Web Worker Daily

One of the things I like to do when evaluating an application or service is to also look to see if the company has a product blog, and how frequently it is updated. I have found that regular posting on a blog is a great indicator of a companies general attitude about the importance of communicating with their customers.

A good company blog lets us know about new features, gives us tutorials and tips, and presents us with useful information related to their product or service. It gives us a glimpse into what they do and often why they do it. It also makes my experience more personal by giving me names and faces to associate with the company.

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Yesterday’s SocialMediaCampNewYork was a fun mix of PR folks and techies and I found myself blending in with the campy crowd perfectly. As someone who works as an online publicist and was formerly both a start-up employee and AOLer, I can see things from both sides, from offering services to the utility of those tools for marketing purposes. While no camp tents were pitched in the heart of NYC, Grand Central, it was neat to check out the Sun Microsystem’s office where the venue was held.

The camp was sponsored by Yoono.com and Mashable, and the most talked about item all day long was Twitter.

A year ago, only the most dedicated techies were on twitter, today everyone at the session had a twitter account and wrote their twitter @s on their nametag. Twitter was discussed a lot throughout the tracks and from a PR perspective, twitter.zappos.com was remarked upon as one company who gets it, and is leveraging Twitter correctly for all it’s worth.

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One of our most popular posts continues to be Anne Zelenka’s classic list of “10 New Ways to Make Money Online.” The ideas and strategies she suggests there are still good ones, but they’re not the only ones available. As the Web and its opportunities continue to evolve, and web workers continue to invent new niches for themselves, there are always more new ways to make money.

When you look for new revenue streams, think about what you do well. Whether you’re an expert  in your field, a talented designer, a programmer, or a producer of content, there are ways to leverage your knowledge, skills and abilities, package them and provide them for a fee. And don’t forget that successful web workers are often pursuing more than one income stream at the same time. You may be able to assemble a career out of numerous smaller activities.

Read our latest list of 10 new ways to make money online after the jump.

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This month’s Economist, in an article called Home warriors, explores some fascinating issues around the implications of telecommuting and its implications on energy, policy and employment…not simply the availability of connectivity and email.

The writer argues that though technology and infrastructure has long been available, only now are the economic and commercial drivers unfolding that’s making teleworking an attractive default position for many employers, not just employees.

Here’s a few key items from the piece…

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As the New York Times has noticed, big corporations are starting to get with the web work program. But they’re mostly doing it in a big corporation sort of way, with fancy (and expensive) telepresence systems. While this approach may indeed offset the rapidly-rising price of travel, those of us who are long-term web workers may roll our eyes at this narrow-minded perception of the best way to remotely work.

From our point of view, throwing huge outlays of cash at unnecessarily complex and high-priced teleconferencing systems misses the point. We already know that you don’t need to jet around the globe to get productive work done. But you don’t have to break the bank either. Any corporation that really wants to take the time to understand the tools that are available to them on the internet right now can cut expenses, enhance productivity, and increase employee satisfaction.

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Back in April, my first post for WWD introduced Going Solo, a one-day conference for freelancers that took places in mid-May, right on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland’s Lausanne. (Disclosure: I’ve been advising Going Solo as an unpaid volunteer helping with strategy & logistics)

Conference organizer Stephanie Booth has recently announced that she’ll be touring the conference globally, with the next event landing in the UK on 12th September in the city of Leeds.

Like the Lausanne event, Going Solo Leeds will focus on practical and theoretical sessions for freelancing professionals, independent workers, the self-employed, remote workers and those who are considering ‘going solo’.

Though there’s a bias towards internet and media professionals, most of the sessions are appropriate for traditional independent workers too. Here’s a taster of the planned programme…

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Last week saw the launch of a curious web-service that isn’t an obvious web worker tool, but may just prove to be a useful communication feature amongst other tools.

New York marketing director, Erik Riesenberg’s NiceCritic enables users to send anonymous messages to coworkers, essentially to ‘communicate difficult thoughts comfortably’.

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How is my life as a Web worker affected by the closing of 600 Starbucks nationwide? Let me count the ways. But seriously, I’m sure there are many a Web worker lamenting the possible closure of their corner Starbucks due to the company’s “re-organization” strategy (no store locations have been revealed at press time). Do they not know the important role each and every Starbucks plays in the day-to-day lives of Web workers all over?

I mean, having a Starbucks on practically every corner in some cities is the kind of convenience that we’re all used to getting online where if one Web site or Web app isn’t exactly what we need when we need it, another is only a few mouse clicks away. A few steps to the next street corner is only slightly more strenuous than those mouse clicks. And now, we’ll have to actually walk whole blocks to get to a Starbucks that hasn’t been ripped from our streets in the name of improved profit margins for the ubiquitous coffee haven. Well, what about our profit margins as Web workers? Without those 600 Starbucks, how will we survive? Read the rest of this entry »