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.
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