No geographical ties.. where would you live?

best location to bootstrap an online biz and live the good life?

  • SE Asia

    Votes: 17 30.4%

  • Latin America

    Votes: 20 35.7%

  • Eastern Europe

    Votes: 19 33.9%
  • Total voters
    56
Ronnie55

Ronnie55

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Mar 12, 2013
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Might make some moves and try internet marketing from abroad.

I'm an American citizen.

I don't make a ton from IM yet so I narrowed it down to 3 low cost areas. Curious what you guys think though.

1. SE Asia
Very cheap, lots of english speakers and westerners
Far as hell. Annoying visa situations for most countries

2. Mexico, Central America or Ecuador/Colombia
Cheaper to fly to from the US.. easier visa situation too especially in countries like Mexico
A little less safe? more guns, violent crime, etc when compared with SE Asia

3. Eastern Europe
cheap, fast internet
I'd "fit in" better cause I look russian or eastern european
Not sure of Visa situation
Countries that use Euros would kill me in exchange rates, unless I start earning income in Euros.


I know I could post this on some dumb boring travel forum but I like you guys more and I figured maybe this thread will help inspire other people too.
 


jorarulit said:
Do you speak an "Eastern European" language fluently?
Click to expand...

I do not. I speak English and basic Spanish.

A friend's sister went to Romania and told me the language wasn't a problem and people were very eager to learn/speak english with her. I'm guessing that's only true in larger cities though.
 
I'll probably travel from place to place at every 4-6 months and I'll stick for more than 6 months in places where I find the most high quality people.

I love how this industry offers me the possibility to pack my laptops and control everything I need to run my businesses, while being abroad.

Just found a quite interesting vid

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcGuqr617xI]How To Live The Internet Marketing Lifestyle - YouTube[/ame]
 
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How about the Mediterranean coast of Turkey? It's cheap, warm and sunny with gorgeous beaches. Lots of westerners visit there and it has an abundance of natural beauty and ancient ruins to see. Civilizations have called southern Anatolia "home" for at least 26,000 years. It's considered a part of western Asia, aka Asia Minor.

How to get there: Turkish Airlines has non-stop flights to Istanbul from many US cities. Taking local flights around Turkey is cheap using their domestic airlines.

I'm booked to go to Antalya in February, so I have no first hand info about this area yet. I was in Istanbul this past March.
 
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BlueYonder said:
How about the Mediterranean coast of Turkey? It's cheap, warm and sunny with gorgeous beaches. Lots of westerners visit there and it has an abundance of natural beauty and ancient ruins to see. Civilizations have called southern Anatolia "home" for at least 26,000 years. It's considered a part of western Asia, aka Asia Minor.

How to get there: Turkish Airlines has non-stop flights to Istanbul from many US cities. Taking local flights around Turkey is cheap using their domestic airlines.

I'm booked to go there in February, so I have no first hand info about this area yet. I was in Istanbul this past March.
Click to expand...

Awesome info, I'll check it out. I had considered Cyprus in the past. Not Turkey though... time to look into it.
 
It's quite interesting to see similar threads since as a north/east European I look at states as a business opportunity because of GEO. Of course, if you are simply an affiliate it doesn't matter maybe that much but when it comes offering physical products and services you start thinking about the "American dream".

As to Latvia:
cheap, fast internet - Checked, fiber optic is quite common and cheap. I have heard that at one point we had the fastest internet in the world - Top 10: Where to Find the World's Fastest Internet: The Download - Bloomberg
I'd "fit in" better cause I look russian or eastern european - Although the Slav population in Riga (the capital of Latvia) and southern part of Latvia is relatively high, it isn't that much in the rest. As long you are not drunken Brit who has decided to piss on the national monument, you shouldn't have a problem(Brits - don't take offense, we just have seen some interesting cases).
Not sure of Visa situation - You will need to make some research if you are really interested - Latvia
Countries that use Euros would kill me in exchange rates, unless I start earning income in Euros. - We will be exchanging Lats to Euros in 2014.
As to language - most of the older generation(40+) know mostly Russian as the second language, but the youth speak English pretty well.

And since we all are gays here - there is a stigma against homosexuality in the older generation so be prepared.:conehead:
 
I really enjoyed the time I spent in Ukraine, but I also learned the language. However, in my experience, you can find a good number of people there that speak some amount of english anyway.
 
GoldMarketing - please elaborate on the recent 'Brit' cases and the general attitude towards 'us' there. Is it actually a racist thing and would the attitude be different to any foreigner who acted like a Brit?
I'm asking out of personal interest really - I'm not a Brit by birth but grew up as a Londoner. (It's complicated.)
 
USAMap2.jpg
 
GoldMarketing - please elaborate on the recent 'Brit' cases and the general attitude towards 'us' there. Is it actually a racist thing and would the attitude be different to any foreigner who acted like a Brit?
I'm asking out of personal interest really - I'm not a Brit by birth but grew up as a Londoner. (It's complicated.)
Click to expand...
Well, a few years ago there were like two cases recorded when some Brits tried to climb up the Monument of Freedom and even took a piss - Divi briti ap?ur? Briv?bas pieminekli - Video - nra.lv
The general attitude to Brits and mostly other nationalities as well are pretty fine but yeah, those incidents once hit the news. Everyone just need to behave properly and you will be treated with the same respect.
 
I entertained the same thought you did even though I knew Poland was going to be my destination. I reconsidered going because I would be setting myself back months in marketing. Organizing the move, adjustments to culture etc are things that take time. I figured I'm better off directing my energy towards scaling my business first then traveling for extended amounts of time.
 
"far as hell"

"exchange rates"

"annoying visa situations"

Jeez dude, find out where you want to go, then worry about this bullshit.
 
The ideal situation would be a home base within a few hours of flight from your friends and family and then travel for extended periods during the years.

If you're in Europe, that could be Poland, Baltics, Czeck, Bulgaria, Spain for example, then go to Asia and Latin America for months at the time. If I was american, I'd probably get that base in central america (Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia) or Carribean such as the Dominican Republic. Live in a cheap place to get more money for travel.

My personal goal is to have property in several places, which would serve as both a real estate retirement fund and as places to live when I travel.
 
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