Search Results for: index

Google Apps for Free

Posted by on September 7, 2011 Comments Off on Google Apps for Free

If you’re a small business and are using the email service that comes with your Internet connection, you’re doing it wrong.  Heaven forbid you’re using AOL or Yahoo as your email provider.  At a bare minimum you should have a personalized email address with your company’s domain name.  For example, I have the domain name russturley.com.  When I give out my email address, it has my username, russ, along with my domain name.  It’s much easier to remember than some obscure username at some local ISP’s domain name.

If you’re thinking, “But Russ, those types of service cost money that I don’t have.” I’m totally with you and have the answer.  The solution is Google Apps.  Google Apps provides the following services for companies with 10 users or less, FREE of charge.

Here’s what you get:

  • Gmail
  • Google Calendar
  • Google Docs (Collaborative spreadsheets and word processing and more)
  • Google Reader (News aggregator)
  • Google Sites (Simple web pages)
  • Blogger (Weblogs)
  • More!

If at any time in the future you grow beyond 10 users that you’d like to provide email, etc. for then you an upgrade to the “Business” edition at $50/user/year for a 1 year commitment or $5/user/month with no commitment.  Still a good deal and there are more group features that are available with the upgraded service that a company with that many employees can take advantage of.

All the versions have the option of integrating third-party apps like MailChimp, an email marketing and newsletter service, and Freshbooks, invoicing made easy, into Google Apps.  Great part about the third-party apps is that most have a free version also so you can try them out before making a commitment to the full service.

Google Apps helps groups build communities – Google Apps.

Netflix: It’s an Error

Posted by on September 7, 2011 Comments Off on Netflix: It’s an Error

Yesterday I posted about Netflix limiting it’s streaming customers to one streaming show at a time. Apparently though, it was an error rather than a crackdown as previously thought.

While I had suspicions that this was some mix up (I hadn’t had the problem at my home) the fact remains that it didn’t surprise me. I now assume that the Netflix service is going to get worse and worse until it’s no better than the Charter Cable that I cancelled so long ago. Netflix may still have the best service of its kind, but it now has an image problem. It’s the service that raises prices on its customers and limits their viewing options.

It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens with the Starz contract negotiations going forward.

Netflix: We’re not cracking down on simultaneous streams — Online Video News.

Dropbox Makes Sharing Files Easy

Posted by on August 18, 2011 Comments Off on Dropbox Makes Sharing Files Easy

Transferring files from home to work and back can be a huge pain.  In the past you may have used floppy disks for transferring files back and forth. Then there were ZIP disks. Most recently flash memory USB thumb drives are the thing to move your files from computer to computer. Now there’s something easier.

Dropbox is a service that gives you a 2GB online storage site. Each computer you install the Dropbox utility on syncs with the online repository. The Dropbox utility also keeps all computers that use the same account synced with the latest version of your files. Anytime you turn on your computer, those files are there and ready for you to use.

Wait! It gets better. You are also able to share your files with others. Just input an email address and Dropbox will make those files available to that person. They don’t have to be Dropbox users themselves. The files are available to them on the Dropbox.com website. They will have to join Dropbox to access the files, but then they get the benefit of the service if they choose to install it on their system.

Wait! Again! There’s more. You now have a personal web server with Dropbox. There is a public folder that you can share files from. Simply copy the files to the Public folder and then copy the public link and share it with the world. The Public folder will not execute server code, though you could use JavaScript along with HTML and CSS to create a nice little site.

There’s even more to the service. And the best part of all this is the price. It’s free for the 2GB service. If you’d like to have more storage then you can upgrade to one of their pay tiers for 50GB or 100GB.

Free Anti-Virus for Windows

Posted by on August 8, 2011 Comments Off on Free Anti-Virus for Windows

For some unknown reason, my virus protection on at least two computers failed/crashed and refused to start again. On these two computers I was using avast! Antivirus Free. The last time that I checked on it, it was version 5 of the software. The change to a new engine, the latest is version 6, may have been the thing that broke it. Either way, this was an opportunity to check out the landscape of free anti-virus products out there for the home user.

If you’re still using any Norton or McAfee products at home.  Stop!!  Uninstall that software right now and install one of these free alternatives.  Why?  In a word, expired subscriptions.  Most home users get a 90-day trial of one of the commercial antivirus programs on their new Windows-based computer.  When the 90-days is up, there is a nag screen that will tell you that it’s expired, but more often than not the warning gets dismissed and from then on the computer is out of date with the latest virus definitions.  That means you’re at risk of getting a nasty virus.

I’ll let you explore these alternatives on your own, but I have used AVG, avast! and Microsoft antivirus products personally.  They all work and I’ve never had an infection on any computer with these products installed.  The most interesting one of the bunch is the Panda Cloud Antivirus.  The reason being its described as “Light”.  That’s a great thing in an antivirus.  It shouldn’t slow down the system its protecting.  The lighter the better, so this is one I’m going to do some more research on.

So, which one did I pick?  I could have reinstalled avast! and tried that again, but instead I went with Avira this time around.

Let me know your opinion of these free antivirus applications in the comments.

Keeping Monetization in Your Hands

Posted by on December 29, 2010 Comments Off on Keeping Monetization in Your Hands

I read an interesting article today. And by interesting, I mean terrifying, especially if you use Google Adsense in an attempt to monetize your podcast/blog. They article can be found at Duck Works Magazine. It’s the story of a cameraman/boat enthusiast that produced content and put it on YouTube. He was making a good bit of money from the videos by using Adsense to display ads with the videos. Apparently he was making too much money, because Google decided to close his account.  Closed his account, took away any money they owed him and canceled a check!  I’ll let you read the article and get all the details for yourself, but there is one huge thing that you should take away from this article.

Putting the monetization of your blog or podcast in someone elses hands is folly. It’s the easy way to go, especially if you have decent traffic on your site, but in then end someone else is in control. Google didn’t get to be one of the biggest companies around because they’re giving away money. They keep the lion’s share of the ad revenue and you get a tiny sliver of it. Get any more and you’ll get banned. And if you think that you are the exception, here’s another thing to think about. The chips are stacked against you. One of the customers/readers/viewers of the film maker in the article is a lawyer. They examined the Adsense contract and had this to say.

The contract is designed so that it is almost impossible not to break the Google rules.

So there it is. It’s “almost impossible” to play by the rules that Google sets forth. My advice: don’t play.

If you’re looking for ways to monetize your podcast or other online venture, be sure to read my article on monetization or better yet, pick up my ebook, The Virtual Podcast Seminar, to learn about all things podcasting.