finy

I'd say a good writer should be able to make $1,000+/ month in their first month, not in 3-5 years, In one year I expect to be making $5-10K per month, It's pretty easy selling books on Kindle if you pick the right subject. I think any good writer would be extremely demoralized if he had to write for 3-5 years before making money. You can make money from day 1 on Amazon.

I like your enthusiasm even though I think your numbers are very generous.

...is obviously safer than pumping your life savings into a property that your Thai wife controls.

If you are legally married, then that marriage gives you strong legal protection if things should 'go south'. You are legally entitled to 50% of any asset (except land), if they were acquired after marriage.

To quote you an example. My first hotel was on 30-year leased land and I financed this build after my marriage to a Thai lady. After our marriage 'went south', she tried to claim the hotel as 100% her own. Although it took some patience, she had to finally agree that under Thai law, she was entitled to only 50% of that business, (the leased land didn't enter into the equation). I didn't have to go to Court - she realised that she would lose.

I subsequently sold that hotel and me and my ex shared the money 50/50.

This legal protection is much easier to implement if you are/were legally married.....

Simon

I'm not trying to say the guy will be very unsafe, but only that an Internet business is safer.

He could pay $10 for a domain name, $10 per month hosting, plus some money on Adwords.

Hotel/Guest house - 12 x 700bht - all your rent, tax, staff wages, etc.

Online business - Just find 12 people to pay you for something you make 700bht profit on. Hardly any expenses.

I just think it's safer trying to find 12 people per day in the whole world, rather than a small street in Pattaya.

Do yourself a favor and start an online business.

Safer and more lucrative.

How do you know that ?

I have friends on 5 figures and my blog will eventually go that way.

But it's a silly question anyway.

Starting an online business with less than a thousand dollars is obviously safer than pumping your life savings into a property that your Thai wife controls.

And obviously it's much easier to scale an online business that's already making money than to add extra rooms onto your guest house.

Do yourself a favor and start an online business.

Safer and more lucrative.

Just my opinion, but I would not buy a self-published book unless it was by an established writer - like Steven Leather - or on a subject that was very specific and that there were very few professionally published books about - like how to go about robbing a bank, growing ganja or obtaining fake identification.

I think Amazon sell more eBooks than printed ones now, plus with tablets/eReaders getting more popular they will take over the world.

eBooks will certainly take over, but the question will be how many of the titles that make up total sales volume will be self published?

It would have to be more than the current and recent historical figures for printed books?

You've got to remember how traditional publishing works. Someone mentioned before that it's better to rely on publishing houses because they market your books, but I know published authors and you do most of the marketing yourself.

People slave away and build up a fan base, that's why successful published authors sell books. On the Kindle more people are opening up to the fact you can buy a self-published book and still find in enjoyable, plus you're maybe only paying $0.99-2.99.

Once someone likes an author they will probably buy all their books. They will also probably recommend it to friends and leave a good review.

In the past a published author would need to build up a fan base before they sold thousands/millions of books, so I think it's a bit premature to be slating Kindle because it's fairly recent and there will obviously be some good self-published authors building up their future fan-base as we speak.

If you blog and already have a fan base with a hundred thousand people reading your blog posts every month it's going to be easy to climb up the Kindle charts. The future is self-publishing and people need to embrace it. People talk about how they would rather go to a book shop, but unfortunately the current trend shows this is becoming less and less each day.

Most good writers with marketing skills should be able to earn a passive income from writing within about 3-5 years. That's my estimate for non-fiction, not really sure how fiction would work.

So, Finy, here's a view of my Bt.7000 per month studio at Nakornping...

That looks great. Balcony too.

I had a look on buyrentchiangmai.com and some of those houses are looking absolutely amazing. For 15k I could basically rent a quality 2/3 bed house within 5-10km of the city.

It's definitely something to think about now that I know what they look like, but a quality condo would be better maybe for the first year.

Just my opinion, but I would not buy a self-published book unless it was by an established writer - like Steven Leather - or on a subject that was very specific and that there were very few professionally published books about - like how to go about robbing a bank, growing ganja or obtaining fake identification.

I think Amazon sell more eBooks than printed ones now, plus with tablets/eReaders getting more popular they will take over the world.

Still for me personally any profit would be icing on the cake only- i have always had a personal goal to write one book and have a new years resolution to finish this year. But if it ends up in riches and movie deals then so be it, i'm prepared.

Most people are making money with a series of books, so you would write 4-7 in a series and link to each one in every book.

If people enjoy your work they will buy all the books, so you've essentially just increased your profits by 400-700%.

Where could I get one in CM?

I'm not too good with Photoshop and I would get a freelancer online, but I want to do most of the designing with someone manipulating the book cover.

I was thinking a company who could do it, but I don't know where to find them. Or I could try and find a design student.

Any ideas?

You can find out rough estimates by the ranking in the Kindle store.

I'm sure the main goal is to stay away from topics that are less than 10,000 in rank. I think 10,000 gets you a few hundred dollars per month, but that's just a guess.

I have a book at the moment that's over 100,000 and I still make about $50-60 per month. Obviously you need lots of these to make an income. Luckily it only took me a day to write.

Sounds good. Do you have any details on name?

Close to Nimman/Huay Kuey is good as there's language schools with visa option there, plus a gym,

I can't edit my OP, but all the spots are taken ATM so please don't message me.

I heard Nimman is a good area. I know it's close to my old gym. Apart from that I only really know the old city.

Jigsaw is close to the superhighway area...it's a nice area...just right behind the Big C, Index and there are good restaurants in that area...with a bike you are easily move to anywhere from that condo...that airbnb website has 2 units available for rent.

Nice one. I'll search Airbnb.

For that money you can get a brand new, fully equipped 2 room condo in Jigsaw or Jigsaw 2 including flat screen tv, cooker, walk-in closet, washing machine, cooker and fitness centre on the ground floor. Everything brand new. 12,000 Baht a month.

Or if you want right in the town centre and a big room, how about City View, 60 square metres for around 11,000 Baht a month, furnished.

Where is Jigsaw 1 + 2. Sounds interesting.

I don't need to be inside the city walls as I'll have a bike.

If you are looking to spend 15k why rent a tiny condo when you could rent a nice big house instead?

I wouldn't mind a one bedroom, but I don't really have any need for more than that.

I would rather the extra money went towards a more fancy place.

http://www.chiangmai...l.com/p242.html is 15000/ month All prices include maid service, pickup at your gate on arrival, all utilities including internet,cable TC, DVD, water, electicity and linens.

Looks great. What's the deal with deposits and how long will this (or others similar) be available for?

I won't be in CM before last week of month.

Thanks for your suggestions everyone.

Someone mentioned Hillside. I presume that's the Hillside Plaza 4, or at least one of them.

I've actually been a member of the gym/pool there and wouldn't mind staying if I got a balcony with decent view.

I'll give them a phone in the next few days and see what they offer.

Apart from that I suppose it's just walking around what I suspected anyway.

I would like a longer contract because I want to buy a decent office desk/chair. I'm eventually going to get the study visa once I decide where is the best place to study.

When I say fresh air I mean somewhere that has a window, hopefully a balcony. I'm not expecting fresh Scottish air in Thailand.

The only 2 places I could see myself living is Chiang Mai and Bangkok. I don't suppose burning season is any worse than smoggy BKK.

Plus I think my money would go much further in CM. I could maybe do Chiang Rai if that was better.

Ever since I got to Thailand (plus all the times I've visited before) I've been staying in budget accommodation. When I was last in CM I payed 7,500 p/m and in Samui at the moment I'm paying 6,000 p/m.

I'm sick of it and want somewhere decent when I move back to CM in a few weeks. I don't mind spending 15,000p/m and could increase by a few thousand if need be.

I'm looking for somewhere in a decent area close to city center, possibly one bedroom, plus a decent balcony so I can work close to the fresh air.

Could I find somewhere decent for 15K?

Also, I don't want to pay that for the sake of it. I'd rather get somewhere that's actually worth that, so how would I find a place?

Cheers

- but I DETEST

Don't worry, you're not the kind of person I'd recommend for a job anyway.

To the others,

The guy I've been working for just asked if I could find him more writers. He's based in India and as his company grows I find him new writers.

You don't need to worry about the audience. You'll just be writing articles that will go on other blogs.

Could be home improvement, health, fitness, business, online, auto, travel, etc. Basically anything, it just depends on the job.

I'm waiting to hear back from one guy that PM'd me. There might be space for a few more.

If you can write basic articles without mistakes I can help you find work.

It's $9 per 600 words and you should be able to do 2x per hour. I can and I'm a slow and typing.

Would need 20 minimum per week, so if that's going to be a problem I can't do anything.

Please PM me. If you already have articles on the net a link would be good, but no worries if you haven't.

Cheers

I just got one from Banana IT. It's nice to have a laptop again that won't cut out at any minute.

Original windows?

Yeah, it was the only one in the shop that had windows installed. You need to pay 5K to get Windows 8 if you buy a comp without it.

I just got one from Banana IT. It's nice to have a laptop again that won't cut out at any minute.