clear mud from their homes. The distribution went well after a bit of chaos at the beginning and it was very interesting to see a major international organisation like Oxfam at work. Besides sending wheelbarrows out unassabled to people who probably don’t own the tools to put them together, it all went smoothly. We later found out that people in this area didn’t actually have nearly as much mud to clear as the homes we were helping and learned that the Oxfam people didn’t even know about the extreme need in the areas we’d been in.
• Day Three - Day off. I attempted to sort out my stuff by building a shelf out of plywood but mostly took it easy and let my sore bones rest. There are lots of really nice, funny people here and finding someone to chat with each night is definitely so problem.
• Day Four - Clearing an easy house. Worked on a house that was totally empty of furniture and filled with pretty good mud. There are many classifications of mud here (mostly made up by the volunteers) ranging from sticky to heavy to dry to wet and everything in between. The mud in this house was heavy and sticky but, because it broke off into chunks, it was easy to handle. I spent the day shovelling and can safely say I have never worked so hard or sweated so much, not even when I was picking fruit in Australia. We finished the house in one day and it was really satisfying to know that we all worked hard and got someone back into their house faster than expected.
• Day Five - Clearing a difficult house. Went to a home that had been under mud over six feet high. Hands On have been working at this place for over a week now but, because of the amount of mud and lack of space to use wheelbarrows (buckets are passed between people instead) things have been very slow going. I ended up getting water in my rubber boots so it was kind of a miserable day but even the bad days are never that bad.
• Day Six - Painting a school. Spent the day painting windows and doors at a school that Hands On have been working on since they started the project on October 10th. When the work began, the courtyard and all of the classroms were under several feet of mud and now everything is mud free and in need of some coats of paint. Even though I wasn’t here to see the school at its worst, I can completely imagine what it was like and seeing it cleared up and having the painters moving in is a cool thing. Pretty tedious work but it was a relaxing day and there was a bit of a leaving party at night for a few people so beers were drunk.
• Day Seven - Clearing Happy Lady’s house. Worked on clearing a foot of sticky mud and lots of furniture from a lovely lady’s home who thanked us with kisses at the end of the job. She was very thankful that we were doing this work for free and it was great to see that she understood this point because, often, our people think our local volunteers are getting paid and it’s nice to see them get credit for being volunteers.

So it’s day seven and, after watching an awesome sunrise from the roof of the house here and eating a yummy dinner made up entirely of mystery dishes, I’m surfing on a super fast net connection and attempting to get caught up on emails.

I really think this is going to be an amazing experience and I’m really looking forward to seeing what the next two months have in store. If things continue to be as good as the first week then I’m in for an awesome time!

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As I wrote previously, I will be attempting to start a network of city guide sites and will be looking for people to write for me. It seems to me like there are three ways to go about getting content, each with their own advantages and disadvantages for both myself and the contributor.

The three ways to get content that I’m considering are to pay writers for their work, to offer a permanent link on each contributed article to a site of the writer’s choice, or to put the writer’s Adsense code on each page they write for me. In an effort to find some people to write for me and to get some feedback on what you think the best method would be, I’ve made a little list the with pros and cons.

Pay Writers

This would see me paying US$15 per article or area guide of around 1000 words. I’m not sure what the going rate is so don’t know if this price is too high or too low.

Pros

• Me - Once I pay the writer I will own the content and can do whatever I want with it.
• Writer - The writer sees cash up front so gets rewarded immediately for their work.

Cons

• Me - I need a lot of content and will only be able to afford to get a couple of sites done with the money I have.
• Writer - The amount paid isn’t huge and once the article is sold they won’t have any chance of earning more money from it.

Put a Link of the Writer’s Choice on Each Article

This would see me adding a link at the top of each article to a site (or even a page within a site) of the writer’s choice. The link would be at the top of the page under the article’s title and would be limited to one.

Pros

• Me - Doesn’t cost me anything so I can add as many articles as I can get written.
• Me - Takes two seconds to add a link to a page so not a lot of extra work needed by me.
• Writer - The writer can get traffic and link juice from my site for as long as the article is there.
• Writer - The site will benefit from being link to from many of my other, already established sites which would make a link from it a good thing to have.

Cons

• Me - I would have no real ownership of the content since it will only belong to my site as long as the link is there.
• Me - My site will lose link juice and possibly PR because of outbound links to other sites.
• Writer - They have no control over SEO or what else I put onto the site so they have to trust that I will look after the site.
• Writer - They probably won’t see the benefits of the link for many months.

Put the Writers Adsense Code on Each Page They Write

Add three of the writer’s Adsense units to each article they write.

Pros

• Me - Doesn’t cost me anything so I can add as many articles as I can get written.
• Writer - I know a bit about SEO so the writer will benefit from this and their articles should do pretty well in the SERPs.
• Writer - Once the article is written it can be forgotten about and still keep on earning.

Cons

• Me - Adsense is a large part of the revenue model for these sites so losing out on Adsense units isn’t ideal.
• Me - No really ownership of the content since it will only belong to my site as long as the Adsense units are there.
• Me - Adding Adsense code to each article would be a bit more time consuming than the other options.
• Me - If the writer doesn’t already have Adsense I would have to explain it to them and getting their code may be difficult.
• Me - Have t otrust that the writer won’t click on their own ads which might get my sites into trouble (not sure on this though).
• Writer - New sites will not see substantial traffic for some time so the Adsense units could take awhile to produce.
• Writer - The writer would need to set up an Adsense account if they haven’t already got one.

I would be really interested in hearing which of these options would appeal to you most. Or if you have other ideas or suggestions on how to compensate writers that would be great too. Do any of these options appeal to you? Can you think of any other pros and cons for each for both parties?

Finally… are there any people out there in internetland who would like to contribute articles or area guides for sites similar to my moving to London site? I have a list of 45 cities, mainly international (the only US cities I’m looking for would be LA and New York) so if you’ve lived in a major city worldwide and know your stuff, I’d love to hear from you!

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Wow… fast wireless in Haiti in a very poor city that is completely covered in mud. Who knew?

It’s really amazing here. I’ve been a couple days and so far am loving it just as much as Bangladesh. It looks like Hands On have created some great relationships within the local community. There’s even a group of local volunteers which is something I didn’t see at all in Bangladesh. The guys I’ve met are eager and work bloody hard for no money which is something most people in Haiti can’t comprehend.

The work here is ridiculously difficult. It’s mostly grunt work shoveling mud from inside people’s homes. I think it washed in there as the city flooded and in some homes it fills the entire room to the ceiling. I haven’t experienced that yet but I’m not looking forward to it considering how hard it is to shovel a mere foot of mud.

As always, I’m hoping to get a lot of work done while I’m here. Because the work is so physical though I anticipate being completely knackered at the end of each day and wanting nothing more than my bed. Unfortunately, my bed at the moment consists of a piece of plywood and a sleeping pad that’s only about a centemetre thick. Which means that I probably won’t be getting much sleep which means that I’ll probably spend most of my time here in a zombified state. Not something that’s ideal for getting a lot of work done.

Ok I’m off to source some beer from Cooler Man. We have a day off tomorrow so I might have three beers! Wild and crazy!

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October has been a pretty good month coming in at $1735. I’ve done a lot of work but it’s been mainly on things that haven’t been completed and launched yet or things that haven’t started paying off. So that means that my old sites are starting to pick up in some areas which is encouraging.

Earnings breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $275 - Adsense is sucking hard at the moment having fallen from over $400 per month in May. My visitor numbers and clicks are higher than ever but the payout per click seems to be getting worse, especially on my living in London site.
  
• Affiliate Sales - $938 - One of my other affiliate programs has finally started producing and I’m hoping it keeps up so I dont have to continue to count on the one major earner. I get paid in mainly in Aussie dollars and the British pound so the high value of the US dollar at the moment is hurting me in this department.
• Linkworth & Text Link Ads - $102 - Linkworth is holding strong at $23 for another month but TLA have dropped to by about $60 from last month. I’ve kicked TLA off of two of my sites so this number will drop even further next month.
• Private Link Sales - $420 - I had a good month with link sales. A couple of biggies renewed and I added a monthly subscription payment with Paypal for $30 to go with the $30 I already have coming in. I love subscription payments… money rolls in each month and I don’t need to do a thing to chase payments. I’d love to get more of these and might eventually stop offering yearly deals with the hopes that more people will pay monthly.

With my living expenses covered for the next couple of months, creditcards paid off and plane tickets all paid for I’m hoping to get my savings back up to a healthy level to take the edge off a bit. Apparently there is a wifi connection at our place in Haiti. I’m told that it only works when the wind isn’t blowing (!) so I’ll hopefully be able to get some work done there as well. My earnings have been hovering around $1500 to $2000 for a while now and I really want to kick things up to the next level. No idea of what the best way to go about this is but I think adding a few more city guide sites can only help.

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Just a short post today. Here’s a link to an interview I did with Women on the Road website.

Wow… that post was way shorter than I intended it to be.

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