When I decided to create my own footprint on the web, though, things started to change. I started sharing my ideas and my experiences with the world, and soon I had friends around the globe, influential colleagues running innovative businesses, and fantastic mentors who were doing the things I dreamed of.

I really leveraged the the power of web 2.0 to brand myself, build an extensive network, design a business that I can essentially run from anywhere in the world, and now I’m able to travel around the globe and live in Thailand where the cost-of-living is very low, and I’m dangerously close to the white sand beaches. I’m still basically a bum, but I’m a vagabonding bum with an international business, a global web presence, good friends around the world, and an awful lot of fun travel and volunteering experiences under my belt!

Plus, thankfully, it’s awful cheap to live in Thailand.

So Here’s How I Do It

Recently, I attempted to compile all the useful tools I’ve come across since I started this game four years ago, and separate it from all the crap. You can see my whole resource page for living a kickass life here, but today I’d like to share some of the applications, tools, and resources that I use daily and recommend to all my clients and friends. These are all of my best-kept secrets!

Web Presence

• Find a quality web host – Although I’ve hosted most of my websites with DreamHost for the last 3 years (use promo code THRILLING30 to get 30 bucks off), after surveying my blogger friends and clients, a vast majority of them prefer BlueHost. They offer truly superior 24/7 phone support, have much less down time and technical problems than my DreamHost server, and I love working with them!
• Easily manage your content – WordPress is by far the easiest, most powerful content management system out there. I use it for all of my sites—blogs, business sites, minisites, and it’s even great for photo galleries, portfolios, communities, job listing sites & more.
• Get a great web design – if you don’t have the cash to invest in a proper web designer (a good, original design will often cost $3–$5K) there are TONS of great, inexpensive HTML templates and WordPress themes available from companies like WooThemes and ThemeForest. I have used great designs from both.

Gadgets & Gear

• Pack a tough laptop – If you’re going to be backpacking the world for a few years, getting sand and water in your laptop, you might want to invest in a Toughbook. But I’m an Apple fanboy and all my favorite apps & development tools are on OSX. I’ve found the new 13-inch unibody aluminum Apple MacBook Pro can take a few hard drops and has been great to travel with.
• A global smartphone – Again, I go with my favorite Apple here, and as an online businessman, yes I am an iPhone 3G-carrying member of the tech elite! You’ll need to follow the unlocking instructions here for use on non-AT&T networks, international travel & data access.
• Portable WiFi – The awesome and compact Airport Express will turn almost any ethernet connection around the world into a wifi network.
• Backup your important files – Especially if you carry client work with you as you travel the world, you want to make sure you save secure copies frequently in case your laptop is stolen or damaged. I connect to an external drive and backup my whole system with TimeMachine often, and also use free Mozy online backup to automatically upload copies of my most important files to the cloud (runs in the background so I don’t even have to see it or think about it).

Communications

• Cheap calls around the world – call friends & clients around the globe for as little as 3 cents a minute with Skype, or set up your own virtual SkypeIn number that people can dial from their phone back home to reach you on the web (I even use mine to forward to my Thai mobile number).
• One number to rule them all – previously called GrandCentral, Google Voice will give you one phone number to route and forward to any phone; highly customizable. This is also how I maintain a Bay Area, California international line that I can forward to my Skype or my mobile abroad.
• One chat client to rule them all – Adium or Meebo can connect AIM, gTalk, MSN, Yahoo chat, Facebook chat and more.
• Online group video chat – Tinychat offers free chat rooms & audio video conferences online.
• Free teleconference calls – FreePhoneConference.com gives you a free dial-in teleconference number to hold a workshop for dozens of callers.

Online Collaboration

• Maintain a public or shared group calendar – Google Calendar gives you an easily-shareable calendar and schedule organizer.
• Easy document collaboration – Google Docs gives you collaborative word documents, spreadsheets, and forms that you can share with others and modify the same document remotely.
• Screen sharing – Adobe ConnectNow is a new, free service that lets you meet live over the web and share your screen with anyone.
• Team project management – There are tons of web-based project management apps like Basecamp, or the free alternative Collabtiv.
• File storage & sharing – Store archives of your large files online and easily send & share them with your colleagues with a free Dropbox account.

Web Development

• Access your server – Open-source Cyberduck FTP client for Mac.
• Edit your code – Powerful, user-friendly editor Smultron, also open-source for Mac.
• Build test websites offline – Run your own local Apache server with MAMP for Mac.
• Test and tweak live websites – Firebug is a Firefox plugin that makes testing your code much easier.
• Test cross-browser compatibility – Finally, Adobe BrowserLab offers a way to do this easily and free (keep this one on the down-low).

e-Commerce & Invoicing

• Easily send & receive money online – PayPal
• Simple online invoicing & bookkeeping – FreshBooks
• Deliver digital products – e-Junkie handles payment & fulfillment for your ebook, audio, or other information products.

Marketing & Promotion

• Start your mailing list – AWeber is the leading provider for customer list management, autoresponders & drip campaigns.
• Smart social bookmarking – Install the Su.pr bookmarklet in your browser toolbar, submit your links and they’ll be automatically sent to Twitter, Facebook & StumbleUpon!
• Build your expert credibility – LinkedIn is the best professional online network, and LinkedIn Answers is the best place to brand yourself, share your expertise with others, and even solicit feedback on your own questions from experienced CEOs and other professionals.
• Give a great presentation – Prezi is guaranteed to be a PowerPoint-killer. Forget slideshows, Prezi gives you a canvas without limits to deliver a dynamic presentation.

Personal Finance

• High-yield online savings accounts – get a little better return on your dollar by putting your savings in a Emigrant Direct or ING Direct account. I especially love ING because you can create as many sub-accounts as you want, easily managing different “buckets” for your many savings goals.
• Best multinational bank – HSBC Bank has the most locations around the globe of any bank I’ve seen.
• Avoid hefty fees – Charles Schwab could possibly have the best checking account for travelers. Although I haven’t used it, I know they reimburse all ATM transactions and have no international fees.
• Frequent flyer perks card – Are you a frequent flyer? Get 1 mile per dollar spent, plus 12,000 bonus sign-up miles with the Discover Miles card.
• Manage your accounts & budget –  Mint.com is powerful, free personal financial management application.

Travel & Mobile Lifestyle

• Find the best travel deals – Kayak.com compares thousands of airfare and hotel aggregator sites like Orbitz and Travelocity to find the lowest fare.
• Get the cheapest local flights – Find the budget air carriers in your region with WhichBudget.
• Get last-minute airfare deals – You can bid low on last-minute flights from Priceline and check out their Pricebreaker deals.
• Meet locals and find free accomodation – Couchsurfing. Almost anywhere in the world. Awesome.
• Low-cost rentals & sublets – AirBnB lists vacation rentals and apartments for rent in 87 countries.
• Backpack around the world on $25 a day – How to See the World, the free Art of Travel guide, is a great resource to learn more.
• Learn how to become a digital nomad – Read Christine Gilbert’s great series 30 Ways in 30 Days to Redesign Your Life and Travel the World.
• Go green and get all your mail virtually – EarthClassMail will send all your snail mail to you via email. Great for business backpackers!
• Affordable world travel insurance – World Nomads insurance recommended by Lonely Planet.
• Master travel hacks – Grab the Frequent Flyer Master guide from Chris Guillebeau, who’s traveled to 119 countries in a few short years, to learn how to get the most out of your miles and get the advantage over the airlines. He even guarantees one free plane ticket!
• Learn to become a permanent traveler and live anywhere – If you want to move abroad permanently, and create income streams that support you as a perpetual traveler, then you absolutely must get Karol Gajda’s stunning ebook How to Live Anywhere. This is the guide I seriously wish I’d written! Check out my interview with Karol here.
• Get your work done wherever you go – Coworking is the hip new way to have an office without a job. If you like being surrounded by other human beings but not distracted from your work, search for coworking spots where your’e traveling.

Lifestyle Design Tools

• Set and budget for your goals – Tim Ferriss’ Ideal Lifestyle Costing method will help you figure out what your ideal lifestyle looks like, set goals for 6 months or a year down the road, and figure out what you have to do and how much it will cost to get there. Use this Dreamlining Worksheet.
• Build a support team – David Walsh is an automation genius who put together SourceControl to show you how to successfully outsource taks and give you a framework for your ambitious projects.
• Automate all your business processes – Take a few tips from Rob Granholm on how to Automate Your Systems. Rob has done a tremendous job breaking down processes, and for extra credit you can even apply this outside of your business.

What are your favorite tools, apps & resources for living a mobile lifestyle and getting work done from anywhere?

Check out my resources page for more useful tools, ebooks & resources for living an incredibly kickass life. BTW the featured photo at the top of the page is me with my buddies Migration Mark, Dwight Turner and Joel Bruner on a vagabonding trip to Laos.

The reason I tell you this is that WooThemes just sent me their newsletter early this morning and they’ll be offering a Halloween Special on their themes through midnight Friday, October 31st. So if you want to get your hands on a sexy WordPress theme like mine, this is the time to do it—get 3 for the price of 1!

THE DEAL

From the moment that this post has been published, this Halloween Special will be available and it will run until midnight on Friday, 31 October 2008. This is what you can get:

The 3 for 1
We’re basically offering you the opportunity to get 3 of our brilliant themes for the price of 1. This offer applies to both Single & Developer Licenses, which means you get the following:

• Buy a Single License for $70 USD and get any 2 other themes (on Single Licenses) of your choice; or
• Buy a Developer License for $150 USD and get any 2 other themes (on Developer Licenses) of your choice.

3 Months Free
We also have a special offer for those of you interested in becoming a member of our amazing WooThemes Club… You can buy any 3 or 6 month subscription and we’ll throw 3 months in completely free of charge, which means you’ll get a 6 or 9 month subscription for a very, very low price.

Take advantage of this great offer! These themes are normally 70 bucks apiece, so 3 for 1 is like getting them for 23 bucks each! It’s a steal. Make sure you follow the how it works instructions if you take them up on their offer:

1. The special is only valid for the time as specified above and no previous purchases will be eligible for this. If you miss the deadline, you will also not be able to make use of this special. So you basically have a 36 hour window from the moment that this post has been published.
2. Once you have bought your individual theme (on a Single or Developer License), please e-mail us at support@woothemes.com and tell us which 2 free themes you’d like added to your account.
3. If you buy a subscription, you don’t need to do anything – we’ll have you on record and the 3 months will be added automatically. Do however note that the 3 free months will only be added once your paid subscription comes to an end.

[source: The Halloween Special: Can we haz crazy special deal for yooz? | WooThemes]

If you’re a WordPress blogger who also happens to use LinkedIn to connect with your business network or promote your website (I don’t know why you wouldn’t!), then you can now integrate your blog feed into your LinkedIn profile with the new WordPress LinkedIn App:

“Connect your virtual lives with the WordPress LinkedIn Application. With the WordPress App, you can sync your WordPress blog posts with your LinkedIn profile, keeping everyone you know in the know.”

WordPress is one of the first nine approved business applications to launch on the LinkedIn platform. Also available:

• Share your reading list with your network via Amazon
• Share large files and content with Box.net
• Showcase your slideshows or presentations with SlideShare or Google Presentation
• Broadcast your travel plans and track where your colleague’s are with TripIt
• Create private online workspaces to collaborate with your network using Huddle Workspaces
• Track what customers say about you and your business on Twitter with Company Buzz
• Link up your non-WordPress-powered blog with BlogLink (by TypePad)

Visit the new LinkedIn Application Directory to integrate your WordPress blog with your LinkedIn profile or take advantage of any of these new business tools on the LinkedIn network.

Other Must-Reads for LinkedIn Users:

• Guy Kawasaki: LinkedIn Profile Extreme Makeover
• Chris Brogan: Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You
• Copyblogger: Use LinkedIn to Create Authoritative Content

Want to see your business here?

Depending on the type of business you run, local search results may drive the majority of your web traffic. I’m a one-person, location-independent web freelancer who does the majority of my work via email with out-of-state and international clients, for example, so my local visibility is not as high of a priority as a Sacramento-area magazine or a local small business owner with a brick-and-mortar shop. But I recently read an article by Jacob Cass that explains how local search hits can frequently give you the advantage over your competitors, because local businesses often tend to come up at the very top of search results. In other words, if anyone performs a Google search for something like “yourindustry yourcity” or they search for your kind of business within Google Maps, then having your listing on Local Search means you’ll be one of the first companies that show up! Just look at the positioning Jacob’s business Just Creative Design has on the search results page for Newcastle graphic designers!

So even though my target clients are in the Silicon Valley area or abroad, well outside the greater Sacramento area, I decided to go ahead and list my business in the search engines’ local listings. It can’t hurt, and it gives your clients the ability to rate your business and write testimonials for you! In addition to Google Local Search I’ve also been recommending Yelp to all of my friends with small businesses. While Yelp doesn’t have the same traction here in Sacramento yet as it does in the San Francisco Bay Area or other large metropolitan areas, services like Yelp (sort of a social networking-style local search engine where users rate their favorite hangouts and other businesses) will see increasing exposure in the years ahead and give web-savvy companies the edge as the economy suffers and more businesses decide to make the transition online. Anytime I’m somewhere I’m unfamiliar with, I can easily pull up Google Maps or the Yelp application on my iPhone (available for free at the iTunes App Store) to find out where the nearest Starbucks is, or what hotspots, businesses, and events are going on in my immediate area. And so can your customers! Are you there, ready to be found?

Below I’ve listed the most popular local search engines and most important places to submit your business listing. For most of these services, you’ll need to sign up for a free account, and you should have a brief description of your company, contact information, hours of operation, and company logo or photos to attach to your listing (people always click more often on photos than plain text):

• Google Local Search
  
• Yelp (feeds data to Windows Live and Yahoo)
• Yahoo Local Search
  
• Live Local Search
  
• CitySearch (feeds data to Ask.com and Windows Live)

Additionally, if you do any sort of event marketing, it can be beneficial to get involved on some of the most popular web 2.0 sites such as Upcoming.org, Meetup.com, and Eventful.

Here’s to your entrepreneurial success! If you appreciate this helpful tip, please give me a nod and help rate my freelance web business on Yelp!

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a new social network/instant messaging mashup that’s being referred to as a micro-blogging tool. It allows users to send text updates (called “tweets”) to all their friends—from twitter.com, instant message (via AIM or MSN Messenger, for example), or even from a mobile phone. It’s like posting an instant blog post, but you’re forced to craft your message with a 140-character limit.

The site asks members “What are you doing?” Answers range from the mundane (“eating a burrito”) to the interesting, hilarious, and even useful (well, okay, once in a while). While some use the service merely to updates friends on their whereabouts and activities, many people are using it to promote their blogs, share valuable links, and otherwise brand themselves and their businesses online.

Below: The default Twitter profile page.

(Click image for larger view.)

Most web nerds like myself are saying Twitter will be big (like, Facebook big) over the next few years, but right now it’s still at the early adopter stage, which means it’s dominated by bloggers, web designers, and technologists. For many Twitterfolk, it has become a primary channel of communication over the last year (*read: easier to reach them via Twitter than via email). I’ve been able to get the attention of a few power users in the “Twitterverse” over the last few months, including great folks like Robert Scoble, Guy Kawasaki, and Chris Brogan, and I’ve even had some pretty decent exchanges with them! If you’re in the technology or internet industry and you’re not using Twitter yet, it is a MUST. What are you still reading this for? Run! Go! Right now!

What About Twitter for Business?

For the rest of us, the question is how does one effectively leverage Twitter for business or personal branding? If used properly, it can easily bring more readers into your camp. I’ve already built a pretty decent sized following myself (follow me here), using the service mostly to share helpful tips and links I find across the web and to promote my own writing. One cool function is that you can easily plug your “tweets” in to the sidebar on your own blog or into other social networks and share your updates with friends that aren’t already on Twitter. (See Twitter badges and WordPress plugins.)

Below: My Twitter replies from other users. Yes, you can
add your own crazy backgrounds too!

(Click image for larger view.)

The BBC and CNN are using it to broadcast breaking news. Companies like Whole Foods, Zappos, Dell, Cisco, Comcast, and more are using it to send updates to their customers. If you provide value, you’ll make fast friends. Aside from sharing my links and blog posts, I also use Twitter to search for people with questions about blogging and answer my clients’ questions about WordPress. If you use it wisely, Twitter can give you a platform to show off your expertise, cultivate a reputation as an authority in your field, and build a loyal following.

Here are 5 tips to go from Twitter Newbie to Twitter Ninja:

1. There are several third-party Twitter clients that will run on your desktop much like your instant messenger does, so you don’t have to be logged in at twitter.com, and they give you quick navigation and search tools at your fingertips. First of all, I would recommend that you lookup Twitter clients and find one that suits you. I use Twhirl (see image at right), which makes my experience much more like a chat client that I can easily turn on and off when I want to.
2. Learn how to us the @replies to send messages to other users, and learn how to use a URL-shortening service such as TinyURL or SnipUrl to condense long hyperlinks so you can fit them within your 140-character tweets. (Twhirl and most other Twitter clients have URL-shortening services built-in.)
3. If you’re a blogger or a social media freak like me, hook up your blog’s RSS feed and feeds from your bookmarking services (del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Google Reader…) to auto-publish to your Twitter account with Twitterfeed.com.
4. Subscribe to keywords if you want to monitor the larger discussion about certain topics across the whole Twitter network. This is how I find a lot of users asking about WordPress, and I just try to answer people’s questions when I can. I’ve made a lot of new friends this way and have even scored last-minute freelance gigs by answering strangers’ questions with helpful advice. (Watch Ed Dale’s awesome tutorial video “Become a Twitter Master with Twhirl” for more about @replies and subscribing to keywords within the Twhirl client!)
5. Once you’re used to how the rules work, check out Lee Odden’s list of Five New Twitter Tools You Should Know to help you find more new people to connect with on Twitter and expand your network.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter and send an @codymckibb to ask your WordPress and blogging-related questions!

Helpful Twitter Articles from Others:

• Why Twitter?
• 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners
• 9 Ways Twitter Made Guy Kawasaki’s Website Better
• Three Ways to Maximize Your Twitter Time for Networking, Marketing and Fun

photo credit: somefool (MatthewM)

Personally, I’m a big fan of productivity lists, how-to’s, and life hacks, so my custom search engine includes a lot of big name sites like Lifehacker, Zen Habits, Tim Ferriss’ 4HWW blog, and many more. Anytime I’m curious how to do something, like how to install a certain software application, how to improve my resume, or how to get the most out of a particular social networking site for instance, my custom-build search engine returns incredible results! And if you like to hyperlink to other resources and articles as additional support when you write new blog posts, this will serve as a fantastic tool for you just like it has for me.

I highly recommend Google’s Custom Search, and since I’ve already done the work and compiled a master list of over 50 of the web’s most credible and authoritative blogs, I’d also like to introduce my own Thrilling Blog Search engine as an open community tool for the Brazen Careerist network and the blogosphere at large. Try it out. Seriously! It provides some really cool results for all sorts of subjects from personal development to social media to finance. Link to the search engine page here and try a search for “resume,” “savings account,” or “LinkedIn” for example:

If you’d like to utilize this tool for your own blogging workflow, feel free to bookmark my directory/links page, or you can easily add it to your iGoogle homepage or your own website. Be aware that this search engine already crawls several of the most trusted blogs on the internet, but I will be adding to the sites in the future. If you’d like to contribute to the project or suggest a site for addition, you can get in touch with me but be aware there will be a strict review process. In other words, if you email me with a suggestion, you better be ready to pitch your site and why the community will benefit from it!

Here are the top-notch blogs/bloggers that are already a part of this fun customized blog community search tool:

Personal Growth/Productivity

• Lifehacker
• Zen Habits
• Steve Pavlina
• LifeDev
• Life Optimizer
• The Positivity Blog
• Scott H Young
• Duff McDuffee
• Today Is That Day

Career/Personal Branding

• Personal Branding Blog
• Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk
• Life Beyond Code
• Water Cooler Wisdom
• Personal PR
• Newly Corporate
• The Urban Muse
• PR Interactive
• Erik Folgate

Lifestyle Design/Travel

• The 4-Hour Workweek
• Anywired
• The Art of Nonconformity
• Real Social Dynamics
• Ronnie Nurss
• Brave New Traveler

Generation-Y Issues

• Employee Evolution
• Twenty Set
• WorkLoveLife

Personal Finance

• I Will Teach You To Be Rich
• Get Rich Slowly

Freelancing/Entrepreneurship

• FreelanceSwitch
• Escape from Cubicle Nation
• Erica Douglass
• How to Change the World by Guy Kawasaki
• The Anti 9-to-5 Guide
• Instigator Blog
• College-Startup
• Jamie Harrop

Social Media/Technology

• Chris Brogan
• Dosh Dosh
• Copyblogger
• Tobias Baeck
• Paul Stamatiou
• Greg Rollett
• Moving From Me to We
• Paul Woods

Blogging/WordPress

• ProBlogger
• Pearsonified
• Theme Playground
• Blog Perfume
• Lorelle on WordPress
• Thrilling Design

Remember, this is a community project, so please feel free to get involved!

» Add a search widget to your Google homepage.

» Add the custom Thrilling Blog Search to your own site.

» Get in touch if you’ve got a suggested site that will benefit other bloggers and readers.

» Blog about this or tell your friends about the Thrilling Blog Search engine!

These are just the first round of additions to the Thrilling Blog Search community search tool. As I come across more great sites, I’ll be updating the list and the search engine tool. You can view several of my favorite blogs and suggested resources, as well as my custom Thrilling Blog Search tool on my Links Page here.

Used to be that I had to jump through several hoops to get my Apple iCal and my remote online gCal to sync up, and it was not a smooth two-way process like it should be now. One used to have to invest in a program like gSync or Spanning Sync, but now that Google has opened up the CalDAV support, you can easily match up your online and offline calendars without paying a dime. I know this will definitely be a godsend for me, since I maintain three personal calendars and will soon be throwing a shared business calendar into the mix!

The process is actually really simple, and I was so excited that I just had to share the news with you guys. Especially since you can even use gCal simply as a cross-platform syncing tool now (if you don’t actually like the Google Calendar format, say, but you want to sync iCal and Outlook), hopefully some of you will find this easy new process useful too. Adam Pash wrote up a really fantastic guide at Lifehacker: How to Sync Any Desktop Calendar with Google Calendar.

Best of luck with it.

Also Check This Out: Thoughts on Working From Home and Starting Out as a Freelance Web Worker

How long did it take me to fill my schedule with freelance work?

I’m actually consciously building my freelance business as a part-time venture to allow myself to concentrate on writing and a few other pet projects in my spare time. But, I left employed life about 11 months ago, and I strived to over-deliver and impress the pants off of my first several clients, which has paid off ten-fold in referral business. I’d say that after four or five months of freelancing, the work just started to come in on its own without me having to chase it too much, because I had built a good reputation, a great network, and a quality communications platform for my business.

Who do I consult with and where have I found my business clients?

I work with all kinds of small-to-medium companies and professionals, but my consulting is definitely aimed towards authors, columnists, speakers, coaches, and other thought leaders who already have decent writing skills or something important to say—blogging is a great tool for broadcasting a discussion and maintaining client relations, and particularly for personality-driven businesses where a CEO’s personal brand is tied to the business, for instance.

My first few gigs started with a few mentors of mine and clients who just happened to stumble across me, and I went all-out to deliver the best product to them at a low cost, so that created a lot of word-of-mouth and referral business which still keeps my freelance inbox full to this day! I’ve also found many clients and partners just through interacting with writers and users on existing blogs and social media sites, or just through conversations with other professionals at business conferences for example. But for me, it’s been truly impressive how many interesting people I have been able to connect with virtually through the blogosphere, and how much work one can find globally via the web! I’ve had clients across the States, and now in Canada and even France.

What skills or strengths does it take to be a freelance blog consultant?

Personally, people tell me that my strongest ability is in translating technical information and jargon into business-oriented language. My favorite part of what I do is actually hashing out ideas with my clients—talking directly with authors and business owners and helping them learn how to use their technology or interact with other online writers. So as a consultant, you definitely need some people skills and you need to be able to sell yourself. On the other end of the spectrum though, I currently do every part of this process from finding new clients to customer service to coding, and to be successful at the web design and programming, you just need the patience to sit at a computer screen for 10 hours straight some days, and a hungry desire for continued learning and improvement.

What are some good resources to learn the basic skills necessary for web design?

My college degree was in religious studies and history, so my business and web design skills have been completely self-taught over the last two years, often through lots of trial and error. Some people may not realize that web design and development are actually huge spheres, so there are tons of niche-specific resources and organizations, but the World Wide Web Consortium, W3Schools, and A List Apart are a few good places to start learning to write valid, attractive code. If you work with open-source content management systems like I do, there is usually a large, knowledgeable developer community with lots to offer (see the WordPress Codex, for example), or guidebooks like Building Online Communities With Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress might be useful.

What surprises have there been working as a web developer? What should other hopeful freelancers know?

As a consultant in any field, some people will expect you to be available at all hours, and some clients will have unreasonable expectations, so you need to learn to establish firm boundaries and you need to learn to say no sometimes. The earlier you learn these things, the less painful your experience will be. Other things to think about are the stigmas and challenges of self-employment and working from home, so I would recommend you do some research on those things before you take the jump, but I also highly recommend it to anyone who’s got the determination to do so.

One other huge tip I’d offer is to establish relationships or partnerships with people who complement your weaknesses or just areas you don’t focus on. So for instance, my niche is blogs, but I can pull in someone who’s a great graphic designer, or a wiki or podcast expert, or a web hosting guy when necessary.

How much have I invested to start my business and what were some of the biggest expenses?

Most of my operation has been budget-free because I work from home and use a lot of tools I already had from school. After I’d had some cash-flow, I did invest about $2k in a new desktop Mac for my development work, but I use all open-source and web-based design and development software, so licenses are almost always free or very inexpensive. My next move will be to put some money into very targeted online ad campaigns, but my research shows that investing even just a few hundred dollars via Google Adwords can be very effective.

Great related resources on the web about freelancing:

• 10 Misconceptions the Self-Employed Deal With Daily
• How to Ensure Working from Home is Not Boring
• How Working from Home Improved My Social Life
• A week of journalism: How to be a freelancer without starving
• Freelance Switch

I will copy much of Ferriss’ important message below. Normally I wouldn’t duplicate someone else’s content to such an extent, but in an effort to spread this important message as quickly as possible, I think it is necessary:

“Those who can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
–Benjamin Franklin

What Every American Needs to Know (and Do) About FISA Before Tuesday, July 8th from Tim Ferriss on Vimeo.
Trouble viewing? Click here.

Tomorrow, July 8th, could mark the beginning of official condoning of warrantless surveillance of law-abiding citizens in the US, not to mention foreign nationals. I am not an alarmist and believe in qualified surveillance with process — this is different. I’ve done the homework.

The above is an 18-minute interview that I just finished with Daniel Ellsberg, famous for releasing the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in 1971. His actions are often credited with helping end not only the Nixon presidency but also the Vietnam War. He consulted for the Kennedy Administration after receiving a PhD. from Harvard in Economics and served in the Pentagon under Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

Remember that part of lifestyle design is creating a good environment for you and those you care for. Central to this is preventing dangerous laws — the rules of your environment — from coming into existence. This is not about being political. It’s about being responsible. There are Republicans in Congress who oppose this bill, so it shouldn’t be written off as leftist propaganda.

In the video above, I interview Ellsberg to learn what every American needs to know — and do in the next 24 hours — about the new FISA (Foreign Information and Surveillance Act) amendments. The interview, and below partial transcription, answers questions like…

-I don’t have anything to hide. How does this affect me?

-What if this type of surveillance is what has prevented another 9/11 from happening?

-What are common inaccuracies about FISA reported in the media?

Please watch it.

Find below how you can make a real impact in less than 60 seconds. Every person counts — the Senators who will vote are watching the numbers. 41 Senators can block the bill, and it’s not too late.

There are precious few hours left to take action, but I feel very strongly that this is an exceptionally important issue for each and every one of you to take a stance on. If you happen to read this in time, please watch this video to learn about the threat to U.S. freedom and the 4th Amendment of the Constitution, which protects our individual privacy.

Spend 1-2 minutes to visit the links Tim shared and make your voice heard:

1. ALL AMERICANS: Go to the EFF website here and put in your zipcode to find your Senator’s phone number. Call them and read the short script on the same page. If no answer, click the link at the bottom of the page to e-mail them.
(Tell others verbally to go to “www.eff.org” and click “take action”)

2. OBAMA SUPPORTERS: Go to My.BarackObama.com here and join the group requesting he oppose (as he did earlier) the amendment. This takes about 30 seconds. I suggest changing “ListServ” in the bottom right to “Do not receive e-mails.”
(Tell others verbally to search “obama please vote no” on Google and My.BarackObama.com will be in the top 3 results, currently #1)

I encourage you to Cast Your Whole Vote to prevent American freedom and privacy from being taken from us. If you are a voter, contact your Senator and tell them to protect the Constitution. Share this video with anyone you can—friends, family, Digg & StumbleUpon buddies. Do whatever is in your power and make a difference within your sphere of influence.

Freedom forever!

[via: What Every American Needs to Know (and Do) About FISA Before Tuesday]

Bob Glaza (One Reader At a Time) tagged me last week for the Media Diet meme, a discussion that’s been propagating across the web since last year about our media consumption habits, to share with others how we get our information. I tracked this particular thread as far back as James Gordon-Macintosh and a few others at Seventy Seven PR, but I know that Jeremiah Owyang was also talking about it months earlier.

Everyone’s talking about information overload these days, so I figured I’d use this as an opportunity to share both 1) some of my personal interests, but also 2) how I filter through the vast amount of knowledge and media that’s available to us these days through the blogosphere and all the mainstream entertainment and news channels. Being a blogger, I like to follow a tremendous amount of information in this “Age of Conversation.” But, I like what Bob says: “Why NOT bite off more than you can chew?”

photo credit: drspam

Readables

When I was at my desk job, I used to read a few more newspapers and magazines (like the WSJ, Chronicle of Higher Education, Time, and BusinessWeek), but I pretty much entirely get my fix through the Internets these days! To be honest, I rarely watch the news or read the papers, let alone visit the sites of any mainstream media directly these days because there’s just too much information, and much of it I find too hyped (fearmonger much?) and unbalanced for my tastes. I do highly enjoy Wired.com, and I’ll pick up a copy of FastCompany now and then. But I concentrate mostly on niches that directly affect me, like the personal development and web design blogs, and I tend to hear all the most important headlines through friends, family, and social media anyway (Robert Scoble was covering the China quakes on Twitter before the USGS reported them).

I get a few Google Alerts sent directly to my email account for certain search terms, so that I get a daily summary and know immediately when someone on the web is talking about me, one of my sites, my business, or a couple of key interests of mine, for instance.

I use Google Reader almost daily to sift through nearly 70 blog subscriptions (and a few other RSS streams like freelancer job feeds). That means there are usually about 250-350 new articles in there daily. How do I keep up with all these? Well, firstly Google Reader makes it easy to organize your feeds into different folders, or categories, so I’ve got them organized by priority and into groups like “friends,” “business opportunities,” “blogging tips,” “web design,” and “personal development.” Some of the feeds I check every day, but others are marked for just occasional perusal when I’ve got the time. I generally browse through the titles in List View to dwindle the number down to just those that seem applicable or interesting to me (I probably read about 10-20% of the updates that come through my RSS reader).

Some of my most frequent reads are blogs like Problogger, Web Worker Daily, Life Beyond Code, Freelance Switch, Real Social Dynamics, Zen Habits, and blogs from the Brazen Careerist network. One big secret: probably 50% of the useful knowledge I share with my friends and blog readers comes from Lifehacker and Tim Ferris’ Experiments in Lifestyle Design Blog (from the author of The 4-Hour Workweek).

Aside from what’s in my feed reader, I find that the social web does a great job of “filtering” the most important/useful/sometimes completely silly news for me, so when I’ve got the time to wander, I frequent aggregators like PopUrls and Guy Kawasaki‘s Alltop network. I’ve been using PopUrls as my landing page for the last several weeks to keep my finger on the pulse of the web, because it is customizable to your tastes (by source or category), and I like to track the most popular articles, recommended articles, and the top hits on del.icio.us, Digg, and StumbleUpon each day. Additionally, the extremely illustrious, bright folks I follow on Twitter are also a renewable resource for awesome content!

If you want to follow some of my favorites, please checkout my Google Shared Items page, or my del.icio.us bookmarks.

I do read a little bit “offline” too! I try to read about a book per month, but these mostly consist of business or personal development books. A few of my favorites have been The 4-Hour Workweek, Vagabonding, The BrandYou50, Now Discover Your Strengths, and Never Eat Alone. A nice, warm book is good for travel, or when I feel like pulling my eyes away from the computer screen for a bit and laying in my hammock outside. Right now I’m reading Blogging Heroes, which has interviews with 30 top bloggers from around the world. Stay tuned for a list of top-recommended books from me and my mentors soon.

Viewables

I do have cable at home, but the only show I’ve watched religiously for the last four years has been to tune in to “Lost” when I visit my folks each week (it’s been slow to answer all our burning questions, but it has the best character development of anything I’ve ever seen on the tube). I use TV more for the very occasional break from work—since I work from home, it’s fun to completely disengage for an hour or two and enjoy some pure entertainment once in a while. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are the only news/politics I can tolerate these days—faux news with plenty of comedy and satire mixed in for good measure (and Stephen Colbert has the biggest stones of anyone on television!). Otherwise, I’ll watch some pointless drivel on E! or MTV for an escape when the opportunity presents itself.

For trends in technology, entertainment, and design, I’ve enjoyed the inspiring TEDTalks for a long time, which you can subscribe to as video podcasts through iTunes.

And I do enjoy the occasional movie! (Looking forward to seeing Indiana Jones today!)

Audibles

Ah this is key: I pretty much have some sound going at all times! I listen to a tremendous amount of music. I live and breath music! (I even have a sleep playlist!) But I hate the radio (ever notice how ALL the stations go to ads at the same time!?), I always listen to iTunes at home and CDs in the car. I have a huge MP3 library, where a few of my favorites are Massive Attack, Thievery Corporation, and Kings of Convenience, but I also listen to a few great online radio stations that you can stream directly into your iTunes, like Soma FM‘s Groove Salad and Beat Blender, Ibiza Sonica, and Ibiza Global Radio.

For good business and personal growth information, I highly recommend several podcasts: Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders, Escape from Cubicle Nation, iinnovate, and the FallingFruit.tv podcasts. Listening to podcasts on the iPod is a great way to leverage your time if you’ve got a long commute on the bus/train, or a plane trip somewhere, or if you’re just doing chores around the house.

When I was at this year’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, I was motivated to buy the first three albums I’ve bought in probably years: Dark Side of the Moon, Kraftwerk’s live Minimum-Maximum, and Portishead’s first CD in a decade, Third. All highly recommended (you can sample below with my fancy new Amazon widget).

Other Resources

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about some of my interests, and about how I filter through the static. That’s it for me, but here are a few recent posts from other great writers in the blogosphere that might give you a few tips on dealing with information overload and productivity in this high-bandwidth media world we live in.

• Chris Brogan, a huge voice in the blog community, shares his tips for processing information effectively and turning out awesome content in How I Do It
• Maki shares how to get through too much information in too little time on DoshDosh with Managing Information Flow: How Prioritization Will Improve Your Work and Learning Efficiency
• Leo does an Exclusive Interview with Stephen Covey on His Morning Routine, Blogs, Technology, GTD and The Secret at Zen Habits

I’m gonna tag Ryan Healy, Ronnie Nurss, Meg Roberts, Erik Folgate, Jamie Harrop, Susan Johnston, and Holly Hoffman, my fellow bloggers in the Gen-Y conversation, to participate in the Media Diet meme! Anyone else who’s got 2 cents to throw in can jump on board too!

GTD is a productivity and organization system that was created by management consultant David Allen in his 2001 national bestseller Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Allen calls his system the “martial art of life and work” and he lays out a framework for getting control of your life with his five stages of mastering workflow: 1) collection, 2) processing, 3) organizing, 4) reviewing, and 5) doing.

In October of last year, Allen gave an enlightening presentation at the Google campus on how to create positive results in your work and life by implementing GTD ideas. In a talk titled “GTD and the Two Keys to Sustaining a Healthy Life and Workstyle,” he explains that ‘work,’ in his terms, is anything that you have to get done, and the competitive edge in the information economy is the ability to deal with surprise. Using GTD allows you to focus your mental energies on the your priorities. Drawing a martial arts parallel, Allen describes how the system gives you “mind like water”: allowing you to have the appropriate response to, and engagement with, what is present.

“Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to concentrate. …Your ability to concentrate is directly proportional to your ability to eliminate distraction. …Distraction is created by mismanaged commitments. …Your mind is limited in its ability to manage commitments, because it is handicapped in its ability to remember and remind.”

That is the problem most of us experience: we constantly fill our minds with things to remember, giving our brain the task of repeatedly reminding us of important to-do items and other pesky little details that we need to remember. Your brain isn’t really suited as a good reminder system, but until it trusts there is a better system, it cannot let go of the job.

That’s what GTD is for–to get all those little pieces of information out of your brain and onto paper (or into your computer), and free up your brainpower for bigger, more important tasks (like problem solving and creativity). In order to get things off your mind, you must know that: 1) you have captured, clarified, and organized your commitments, and 2) that you will engage consciously with them as often as you need to.

“Your ability to refocus, rapidly, on the right things at the right horizon at the right time is the master technique of knowledge work athletics. Perspective is your slipperiest and most valuable commodity. Therefore methods for maintaining perspective are your most important tools.”

So what are these five stages of mastering workflow? As Allen explains it, the five keys to gaining control are to:

1. Collect everything that has potential meaning to you
2. Process the list and clarify the meaning of those things
3. Organize in someplace you trust you’ll see at the right time
4. Review the system to keep it alive and current
5. Do

And the different “horizons” of focus when you’re working out your projects and tasks are on six different levels of work:

• At 50,000 feet are your purpose and principles
• At 40,000 feet is your vision for your career & lifestyle
• At 30,000 feet are your long-term goals for what you wish to be, do, or have
• At 20,000 feet are your areas of focus and responsibility (your body, your relationships, spiritual life, personal development). Most of us have about 15 roles.
• At 10,000 feet includes your current projects (often 30 – 100 projects)
• And of course the “Runway” is where most of your daily progress happens with “next actions” (Allen says most people tend to have between 150 – 220 current to-do’s)

Much like my recent guide to setting meaningful personal and professional development goals, using these frameworks is a great way of brainstorming your personal roles and getting your life and business in order! I’ve discussed GTD here at Thrilling Heroics before, and my past guest and GTD guru “Duff” McDuffee has created a great GTD Mastery checklist if you’re already using the system. If you’re new to it, and considering getting on board with Getting Things Done, WikiSummaries has a useful and detailed GTD quick reference that summarizes the book and all of its principles. Good luck getting things done!

At last year’s Entrepreneurship Week, President Hennessey described how teaching entrepreneurship does five important things within our society:

1. It increases people’s creativity and willingness to think outside the box
2. It encourages individuals to follow their passion and excel at what they do
3. It creates a community which embraces and leads change
4. It encourages people to have a “glass half full” attitude and approach problems as potential opportunities, and…
5. It increases students’ willingness to take on and overcome new challenges by building excellent teams!

The entrepreneurial spirit is definitely prevalent throughout Silicon Valley, and perhaps universities like Stanford are to thank for it. It certainly is home to many people who refuse to let the fear of failure prevent them from pursuing their BIG dreams! Remember, as Wayne Gretzky says, “You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”