Nomadic Matt is a great example of this whole earning online game. He started a bit over a year ago and is currently kicking my ass and bringing in $3000 a month as of May 2009. I met up with him in Thailand in September last year and, at that point, he didn’t seem to have much working for him except a very popular travel blog that wasn’t bringing in any money. It’s great to see him kick up his game and where I was the one giving advice in September, I am the one who could use some advice these days as I struggle to earn $1500 per month lately.

I noticed that he had written an ebook and I was curious about it but not willing to shell out $27 to satisfy my curiosity. So when he offered the book to me for free in exchange for a review I was happy to oblige.

I’ll start off by saying that I was skeptical when I heard about Matt’s ebook. Having read his other blog, I knew he pulled it together in a pretty short period of time and I was also not sure how much he was actually making since, last I read in January, he didn’t seem to be earning much. But it is realisitic to jump up to $3000 in a matter of months if you know what you’re doing and if there’s anyone who knows what he is doing and is a student of this stuff, it is Matt. I would be curious to see if he can pull in $3000 in June and beyond or if May was a blip.

The Good Stuff

Matt is good at writing without fluff. He lays the book out well, tells you the sections and what you will learn in each, and delivers straight to the point information. He covers all the bases with information on deciding on the type of blog you want to start, carving out your niche, getting traffic, monotizing your blog and, most importantly and where I think his book excels, SEO. Matt is also very good at using social marketing tools like Twitter and StumbleUpon and writes about it in the ebook.

One of the things that could set his ebook aside is that Matt has promised to give contact details for some of his advertisers. As I didn’t see this extra bit, I can’t really say whether or not it’s worth the price. This would be great for people with already established websites and a link sale could potentially pay for the ebook and more in one hit. However this would probably only work for reasonably established sites.

I really think that Matt knows his stuff. He has come a long way since I met him in September and I think that’s because of a lot of reading, trial and error and just a passion for what he is working on. The advantage is that he has done all of this stuff fairly recently his success is proof that his advice works.

The Not So Good Stuff

Not much, really. There’s nothing in the ebook I don’t agree with. The only problem with the ebook, in my eyes, is that there’s nothing in here that you won’t be able to find for free elsewhere. Because of that, even if he is a web buddy of mine and even if I will get 50% of the sale price, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it.

I also didn’t feel like there was much in the book that was targeted specifically towards travel bloggers. The advice is more general and can be applied to any type of website which is good but as the ebook is being marketed towards travel bloggers I would have expected the advice to be a bit more geared to them, although in what way I have no idea.

If you’ve got $27 to spare and want a concise introduction to this industry and a good guide on getting up and running then grab it and I am sure you will be happy with the purchase. But if you have the time to spare then you can find ebooks written by some of the biggest players in the game that go into far greater detail for free. John Chow is one good example. Or for less than $16 you can get a 220 page paperback book on the subject from Darren Rouse, one of the most successful guys in the business. Or check out the series I wrote over Location Independent for a guide for total beginners.

If you decide you want to buy the ebook and want to give me 50% cut then use this link to buy it. Otherwise click here to get it from Matt’s site.

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I was friended today by an internet pal I’ve known since the dawn of my first website back in 2001. He sent the friend request and in it was a little message saying he just joined Facebook and that I popped up in his sidebar and he didn’t know why.

Having been a member of Facebook for longer than five minutes, one thing I could explain was that the ‘People You Might Know’ thing displays people based on who you have as mutual friends. Right?

Well I checked my friend’s seven-person (and growing) friends list to find that there was nobody on there that I had ever been Facebook friends with. Odd, but no biggie and off I surfed.

Well just now I was in Facebook and a familiar face appeared in my sidebar. I was positive I had seen the face before but wasn’t sure where and opened up her friends list to see who we both know. The answer? Nobody! Then I remembered where I’d seen her face it was in a funny video about eating some crazy ice cream desert with corn in it in Asia, I think. Her face must have stuck in my mind because of her reaction to the bite she took… it was pretty funny. She was not impressed.

But this raises some questions… why did this person appear in the ‘People You Might Know’ sidebar? Why did I appear in my old friend’s friend suggester thing? I don’t have any mutual friends with either of these people. What does Facebook know and how the hell do they know it??

There’s just something creepy about this whole thing. Anyone know how ‘The FB Machine’ works on this matter?

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When I started my London 2012 Olympics site a few months ago the idea was to keep people informed about how it was doing, new developments, ideas and stuff in order to give people an idea of the things I think about and try to do when I develop a new site. Well it’s time for a little update on what’s been happening with the site.

Content

For the most part the site’s pages have been created and it’s just a matter of filling in the content either as I find time or as more information becomes available to me about things like venues and medal favourites. Adding this content isn’t a huge priority right now but I will be chipping away at it over the next couple of months and hope to be pretty much done by the fall.

Google SERP Rankings

I posted awhile ago that the site was ranking on page two of Google after only a week or two of existing and I was pretty pumped with the results. Unfortunately, it dropped off of the face of the earth shortly after that post. But it made a comeback and is currently getting traffic from Google for such popular search terms as ‘olympic trampoline’ and ‘great britain mens quadruple skulls’. It appeared once again on page two for my targeted keywords and stayed there for a wee while but has vanished again for the moment. I’m working on building one-way inbound links from sites about London, the Olympics or other sporting websites so I’m curious to see what effect this will have and how long it will take. Not that I pay much attention these days to PR, but the site was awarded a PR2 in the recent Google update.

Monetisation

When I started the site my only definite idea for monetisation was Adsense. Pretty lame. During my internet-free days in El Lagartillio I had a few brainwaves on how I could monetise the site more effectively. At both the Athens and Beijing Olympics the food was terrible. Absolute crap. Beyond crappy, actually. It was all chocolate bars, cookies or processed food with loads of packaging and it made me dread the thought of eating inside the venue. Unfortunately, I could never seem to find alternatives outside of the venues. So I’m thinking of offering cheap listings to restaurants along with an info bubble on my Google map to show where it is. Same goes for clubs and pubs… I will develop a page about partying at the Olympics and offer up spots for sale including a section for opening and closing ceremony parties. Will it work? No idea but it’s worth a shot. There are lots of London affiliates that I think could work with the site too and I will start to look into them more once I get home in August.

So that’s where I am so far with the site. I will continue to update on how things progress (or don’t progress) and any new ideas I come up with. As always my ears are open to suggestions so feel free to get in touch with any brainwaves!

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Over the years there have been a few travellers that have captured my imagination. People who go beyond the typical backpacking trip in favour of doing something truly unique or interesting. Some make me laugh, some make my jaw drop, and they all inspire me in some way. Here they are, in no particular order:

Andrew Morgan, Teacher on Two Wheels
Not only is this guy doing the biking thing which always impresses me, he is combining it with the educating children thing which is also very cool. He’s got a great attitude and outlook on life and is just a generally inspiring guy.

Conor Grennan, Conor’s Mildly Thrilling Tales
Conor and wife have had their first baby and he’s gone a bit goo gah over the kid, as is to be expected. So not a lot of new posts but have a troll through his old stuff for some very funny writing and inspiring tales involving not-so-typical backpacker fare such as starting orphanages.

The Vogels, Family on Bikes
I admire anyone on along distance bike trip so adding a couple of 10 year olds into the mix and choosing a route from Alaska to Argentina definitly got my attention. When it’s all said and done, twins Davy and Daryl will become the youngest people ever to cycle the Pan-America highway.

Brett, Amtrekker
One big ‘to do’ list and two rules: No going home until everything is crossed off the list and no spending any money on lodging allowed. This guy has recently finished his mission with lots of crazy adventures in between. His trip is proof that the kindness of strangers can still be counted on and it’s a great story.

Brook Silva-Braga, A Map for Saturday
His trip by itself isn’t really that exciting. Just your typical backpacker fare of travelling from place to place, hanging out in hostels, seeing some stuff, making some friends etc. What I love about this guy is that he carted a video camera around the world with him, filmed his adventure and made a career out of it.

Sonia and Alexandre Poussin, Africa Trek
This French couple spent three years walking from South Africa to Isreal dodging lions and malaria in the process. If that’s not impressive enough for you, they also managed to film the whole thing and have turned it into a TV series that looks very cool.

Phil, Unicycle Across Canada
What’s better than biking across a country? Doing it on one wheel, doing it across somewhere HUGE like Canada and doing it for a great cause. Phil is about to finish his epic journey and he’s inspired me to add ‘learn how to ride a unicycle’ to my life list.

Sean Aiken, One Week Job
Sean had one of those ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ type ideas. I’m not sure about all of the ‘my generation’ stuff but the concept of a new job per week for a year was unique and fun and I enjoyed following his adventure almost from the start and am looking forward to the book and documentary.

Tom Blancart, Karaka
I love this story. French guy rescues decrepid ship from Hong Kong harbour, does it up, finds crew as he goes and generally has an awesome time sailing around the world. Except for when he was recently attacked by a baraccuda. Serious adventure on his own terms and I love it.

Kinga Freespirit
Kinga and her boyfriend left Poland with only a few hundred bucks and no plans back in 1998 and proceeded to hitchhike around the world for five years, heading wherever the wind took them. Sadly, she died in 2006 in Africa of malaria but her story continues to inspire me and I re-read posts on her blog from time to time.

Christine Gilbert, Almost Fearless
Christine’s travels aren’t what inspires me about her. It’s her attitude of ‘I want to be a travel writer’ and her actually going out and doing it that really got my attention. Not a lot of people these days seem to follow their dreams and it’s been refreshing to see her go after what she wants and do it successfully.

Dan and Audrey, Uncornered Market
This couple seem to keep going and going and going. Each time I visit their site I always expect their trip to be over but for them, there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. They’re covering a lot of ground, doing some interesting things and producing some great blog posts and photography in the process.

Karl Bushby, Goliath Expedition
Walking around the world… I love this crazy stuff. Karl Bushby has been walking for 10 years (!), one footstep at a time, from the southern tip of Argentina to, well I’m not sure where he is now but wherever he is, it’s infinitely impressive.

Chris Guillebeau, Art of Nonconformity
Part writer, part motivational guy, part traveller. I’m not that into his county counting mission but his actual adventures themselves are pretty cool. The stuff he’s done in Africa is pretty interesting and he generally just inspires me with his writing, even on topics beyond travel.

Nathan Shipley
Nathan is just a funny guy. I can’t help but smile after reading some of this blog posts. He’s got a knack for getting into odd situations and an even better knack for writing about them in a really entertaining way.

Gary Arndt, Everything Everwhere
This guy really does seem to be striving to go everywhere and his blog is living proof of it. He just keeps going and going and he’s amassed quite a following with over 6,000 RSS subscribers and 72,000 Twitter stalkers. That’s a lot, and for good reason.

Erden Eruc, Around and Over
Erden is a self-powered traveller and as if cycling and rowing his way around the world isn’t enough, he is also planning on reaching the summit of the highest mountains on six continents. Holy crap.

Jo and Antonia, Tuk to the Road
Two British chicks, a tuk tuk, a crazy dream and a good cause add up to a great story. Driving a tuk tuk anywhere would be an adventure but these two go the whole hog and drive one home to the UK from Thailand, raising funds for a great charity along the way.

Stephen Gaugh, The Naked Rambler
I love eccentric people and this guy has to be one of the most quirky. Dude just doesn’t like wearing clothes but loves walking over really long distances. I’m a pretty ‘by the rules’ type but I love seeing people buck the trend and face off with authority about something they believe in.

The World By Road
Driving your own car around a country is a great way to get off the beaten path and to explore things at your own pace so how awesome would it be to do that the whole way around the world? Well these guys are doing it, picking up passengers along the way and documenting the whole journey on their website.

Dave Cornthwaite
Dave first grabbed my attention awhile ago when I read about his trip across Australia on a skateboard. Yep, a skateboard. Yep, Australia. Pretty impressive. He has since taken on long distance adventures on the water.

Benny Lewis, Irish Polyglot
After five weeks of attempting to learn Spanish I am now officially in awe of anyone who has learned another language. Well Benny boy speaks seven and is currently working on his eighth and reading about his language adventure has inspired me to attempt to say goodbye to my monolingual ways.

Steven Savage, The Savage Files
This is an old school site (complete with terrible fonts and offensive colours) from and old school kind of guy. It’s one of the first bloggy type websites I ever came across with someone posting updates and photos and reading it got my feet itchy.

Jim Stone, Fliptophead
Jim seems to be the ultimate Couchsurfer and has been crusing around the US on his motorbike with his inflatable red couch staying with strangers the whole way. He’s a real ambassador for the Couchsurfing movement and his blog is a great read.

I’m sure I’ve missed some pretty amazing people and would love to hear about them so if you’ve got an inspiring person to add to the list, feel free to leave a comment!

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I got back this afternoon from 12 days of no internet and it’s great to be back and connected once again! Ah I love the internet. The strange thing though is that I didn’t really miss it much when I was away from it. Except for night 10 when I dreamt I checked my email and had no messages, there was no obvious sign of internet withdrawal.

The reason for my absence was another feeble attempt at studying Spanish. This time I jumped right in and landed in a tiny rural community called El Lagartillo about four hours north of Managua at a language school called Hijos Del Maiz. The whole community seems to be in on the Spanish teaching thing and it acts as a full immersion into both the language and life in rural Nicaragua. This meant homemade tortillas, rice and beans for every meal and it also meant composting toilets, getting up with the roosters, and no electricity. It was very cool.

The problem for me was that my Spanish is so crap that communicating was really difficult for me and I didn’t really feel like I connected with the people there. That sucks because they are all very interesting. There are no TVs which means the kids all seem to play instruments, draw and find other creative ways to entertain themselves which seems very foreign in itself these days. The adults are very focused on education and the arts as well which my teacher says is unusual for rural Nicaragua.

The community is hugely pro Sandinista and it was targeted during the Contra War. In 1984 the Contras came into the village and murdered 6 people, women and children among them. 1984! That’s so recent and so mind-boggling to me. I’ve spent a lot of time in communities ripped apart by natural disaster but never in one affected by war and it was eye opening. As a result, the community in El Lagartillio is really tight, very political and just a very interesting place to be. I want to go back when my Spanish is better so I can have conversations that go beyond ‘I like cats, do you like cats?’

Spending nearly a couple of weeks without internet left me with a lot of time to think and I’ve got a lot of new ideas in the pipeline that I will post about soon. I seem to get a lot of ideas when I’m away from the net and alone with my notebook which is a good thing to know.

So hello again, thanks for commenting and I am back!

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I’ve met a lot of people virtually through this web development gig and I try to keep up with how people are doing with new sites and their travels. One older friend is Steve who I first met via the Working Nomad forums ages ago… I can’t even remember when. Like me, he was inspired by the site and put his software development skills to work in an attempt to create an online income income and leave the rat race behind. He was successful and has been on the road since 2007 working as he goes.

Free Wifi Guru is his latest website offering and I like it. We thought it might be interesting to post a little interview to see what steps a successful web developer goes through when coming up with a new site. So here it is…

How did you come up with the idea?
Through personal experience. I was travelling round India and realised that despite it being such a powerhouse of IT, the places where you could get connected to the net for free were suprisingly few and far between. Even though there were a host of other wifi hotspot sites on the net, I’d found them to be variable in quality of information, not as informative as I’d have liked them to be, and lacking a global perspective. So on a bus journey to Bangalore I sketched out in my notebook the idea for a useful free wifi site initially pitched at budget travellers and fellow working nomads.

What design considerations did you have?
In terms of physical appearance, I wanted a clean “Web 2.0″ look; bright, colourful and modern. I also wanted to establish a ‘brand’ to make the site more memorable than the other wifi hotspot sites, and being influenced by my travels in India, the brand became a friendly, helpful ‘guru’. The site also needed to be quick and easy to use, especially the “add hotspot” page, because I eventually want users to drive the content by adding the majority of free wifi spots themselves.

What web technology did you use?
The site is written in PHP with a MySQL database to store the information, and it also uses some AJAX to update certain pages on the fly. PHP/MySQL is a simple yet powerful combination for a website and provides a wealth of opportunities over static HTML pages. For instance, I’ve coded the site so that if someone adds a hotspot for a country and/or city that’s not currently listed, when I moderate the submission, the web pages for that country and city are created automatically on the fly by PHP. This saves creating the new pages myself manually on my laptop each time and FTPing them up to the server.

What SEO considerations did you make?
This site is all about targeting the longtail - that is, targeting many non-specific, infrequently-searched phrases - and I was guided by the kind of search queries I was making myself in India, for instance, “free wifi in Bangalore”. For SEO purposes I ensured my title and headings were along those lines. I also had to consider how Google would spider my site effectively, so I added hyperlinks on the index page to each of my country pages, then city pages on each country page to ensure Google would be able to traverse all of my site. Apart from that, I haven’t made any special considerations. I will try to softly get the word out about the site via various channels, but I plan to rely on the quality and usefulness of the site to attract natural links to it to boost its search engine rankings.

How do you plan to monetise the site?
Curently I have Google Adsense blocks on the site which should eventually bring in some income, but I’m in no hurry to add any other income streams as yet. I want to build the reputation of the site with it looking clean and uncluttered; once it has taken off to some extent (and I fully expect this may not be until two to three years from now) I could try gadget/gizmo affiliate ads, or booking links for hotspots which are guesthouses/hotels. I realise that this affiliate lark is a slow game and you have to be in it for the long haul if you are going to get anywhere!

Any future plans?
The site isn’t as automated as I’d like; currently I have to look up the Google Map co-ordinates for each new country, city and hotspot and add them manually to the database. So somewhere down the line I plan to use the Google Maps API to automate the lookup of the City/Country co-ordinates, and perhaps provide a way for the user to pinpoint the wifi location on the map themselves. I also plan to add a means by which visitors can add comments on the hotspots currently listed. I can envisage the situation whereby someone has a different opinion of the hotspot, or they find the connection is no longer free and they want to tell the world about it!

Interview over, it’s me again. I love hearing how people come up with ideas and time and time again it is about feeling frustrated by what is currently available. This is a good example and I think Steve has done a great job creating a Web 2.0 feel along with a useful service. If you’ve got a free hotspot in mind, I’m sure he’d love to hear it so head to the submission page.

What do you guys think of the site? Any suggestions? Do you think it’s realistic to take on so many established sites in the free wifi game?

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When I get asked whether I like cities or the countryside I am often unable to answer the question. When I’m in a remote place I love the simplicity of life, closeness to nature and peacefulness and I don’t really long for city life at all. But when I’m in a city that I like, I love the hustle bustle, the myriad of things to do and access to whatever I might want at that moment and I don’t usually crave the countryside.

One of those cities that I love is New York. Spending some time living there is on my to do list and on July 22nd I will be making the move from rural Nicaragua into the chaos and wonderfulness (is that a word?) of the Big Apple.

I was sort of sitting on the fence about the move but then my friend has offered me her apartment in Manhattan for free while she heads home to Ireland for a couple of weeks. Score! This will give me time to look for an apartment, sort myself out and soak up city life while being able to escape to my own space.

The plan is to spend July 22nd until the first or second week in August in NYC before heading home to Southern Ontario for two or three weeks. My aunt and parent’s friends are visiting from Scotland so it’s perfect timing and I’ll be heading out with them on a houseboat for a week while I’m there. Spendig time with my family seems to be something that is gaining in importance for me so it will be great to have a week with them away from the usual daily grind of my hometown.

Then I’m hoping to head to Boston for the weekend at the end of August and back to NYC to (hopefully) move into a sublet for a month or two and really blow my budget to smithereens. I’m hoping to get a lot of website work done, host a few people with Couchsurfing, have a few friends and family members visit, maybe take some art or music lessons.
So! If any New Yorkers want to meet up and show me what their city has to offer I would love it so get in touch. Or if anyone is, like me, passing through and wants to head out for a drink , drop me a line. Same goes for Niagara/Toronto in August or Boston at the end of August.

Might see you then!

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I don’t think I’m that easily impressed and I’m not one to spend my time looking at the ‘must sees’ everywhere I go. I’m actually sort of notorious amongst friends for not seeing the things I’m supposed to, for example skipping seeing the Statue of Liberty in favour of sledding down a hill on a baking tray somewhere in Westchester. I guess I always assume I’ll go back to places and the ‘must sees’ will always be there whereas the random moments will not.

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t seen some beautiful places in my travels. The places that really strike a chord with me most are the ones where I feel totally at ease, completely chilled and make me say ‘wow… this is what it’s all about’.

Here are my top five most peaceful places so far:

The Nile, Egypt

Lying on a felucca as it drifts down the Nile is one of the most relaxing things I’ve ever done. The sunsets and stars are stunning and the whole experience is capped off with the calls to prayer coming from the darkness of the banks as you chill out on what is essentially a floating bed. Beer and sheisha were both plentiful and I was surrounded by good friends which made the experience even better.

Noosa River, Australia

Noosa River snakes up to the Cooloolah National Park where tea trees line a narrow, still river. The tea trees put oil into the water that makes it black and, combined with the stillness, it makes a perfect reflection. It’s amazing to float down the river in a canoe with all of the trees and even the clouds being reflected on the water. The best part is taking the canoe out on a clear night. The reflection of the starry sky makes it feels like you’re floating in space and it is one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced.

Ometepe, Nicaragua

I am currently living on a farm on the side of Madera volcano and it’s one of the most stunning places I’ve been. There are plenty of opportunities to kick back and enjoy the views but my favourite spot is the hammock in a treehouse watching the sun set behind Conception Volcano. Once the sun goes down things are still amazing with fireflies lighting up the ground, frogs making crazy noises and the stars filling the sky on a clear night. Last night was spent in the treehouse watching an electrical storm which wasn’t quite as relaxing but pretty amazing in a semi-scary kind of way.

Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces, China

Rice terraces have been built into the hills in this area and rise up from the small town of Dazhai. I was staying an hour’s hike up into the hills and the view looking back down on them was surreal, especially on a misty day.

Middle of Nowhere, Bangladesh

Bangladesh is super flat and you can see a long way across the countryside which makes for some huge starry skies and fantastic sunsets. I spent some time there living in a cyclone shelter in an extremely rural community spending each night on the roof staring at the stars, attempting to listen to music over the call to prayer and laughing with friends. By day we were building a playground too so overall it was a pretty amazing week.

So those are five of my most peaceful places. Spots where I remember being totally in awe of everything around me, loving life and enjoying the moment. I would love to hear about other people’s experiences… what places have had this sort of effect on you?

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May came in at $1427 which was a relief after a couple of sub $1000 months in a row. My plans to spend some time living in New York in the autumn are shaping up so I will need to get my earnings up a lot so it’s good to finally see a step in the right direction!

Earnings Breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $284 - Adsense is creeping up slowly from some pitiful months I’ve had recently and, as usual, I have no idea why. I’m hoping to keep earning at least $300 or around there for the next wee while until my newer sites start to show up in Google and hopefully add to the total.
• Affiliate Sales - $673 - Same ol’, same ol’.
• Linkworth - $10 - Not much to say… one advertiser cancelled. I might just  nix these guys altogether.
• Private Link Sales - $370 - Links sales totaled $370 with most of the money coming from people who contacted me early in the month. A few people cancelled their links
• Writing - $90 - I wrote up four articles for another blog and raked in a bit of extra cash which was pretty helpful.

On Friday I’m leaving the sweet-ass farm that I’ve been on for a month and heading off into the middle of nowhere in the north of Nicaragua to study Spanish for a few more weeks. No electricity at all there… should be very interesting. At $130 a week for food, accommodation and four hours of one-on-one Spanish lessons, it will be another pretty cheap stint. I think it will be tough for me to be away from the net for a couple of weeks and I’m curious to see how I cope.

Sorry this post is a bit short and crap but I’m having some electricity problems at the moment and have a lot of work to do with very little battery charge and no way to recharge it today. Ah the challenges of working on the road!

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