Yesterday we spent the day on a boat snorkelling off the Island of Ko Phi Phi and a few hours onshore. Phi Phi is notorious for the film ‘The Beach’ and of course the devastating 2004 tsunami that swept much of it away.

I visited Phi Phi two years before the events of Boxing Day 2004 and it has certainly changed (you could argue for better or worse). The Island is certainly moving up market.

How much of this money will actually benefit the locals who suffered most is anyone’s guess. Developers on the other hand appear to be making the most of the clear canvas.

It is nearly month end and earnings report time. I have not done any figures so far but I reckon I might just be down on Feb. Yes that’s right - no record earnings! I think it will be close though. For some reason everything has gone crazy the last few days which is good.

I have arrived on Ko Lanta, Southern Thailand to find a very relaxed and peaceful Island. The Thai people here are slightly different to the majority as they are Muslim (normally Buddhist). I have to say they are some of the friendliest Thais I have met and their smiles are very much of the genuine variety.

It is so nice to be back in my own sleeping environment after two months of sharing dormitories and backcountry huts! I have my own bungalow yards from the beach for less than £5.00 a night. Sleeping to the sound of the sea is much more preferable to some older guy snoring is head off!

I am finding it quite easy to do work here. The laid back pace of life and the fact there is little to do is very conducive to work. I don’t know why I still refer to what I do as work because it rarely feels like it these days.

Things I would have done differently. My laptop has been a little star on this trip but I would have taken a larger model and not been so obsessed with size and weight. I travel light anyway so a few extra grams would not have made much difference. I have always been well under my allowance at airport check-ins.

Because my laptop is so small (and old) the battery life is pretty bad. I have two spare batteries but to be honest they seem to be giving me less and less power. Maybe they don’t travel well.

So my advice when looking for a laptop to travel is to focus on battery length. I am convinced that having a battery that lasts a long time would have made quite a difference to the amount of work I have done over the last few months.

I am in the departures lounge at Singapore Changi airport making good use of their free wireless Internet. I am on my way to Krabi in Southern Thailand.

It has just be announced that the flight has been delayed for 8 hours due to technical reasons! I guess when you’re backpacking flight delays are not a big issue and I am always happy where there is free wifi (and free food, thanks Tiger Airways).

Anyway I was thinking last night about adding a forum to this site. Primarily it would be a community bulletin board where people could ask me questions about making money from web sites. People do email questions all the time but I think it would be more useful to everyone if I answered them in a public forum.

I would also be happy to evaluate your web sites and give opinions on any ideas you might have. I am not an expert but this has been my profession for quite a while and I am more than happy to help people and we can all share each others knowledge.

Add a comment if you think it is a good or not so good idea! Bye for now.

It’s my last day in Melbourne and I am leaving on a big high. England won three gold medals on the track last night and I finally got to hear ‘Land of hope and glory’ (no thanks to Channel 9). It was just like being at the last night of the proms!

I also got to meet the decathlon champion Englishman Dean Macey and he gave me a high five in the tunnel after his lap of honour. Earlier in the night I sat with the father of the English bronze medallist in the 10,000m and shared his agony and then ecstasy (never had such a big hug from a man!).

I posted a comment on the BBC Commonwealth games site and got a whole heap of traffic to this site. It’s a good tip to try and get one way links from popular web sites as search engines like this.

I’ve had an awesome time here and will miss Melbourne and the atmosphere around the games. Tomorrow I’ll be waking up in Singapore and the second part of my Southeast Asian adventure will begin. Rock on!

I have decided that every month I am going to write a few tips that should help anyone looking for an online income. This month I am going to focus on established sites that are not getting traffic.

One of the frustrating things is that you put all that effort in to creating a web site and no one visits! I know this feeling myself. There are some ways to overcome this.

1. Build more useful content. Really focus your content on your audience and try and give them something they cannot get elsewhere. Make sure your content has a sprinkling of keywords that people are actually searching for.

2. Make sure you have submitted the site to MSN, Yahoo and Google. Don’t bother with those sites that promise to submit you to hundreds of search engines in one go. Do it one by one and don’t take short cuts.

3. Don’t underestimate offline marketing and gorilla techniques. Gorilla marketing is non-traditional tactics that attempt to encourage “buzz” or word of mouth communication. Remember the guy with the milliondollarhomepage.com - he used these techniques.

4. Write content for other sites. Try offering an established web site an article for free with a link back to your site. Make sure the article is well written and on-topic for your target web site.

5. Participate in online forums and build up a reputation. Don’t go wading in with links to your sites and self-blatant promotion. Offer the forum some knowledge and participate fairly.

OK that’s all for now folks. Remember the most valuable tip is to never give in.

Well the Melbourne Games are well under way now and had my first day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (and what a ground!). It was such a relief to watch the games in the flesh, un-edited and away from the ridiculously biased local TV station!

Yes I am going to have a whinge here. In the UK the BBC or whoever does a fine job of presenting sporting events and the coverage is generally fair across all nations.

Not in Australia! You would think they were the only competing country at the games. I take the point that they are the strongest nation but to cut straight away from events when they lose, only show Aussies when they win and basically be oblivious to the fact that a hell of a lot of people in Australia are not bloody Aussies!

Maybe it is because in England the coverage is so unbiased to the point of being over the top. Perhaps this same thing happens in America and China when they broadcast events. Anyway whinge over.

The picture is from the Great Ocean Road and one of the tweleve Apostles (there are only nine now as they keep falling in the sea).

My web sites are ticking away ok this month. One of my major earners is now receiving only 10 visitors a day now so I have rapidly replaced it with a similar site that will hopefully take it’s place in the search engine listings.

Just read this in the local Melbourne paper so maybe I am not such a whinger…

“Channel 9 whose coverage of medalists from other nations continues to be disgraceful. A South African swimmer finishes equal third, its an Aussie clean sweep……I must congratulate the Kiwis on beating us in the Sevens final. (Channel) Nine sure as hell won’t”.

Just a quick mention for another Working Nomad out there. She is a bit different from me as she has children in tow!

Here own blog is here…check it out…

Blue Suit Nomads

I am back in Melbourne. The city is really lively now and I have found some free wi-fi!

Then you may wish to check out this post below from WebmasterWorld. The guy is quite legitimate and shows what can be achieved. Anyone serious about an online career should read this one carefully as there are some real gems of info.

How I made a million in 3 months (from web sites)

I have had a great surfing session today in Torquay, one of the homes of world surfing. It has been a pretty memorable week down the Great Ocean Road! Some pictures will follow.

I am off back to Melbourne tomorrow to drop off the car and then head to the Commonwealth Games for three days. I was heading out to an Irish pub for Paddy’s Day but I am pretty tired after all the driving and surfing. I have also splashed out and staying in my own caravan for one night so I am going to stay in and make full use of the peace and quiet!

Well I arrived early this morning from New Zealand and boy is it hot here! I thought Melbourne was going to have a cooler climate this time of year. It is like being back in the tropics again after New Zealand.

Well I have already decided Melbourne is my favourite Aussie city (better than Sydney, Brisbane or Darwin anyway). It is very lively, the Victorian Sunday market kicks ass and I love those European style trams!

I am going to stick around in the city for a few days to get my bearings before heading off down the Great Ocean Road to (in a hire car) Torquay for the Surf museum and the famous Bells Beach (famous if you like surfing!). I am then going to go on to Apollo Bay before heading back for the Commonwealth Games.

Two of my main web sites have taken a hit in the latest Google shake up so I am not expecting this month to be a record. This is always the danger when you rely on natural search engine results for web site traffic. I guess I’ll just have to try and learn from it.

Well after seven glorious weeks in this small country it is time for the Working Nomad to move on. I sold Rusty the other day to a charming young Canadian couple for $500. One guy saw it and offered me $200! The cheek.

This last week has been mostly spent in Christchurch’s excellent library doing research for new web site projects. Yes it is a bit of a dull way to end my time here but it has to be done. I will be back in tourist mode again next week in Melbourne.

The highlight of the trip to NZ was probably the second day of the Kepler Track over the mountain ridges of Fiordland. I have met some pretty wonderful people here as well and it always seems a shame to move on but that is the nature of travel.

This will be the third time that I’ll leave NZ and could well be the final time. I have so much of my own continent (and country) to explore! I think the focus will be on shorter trips away which, if all goes according to plan, will be related to my online work.

Travel has been well embedded into me and I am quite happy for it to be there. See you in Australia.

By the way here are some random pictures from the last seven weeks….

NZ Photos 2006