Perfect working dream?

[golddiggerguy]

Less is more. Quality over quantity..

But Quality still needs to be more than just one website or even just 3 in one sector.

Totally forgot about web work as in building sites and support (which I do too) so a selection all add up and get you through.

Monthly contracts and income work hand in hand with the big one off deals.

Up and down on the merry go round world of the web.

 

[BREWSTERS]

If I had more time and inspiration I think I would consider opening a pool bar somewhere.

Christ, I'd drown changing the barrels in the cellar

 

[fabpack]

The most interesting thing is how diverse our "perfect life" dreams are.

I'm happiest working with a laptop and mobile phone at our stables, watching the horses, in most temperatures as long as it's dry.

 

[murph]

Funny how everyones chasing the same dream lol

We spent 7 weeks in California earlier this year for the exact purpose of scoping it out to go live....

Then Google fucked things up royally.

Lesson in life really. You cant run a business on SEO. Period. You deffo cant uproot your life and loved ones and risk a foreign move if you run a business on SEO.

So... we're starting a different more traffic diverse business now because lets be honest... who wants to live in the dream location and be sat there checking ur iphone constantly to see if ur still on page 1 for xyz keyword. Wake up, take your morning dump and first thing you do is check the serps. No way to live.

Oh this seems like a long long time ago LOL

I have to say, I check my iPhone before even getting out of bed!! Totally agree about the dangers of living by the seo. It is scary in recent times.

 

[JMOT]

Great thread.





Not sure where in California you were looking but my gf and I sat down a while ago to work out where we would like to live and San Diego came up very near the top.

Santa Barbara.

San Diego went on the list of places to go next visit

 

[bedazzledaz]

Great thread this, if I didn't have to pay a mortgage and stuff, and was single I would spend my time in Cyprus, renting a nice villa with a pool, that's the life

Maybe I should just go there and develop cyprus.org.uk while I'm at it

 

[Marcoose]

I basically do this from Thailand. Much cheaper to live out there than the UK and earnings are basically the same. 15-20 mins from three beaches, a big shopping centre and there are three Thai Boxing camps on my road (a BJJ one opening soon). Highly recommended if only for a few months! I love the UK but hate the weather among other things and am happy to spend a few years away from the doom and gloom.

Downsides of Thailand:

Corrupt police (although this can go in your favour - drunk on your moped? Pay a tenner and you're left to go on your merry way).
Shite roads.
Thai people don't know how to drive.
The heat can be too much all the time.
Thai's don't really "do" pavements so it's pretty much impossible to walk anywhere.

Upsides:

Beautiful beaches.
The women are fantastic - some really good looking girls and they are such a laugh.
The sun (pros and cons).
Cheap (Can get a lovely 3 bed house for £3-400 a month and that's where I am in Phuket (expensive), £1.50 for a decent meal ( no dishes - ever!).
Good nightlife.
LOTS of fitness facilities if that's your bag.

Just got thinking whilst away on my jolly holidays (Mrs at home) about working abroad in the sun, sat pool side, drinking beer and basically living the ideal job with a laptop controlling your empire or a few dozen mini sites 1000's of miles away from the cold wet mess the UK is at the moment.

Who has a business totally internet based with no face to face clients and can or do live in warmer countries?

I'm sure a few affiliate marketing gurus have nailed it so they could and know of a few not far off it. So all do-able!

Nice one to aim for and I'm sure wouldn't take much if you don't plan to party hard every night whilst out in the sun.

June in the UK and is at the moment where I'm from cloudy, cold, wet, windy and not summertime weather.

 

[mally]

Wow!!

 

[dragon]

Really good thread, enjoyed reading everyones version of their ideal lifestyle/country to live in. I'd be quite tempted by Greece, seems to tick all the boxes for me.
Interesting comments about relying on SEO also. Hard lesson to learn But once you dust yourself off and start thinking outside the box and other opportunities, can tell google to shove it.

 

[KingDomainNames]

I am smiling from Marcoose's comment about Thailand - brought back good memories

Ideally, I'd divide my time up - 3 months each in S.E.Asia, Nepal, San Fran, and the Cook Islands, and pop back to Wales for 2 weeks each year.

Saw that Mark (iamrofe) put Bangkok up for offers recently, hope he keeps it and gets out there for 3 months and develop the name - he won't regret it !

 

[retired_member34]

So... we're starting a different more traffic diverse business now because lets be honest... who wants to live in the dream location and be sat there checking ur iphone constantly to see if ur still on page 1 for xyz keyword.

Exactly my plan. When I developed my first site in 2004 I had no clue about serps or ranking, just how to make a good looking site using an original idea. It worked well, but then later as G became more dominant I have followed the wrong road and just looked at keyword ranking as the answer. I'm throwing out everything I've learned in the last 5 years and going back to basics.

 

[tifosi]

Exactly my plan. When I developed my first site in 2004 I had no clue about serps or ranking, just how to make a good looking site using an original idea. It worked well, but then later as G became more dominant I have followed the wrong road and just looked at keyword ranking as the answer. I'm throwing out everything I've learned in the last 5 years and going back to basics.

Get the feeling that's what Google has done with Panda/Penguin...


but not to digress. More stories and pictures of far away places please!! Gotta dream!

 

[Marcoose]

I am smiling from Marcoose's comment about Thailand - brought back good memories

Ideally, I'd divide my time up - 3 months each in S.E.Asia, Nepal, San Fran, and the Cook Islands, and pop back to Wales for 2 weeks each year.

Saw that Mark (iamrofe) put Bangkok up for offers recently, hope he keeps it and gets out there for 3 months and develop the name - he won't regret it !

Cracking place but need to always be on your toes (as you will know ). Did you hear about those two Canadian sisters that died on Phi Phi Island on the weekend? The police are already trying to cover it up as food poisoning. This sort of stuff happens way too often. It's a shame because if it wasn't for the corruption, pretty much on every level, it really could be a regional powerhouse.

Going forward though Im thinking of dividing my time between the UK, Thailand, somewhere hot in Europe (Algarve, Rhodes, Ayia Napa or somewhere similar), and Canada. Google willing of course!

The Google thing - we've all had to up our games on the web dev front. SEOing a site into an X,XXX a month "business" isn't typically a 2-3 month affair any more and it's a lot more costly. My approach has changed completely. Now it's all about choosing quality domains/sites to concentrate on, doing SEO the "right" (whatever that means) way and hopefully getting a good few years of earnings out of it. Either that or getting lucky in a niche where you can make good money through PPC (not sure there's many of those left) or by way of social marketing. All I know is that I dread ever having to work in an office again and I'll do whatever I have to, legally and ethically, to stay out of that environment....

... having said all this, I do sometimes envy those people that are in 9-5 jobs and actually enjoy them. The structure and normality is one thing I miss.

 

[KingDomainNames]

Re: Canadian sisters - wow, no - didn't know that.
When I first arrived in S.E.Asia (was only there about 3 months sadly) someone said "Expect the Unexpected..." and they were right...
I still laugh at the police at the Full Moon Party - they were enjoying more than anyone !
I won't mention how bonkers Pattaya was.... (generally, not the police)

I understand what you say about the 9-5, used to be part of it, sometimes miss the security of it (public sector) but don't wish to return to it if I can help it

 

[retired_member33]

Just been reading up on this thread, love reading stories like this.

Sit down, grab a drink and I will tell you the story of my life and why I started doing this internet thingy.

I dropped out of Uni doing a Maritime technology and decided to find a job until the next year would start so took up a temp job at a large Danish shipping company with the intention to go back to uni.

After a few months I was actually enjoying it a lot and they offered to pay my uni courses if I would do it part-time so decided to continue working and study part-time.

Then after another few months a HR rep told me that my IQ and Social IQ were a perfect match with their management traineeship qualifications so I joined that scheme and stopped Uni.

It was a 2 year traineeship and I lived in Holland, Belgium, Denmark and Northern Ireland and travelled to China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and a few other countries and made a lot of friends from all over the world.

When I graduated I decided to continue working in Northern Ireland.

Then after 1 year I was asked to do a company take-over in Denmark so went there...

During things took a turn for the worst.. I hated my job and was constantly having arguments with the project managers and even the company CEO and I was taken off the project.

I have always had issues with authority, rules and people telling me what to do and this was just too much so I decided to opt for an easier job where I would work in shifts and work in that role for one year and spend as much time working on my websites until I made as much as I did in my current job.

Just to clarify.. I already had 2 ferry related websites but grew that portfolio to about 10 websites within that year.

In October last year I resigned from my job and decided to become 100% self employed.

I then moved back to Northern Ireland (girlfriend is Irish) and that's where I am currently living and in September we will be moving to Spain.

The best thing about working 100% online is the freedom, I work whenever I want, where I want and do things exactly how I want to... And yes I have made enough mistakes along the road but as Einstein once said..“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”


This was my working life in a nutshell, I bet I forgot to mention a lot of things but hope you enjoyed it.

 

[Marcoose]

Great post - hearing about people's experiences is eye opening.

I have always had issues with authority, rules and people telling me what to do .

This is me 100%. Can't stand having some little arse licker telling me to do more. No matter how good or bad I've been at a job it's never been good enough. No more earning an average wage working for a company that is never happy no matter how well I've done for them. Corporate life is bs after bs after bs.

 

[retired_member33]

Good to hear that mate, always love reading how and why other people ended up becoming domainers/affiliates so decided to share my experience

The traineeship I did was one which is normally only available to people with degrees and all the blabla, still consider myself lucky to have made it in and graduated from it.. I could have been some manager or director now judging of what fellow trainees do nowadays but I am glad I decided against it..

I don't even want to think of how boring and frustrating my life would have been now if I would have stayed in the company and had to listen to some arse licker every day... I would have been flying up against the wall every day.

Why not share your story as it seems your living the good life over there in Thailand.

Great post - hearing about people's experiences is eye opening.



This is me 100%. Can't stand having some little arse licker telling me to do more. No matter how good or bad I've been at a job it's never been good enough. No more earning an average wage working for a company that is never happy no matter how well I've done for them. Corporate life is bs after bs after bs.

 

[retired_member33]

One of the bloggers who have actually helped me make the decision of going self employed is John Lamerton, read some of his posts over and over and it's a shame he is not blogging anymore nowadays.

Especially this post has been an inspiration for me: http://www.lammo.net/affiliate-marketing/56/giving-up-the-day-job/

 

[Marcoose]

Good to hear that mate, always love reading how and why other people ended up becoming domainers/affiliates so decided to share my experience

The traineeship I did was one which is normally only available to people with degrees and all the blabla, still consider myself lucky to have made it in and graduated from it.. I could have been some manager or director now judging of what fellow trainees do nowadays but I am glad I decided against it..

I don't even want to think of how boring and frustrating my life would have been now if I would have stayed in the company and had to listen to some arse licker every day... I would have been flying up against the wall every day.

Why not share your story as it seems your living the good life over there in Thailand.

In a nutshell: grad in business 2006, split up with ex did one to ayia napa for 6 months (crazy) came back and worked in sales for a couple of years - was a "top performer" but still had people on my case the whole time (wtf)), started my first site in 2008 (sports betting), developed that til it made what i was earning in my job. I then started another site that made/makes good money. Penguin hit and messed up some really good prospects (same story as most). Now earning alright money living out here doing affiliaate stuff and domaining. Want my boy Nick to come back out but he's too busy now in corporate world!... Plus he doesnt know how to ride a scooter lol.

 

[Marcoose]

Good to hear that mate, always love reading how and why other people ended up becoming domainers/affiliates so decided to share my experience

The traineeship I did was one which is normally only available to people with degrees and all the blabla, still consider myself lucky to have made it in and graduated from it.. I could have been some manager or director now judging of what fellow trainees do nowadays but I am glad I decided against it..

I don't even want to think of how boring and frustrating my life would have been now if I would have stayed in the company and had to listen to some arse licker every day... I would have been flying up against the wall every day.

Why not share your story as it seems your living the good life over there in Thailand.

I think most of us take for granted how lucky we are to not have to work the office life. Don't think about how it could have been but be thankful that you don't have to deal with that mundane 9-5... long may it continue.