Last month's low-cost travel hacking class filled up quickly, and I've had a lot of requests for another. This time, I'd like to do something different—the topic is: "Working from the Road: How to Make a Living While Seeing the World."
If you're interested, you can sign up here:
NOW SOLD OUT -- Thanks for your interest.
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If you're looking for a way to make extra money or start an all-new business, I'm working on a project that will help you do just that. Until then, the best ideas are usually free, and I learned long ago to give away as much as possible. To start with, read through all of these responses. Many of them won't work for you, but I'll bet some will. And here's another one, from me.
You can become a consultant for hire in less than a day—this post will give you everything you need to get started.
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As expected, I received a flood of responses to Monday's question on paying the bills. In addition to hundreds of site comments (I posted at least half that came through, but it's tough to keep up from the road), we also had hundreds of additional suggestions come in through Facebook and Google+.
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I've spent much of the past four months interviewing unconventional entrepreneurs for my next book, and throughout the process I learned what kind of questions solicit the best answers. For example, I often asked people whether their venture was "worth it," which might sound simplistic. Of course it's worth it! I've learned, though, that this question often leads to a good story, so that's why I ask. I also learned to ask if there was a specific moment when they knew for sure they would make it. These "moment they knew" stories can be fun and inspiring.
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When it comes to working online and making money on the internet, most discussions tend to look at specific tactics. How do you set up a mailing list? How can you get a merchant account? And so on. The answers to these questions may be useful, but you can learn about them elsewhere, and I thought it would be helpful to take a step back and look at something higher-level.
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After I wrote that the first WDS operated at a net loss—financially speaking, not in terms of anything that matters—I was immediately pitched by a number of event planners, venues, and various professional meeting people, all offering me free advice about how we should do things around here. Whoa! Thanks for all the ... unsolicited ... input.
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I recently had the chance to participate in the 99% Conference, a gathering of creative professionals produced by Behance. The team put on a great show at the Times Center in New York, and my (small) part was to conduct a 90-minute “master class” on the topic of Redefining Risk: Increasing Confidence in Your Unconventional…
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Paul was an artist, painting in several mediums and styles. He lived in a Northwestern city known for its love of the arts, if not always its ambition. As Paul grew up, his family and teachers encouraged him to pursue art as a career instead of just a hobby. Paul was not especially organized, as we shall see, but this idea suited him well ...
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One year ago, I was passing through North Dakota on a train from Chicago to Portland. The train was the Amtrak Empire Builder, and I used the occasion to plan the launch of the Empire Building Kit.
A lot can happen in a year's time.
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In Phnom Penh, Cambodia I met Mr. Rhet, who held up a copy of my book to greet me at the arrivals area. Mr. Rhet, also known as Rhett or just Ret, is a professional tuk-tuk driver. The open-air taxis of Southeast Asia, tuk-tuks serve as an interesting introduction to life in the region, and I've had both good and bad experiences with them. In Cambodia last weekend (and plenty of other places), all was well in tuk-tuk land, and I felt safe using them as my primary means of transport. In fact, I enjoyed my time with Mr. Rhet so much that I decided to learn more about the whole tuk-tuk industry.
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In Austin yesterday I met Jodi, who was attending the panel I co-presented with Jonathan Fields. Jodi talked about recently taking her first trip abroad, to Europe. Some active travelers might say a trip like that is “no big deal”—but I understood exactly why she was excited. When you've never left home, your first destination is most definitely a big deal.
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As I look back on the year during my Annual Review, I think about what went well and what didn't in my business work. I've been self-employed for most of my life and have never had a real job, but the learning process over more than a decade now has been entirely through trial and error (lots of trial, lots of error—but I just keep trying things).
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I'm no consultant, but from time to time (as in, several times a day) people ask for my opinion about building some kind of online business. I'm happy to give $0.02 for whatever it's worth, and I'm sure there are times when it's not worth more than that.
How can you do something you love and make a good living from it? Much of my Unconventional Guides business is devoted to answering this question in one way or another. And as discussed before, often when we ask for advice, we don't really want advice—we want someone to say “That's great! Go for it!”
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The question comes up a lot: "If you were starting over with this project, what would you do differently?"
In my case, I probably wouldn't put the domain on chrisguillebeau.com. If you have chrisg.com, that works—but Chris Garrett got to that one first, and for some reason, a lot of people have a hard time with Guillebeau. Oh well.
I would try to have a better understanding of my readers from the beginning, instead of waiting 6-12 months to figure it out. And I would have an agenda and a clear message of what kind of change I was trying to create.
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Greetings from Burlington, Vermont. After today, I have a few days home in Portland, Oregon, then I'll set out to visit the midwest and Great Lakes region starting next week. In this (very windblown) video update, I talk about social media and why if you're trying to build a platform, you should talk about yourself more than others. Stay with me, because this idea is definitely contrarian to the conventional wisdom.
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