2 The Next Level

Archive for the ‘Free Web 2.0’ Category

There are a lot of great tools to keep you in touch with your social and professional network. Most of us use the computer, Jott gives us the power to do the same thing using voice recognition on your cell phone . Jott allows you to send emails to yourself, send email and text messages to your list of contacts, and send messages to different web services like Twitter, Blogger and Google Calendar. Jott will listen to your voice commands and turn you words into text to then be displayed as though you had typed the message yourself.

Most smart phones like the Apple iPhone and the Sprint Instinct have application that can give you some of the same kind of access. Jott uses voice recognition to let the rest of us who still use non-smart phones the same capability.

All I have to do is call the Jott toll-free number and my voice does the rest. The main reason I use Jott is to help me send reminders to myself when I am on the road and don’t have a pen handy, but it can do so much more.

Here is an example of a Jott I sent to my email address

Sent with my voice via Jott:

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to our selves and our posterity do ordain…

Listen to Jeffrey’s Message

As you can see Jott was able to pick up words that are not that easy to pronounce let alone catch by voice recognition software. If your message is a bit long Jott will generate a link to the audio recording of your message that you can retrieve from the Jott website.

I also use Jott to update my Google Calendar and have just started sending post to my Twitter account.
Jott can help you keep up to date with your favorite blog by allowing you to hear the written words instead of reading them.

Jott lets me hear up to date blog post from Tech Crunch, Mashable and Barack20 when I don’t have the time to get to a computer to read it. If your blog feed is not on the Jott Feed list you can add it and give it a name that will be easily identified when speaking it into your cell phone.

The Jott service is currently FREE to all their users. Their is a quick setup on the Jott website that you walk through in order to store your contacts, groups, feeds and web links. Once that is done you are ready to Jott.

Jott gives busy Solopreneurs and Small Business a voice controlled way to communicate with their social media, emails, groups, blogs and up date their calendar. All done with with a non-smart cell phone.

The Jott service is currently FREE to all their users. There is a quick setup on the Jott website that you walk through in order to store your contacts, groups, feeds and web links. Once that is done you are ready to Jott.

Who do YOU want to Jott?

All the best

JB

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I have only been using the micro blogging tool Twitter for just under a month and I have to say I am hooked. My first Tweet or Twit was on a myspace page that someone emailed me of a lady who makes dresses out of Barack Obama T-shirts, and my latest Tweet was about my testing out a new broadcast email service called Mad Mimi. I can send Twitter updates directly from the Twitter website or from my cell phone using SMS. I can even send them via voice activation using a service called Jott that will take my spoken word and translate it into text on the Twitter network.

Some of you Solopreneurs and Small Business Owners are probably asking yourself why in the world would I need to get a Twitter account and start Tweeting. I said the same thing over a month ago but a funny thing happened when I sent out my first Tweet. I got an answer back in a Follower. A follower is someone who sees what you just put out on the Twitter network, then looks at your profile and then at a push of a button follows all your twitter update from now until they want to no more.

I know it may sound like a religious experience or maybe even cyber stalking and NO it is not. It is more like a voluntary way of telling you that I like what you wrote about and thereafter checking your profile out, I don’t mind getting more information from you.

If you goto a website called Twitterholic.com you can find out who the top 100 people being followed on the Twitter network. Barack Obama is number three on this list. Not only do I follow him but in return he follows me. How thrilling was it to see that the current Democratic Presidential Candidate is following little ole me.

So how can you use this to your advantage as a Solopreneur or Small Business Owner? Very simple. Think of it as Micro Marketing 140 characters at a time. 140 characters is all that you are allowed to post at a time on Twitter so your messages need to be short and to the point. Use it as a way to make timely announcements of your new services or product launches. Invite your many followers to your next event or just share a great website that would help someone in their time of need.

What you should not do is abuse the Twitter network of followers by sending them Twitter spam. Twitter spam is just like email spam unwanted information that serves no purpose. If you do this you will lose followers in a heartbeat. The best thing to do is just be yourself and share topics of discussion your audience of followers would appreciate.

I will do a follow up post on the many Twitter Tools for Solopreneurs and Small Businesses. In the mean time please get your own Twitter account and start sharing. If you share good information you will get a great following.

All the best

JB
twitter.com/jbrath

Had to add this great Youtube video on how Twitter works enjoy.

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• Observations on Twitterdom

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Robert Scoble the author of the Blog “Scobleizer” does and in depth interview with Sridhar Vembu the CEO and Raju Vegesna the Evangelist of Zoho. Zoho is number 1 on my list of Top 10 Web 2.0 Sites for Solopreneurs. I use the Zoho Suite almost every day to help run my business.

Solopreneurs and small businesses really need to take a good look at utilizing a service like Zoho in order to keep your business productive and more cost efficient.

Zoho is giving companies like Google, Salesforce and even Microsoft a run for their money. Where else can you get to use an office suite similar to Microsoft Office, Google Apps and Salesforce CRM all for FREE.

Take a look at this interview and let me know your thoughts.

All the best

JB

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If you are a solopreneur or small business owner that is on the go and has more than one phone number you will definatley appreciate this post. What if you can could be contacted using one phone number on any of your main phone devices. Most of use have at least 3 different phone numbers. Home, work and cell and if you miss a call on any one of these numbers you have to get the message from 3 different voice mail boxes.

Enter GrandCentral one number for life. As a fellow Solopreneur I need to make sure I don’t miss a call. But if I do miss a call I don’t want to have to check three different voice mail services. Right now you can get a GrandCentral phone number for Free while it is still in Bata. When someone calls that number it calls me on any of the phones I choose and if I miss the call I can check the messages via my phone or better yet I get an email message and I can check the voice mail via the web.

My favorite feature has to be the ability to screen any of your incoming calls. We all remember the best thing about having our old answering machines was being able to listen to the person who called and decide if we wanted to talk to them. Well you you can do the same thing with your GrandCentral number. When someone calls you and you are unsure you want to talk to them just hit the 3 button on your phone and you get to screen the callers message.

If I decide after listening in on the callers message I want to talk to them all I have to do is hit the Star Key (*) on my phone keypad and I can join the call. What’s great is just like an answering machine the caller can’t hear you or know that you are listening and if you decide you don’t want to talk to them they just leave their message on the voice mail.

I now have one number 404-287-0848 and one number only. Numbers on GrandCentral are going fast so I suggest you get one ASAP.

All The Best

JB

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I have been a Paypal.com account holder for eight years now and I am amazed at how much money I have made using their service. If you are not yet familiar with PayPal and are a Solopreneur or a Small Business owner you are leaving a lot of money at risk. I say at risk because if you don’t have a way to accept credit cards/debit cards for payment on your goods or services you not only risk losing business but you also risk not getting paid at all.

The reason I became a PayPal.com member so long ago is because I had a contract with a major university to complete work on a website I was designing for their building services department. The department head was very impressed with my work and asked if I accept credit cards as a form of payment. I only accepted checks or cash at the time like most small businesses just starting out.

The amount they owed me could only be paid by the department head with his university issued credit card. The department head’s only choice was to send a check request to the director of the department, the director of the department sent a request to the purchasing department who then sent a request to the billing department who then 5 months later sent a check to me.

If only I had a traditional merchant account at that time. Most Solopreneurs or Small Business owners don’t need or can’t afford the cost involved to maintaining a merchant account. I didn’t have enough volume of business at that time to justify a merchant account so I was stuck waiting when it came to check payments from my clients.

PayPal.com to the rescue! Not only can I now accept credit cards of all types including American Express, MasterCard, Visa and Discover Card, I can also allow my clients to send me an eCheck through PayPal.com
PayPal.com also gives you an Invoicing tool that will send out professional invoices through email that will include a link back to PayPal.com to allow your client the ability to pay that invoice with their credit card.

Their once was a very popular commercial that a famous actor at that time Karl Malden did for the American Express Travelers Checks. The catch phrase at the end of the commercial was “Don’t Leave Home Without Them!” Well I do the same with my PayPal.com Debit Card. I don’t leave home without it. You can get a Free PayPal.com Debit Card with 60 days of good standing of creating your PayPal.com account. Once one of your clients or customers pays you through PayPal.com using their credit card the funds are automatically availble via your PayPal Debit Card.

There are so many other great features PayPal.com has to offer it will take more than one Blog Post to go over them. So if you are a Solopreneur or Small Business owner and want to expand the profit potential by accepting major credit cards for payment of your goods or services get THEE to the PayPal.com site NOW!

All The Best

JB

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