As frequent readers might know, I sometimes go to local coffee houses to write articles for my blog. I usually go to a small local chain called Arabic Coffee House, but today I am going to Panera Bread instead because I’m meeting a friend for lunch and it just so happens that Panera is one of his favorite restaurants for lunch.
Panera
Now you might be thinking, “What does this have to do with Business or Personal Finance”?
Well, if I were a full-time blogger, the point is I can work from anywhere that an internet connections exists. Today, you can find internet access points almost everywhere! I’ve even heard of entire cities providing internet access for their community for free, talk about flexibility!!! This means I don’t have to incur the cost of having a traditional office (just a post office box).
Some of you might be thinking, what about a phone line?
Well, my phone number is a Google Voice phone number, which is free and very powerful! It’s powerful because the Google number is configurable to ring any phone I configure the call to route to within Google Voice, even multiple phones (cell or land-line).
Back to the friend I’m meeting:
Unfortunately, my friend lives over an hour away, so it will take him a while to meet me at Panera. If I had a regular business, the time waiting for him would be mostly wasted, but this is NOT so with my blogging business!
Here is what I am doing while waiting:
- Writing: I’m writing this article (obvious huh)… That is one of the best feature of blogging! All I need to write an article is: my brain, my laptop (or similar device), and my hands. I don’t even need an internet connection to write the articles! Granted I can’t post my article without an internet connection, but posting to my site only take a few minutes tops.
- Twittering: Checking my blog’s twitter account, responding to tweets, retweeting interesting articles, and later tweeting this article once it’s posted. Twitter didn’t start out this big when I started blogging, but now I’m very active on this social channel.
- Emailing: I’m responding to emails that I have received in my mailbox. I get a constant stream of emails now, so this has become a critical part of blogging for me.
- Analytics: Periodically checking my stats. This is generally considered bad, but really it’s a quick and easy way to check to make sure my site is up and functioning normally. It’s just a quick refresh of the screen. I also look for abnormal behavior! I’ve used these stats to block bad guys hitting my site before.
- Facebooking: Facebook, activities… I’m just starting to get into this, but it’s one of the largest social channels out there!
- Thinking: Learning to think and observe better in public. Thinking in my guest room at home is great, but sometimes going out in public, and just watching and listening (or typing and half listening) can spark an idea for a new article (I say this because I came up with two ideas while typing this article).
<My friend has arrived, so I will stop here and finish up this article at home>
It was a great time meeting my friend (I haven’t seen him in over a year), and now I’m at home and wrapping up this post. That’s another nice thing about a blogging business, I don’t have to worry about picking up where I left off. I just open my article and go to the bottom and continue to type the article out!
So, I hope I demonstrated that blogging is the ultimate mobile business! An added perk is that in addition to being the ultimate mobile business, it’s also cheap to start and run! I love these win-win scenarios!
Cheers,
MR
I have gotten a lot done at Panera over the years. I will go in by myself and purchase a half sandwich and half soup, then blog for hours. It has been awhile since I did that. I thought about it the other night, but I just ended up writing an article after finishing work instead.
Yeah, I have to admit it was an enjoyable experience.
I’m pretty sure I’ll go back there again, just for the atmosphere along. It’s very conducive to blogging (but not so much for my wallet, lol).
We had free internet in Portland for a while, but it didn’t work well. It didn’t work if you’re indoor and that pretty much killed the project.
Blogging is a great mobile business. 🙂
I wrote a post when I was riding the train to work yesterday.
That sounds awesome! What a great use of time too!
The more I blog, the more I like how it can be a virtual business. I know some bloggers that ever do their blogging activities while working a primary and secondary jobs. What a great supplement!
Hmmm, I wonder if the city I knew of in my area had the same issues… I’ll have to check! Too bad, sounded like a sweet deal.
Blogging certainly has a lot to offer. It’s a top-tier occupation. By that I mean that it can only exist when the other building blocks of society and the economy are in place. We’re dealing in information and communication which are all intangible.
But, I’m making a career of out of the seemingly limitless opportunities online.
Yeah, it’s definitely a top-tier occupation, I can understand that for sure!
I’m going to try to ramp up my efforts next year to have a larger online presence. I’m starting to understand that blogging is kind of unlimited for creativity…
It is definitely cheap to start. But, blogging has been more time consuming then my 9-5. the networking, commenting, SEO etc etc is time consuming. But, it will all pay off soon
I agree, it is very time consuming!
I’m starting to really like the iPad and keyboard combination. I’m able to write blog posts on my lunch break and during travel time.
Very, very nice!
Someday, I’ll have to get me one of those 🙂
So that is working well hey. I have been thinking about this very solution. Seems like it works well.
The best part of this mobility is that its scalable, ie you can be mobile across states/countries.
I need to get me one of these small laptops to fill my commute time…
I think blogging is often a difficult way to make money alone. There’s such a long start-up phase before the income is flowing well. There are easier ways to make money online and offline. That said, blogging is fun and has other rewards too. If you keep at it, you can have some phenomenal results. While you have some great points, I don’t know if I would call it the “ultimate” mobile business model because it is often, especially at the beginning, a hard business.
You’d think I would love to go out to blog and write, but I actually prefer to do so in my home, without distractions. Even so, the flexibility is amazing. I can stop in the middle of a task and take a walk or have lunch or any number of things. Definitely the ultimate in flexibility.
love coffee houses and panera. agreed – any info product based business (digitally delivered) is the best mobile business model. this is one of the reasons why i sold my ecommerce business for $250,000 and moved on to niche sites / infopreneurship. blogging is just another form of that
I am at Starbucks as we speak! I love getting out and writing. I actually prefer it to writing at home because I am so much more focused!
I feel the same way, Kris! I love this about cafés and libraries.