The Affiliate Lifestyle Blog

A Word From Josh…

For the past 2 years, I have been living the dream life. I’m 25 years old and get to travel around the world, doing what I love– and actually make money while doing it. I usually rent an apartment in a city like Buenos Aires or Cape Town and work for a few hours a day from my laptop. The cool thing is that I’m my own boss and I’m actually making money even if I’m taking side trips and need to leave my computer for a few weeks or months.

After college, I started an internet marketing company. I soon realized that with the internet, I don’t need to work from home. I can work from practically anywhere. That led me to my travels through Asia, Africa, India, and South America.

You can check out my travelogue and travel pictures.

If you are anything like me, you want to know how to make as much money as possible with as little effort as possible. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that you can make a boat load of money and not do any work, but if you dedicate yourself and put in the time and effort to learning about affiliate marketing, you are going to start making money. And once you start, you are never going to look back again. (Kirk made $350 his first week!)

Many people I meet on the road ask me how I can afford to be gone for such a long period, and I usually try to explain to them that I’m an “internet marketer.” I always tell these people that they can be doing the same thing I am doing, if only they invest the time in learning. In this book, we will outline some of the methods we are still using today to make recurring income. We will show you how to automate your online business — allowing your business to run in auto-pilot while you are on the road.

Good luck!

A word from Kirk …

At the age of 18 I left the United States to live in central america. There I lived in an Ecovillage in the jungle and learned of more possibilities for life than I had been given growing up. Every day I would wake up with the sunrise, go surfing, and then come back and make breakfast for everyone in the Ecovillage. Afterwards I would do a few hours of work, and then have the rest of the day for myself.

I lived there for just under a year, and really saw just how little is necessary for a great life. It’s a very rewarding experience to know how little you can make do with, and it has helped me with being fearless in my business ventures.

When I came back home from central america I knew I could never fit into the “cookie cutter” experience of typical american lifestyle. It was a shock to see so much “stuff” and so little satisfaction. I left to work on an organic farm a few months after getting back to the US.

Organic farming was the most rewarding “job” I’ve ever held. The pay was not even minimum wage, but the lifestyle and the food were more than enough to compensate. There was a lot of hard physical work, and a few cold mornings, but I walked away with a bit of savings, and a renewed work ethic – a balanced one.

I went home for the winter, and again, couldn’t sit still in my hometown. I made plans to hike the Appalachian Trail, and by April of the next year I was out on the trail, ready to hike the 2,100 miles from Georgia to Maine.

I didn’t finish, only made it halfway. But along the way I had a whole lot of time to think things through, to reflect. I started keeping a journal, being sure to write in it every day. I realised that all this moving around, all this inner discovery meant nothing if it wasn’t shared. So I made a resolution to share my experiences with other people, in whatever way I could. This was the seed of Traveling Forever.

There’s always the grand idea of something, and then there’s the actual creation that comes out. The space between the two can be scary. My first design of Traveling Forever had a big space between the two. So I sat on it, embarrassed for how different it came out from how I imagined it.

Then a couple weeks later I lost my journal. I found it a couple days later, after someone told me it was at a friend’s house. I went there to pick it up, and found out there had been a party and every one read aloud from my journal, and wrote comments at all the juicy parts. I was pissed.

But I wasn’t going to let this get me down. I decided I had nothing to lose from releasing my imperfect site, it was a whole lot less embarassing than that, and so I did. Like Josh said, I made $350 the first week. And then things got better…

Getting Started

Some essentials:

• A computer with internet access (high-speed while you are starting off / slower connection OK while traveling).

• Credit card for expenses.

• $40-$250 (Unfortunately, that ’slogan it takes money to make money is true’).

• 3 weeks to 3+ months to read/learn.

Checklist (Tools/etc)

• A print out of this ebook

• Google.com/ig – Use RSS to track forums and the latest updates on internet marketing websites.

• OpenOffice – Free Microsoft Office (Word, Excel) alternative

• Gimp – Free image editing (Adobe Photoshop alternative) program

• Email account specifically for your website, and your website contacts. Try Gmail.

• Capital. Most webmasters are unwilling to spend any money in creating their site. A little capital goes a long way in creating content and users.

• Brain. Devour any and all information you see on the web. Remember, on the internet ideas are directly translated into dollars.

How to Use This Ebook

This is not meant to be an encyclopedia of all the methods you can use to make money online. What we hope to do in this ebook is to lay the foundation for you. We want you to think creatively about how to expand upon what you’ve learned.The most important thing is to have fun with this. Kirk likes to write about traveling, so he started a traveling website and blog, selling backpacks and secure USB keys. If you have another interest, then do that! Do what you love, and the money will follow.

While reading, you may get a few (or a lot) of ideas on what business(es) you can set up. This is great! Write these ideas down for later. We encourage you to read through this guide first, then become an active member of an internet marketing discussion group. Once you have an idea of what’s going on, then get to work! The only way you are really going to learn is by trying these methods yourself.

How To Make a Recurring Income While Traveling

Lesson 1 – Don’t Panic

We’ve tried to simplify these methods as much as possible, but to tell you the truth, we’re not sure what questions or stumbling blocks you may have while reading this ebook. If we’ve left anything out, let us know!
We want you to succeed, and will help you in every way we can. Join our message board and post a question, or if you have the answer to someone else’s question, reply to it! Feel free to email Josh or Kirk with any questions.

Even though we try to explain our methods as clearly as possible, there is no way to cover every aspect of every topic without creating a several thousand page ebook. For simplicity, we’ve decided to highlight the most important topics and provide you with links to more information, a community message board, and other helpful ebooks.

Helpful Tips
You will probably fail at first. Here’s why:

It will take you a few (or a lot of) attempts before you start making money. Every time you set up a system and it doesn’t make money, that’s an opportunity to learn. The important thing is: DON’T GET DISCOURAGED!

Don’t allow yourself to become distracted.

This industry is full of snake-oil salesman who will try to convince you to buy their product with their long sales letters & testimonials. Before you buy anything, do research! The last thing we want you to do is end up spending money on crappy (or mediocre) tools that will never make you any money. Therefore, don’t believe anyone’s hype (including ours)! And don’t buy useless tools!!

Get the idea of a get rich quick scheme out of your head.

If you just started this ebook and plan on leaving for your trip next week with $1000 in your bank account, you might want to go back to the drawing board. (Or be prepared to work hard your first week!) However, if you are serious about wanting to do this and put in the time and efffort to understand our methods, you will make enough money to travel the world. We are writing from our own personal experience and these methods have made us plenty of money. Set Goals.

1. Write down your goals right now on a piece of paper.
2. Make sure your goals mean something to you.
3. Make sure your goals are specific and measurable.
4. Make sure your goals are challenging and exciting.
5. Your goals must be realistic.
6. Incorporate your principles into your goals.

7. Set daily goals, long term and short term goals. Incorporate a rewards system for yourself.

Get Serious.

The only way to be successful in this world is by hard work. At minimum, a few months of hard work. Clearly define the goals you want to accomplish. Be accountable to yourself. (And remember to have fun — celebrate your success!)

Game Plan

We have organized this ebook into three different online money making techniques. You can chose to learn one method or all three. The important thing is to stick with one method until you get the hang of it before moving onto another method.

The three methods we outline are affiliate marketing, Adsense marketing, and selling your own ebook. Either one of these methods alone is enough to pay for continual travel around the world. Implement two or more of them, and you’re on your way to getting rich traveling the world. We guarantee it.

Helpful Resources

http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/forum/ - Beginners guide to making money on the internet.They publish weekly tips that can help you along the way.

http://www.highrankings.com/forum/ - Post questions and get answers.

http://forum.abestweb.com/ - Find high paying affiliate programs and connect with other affiliate marketers.

http://www.webmasterworld.com/ – Get a webmasterworld account today. Read the forums.Become an active member.Start networking.

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/ - Affiliate Marketing and technical discussion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing - Affiliate Marketing Wiki

Josh’s Search Marketing Bookmarks.