The presentation “Tools for Entrepreneurs: Create. Collaborate. Communicate.“ started out as a way to explain very technical things to non-technical people, but I quickly realized that most people when approaching technology get intimidated by the “What’s DNS? Do I need a dedicated server?” kind of questions and therefore feel they can’t understand technology.

I feel that this technology intimidation is really due to the fact that they don’t really own their idea, and better understanding it will guide any decisions they have to make with their idea moving forward.

For me, the biggest online tool for most entrepreneurs is definitely their website. Having a website is like putting your shingle out declaring you’re in business.

In this presentation, the first section focuses on further defining your idea so you can create the site, offline, before engaging someone to build it for you (or building it yourself). From who the users / customers will be and what kind of information they want, to what the actual purpose of the site will be (conversion), to defining a list of must-have and nice-to-have features for the site.

The second section focuses on how to collaborate with those who will help your idea become a reality, from working with collaborators remotely, to the kinds of tools and software you’ll need to collaborate, and setting some guidelines for those tools to be effective.

The third section focuses on methods and approaches for communicating your idea, whether through the use of social media or just being consistent in your entire presence online.

Be sure and page through the entire slideshow to see the resources I included at the end for those looking for open source software alternatives to proprietary software, and links for getting started with ebooks and Creative Commons.

Below is the slideshow, click through to see the slideshow in your browser:

All the applications suggested are linked to their Android Market pages so you can check them out immediately – click on them! Here’s a direct link to Productivity on your Android Mobile – 10 Tips & 40+ Apps on Slideshare.

Did I leave one out? Let me know in the comments.

I use Google Apps for my domain and integrate several other email accounts into what I call my “control tower” for email.

Gmail keeps growing and adding new features, and gives users a cool way to learn Gmail tricks by becoming a Gmail Ninja, but one thing I really like is that they have Gmail Labs which gives users access to experimental features that can be activated as desired.

You’ll find a lot of great tricks and features in their Gmail Ninja tips, but my 5 favorite Gmail Labs add-ons are:

• Undo Send
• Canned Responses
• Sender timezone
• Refresh POP accounts
• Multiple signatures for multiple email addresses

Undo Send

Undo send perhaps is the most important add-on you can activate. After you’ve hit the “Send” button, it gives you the ability to cancel sending an email for several seconds. That attachment you forgot to send, that email you probably shouldn’t have, the person you forgot to copy on the mail, all now have a savior. At least for a few seconds.

Enable “Undo Send” and the next email you send, you’ll see “Your message has been sent” and then a link to “Undo” that will remain visible for several seconds. After it’s gone, your message has been delivered.

Canned Responses

Canned Responses, especially for someone who has a website and receives a lot of emails with the same types of questions (solicitation, guest posts, advertising, advice, moving to Italy, etc.), are a time saver!

Canned Responses will show up right next to the “Add an Attachment” link in your email editor. After you click “Reply” just click on the Canned Responses drop-down and “Insert” and select the applicable message. Or, if you’ve just crafted the perfect reply, you can save it by selecting Save > Create new Canned Response. It has saved me a lot of repeating myself.

Sender Time Zone

Now that I’m working with a very international team, and very international clients, it’s hard to keep track of what time it is wherever they are. When I need to answer an email, it helps me to use Sender Time Zone so I can know exactly what time it is where they are. Are they sleeping, and won’t see the email for a few hours, or are they just about to walk out of the office, so it’s best to send the email as soon as possible?

Refresh POP Accounts

Refresh” link to the right of your main navigation buttons, and it will show up to the right of the “More Actions” button.

Multiple signatures for multiple email addresses

This last feature is actually not part of Gmail Labs, but it’s a feature that was added only recently and it’s one I’ve rejoiced about. If you manage multiple email addresses in Gmail, it’s likely that you don’t want to use the same signature for all of them. You can set up individual signatures for each account by going to Settings > General and scrolling down to Signature.

Do you have any tricks you use to enhance your email experience? Even not in Gmail? Let me know.

Images: Google, and screenshots of my own Inbox.

The List.

Also known as The “Stuff I Want to Do Before I Die” List. A Life List. Some may call it a Bucket List, but my List has been around since before the movie.  I never thought it was such a strange thing to have a Life List until I realized most of my acquaintances don’t have one. I started writing my list in 1999.

We are never too young or too old to be constantly thinking about our goals and what we could be pushing ourselves to do. There are times when you should power down, relax, and enjoy the moment. But between those times, you should be moving yourself forward. Feel free to change directions, turn around, or even sit down and rest, but your actions should be focused on movement.

I’ve never understood people that are ok with “seeing what happens tomorrow.” It is true that eventually life will change you and your circumstances whether you want it to or not, but often if you’re ready with your own plans, you can influence or direct the change yourself.

So back to The List.

What’s in the list?

The short answer is: whatever you want.

Want to…be trilingual? Published in a magazine? Jump from an airplane? Shake the President’s hand? Visit every continent on the planet? Visit the moon? Eat local for 6 months? Own your own business? Sing jazz in a club? Graduate from law school? Adopt a child? Be debt-free?

It’s completely up to you.

How to Start:

I used to keep my Life List in a document on my computer, but now I keep it in a Google Doc online, so I can access wherever creativity strikes me.

So get out that clean sheet of paper, crease open that brand new Moleskine, load up that pearly white Google Doc.

Go on, I’ll wait.

Ready?

Some tips for The List:

• Think big, think tall, write it all. Brainstorm. Who’s to judge what is a good goal and a bad goal? Here’s a hint: not even you. Before you hesitate to write something down because “it’s unattainable” “it will never happen” “it’s a stupid idea” – write it down. There are two sides of you: the rational you, which we’ll engage later to accomplish some of these goals, and there’s the dreamer you. Let your dreamer enjoy themselves a little with your List. After all, it’s your life. Write it all down. Don’t judge your ideas right now.
• If you can do it any afternoon, it doesn’t belong here. Unless it’s a small effort that constitutes a lifestyle change, like taking the stairs everywhere for a year, or drinking a glass of water every day for a month, or writing 2 pages longhand every morning for 6 months, etc., it probably doesn’t belong on your list. This is not a grocery list or the day’s to-do list. It’s goals, it’s dreams, it’s accomplishments, it’s pride.
• It needs to be measurable. You should be able to recognize when you’ve actually accomplished the item on your list. “Read more” or “be kinder” or “lose weight” are not specific enough, and are definitely not measurable. Give yourself a specific goal so that you can make it easy to identify the goal when you get there.
• Number them, order them…who cares? Don’t feel the need to order, group or prioritize your List – that’s not what the List is about. That comes later, when you face your fears and start to really attack an item on your list. For now, just let your imagination run wild. I put the date that I added them to my List – I like to look back and see when my bursts of creativity hit me, and also know how long something stays on my List before I accomplish it.
• Make growing your list a priority. Perhaps not as obvious as accomplishing your goals is making sure you have some! The List needs to constantly grow. When you’re first starting, I suggest adding “Add 2 things per month to The List” as a goal, and that will force you to think about it and make it grow.
• Talk to your friends and family about The List. While I am definitely not recommending you make your List public, talk to your friends and family about the fact you have The List. Perhaps share 1-2 goals with them that are not too personal. Engage in talking about your dreams and about having goals with everyone! You’ll see that new inspiration as well as encouragement will come out of it. Dreaming is contagious.
• When you accomplish something, don’t remove it. Date it. The List is not only about your future goals, but it should also be a reminder of what you’ve done and to motivate you to keep accomplishing. Once you achieve a goal, don’t just regale it to your memory – put a date on it, so later you can review some of your accomplishments when you need to.

Want to see some examples of some Lists?

I think peeking into someone’s Life List is a little like giving someone a sponge bath before you even shake their hand – you get a very intimate look into what some of their goals, desires and fantasies are in an instant. Luckily, a few have shared their life lists with you, so you can get that intimate look, and some inspiration for your own Life List.

• John Goddard’s Life List

Calling himself the “World’s Greatest Goal Achiever,” he definitely has some interesting things on his List he created when he was only 15…and he’s crossed a lot of them off!

• Mighty Girl’s Life List

Living in public? Why not share your entire List, blog about what you accomplish…and even get sponsored to fulfill your Life List? That’s Mighty Girl’s job.

• Nicole is Better’s Life List

Nicole wants you to know how she’s progressing with her Life List and hopes you’ll give a small donation to help her on her adventures. She’s got some really fun items on her List.

Need some inspiration for populating your Llistist?

• The New York Times’ explores Life Lists
• MSNBC talks about Life Lists
• Life Lists of Cool People I know (no, I don’t know them)
• Smithsonian’s 28 Places to See Before You Die—the Taj Mahal, Grand Canyon and More
• Travel & Leisure Travel Life List
• A very comprehensive guide to creating a Life List
• 1000 Places to See Before you Die – the book
• 50 Things to do before you die – Matador Network
• Forbes 10 Things to Do before you Die

Do you have a Life List? Tell me how you fill it up and check it off!

Image by koalazymonkey / CC BY 2.0

In it, I explain the basics of how Google Alerts work and give you 5 quick ways to get started on Google Alerts like:

1. Do a “vanity search” for your name, nickname and/or your blog’s name
2. Track incoming links to your site
3. Track your content for possible plagarism
4. Keep your eye on your favorite topics
5. Get notified of spam links inserted in your site

Click through to the Food Blog Alliance article to read more…

Image by monoglot

• Refresh Header Banner and Site Images
  

If your website has a visual banner at the top of the page, consider refreshing it monthly to keep the site looking new for visitors. Studies have shown that people will pay more attention to the site itself if they are able to perceive the site is different.

• Check Sidebar Links and Blogrolls for Dead Links, Outdated Blogs and Better Links

The sites you link to on your sidebar should stay fresh and relevant – make sure the sites you link to stay current, and still provide content that you support. If you have a blogroll on your blog, add new blogs you’ve recently discovered and remove blogs that are no longer updating or have gotten off-topic. Create a new subcategory on your sidebar if you’ve discovered a new interest or resource.

If you’re linking out to charities, blog events or news stories, make sure they are current or switch them out to rotate exposure to your favorites and keep your sidebar less cluttered.

• Track Visits and New Referrers (and Reward!)
  

If you’re not tracking visits to your website, it’s something you need to do immediately. Check your referring sites to see if any particular new site is sending you traffic, and to which page. If the traffic is significant, you may want to add a little welcome paragraph to the page welcoming readers from that particular site.

If it’s a blog that’s new to you, go comment on the post linking to you or send a note to the author thanking them for the trackback.

• Update Pages

Your “Pages” are going to be the pillars of your website and therefore should be constantly updated with new material, making them even more robust and valuable to your readers.

Is there a paragraph you can expand on, or a bullet point that you left off in a hurry? Has someone left a comment that can be expanded on and answered in the page?

• Update Popular / Best of / New To

If you’ve created a landing page for new visitors and readers to get to know your site quickly, make sure that the posts and pages you highlight reflect your current traffic numbers and interest. If your content is season-dependent, you may want to rotate some of the posts you highlight based on the time of year and/or relevance.

• Update About / Press Clips / Add a New Picture

Have you recently changed jobs, written a guest post, moved to a different country, changed email addresses, or realized you need to update your advertising policy? This is the time to do it. Make sure that your profile picture is the most current one available so that when you meet people offline, they instantly recognize you.

• Check (Webmaster Tools) for Dead Outgoing Links in your Content

Use Google Webmaster tools to check for links in your own content that are no longer valid. This is easy to do under Diagnostics – Web Crawl to see if there are any 404 or errors for your outgoing links.

If you don’t use Google Webmaster Tools, pick 2-3 of your most link-intensive posts each month and review the outgoing links. If you use Flickr or another similar service to include Creative Commons photos, make sure that all your embedded photos are still active and not missing or broken.

• Update Plugins, Widgets and Blogging Software

If you’re using installed blogging software like WordPress, make sure you’ve upgraded your version to the most current stable version. If you’re using plugins or widgets developed by someone else, first check that you are using the most recent version, and then test to make sure the widget still works correctly and adds value.

If you’ve bookmarked a few plugins you’ve seen on others’ websites, this is the time to install them and test their functionality in the new month.

• Enhance and Expand your Top 5 Posts
  

A blog is a living document. Check your traffic for the top 5 posts of that month and look for inconsistencies or outdated information, questions or suggestions from the comments that can be answered in your content, and additional resource links to include for more reading.

• Track your Ad Revenues and Blog Expenses

If you have ads or other revenue generation on your website, update your accounting spreadsheet to track any trends and your total revenue. If you’re keeping track of blog expenses for tax deductions, quickly scan through the month’s post to jog your memory for any travel, research, or other expenses you incurred for those posts.

What would you add to this Monthly Blog Maintenance Checklist?

image by jaharem