Recommended Resources

A really fantastic, and small, book that gives you ideas for pricing your work based on value instead of time.

A nice program by my friend Cody McKibben that offers lots of material related to becoming a digital nomad.

Online Invoicing, Accounting, and Billing Software. I've been using them for years as a freelancer and I couldn't be happier. The service lets you track billable time, generate professional-looking invoices, and even accept payments by credit ca

Tons of great advice from my friend Niall about becoming a freelance web designer. I learned all these lessons the long and hard way.

Lots of really good advice from Chris Guillebeau about making money on the Internet

The comments on this post have lots of amazing ideas for quickly making some money, many of which are non-Internet based ideas.

If you haven't seen this video, it's a must-see. Even more important are the lessons on leadership that Derek Sivers shares in this post.

I used Aweber for years but switched to MailChimp when I finally got tried of Aweber's bad business practices. MailChimp has a truly dedicated team of developers that are constantly adding features.

This is the model of business that I follow. Derek Sivers, a self-made millionaire, gives some examples from his own life (I started a web hosting company the same way he did)

The best backup tool for the Mac. I use this to clone my entire Mac hard drive to an external drive every two weeks. If anything goes wrong, I can literally boot my Mac from the cloned backup.

This is what I use for continuous offsite backups. I keep all my documents, music, and even software configurations stored here. (I use symlinks to make sure things software configs point to Dropbox.)

This lets you clean up the Mac menu bar and control the menu bar items. Extremely useful! Like a breath of fresh air!

If you use the command line--and you should if you're interested in productivity--this site is great for discovering new commands.

This is a fantastic Mac OS X tool for identifying exactly what is taking up space on your computer.

Must-use tool for Mac (and iPhone/iPad if you jailbreak it). Automatically dims the screen brightness at night, reducing stress on your eyes and helping you sleep at night.

This is a fantastic tool for converting summary-only RSS feeds into full-content RSS feeds. Saves time by keeping all content in your RSS reader.

The book that started it all. I have the audio version that I listen to a few times a year. Lots of really great organizational ideas here and even if you don't use the GTD method exactly as prescribed, the ideas behind it are very useful.

Mac tool that allows you to disable closing the lid from putting the laptop to sleep

OmniFocus for the iPad -- fantastic for doing the weekly review!

OmniFocus for the iPhone

A fantastic tool for staying organized. Designed around the GTD method, but extremely flexible. You can design your own organizational method! Has a companion iPhone and iPad app and a free service for keeping everything in sync.

An ebook by my friend Fabian Kruse (feat. an interview with yours truly). If you're interested in productivity, there's lots of great advice here!

The application launcher for the Mac that I used for years (I now use Alfred instead). It comes with loads of features that can help improve productivity.

Great web app for practicing keyboard shortcuts in vim, emacs, TextMate, Photoshop, and the *nix command line.

The password manager that I used to store passwords, logins, and financial info for years. (I now use Pass: The Standard Unix Password Manager.)

My favorite firewall and network monitor for the Mac. It's the first thing I install on a new Mac.

I use the VPN tunnel from Private Internet Access to protect all my wireless connections when traveling. I consider using a VPN an absolute requirement for security.

I don't personally use BlueHost, but I've heard lots of great things about them. If you want cheap hosting, this is who I recommend.

A great hosting service for geeks!

I've used GoDaddy in the past for cheap domain registration. If you're looking for cheap domain registration, this is who I recommend.

Really cool tool for quickly checking the availability of domain names. I use this when brainstorming domains for new projects.

The best managed-WordPress hosting there is!

This is the data center where I lease the dedicated server for ActualWebSpace; LiquidWeb has excellent support and they’re very reliable. They also have shared hosting which starts at $15/mo. If you want great support, this is who I recommend.

Useful when migrating an existing site to a new permalink structure.

Great for generating a list of related posts. Works great on sites with a large number of posts.

Adds Google Analytics code to your WordPress site; also allows for preventing the tracking of logged in admins.

Great plugin for extending the WordPress Post-via-Email feature. I use this to publish Thoughts and sometimes Journals from my phone via Email.

I've found this to be a better caching plugin than WP Super Cache. Also, I'm the lead developer!

Plugin for setting up site redirections. Useful for creating affiliate link redirections and other site redirections.

The membership plugin that I use for the Journal; the free version is very feature-complete as well.

Allows visitors to subscribe to comments, including only replies to their own comments.

If you post code examples on your site, this is great for highlighting the syntax.

A huge collection of really great sites for learning everything from biology to computer programming, absolutely free. I've used many of the sites listed here.

Scott really knows his stuff, and practices what he preaches, when it comes to learning and his blog posts, books, and courses are excellent.

If you want to learn programming overnight, take a look at this article and understand why that's a silly goal.

The forums here are really great; I've been using BodyBuilding.com on and off for the past 10+ years.

The best app + website that I've found for tracking runs.

This is the service I use for photo storage. The features are limited, but I’ve been using them for so long that switching would be difficult. I have photography friends who swear by SmugMug and if I was starting over, I’d probably go with them.

A fantastic, fixed-lens camera.

Fantastic micro-four-thirds lens

Fantastic travel camera; shoots great video as well!

Field pocket that adds organizational space to my GR1

The 26L backpack that holds all my possessions. Military grade.

When I'm not barefoot, I'm wearing these.

Compact and portable water purifier that uses ultra-violet light. Beats using nasty purification tablets when traveling in developing countries.

Lots of fantastic advice about how to find your 'voice' through writing.

An awesome Markdown editor for Mac OS X

Notational Velocity: This is the app I use for managing all my notes. I use an alternate build by Brett Terpstra called nvALT that includes several improved features.

The best writing software I've found.

The text editor I use for writing code.

Invaluable text expander. Speeds up typing commonly used phrases and snippets, even things like HTML tags.

[Requires Jailbroken iOS] I use this free app on my laptop to automatically adjust the screen color. It's must-have on all devices IMO.

[Requires JailBroken iOS] A great app for tethering the iPhone to your laptop/iPad for sharing the iPhone Internet connection. Download/purchase through Cydia.

[Requires Jailbroken iOS] This app allows you to hide the iOS keyboard whenever you want. Especially useful when reading long bits of text in editable areas.

Beautiful app for exploring the night sky and learning exactly what you're looking at!

This is the Australian equivalent of CraigsList. I've found short-term apartment rentals through here.

If you have a non-Australian passport, this is absolutely the cheapest way to see Australia. I used the 3-month Ausrail pass ($700, unlimited train travel) to travel more than 16,000km (10,000mi)! This sites give best overview of passes.

Largest mobile phone carrier in Australia with the best coverage country-wide. Get a pre-paid SIMs with talk and data. If you have an unlocked iPhone, get the 'pre-paid SIM for iPad data' and use that in your iPhone.

Whirlpool – Like CraigsList on steroids; the forums here are quite popular and active.

The best way to book train travel in India. Entirely electronic and tickets can be purchased with a credit card and cancelled and fully refunded up to the day of departure. Also useful for booking flights in India and the Middle East.

It's like CouchSurfing, except you pay your host like renting a hotel. Great for short-term rentals. Some hosts offer a lower weekly and monthly rate.

Cheap rental car search; searches multiple rental car companies for the cheapest price.

Great site for cheap tickets!

Find cheap accommodation; I’ve found this site particularly useful in Central and Southeast Asia. Despite the name, many of the listings are not hostels but hotels, motels, and guest houses and they nearly always include reviews from guests.

If I'm just looking for a hotel for the night, this is what I usually use.

Search for flights; searches multiple airlines (but not all airlines) for the cheapest price.

Uber is a private driver service that lets you request a car (like a taxi, but better) via your phone. Cool stuff!

Great service for viewing all your frequent flyer miles from one place. Most, but not all, frequent flyer programs are supported.

Fear Crushing Travel Guide by my friend Farnoosh Brock (feat. a contribution by yours truly). If you're terrified about traveling but also thrilled at the prospect of it, check out this book!

This ebook, by my friend and fellow nomadic traveler Earl Baron, is a great place to start if you're interested in learning how to live a life of travel. Earl has been living and working nomadically for more than a decade and is an amazing resource.

Fantastic ebook on living your dreams. I read this during my first month in India in 2010 and it was pivotal in helping me move forward.

Fantastic resource for information on trains and train travel around the world; includes descriptions and photos of various seat classes and cars.

If you're interested in Travel Hacking, this is the place to start! Tons of resources, many articles for beginners, and a service that alerts you about new travel hacking deals.

Great site for quickly researching Visa requirements for various countries. I haven't used their Visa service, so I cannot comment on it.

After researching my next travel destination with Wikitravel, I usually dig into the details of the place with Wikipedia. It's great for learning more about the history.

Free Worldwide Travel Guide: It's like Wikipedia, except for travelers. I always start my research here before traveling somewhere (then I usually look up the place with Wikipedia).

Great site for checking availability and getting permits for camp sites on Oahu

Prepaid SIM with unlimited data/phone/text for $45/month. Uses the great AT&T network. Works on AT&T and T-Mobile unlocked GSM phones.