Dean,
I’m sorry you don’t think you’re up to par. I know plenty of “average” people who are able to make their dreams a reality; but it takes some creativity, passion, dedication, and most often a lot of hard work. It really depends on what you want and how badly you want it.

Dean,
Who said anything about cheap? I’ve said this in other posts, but it bears repeating: financially sustainable travel is not synonymous with cheap travel. Or at least it doesn’t have to be.

Hi Ilja,
Hopefully you can find a way to infuse your passion into a business that feels less crappy! For some ideas, you might want to check out this book (reviewed here):
http://www.wisebread.com/make-your-dream-career-a-reality-for-less-than-100

Hi Shane,
Thank you very much! Glad you found this information of use.

Hi Nick – When it comes to Google, and SEO, and algorithms and such, I don’t have a good understanding (at all) of the inner workings, but I generally know just enough to keep my head above water.

So my explanation will be lacklustre, but here goes: Google recently introduced Google Authorship, which they claim will become more important than Google Page Rank.
In so doing, they changed their search algorithm (as they tend to do every few years), which also changes the weight they put on certain links and back links. In some cases formerly productive advertising links have become counterproductive for SEO purposes, hence advertisers exit en masse.

And before I totally stick my foot in my mouth for not really knowing what I’m talking about(!), I’ll stop now.