My First Post - Another Blog for the Pile

Back when I wrote my first post I didn’t have many expectations for this blog. The reason I got started with the whole blogging thing was to connect with other travellers and like-minded people. I actually hated the blogging platform at first and moved to it reluctantly. I’m happy I stuck with it, though!

The Post I Enjoyed Writing the Most - 24 Travellers to Inspire You

It was really fun listing off all of the travellers who’ve inspired me over the years in a lot of different ways. I found some amazing new blogs to read and I was certainly uber inspired by each of the 24 people in a bunch of different ways.

A Post With a Great Discussion - 10 Reasons Why the Olympics are a Better Event than the World Cup

This recent post about the World Cup vs the Olympics got a few people fired up and a pretty good discussion came out of it. (Olympics rule!)

A Post I Wish I Had Written - The Benefits of Selling Everything You Own

First, I’m not that into ’stuff’ so I love the topic of this post. Second, it’s a really, really funny read and I love a slightly warped sense of humour. It’s also nice to find someone else who’s slightly obsessed with their Macbook Pro.

My Most Helpful Post - How I Wrote My First Ebook

This post got a lot of positive feedback from people and it’s one of the few posts I write where I give a step-by-step sort of summary of what I’ve done. I couldn’t really find too much information at the time on writing, designing and marketing an ebook all in one place so I hope this post pointed people in the right direction.

A Post With a Title I’m Proud Of - Short Skirts and Learning to Say Yes

Titles aren’t my strong point but I quite like the title of this recent post. I usually write the blog post first and when it comes time to write the title, I just want to get the post online and don’t usually put much thought into it. I’m going to try to get better at my titles though. Starting on my next post…

A Post I Wish More People Had Read - This is Why I Love Travelling

I used to have this blog and another travel blog but I combined them last year. It meant that the posts from my unpopular travel blog got buried in the content of this blog and not a lot of people read them. I really love this post because it reminds me of the bizarre or uncomfortable moments that make travel great for me.

If anyone else has taken part in this 7 Link Challenge thing, post links to your own entries in the comments so we can all take a look. I think it’s a great way to get new readers up to speed so hopefully I’ll find some cool new blogs to read!

I’ve been in Kigali for less than a week and I feel like I’ve been here for ages. There’s something about this place the just feels comfortable. I had a good feeling about the country as soon as I boarded the clean, spacious, road-worthy bus at the Tanzanian border that was driven at a normal speed to Kigali. When I pulled into the city, I was met with rolling hills, beautiful views and friendly people and I knew I would like it here.

It helped that I had arranged to stay with a Belgian friend of mine who I met as a volunteer in Gonaives, Haiti. She’s been in Kigali for five months doing an internship at a school close to the city centre and had a pretty sweet room ready for me when I arrived. She’s been here for five months and is about to head off to do some travelling, but I can stay for as long as I need to. The school gave her a fantastic send off yesterday with singing and dancing, much of which was done by children and was slightly pornographic, but their parents were there, so I guess it’s ok? The only other time I’ve seen so much ass-shaking by a pre-teen was in Haiti. Thankfully, the Rwandan children kept the lap dancing to a minimum.

My friend has forged some great relationships through her work at the school which was obvious from the multiple gifts she received (my personal favourite was the set of six wine glasses - totally impractical considering her next move is to travel by bumpy bus to through Uganda and Kenya to Tanzania) and the tears that were shed. Schools and kids aren’t my thing but I feel like if I don’t get involved in some sort of volunteer work, I’ll be missing out on a great opportunity not only to help out a bit but also to meet some fantastic people, get involved in some interesting projects and learn about Rwanda from a more authentic perspective.

On the surface, Kigali appears have it’s shit together with good roads, nice supermarkets, internet access, and clean streets. Besides the occasional water or power outage, I feel like I could be anywhere in the world. I think the reality is a lot more sinister with people fearful of openly criticizing the government, people living in shacks in the valleys without clean drinking water, and all of the usual issues found in any developing country. It would be really easy for me to come here, work on my internet stuff, hang out at expat places, make a nice circle of expat friends and live a great life but I would really start to hate myself for it, if I did. It’s easy to get comfortable and to stay in the expat bubble but I’m going to do my best to get involved in the community through volunteer work and learn as much as I can about Rwanda.

I haven’t found any volunteering opportunities yet, but I have managed to get my act together a lot quicker than usual and have landed a place to live already. I had been in touch with a bunch of people but only looked at two houses before I made my choice. The first was a little out of town but it was a great place with a fantastic view, a nice kitchen, two bathrooms and a dog. Part of the rent went towards the NGO As We Forgive which seems like a great cause (and hopefully one I will be able to help out with). The second house, and the one I decided on, is a bit closer to town, a bit cheaper and it has an avocado tree in the backyard that’ll be ready at the end of August to feed me. How could I possibly resist an avocado tree? The people are nice and I actually found the place through a contact on Twitter and I’ll be staying in the same room as her. Small world.

I’m pretty excited about staying put for awhile and it looks like Kigali will be a great fit. Any city that has motorcycle taxis for me to zip around on and back yards with avocado trees is ok with me!

I needed to go from Arusha on the eastern side of the Serengeti to Mwanza on the western side. The recommended route is up through Kenya to Nairobi and then back down on the other side of the national park. I didn’t want to go through Nairobi and pay the visa fee for Kenya, so that was out. Then there was the straight through the park approach which sort of seemed appealing until I read that I would have to pay at least $50 in park fees and I wasn’t likely to see any animals as I would be hurtling past them at breakneck speeds. That left the third option, past the park on the southern side. Cheap and I didn’t remember reading anything bad about the route (although I don’t remember reading anything at all) so how much worse than the other routes could it possibly be?

I boarded a bus with three seats on one side and two on the other. It was pretty crammed but I was lucky to have a window seat. We got going at 6am on the dot and as I settled in I thought to myself ‘this isn’t so bad’. That’s about when the paved road ended and my hell began.

The dirt road was hard and full of bumps and potholes, but it was also covered in sand and red dirt which meant it was seriously dusty. Fortunately, it was cool enough to be able to keep the window closed. Unfortunately, once we hit the bumpy road the window took on a life of its own, violently shaking open with each bump. The latch was broken and the stiff window was too hard to close with my fingers. There were two holes where the handle used to be and every five minutes I would have to take out a pencil, stick it in the hole and use it to close the window. Sometimes I wasn’t quick enough (I might have left it for six minutes instead of five) and a truck would come thundering past, sending dust and dirt through the two inch space. By the time we reached the rest stop, my face was covered with red dirt.

The rest stop was another cause of panic! I didn’t think we were ever going to stop for a break. We must have stopped ten times in six hours with nobody on the bus making a move to get off… I was convinced everyone in this country has superhuman bladders. The journey was hellish at the start but when I got to hour five and thought I was going to pee my pants, that’s when things really got hellish. Fortunately for me, my pants, the person sitting next to me and the bus upholstery, we stopped at hour six for 15 minutes before being herded back on board to continue the journey.

After ten hours, a bruised ass, a possibly broken computer and camera, a face covered in dirt and a damaged bladder we were approaching a large city - Mwanza! Right? This is the final stop… right? ‘No, this is Shinyanza’.

This is about the point where I wanted to kill myself. Shinyanza, from what I could remember from the map I had glanced at, was only the halfway point. Did that mean that when the bus ticket guy said the bus would arrive at four, he meant 4am? Did that mean that I had another 10 hours of this hell journey ahead of me?!? PANIC. Nobody seemed to be able to give me an answer so I sat there, willing the bus to crash.

‘It’s not that bad. The road is paved again. I’ll just have a snooze and when I wake up, hopefully I’ll be there.’ Driving… driving… zzz… BANG!!! ‘What the f-??? BUH BANG!!!

Speed bumps! The fricking highway had speed bumps! And guess what? The driver didn’t slow down one bit. We took those suckers at full speed, launching us passengers in the back a foot in the air each time and scaring the living hell out of me. Going over speed bumps at 130kms an hour is LOUD.

So at this point, as far as I knew I had another nine hours of speed bumps and the sun was down so I couldn’t even read my book in between the bumps. Plus I had a splitting headache and I needed to pee again. I wasn’t sure what to do so I ate some popcorn and tried to zone out. BANG!!! ARG!!!

We arrived into Mwanza after four hours instead of the expected ten, so I guess I was relieved although all I felt was utterly exhausted and defeated. I’m not sure how I survived those four hours without throwing myself out the window. It’s probably because the window wouldn’t open the whole way, actually.

I shared a cab into town with a youngish Kenya lady (she had shown me the way to the toilets as I wandered around looking panicked) and her 71 year old husband-to-be from England who looked like he was about 100. How he survived that journey, I will never know. I passed out at about 9pm happy to be alive.

Anyone got any terrible bus journey stories to share?

The People Who Contact Me

I generally get contacted either by individuals like me who run some sites on their own, by the in-house marketing department of larger companies, or by SEO companies that are representing those larger companies.

The person who contacts me and the site they represent is important because I generally treat them in different ways. While I would like to charge top dollar for advertising on my sites, I don’t. If a small-fry like me approaches me then I’m not going to quote my highest price as it will scare them away. I know they’ve probably got a small budget and will try to work within it. Of course if I look at their site and it looks pretty successful, I might push that price higher.

Likewise, if I’m contacted by someone from an SEO company representing a major hotel chain, I know that hotel chain has set aside money not only to employ an SEO company but also to buy enough ads to justify it. I assume they’ve got a big budget and I’m going to quote my highest price and hope for the best.

How They Find Me

I asked one of my recent advertisers who works for an SEO company how he goes about finding links. He told me that one way is for them to decide on topics that are relevant (in my case it would be travel) and then start searching for authoritative sites on the subject and approach them to advertise. From there they can either look for further recommendations from the site’s owner (their online firends, sites they like etc.), or they can just follow the links on their page until they get to more sites of interest, and then contact that site’s owner.

Another way is to do what he calls ‘competitive backlinking’ where they will look at the site’s competition and attempt to get the same links. The idea here is that if one site has the same links as their competitor’s, they have a chance at achieving as high a ranking with Google. So if my site links to their competition’s sites, then they might get in touch with me to get a link as well.

What Advertisers are Looking For

When I’m contacted by potential advertisers they almost never ask about my traffic stats or my PR (a ranking used by Google that is popular for gauging the success of a website… look it up if you want to know more). I assume they figure out my PR before contacting me, but I don’t know this for sure. I think advertisers are looking for quality websites that are an authority in their niche. They don’t need to have a million readers or a high PR but I think they do need to have a strong focus and quality content.

I don’t think companies are interested in advertising on sites that were built to make money with Adsense or affiliate programs. Those kinds of sites do their thing and make money, but I doubt they have much appeal to advertisers. Quality content, a decent PR, and a focused niche, and a position as an authority are things that I think are important.

Of course it helps to be in a niche that has potential advertisers. Travel is a good one and can be broken down into all sorts of niches from specific cities to styles of travel to modes of transport or whatever. If you have a site that has information about obscure widgets that has a very small market, it’s less likely you’ll have advertisers knocking at your door.

Why I Do Well With Advertising

I think that I do well because my sites are of a certain quality: the information is good and well organised, the sites look pretty good, and they’re not spammy. Adsense and affiliate links are incorporated into my sites but they’re not plastered all over the place and it’s clear that the site hasn’t been created just to generate revenue through Adsense or sell a product. They’re there to give people information on a specific topic aimed at a specific niche and that fact that this is clear, I think, makes them appealing.

I’m also able to maximise my revenue through advertising because I have several websites across a small range of topics. I have city-specific websites for London, New York, Sydney and Beijing and these are very appealing to accommodation websites, I’ve got a few more general travel sites that seem appealing to lots of different advertisers and I’ve got a travel insurance site that sells ads because it’s in a competitive niche that people need links for. Plus I have Nerdy Nomad which (my only blog, all the rest of my sites are static) has a good number of readers and lots of links back from other related blogs which means that advertisers can find me easily.

Recommendations

I’ve had a few people recommend my site to advertisers and I’ve done the same when advertisers ask me for recommendations. One person in particular has sent several lucrative deals my way and I’ve tried to do the same. I tend to recommend sites that pop into my head first and these are usually owned by people I’ve dealt with over the years and formed a relationship with. Whether it be exchanging ideas on writing a travel website, advice on how to monetize it, general travel tips, tweeting each other (that sounds kind of dirty) or whatever. If I’m friends online with someone, it’s more likely their websites will be the ones I suggest to a potential advertiser.

This means that building relationships online is very important. I think I’m in a good situation because of the nature of my website. Nerdy Nomad has a combination on travel stuff and making money online stuff and I know that I’ve helped a lot of people over the years… whether it be with tips on travel or on how to build and make money from a website. Being transparent is important to me and I like to think I offer some good advice. Plus, I’ve been told over and over that posting about my monthly earnings is inspiring to people. So when they make it big, there’s a chance that my site will be one of the ones that sticks in their heads when it comes to recommending sites to advertisers.

Searching for Advertising Deals

If you’re not the type to sit around waiting for potential advertisers to find you and want to get more aggressive, there are a few things you can do. I don’t really do them so I can’t tell you how well they work, but here are some ideas.

Looking at advertising deals other sites similar to yours is a good way to find some leads. Head to any popular site in your niche and you’re bound to see advertising in the form of text links or images. They can usually be found in the sidebar and will always link out to another site. Look under headings like ‘recommended sites’, ’sponsored sites’, ‘friends’ etc. People often put links down in the footer as well. You will often see the same ad deals across many popular websites so if you think your site is up to scratch, you might have luck. The hard part is finding the right person. Often companies use SEO services which means getting in touch with the person who calls the marketing shots will be pretty difficult.

Looking through offline magazines in the same niche might also work for finding potential advertisers. You’ll have to do some cold calling and that’s annoying, but if you can get a few deals out of it then it’ll be worthwhile. As an example, for my moving to London site, I intend on looking for possible advertisers in TNT Magazine which is aimed squarely at the same niche. One of these days I’ll do that.

I’ve been contacted on occasion by people wanting to swap contacts with me. A ‘you give me that contact and I will give you this one’ sort of thing. but it’s not something I really like to do. It makes me feel a bit sleazy and I don’t really like giving my advertiser’s contact details out to people. But just because I don’t like to do it doesn’t mean that others won’t.

Some Final Notes

I think we’re in the early days of the online advertising game. I feel like more and more major companies will see the advantage in advertising on smaller, independent sites who are an authority in their niche, whether that be travel or something else entirely. I also think that, as more and more advertisers jump on board, the price us website owners can charge for our ads will go up and up. Suddenly we won’t be accepting every deal that walks on by, we’ll be a lot more choosy because more companies will be vying for our limited ad space. That’s the dream, at least!

I hope this article has shed some light on how those big advertising deals seem to appear out of nowhere for me just at the right time. They don’t actually come out of nowhere and I think it’s a perfect example of how a lot of work in the past is paying off for me now. I really do feel like this is the tip of the iceberg for the online advertising world and that quality, authoritative, popular websites on any topic will be able to sell advertising well into the future.

I would love to hear comments on this topic. It was fun typing this all up and putting all of my thoughts on the topic down on paper, so to speak. What are your experiences with finding advertisers? Do they find you, or are you more aggressive about making deals? If you have any questions not addressed here, ask away!

(Oh and one more small thing… always check your spam folder. I don’t know how many times I’ve looked in there to find either a new inquiry about advertising or a followup email sealing the deal.)

After my fantastic couchsurfing experience with Gabriel and his family I was ready to head up to Arusha to get my safari on. I bought my ticket at a manic bus station and was on the bus the next morning bright and early at 5:30am. I was happy to have Gabriel’s security guard help me find the bus as it was a pretty crazy scene, even so early in the morning.

A short while into the nine hour journey Muhammad, the guy sitting next to me, starting chatting to me with the whole ‘where are you from, where are you going, what are you doing, how do you like the weather’ spiel. He’s originally from Kenya but lives in London with his family and he’s in Tanzania for a wedding. His two brothers were sitting in the seats in front of me and after chatting for awhile they all insisted I come to the wedding party that evening at their family home in Arusha. Not having any plans for the evening… sure, why not?

Knowing that the party would be attended entirely by Muslims and not having anything that would cover my legs besides jeans, I was worried about what to wear. I asked Mohammed if a skirt that only went just a little bit past my knees would be ok. He waved me off and said ‘of course, no problem’. Sweet, I suddenly had an outfit.

The night started off with that awkward bit where nothing is really happening yet and everyone around you is speaking in another language. I got the occasional question aimed at me in English or curious look from across the room but for the most part I was staring off into space. Fortunately, the room was filled with colourful decorations and flashing lights that kept my interest for the 20 minutes until everyone arrived.

I’ve been to a lot of places where conservative dress is required, but since Tanzania has a mix of Christianity, Islam and a bunch of others, I thought dress might be a bit more lax than in places like Bangladesh and Indonesia. Well I rocked up and instantly felt like a knee-flashing floozy. I was ok when I was standing up (although that’s debatable because everyone else was covered up to their ankles) but when I sat down, my indecent knees suddenly became exposed and I suddenly became extremely self-conscious of them.

It didn’t help at all that I was sitting in a fairly central location and people were coming up to me all the time to introduce themselves. I wanted to shrink into the shadows but it wasn’t going to happen. Gifts seemed to be exchanged between every member of the family with each person taking a turn sitting in a chair at the front and having photos taken of every other person with them and their gift. Eventually the bride sat in the chair and the major gift-giving, congratulations-giving event began. At the end I was motioned to go up to the bride and congratulate her. Everyone else had already been up for the kiss on the cheek photo op and they didn’t want to leave me out, so up I went, knees and all. The bride was sitting on a chair at the front illuminated by a super bright spotlight for the video camera so there was no escape. I went up for my photo standing beside her holding her hand and then leaned over to give her an awkward kiss on the cheek. I think I might have flashed my boobs to the whole crowd as I bent over. Ah crap.

Later on we went upstairs to repeat the entire process but this time, with the groom. Gifts were given to the groom and then again to the same people that got gifts the first time around. This time they just happened to be in a different room. In this room I was led to a spot on the floor to sit. I love sitting on the floor and can sit cross-legged for a ridiculously long time with no problems. But I couldn’t really have pulled that off in my semi-short skirt so I had to fling my legs to one side and sit like that for about a half hour. I thought my legs were going to fall off after about 5 minutes but readjusting could have led to a possible flashing of the people sitting across from me. I couldn’t really move around subtly either because I was plopped down right near the groom with that same godforsaken spotlight on me the whole time. Eventually I stole some woman’s chair while she was up giving a gift to the groom. Yes, that makes me a terrible person, but it was that or sacrifice my legs in the name of decency.

My favourite part of the ceremony was when people would give a square of chocolate (I wonder if Cadbury’s know they’re a part of Indian/Swahili/Muslim weddings in Tanzania?) to the bride as some sort of ritual thing where she would eat a square. As they did it, they would be looking at the camera posing for the photo and not really paying attention to where the chocolate was going. It was obvious that the bride only wanted to bite off a small corner and it was funny to see her resisting the square with her teeth while trying to smile for the camera as the chocolate was continually smooshed in her face. Priceless.

Through the entire gift-giving process was pretty cool but what really sold me on the whole event was the singing. Damn there was some serious singing going on. Lots of praising of Allah and just really joyful songs that everyone seemed to know the words to. It would take a lot of booze flowing before anyone I know busted into song so ferociously! It was a really great family atmosphere at a special event and I feel lucky to be invited into that.

Something I think really allows people to have these amazing experiences is being open and not so quick to say ‘no’ to crazy ideas or invitations from strangers. I’ve never been too good at accepting generous offers of hospitality or invites. I think I’ve always been too scared of being put in an awkward situation and I think I have still a fear of encroaching on their private lives or of taking up too much of people’s time. I think people are very eager to share their lives and show travellers their country… I think it just comes down to us letting them.

What’s the most random thing that’s happened to you on your travels because you said ‘yes’ to a crazy idea or invite?

I’ve been a member of Couchsurfing almost since the website began but had only participated a measly one time when I was in China. It was a fantastic experience and I constantly wonder why I don’t do it more often and then still end up not doing it. Until last week when I found myself sitting in the lounge room of Gabriel Robert surrounded by his wife and his family of five young children. He lives in Ubungo, a suburb of Dar Es Salaam, the country’s capital city and I was there to Couchsurf for my second time.

In talking to Gabriel it’s easy to tell he’s a very ambitious man who sets goals and knows how to follow through on them. He seems to be a leader in the community and I witnessed him talking to his own children and kids in the neighbourhood about the importance of education and chasing your dreams. His oldest daughter, Mary, wants to be a pilot, his son Carlos wants to be an electrical engineer like dad, and his middle daughter, Glory, wants to be a TV news presenter. I’m not sure what his babies want to do yet but I’m sure they’ll be filled with ideas in no time.

My first morning was spent at a neighbour’s house chatting to the wife of his pastor. They’ve got a pig pen, a small chicken business, and ducks wandering around the property. The young boys were busy working on painting some window frames and we sat down and chatted over a couple bottles of Fanta. I had already spoken a bit to Gabriel about my online work, volunteering, living in the UK and we had also exchanged some ideas about business and I told him I have a business degree. He seemed to pass this information on to each friend he met up with while I was there, telling them all about my travels, work and education as they looked on with approval.

That same night, the pastor and his wife came for a visit and Gabriel showed them the beginnings of a website he’s been working on for their church. He’s been teaching himself HTML and was in the early stages but had managed to get off to a good start and everyone he showed his creation to were impressed. I was really happy to have an opportunity to give him a few tips and teach him a few more of the basics. Gabriel and his family have been ridiculously generous to me so it felt great to be able to give a bit back with my short lesson on HTML.

On the next day it was me who was the student as Mary, Glory and Carlos taught me a bunch of Swahili words on the front porch. Nothing really stuck in my useless memory but I think I grasped the spelling which I think impressed them. I doubt they would have given me a gold star for my efforts, though. But now I’ve got a notebook of words to study and practice with. Unfortunately Swahili seems to be a lot more complicated than Creole so learning even the basics will be a struggle for language-challenged me. When I get to a place with a better connection I’m going to buy Benny’s Language Hacking Guide. Help me Benny!

I attracted the curiosity of the kids when I opened up my computer but it seemed to disappoint with the lack of games. It doesn’t even have card games - the horror! But I did attempt to give a quick lesson in chess. Later when we were watching a Mexican soap opera dubbed over with English-speaking actors, Mary noticed they were playing chess in one scene and seemed a bit interested. I might have turned one of them into a chess geek. Sweet.

One of the more bizarre moments of my travel life happened while we were driving into town on afternoon. We were stuck in what I now know is Dar Es Salaam’s regular, everyday, at all times of the day, traffic jam when Gabriel mentioned that a big truck that was passing was a tourist truck. I didn’t really know what he meant, glanced over and saw a giant Kumuka overland truck complete with my two Aussie friends inside. One was fiddling with the window flap and sort of looking in my direction and I got her attention with the beep of the car horn. The look on her face was priceless. There I was in a car with an entire Tanzanian family in a traffic jam on the outskirts of a foreign city, hanging out the window to get her attention. It was pretty crazy to me that we were in the same place at the same time like that but I’m sure the whole scene is a bit more bizarre for them considering what on earth I was doing there.

I stayed with Gabriel an his family for four nights and they not only fed me and gave me a place to sleep, they also bought me ice cream. Plus, more importantly than the ice cream (yes, it’s possible), I got to hang out with them, meet some of their family and friends, have a bunch of interesting conversations and learn a lot of different things: from what exactly was going on in that Mexican soap opera to how much you can buy and sell a pig for at the market to the state of politics in the country.

I was really made to feel at home and I had an amazing experience. If the rest of my Couchsurfing experiences are anywhere near as great as this one then I will be very happy.

My first impression of South Africa came about 5 minutes after getting in a taxi on a journey from the Cape Town airport into town. There’s a section along the highway on the left as you drive into the city that’s made up of shacks similar to the temporary shelters made of scrap tin Haitians were living in after the earthquake. The difference is that, in Haiti, those structure are (or are meant to be) temporary. A bit further up the highway were some more respectable houses that were almost identical to the transitional shelters we were building in Indonesia. Again, a temporary measure in Indonesia but seemingly permanent in South Africa.

A few days later I found myself in a car with a couple of friends cruising down the Garden Route between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. The scenery was beautiful but really struck me was the amazing houses along the way. So many huge places with fancy cars in the driveway surrounded by electric security fences. Then as we drove on, on the outskirts of each town… more shacks.

I spent couple of days in Durban walking around, one day I was searching for a specific cafe, and the other I was looking for a street full of cafes (I love my cafes!) Each time I strolled for about an hour, passing through some ghetto-looking areas with people passed out on the sidewalks or begging on the street corners. When I found my destinations, I was suddenly met with pristine little communities full of white people in SUVs.

I had a conversation one night with an English girl who was volunteering in a rural community inland. She was spending her time doing different kinds of work including spending a few days teaching in a local school. She said that some of the students were over 20, that they didn’t have desks and chairs, and that they were pretty well behaved because, if they acted up, they were struck with a stick that had thorns in it. The fact that a 22 year old, unqualified volunteer was asked to teach basic classes is also a bit alarming.

Then there’s the conversation I had in South Africa with a local Capetonian (is that the right word?) telling me not to take the minivans because they stink because ‘those people’ don’t have showers. Then there was the airport transfer guy who dropped me off about 10 minutes ago. He was telling me how the Durban waterfront used to be filthy and then went on to say ‘for some people, cleanliness is not an option’ and then immediately after that asked me if many blacks stayed at my hostel, and then went on to say ’some of them are good people.’ Not sure what that was all about but it certainly left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

These are just a few things that have caught my attention since I’ve been here although I have to admit that I haven’t delved too deeply into South Africa or the issues it faces. I’ve either been watching football games, driving around the country, or hiding in my room working on my websites. The conversations I’ve had so far with locals have been short and shallow and I haven’t put much effort into understanding the things I’m seeing and hearing. But this country fascinates me and you can be sure that when I get back in however many months, I will make a big effort into learning about this place. I wonder if most white people over a certain age are racist. I wonder what the younger generation think of their country. I want to know what black people think has changed and what else needs to happen before they’re firmly on equal footing economically. On the surface, the rich/poor divide is appalling and I want to see how bad it really is.

It’s probably naive to think that I will be able to get the sorts of answers I’m looking for but I’ll have a crack at it when I return. I want to Couchsurf with South Africans, do work exchanges on farms and volunteer in rural communities. But, for now, South Africa will have to wait. I’m off to Tanzania today to catch up with my Aussie friends who are in Zanzibar on the end of their overland tour. Then it’s off to Rwanda, another country I find fascinating, to visit an aid worker friend. If I like Kigali I might look into staying for a few months. Otherwise, it’s off to Uganda to do some volunteer work on a farm with a guy who is working with local communities on food security issues.

I’m excited to get up into the heart of Africa but sad to cut my time in South Africa short because there’s so much I want to know about this place. Have you been to South Africa? What did you think?

I have four main tasks to work on: promoting my volunteering ebook, starting a huge new project that will involve building a site from scratch, filing my 2009/10 tax return, and building links back to existing sites. I’ve been in Durban for over two weeks and have only been working hard for about five days, but those five days have been pretty productive.

Ebook Promotion

Working on this basically means nagging people to review my ebook, to accept a guest post from me to put on their own blog, or to hit me back with some other idea which sometimes results in interviews. I have a big list of blogs that I think has readers who might be interested in volunteering. It’s all in a spreadsheet with the blog owner’s name, their contact details (including Twitter and email), their blog’s address, and the status of my request. If I’ve contacted them, I put the date of the email. If something has been agreed like a blog post or a review, I put a little note along with whether I’ve actually sent a review copy or written the blog post yet. Then if I have written something for them, I put the link to the article in the spreadsheet and highlight the line as a way to tell me to stop harassing them.

I’ve got a lot more bloggers to approach but I think the problem is that I’m sticking with people in the same niche of travel and a bit of lifestyle design. I have a few big blogs publishing guest posts or reviews soon which will give sales and exposure a bit of a boost, but I really need to find new markets. I might hit up Lonely Planet’s Thorntree with some posts and look for blogs in the college/university area. Plus everyone is telling me to start an affiliate program to really get things going, so that’s on the agenda.

So far I’ve written a handful of blog posts, sent out a few more review copies and chased up some people who haven’t posted their promised reviews yet. This is an ongoing thing but I’m fed up with it for now so will need to come back to it next time I get a chance to get work done. In 2011? Maybe.

Huge Project/New Site

I have grand plans for a new site but it really will be biting off more than I can chew and it’s not something I’ll be able to do on the road, a little at a time. If I’m able to rent a place and stay in one place for awhile, I will dive into this project and give you all the details.

File my 2009/10 Tax Return

I spent all day yesterday going through my old bank and creditcard statements and Paypal records and adding everything into my terribly neglected tax spreadsheet. I cleaned up the spreadsheet too which will hopefully make doing this year’s taxes a lot easier and inspire me to keep track of more receipts. I’m really bad with keeping receipts and don’t claim half of what I could. I did, however, spend a lot last year on content, advertising, and new domain names which, combined with the fact that I didn’t have a great year for earnings, means that the tax bill is far lower than expected.

Building Links

I have finally and stubborning admitted that building links are the way up Google’s rankings and the easiest way for me to build links is through article marketing on sites like Infobarrel and Ezine Articles. The idea is that you write articles on the same topic as your site and link back to your site from the article. It’s easy and it works. The only problem is that I absolutely hate writing these kinds of articles.

This is where Textbroker comes in. You can post articles that you want written to this site along with what you’re willing to pay per word, how long the article should be, a deadline, and any details the article writer needs to know. Their interface is easy, it’s affordable, and I get articles written really quickly and to a higher quality than I would expect.

Once I get the articles, I post them up to article marketing websites. You can also find people to do the whole process for you through sites like Elance, but I don’t mind the actual posting part, just the writing part. I started working on this today and people are writing me articles as fast as I can post them. I have about 30 articles coming at me about the London 2012 Olympics as well as 15 for my moving to New York site (although these articles are for content building… the article marketing part will come later). I have a bunch of sites to build links for so I will just keep doing what I’m doing whenever I get the time.

My Olympics site is at the top of page two on Google for my target keywords and I’m hoping this little push will kick it to the front page. The trick will be keeping it there but I’m hoping that it will have an advantage once the Olympics roll around because it’s been there for awhile. Who knows, though. I’m really curious to see how this site does and look forward to sharing the results with you in a couple of years!

So that’s what I’ve been up to for the past few days and what I will be up to for the next couple of days before heading up to Tanzania. Did I tell you yet that I’m heading north? I’m off on July 5th to couchsurf for a few days and then on to Zanzibar to catch up with my two Aussie friends who will be at the end of their overland tour. Then on to Rwanda to stay with a friend there for a bit and then… who knows? Maybe stop somewhere and work? Maybe go live with the gorillas? I will keep you posted.

My focus is on promoting my ebook and building links to some sites I’ve had built for awhile but haven’t done SEO for. It’s not the creative stuff I love, but it needs to be done. I doubt there will be any results from the link building for awhile, but bit by bit I hope it’ll help in the long run. At the very least it’s nice, for once, to say that I’m actually doing some work!

Earnings Breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $392 - Another consistent month for Adsense which is all I can ask when I’m not doing much to push the earnings forward. At least they’re not going backwards! If things go to plan, the work I do now will eventually lead to a rise in Adsesne earnings, especially with my living in New York and London 2012 Olympics sites which are finally showing signs of life with Google.
• Affiliate Sales - $477 - For the first time, my main affiliate World Nomads was beaten out by a combination of other travel insurance affiliate programs from the Trade Doubler network. My Clixgalore affiliates also did well and it looks like my old staple, World Nomads, is on the out. There are things I could do to improve sales, I think, but it’ll take a lot of work.
• Advertising - $1157 - I had a bunch of renewals and one huge, last-minute deal that really turned June into a good month instead of the usual average month of around $1500.
• Ebook Sales - $119 - My ebook had another terrible month but it was expected after doing fairly badly the previous month. The key in making sales is promotion and I haven’t been able to do any for awhile. I’m working on guest posts and spreading the word but I will need to find some new avenues. I would like to someone get the message out to college and university students but I’m not totally sure how to tap that market.

The first half of June was spent watching football and hanging out with my friends. The second half has been spent doing bits of work and bits of time wasting. With more travels in my future, I really need to get a lot done over the next week from filing my tax return for last year to making some annoying phone calls to doing a lot of guest post and article writing to finishing up the final touches on some of my websites. I’m really happy with June and I have a couple of pending payments which should start me off really well going into July.

I spent a good chunk of my day yesterday in a cafe at a shopping mall in Durban working. I got chatting to a guy on his own computer who is a software engineer and was doing some work while his wife shopped. He gave me a bit of a rundown about the state of internet in South Africa and it’s not promising for digital nomads. Basically, there are only a couple of providers so everything is expensive. He also started talking about technical stuff and I sort of tuned out but the gist of it is that unlimited internet in South Africa isn’t readily available and probably won’t be for awhile. You can get it but it’s super expensive, especially when compared to the great deals you can get in the UK and North America, not to mention the fact that it seems readily available everywhere else in the world I’ve been.

So to combat the expensive and sporadic internet issue, I’ve bought one of those USB dongle modem things. The brand is Vodaphone and I was told that it’ll work in other African countries as long as I buy a local SIM card. I’m a bit dubious about that part but if I can get a good amount of use out of it here in South Africa, I will sort the rest out later. The modem itself cost me almost R700 and I had the option of buying a faster one for R1800. I’m not sure of the difference in speeds but the cheaper one is a lot faster than I would have expected. I haven’t tried to download anything but I have made Skype calls with no problems and there’s virtually no wait time as webpages load.

I buy airtime on my pay-as-you go phone, convert it to data using my phone, take my SIM card out of my phone and put it into the USB modem, plug it in, hit ‘connect’ and there ya go - online! The only problem is that I haven’t worked out how long the data lasts for exactly and I don’t seem to have any way of tracking it. Data gets cheaper the more you buy. So I can get the minimum of 9MB of data for R9 and I can buy the maximum of 1.2GB for R289 with a bunch of other options in between. I initially bought 30MB and it lasted longer than expected. I’ve since bought 600MB for R189 and it’s been going strong for days. Although for almost £20, I would hope it’d last me at least a couple of weeks.

Paying for data rather than time means that I can write emails and blog posts without spending anything until I actually post them. If I were planning on making some calls on Skype, doing some downloading or watching videos then I would probably use the hostel’s hourly wifi here instead, but for general internet use, it seems ideal.

This is all new to me but it’s great to know that I can get online anywhere there’s a phone signal. If I decide to rent a place somewhere, suddenly needing wifi isn’t an issue and it opens my options up a lot. Same goes for not having to always look for accommodation with wifi. Plus it means I can hang out in whatever cafe I want to and still get online. I always hate it when I find a great cafe only to discover they don’t have internet and this gets rid of that little problem.

I’ll keep you posted on what I think of this miraculous little device. Here’s hoping it’ll work in Tanzania!

Let me preface this post by saying that, if you are a rabid football supporter, there’s no way you will agree with anything I’m saying and I realise that. This post is for sports fans who would like to go to a big event like the Olympic Summer Games or the World Cup but aren’t sure which to choose.

I’m at the World Cup in South Africa right now, and the atmosphere is amazing. On game day in the city centre or at one of the many fan fests set up around the country, the buzz is electric. People are kitted out in all sorts of fun costumes, blowing their vuvuzelas, singing their songs and generally going nuts. It’s a great thing to be a part of but the Summer Olympics are better, and here’s why.

Two weeks of solid action – After the opening ceremony launches the festivities, there are sporting events on solidly for the next two weeks. You can always find something to watch from 8:30am each day to 10pm each night. The World Cup packs in the games, but there’s still a lot of down time between them.

Truly international – The World Cup only has 32 countries represented. The Summer Olympics has over 200. Not only does this give fans from all over the world something to cheer for, it also gives you a chance to meet and mingle with spectators from from all over the world. Sharing a group hug with Khazakstanian wrestling fans or partying with Ethiopians at a bar is probably not something you’ll get to do at a World Cup.

Tickets are affordable and plentiful – At the Olympics in Beijing there were tickets as cheap as US$5. In Athens there were loads of tickets valued at under 10 euro. London might be another story but, in my experience at the Olympics, there are plenty of affordable tickets available. True, they might not be to the marquee events, but they’re there and allow more people to get involved. Plus, with so many events on, some in huge stadiums, the number of tickets available is a lot more than at the World Cup so getting them is easier.

Festivities are confined to one city – With some exceptions, Olympics events are set in a single city which makes the logistics of planning a trip a lot easier and it means that the entire city is buzzing all of the time, not just certain cities on certain game days. Plus you don’t end up having to travel to the Rustenburgs and Polokwanes of the world (no offence to those cities but they hardly compare to Beijing, Sydney, London etc etc.) It also means that when you meet new friends, they won’t have to head off to some other city a few days later.

Get to mingle with the athletes – Many of the footballers playing at the World Cup will be famous already and raking in huge salaries. They’ll be staying in some fancy hotel and the likelihood of bumping into them in the streets is pretty slim. At the Olympics there are superstars but, for the most part, athletes aren’t household names and, once their event is over, they’re just as likely to be at the bar celebrating as you are. Plus their friends and families are there in support and you will probably find yourself in a one-way conversation as their relative beams at you with pride about them.

Better banter in the stands – World Cup stadiums are huge and loud and while the game is on, fans tend to be focused on it for 45 minutes at a time. At the Olympics, the stadiums are usually smaller and more intimate and the breaks in the action mean that there’s a lot of time to chat with the people around you. Many events have multiple countries competing on the same day which makes for a really exciting atmosphere and you will make friends easily by supporting the same athlete as the people sitting near you.

You can still watch football – If you love football then you can still get tickets to see it at the Olympics. Teams aren’t made up of the superstars you know and the tournament doesn’t hold a candle to the World Cup but, if you love watching the sport, you can still get your fix at the Olympics.

Get to experience new sports – I love the Olympics because it brings obscure sports to the forefront and gives those athletes their moment in the sun. There are so many sports on offer that you are bound to become a fan of at least a few new sports you’d never even heard of. I’m now a fan of handball, weightlifting and field hockey having seen them at the Olympics.

Lots of winners – There were 302 gold medals given out at the Beijing Olympics which means the possibility for 302 super happy experiences across a variety of countries, not just one.

Your team is never eliminated – Unless you’re from one of those nations with only a handful of athletes, you will have someone to cheer for from your country from the start of the games until the finish.

So if you’re a casual sports fan looking to head to a major event at some point in your life but aren’t sure which, take my advice and make it the Olympics!

I went on my first ever safari last week and it was pretty amazing. I really didn’t have a clue what to expect, to be honest. I’m probably one of the few people who don’t count seeing the animals as one of my tops things to do in Africa, so I hadn’t really looked into it much. When my friends suggested we spend a day at Hluhluwe game reserve north of Durban, it seemed like a good enough way to fill the day and I was in.

At R950, it was one of the more expensive things I will do in South Africa but I think safaris are known for being pricey and if I plan on doing any more, I should get used to it. We could have driven ourselves in our rental car for a fraction of the cost but we would have missed out on our guide’s crack driving and spotting skills and I’m not sure how we would have fared had we found ourselves face to face with an angry elephant.

We left sharpish at 5:30am. An ungodly hour, yes, but I’m told animal spotting is best done in the early morning and as the sun goes down so an early start and a long day are the best way to see what you want to see. Normally, not a problem. The problem is that nobody told me it would be this cold in South Africa. Winter… yes. But I didn’t expect it to be this cold. Maybe I should have looked at a single weather report and things would have been cleared up but, of course, I didn’t. So there I was at 5:30am freezing my tits off after a feeble attempt at layering warm weather clothes. This was before the open-air safari vehicle got moving so you can imagine how cold it was once the wind started attacking us. It was 30 minutes of near hypothermia. I was super happy that I bought that Bafana Bafana scarf a week before but wishing I had thought to bring my sleeping bag to snuggle up into.

Once we were in the game park I wa happy to be alive and more interested in getting warm than spotting animals. When a zebra crossed our path really close to the vehicle, though, I started to get more into things. I went into this safari thing not knowing or expecting much and I was amazed at how many animals and birds we ended up seeing. We were in the truck with three avid bird-watchers which, at first, was a bit annoying because we were there to see the big five, after all, and didn’t want to stop for every little bird. But it turned out to be a good way to pass the time between the big animals and it was nice to slow down and try to spot the small things as well.

We saw what we wanted to see: lions, elephants, buffalo, rhinos, a bunch of different things with antlers, a baby crocodile, giraffes, zebras and probably a lot more that I’m forgetting. We were lucky with the lion because, at first, we had a very limited view of it feeding on something behind a bush. Then, as we were leaving, my friend noticed a lioness cross the road right behind our vehicle and jump up into a tree, giving us a perfect view.

The 12 hours went by a lot quicker than I thought it would and I came away having seen a lot more than I thought I would. I didn’t know what to expect and I was pretty impressed. The animals really don’t seem to be bothered by the safari vehicles and you can get a really close look at them in their natural environment which is pretty cool.

But next time, I think I’ll go in the summer.

It’s about 10 days into the World Cup here in South Africa and, I’m going to be honest people, I’m all footballed out. I’ve been to two games so far in the freezing cold and I think that’s enough for me. The atmosphere is amazing and I’m grateful to be here soaking up the excitement but moving around the country following games and trying to cram some sightseeing in between is hard work.

This might be sacrilegious but I prefer watching the games on TV. I said it. Sad, but true. Getting to and from the stadiums here isn’t easy, the weather has been freezing, the games I’ve seen have been super dull, beer is expensive and the lines are long, toilets are few and far between, they don’t show any replays at the stadium, and I’m a bit sick of having horns blown directly into my ears from behind. If I were a super huge football fan or if Canada or Scotland made it into the World Cup then I might be singing a different tune but, for the most part, I’m happy having gone to a couple of games and think I will sit the rest out in favour of a seat with a view in the pub.

But with all that said, I’ve had a great time so far. I was at the Cape Town Fan Fest (outdoor areas all over the country with big screens for people to watch the games) when South Africa played Mexico in the first game and that was an amazing display of patriotism and support. The street party the night before also sent chills down my spine. The whole country is caught up in the hype and it’s easy to get pumped up when everyone around you is so excited.

One of the best parts of the World Cup, for me, is meeting fans from all over the world and seeing their crazy getups. There have been some great outfits, from the Aussie guys in skin-tight green and gold jumpsuits (in freezing cold weather) to the Dutchies in orange lion costumes. People have been heading to the games with brass instruments, all sorts of drums and of course the vuvuzelas that seem to have become a hot topic of conversation worldwide.

I’m really impressed with the show South Africa has put on here at the World Cup. I find the country to be a really interesting place and I’m hoping to do some volunteering on farms and a bit of couchsurfing while I’m here… after a trip up north for awhile to the warmer weather (nobody told me South Africa was so cold!)

In the meantime, I’ve got my own room in Durban for the next week so will explore the city a bit, take in some football matches, hopefully meet some cool people and, as always, try to do some work but probably get nothing done.

I arrived with pretty much zero knowledge on what there is to do here besides traipse around the country to watch World Cup matches. I had been volunteering in Haiti and before that in Indonesia with dubious internet connections and not a lot of time to myself so I left all of the planning up to my friends who I met up with the day after I arrived. The first thing on our agenda was to fly to Port Elizabeth, rent a car and drive back down to Cape Town on the Garden Route in time for our first game on June 11th.

It was a good plan and even better because I didn’t have to organize a thing. My friends sorted everything right down to the hostel bookings and car hire. Hiring a car is the way to go and we made a few stops along the way along the Garden Route. Some were dubious like an underwhelming stop in Nature’s Valley for a dodgy pub meal, and some were surprising like the drive to Oudtshorn where I wanted to ride an ostrich. Video coming soon!

My friends are short on time and long on things they want to do so I’m travelling a lot faster than I normally would but it’s actually turned out to be fine. I’m happy to have three nights in Cape Town though, even though our days will be filled to the brim. I’m not sure I would want to keep at this pace for much longer but so far, so good.

I met up with these same two friends for the Beijing Olympics and that trip was a boozefest with almost no sleep. I was worried this one would be the same but so far we’re acting all respectable and stuff. I almost don’t recognise us! I’m sure things will kick off a bit when the World Cup gets going but I’m liking this new us while it lasts.

That’s it from me for now. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we’re hiking up Table Mountain so I’m off to bed early. The excitement is building here and I can’t wait for the football!

Earnings Breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $430 - Adsense started off amazingly and tailed off a bit towards the end of the month. I had my first ever $30+ day which was pretty good and I’m seeing great earnings per click for a couple of new sites… now I just need to get more traffic to them.
• Affiliate Sales - $349 - The earnings for my main (and dwindling) affiliate were matched this month by my three other affiliate networks combined. The other affiliates are creeping up in earnings which I’m happy to see. I think I can bring my main affiliate back from the brink but it’ll take a bit of work.
• Advertising - $758 - This month was all renewals and I had no surprise emails wanting to buy advertising off of me. Renewals are encouraging and I rarely see people cancel links they’ve bought unless they’re for small amounts. I’m hoping things stay that way!
• Ebook Sales - $133 - My ebook did amazingly shite this month but I’m not surprised given I did almost zero promotion. Actually, that’s not true… I did that TV interview (having trouble getting the video but I will try) on local TV that seemed to result in a couple of sales but, other than that, I’ve been quiet in this area. When my computer died it made doing this really tricky. It is interesting to see how important constant promotion is. I have lots of ideas but they will probably have to wait another month before I execute.

June will be another write off month for me. I’m meeting up with some friends and travelling around to World Cup games. I’ve met up with these two friends before during the Olympics with high hopes of sneaking away to do some work and it didn’t work then, so I’m not expecting it to work now. I think I will enjoy myself and I might even leave my computer behind in Cape Town and plan on working hard in July instead of kidding myself.

I’m pretty excited about the World Cup, seeing my friends and checking out Africa a bit. I’m going one-way with few plans so if anyone will be in the area and wants to meet up, let me know. Or if anyone has any suggestions on things to do, please get in touch!