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How to Create a Product in China (And Make $100k in a Week on Kickstarter)

Original Grain Watches

Last April I decided to take a trip to China and see what kinds of opportunities I could find for myself over there. I had three potential markets in mind that I wanted to explore: Wood Watches Backpacks for the “flashpacker” Opportunities to import into China. The one I was most excited about at the time were the watches.  My girlfriend Tate has a wooden watch that looks pretty cool, is a unique idea, and is a magnate for comments.  Everytime she wears it she gets at least 1 or 2 comments asking about it. There was a ton of potential in the market, as few people had really started looking into opportunities with making watches out of wood. I

Continue Reading > 17 Comments posted: March 4th, 2013

How to Build a Niche Site That Brings in at Least $500/Month

hdr software

How many times have you thought about (or even started) building a niche website with dreams of making thousands of dollars in passive income each month? If you’re like most people trying to make a living on the internet, the thought has probably crossed your mind at least once, if not thousands of times. For me, this idea of the niche site is one of the most fascinating anomalies on the internet.  It’s one of the hardest, yet stupidly easy things you can do online. The steps to building a successful site that pulls in at least $500 a month are extremely straight forward, yet most people come at it from an angle of trying to game the system – they’ve lost

Continue Reading > 67 Comments posted: February 26th, 2013

How to Build a Brand that Isn’t All About Stroking Your Ego

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While I was growing up, I was far from the coolest kid in the world. Don’t get me wrong, I was by no means a total loser, and I had a lot of friends, but I was never one of the super popular kids that everyone flocked to. I was just your average middle-class white boy. College was similar.  I had tons of friends, a great social life, but was rarely the life of the party, center of attention, or the one who everyone flocked to. Post college? Same situation. For awhile it was pretty cool that I had the fancy finance job when many of my friends could barely get a job at McDonalds.  But that quickly wore off

Continue Reading > 13 Comments posted: February 19th, 2013

3 Critical Components to a Passive Income Business

boracay beach

I’ve got a confession to make: Throughout the last month I’ve done very little work for this blog. Right now you’re probably saying to yourself: “ummm, yeah, I noticed!” It’s true, up until this week I’ve been in full on travel mode.  I’d never intended for the trip to turn out that way.  I was thinking 3-4 spots max, with one week in each location. That’s plenty of time for me to get into a routine, and carve out some time during each day to get stuff done. Then things went horribly wrong.  Note: I’m using the term “horribly wrong” very loosely in this case. I had a group of friends that were going to be traveling to some places

Continue Reading > 15 Comments posted: February 13th, 2013

How to Write a Book in the Most Distracting Place on Earth

Cambodia Drinks

Note: This is a guest post from Matt Kepnes of Nomadic Matt.  This week his new book “How to Travel on $50 a Day” was released, so go check it out! This is also a timely post, as on my latest trip I’ve been working through all of the distractions and struggles Matt mentions here, so pay attention. Last year, I wrote a book while living in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, a popular spot with travelers and backpackers known for its beaches, cheap booze, and all-night parties. It wasn’t the best environment to work in – there were always distractions (such as the really pretty Scandinavian girls). And, of course, I would much rather be with them than locked in my room writing

Continue Reading > 13 Comments posted: February 6th, 2013

A Few Short Travel Stories…

Angkor 1

If you follow me on social media, read the blog, or subscribe to my newsletter, you’ve probably noticed my complete absence from the online world these past couple weeks. It’s been a great break, but it’s amazing how not doing work can get so stressful. In the past two weeks I’ve been to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Singapore, Saigon, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Bangkok.  So rather than write long narrative about each of those places, I figured I’d just share a few quick little stories to give you some insight into the life of a traveling entrepreneur. I don’t get to do nearly as much travel writing here as I’d like, but the fact remains it’s a big part of

Continue Reading > 6 Comments posted: January 30th, 2013

64 Essential Tools for the Location Independent Entrepreneur

Sean in Singapore

For a more in depth look at travel/business tools and resources, check out my free book Location Rebel Arsenal. What kind of camera do you shoot your videos with? What sites do you use to book your airline tickets? How do you do your SEO research? What hosting do you use for your sites? I get questions like this all the time. Because of this I’ve been thinking about building a resources page for a long time, but just haven’t got around to doing it. Until now. Below you’re going to find my entire list of everything I use to help me live the Location Rebel lifestyle. I tried to be as thorough as I could with this. Still curious about

Continue Reading > 25 Comments posted: January 21st, 2013

Why Being in “Maintenance Mode” is Killing Your Business

Guangzhou Sunset

The view from my place in Guangzhou, China with The Elevator Life this week. I’ve got a confession to make. Last year I was lazy. Not in the “I’m-a-total-couch-potato-wasting-my-life-away” lazy, but in the “I’m not pushing myself hard enough kind of way.” The reality is that I worked harder than most people last year, however when it came to focusing on maximizing the things that mattered, I was a total slacker. What are these things that matter?  There’s only two: Real impact on readers and customers Amount of money my business brought in If my business isn’t being successful at those two things, then I’m doing something wrong. The Laziest Non-Lazy Person Out There So what does that mean exactly?

Continue Reading > 8 Comments posted: January 14th, 2013

The Year of Scale

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In 2010 I experienced “the year of change“. 2011 saw me growing more comfortable in my new lifestyle and was dubbed “the year of confidence.” In 2012 it was time to lay down some roots for the coming years and as such as named “the year of discipline.” This year it’s time to take things to another level. 2013 will be known as “the year of scale.” We live in a time of unprecedented opportunity. You can call anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world for free with Skype You can access any information you want in less than 30 seconds using Google. I remember sifting through encyclopedias in 4th grade being amazed at how much information that was. You can create a

Continue Reading > 12 Comments posted: January 10th, 2013

How Gamification Changed the Sport of Skiing (And How it Applies to Your Life)

Breck Epic Mix

There are 24 hours left on our 48 hour sale which ends at 8am PST January 3rd.  This is the best deal you’ll ever see on Location Rebel, as the price goes up after this! Check it out! In January of this year I was introduced to a service called Epic Mix while skiing at Vail in Colorado. In my mind Epic Mix is the most well executed marketing tools in the history of sports. So what is it? Epic Mix is a system that essentially turns the sport of skiing, into a social vehicle and game. Lift tickets at any Vail Resort have RFID chips embedded in them that track all of your actions.  Take a lift up and

Continue Reading > 3 Comments posted: January 2nd, 2013

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