It is a familiar scene across the globe. A backpacker or traveler arrives in a new city clutching the latest Lonely Planet or Frommers guide book.

I have used Lonely planets and rough guides extensively on my journey as a working nomad and despite what the purists might say I have always found them useful.

However, as someone who likes to travel light, I have always found guidebooks to be too heavy for what they are!

So I was browsing the Lonely Planet Shop the other day and found out a feature where you can purchase certain chapters under their pix and mix!

You basically download the chapters you want (I never use the whole books anyway) and store them as PDF format on your laptop (or online storage / email) and print them off when you need to. This could be cheaper too!

Having the ability to print out maps and locations is important so you can find places when you arrive. You don’t want to be getting your laptop out on a street corner in some big city in Latin America or India!

As PDAs, mobiles and smaller laptops become cheaper I think this will accelerate the death of the guide book as we know it and will mean the savvy nomad can carry more interesting books to read.

After some initial issues the working nomad ebook affiliate scheme is up and running again via e-junkie.

Check out this link for further details…

http://www.workingnomad.com/ebook/affiliate.htm

I have not reported much on earnings recently as I kind of went off the idea but I still think it provides some degree of motivation for others aspiring to this independent life.

So December was a pretty poor month relative to 2007 coming in a little over US$ 4000 but January is up over US$ 6000 so things are picking up again as they often do in January.

Shifting exchange rates and a weakening pound is starting to bite. It is definetly something you have to keep an eye on when you are a working nomad.

For instance my rent has pretty much gone up £10 GBP a week since I moved in, and that has nothing to do with the landlord! Thats just from exchange rates.

So I stress again if you are spending an extended time in a country try and transfer money when the going is favourable. It could end up making you money!

I have been working away on the forum recently and have given it a make over although I have not actually finished the top banner yet!

Most importantly the search function is now working so visitors can tap into the wealth of information that has been posted.

We have almost 10,000 posts to search through now with some great advice for budding working nomads!

Check out the forum here and if you are a new user then don’t forget to email me after you have signed up so I can activate your account.

http://www.workingnomad.com/forum

Well after a bumpy December things appear to be picking up thankfully this month. January is usually a pretty good month in the travel sector as people plan their holidays for the year and dream off far flung places.

Talking of people in far flung places it is good to see an old friend hit the road as a Working Nomad. Kirsty is in Manila, Phillipines living the dream. Be sure to follow her Asian adventure on Nerdy Nomad.

I am finding it much easier these days to work and have a good routine of working at least every weekday morning and most of the afternoon. I am sure this has contributed to an overall improvement.

Having said that I have just come back from a weeks walking in the Tongariro National Park! That’s why I continue to enjoy self employment.

Today I have reached a minor milestone of selling 500 E-books online. I wrote the E-book two years ago and have updated it at various stages with new information.

Most of my buyers have been from the USA and I experienced a big push in sales during August 07 when CNN Money wrote the article about Extreme Telecommuting.

I have been thinking about approaching publishers for a while now to produce a hard copy with more general information about being a working nomad and feel that 500 copies sold on my own should provide a good backup to my quest.

The E-book is still for sale and can be purchased here….

WN E-book

Hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoying the holidays. The pictures are probably of most interest to friends and family but take a peek at what I have been up to recently if you want.

http://www.workingnomad.com/nz07.htm

I am off camping on a beach for New Years Eve which I am looking forward to before getting down to some serious web work in the New Year.

I am going to be focusing on the mobile web and creating a few sites that will have mobile Adsense on which should be interesting. I believe now is the time to focus on the mobile platform!

Happy New Year to you all!

I have at last set up an affiliate scheme for my successful ebook called ‘How I did it’ and being the generous bugger that I am I am offering %50 commission on sales!

So here are some of the features of the scheme.

> 50% commission rate and open to everyone! (US$ 9.00 per sale to you)

> Easy set up and management via e-junkie website

> Full reports and tracking

> Payment by Paypal paid to you monthly

So if you are interested in making some money then check out my affiliate sign up page below…

http://www.workingnomad.com/ebook/affiliate.htm

Merry xmas to you all!

So December has hit me quite hard in the income stakes, although things have picked up a little. The days of $10,000 a month seem a long time ago!

My traffic to sites have been steady but a number of affiliate schemes that I promote have moved the goalposts and slashed commissions. I have come to rely on these schemes recently and now paying a little for not diversifying more.

In the early days all my sites were travel focused but about a year ago I decided to move into other areas which was a smart thing looking back. My problem is that I have not further diversified.

So I urge people to take diversification seriously if they want to maintain a web income. Things change fast and the best protection is to spread the risk.

I have a steady stream of enquiries now regarding direct advertising on my sites. This is all good but I often find myself not knowing where to pitch my rates.

I have been thinking for a while about creating a rate card for individual sites. I am wondering whether any of you guys have adopted this strategy?

So how do you value your site? I guess the value must be derived from these factors…

- How many impressions do you get on the page?
- What is your market and what is the value of the keywords?
- How large is the advertising space?

So one of my challenges is to come up with some sort of guide for how much you should be charging an advertiser.

I believe a lot of folk who are new to this game are giving away advertising space at well under the market value, simply because they are afraid to ask for more.

If anyone else has a guide they use for calculating rates then I’d be interested in taking a peek.