Please check out my new website A Desk In The Sun. It's an attempt to develop an online resource for people who live in one country while working via the internet in another, in the same way as I do.
At the moment there's no book, magazine or website aimed specifically at people like us. That's despite it becoming an increasingly popular choice for anybody who can telecommute.
It would be great to turn the website into a real resource, but I cannot afford the time at the moment. I have to earn a living. If, hower, anybody reading this is interested in providing financial support I'd love to hear from them. A financial services company could, for example, find an audience with a group that has considerable spending power and use for money transfers, savings products and more.
Friday, March 31, 2006
Staying here, but still out there
This is my latest column for The Guardian newspaper. You can read it on the newspaper's site here.
When I moved from Edinburgh to Ibiza two years ago I really thought it would be a case of "out of sight, out of mind". In fact, far from being forgotten, I've not only kept in touch with many of my old friends, clients and contacts, I've managed to broaden the UK circle. And, they've continued to offer me work.
I wish I could pretend this was part of some carefully planned scheme, but I'd be lying. What's happened is, almost by accident, I've found myself following a variation on the highly publicised strategy that's supposed to be shaking the music industry to its foundations.
Earlier this year the Arctic Monkeys caused a fuss by selling truckloads of their debut album, mostly through an online community called MySpace, bypassing the usual marketing channels and selling straight to their fans.
Actually, what they did wasn't all that new. Six years ago the distinctly unfashionable Marillion emailed their fans asking them to pay upfront for luxury copies of their next CD and raised enough to avoid the need for a record-company advance.
Before the internet, most of a band's contact with fans came from touring. In business, networking performs a similar function. When I first arrived in Ibiza, almost everybody who was paying for my services was somebody I'd swapped business cards with back in Scotland. Not any longer. A growing number of my clients I've never seen in my life.
Instead of conference centres and bars, I now meet most of my contacts online through various discussion forums. Some of these are sophisticated membership organisations based around a website. Others use simple mailing lists. The mechanics of how they function doesn't really matter. It's who belongs and participates that counts.
And if you can find the right networks they're a great way of finding work and, from my point of view, they have the unbeatable advantage that geography is no barrier.
I can be sitting at my desk in Spain keeping in touch with all the gossip and professional developments while subtly touting for work just as easily as in Scotland. Of course I can't press the flesh as often, but anybody returning from abroad has a little bit of celebrity, which is useful when you do make it to a meeting.
Whether networking online or face-to-face, the more you put in, the more you are likely to get out. If your only contribution is the mercenary pursuit of work you may not get much response. If, however, you join in the discussions it's far more likely to be fruitful.
As with any group, though, debate tends to be dominated by a small number of participants. So when you first join you can feel ignored. But it is worth persevering, remembering that the vast majority of forum members don't join in most of the time, but just lurk and read the postings. They are often the ones that will offer you work.
It is definitely worthwhile setting up your own website or blog. It doesn't have to be complex. But do make sure that it's mentioned in your email signature so when you post to a forum it's easy for people to find out more about your skills and can get in contact easily. The alternative is to display your email address, which may attract the unwelcome attention of spammers.
Finding the most useful forums is a real challenge. There are the large generalist networks such as Ecademy and myriad others, generally focused on a specific industry or geographical area. Ask around, as even the most active groups don't necessarily show up on Google and it does help if there are a few members you know already.
In the spirit of online networking I'd be interested to share advice and experiences with readers who are attempting to follow the same lifestyle as me, self-employed telecommuters working in one country while living in another. These responses may form the basis for future columns and articles.
Nick Clayton is a freelance writer and web content consultant. Email: deskinthesun@nickclayton.com
When I moved from Edinburgh to Ibiza two years ago I really thought it would be a case of "out of sight, out of mind". In fact, far from being forgotten, I've not only kept in touch with many of my old friends, clients and contacts, I've managed to broaden the UK circle. And, they've continued to offer me work.
I wish I could pretend this was part of some carefully planned scheme, but I'd be lying. What's happened is, almost by accident, I've found myself following a variation on the highly publicised strategy that's supposed to be shaking the music industry to its foundations.
Earlier this year the Arctic Monkeys caused a fuss by selling truckloads of their debut album, mostly through an online community called MySpace, bypassing the usual marketing channels and selling straight to their fans.
Actually, what they did wasn't all that new. Six years ago the distinctly unfashionable Marillion emailed their fans asking them to pay upfront for luxury copies of their next CD and raised enough to avoid the need for a record-company advance.
Before the internet, most of a band's contact with fans came from touring. In business, networking performs a similar function. When I first arrived in Ibiza, almost everybody who was paying for my services was somebody I'd swapped business cards with back in Scotland. Not any longer. A growing number of my clients I've never seen in my life.
Instead of conference centres and bars, I now meet most of my contacts online through various discussion forums. Some of these are sophisticated membership organisations based around a website. Others use simple mailing lists. The mechanics of how they function doesn't really matter. It's who belongs and participates that counts.
And if you can find the right networks they're a great way of finding work and, from my point of view, they have the unbeatable advantage that geography is no barrier.
I can be sitting at my desk in Spain keeping in touch with all the gossip and professional developments while subtly touting for work just as easily as in Scotland. Of course I can't press the flesh as often, but anybody returning from abroad has a little bit of celebrity, which is useful when you do make it to a meeting.
Whether networking online or face-to-face, the more you put in, the more you are likely to get out. If your only contribution is the mercenary pursuit of work you may not get much response. If, however, you join in the discussions it's far more likely to be fruitful.
As with any group, though, debate tends to be dominated by a small number of participants. So when you first join you can feel ignored. But it is worth persevering, remembering that the vast majority of forum members don't join in most of the time, but just lurk and read the postings. They are often the ones that will offer you work.
It is definitely worthwhile setting up your own website or blog. It doesn't have to be complex. But do make sure that it's mentioned in your email signature so when you post to a forum it's easy for people to find out more about your skills and can get in contact easily. The alternative is to display your email address, which may attract the unwelcome attention of spammers.
Finding the most useful forums is a real challenge. There are the large generalist networks such as Ecademy and myriad others, generally focused on a specific industry or geographical area. Ask around, as even the most active groups don't necessarily show up on Google and it does help if there are a few members you know already.
In the spirit of online networking I'd be interested to share advice and experiences with readers who are attempting to follow the same lifestyle as me, self-employed telecommuters working in one country while living in another. These responses may form the basis for future columns and articles.
Nick Clayton is a freelance writer and web content consultant. Email: deskinthesun@nickclayton.com
Monday, February 27, 2006
When living abroad fails to deliver...
This column appeared in The Guardian on 24 February 2006
There's nothing more annoying than expat Brits who spend their time whinging about the way things aren't the same as at home. My response is: "If you don't like living in a foreign country, why don't you go back home?"
On the other hand, there are some Spanish bureaucracies that drive even locals to despair. Try walking into a bar miserably muttering, "Telefonica". Every drinker will join in with a horror story about the former telephone monopoly.
It often feels as if Telefonica is run by the bastard offspring of a Spanish dictator and a Russian author, a sort of "Franco Kafka". For instance, soon after I arrived in Ibiza I ordered ADSL and was told a modem would be delivered in a few days. Two weeks later I phoned to see what had happened. Apparently the courier couldn't find my address. This wasn't surprising because, according to Telefonica's computer system, I lived in the local unmanned telephone exchange.
At this point I should admit my conversations with Telefonica have not been in Spanish. One of the good things about the company is you can get straight through to an English-speaking operator. Well almost straight through. You have to know it's necessary to listen to two menus in Spanish before carefully over-pronouncing "ingles".
Mind you, that's easier than Telefonica's mobile service Movistar. After a few attempts you feel proud to have got through Catalan and Basque to get a menu option in English. Then it jumps back into Spanish for what I now know is an instruction to press the cuadradillo (hash key) to confirm.
Anyway, after several weeks, despite many calls to Telefonica, I still didn't have my equipment. Then, on one of my frequent visits to a local internet cafe, I discovered all Telefonica ADSL customers use the same log-in. All I needed to do was plug in my UK modem. I blush when I remember how excited this discovery made me.
So now I didn't care as months passed without a modem delivery. At least I didn't care until my broadband service suddenly stopped. I phoned Telefonica. The operator said I couldn't have been cut off because I'd never had ADSL. I could, however, order it. Back to square one.
Weeks passed. Eventually another operator told me I could cancel my order and go to a Telefonica shop instead. So that's what I did. After annoying the lengthy shop queue with my appalling Spanish I eventually understood it would take up to two weeks for the cancellation to get through the system.
In due course I returned to the shop, filled in the forms and waited to be handed my modem. But no, it had to be delivered to my apartment that was still, according to Telefonica's records, in the telephone exchange. In the end it was a lost courier who saved the day. He asked a local hotel for directions and the receptionist knew me. It had only taken eight months.
I was living on the outskirts of Ibiza's largest town. It can be worse if you live in the country, as a friend discovered. When his line developed a fault he was informed he must provide a number for the engineer to call. As he works from home in a place without mobile reception, this was a little problematic.
He also had broadband, at least until his service was "upgraded". Telefonica told him he was too far away from the exchange to have ever had ADSL. More in anger than expectation he requested a rebate to cover his monthly payments for a service he apparently couldn't receive. It was ignored.
Shortly after this, however, Telefonica allocated his phone number to somebody else. Calls went to whichever house got to the phone first. The situation was only resolved when the new subscriber rescinded their right to the number in writing.
Sometimes I wonder if all this is in some way related to the fact that Telefonica owns Endemol, the TV company behind Big Brother. Are we all housemates in some bizarre experiment to be televised later?
There's nothing more annoying than expat Brits who spend their time whinging about the way things aren't the same as at home. My response is: "If you don't like living in a foreign country, why don't you go back home?"
On the other hand, there are some Spanish bureaucracies that drive even locals to despair. Try walking into a bar miserably muttering, "Telefonica". Every drinker will join in with a horror story about the former telephone monopoly.
It often feels as if Telefonica is run by the bastard offspring of a Spanish dictator and a Russian author, a sort of "Franco Kafka". For instance, soon after I arrived in Ibiza I ordered ADSL and was told a modem would be delivered in a few days. Two weeks later I phoned to see what had happened. Apparently the courier couldn't find my address. This wasn't surprising because, according to Telefonica's computer system, I lived in the local unmanned telephone exchange.
At this point I should admit my conversations with Telefonica have not been in Spanish. One of the good things about the company is you can get straight through to an English-speaking operator. Well almost straight through. You have to know it's necessary to listen to two menus in Spanish before carefully over-pronouncing "ingles".
Mind you, that's easier than Telefonica's mobile service Movistar. After a few attempts you feel proud to have got through Catalan and Basque to get a menu option in English. Then it jumps back into Spanish for what I now know is an instruction to press the cuadradillo (hash key) to confirm.
Anyway, after several weeks, despite many calls to Telefonica, I still didn't have my equipment. Then, on one of my frequent visits to a local internet cafe, I discovered all Telefonica ADSL customers use the same log-in. All I needed to do was plug in my UK modem. I blush when I remember how excited this discovery made me.
So now I didn't care as months passed without a modem delivery. At least I didn't care until my broadband service suddenly stopped. I phoned Telefonica. The operator said I couldn't have been cut off because I'd never had ADSL. I could, however, order it. Back to square one.
Weeks passed. Eventually another operator told me I could cancel my order and go to a Telefonica shop instead. So that's what I did. After annoying the lengthy shop queue with my appalling Spanish I eventually understood it would take up to two weeks for the cancellation to get through the system.
In due course I returned to the shop, filled in the forms and waited to be handed my modem. But no, it had to be delivered to my apartment that was still, according to Telefonica's records, in the telephone exchange. In the end it was a lost courier who saved the day. He asked a local hotel for directions and the receptionist knew me. It had only taken eight months.
I was living on the outskirts of Ibiza's largest town. It can be worse if you live in the country, as a friend discovered. When his line developed a fault he was informed he must provide a number for the engineer to call. As he works from home in a place without mobile reception, this was a little problematic.
He also had broadband, at least until his service was "upgraded". Telefonica told him he was too far away from the exchange to have ever had ADSL. More in anger than expectation he requested a rebate to cover his monthly payments for a service he apparently couldn't receive. It was ignored.
Shortly after this, however, Telefonica allocated his phone number to somebody else. Calls went to whichever house got to the phone first. The situation was only resolved when the new subscriber rescinded their right to the number in writing.
Sometimes I wonder if all this is in some way related to the fact that Telefonica owns Endemol, the TV company behind Big Brother. Are we all housemates in some bizarre experiment to be televised later?
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