Well on this day two years ago the Working Nomad site started on a hot sunny day in London. Here are the first few words…

This is the first post of the working nomad blog. In a little over one month I will be embarking on a six month plus trip around Asia. I have not decided where but likely locations will be Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Nepal early next year.

The difference between this trip and the 1000s of other trips undertaken by backpackers is that it will be entirely funded by money earned through maintaining sites on the Internet.

Not really sure where the time has gone to be honest! Two years wandering the globe with a laptop in the hope that I might make more money and have more freedom than my last job gave me.

I don’t like looking back and reflecting on things so much these days. Best thing is to look forward and work on maintaining this lifestyle and helping those who are inspired to be free from the office.

By the way I broke through the $10,000 mark again in August, by quite a bit as well! More in the August earnings report.

I have not put up any photos recently so I thought I would throw this one up taken last week in Southwold, on the East coast of England.

So I have just invested $100 of my hard earned money in a page on a website that is quite new and the idea not so new! Milliondollarwiki is a another MillionDollarHomepage spin off but with a difference. You own a page (or wiki) where you can do what you want.

I have invested in this page: http://www.Milliondollarwiki.com/English with a view of turning it into some sort of resource for the English language.

My challenge is to make this one of the most popular pages on the site! I started off a few hours ago at 422/422 but now I am up to 411/422 so the only way is up!

It may be the biggest waste of 50 United Kingdom pounds ever but you never know. Sometimes you have to speculate on these things.

One thing is for sure; the owner is going to make quite a bit out of this!

One way to promote your website is via social networking sites such as Facebook and the like.

I am wondering how many other people use social networking as a website promotion tool and whether they have had any measurable success?

Some commentators are suggesting that social networking is not all its cracked up to be. One important issue is whether exposing your own personal data is a good thing and how easy it would be for fraudsters to steal your identity?

Another point from a website promotion point of view is the quality of traffic from these sites. Your average MySpace user is probably 16-22 years old, great if you have a website targeting this demographic but not so if your site requires a more mature audience.

Even advertisers have suggested that they prefer targeted niche groups to advertise to rather than the masses on social network sites.

I don’t know about anyone else but I am starting to find social networking a bit tedious and I would not be too bothered if it just went away.

Long live Web 1.0!

I was recently interviewed and photographed by CNN’s Business 2.0 magazine. The very well written article is out now in the print version and is a good read for any wannabe nomads. There is a link to an online version below.

The picture of me was taken in a village called Playford just outside my home town by the way.

The article is pretty accurate apart from it mentions the way I make money; ‘by plastering ads all over his sites’ - this is not the case people! If you do this you will not make much money at all!

CNN / Business 2.0

Talking of money this month could exceed $8000 which in my money represents £1000 a week which I guess is a major milestone! The magic figure of $10,000 a month is becoming realistic now.

Its been a while since I posted on here. In fact it’s been a while since I did any work but July is already a record month for earnings! Looking back at last year July was also a strong month.

I was working out the other day in a moment of boredom that in 2006 I flew once every two weeks on average. I then considered how much money I spend on airlines and what a big slice of the working nomads expenses goes on travel.

I then considered the carbon footprint that I left! Yea it’s not very good. In fact you could say it is pretty irresponsible. Perhaps not the long haul flights. How else are you meant to get to Australia from Europe unless you want to endure days on road?!

It is when I flew from Bangkok to KL, or Christchurch to Wellington. These shorter flights that are taken when there are road and rail alternatives.

I have driven down to Barcelona from the UK. I wonder if it is more environmentally friendly for one person to drive a car this distance or whether going by airplane would be better?

So I have been in Barcelona now for a couple of weeks and will be heading home soon in my environmentally friendly(ish) small 2 door car. Owning a car in Barcelona is not for the faint hearted.

I was only in the city on the ‘Ronta Dalt’ 5 minutes when a scooter crashed into the back of me, only a minor collision and they were ok thankfully! The real headache comes when you are not inside your car. Parking! Thats another story.

Another time I was out with a couple of friends from the Hostal and we were parked in supermarket car park. When we came out there was three angry looking guys around my car. They were shouting at us in Catalan and Spanish. We hurriedly got in the car and I sped off.

One of my friends is from Argentina and of course understood some of what the guys said. They were saying things like ‘f’ off back to Britain, don’t stay around here or we smash your car etc etc. Thats where my car stands out. British number plates and the right hand drive!

Of course this could have been a one off incident and we came to no harm but I had heard that foreign plated cars can get abuse in Barcelona.

So I am driving home. I might be stop off in Paris on the way home as I have never been there and will probably have a surf in the Basque country.

So when I go back to Barcelona it will be the high altitude way. As for my Ford Fiesta it will be going back to where I got it from; an Ebay auction.

I left a rainy England on a stormy night across the English Channel and arrived in the SW of France in similar conditions (the locals swear that it is never like this in July - it will be snowing in Buenos Aires next!).

I have just fled from the YHA hostel in Biarritz after two nights in a prison style bunk bed surrounded by 13 other males, half of which snored louder than my ear plugs could deflect. If you stay in this place make sure you ask for a room in the newer wing like I had last year!

For a mere 12 Euros more I now have my own room, cable TV, access to my room 24 hours, no snoring and Wifi. If you travel around France check out the Etap hotels.

Ok it might not be sociable like the hostel but frankly I don’t care!

The poor weather has meant that the surf has been great and my increasingly thin hair on top has not had a hot burning sun bearing down on it all day.

I am staying in the Pyranees for a night before arriving in Barcelona on Friday. I might have to be back in London on Monday and I apologise now to all Londoners if this fowl weather follows me back.

So I am about to leave for France after a few months back in the UK and as anyone who lives here will appreciate I am looking forward to seeing the sunshine again!

I am taking the ferry over and then driving down to Bordeaux and then on to the Basque country for a week of surf.

My Barcelona adventure starts a week after.

I have some exciting challenges ahead once I arrive in BCN. Learning a new language and getting some people on board for my next web project should keep me pretty occupied!

What has Thierry Henry (French footy player) and me got in common? We’re both off to Barcelona very soon!

Next week, assuming my little car gets through it’s service, I will be heading across the English Channel and down to Spain stopping off at various places in France.

There a new chapter of my life will unfold. I am intially going to take language lessons and continue working on my sites with a view of doing something else, perhaps teaching, in a couple of months.

I am also looking for people in Barcelona to work with me on a new project and have already had a great response and dialogue with potential partners.

I chose Barcelona in the end for the climate, proximity to sea and mountains, the exciting vibe and cosmpolitan flavour.

So I guess I’ll be no longer a ‘working nomad’ as such but I hope to continue to prove that you can earn a living from the Internet and live pretty much anywhere!

I am asking for your help here to help me produce a tool to help the analysis of finding a great location to live. I myself have been agonising over all the options I have and have decided to start looking at this in a more analytical way.

One thing about being a working nomad means that you can in affect live anywhere. The problem this has thrown up for me is that one can be left with too many options! Some people can spend their entire lives looking for the ideal place to live and never find it!

So what I plan to do is to get together a list of important things to consider when choosing a location. This list is going to be extensive as possible and cover as many things as people feel important.

The next part, and indeed the tricky part, is to weigh and score these individual requirements to help build up a true representation of needs. For instance some things will be important to some people and not so to others. Here is a quick list of things that are important to me when looking for a location with a rough weighting index.

1. Social life, active expat scene - Weighting: 5/5 - important to me as I am single and not moving with a partner or family. I would not want to move anywhere that would be hard to integrate or lacking in like-minded individuals.

2. Healthcare, access to free healthcare - Weighting: 3/5 - As I am still relatively young and healthy so this would not be as important to me as it would in 30 years.

3. Work opportunities -Weighting: 4/5 - Surprisingly this is important to me because although I am self employed I would like to be somewhere where I could do other things. I don’t want to be working on my own for ever!

4. Easy access to beach & mountains - Weighting: 5/5 - As many of you who follow me knows I am very keen on outdoor activities, both winter and summer and feel it would add considerably to my quality of life.

5. Year round climate - Weighting: 4/5 - Important to me as I love the outdoors when I am away from the computer!

6. Cost of living - Weighting: 3/5 - Again this is important but I would not give it top marks as I would be happy to pay for somwhere decent to live and work there to enjoy it.

7. Access to family and friends - Weighting: 5/5 - Undeniably important to me, possibly more so than in the last few years.

Ok there are lots of other factors. Access to family and friends, transport links, cost of real estate, kids education, culture, language, ability to learn a new language, environment, distance from home etc

So taking in to account my needs I am now going to compare three places where I am considering living for a while. Prague, Auckland and Barcelona. The way I score the cities maybe up for some debate but this represents my current perceptions.

Prague, CZ

1. Great expat and social scene, lots of web resources, clubs etc - 9/10 (with weighting x5 = 45)
2. Healthcare, modern and free for EU pp, - 10/10 (with weighting x3 = 30)
3. Work opps exist but only for teaching English - 6/10 (with weighting x4 = 24)
4. Near mountains for skiiing, hiking but not beach! - 5/10 (with weighting x5 = 25)
5. Climate, great in the summer, too cold in winter - 5/10 (with weighting x4= 20)
6. Cheap compared to much of Europe (not so for tourists) - 8/10 (with weighting x3= 24)
7. Only 2 hours flight to London Stanstead - 8/10 (with weighting x5= 40)

Auckland, NZ

1. Good scene, lively groups, easy to meet people etc - 9/10 (with weighting x5 = 45)
2. Healthcare, modern and free for UK pp (emergencies only) - 7/10 (with weighting x3 = 21)
3. English speaking, lots of work - 9/10 (with weighting x4 = 36)
4. Near mountains and beaches - 9/10 (with weighting x5 = 45)
5. Climate, good year round but not perfect - 8/10 (with weighting x4= 30)
6. Cheap compared to much of Europe - 9/10 (with weighting x3= 28)
7. 24 hours and $1000 min airfares - 1/10 (with weighting x5= 10)

Barcelona, ES

1. Great expat and social scene, lots of web resources, clubs etc - 9/10 (with weighting x5 = 45)
2. Healthcare, modern and free for EU pp, - 10/10 (with weighting x3 = 30)
3. Work opps exist, mainly teaching English - 7/10 (with weighting x4 = 28)
4. Has many beaches and near Pyranees - 10/10 (with weighting x5 = 50)
5. Great Med climate, not too hot or cold - 9/10 (with weighting x4= 36)
6. Expensive. - 2/10 (with weighting x2 = 4)
7. Only 2 hours flight to London Stanstead - 8/10 (with weighting x5= 40)

1. Barcelona, 233 points
2. Auckland, 215 points
3. Prague, 208 points

So there we go. Based on these three cities I would be heading off to Espana (which is something I am seriously considering, particularly as there is Mediterranean surf which I did not know about before )

It is interesting to consider that if cost of living was a real factor for me Barcelona would not be top of my list. Shows you the importance of weight!

There are of course lots of other factors to build in. For me anywhere in the EU would have the advantage as I have the right to work there where as NZ I would have to apply for a one year visa (at a cost of GBP450) and then face the possibility of having to leave after the visa ran out if I could not get a work permit.

So what I am interested in is for other people to leave comments about what is important to them and how much weight you would give to it. The weight thing is the most important aspect of making this analysis relevant to the individual!

I will then make some sort of tool that will calculate the best locations for you based on your needs.

The laptop or notebook computer is an essential tool for the working nomad but comes with it’s own health price. Two years of poor posture and being hunched over a table has take it’s toll on my neck and shoulders.

I think many people in offices also have this issue with laptops as they are fast replacing desktop PCs. Indeed this happened in my last corporate job.

So what is the solution? I have recently purchased a seperate keyboard and now sit my laptop on a number of books to make it level with my eyes so I am not constantly looking down. This has certainly helped me as I do not get stiffness in my neck and shoulder area now.

Having said that if you are on the road you don’t want to have to carry a keyboard and books around.

So does anyone have any other advice or tips to help with growing issue? What have you done to improve your ‘laptop’ posture?