Business

I’m not here to discuss the relative merits of choosing to have advertising or sponsors on a blog or not – there are plenty of blog posts out there already on the topic. It offsets the costs of hosting and leaves some pocket money to spare.

It seems that each month there is a new contender for the title of “best advertising opportunity” on a blog, recently, I’ve been trying a site called EntreCard which had the potential for great things – if you are willing to put time into it. That didn’t work for me, as I have little time to blog and read relevant sites without dedicating time to building up “points” to get more links.

A new advertising model has just been announced from a site I’ve followed for many years, and I’m hoping that this format provides a suitable advertising experience on UrbanWorkbench.

PerformancingAds is shaping up to be one of the leaders in 125x125 pixel advertising

Excerpt from 10 Reasons To Try Out PerformancingAds | Performancing.com

3. Expose your site to more advertisers

We chose to have advertisers buy in 1 week increments for a reason. It lowers the thresold for advertiser entry, increasing the number of advertisers in the system, and ultimately making you more money.

4. Be part of the largest 125x125 marketplace on the Internet

We are quickly becoming the largest (and most diverse) network of publishers for the 125x125 ad format. Get exposure in the very first place that advertisers will go when looking to book 125x125 ads. Some of the great sites in our marketplace include Freelance Writing Gigs, Geeks are Sexy, Candy Addict and Business Pundit.

5. Free ad space through our publisher exchange program

All publishers in our ad network earn credits either by A) selling ads or B) showing other publisher ads in empty spots. Credits are then spent by getting free ad space on similar sites. It's a win-win situation. Everyone gets more exposure.

If you are an advertiser looking for spots on blogs like UrbanWorkbench, check out PerformancingAds for simple industry standard advertising.

I am still using Google Adsense and

on the site as these offer a different market. I’d love to hear your opinions on advertising and sponsoring you’ve tried, or what you like/don’t like about the advertising on UrbanWorkbench, and as always, I’m interested in ideas for content too!

Could you do your job from home?

And by 2015, according to demographer Wendell Cox, there will be more people in the country working electronically from home full time than are taking public transit.

Suburbia's not dead yet - Los Angeles Times

Telecommuting makes sense for many industries, even in some cases those that have been traditionally face to face service based. Businesses that are required to account for carbon emissions may have to take it to this level for offsets. If employees are not driving, could a business count that as an offset?

A bonus question: Would your boss be up for it?

Last year I ran a post on the locally grown brochure that Safeway Canada had inserted into their weekly flyer right across the country. In their mind Local means Canadian, however, the reality is that food produced in Washington State is closer to us here in the Kootenays than food produced in Manitoba.

This week, I've asked a question of Safeway, to see what their delivery protocol is for food such as apples from Creston to the store in Castlegar.

Can you tell me what the process of delivery to a store in Castlegar is for say apples from Creston? Are the apples picked up at the farm by a truck and delivered straight to Castlegar, or does it get shipped to a warehouse first, say in Calgary or Vancouver?

The premise in my mind is that food labelling in store leads you to believe that it is from Creston (just 150km away), but the reality may be that it has travelled many thousand kilometres to get to the store where it is bought.

A couple of days later I received this answer...

To answer your question, goods are delivered to our warehouses in Calgary and Vancouver and then distributed to the individual stores. Please let me know if there is anything else that I can assist you with.

Although I'm disappointed, it's about what I expected with a company of this size - the efficiencies of scale are greater than concerns for minimizing vehicle miles travelled. I don't blame the drivers or the corporation, it's not their fault we demand a large selection of perfect produce all year round. The cost benefit analysis has been done by their accountant, and maybe there's a price of gas where the whole mode of delivery switches, but any solution to one problem throws up many more - so it's likely that things won't change in a hurry.

Simply put - the consumer lifestyle we currently enjoy is totally unsustainable when you consider how far away everyday products travel from for us to enjoy and discard the packaging in an instant. The challenge is in finding natural, local alternatives to the essentials we purchase, and weaning ourselves off the unsustainables we consume.

One of my first posts at UrbanWorkbench was "Meet Mike the Semi-Nomadic Engineer". In that post, while living in Urbanized Newcastle, NSW, I described the way in which I as a professional engineer was able to enjoy the sites and sounds of the city while working on design projects. The term Urban Nomad is still being used a year and a half later...

Nomads at last | Economist.com

Urban nomads have started appearing only in the past few years. Like their antecedents in the desert, they are defined not by what they carry but by what they leave behind, knowing that the environment will provide it. Thus, Bedouins do not carry their own water, because they know where the oases are. Modern nomads carry almost no paper because they access their documents on their laptop computers, mobile phones or online.
Increasingly, they don't even bring laptops. Many engineers at Google, the leading internet company and a magnet for nomads, travel with only a BlackBerry, iPhone or other “smart phone”. If ever the need arises for a large keyboard and some earnest typing, they sit down in front of the nearest available computer anywhere in the world, open its web browser and access all their documents online.

The article even gets into some philosophy regarding technology....

The most wonderful thing about mobile technology today is that consumers can increasingly forget about how it works and simply take advantage of it. As Ms Canlas sips her Americano and dives into her e-mail in-box at the Nomad Café, she gives no thought to the specifications and standards that make her connection possible. It is the human connections that now take over. Since humans, as Sigmund Freud put it, must arbeiten und lieben, work and love, in order to find fulfilment, this report will start off by examining how they will work.

Living in the Kootenays there is less need to be an Urban Nomad, things are rarely as stressful or busy as in the big smoke. However, there are also less opportunities to be an Urban Nomad, with less wifi, fewer coffee shops, and even fewer that serve good coffee.

Ahh, the sacrifices we make for lifestyle.

Some of the most famous decision makers in the world napped during their work day - yet the practise never caught on for the general masses in our post industrialized economy of workaholics. But in today's technologically driven workplace, there are tools that can help you relax, and even wake up feeling refreshed so you can continue the work you need to do. Pzizz is one of the options out there, and one that I've used on and off for the past couple of years.

Do you feel tired during the day? You're not alone.
Sleep problems and lack of energy affect most people at some time, but Pzizz can help.
This revolutionary insomnia treatment enables you to sleep better by stopping the nightly struggle.
It also helps you increase energy levels during the day with unique power naps or performance breaks.

There have been many notable nappers throughout history, here's a partial list...

• Salvador Dali
• Thomas Edison
• Winston Churchill
• John F. Kennedy
• Albert Einstein
• John D. Rockefeller
• Lyndon B. Johnson
• William J. Clinton
• Napoleon Bonaparte
• Ludwig van Beethoven

Why aren't you napping?

This software has changed how I operate during the day. I am able to time-out in a structured manner, gaining the ultimate in relaxation and rejuvenation from a short, sometimes 20 minute nap.

You can check it out at this link. I highly recommend the practice, and all you need is an mp3 player such as an ipod.

Recently I've been wading through regional and municipal growth predictions proposed over the past ten years. One of the things that hasn't been factored in any of the scenarios I've read is the trend towards an aging population that will require an increased younger serving group to move in, (assuming static or improving levels of service).

George Penfold, the regional innovation chair in rural economic development at Selkirk College in Castlegar, said the West Kootenay could see a shortage of 13,000 workers within five years.

Penfold also told the Regional District of Central Kootenay the choking impacts of the baby boom are already being felt in the region and it is getting worse.

edmontonsun.com - Canada- Baby boomer's retiring

With local unemployment at record lows, many businesses are already finding it hard to keep up with demand for their services.

The region as a whole needs to do some wholesale promotion of the region as a cheap viable place to live and raise a family.