Minutes.io effectively provides a templated online document for storing meeting notes. At the top of the page, you can enter a name for the meeting and (optionally) record its location, while the meeting time and date are recorded automatically. Below that is a field to record the minute taker, while other attendees are added beneath. Most of the page is taken up by space for the minutes of the meeting. Each item is recorded on a new line., and the minute taker can select the type of minute that’s being recorded in a drop-down box (a choice of TODO, OKAY, INFO or IDEA), a description, its owner(s) and, optionally, a due date. The app supports keyboard shortcuts, which is useful for speedily recording notes in fast-moving meetings.

Once the meeting is done, the minutes are then available online, and can be shared with participants and other stakeholders via email. There’s also an option for printing them out. You don’t need to sign-in to use the app; it uses the browser’s local storage to keep track of previously taken minutes, too.

Compared to fancier collaborative meeting apps like yaM (see my review here), minutes.io doesn’t really do anything groundbreaking; you could accomplish much the same kind of thing using a document template in Google Docs, for example. But minutes.io’s simplicity makes note-taking easy and fast, its structure should encourage users to record useful minutes, and its output is well presented and easy to understand. Recommended.

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• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview
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Now, my phone has more processing power than my first work computer, and I am always connected. This connection isn’t just for work, or even for productivity. I rely on being connected for many routine personal tasks: dictionary, looking up random facts, amusement, recipes, etc. I jump back and forth seamlessly and no longer really think of it as being online or offline. I take it for granted that I can always be connected on a moment’s notice.

Gartner’s Nick Jones agrees that the distinction between online and offline has almost completely disappeared:

Labeling time as “online” vs. “offline” is so last decade. For many of us that distinction already vanished. Many of the things we do at home and work mean we dip into web services continually throughout the day. We post updates to social networks, stream media, check information, stream feeds and tweet (not the latter in my case as I’m a twitter refuser). And behind the scenes loads of gadgets in our home and pocket silently and continuously communicate to access web services, updates, information…There is no “online” vs. “offline” any more, there’s only online.

I spent the last couple of days taking a long weekend off work to just relax at home. I finished reading “Accelerando” by Charles Stross, which I had started reading a month ago; I started and finished Cory Doctorow’s “Makers,” a fantastic book; and I started reading Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash.” I stubbornly refused to do any work, but I noticed how often I kept looking things up on my phone or laptop:

• All of my recipes are in Google Docs
• I head to the search box whenever I want to learn more about something
• I play Words with Friends for amusement
• Twitter and Facebook help me keep up with news and my friends

Because I live in a place where Internet access is everywhere, I have stopped thinking about any distinction between “online” and “offline” in favor of an always-connected lifestyle.

What do you think about the distinction between online and offline, and is it still a meaningful distinction in your life?

Photo by Flickr user eschipul used under Creative Commons.

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You may not want to do one of the obvious web worker jobs such as being a writer or virtual assistant. Maybe something in this list will resonate with you.

• Accountant / Bookkeeper: The people who keep track of money. They review invoices, expenses, payroll and taxes and make sure everything balances. They also verify the receiving and sending of all payments.
• Coach: While people tend to prefer meeting with coaches face-to-face, some are turning to virtual coaches and communicating with them by phone, email and other online technologies.
• Course Developer: Design courses for online or offline programs. The course developer may or may not also do the teaching.
• Customer Service Rep: Answer customer questions about a company’s products and services. Reps can work with customers by email, phone, online chat and social networks. While this often involves working for a company, web workers can provide customer services for small businesses that don’t have full-time employees to do the job.
• Editor: Slice and dice content to sharpen the writing and improve grammar.
• Graphic Designer: Create, design and modify artwork for web sites, web-based applications, print, brochures, pamphlets and more.
• Marketer and Public Relations (PR): Marketers and PR professionals communicate and build relationships in hopes of getting a product or service in front of customers and the media.
• Online Community Manager: These folks Manage community for businesses or organizations by facilitating, creating content, evangelizing and evolving the community.
• Product Sales: Many people make a full-time career out of selling products via online auctions and stores. Some manage web sites that work like a gateway to many products and sites, earning their cash through affiliate programs or site sponsors.
• Programmer / Developer: Develops software or the back-ends of web sites.
• Publisher: This growing career goes beyond printing books into producing e-books and selling them on their own sites or through affiliates.
• Recruiter / Human Resources (HR): Find and vet candidates for companies needing to fill positions or hire temporary workers.
• Sales / Telemarketer: Despite all the complaints about telemarketers, some businesses do a good job with their sales and telemarketing services.
• SEM and SEO: Study PPC rates, key words and click rates. They determine what works and what doesn’t work, then suggest how to improve the metrics. Beware these are two different specialties requiring different knowledge and skills.
• Teacher / Professor: Getting a college degree online is no longer taboo as many programs have proven to be as good as on-campus programs. High schools offer online classes so students can make up a failed course or get needed credits. Classes aren’t limited to education credits. Plenty of folks want to further their knowledge of a general topic.
• Tech Support: Applications that allow you to work on a computer as if you’re in front of it have opened the door for tech support jobs that you can do anywhere.
• Virtual Assistant: Manage appointments, data entry, time tracking and much more. VAs can very well do many of the jobs listed here, as it has a broad definition.
• Writer: The folks are all about words. They can do blogging, writing for print and online publications, working with businesses on their content or training materials and doing technical writing.
• Web designer: This site and many others would never come to fruition without the talents of a web designer. Not only do they create web sites, but they also design the front-end of web-based applications while the web developer or programmer handles the things we can’t see.
• Web Site Manager / Webmaster: They maintain existing web sites by adding content on a regular basis, optimizing the site, monitoring problems and answering questions that come in. They might also add tools, widgets and other features to grow and enhance the web site as well as manage ads.
• Video Producer and Editor: Create and edit videos to tell a story to communicate the key message for the organization behind the video.

Although web workers have various common traits, discipline is a biggie. Web working requires you be able to motivate yourself to get the work done and to get more business. Unless you’re part of a virtual team, no one will push you to complete your tasks.

What other careers can you do from anywhere?

Photo credit: Brenda Lamothe Coulomme

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Dictionary.com does the job in a very straightforward way, as does using a “define: term” search in Google, but I always felt something was missing, and it wasn’t clear what that was until I recently stumbled upon Wordnik. With the simple but boastful tagline “All the words” I was understandably expecting a lot from the new dictionary web application. What more could I really expect from a dictionary, though, and what more could Wordnik possibly deliver?

A Dictionary With Social Features

You don’t have to, but with Wordnik, the option is there to sign up and become a registered member. Doing so allows you access to additional features, ones that resemble the features of social networking sites. You can create and curate word lists, comment on definitions, tag words with relevant terms, record your own pronunciations and track your search history. Also, you can use Facebook Connect to sign in, so you don’t even need to create a new profile.

Registering also allows to you to edit your profile, which you can make publicly visible. So far, there’s not much info you can share via the profile, but it is an interesting way to find out about other users, especially if they actually take the time to curate lists and assign words as favorites.

You can also comment on the profiles of people. It seems like this would be useful for having word-related back and forth conversations, especially since there’s built-in custom code for linking to words and to the comments pages of words.

The People’s Dictionary

Clicking on “Zeitgeist” at the top of the Wordnik interface takes you to a page that tracks the latest activity on the site, and its here that you can see how the app is more than just another dictionary web site. You can tell what terms have been recently added to lists, check out open lists (which can be edited by any user), view comments and check out user-recorded pronunciations, and see some interesting statistics about the past week’s activity.

Of course, as with every site with user-generated content, not everything people add to Wordnik is useful. There’s some spam, some flaming — and some questionable words and definitions. That said, it’s a far more accurate representation of the living language than is Dictionary.com, or other more traditional dictionary web sites.

Statistics, tags, examples, constantly updated Twitter and Flickr streams, and an ongoing, on-site conversation about words, their usage and their meaning provide not only a comprehensive look at how we define things, but about how fluid that definition is. Whether you’re a copy editor or a linguistics student, there’s something on Wordnik for you.

A Better Word

If you’re trying to find la mot juste, you can depend on your old paper sources, or the online versions of those traditional tomes. On the other hand, Wordnik is an interesting alternative that not only provides you with up-to-the minute definitions and usages, but also makes you complicit in language making in a very real and immediate sense.

While the social aspect may not lead to the most efficient work process, it is a welcome and truly useful distraction. Language is not created in a vacuum, nor does it exist in one, and Wordnik is the first dictionary site I’ve see that not only acknowledges but embraces that. There’s still more potential in web technologies regarding dictionaries, but for now, if words are important to your work, you should make a habit of frequenting this site.

What other features would you like to see on a dictionary site?

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I was taught how to write in a world in which print media still dominated the written word. Much has changed since those pre-Internet days, the practice of writing not least of all. As a result, some things that were once considered big no-nos are now standard practice. Here’s a few old chestnuts you should think about tossing out as you transition to online writing. You may even take joy in doing so, if you’re the rebellious sort.

1. Write What You Know

Even when I was a much younger writer, and a big fan of science fiction writing, I found this rule to be rather limiting. The fact is, now that I’m doing various kinds of online writing that differ greatly depending on the contract, it’s become downright anti-productive.

A much better and more applicable rule for today’s provider of online content is know what you write, as quickly and efficiently as you can. That means doing research to gain a sense of familiarity with your topic, and to quickly find out what kind of tone and tenor is acceptable for the genre. Honestly, your goal as a writer is to be able to fool an expert into thinking the content was created by someone with at least a comfortable grasp and lengthy history with the subject at hand.

2. Don’t Use Contractions

Contractions like “I’ll” and “They’re” may have been completely against all good sense back when you were writing essays for school, but they’re completely acceptable in almost all online writing (see what I just did there?). In fact, when I work as an editor for blog content, I often insert contractions where they belong.

What many people don’t realize when they make the jump from print to online writing is that web content has as much do with spoken English as it does written English, in terms of what’s considered acceptable (see, I did it again!). Contractions more accurately emulate a conversational tone, which is something many blogs, marketing departments and community builders are aiming for with their online publications. If you do not use contractions in your writing, it is liable to sound awkward and stilted to a seasoned Internet media consumer.

3. Revise, Revise, Revise

Revision is terrific, don’t get me wrong (I can see editors all over the world glaring at me menacingly). It’s terrific and necessary, when you have the luxury of time. The fact is, with a lot of Internet writing, you just don’t have that luxury. Taking time to meticulously revise a piece could result in something that was current becoming old news, especially now that Twitter delivers news in real time.

Read over what you’ve written, always, but try to practice producing publication-quality prose on a first draft basis. Part of that means editing as you go, but part of it is just writing with a high degree of frequency. It helps if you can identify your common errors in advance, because that way you’ll be attuned to those areas as you write them, which should make you more likely to catch a mistake as it happens.

Those are the three big rules I break every day. And every time I do, I can still hear my tenth grade English teacher uncapping his red Sharpie. Do what you will, Mr. Marchand, but the Internet demands an entirely new set of rules, and she’s the only English teacher I have to please now.

What writing “rules” do you break regularly?

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While video production may involve location-specific elements where you need to go out to capture visuals and sounds, you can still make it a career where you can work anywhere you want.

Is video production the career for you?

Video Production Careers

In video production, some stick to just one task, while others do several things, or even do all the jobs to take a video from start to finish. Here are a few video-related jobs:

Producer: Video businesses vary in the area of production based on the type of videos they create and the topics they cover. Producers may specialize in one or several different types of video. The title “producer” has many meanings, but a producer often oversees the entire video production process.

Post-production: Folks in post-production work with existing video to enhance it, edit it and add to it. These tasks could involve animation, audio, voice-overs, DVD menus, music and graphics.

Editor: Editors compile audio and video to create the final product that meets project requirements. “The editor is much like a cook. We take raw ingredients and combine them artfully into a video that meets the clients’ goals,” says Ed McNichol of EDcetera.

How to Qualify

Video producers and editors are a diverse lot when it comes to how they first entered the video business and gained experience. Tim Clark started on Ken Burns’ documentaries in the editing room. Jack Dever, director of post production at PACSAT,  literally started on the bottom floor by sweeping in a studio before and after shoots. After that, he climbed to assistant video editor, editor, producer, director and supervisor. Many folks in video started at the bottom and worked into jobs in the field.

Kim Brame, executive producer with creative illusions Productions, took every job available to her after college to build a network and learn the craft. Her coworkers have degrees and training in audio engineering, programming, graphic design and animation.

Steve Mann, owner of MannMade Digital Video, lost his job in the dot-com bust. “Over 50 and no higher degree made me virtually invisible in the collapsed high-tech job market. Since my passion was always photography and more recently videography, doing what I enjoy seemed like the best career move,” Mann says.

Vicky Poole didn’t start at the bottom. Rather, she started in a different job as a secretary working for a post-production company. Her boss gave her opportunities to work with equipment and on smaller projects.

A handful of folks say they received a college degree in mass communications, media, film production or something similar. But these same people say that job experience is what really matters. In terms of gaining skills, many say they just learned how to use the software and practice often. No matter where you are in your video career, everyone has benefited from attending seminars and trade shows. Jeff Davis of JD Savage Productions says, “Do what you love, and never stop learning new stuff.”

“There is a balance of technical aptitude and creativity,” says Tom Hinchey of HincheyStudios LLC. Not only do video producers need to know the technical side of things, but also how to create the message the video must communicate.

A person who knows how to use all the video production equipment and tools doesn’t always have the knowledge and skills to be a full-fledged video producer. “You need to first know how to be a storyteller. This is one of the key components that people don’t understand with video,” says David Spark of Spark Media Solutions.

Video Production Tools

Video production involves a long list of tools. After all, you can’t capture sound and visuals without cameras and microsphones, or put all the footage together to tell a good story without apps.

The following popular tools are a smattering of what the professionals use: Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, HD cameras (especially Sony and Canon), AVID, Adobe Creative Suite, Affect Effects and Premiere. Some also use mics, lighting, DVD authoring and scripting tools. Of course, many use a Mac computer to do their work. They often post their videos on web-based video services like YouTube and Vimeo.

Find Clients

Word-of-mouth and happy current clients rule the roost as the best way to get business. Networking both in person and on social network sites works well. Some do formal marketing or post on craigslist. Video producers create a portfolio for their web sites. “Gone are the days of DVD reels. If a client wants instant access to your portfolio, your website can help you lock in that client instantly,” says Kico Velarde.

Crystal Pyramid Productions’ Patty Mooney not only uses a web site and networks, but also finds clients through the Chamber of Commerce, search engine optimization (SEO) and advertising in online and print directories. Another way to break in the field is to volunteer to get experience and build your portfolio.

Thomas Hoebbel took the old fashioned approach by connecting with organizations that could benefit from his work, and they hired him. Some people like Clint Till of Parc Entertainment, Inc. hand out demo reels on DVD and make cold calls.

Would you consider a video production career?

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Interview by Email

Personally, I think this is the best form of interview, for the simple reason that you don’t have to ask someone if you can record the conversation, but also because it’s far harder to misquote someone when you have their answers in their own writing.

Email also lets you relax and lay out your interview strategy and the actual questions. In theory, you can do that when speaking live to someone, too, but depending on who you’re interviewing and how confident a person you are in social settings, talking live may muddy the process a bit and leave you flummoxed to the point where your interview quality is significantly affected.

Regardless of how you choose to conduct your interview, because some will no doubt maintain that live is a much better alternative, perhaps because you have a greater chance of catching your subject off guard (a valid point), the advice that follows still applies.

Keep It Simple, But Focused

Ask open-ended questions. This should be self-evident, but if you ask someone a question they can answer with a simple “yes” or “no,” many often will. Instead of crafting an impressive, incisive 25-word question that’ll net you a three-word answer, try to keep your end of things relatively light and allow for plenty of expansion on your interviewee’s part.

But open-endedness can also be a double-edged sword. If you ask too vague a question, you might get a wealth of information, but it might not be useful, pertinent or interesting information. The key is to keep it on point. So, for example, instead of asking “What motivates you?” to someone like Ashton Kutcher when your publication focuses on social media, ask, “What motivated you to become so involved with Twitter to begin with?”

Care to Elaborate?

If your initial interview questions don’t elicit what you were looking for, or one answer in particular takes you in a new and potentially more interesting direction, don’t shy away from contacting your source again for further information. Think of the initial interview as a collaborative first draft process.

An exchange of two or three sets of questions and answers isn’t unusual. I always find it better to do this sort of thing over email, since you don’t have to worry about setting up times for face-to-face meetings or phone conversations for follow-up questions, and you can view the entire threaded conversation in your inbox when you later go to write the article. You could also use IM, but as with phone conversations, always make sure to get your interviewee’s permission before logging the conversation.

Post-interview

There are many ways to conduct a post-interview. The simplest is just to send a thank-you note, along with a publication date for the content that will result, and a promise to follow up with a link when it goes live. Depending on the purposes of the interview you’re conducting, more or less may be required.

If you’re just starting out with a source that you’d like to retain in the future, and who might be sensitive to how they are portrayed, you may want to forward an advance copy of the finished piece so that they can give you input before publication. Generally speaking, this isn’t advisable, though, since it puts too much control in the hands of the person being interviewed. If that person is your company’s CEO, and your piece if for the corporate newsletter, then by all means, forward it for his or her approval first.

Interviewing for the web resembles interviewing for print, but it doesn’t necessarily mirror it. It’s hard to give broad advice when the type of content you’re producing makes such big differences in how you go about the task, but hopefully the advice above gets you off to a good start.

If you have any good interviewing tips, share them below.

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• In the 2006–07 academic year, 66 percent of the 4,160 accredited US colleges offered college-level distance education courses. (Source: National Center for Education Statistics)
• In fall 2007, 22 percent of U.S. college students took at least one web-based class. (Source: Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States, 2008 from the Sloan Consortium)

Would you believe I have a B.A. in education? Though not a teacher by profession, I’m passionate about education. Perhaps, that’s why I’m a writer — to educate people. Being deaf, I knew I never wanted to teach in a classroom, but I’ve worked with online classes at a major university’s M.S. program. Distance education opens doors for many of us. You can develop expertise in any subject you want.

Online education might make teaching a possible career for those who wouldn’t consider working in a classroom. Is teaching the career for you, or perhaps something you can do on the side?

Types of Teaching Careers

Online programs don’t stop at postsecondary education. School districts offer online classes so students can make up failed classes, get ahead or take extra classes. Professional organizations, specialized schools and programs, community colleges and experts offer non-credit courses for people looking to learn new skills in their professions or hobbies.

I took a handful of online classes through my city’s community college affiliation with Education To Go. The price was right and it helped me conquer QuickBooks and do more with Photoshop.

As an example of the diversity of online learning options and opportunities for teaching posts available, here are some options for writing courses.

• Degree programs: Thomas Edison State College offers a B.A. in Journalism, all done online. Texas Tech has an M.A in Technical Communication.
• College-affiliated resources: Education To Go includes writing courses in its catalog.
• Experts: Professionals with teaching experience, like Christina Katz, conduct email classes. While you can go off and create your own courses to teach like Katz does, you still need to do marketing and earn credibility to encourage people to sign up with you when you’re not affiliated with a college or known organization.
• Online publications and resources: AbsoluteWrite, a popular resource for writers, gives instructors a space to teach their classes. While AbsoluteWrite and its staff don’t teach the classes, it allows credible professionals to affiliate themselves with the respected AbsoluteWrite name.
• High schools: My local independent school district offers English classes in its eSchool.

How to Qualify

For college programs, you typically need at least a Master’s degree and others require a PhD. Danielle McIntosh, White River Online teacher, teaches at a local district’s public online high school that serves students all over Washington State. Before working there, she had 10 years of teaching special education. “Boise State University offers a certificate program for online teaching. However, almost everything has been on-the-job training in my situation,” McIntosh says.

Author Christina Katz believes that credibility is the first qualification to becoming a teacher. “Credibility can come from degrees, experience, word-of-mouth and having been published on your topic of expertise. When it comes to credibility, I don’t think it comes from any one thing but the accumulation of many things — especially what others say about you,” she says.

Teaching Tools

Each online program has a preference as to what application or system it uses as the base for its courses. Some use a third party solution while others create their own system.

Tools of the trade include email, headsets for online lectures/webinars, Microsoft Word and Excel for reviewing student work and tracking grades. Depending on the course type you teach, you may need specific tools or applications. One course I worked with used a web-based simulator where students entered decisions and could see the results of their actions. Danielle McIntosh uses Moodle as well as APEX and PLATOWeb for content.

Find Opportunities

Margaret Garcia recommends looking for posts through the web sites of online colleges or programs. She points out that some schools have stringent hiring requirements while others don’t. “Most people break into online teaching through University of Phoenix — they have an easier hiring process and though they don’t pay well, they are willing to give a break to a possible good teacher. Cappella University, on the other hand, is one of the hardest,” Garcia says. She works with as many as five different online universities including National University and Kaplan University.

In “Get Known before the Book Deal,” Christina Katz recommends starting locally in the classroom with live students to gain experience before teaching online. She suggests looking into organizations, conferences, local meetings and events and adult education centers. While this takes away the web working aspect, it’s just for a short time with places near you. Not only research the sites of those offering online classes, but also remember to network and seek out other teachers who might have insight to offer and decision-makers behind the programs.

Would you consider a career in education?

Photo credit: LittleMan

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The science of marketing involves market research, segmenting the market and building and executing a marketing plan that fulfills business goals.

People in public relations (PR), on the other hand, work to get exposure for the brand, the organization and its people in the media. Although the lines blur between the two careers, they are distinct roles.

Is marketing or PR the web working career for you?

Types of Marketing and PR Careers

Not all marketing and PR jobs involve the same roles and responsibilities. Marketing and PR covers many careers, ranging from advertising manager, to media coordinator and brand manager, to social media manager. Here are some high-level job descriptions:

Marketing: Create, plan and deliver the company’s communications program to promote the company, its brand, its products and its services.

PR and Media Relations: PR and media relations professionals target online and offline media to promote their clients’ business or expertise, with the goal of seeing their name, company or product mentioned. Successful workers build relationships with the media, event coordinators and other organizations for partnering and sponsoring activities as well as working to get the company and its people into stories.

Researcher: The researcher investigates the client’s target market, industry and business.

How to Qualify

Like many other web working jobs, many marketers learned their trade in past jobs. Matt Scherer, president of Scherer Communications, spent 20 years in the Air Force working in public affairs, with ten of them as an editor. He also received a second degree in Marketing before founding his firm. “When I went back to college, I worked part-time as a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News and as a producer for KSAT 12. Those jobs helped me to hone my skills and understand how to pitch to the media,” says Scherer.

Before diving into marketing, web marketer Lorrie Thomas worked for an online advertising network. “I learned by doing. I had no choice: sink or swim. I rolled up my sleeves, ate my humble pie, failed a lot and only asked for help after I had tried as hard as I could first,” Thomas says.

Marketing and PR Tools

Many marketers and PR personnel say they rely on social media tools including Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs, along with their cell phones. Like most web workers, their toolbox holds word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and finance applications.

Online meeting applications provide value for meeting with clients and conducting presentations and webinars. Marketers also use email newsletter services.

Find Clients

Referrals and happy customers are how most marketers and PR professionals land gigs. Scherer says that his San Antonio Express-News blog also helped. Hank Stroll of InternetVIZ, a custom business-to-business newsletter publishing company, saw a need among technology companies that struggled to share their value with clients and prospects. His company created a prototype email newsletter, which grew their business from 250 business executives to over 400,000 readers. He has a call to action offering a free prototype, which brings prospects into his sales cycle. In Lorrie Thomas’ case, she wants to fill seats in her virtual classroom. “Most students confess to checking out my web sites before they sign up for my class because they want to see if I know my stuff first!”

Would you consider a marketing or PR career?

Photo credit: Sophie

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Is tech support or customer service the web working career for you?

Types of Tech Support and Customer Service Careers

Tech support and customer service jobs don’t just involve working directly with customers using a product or service. Brian Roberts of nesaru consulting, for example, acts as the focal point for communications between his clients and their U.S. customers, service centers, sales groups, distributors.

Here are three general careers in tech support and customer service:

Customer service: Provides support for products and services including set up, repair, training, distribution and other logistics.

Tech support: Solves technical problems, remove malware, and provide help with applications. Jobs may involve specializing in several areas, depending on the business and its products or services.

Trainer: Show users how to use business applications. Training may be included in the responsibilities of someone working in tech support or customer service. In addition to offering tech support to clients, tech “go to” guy and WebWorkerDaily writer Scott Blitstein conducts training.

How to Qualify

Tech support pros often begin learning the job by taking care of their own computer problems and becoming the “go to” resource for family and friends. “I have been a technology innovator for almost 30 years. I love learning about new technology; it was fun to roll up my sleeves and learn about VoIP long before it was easy (like 10 years ago),” says F. Andy Seidl, president and co-founder of MyST Technology Partners, Inc.

In his role as founder and president of eSeMBe Technical Services, Scott Blitstein provides technical support services for clients. His experience comes from a combination of formal training, self-teaching and collaborating. “I do a lot of reading and internal testing to stay up to date and comfortable with current technology,” he says.

These jobs often involve interfacing directly with customers, so people skills matter. Managers often say they’d rather hire those with people skills first than those with tech support knowledge, because you can’t teach people skills. Another important trait is patience, as customers often feel frustrated or aggravated and take it out on the first representative they speak with from the company. Representatives not only deal with the physical problem of a product or service, but also the customer.

Tech Support and Customer Service Tools

People in this career rely on specific applications that help them review and identify problems. For example, computer tech support workers use remote control software such as LogMeIn, CrossLoop and NTRsupport Pro to access a customer’s PC to see and fix problems. Of course, a fast Internet connection is a must and headset comes in handy so you can free your hands for heavy-duty keyboarding and mousing. Customer support staff often also rely on a support ticketing app.

They also use many of the common web worker tools: Skype, instant messaging, Basecamp or other project management application and online meeting tools like GoToMeeting.

Find Clients

Word-of-mouth marketing continues to be the leader for lead generation in these fields. F. Andy Seidl finds his company’s primary sources for leads come from the company web site, and via resellers and value-added resellers (VARs).

Cold calling still works, as Brian Roberts attests, and so does face-to-face marketing. “We network a lot in international trade events to identify potential clients and have developed a community of companies and people with complementary skills and services we can offer to our clients,” says Roberts.

Would you consider a tech support or customer service career?

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Graphic Design Career

It’s important to highlight the distinction between web design and graphic design. Those who do graphic design concentrate mostly on print work. They create designs for annual reports, advertisements, brochures, billboards, logos and design identity packages complete with letterhead, envelopes and business cards.

How to Qualify

Unlike many web designers, graphic designers tend to have some formal design education. Lea Ann Stundins worked as a creative director for several agencies before switching to self-employment with her business, Wish List Creative. “The best advice I would offer young people trying to break into design is: go to an art school that has a good reputation according to your ideal design firm/agency. (Ask them, they’ll tell you.) Get an internship at a ‘big name’ agency or design firm. Do anything you have to in order to get that name on your resume. Then, with that school name and that agency name — and a good portfolio, of course — you should be golden,” says Stundins.

Cynthia Courtney, designer and creator of cool stuff, took jobs working with designers she respected so she could learn from them. Although Courtney has a degree in communications design with a minor in illustration, she continues her education by taking courses in Photoshop, business and marketing. “Anyone can use a computer and do a layout with fancy type. Doing it well by creating a piece that solves a client’s problem and can be printed is a whole different ballgame,” says Courtney.

Designer Tools

Stundins lists the important things in her designer toolbox. “My brain mostly. My fingers. A pencil. Paper. Finally, a computer,” she says. Photoshop leads the pack as the “go to” graphic design tool for photo retouching, InDesign is used for page layout, with Illustrator being the choice for logo creation and line art.

Like Stundins, many rely on old-fashioned pencil-and-paper to work through ideas before heading to their Macs turn ideas into pixels. Designers use many ancillary tools such as Acrobat, Stuffit, file transfer protocol (FTP) tools, and file-sharing sites like YouSendIt to send work to clients.

Find Clients

Like many web working careers, marketing remains important. However, most graphic designers find their gigs through word-of-mouth and networking.

Are you considering a career in graphic design?

Photo credit: Tsunei Miyuki

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Ninety-nine percent of authors don’t make money on their book projects, 99 percent of publishers lose money and 1,500 books are published every day, reports Clint Greenleaf. With those stats, why does anyone consider a career as a writer or editor?

Because even with those stats, it is possible to make a good living. Especially now, as the growing number of online publications means there are many writing and editing opportunities that go beyond traditional books, newspaper and magazines.

Could you consider writing or editing as a career?

Types of Writing and Editing Careers

Book authors need no explanation. However, unless you’re Malcolm Gladwell, Nora Roberts or James Patterson, don’t expect to earn a comfortable living as a fiction author. I’m not trying to crush your dreams; just don’t give up your day job. There are other types of books that need writing, too: ebooks, nonfiction, textbooks, etc. If you write these kinds of books on a regular basis, you can earn a decent living.

Business writers produce white papers, case studies, newsletters, web sites, brochures, ads and business plans.

Technical writers develop product documentation, training materials and assembly instructions.

Web content writers require a different writing style because people read online content differently than they do print. Writers in this area need to think about search engine optimization, readability, organization and structure. Bloggers can make a healthy living or do it as a part-time job; success depends on the publication’s popularity, products for sale, ads and sponsorship.

Copywriters work to promote a product, person, business or idea by choosing the right words, slogans and phrases to compel people to take the desired action. Their writing appears in ads, brochures and other promotional publications.

Proofreaders look for typos, punctuation mistakes, and grammatical errors in copy. Proofreading generally happens right before publishing and after the editor has done his or her job. They generally don’t rewrite sentences and restructure material like copyeditors.

Copyeditors go deeper than proofreaders do in reviewing the finished copy for spelling, punctuation, grammar and word usage errors. They also pay attention to the content for clarity and rewrite and restructure the copy as needed. If the content includes graphics, charts and captions, they ensure the content matches the visuals and captions.

Editing includes commenting on, approving, revising and rejecting writers’ content. Aside from editing for grammar and content, they also ensure the articles follow the publications’ style guidelines.

How to Qualify

Write. Write. Write. Read. Read. Read. Read books and blogs on writing. Practice writing often. Everyone can improve, even good writers. I recoil when I read the papers I wrote in college because of the stiff and formal writing style. A good writer accepts all feedback and makes changes as needed. Those who fight about every word or phrase will have a harder time surviving as a writer.

Anne Toole, television drama and games writer, got her start in television writing when she worked on a series of TV shows as an assistant. When the TV series needed a writer, she was there. “You don’t need a degree, but writing skills, gained through talent, hard work, school or mentoring are essential,” says Toole.

College writing takes a wholly different approach than professional writing and web writing. Study the writing you want to do and practice that style. A career as a writer or editor doesn’t require a related college degree. If you’d like to spiff up your skills, take a writing class at the local community college or online. Join online writing groups and subscribe to email newsletters that cover writing like AbsoluteWrite, Power Writing and Christina Katz’ Writers on the Rise and Get Known Groove. At WebWorkerDaily, we have plenty of tips on freelancing, writing and editing.

Writing and Editing Tools

The bare minimum is a computer with a word processor, like Word, and an Internet connection for submitting your work. Script writers use Final Draft to write and format scripts. Writers and editors rely on Excel, Visio, OneNote and mind-mapping tools for research, brainstorming and other writing-related tasks. References like dictionaries and thesauruses come in handy. Writers and editors also use applications for invoicing, time tracking and taxes. Those determined to work with a publication should grab a copy of “Writer’s Market.”

I could never live without my dual monitor setup; it really helps my productivity. I often have an article draft on one screen and the Internet or other app for referencing on the other.

Find Clients

Jennifer Escalona finds clients online. “When I blind query, I look on freelance job sites like craigslist, FreelanceJobOpenings, Indeed.com and many, many more. I ask for a testimonial and mention that I appreciate referrals. I also network with other freelancer writers, who often have great job leads,” says Escalona.

Many writers say they started landing clients on bidding sites like eLance, though others have complained of lowballing, or quoting low estimates. Keep in mind, too, that writers and editors value word-of-mouth marketing and social networking. Until you have built your portfolio, consider writing unpaid articles for a nonprofit, charity or blog that covers a topic of interest to you.

Are you considering a career in writing or editing?

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Could becoming a web designer be a good career move for you?

Web Design Career

Web design is not the same as web development. Web designers focus on visuals, typography, colors, layouts and other important design considerations. Their technical expertise usually consists of mainly HTML, XHTML and CSS along with one or two programming languages like JavaScript and PHP for adding interactive features. Web developers concentrate on web site function and programming, rather than design and the interface.

Once upon a time, web designers could do it all. All they needed to build an entire site was to know was some HTML and possibly a little JavaScript. In the last few years, though, the web site-building process has become more complicated and has evolved to include more technologies and techniques, including  CSS, AJAX, Java, PHP, Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET, information architecture, search engine optimization (SEO), usability and user experience. This long list makes it impossible for anyone to know it all and do it well. Designers like Jon Phillips from Spyre Studios know this and hire freelancers with specific skills to help out with their projects.

Matt Brown of thingsthatarebrown does design consulting and full-scale site development and deployment. However, as a small design shop he finds that the best use of his time and resources is focusing on design projects. “In a given day I tend to manage 2-5 projects (of various sizes) concurrently, and I’ll usually do a little work for each one during the course of the day,” he says. ”This keeps me fresh and not too ‘over-focused’ on any one client project.”

How to Qualify

Do you know how to do HTML and CSS, but have no portfolio to speak of beyond your own web site? Do what Reese Spykerman of Design by Reese did. She asked, “Hey, who wants a free design for their personal blog?” Offer to design a web site for friends and family. Few designers majored in anything related to design in college. Most learn through reading and studying various online resources, and also by examining the code for web sites they like. A few take design classes at a local school or online. Jon Phillips makes time to learn new tricks and experiment with web design techniques.

This field is still very young, which is why those doing web design today typically don’t have degrees or certification in the field. However, new and wannabe designers have more opportunities than ever to get a formal design education as colleges and universities are increasingly adding design programs, such as the School of Visual Arts, which offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in graphic design, illustration, photography and more. Matt Brown recommends interning with design agencies to learn how to work with clients and gain experience in working with the latest tools and technology.

Web Design Tools

Photoshop, of course, is in most web designers’ toolbox, along with Fireworks and Illustrator. They love Firefox’s Web Developer Toolbar Extension for editing and testing the site and its CSS. Designers often use a text editor like Textpad, TextMate or TextWrangler for hand-coding because WYSIWYG editors, like Dreamweaver, add a mess of unneeded code that weighs down the page. Besides design tools, many designers rely on business apps like FreshBooks for invoicing, Harvest for time tracking and Basecamp for project management.

Geography doesn’t tie down web designers. Reese Spykerman, who’s located in Malaysia but has most of her clients in the U.S., communicates with clients through email, telephone and conference calls.

Find Clients

Word-of-mouth marketing takes the lead in helping designers find gigs. Jon Phillips reported that over 40 percent of his clients found him through Twitter, but they also find him through his blog and referrals.

Are you considering a career in design?

Image from T. Al Nakib.

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Monday Morning VA owner Dawn Martinello defines a VA as someone who “works off-site and provides administrative and other business support to different types of businesses.” As Caroline Pigott of VIP Assistant Solutions notes, “Clients are happy to find a one-stop shop rather than find someone different for every task,” she says.

Could becoming a VA be a good career move for you?

Virtual Assistant Careers

Administrative activities run the gamut from managing calendars and travel arrangements to planning meetings and doing data entry. VAs schedule appointments, proofread documents, work with invoices, manage logistics for moves and handle mailings.

Creatives do web design, graphic design, desktop publishing and set up blogs.

Marketing assistants work on marketing strategies, manage web site content, handle brochures and advertisements, write and distribute press releases, publish newsletters and create presentations. They also help with social networking, search engine optimization (SEO) research and pay-per-click (PPC) monitoring activities.

Office management involves human resources activities such as managing employee benefits, doing medical research and management, checking references, screening applicants, helping personnel and new hires. Responsibilities may also include financial activities such as bookkeeping, billing and managing payroll.

Combination Most VAs do some combination of some or all of the above activities. Laura Paul, Virtual Administrative Success Solutions, says she’s an administrative assistant, executive assistant, business manager, project manager, sales assistant, marketing assistant and human resources assistant.

Jennifer Goodwin, CEO of Jennifer Goodwin Companies, says, “VAs do it all. A VA can choose to niche in one vertical market or a VA can be a ‘Jane of all Trades’ who specializes in the full spectrum of marketing from traditional print opportunity seeking to the latest web technology and social marketing.”

How to Qualify

The Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce survey reports that almost all of the respondents said they had five or more years of administrative experience, with skills ranging from administration and bookkeeping to web design and marketing. Half of the respondents gained experience on the job while almost 30 percent have VA business training or skills certification.

There are quite a few places  offering VA resources, including:

• Alliance for Virtual Businesses
• Canadian Virtual Assistant Connection
• A Clayton’s Secretary (Australia)
• International Association of Virtual Office Assistants
• International Association of Virtual Assistants (UK)
• Online Biz University
• Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce
• Virtual Business U

Several organizations offer certification for VAs, including:

• AssistU
• International Virtual Assistants Association (non-profit)
• VACertification
• VAcertified

Tools

Many VAs rely on as little as a computer, Internet and phone. Of course, they use the usual software for documentation and emailing. Depending on an individual VAs focus, they may use a scanner, time tracking software and invoice services, publishing tools and/or video editing software.

Find Clients

Most VAs find their clients through referrals and social networking sites. Other marketing methods vary; many VAs join organizations and forums, get listed in directories, run email and direct mail campaigns, blog, write articles and more.

Judy Schramm, CEO of Proresource LLC, says, “I recommend specializing, as with any other kind of freelancing. That will help VAs get more and better referrals. It also reduces the cost of marketing and increases the rates you can charge.” Schramm suggests visiting sites that match VAs with clients such as Assistant Match, Virtual Assistant Networking Association (also a business network) and IAVOA’s Directory.

Are you considering a VA career?

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Like Wufoo and SurveyMonkey, Mineful provides an easy way to generate online forms and surveys. First things first: Mineful’s interface might turn off some users. It’s meant to resemble a Windows desktop. I’m not thrilled about it, either, but the last thing I want to do is throw the baby out with the bath water. So I figured I’d better check out Mineful’s function before I condemn it based on form.

One good thing about the mock-Windows look is that it makes using the app a very simple and intuitive experience. Windows work like windows, the Start menu works like the Start menu, and desktop icons work like desktop icons. With that in mind, I clicked the “Start” button in order to get, ahem, started.

I first set up a simple user experience survey using Mineful’s Survey editor, like the ones you see pretty much everywhere these days while browsing the web. You know the kind, they pop up right when you’re in the middle of shopping or reading something, and I’m fairly sure everyone with a pulse clicks, “No thanks.”

I was pleasantly surprised, and almost overwhelmed, by the variety of question options available to me. Multiple choice/single answer and multiple answer, Yes/No questions, text box, etc. I chose a Likert scale format for some questions about web site navigation. It took no time at all, and produced very nice-looking results.

Once you’ve completed your survey, you have a variety of publication options. You can physically print the thing out, though the tool is designed primarily for web use. You can also email the survey, or generate HTML for your own site. I chose a third option, which was to create a link that leads visitors to a pre-formatted version of my questionnaire hosted by Mineful, which you can go ahead and check out.

Although the Survey option seemed like a perfectly good way to go about building a client feedback form as well, I wanted to take the Form editor for a spin so that I could compare the two. Form construction features a single-page layout that might be more appropriate and efficient for use when trying to get feedback from clients. You can select either a one- or a two-column layout, and when you publish it, you can set up security on your web link if you want to require a password or login to view the HTML document. Here’s a simple example two-column client feedback form.

The free version of Mineful has some limitations. You can only have up to five surveys and five  forms active at one time, and you can only receive up to 100 responses per month. If you’re a freelancer only using it to gather client feedback, you probably don’t need much more than that.

There are also two paid options: “Personal” subscription costs $20 a month, while “Business” costs $149 per month. Both increase your feedback levels, allow for unlimited concurrent forms and surveys, and add personalization options, like adding logos and modifying the theme of your surveys and forms. The “Business” version also allows you to add more users to your account.

I’m really glad I didn’t give Mineful a pass just because of my initial impressions of its interface. Turns out it’s a fantastic tool, and one that takes a lot of the heavy lifting out of HTML-based form creation. Check it out if you’re looking for a cheap, easy way to gather feedback from customers, clients and visitors over the web.

What tools do you use for constructing feedback forms?

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Thing is, I realized that was what it was like before I became a web worker, when my ideal job was still a cozy 9-to-5 in an office somewhere, with a salary, benefits and a paid lunch hour. Once I gave up that ideal in favor of pursuing freelance opportunities online, the dreaded Job Hunting Process, which I thought was written in stone, largely ceased to exist. Sure, what replaced it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, either, but for all its faults, it definitely beats the cold dread of Workopolis and Monster.com.

Instead, when I want to find work these days, I generally tap friends and contacts in one way or another. Often, people will suggest me for projects that seem to be up my alley when they come up in conversation, and I’ll get an informal request for more information at least, and a contract at best. If I’m actively seeking work, I’ll likewise ask friends in industries I’m targeting about relevant work. This might be as easy as sending a DM via Twitter, or as complicated as arranging a meet-and-greet portfolio presentation. Or if all my personal network leads are cold, I know my field well enough to start some cold-emailing that results in a positive response often enough. More so than a Workopolis job search, at least.

This got me wondering if this is a shared experience among web workers, or if I was alone in finding it easier to search for and land work. What do you think? Is part of the appeal of working online that finding work is easier, or do you actually find it harder, but with a bigger pay-off?

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