No, we are not playing computer games

In the last five months of travel Jason and I have had to answer a few questions (something like 327 questions) about our lives, our work, and how we manage to travel so much. We here things like:

What do you do exactly?

Are you on the Internet playing games and checking e-mail all day?

Why do you come all this way to just sit on your computers and waste your vacation?

I’ve never seen two people work so hard.

It’s not just fellow travelers that say these things to us. It’s our friends and neighbors too. The reality is that few people understand what we mean by international telecommuting so I thought I would take the time to address these comments and questions.

1 – Jason owns an Internet marketing company. He manages several of his own Web sites and blogs, and he also helps businesses (i.e., auto dealers, consulting firms) to maximize their Internet presence and to generate leads.  I (Sara) am a freelance writer.  My true goal is to make money writing fiction, but in the meantime I write articles, blog posts, and other marketing copy for a variety of clients (i.e., marketing companies, publishers). I also have a couple of blogs that I manage (with Jason’s help).

2 – Sometimes, but normally no. See number one above.

3 – We look at it like this: We can either sit in Denver and work or we can sit in Aruba, Tahoe, Thailand, China, and Costa Rica and work. As long as we have an Internet connection we can do our jobs just fine.

4 – Jason might work harder than anyone you’ve ever known; this much is true. However, I strive to work 40 hours a week just like everyone else.

This post was inspired by an article I read on one of my favorite travel blogs, Almost Fearless. It’s called “Becoming a Digital Nomad” and it’s a good read for anyone interested in traveling and working abroad or for anyone that just wants to understand what we do better.