This series is for the increasingly large group of people who make their livings on their laptops alone, and who realize that many other “digital nomads” are cutting expenses while spending time in cities like Bangkok and Buenos Aires. Honestly, the sky’s the limit, and people who like to travel are roaming the globe paying 2nd or 3rd-World prices while making 1st-World incomes.
I’ve been doing this myself for nearly a year and a half now, almost all of that spent in Asia where US$10 hotel rooms are surprisingly nice and easy to find. I earlier discussed the great things about working while traveling, but of course there are two sides to every coin. Below are five of the “challenging” (rather than bad) things about working while traveling, and tips for overcoming many of them.
General ergonomics of hotel rooms
Those of us who already work primarily from a laptop can easily take for granted that a comfortable chair sitting in front of a proper-height desk will always be easy to find. On the road, they aren’t. Most cheaper hotels in the cheaper parts of the world (Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe) have a reasonably comfortable bed and perhaps a table or nightstand, but none of them have a proper office chair and desk like you’ll find at the Airport Hilton (for US$150 per night).
This is an important consideration when figuring out just how much work you can expect to do. Let’s say an 8-hour day is simple enough when you have a comfortable workspace, and your alternatives are to work while lying on the bed or finding a nearby restaurant with Wi-Fi. In either of those cases you’ll find that 8 productive hours is going to be quite a challenge or impossible.
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If you are taking a 2-week holiday then you might actually be doing it to purposely be out of touch with your clients and business partners. And if you do want to stay in touch then email and an international roaming plan for your mobile will do the trick. But for the group of us who are working on the road as a lifestyle, the communication thing can be a bit tricky.
The so-called ‘digital nomad’ is someone who relies only on their laptop, their skills, and an internet connection in order to make a living while spending time wherever they want. This new trend seems to be getting very popular lately as more people have exited full-time jobs and are discovering that freelancing can be an excellent option as long as you can keep your costs down while building up your business.
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As more laptop-workers are unshackling themselves from their stationary lives, whether to earn a living while seeing the world, or 
So you’ve picked a word and dropped its last vowel for your site-name, and now you are faced with building your new website or mobile app. If you are crafty enough to get your hands on some of the overly enthusiastic funding that’s floating around at the moment you can rent offices in San Francisco, New York City, or maybe Austin. But if you are bootstrapping your new operation, perhaps with friends and partners, you’ve got to stretch your money as far as possible in order to maximize your chances at ultimate success.
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