Working Nomad

Well it has been a mixed month for my web sites. I should be happy because I have had a record month making a profit of around GBP460 or USD820 which is slightly more than I made in June. July and August were fairly quiet months although I was still making nearly £100 a week.

I guess I have mixed feelings because for most of September I have been working harder on the sites and my traffic is way down on the previous months! Now I know the sites exist purely to make money and to enable me to work from anywhere but it is disappointing when your sites lose popularity. I think Google are updating there search engine results and I have taken a bit of a hit. Thats the way things go. You have to roll with the punches.

I guess I am feeling a bit down because of what has happened in Bali last night. I will be in Bali on the 18th of October and still have every intention to go. In fact I am more determind to go than ever. Although the terrorists have clearly set out their agenda we cannot let them win and drive tourists away from Bali.

I am sure there are lots of peeps out there dreaming of being a travel writer. There must be. I see them all the time hanging out in travel forums on the web.

My advice is to do what I have done and start your own web site rather than sending them to magazines or other web sites in the hope you’ll get paid. Usually you won’t unless you very good or experienced!

As travel writers you have the main ingredient to be a web site publisher. You can write good quality content. Not waffle like I write but really informative and encapsulating stuff.

So what’s stopping you? Stop sending your work off and create your own web portfolio of your written work. You can earn money from your travel articles through Google Adsense and once you have a big online portfolio then you can just email the magazines a link to your new web site!

Go for it. I am happy to help as best I can so don’t be afraid to contact me!

Monday 17th October and I will be off! Got a bargain one way ticket from London to Bali with a brief stop in KL. Can’t wait to go now.

I had originally planned to book a flight to KL and pick up an Air Asia onward flight to Bali but I have discovered that many airlines in South East Asia will chuck in a free onward flight!

In terms of web work I had my first outing today working with my laptop in the pleasent surroundings of a local coffee shop. I also discovered that while I’m away from an Internet connection I actually work much  harder and I am generally more productive. The Internet is quite a distraction!

Well it’s been a good day all round. Always nice to the get flight sorted out and behind me. I can now concentrate on my work.

There will be an earnings udpdate soon. I am pretty much on for matching what I achieved in July and August. Traffic  has been down on my sites this month so far which surprised me for September. Anyway still another week to go.

I am likely to leave the UK in under 4 weeks time and I still have n’t bought a flight out of here yet. In fact I am not even sure whether to buy a one way or return?

In all my travels I have always had that return ticket lurking deep within my backpack. It seems more trouble than it’s worth sometimes.

For instance on my last trip I was sold a ticket where I could change the date of the return leg. This was fine until the day I called Malaysian Airlines while in NZ to be told I could not change the date and would have to fly home on my original return date!

Anyway 3 days later after numerous faxes and telephone calls to London, Melbourne and KL I finally managed to get the flight changed!

I guess the other consideration is cost. At the moment I am looking at GBP300 one way to KL or Bangkok. Open returns are around GBP500.

I am leaning towards a one way ticket despite the extra cost. Anyway when I am ready to come back to the UK I will have made so much money from the web sites I’ll be chartering my own plane (positive thinking!!).

One way it is then.

Working for yourself on web sites can be hugely rewarding but like any work you have good days and bad days. Motivation is the key to make this suceed and there are a number of ways I try and motivate myself to work harder.

1. Log in and see how much money I have earnt today and then transfer this to my running total and monthly totals.

2. Walk to the undergound station in the morning with all the other glum looking commuters and then turn around and walk home.

3. Visiting web sites such as webmasterworld.com for moral support and read about people that have made it big doing this type of work.

There are lots of ways to keep yourself motivated. When I am on the road I will be only spending what I earn. So the previous days’ earnings will be the next day’s spending money. If I only make enough to cover my room and a bowl of rice then so be it.