Web Worker Daily |
| Posted: 27 Aug 2008 04:00 PM CDT As reported in more detail on our parent blog GigaOM, Idaho-based M2E Power is on to something new in the land of cell phone chargers. Next year they’ll be selling a charger that gets its energy just by being carried around while you walk - it’s in the same general physics realms as those flashlights you can charge by shaking them. But M2E says they’ve refined this application of the Faraday Principle to the point where it can be packed into a small size and still offer impressive amounts of power - perhaps one hour of talk time for six hours of movement. GigaOM covers some of the implications of this for areas with unreliable power grids, but it could well prove useful for web workers too. With devices like the iPhone 3G getting increasingly hungry for power, the thought of a backup battery solution that you could just toss into your computer and forget about is pretty attractive - especially if it would charge the best when you were on the run and most likely to be away from your regular charger.           |
| Posted: 27 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT Like many other web workers, I get seduced on a regular basis by the latest gadgets. Whether it’s a spiffy new laptop or the latest phone or some miscellaneous bit of electronics that is supposed to make our lives easier, it’s simple to plunk down money and wait for UPS or FedEx to deliver the new toy. Over the years I’ve learned to wait at least a few days before ordering, to let the initial flush of enthusiasm dissipate. But, judging by the debris of unused gadgets on the shelves in my office, I haven’t learned enough. My biggest regret may be the color laser printer that we almost ever used - but really, it seemed like a good idea at the time! How about you? What have you spent money on that you wish you hadn’t? Which gadgets are collecting dust in the closet, when the purchase price could be collecting money in your bank account instead? What provoked you to the purchase, and what didn’t work out in reality?           |
| CurdBee Could Be The Billing Service For You Posted: 27 Aug 2008 12:00 PM CDT
I gave CurdBee a quick run through and found that it covers the basics of invoicing and payment reasonably well. I was able to get up and running quickly and found it easy to get test clients and service items entered for my first invoices. It hooks into Paypal Standard and Google Checkout for payment processing and also supports multiple currencies. Be aware that there are no time tracking features and the overall functionality is sparse compared to more fully featured services like FreshBooks or Cashboard. It is also missing a lot of the nice “usability touches” that a more established product will typically have. But if your needs are simple and you just need to send out quick invoices to your clients, CurdBee might be a good option for you. Accounts are currently free with no apparent limitations. Are you using an online service for your billing? Could CurdBee work for you?           |
| Negotiating the Web Worker Way Posted: 27 Aug 2008 11:00 AM CDT Not long ago, all negotiations were done over a meeting or a meal. For today’s teleworkers, it’s almost impossible to do this if your clients are all over the globe. We’ve all had to make do with online negotiations most of the time, leaving out the nuances of face-to-face meetings. The good news is, our online communication tools can work equally well for negotiation - if we know how to take advantage of it.
Be confident. I’m a nervous wreck. If I were to meet with my clients and negotiate over lunch, I’d be shaking so much that I might accidentally stab myself with a salad fork. The good news for people like me, or for people who are shy and soft-spoken, is that none of this matters online. Negotiations won’t turn into an alpha-dog-stare-down competition. All you have to do is be confident through your emails, IMs, or VoIP calls. This acquired confidence can help you assert your end of the deal. Learning how to read subtext is an important part of negotiation - online or offline. Clients never say exactly what they mean. For example, the phrase “Send me a quote” shouldn’t be taken as a direct instruction. When clients ask for a straightforward quote for a complex project, this usually means they don’t fully understand the complexity of the project. If you send them a single figure, their expectations will be built on that figure, even if your work is worth more. Sending a price range as well as an explanation why you can’t give a fixed cost for now. Of course, you should offer to discuss the project in depth with the client, so you can estimate the cost more accurately. One of the lines I hear most frequently is some variation of “I know a high school student who can do the job for a fraction of your price. I can easily hire them!” More often than not, this is an idle threat. When a potential client tells me this, it usually means that I haven’t justified my price properly. In response to that statement, a designer I know actually said “Go ahead and hire the kid - but know that in doing so you might permanently damage your brand and never recover.” A bold move, but he was hired. Be ready with alternatives. If your client won’t go with your initial price, it’s important to offer alternatives that he’d be comfortable with. You can offer a more flexible payment plan, or promise a small discount for his succeeding order. But whatever you do, don’t compromise your bottom line. Opt for moving the negotiation to the phone or VoIP. Although email is a good communication tool to start with, it’s also a very easy way to mess up negotiations. For big projects, I schedule a VoIP conversation first. This allows the client to ask me any questions in real time and address all their concerns in one sitting. Learn to say “No”. You’ve already offered payment alternatives and promised a high-quality product and the client still doesn’t take it - put your foot down and tell the client that they should just look for someone else. While a few of them may agree and leave, some will actually cave in and hire you. After all, if you’re as good as you say you are and your client knows what’s best for them, there’s no reason why they should go with someone else. How do you handle online negotiations? What’s the toughest online negotiation you’ve ever had?           |
| Twitter as a Branding Opportunity Posted: 27 Aug 2008 10:00 AM CDT
I picked up on this idea from @Pistachio, though it’s been going around. The screenshot is from my own Twitter page - which now, thanks to the ability to upload a custom background, promotes my field, shows my availability, and tells people how to get hold of me. If you’ve got a modicum of talent with any graphics program and a few minutes to spare, you can do the same. The only drawback: no clickable links. But it’s way better than letting Twitter provide the default background, or posting pictures of your cats.           |
| Is Nortel’s Next-Gen Collaboration App Too Ambitious? Posted: 26 Aug 2008 06:00 PM CDT While it’s still in incubation stage, web workers will want to keep Nortel’s web.alive project on their radars. Codenamed “Project Chainsaw,” web.alive is virtual world software, but it’s aimed at online business collaboration and e-commerce applications. Web.alive is being built by a team within Nortel and appears to be focused on next-generation extensions of many of the collaboration tools we’re already used to in tools such as online meeting applications. While it doesn’t appear to be focused on videonconferencing, there are some signs that Nortel means to make this application good. There is already a YouTube video showing some early examples of how web.alive will work. It features the project’s chief architect, who discusses how it has security features that allow you to verify that the person you are talking to is who you mean to talk to, ways to identify those making noise on a conference call and muting them without muting others, and more. The application clearly makes heavy use of avatars–which many users have been critical of in other applications, but some of the 3D graphics seen in the video are impressive. John Roese, chief technology officer at Nortel, said this in announcing the project: “web.alive will help businesses deal with one of the major drawbacks of most communication technologies today - the ability to give users a ‘real-life’ experience that is more interactive and intuitive. For example, if you’re participating in a conference call today it is difficult to have sidebar conversations, to know who else is in the meeting, who is speaking and the relationship or business history of all the participants. web.alive will address those issues by pulling together the IT and telecom worlds to give each avatar access to a wealth of information in ways we have never seen before.” Notably, the application is being built in such a way that it can be added to external web sites, “so that customer avatars can not only interact with each other but also with a company’s customer service avatar.” Nortel has also announced its acquisition of DiamondWare, which makes proximity-based 3D positional voice technology for web applications. DiamondWare will be a key component of web.alive. Siemens and other companies have attempted to do very robust online collaboration tools that integrate advanced telephony features in the past. Most web workers I know have reached for leaner, more targeted, and often free applications instead, though. We’ll see if web.alive can be a game-changer.           |
Have a timely response. Because it’s very easy for potential clients to reach a variety of contractors, odds are you’re not the only one who received their offer. If you wait a couple of days before sending a reply, you risk losing the opportunity to be hired.
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