Remote Update September 2016: Big Things Coming

It’s that time of the month again. Uhhhh… I mean time for The Remote Update September 2016!

I can’t believe another month has just flown by. I’m really excited to share with you everything that’s happened because it is A LOT.

Are you ready? Because I am. Let’s dive straight into it.

In a nutshell, this month I did the following:

Travel:

• Took a long weekend to New York Trip (9/8–9/11)
• Planned a weekend trip to Boston in November
• Confirmed that I will be traveling for 6 MONTHS ACROSS 6 COUNTRIES IN 2017

The Remote Lifestyle:

• Redid my entire website
• Created a 7-part email course
• Outsourced my social media management to my Virtual Assistant (August Goal Update)
• Decided to stop releasing weekly blog posts (August Goal Update)
• Created my first YouTube video
• Will start affiliate marketing to make money (August Goal Update)

The Remote Podcast:

• Interviewed 5 Guests
• Created a Facebook group to notify people of Podcast launch

Tandem Designs:

• Picked up 2 new client projects
• Currently working with an outsourced development team on a trial basis

Now let’s dive into the details.

Visiting New York, New York

A few months ago, a friend of mine posted on Facebook that he had extra tickets to a VIP reception for travel bloggers in New York. My eyes immediate lit up.

One of my goals was to make The Remote Lifestyle a travel blog once I started traveling all over the place. And the opportunity to attend this event was too good to pass up. So I booked my tickets to New York after I snagged the free ticket.

I was really excited to visit New York because I never had the chance to go there by myself as an adult. My grandparents used to live in Long Island, so we’d always visit every year. But you know, it’s never the same going somewhere as an adult versus going with your family.

It also turned out that I had a lot of friends in New York. I grew up going to international schools in Taipei, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. And as it turns out, New York was a hot spot for a lot of my former classmates. So it was also a chance to catch up with old friends who I haven’t seen in years!

Some highlights of the trip were:

• The VIP reception hosted at HI NYC, an international hostel chain
• Karaoke with my high school friends from Shanghai
• Exploring Chinatown
• Visiting the new World Trade Center and the September 11 Memorial, which was an extraordinary museum
• The food in NYC. You can find any cuisine in the world there.

Pictures below:

I Will Be Traveling for 6 Months Next Year

My next update is the biggest one to date. I will be traveling for 6 months next year! Here’s where I’ll be:

• Chiang Mai, Thailand (February)
• Taipei, Taiwan (March)
• Bali, Indonesia (April)
• Panama City, Panama (May)
• Curaçao, Dutch Carribean (June)
• Medellin, Colombia (July)

Yeah, crazy right? I’ll be traveling as part of the inaugural Remote Trip program! I’m so excited because this was started by two of my friends I met through blogging. It is a digital nomad community of 30+ individuals traveling together.

Click here if you want to learn more about The Remote Trip and travel with me!

I Redid My Website for YOU

Now onto the work-related stuff. I redid the entire The Remote Lifestyle website. Why? I did it because I didn’t think I was doing a good job communicating with you, the reader.

I realized that I made a fundamental mistake. The website is about you, not me. It’s about what I can do for you and how I can help you succeed. And I wasn’t tailoring every aspect of the browsing experience for you.

With that in mind, I did the following:

• I re-did the homepage
• Edited the About page
• Added a Get Started page
• Created a 7-part email course for new subscribers

Simply put, I rewrote all of my web pages to be focused on you, the reader. I want every interaction I have with you on the website to be intentional and tailored.

Click here to see the new and improved homepage!

Instead of coming on the website and just seeing the blog, I wanted to start off the relationship by empathizing with what you, the reader is feeling. I want to present my best resources to you right off the bat. If you join my email list, I want to flood you with valuable information.

Everything should be about helping you achieve the remote lifestyle.

So I really hope you enjoy the updated website and would appreciate any feedback in the comments section below!

No More Weekly Blog Posts

I decided that I will not be releasing weekly blog posts anymore. The reason is because I am tired of trying to hit that weekly deadline for the sake of hitting the deadline. I want to create quality, actionable content for you.

Whenever I’m pressed for time, I write a shitty listicle or half-assed piece of writing, which isn’t fair to you. I want everything I produce to meet your expectations and to be helpful or entertaining.

I’m also exploring audio and video content, which I’m excited about. I actually created my first vlog titled Best Korean Tacos in Chicago, which you can watch below. It’s just a silly video I created with my friend Courtnie so that I could practice vlogging and video editing:

Let me know what you think of the video! I’ll be exploring more types of videos in the future, so I’ll improve. I promise haha.

Preparing to Launch The Remote Podcast

This month I also interviewed five guests for my upcoming podcast series The Remote Podcast, which I plan to release on November 1st. Mark your calendars, kiddos!

The podcast series features one-on-one interview with entrepreneurs, remote workers and freelancers who are living the location independent lifestyle. I’m having such a blast and learning a ton speaking with these brilliants guests. So I’m sure you’ll love the podcast too.

I’ve also created a Facebook group for people who want to be notified when the podcast is released. Group members are also willing to rate, review, share and subscribe to the podcast when it comes out so that we can make a push for the iTunes New & Noteworthy section!

Click here to join The Remote Podcast Launch Team!

Reviewing August’s Goals

Now it’s time for my first installment of: “Did I actually do what I said I would do last month?”

To refresh my memory, here were my goals for September:

• Have a launch plan in place for The Remote Podcast and have the first 6 episodes recorded and completed √
• Release my first YouTube video √
• Outsource my content promotion completely to my VA (kind of)
• Be ahead of my blog post schedule for one (lol no)
• Start making $$$ off of the blog (*tears*)

Hmmmm not so great. Let’s dive into everything below.

Outsourcing Content Promotion

I’m making good progress. My virtual assistant is like a gift from god. We have a social media plan in place that extends all the way to January and she’s been keeping me on track. I’ll be hopping on a call with her this week to go through content promotion for blog posts so we’re close!

Being Ahead of My Blog Post Schedule

In terms of my blog post schedule I’ve decided to put quality over quantity. So I’m giving myself a free pass here ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Making Money

So I’ve made $0 so far on the blog. Which is kind of sad, I suppose. But I have a plan in place by starting off with affiliate marketing. There are a lot of products I recommend on my blog but I haven’t used any affiliate links on them. So I’ll start doing that.

I think I have a good rationale for doing so because I’m actually recommending products I love and I would never do anything otherwise. So fingers crossed.

Goals for October

Now for this month’s goals. Here we go!

• Launch my 7-part email course
• Launch The Remote Podcast on November 1st and crack iTunes New & Noteworthy list
• Outsource content promotion completely to my VA (let’s try this one more time)
• Start making some money (sigh)
• Release another YouTube video
• Release 1 kick-ass blog post (this one doesn’t count)
• Pick up 2 more projects for Tandem Designs

To be honest, looking at this list makes me think of all the work ahead of me. But oh well, that’s life. Thanks for tuning in this month, I’ll be back next month with more updates!

Victor runs The Remote Lifestyle (http://theremotelifestyle.com), where he teaches you step-by-step how you can become a successful digital nomad.