Well, it is thanksgiving here in the states and I'm in the middle of moving. I've been down from my internet projects for awhile, as I had to go back to work after several months of trying to get my online earnings off the ground. I had been doing web design and making pretty good money but decided to go for a bit more stability during the economic downturn. I can't say it's been any easier. I still want to earn my living from working online and choose to develop a more location independent lifestyle. I've been following alot of the digital nomads and lifestyle design people and really want to delve more into the guts of minimallism, frugality, travel, and designing an awesome life. So, i'm going to post more of my research here, till I can sort it all out and decide what stuff I'm going to focus on. So, this is the rough draft of a site, I hope to develop in the near future. This is one of my homes online so I'll post here what I'm finding and document my progress here, until it becomes clear what my goals for my website flesh out to be. Here's some of the great stuff I'm working with now.
From "
A map for Saturday"
For those interested in the world of long-term travel we’ve put together a list of links with stories and information on big trips:
Brook’s blog – While shooting A MAP FOR SATURDAY, director Brook Silva-Braga kept a blog of his adventures. Many of the entries mirror stories and characters that appear in the film. He also kept a blog during his more recent Africa adventure.
Candy from Strangers – Malena won our essay contest and is using her free around-the-world ticket to explore the world through the lens of candy production and consumption.
Start Backpacking – Tips and advice on planning your own adventure.
Travel Independent – Another impressive how-to resource especially tailored to first-tme backpackers.
Thorn Tree – Lonely Planet’s message board is a top source for travel information, especially for long-term, budget trips.
BootsnAll Travel – Another dense source of information for independent travelers.
Hostelz – Hostel reviews, information and booking for more than 22,000 hostels worldwide.
Hostelling International-USA – HI runs hostels around the world, the US branch sponsored our around-the-world ticket contest..
From "
Almost Fearless" Great ebooks to get you started working wireless, traveling and creating the life you want.
From "
No Place to Be"
Travel Blogs:
Ali’s Adventures
Alison has been hooked on travelling since a trip to Europe when she was 14 and loves planning for trips so feel free to ask for advice.
A Pair of Panties & Boxers
She used to want the corner office. Now she wants the world. Monica blogs about her travels around the world & her travels through life. Either way she travel, it’s food for her soul.
A Travel Around The World
Started their trip at the end of 2008 starting in Hong Kong and travelling through OZ and NZ.
Adventurous Kate
Kate shares the wacky, ridiculous and hilarious sides of travel — always while taking the unconventional route. Join her on her adventures around the globe!
As We Travel
Nathan and Sofia’s great travel blog turned travel resource for budget RTW backpackers. They simply want you to GET OUT THERE and experience everything the world has to offer.
Aussie Nomad
Chris is in his late twenties and just about to burn his suit and travel and work his way round Europe. I’m also pretty sure he’ll meet just about anyone for a beer.
Backpacking Matt
Backpackingmatt is a blog dedicated to offering advice and inspiration for the budget conscious traveler or backpacker. His Motto:Life’s a Journey
Backpacking Worldwide
Backpacking Worldwide chronicles the travels of Matt Hope as we spends the next few years visiting destinations around the globe. Along the way he’ll be telling tales, giving tips, and taking lots of pictures and video.
Bacon is Magic
Ayngelina left her job, apartment, boyfriend and friends to travel solo. Read about her adventures as she eats her way through Central America, South America and beyond
Border Jumpers
Bernard and Danielle started their trip in October 2009 and are planning to visit nearly every country in Africa. At every stop they are meeting with farmers, community organizers, workers, NGOs, etc. Their goal is to share stories of hope and success from across the region.
Bike and Boots
Brian is traveling the Americas on a motorcycle, a trip he first envisioned in 2007 while on a scooter in Laos. Ride along with him to find a out more about these countries and traveling by motorcycle.
Brooke Vs The World
Brooke is a 20 something traveller who made the decision after her first trip in 2000 to continue travelling and explore as much as possible.
The Brooklyn Nomad
Andrew is a travel addict that loves exploring his native New York as well as the world. TBN offers travel stories, tips, hotel reviews and weekly guest posts from wanderers around the planet.
Canvas of Light
A photography blog capturing thethe Knowledge and the Beauty of the world captured through his lens. His motto: “Explore, Discover, Learn, Share”
C’est Christine
A California twenty-something who quit her job to soak up the sun and parler Français. She writes about adjusting to life in the French Riviera and breaking the typical career path, in hopes that it will inspire other young people to travel and find a life that they love.
Dangerous Business
Amanda’s goal is to get swept off as often as possible, but more importantly she loves the colour green and the scent of freshly moan grass.
Dream a Little Dream
They are finding out how far dreams can travel on their year plus long trip
Everything Everywhere
Gary Arndt has been traveling and blogging around the world since March 2007. He has one of the most established blogs and it’s well worth a look.
Freedonia Post
It’s intended to be entertaining first, informative second. With the start of a “round the world” journey in July of 2010, it’s meant to show off the most important part of travel – the fun! So it’s usually silly, often random and always a skewed view of the world from a card carrying goofball.
Gap Year Escape
Amar is a full time traveller from the UK and wonders how you can know your place in the world if you’ve not seen it?
Go Backpacing
A well established brilliant resource for any potential backpacker. Also the creator of Travel Blog Success, which is a brilliant guide for any travel blogger and a great help to us.
Johnny Vegabond
Wes has just started his 1+ year trip heading the opposite way round the world to us. Check out his site, if you like to travel cheap, lots of pictures and maybe a few lies
Life After Cubes
Jason Demant & Sharon Duckworth left their Silicon Valley jobs in 2009 to pursue a Life After Cubes. The site chronicles their travels and entrepreneurial aspirations. Also check out their new site for Travellers – Un Anchor
Living The Dream RTW
One student traveling RTW on a budget for up to one year while showing others how to do the same!
Monkey Brewster
A blog about a monkey… and a man… preparing to travel whilst gaining a teaching qualification in the US. Beware he likes bananas flinging poo around…
My Beautiful Adventures
A Chinese Medicine Doctor/Travel Writer and Photographer who is exploring life and the world through one beautiful adventure at a time.
Nancy Under The Stars
Travel Bug Bites are infectious. Once you start, you won’t want to stop. Nancy has TBB bad, so follow her as she shares her experiences with the world.
Nomadic Chick
Follow Jeannie as she abondons the cublicle in 2010 to travel the world in search of stories, interviewsm tips and self-reflection. Oh, and some laughs too!
No Debt World Travel
Tips, hints to help ANYONE travel around the world. Bring home the memories and the not the bills!
Over Yonder Lust
A couple from Austin, Texas. She photographs. He writes. Join them on their travels and preparation for a year in South America
One Giant Step
Gillian believes we are all OneGiantStep from realizing our dreams. She writes about her travels and how you can do it too.
Pause the Moment
A brilliant website from a twenty-something couple getting ready to travel around the world. Thier motto: no itinerary, no limits and no regrets
Positive World Travel
Anthony and Elise are two Australians who are travelling around the world, documenting and sharing their adventures through articles, photos, videos and more.
Rerunaround
Shawn gave it all up to travel. with just a backpack and hopefully a clue. He’s a bit like us and is winging it and seeing what happens.
Seat Of Our Pants
Two thirty-something newlyweds quit their jobs and hit the road for a 13 month adventure around the world
Spunky Gril Monologues
Pam is a blogger, traveler and photographer who travels throughout Canada and the USA and will be traveling the world starting later this year.
Suzy Guese
Travelling with a redhead temperament, openly admitting to articles with a hint of annoyance, temper, sarcasm and plenty of passion, all of which make for a very good read
Seat Of Our Pants
Two thirty-something newlyweds quit their jobs and hit the road for a 13 month adventure around the world
Spunky Gril Monologues
Pam is a blogger, traveler and photographer who travels throughout Canada and the USA and will be traveling the world starting later this year.
Suzy Guese
Travelling with a redhead temperament, openly admitting to articles with a hint of annoyance, temper, sarcasm and plenty of passion, all of which make for a very good read.
The BucketList
This is the blog of Jon, a passionate wandering soul who left the confines of the United State to find adventure in Ecuador two years ago.
There’s No Place Like Oz
Heather is a 30-year old career counselor turned career breaker. She fell in love with Australia four years ago and is returning to live, travel, and (hopefully) work on a 1-year visa.
The professional Hobo
Nora Dunn sold everything in Canada in 2006 to begin her full-time travel adventures. She’s been on the road ever since, traveling full-time in a financially sustainable manner.
The Travel Tart
He descibes himself as a travel addict, and his website includes anything and everything about travel, especially if it is funny. Anything unusual or offbeat, you will be sure to find it here.
The Traveling Canucks
Cam and Nicole are a Canadian newlywed couple Exploring the World
Thom and Sean
Follow Thom and Sean as they leave london and travel through the US, New Zealand, Australia, Asia and Europe
Todds Wanderings
Todd is a conflict resolution and human rights expert who left home 10 years ago and has been living abroad since. He uses his website to share his travel experiences, destinations and advice.
Travelling Savage
Keith realised he was following a routine and wanted more, check him out as he blogs about the triumphs, trials, and tribulations of life on the road
Travels of Adam
Adam is a 25yr old grpahic designer who realised on a recent trip during 2009 he was missing out on something and is now on a mission to change that.
Trail Of Ants
The home of freestyle travel writing featuring the massive T-Bag list of Travel Bloggers!
Twenty-Something Travel
A site dedicated to promoting the benefits of travelling young. She plans on beginning her trip in Japan and ending up in good ol’ England.
Two Backpackers
Two Backpackers travel around the world sharing their experiences through HD videos, HD photos and writings. Follow their journey for travel tips, insights, adventure, inspiration and entertainment.
Two Go Round The World
Kathryn and Daniel have set up their blog to document their plans and perparations of their RTW. They are setting out from Toronto, Canada in July 2011.
The Working Traveller
Travel experiences and working abroad ideas including cheap ways to volunteer around the world
Undo Lifestyle
A modern-day digital drifter and serial entrepreneur. Permanently travelling the globe and working on several internet businesses as he goes.
YTravelBlog
Caz & Craig are amazing (what more do you need to know) but with a loooot of travel under their belts they’re also a source of inspiration to other travellers and wanabee travellers.
From "
ThrillingHeroics" - one of my new favorite places to hang out, written by Cody McKibben.
I thought it’d be helpful to compile a list of resources—consisting of books, tools, blogs, links, and guides which have helped me learn to brand myself, build an extensive network, travel around the globe, and design a business that I can run from anywhere in the world. Check back often, as the Thrilling Heroics Resources section will undoubtedly grow steadily as I learn more and as my business grows… I recommend bookmarking this page for future reference. Enjoy!
Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links to products that will earn me a small commission that will help keep ThrillingHeroics.com alive. These are all products and resources that I have used with success or that come highly recommended from my colleagues and mentors, and because they are helpful and are companies that I trust.
Required Reading for Bending Spoons
Here are my “Most-Important Books”—or MIBs. If you read only 10 books after college, read these:
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
- Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less by Sam Carpenter
- The E-Myth by Michael Gerber
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life by Neil Strauss
- Vagabonding by Rolf Potts
- Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi
- The Brand You 50 by Tom Peters (or one of his other books on personal branding)
- Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins
See more recommended reading»
eBooks & Guides for Owning Your Universe
Now you should be thinking like a renegade! Here are some fantastic ebooks to help you even further on your journey:
- How to Live Anywhere – the guide I wish I’d written! Karol Gajda walks you through step-by-step how to work from your laptop and enjoy ridiculously extraordinary freedom!
- Source Control – an outsourcing framework for the dangerously ambitious from MuseLife.com genius David Walsh
- Passionate Living – this book is incredible! Don’t let your best possible life get away! Henri Juntilla provides a simple guide to doing what you love
- Cloud Living – How to make money with your blog simply, this details Glen Allsop’s success story about how he built a 4,000-subscriber blog in less than a year and earns a 5-figure monthly income
- 007 Lifestyle: Living Like James Bond – Make a location-independent living, travel the world, stay fit & healthy, and attract beautiful women!
- The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself – Create your own Personal Freedom through a Very Small Business
- The Unconventional Guide to the Social Web – how to get your message to the world using social media to promote and market your business
- Frequent Flyer Master – Chris Guillebeau, on his way to visiting every country in the world, shares all the top secrets for earning free Frequent Flyer miles and getting the most out of them. Even if you don’t fly much, you’ll get all the world’s top vagabond’s travel hacks, and this ebook is guaranteed to pay for itself with a free flight!
- Unautomate Your Finances – A way to simplify your money & get passionate about it, from Baker at ManVsDebt, who eliminated $18K+ in consumer debt and took his family traveling through Australia, New Zealand & Thailand!
- Language Hacking Guide – tips and language hacks from Benny the Irish Polyglot (fluent in 7 languages and counting!), if you’re interested to get to effective fluency in foreign languages, definitely pick this up!
How I Do It
These are the applications, tools, and resources that I use daily and recommend to all my clients and friends. All of my best-kept secrets!
Build Your Business & Online Presence
- WordPress – an easy content management (CMS) system great for blogs, galleries, portfolios, business sites & more.
- BlueHost – reliable, inexpensive, easy web hosting (4 out of 5 of my clients use them). Easy to use, 1-click automatic WordPress installation, and superb customer service!
- WooThemes – incredibly awesome, powerful, open-source themes for WordPress for a reasonable, affordable price. Most of them come loaded with premium features and tie in nicely with Flickr photos and Twitter status, etc. My site is a heavily-customized FreshNews design from WooThemes.
- ThemeForest – more great, inexpensive HTML templates, themes for WordPress and other CMS programs.
- Wishlist Member Pro – if you want to build a community or subscription website, this plugin is the de facto solution for easily turning your WordPress site into a powerful, easily-customizable membership site.
Get WordPress help, the best hosting & themes at FreelanceWP»
Gadgets & Gear for Digital Nomad Workers
- Apple MacBook Pro – intuitive, highly-customizable. The 13-inch unibody aluminum model has been great to travel with (it’s taken a hard hit to the ground probably 4 or 5 times and keeps on going. This thing is a tank!).
- iPhone 3G – grab the unlocking instructions here for use on non-AT&T networks, international travel & data access. Still the best phone I’ve found for running a multi-national business remotely.
- Airport Express – this handy little gadget will turn almost any ethernet connection around the world into an instant wifi network. Fits in my cargo pocket.
- Backup your files frequently with TimeMachine and/or Mozy online backup. Last thing any nomadic entrepreneur wants is to lose their whole business when something catastrophic happens to the laptop.
- I also recommend an external GPRS/EDGE/3G USB Modem to plug into your laptop and grab an internet connection through the cell phone data network anywhere (the beach anyone?) if you’re going to be traveling in developing countries where wifi isn’t as widespread.
See more recommended travel gear»
International Communications & Scheduling
- Gmail – please please please ditch Outlook!
- AwayFind – safeguard your attention. AwayFind will let you know when you get something truly important/urgent in your email, so you can spend more time outside the inbox.
- Skype – call friends & clients around the globe for as little as 3 cents a minute. This is also what I use to do video chats with friends & family (and record my video interviews for this site!)
- Google Voice – previously GrandCentral, this will give you one phone number to route and forward to any phone; highly customizable.
- Tungle.me – a scheduling application that connects with your existing calendar to easily allow others to schedule time during your availability, anywhere in the world.
- Doodle – easily schedule meetings & conference calls between multiple people, across timezones.
- Twitter – learn how to use it, but quickly migrate to a good desktop app like TweetDeck.
- Adium or Meebo can connect AIM, gTalk, MSN, Yahoo chat, Facebook chat and more.
- RescueTime – don’t spend too many hours wasted on Twitter & chat. RT is a great free application that will help you track your hours spent on different projects and limit how long you can spend on time-wasters or social sites.
Online Collaboration & Remote Working Tools
- Google Calendar – shareable calendar and schedule organizer.
- Google Docs – collaborative word processor and spreadsheet applications.
- Adobe ConnectNow – meet live over the web and share your screen with anyone.
- Collabtiv – free alternative to web-based project management apps like Basecamp.
- Dropbox – store and share large files online, or sync your virtual dropbox folder across as many computers & mobile devices as you like.
My Web Development Toolbox
- Cyberduck – open-source FTP for Mac
- Smultron – open-source, user-friendly code editor for Mac
- MAMP – run your own local Apache server
- Firebug – Firefox plugin that makes testing code much easier
- Adobe BrowserLab – test cross-browser compatibility for free (keep this one hush-hush
Distribution, Invoicing & Shopping Carts
- Paypal – You’ll need an account if you want to accept payments from many ecommerce providers online, and it’ll give you easy, simple email invoices you can send.
- FreshBooks – simple online invoicing and bookkeeping.
- e-Junkie – handles all the payment and fulfillment for your ebook, audio, or other information products. Links up easily with PayPal, Google Checkout, Authorize.net, TrialPay, Clickbank & 2CheckOut to get you paid.
- Clickbank – another digital products retailer that’s reasonably priced and comes with an amazing affiliate program for your products.
Online Marketing & Promotion
- AWeber – leading provider for mailing/customer list management, promotional marketing, and autoresponder newsletter campaigns.
- Market Samurai – the most effective software available for doing in-depth SEO keyword research, market research and niche discovery.
- Su.pr – install the bookmarklet in your browser toolbar, submit your links and they’ll be automatically sent to Twitter, Facebook & StumbleUpon! StumbleUpon also has a great CPC advertising program.
- LinkedIn Answers – LinkedIn is the best professional online network, and Answers is the best place to brand yourself, share your expertise with others, and even solicit feedback on your own questions from experienced CEOs and other professionals.
- Fiverr.com – this is a new site for me, but it’s already been helpful for online promotions. It’s a marketplace where people will do a wide range of actions for you for just $5 USD, including many social media promotions activities.
Money & Personal Finance
- ING Direct – fairly high-yield online savings accounts with convenient sub-accounts, so you can create different “buckets” for different savings goals.
- HSBC Bank – one of the best international banks with locations around the globe.
- Charles Schwab – reimburses all ATM transactions and has no international fees on their checking accounts.
- Discover Miles card – Frequent flyer? Get 1 mile per dollar spent, plus 12,000 bonus sign-up miles.
- Mint.com – powerful, free personal financial management application.
- Unautomate Your Finances – A way to simplify your money & get passionate about it, from Baker at ManVsDebt, who eliminated $18K+ in consumer debt and took his family traveling through Australia, New Zealand & Thailand!
Travel & Living the Mobile Lifestyle
- Kayak.com – find the best travel deals, Kayak compares thousands of aggregators.
- Priceline – bid low on last-minute flights and check out their Pricebreaker deals.
- Couchsurfing – meet locals for a drink, a tour, and sometimes free accommodation around the world.
- AirBnB – low-cost vacation rentals and sublets from locals in 87 countries.
- EarthClassMail – get all your snail mail sent to you via email. Great for business backpackers!
- World Nomads – easy, affordable travel insurance recommended by Lonely Planet.
- Passport Visas Express – Tim Ferriss recommends this service for expedited visa services and new US passports. Looks useful, but of course it comes at a price.
- Travel Full-time for Less Than $14,000 per Year – an incredible, lengthy guide on Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich site.
- How to Live Anywhere – the guide I wish I’d written! Karol Gajda walks you through step-by-step how to work from your laptop, create sustainable income streams that you can manage from anywhere and enjoy ridiculously extraordinary freedom to live anywhere you want in the world!
- Frequent Flyer Master – Chris Guillebeau, on his way to visiting every country in the world, shares all the top secrets for earning free Frequent Flyer miles and getting the most out of them. This ebook is guaranteed to pay for itself with a free flight!
- Language Hacking Guide – tips and language hacks from Benny the Irish Polyglot (fluent in 7 languages and counting!), if you’re interested to get to effective fluency in foreign languages, definitely pick this up!
Lifestyle Design Tools
- Ideal Lifestyle Costing from Tim Ferriss
- Dreamlining Worksheet
- Subscribe to Sean Ogle’s Location180 newsletter to get a great free audio podcast all about how to craft your own remote work proposal.
- Source Control – an outsourcing framework for the dangerously ambitious from MuseLife.com genius David Walsh.
- Jet Set Money – Rob & Kim from Jet Set Life share their secrets to making income from anywhere in the world to fund their jet set excursions to tropical locales the world over… Comes with tons of interviews of other lifestyle designers and new rich, with details of their income and how they make their living online.
- Virtual Staff Finder – when you’re finally ready to outsource, you’ll find the hardest part is actually finding quality virtual assistants to help you grow your business. My good friend Chris Ducker has lived in the Philippines for 10 years and runs a BPO firm with over 215+ workers—when I need to find someone I go to him to get connected with the best staff. They do the search, the background checks, and the online testing, then I interview the top 3 candidates and hire my desired applicant. Sign up with my referral page and I guarantee you Chris and his team in Cebu will take great care of you and help you find the virtual staff you need.
Forums, Podcasts & Communities
- 4-Hour Work Week Forums – new rich, lifestyle design, and muse creation; focused on the priciples in Tim Ferriss’ book: elimination, automation, and liberation.
- Lifestyle Business Podcast – the #1 podcast on iTunes for lifestyle designers and lifestyle entrepreneurs. Absolutely awesome fundamentals from Dan Andrews.
- Outsource to the Philippines – another fantastic podcast from Dan Andrews all about outsourcing work to qualified virtual workers in the Philippines.
- Untemplater – a new multi-author blog and community made up of dozens of Gen-Y twentysomethings who are all creating & living their own unique lifestyles outside the norm.
- 30 Day Challenge – Ed Dale’s awesome, free, how-to curriculum that will take you through all the basics of market research, online marketing, and how to make your first $ online.
- Mixergy – Andrew Warner consistently interviews highly-successful entrepreneurs for online business tips. Solid.
- If you need a serious kick in the ass to really invest and build the real business you’ve always dreamed of owning, I highly recommend you get Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit—you’ll get a 365-day plan of attack and 15+ case studies, and he’ll take you by the hand as you build a meaningful business in 1 year with one simple step every day.
O.K. that should me and you busy for at least a week if not longer. Off to eat some Thanksgiving Turkey.