WordPress Howto Spotter » Homebased Business

How to Find and Train Employees Online

Alex Sysoef — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:53:57 +0000

Online businesses have a decisive advantage over offline ones, provided they have the skills, knowledge, and patience to leverage them. One fairly obvious advantage is the likely absence of a lot of normal expenses that an offline business must pay – such as rent for an office or storefront, and the associated utilities. You will likely need to find and train employees online, however. And this brings with it a whole new set of problems. How do you find reliable, hard-working employees online? Furthermore, how do you train them without having them physically present at a training seminar or session?

There are a lot of misconceptions about finding employees online, and a great deal of tactics that, from personal experience, simply don’t work. If you want to find the employees you need to make your business successful, start with the place where these employees learn the skills necessary to be successful.

Finding Employees Online

Some of my favorite targets for finding employees online, and the ones with which I’ve had the most success, are college job boards. For the most part, you can avoid the scams and spams that plague sites like Craigslist and Elance, and target college students that are likely hungry to find work. Considering my alma mater as an example, check out Northern Michigan University’s off-campus job board for an idea on how these postings work. As a side note, for all you link-hungry web developers out there that started foaming at the mouth when you saw a potential opportunity to get an easy link from an .edu domain, it’s not worth the effort:

These pages rarely get indexed
The links are temporary

But if your goal is to hire employees, I’d recommend college job boards as a primary, if not sole strategy. Better yet, post on college job boards in your area so you have the chance to attract some local employees. You might decide to shift to brick and mortar offices in the future, and having a local online employee gives you the option of having the occasional live meeting. When I was involved in one start-up, we not only posted on all of the community college and university job boards in the area, but also made a point to attend the schools’ job fairs and post fliers in the English and Computer Science departments. Don’t be afraid to advertise online jobs in offline places.

There are some larger directories that connect you to college students around the country, but most sites that do so are designed similar to CLEAR wireless’ coverage finder, which means that you might have to sift through each state and city to find employees. Additionally, the national resources usually charge a fee to list a job, while college job boards are often free.

If you decide not to target college job boards, you should still stay away from large job directories like Craigslist. Instead, try targeting industry-specific job websites that have less spammy advertisements, and have more potential for having the people you need. If you need a content writer, for example, you might consider posting on sites like FreelanceWritingGigs.com or TheWriteJobs.com.

Whichever job boards or methods you choose to advertise employment opportunities, keep these things in mind when writing the posts:

Be as specific and clear as possible. What specific skills should the employee posses?
Avoid mentioning compensation – you can discuss this during the interview (but mention it early).
Explain exactly what the employee will be expected to do (don’t say “blog writer” – say “finance and credit blog writer.”)
Be honest about the time commitment – just how “part-time” is the job?

Most importantly, get samples of their work. A resume is easy to beef up. If you plan to hire a writer, pay them a reasonable wage to write a short sample for you. Don’t accept pre-made samples – you have no idea how long it took them to prepare that sample, if they actually created it at all. This is a small investment to avoid a big headache later.

Training Online Employees

One quick note about training online employees – tread very carefully with compensation and training. If you are hiring a person on contract, meaning they will be paid a set rate per delivery (popular with online writing, programming, and design jobs), you cannot require the employee to be available during a specific time period. You can offer a payment to cover training time if you plan to do it through a set time-frame or meeting. But, it’s often best to set up a training package or dedicate a private portion of your website to training new employees.

One of the best ways to train new employees is to start small. You can’t expect an online employee to learn 50 new things in their first week. Instead, choose one area where their skills will be the most valuable and train a new employee in that area first. Put together a small training package that can be transmitted through email – usually consisting of some .PDFs, video files, articles, and checklists. Don’t forget to train new employees to use your systems and processes as well. For example, if you use a project management system like Central Desktop, BaseCamp or Smartsheet, make sure the employee understands how those systems work first.

As part of the training, be sure to include some instructions on how the employee will handle the daily problems that can arise. Once again using content writing as an example, your training might include:

What problems will result in a rewrite/rejection of an article. How to handle a rewrite request. Whether rejected articles will still be paid.
How deadlines work. While you can’t ask a contract employee to work 9-5, you can request that any assignment be completed in a certain timeframe.
What ownership they retain over their content, if any. When dealing with ghost writers, write a contract that each new employee must sign where they surrender all rights to the content they write for you upon payment for the content, including their right to claim it as their own work.

Remember to use the mastery system, where new employees master one task at a time before moving on to another. For content writers, this might be creating small blurbs of content like meta descriptions and article summaries before moving on to writing full articles. This gives the employee a chance to read what other writers are doing. For programmers, it might be as simple as having them handle content HTML codes like header tags and simple organizational tasks. If they excel immediately at these small tasks, give them more responsibility/more difficult work to test and develop their skills.

About the Author: Mitch O’Conner is an online marketer and writer. When he’s not busy testing sites, generating traffic or writing content, he enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, watching TV, playing games or going camping.

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Bad Habits That Sabotage Your Productivity At Your Workplace

Alex Sysoef — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:07:04 +0000

When you get to the office in the morning, you may grab a cup of coffee and head straight to your inbox.

From there you move over to Twitter and then drop some messages on Facebook. What comes to mind next, the latest Justin Bieber’s video on YouTube. Before you can realize what you are doing the day will be long gone. The funny thing is that when somebody calls, you go like: “Dude, I am so busy I can’t even talk”

There are many other habits that many of us have formed that do nothing but sabotage our productivity. Among these habits are:

Constant Checking Of Email Messages

The very first activity that most of us do in a day is to check email messages as soon as we reach the office. If the message requires a reply, we will obviously leave whatever we are doing and start writing a reply. It is best to check your email messages once or twice a day; say before lunch period or in the morning and just before you close for the day.

Meetings

Depending on the kind of meeting and how many hours it took, meetings can be a time suck as well. Why sit around and discuss things that can just be talked over the IM or email?

There are many databases online designed to facilitate productivity by reducing the usage of time wasting factors like weekly or daily meeting conversations. You can use Central Desktop, Basecamp or any other system that proves effective in providing you with a good alternative to these.

With most of these facilities, you can create and have access to detailed project milestones and deadlines.

Late Work

Many people work late with the idea of being ahead of their schedules. While this may be a good idea, after the days hard work chances are that forcing yourself to work further is imposing excessive stress on you.

This might get you sick and make you lose more productive hours. Instead of hanging around on people’s blog posts in the evening or forcing yourself to do more work, why not take the time and rest to get yourself charged for tomorrow’s deals.

Inadequate Management Of Your To-Do-List

From the experience I got by launching and running my coupon site, where I talked about iContact, VMWare coupon and Acronis software, I noticed that I would start my day with the easiest tasks and tackle the hard ones when my energy was already depleted.

Of course this was not a productive strategy. While you are prioritizing your tasks, don’t forget that starting from the hard tasks in the morning will help encourage you towards tackling the easy ones later in the day.

Too Much Coffee

The working routine of most people can be described with the phrase “half coffee, half work”. Instead of moving over for the next cup of coffee, put a soft music and try to focus on the work at hand.

Even if you are a coffee geek, keeping in mind that you will get a cup of coffee once you finish the task at hand will help to improve your productivity.

Taking Lunch Right At Your Desk

A lot of people try to impress their boss or force themselves towards being more productive by eating on their desk. Have you thought that you can mistakenly spill the food over important documents, or on your computer?

If this happens, you will lose the time you thing you have gained and even take more of your product hours to deal with the mess.

Social Site Madness

Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are all marvelous places to hang out and run business campaign. However, these sites have also proved to be time suckers. The key is to know what you are going there to do and get out once done. Any more second you stay can take you hours to realize the damage you have done to yourself.

Pleasing Everybody

There is no way you can please everybody around you. When you know that it is time to work and somebody around is either asking for help or for some conversation, tell the person that you are working.

Let him or her know when you will be free in case they are still interested. And most importantly, learn to say NO!

Guest Post By: Chimikolo Mike who is Freelance Writer and often writes about discount deals at coupon blogs that share acronis Coupon, icontact code discounts. Check out his coupon site that offers a free icontact coupon and acronis coupons.

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Defining Your Homebased Business Goals And Needs

Alex Sysoef — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 17:10:07 +0000

Your goals for a homebased business or internet marketing is what should be a defining point in your action, skip this and you will fail, identify it correctly and your efforts will be greatly rewarded by success that could be far superceeding your initial goals.

And to illustrate my point I want to share a personal story, story I don’t tell too often but one, that has led me to success that went FAR BEYOND my original goals. Perhaps what I share will help you make some sense of what you are currently doing and what your plans will be in near future.

This is just a personal story, so please take it as such and let me know what you think, share your own story!

My Personal Internet Marketing Story

This story is long winded and might not be something you want to read in its entirety but it is what defined me and my current accomplishments and comes from my heart! So here we go…

The year was 1992, when I have arrived to promised land in Anchorage, AK international airport. I was a young man with no money, almost no friends, no education… in fact; I didn’t even possess a basic knowledge of conversational English! (something that still pointed out to me as fault from time to time, but I choose to ignore those negative voices!)

“Yes, you’re absolutely right… I really DIDN’T have anything going for me at the time …

But, did I care? Hell no! I was free! Penniless, yes… but still smiling… and VERY FREE!

…once that plane touched down on US soil, I was as “happy as a pig in mud”!

I found myself embracing the Land of Opportunity and I was utterly determined to make the most of it! Stakes are high when your ‘very survival’ is on the table… and getting the upper hand in a totally unfamiliar country certainly doesn’t come easy.

For about a year I lived in Kodiak (a small city on Alaska’s Island with the same name) waiting for my work permit and scavenging for ANY work that would allow me to feed myself. And when that wasn’t available the Salvation Army came to the rescue

However, let me point one thing out…

“Fighting for your place in line to get a share of NEARLY ROTTEN food from the local supermarket may well be character-building … but it doesn’t do a damn thing for your pride!”

At 21, Damaged Pride is NOT Something That Can Be Easily Accepted…

So the day when that work permit actually arrived, it felt more like I’d won lottery than been given permission to work! That small, seemingly mundane piece of bureaucratic paper meant more to me that just a “work permit” – IT WAS MY TICKET TO A NEW LIFE – A LIFE I HAD ONLY DREAMED OF… UP UNTIL THAT MOMENT!

…a brand new, exciting, personally challenging way of life, where my determination to be super successful in all that I did from that time on had just received the biggest shot in the arm I could’ve ever hoped for! I have taken several jobs that included cleaning other people’s snow and back yards, took the job as grocery store clerk, worked part time as furniture delivery guy in one of the best local furniture stores and did some long shoring, loading tons of frozen fish from local fish processing plants to international ships. In fact for a few months I managed to hold 3 jobs at same time and wasn’t getting more then 2-3 hours of sleep on a good day!

But living in a small fishing town where “extremely well paid” crab fishermen comprised ten percent of the population, made for an easy choice job-wise for me – well… actually… given the RIVERS OF MONEY THAT FLOWED FREELY at the end of the crab season kinda made it a no-brainer… yup, “Alex” became a crab fisherman! And here is a picture proof to you:

For over 6 bone-chilling, gut-busting years I did the hardest work known to man… and wasted money like there was no tomorrow. And if you know ANYTHING about the dangers of crabbing on the high seas of Alaska, the chances of there actually being “no tomorrow” were about 50/50 on a GOOD DAY!!!

But it sure didn’t stop me from taking my chances with mother nature for at least six seasons, loosing friends to murky waters and destroying my health in process…

However, in the end, even the lure of big money wasn’t enough for me… I needed something more in my life. It slowly began to dawn on me that this WAS NOT what I’d had in mind when my search for a better life brought me to US….

Lifestyle I had was quickly destroying the life itself in me. Using my savings and going on strict budget…

…I Paid My Way Through an IT School And Earned My Engineering Degree!

… And even more importantly, I developed a deep interest in “how things worked from the inside out”. I learned to always look for a way to improve the current process and make it more efficient.

Several years of work as a technical support analyst helped me realize that most “normal” people simply don’t have the same views on computers and technology as I do. They also helped me to develop an ability to “walk” anyone – including a complete novice – through the seemingly difficult task of getting things done quickly and efficiently. A skill that was honed by endless hours of phone support and work with customers ‘up close and personal.’

The Ability to Overcome A Person’s Fear of Technology and Enable Them To Embrace It Is Not Something One Can Learn From Books Or Manuals – It Is Something That Can Only Be Acquired!

And as sure as God gave me the breath to fog a mirror, I sure put some “seriously long hours” into “acquiring” that particular ability! Working endless hours for multiple corporations and progressing in my career still forced me to live from one paycheck to another.

During this time I got married and had 2 kids… and even though my income continued to grow as I ‘climbed the career ladder’ – so did my expenses! The more my income grew, the more the needs of my family grew!

Needs that no man with his pride intact can ignore …

Can you remember a time when your child asked you for a new toy that was all the rage in his or her friends circle… and all you could answer was: “I’m sorry, but we really can’t afford it?”

Even if you can remember a moment as awful and as humiliating as that, I don’t blame you for not possessing the inner strength to still look your child in the eye when you had to say “no” to them… …because I have “BEEN THERE!” I remember this one time when I simply didn’t know how I could possibly explain to one of my kids that “the 70 hours work I’d done that previous week – the work that had taken me away from my wife and children for days at a time – was not even enough to cover the few lousy dollars I needed to buy a toy for them!

How could I have explained to my little ones that “Daddy’s hard work had gone to stuff the pockets of corporate big-wigs while Daddy didn’t even get “raises” that covered yearly inflation … that is, if we got “raises” at all?

Hard work that limits the time I spend with my kids to a few short minutes a day (and a few hours on weekends), assuming there is no emergency that requires me to work anyway (not an uncommon scenario) …

That Was Definitely NOT The Life I Was Dreaming Of When I Came To This Land Of Opportunity!

The only way I could see myself achieving the dreams I had when I came to the US was to start my own business while still keeping my job. The only logical way to do it was through Internet Marketing. After all, I already had experience as a webmaster and knew the technology inside out …

My Initial Goal was VERY Modest: I needed Just $200 Extra per month to cover the extra expenses, working part time! Period. I did’t dream of quitting my day-job, becoming a multi-million Internet mogul, driving expensive cars and living in mansions most of us only see on TV. I simply wanted to provide for my family and support them in best way I could…

For over two years I purchased every eBook and script I could lay my hands on that promised to “instantly” catapult me into the profit zone. Same old bullsh*t recycled by endless hordes of “wannanbe” Internet marketers and simply presented in a different way.

In no time at all, I was like an “eBook junkie” – injecting my mind with every piece of “get rich quick” information I could! Sometimes I had a marginal success and sometimes I failed. But one thing I did manage to pull out of this experience was a clear understanding that …

I Could Only Make It In This “Crazy, Over-Hyped Virtual World” By Offering My Clients The Best Possible Solutions To The Worst Possible problems they faced – Based On My Own “Hands-On” Knowledge And Experience and Backed By The Best Customer Service They’ve ever Seen!

At first, I simply started to blog. I utilized all the technical knowledge I had accumulated over the years and combined this with the best Web 2.0 strategies in existence – and a radar-focused understanding of the solutions I was presenting to my readers in each and every post!

And boy was I ever rewarded!! I started seeing an ever-growing stream of free traffic and as result – $$$$$$$$ from the nearly DAY ONE! Doing what I loved and sharing what I knew, I was finally able to inch my way closer to achieving my goals of becoming “financially free!”

Income that was only ever dreamed of, finally allowed me to put my son into a hockey team and afford the fees associated with the sport he loved so much (and what Russian doesn’t?)! Finally I was able to remodel the kitchen – just the way my wife wanted! I could at long last buy my son the toys he always asked for… and then see the happy sparkle in his eyes! I know that money can’t buy happiness… nothing can. But you wanna know something? It sure as hell helps a humble family to enjoy life that little bit more!

Now, I’m not a greedy person but this new-found success got me to thinking….. How Can I HELP OTHERS To Achieve Their Financial Goals?

Mind you … I’m not talking about making people rich! I’m simply talking about one little thing – to enable other people to see results from their efforts as soon as possible!

Earning Your Very First Dollar Online Is All About Knowing How To Make It Happen — And Then Taking Action To Multiply That Success!

In fact, it is rather simple when all the technical stuff is taken out of the picture! For me this led directly into most logical conclusion – I started to create informational products and provide support to my customers. While I had several successful small info product releases, those were just the start as my first signature product “Web 2.0 Wealth” was released in 2007 and main goal of that training was to tech people how to make their first dollar online using WordPress and some creative article marketing. Something I manged to achieve – I wanted to share with others and it was quite well received.

But that release also showed me some of the shortcomings of the product as well as opened new insights on what people actually needed / wanted and that product was failing to provided it.

Using that knowledge and partnering with my buddy Dmitriy – we have created a series of products to provide solutions people were searching for: Expert WordPress, Review Blog System, Expert Content, Lock Your Blog and a few other smaller projects.

All of the above combined led me to where I’m right now, defined what I do and what I get from it!

As I mentioned in the beginning - this is a long winded story, but perhaps you still have a question:

Why Should I Care? What Was the Point Of This Story?

There are actually couple points to this story and perhaps at least one of them will ring true with you:

1. Full Time Internet Marketing is NOT for everyone! I know many people who are like me in the beginning looking to make a few extra bucks to contribute to their family income. In fact running a full time business requires leaving the comfort (however unsteady it might be) of the regular job that provides with some nice benefits for your family and also knowledge of actually running business.

If you fall into this category – don’t feel bad! Its normal and it’s OK! You just need to find your own way to getting what you need but once you find it – stick to your guns, don’t let the stories of “internet rugs to riches” sway you from your path! When it comes to your success – it is you against the world, however harsh it might sound! And there is plenty of help available at no cost, although your path could be a lot smoother and shorter when guided by right mentor. I know, because I personally had a few people I learned from myself.

Here is one low cost but extremely effective solution provided by one f the most respected marketers – Mark Hendricks – Internet Success System. Just choose his basic membership and at $10 per month you will learn more than any other over priced training provides, simply because many of those guys have learned from Mark!

2. I generate quite comfortable income – PART TIME! I hate talking about how much I earn from my internet marketing efforts but since it is part of my conclusion and I think a necessary closure to this story, I can share following:

My initial goal of extra $200 a month have been surpassed quite a while ago and in fact, my own business, run part time, in 2010 generated a six figure income but unlike many other internet marketers – I do it during my free time and on weekends.

Why am I telling you this now? To dispel some myth on how impossible it could be. It is taxing for sure on my time but because I do what I like – it is not a burden! It does require planning and setting priorities on my part but it is not an IMPOSSIBLE task! I believe that most anyone can accomplish same and it is simply matter of concentration and determination combined with right knowledge.

Whew… this was a lot longer post then I anticipated when I sat down to write it but I only hope that my personal story and some conclusions I made for myself can be of help to others! Let me know what you think and do share your own personal story, or if for some reason you didn’t get enough – meet me in person!

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How To Schedule Time Out

Monika Mundell — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 09:31:42 +0000

Anyone who has ever run a business will tell you it is a huge drain on your time, versus working for somebody else. When you work for somebody else’s company, you turn up in the morning, do your job, and then go home, most of the time without having to worry about the job until the next day.

However, when you are running your own business this is almost always never true. When the complete success and stability of a business is solely your responsibility, and that business is also your family’s main source of income, you will often find that you can be working 14-18 hours a day.

Where the Problems Start

Although running a business does take hard graft, working every hour of the day can actually do your business more harm than good in a number of different ways, and this is why it is so important that you find a way of scheduling some time out.

If you work 24/7 then a few things will start to happen to you. First of all there is only so much that the human body can take. Without sleep over a long period of time your body and mind will suffer.

Your reflexes start to slow down, your mind will wander, and you will find it hard to concentrate. That is where mistakes will be made, and those mistakes could harm your business. Not to mention that you will ultimately burn out.

Imagine going into an important meeting after having had no sleep for 4 days, and trying to make a good account of yourself and your business. Unless you are superhuman it can’t be done. Certainly not over the long term!

Another area of your life where things will suffer is your home life. If you have a partner and/or children then they will need your attention. Total focus on your business could lead to a relationship breakdown, or resentment, and this kind of stress will also lead to your business suffering.

I’m Too Busy

Many people do not allow themselves any time out because they feel if they relax for even a minute, something drastic will go wrong with the business. This in fact couldn’t be farther from the truth.

So, how do you fit any time out during your busy working schedule? The first thing to do is work out when during the week you have meetings, and other office duties that cannot be avoided at any cost.

Then you need to plan at least one or maybe even two afternoons or evenings a week where you stop working on immediate business needs. The ideal thing to do during this time is to take some “me” time.

Read a book, take a long bath, and if you really cannot stand the thought of not doing something for your business during this time, why not do some reading, or brainstorming, to come up with some new innovative strategy or direction for your business.

Some of the most brilliant ideas have been thought up in the shower or bathroom don’t you know?!

Family Time

Nothing cleanses the soul, or clears the mind as much as some quality time spent with your loved ones. You absolutely must schedule at least one weekend out of two where you do something with your family. It doesn’t matter whether you all go to the cinema, to a theme park, or even just cosy up on the sofa.

Taking the time to reconnect with yourself and your family is vital for all of you, and will reignite the fire in your belly that determines why you are running a business in the first place.

How do you take time out from a busy schedule?
Monika

Monika Mundell is a busy copywriter, digital nomad and lover of the great outdoors. If she isn’t found hammering away at her keyboard she is probably enjoying some downtime with her hubby, babies (pet birds), or stuck on some tropical island while cruising the world.

You can connect with Monika on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn where she has been extremely un-busy over the last year. An influx of new followers might just animate her to get her act together.

App By App – Life of A Digital Nomad (howtospoter.com)

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7 Tips To Be A Great Leader

Monika Mundell — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 01:19:53 +0000

Some people are born leaders, whilst others have to work much harder at it. Regardless of whether you are new into management at work, lead a team of Web Warriors, or whether you have just been made the captain of your local football team, these tips should help you become a great leader.

1. Be Confident

Let me clarify that there is a vast difference between being confident and being arrogant. Confidence is a strong belief in your ability to succeed, whilst arrogance is an over the top, often rude and obnoxious quality that will not get you liked. If you want to be a strong leader, having confidence is important, because people need to feel secure, and confident with what their leader is doing.

Any sign of uncertainty will likely unsettle your team. It will make them nervous and unable to perform to the highest standards. Even if you are not feeling 100% confident yourself it is important that you don’t make it obvious to those around you.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask for help and advice, but you shouldn’t come across like a rabbit in the headlights either.

2. Listen

A good leader will also be someone that is a good listener. You must be able to listen to, and understand any problems or worries your team have. Being strong and a good talker is important, but almost secondary when compared to the importance of being able to listen.

3. Be Proactive

Being a good leader will demand that you spot, and deal with problems before they actually happen. As a leader you must be aware of what is going on around you, and try to find potential problems, so you can nip them in the bud before they actually manifest. For example, a manager in a supermarket would need to make sure that floor polishing was done after the store was closed and customers had left, so there were no accidents.

4. Stay Focused

A good leader will always be focused on the job, or task in hand. It is important for everybody around you that you are always aware of what is going on. If anything does go wrong then it will be you that your team turns to, and they will need you to know what is going on.

5. Don’t Lose Your Head

This is by no means easy, but is very important. In a pressured situation, a good leader will remain calm and collected. If you start to panic, or lose your rag then things could rapidly fall apart. Your team are there to support their leader, you, but should not under any circumstances be made to hold things together whilst you throw a hissy fit.

6. Be Decisive

Similar to confidence, being decisive relates to being sure of what you are doing, or instructing your team to do. Half hearted decisions will leave your team feeling unsure or confused. If you are not certain of how to deal with a situation immediately, take some time to think it over first before delivering a firm, decisive course of action.

7. Show Respect

This is quite possibly the most important element needed from a great leader. It is very hard for anyone to respect, or admire someone who is rude, short, and obnoxious. It is vital you treat everybody around you with grace and respect. Leaders that treat people fairly, and generously, are those who people really want to work with, and do well for.

Have your say, what makes a great leader for you?

Monika

You can connect with Monika on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn where she has been extremely un-busy over the last year. An influx of new followers might just animate her to get her act together.

App By App – Life of A Digital Nomad (howtospoter.com)

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App By App – Life of A Digital Nomad

Monika Mundell — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:21:21 +0000

Digital nomadism, a dream many have, few experience.

What draws some people into the lure of the big wide world while others are happily working for a boss for the rest of their working lives? The answer of course lies in your own beliefs. What might be someone’s idea of Just Over Broke (J.O.B.) is someone else’s belief of living a secure life.

Go figure…

The reality of a digital revolution can be seen all around us. Have you harbored a late guess at what percentage of the population walks around with a smartphone these days?

I dare you to look closer. On a recent leisure/business trip to tropical Cairns I couldn’t help notice how many people were actually in the possession of an iPhone. These iPhone warriors were EVERYWHERE! I kid you not; they were at the airport, at the taxi rank, at the hotel, in the local coffee shop and in the park. Heck, they even were in the rainforest.

Thanks to the ever increasing connectivty of 3G (or is it 4G now) we can stay in touch with our zealous Facebook and Twitter followers while snorkeling on the Barrier Reef, or sipping a cafe latte, surrounded by nature’s beauty.

Digital Nomads Use Apps to Stay Connected

Digital nomads who hold themselves in high esteem (thanks to their technical savvyness – just kidding) use apps to stay in touch with their business while traveling the world. I happen to own an iPhone and it is by far the best digital tool I have ever laid my hands on – and I do happen to LOVE my MBP! The iPhone truly allows me to enjoy my life as a digital nomad without feeling guilty. I no longer have to worry about missed opportunities, or deadlines because I couldn’t get to a PC/Mac in time. My iPhone keeps me connected while I laze in the sunshine with a good book, while I sit in the coffee shop with a friend, and while I simply enjoy the advantages of being self-employed with my own agenda.

I can tweet, upload photos to Facebook, reply to a client inquiry, collaborate with my team, and send invoices – thanks to apps that help me stay organized.

What’s on My iPhone?

To be honest, right now a whole lot of clutter besides some REALLY cool apps that have helped to make a huge difference in my schedule.

Productivity apps:

Dropbox: To help me keep files organized while my Mac stays relative clutter-free
WriteRoom: For writing blog posts on the go. Admitedly it’s not that easy as trying to thumb blocks of text into a small device is rather time consuming. I’d like to keep it as a last resort for emergencies.
Office2Plus: To create documents and spreadsheets on the go. I can also share these via iTunes, email, WiFi, cloud servers, or local sharing. It’s a great way to put the finishing touches on an important document while being out and about from the office.
Evernote: Great app. No further explanation needed.
WiFiGet: Good app to scan surrounding area for WiFi networks – both free and paid.
iDisk: Keeps me synched with my MBP. Having said this I also use Dropbox for same. Can’t have enough cloud-based storage.
Roboform: Can’t live without my safe and secure password manager on the fly, especially if I’m tempted to use free WiFi hotspots. Got to mind those nasty scam artists who prowl these spots in the hopes of robbing you of your last paycheck.

Mind apps:

I happen to be a sucker for personal development so the following mind apps come in handy on a regular basis:

White Noise: Allows me to work distraction free and really get into the zone. LOVE it! I can also use it to gently lull me to sleep after a hard days work.
OM Mediation: Being a yoga practitioner and believer in ancient Eastern ways of life this app keeps me grounded during meditation or practice.
iMindMap: While technically a productivity app, this app helps me zone out from my usual mind clutter and focus on the task ahead.
Sleep Cycle: This is a REALLY cool app. I’m relatively new to it and only just discovered its power. With this app you can monitor your sleep cycle. It promises to wake you up during the lightest sleep phase, providing you with a better sense of wellbeing and more energy at the start of your day.
SimplyBeing: Has some lovely guided meditation. I love the 5 minute meditation options with music. A great way to renew your mind and spirit on the fly.

Travel apps:

iTranslate: Does exactly that – translate sentences from one language to the next. Perfect to get acquainted with your newest best friends in a foreign country.
Weather: The weather app comes as a standard with the iPhone, but what I like about it is the fact that I can set it for different cities worlwide, allowing me to see the weather forecast for my travel destination before I leave home. I never have to guess what to pack.
AroundMe: Has some good localized information about coffee shops, banks, shops, retail, hotels, gas stations and more. On a trip to Brisbane a couple of months back I was able to find a great coffee shop with this app – considering I was a long way from the city made this even better.
Maps: This out-of-the-box app is one of my favorites. It acts as a GPS and is great for new destinations. While it does chew your download data plan I can’t imagine not using this cool app. Great for finding your way to the hotel with a hired car.

Entertainment apps:

SHOUTcast Radio: This app is pretty good for finding radio stations. I use it a lot for its classical music selection since I don’t have a lot of classical music at home.
App store: How could you NOT use this for entertainment purposes. I bet you find new goodies on each new visit. It’s kind of contagious.
Borders: Since the iBook app really does SUCK (especially at the moment) I have searched further afield and found Borders. This Australian bookshop app is way cooler than iBook hopes to be and features an impressive list of affordable e(i)Books.

Social Networking apps:

How could I forget the most important apps to stay connected with the world?

Facebook app: Words are not needed.
Twitter app: Tweet your life away.
Skype: This is my kind of app. Especially now I’ve upgraded my software. I can get push notifications while running this app in the background. Not bad for a little piece of software.
Fring: I think this app is better than I currently think it is. I just haven’t worked it out. I downloaded it because I was under the impression I can use it for Skype too, but haven’t figured out how, lol.

App I truly miss:

Just after discovering Grooveshark and learning that Apple had released the free Grooveshark app I had to let go when they pulled it a few days later. I really wish this app will eventually return to the app store, but I have a sneaky feeling that it won’t, because of potential copyright issues. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, have fun while digging around the app store for yourself, and if you’re a digital nomad I hope to meet you in the great outdoors one day.

Monika

You can connect with Monika on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn where she has been extremely un-busy over the last year. An influx of new followers might just animate her to get her act together.

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Top 8 Power Tools Of A Digital Nomad

Monika Mundell — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 01:57:02 +0000

In the age of technology a lot of people choose the Internet to fund their lifestyle. I happen to be one of them. But despite the great opportunity we have when working online, there are certain things to keep in mind if you want to run your life (and your business) seamlessly – especially when you are on vacation.

There is no direct definition for the term digital nomad. However, I think you’d agree with me when I say a digital nomad is a person who utilizes the Internet for work while traveling the world frequently.

On first observation this sounds exciting and exotic (and it is), but many people on the outside fail to realize that it isn’t as easy as it seems to run a business when you travel. The hardest part is to be disciplined, while everyone around you is in party mood. Meanwhile you are stuck at your keyword, hammering out blog posts, emails and other must-dos to keep your business afloat while on the road.

All of this would be so much harder and near impossible if it wasn’t for the great (and often free) tools we can utilize for our purpose. Thanks to many of these tools my life is made so much easier, and the fact that many of them are free to boost makes collaboration from the road a real treat – even when you are stuck in front of your computer at midnight.

My top 8 power tools as a digital nomad

The following 8 tools are my personal favorites for on-the-road travel. They allow me to stay in touch with my team, my clients and my business without any major issues (emergencies permitted), and turn business travel into something more geeky and fun.

1. iPhone

Yeah, I know that not everyone is a fan of Apple. I totally respect that fact. But for me, living without my iPhone is an impossible� thought because it allows me to collaborate with clients, with the team and friends on the fly. I can do this while I ride a train from central Sydney to the city’s outskirts on the way to a show, or while sitting parked at the airport, waiting for my flight.

You can do the same with a Blackberry or any other smart phone.

2. Gmail

A few years ago I would have sworn by Outlook Express or similar applications. Today, after many frustrating trips where I couldn’t access email because of ISP server issues I’m a happy convert to Gmail. I can access my inbox anywhere in the world from any computer and never have to fear that it won’t download to my machine. What’s even better is the fact that Gmail’s IMAP feature allows me to read my email on the iPhone too.

3. USB Broadband Modem

Even so the iPhone allows me to do a lot of work on the fly I still need to access my laptop at times and connect to the Internet, such as when I write a blog post. Without my own USB modem I would be relying on open wireless networks in coffee shops and hotels and to be honest, I do not trust them.

I also don’t want to pay $6/hour to access the Internet in a hotel. Alternatively I could rig my iPhone to be a modem too, which I guess is easy enough to do if you are a technical geek.

4. Online Collaboration Software

Whether you choose to work with Basecamp, Google Docs, or any other online-based collaboration software doesn’t matter. What matters most is that you can stay in touch with your team while you’re out and about. You need to be able to train them, share files, collaborate and manage the entire team from the road.

The easier this becomes, the less time you will need, giving you more of it to relax and enjoy yourself.

5. Skype

What would we do without Skype? I honestly don’t know. I guess it would result in having to pay more for phone calls or cell phone calls. Skype is a great tool for staying in touch with your business. You can engage into a quick one-on-one chat without major disruptions and clear up some issues that need addressing as soon as possible.

6. Dropbox

Forget pesky external hard drives or backups on your own machine that end up taking up a lot of valuable hard drive space while slowing down your machine. I use Dropbox for backing up my important files and it allows me to access them on any computer in the world as long as it is connected to the Internet. I also use a large external hard drive, but that one stays at home.

Since using Dropbox I no longer have the need to carry an extra hard drive around with me because all the data is safely stored in the “cloud.”

7. Box.net

Box.net is another great tool for those of you who need to store and share files with others in the cloud. It makes for a great training hub where you can store your team training videos for example.Alternatively you can use it to upload and share files, photos and more.

8. PayPal

Invoice your clients, pay you team members and transfer the funds to your bank account. You can do all of this and more from within your free PayPal account.There really is no need for you to go elsewhere, unless you run a corporation with a need for detailed accounting. PayPal lets you export your data in a CSV file so you can hand it to your accountant come tax time.

To be honest, I could probably list a lot more tools here if I was to spend more time thinking about them. These 8 tools are my personal favorites by far, besides my trusted MBP of course. I find that by using all of the tools above I can pretty much run my business from anywhere in the world, provided I have an Internet connection.

Feel free to share your fav tools and why you like them. I look forward to hear from you.

Monika

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Niche Profit Classroom Webinar Invitation

Alex Sysoef — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:10:29 +0000

A rare chance for you to get on FREE Niche Profit Classroom Webinar! Adam Short and Alen Sultanic are getting ready to launch NPC2.0 and will be extremely busy in next few weeks working with their paying members so I don’t anticipate you will have too many opportunities to participate in their webinar.

Now, Why Would You Care? Right?

Wrong! You don’t want to miss this webinar for a several different reasons…

Reasons To Join Niche Profit Classroom Free Webinar

FREE – need I say more? Well, perhaps I do as I heard many time that free is too expensive to spend my time on it. This one will be one of the exceptions as these guys ALWAYS over deliver on your expectations!
Content – they provide massive content and manage to present it from unexpected stand point so it will give you ideas on how to use their strategies to your own benefit!
Proven results – what they share is based on more success stories then they will be able to present simply because what they teach work!
Limited – this is one of the rare chances you get to participate in webinar with the NPC creators and with new release I don’t anticipate we will see this repeated in near future!

And while I can go and talk more about reasons – I simply hope you don’t lose the chance you have. Niche Profits Classroom is one of the very few products I recommend to my customers and regulars readers alike on consistent bases!

Quality Counts! And I had received numerous thanks for recommending this product! Perhaps you will be next?

But for now I simply invote you to join the FREE Niche Profit Classroom Webinar!

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Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop Invitation

Alex Sysoef — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 15:14:21 +0000

Niche Affiliate Marketing System workshop is Not For Everybody. But if you have desire to succeed and get ahead with your online business and turn your “hobby” into a productive business generating for you that extra income you always wanted – this is Your Chance!

My friend and partner David Perdew organizing workshop that will run from January 30 to February 2nd and designed to force you earn by end of Sunday and comes with money back guarantee! Pretty bold statement but to ensure he stands to keep his promise he invited several prominent Niche Marketers to guide the participants through EVERY step: Willie Crawford, Jeff Herring, Mark Hendricks, Xavier Nelson, David Perdew, and myself – Alex Sysoef.

This is Not A “Pitch Fest” seminar but a WORKSHOP! Those who choose to participate will have to come prepared to WORK for Success!

Why Niche Affiliate Marketing System?

Obviously I’m perhaps excited more then other speakers and for a couple of different reasons:

This is my first public speaking gig where I’m given opportunity to share what I know and use on daily bases in front of LIVE audience.
I’m in a company of people for whom I have great respect
This is not just a “speak and sell” event but a workshop – meaning that each speaker will be doing presentation designed to teach people in audience Very Specific steps to be taken to achieve success and then followed by Hands On Work in groups with each group been guided by one of the presenters.

I’m very excited about the format of the event as I believe it will help us archive so much in short few days and every participant will walk away with a PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE to make money online.

I’m allotted 2 hours to do a presentation and my plans are to present what will be a Practical Blogging Session. I intent to share information on exactly How To Start blogging and generate traffic, right AFTER my presentation. A blueprint if you will that people can follow alone and while it will require work – it will give results. Presentation followed by hands on implementation of what I shared and guided by me and other presenters to help people put these strategies into action. Plain and simple.

Idea of my presentation is to not overwhelm the people with theory, ideas but rather practical strategies that can be implemented immediately! And I know other speakers are guided by similar principals and dedicated to help each and everyone who attend to Start Believing That Online Business Is Real! Income from your computer is a reality and arm people with knowledge to bring that reality to their homes.

Each presentation will be building on information shared by previous speaker and designed to advance the knowledge gained and move just one step closer to the final goal – help you earn online.

Tell me if this is Not a Plan To Beat Recession!?

Workshop price is currently offered at discount until Decemebr 13, so I recommend you have a look at it now.

Obviously I could write a lot more about the event and what will be presented as I’m very excited about this opportunity to work directly with those of you who read my articles, believe that I actually have something to share to continue reading my blog and eZine and even purchase products I have created that share similar information.

But Wouldn’t You Rather To Learn It From Me Directly?!

And what is even more – besides my presentation you will get a unique opportunity to learn from people very well known and respected in industry such as Willie Crawford, Mark Hendricks. Quite frankly I’m excited to be able to learn from them directly myself! It is a rare opportunity and I hope to see you in Atlanta!

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Perception Matters!

Monika Mundell — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:52:06 +0000

This post was written by Monika Mundell of Freelance Writing.

While mulling over ideas to post here for Alex on his WordPress Web 2.0 blog I came across some notes of mine I made a little while back. I was in the middle of updating my Portfolio site and tried to make a good job of it.

While looking at my brainstorming notes I thought why not make a post out of it.

I wanted you guys to see what type of process goes into creating a Portfolio site. This applies to anybody who offers a service of some kind. Whether you are a web designer, a graphic designer or a freelancer, it doesn’t matter.

Even bloggers who are serious about their growth can take advantage of this and use it for their blogs.

What message do you want to convey when you blog or do business?

Are you a freestyle blogger who writes when you have something to say, or do you also blog to announce your best friend’s wedding? As you know, bloggers are like ice crystals. We are all so varied that there is no two of the same.

And that is a great thing mind you.

After all, we need to keep our identity intact and project our core being to the world without stepping in other people’s every foot steps. But how do we do this and stand out from the millions?

This is a question that had me in deep thought for some time and only after talking to a good friend did the lights come on eventually.

See, it’s all about perception!

Show others what you are made off. For example, what are your strongest points? Is it:

your style
your flair
your character
your integrity
your ability
your humor
your attitude
or else

As bloggers we have the ideal platform to show the world exactly what we want them to see. Most bloggers are honest people from their hearts, but one negative of the Internet is the fact that we can’t really validate whether person XY is really who they say they are unless…

… They show association

Do you know a famous blogger, or Internet marketer? Or perhaps your are best friends with a guy who knows such and such. In that case you’ll need to network like crazy to get to know this particular person if that is what you want.

Show association with people who can open doors for you. I don’t mean to go and suck up to them, but be courteous and network. In the online service industry all the points above and more count for much. It builds credibility in the marketplace and will help you to score better paying jobs and better connections.

Even for non business bloggers this can help to drive more traffic to your site. The power of association has always worked a treat and will continue to do so for many decades to come. Association is used by top Internet marketers every day in their sales pages and in their promotional emails. This association is called leverage.

The confidence issue

I often hear from my readers that they are afraid to do this and that because of a lack of confidence. I do understand this as it isn’t easy to come across as a knowledgeable person when we have just started out in a field.

But you know what, confidence really does help a lot in all aspects of life and every person, that means you too has a certain strength within that can be used to leverage confidence.

Do you feel confident enough to give this a try, or do you already use this in your blog or in your business? I’d love to hear from you guys and get to know you better.

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