Web Worker Digest: 14 Must-See Links
In General by SkellieMy friend and Anywired contributor Mark Hayward is auctioning his blog, MyTropicalEscape.com. If you’re interested in blogging, living overseas, personal freedom and entrepreneurship (as I’m sure some of you are), it might be worth looking into.
Location Independent shares a brief guide to getting paid online and explains how to put your business on auto-pilot as you travel the world. To do that, you’ll need to put together a portable office. How come I didn’t write any of these?
Lea Woodward describes the 5 challenges of doing freelance work from anywhere (and how to overcome them).
Nick Cester advises against any self-employed person describing themselves as a “Creative Director”, “A creative”, anything with the word “Executive” in it, “Art Director”, “Studio Manager”, “Graphic Artist”, “Commercial Artist”, just “Director”, “Entrepreneur” or just “Freelancer”. Here’s why. His post on working from anywhere without blowing your budget is also worth reading.
As individuals who might resemble small business owners, we’re supposed to care about things like personal finance. My favorite PF blogger J.D. Roth shares his top 25 books about money.
Ten bloggers provide their best bit of non-intuitive advice for setting up a home office. One or two of them mention investing in a comfortable chair and I couldn’t agree more. I moved from a wooden high-back to a $199 black leather chair a couple of weeks ago and it’s been worth every cent not to have a sore back!
One rarely-discussed way to earn an income online is through stock trading. The Simple Dollar shares six steps for a beginning stock investor. They are 1) figure out your goals, 2) know your risk tolerance, 3) For short term goals, keep the money in cash, 4) For medium-term goals, diversify at your comfort level, 5) For long-term goals, stocks are a pretty good place to put your money, and 6) the best place for first-time stock investors to put their money is a low-cost index fund.
Lifehacker shares its laptop lover’s guide to productivity on the go. As someone who wrote a guest-post for Freelance Folder lying in an empty bath about a week ago — because I felt like it — I’m starting to think of myself as a bona fide laptop fanatic.
The result of my dry-bath productivity: 3 reasons why every freelancer should blog.
High-speed internet has graced my house and as a result I’m catching up on all the YouTube tomfoolery dial-up forced me to miss out on. In-between videos of incredibly well-trained dogs I’ve been doing educational stuff (honest), like watching this fascinating talk by Tim Ferriss (author of The Four-Hour Work Week, which I own) and Marci Alboher (author of One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model For Work/Life Success, which I now want to own) given as part of Authors@Google.
They discuss cool things like remote working agreements and being a “slash”, i.e. someone who identifies with more than one career. As a blogger/freelancer/student/entrepreneur/consultant I really enjoyed hearing about other “slashes”. Maybe you’re a “slash” too?












February 11th, 2008
Oh, I’m definitely a slash and prefer it that way! Thanks for the tip (Authors@Google), I know what I’ll be checking out this evening.
February 11th, 2008
Mmmm, a “slash”, mates use that term to describe something else……..
Since my midlife crisis 4 years ago I have been a slash. It has been very successful but confusing at times….need to focus on which slash I am at that minute!
crystal report developer extraordinaire/ nurse / project manager / part time blogger (made 20c on Google ads last week!!) / part time hiker/ full time husband and father.
Great post again Skellie, many thanks
Frank
February 11th, 2008
I usually spend a few months traveling in South America each year. My work has been reasonably portable but there are some important considerations. One is that I need to schedule phone meetings with my Zen students each month.
That alone is a headache. I have to set them up a couple of weeks in advance. Well, I don’t usually know where I’m going to be in advance. Maybe in the Patagonian desert? Or in a Buenos Aires backpacker? Or in Rio?
You’ll ask, “Can’t they ring your cellphone?” Yeees…but unfortunately Argentina didn’t sign an international agreement with main cell phone providers, so I can’t ring overseas with my nice Triband phone or be reached from overseas.
Of course, this year I’ll have my blog to worry about too. A couple of weeks away I had to lead a retreat in the backwoods and confidently preset the publishing date for my next post. On returning home I found the old post still languishing on site. No post had gone out…
One thing I have found useful is to send myself an email to Gmail with my password etc on it so that I can get into my site to write or post, and access my accounts at StumbleUpon etc. I can access this list from any cybercafe.
I love traveling. But work really spoils it
February 11th, 2008
Great post. I am a slash as well…
Web Designer/Blogger/Geek/That computer guy/mr.css/student/entrepreneur
February 11th, 2008
Ah…forgot to answer the ’slash’ question.
I have so many slashes that I pride myself in writing down a different profession every time I have to fill out a form! Next time I’m filling out a landing card I’m going to pull ‘blogger’ out of my grab bag of professions.
February 12th, 2008
Hi Skellie - THANKS for mentioning the http://www.mytropicalescape.com site auction!
Too, I must add that I am really enjoying the content of your new blog…keep up the great work. With two major sites and guest posts everywhere else, how on earth do you find time to sleep?
Mark
February 12th, 2008
now that you have high speed, mayhaps I should turn the FTP on again.
re: One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model For Work/Life Success
I tried to give that a read, but it came across as painfully obvious to me. I think it has more of an impact if you came from the “one career for life” generation.
February 14th, 2008
Many thanks for the mention, Skellie (p.s. it’s Cernis, though Cester has a lovely ring!)
I’ve just ordered Marci’s book, and can’t wait to start reading it. I’m glad that someone finally came up with a term to describe those of us who juggle many hats!
February 14th, 2008
I really like your editions of Digest, you post some really useful links…