Leaving Saipan On A Jet Plane

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Jack Woods

Well, my time in Saipan is indeed coming to an end. I’m going to miss Saipan a lot but I also know that my time on Saipan has been good to me and my family. I appreciate a lot of the people we got to know here and also the things we were able to do. So many mixed emotions as we once again hit the road on a teaching adventure.

I haven’t done a lot on this blog over the last year or two because it always seemed like I was busy but I do indeed to post a lot of Saipan memories and Saipan commentary once I do leave the island. Sometimes it’s hard to talk about feelings in such a small town environment because of fear of stepping on toes by what I might inadvertently say. Hopefully, I can come out and make a few posts that could be very beneficial to other people coming onto Saipan in the future.

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Going Back To Associated Content

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Jack Woods

A couple of years I wrote an article for Associated Content right before I came to Saipan. It was about Red Dawn. It’s a classic war movie that my family used to watch every Thanksgiving Day. Anyways, I forgot that I wrote the article and even forgot I had an Associated Content account until I was cleaning out an old email account and say the link to the account. I went ahead and updated the Jack Woods profile there so I could start contributing there in earnest.

I figure anything to help me out is a good thing, ya know?

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Moving Forward With Challenges

Posted on May 14, 2011 by Jack Woods

It’s a tough time as we look ahead in this economy. Things don’t really look like they are getting any better right now and in fact, they are starting to look worse. I don’t like seeing this happening. On a personal basis, I am in a bit of transition between careers once again. Things are about to get very interesting going forward.

Making money while abroad is still the name of the game and while it might get challenging going forward, I really think there are more exciting ways to make money abroad than there are making money back home.

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New Thailand Travel Articles

Posted on December 27, 2010 by Jack Woods

I have just added the first four articles to the Thailand Travel Article section. These are written based on my personal experience traveling and living in Thailand for more than 7 years. I’ve tried to give a general overview for people wanting to know a little more. As always, feel free to contact me personally for more information.

Bangkok: More Than Just The Nightlife
Chiang Mai: Royal City of The North
Koh Samui: The Coconut Island
Phuket: Jewel Of Thailand

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New Travel And Expat Article Sections

Posted on December 27, 2010 by Jack Woods

I have embarked on a plan to make this site just a bit more usable over the next few months. I have a lot of information to share and the best way to do it in this vehicle is to create an article section on this site. So far, I have two categories of articles, Expat Articles and Travel Articles. Both types are written by me from my own personal knowledge gained from either visiting the location(for travel articles) or actually participating in the activity(for expat articles).

I am open to submission of guest articles to my article section as long as it fits into the site’s direction. Just contact me with your idea and I’ll give you a thumbs up or thumbs down.

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Enjoying Things Here

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Jack Woods

I can’t believe that it’s been about a year since my last trip. It’s fun doing everything around here, whether it’s the beaches, the resorts or the mountains. It seems like I can always find a lot to do here locally. This is a big change for someone who spent the better part of 12 years doing nothing but traveling throughout the US, Latin America and Asia. I am now happily place bound for the time being.

Sure there are places that I’d love to go and visit. I’d love to take a cross country trip with the family to see some of the great places I traveled to alone, but that can wait until Christmas time. Right now I am enjoying the sites and wonders of this place.

I have went ahead and put in a couple of the pictures me and my wife have taken over the last year and a half here. I think you’ll enjoy them.

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My Quest For Better Living

Posted on August 1, 2010 by Jack Woods

I have started another blog to deal with my personal quest to lose pounds and inches and improve my overall health. It’s called Better Living Quest and it talks about the things I am doing to improve my personal health.

As some of you may know, I have Type II Diabetes and I am overweight. My health is not very good and I found myself in the hospital a couple of weeks ago. I knew that I needed to make some serious changes in my life to improve my health. I immediately eliminated Coca Cola and several other sources of calories and started eating right. I also started doing a lot of walking and hiking.

It’s just starting but I really hope that it can serve as a way to encourage other people to lose weight and get their health back in shape. If you want to check out the site, then go ahead and click on Better Living Quest.

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More Site Updates

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Jack Woods

Ok, I am finally started to use my site, Get Pesos, for what it was originally intended for. This has been a couple of years coming, but I always seem to have things get in the way. Fortunately, I am clearing time in my schedule to together sites that can warehouse some of the work I am doing offline each and every day.

I think most of this is motivated by the fact that I am giving a lot of time to Facebook. I am posting links there and generally doing work to help their bottom line. It’s time I make sure that I am doing something for my own bottom line.

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What About Saipan Real Estate?

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Jack Woods

One place that is often overlooked by Americans interested in moving to a tropical island paradise is the Pacific island of Saipan. It’s a beautiful 45 square mile island located 120 miles north of Guam. It’s a US commonwealth meaning you have all the protections of the US government, but without a lot of the interference the US government is famous for. Saipan real estate is some of nicest you can find in the Asia Pacific area.

Here are some of the Pros of Living in Saipan:

1) They have their own taxing structure and residents don’t pay US federal income tax.

2) It’s a USPS Domestic mail destination.

3) US citizens can live and work in Saipan without any need for a visa.

Here are some of the Cons of Living in Saipan:
1) Only people of native CNMI descent can own land here. This means that while US citizens from the mainland can live and work here, they can’t own property.

2) It’s far from the mainland. Things take longer to reach here, for example TV is delayed 1 week from the mainland.

3) It’s a small island. Need I say more?

Just some things to think about if you are anxious to get to a tropical destination, but unable or unwilling to make the plunge out of the US entirely.

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Squidoo: Getting Traffic and Link Juice

Posted on January 21, 2010 by Jack Woods

It’s been awhile since I made a post here, so I thought I’d share a strategy for making money online. The economy isn’t nearly as strong as many of us would like it to be, but they are still opportunities out there to make money online, no matter where you are on the globe. One important tool to help you make more money is Squidoo. Here’s my profile over there.

What is Squidoo? Squidoo is a service that allows you to make a single page website on a single, highly targeted topic. A Squidoo lens will get you traffic and link juice and only takes a few minutes to make. They several modules that you can to help drive traffic to your site while keeping the lens fresh and active.

I have several lenses up and running right now on topics as varied as El Paso, gold prospecting and even Saipan business.

It’s easy to start up a lens so I think a warning is in order. It can become addictive. You’ll want to limit yourself to just one or two new lenses per day to keep yourself from taking away too much of the time you should be devoting to your main income sites.

About making money on Squidoo? It’s best for links and traffic. While you can earn royalties from the traffic to your lens, the earnings seem quite low. As long as you keep focused on the aspects that will make you the most money, you should be just fine.

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