Google offers a great tool for those who have blogs.  Using Google Voice you can publish their Click and Call Widget on the sidebar so your customers can have the convenience of easily contacting you.  This free feature from Google offers so much more than voice mail.  When a caller uses it, the system rings every telephone you configure.  If you don’t answer it will record a message.  The message is then both transcribed into a Text and email to you and also archived in the system for you to read or listen to later!

To use Google Voice you will need 1) a Google Account 2) a Google telephone number.

Here’s how to get your own Google Voice Telephone Number and the Call Me button for your blog:

If you already have a Gmail account, just log into it.  Click on “more.”  (If you do not have a Gmail account, go get one! They are free!)

Next you will have to click on “even more.”  Then the next box pops up.  Look for “VOICE”

When you click  on “VOICE” you will be directed to a setup screen, where you can configure the system to ring your telephone numbers.

Look for then click on “Settings”  the next screen will allow you to Choose a Google Telephone Number.  Follow the instructions, continuing on to configure the telephones you want Google to ring when searching for you.

Remember, if you add your home phone and there are other people in your house, you will need to train them on how to answer the phone for you.  This is coming from your professional site, so a professional answering routine is important.

The person answering the phone will be told by the Google Recording who is calling and who the call is for, so they will know what type of caller is on the phone.

After Setting Up Telephone Numbers Go Get Your Widget

The Google Voice Widget can be found by going to the “Call Widgets” link.  Here you can configure the widget to do different things.

Be sure to save your changes!

Next go grab the Widget Embed Code. The screen will look something like this:

Just copy the Embed Code to your clipboard,

Ctrl-A to get full code.  Ctrl-C to copy.

Now go to your WordPress blog, >Appearance>Widgets>Text

Grab a “TEXT box” and drag it over to the Sidebar column

Give your Widget a Name, “Contact Me” works.

Save then go to the Home Page of your Blog and admire your work!

Let Google Voice Find You is a post from: Kristalks

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Facebook Business pages are quite the rage right now. People are using them to advertise their business, generate leads, keep their consumers informed.  The benefits of having a Facebook page are many, the importance of having one to illustrate your brand is obvious!

Creating a unique look on your Facebook page is not too difficult.  The way it is done is by installing a Facebook Application called FBML, Facebook Markup Language.  It’s free, but installing it is a tad tricky.  To walk you through the process I’ve written a step-by-step tutorial.  Give it a try and when you are done come back and leave a link to your work.  I’d love to see what you built!

How to Add the FBML App to your Facebook Business page:
Follow these instructions:

1) On Business page click “EDIT PAGE” (located on left column just under photo/logo)

2) You need to Add the FBML Application to your page. To do so Type “FBML” in the “Search” box at page top.

From the pick list that pops up, choose “STATIC FBML” this will take you to the FBML Application page. (you have now LEFT your business page.)

3) Click on “ADD TO MY PAGE”

NOTE: If you have created more than one page you will need to “Highlight” the page where you want the FBML application to be installed.

4) Use the Browsers “BACK” button to return to your page. You should be on your page’s EDIT PAGE. Scroll down looking for the FBML APP.

5) Now the FBML App has been added to your site. The next step will be to configure it by adding HTML Code to add photos, links and anything you would like to dress up your page.

Other Tutorials About Adding Personality to your Facebook Business Page:

Adding a Photo to Your Facebook Business Page

Creating Links in the Sidebar of Your Facebook Business page

Adding the FBML Application to your business page. is a post from: Kristalks

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If you are looking to dress up your Facebook business (aka Fan)  page, a good way to do it is by adding a few links.  Links can be a collection of resource pages that add value to your business page. They can be links to your company’s website or perhaps a collection of links of sites you read and admire (think blogroll).

Facebook is not like websites where all you need to know is HTML code to create a link.  On Facebook you must add a FBML application in order to make the HTML code work.

It’s really not that hard, so don’t quit yet!  Follow these instructions:

1) On Business page click “EDIT PAGE” (located on left column just under photo/logo)

2) You need to Add the FBML Application to your page. To do so Type “FBML” in the “Search” box at page top.

From the pick list that pops up, choose “STATIC FBML” this will take you to the FBML Application page. (you have now LEFT your business page.)

3) Click on “ADD TO MY PAGE”

NOTE: If you have created more than one page you will need to “Highlight” the page where you want the FBML application to be installed.

ALSO: If you installed this application previously – there will be no choices for you to install.  The application will be found on the page – just go to the next step.

4) Use the Browsers “BACK” button to return to your page.  You should be on your page’s EDIT PAGE.  Scroll down looking for the FBML APP.

5) Click on “EDIT”

Add your descriptive title in the “BOX TITLE”

In the large empty portion of the box you will be adding HTML Code from the next step 6.

6) To create a link you need to have the complete URLS to the sites you wish to link too.

The best way to save multiple links is to;

a) Open “NOTEPAD” on your computer. Go to >START>NOTEPAD

c) Mac users – Open TextEdit

Working Tip: Why Notepad you ask?  Well it’s free and it exists on you computer.  Notepad is just a TEXT editor, it does not add extra formatting to your work like MS WORD does.  You can pop notepad up, place your text on it, hit save and not worry if you make a mistake and lose it like what might happen when you are working online on Facebook.

Saving your work to notepad (Mac = TextEdit) means it is easier to correct when you make a mistake right now or need to modify it later on.

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Collect the URLS you wish to link to.  Surf to the site, copy and paste the url directly to your open notepad.

It will look like this:

Next you will need to create the HTML code.

In NOTEPAD click down a few spaces to give yourself some room, then add the following code exactly as you see it.

Copy and Paste the line of code for every link you want to create.  3 links = 3 lines of code.

Like this:

You have just finished creating the code.  Now you will need to do a few more things.

• First copy one line of url and insert it between the “” in the code (parenthesis).  It will look like this:

• Next let’s clean up your code by deleting what’s in the red area.  Here’s an example:

• The last step to complete your code is to add the LINK TEXT.  Link text should describe what the url (website) is about.  It can be the name of the website or a description of what the site is about.  In the example we are using the link text for the 3 urls will be:
  • REBar Camp
  • Picnik – a free photo manipulation site
  • Flickr – share your photos and make friends too!
• Between the > <  Add your Link Text.  Mine will look like this:

7) OK now Cut & Paste this code from NOTEPAD (or TEXTEDIT) to the Large Empty box on the FBML EDIT page.

WORK TIP: At this point you may wish to SAVE the copy you completed on NOTEPAD.  I like saving work when there are extensive links involved.  If I make a mistake all I need to do is return to my NOTEPAD file and correct the mistake instead of creating the whole darn thing again!

Now that you have saved your FBML Edit, you need to return to your Business Page.  Look for the Tab called “Boxes”.

Click on Boxes, you can now view your links in this TAB!

At this point you can call it quits and leave your links under the TAB.  But if you are like me you would rather have your links more visible on the sidebar of your business page.  To move them, click on the tiny little pencil in the upper right corner.  You will see this:

9) In the drop down box click on the “MOVE TO WALL TAB”  your Links will leave your BOX TAB and now be found on the sidebar of your Business page!

Wow!  That wasn’t so hard now was it?

In summary,

You learned how to an a Facebook application.  In this case we added the FBML application, but you use the same routine pretty much for adding any application.

You learned how to use NOTEPAD or TEXTEDIT as a workspace when working with code.

You learned how to save the file in NOTEPAD or TEXTEDIT for future reference.

You learned HTML code for making a hot link!

You learned how to add HTML code to the FBML box to create links on a Facebook business page TAB or Sidebar.

If you like what you learned, please leave a comment!  Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog in your RSS Reader and become a FAN (Like me please) on Facebook.

Creating Links in the Sidebar of Your Facebook Business Page is a post from: Kristalks

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Active Rain is a very popular site for the Real Estate Industry.  Here I’ve prepared a quick screencast demonstrating how easy it is to upload a photo from your hard drive.

Before you begin, you will need:

• a nice photo of yourself
• close up shot is best
• try to keep it “unbusy”
• size should be approximately polaroid snap shot or smaller
• loaded to your hard drive (remember where you put it!)

Watch the video…

Tired of forgetting your passwords?  Use Robo Form, get it here!

Active Rain ~ Adding a Photo on Your Profile is a post from: Kristalks

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