Turns out the answer is a resounding YES! If you have expertise in any subject, chances are very likely that there is a need for that expertise. The Internet allows you to reach a broad audience who would be willing to pay you for your knowledge.

For example, let’s stay on the theme of languages; there is a site called VerbalPlanet who’s sole purpose is to help you learn a foreign language. If you are fluent in a particular language, you can sign up to be a tutor. Payments can be handled via PayPal. You have the freedom to set your own hours, and price.

There are also sites for general subject matter experts. For example, Ether, allows you to set up a phone number that you can publish and market. People then call you based on the hours you set and pay you for your knowledge. Two other sites that operate in a similar fashion are BitWine and SkypePrime. I also found a site called Jyve, but they seem to be down for the time being.

As you can see, your specialized knowledge could be your path to a second income, or perhaps a location independent lifestyle.

Update: here is the link to the article from his site.

Update 2: Sorry the link no longer exists…

In other news, my rental property is now on the market.  I have been getting nibbles, but no big bites yet. I have to get a tenant into the house before December so I can refinance it. I have a balloon payment due then and the pressure is on.

My general strategy is to get multiple streams of income coming in to initally supplement my salary, but to eventually have it replace my salary. So, with my rental, my Internet Marketing activity, and soon, my freelance Web Design work (and content writing), I hope to generate enough revenue to go independent.

Stay tuned…

For a while now, I have wanted to move off of wordpress.com and get my own domain. I would have a lot more freedom to do stuff and, hopefully, eventually find some way of deriving income from the site. The problem was, every time I would look for a domain relating in any way to “ProjectNomad”, it was taken…until yesterday.

I had this really great idea to create a site called “RentMyDomain” where people who had good domain names, but no inclination to develop them would be matched with people who had great creativity and skills, and could develop the site while paying “rent” for the domain name (logistics to be worked out later ) ). Of course, both “RentMyDomain.com” and “LeaseMyDomain.com” were taken. (Interestingly, they both are parked).

But, on a whim, I checked “ProjectNomad.com” for the umpteenth time, and to my amazement, it was available. So now it is mine…

No grand unveiling…just head on over there when you get the chance and you will see all that is in this blog. It is, like most things in life, a work in progress. I tried to clean some things up. I am exploring wordpress unchained – especially all the incredible templates, plugins, and widgets available for it. For blogging, I think this is the best application available hands down.

The pictures on the headers are from my various trips to my second home – Mt. Desert Island, Maine.

I know I mentioned another site I was moving to in an earlier post, but now that I have the domain name I wanted, I am sticking with the new site and have deleted the old one.

The partial downside is that, in leaving wordpress.com, I will pretty much disappear from sight as far as search engines and social bookmarks go. Google likes wordpress.com; Google couldn’t care a less about projectnomad.com…So the pressure is on me to provide better content, build a greater readership, and get a little higher in the rankings, which I am committed to do. I am still experimenting, trying to find a way to leave the corporate rat race and work on my own terms, wherever and whenever I want. I am still looking at ways to incorporate the principles in “The Four Hour Work Week“, and ways to leverage Internet Marketing and Freelance Web Design into this mix. I will continue to post my progress, as well as any useful resources I find along the way.

And I welcome any comments you have.

Oh…and it’s tax time…need I say more?

I am trying to apply 4HWW to my situation though. I am working on a proposal to outsource the website design to market my house. It is just taking too much time to do it on my own, and really, it is something perfect to have someone else to do for me. I will post my experiences here on how it goes.

Now, before I get into my favorite sites (yeah, you’ll need to wait a little while more, but it will be worth it…) I want you to imagine the following situation.

Say you have a laptop. On the laptop, you have a basic operating system, and a web browser. That’s it.

No utilities, No applications (other than the browser), No suites…nothing… Basically you have what is known as a “Thin Client”.

The challenge is, can you run a business from the laptop?

Sure ya can, Sparky… just go here.

It is pretty cool. Everything you need, via Web 2.0 hosted applications. This is perfect for a freelancer on the move. I hope you find it useful.

So…the bank has accepted my counter offer for the short sale. They are getting some money back for the house without initiating foreclosure, they are forgiving the loan, so the owner is relieved, and I am getting a nice house in a decent neighborhood – win-win-win.

The downside is that it is putting a damper on my plans for starting a virtual business. All my energy is now focused on due diligence and lining up a team to get the house in good condition to rent (this in addition to working my full time job!) My original exit strategy was to flip it, but that was before the sub-prime mess. As I mentioned earlier, there is still the possibility of getting a management team to handle the rental, but it is not worth it for just one house; I will need to get a few more rentals for this to be feasible.

Still, I am actively looking for ways to outsource as much as possible.

The longterm goal is to build multiple streams of income to get me out of my job and free up my time; this is just one step toward that goal.