My first cost-cutting measure is a big one, because I’m looking to free up a significant amount of cash in one fell swoop, and the timing is convenient. My lease is up in a few short weeks, and so I’m already on the lookout for cheaper accommodation. I live in downtown Toronto, and my place is bigger than one person needs because I wanted to have enough space for a home office. My rent is accordingly quite expensive.

Luckily, working from home doesn’t necessarily mean working from home all of the time, so this time around I’m willing to make concessions regarding space (and location) in the interest of saving significantly in terms of my monthly rent. Instead of a one-bedroom-plus-den, which I have now, I’ll be looking for a one-bedroom place, which in this market might amount to as much as $700 in savings, depending on where I end up relocating.

To make up for the lost space, I plan on spending much more time working away from home. I have a three-part approach to accomplishing this, which should ensure that my routine stays varied enough to remain interesting, and has some built-in redundancy to ensure I always have somewhere to go to work that isn’t my own apartment.

Coworking/External Office Space

The first and primary part of my plan is to use a largish portion of the money I save in rent to pay for a membership at a newly opened coworking venture here in the city. It’s called Camaraderie, and it’s conveniently located relatively close to the area I’m looking to move to. Membership fees are $300 per month, which guarantees you a spot during working hours, including free Wi-Fi and hot beverages.

It’s a deal that can’t be matched by renting office space alone in the downtown area, but if you live somewhere that isn’t a major metropolitan area and that doesn’t have a local coworking space, try looking around for office space rentals, and see if they might not be cheaper than maintaining the larger place you’re using now as your living/work space. You might be surprised at how much money you can save this way. Even the savings represented by being able to choose a lower-cost Internet plan for home and savings on tea and coffee spend are significant.

Museum/Gallery/Library Memberships

The second part of my office/house separation plan involves simply maintaining the library, museum and other public space memberships I already have. Library cards are free in most cases (or at least they are here in Canada) as long as you can prove residence, and museum and gallery annual memberships generally aren’t that expensive.

It’s like having coworking space, except you’ll often be the only one working and it’s an interesting environment. There might not be coffee immediately available, though, which is why step three is a great old stand-by.

Starbucks/Coffee Shop

Never underestimate this old time-tested web working buddy. The coffee shop will save your sanity time and time again. If you’re in a dense urban area or have access to a car, this one should be the easiest of the three steps to get a handle on. My advice is to find an independent place with low turnover, because you’ll get the familiarity benefits of an office setting without all the downside of an actual office.

All told, it looks like I might be able to shave between $300 and $400 a month off of my budget, all by accepting a move to a slightly smaller space and adding some coworking to my routine, something I’ve been hoping to do more of anyway; not a bad cost-cutting measure by any means.

Have to tried downsizing your home office to cut costs? How did it work out?

In a previous article, I listed finance as a major component of successful web working. The problem is that while you’re juggling work and household responsibilities it can be hard to find the time to keep your accounts in order.

The good news is that there are tools and strategies that you can use to manage your money more efficiently — you just need to know where to look.

Budgeting and Money Management

Budgeting and tracking expenses is one of the most basic skills anyone with an income should learn. Though it may sound daunting, there are apps available that can make the process easier, allowing you to track as you spend. Mint, Wesabe and PearBudget are examples of such apps.

Automating Bill Payments and Savings

If you have apps, web hosting and other online services that require a subscription, odds are you’re paying for them automatically. Each billing cycle you are charged via your PayPal account or credit card so you don’t waste any time having to pay for these services each month. The same principle can be applied to your bills and savings.

Most banks offer online banking, which can reduce the time you spend managing your money. You can do this by looking for automation opportunities offered by either your bank or service providers. This is easy for subscriptions with fixed monthly fees. If some of your utilities don’t charge a fixed amount, such as your water or electric provider, you can probably enroll in an automatic debit arrangement program that charges your account as the bills arrive.

By having this system, I don’t need to worry about whether bills are getting paid, nor do I spend time actually paying them. All it takes is one look at my transaction history for the month just to make sure that everything is running smoothly — but this never takes more than 10 minutes.

You can also apply automation to your savings and investments. For more information, check out Ramit Sethi’s guest post over at the 4-Hour Workweek blog, which explains the process clearly.

Your Salary / Fees

Even when you’ve been working for a while, it can be hard to estimate what your salary should be. This is where sites like PayScale and WageExchange can help. Basically, both sites ask you to complete a questionnaire based on your job details, education, location and cost of living.

With WageExchange, your profile is saved anonymously and you can search its database for the salary and benefits details of other members. WageExchange only covers a limited range of disciplines, although most of the those it does cover are web worker-friendly job types, such as “IT / Software Development professionals.”

PayScale, on the other hand, has more detailed data. You’ll receive a graphed report that shows you where your current salary falls among your industry’s standards. You can also answer more questionnaires that will allow you to evaluate job offers.

If you’re a freelancer, a salary site won’t really help; you’re better off with a rate calculator, such as the one offered by Freelance Switch.

Financial Planning

Though the above tools and techniques will help you get your finances in order, you still need to think about the long run. That’s where financial planning comes in. Tools like SimpliFi and ESPlanner Basic can help you create a sound financial plan without the added cost of hiring a professional planner.

Do you use any web tools to manage your money? Are there any you would recommend?

Photo by stock.xchng user vierdrie

I thought about it long and hard, but in then end, there were just too many reasons against keeping my own server space in operation, and too many reasons for storing and publishing my data, portfolio, and contact information elsewhere. Here’s what convinced me to stop the madness and save a little money in the process.

1. Discoverability. Because I am not myself anywhere near an expert on SEO, and because I’ve been entirely uncomfortable with shoving links to my content down the throats of people in my network, any content I might post on my own domain goes largely unnoticed. Sure, I have the occasional link via profiles on sites like this one, but let’s be honest, how many of us click through to those, and even having done so, how often do we follow further links off-site from there?
2. Maintenance required. When it comes to your own site, you take responsibility for the look and feel, the user experience, and the content. The look alone requires pruning, refinement and the occasional overhaul to keep it feeling fresh and current. Keeping content up-to-date might be as easy as updating other social networking site pages, but more often than not, it’s actually a lot more work than making sure your Facebook or LinkedIn profile is accurate and current.
3. Low Rate of Return. The monetary investment involved in setting up a web site is not inconsiderable. Even if you’re only paying between $100 and $200 a year for server space and domain name registration, are you really seeing that money come back to you as a result of having your own web site? Think about the professional connections you make that turn into profitable relationships. Do they come mostly from your own site (if your business isn’t operated solely from your site, of course), or from connections made via the social web and other sources?
4. Distraction Factor. A web site of your own might be doing more than just costing you money. If you’re spending a lot of time trying to boost your visitor count, set up advertising, and basically justify its existence in some way, you could be spending your time in a much better and more productive way pursuing additional contracts, working on high priority projects you’ve been procrastinating about, or even just improving your work/life balance.
5. Reputation. If you do have a web site, and it languishes in disregard, as mine does currently, than it might be even worse than just distracting or wasteful. Stale, dated content with your name on it automatically becomes part of your personal brand, whether or not you’re actively trying to cultivate one. If someone is looking you up online, and they come across your web site before anything else, whatever good things they heard about you via word of mouth could be tainted or even completely erased by the impression your site gives of someone who is either lazy or out of touch.

A web site is admittedly a nice thing to have if you’re a web-based professional. But if your business isn’t dependent upon it (which it would most likely be if you were a web site designer, for example), then that’s all it is: a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have. If you can let it go, maybe you should. You’ll save yourself time, money and possibly even face in the bargain.

Do you have your own web site? Do you use it? How often does it bring you business/real value?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce

While some employers will pay for the equipment expenses of their teleworking employees, there’s only so much they can cover. Freelancers like myself have it in even tougher — they need to provide their own gear from the beginning. I guess the price of location independence is that we’re often on our own when it comes to these expenses.

Because of this, I’ve been building my own “teleworking expansion fund” over the past two years. I call it that because it allows me to expand the range of tools and skills that I have. The purpose of the fund is to cover work-related emergencies and pay for equipment and software, as well as the odd educational expense, such as books or seminars. My experience with my fund has been successful, and I recommend that you consider setting one up yourself. Here’s how to do it.

Know what your expansion fund is for. Defining the purpose of your fund can allow you to objectively rate if an expense should be covered or not. Is it for emergencies? For building your skills? For purchasing new hardware and software? Or is it for all of the above? Setting your objectives will make it clear.

Here are some instances where you might need to tap into your fund:

• Equipment repairs and replacements.
• Purchasing new software or web app subscriptions.
• Fixing and renovating your home office.
• Paying for books, resources, seminars and courses, which will add to your skills and expertise.

Find out how much you spend on teleworking each month. Do the math and add up all your teleworking expenses each month. Include app subscriptions, domain name and hosting fees, and telecommunications bills to your list. If you can, try to keep two to three months’ worth of these expenses in your fund.

Why do you need to do this? In case you find yourself in a financial emergency and strapped for cash, you still need to maintain all the services that you need to do your job. This is especially important for freelancers who might occasionally suffer from a dry spell.

Compute how much you can save. Based on your monthly expenses, how much can you set aside for your expansion fund? It might be difficult to compute an exact amount if you’re a freelancer or if you don’t have a fixed predictable monthly income. If that’s the case for you, then it’s best to think in terms of percentages rather than fixed amounts.

Don’t feel pressured to set aside larger sums, especially if you’re just starting out. Even 2 percent each month can add up to a lot over the course of a year.

Automate it. Many banks offer services that allow you to automatically send a specific amount from your payroll account to a savings account each month. The benefits of doing this are twofold. First, you’re forced to save regularly. Secondly, you won’t have to remember to do it it every month.

Having this type of fund, no matter how small, is a good way to both protect and enrich your career. If you haven’t built one yet, I encourage you to try it — starting this month.

Do you save a portion of your income for business and equipment expenses? What tips can you share with other teleworkers?

Image by yochim from sxc.hu

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce

Warnke says that Wal-Mart and Sam’s Warehouse Club Founder Sam Walton’s last words were, “I blew it.” How could one of the richest people in the world think this? According to the author, Walton wasn’t reflecting on his massive wealth and business successes, but rather on missing family time.

“ONO, Options Not Obligations” explores changing your mindset to live with an options-oriented outlook rather than just an overwhelming obligation to become a rich entrepreneur and provider. Living as a “family first entrepreneur” requires a commitment to overarching change while working past the fear of not having enough money to live the kind of life you want. Warnke, a recovering alcoholic who has dyslexia, shares everything about himself to show how it’s possible to live an ONO life.

Warnke covers all the bases, including working with finances, figuring out wants vs. needs and managing time. The last part of the book goes into acting on your new thinking process. It’s easy to go back to key parts of the book later on, since every chapter ends with a bulleted list of key points covered.

You don’t have to be a parent to benefit from the book. If you have dreams of traveling, working fewer hours, or spending more time on a hobby, you can apply ONO thinking to enjoy the things you love and put an emphasis on what matters to you. Warnke inspires, enlightens, educates, and gives practical assignments to help anyone ready and willing to live the ONO life.

Do you find that web working leads to more or less of a sense of being burdened by obligation? What strategies do you use to deal with work/life balance?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks

Ever heard the phrase “Spend less than you earn?” Personally, I like to take it a notch higher and spend much, much less than I earn. I can’t help it. I think I’m frugal by nature and that contributes a lot to my feeling of security with online work.

Frugality and web working go hand in hand, especially in a tough economy. Even if you find your business thriving, the cost of commodities tends to go up and some clients might unexpectedly close up shop. I also find that frugality comes with freedom — any extra money I can set aside goes to fund new opportunities or allows me to take some time off.

So whether the economy is struggling or thriving, it’s still a good idea to keep your expenses as low as possible, without sacrificing the quality of your work or your life. Here are some things you can do to keep the cost of web working as low as possible:

Tap your network to get deals and advice. Have many friends and contacts on social networks? Great! Ask them for advice whenever you’re looking to purchase a new item for your office or computer. Sometimes, you might be lucky enough to get some coupons or freebies.

Take advantage of garage sales and second-hand stores. Rather than buying new items from the store, it often makes sense to buy second-hand furniture.

Watch your electricity and phone bills. Nothing gives me a headache like an unexpected spike in my bills. Because of this, I tend to be mindful of overconsumption. Here are some ways to keep bills low:

• If you’re using a laptop, be mindful of when it’s completely charged, then unplug it from the socket.
• When an electrical gadget is broken and can’t be fixed, find energy-efficient replacements.
• Use VoIP rather than a landline for international calls.
• For home offices with closets and cabinets, be sure to keep them closed to lessen the area that needs cooling/heating.

Know how to balance free and paid web apps. The cost of web apps can add up to a lot. If you can’t afford to subscribe to every app you want, you need to better evaluate your needs.

Get your office space as a tax deduction. Talk to an accountant to see the possibility of making your home office tax deductible. If you live in the U.S., you can visit this page from the IRS for more information.

Upgrade rather than replace old equipment. Instead of buying a new computer why not find cheaper ways to boost its performance? Sometimes, just purchasing additional memory can make an old computer work as smoothly as a brand new one.

Have a work-related emergency fund. Why is this frugal? Well, having cash ready means that you won’t have to get into credit card debt for emergency work expenses. I often save 2 percent of my income for work-related emergencies like replacing irreparable computer components. That may seem like a small amount, but it adds up to quite a lot over a few months.

Use your computer as your entertainment system. The only reason why my house has cable TV subscription — and the only reason why we have a TV at all — is my housemates. They aren’t very computer-savvy. If I lived alone, I’d do away with both the TV and the cable subscription. I can easily replace it with something like Hulu or iTunes. Most of the downloads from iTunes are paid, so you might be wondering what makes it frugal. For me, ordering entertainment “à la carte” can often be cheaper, especially since I’ll be careful about where both my time and my money go.

Since needs and experiences vary from person to person, I suggest that you take the advice you can use and forget the rest. After all, there’s no such thing as the right way to save money — there’s only what’s right for you.

Do you think you’re frugal? How do you keep your work expenses low?

Image by scol22 from sxc.hu

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks

I believe it is, and here are seven simple things we can do to make it happen:

Add new skills and credentials. Adding more skills, projects, and credentials to your resume, usually means that you’ve gained more experience and will have more to offer your clients.  When this happens, it only makes sense to raise your rates because of the new and improved contributions you’ll be making.

Here are some simple ways you can lengthen your list of credentials:

• get additional certification,
• take a course in a relevant field,
• win an award,
• and participate in high-profile projects.

Don’t forget to highlight your additional credentials by posting about them in your blog, or by editing both your resume and your social networking profiles.

Qualify clients. Another way to earn more money this year is to qualify your new clients in such a way that you’ll only be working for those who understand the value of your work and are willing to pay a good price for it.  Do you advertise in places where these types of clients are likely to find you?

Upsell. It’s also important to ask yourself what extra products and services you can offer to your existing clients.  This works best if you bundle related services together.  For example, if one of my clients hired me to write an ebook, I’d also ask them if they want me to write the sales letter and the press release that goes with the ebook.  Usually, clients wouldn’t say no to something like that, unless they’ve already hired someone else before you made your offer.

Lower business expenses. How does this affect your earning power?  Well, if you lower your regular business expenses, then you can set aside more money for yourself.  You can look at how much you pay for web apps, rent for office space (if applicable), as well as expected equipment purchases for 2009.

Note that lowering business expenses isn’t just about indiscriminately crossing off these items.  It’s not about cutting costs per se, but about making sure that your costs have a good ROI (return of investment) attached to them.

Network. When there are evident connections between you and a prominent person in your potential client’s industry, this provides a more compelling reason to hire you.  If you know the mentors, “gurus”, and moguls of a certain industry, then why not target the people who are following their steps? While it doesn’t strictly follow that you work for these giants just because you know them, it does make a good impression that will be more lasting than the resume of someone they’ve never heard of before.

Beware of blatant name-dropping, though.  You can hint at your strong connections via social networks and your blog, but don’t write a roll call of famous entrepreneurs in your cover letters. Doing this doesn’t carry the same level of credibility.

Look more expensive. Although I’m not a big fan of judging people by their image, I know from experience that clients definitely judge you based on the way you package yourself.  Why?  Because that’s the first thing they see.  To them a professional look equals professionalism (even if this isn’t always the case).  Make sure that your website, business cards, online profiles, and other marketing tools look professionally done.  That way, it seems much easier for clients to justify your competitive rates, since they can see that your personal brand is polished.

Provide case studies. In a previous post here at WWD, Darrell Etherington talked about the importance of case studies to freelancers.  A case study proves to potential clients that you can deliver the results you promise.  This proof gives you the credibility and trustworthiness that merits even the slightest addition to your fees.  Why?  Because clients already have some guarantee that you’ll provide them with the solutions they need.  They would gladly pay a small premium on the safer bet rather than another freelancer who doesn’t have similar proof to show.

While raising your rates comes with some extra work, the additional effort is always worth it.  Apart from justifying better rates for yourself, clients will also feel secure knowing that you’re worth every penny they pay.

Do you plan to raise your rates in 2009?  How are you planning to do it?

Image by Mokra from Sxc.hu

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks

Hold on to your clients. There will be the occasional client who will be slower in paying out invoices, or even clients who give up and stop requesting your services altogether.  Take the time to identify which of your clients might do these things.

Watch for nervous clients that might see your services more as a luxury than a need. Then, formulate a plan to ensure that they will stay with you.  Here’s what you’ll need to remind clients:

• You’re paying extra attention to their needs. Clients will appreciate knowing that you actually care about what happens to their business.  Let them know that you’re open to hearing them out.
• The ROI (return of investment) you’ll provide. Remind your clients how much profit your services will bring to their business.  They should focus on that number and rather than your rates.
• The many options available to them. Instead of offering a single quote at the end of your proposal, offer different packages and optional services so that they can choose the ones that are tailored to their needs and budget.
• Your authority. Why are you the go-to person for your client’s demographic and not anyone else?  Is it because you’re part of that demographic yourself?  Or is it because of your experience with hundreds of other similar clients?

For teleworking employees, now’s the time to be more assertive and upfront about what you contribute to the company.  How much money are you saving the company each month just by teleworking?  How has your productivity increased?  Reminding your colleagues and your supervisors of how indispensable you are as a remote worker will decrease the possibility of being laid-off or called back to work in the office full-time.

Diversify your income. While you could be one of those lucky freelancers who are getting more business than ever, it won’t hurt to try some passive income to give your earnings a boost.  Also, try to explore the different ways you can earn money online.  Find out if there are services or products you can provide that you haven’t fully explored yet.

If possible, cut down on service and app subscriptions. Take the time to evaluate all the services and applications you are currently using, trim the non-essentials.  If you find that you’re not using your landline at all, then why keep it?  Stick with your mobile phone instead.  Also, see if there are cheaper internet plans from other providers and search for reviews online.  You might get a better deal elsewhere.

In an earlier post here at WWD, Aliza Sherman asked about how much we pay for web apps.  I’m glad to say that I pay less than $10 per month for a web app, mostly because most of the apps I need are available for free.  Find out which of your paid apps provide a return of investment, make you more efficient, and don’t have free alternatives.  For the rest, see if you can find a cheaper payment plan or package.

Become more efficient with your time. This reduces computer use and lowers your energy consumption.  Or, if you have both a desktop and a laptop, opt for using the laptop most of the time, since it uses 2/3 less energy.

It also helps to make an effort to be efficient especially with your non-billable hours.  During your workweek, we spend some time filling up invoices, replying to emails, reading blogs about the industry we’re in, etc.  Usually, we don’t bill for these minor work tasks.  Because of this, it’s best to avoid distractions, such as playing Spider Solitaire, while doing these things.

Differentiate yourself. These days, many businesses are mostly focusing on the rates included in your proposal, rather than the proposal itself.  This doesn’t mean you should lower your prices.  Instead, be clear about why you’re worth it.

If you’re letting your branding plan gather dust in a file cabinet (as I have), it’s time to take that plan out and evaluate how it fits into the present.  As you do that, try to answer the following questions:

• Why should a client pick you and not a much cheaper off-shore contractor?
• Do you have any extra training or experience that most contractors don’t have?
• Do all your promotional materials, from your website to your LinkedIn profile, communicate what makes you different?

Answering these questions will allow potential clients to differentiate you from the thousands of other freelancers who want to do business with them.  Plus, they won’t be looking at you based on price alone.

Network. It’s time to overcome our solitary tendencies and make stronger business connections – and I don’t just mean following a thousand people on Twitter.  There are businesses and individuals out there that fit your target market like a glove, but you just don’t know about them.  Find them and make contact.  You don’t have to sell your services on the first email or phone call.  Get in touch first, and slowly build up from that.

Instead of being pessimistic about the financial crisis, we should take this opportunity to reevaluate our businesses and make them stronger.  If we do this right, the most important outcome is that we’ll prove to ourselves that teleworking is as flexible and resilient as promised.

What are you doing to ensure financial security as a web worker?  How has the economic downturn affected your business?

Photo Credit: Image from Rodolfo Clix from stock.xchng

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce

A couple of weeks ago, the UK’s tax authority – Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs Service – announced a number of measures that may benefit Britain’s web workers, and more broadly, any Brits working from home.

Those working from home whom have a portion of their residence setup as a dedicated work area or office can claim that portion as a tax rebate. Also, they no longer have to pay capital gains tax on the sale of their home.

As generous and farsighted as the HMRC’s change of heart might seem, some close examination of the conditions under which these rebates can be claimed underlines how little the UK government understands about the nature of web workers in particular. Notable, in the BBC’s report are the following provisos…

HMRC are content to allow a proportion of these costs to be claimed against the income of the business if certain criteria are met, such as:

• The area of the home is used exclusively for business purposes for a prescribed amount of time – say, 9am to 5pm – this means that if you sit at the kitchen table working you won’t qualify for the additional deductions. What the taxman is looking for is an area that has the appearance of an office – so it will contain a desk, chair, storage etc.
• The amount claimed is reasonable in relation to the business – so you can’t claim that you work 20 hours a day in the office or that the area used is a large proportion of the living area of your home.

Apart from these two provisos, you will be able to claim a percentage of the total cost of running the home.

Ooops – nobody asked the web workers!
To the first proviso, one of the advantages of working from home is the physical flexibility granted to the worker; personally I don’t have a dedicated office – sometimes I work in the dining room, the lounge, family room and even the conservatory. It’s difficult to understand why HMRC are insisting on dedicated work areas and offices in the home, when its the nature, time and intensity of work that’s a more important measurable factor than location.

To the second point, again flexibility is key, in that workers dip in and out of work and domestic tasks often in the same physical space – it’s one of the reasons we work from home!

Still many of the examples given by the HMRC are illustrative and useful and the mortgate rebates are pretty generous. Though web workers represent only a proportion of those who work from home and laws need to be formulated for broad groups, it’s frustrating that the views of web workers weren’t more keenly understood – even consulted as a group – before such important legislation was completed. On the other hand, where would the UK government go to elicit the views of this community?

Web Workers Unite!
What this tells me, alongside my previous thoughts on commuting and coworking, is that web workers need to represent themselves more confidently, ensuring their unqiue perspectives are heard and noted by our politicians. As a group we’re on the bleeding edge of working practices, often at the forefront of civic and social change, but we have a responsibility as citizens to bring those experiences and passions to the attention of our politicians.

As James Bond swore an oath On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, perhaps we all need to declare some principles for Her Majesty’s Web-based Workforce!

Could WebWorkerDaily – who’s brand and iconography alludes to collectivism -  be a platform to help groups organise and represent themselves to legislators and politicans more confidently and muscularly in their localities? Should we be doing more activism as a group to influence monetary, social and civic policies?

What are your thoughts?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks

I’m constantly surprised at the cutely obvious names of some web services – finding a brand name that’s sublimely obvious but if successful is very likely to be as linguistically ubiquitous as ‘googling’ or ‘hoovering’. Shoeboxed may just well be one such brand – I wonder if in five years time, we’ll be ‘shoeboxing’? Infact, most of us probably already are…

Launched around a year ago, Shoeboxed provides a simple service for uploading, storing and organizing all those paper receipts that are stuffed into real shoeboxes around our homes and offices, into over-sized wallets and purses, largely lost or disorganized until summoned by our accountants and tax authorities!

Shoeboxed encourages users to digitize their receipts with a scanner, before uploading the resultant image to the service. For those who don’t wish to spend their time scanning potentially hundreds of receipts, the company offers a mail-in program that is essentially a Netflix-style user experience; you mail in receipts, Shoeboxed scans and organizes; receipts are returned to you with an envelope for subsequent mail-ins.

What’s actually more useful than storing and archiving a receipt’s image, is what can be done with the related metadata. After all you could even use Flickr, Scrnshots or Skitch to privately store receipts. Shoeboxed will allow you to categorize, name, quantify and analyze your purchases. This data can be exported to other applications (Excel, Quicken) or as a report to understand your personal metrics.

The pricing plans seem reasonable, ranging from free to $60/month, though the basic package lacks the mail-in option, it’s a useful enough set of features. The high-end package is most likely quite valuable for workers generating several hundred receipts each month. In this case, the time spent on ordinarily organizing this could be converted back into billable time by outsourcing this activity to Shoeboxed.

To an extent, it’s difficult not to see Shoeboxed as a simply a great feature or product of a broader service. For example, Wesabe enables users to share and analyze their spending patterns; in this context adding Shoeboxed-like features to Wesabe would be immensely valuable. Perhaps, Shoeboxed future includes more automated and crowdsourced analysis of your spending or indeed deeper integration (and maybe acquisition?) by broader financial web services and even encouraging integration with tax authorities in various countries.

In the meantime, Shoeboxed’s basic mail-in plan appears to be a useful and valuable starting point to experiment with – though international mail-in is supported, receipts aren’t returned but destroyed by the company.

For many web workers, it could provide a simple solution to an irritating problem.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks