Comments on: Can You Be a Web Worker From a Small Town?

By: Dalton

Dalton — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:16:40 +0000

Many people can work at home for companies located far away. But consider the situation of those who rely on jobs offered on their own town, those who cannot work at home. Small town job offers are certainly not as diverse as those of a big city. This control over one’s own work experience is a competitive advantage that those who live in big cities have.

By: Web Worker Daily » Archive 6 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Be a Web Worker «

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:52:41 +0000

[...] you’ll need a computer and the internet eventually. Because of this, web workers living in a small town or rural area with few internet options might be at a [...]

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:34:29 +0000

currently I’m a web worker that lives in a fairly small city, I seem to be completely alone in my geekiness but, in the words of Stuart Smalley, “that’s okay.” The city only has 30,000 people and I feel like that is the perfect size, just the right mix of a small number of people and pretty decent broadband access.

By: Top of the Blogs 16-2008

Top of the Blogs 16-2008 — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:16:26 +0000

[...] Web Worker Daily analizza la possibilità di essere un web worker lavorando da un piccolo paese. [...]

By: Top of the Blogs about Blogging 16-2008

Top of the Blogs about Blogging 16-2008 — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:15:22 +0000

[...] Web Worker Daily analyzes the pros and cons of being a web worker, working from a small town. [...]

By: ryan

ryan — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:40:41 +0000

I’ve always wanted to start some sort of co-working facility in a small or medium size town near other small towns, that would have all the advantages of working from a “real” office but it would house the work from anywhere type folks who want to live out in the sticks…(thats the only thing keeping me from finding a place in the north woods).

By: JTPratt's Blogging Mistakes

JTPratt's Blogging Mistakes — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:39:12 +0000

I think it depends on the types of connections that you need to make with other people. Do you have to meet face to face with clients? Are colleagues in different time zones? In addition how far are you from an urban area?

For me I live in a very small town, but I’m within 45 minutes of 2 smaller metro markets and a little over an hour from Detroit. So I have the ability to connect in large markets, but I’m completely comfortable working from my small town 95% of the time.

It all depends on what you actually do. I’m a blogger, and at this point I really don’t have clients, or someone to report to. So in that regards, I’m a lot freer than many web workers.

By: Eliza Amos

Eliza Amos — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:41:05 +0000

When I left San Francisco to head back South, I nearly lost my mind. It’s not that it’d be impossible to make such a leap, but it definitely takes the right person in the right set of circumstances. (Hugh, for example, seems to be doing fine.)

Gigs slipped through my fingers due to my inconvenient location. I spent days, weeks trapped in the house with my cats. And then I came back to San Francisco!

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:30:58 +0000

I technically can do anything I could do from a larger metro area in my little town. The biggest issue is isolation. The lack of non virtual social networking can be challenging.

By: elChuy

elChuy — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:34:23 +0000

I have been a web worker from a small town since the day I started to be a web worker!

I love it because it has allowed me to move from one small town to another and even move for months to southamerica, and it was fun because it was cheaper.

Isolation is for me the biggest issue. I don’t get most of what I enjoy about social contact from the internet, actually I don’t like it that much since I already have some because of the work itself. When I finish my work sometimes I only want to meet people not through the internet and it has not been always easy, and sometimes incredible difficult. Yes, I have experienced isolation at times. But during the last two years I have been able to find the right small town to me, where I can get involved in non-computer related activities, mostly art and crafts and then things get a lot better. To be able to not depend completely on the net is now very important to me and I look for a more balanced daily life between the web and the local community. To use the web work to find the right small town or to move around and have fun is very important. That being said I need to stress that I love my web life a lot!

I have always found good broadband conection and I live in small towns in Mexico. And internet service is cheap, broadband or cable.

By: Print Fortress

Print Fortress — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:05:35 +0000

I live in a small town but I do business all over the country. It is a great time that we are living in. The world really is flat.

By: francine hardaway

francine hardaway — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:29:24 +0000

Look at GapingVoid living in Alpine, Texas :-)

By: pam

pam — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:04:20 +0000

While we were living in the snowglobe, as I called my husband’s tiny home town in Austria, I had no trouble getting my work done – we had a high speed connection, that was all I needed. The trouble came when I had to do all my networking virtually – unless you have an established client base, it can be difficult to maintain an income stream when you’re not present for in person communication. My projects went just fine, mostly online communication with the random phone call when something just wasn’t getting clear, but finding local clients to augment my work just wasn’t happening. Plus, I’m happier in a big town. We ended up back in Seattle because of that, but while we were in Austria, getting work done for my existing clients was no problem at all. It was the soft stuff – no social contact with those that shared my concerns – that was the problem – NOT the logistics.

By: Brian8655

Brian8655 — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:29:33 +0000

When I was freelancing, it was nice because I was able to up and move whenever I wanted. I had clients that were with me through four moves and never knew the difference. I think as long as you are willing to make the trip for a face-to-face visit periodically, the work can successfully be done from anywhere.

On a lighter side, I ride motorcycles so the first thing I think of when someone says “fifth wheel” is one of the white “boxes on wheels” with the entire back that opens up into a ramp (http://www.tommystrailers.com/MotorcycleEnclosedTrailer.htm). when DVS said he “can get a signal in my fifth wheel from damn near anywhere in North America”, the first thing that popped into my head was Dilbert sitting in side of a two-bike enclosed trailer surrounded by computer equipment.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:46:39 +0000

I’m a “sort of ” web worker, doing Service design in a small Scottish Highlands place called Cromarty. There’s also a web design company, an ISP, and a couple of coders.

It’s very viable when you have broadband, and it’s much greener – and cheaper for the clients – to do things via conference calls/online conferencing.

By: Michael Wolff

Michael Wolff — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:46:33 +0000

for the last 17 years i have been living on top of a hill in the scottish highlands. my nearest neighbours are farmers and gamekeepers living half a mile and more away.

i have always worked fully on the internet. in the last 3 years i have had broadband. apart from my friend who does my books, all my business associates are scattered across the globe: Ukraine, USA, India, South Africa.

the biggest discovery i made when working full time online is that the way relationships are developed and sustained is completely different to face-to-face working. not only different, but qualitatively different. i would almost venture to say “better”.

so while the challenges of working completely online are not trivial, the rewards, once one gets the hang of it, can be quite substantial, in terms of both financial and personal growth.