The new year began with a flood of articles on goal setting, planning, and reviewing. The people in these articles had one thing in common: passion. So, I reflected on what I love, and put together a short list of rules (not goals) for my business: Read More »
RSS Feed
Meryl K Evans
Recent Posts
The return of daylight savings time often brings with it a flurry of complaints about losing something web workers treasure most: time. Here are twelve ways to claw some if it back: Read More »
It’s yet another app to join the crowded chat and IM market, but Donut Chat can help to bring web working teams together. Group chats can take place in a Facebook page, on a personalized domain such as webworkerdaily.donutchat.com, or embedded in a web page. Read More »
It’s Friday afternoon. You clean up and get ready for respite. Surprise, surprise … within an hour of checking out for the weekend, a phone call comes in. What do you do? Ignore the call? Pick it up? Read More »
How many times have you returned from a conference only to file the materials and never look at them again? Attending the event is only half of the equation. The other half is what you do with the information after you return home. Read More »
Most time tracking and management applications require some up front work before you can roll with them, but not Chrometa. This app starts working for you as soon as you install it. Running in the background, Chrometa tracks all your computing activities. Read More »
While we may not all agree on the “rules” when it comes to marketing, we can all agree that marketing has changed considerably in recent years, largely due to social media. “Inbound Marketing” is a primer for those looking to make the most of social media. Read More »
More Must Reads
I follow some very successful Twitter users and noticed they tweeted a lot, which inspired me to try the experiment I’ll outline in this post.For several weeks, I tweeted the same type of content I always have — just more often. Read More »
Without question, blogging provides an effective way to market your business. And most folks know that, generally, the more frequently you blog, the higher your traffic. But does that mean you should follow the advice of many to create a new post every single day? Read More »
The application works and feels like Facebook for BlackBerry; not necessarily a good thing, as the app takes too much effort. Most BlackBerry Twitter applications require patience, but Twitter for BlackBerry is the worst. Much of the time, the screen remains blank while the data loads. Read More »
LinkedIn Groups are similar to Facebook Pages in that they provide businesses with an avenue for leading discussions on a topic of interest with members of the LinkedIn network. With groups, you can build thought leadership, share expertise, market your brand and grow your network. Read More »
There are many time management applications out there. So many, in fact, that picking the right one can be tricky; few people have the time to try out more than a handful to find the right match. Read More »
Frustrated because you haven’t blogged in a week or a month? Barely tweeting in Twitter? Haven’t checked out LinkedIn for too long? Missing face time in Facebook? Stop fretting. Social media won’t come crashing down if you get bogged down with work or take a vacation. Read More »
The concept of outsourcing can go beyond using virtual assistants, web designers and programmers. By outsourcing chores, you can remove the stressful things in your life, and as a result, have more time to do the things you love. Read More »
What’s the one thing you need to do on a regular basis to keep your car running? It needs fuel or else it stops running. Every car needs refills — just like every business needs clients to bring in income. However, a car runs better and … Read More »
In his new book, “The Backchannel: How Audiences Are Using Twitter and Social Media and Changing Presentations Forever,” Cliff Atkinson provides an example that shows the power that a Twitter-enabled backchannel (an online conversation between audience members, occurring simultaneously with a presentation) can have on … Read More »
Are you just getting the ingredients together to start a business? Or are you in the process of making your dessert — taking your business from new to sweet? In either case, you can take your business up a notch with social media. Building conversations anywhere … Read More »
The BlackBerry apps I use for Twitter activities generally do a fine job. I use the no-frills Blackbird for its performance and Ubertwitter for its features. Still, I watch out for new Twitter apps because innovation knows no end and developers find ways … Read More »
2009 had a few unexpected surprises, not all of them good. One affected my work, and that was my spouse’s layoff. Though I’ve struggled with New Year planning for new ideas and work, 2010 is off to a fabulous start. My spouse has … Read More »
The first rule of social media is that there are no rules. The second rule is what works for one person doesn’t always work for everyone else. Peeking into another person’s social media approach can give you ideas on how to adjust yours to get the … Read More »
Many Twitter conversations revolve around how much time we actually spend on unpaid social media, and how much time we should spend. Few have an answer because the answer is, “It depends.” (I know, I know. Stick with me.) The Social Networking Time Factors So what … Read More »
Less than a week into the New Year, “streamlining” has popped up as a trend in articles around the web. Streamlining focuses on making changes to simplify processes and become more efficient, and the start of a new year is a logical time for … Read More »
The holiday season gives us many opportunities to make memories. 20 years from now, we’ll reflect back on the fun times and the sad times we’ve had. Many of us are web workers because we want to spend less time commuting to work and more quality … Read More »
Whether you work for someone or yourself, things tend to slow down for many of us in the final two weeks of the old year. What better time to do a little business sprucing? Here are ten things to do before the New Year to … Read More »
Is your LinkedIn profile as effective as it could be? While you can see your “profile completeness” score on your profile page, it doesn’t measure profile effectiveness — how good your profile is at attracting contacts, generating leads and showing off your skills. Use this … Read More »
Some of us thank our lucky stars for staying busy throughout this year, with the occasional period of being overloaded. But I’ll take feeling overwhelmed with client requests over famine any day. I often say that I’m lucky with my business. However, the truth is … Read More »
Whether you’ve been a web worker for a while or are just starting out, we’ve provided many tips for preparing and managing your online career. We’ve covered 10 ways to make money online and 10 more ways to make money online. We’ve … Read More »
Many folks tend to use their Facebook accounts either for personal or business use, not both. However, those of us in a one-person business can find it effective to combine the two, with a little help from Facebook’s privacy features. To draw the line between personal … Read More »
By Meryl K Evans
Dec. 10, 2009, 10:00am PT
Comments Off
If you’re dreaming of becoming a web worker, check out “Undress for Success: The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home,” by Kate Lister and Tom Harnish. While the book isn’t the first on the topic of working from home, it gives you a … Read More »
Don’t you love this time of the year? It’s a time when we go out of our way to help others. Tap our feet to joyous music. Guzzle peppermint-, gingerbread- or eggnog-flavored drinks. Then there are the smart businesses that add client appreciation … Read More »
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” — Theodore Roosevelt Most business experts believe that if you don’t fail, it means you’re not pushing yourself hard enough or taking enough risks. Thomas Edison said this about failure: “I haven’t … Read More »
For some teams, the iterative design process has gotten out of control. Instead of focusing on how to make a product or service better, the process has turned into an approval monster. ZURB hopes to change that with Notable, a web-based app that … Read More »
A good bio shares your experience, builds your credibility, makes a first impression and displays your personality. Having a great Twitter bio is important as it can make or break a person’s decision whether to follow you or not. Not only do you need to pay attention … Read More »
I recently had a day started like any other weekday, apart from a little light rain. It ended with an overflowing inbox of client requests and a that awful feeling of being overwhelmed. I spent the morning on a Windows 7 article that I needed to finish. … Read More »
One of my favorite and most often-used features in Microsoft Word is Track Changes. For the uninitiated, Track Changes lets the document creator see what changes an editor makes to an original document. Unfortunately, while PowerPoint has a Review tab, it is limited to adding comments … Read More »
This week, my husband was laid off for the second time in five years. This one hurts more than the first. At that time, I held a corporate job, so our health insurance and other benefits remained intact. But I became a full-time freelancer after … Read More »
Just about every organization can use video to tell its story. Video producers tell that story by creating a product that entertains, educates, informs, promotes, captures or markets. While video production may involve location-specific elements where you need to go out to capture visuals and sounds, … Read More »
Twitter Lists appeared last Friday, right before the weekend when many people tend to take a break from their computers. But that didn’t stop plenty of us from playing with the new feature and creating our Lists. Based on the tweets I’ve seen, and some … Read More »
Gmail. LinkedIn. Facebook. Your phone’s address book. Your contacts may live in many places online, yet there’s always the possibility one of these places will disappear or crash, taking your information with it for good. Or perhaps you simply decide to close your account with … Read More »
Twitter has finally implemented Lists, a much-needed feature. Assuming you have Lists enabled (and Twitter is still rolling it out, so some folks won’t have access to it yet) there is now a Lists button on every person’s page; its really easy to use. You … Read More »
Although many businesses know how to use social media to connect with others and build relationships, plenty still struggle to see how social media will benefit them, especially business-to-business companies. In this “Tips from the Trenches” post, some experts reveal how they incorporate social media … Read More »
The sound of cheers swell across the nation: Today, Vista users can finally dump the clunky and sluggish operating system for Windows 7. Praise for the new version has already started coming in from early adopters and reviewers. When I bought my laptop recently, I couldn’t downgrade … Read More »
With all the noise from the Internet, our computers and our environment, some folks struggle to work and focus even for 10 minutes straight. In this post, I’m going to offer some ways you can stop the distractions so you can get your tasks … Read More »
Not a fan of Getting Things Done (GTD)? It might be hard to imagine for some, but it’s not everyone’s favorite productivity methodology. “The Pomodoro Technique” by Francesco Cirillo is another option might be a better fit for your needs. This technique works … Read More »
Most Commented
Popular Now
Latest News
- The incredible story of Indie Game: The Movie
- Traversing the Valley
- How many Apple IDs should your family have?
- Maybe it’s time to rethink how we fund broadband
- Ambient video and the changing face of communication
- 7 stories to read this weekend
- With new U.S. presence, Shopcade expands its social commerce business model
