MyGlobalCity

The Virtual Global Office Using Skype/ VoIP July 16, 2006

It occurred to me earlier today, while nibbling on a snack, that my entire freelancing business exists primarily in cyberspace. I do everything here. Well, almost. I’m reminded of a pseudo-documentary film shot in Vancouver, B.C., Canada (possibly called Downtown). It documents a collection of office workers who make a bet about who can stay “inside” downtown Vancouver’s interconnected office buildings without stepping foot outside into fresh air. That’s kind of what’s happened to me, except in cyberspace. And that’s because it’s become that easy to run a business entirely online.

Sure, I still I outside to get groceries and sometimes to the bank, have coffee with friends, let the dogs out, and check snail mail. But pretty much other than that, I do not currently have any reason to go out for business purposes.

Just yesterday, I proposed an idea for an online magazine, then wondered if I was biting off more than I could chew. But then I thought, it’s actually relatively easy in cyberspace. Consider the following scenarios. The first is how I ran my print magazine, from 1994-1996, before most people had online access let alone e-mail. The second scenario is how someone running an online magazine might operate - a truly global village operation.

Magazine Management Before the Internet

Back when I first re-entered university to finish up the Bachelor’s degree I had abandoned, as well as study for a Master’s degree, I had access to the “web”. This is the period 1991-1994, and my access consisted of Archie and newsgroups and Pine email. I started my regional monthly print magazine in late 1994, after a year of planning. I’d been writing for another regional bi-weekly rag, plus the university student paper.

Initially, I had contributors who were fellow students. But with the magazine being distributed in a 200 mile-wide area including and west of Toronto, Canada, somehow it started making its way to the United States, Australia, New Zealand, England, and other parts of Europe. I eventually had contributors across Canada - at several universities - and one in New Zealand. (To the latter, if by chance you’re reading this, I have some stuff that belongs to you, as well as that Cdn$100 I owe you. I lost your address.)

Having global, or even just national, contributors meant expensive phone bills - sometimes $800/m. I also drove from city to city (Windsor to Toronto), finding and paying for parking, meeting writers, buying lunch, dinner or drinks, spending time shooting the breeze, agreeing upon writing schedules that were usually delayed by one editor each time.

I’d also have to buy books, magazines, CDs/ cassettes, and pay for movies - either for myself or reviewers, and at least until we started getting free merch. Getting to that stage meant phoning up A&R people, driving out to Toronto to meet with them (I lived west of Toronto at the time). They’d hook me up with interviews with famous and semi-famous musicians, some of which were over the phone, others in person. (I missed my chance to meet The Ramones in person because of an exam, but I did interview Marky over the phone. RIP, Joey.)

Even though gasoline was then less than 1/2 the price it is now, it still added up, as did the time spent. I tried to combine as many meetings into a single day as I could. When I met with record label or book publishing reps, I’d also be distributing a new issue to stores and libraries, meeting with contributors to pick up their handwritten articles (yes!! few of them had computers then) or sometimes floppy disks, trying to sell advertising, dropping off invoices, or collecting payment.

Then when I was finished a meet + distribution run, I’d be typing in contributor articles or editing their typed work. (One guy, an English major, would use Microsoft Word to spell check his articles. But his spelling was so unbelievably atrocious, as was his use of the tool. If spell check told him the word was not in the dictionary, he would add it, in it’s incorrectly-spelled form. That was his justification for why his articles were full of spelling errors. I’m not kidding you. Still, aside from terrible spelling, he was actually a topnotch writer - one of my best book reviewers.)

Other costs incurred, which are probably the most obvious, are layout services, camera-ready copy, and printing. Fortunately for me, having been a volunteer at the university’s student paper, the operating staff let me rent out their Apple Macs to do my layout, as well as the photostat to produce camera-ready copy. I couldn’t have done it without them. And when my magazine folded, they never made me pay up what I owed.

Why did the magazine fold? A couple of reasons. Besides costing me probably $1500-2200/m (I was earning $15/h as a research assistant), it all took up so much time, and I was trying to work on a Master’s degree. I had no time to sell many ads, and ended up giving away a lot of them. (I got so fed up with the entire operation that I never collected what was owed to me by one record label.)

What really killed the mag, though, was when I went from monthly to bi-weekly publishing frequency. By then, having had a falling out with my Master’s supervisor, I was working full-time at a search engine company. It was impossible to manage a magazine at the same time. Even though I had a few people helping me (volunteer, as I had no revenue to pay), I had to put the damn thing to rest, and move on to another unsuccessful venture: promoting local bands.

Fast forward to today, and all of the tools available online. What would it take to run an online version?

Magazine Management With the Internet

The fact is, the cost of starting an online magazine is nearly nil, except maybe the cost of running a few ad campaigns to promote the website. With all of the free tools available online, it’s amazing what you can accomplish with very little time and money.

Productivity is especially incredible. This past week, I managed to write over 45 articles, because the Internet makes it so easy to research. For my print magazine, I usually wrote 2-4 interviews/ feature articles and anywhere from 5-20 reviews per issue. However, given I’ve lost touch with the reps at publishing houses and record labels, free review-copy merch is not currently forthcoming. But there are so many sources of music and text content to review online that it probably doesn’t matter.

Cost-wise, online publishing can at least be started for next to nothing. Phone calls and even video calls can be done for free using VoIP services such as Skype or Sightspeed, or Gizmo Project. Some of these services even let me have free conference calling. Or I can use a regular IM (Instant Messenger) such as Google Talk, MSN Messenger, or to have text conversations. If I’m interviewing musicians or authors or whomever, I can - with their permission - record the VoIP call and use it as part of a podcast series.

Besides saving loads of money on phone calls, there’s no print run to worry about. I can use free CMS software such as Wordpress, Drupal, or Movable Type to publish my magazine online (in web page format). Free services such as Feedblitz let subscribers receive emails when a new edition is out.

The best part is that it’s relatively easy to find an ad network that I can use to generate revenue, or run some affiliate programs. So the chances of actually pay my contributors this time around is very high.

Finally, with websites like Verbdate, I don’t have to feel like I have no friends - I don’t have to be a cyberhermit. I can meet people online and actually chat with them using free Skype VoIP software.

The only drawback to working in a virtual office is that while it might improve your bottom line, it’ll also expand your waist line.