Working from the internet is fun. It beats sitting in traffic anytime. Although working alone is not for everyone, most people prefer to change seats with a traveling internet marketer. It took me a long time to be able to plan and build a “work from home” environment. This blog post is about the work related things I do almost every time I travel; well, except the last one. Let me save you the trouble with these 5 tips.
FREE Cell Phone Calls
Yes, free cell phone calls to USA from your cell phone. Yep, that’s my favorite 4 letter word. Call clients like you are in the office. This is the way I set up free international calls on my T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S3 on Android. If you’re on bmPhone, maybe it’s similar. Make sure you “Never use Cellular Network” and you’ll be good to go for free international calls back to USA (or whatever country your service provider is in).
In addition to using your cell phone, a VOIP servaice like MagicJack works perfect. Another option is to use a Google Voice number. It can ring on your laptop or cell phone.
Proxy Server
Want to listen to Pandora or Slacker? How about stream Netflix? You’ll get blocked because the IP is an another country. This is where a proxy server comes into play. A proxy server shows an IP address for selected countries. For example, I have a PAID subscription to Pandora, but since I’m not currently in San Diego, CA I get a “restricted” message saying my IP is in Mexico. The message below is what I get:
Dear Pandora Visitor,
We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.
We believe that you are in Mexico (your IP address appears to be 189.196.xx.xxx). If you believe we have made a mistake, we apologize and ask that you please email us.
I use a proxy service called HideMyAss to get around this. This is a free service and sometimes the service gets slow because the servers get to about 30% capacity. Everytime it’s a different IP address. There is a paid version too which I use since I can’t be without my Pandora. I forgot to mention, my extended family in Mexico can use this to access my Pandora, NetFlix, or whatever accounts. There are 64K+ IP addresses in 63 countries.
GPS – Cell phone vs TomTom/Garmin
Want to get lost? Just take your cell phone where you get no cell phone coverage! GPS is great if your cellular network gives you signal, but just go outside that coverage and you’ll be on roaming. Instead of paying per minute for roaming, use a traditional satellite GPS like a TomTom or a Garmin. There are many good ones in Bestbuy, Target and eBay. They should cost anywhere from $50 – $100 USD.
Scheduled Emails
Right now I’m in Mexico in a small town called Los Mochis, Sinaloa. I needed to auto-schedule invoices from Quickbooks. I created the PDF invoices and scheduled them to be emailed on a specific date and time. This is possible by using Boomerang’s free service. There’s a paid version too. All you need to do is go to Google Gmail > Settings > Labs.
Lodging (funny one here)
Don’t have any relatives to crash the night or week with? No problem! I have used Airbnb many times. It’s so much cheaper than renting a hotel. Here you can rent someone’s condo, apartment, house, room, or couch for a day. You won’t be paying retail rates using Airbnb because these properties are owned by private individuals. Airbnb has listings in 192 countries.
Want to go Free Loader style and pay nothing? Crash on someone’s couch for free and return the favor later on! I literally know 2 people who used the Global Free Loaders site. Although I like “Free”, this is a route that I pass on. But it’s great for any trustworthy freeloader who can return the favor.
