I’ve spent four weeks of sort of watching what I spend with a few splurges here and there and the final results are in.

Here are my totals after my last week:

• UK funds: £2142 (about US$3160)
• US funds: $1223 (bank account and Paypal)
• Cash: US$340

I had a few smallish payments come in and, to be honest I have completely lost track of my spending. I have realised that while I might be ok at keeping my costs low, I’m garbage at actually keeping track of it. Ah well. My best guess is that I spent about $200 during my last week including Spanish lessons at $105 and a massive bottle of rum ($15) as a thank you for my free accommodation. That means for the other stuff I spent just over $10 a day which is about what I expected given that I ate out and went out a bit more this week.
I had been hoping to come out ahead after a month in Nicaragua but I’m waiting on a couple of payments to come through. When they do finally make their way to my accounts in the next few days, I should be up about $300 from the US$5085 I arrived with at the beginning of April.

I’m off to Ometepe tomorrow, an island made up of two volcanoes that is in Lake Nicaragua. It’s got a lot of farmy type places that accept volunteers so my hope is to get up to some sort of work on one of them, learn some new things, meet some nice people and hang around for as long as I’m enjoying it.

I might be out of touch for the next wee while but I will try to tee up a couple of posts in case I am. If you don’t hear from me for a bit, rest assured that I am hunting down a net connection… in betweek kayaking, cycling, painting, horse riding etc etc. Ah island life… bring it on.

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In my travels to date I’ve come across a handful of hostels that have been great places to work and after my post about what makes a good working environment, I thought following that up with a list of places I worked well in would make sense.

Here’s a list:

• Friendly’s Hostel, Manila, Philippines - This place has to be one of the best I’ve come across for working. There are plenty of tables on a balcony to get work done on with a great view to boot. Single rooms are cheap soI didn’t feel too guilty about treating myself and the net connection worked in my room which meant I could hide away and work if I wanted to. The hostel is very social but pretty quiet during the day which meant I always had options for socialising after a hard day’s work. Plus the guy who runs the place had me improve his website and I scored free accommodation out of it.
• Frendz Resort, Boracay, Philippines - This hostel is located down a path away from the beach in a quiet area. I had a massive cabin all to myself complete with a nice balcony where I would work from while sipping fresh juice from the small cafe. The hostel was pretty quiet when I was there but the owner is a friendly Aussie guy and there are loads of places to go out or activities to get up to. If you’re into kite surfing, this is a great place to come.
• Bingo Hostel, Fenghuang, China - This place doesn’t seem to be listed anywhere online but my Chinese travel buddy stumbled onto it and it was a great find. The net connection was pretty decent by Chinese standards and the signal reached up to the room which happened to have a huge table and a comfy chair. I spent five days here working most of the time because it was such a great setup. The hostel was pretty empty but the town is lively so if you want to you should be able to find things to do. I was only interested in working and I accomplished loads of stuff I had been putting off for ages.
• Matahari Lodge, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - This place was brand new when I was there in mid 2008 and you could tell. It was spotless and the owners were really attentive, helpful and friendly. The net connection was fast and it leaked down to my room where I did most of my work. In the main lobby though there were plenty of tables where I could have worked more comfortably including two on a balcony.
• Managua Backpackers Inn, Managua, Nicaragua - This place is spread across two houses on nearby streets. The main house is a bit small and crammed but the net connection is very good. The second house has huge amounts of space and great tables and chairs but the connection while I was there was down and I could only get online on some random signal I picked up. If they sort out the connection for the second house, this is a great place to get some serious amounts of work done. Most people hate Managua but the hostel is in an area with some good nightlife and the first house has a pool. Plus there are lots of hammocks. I love hammocks.

I’ve worked in plenty of cafes and resaurants in m travels as well with Starbucks usually providing a reliable, comfortable setting to work in. Mix, a smoothie chain in Hong Kong, was awesome work, drink and food wise. I also found a bunch of good places in Chiang Mai to get things done. I prefer working at my accommodation but having a good place to go as a change of scenery is good for productivity.

Can anyone suggest hostels or other cheap accommodation that have great setups for getting work done?

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Working on the road can be tough and it is made even more challenging when you can’t find a good environment to do your work in. I’ve been to a few places that have the whole package but, for the most part, I need to put up with at least a few inconveniences at each place I go.

Here is a list of the things that I look for in a hostel I plan to work in:

• Free and reliable wifi - This is obviously the most important thing. Working offline is possible but I find I get a lot more done when I am able to go online, especially when I need to do research for a site.
• Affordable - Finding a cheap place is important but I would be willing to pay a bit more if the cheapest place in town didn’t have a good working environment. Being able to afford a single room is another great advantage because it allows me to work hidden away to avoid distractions and so I don’t feel like a massive geek because everyone always sees me on the computer.
• Large tables at a comfortable height - Spending a lot of time hunched over low tables or trying to cram all of my stuff onto a tiny, circular table has made me appreciate the places that have nice, big tables at a height that doesn’t cause me to slouch.
• Comfortable chairs - Having spent the past two weeks working while sittle on a wooden stool, I have a new appreciation for seats with backs, arm rests and maybe even a little bit of padding to keep the ass happy.
• Quiet during the day - I like hostels that clear out during the day because it allows me to work in a quiet place and, more importantly, eliminates the distraction of talking to people.
• Lively but with limits - After working all day it’s nice to have people around to have a drink and a chat with but it’s important that the party doesn’t rage on until 3am.
• Other things to do - Working all days is ok, and sometimes I even work at night but when I want to get away from the computer, it’s nice to actually have things to do. This could mean a nearby beach or be as simple as the place having a pool table or bikes for rent.
• Friendly staff members - If my intention is to stay in a place for a while, it’s nice to have people around who don’t move on every couple of days.

When I find a place that has all or more of my important factors for working I usually get a lot of work done at the expense of doing travel stuff and I often stay for much longer than expected. I think, having been doing this for over a year now, I know how rare a great working hostel can be and I try to take advantage of them as much as possible when I stumble across them.

What sorts of things are important for you in your accommodation choices for getting some serious amounts of work done?

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After two weeks in Leon. Nicaragua, I continue to be boring and nerdy, but perhaps not as much as my first week. I’ve sampled the local nightlife a couple times and have even had a few conversations with the transient backpackers so my antisocial mood is lifting a bit. I’m still working hard but working and studying all the time gets to be too much and a night out here and there is probably good for my mental health.

Here are my totals after three weeks:

• UK funds: £2490 (about US$3620)
• US funds: $1212 (bank account and Paypal)
• Cash: US$130

I withdrew about $170 from my UK account, spent the $15 that I had left over from last week and have $130 left which means I spent only $55 this week which is pretty good going! I’m actually pretty impressed with myself. Not having to pay accommodation is a huge help and I have been making big dinners to last for a few meals. I even managed a couple of pretty big nights out so I’m really happy with what I ended up spending.

Most of my cash will be gone tomorrow due to Spanish class for the last week. I was supposed to go to today but I’m sick so have postponed until tomorrow so that money will come from week four’s total.

I had a couple of small payments into Paypal and haven’t bought anything web related this week so my Paypal account is going up while my UK account is going down. I started with US$5085 at the start of the month and I have US$4962 right now with a biggish payment pending. My main goal is to earn more than I spend so if I can do that this month I’ll be happy, especially considering the extra cost of the Spanish course that I can cut out next month.

I’m going to try for another cheapie week this week and see where I end up.

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It’s early days and the traffic I’m seeing on my London 2012 Games site is super small, but yesterday I got my first visitors from Google using my targeted keywords and a few long tail terms to boot.

I’m currently on page two of both Google.com and Google.co.uk for ‘london 2012 games’ and it has come about 3 months sooner than expected which is great. I’m also at number one (ahead of the official site) for a couple of long tail search terms to do with specific sports so that’s pretty great too.

I only launched the site a couple of weeks ago so this might just be one of those flash in the pan promising starts that will fizzle out later on (a la Microsoft’s search engine) but I am definitely encouraged and motivated to get my site to the first page for my main search terms and to continue to add content.

I just wanted to give a quick update. I will be paying close attention to this site’s rankings and SEO stuff, tweaking some things and reporting what I think works and doesn’t work. Having my site indexed and ranking in two weeks is a promising start but there’s a lot more to do if I’m going to turn the site into a moneymaking machine before the 2012 Olympics.

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It’s been a while since I did a post about my workspaces on the road and I’ve certainly worked in enough different places since China to justify another post, so here it is.

Bigfoot Hostel - Leon, Nicaragua

This place is a great example of a hostel that is easy to work in with the one fatal flaw of a crappy internet connection. It’s a lively place, but quiet during the day and after 11pm, the staff are friendly, the tables big and spacious and I am keeping myself occupied with Spanish classes and Leon’s pumping nightlife. The connection though is unreliable and when it does decide to work it cuts me off every 10 minutes.

Managua Backpackers Inn - Managua, Nicaragua

This is another example of an awesome work environment but a crappy connection. This hostel is in two houses located a street apart. The main house has a great wifi connection but not many good work spaces or powerpoints. The other house has loads of space but the internet wasn’t working while I was there and I had to sponge off of an unreliable, unsecured signal. If they can get the connection fixed then this is a great spot for getting stuff done.

St. Joseph’s - Port-au-Prince, Haiti

This photo doesn’t do justice to how beautiful this guesthouse is. It’s four stories tall and has three different levels of balconies, all with beautufl views. It’s a home for orphaned boys as well and the kids are always around which adds an interesting element to the place. The walls are covered in stunning Haitian artwork and musical instruments are everywhere. It’s easy to find a corner to yourself to work but if you want the net connection, you can’t wander too ar from the main floor.

Norm’s Place - Labadie, Haiti

This is another example of me taking a photo that doesn’t give you an idea of how amazing Norm’s Place is. It’s set right on a small beach only steps away from the rooms, there are hammocks in the amazing garden, paintings cover the walls and sculptures can be found all over the place. Norm is 83 and a character and always up for chatting. They have wifi but apparently it doesn’t work when it’s windy or raining and I never got it to work.

HODR Base - Gonavies, Haiti

When I volunteered with Hands On in Bangladesh I was surprised I was able to get online by using a cell phone. In Gonaives, Haiti, I was even more surprised to find a wifi signal had been set up. It wasn’t fast enough to upload videos to You Tube but it was ok for watching videos, uploading photos, downloading music and it was definitely good enough for me to do work. We had a small room where everyone would bust out their computers and it was fun to work and chat at the same time. The problem is that I might have done a bit more chatting than working.

My Friend’s House - Brisbane, Australia

I stayed with a friend in Brisbane who had to work a few days while I was there so I did the same. She had one of those big plastic ball things and I discovered that they’re great for sitting on, especially for a long time. I had to do my work on her computer because I couldn’t get mine online so I wasn’t as productive as I could have been but I still did ok. It’s always fun working with two computers at once.

Seaworld Hotel - Gold Coast, Australia

My Aussie friends had a wedding to go to one day but I joined them at the hotel which happened to be at Sea World. I had a great spot for working and, despite the reception person telling me otherwise, the wifi signal seeped all the way into the room. The only issue was buying wifi time. At first they told me they only sold wifi vouchers for 15 minutes at a time and I would have to reconnect each time and it would have been super expensive. Later on though they figured out that I could buy a 24 hour block for about AUD$25 which, while expensive, was much better than the other option. In one evening I got a crazy amount of work done and then got to go to Seaworld the next day as a bonus.

Pelican Restaurant - South Beach, Miami, USA

I tried Starbucks but they didn’t have wifi so I wandered on down the strip in South Beach in search of another option. I came across this restaurant overlooking the beach and found a table with a power point beside it which is always a good score. I had a yummy Greek salad, a lemonaide and tapped away at my keyboard while taking in the nice view.

My Parent’s House - St. Catharines, Canada

Ah home sweet home. That’s my dad. I spent three weeks in Canada between Asia and Haiti and went home with a huge ‘to do’ list and managed to get a lot of it done. I worked at the kitchen table, had my family around, a good net connection and really got lots done despite having a lot of distractions and things to do and people to see. It’s always really nice working in an environment you’re used to.

Royal Guesthouse - Mandalay, Myanmar

Myanmar isn’t really on the map as far as wifi access goes. You’re lucky if you can find an internet cafe that doesn’t take 45 minutes to open Gmail. I actually left my computer in Mandalay because there’s no point carrying it around to remote areas. I still got some work done here catching up on photos and writing a bit.

Some Guesthouse - Pai, Thailand

Working from the balcony of a beach hut is what a lot of people dream about when they think of working from anywhere. Well this place wasn’t on a beach, but it was still a pretty amazing place to work from. The paid internet connection wasn’t working so they gave me the passcode to their connection for free and I milked that for four days. I was sharing this place with a guy I met on the bus so it was cheap and good to have someone around to go out with at night. This is probably one of the most chilled out places I’ve worked.

Eagle House 2 - Chiang Mai, Thaland

Chang Mai is packed with places with wifi but … is not one of them. It wasn’t that big of a deal though since there are plenty of cafes nearby to upload any work I was able to do offline. For the first few nights I was with friends and didn’t do much work but on the last night I made an attempt at working from my bed.

MD House - Chiang Mai, Thailand

On my second trip to Chang Mai I decided that wifi was the way to go and I lucked out with this place. It was a bit more expensive than other places in the area but the wifi was super fast and I had a table and chairs directly under the air conditioning unit not to mention ensuite and a massive, comfy double bed. All of this added up to a very productive couple of days.

Some Hotel - Bangkok, Thailand

This place is a lot nicer and a bit more expensive than the other dives on Khao San Road but it didn’t have any wifi. It didn’t seem like many places had wifi though which I found pretty surprising given how much the area caters to tourists. But then again, the area is a bit of a super cheap ghetto so maybe extra perks like wifi are considered too posh. I was able to get lots of offlie stuff done in the comfort of my own room with a decent desk and chair and the air conditioning cranking.

I’ve worked in plenty of random places as well like airport waiting areas all over the world, night trains and I even once attempted a bus but that was just ridiculous. I wish I would have gotten a photo though! Hope you’ve enjoyed this post, I will try to do one every time I rack up a bunch of photos.

Where are the best/worst/most bizarre places you’ve ever worked?

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As I finish up a couple of new small sites, I’ve noticed that there are certain things I always make sure I do to give my site the best chance as possible to climb up the SERPs. This time around I have paid a lot of attention to optimizing each page for the search engines and I thought a little checklist might be helpful.

• Minimal code – This is the first time I’ve built a site using only CSS and without any HTML tables to keep everything in place. The sites are ultra simple and very light on code which will hopefully allow Google to concentrate on the content.
• One level deep – The entire site is only one level deep meaning that there are no folders besides the main one. This is just based on a hunch but I think that the closer a page is to the main folder, the better it will rank.
• Linking between the pages on the site – You can access each page of the site from a menu that links to them all plus inside the content wherever applicable.
• Keyword phrases as each page’s title – Each page’s title is made up of the keywords I’m targeting.
• Keyword phrases as my H1 titles – Rather than having the site name as my H1 tag across the entire site, I put each page’s title into the H1 tag so it is targeted for each page.
• Having the URL Match the Page’s Title - The URL for each page is exactly the same as the page’s title (and the phrase I’m targeting) with each word separated b ya hyphen. This makes for a somewhat long page name but I think this is hugely important.
• Using meta tags – Who knows if these things do anything but I find that having a list of my keywords in the meta tags helps remind me what sorts of things I should be writing in the content.
• Content – In the past I’ve never really made a huge effort to pack my content with keywords, it sort of just happens although there’s always room for improvement. I’ve made more of an effort on these new sites to get keywords in there , without being too spammy about it though.
• Strong tags - I’m not sure if I’ll do this or not but adding STRONG tags around key terms is meant to help a bit with SEO.
• ALT tag your images - Using the ALT tag to put a short title onto your images will help a bit with SEO and also allow them to be found by Google images searches which could bring in some visitors.
• Name your image files using keywords - Try to cram just a few more keywords into your page by naming your actual image files using keywords.

There are so many elements to SEO, many out of my control, so it makes sense to me to put as much effort as possible into the parts of it that I have control over. Having your site perfectly optimised for SEO isn’t going to get you to the top of Google by itself, but it’s one important piece to the puzzle and deserves a lot of attention when you’re building a site.

Anyone have any other tips that I’ve missed?

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After two weeks in Leon. Nicaragua, I continue to be boring and nerdy, but perhaps not as much as my first week. I’ve sampled the local nightlife a couple times and have even had a few conversations with the transient backpackers so my antisocial mood is lifting a bit. I’m still working hard but working and studying all the time gets to be too much and a night out here and there is probably good for my mental health.

Here are my totals after two weeks:

• UK funds: £2630 (about US$3790)
• US funds: $1175 (bank account and Paypal)
• Cash: US$15

I bought three new domain names from my Paypal account but overall my US funds went up due to a Linkworth payout and payment for an article I wrote. I actually found $25 in my backpack (which explains last week’s mystery totals) so overall, including forking over $115 for Spanish classes, I spent $180 last week. I did some research work for the hostel I’m staying at which has scored me a free week so I didn’t have to pay $42 towards accommodation which helped. So, not including the course, I’ve spent just under $10 a day so I would say I’m back on track.

It looks like I will be moving across the road to the staff housing tomorrow which, I think, means more free accommodation. I have no idea how I scored that, but I’m just going to go with it. I think that means they’ll have more work for me which will be good since it’s nice to have a lot of different things on the go so I don’t get bored with just website stuff all the time.

On to week three!

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Since I started expanding my website porfolio back in 2005, I have pretty much stuck with the same strategy. My intention has always been to provide websites with good quality content that are actually useful to people. I’ve always taken a lot of time to construct and research them and usually spend quite a lot of time on making them look nice, just for kicks. In short, while making some money is always the ultimate goal, it’s important to me that I also provide useful information in a well prestented way.

But building large, content rich websites isn’t the only way to make a buck online and, up until now, I’ve pretty much ignored all of the other possibilities. After learning how much a fellow web marketer earns with Adsense on one of his simple websites, I decided to see if I could make it work. I’ve done a bit of keyword research in a similar niche but totally different geographical area and came up with a bunch of site ideas and found plenty of available domain names.

I registered one a couple of days ago and after a solid day and a half of work, I’ve got a site that is ready to go live. The site isn’t purely made for Adsense as it actually provides useful information, just not that much of it. The site is small at 20 pages, it’s simple, and the only way I plan to monetise is with Adsense. I will post the URL and give a report on how things are going in six months or so.

My web marketer friend and I both agree that sites can take anywhere from six months to two years to get anywhere and the key is to produce and wait (with a bit of link building thrown in here and there, of course). I’m not expecting much from this site for the next six months to a year or maybe even longer, but when Google starts to warm to it (and they always do) I think it could become a nice little earner with Adsense.

I’m going to create a few more small sites based on keyword research with the same long term goals in mind, get them online and forget about them. I’m in no way going down the ‘100 sites making $1 each a day’ road, but I would eventually like a handful of very small, no maintenance sites to compliment my bigger ones.

My earnings seem to be going down instead of up so it’s time to start exploring some different strategies.

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Here it is, over three and a half years ahead of schedule: my London 2012 Olympics site. It’s far from being done but it’s done enough to get it out into Google’s radar. All of the links should work, most of the pages are up and I mainly have some content writing work to do along with the creation of a few tools to help people plan their Olympics trip.

Timing

I believe that Google gives preference to older sites so getting my Olympics site online over three years early has been done specifically to start the ‘aging’ process for Google. I expect a lot of sites on this subject to be launched and getting in early will, I hope, give me a bit of an advantage down the road.

Search Engine Optimisation

Everything is always an experiement with me. I have hunches about what works and what doesn’t as far as Google goes. As I’ve said before, I think domain name keywords are huge, and think I’ve got a pretty good domain for that purpose. It’s sort of crap for type in or word of mouth traffic because the hyphens and word order can confuse things, but my main goal is to get traffic through Google.

I’ve paid pretty close attention to optimising for my main keywords across the entire site using H1 and H2 title tags, page titles, page descriptions and meta tags but I plan to do more optimising of the in page content. Some of my pages don’t even have content yet so I will attempt to cram keywords in and optimise as much as possible. I don’t want to go crazy with the keyword placement but I will cram a few more in than I normally do and see how it works.

I’ve added a few inbound links, one from a quality living in London type site, and the rest from my own sites, including Travoholic.com which always seems to get my new sites ranked quickly. If I find London or Olympics related sites that appeal, I will propose three way link swaps with any of my other sites. I have a few ideas of my sleeve for resources that will hopefully get me some natural inbound links.

Competition

I can’t compete with the official Olympics sites, nor do I want to. I do want to be the highest ranking unofficial type Olympics site, however. There are a few unofficial sites out there but I think I can out do them and that’s the goal. As I see it, Google’s front page is currently up for grabs for the major keywords and I aim to be somewhere on that page.

Niche

I’m not interested in reporting daily Olympics news or even in posting a medal count once the Olympics are underway. My aim is to educate Olympics visitors about London so that their experience in the city during the Games is as good as it can be. I want to be a resource for practical planning: accommodation, transportation, venue location, dates and timing of the events.

Minimal Work

My goal is to finish building the site within a couple of weeks and then continue to update it from time to time when more information about venues, tickets, event times etc comes available. I expect to have it complete well before the Games start and then I’m going to mostly leave it to fend for itself with minor updates here and there. Like I said, I have no interest in being an up to the minute news source. There are plenty of major players already doing that and I plan to be spending my time enjoying the Games rather than at my computer.

Monetising

It seems like a lot of people are attempting to cash in on accommodation during the Olympics. There are already a bunch of homestay type sites up that will eventually match homeowners with people looking for temporary rentals. I’m not sure how I could make that work for me but even if I can become affiliated with these sites, I could potentially make some money. Adsense is obviously prominent at the moment but I’ll keep my options open. I will also have hostel and hotel affiliates and there are lots of tourism-related affiliate offers out there for London.

I just wanted to give you all a glimpse into what I’ve been working on and the sorts of things I’m thinking about. I think starting a site for a one-time event can be a bit risky because once it’s over, there’s very little interest. But if the event is big enough and I can earn enough leading up and during it, then it will be worthwhile. I’m not sure yet what that amount will be but I am at least hoping to earn enough to cover my own London 2012 Olympics trip including loads of tickets, accommodation and plenty of party money.

Any feedback on the site keeping in mind that I’ve still got a lot of work to do? Would any of you ever consider building a site for a one-time only event?

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