Digital Nomad Resources:
Everything You Need To Work From The Beach
Since I have been operating my business on the Internet as a CEO and website founder, with the ultimate aim to work from the beach, I have been using a number of online digital nomad and freelancer tools to help me, and as a result they have now become something I am prepared to recommend.
All of these tools I have used and rate highly, but I know there’s more out there and I’m on the hunt to find the best ones. By now you will know a little bit about me and that I don’t make anything but honest recommendations. Besides, I’ve almost died and I don’t believe in fairytales anymore. If you don’t believe me then you might want to read my story.
As I’m constantly learning I will continue to share my findings here and I’ll point you in the right direction for:
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Immediate access to the Ultimate Glamping Business Plan template for inspired freelancers who want to work outdoors more often;
- All the steps to help you launch and grow a retreats business around your passion, anywhere in the world. So whether you are interested in yoga, meditation, crafting, pet care, health, wellness or physical fitness (to name a few potential retreats) you will find everything you need to know in the Perfectly Planned And Profitable Retreats System®
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Regular inspirations to encourage your dream of working from the beach
- Ways to attract Powerful Publicity to boost your overall vision and give you the media attention you deserve.
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Many more giveaways and ‘how to’ guides, such as how to organise your remote office.
All you need to do is add your dreams a bit of hard work and stir it up for a lot of success.
What do you have to lose?
Come on… the beach is waiting for you.
Other Tools When Out On The Open Road (Or Beach!)
Small Business Websites
The easiest and fastest way to get online is to ask someone to do it for you. There are many options available for you to use, however it is worth bearing in mind the following.
Experts predict that more visitors will be surfing the web by mobile devices that static computers, and this is backed up by research that shows web traffic generated by mobile devices is growing rapidly.
However, about 80% of websites are not keeping up with this user trend and are not optimized for mobile devices. This gives you an opportunity to jump ahead of your competition by having a well designed and mobile-friendly website.
There are a number of ways to achieve this cheaply, and I suggest starting your search with a website developer that specialises in the needs of small businesses.
Kajabi
We are totally invested in the Kajabi tool for digital nomads. Not only does it do everything it promises, but it helps take the pressure off you and streamlines all the tools you’ll ever need, effortlessly. We have been running our flexible business, which is not location dependent, using their software for years and it is now our number 1 recommendation. If you get this you won’t need anything else and you can stop reading here as you won’t need any other bells and whistles as Kajabi has it all. To find out more and sign up for a FREE TRIAL, visit this page.
WordPress
WordPress is a good website option, although it has come under attack from hackers in recent years, with many sites being infected with rogue software or completely taken down. However, with the right security arrangements in place this should not be a problem. Over all wordpress is simple to use, easy to manage and has endless possibilities.
In the simplest terms there are two WordPress options.
Option 1 – By visiting WordPress.com you can set up a free to use site that WordPress hosts from its servers. You manage the content and they manage the background files. This is a fantastic, easy and value for money way of getting your business online. It can be set up in moments, a theme can be applied immediately to make it look right for you and then you’re in business. However, there are a few drawbacks. Your themes are limited and you can’t add plugins which allow you to do many more exciting things… and that brings me to option 2.
Option 2 – By visiting WordPress.org you can download the background files to build a new site and upload them to a server of your choice. Having your own stand-alone WordPress site allows you to have complete choice, complete access and total management of your site. This can open a lot of doors in terms of earning an income online, essential if you want to work from the beach, and search engines love them. However, there are also drawbacks here. The responsibility for your site, its security and protecting its content lands at your feet.
WordPress sites are really easy to set up and use and adapt as your site grows and your needs change. If you only intend to have an information site to illustrate your business the stick with WordPress.com, however, if you intend to monetize your site and use it to make money then you definitely need the WordPress.org version. But before you rush off to download the WordPress.org files and confuse yourself with jargon (as I did) you’re going to have to think about which company is the best to host your new website, so read the section below before you go any further.
Website hosting
Bluehost
If you’re going to choose option 2 above to build your WordPress site and want to find a host, then I suggest you consider Bluehost. Firstly they’re the number 1 recommended host from WordPress.org themselves and secondly I haven’t currently experienced any problems with their service, even though we have a cross-Atlantic partnership. In fact, even when my site was hacked I was able to chat with Bluehost and arrange immediate action to remedy the situation. Thankfully they arrange automatic backups of your site just in case this type of thing happens (and believe me when I say it does!)
The added bonus (and this is a HUGE bonus!), they can automatically upload your WordPress.org Management System at a touch of a button from your control panel and it takes only a few minutes… and I should know as I timed it! This means you don’t need to know any FTP, HTML, JavaScript or any other scary computer code to set up your WordPress website, and if your mind isn’t already made up then I’m happy to say they are also one of the cheapest hosting companies around. Brilliant!
WordPress Plugins
There are so many brilliant plugins to help you effortlessly manage paid for adverts, automatically change links to money-making links, keep your site secure, keep it loading quickly, allow social sharing, and help you optimise your site, as well as many others uses.
As there are so many and they have such good results have decided to reveal all the plugins I use, and therefore recommend, in a future post where…
… I will also reveal the number 1 plugin I use to automatically monetize my sites links and sign me up to 30,000 affiliate schemes automatically in a matter of minutes, so sign up for updates so you don’t miss out.
WordPress Themes
Woo Themes
I personally love the themes Woo offer and use them on all my sites. They are clean, SEO friendly and many of them are free. They also offer some wicked plugins and extensions, again for free. So if you want to sell products from your site and need an e-commerce theme or a slider with a portfolio of images, etc., Woo will have the theme you can add to your WordPress site to make all of that happen without having to employ a designer.
Help With The SEO Jungle (Search Engine Optimisation)
Google Trends
A fantastic tool that allows you to research and compare trends appearing through search queries being used by people using the Internet. They include top regions and cities where people are from and related keywords. This helps with identifying trends, keywords, who the audience for your business might be and therefore how you can find and communicate with them. However, I use Market Samurai above to do all of this and more for me in a fraction of the time.
Google Insights
This is another fantastic and free tool from Google that allows you to compare different search terms users are typing in when using the Internet and study the emerging trends. Research using this tool is essential if you are thinking of setting up an online business. It’s a great one to use if you are looking for a new business idea based around new trends.
Google Webmaster and Bing Webmaster Tools
Two essential places to visit if you want the search engines to notice your site. Here there are an array of tools, but the two I use are the keyword tools and website verification tools. Both are essential and help your site stand out and get noticed.
Checkout / Shopping Carts
Gumroad
Gumroad’s aim is to take the hassle out of selling so you can focus on making.
Paypal
We all know what this does, and if you upgrade to the verified business account then you have a lot more tools made available to you, such as invoice generation, checkout buttons you can add directly to your site, etc.
Making Money From Your Website
This could be one of the biggest sections of this page, however, I’m going to keep it brief and save the best bits for a future post on the site. In the meantime let me tell you about two tools I have used to allow me to earn money from potentially 20-30,000 merchants across the internet automatically with only 10 minutes time invested by me.
It works really simply and I was amazed that in a matter of minutes I was earning with my sites once I’d added a snippet of code using a plugin. This code tracks your website and the links within it and changes them to affiliate links automatically. This can save you hours and hours of time having to sign up to individual affiliate schemes. It also means the content of your site doesn’t have to change or be influenced by your need to earn a living. Instead the reader comes first when you are writing. If a reader then clicks on a link and decides to make a purchase then you get a commission for the referral at no extra cost to the reader who clicked and bought.
Skimlinks
I have used Skimlinks for years and am very happy with their service, payment process and account statistics. They have recently updated their dashboard showing many more page statistics and purchase analysis, so its easy to see what your readers like best. I would definitely recommend them.
Viglink
I have just started using Viglink, so I have not yet experienced their payment processes or account statistics, so I will keep you posted on this as time progresses. The benefit of using this instead of Skimlinks is the shear number of merchants they have signed up to their scheme. This is why for a trial period I am testing this new system to analyse if my website income increases.
Google Adsense
In my opinion this should be used in small amounts on a website. Too many Google adverts can make a site look low quality and spammy, so while I do use it, I am careful how I use it. I make sure the adverts are targeted well and try to add them to a page where I think it doesn’t have a detrimental effect on the readers experience, which I personally believe should always come first.
Marketing
Survey Monkey
If you already have a following or access to a community of people you can use this free survey tool that allows you to easily build your own survey, distribute it and then analyse the returning data. This is hugely valuable if you have an idea but are not entirely confident of its value to the potential customers. With this you can ask them directly. Just remember to keep your questions short, simple and ask nicely *smile*.
Gleam
If you want to run competitions on your website to encourage people to share your links and information, then Gleam is a brilliant tool that allows it to happen effortlessly. It’s in beta at the moment and is run by some great computer dudes who bend over backwards to help you if you have any problems. Highly recommended, and while it’s in beta its free to join.
Rafflecopter
This widget you can add to your site operates just like Gleam (above). I have used both options for competitions and like each of them, however, I have found the developers at Gleam to be more friendly and helpful so far.
Email Marketing
MailChimp
I use Mailchimp for all of my email marketing and absolutely love them. They are brilliant if you want to build an email list cheaply and effectively and send out professional looking mail to your followers to keep them engaged. This can all be done automatically if you want, making sure your followers get regular updates and you get to work from the beach.
AWeber
This tool gives you more options than Mailchimp and will be something I may move onto as my list gets bigger and more complicated. What I particularly like about AWeber is the ability to programme when and in what order emails are sent out to new followers. This is brilliant if you are planning to offer email based training for example.
Web Analytics
Google Analytics
A brilliant (and free) tool to measure who visits your site, where they come from, what they do when they are there and what they might be looking for. This is essential information to look at if you want to understand your audience and provide a site they want to visit time and time again. If adding the code is a concern to you then you can use the free plugin, Google Analyticator, to make it as easy as pie.
Clicky Stats
Something I also use is Clicky Stats. They offer a really good real-time snapshot of what’s happening on your site at any given moment. Its added by a plugin and allows you to get a really good idea of what’s happening and therefore what you might have to do as a result. It is particularly exciting to watch if you have a flood of traffic for some reason. I like to use Clicky Stats for daily monitoring and Google Analytics for a bigger overall picture and analysis.
Training
There are so many elements to making money through a blog I always recommend starting from the beginning and investing in a training programme from an expert that can help you on your way quickly.
Inspired Courses
This training hub has been designed for online entrepreneurs and those with a desire to follow their dreams of a lifestyle outdoor hospitality business. There’s a lot of free advice, as well as courses to help you delve through the social media jungle and business development stages.
As always, please do your homework and only use what’s right for you and your situation, and take a moment to look at my disclaimer.
Have you got any recommendations you would like to pass on? Looking forward to hearing from you.