The couple devised the site because, after 13 years of roving retirement, they kept hearing the same questions. "It was far easier to put together a website to answer these questions and to tell our tales than to do it hundreds of times in single fashion," says Billy Kaderli. The secret of building an enticing site is asking why anyone would want to land there, he says. Pinpoint your market. "Focus on content, content, content." The site is a cocktail of travel blog, retirement lifestyle forum and advertisement for his electronic book, The Adventurer's Guide to Early Retirement, which has sold thousands of copies in 31 countries and is in its third edition. He says the secret of writing a guide that sells is to concentrate on what you know.

"Present it in a clear, appealing manner that is easy and enjoyable to read," he says. "People are busy, with a limited attention span, and do not have time to plough through wordy representations.

"Skip publishing houses, so you reap all the profits and prevent your message from becoming diluted by the dictates of editors. In fact, skip paper altogether. That saves you from being trapped at home babysitting a garage crammed with copies.

"Market your book online and learn the technical skills that put you in charge of the website. If you depend on a webmaster to update your pages, that reliance will result in drag and become a source of exasperation.

"It's always better to be in control of your message and timing," Kaderli says, noting that the e-book allows freedom and embodies the future and the spirit of the digital age, in which almost all information winds up on hard drives. Dead-tree books look drab in comparison.

He acknowledges many potential customers do not even know how to cut and paste and would rather curl up with a paper book than be glued to a screen after working all day. But this "mental impediment" will lose traction as digital delivery becomes more mainstream and acceptable, he says.

Reading devices are becoming more seductive. Just look at Amazon.com's portable wireless e-book reader, Kindle, which has a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like paper and allows access to more than 100,000 books over a mobile phone network. As personal computing evolves, so will the consumer, says Kaderli. He talked to me, for example, online using his ASUS Eee sub-notebook PC, with a name that stands for: "Easy to learn, Easy to work and Easy to play."

When not in bed with the ASUS Eee hunting for bargain airfares, Kaderli and his wife work on their tans and tennis. Their message to those stuck in a rut: just do it. Follow your dreams.