Typical voicemail messages today include things like “Please don’t leave me a voicemail, I rarely listen to them. Please just email me at xxxx@xxxx.com” Many people don’t bother setting up their voicemail accounts at all. Then there’s my favorite method, the one I use personally - let the message box get full and then don’t empty it. Caller ID still tells me who called, and I can simply call them back.

How many times have you called someone back and said “I saw that you called but didn’t listen to the voicemail yet, Is it anything urgent?”

Frustration mounts when a simple request or bit of information turns into a three-day phone tag fest - when a simple email would do just fine. 

So how to make the best of voice mail? TechCrunch suggests using a message transcription service- Vonage offers this option for 25 cents per message - and it’s WORTH IT.  Check out TechCrunch’s post.. what do you think?

Think Before You Voicemail  (TechCrunch)

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Twitter Special Characters - Part 1

Twitter Special Characters - Part 2

Thanks, Andrea - and happy 4th to all!!

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Brogan also suggests old-fashioned good manners; avoiding blatant self-aggrandizement and promoting others as you promote yourself among the best ways to build goodwill (much like I’m doing here!).

A terrific article!
100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media

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NPR: Move Over, Spam: ‘Bacn’ Is the E-Mail Dish du Jour

So now you know.

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Thanks to Mari Smith for the tip!

Follow me on Twitter.

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Quick adoption by the business community of alternative work enviroments such as virtual offices can have a dramatic and immediate impact on the environment and energy costs. Partnering with an experienced virtual assistant can be a timesaver to any business learning to use the variety of tools to manage projects and teams on the web.

Review the Sun Microsystems press release here.

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The folks at YouSendIt just launched an Outlook plugin that sets all outbound messages with attachments above a certain size (that you choose) to be routed via the YouSendIt service. This saves time and allows the user to email with abandon without concern about file sizes… a great idea!

Thanks to TechCrunch for the tip.

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What most don’t realize is that web hosting email is based on POP (Post Office Protocol). POP is great - but it does have one very important limitation… your messages are never fully synchronized across all the places where you read mail… your desktop computer, your laptop.. your mobile phone.

That’s where IMAP saves the day! With IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol), your message folders are synchronized and identical across all devices. So, a message you send with your mobile phone is accessible on your desktop, etc.. In this age of mobile messaging, that’s a real advantage.

So, if your hosting service only offers POP mail, how can you get IMAP?

There’s a growing number of email-only service providers that do nothing but email. Besides being better able to offer much larger mailboxes and better support, a separate email provider will offer IMAP. Some of the best providers are nominal in cost (and in the case of Google Apps - free):

Mailtrust (Varable rates - outstanding support and reliability
Fastmail ($39.95/year)
Google Apps (Free or $50/yr; free service offers up to 100 6.7GB mailboxes!)

To switch your email while keeping your web hosting, you need to make a “MX” update to your domain’s DNS (something that ProVirtual Solutions can help you with!).

Here’s a recently posted article on the GMail blog that will help describe the difference between POP and IMAP.

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What to do? Web Worker Daily profiled a new company called TechForward that has an ingenious idea…sell guaranteed buyback values on a new device (computers, MP3 players monitors and televisions). As long as the item is in good condition and all manuals are kept, you can get a darned good buck for your trade in. TechForward will salvage parts and/or dispose of the item in an environmentally responsible way…a nice reassurance that your gizmo doesn’t end up in a landfill.

It’s a great idea - and definitely an option to consider when I upgrade something (which is likely to be soon).

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This 32-page presentation provides a nice overview of what’s available for both in-office workers and road warriors. You may be surprised to find that you don’t need to spend hundreds for a full-featured office suite! Here’s a quick preview of the presentation:

Or… get a FREE PDF download! It’s much easier to read. Click the button…

Enjoy!

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I think I can wait… I think. Anyway, here’s a link to encourage me to stay on the low-cost wagon.

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To reply ONLY to one user - you use the “direct” feature by starting your message with “d” - as in “d usernamehere”.

Good to know!

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Well - thanks to a tip on Nancy Marmolejo’s terrific Viva Visibility blog, I found a great post listing some handy strategies for using Twitter for marketing. Now Twittering counts as work!

Follow me on Twitter

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My so-cool client Helen Webber is offering a special sale on her Jazztime watercolor print series. Visit Helen’s print sale page and check out all her beautiful offerings.

What a wonderful excuse to post some gorgeous art on my blog!http://www.helenwebber.com/printstore/howtoorder_water.htm

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In addition, Digsby offers customizable widgets you can add to your blog or website that allows your visitors to IM you from your website. You can see it in action on this blog —>

Read the C|Net Review of Digsby here.

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Along with my “discovery” of Twitter last week (which is surprisingly addictive), I feel I’m making some social networking progress these days. Next week: Squidoo.

Many thanks to Erin Blaskie - who patiently helped me see the Facebook light.

So - since I’m new, I’m still light on friends… please visit me. ;-)  Anyone else feel behind the curve with Facebook?

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Check out Andrea’s virtual training services on Podcasting, hosted Exchange and SharePoint. She’s unique in the VA world. Her teleclasses are great too - she was kind enough to do a teleclass for our DVVAA membership about blogging. It was a big hit!

Thanks again, Andrea.

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Link: Web Worker Daily » Archive Continuous Innovation in the Online Office «.

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The DVVAA girls again made a splash… 15% of the attendees!!  Special thanks to Laura Pumo for being such a gracious roommate.

Kudos to IVAA and the Summit Committee… you really know how to put on a show!

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Now we know the method to the madness: CNN Shirt

Not familiar? View Gawker’s Extensive History Of Terrible CNN.com Headlines

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They asked the simple question: what would be the impact if everyone who could work from home actually did? The answer they came up with for the USA: a savings of 625 million barrels of oil a year, as well as $43 billion less spent on gasoline and elimination of a couple of weeks of wasted commuting time per person.

The study (done by telework advocacy website Undress4Success) focuses on the immense environmental benefits of such a scenario, but there are compelling economic woes that can be alleviated as well. With skyrocketing oil prices linked to everything from worldwide food inflation to bankrupt airlines to shuttered pizza shops, anything that can drive down the cost of energy would help reverse the damage. For every infoworker who can skip the daily commute, life is made a bit easier (less traffic) and more affordable (cheaper gas) for those who can’t telecommute: nurses, farmers, police officers, chefs, hairstylists and truckers (and our truckers really need a break)!

The less obvious benefits: happier and more productive workers, fewer car accidents, cheaper auto insurance, independence from foreign oil - and perhaps most gratifying of all - handing Big Oil a well-deserved cash “haircut”.

Thanks to the wonderful Web Worker Daily for the validation I was looking for!

Be sure to read the original article about the study, at Undress4Success.

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You can even define productivity goals and measure your progress! So, if you have decided to spend 50% less time processing email, RescueTime will let you know if you are on track to achieve that goal.

There are obvious privacy concerns with any product that “tracks” activity on your computer. However, RescueTime does a good job of addressing these concerns by providing useful features to whitelist and suspend tracking for activity that you don’t want to include in reports:

What about my privacy?
We take privacy pretty seriously, and it was one of our biggest concerns when we built RescueTime. Our first line of privacy defense is to provide a prominent pause feature that allows you to suspend tracking. Second of all, you can delete any particular data. Finally, we ensure that the only thing we track is the names of the apps and sites you use and the times that you use them. We also offer a “Whitelist” feature that allows you to only track the web sites that you want to. For more details, check out our privacy policy.

RescueTime also offers a paid version that will track the productivity of a workgroup.. so it looks like the product is also aimed at small businesses who are serious about measuring the results of adopting alternative processes and workstyles. It may provide weary commuters everywhere with a great tool to convince management that it’s time to start adopting work-at-home options!

This may be a perfect way to measure once and for all how much time I really spend with email, eBay and celebrity gossip blogs. If my results aren’t too terribly embarrassing, I will post again in a month’s time to share the verdict.

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http://gawker.com/380288/twitter-saves-american-arrested-in-egypt

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I never really “got” the phenomenon that is Twitter. I never spent much time with it, as I assumed it was a MySpace-y type app that was for tweens texting one another about prom shoes - but I confess, I never gave it a fair shake. If you aren’t familiar, Twitter allows you to quickly update “what are you doing” and update your website and your “followers” (or all Twitter-ers at large) with brief text messages. These messages are sent to your website, blog, rss (my favorite), phone, etc. - instant broadcast udpates as to your - status/thoughts/etc.. Twitter, however, allows users to restrict updates to approved “followers”, so that you can use Twitter to update family members, workgroups, etc with updates without burning phone minutes or spending time on phonetag calls and voice mail. Useful!

So, as proof that Twitter is more than another teenage tech distraction… here’s a blog post that describes the clever and lifesaving use of Twitter during a recent tornado outbreak in OK.

In case you are wondering - here’s my Twitter page.. there is absolutely nothing of interest there.. but follow me if you like…

Also - please comment if there is something I am missing - or another great way to use Twitter.

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Enter Evernote. Evernote is an immensely flexible “clipping” tool that works on your desktop, on your phone and on the web. It allows you to save almost any kind of information (webpages, text, sound, pictures and video) and index it any way you like - tags, categories, separate notebooks. Evernote is similar to (also excellent) Google Notebook - only pumped up with an elegant interface and far more flexible features.

… but that’s not all. Evernote also indexes by the content of your notes - including images. So, if you are in the grocery store and you want to save a picture of a cereal box (can’t imagine why you would need to do this, but please humor me here.. ) - text in the picture (Cap’n Crunch, in this example) would be captured and indexed.

So - if you were doing research on the vast health benefits of Cap’n Crunch, and you had saved your assortment of documents, webpages and pictures of Cap’n Crunch resources in Evernote - and you did a search on “Cap’n Crunch” - not only would you get the text and webpages - you would get the images that contained the phrase “Cap’n Crunch”. Incredible!!

Like any great Web 2.0 app, it works with everything else you use. You can easily email notes to and from your Evernote account, and even dictate notes to it using that other spectacular service Jott! (I posted about Jott! on my former blog, but do yourself a favor and visit Jott! right now!)

Evernote is in “private beta” so you do either need an invitation (I have a few left - just email me [mary * at * provirtualsolutions.com] if you would like one) - or you can register for an invitation from Evernote - which may take a few days to a week. It works very smoothly  - so I doubt that it would be in a private beta very much longer.

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EventBrite even supports event affiliate revenue shares - not only for users to promo the EventBrite - but for user’s individual events! Simply put, you can create an event - then set it for others to promote, allowing you to set the revenue share.

EventBrite’s automated promotional and convenience features are one-click wonders - allowing you to automatically promote your event on other venues including Eventful, ZVents, Yahoo and Googlebase. In addition it provides the organizer with customizable event pages, RSS event update feeds, automated “add to calendar” links. The list goes on.

What does all this cost? Not much! If your event is free, it costs nothing. For fee events, you pay a fee of 2.5% of the ticket price, with a .99 minimum.

Check out EventBrite today and make your event planning effortless!

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Web Conferencing: 90-minute service package includes webinar hosting and recording to a WMV file (with audio & video), using GoToMeeting. This is a great option for clients that have occasional webinars and need the audio and video recorded on one file. 90-minutes includes session hosting and file preparation.

Domain Record Update: Do you need a mail exchange (MX) record update or other more advanced change to your domain record and are hesitant to try it yourself? Let ProVirtual Solutions handle it!

Google Services Setup with Overview Webinars: Choose one or save with our bundled service packages. Most options include personalized training webinars so you can get the most out of the Google services you selected.

• Google Apps with EMail: Have you heard about the great services Google offers for free? You can get the renowned GMail service for your own domain and enjoy access to a 6GB mailbox, IMAP/POP access and more - along with the other Google Apps: Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets and Google Presentations - all mapped to your own domain. Have ProVirtual Solutions set it up for you and show you how to use it in a personalized webinar.
• Google Analytics Installation with Optional Webinar: Wondering about your website visitors and how they are finding your site? Google Analytics provides great detail about your site traffic and also works seamlessly with PPC camapigns. Opt for installation only or purchase with a personalized webinar to show you how it all works.
• Google Webmaster Tools with Local Business Listing:  Maximize your site’s visibility with Google’s Webmaster Tools and Local Business Listing with Maps. Service includes: Installation of Google Analytics for one domain/website, setup of Google Webmaster Tools, creation of XML sitemap, submission of sitemap file to Google, creation of local business listing with map for Google Local. Includes a 45 minute webinar overview.

Learn more about all ProVirtual service offers here.

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The really galling part is that AOL users seem to be unaware of the fact that AOL is sneaking text ads into their messages. I was curious about this, so I have been asking. Not one seems to know this is going on. One thought it was coming from my reply. Nope.

Click on the picture to see an enlarged screenshot of an AOL message (personal info & message text greyed out).

Also note the extra-annoying forwarded message attachment (inline an option here?).

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Hmmm… strange, that is. Upon trying to purchase the domain with Network Solutions, the price mysteriously jumped from $9.00 to $34.99. Looks like NetSol is squatting, perhaps? Oddly, the WHOIS doesn’t have any info about the owner. I’ve been doing hosting & domains for years - and have never seen this.

Turns out that NetSol is basically “registering” domain names that people enter in for availability checks - then attempting to sell the domain back (and misrepresenting its availability) at a wildly inflated price. This removes the domain from general availability for all registrars and can’t be sold anywhere else for 5 days because of the registrar 5-day grace period (another stupid ICANN policy that encourgages “tasting“) - thus holding the domain hostage.

The DomainTools Blog has a detailed explanation of this here.

Why is Network Solutions still an accredited registrar?

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