Outgrowing Google

In my Exploring Internet Technology series, I've opened different blogs, websites, network in research projects, using different technologies for each. Because when I make a recommendation I want to have as much first hand experience and accurate (to me) information, as I can, for the benefit of my clients and "five" readers.

I started with my evaluation of the Google family of products, back in December. I won MegMeyer.com in an auction, when it became available. (It was previously owned by someone who only had up a few pictures, and it had sat like that for as long as I can remember. If this is YOU, let me know, I'll give you space to host your personal site.) I knew I needed more time to pick a professional host, so I opted to host the "Pre-launch" phase of the site on Google, with their "Applications for Domains."

The suite of products includes personalized Gmail, start page, calendar, IM, and webpages.

The email, start page and all were easy to set up & I've been very happy with them. I'll likely keep my email hosted with Gmail for quite some time.

Due to constraints of my registrar, however, and not exactly helpful help on the Google Group that I posed my questions to - I had quite a difficult time getting the website verified, and had an ugly web address for quite a while.

At first, I didn't mind having www.megmeyer.com-a.googlepages.com as my website name. I was still building the site, playing with page creator, and hadn't publicized it at all, except to a few close friends. But as I got ready to launch, and was able to point www.megmeyer.com to my Google hosted site, the issues started to show up. Page Creator still publishes to the longer, uglier name. Even though, my domain is verified as mine. And while we can access the site through either address, typing certain individual pages into the address bar produces 404 errors.

And since I've spent more time into researching what is out there, I've come upon my ideal solution. AN Hosting is where I'll likely move, for my web hosting. Their list of features, awards, and price are all ideal. With 25 gigs of space, 250, gigs of bandwith, I can host up to 20 sites and never reach the end of that amount. I also like that the servers are located in Chicago, IL.

I'll still utilize Google's other Apps, like gmail, calendar, docs, and Adsense, but I've outgrown them as a viable host for my businesses.

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You might also like:
The Center of Muse - Writing, Design, Motivation & Coaching for Entrepreneurs, Freelancers, Small & Home Based Businesses.
MegMeyer.com - My personal writing & independent contracting site. Sign up for Writers Groups here.
AN Hosting - Host up to 20 domains on 25 GIGS of space, with 250 GIGS of bandwith for only $6.95.
A Global Community - An Economic Network. Share in growing the community, share in the revenue.
My Lenses - Writing, Retreats, Travel, Business

Make Money with Agloco

Agloco stands for A Global Community. And as members of Agloco's global community, as I understand it, they share the commissions they make from advertisers and search engines with it's community members.

They cite social networking megaliths like Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, Google, MSN, etc. That we, the users, helped grow, but weren't given a piece of the action, in return. It's true, think about it. How much money does Myspace make from the content we place on it? A lot, right? What do they give back?

What about joining a community that gives back a piece of that? That takes the advertising dollars, and sales commissions and shares it with the members that help grow the community? How cool would that be?

I signed up. Here's why:

I surf the internet. A lot. In my research. In my web design. In my writing, I'm always looking for sources and ideas. And while I'm not much of a shopper, if I see something interesting, I do click on the link. Even if I don't make a million bucks with Agloco, getting a bit back, to cover the broadband bill, or buy a coffee when I'm writing "on location," would be a sweet treat!

And guess what? If you sign up too, then what you surf for, and look at, and click on, will be shared with me, and our network, too. So, it's like you're buying me a cup of coffee, when you're shopping online for Chia Pets!

Now, the toolbar isn't out yet, and I'm admittedly an early adopter, but I really like the idea. Rather than being a "big brother" spying secretly, it'll know what we search for, when we put it into the Agloco toolbar, and give us a piece of the commission.

Use it for charity, use it to alleviate a bit of the cost for being a geek. Use it to buy me a coffee. ;)

If this sounds like something you're even curious about, please click this link. Read what it's all about, and sign up, if it's something for you. If it isn't, no worries, no pressure.

I, however, think it's a really cool idea!

Meg Meyer
The Center of Muse

Naming a Website

In browsing for information about my sites, I've come across what may not look like a grievous error to some, but is really quite disturbing to me.

Centero Fm Use

is not the same as

Center of Muse

And yet, they are. Even more disturbing, is that a few "official" websites, that report data about other websites have THE FIRST ONE as mine.

Oy.

Sincerely,

Meg Meyer

You might also like: 1, 2, 3!

Volunteering is Good for the Soul: a post from the archives

The following is an article that I wrote for an old coaching blog & a women business owners newsletter. As I realized that it CURRENTLY IS National Volunteer Week, I'll share it & maybe do an update.

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Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Volunteering is good for the soul. By Coach Meg Meyer
April 18-24 is National Volunteer Week, in the United States.

A brunette high school girl who has an extremely difficult time getting her thoughts to come out of her mouth and who frequently shies away from questions accordingly comes up to me at the end of a session and asks me to give her pointers on her resume. My heart sinks. Her words come out with a stutter, but she gets them out. And she sought
me out. It is little things like this, knowing that I am touching the life of a young adult, that keeps me volunteering.

I volunteer and do some work for Junior Achievement in addition to running my coaching business and writing articles for the various publications I lend my work to. Now, this isn't a sales pitch as to why you should volunteer for JA, though we'd be glad to have you.

The purpose of this article is to get you thinking about volunteering, if you haven't already. And to thank you profusely if you are already doing so.

Between September of 2002 and September of 2003 - 36,987 women and 26,805 men gave their time to volunteering. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that's an increase of 1.2% and 1.5%, respectively. Thank you, thank you, endlessly thank you! The world needs you, you marvelous creature!

The women business owners are so blessed with the ability to create business that I encourage us to lend that creativity to a worthy cause. I choose non-profits based on those that help kids, women, and encourage business and financial literacy. You can choose from any available in your own area, based on your belief, based on your history or on whatever criteria suits you.

In as little as a few hours time, you will be reminded how your contribution has helped the world.

**********

Meg Meyer is a success and communications coach who helps entrepreneurs and executives create a better business with less stress. Send in your business and life coaching questions to no@longer.active. Questions will be selected to be answered in an upcoming column. Submissions may be edited.

Confessions of a Small-Time Blogger -By Prashanth

Confessions of a Small-Time Blogger - A description of how every blogger begins!

This is an interesting account of how a newer blogger dreams big, gets out of control, comes back to reality. I think it's funny how folks who say they want to write, are writers, will avoid writing. If you're a writer, write. It really is that simple.And then find folks willing to pay you to be YOU!



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Decision Difficulty

I sometimes have trouble making a decision. Really.

I analyze, and research. Research and analyze until I have so much information that I can barely make use of it.

But sometimes that anal penchant for research comes in handy.

Like when deciding to re-launch my local businesses online. I wasn't sure which CMS or blogging solution to go with. So, I'm using a different one for each site. Some would find that a pain in the rear. But I call it detailed research.

For instance, this, particular blog is part of my research & evaluation of all things Google. Blogger is owned by Google, you know. As are Adsense, Adwords, Gmail, and a slew of other services that I'm enjoying playing with.

Will this be my ultimate blogging platform? Too soon to tell.

I'm enjoying services by others, as well. Like: Hosting w/ a cool affiliate program, or this one; or this cool buy/sell text link program.

I hope to be able to give complete, well-rounded, sponsored or not reviews & evaluations. I'm a dedicated researcher, slightly obsessive with new projects, and most importantly for a non-fic writer - opinionated.

Productive Snow Day

While watching the spring growth on the flora get pummeled by snow, outside my office window, I got quite a bit done on the updating & networking front.

MegMeyer.com is fully operational. I managed to get in and tweak it a little bit today.

I also joined MyBlogLog and edited several sites to include that code.

This blog is updated.
The Center of Muse is updated.
My lens portal on Squidoo is updated, as well as a few lenses in progress.

Still trying to tweak the code to fit it into my lenses.

Other Sites:
1
2
3
4
5
6

Paradise by the Laptop Light by Meg Meyer

When I write, when I clean, when I surf online or chat with my friends, there's one constant - music. The usual source of the music, in my case is an internet-based, commercial free, listener supported, freely available, DJ mixed eclectic radio station called Radio Paradise.

You don't need to register to listen. You don't need special software. You don't get bombarded with a bunch of annoying advertisements.

What you do get is a hand picked mix of music from around the globe, deep cuts, indie artists to serenade you through your life. Sometimes a song will fade into the background, and others will do a running jump into your face. Discover new songs, new artists, even some from a part of the planet you don't think about on a regular basis.

You can see what's playing now, and what you just missed, right on the homepage. Decide to listen (most music is work safe) or log in to the website for more interactive options.

While registration is not required, music fans will want to join in the discussion about what's playing. Like a song? Or did one make your ears bleed in protest? Speak up! Vote! Add a comment.

Click on a song, and be taken to a page where all kinds of information is available. Check out more from the artist, more from the album, see the album art (when available,) get lyrics, see what others think about the song. Purchase the song from iTunes or Amazon, get tour information.

The main thing I enjoy Radio Paradise for is connecting with my long-distance friends. While I listen in Wisconsin, my friends in Texas, Hawaii, Alaska, and Australia are all listening to the same song, at the same time. We've been in the middle of our various daily tedium and a song will come on that we'll get excited about and touch base with each other, via IM and say, "are you listening? What a great song!"

Another thing I credit Radio Paradise with is discovering, and purchasing music, like "Land of Anaka," by Geoffrey Oryema, off of "African Odysseus." I never would have been captivated by that song, or exposed to such a wide variety of artists on mainstream radio stations.

Have music that you think should be on RP? Want to be heard worldwide? Submit your two best songs to the Listener Review Channel. If it fits with what RP plays, you could get featured in the LRC, and voted upon by fans of Radio Paradise, and voted into the regular rotation. Being "discovered" by thousands of people, worldwide, at once, couldn't be bad exposure.

In our global culture, it's amazing to look at the listener map on Radio Paradise and see 11,661 listeners in the USA, 1213 listeners in Canada, 143 in Brazil, 624 in Germany, and even two in Iraq are all checking out the same song as I am, at this moment. There are listeners all over, just take a look!

Bill & Rebecca Goldsmith DJ the station themselves, mixing sets for a smooth flow, resulting in optimum listener enjoyment. Radio Paradise is based out of Paradise, California, and runs on an "innovative programming automation system" that Bill designed himself.

Royalties and copyright fees are high, and have recently increased for all internet radio stations, while AM & FM stations don't have to pay these extra fees, incidentally. Radio Paradise relies on it's affiliate relationships, and loyal listeners to give them the money they need to keep the station going. So you may occasionally hear Bill ask for donations, or pitching Radio Paradise hoodies, as a means to cover the cost of staying "on air." (Or would it be "on stream?")

If you have eclectic taste in music, and like giving your ears new treats, you'll enjoy Radio Paradise. But what you might like most about Radio Paradise is what you don't hear... advertisements.

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The preceding post is an article I wrote on a non-exclusive, non-paid basis. It's submitted to several content banks including:



GoArticles.com.

Constant Content.

Meg Meyer's Lenses.

Meg Meyer's Writing & Business Blog.

The Center of Muse.

MegMeyer.com - Pre-Launch

And, of course, the journals of RadioParadise.com.

Are YOU going to share this on your website? Let me know & I'll add a link to your site!

- Meg Meyer

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Meg Meyer is a writer, life coach, speaker, workshop leader, entrepreneur, and creative independent. Meg is the founder of several internet businesses and helps others create vocations around their passions. She is based in the Midwest region of the United States, however she'll travel for almost any reason... or no reason at all.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Save Our Internet Radio - The View from Paradise

Don’t let the RIAA silence your favorite Internet radio station!



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Thoughts on Sponsored Blogs

In an effort to better monetize my websites, and hone my craft, I've been researching different ways to be paid for writing & blogging. There have been a wide variety of scams, biz ops, and shady operations that have come up in my search. There have been promising ideas, as well.

In a recent search for "Sponsored Blogs," I came across a post by someone who was claiming that posting a sponsored review was "selling out to tha man," and compromising the integrity of the blog, the blogger, and the entire bloggiverse, as well. Is that always the case? I think not.

While I have come across blogs who feature a different biz op or affiliate feature on each page... and THAT is the entire blog; I have also browsed blogs that have useful information, seasoned by the occasional sponsor, advertisement or sponsored post. And a few advertisement free blogs with poorly written content are out there too.

That's the thing with blogs, though. They're blogs (as opposed to newspapers, magazines & other media.) Owned by the blogger. The very heart of the blogging craze is that everyone has an opinion. And so they write it out for the world... or nobody... to see.




I was thinking last night about "integrity" and "money." How much of the former can you have with the latter involved? Some say not much. I say money is merely an "enhancing drug" it wont change your core, but will accentuate what kind of person you already are.

If you have integrity, and with said integrity go after money - that's not a sin. We all have to live, and eat, and put a roof over our heads or find a bridge to live under.

So what, then, about sponsored blogs, sponsored posts, and sponsored reviews? Well, like the internet, there are going to be slimy individuals out there not caring if they're accurate or honest. But also like the internet there will be folks who will give an unbiased review, their educated opinion, and maybe even some well cited fact.

It's like secret shopping, that's a little less secret. Or like pitching amazon books on your homepage.

So how does one trust the content of a blog, website, etc, that pays or gets paid for it's content? The same way you trust your neighbor's opinion. Take what you read, and use it as inspiration for your own research.

Head Spinning Research

Now that I have hosting and a few domain names, I'm looking into what kind of content management software and website design ware I'd like to learn about.

You see, I'm old-school. I made my early pages with notepad. Yes. Really.

And while I could still code by hand, I want some of the bells and whistles of the newfangled dynamic pages, etc. I also want to spend more of my time writing and building my business than designing my website. (Odd, for a web-designer, I know. But I'd rather build my business by building YOUR website. I'd rather build my portfolio by writing an article for YOU.)

I'm interested in learning more about Ruby on Rails, WordPress, Serendipity, Joomla, Coffee Cup. Just based on hype, thus far.

I need functionality and design now, while being scalable later. I need content management, and quick loads. I need ad and product placement capabilities. I need a clients only section. I'll eventually need capability of having multiple users add to the site.

All this info is really making my head spin.

Dizzying and Exhilarating at the same time.

What I'm Checking Out Now

In an effort to research more places to write for, and means of making money by writing from home or on the road without writing for ONE company (other than MINE), I'm joining a few content banks.

If you've got a good one that has reasonable requirements, and fair compensation, let me know. I'll make sure you get credit.

The secondary reason I'm doing this is market research. I want my network to be the most fair, most accurate, and most prized by it's own contributors and sponsors. I've seen quite a few unscrupulous ToU documents, contracts, etc... I want my network of collaborators to have ownership of their work, to be acknowledged for their work, and not abused for their dream.