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See my latest post here.

For a while now, I have wanted to move off of wordpress.com and get my own domain. I would have a lot more freedom to do stuff and, hopefully, eventually find some way of deriving income from the site. The problem was, every time I would look for a domain relating in any way to “ProjectNomad”, it was taken…until yesterday.

I had this really great idea to create a site called “RentMyDomain” where people who had good domain names, but no inclination to develop them would be matched with people who had great creativity and skills, and could develop the site while paying “rent” for the domain name (logistics to be worked out later :o) ). Of course, both “RentMyDomain.com” and “LeaseMyDomain.com” were taken. (Interestingly, they both are parked).

But, on a whim, I checked “ProjectNomad.com” for the umpteenth time, and to my amazement, it was available. So now it is mine…

No grand unveiling…just head on over there when you get the chance and you will see all that is in this blog. It is, like most things in life, a work in progress. I tried to clean some things up. I am exploring wordpress unchained - especially all the incredible templates, plugins, and widgets available for it. For blogging, I think this is the best application available hands down.

The pictures on the headers are from my various trips to my second home - Mt. Desert Island, Maine.

I know I mentioned another site I was moving to in an earlier post, but now that I have the domain name I wanted, I am sticking with the new site and have deleted the old one.

The partial downside is that, in leaving wordpress.com, I will pretty much disappear from sight as far as search engines and social bookmarks go. Google likes wordpress.com; Google couldn’t care a less about projectnomad.com…So the pressure is on me to provide better content, build a greater readership, and get a little higher in the rankings, which I am committed to do. I am still experimenting, trying to find a way to leave the corporate rat race and work on my own terms, wherever and whenever I want.  I am still looking at ways to incorporate the principles in “The 4 Hour Work Week”, and ways to leverage Internet Marketing and Freelance Web Design into this mix. I will continue to post my progress, as well as any useful resources I find along the way.

And I welcome any comments you have.

The reason I have not posted in so long is that nothing has really changed much. I am not one to really post crap when I have nothing to say, nor do I like being pressured in to having to write every day (or week or..uhhh month)…

I have seen some really interesting resources, and I will continue to post them here. I have gone back on my list of resources and found that it is huge. I tend to just clip sites that seem interesting and put them all in an email that I then send to myself. I looked back on the emails and there were hundreds of links to review! Yes, some sites kept coming up with great info, but a lot of these were the sites I already had on my blog roll (although there are some new ones that I will add later).

The best advice I can think of is to do what I do and use sites that employ user recommendations to find subjects in which you are interested. Go to sites like Digg, Del.icio.us, or Stumbleupon, to search for topics like “Freelance” or “4HWW”, and you will find quality sites that have been vetted by others. This is the direction that online search engines taking - instead of blindly finding every site relating to a subject, good or bad.

While I have pretty much finished work on my rental property, I have not really made any effort to market it or get a tenant into it. I don’t know what is holding me back. Probably fear. I have heard horror stories of tenants from hell and I am afraid that when I do get someone in, the nightmares will begin. Still I faced my fears when I bought the house in the first place, and I still want to try being a landlord to see if it is right for me. I guess I just have to face this fear and ride out whatever adversity that comes my way.

As I mentioned in my last post, the Thirty Day Challenge is back, and I am going to participate in that as well. In July, it will be a year since I first started my effort to leave my current job and become a freelancer. I have learned a lot in that time, but it is a humbling experience, and it is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Life has a funny way of coming in and interfering with your plans. Still, I have not given up and I will continue to try different things until I find the solution that feel right for my goals.

As for my next post, you will get it when it is worthy of publishing… :o)

I remember reading something somewhere that all of human behavior derives from two basic tendencies: “seek pleasure” and “avoid pain” or on a more basic level, move towards something, move away from something.

Yesterday, I posted a link to Catherine Lawson’s excellent collection of resources for entrepreneurs. She saw it and came to my blog and read my Escape! posting from last week. This prompted her to make the following comment:

“I know that motivating yourself because you want to leave your job seems like a good idea at the time, but it’s a good idea to set yourself a list of goals and motivate yourself towards them. It’s a lot easier that way and you’ll be concentrating on something positive instead of something negative.”

She is, of course, right.

My job has been grinding away at me, eroding my moral, and all I could think of was pain avoidance. I have seen this happen to my coworkers, where they basically can’t take it anymore, jump ship and take the first available job offer that comes along. This inevitably ends up in something similar to a “rebound relationship” that most every one experiences at least once in their lifetime, after breaking up with a significant other. It rarely works out in the end for either party…

I have been focusing on the obstacle, instead of what lies beyond it. I do have a list of goals, but I have not looked at it in a while. Between my day job and getting the house in shape, I have been too preoccupied. So I am setting aside some time tonight to go back over my goals and get myself back on track.

Thanks Catherine…

Over at Bootstrapper, there is a great post on creative ways to find new clients. You can find it here. Also adding the site to my blogroll.

I have been really busy coordinating the closing for my house. The lender I am using wants to use their lawyer to do the closing, this after my lawyer has already done a title search. So now I have to pay both lawyers for two title searches on the same house; plus two appraisals! Don’t even get me started on my insurance!

So, this weekend we had a family emergency, and I had to get my wife up to New York City to tend to her ailing mother. (I had to pay through the nose for a last-minute airline ticket…arrrgh!). In the meantime, I am spending the week between work (and a very important project) and being Mr. Mom at home, this in addition to finalizing everything so I can close on my investment property by December 14th.

Now, I have two daughters, 13 & 17, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, my eldest now has a driver’s license. To make my life easier, it sure would be nice for the older one to chauffeur the younger one back from her after school activities, and in fact, to drive herself to and from school and her own activities. This way, I don’t have to leave work early or get in late. (By the way, props to my wife for making the whole scheduling thing seem effortless, because I’m stressing…)

The only problem is this, my daughter got her driver’s license well into the school year so she never got a parking pass. Now I could buy a parking pass, but it costs $50 a semester, and of course, the semester is ending in a couple of weeks. Oh, and they don’t prorate. So me, being the cheap SOB that I am, dropped my eldest at school this morning and went to the school office to see if they can issue me some sort of temporary pass until Wednesday, when my wife gets back.

Of course, the front office was closed…Great.

Now, I could have turned around and headed for home to get my other daughter ready for school. However, I saw a Sheriff hanging out by one of the doors at the other end of the hallway, so I thought, what the heck, I’ll ask him about the temporary passes.

I walked up to him and asked him where the staff was, and when would they be back; he told me they were in some sort of conference and they’d be back in another 45 minutes…Great.

I then asked him if he knew if they issued temporary parking passes, and if so, how can I get one? He asked me why. I explained the situation with my wife and my scheduling nightmare. He asked me for the license number of the car my daughter drives. I gave it to him, he wrote it down, and he said…no problem…just like that. Apparently he is also the one who patrols the parking area looking for violators. I thanked him profusely, and left.

Here’s the moral kids…If you want and/or need something…ask for it! Overcome any initial fear and do it.

This is such a basic lesson, but few people ever learn it; admittedly, I still have reservations sometimes…but 8-9 times out of 10, I usually get what I need. This is especially true when you are negotiating prices. Always ask, “Is this the best you can do?”, usually they will come down from their initial position. Then ask again, “Is this the best you can do?” Again, they may come down even further…or not, but you never know unless you ask.

What is the absolute worst that can happen when you ask for something…you get a “No” for an answer. Cool…at least you tried.

When I get home from work tonight, I will recount this experience to my kids, and make sure this lesson sticks.

I have been catching up on my blog reading lately and saw this over at 43 Folders. The post is about Don Miguel Ruiz’s book “The Four Agreements”. Basically the Four Agreements are as follows:

1) Be impeccable with your word.

2) Don’t take anything personally.

3) Don’t make assumptions.

4) Do your best.

Yeah…the words “Common Sense” spring to mind, but I look at my dealings with other people and find that I may occasionally skip one or two of them (usually #2 or #3, but honestly, never #1).

Every quarter, publicly held companies are required to issue a report showing their progress for the past 3 months. This report is called a 10-Q.

Just over three months ago (last quarter), I finished reading The Four Hour Work Week, and I decided to work the principles into my life. The purpose was to create a virtual company, where I would subcontract the work to freelancers (or become a freelancer myself), with the eventual goal that I can run this company from pretty much anywhere in the world I choose to live.

Here now is my personal 10-Q…

The plan was to use multiple streams of income from the Internet, and possibly Real Estate investing (which sort of is counterintuitive because you need to be around to manage your properties, but I’ll get to that in a minute) to finance my endeavor.

Internet

I ramped up my education in Internet Marketing by taking the Thirty Day Challenge in August. My first attempt at applying the principles from the challenge ended with two outcomes; the first outcome - not desirable - was that I didn’t get any sales from my affiliate link on my blog. The second outcome - desirable - was that I placed on the first page of Google when searching for my keyword phrase. Yes it was at #10, and yes it was only for a couple of days before dropping off, but in my defense, I did not apply all the principles I learned and didn’t put a whole lot of effort into it. Seeing it on Google did boost my hopes that it was possible to make it happen, and motivated me to take more action. Like everything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it.

I got sidetracked a little with my “day job”, but I am on track to make another attempt at a successful Affiliate Marketing project. This time I’m all in.

The second Internet project I am working on is some sort of Information Product, like an eBook or Video. This is still in the early stages, but I have a couple of ideas I will explore, and document in later blog entries. I think this holds a lot of promise, because it doesn’t take a lot to produce, and if marketed right, it could produce a nice stream of income, with a minimum of maintenance.

Finally, something that I have not mentioned at all in this blog. Using an old PC I had lying around, I built an Ubuntu (Linux) server. Along with Linux, it had Apache - a web server, MySQL - a database application, and PHP5 which is used to create Web based applications (collectively called LAMP). I am getting up to speed on web page design and creation. This falls in line with my freelance aspirations. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection, and you can run a business.

Real Estate

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I have a pending deal on the table. If the bank accepts my counteroffer, and there are no surprises in the inspection, I’ll have a nice house in a decent neighborhood. I originally intended to rehab and flip it, but in the current environment, I may either wholesale it to another investor, or change my strategy and rent or lease purchase it. Yes, if I rent it, in the short term, it will mean that I have to be around to manage it. Not something I can easily do from a beach in Nice…or the Italian Riviera…Still, in this market, I am thinking I can pick up one or two more houses, and if the numbers are good, I can hire a team to handle the property management. This, I can run remotely.

Plus there is no rule that I can’t do a little of everything, Internet Marketing, Web Design & Creation, and Real Estate investing.

The overall goal is to quit my day job to free up my time to do the things I want to do with it.

So…that’s the current state of Project Nomad, Inc. :o)

This first Quarter was primarily goal setting, education, exploration, and some action. The outlook for the second quarter is to take more action to move me closer to my goal of independence.

In late November, 2006, a guy saw one of my bandit signs and called my answering service regarding selling his house. This was the beginning of the sub-prime fiasco, and he got caught up early on. He lost his job and could not afford his payments. After meeting with him and his wife, I initiated a short sale with the bank.

A short sale, for those of you who don’t know anything about real estate investing, is when you offer the bank an amount much less than the outstanding balance owed. If you can prove to the bank that the house is worth substantially less than what’s owed (possibly because of neglect), and that the owners were in a hardship situation and could not meet their obligations, the bank may take the offer rather than initiate foreclosure and take ownership of the house.

Banks are in the money lending business, not the real estate business, plus they have to put an large amount of money in reserve for each house they take back; that’s money they can’t lend.

The practice of short selling is usually common with second mortgages when the first mortgage is foreclosing, because all junior liens are wiped out after the foreclosure. There is a big incentive for the holder of the second mortgage to settle (usually 10 cents on the dollar) so they get something- anything back. What’s great is that you automatically build equity into the deal, which is why you see “No equity, no problem” on all those bandit signs in your neighborhood.

The problem was, there was only one mortgage on the house, which makes it harder to deal with the bank. Sill, I went ahead because it looked like a good deal.

Now, keep in mind, the process usually takes a couple of months, three at the most. In the initial documentation from the bank, they even said it takes approximately 30 days.

Six months later, mid-May, I heard from the bank…”Sorry, your offer was too low”…crap…I re-ran my numbers and I figured I might be able to sweeten the offer. I did, by $10K (which should really have been $5K but I wanted to make the deal happen). When I made the offer to the bank, I asked them if it was going to take a long time for their response, they responded that they will fast-track the analysis.

Five months later (last week) they finally called me back. They are “conditionally” accepting my offer…yea! (conditionally :o)…

Now…a lot has happened in the last five months, including a penalty on an unpaid property tax bill, and of course that nasty little sub-prime business. So I am going back to the bank to negotiate another $5K off the price. Yes, I can afford the higher price, but it’s the principle of the matter - and I need to practice my negotiating skills.

So, the moral of this convoluted story, is that sometimes you just need a little patience…

My eldest daughter passed her road test yesterday morning (scored a 94)…she’s now street legal. I saw the tether that binds her to us start to fray and it was a bittersweet moment. On the one hand I had to choke back the tears of joy and pride in her accomplishment, on the other is the realization that she now has her wings and soon she will be on her own. (Of course it also means more gray hairs and sleepless nights waiting up for her to get home).

In preparation for her road test, Sam and I were driving nights and weekends. I would set up traffic cones in the the local elementary school parking lot and we practiced the staples of the test - parallel parking, 3 point turns, and the quick stop. I will cherish these moments together for as long as I live, and I look forward to the time I will spend teaching her younger sister.

I was of the generation of Harry Chapins’ “Cat’s in the Cradle”, and it was my biggest fear that I would take my kids for granted. I have great parents who were always there for me. To that end, I have always tried to be there for my kids, even if it meant coming home from work early during an important project or getting up early on Sunday to go to a Cello lesson . There have been times that I was on the phone, pencil and paper in hand working out a tough Algebra word problem if I just couldn’t be there.

This is the thing that really sucks about being a parent; all the toil and tears and sacrifice, the sleepless nights waiting for them to come home from dates, only to see them off to college, and later, walking them down the isle to give them away to their husband-to-be. For daughters, at least, it seems you are constantly giving them away.

Then there’s the worrying, always the worrying. I’m 47, happily married and relatively successful and still, my parents worry about me. I see the future, and for me, it isn’t pretty…

Still, I wouldn’t change a thing, especially after seeing the look of sheer joy and pride in my daughter’s face after executing a perfect parallel parking maneuver in the parking lot of the elementary school she attended only a few years earlier.