I’m Van(ce) Dweller, and yes that’s actually my real name. It is pure coincidence that I happen to be a Van Dweller too.
I worked construction for many years starting in 1974, and living on or near my jobsites just made sense, so I’ve spent my life being a rubber tramp. Today I work online to support myself.
I’ve had many rigs over the years ranging from a 1961 westy, to big buses and motorhomes, and everything in between including some trailers. Today I have a 1973 Dodge Travco high top camper van that some dummy stripped before I got it, but for $800 it was good deal for a great running high top van. Since my previous van had gotten stolen, I needed it to live in ASAP, so I literally just moved a futon sofa/bed in, some other scrounged furniture and cabinets, and went from there. Later I restored the floor and walls to their original condition using parts out of normal passenger vans at wrecking yards. From the top down, the floor and walls were originally identical to a 15 passenger van, windows, trim, and all.
Over the years I’ve learned how to conquer all those annoying problems that come with living this way in less than ideal weather conditions, and no water, power, or sewer connections. Now I can laugh at all my former struggles, and just wish I would have had the solutions sooner rather than later. For my legacy, I would like to be remembered as somebody that passed on those solutions, to help others, and prevent them from going through all of the struggles I had.
What exactly are you doing online, if you don’t mind me asking?
We’re actually writing a blog on how to choose the right vehicle for a nomadic lifestyle. Since you have so much experience, would you be interested in reading it over and telling us if we need to add anything?
I do two different things online. The real money is in selling ebooks, but it’s also a lot of work, at least to me. I can easily make $20k+ per ebook in a month or so, and I figured out all the ins and outs to really make it work well, but it’s just something I don’t really enjoy doing. I keep it as my backup arsenal for if I ever get into a money crunch though.
What I prefer doing is remote computer repair and maintenance. The money’s good, and there’s just a really good feeling associated with helping other people. I do remote computer tune-ups, data recovery, software installation/removal/updates, and virus removal. Occasionally I’ll do website creation/repair/maintenance as well. When I want to work, I just put a free ad up on Craigslist, in the nearest larger city, and after I book as much work as I feel like doing, I’ll delete the ad. It’s pretty easy to make $500-$1000 a day, and there’s no shortage of work out there. I guarantee 100% customer satisfaction, or there is no charge, and I get paid through PayPal. Then I have the PayPal credit/debit card to pay all my expenses with, and move the rest to a savings account that I never touch. That’s my retirement fund if I ever need it, because I don’t trust social insecurity to take care of me when the time comes.
I would be more than happy to review your blog, and always glad to help whenever and wherever I can.
I can relate to this. I am doing alot of things online right now that I don’t really like doing but they are making me money to keep everything going. So it’s hard to stop.
I prefer doing RPA (robotic process automation’s) instead. I never tried finding clients for that yet, but i’m sure if it’s something I approach full time I can make a decent business out of. Especially in today’s technology dependent society.
Start your robotics biz small on the side, and grow it until it can support your lifestyle. That way you’re never gambling what you have now, and if it turns into what you’re hoping for, then you’ll have multiple choices.
I read somewhere that “If your work involves doing something you love, you’l never work a day in your life.”, works for me!
Nope, never used Facebook, not even a member. I don’t really believe in most of this social media stuff, seen to many people lose big bucks trying to make from it.
I just use free classified ads. I’ll post an ad in each of the top 200 major metro areas here in the USA. Each ad will sell 5-10 copies of my ebook, totaling up to 1k-2k sales over the course of about a month. At $19.95 to $39.95 per ebook, it adds up quite quickly.
When I first started out, I was delivering each ebook manually via email, and that quickly became a huge hassle, so now I set up a website, with a detailed description of the ebook, along with a payment link. Once the customer has paid, it returns them to my site, and allows them to download their ebook. This saved me a TON of work. Then I started hiring others to post the ads for me, so all I needed to do was create the ebooks on interesting topics, from free public domain sources. I would gather the information from multiple sources, and make a totally new creation with everything in one place.
One of my best sellers was also one of the silliest, " Grandma’s Favorite Christmas Recipes". It sold over 5,000 copies between Thanksgiving and Christmas for $19.95 each. It had a little over 200 recipes in it, and I didn’t receive a single complaint. Most ebooks, I wound up giving about half a dozen refunds to people who didn’t like them for whatever reason, but I stood behind my 100% satisfaction guarantee.
The hardest work comes in the form of researching your topic, and compiling your new ebook. You need to make sure that you’re not stepping on anyone else’s toes, by printing copyrighted material. For this reason, I only used stuff that was designated as “Public Domain”, meaning that it is free to use however you wish.
Could you please help me? I just wrote my first post but cannot find a way to to “send” it. I’ve read the newbie directions several times but I have never posted before and I’m trying to introduce myself. Thanks in advance.
Marianne
This info about writing ebooks would be of interest to the visitors at my blog. Printaphoria & Creative Living is where I write about graphic design, arting, writing, publishing, crafting, gardening and other creative pursuits. May I share the entire comment that you wrote that includes “Grandma’s Favorite Christmas Recipes”? It has certainly helped me.
This discussion is old but maybe my info can help someone. You can list digital content at Payhip for free and pay only a small FVF when your product sells. You can list digitals, ebooks, music, subscriptions, memberships and coaching svcs. I don’t get paid for sharing Payhip. I just love their venue and what they stand for. There is no money needed to join and list your products and there is no limit on the number of products that you can list.
I’ve been selling around various sites online for years and recently closed my latest Etsy shop and went to Payhip, where I now have my own domain shop. They offer a lot of services to help sellers and the owners are a great team of 2 brothers out of London. Payhip is a successful venture that is not going anywhere anytime soon. Payhip
Are you online all day and half the night, like I would be? How do you power your computer equipment and what do you do for internet? I love my online life.
