Category: Uncategorized

The Four-Hour Workweek blog is the companion online presence to the book of the same name, by Tim Ferriss. If you haven’t read the book, or even if you have, I would highly recommend checking out the blog, because I think there’s something in it for everyone who’d like to improve their life.

This is one of those blogs that doesn’t rely on amazing design or stylistic touches. Like Tim Ferris, it’s all about substance rather than style. The point here is changing your life, and if you are drawn in by the prospect you have to take a look at this website.

Some of the things that Ferris talks about on the site, which extend the themes of the book, are how to create passive income streams and free up your time to pursue activities that really interest you. There are specific suggestions on how to use the Internet to create infrastructure and recruit help in the name of building often small businesses to enable you to do this. It all about being an entrepreneur, and it never seems so do-able as when Tim Ferriss talks about it.

Travel is a big part of Ferriss’ lifestyle, but not the sort of ‘binge travel’ vacations that we take as 1-week antidotes to lives that we aren’t happy with. He suggests the sort of travel that enriches rather than simply being fun, and not just for short periods either. There’s plenty of talk of ‘mini-sabbaticals’, constructed around an activity you’ve always wanted to try, and places to which you might go to do things like this. In the blog Ferriss also elaborates on his philosophy of ‘geoarbitrage’ i.e. living in inexpensive parts of the world while you’re making money from customers in parts of the world where people will pay more for products that you are selling. I had not encountered this idea before, but it was one of the really liberating concepts from the book and there are many, many practical suggestions on ways to do this in the blog as well.

As Ferris makes heavy use of technology and the Internet to build ways of making a living, he also somewhat ironically advocates carefully restricting the amount of non-actionable, non-value added information we consume. He calls this the ‘low information diet’ and he suggests we all get on it! He points out the dangers of endless news consumption, game playing, etc. which can degenerate into distractions from producing a means to liberate ourselves and lower our quality of life in general.

Like the book, the Four-Hour Workweek website is an exhilarating experience full of specific suggestions that anyone can use to get off the employment treadmill and become a small-scale entrepreneur. Ferriss has done it himself and the website also features guest posts from people from all walks of life who have completely remade their lives in original and impressive ways. This is an inspirational weblog. And every time I visit I find practical steps and ideas on increasing my quality of life. Highly recommended.NULL

The Green-n-Brown website is a top-notch example of how an online retailer should organize and present a virtual business, and the products featured on the site, eco-friendly items, are ones in which everyone interested in doing his or her part for our environment should have an interest.

The Green-n-Brown Company combines ethical product sourcing with environmental stewardship and community involvement to actually blur the lines between a company operating for profit and one that has as a primary objective to benefit society at large. The idea behind the name of the site is that the products featured on it are either green, being eco-friendly, or brown, meaning organic.

As I perused the site I was struck by wide range of products on offer. There is an incredibly large selection of apparel, bags, jewelry, swimwear and gifts for men, women and juniors. There are also products for the home and even food items available for sale on the site.

While the Green-n-Brown website is not strictly in the form of a blog, it’s still an example of how original website design not necessarily tied to WordPress can work well when it comes to creating a compelling virtual storefront. The pros at Green-n-Brown have clearly put a lot of thought into the design of the site and it’s extremely user-friendly.

One small suggestion I’d have is to add a blog to the site, perhaps to review new organic and eco-friendly products as they are released, as there are new ones every week. Many companies do this as a way of better engaging their readership, and a constant flow of new content also helps get the attention of search engines. Still, Green-n-Brown gets extremely high marks from me for its first-rate execution and straightforward design.

Whether you are a specialty retailer looking for ideas on how to upgrade your website and make it more usable and aesthetically pleasing, or a shopper with an interest in purchasing more environmentally friendly products, the Green-n-Brown site is absolutely worth visiting and bookmarking.

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Flashpack at Forty is exactly the kind of website we love to review here at The Weblog Review. It is a product of the personal passion and lifestyle of its two writers–Craig and John–namely traveling around the world on a budget at an age when most people have settled into a slower pace and just a few weeks of vacation each year.

There are dozens of travel stories on the site, dating back to December of 2009, and I would defy anyone to read a few of them without beginning to wonder just how possible it would be to hit the road themselves. Even if you’re an armchair traveler however, a site like Flashpack at Forty is terrific for getting a feel for self-guided travel nowadays, and how you don’t have to be wealthy to explore the globe.

The tone of the writing is frank and humorous, with Craig and John being unafraid to share both the high points as well as the annoyances that come with seat-of-the-pants travel. These are real life adventures, and I found it refreshing and interesting to read of unexpected little travel tidbits such as the difficulty one should expect when trying to find a Japanese ATM that will dispense cash if you have a non-Japanese bank card!

One of the best things about Flashpack at Forty is the really outstanding photography on the site, accessible from a link to the image gallery in the navigation bar. The best websites today tell stories using more than just the written word, and the subject matter of the site is well-served by the photos one will find on it. In addition, the site is further proof of just how versatile and compelling the WordPress platform can be for people who are more interested in communicating than they are getting too bogged down in technology.

Flashpack at Forty is an interesting look at at the sort of traveling most people will never be lucky enough (or, brave enough?) to do, and if you have ever wondered what it would be like to see all the places you dreamed of as a child, no matter what age you are, I would recommend giving this terrific site a look.NULL

Wow. I really liked the design of this site. Something about it just struck me as being really well done. Started reading and the author just recently started posting again. She likes to talk about the links people have sent her and some stuff about her life. It amazes me what some people will actually post on their journal for tons of people to read. Especially ones that are close to you. Good reading and good links.I know the pieces fit

Why is it that there is a definite distinction between normal weblogs and those that are way above those? There never seems to be a middle ground. You either got it or you don’t.



This site has got it. Very sweet design, ease of use. Nothing flashy about it. Of course you can change the eyes at the top, just something cool.



Now the posts. They aren’t in-depth about his life, though that is what most are about. Its little things that he found odd or amusing that day that he posts. They are all very good, and because of the to-the-pointness of them, you keep wanting to read more of them. A great daily read.RedCricket