Start Here

So, you want to quit your job to travel around the world? Or maybe you want to build an online business from the beach in Indonesia?

Either way this is your page. Bookmark it and plow through this.

This page can be used by both newbies and veterans – just find what’s most useful to you and start there.

Note: This isn’t intended to be an exhaustive list, just my top picks.

There are two main sections here:

• Recommended Reading (immediately below)
• Recommended Tools

Recommended Books

See: My Book Recommendations

Recommended Blog Posts

I’ve arranged posts by topic, and most of them have to do with commonly asked questions. I’ll also be putting up a resources page in the near future with links to everything I use on the road to make things happen.

The Framework / Mindset / Goal-setting

• The SpartanTraveler Manifesto
• 365 Days: 20 things I Learned from Traveling Around the World
  
• Defining Success in Life: the Dreamline Exercise
  
• The Key to Freedom isn’t Making More, it’s Spending Less
  
• Morning Scripts: Wake up, Kick Ass Every Single Day

Travel Inspiration

• The Top 10 Spartan Travel Adventures of 2012
  
• What Living on $20 / day looks like
• SE Asia is a Playground for Outdoor Sports

Travel Banking / Money

• The No ATM-Fee, Bulletproof Travel Financial System

Travel Budgeting

• How I saved $15,000 in 15 months on a $29k Salary
  
• What it Costs to Live Around the World

Finding Cheap Airfare / RTW Flights

• How I Flew Around the World for Less than $220
  
• Credit Card and Airline Miles FAQ
• Discount Airlines: How to Fly Around Europe for Cheap
• Why I Stopped Booking Airline Tickets in Advance
  

Where to Sleep / Accommodation

• How to Find Cheap Accommodation Almost Anywhere
  

What to Pack

• A Digital-Nomad Pack List after 5 years on the road
• What to pack for a trip around the world
• Essential Entry-Level Work Gear for Digital Nomads
  
• How to wear the same clothes for a year.

Working Online / Digital-Nomadery / Lifestyle-Businesses

• The Myth of the 4-hour Workweek
• 22 Things I’ve Learned as a Digital Nomad
  
• 4 Gmail Hacks to Dominate your Inbox and Cure Email Addiction
  
• The Less Romantic Side of Geo-Arbitrage
  

Health and Fitness

• How I Broke my Body and then Fixed it
• The Diet that Doubled my Testosterone in 2015

Podcasts and Blogs

• 4-Hour Workweek Blog, Podcast, and Book Club – Get it straight from the Godfather.
• TropicalMBA Podcast and Blog – Everything you ever wanted to know about lifestyle businesses.

Recommended Tools

Travel Resources

• Booking.com – The staple for traveling these days. Free cancellation on most rooms means no-risk options.
• Agoda – Used to be the gold standard for SE Asia but worth checking anywhere now.
• AirBnB – The staple of my accommodation search. I now rent an apartment on Airbnb until I can find a longer-term option. Signup gets you $25 so your first night is free.
• Hostelworld – For when I’m traveling fast and flexible and don’t necessarily need my own room.
• Couchsurfing – If you have the time to make this work it’s a lot of fun. Make new friends and get free accommodation.
• Momondo and Kayak – My favorite flight travel search engines.
• TravelingMailbox – Get your mail scanned and receive it anywhere. Stop pissing off your parents with all the junk mail they have to go through.
• Uber – The ultimate Taxi upgrade. Get a private driver for half the cost of a Taxi in some areas. Signup gives you a free $20 ride.

Business-Building Resources and Tools

Domains

The first thing you’ll need is a website name, which you can buy from a domain registrar. I always use the same one.

• Namecheap – Domains cost about $7-$10 a year.
• Leandomainsearch – Fun way to come up with website names.

Hosting

You’ll need a place to put your first website. Or if you already have one you’ll want to make it faster. Most hosting starts at $5-7 a month, and honestly if you’re starting out it doesn’t really matter where you put things. You can always move and optimize later.

For total newbies:

• Hostgator – Not amazing but who cares, easy to set up and get going.
• See my short guide on How to Set up a WordPress Site in Minutes

For the initiated or technical:

• DigitalOcean – Get $10 in credit when you sign up. Simple, fast, SSD servers. Not for novices with no tech experience but my favorite.
• Laravel’s Forge or ServerPilot – Not totally necessary, but can make it easier manage your DigitalOcean account (makes it more accessible to non-developers). That said I do almost everything in the DO interface and I’m not a developer.

Building a Blog

To set up a website all you need to do is install WordPress. Most hosting services have a one-click option to do this.

• WordPress – no reason not to use this. It’s free and typically one-click install from your hosting platform. Easy to customize and make as complicated as you want.

Making your site look good

You’ll need a theme for the site. This has always been a pain in the ass, until now.

• Thrive Themes and Content Builder – A lot of people have tried to make a visual drag-and-drop editor that would allow you to make beautiful websites. These guys finally nailed it.

Email Marketing

Build a list, then email them. Simple as that.

• ActiveCampaign – The best I’ve used. Keeps it simple. Tons of ways to integrate with other apps.
• Thrive Leads – Makes building optins and email capture a breeze.

Outsourcing

Don’t know how to do something? Hire someone else. I’ve worked with developers from all over the world and learning how to find/hire/manage a virtual team is key.

• Upwork – The starting point for everything. The result of Elance and Odesk merging.
• Jobrack – Hire Central Europeans.
• Fiverr – Simple jobs that start at $5