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Reckless Driving: The Latest Travel Craze

admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 02:31:18 +0000

As I sat on the couch the other day after a taxing day at work, I was confronted with the inescapable truth that I am fan of the BBC program, TopGear. This admission might seem a little strange coming from a young woman with zero interest in cars. For instance, I certainly could not be considered the program’s core clientele. I am not a prepubescent boy with too many zits and an abiding passion for the latest and greatest Lamborghini. Also, despite what others may say, I do not find Richard Hammond attractive in the slightest; he is one of the aforementioned boys with pimples. Rather, TopGear has struck a chord with me, and presumably numerous other non-gearhead viewers, because it is humorous and often involves independent, budget, adventure TRAVEL.

The thing is, no one wants to have a passive travel experience anymore. Unlike our parents, whose sum total of globe-trekking was visiting Paris twice in their lives, we are not content to sit on the sidelines and let things happen to us. We don’t want to be a passenger on the tour bus, watching everything through a glass window, protected, cordoned off, quarantined. We don’t want to have our every move dictated to us. I came to this realization years ago; some of my best travel experiences involved renting bicycles or Vespas and heading off into the wild blue yonder, with only a Let’s Go or Lonely Planet guidebook in hand. I had a beat-up station wagon in New Zealand that I lived out of for months. I’ve driven Land Rovers in both Patagonia and Tanzania (albeit briefly.) I’ve now driven across the country a number of times for bicoastal moves involving those dastardly Uhaul contraptions. Yet even that has been fun. Having your own, personal transportation gives an unparalleled dimension of freedom to one’s trip. And the big secret is that it is not necessarily out of your budget, even if you’re a cheapie like me. Really, personal transit is the new “must-have” accessory for the modern “flashpacker.”

TopGear has realized this, and turned their car program into a car and travel program. One of my favorite episodes involved their attempt to buy cheap, secondhand motorbikes and travel from South to North Vietnam in under two weeks. There were a fair number of crashes, but no one died. Injury is all part of the experience. Similarly, the fellows have gotten cheap cars and driven them across Namibia, gone rally-cross driving in Scandinavian regions, and even embarked on an odyssey of the American South in pickup trucks and old muscle cars.

The British TV program is not alone in noticing this new travel craze, however. Ewan McGregor and a friend drove around the world on their motorcycles, getting a television program and a book out of it. I recently learned about the Mongol Rally, in which you drive a sub-$1000, small-engined car from London to Mongolia. This is true adventure, getting into the nitty-gritty, away from the tourist buses, and out of one’s comfort zone. We are all becoming independent tour operators, accountable only to ourselves and our blogging community. And although it probably isn’t sustainable or eco-friendly, it sure is fun. Let’s face it: most of us cannot afford some of the absolutely crazy extreme adventure vacations that require Paris Hilton-esque wads of cash. But with some careful planning, and especially if you go with lots of friends to defray the cost, you can get that clunker and attempt to drive across Siberia. If you live, it’ll be a ton of fun. And it really is the only way to independently explore the last frontiers. Just bear in mind that sometime you do get hurt; my cracked ribs after an ugly episode in Baja California can attest to that.

About the author:

Samantha Berkin in no way shape or form recommends doing the stupid travel things she has done in the past. They are dangerous, and will get you hurt. Her motto, however, is nothing ventured, nothing gained. She is saving up money for an overland trek of Siberia in a Unimog.

Make Your Holiday as Perfect as You Want

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:42:54 +0000

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3 Ways to Create an Online Travel Income

admin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 03:28:18 +0000

Imagine this: you wake up in the glamorous, exotic, or rustic location of your choice. A smile sneaks its way onto your face. You’re living your dream of traveling the world… and, here’s the best part – you’re getting paid for it.

It is extremely difficult to write about this subject without sounding ‘hypey’ and ‘salesy,’ so let me just lay out the facts, and I’ll let you come up with your own conclusions:

Hundreds of billions of dollars change hands online every year.

•    Thousands of one-man-business entrepreneurs are making a portion of this money.

•    Internet technology has made business possible from anywhere in the world. All you need is a laptop or Internet café…

•    With a little bit of training and know-how, creating a profitable business online that takes in a few thousand dollars per month takes about 30-90 days.

•    There’s a growing underground community whose strategies have them making more money than their friends with ‘Jobs’ and they get to travel to wherever they like.

There are the facts. If you put it all together, there is no reason you can’t take an extremely small piece of the pie. In fact, if you made .00001% of the money being made online you’d be ridiculously rich!

So what are the methods to make this happen? There’s no selling your friends or timeshares or anything shady like that. These are completely legitimate, entrepreneurial ventures that don’t take any startup costs or a ton of training. There are MANY ways to make money online, but here are 3:

1)    Sell digital information. If you’re an expert on a subject of any kind, you can quickly and easily create an digitally delivered product and then focus on selling the product online. This can be an ebook, mp3, video file, or even a simple password-protected website. The markup on these products is HUGE because they cost nothing to create or deliver, and they can be sold for $10 to $10,000+ dollars. Say you have a modest $20 download. If you sold a measly 3 products per day, you’re making $1,800 bucks a month. Sell a $50 dollar product (which takes no more work) at the same rate and you’re making $4,500 a month… for doing the work ONCE!

2)    Sell stuff on Ebay. “Wait!” I can hear you objecting… “I don’t want to carry around old junk to sell while I travel!” By all means… DON’T! You can easily set up an inexpensive account with a fulfillment house and have them ship your auction sales for you. You can hire a high school kid or your little sister to ship stuff. Better yet, just sell digital products on Ebay and don’t ship anything!

3)    Blogging. This is a great option for writers, photographers, and videographers who want to document their travel. You’re probably going to be at least journaling, taking pictures, or video… most likely a combination of all three. Well, did you ever consider making it into a blog that makes money? Setting up a blog to collect income from your advertisers (and visitors, if you choose) is easier than ever. Some bloggers are making $250,000+ per MONTH just for writing about their lives. Yes, you read that correctly. Per month. Not too shabby!

The real key to making money online is to take action and get started. Pick one of these methods, learn as much as you can from experts who have done it already, and then go travel the world!

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Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site as long as you leave all links in place. You may not modify the content and must include our resource box as listed above. However, you may sign up as an affiliate at MoneyForTraveling.com and insert your affiliate links to earn income for your efforts.

The expert authors at www.MoneyForTraveling.com

have all made a substantial internet income while traveling or they have been hired and paid well to travel the world. They now teach others how to make money for traveling. Visit MoneyForTraveling.com to discover 12 methods for making money while traveling.