Tony Page

Anthony “Tony” Page works two hours per day.  He survives on his online income. He lives anywhere he wants. Tony Page is an exemplary digital nomad.

Objective

To live and work anywhere.  “To travel through Asia for up to 9 months on earnings from my own web sites,” he wrote in October 2005.

Background

Tony Page was born and raised in England. He worked corporate technology jobs throughout his 20’s. He escaped the drudgery temporarily when he turned 30. He traveled the world by himself for a year on a tight budget. That trip was funded by his own savings.  He resumed work as a web developer contractor on his return to London.

However, the life of travel was too good to let go. He vowed to escape once again permanently.  He sought ways to make money independently and remotely. He built five travel websites for himself and monetized them with contextual ads and affiliate sales.  He launched Working Nomad and quit his job in September 2005.  Tony, 33 then, started his life as a digital nomad in October 2005. From then on, his online income funded all his traveling.

Travels

Tony has traveled to 12 countries since 2005: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Australia, New Zealand, England, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, and the United States.

He first traveled as a digital nomad to Indonesia in October 2005. He traveled for nine months through six countries in the Asia-Pacific. He returned to London in June 2006. He fully funded that trip from his online income. In fact, he increased his online income by 330% during that trip!

Tony split his time between western Europe and the Asia-Pacific over the past three years.   He lived in Europe during its spring and summer months; and he lived in the Asia-Pacific for the rest of the year, which is its high season. Therefore, he enjoyed the best of both worlds.

Tony slowed his pace recently.  He lived in Auckland, New Zealand for nine months on a working holiday visa. He toured California, Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon in May 2008. He lived in Spain for a few months. He’s now in Cambodia.

Income

Tony is a role model for website publishers. He grew his monthly online income from $670 in July 2005 to $10,000 in July 2007. He makes money from affiliates, his e-book, and Google ads.  He published an e-book about making money online in May 2006.   He sold over 700 copies at $20 a piece, in two years.  He makes most of his money from affiliate sales.

He published five travel websites. Two are broader topics, and three are narrower topics. One of them is about travel insurance, which provides a strong source of affiliate income. He chose travel as a subject because he enjoys traveling, and travel has a strong market.

Tools

Tony uses WebMasterWorld.com and the Digital Point forums to get advice on building websites and making money from them.

He uses an 11″ laptop. He stores it in a protective shock-proof soft case, which fits in his daypack. He warns against storing your laptop in a laptop bag; he says it begs people to mug you. He strongly suggests making battery life the highest priority in choosing a laptop. He thinks you can get a lot more work done while traveling with a better battery. He uses a USB memory drive to hold some web software and backups of his important files.

What I learned from Tony

Want to make money publishing websites? Pick a niche in a strong market.  Businesses pay you more for ads and commissions.  Visitors are more open to purchasing products and services through ads or affiliates on your website. Some strong markets are finance, travel, technology, insurance, and cars.

For instance, you can make more money with a travel website than with a history website. Travel has a stronger market than history.  People buy plane tickets, hotel rooms, car rentals, travel insurance, and more when they travel. Businesses advertise about travel services all over the internet.  On the other hand, people buy a book, watch TV, take a class, or go to the museum when they learn about history.  The travel industry’s transactions have higher prices and more volume than history’s.

Tony once made a website about China’s history, but he was unable to monetize the site. He could not find advertisers promoting historical products or services.  However, he could have monetized the site if he included travel information related to China. Then he could have tapped the travel market.

Publishing websites is an easy way to make money online. If Tony can do it, you can do it. His five travel websites contain simple, niche, information. Tony maximizes his chances to profit from visitors when they leave his website; most of his outbound links are Google ads, private ad links, or affiliate links. Kirsty Henderson, a disciple of Tony, follows this link ratio strategy to make money from her websites.