Soul laid bare...Hi

[TheOneandOnly]

Just to warn, slightly long read. Hey Guys. About me: Im 28 years old, born/live in the UK but of Indian descent (never been to India). Currently working as a freelance writer.

This year was a big year for me. It’s the first time I’ve traveled solo, and had the time of my life (4 separate trips, 12 countries (all in Europe), total time abroad about 2 and half months. I now dream of winning the lottery and just escaping this life I'm currently leading- living somewhere abroad. In fact all I think about is going abroad, my next trip, where will it be.......being in the UK after my last trip has sort of worsened my depression.

The factors preventing me from going abroad permanently...family and mainly finances. My family consists of my older brother engaged to be married, my mum and my dad- have lived with them my whole life. I know given given my age...but many south asians (even those doing well financially) tend to live with parents for a lifetime, as some will know. Have had many problems with my Dad in the past (was always abusive), though recently things have improved a lot. My mum and brother are caring/loving- though both very busy with their own lives. The latter pretty much all about his wife-to-be. I have not many friends if I’m honest, certainly very few ‘proper’ friends. The few acquaintances I occasionally go out with, are extremely selfish and take advantage of my good nature. This never seems to be an issue when I’m abroad.

At the moment, after my most recent trip, I'm literally penniless. Though on the positive note, my writing work has started picking up again (finally) after what has been an age. Nonetheless almost every day is spent in the house, apart from the occasional night out. Everyone is free to criticise me on the front of not having a regular income guess, though be slightly sympathetic- in all honesty and without sounding weak, it hasn't been an easy life. Plus I do think and have always thought working in a 9-5 is a ‘suckers life’ in many ways.

On the front of the women- I do OK. No I don’t mean I get loads of women, I literally mean I do OK, when I go out. I get women occasionally, but definitely more so abroad. I've only really had one really serious relationship- with a British girl a few years back. Had a few flings and a good few one night stands, though on a bit of a dry streak at minute, partly

You know if I had friends like some of the guys on here I'd be way more happier even where I am (yes I mention this at this moment, cause an incident with an acquaintance is eating away at me). Some of the stuff on this forum is great. One of the main things I have noticed...there seems no ulterior motive for people’s post and there seems to be so many people in here out to help everyone, which is kind of rare.

Ive pretty much laid my soul bear in this post by the way.........nice to be part of a forum which I’ve read from afar for a while. Nice to ‘meet’ everyone 

TOAO

[gsjackson]

Welcome aboard. Always best, in dealing with women and everythig else in life, to get the self-sustaining income going first. Good luck with that. Free-lancing can be a long, hard slog, with minimal rewards. If you're doing it, just make sure that you really want to do it.

[abcdavid01]

Hi TOAO. My suggestion? Start an online business. Dropship, find an affiliate product to promote, create an ebook to sell, create a website like this one and advertise on it. If you have certain skills like programming or even if you're just good at writing you can make money online that way. Once you start making money online you have freedom of movement. You can work wherever you have a connection. There's even a whole subforum dedicated to this here. If you have any questions, ask.

[TheOneandOnly]

Welcome aboard. Always best, in dealing with women and everythig else in life, to get the self-sustaining income going first. Good luck with that. Free-lancing can be a long, hard slog, with minimal rewards. If you're doing it, just make sure that you really want to do it.

Thank you for the welcome and advice

[TheOneandOnly]

Hi TOAO. My suggestion? Start an online business. Dropship, find an affiliate product to promote, create an ebook to sell, create a website like this one and advertise on it. If you have certain skills like programming or even if you're just good at writing you can make money online that way. Once you start making money online you have freedom of movement. You can work wherever you have a connection. There's even a whole subforum dedicated to this here. If you have any questions, ask.

Thank you for your excellent advice. I forgot to mention that sorry. I was just selling on Ebay for the period of six weeks up until a couple weeks ago (I bought a smallish lot of designer clothes). However, I was suspended because these apparently infringed copyright. I was certain they were genuine, still am convinced but oh well. Im not fully barred yet, but Ive been advised to stay away from ebay for a while at least. I was only making a nominal amount TBH, but I do really enjoy Ebay/business. I used to sell years ago when I was still a student, for a good while- Im experienced at this. But finally Ive learned that its perhaps better to stay away from anything that could potentially break ebay's rules. Might start sourcing other products in the New year.

Shame Im not good at programming- Im clueless if im honest I would have set up a website concerning my writing years ago. The one thing about me is Im an honest writer, whereas in the most part the area of writing I focus on, is filled with scammers- whereas I'd never dream of doing that.

Thank you once again for your advice

[jamesbond]

Hello TOAO, welcome to our forum. It sounds like life in the UK is very similiar to how things are in the US. I guess you could call those two countries, "sister" nations, feminism is alive and well in both countries.

Glad you found our forum and good luck with your future plans.

[abcdavid01]

Setting up a website isn't hard. You don't need to know programming to do it. If you've already been successful selling on Ebay you'll probably be successful with other types of online business too. Maybe try something like a Wordpress Site. This system's really easy:

www.sitesell.com

Pick a topic you like, then make sure it has good keywords. You want low supply and high demand. Then just write articles using those keywords and they'll show up on Google. That's the basics of it, but there are other things like Search Engine Optimization and getting links to your site from other sites. Once your site shows up on Google then people come visit it for free, or you can do Pay Per Click and pay for advertising. This is a business though, so the idea is to display ads for companies that will pay you whenever someone clicks on them. Alternatively, you can promote products related to your site's topic and make sales through drop shipping or as an affiliate. That's the basics. Read the book "The Four Hour Work Week" by Tim Ferris. There are a lot of skeptics, but essentially it does work. Just don't get scammed because there's a lot of bad advice out there, but the link I posted for Sitesell is reputable and easy for beginners.

[Dragon]

Shame Im not good at programming- Im clueless if im honest I would have set up a website concerning my writing years ago. The one thing about me is Im an honest writer, whereas in the most part the area of writing I focus on, is filled with scammers- whereas I'd never dream of doing that.

Thank you once again for your advice

No offense but not good at programming = lazy. I'm not saying you're a lazy person, but programming isn't an insurmountable obstacle that it is impossible to overcome. The only thing you need is time and patience. There's this one guy I know, he was average and worked a full time dead-end job. He spent his non-working hours in the evening everyday self-studying javascript/php (web development languages). In 18 months (1.5) years, he was finally skilled enough to get a web development job and now makes more money and has an easier life than he had in the past. The thing is...are you willing to put in that much time and commitment? It's going to take 1.5-2 years depending on your ability. Less if you don't work full-time. It's not impossible, but you need to put in the time...and it will make your life much easier. The cool thing about web development is that you can work anywhere, usually at home. Depends on the particular job/company though.

Here's something to keep you busy for months:

http://www.codecademy.com

[abcdavid01]

I am able to read html, but not write it. I can figure out what stuff means and modify it or look up how to do something if I want to fix one of my sites. Learned a bit of programming for simple robots in high school too. It's not too hard. It's just a language like any other really, with its own patterns and rules. I suppose the best way to keep with it is to keep using it though. Not like people actually think or speak in code, so I imagine you'd have to keep coding stuff to avoid forgetting it all. So you could do that and freelance TOAO, or you could do what I said and create profitable websites which really doesn't require programming at all.

[TheOneandOnly]

Setting up a website isn't hard. You don't need to know programming to do it. If you've already been successful selling on Ebay you'll probably be successful with other types of online business too. Maybe try something like a Wordpress Site. This system's really easy:

www.sitesell.com

Pick a topic you like, then make sure it has good keywords. You want low supply and high demand. Then just write articles using those keywords and they'll show up on Google. That's the basics of it, but there are other things like Search Engine Optimization and getting links to your site from other sites. Once your site shows up on Google then people come visit it for free, or you can do Pay Per Click and pay for advertising. This is a business though, so the idea is to display ads for companies that will pay you whenever someone clicks on them. Alternatively, you can promote products related to your site's topic and make sales through drop shipping or as an affiliate. That's the basics. Read the book "The Four Hour Work Week" by Tim Ferris. There are a lot of skeptics, but essentially it does work. Just don't get scammed because there's a lot of bad advice out there, but the link I posted for Sitesell is reputable and easy for beginners.

wow thanks for all this. The 4 hour working week has been on my list for a while, just need to get round to it.

[TheOneandOnly]

Hello TOAO, welcome to our forum. It sounds like life in the UK is very similiar to how things are in the US. I guess you could call those two countries, "sister" nations, feminism is alive and well in both countries.

Glad you found our forum and good luck with your future plans.

Thank you

[TheOneandOnly]

Shame Im not good at programming- Im clueless if im honest I would have set up a website concerning my writing years ago. The one thing about me is Im an honest writer, whereas in the most part the area of writing I focus on, is filled with scammers- whereas I'd never dream of doing that.

Thank you once again for your advice

No offense but not good at programming = lazy. I'm not saying you're a lazy person, but programming isn't an insurmountable obstacle that it is impossible to overcome. The only thing you need is time and patience. There's this one guy I know, he was average and worked a full time dead-end job. He spent his non-working hours in the evening everyday self-studying javascript/php (web development languages). In 18 months (1.5) years, he was finally skilled enough to get a web development job and now makes more money and has an easier life than he had in the past. The thing is...are you willing to put in that much time and commitment? It's going to take 1.5-2 years depending on your ability. Less if you don't work full-time. It's not impossible, but you need to put in the time...and it will make your life much easier. The cool thing about web development is that you can work anywhere, usually at home. Depends on the particular job/company though.

Here's something to keep you busy for months:

http://www.codecademy.com

No offense taken, because your atleast right to a degree...a little bit lazy on the front of studying further. I forgot to mention I studied alot in the past, I did an economics degree and then an MBA. Committing more time to studying programming doesnt appeal to me. But thanks nonetheless for the advice.