Hi, I’m GinnyAnn. I’m planning to go mobile in two years, so I’m building up some freelance work now to raise extra cash and make the transition easier. Looking for information on those who are able to stay within range of internet in the United States, tips on stealth parking and finding community in general. Planning on vanning, something tall (transit, promaster, or bubble top on a cargo van.) Thanks!
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Greetings & Welcome!
There’s no such thing as stealth, and more obvious campers & vans are often more welcome than cargo vans. People in cargo vans are viewed as homeless, criminals, or both. On the other hand, people in more obvious campers are viewed as tourists or visiting relatives, and not considered a threat to others.
There are many work from home jobs available, that work well with #Vanlife. There are also many more traditional jobs that involve travel. I worked as a traveling construction worker for many years, and my home on wheels was a huge blessing. As I am getting older, and my physical abilities are diminishing quickly, I have been switching to hands free or mostly hands free internet businesses. Today, I strongly urge others to get started on that path in their spare time, as soon as possible. It takes time, but you can create a large, long term sustainable incomeand it’s never too soon to create extra income streams.
In towns, free internet is available everywhere. Boondocking is a whole different story, and is likely to require a much more complicated and costly system. For most people, especially individuals, boondocking isn’t nearly as enjoyable or as safe as it is hyped up to be. With others, it can be very enjoyable, but sitting alone in the middle of nowhere isn’t very enjoyable for most people.
Cheers!
"Beat Murphy's Law with a KISS! (Keep It Stupidly Simple)" ~ Van_Dweller
For your internet connection, I don’t think it would really be a problem as long as you have 5g phone or smartphone and just use your data and connect it to your laptop. Just get a great plan with A&t or Verizon.
Internet is pretty easy. T-mobile right now is the only one with unlimited tethering and it costs extra (+$50) as far as I know. We just installed a booster and it makes a pretty big difference. If you don’t have a lot of zoom meetings and are not doing things that chew up bandwidth you will probably be ok. Any data plan will be affected by the FCC rules at 50gb and you can be throttled at 50gb when there is high congestion on the network. Things are getting easier than they became during lockdowns as starbucks/cafe’s are a feasible options for wifi again.
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Thanks for your advice!
Best,
Ginny
Thanks! I write on an online platform but probably will not need a lot of data for other things.
I appreciate your expertise!
Best,
Ginny
Right now I have Verizon but will probably invest in a booster so I can keep on writing. I appreciate your expertise!
Best,
Ginny
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Hey Ginny,
Take a look at this discussion about the stealth camping: I'm going to be more "urban stealth" than "into the wilderness." : ) - #11 by Van_Dweller
It might help you out and there is a lot of discussion about it. Might help you out!
Thanks very much!
Ginny
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Hi Van_Dweller, I was wondering if you could elaborate on some of these extra income generating ideas if you wouldn’t mind? I’m curious what types of things are available (all new to me). PM’ing me is fine if this topic is dead, thanks.
I’d like to hear more about this also. Again, PM is fine if that is more convenient, but I expect that there are a lot of folks who could use more info on this! Thank you.
Greetings!
There are many types of online jobs available, so your first choice needs to be whether you want to work for somebody else, or you want to work for yourself. I chose to work for myself.
After retirement as a traveling construction worker, I attended some classes at a rally about making money online. I started out by selling ebooks. There is BIG money in selling ebooks. ($20k+/month!), but it is very hands on, and I got burned out on it. I know people who do it constantly, but it just wasn’t for me. Your mileage might vary.
So I switched to doing remote computer tune-ups & repairs. I currently charge $100, and can do up to 10 simultaneously. I’m currently doing about 50 per weekend, but I’m in the process of switching to hands free money making. There’s no shortage of business though, and there’s a ton of money to be made, and it’s as simple as learning & running programs on remote computers. I just upload the appropriate software to their computer, run it remotely, delete it, then defrag their computer and I’m done. The software does all the hard work. I pay a 3rd party $20/mo to handle the advertising/marketing of my services that I found on Fiverr.
Now I am in the process of creating hands free money making websites. I have purchased high traffic free link & free classifieds sites. They generate thousands of visitors a day to post their free ads, and thousands more to peruse the ads. I have signed up for dozens of free affiliate programs, and I put ads for those among the other free ads placed by others. From the various affiliate programs, I made a little over $50k last year, hands free. My goal is $100k/year, and I’m on track to make it this year, by duplicating the original sites. Now, I am in the process of creating automated websites to sell ebooks as well, and will add advertising for those into the mix as well. If my tests are an accurate indication, the ebooks should add another $100k/yr to my income.
I am the sole support for a number of friends & family, and as they need more of my personal time, the hands free approach becomes more & more important. While my money can buy almost everything they need, it can’t replace the personal time I am blessed with, to be able to spend with them. Money is easily replaceable, loved ones are not…
Cheers!
"Money only buys happiness if it's spent wisely." ~ MoneyMisers
Excellent info, thank you for taking the time to write it, Van_Dweller. Are you writing original ebook content or using public domain works (or a mix)? Did you have to set up an LLC to operate your various endeavors? So many questions, sorry. I’d be happy to pay for your time/experience if you’re set up to take a call or something (just spitballing here). If not, that’s okay too. Thanks again.
Greetings!
I have a collection of ebooks which I compiled by combining information from both the public domain, and PLR (Private Label Rights) ebooks written by others, into new, unique, and better than any of the originals. Some of them, I have sold previously, and others that I was planning on selling, but switched to computer repair before I marketed them.
If you google https://www.google.com/search?q=free+PLR+downloads there’s over 4 MILLION sites listed that have free PLR downloads! The secret lies in the fact that most people don’t know what PLR is or where to get it without paying a fortune for it. If you google xx subject, you will find them, but you’ll have to pay for them.
Let’s keep the Q & A going here. That way others can join in, and perhaps we can help many people. A thousand of us could be selling ebooks without ever stepping on each others toes. The same is true with the free links & free classifieds sites, each would be different, yet all would be wildly popular. The affiliate programs probably have thousands of affiliates, yet if it’s my ad they click on, it’s me who gets paid. The affiliate programs each of us chooses could all be different too… I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, just take advantage of it.
A huge shout out & credit needs to go to the selfless people who run the money making and other workshops at the rallies. They are the ones who have taught me, and countless others to be self sufficient. I am merely paying it forward.
Cheers!
"Money only buys happiness if it's spent wisely." ~ MoneyMisers
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Wonderful, thanks again for the knowledge share! Did you have to set up an LLC to run these businesses? If that’s too personal, I understand.
Greetings!
No, I don’t even have a business name, I just report it as personal income and pay the federal, state, and social security taxes on it.
Cheers!
"It is always cheaper and easier to conserve power than it is to make it." ~ Road Warrior
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Okay great, thank you!
Where do you list your ebooks? Amazon? Book funnels? Your own website?
Greetings!
When I was selling individual ebooks as a business, I advertised them via free online classifieds, which would take them to a website where they could pay for them, then download them instantly after payment. I would advertise them in each of the ~350 major metro areas of the US for maximum exposure, and would average about 1,000 sales for them within the month that the ads would run.
After I quit selling them through the classifieds, I set up an online ebook store website, that until recently was making decent money. It recently went kaput, when they changed something in the PHP programming language. I wound up purchasing new software to run it, and I’m paying someone to get it all back up and running. So far they have been dragging their feet, and it looks like they’re less than half done. I’m beginning to think that I might have to hire someone else to complete it. If it turns into too big of a headache, I might just scrap it and rent an additional free/paid advertising site.
My ebook store has hundreds of choices, and was making decent money before it broke sometime between Thanksgiving & Christmas. It makes much less than what I was making in the dedicated ebook business, but also much less work being it’s fully automated, UNTIL IT BROKE!!!
Once I had started renting my free/paid advertising sites, I switched my ebook store advertising to just my own sites. Those sites make money multiple ways, and between them they actually make even more than my ebook store. They’re one of the cheapest, yet most effective forms of advertising online. Between the sites they attract over a million visitors daily, since they also offer free advertising.
If you go to google, amazon, etc. you will wind up just one more seller amongst a sea of others. You likely won’t be on the front page, and might not even be in the first 100 pages. So the competition gets the sale first. With the classifieds, there’s a good chance that you will have no direct competition for a product, and if your product is unique, you know for sure you’ll have no competition, where amazon, google etc. might come up with 1000’s of similar products that aren’t actually yours, and yours will be buried.
Even when selling silly stuff like “Grandma’s Favorite Christmas Recipe’s Only $9.95”, there would be no competition in the classifieds, and I’d make bank on it every single year, with the exact same book, once I had compiled it. I had a number of recipe books, which were all low priced, but would sell thousands of copies each year instead of the ~1,000 of the more expensive self help ones. In the end I probably averaged about $30k per ebook. (In about a month.) I once sold over 100k copies of the original KFC (supposedly) recipe for 99¢ ea.
The secrets to my online success are having quality products or services, with advertising that will appeal to a large number of people, and getting that advertising in front of the largest number of people as reasonably possible. I found people on Fiverr that would write my ads & post them for $20/mo. for each product or service. Somebody else made the websites for $20, and usually within a day or two, but they were all simple 1 page websites which offered a full color in depth ad, where people could pay and then download their product immediately.
My remote computer tune-ups & repair business is a little more complicated because I have to book times etc. but I’ve now stopped advertising it, and will be shutting it down. I’ll still be able to bank my yearly goal after all expenses & taxes, but without having to do any physical work myself.
It is amazing what can be accomplished with a simple laptop and the internet. (And outsourcing to other people!) And if my expenses go up, I can always expand to make up the difference. Each $40/mo website is making me in excess of $2k per month. (Up from $20/mo cost per website when I first started…) None of the websites will make you rich, but when you start multiplying it, it adds up quickly.
After I’m done up here in the frozen North, I will be starting a new chapter in my life, after completing the self imposed obligations to friends over the last several years. I will be returning to Florida, putting my van in storage, and switching to my party bus because I’ll be gaining a passenger. A neighbor lady who was widowed last summer will be joining me when I hit the road once again, possibly with grandkids during summer vacations. With some quick & easy modifications from my original design, it should be very comfortable for everybody. Maybe we can make a great new life on the road together. Retiring with a self built & controlled automated income should be ideal if I can keep from getting bored.
Cheers!
“Everything should be made as simple as possible." ~ Einstein
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