Blogging is a legit job these days and many set up their own business right from home. So what are the pros and cons of working from home versus going in to an office?

What started out as a way for individuals and businesses to share their story has turned into big business. And I do mean B-I-G. Some high profile fashion bloggers are said to be making around $1M per year doing this gig. That is some real money.

Not all of us can claim a seven digit salary by blogging, but it is a way to make money doing what you love. One of the main benefits of blogging is the opportunity to work from home. This can be a boon or bust to your blogging career, depending on your home and, well, you.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of working from home versus heading off-site:

1  Flex Time // Possibly the main pro of working from home is flexibility. You can work while doing the laundry, setting up orthodontist appointments, paying bills, and whatever other household chores need to be done. And you can do it all with bed head. The con of this little side benny? It is very easy to get distracted and then *poof* it’s time to pick up the kids from school and your work time has vanished. There are many tools bloggers can enlist to help stay on track and get the most done.

So working at home can be distracting, especially if the family is home. But you can actually catch up on that work you sidelined during daytime hours by doing them at night. Or the weekend. Or whenever fits into your schedule.

2  Communication Skills // You will need to communicate with those you are collaborating or networking with, or writing for. This is most often done by email. How convenient. The downside? Sometimes the message does get lost in translation. Still, once you get your system down between those you work with, communication doesn’t have to suffer. And there are options other than email, like Skype meetings, Facebook chats or Google+ Hangouts, or good old fashioned phone calls.

3   Solo v Group Setting // The internet-only relationship is obviously less distracting than working in a busy office and people tend to get more done when they are alone. Research suggest that for those who are self motivated, privacy and not getting interrupted means greater creativity and productivity. But it can get lonely for the extrorvert. If you love to bounce ideas off of others or are more creative around people, a face-to-face office setting may be better for you. Yahoo Chief Executive, Marissa Mayer, feels working side by side with other employees works better for everyone. Mayer took some major heat over her decision to bring employees who’d been working from home back to the office, citing group communication and collaboration as the reason behind the move.

4  Dress Up or Down // Back to that working with bed head thing. Sounds pretty great, right? It is true, you can wear pajamas, stay in your sweaty workout gear, go make up free…when you work from home. A couple of years ago I was included in a story in a local newspaper about wearing pajamas in public and working in them from home. While I don’t make a practice of going out in public in my PJs (aside from the occasional early morning school drop off), I don’t mind working in them at all. Actually, I consider it a perk of the job. The only real con to this? Unless you are prone to unexpected visitors or take lots of video chat meetings, can’t think of one.

5  Cash Flow // Last but not least, you’ll save some cash working from home. Rent free and you can write off a portion of your home expenses. Talk to your accountant for details.

Whichever you choose, home office or off-site, the state of your desk is key to productivity. Keeping your desk free from clutter and office under control will help to make the most of your time. Happy blogging!

Related on EcoSalon

9 Functional Home Office Ideas for Small Spaces

5 Green Office Products We Love

42 Introvert Problems That Aren’t Problems at All

Image by Craig Garner via Unsplash.com

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What is up with all the cyber bullying these days? Can’t we all just get along?

As a blogger, I’ve been through it. Anonymous people heaping on the negativity as if what they say doesn’t hurt. Luckily, I write about health for the most part, so my writing is less polarizing and the comments are less dramatic. The majority of people are in fact delightful, but there are those shining few who leave a stain on your day. Are these anonymous comments an acceptable form of cyber bullying?

A Pew Research Study found that 25 percent of people admit to posting comments online anonymously and one researcher out of the University of Houston found that such anonymity contributes to less civil discourse.

I acquaint it to when you’re sitting in traffic and in a heat of road rage, you lay on the horn for the elderly women who just pulled out in front of you. You wouldn’t scream at a grandma if you were face to face, but somehow the anonymity of your car makes losing your temper acceptable. It’s similar online. In fact, one study found that 53 percent of comments were uncivil if newspapers allowed commenters anonymity. When newspapers required names or links to Facebook or other social networks, that number dropped to 29 percent.

“I think people are also much more inclined to comment about something if they have a complaint. Sometimes it’s the only way you feel that you can be heard, so it winds up feeling like online comment sections are filled with negativity,” said Shayla Thiel-Stern, a professor of new media and culture at the University of Minnesota on CBSLocal.

Negative comments generally come from a small group with a loud voice.

“I don’t think we’re getting meaner as a society,” Thiel-Stern said. “I think social media emphasizes some of that meanness.”

Anonymous comments tend to be angrier, according to another study, which found that frequent venting on the internet leads to subsequent increases in anger, rather than decreases. Those who frequently rant online are significantly more angry than the norm and those who read the rants are also less happy.

According to vlogger ZE Frank, it takes more potential energy to leave comments and as a result, those comments are often laced with polarizing opinion.

Have you ever left a vicious anonymous comment online? Would you?

Related on EcoSalon

Sexting and the Slut List

We’re All Mean Girls Sometimes

Legalizing Hate in Arizona

Image: FHKE

The post Acceptable Cyber Bullying: Why Are Anonymous Commenters So Vicious? appeared first on EcoSalon.

Bloggers really are taking the fashion world by storm. They now rub shoulders with Vogue editors at the big international fashion weeks, interview famous designers and models and even create full time careers from marrying the digital world with sustainable design.

With so many fashion writers seeing the future in sustainability, I look at where the new green fashion voices are coming from and how to find them online. Here is a round up of five of the best eco style blogs.

1. Eco Fashion Talk

Pretty much a roll call of any sustainable fashion designer worth knowing, Eco Fashion Talk provides short and snappy summaries of the who, what, why and where of new designers and collections. Created by well known Sass Brown, author of Eco Fashion (former designer and now academic) this blog keeps you up to date on who’s who of eco design. With a particular emphasis on emerging and European designers, Eco Fashion Talk provides a truly international perspective.

2. State of Green

Linked to an online eco style store of the same name in Australia, State of Green helps those of us living ‘down under’ with a full picture of modern sustainable design in the region. Far away from the fashion capitals of New York and Paris, it is refreshing to see a green living blog dedicated to the Asia Pacific. It covers everything from stylish ways to store books, to local fashion workshops and is one to bookmark for any Aussie green gal or those who are interested in some of the innovative fashion and green living initiatives developing on the underside of the world!

3. Things Your Grandmother Knew

This sweet blog is all about living simply, living green and living economically. It taps into a whole set of skills which have been lost through generations and carefully ties simplicity and sustainability together. Things Your Grandmother Knew covers topics from vintage living to recipes, sewing and shopping tips. The fashion pages delve into everything from how to deal with mystery holes in laundry, to how to make a swish evening wrap!

4. Style Eyes Ethical Fashion Blog

The motto of this blog is ‘making the world a greener place, one dress at a time’ and it sure does deliver. Fashion blogger Ceri Heathcote aims to inspire others, through her love of vintage, second hand and ethical clothing, based on the principle of buying clothes that will last for many years. Ceri is probably best known for being the brains behind ‘Style is’, the UK’s sustainable style search engine, which helps consumers find ethical alternatives to high end fashion styles.

5. Live Eco

Live Eco is all about ‘trending lightly’ and calls itself an eco chic essentials guide to doing just that when it comes to fashion, beauty and lifestyle. The categories on this site are truly comprehensive as it covers everything from ‘street chic’ and ‘celebrity style’ to ‘weddings’ and ‘decor and design.’ It also covers stories from all around the world including South Africa, the UK and Australia. This one helps you keep your finger on the pulse!

Images: Anonymous Collective, Live Eco, Eco Fashion Talk

The post The New Green Voices: The 5 Best Green Fashion Blogs appeared first on EcoSalon.

Take a look at the bottom of our posts. What has changed?

Yep – you don’t have to be logged into Facebook to comment anymore. We’ve gone back to a basic commenting process that makes it super-easy for anyone to leave their thoughts…and that’s exactly why we’ve done it.

Over the last 4 years we’ve written about a lot of things. We’ve cheerleaded, we’ve lambasted, we’ve banged our drums and we’ve pinned our hearts to our sleeves. In short – we’ve cared, unapologetically. If we’ve written about it, we have feelings on the matter and we’re not shy about showing it.

Sometimes you don’t agree with us. And frankly? We love that. We loved it when you argued on the side of PETA.  We loved it when you challenged our thoughts on a certain fast-food chain. When Sarah objected to NASA firing a probe into the Moon, we all argued the point in the comments. When Tina listed 15 foods to boost your metabolism, you enriched the post no end by adding links, testaments and useful tips of your own. You helped us reach consensus on what defines “toxic.” You’ve agreed, you’ve disagreed, you’ve cheered us on and called us out – and you’ve kept us honest, because we don’t speak for everyone and hey, we’re not perfect.

(I know, so hard to believe).

It’s your discussion and your input that turned EcoSalon into the platform we always hoped it would be – and we think a third-party Facebook comments plugin has been getting in the way of that healthy, exciting dialogue. So now we’ve ditched it. We don’t want to stifle your voice or keep you at a distance – we want you to show us how the issues we write about affect you.

The safeties are off, people.

Feel free to give us a piece of your mind.

Image: puliarf

The post We Like Your Brain: Discuss appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnThis could be your reader. She deserves better.

Did you hear a funny sound or see smoke trickling out of your computer last week? That was the sound of lady website XOJane blowing up the internet by publishing a post by said site’s health editor on how using birth control such as condoms or the pill is, like, totes the pits, which caused just about the entire int-her-net to clutch our pearls and foam at the mouth.

I’m not so terribly offended that an adult woman writing for a professional website in the capacity of health editor would claim that only fat goody-goodies take the pill. What really offends me is that apparently this is what passes for good writing on the internet these days. THIS.

“Yup, on my bad days I am the glowering, self-critical too-much-eyeliner-on nightmare that terrorizes every workplace setting I choose to inhabitate with the kind of toxic insecurity that destroys … well, it’s not particularly compelling to anyone else or powerful in any way, so it doesn’t destroy much except my own self-worth and happiness, from hour to hour, until I hang out with a friend or something and the self-obsession and negativity recedes and I feel normal again!

(Does this stuff ever end? Do I have to hurl myself into a mirror? Why didn’t I watch that movie more carefully so I can reference it better? Jesus, mang. I’m so BORED of being UNHAPPY.)”

Is this good writing? Jane Pratt – she of Sassy and Jane – says it is and that it’s why her website is awesome. She says it’s “riveting and raw.” But really, is it good? I’m asking honestly. I’d form an opinion myself, but I have no goddamn clue what’s going on in that paragraph.  It was supposed to be about eye liner, and I’m confused.

As those of us who do it for a living know, writing for the internet can be challenging. We contend with a lot of prejudice, both from people who assume we’re not good enough to get into print (not the case) and from those who assume we’ve never heard of spell-checking (sometimes the case). But in our defense, online articles go from pitch to publish really fast, and humans make typos and mistakes. Very few websites have the leisurely pace or the proofreading staff of The New Yorker, is what I’m saying. We already have a bad rap, so writing professional stories like a teenager scribbling in a diary Does Not Help. Not to mention the fact – you read it here first – that readers don’t read dishy, confessional blogginess and think, “Wow, what a raw and edgy personality!” They read it and think, “Wow, that girl should book some extra therapy sessions.”

There’s wonderful writing on the internet, and it’s not all about the quote-unquote important stuff. I’ve read slideshows on the Top 10 Celeb Booby Shots and captions to cat videos that were so hysterical they made my eyes bleed. Great writing has nothing to do with being formal or stuffy or serious or even appropriate. But I think it’s fair to say that to be called “good writing,” something should meet a basic standard of mechanical proficiency, readability, and clarity. To call this kind of sub-grammatical apunctuated word salad “riveting and raw”… well that kind of chaps my ass on behalf of all of us who try every day to form complete and coherent sentences – maybe even good ones that make you laugh or make you think.  Because we do try. Very hard. “Inhabitate”? I mean, really. Come on, now. Just because it’s the internet doesn’t mean you get to make up words.

Lo, our beloved English language, it changeth even as we speak. And that’s natural. But it’s under enough siege already, what with the all the textin n stuf. Must we now consider this acceptable, nay, better-than-average? Is this the future? A lazy future in which every professionally-written sentence sounds like a text from a thirteen-year-old girl who got hold of some Ritalin and marabou heels? (OMG you guys it’s SO awesome! Like, FOR REALS! HAHAHAHAHAHA I’M SO EDGY!)

As much as I feel bad for English-speaking humanity, I also feel bad for the writer herself. Because that’s another tough thing about the web: when you have a bad day, an uninspired day, and you churn out some junk because you’re on deadline and you have other stuff to get done (which happens to all of us), it lives forever. A clunker story doesn’t just disappear into the ether as soon as the next issue of the magazine hits newsstands. Nowadays, it’s always just a Google away, and that writer will forevermore be known as That Girl Who Wrote the Ridiculous Thing. It’s rough.

But maybe the joke’s on us. Maybe in twenty years we’ll be analyzing the sub-grammatical apunctuated word salad the way we analyze ee cummings or James Joyce or David Foster Wallace, even though now it seems like the unholy love child of LOLcats and Twitter. And if that happens, I think I speak for all of us when I say, “I can haz cynanide?”

Editor’s note: This latest installment in your editor’s column, The Insider’s Guide to Life, is penned by the fabulous Ms. Ford.

The post The Insider’s Guide to Life: On Writing Good appeared first on EcoSalon.

Experienced that overwhelming feeling of holiday stress yet? You know, the one that hits you the second you see Christmas displays at your local grocery store not even a few seconds after the Halloween candy has been moved to the discount shelf?

The holiday season is full of an array of wonderful things: good food, family, friends, candles, kitchens filled with the smell of baking, the potential for snow, vacation – the list goes on. But there’s also the consumer-induced stress that’s indicative of the season, and even if you yourself have given up the tradition of conventional presents and gifting, getting away from the onslaught of “buy buy buy” can be difficult. Sometimes downright impossible.

That’s why it’s refreshing to see all those holiday initiatives that are focused on something bigger. Taking the spirit of the season and getting people really excited about doing something good instead of stressing over when and where they’re going to pick up last minute presents. Passports With Purpose (PWP) is making that happen with social media.

Started as a way to rally the power of travel bloggers – who all believe in the “power of travel to change the world” – PWP has evolved into a major social media giving campaign, involving not only bloggers, but online travel companies and corporate sponsors. The money all goes to a selected non-profit, this year, LAFTI, an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of the Dalit (untouchable) population in India.

“As bloggers, travel or otherwise, we seem to live in a bubble – sitting behind our computers as we talk AT the world. Passports with Purpose allows for engagement between the other participants, the companies that have donated items for prizes and our readers, who are thrilled to be part of such an effort. And we can feel oh-so-good in the process,” says co-founder Beth Whitman.

The initiative, in its third year, is simple: bloggers host a prize on their site, and a $10 donation gets you a raffle ticket to enter to win the prize of your choice. That makes giving not only simple, but doable.

“Personally, I like the idea that instead of spending ten bucks on a stocking stuffers, you can make a ten dollar donation. Maybe it’s a ten dollar donation, that’s all it is, and it goes towards our beneficiary this year. But it could also be a ten dollar donation AND a luxe hotel stay or some cool gear or any number of great things. Maybe we mitigate some of that mad frenzy of holiday shopping stress by tying the funds to a significant cause,” says co-founder Pam Mandel.

As of the end of November, PWP has already raised $41,000, putting them even closer to their ultimate goal of $50,000.

To find out more and make a donation, visit the PWP website.

Image: mckaysavage

The post Holiday Good: Passports With Purpose Uses Social Media to Help Build a Village in India appeared first on EcoSalon.

As most of us linger in blogland, the paper-free platform makes it easy to forget the footprint left behind; even if the footprint is a tiny computer mouse-shaped print, it is still brimming with carbon emissions. Luckily for us, there is an effortless way to offset a blog’s dent in the environment.

An initiative started in Germany, the Make it Green program reaches right into the United States to help you square up with Mother Earth. The My Blog is Carbon Neutral initiative has partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant a sapling in Plumas National Forest on behalf of your little piece of online real estate. Your blog and/or website can be responsible for a fir or pine sapling planted in Northern California, offsetting your site’s carbon footprint for fifty years. Now you can use “˜ecologically conscious’ as an adjective for your website in addition to the rest of your life.

The preservation of forests is a great compensation toward excess carbon dioxide (and thus global warming); take it one step past forest preservation toward forest creation by participating in this program. Isn’t it poetic for the intangible cellulose-free online demographic to collaborate for a tangible change in oxygen production?!

The post Blog for Oxygen appeared first on EcoSalon.

Green media has exploded in the past few years. Want to completely lose track of time? Take to your Twitter account and try to retweet all the green out there. (I am recently convinced that my own green Twitter account is determined to transport me through a space time continuum.) We decided to make it a little easier for you and go behind the scenes with a few of our favorite eco bloggers.

Katherine Goldstein

Katherine Goldstein is the editor of the Green section of the Huffington Post, a one stop shop for breaking news and commentary on climate, food, policy, design, green DIY and animal fun. Her projects for the Green page have been featured in places such as the LA Times and The Weekly Standard. Before joining the Huffington Post in April 2008, she contributed to books and news publications such as BUST, AM New York, and New York Press. She is a graduate of Vassar College and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Katherine likes bike riding and secret underground supper clubs. She also has had snowball fights with Daryl Hannah in Copenhagen. Follow her on Twitter @kgeee.

Chris Baskind

Last June, eco-blogger Chris Baskind parked his minivan to begin a one-month experiment in carefree living. He hasn’t driven since. Now a committed utility cyclist, Chris writes from the perceptive that we’ll finding new ways to live and work in the “Minimalist Century,” whether we like it or not. In fact, The Minimalist Century is the name of a new website Chris will be launching soon. In the meantime, you can find Chris on the green living website Lighter Footstep, on More Minimal, and sharing lots of eco and lifestyle information via Twitter.

Kurt Kohlstedt

Kurt Kohlstedt is the Founder of Webist and Misnamed Media, publishing WebEcoist, WebUrbanist, Dornob and more on subjects from green and urban living to home design and scientific innovation. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Carleton College and received his Master of Architecture from the College of Architecture & Urban Planning at the University of Washington, Seattle. Kurt believes that ‘going green’ is not a special interest or one-time strategy, but a critical component of responsible and innovative design of all kinds and at all times – less of a movement than an necessary and integrated way of thinking and living. Catch Kurt’s green and design tweets here.

Ariel Schwartz

Ariel Schwartz is a daily contributor at FastCompany.com, the Technology Editor at Inhabitat, and a freelancer for websites including SF Weekly, NBC Bay Area, and Triple Pundit. A graduate of Vassar College, she has previously worked in publishing, organic farming and documentary film. Her interests include permaculture, hiking, skiing, and live music. She currently resides in San Francisco, CA. Check out Ariel’s tweets for great green and tech links.

Shea Gunther

Shea Gunther has been bouncing around the green blogosphere for almost as long as there has been one to bounce around in. He covers climate change, green politics, and renewable energy for the Mother Nature Network. Shea started a blog in 2002 and drew his first paycheck as an environmental blogger in 2006 when he co-founded the blog network Green Options. He currently lives in the small city of Portland, Maine and loves getting around town on his electric bike. When he’s not trying to save the world, he can be found playing ultimate Frisbee, rock climbing, or running along the ocean. Don’t miss Shea’s tweets for plenty of humor, opinion and information.

Starre Vartan

Starre Vartan is the founder and editor of EcoChick, one of the smartest blogs out there for hip, environmentally savvy young women. Eco Chick has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Shape Magazine, Glamour, the Christian Science Monitor, and many other print and blog publications. Starre’s book, entitled The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green was published Fall, 2008. This green girl grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York and Sydney, Australia; both environments instilled in her a deep love and appreciation for the natural world. She lives and writes from her home on the Connecticut shore that she shares with two rescued cats and a crazy cocker spaniel. You can follow her on Twitter at ecochickie.

Chris Ingham Brooke

Chris Ingham Brooke founded the Environmental Graffiti Network in 2007. Environmental Graffiti is an eclectic mix of the most bizarre, funny and interesting environmental news on the planet. The idea behind the blog has been to search the vast realms of the internet on behalf of all environmentalists who don’t take themselves too seriously and compile it into a daily blog. Recently, the site re-launched as a collaborative magazine about the intersection of culture, nature, environmentalism and art, where anyone can write and earn a substantial portion of the ad revenue. When he’s not working, Chris can be found in his bedroom playing guitar, hanging out with his mates at the pub or simply roaming the streets of London wearing a dark cape and pretending to be Batman.

Stephanie Rogers

Stephanie Rogers blogs from Asheville, North Carolina, covering a myriad of green issues. From sharing recipes for natural homemade beauty products at Eco-Chick.com to writing articles about conservation and wildlife at The Mother Nature Network (MNN), she considers herself truly lucky to combine so many of her passions as a green living and environmental writer. Stephanie was lead writer at Earthfirst.com for nearly two years and contributes weekly articles to WebEcoist and our own EcoSalon. Currently, Stephanie is working on her first novel. She’s an active green tweep, so be sure to follow her on Twitter.

Rob Reed

Rob Reed is the voice behind Max Gladwell, an independent blog about social media strategy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship. Last year, Rob organized the first distributed, simultaneous blog post entitled “10 Ways to Change the World Through Social Media.” It was published on more than 85 blogs including Mashable, The Huffington Post, and more. Both the story headline and #10Ways hashtag became trending topics on Twitter, driving additional traffic to each of the participating blogs. Rob also started the #EcoMonday Twitter meme. By day, he is Vice President of Marketing and Government Relations for Zumbox, the first paperless postal system. An essential read and Twitter follow for any greenie.

Brian Clark Howard

Brian has been an environmental journalist for almost ten years and serves as a web editor for The Daily Green. He was previously managing editor of E/The Environmental Magazine and has written for Popular Mechanics Online, Men’s Health, Miller-McCune, Plenty, The Green Guide, Connecticut Magazine, AlterNet and elsewhere. Brian grew up in the Midwest and has a Masters in journalism from Columbia University. He spends a lot of time on the Internet, is addicted to social media, and blogs as the URTH Guy.

Get to know these fantastic green folks more by following their blogs and Twitter feeds – you won’t be disappointed!

Image: Meanest Indian

The post Eco Bloggers We Love appeared first on EcoSalon.