My Top 10 Recommended Internet Solutions

The way you use the Internet in your life and your business is as personal as any other consumer decision! Is it affordable and user-friendly? Will it help me be productive or reach my goals? In my opinion, these ten Internet solutions are worthy of your consideration.

1. Add a new Browser! Mozilla Firefox is my preferred Internet browser over Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Safari. However, I use all of them to test how things look that I've published to the web. If I have a problem, it's usually with IE. Chrome and Safari both have beautiful simplistic layouts. So my recommendation: Add a new browser or two or three and try them out! I spend zero time now bothering with viruses and spyware. You will enhance your Internet experience, browse more safely, and likely discover how to be more productive.


2. Consolidate your email! Google's Gmail is the final inbox destination of all my personalized e-mail addresses for all my companies and even my old AOL addresses. They are all forwarded to my Gmail and it's a big time saver. There is very little learning curve with the Gmail application -- set up an account, go to settings and run through each tab, and you're ready! Read "10 reasons to use Gmail."

3. Start collaborating online in place of meetings! Web conferencing has cut way back on driving to meetings for me! As a site designer, I often need to show a client something or brainstorm. Yugma allows me to share my desktop, conduct meetings and even host a webinar with one or up to five people with a FREE account. A big advantage is there is no downloading for my clients to be able to share my desktop. I send them an email invite, they click the link, click "run" and boom... they're with me! I love it so much, I'm an affiliate. Nevertheless, a small business may never need to upgrade from the free account.


4. Get (several) domains on the Web! Your domain is your real estate on the web. You should own the top level domains for your name and your business... that's at least the .com and .net, but also consider .biz, .us, .org, .me, and well, the list goes on. Usually priced at $9.99 or less per year, this is affordable real estate! My Wild West Domains store allows me help people choose a domain name, set up hosting, set up personalized e-mail (i.e. diane@dianedesignit.com), and get a website account, shopping cart, or traffic blazer account set up with one stop shopping! Click here to visit the store.

5. Get a Newspaper and an RSS Reader! The New York Times Reader Free edition and News Alerts really help me stay connected with the news since I'm not natural born newspaper reader like my father, nor a natural born novel reader like my mother, nor a television-aholic like ... well, he knows who he is. Click here for more on the NYTimes Reader. I'll discuss RSS readers in depth another time, but essentially, you can subscribe to any website that has a feed (look for RSS). Then, try Bloglines or simply get a Google Reader.

6. Receive faxes in your Email! Packetel, known as Pfax, is my fax-to-email provider for less than $4/mo. Since so many people now have unlimited long distance, I dropped my 800-# fax and opted for a local fax number. I've been using it for six months now, and it's reliable. Occasionally I get a spam fax, but a fraction of what I used to get with another provider that cost three times as much!


7. Create a PDF! When you send a word document, you're asking for it to come back with changes! For example, documents like a reservation agreement for a vacation rental or a work order/invoice should always be send as a pdf. Doc2pdf.net or pdfonline.com are lifesavers because I so often need to turn word documents into pdfs and host them online to be published to a web site or blog. Along those lines, if you need a place online to share a Word doc or .pdf, read on...

8. Backup and share documents online! KeepandShare or Drop.io are FREE places online where I can host a pdf and share the document. This really comes in handy if your receiver does not have much technical knowledge nor Acrobat Reader nor broadband access (like in Montana!) There are two other reasons to do this: First, you can access your document online from wherever you are! Second, it's a great way to back up important documents in case of computer equipment failures.

9. Accept several forms of payment online! PayPal continues to lead the way as a solution for me for receiving credit card payments, bank transfers, and foreign payments. Last year, when the euro was stronger, we had many vacation cabin guests from the UK and around Europe. PayPal worked perfectly for the situation. They offer integration with web sites as well.

10. Get in the conversation! Social networking is a term that you've undoubtedly heard as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn grow in popularity. It is reported that the fastest growing demographic for these sites is now the 30-somethings to 50-somethings! What are you waiting for? The conversation is good, the company is good, and you never know who you may befriend! And after all, people like to do business with the people they like! You see where I'm going with this? (Care to Follow Me?)

DianeDesignIt isn't only about websites and blogs (although I'm proud that the women in my local women's networking club call me the Blog Lady)! I'm in favor and personally promote anything that helps individuals and small businesses get online, get noticed online, and get more customers online! I would love to hear your comments!