nomad4ever

The year is almost over and thanks to your continuous support – it was an exciting and successful year, which saw phenomenal growth for nomad4ever.com.

Checking over at problogger.com, I noticed an interesting list of his best articles in 2007, copyblogger.com has a similar one.

I liked the idea and simply ‘copyblogged’ it, so much about this short introduction and the intention for this article.

Here is the wrap-up of the monthly highlights of Nomad4ever.com in 2007; the posts which attracted the most readers and sparked a lot of comments from you guys:

January

The Philippines, as the ‘forgotten islands’ of Asia, are in fact a dream location and somewhat of a travel secret, as the country sees the least tourists of the bigger Asian countries. This is a pity, as the the Philippines have so much to offer, if maybe a bit off the beaten track. If you are into beaches, this most-visited post of January might be interesting for you: Visit the gorgeous islands of the Philippines. It introduces some of the better known beaches and many pinoy and other readers added their own favorites as well.

February

The following post “How much money do you need to retire” is one of the most successful posts of this blog. It received the most numbers of visitors, about 37 comments and counting and the most Adsense clicks. I admit it doesn’t offer much in regards of solutions, but it sets the tone for the general topic of this site. So if you think “that guy is insane!” or “how can he do that?” – just click over to the mentioned post and either confirm your premonitions or get a glimpse into a different way of thinking.

March

The last 2 months then were times of celebration and festivities here in Bali. I posted a short summary about what’s going on and a gallery of Ogoh-Ogoh monsters in the article My Ogoh-Ogoh Monster collection. They were well received, and although not attracting many comments, brought a huge wave of traffic over for instance from Boing Boing and other sites linking back.

April

Some of us Backpackers and Nomads are like Richard, the main character in the novel “The Beach” by Alex Garland. Every country we visit – we are searching far and wide for ‘our’ perfect beach. So it was about time popping the question: Have you found that perfect beach yet? which includes some examples in Asia as well as over 20 comments by readers who added their own favorite beaches.

May

Is a Nomadic Lifestyle for you? touches key attitude, drawbacks and essential gadgets for living a travel life as a so-called Digital Nomad. Funny enough we can’t give up completely on all those little gadgets and devices and want to stay in touch with friends and family. Ahhhh! The benefits of progress and globalization! Why not travel and enjoy them?

June

Essential Tips for Self-Sustainable or Permanent Travel was the most successful post in June and deals with things like Income, Expenses, Savings and Debt – as they are the factors you can influence most, if you are planning to travel for a longer period or quitting your work life completely.

July

Still paying off corrupt Traffic Cops? Try this instead… brought a lot of traffic from Boing Boing. It really seems that Boing Boing is more for satirical or funny posts, so if you write a blog and often post something funny or off the beaten track – don’t forget to let Boing Boing know about it. The potential clicks coming from there are of much better value than those from digg.com or reddit.com. Close to 30 readers shared their stories with Traffic Cops during their travels and offered tips and tricks as well.

August

Sex, Lust and Foolishness in Asia (Part 1) was the most successful article in August and was intended as a multi-part article when first written down. I had basically the 2nd part almost finished, but it got lost during my hard drive crash a few weeks later. I hate rewriting complete posts, so I didn’t get around again to the 2nd part. I know – a few of you were asking already and I agree that’s an entertaining topic – after all plenty of visitors come here through Google Searches “Sex in Bali” or “Sex Asia” – so I really have to get down to it and finish it off again. Please don’t hit me yet.

September

Hitler got it all wrong… is about the Swastika Symbol and its meaning throughout history. Unfortunately these days it’s mainly associated with Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany, who used it in his flag when trying to conquer the world. Get an overview on what it originally meant and where you can still find it today.

October

3 Secrets to Early Retirement is about the pressure of consumerism and not falling for it. It touches what you can do to save money and escape the Rat Race earlier than anyone else. The secrets might be unconventional and not for everyone, but it might push the button for some. This month saw as well a redesign of the website with a new theme and the Restructuring of the Google PageRank algorithm, which resulted in a downgrade for this site from 5 to 3. I still don’t know for sure, what or why it happened, but Google obviously wants to punish bloggers using TextLinks to earn some money besides using Google Adsense only.

November

Following the achievement of 100.000 visitors for this site since its creation, I was asked to write down some ways on how nomad4ever got there. The resulting article 20 tips to get 100.000 visitors in just 11 months was the best received article in November and had around 20+ comments with additional tips from you readers. We are fantastically on the way to double those figures soon again, as just 3 months down the road we are at 150.000 visitors already. In November I also met Tracy of www.travel-betty.com here in Bali, where she just got married. We chatted away for hours and hours and if you want to get married in Bali, just drop her a note and she will surely tell you everything about it.

December

In December I became a bit lazy and spent more time offline than posting here. Fair enough? Still the post about Anthony Bourdain and his passion for Asian food attracted plenty of readers, while another post from November is still going strong: The Psychic, who predicted a devastating earthquake for 23/12/2007 was obviously completely wrong, but the related post sparked an interesting and entertaining discussion between Yearinthelife and Kayenne about environmentalism, superstition, the state of science, coastal flooding and other issues. The verdict is still open on who is right or not, but let me tell you, that both have great arguments and at the moment I don’t see that a clear winner is even necessary.

—

I hope you guys liked what you could read in 2007 on Nomad4ever.com, if you didn’t – please let know what I can do to improve this site. I’m always open for suggestions, remarks, comments, criticism or simple rambling. I surely don’t have the resources and time to write close to 900 articles a year like problogger.com, but then we cover a different topic here, more like a small niche than a broad technical topic.

I will again try to push for quality rather than quantity in 2008, but you can expect at least a post per week on this site about traveling, nomadic life, the simple life, money tips and great destinations to visit. I will throw in current politics or religious topics, which affect us travelers in Asia and elsewhere when they pop up and of course will take up and comment on your suggestions and recommendations.

Happy New Year 2008 for all of us, wherever we may roam!

Technorati : 2007, alex garland, beach, best of 2007, corrupt cops, environment, google, hitler, how much money to retire, nomadic, ogoh ogoh, philippines, psychic, retire, retirement, sex asia, swastika, travel, wrap-up

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written by Chris