It’s that time again! I’m off for another open-ended travel stint with only two things on the schedule: volunteering in Indonesia straight off the bat and running amok at the World Cup in South Africa in June, 2010. Other than that, plans are very loose. I have no must-sees, no onward plane tickets, no accommodation booked and no plans to make plans.

I’m not sure what the internet situation is in the village I’m heading to in Indonesia but early reports point to bad. That means I could be taking a break from the internet for awhile. In my volunteering experiences i Bangladesh and Haiti I realised that, even though I had decent net connections, being exhausted after each day meant that I didn’t spend much time working. Plus there are always lots of interesting people around and the last thing I will want to do is spend my time staring at my computer.

I’m really happy with the amount of work I’ve put in over the past 10 weeks I’ve been home. I think I’ve done more work in this two and a half months than I have in the past two years! No kidding. I know that things don’t fall apart when I’m away from the internet for a couple of weeks at a time… now it’s time to see what happens when I’m away for a month. I have neglected my sites before without disastrous results so I’m hoping this time around things are no different.

Indonesian visas are good for 30 days and then I need to leave and return to get another one. The idea is to leave the country and spend this time somewhere nice in Malaysia glued to my computer to catch up on things. Sort of a 30 days off, 5 days on kind of arrangement. I really like short, focused work stints and I think this could work well for me. I won’t be spending much money in Indonesia so that takes a bit of the pressure off as well.

I can’t wait to get to Indo. This is the type of travelling that really gets me excited and I’m looking forward to seeing old friends and getting my hands dirty again. I’m not so looking forward to bucket showers, squat toilets, mysterious food and a lack of ice cream but the good by far outweighs the bad. Replies to emails will be a bit slow and posts on this blog might be few and far between because, for the next 30 days, I’m on vacation!

Have any of you ever spent long stints away from the internet? Has it effected your earnings or do things just keep rolling along as normal?

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Young SoCal business dude Jun Loayza wrote a post on his blog a few weeks ago called Why I Can’t Do What I’m Passionate About. He also recently wrote a comment over on Thrilling Heroics (both are excellent blogs you should check out). His original post got me thinking and his recent comment got me thinking some more.

Jun seems to find the whole ‘follow your passion’ type lifestyle appealing, but he worries about the future and wonders how he will be able to afford a house and a wedding, how he will be able to look after his family financially and how he will put his kids through school if he spends his life chasing his passion. He wonders whether quitting a lucrative job to chase a dream is the responsible thing to do or if by doing this he’s turning his back on his responsibilities.

Reading about Jun’s struggles with these issues got me thinking about them myself, probably for the first time. I like to plan and to be prepared but, to be honest, looking forward to anywhere beyond a few years is a stretch for me. Does the fact that I’m not thinking about the future and concentrating on me make me a selfish person? I’m not sure.

I don’t feel like my parents will have a terrible life if they don’t have my financial support when they’re old and grey. If my kids have to pay for their own tuition, it’s not really that bad… so did I and it’s not the end of the world. In fact, I think it builds character not to have your life handed to you by your parents and even if I were loaded I would still make the kiddies slog it out for a few years at McDonald’s. Wedding? I’m not too concerned about impressing people with a lavish wedding and would much prefer something small, simple, and non-traditional surrounded by people who don’t care about the type of flowers I put on the dinner tables. House? I’m not sure I want a house in one place just yet but, even if I did, there’s no reason to assume that I would be able to save more money working a ’steady’ job that I would working on my own business, especially if I’m able to keep my living costs down by living in cheap countries.

Having thought about these potential problems that will arise 10, 20 or 30 years from now for the first time, none of them really seem that bad to me. Making it through any of the above mentioned scenarios on a modest or even a low income is certainly possible, especially if I don’t have any debt and live my life simply as I expect to.

Having worked 20 years in a great job and having $200,000 in the bank by the time the kid is ready for college might work for some people but for me, I would much rather see where my life takes me and cross those bridges when I come to them. Saving money for a child I don’t have seems crazy to me. If and when I ever have one, my tune might change but I will worry about it then, not now.

I think it’s wonderful to think about the future of your family and I admire people who are able to give so much of themselves. For me though, I prefer to live in the moment and get through life’s big hurdles as they present themselves. Besides, right now is the best time to be selfish and irresponsible: healthy parents, no kids, no wedding plans, no mortgage. From here on in things will just get more complicated. If I can’t enjoy myself now, I guess I’ll need to wait until my parents are dead and gone, the kids have moved out and the house is paid off and suddenly I’m 55. No thanks.

What about you guys? Whether you’re just taking a year or two off to travel or if you’re trying to start a business and follow your dreams, do you feel you’re being selfish? Do any of you stress about the future and try to do everything in your power now to make life easier later or do you just take things as they come? Let me know what you think.

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I’ve been hard at work pretty much since i got home in mid-August. I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot but, as always, there seems to be an infinate amount of work I still need to do. Recently I’m starting to feel like I need a bit of a break from the work at hand. It might be because most of the stuff I’m working on now is pretty dull, but I also think it’s due to just spending too much time working. I have been cooped up in my parent’s basement for over a month now (don’t worry, it’s not as depressing as it sounds) working morning, noon and night some days and I think I need to take a bit of a break.

I find that whenever I’m at home, I will be doing work. I don’t really switch off. I feel like if I’m watching TV I’m wasting my time and if my computer is around, I should be sitting behind it. I spend a couple of hours a day at the gym but when I’m there the only thing I can think about is not falling off the treadmill. I have been escaping out for coffee or on nights out with friends from time to time but, for the most part, my days and nights have been spent working.

For me to be creative and get come up with ideas, I find that I need to be away from the internet. It’s when I’m away from my computer that I start to think of new ideas and become excited to get back online to try them out. When I’m always online, I focus on the task at hand and the daydreaming, creative, new idea side of me is nowhere to be seen.

This is the first time I have worked this hard for a long time and I love being able to get loads of things done but I think I need a bit of a break to look back on what I have accomplished so far, set some new goals, think of new ideas and come back to the computer excited, rather than feeling like I’m clocking in for a 9am to 10pm job.

I will be heading up north to visit some family this weekend and the computer will be staying at home. I’m hoping that a bit of time away, even if just a few days, will mean that I come back ready to tackle some of the not-so-exciting jobs I have to do and also have a few new ideas up my sleeve that I can get excited about.

I’m curious about other people’s working patterns. Do any of you have a hard time ’switching off’ when you’re at home? Where do you get your best ideas  - in front or away from the computer? How much work can you do before starting to feel burnt out?

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I was feeding my relatively new addiction to Twitter a few weeks ago, browsing through the Tweets (is that what they’re called?) and came across one with a link to what they described as a course for travellers. A course for travellers, you ask? I was asking myself the same thing and went to check it out.

In their ‘about’ section, Travel Trainers say “Travel Trainers focuses on running seminars and courses for those wanting to travel” and that the company’s vision is “to use the company’s in-depth travel experience from both sides of the fence to help people to travel.” What is on offer are a variety of seminars for travellers. Everything from ‘First Time Travellers - What the Guide Book Doesn’t Tell You’ to ‘Travel Safely - Tips and Ideas to Keep You Safe’.

There are countless travel guide websites, blogs from people who are there now, guidebooks approaching travel from every possible angle and budget, word of mouth via Twitter, online reviews on everything from backpacks to hostels to tours, video blogs, Google Earth for a bird’s eye view in advance, and now you can even take your planning into the classroom. Just when I thought it was impossible to plan more for a trip, now there’s this.

I guess my question is whether or not you think this is over the top? Are ‘how to travel’ courses something that you think will catch on? Will young first-time travellers start to feel like they won’t be able to go abroad without paying $150 for a course that will tell them how to travel safely or what they should see? Will nervous parents start making their kids go on these courses before they let them go overseas? How much planning is too much planning?

I am trying to think back to my very first solo backpacking trip and I think I remember being so excited about it that I was eating up every possible bit of information I could possibly get in order to prepare myself. Would I have paid for a seminar? Probably not but I definitely would have wondered what I was missing.

I really hate seeing people spend money out of fear of the unknown. I know it’s easy to get carried away with the excitement of your trip but I believe it’s possible to prepare too much and I think these seminars are taking things a bit too far. Good on the guy if he can make a business out of it, but my advice would be to save the money because Europe is seriously expensive.

I would love to hear comments about this. What do you guys think?

Ps: To anyone who wants to drop NZ$149 on this course please read my living in London site first to answer many of the questions the seminar addresses and then shoot me an email with any other questions you might have. Cost: free.

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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 spent a few hours on Sunday with Neale, a guy I have known online for a few years now. I met him virtually over on the Working Nomad forum and have seen him go from no websites and a little bit of knowledge about web marketing to being on the verge of being able to do this work full time.

It was really inspiring talking to him because he has stuck with this for several years now and is finally seeing the payoff. We agreed that this is no get rich quick scheme but, with some hard work and dedication, there is no reason anyone can’t do this as long as they stick with it and don’t get discouraged. Another reason this meet up was inspiring is that Neale started with only a bit of knowledge in this area and he also hates to write. It’s a great example of perseverance and something I will take on board myself when I’m feeling discouraged.

It was also an eye opener to hear how much some of his sites were earning with Adsense and how many visitors some of his other sites were getting. These are all pretty simple sites with only a handful of pages each but they address some very specific niches that people need information on. It hit home with me because I have always gone for the approach of building huge, content rich sites and steered clear of the small, made-for-Adsense looking sites that I see as clogging up the internet. Neale has managed to create sites that go beyond just being made for Adsense but still remain small and to the point. I had a few brainwaves while talking to him so I might try to pull together a few small sites and see where this takes me.

So keep at it, don’t be discouraged if you don’t see results straight away (Neale and I agreed that 2 years is a good amount of time to give each site before it produces), and most importantly, if I’m heading to your area, get in touch because I love meeting with people who are giving this internet marketing a go. It’s great to like-minded people, share experiences and trading ideas with others always inspires me to start doing some work!

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So far, February has been crap for earnings. My main affiliate is way down, other affiliates sales are non-existant and private links sales are the same. It’s a bit scary to see earnings drop drastically but I have to remember to keep it in mind that I have been doing some extreme slacking… and then there’s that whole economic downturn thing.

Despite February’s apparent crappiness, I’m not really that worried. I have been (slowly) building new sites here and there and I have some good ideas up my sleeve. The never ending problem for me seems to be taking time out to dedicate to putting my head down and doing some serious work.

I am due to leave Haiti in two days and will be in Miami until February 23rd. I am hoping to do a bit of work then but the reality is that I will have to shop for a lot of annoying things (wedding dress, clothes to replace everything I destroyed here, camera repairs) and when I’m not doing that, I will probably want to just veg out on the beach, take hot showers and eat bad food after three and a half months in the mud of Gonaives. Then I’ll be in Australia for what will be 12 days of complete debauchery as I catch up with loads of friends I made a few years ago in London.

I didn’t have any plans for after Australia. I was trying to get on a yacht, considering taking a Spanish course somewhere, and contemplating travelling around Central America with a friend on the most ridiculous form of transport we could find (donkeys and chariots were both considered). I should have known that Hands On would, once again, make things interesting and they have by extending the project here until March 28th. So now I have a one-way flight back to Haiti on March 10th and it doesn’t look like I will be dedicating any time to my websites anytime soon. Not the sort of attention they need, anyways.

So even if February stinks, I won’t really have the time to do anything about it until the end of March. Like I said, I’m not worried. Yet. If March proves to be another poor earning month then I will have to consider locking myself away somewhere in an attempt to catch up on everything, build some new sites and get things moving in the right direction again.

I wonder how bad things have to get before I get scared into action?

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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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I’ve noticed that posts made on weekends tend to get fewer comments. Maybe my weekend posts are super crappy? I don’t know. I think it has more to do with people reading blogs from work where they’re chained to a desk. On the weekends people tend to flee their computers which means less blog reading.

Not having a nine to five type job, I completely lose track of what day of the week it is and have never thought about saving my posts for mid week. But maybe I should fall in line with the rest of the world? It’s always nice to get comments and whacking up a post on a Saturday followed by another one before Monday rolls around means that it gets sort of hidden away. Switching to a Monday to Firday type blogging schedule it might also be a good way for me to keep track of the days of the week. Although I have to admit, it’s kind of nice not knowing.

On a completely unrealted note… I got a message from my Couchsurfing buddy John who has some free Olympics tickets to give away. He doesnt want anything in return, but he’d like you do a good thing for someone else in return.

I really like this idea. Some of these Olympics tickets are going for crazy amounts. I played poker last night with Finnish guy who paid 1700 euros (EUROS!) for an athletics ticket where his countryman is favoured to win at the javellin throw. That’s a lot of money to watch a guy throw a pointy stick! I love seeing people who aren’t tempted by the almighty buck and would rather have that warm and fuzzy feeling by doing something nice.

Kudos John, let us know who you decide to give your tickets to and what sort of good deed they have up their sleeve.

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I wasn’t feeling well today so pulled a sickie and spent most of the day wandering between my bed and my desk. When I was online I spent most of my time reading blogs instead of doing work and I came across a couple of interesting videos that got me thinking.

The problem is that I don’t think they got me thinking about what it should have got me thinking about - how to take the world by storm! Instead I started to wonder if I could really be bothered with all that success and the riches, employees, responsibilities and headaches that go with it or if I’m happy sitting behind my computer screen as an unknown, plugging away and making a modest salary while living what I consider to be a pretty sweet lifestyle.

Watching this has made me wonder if most people out there in internetland are after as much as they can get - dreaming big, wanting to be the best, hoping to make a name for themselves and get all the accolades that go with it. Or are most people just happy to have enough money to live their life comfortably in anonymity? To me the celebrity aspect sounds like hell and I think I would explode if I even attempted to have half as much energy as that guy has.

How about you guys? Are you dreaming of big things, bright lights and big egos or are you happy to dream big in a quietly confident sort of way, slowly building your web empire behind the scenes? I’m not sure the self promotion game is one I’m really keen on playing although I love following the people who do it well. Is this loser speak I’m spewing forth?

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