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I have been having problems recently with my motivation, I need to work harder on this blog and I also need to find a real job in the meantime. I have been struggling recently with both these tasks, but my cash flow is running low and I need to start soon. This got me thinking about why so many bloggers fail in what they set out to achieve.

I do have my excuses, I am currently traveling, which means I have better thing to do than go job hunting or sitting in front of a computer. I also do not have the constant affordable internet access that I used to take for granted. But this is not why most bloggers fail.

It is a fact that the majority of blogs do not make any money. While some do not try, there are many bloggers who try to make money and fail. The main reasons why many bloggers will quit after a few months is because they get bored and impatient, or they run out of things to say. Personally I am not trying to make any money yet, but I’ve made no secret that I plan to do so in the future.

My lack of motivation and internet access lately has made me feel like I’m failing already in what I set out to do. But I don’t want to quit, instead I thought I’d look at why so many other bloggers fail:

• Not taking blogging seriously: blogging for money is not like other blogs, you need to work hard and fill it with content, as well as promote and monetize your blog. Blogging for money is not as easy as some make it out to be, you need to treat blogging as a business that requires work. This has probably been my biggest blogging sin lately.

• Low start-up costs: This is one of the big pluses of blogging or making money online in general. It is also one of the reasons why so many people quit. It is easy to get into the ‘make money online’ business, but because it requires very little investment, it’s also very easy to walk away.

• Blogging and Internet Marketing Problems: There are many blogs out there with great content, but unfortunately not all bloggers know about internet marketing. Blogging and marketing is a fine art (that I’m still learning) and there is more involved that just writing a post and slapping some ads/affiliate links over it. A lot of bloggers are simply not very good marketers, and this is why so many bloggers fail to make any money.

• Blogging for Money and not for Passion: Have you seen how many make money online blogs there are? People are starting them up every day expecting to stand out from the crowd, but nearly all of them will fail. A lot of people make this mistake because they find out about blogging and making money online through reading blogs and then decide to try and follow the crowd. If you are not passionate about your topic or do not possess the expertise you pretend to have, it will show. You may also run out of things to say if you are not passionate about your chosen niche.

I have tried to avoid this last point by blogging about travel and living abroad as well as blogging, because this is what I am doing right now and have plenty to say about the subjects. However I am probably guilty of the first point, I haven’t worked on this blog as much as I had planned.

Hopefully I will settle down somewhere soon and find a real job to keep me going while I work on this blog. I have given myself two years to get this blog to where I want it to be, so I do have time. I’ll keep you posted on what I’m up too, but just recently to be honest I’ve been playing too much and not working enough. Lack of work and effort is probably the main reason why most bloggers fail.

I am currently traveling on a working holiday visa through Australia. With this particular visa in Australia there is an option to extend the visa for another year if you meet the criteria. This is something I am seriously considering as I’m looking at this as a once in a lifetime opportunity and have no intention of rushing back to England any time soon.

To extend your working holiday visa in Australia, you need to do do three months of specified work in areas classed as Regional Australia.

The main options open are farm work and fruit picking, but there are other sectors to work in like mining or construction. The list of specified work goes into this in more detail.

Whilst working you will need to complete a form or provide evidence of the work to qualify for the second year, so bear that in mind when you start. To extend your visa, or for more information regarding specified work and qualifying regions in Australia, download the second year working holiday visa form, which you will need to take to work with you when you start.

That is all you need to do. Australia is obviously short of workers in certain areas so this is an excellent opportunity for all travelers to extend their stay, and one I think people should seriously consider if they have no commitments back home.

I am writing this post because I am looking to extend my working holiday visa. This work can be done at anytime within your first year and I still have eleven months to go. However personally I would like to do it soon if I can, before the weather gets too hot, and so that I am not rushing around panicking in my last few months.

I am looking to settle down somewhere soon and find a “real job”. Until I do this I will not be able to work on this blog as much as I would like. As I have said before, if I appear to stop blogging in the near future, it probably means I am stuck on a farm in the middle of nowhere with no internet access.

Since starting this blog I have been traveling a lot, starting in Thailand and I have since been working my way around Australia. Working and traveling with a laptop has proved to be quite a challenge. Being constantly on the move has caused a few problems when it comes to blogging and making money online.

There are two main problems I have encountered:

Internet access: Finding decent affordable internet access has been harder than I expected. If I was made of money then I could stay in top hotels with high speed wi-fi, but that is not the case. I have been staying mainly in hostels, and many hostels do not have wi-fi access. Of the ones that do, most charge extra and the rates can be quite high.

Motivation: I can’t blame anyone else for this one, but when traveling around seeing new places it can be quite difficult to get motivated to sit down and do some work. I am on the other side of the world right now and there are so many things to see and do, sitting in front of a computer screen is not high on my list of priorities.

So working and traveling is proving to be quite difficult. It may be the dream job for many people, including myself, but that does not make it easy. The logistical problem of finding cheap quality internet access, as well as the inevitable problem of getting motivated, are proving quite a challenge for me.

To be honest, I am falling behind. By now I was hoping to have a few more posts, and to have promoted my blog a lot more. In fact at the time of writing this I am probably still talking to myself. For now that’s not a big problem as it is to be expected when starting out with blogging, but it does not help with the motivation!

Whilst I admit I’m still having troubles with working while traveling with a laptop, I do have a few hints that I’ve learned.

• Research accommodation – If you are on a budget then your options for wi-fi internet access may be limited depending where you are traveling. However even some of the cheapest places do have free wi-fi access. You should do your research before you arrive to find out where they are.

• Be mobile – Be prepared to change your accommodation if your internet access is not good enough for your needs, especially if you are in a large town/city, you have a lot of options.

• If you find a place with decent affordable wifi – USE IT! I’ve been to a couple of hostels with good quality free wi-fi but I probably didn’t make the most of it. So if you’re traveling and stay somewhere with decent affordable internet access, make sure you use it as at your next stop you may not be so lucky.

• Be productive- use your online time wisely, don’t spend too much time fooling around on the net and chatting away on facebook.

• Set goals/deadlines – This can be difficult on the road, but if you do have good internet access then you have no excuse not to set yourself goals and meeting certain deadlines.

So if you are looking to work and travel with a laptop then be prepared for some challenges. Whilst it may be a dream job it is not easy. I may soon be heading to regional Australia and I am quite worried things could get harder, I have no idea what kind of internet access awaits me.

I may not be able to update this blog as much as I would like to over the next few weeks, I could be stuck on a farm in the middle of nowhere. If I appear to go offline for a while it does not mean I have given up on this blog, and I will be back.

One of the first decisions you will have to make when starting out with internet marketing is whether you would like to build a blog or website. Actually most marketers would recommend having multiple websites so you may end up with a blog as well as static websites, but I am going to assume you are just starting out.

In my introduction to internet marketing I briefly spoke about the difference between a blog and a website, but in this post I want to look at where you would use these and some of the advantages of each.

Blog

You are currently reading my blog and this is what I have decided to dedicate most of my time to. The main reason I chose a blog was that I am currently on a bit of a journey in my life as well as my ‘career’, and felt that blogging would be a good way to keep people up to date on what I’m doing.

Some of the advantages of a blog over a website include:

Easy set-up – Blogs can be set up within minutes. I have spoken about how easy the free services like blogger and wordpress.com are, but even wordpress.org (this is also free, but you have to pay for your own hosting) is very easy to get set up.
Easy to update – If you want to add a new post to a blog, you click on “add new post” and fill out the boxes. It’s that simple.
Community – With blogging you can become part of a community or even have a community as part of your blog when your site gets popular. This can be extremely important for promoting your blogging.

Website

Websites are different and used for different types of sites. They are usually static and do not get updated as much as a blog. It is probably a little more tricky to set up a good quality website rather than a blog, but once your site is set up it is relatively low maintenance and a static website can potentially generate a passive income with little or no work once its set up. Advantages of a website include:

Low maintenance – unlike a blog, websites do not need constant updating and are relatively low maintenance once the initial set-up is complete.
Passive income – Because they require little or no maintenance, static websites can be a great way to generate passive income.
Design options – All blogs have a similar layout and run in a similar way, but with websites your design options are much greater. You can even incorporate a blog into your site if you wish.

Most of the best hosting companies these days will include some kind of basic web design program. However if you want to get serious about web design then you may want to invest in a serious web design program or hire a programmer to do it for you.

Whether you choose a blog or a static site is a personal choice and it depends on your plans for internet marketing and the style of website that you wish to create.

There is no right or wrong answer. Some internet marketers will swear by static websites, saying that you can build a few websites then sit back and watch the money roll in. Other marketers say that blogging is the way as you can constantly update it and keep up with the times and the latest news and products.

If you are really serious about internet marketing and making money online then you will probably end up with both. I built a static site before this blog, mainly for practice more then anything as I wanted to learn about web design and internet marketing but felt it would be better to start my blog when I started traveling.

I may build more static sites in the future but first I want to write and promote this blog. That is my choice and it doesn’t really matter whether you choose a blog or websites, the main factor of whether you will succeed or fail with internet marketing will ultimately come down to how much work you put in.

Some people may be put off by the idea of living abroad, so I thought I’d write a list of reasons why living in Thailand can actually be better than life back home. This list could apply to other countries, but I chose to write about life in Thailand vs life in the UK as they are countries I know well.

1.   Prices - One of the most obvious reasons to choose a life in Thailand over the UK is the cheap prices and cost of living. Everything from accommodation to food can be found at rock bottom prices if you look in the right places. The cost of living in Thailand can be a fraction of what it is in the west and you do not have to sacrifice as much as you may think.

2.   Food - Thai food may not be for everyone but personally I love it. The flavours are great and the cost can be next to nothing if you go to the right places. Yes it can be a bit spicy at times but if you know what to ask for then Thai cuisine is some of the best food you can get.

3.   Land of Smiles – Thais are well known for their smiles and for being very friendly people. Looking at a Thai will nearly always result in a smile, unlike back home where looking at someone at best will get you a frown or a look of confusion (why is this person smiling at me, what does he want?). If you smile or even look at the wrong person in London then it can land you in trouble, in Thailand you will nearly always get a smile.

4.   Unpredictable – Life back home is so predictable, nothing exciting ever seems to happen, but with life in Thailand the opposite is true. Something as simple as going for a walk can become a great adventure where you’re never sure what is going to happen or what is waiting for you around the next corner.

5.   Culture – Unfortunately the UK and many western societies seem to have lost their sense of culture, and if you were to ask me about British culture I’m not too sure what my reply would be. Thailand has a real sense of culture whether you’re in the middle of the countryside or in the heart of Bangkok. You cannot escape Thai culture living in Thailand and personally I think that’s great.

6.   Open 24 hours – This mainly refers to Bangkok but is also prevalent in other parts of Thailand, I love the way there is always stuff going on 24 hours a day. Back home after 5pm all the shops seem to shut and after about 10pm the only people your likely to meet are drunks. In Bangkok you have street stalls and night markets etc. that run all night where plenty of normal (non-drunk) Thais seem to go and enjoy the cooler evenings. Also the the local 7 Eleven is never too far away.

7.   Weather – Thailand is a tropical country not too far from the equator, and therefore never really gets cold. For some people, including myself, it may get too hot at times, but personally I’d rather be too hot than freezing cold. Besides most places have air conditioning or at very least a fan.

8.   Landscape – Thailand is a beautiful country and the landscape is very varied depending where you go. Whether you want mountains, rainforests, beautiful beaches or cultural cities, Thailand has something for everybody, and getting around is cheap and easy if you fancy something different.

9.   Women – Thai women are some of the most beautiful in the world and Bangkok is said to be the best city in the world for a young single male (moi) to live in. Sorry ladies but I had to include this one.

10.   Mai pen rai – A favourite phrase of the Thai’s that translates as “never mind” or “it doesn’t matter”. Thai people are extremely easy going and laid back, sometimes a little too much maybe, and this is reflected in the Thai way of life. Some westerners find this a problem and prefer the western way where everything seems to be done at 100mph, but personally I prefer the Thai way, a slow and relaxed way of life suits me just fine!

So there you have it, 10 reasons why I’d prefer to live my life in Thailand. Don’t get me wrong, Thailand is not perfect and it does have its problems. Some of the points I’ve listed above may actually be a negative for some people, but for me there are plenty of reasons why moving to a country like Thailand can have great advantages over life back home. Many of these points could be applied to other countries apart from the UK and Thailand, but these are two countries I know well, and at the moment for me Thailand is looking like a good place to retire young.