More About How Real Readers Make Money — Book Review

One of the best things about blogging is the people I meet.  A while back, Mindanao Bob pointed me at a fellow blogger who is on the other side of the world, almost literally, but has so much in common with us folks who live here in the Philippines that it really drives home the point that the world today is very, very small indeed.

The fellow I am talking about goes by the name MikeCJ (real name Mike Cliff-Jones) and he lives on a small island in the Atlantic called Lanzarote.  Yep, I never heard of it either

Aside from writing a very interesting blog (be sure to take advantage of some of Mike’s freebies, he gives away more information than many people manage to sell) and engaging in a ton of personal and business activities there on his tiny island (Lanzarote makes the Philippines look a bit like living in Los Angeles when it comes to remoteness), Mike also wrote an excellent book about his decision to move his family to his personal island paradise.

Here’s a little excerpt from the first few pages:

… We duly arrived at the villa at around one in the morning, hot, sweaty and tired.
Whilst the house was beautiful, fully equipped and clean, we were alarmed to
discover that there was no drinking water, absolutely no food, and not a loo roll (Editor’s note: umm, perhaps I had better mention that in American English this means toilet paper, in the Philippines it means wala) in
sight! I went to bed with a heavy heart, a dry mouth, and without my usual nightly
bathroom visit….

Who Else Wants To Sail Off To Paradise?

Does this sound vaguely familiar to many of us who had similar “first-time” experiences here in the Philippines?  It certainly sounded quite familiar to me.  A little farther along in Mike’s narrative, he mentioned the at first seemingly wild idea that had come to him, as it has also come to many of use who have chosen to live in the Philippines.

… I began to daydream of living in Lanzarote. I
imagined all the logistics of moving, I decided where we would live and what sort of
transport we would have. I knew it was a dream with no base in reality, and I also
knew that Julie would soon dispel the thought with a dose of her superb logic, so I
didn’t say anything until half way through the break. I’m pretty sure we were by the
pool at the time, and I said something like “I could really live here.” I waited for the
logic bolt, and was amazed when she calmly responded “Me, too, what we need is a
business idea, maybe we could provide some kind of service for people like us
visiting Lanzarote. Something that will help them to have a better holiday.” I was
totally stunned, she had obviously been thinking along the same lines as I had. But
instead of dreaming about cars, motorcycles and palatial villas, she had, ever the
pragmatist, been thinking about how we would earn a living….

Again, I was struck with how familiar the process Mike and his wife Julie went through, a process which many reading this post have gone through as well.

There are about 80 more pages in Mike’s book, all of them packed with logical, useful information about he and his family decided to make the move from their native England to an island paradise.  That’s why I recommend this book , even though at first glance you might think it has no applicability to the Philippines.

It’s actual bang on target toward the lifestyle so many of us want to lead … and some of their many efforts to get themselves established as they want to be are totally different, yet strangely completely in parallel with business that might be made right here in the Philippines.

I started out writing this with the idea that I would outline some of Mike’s business ventures and how he took himself from nothing to a very nice income on a remote tourist island, but not only would that give away too much of the book, it would make a really long article, even by my wordy standards.

My thoughts after reading Mike’s book, Living in Lanzarote?  Read it and maybe you’ll want to change your destination to the Canaries rather than the Philippines.;-)

But if you still remain Philippines focus, read with the idea of what you can adapt to living here.  frankly, I think almost everything Mike and Julie did on their island would work in many places here in the Philippines … and his true-to-life accounts of setting up both his family and his businesses for success are easy to read and just dripping with good ideas and information.  Living in Lanzarote. Recommended.  (disclosure:  Mike furnished me a review copy of the book. (Thanks Mike).  I have no other business interests or affiliation regarding this recommendation.)

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