Google Voice did just that.  I’m sure everyone has heard by now that Grand Central was purchased by Google.  Recently Google decided to transfer/upgrade Grand Central accounts to Google Voice, another one of those Google services that is still in Beta mode and not quite available to the masses.

Let me give you a quick run down.  Google Voice lets you have a telephone number.  They call it a “number for life.”  So you give that number out to people rather than your actual phone numbers.  You can login to your Voice account and change a bunch of settings, such as where phone calls to that number go, whether or not they go to a screening service first, maybe some callers are on a safe list and go straight through.  I have had this set up for a couple of years now and it comes in handy.  All of my whois info for my domain names have that number.  I give it to pretty much everyone.  It all used to be at Grand Central before.  So when someone calls that number, based on my settings, they are either directed to a screening which asks them to say their name or they go straight go my phone.  If they are screened first, I get a call asking if I want to talk to this person, send them straight to voicemail (and I can listen in on the voicemail, and have the option to answer during the voicemail) or ignore the call.

All of these options were available before Google even acquired Grand Central.  Google being Google has taken things a step further.  They have integrated this service with my Google account and now I have my contacts from my email address mixed with my Google Voice account. And I don’t have to login to Grand Central to access my account.  I access it along with my email and other Google services I use, such as Google Reader.  I tell you there are plenty of reasons to fear Google but damn they make it difficult to not use!  Yeah I’m a junky as far as Google is concerned.

Along with the upgrades I just mentioned, there were a few I hadn’t really paid attentiopn to.  Today I got a phone call from somebody trying to sell me something.  I let it go straight to voicemail as usual.  I didn’t even bother listening to the message.  These voicemails get emailed to me and I can listen to them on my blackberry if I want or listen to them on my computer later on. 

So after the call I got an email on my phone from Google Voice, just like I used to with Grand Central.  When I opened the email I was FREAKIN’ AMAZED.  The email message didn’t just have a “play” option to listen to the voicemail, it TRANSLATED the voicemail to TEXT and displayed that text in the message of the email!  Just like that I knew what the message was and deleted the email.  And I was stunned.

So obviously it’s beneficial for Google to translate this message to text for me.  With text in the email Google can now serve ads that are relevant to me while I am reading my email.  If it was just a message that said “play” and didn’t have anything about the actual message the ads would be meaningless to me.  Kind of like the same problem Youtube is having with Video.  So Google has invested probably like a million dollars, or something crazy, to be able to translate my voicemail messages I get from Google Voice into text.  And I love it.

Another feature they have added is the ability to send and receive text messages from my Google Voice phone number.  Insane!  Now there is no reason why I shouldn’t give this number out rather than my real cell phone number.  Am I just another pawn in Googles grand scheme to take over the world and own us all?  I just might be but man it’s hard not to love their services.

Google Voice Is Nothing Short of Incredible is a post from: Pedro B

I read an article that touches on how easy it is to find information on individuals on Robert Scoble’s blog yesterday where he talks about how to socially network if you are laid off.  Robert gives advice on how to present your online image effectively in order to get the job you want.  I find it interesting that his post only talks about cleaning up your image about and not trying to hide yourself online.  Basically he’s assuming you will be found and that you want to be found.

I know he’s a techy and using a geek mentality about this but honestly if I’m looking for a job I don’t want my employer to see me online.  The problem is we enter our name into everything.  I set up an account with LinkedIn sometime in the beggining of this year and have never logged in since but that is the first thing that shows up when I Google myself.  I know LinkedIn is geared towards networking but shouldn’t they warn you during registration that your name will be spidered and indexed by the search engines?  I don’t mean just the Terms of Service, I mean a big box I can check if I decide I don’t want my full name available.

Web users are becoming a bit to insensitive to online privacy.  If you use Google regularly (I do) then it pretty much knows everything about you.  What you buy, what you’re interests are, who you interact with.  It’s a sign of the times when a potential employer can go digging for dirt on you just by typing your name in to a Google field and hitting “Search.”

The Internet and Your Privacy is a post from: Pedro B

Wordpress Blog

I have gone into the WordPress Content Management System before, but now I am going to elaborate a bit with tips for your first WordPress Blog installation. WordPress is very easy to setup and begin to use. Here I will offer some suggestions and recommendations for getting the most out of your first WordPress blog.

Here is a list of what I will be covering in this post. This may be a bit more comprehensive than what you need so feel free to jump forward to the place where you are at in your first WordPress blog.

WordPress Setup

Domain Name
Hosting
Installation

WordPress Settings

Discussion Settings
Permalinks
Changing Permalink Settings

WordPress Theme

Picking a theme

WordPress Plugins

Using WordPress Plugins
Installing WordPress Plugins
Must-Have WordPress Plugins

Your First WordPress Post

Categories
Tags
Meta

WordPress Setup

Picking a Domain Name

I go a bit deeper into picking your first domain name in a different post, but I will recap – Make sure you will love it forever and try to go with dot com!

Web hosting Service

I also touched on picking a web hosting service but this is much easier than picking your domain name. There are thousands of web hosting service out there so due some searching and make sure you know what you want out of your new web hosting service.

WordPress Installation

For your first WordPress install there are a few different ways to get setup. If you have chosen Hostgator as your web hosting service then setting up WordPress is just a few clicks away!

To install WordPress with Hostgator:

First login to your cpanel using the login information provided from Hostgator to your email address. Navigate to the bottom of your screen and look for the Fantastico Icon:

Fantastico Icon

Your cpanel may look different but the Fantastico Icon should be the same. Click on it and you will be taken to Fantastico’s Navigation page where you can select different scripts to install:

Fantastico Navigation

Click on “WordPress” and you will see a new screen where you are given a brief description about WordPress and where you will see the option for a New Installation:

Fantastico WordPress

Clik on “New Installation” and you will be taken to a screen to enter basic settings for your new WordPress installation.

Fill in the basic settings for your first WordPress blog here. By default, the “Install In Domain” option will have your domain name in that field.

The next option is “Install In Directory.” Here you can decide if you would like to install in the root of your domain or if you would like to install in a sub directory. For example, if you want to have your blog show up in Http://www.yourdomain.com/blog instead of http://www.yourdomain.com than you would type “blog” in the “Install in Directory” field.

The other options are pretty self-explanatory. Fill in the login information you want to use to login to your blog and your user nickname and email. The “Base Configuration” options are not super important as you can change them later when you login to your blog.

Fantastico WordPress Options

Manual WordPress Installation

You can also setup WordPress manually. First Download the latest version of WordPress. Then follow the installation instructions included with the WordPress download. WordPress has one of the easiest installation processes available but if you are still having problems, visit the WordPress Website Troubleshooting guide.

WordPress Settings

WordPress makes this very easy but there are a few things out-of-the-box that you should change for your first WordPress Blog.

Permalinks

One of the first things to change will be your Permalink settings. Go to “Settings > Permalinks” and change to either “Day and Name” or “Month and Name.” It is very important to change your Permalink settings from the default for a few reasons. The first is that search engines will be able to read and understand what your posts are about. The other is that users will be able to tell what your post is about by glancing at the URL.

The other default Settings for WordPress depend on you. Check the Discussion settings to change any comment settings for your blog and then the General settings to personalize a bit.

WordPress Themes

The ability to easily extend the WordPress system is what separates WordPress from other Content Management Systems. The community of WordPress developers have created, and continue to create, thousands of WordPress themes that are easy to download and install. A theme allows for personalization of your first WordPress Blog and helps you stand out from the crowd. Download WordPress themes for free and try them out on your WordPress installation.

There are also many sites online that offer further customization for a fee. This is something to consider once your WordPress blog is more popular or making a steady income.

WordPress Plugins

Using WordPress Plugins

WordPress Plugins add to your blog and help you add almost anything you can think of. Extra sidebar widgets and many back-end plugins help you personalize your blog even more.

Installing WordPress Plugins

Downloading and installing WordPress plugins is very easy to do. Log into to your WordPress blog, navigate to your “Plugins > Add New” page and there you can search for plugins that are right for your Blog. WordPress even lets you install plugins right from your plugins panel! No downloading to your computer necessary.

Must-Have WordPress Plugins

Here I will list a few must-have WordPress plugins. Some, in my opinion, are essential to getting the most out of your blog, regardless of whether you are using it to make money. Others are only necessary if you are monetizing your blog.

Akismet – Akismet is a must for every WordPress installation. Akismet blocks “Spam” comments used by bots to automatically comment on hundreds of different WordPress blogs at the same time. I have spoken to a few new WordPress users who did not have the Akismet plugin turned on and were bombarded by comment spam. It is very discouraging to see porn and gambling links being posted in your comments section and may turn a first time blogger off from WordPress. It does require getting a WordPress account but it’s free and does not take much time.

All in One SEO Pack – I love this plugin. All in one SEO Pack gives you the ability to generate Titles, Descriptions and Keywords for each of your posts and let’s you block the search engines from crawling through potentially duplicate content. What I just described might be confusing to a new WordPress user but that’s what makes All in One SEO Pack so important. You don’t really have to understand those things to use it. It is ready out-of-the-box and is very easy to use.

Google XML Sitemaps – Another must-have WordPress plugin, Google XML Sitemaps generates a XML compliant Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It is very easy to install and setup and is another tool that helps you forget about the search engines and focus on writing unique content.

Here are a few more plugins for more advanced WordPress bloggers.

Share This

Wordtwit

cforms

WP Super Cache

There are many more plugins available that may help you personalize your blog even more but remember that the more plugins you have the slower your blog pages will load!

First WordPress Post

Your first WordPress post can be about anything you want it to be but here I will list a few tips for your first post and subsequent posts.

WordPress features an awesome WYSISYG (What You See is What You Get) editor that let’s you write great posts without knowing HTML. Play around with the icons in the editor and you can be writing posts with links, pictures and different types of text in no time!

The title of your first post should be a quick description of what your post is about. You should have your title in your post more than one time and you should write it in different ways in your post. So going by those rules you should probably decide on your title after you write your post. It is good to write your title in before hand, just go back to it and be sure it describes what your post is about.

Use the “Category” option that WordPress provides. Your WordPress blog will only have the “Uncategorized” category at first. You can add new ones to the right of your “Add New Post” panel. Categories should be pretty generalized. If your writing about George Bush, your category might be “Politics” or “News.”

Tags are another feature that you should use when writing your first WordPress post. The “Tag” is also to the right of your “Add New Post” panel, just above “Categories.” Tags should be much more specific to the topic you’re writing about. In the example above, if you were writing about George Bush your tags might be “George Bush” or “President.”

The most important thing to remember when starting your first WordPress blog is to have fun with it. Write about things you are interested in and that will keep you interested in your blog.

Your First WordPress Blog is a post from: Pedro B

Happy New Year

I was only mildly hung over this morning.  Woke up at a friends house after staying up all night playing Con Quien, drinking Corona’s and eating ceviche.  All around a good time but next time I’m going to sleep before 5am.  I planned on getting a bunch of stuff done today, including setting up a BANS site that I’ve had an idea for, but I ended up doing squat.  I did help my youngest sister setup her own blog so the morning wasn’t a complete waste.

The year 2009 is here and it’s time to get things in gear again, so I’m going to make a list of things-to-do this year that I can reference and look back on at the end of the year.  This is going to be a rather broad list, easily attainable and should go towards producing long term residual income.

1. Master WordPress – Over the last year I’ve come to rely more on WordPress.  I’ve played around with other content management systems but I keep going back to it as it is best suited for what I’m trying to do and it’s just to easy and powerful to ignore.
2. Spend more time with Social Networking – I really need to get that aspect more involved in what I do.  Social Networking has exploded in the last two years and just dabbling in sites like Reddit and Stumbleupon make me think that Social Networking is going to be at least as important as SEO in the next year.  These sites bring traffic.  Period.
3. Block out distractions – I’ve learned I can’t watch Monday night Football and grow my income at the same time.  And, the same task takes about four times as long to boot.  I can do what I need to get done quickly, then watch Football, listen to music, eat or whatever it is that is causing me to take a long time.
4. Focus more on Content – This one is easy.  Just create content and the rest should fall into place.  Google keeps teaching me that thin affiliate sites with zero unique content will not be rewarded in the long run.  Time to roll out Plan B.
5. Break Down Tasks – I will make my tasks shorter and easier to accomplish this year.  Sometimes I can be a bit to ambitious with what I want to do.  Then when I figure out how long something will take, I tend to move on.  I think this blog is a good example of breaking down tasks.  One article a day, properly SEO’d, content driven without a ton of emphasis on immediate monetization and in a year I should have close to 400 quality articles.  Maybe Google will love me then?

That’s a broad plan for starters.  I think the key one is breaking this all down in to short tasks.  Make it easy.  Keep it simple.

2009 Here I Come! is a post from: Pedro B