After years of attempting I still can’t get the hang of using chopsticks. I spent the other evening with three nurses from Ireland (shame, two were male) wrestling with my fried chicken and rice in KL’s Chinatown.

We went on to a nightclub called the Beach Club. Above the centre of the bar is a fish tank with two sharks swimming about. There has been quite a lot of discussion (among those who know the place) as to whether these poor beggars are real or not.

Well I can exclusively reveal they are real! The theory is that they are mechanical bacause if you watch them they follow the exact same path. The other night one decided to attack the other blowing away this theory.

Anyway I don’t know what was more depressing. Watching the sharks go crazy or the 100 or so Filopino sex workers plying their trade. I can’t really recommend the Beach club.

I fly back to Bali this afternoon and despite having only been away for a few days I am very much looking forward to being back there among friends.

Before I start I’d just like to say Happy Birthday Mum! I’ll be calling you a little later…

So I have a tip for you guys struggling to get your sites noticed and it involves using MSN and their ‘Spaces’.

I heard on the grapevine this week that if you register a space and submit it to search engines it could appear in the indexes pretty quickly for the keywords you use within the space. There is no promise of a high placement but it is probably worth a go.

What you do with the space is up to you but you could put some affiliate links on there or links to your web sites.

The reason your space might get high up in the search engines is that MSN is obviously an authority site with a high ranking and you are in effect creating a sub domain within this.

Like I said there is no guarantee this technique will work but it has to be worth a go. You have nothing to lose apart from the 15 mins to set up the site, add a few links and submit it to the search engines.

If you are completely new to web sites this could be your way in to owning one and building your empire.

Some might say this is a bit spammy and I don’t want to encourage people down this route but I see no issue providing you make the space useful for your visitor.

Don’t just put lots of links on there. Get some useful information on board and help people out. If you are helping out other folk you are not spamming.

http://spaces.msn.com/

This month was set to be a record for my Internet earnings but the last three days have been a big disappointment. Traditionally Tuesday and Wednesday are my strongest days for web earnings so I am a little surprised about this!

One thing you must shy away from is panicking if things like this happen. You should always look at the bigger picture. I will still be near my £1500 for this month which is acceptable.

I am back in KL for a few days before heading back to Bali for my final few weeks. I am beginning to formulate some plans for the summer in Europe now. I will be going back to Ipswich (thanks Mum!) initially and then we will see from there.

If you have been following the Forum you will have seen the thread about a possible trip around Europe. I am looking at getting some company sponsorship for this trip and this will be my focus over the next few weeks.

There is no going back to some dull office in London for me. That chapter of my life has finished. This way of working has left me very excited about the future.

I am off now to buy my ticket home.

Yesterday I managed to remove most of the skin from the underside of my feet playing football on the beach (England v Indonesia, we won, just) so today I have been hobbling around like an old man.

I am having to leave Bali tomorrow as my visa expires but I will be back in a few days time. I managed to get a cheap return ticket to Kuala Lumpur.

When I enter Bali again I will be in my final month of this working nomad trip! On other trips I have always felt ready to go home but I have n’t really experienced it on this trip. Being able to work and travel is a truly magical combination.

The Working Nomad will not be stopping when he gets home. I have some trips around Europe already planned and this blog will still be very much alive and kicking.

Whoever is spamming WN with comments do yourself a favour and stop wasting your time. All comments are moderated and it just took me 3 seconds to delete the 100 or so waiting for me.

Changing the subject I used to feel a bit guilty and slightly ashamed that I could only speak one language fluently. My time in Asia has eroded this guilt mainly due to the fact that the whole continent seems hell bent on learning it.

I had a chat with an Expat Brit the other day who seemed convinced that English has become so prominent because of our little country. Well perhaps this was the case 100 years ago at the height of the British Empire but not now.

I tried to explain that America and its global dominance in just about everything (World Cup aside) is why Indonesians love talking to us and Japanese spend lots of money sending their children language schools!

Here’s a little fact for you to finish off with. Did you know that we might have all been learning German now and watching Hollywood films with English subtitles? Apparently there was a discussion a few days after US independence whether they should adopt English or German as the national lingo. Good choice made.

The surf has been pretty flat in Bali but it is blue skies all the way now. I have been hanging out on the beach playing chess with my buddies from Sumatra.

Whenever I play it is me against 10 of them! They think it is perfectly acceptable to help each other when we play. I told them that I only want to play one at a time but soon as they spot something (like a dangerous move) they all go mad! The boys can’t help themselves.

The e-book selling is going quite well at the moment so thanks to everyone who has purchased it. I was thinking the other day it was over-priced. I mean you would n’t pay £9 for a normal book?

Then I remembered the effort I put in to it so I have decided to keep it at £9. Please let me know if you were one of the original people who emailed for it for free. I have all the emails still so I will know if you were one of them

I have been asked to write a piece for a well known travel magazine (paper) on the whole Working Nomad thing which is pretty exciting for me. They are interested in two things. How I managed to get where I am now and other ways people can travel and work aside from running websites.

This discussion has come up a few times and I have a few ideas but would love you to give me some more to think about. Something other than running websites but can still be conducted remotely.

I’d appreciate any ideas and if you have a really good idea I will reward you with a link to your site from the WN home page! Woooo hoooo!

Don’t forget that I love helping people out so don’t be afraid to ask me anything as well.

My sponsor for this project should have been Martini (I wonder if they still use that slogan anywhere?) I have proved without doubt that this way of working can be conducted from pretty much anywhere.

What I have n’t droned on so much about is the anytime factor. Working remotely allows you to entirely adapt your working hours around a chosen your lifestyle (and not the other way around as an office slave).

Take where I am now. Bali is just south of the Equator meaning that it basically gets light at 6am and dark at 6pm consistently. In many ways the life here is pretty much governed by the daylight hours.

The lifestyle here is very much an outdoors one, for locals and visitors alike. So now I am maximising my outdoors time by shifting my work / web time to the evening.

It makes no difference whatsoever apart from the fact I am online during working hours in the UK/Europe which can be useful.

So being an independent Webmaster gives you the ultimate freedom of both location and time.

Do you think that being able to work totally flexible hours could have a positive impact on your life?

After two weeks of clouds and occasional rain sunshine and blue skies have finally arrived here! Well actually it is winter. Temperatures have plummeted to a day time average 28C.

I am planning a mini break soon and was considering going over to Java and the ancient city of Jogjakarta. As you may have seen in the news the volcano Mount Merapi is pretty active and the whole area is being evacuated.

I will probably head up to Ubud, the cultural heart of Bali and chill out there for a few days instead.

My earnings for this month are looking pretty strong and it looks like I’ll match my best months. I seem to be on an earnings plateau at the moment. This is becoming a trend.

I need to find a way of getting up to the next level. When I get there you can rest assured that I’ll be telling you how I did it.

Finally to anyone who originally emailed about the e-book. Please let me know if you have not received it now.

I have n’t been online for a few days because I have had a dose Bali belly (more commonly known as the shits). I think it was a curry I had two days ago.

It only seems to be Bali where I get this for some reason!

Well it is Saturday night and I am going to drag myself along to the bar to watch the FA Cup Final. I’ll write something more interesting tomorrow.