Interview with Lea Woodward - Founder of Locationindependent.com

Why did you release two editions of the same product?

The first edition was created in 2007 when we'd only really just started our journey of location independence and we were right in the middle of the learning curve. Two+ years later, we've learned so much more and become much savvier about the location independent lifestyle that I felt it was time to update the ebook with our new knowledge and more seasoned experience.

There are still some really useful resources in the 1st edition though so I didn't want to discard that version completely - and it's also got much more of our own personal story in - whereas the 2nd edition is more practical and "how to" with less of the personal stuff. So depending upon the kind of help/information someone needs, they can choose which edition suits them best (or just get them both for the price of the 2nd edition!).

Your blog has been translated into other languages. Has this led to additional opportunities?

This hasn't quite happened yet - we're still in the process of creating multi-language versions of our site which we're really excited about. In fact, we're still looking for partners for some of the languages we want to translate our site into so it's early days yet. However, we've already had international publicity in China and Brazil so we're excited to see what happens when we have different versions of the site and can share the resources with even more people.

You've recently launched a wiki. Do you have plans to expand on this?

The Global Costs of Living wiki is something we've been planning for a while and, as you mentioned, it's just been launched. We're hoping that it becomes a massively valuable & comprehensive resource for information of this kind - and if it does, it will potentially be a huge resource - so that's all we have planned for its expansion at the moment. We do have quite a few other products/services in the pipeline though so will be continuing to expand the resources on offer at LocationIndependent.com to help people become location independent.

You had a 100 for 100 promotion for your business course. How successful was this?

We were really pleased with how this went (all 100 places sold much more quickly than we expected) since we hadn't built a big list by that stage nor really planned a 'proper' launch for the course - we were too busy making sure the content was good!

The promotion was really a 'soft' launch to test the market & also test the product before the full launch. It was useful to do since it enabled us to iron out any technical glitches and also gave us time to plan the full launch a little more carefully.

Has twitter led to any additional opportunities?

Twitter leads to new opportunities all the time - largely through the awesome people I get to "meet". We've largely used Twitter to spread the word about the concept of location independence and share news about the resources on our site - not so much as an outright sales platform although the promotion of the concept and the resources on our site obviously helps sales.

More than that though, I've met a number of people through Twitter who I'd now call 'real' friends - and who we're now working with in some way or another.

What quick tips would you have for those looking to become location independent?

1. Focus first on creating the location independent income streams (ideally multiple ones) - and if you're planning to travel, give yourself at least 6-12 months to build up a stable income from these before you set off.
2. If you are planning to travel or re-locate and run your internet-based business from there, research destinations thoroughly before you leave and ensure you know the deal with internet connectivity. There's nothing worse than arriving somewhere only to find the fastest connection you can get is a s-l-o-w dial-up one!
3. Don't let family, friends & people you know derail your dreams of becoming location independent, just because they aren't confident it will work nor know anyone else who does it. There are plenty of people doing it, proving it can be done...
4. Therefore, surround yourself with like-minded people and learn from those who are doing what you want to do (not those who say they are or also want to, but those who actually are!). If you're looking for more support on becoming location independent, we have a free online clubhouse (www.locationindependentclub.ning.com) which is full of like-minded people who are all looking to lead or already living a location independent lifestyle.