I believe that with GVO Conference, with a very impressive list of features and the very accessible cost of only $8.97 a month, I have found an answer.

Our company has signed up as a customer and, because we see this product as meeting a real need in the market, also as an affiliate. But my main interest is in being able to use the product myself for webinars.

Other products

In the product comparison department, as a participant in webinars I’ve found WebEx and GoToWebinar excellent in terms of features. I don’t recall experiencing lag or dropouts with either. Friends have told me Adobe’s Acrobat Connect product is also excellent.  However, I’ve not found the pricing of these products very welcoming.

WebEx starts at US$49 a month for up to 25 participants and GoToWebinar starts at US$99 a month for up to 100 attendees. Adobe Connect Pro starts at US$45 per month for up to 100 attendees.

I believe many freelance professionals and work at home business owners would be interested in a lower-priced product, with appropriate features and reliability of course.

I’ve tested other services in the past which were free or low cost, but have not found one which works well enough for me to be confident about it. That includes DimDim, now acquired by Salesforce. I was never able to get the free version to work satisfactorily for me, in spite of efforts by the Dimdim people to help me make it work. I suspect our local rather limited broadband was partly to blame, although that does not seem to have been a problem for WebEx or GoToWebinar.

Given the recent acquisition by Salesforce, the pricing DimDim had is somewhat academic now, but by way of comparison, in 2009 their paid (“premium”) service offered unlimited conferences for up to 50 people at a time, for an average US$19.95 a month (according to a post on ZDNet, April 2, 2009).

Along the way I’ve tried three or more other free or low cost services but their lag and/or dropout tendencies made them unsuitable for my professional use.

Starting the dance with GVO Conference

So I was a tad wary when I decided to test out the GVO Conference service. Price was certainly very attractive at a basic US$8.97 a month, the feature list looked pretty comprehensive and I’d heard good things about reliability.

Also helping my receptivity was the availability of 24/7 live support. Believe me, when you live, as I do, in a seriously different time zone from where most of your online services are domiciled (USA) it’s deeply frustrating to realize that you can’t call now because everyone has gone home and won’t be back till Tuesday morning your time and even then you had better get up early because it’s about to be the end of their Monday working day!

I love 24/7 live support!

Moving right along
Overall, testing of GVO Conference has given me confidence that this product really suits our company’s needs. And at $8.97 a month it is more than manageable financially.

There is a full list of GVO Conference features on this page.

Our company has purchased two conference rooms: we can host a conference of up to 50 people in each of those. If and when the number goes above that number, I can upgrade to the next level, with 300 seats, plus an additional 50 seat room, at $44.99 a month, and do that on the fly.

I plan to use GVO Conference for some individual coaching on social media and in a couple of weeks from now for my new free webinar series on social media. In that way I’ll get to use the various features, including the whiteboarding, screen sharing, interactive chat and so on.

I like the fact that participants in my coaching sessions and webinars will not to have to download any new software to their computers to access the webinar (although they will need to have Flash installed – sorry, iPhone and iPad users, talk to Steve Jobs about that).

There is a business opportunity here for people wanting to register as affiliates, but you can buy just the product and as I say my main interest right now is in using the GVO Conference product for my own webinars.

I intend to report further when I’ve used the product for a while and will leave a link here at that time.

I know there are people who blog on a daily basis and even more frequently and there have been times, usually on a Sunday or a Monday, when I’ve told myself “this week!”. The statistical reality is that over the years I have averaged just over 3 blog posts a week on this site.

I console myself that:

a. this is not my only blog, so if I take account of my blog posts elsewhere I probably do post on average closer to five days a week, and

b. a lot of my posts are a lot longer than those of some of the daily or several times a day bloggers

I’m not saying my longer posts are necessarily better, brevity being the soul of wit and all that.  But I have to admit I do perk up whenever I read or hear another social media/blogging consultant say that about three times a week is a good number for a business blog, even if they also advocate more frequent postings.

And even with an average of three posts a week here, rather than five or more, I do get stuck sometimes about what to post on.

Today, for instance.

Here I am, end of the working week – although that’s often a flexible concept for those of us who work from home – and so far I’ve done only one post here this week.

Then I thought, I know, Google Alerts.

For any reader who doesn’t know about Google Alerts, it’s an excellent, free service that basically keeps watch on the Web and alerts you when a word or phrase you are interested in is used somewhere.

I have a few words in my Alerts relating to home based business. Today, one of those had an alert for a very interesting, in fact impressive UK based site, Enterprise Nation, which focuses on home based business and whose founder and editor is one Emma Jones.

Sometimes I get quite disheartened, looking for blogs which are about home based business but are not just plugging office furniture or some get-rich-quick-in-your-night-attire capers.

So finding Enterprise Nation, whose tagline is “a free resource to help you start and grow your business at home”, made my day.

And yes, I got an idea for a blog post. But then I got chatting here about Google Alerts and finding Enterprise Nation, and now I see that the post is quite long enough, so the blog post idea can keep for another day. Soon!

Actually, there’s another idea, which is not original but which I could use – break up some of my longer posts into shorter ones, thus in one stroke

a. lifting my batting average

b. pleasing those who like shorter posts.

If you have ever found yourself coming up a bit short in the “things to blog about” department, why not try Google Alerts? And if it works for you – or if it doesn’t – do please share your results here.

The old card is pictured here.

With a few offline events coming up I really do need something more up to date.

I’m taking this opportunity to figure out just what role I see the card as playing in my marketing and what I want the card to communicate about me and what I do.

That process is making me do some serious questioning of the whole business of business cards.

I’m by no stretch of the imagination a graphic designer, but for reasons outlined below I’m casting caution to the winds and designing this card myself, with the help of a couple of basic tools, Microsoft Publisher (part of Microsoft Office) the free, downloadable Irfanview image software and online tools provided by business card printers (details below).

This is a longer post than I’d orginally intended. Its length is partly due to its reflecting over 20 years experience of using a variety of business cards, with at best mixed results. I’m hoping the post might be helpful to someone, sometime, although as it’s about a DIY exercise I’m pretty sure it won’t win me any friends in the business card design game!

Memories of cards past

I’ve had a lot of business cards in my time, first in the public service once I reached a level of seniority where it was deemed appropriate for me to have a card, and then in business. In the public service I think it was a status thing, kind of a right to show off my title once I reached the executive level.

When I started in business, getting a business card was one of the things  you did. And you went to networking functions or meetings and exchanged cards with the other people there. I think the theory was that this was a way to attract business, although as I reflect on that now there is no single instance that springs to mind where I could say my business card did in fact ever play a key role in attracting new business.

That reminds me of the gag I heard a few years ago: “Did you hear about the consultants’ Christmas party? They all had a drink and exchanged business cards.”

I didn’t have or need a business card when I was a school teacher or when I drove a taxi. No point. I believe I needed one as a consultant and coach. I am pretty sure I still need one.

But what kind of card am I going to have? What words and other information will it have on it?

I’ve done some online searching for ideas, with mixed results (some links at the end of this post) and the realization that I have to figure out what will work for me, rather than rely on others’ ideas of what “should” be done. My ideas on that have changed in recent years and in fact my thoughts on the subject are still changing (evolving I hope).

My pre-conceived notions challenged: Bob Burg on the uses of cards

My ideas about business cards and their value for business started to change when I read master networker Bob Burg’s book Endless Referrals. Bob is not big on cards, or at least on how cards often get used.

He certainly doesn’t have time for the way they get used often at networking functions. If you have ever been to a networking breakfast where a person you’ve never met arrives and sprays their cards around the table like a dealer at a casino you will get the idea. Waste of time.

Bob says there are three uses for a business card: 1) you could win something (you know, the fishbowl thing at the local restaurant, or some other “email address catcher” receptacle at an expo); 2) you could get a lead (he is less than enthusiastic about this one); 3) you can get others’ cards. This third reason – to get others’ cards – is, Bob says, the only one that matters. “As far as I’m concerned” he writes “this is the one truly valuable benefit of business cards…”.

Although he is not what you would call an enthusiast, he’s not completely down on the idea of business cards:

Although I make light of business cards, and generally find they are not worth much more than the paper stock on which they are printed, they can have some value when used correctly.

Another challenge: The Case of the Disappearing Cards

I’ve started asking myself and the occasional person who will listen “Why do so many people not have cards any more?”

Because increasingly I’m noticing that people don’t have them, especially people in Internet/social media related business, with the notable exception of people who are in that arena but more in design, advertising and marketing fields.

Is it because business cards are so 20th century, so analog, so uncool? Is it a sign of a quiet revolution against the tide of newsletters, promos, last chance offers, exciting news that flood our email boxes in response to all those cards we’ve given out at breakfasts, in the bowls at expos, at business gatherings?

Or is it because a lot of us feel that we and our contact details are now so findable online that we don’t need the expense and inconvenience of having cards designed and printed and then having to carry them around, against the moment when someone at a function says “Do you have a card?” Or say we meet a business person from Japan.

Awkward thought: am I at risk,  if I fall in with a bunch of geeks, of looking like a real doofus if I ask for or produce business cards? Oh the embarrassment!

And what about the planet?

No doubt because I work mostly online, I always seem to have these days more business cards than I need. And the ones I have are now out of date, using a title I no longer use. And with that thing of it being only marginally more expensive to have a thousand printed than five hundred, I hate that moment when, sooner or later, I have to ditch about 600 cards I’ll never have use for again because the information on them is out of date.

Not to mention the speed of change in technology and business

Business cards, it seems to me, used to have a longer life than they are likely to have now. Twitter didn’t exist when the first version of my current card emerged and when I updated it in 2007 it did not occur to me to put my Twitter handle on the card, whereas now I’m doing so with my next card.

I also used then the title “Blogging Evangelist” which I don’t use now, not because I don’t promote blogging for business – I decidedly do – but because it’s not the focus of my business in the way it was back then.

The new card project

Taking all those considerations aboard, I do believe that, for the time being at least, I still need a card. But I’m going with temporary and home-built design, using some basic tools to get a result which I believe will work for me.

These are the principles I’ve applied:

Front of card

• include photo (a feature of the older and current card commented on positively, many times)
• my name in a font size easy to read at a glance
• my preferred contact details: mobile (cell) number | Twitter @ handle | email address
• primary web/blog address
• tagline
• no title (I find using titles triggers pigeonholing)

Back of card

• what I do in social media – strategy
• a quote about the importance of strategy
• room for recipient to jot a note
• matt finish (current card I had foolishly made gloss – no one could write on it!)

What’s not there

• other blog/web sites (potentially confusing)
• landline number (not always at base but usually have mobile)
• fax number (no discernible usefulness)
• coaching information (again, potentially confusing – thinking about a separate card)

Design and printing I’ve used Microsoft Publisher for the card design, Irfanview to adjust the picture, Click Business Cards (based in North Sydney, Australia) for the printing.

My intention is to do another version before my next overseas trip, with the international phone number (country code etc). In the US, I’ve found the people at Overnight Prints really helpful: but I had to learn the hard way that “Overnight” was a brand, not a literal promise – it was still speedy by the standards then (and perhaps still) prevailing in Australia and very economical.

Both Click Business Cards and Overnight Prints provide really helpful online tools. With each, you can use one of their templates or use their blank format and upload your own image/text, as I’m doing with the new card.

My new cards will not be certainly not as elegant as the old ones, but I am confident they will be more practical in helping communicate what I do in the social media space.

I quite liked the old black background but it was never part of an overall branding and in fact the card I’m producing now is more aligned with the very plain style of my main web/blog sites.

Some links for stimulating card design ideas (some fairly zany, which could work for some businesses):

• Neil Patel has a great post on really creative cards.
• David Airey has a thought-provoking post and comment thread on the question of good and bad design for business cards.
• Jacci Howard Bear offers on About.com a  list of the 11 Parts of a Business Card.
• Some good ideas are also in the article Business Card Design and Printing, by an Australian graphic design company.

I welcome any suggestions as to how, within the parameters I’ve indicated above, I could improve on my new design or comments on how I’m proceeding with this project. As there is no cost other than my time in any re-design, and a fairly modest cost for another print run, I’m quite open to practical suggestions. And anyway I’ll be doing a new run when I’m next planning to travel internationally.

To that end I’ve just re-installed a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking (DNS) (version 7), which I purchased a few years ago, tried for a while and gave up on because I found I could get my thoughts down faster by typing.

So if it didn’t work before, why am I going down that path again?

It’s a combination of reasons. I’ve identified five for starters.

• I’ve found lately that sometimes I seem to be able to get moving on a train of thought when I speak into a recorder than when I sit down to type on the computer.
• Last year I read a very positive review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 9 and in fact toyed with the idea of upgrading at that time.
• I read some time ago a column in a local newspaper where the columnist, who has it seems a large readership, declared that he never wrote/typed his columns: all were dictated.
• I recall that the computer I was using when I first tried DNS was perhaps not up to the task, in terms of system configuration. I now have a better-equipped machine, which seems to have specs up to the challenge. At least for the version of DNS I’m testing at the moment.

And the fifth reason is the conversations I’ve had with business owners who were interested in blogging, were diffident about writing but when I asked could they talk about their business and/or their industry for ten minutes or so, three to four times a week, all said they could.

So if this experiment works, it could be helpful not only for me but for others who like blogging but are inhibited, to a greater or lesser degree, by the writing/typing aspect.

I have to say the experiment almost did not get off the ground. The re-install of DNS 7.0 was not a straightforward matter. It got to a certain point and then there was a window with a blue background but no text. I tried to uninstall so I could re-install but the uninstall process stalled also! So I initiated the install process again and when the blue window came up just closed it, hoping for the best. In fact I was able to then start the program and do the hardware and reading tests and the tutorials without further incident. Not a perfect solution, perhaps, but nothing seems to have blown up or melted down yet.

So now I feel I’m ready to start.

Yes, I know DNS is now up to Version 10, but before I lash out on an upgrade I want to test the version I have to see if that works for me and on my computer.  Then if I decide to upgrade, I have worked out, based on my research on the subject last year (when DNS 9 was the latest version), that the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred model (vs Standard or Professional) is the most appropriate for my requirements

In all of this I am mindful of the advice of a colleague who is very knowledgeable about speech recognition software and the need to have system requirements adequate to the task. I certainly don’t want to put something on the computer that is not only not going to work properly but create a risk of the whole system coming unstuck.

From what I can read on the Dragon site, the computer I use on my desk, a notebook which I use as a desktop machine most of the time, which has Windows XP installed, will work for Version 10, but experience tells me to go cautiously.

For now, I will see how I get along with Version 7 and provide some progress (I hope!) reports here as I go.

Advice and helpful hints will be received with gratitude!

Update: May 12, 2009:  I tried to use DNS 7 but got a bit frustrated, then, encouraged by the comments here decided to go for the latest version.  Bid for one on ebay but clearly someone wanted to pay more. Then took the suggestion of
Derek from Nuance (see comment below) and ordered the upgrade, which is at an excellent price and is now, according to Nuance, winging its way to me. I will report further, probably in a separate post, once I have installed and started using it. Thanks to everyone for the helpful comments!

I admit it. Keeping email under control is not my long suit. I know it’s important and I have listened attentively while experts told me how to manage it, but I have not had great success in applying the theory.

Maybe it’s got something to do with the fact that I am not one of those people who always has everything in order. Every now and again I blitz my intray and general desk area so that I know where things are and am able to work more effectively. But as for following a really ordered system, I don’t score highly.

I’ve given up envying the naturally – or trained to be – orderly people who, if you believe them, never have a piece of paper or any other item out of place.

And the days when I had a secretary to do this sort of thing for me are long gone.

But I still need to do something about the email “pile”.

Which was why I was very pleased to see in my RSS feed today a link to the post by Matt Cutts from Google on how to Start the Year with an Empty Inbox.

This is in the “not necessarily the most efficient in the long term, but fast and painless” category. Basically, Matt shows us how, in three easy steps, we can archive our current Gmail inbox contents (for me it was mostly stuff I know I will never get around to reading) but archiving it in such a way as to be able to find it all again in an “oldinbox”, work on individual items as we choose – and even, if the loss of our inbox contents grieves us, to undo the whole process.

I’ve used a similar process with my Outlook mailbox, for quite a while now.

Sneaky trick it may be and I’m sure it’s not in any “How to Manage Your Email” course, but it works for me.

And re-visiting my Gmail inbox just now, a couple of hours after clearing it, I saw just one item, which I did not need, and got great satisfaction from deleting it. Now the game will be to keep the inbox clear. I know that I will have to check out and deal with a number of items in the “oldinbox”, but I can’t see that being a problem.

Feels good.