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Cool way to store your year end records

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:00:22 +0000

Part of the year end process for any business is storing the records from the previous year. And real estate agents are no exception. We commonly have many transaction files to store and once they are boxed up they get transported to a storage facility. Often times the facility is off site and inconvenient to get to when a record is needed. Additionally, if there are many boxes stored, it can be chore to determine which box holds the record you need.

I recently ran across a web site that has what appears to be a great solution. Although the creators of the site tout it as a way to help people that are moving keep track of which box has which household item, they say it can be used for anything that gets stored in sealed boxes. I believe that it may be the perfect solution for finding transaction records and other financial records for individuals and companies still keeping paper records.

It’s called Boxmeup and the web site is http://www.boxmeupapp.com.

Here is how it works. You create a free account (there is a paid option, but I couldn’t determine what advantages there are to becoming a paid member) and then you create a “Location” where the box or “Container” will be stored. These locations are the physical address where you store your records. You can have multiple locations and each is identified with a Google Map and unique name that you give it.

Then you create a “Container” and name it. By default the “Container” is placed in the “Unassigned” location so you have to then select to which location the “Container” belongs.

Then you enter your “Items” into the “Container”. This can be transaction files or anything else that you are storing in the box. Once you have filled the physical box and recorded the files that are in it to Boxmeup, you can print a QR Code that you then tape to the outside of the box.

To find out what is in a box at a later date you simply scan the QR code with your mobile phone and you get a list of the contents!

You can also log in to the website to view all of your Locations, Containers and Items. Additionally, you can go to the physical location where the actual boxes are stored and scan the QR codes to see what is inside the box.

Finding that needed file couldn’t be easier!

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Cool way to store your year end records

Four things you need to know to stay safe online!

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:00:09 +0000

With so much emphasis these days on the paperless transaction, storing things in the “cloud” and on mobile computing, I thought it might be a good idea to explore some ways to stay safe online.

During my research online I found many good resources for learning how to avoid making security mistakes. But one source stood out for it’s simplicity of use and breadth of coverage. And that would be a source from Google called “good to know”. http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/

The site uses video, pictures and text to explain things in four broad categories:

Each of these categories is explained completely in a way that any one can understand. The advice offered is accurate and straight forward and if you will actually look at what is offered and implement it, you will come away with the knowledge you need to stay safe online.

Along the way you can learn about Google + and the + Button, location services, search history, how Google looks at search and even a bit on advertising.

Check it out. You can thank me later!

Learn how to REALLY use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:00:14 +0000

How well do you use Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? WordPress? If you are like most, you probably know enough to make basic use of these sites, but are you really up to speed and getting the maximum value from them?

If not, you could search YouTube for instructional videos (Assuming that you watch the most recent ones and also assuming that the person making the video knows what they are talking about). You could also buy a book and read through it. There are also many excellent books available from Amazon and other book sellers. But which one should you buy and will you really read it? You could also take a class (and pay accordingly). And of course, there are training options on the social sites themselves.

The problem is that there are just too many options to choose from, and some of the options may be out dated, expensive, time consuming or just plain wrong. Recognizing that there was a need for quality, inexpensive and up to date instructional videos, the founders of Grovo created a new resource.

The following is from their “About” page and should get you interested enough to actually click on this link to check them out.

Grovo produces free and Premium Business video tutorials that cover the Web’s most popular and useful sites as well as essential cloud services in social media, productivity, and online marketing. Applications include Facebook Profile, Advertising, and Pages, Google Analytics and Apps, Twitter, Yelp, Basecamp, and LinkedIn. Currently, our library contains over 800 video tutorials, and we produce 20 more every week. The videos are delivered through our proprietary education and training platform, which includes the lesson, pre-written notes, quizzes, and glossary terms.

Grovo’s content aims to educate, not to advertise, so all videos are devoid of promotional language or ads. Lessons are between 1-2 minutes long and progress from simple to advanced use cases. All content, including video tutorials, pre-written notes, quizzes and glossary terms, is produced in-house by Grovo’s team of writers, editors and voiceover talent.

I’ve taken a few of the courses and found that they are quality productions in short easy to digest video modules. The interface is clean and easy to navigate and I learned a few things along the way as well.

Give it a look and go learn something that may help your business in 2012!

How to choose the cell phone that is right for you

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 03:00:14 +0000

Buying a new smart phone these days has suddenly gotten very complicated. Not only do you have to decide on a carrier before getting started, you also have to to decide if you want an iPhone, a Blackberry, a Windows phone or an an Android. The iPhone part is easier than the others, you only have a few models to choose from. If you want one of the others though, the available choices can be mind boggling.

Lucky for you a relatively new website can help you make a smart choice that is customized specifically for your needs and budget.

Pop on over to GeekaPhone.com and start out by setting your budget. Then you can start adding the features that you want. As you add features, the site will tell you which make and model phone has what you want for the price that you want to pay.

You can look at the phone’s specs and features, read reviews and in some cases watch videos about the phone.

A look at their “About” page shows what they are trying to accomplish:

Aggregating all the data necessary to make informed decisions
Allowing users to discover the right product without being an expert
Making all the data understandable
Turing all the data into objective measurements
Personalizing the whole experience to the user

I’d say that they have done a good job of accomplishing their goals. What do you think?

And by the way, here is a link to an article I wrote a few years ago that will give you the links to two good resources to help you make that all important carrier decision…a decision that HAS to be made first before buying a phone. http://realtytechbytes.com/what-cell-phone-should-i-buy

Free and easy way to create strong passwords…that you can remember!

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:00:00 +0000

Recently I was reading Mashable and ran across an article entitled the “25 Worst passwords of 2011”. You need to click through on this and read it. Is YOUR favorite password on the list?

You might want to read another Mashable article “5 Tools for Keeping Track of Your Passwords” if it is.

I have tried a few of the methods listed, and found them to be good options, but too cumbersome to use. And most are not free.

I have devised a FREE method for dealing with passwords that works for me so I thought I’d share it with you.

When I encounter a website or situation that requires me to generate a password, I follow this method:

I look for an object that can be used as a memory jogger for that particular site. For instance I might see a stapler on my desk while I am looking at an office supply site that wants a password.
I take the word stapler and substitute characters and numbers for some of the letters.
I handle case by starting with capital letters and alternating with lower case letters
In this example the word stapler becomes St@P13r
Then I have selected a character that i put in front and a different one at the end
So now my password looks like this ~ St@P13r*
I always use the same leading and trailing characters and I always follow the same Upper and lower case convention

Now all I have to do is to remember the memory jogger and my rules and I have an unbreakable password.

For some one to break your password they’d have to figure out what your memory jogger was as well as know your rules. I doubt that it can be done, especially if you keep your passwords at a minimum of 8 characters composed of numbers, special characters and upper and lower case letters.

One final piece of advice. Don’t use the same password for everything. If one site gets compromised and your password and identifying information fall into the wrong hands, it’s a certainty that your login and password will be tried against banking institutions with your information…you’d hate to hand over bank account to some criminal would’t you?

Please share how you manage passwords in the comments.

Shame on zipLogix and Docusign!

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:00:36 +0000

Recently I was asked by a local real estate agent to help her set up her new iPad 2. We loaded on all of the usual apps that most agents would want like a calculator, Pages, Walk Score, Where, AroundMe, Dragon Dictation, Google Search, Bing, Penultimate, GoodReader, Realtor.com, Trulia, and Zillow.

Then we created icons on her “desktop” for the MLS, Facebook, LinkedIn and a few others.

Finally, she asked me how she could create contracts on her iPad and get the contracts into Docusign so that while she was traveling she could handle any transactional events that might arise.

Easy enough I thought. We’ll just go to zipformonline.com and login with her zipForm account information. Not so fast! CAR and zipLogix feel that it is necessary to charge an additional $9.95 a year for the privilege of accessing this member benefit on a mobile device!

OK, so maybe they want to recover their development costs of porting the program over to a mobile device, and if you buy this right now it’s prorated down to $4.12. But, really???

Once the payment was made we were able to log in to zipformonline.com and create documents from the C.A.R. forms library. It works a bit differently than the the desktop version, but ultimately you can create forms on your iPad or iPhone.

Then we went to the app store and downloaded the FREE Docusign app for the iPhone and iPad (Did you notice the FREE price tag C.A.R.?)

Then the fun began. There is no way to get the document from zipForm to Docusign on the iPad! (without relying on a desktop computer). There is no eSign button in the zipForm mobile version! In what universe would you create a mobile version without a way to get the document to an online signing program such as Docusign?

On the Docusign side of the street, they have several ways that things could be brought in including Google Docs, Box.net (But not DropBox!), Templates and Drafts. After much time was wasted, I stumbled upon a solution that I will give to you. While on your iPad, create a document in zipForm. Get all the forms together that you need for the transaction and then email it to the address that you use to access Docusign (This is critically important). Then once you have done that, open up the email that you received from zipForm and FORWARD it to drafts@docusign.net (Also critically important!).

Once you have done that open up the Docusign app on your iPad and Start a new envelope. When you are asked where to get the documents for the Envelope, select Drafts. Voila! If you carefully followed these instructions, the documents that need signatures will be available. just select the file and proceed with completing the signing envelope. And the entire process can be completed on the iPad!

Thanks zipLogix and Docusign for turning what should have been a seamless process (Like the desktop versions) into an arcane trip down the rabbit hole. I expected more from two industry leaders such as yourselves.

Here’s why you need to use Facebook lists

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 02:00:16 +0000

Ever get the feeling that Facebook is hiding things from you? That people are talking about things that you don’t see on your Facebook wall?

If so, it’s because YOU have not taken advantage of Facebook’s enhanced List feature.

The Facebook wall, up until recently, was a riot of information. Posts from people that you knew were so well hidden amongst posts from people that you hardly know, and for the most part could care less about, that you often could miss the important things.

We have had the ability to organize our wall through something called Lists for sometime now, but most users have never taken the time to learn about them, let alone implement them. Recognizing this, in a recent update, Facebook has made them easier to use, while at the same time pretty much requiring that you do so!

To start with, the old Facebook Wall allowed you to see posts based on a secret sauce called Edge Rank. This meant that what you saw was what Facebook believed that you’d want to see. It worked pretty well, but you often got posts from people you didn’t care about. If you used the Most Recent feature you could also see every post from all of your friends…if you happened to be on when they posted or shortly thereafter. Again, a lot could be missed this way.

The new change urges you to divide up all of your friends into categories called Lists. To get you started Facebook has created some lists for you called Close Friends, Acquaintances, Family and may even have populated them for you based on information about your friends that it knows. They also created another list based on your geographic area.

Then they placed a section on the left sidebar called Lists. The idea is that if you see a list name in the sidebar,maybe you would click on it! If you do, the wall changes to just show posts from the people in that list, which is a great way to make sure that you see the things that they are talking about. If you make a status update or comment while looking at a list, then by default only that list could see it (If they were also subscribed to you).

You can create your own lists too. You might want one for your company, clients, past clients, competitors, your church and so on. It’s easy to do and it will make your Facebook experience more enjoyable. To learn how to do this just go to the following link which will take you to the Facebook help section on Lists:

https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=190416214359937&ref_query=List

If you’ve been to any of my Facebook hands on classes you already know that I was and am a big believer in using lists. If you haven’t been to a class and would like to attend one, let me and I’ll put you on an interest list for the next class.

In the meantime, just give it a try and you’ll be amazed at how it enhances your Facebook experience.

How to find new clients

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 02:00:47 +0000

As you read this I am on vacation and in order to make this a true vacation, I decided that I would not be writing blog posts while I was away.

Instead, I thought that I would revisit a few posts from the past that are still valid today and which could be helpful to you in your business.

Here are four posts that talk about finding new clients. Unless you are just slammed with people banging on your door asking you to work with them, you’ll get some value out of reading them.

http://realtytechbytes.com/get-new-clients-using-social-tools-part-one

http://realtytechbytes.com/get-new-clients-using-social-tools-part-two

http://realtytechbytes.com/how-can-you-use-social-media-in-business

http://realtytechbytes.com/who-is-your-ideal-client

Read them in any order you want, but do read them!

10 Ways to learn about and put Google+ to work for you!

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:00:17 +0000

By now you have heard of Google+. If you haven’t, it must mean that you have been under a rock since June 28th when Google announced its new social network. It’s been on the evening news, been in the newspapers and has even been the butt of parodies.

It seem like everyone and their brother is talking about it online and it’s truly surprising how many ”experts” have surfaced in the few short weeks since it launched!

Dubbed the “Facebook killer” by some, and called “Trojan Horse” by others, it’s the latest “new thing” to be coming down the pike.

What exactly is Google+? According to Google it’s Real-life sharing, rethought for the web.

That tells us a lot doesn’t it? Because I am not altogether certain what it is and how to use it, I went on a search for the best info that I could find.

Here are 10 articles, lists and essays on Google+ that I found to be helpful and I hope that you will too. If you know of a great Google+ resource that I missed, please share it in the comments below so that we can all learn.

In the meantime, I am going to wait for Google to bring out their business version. I am quite happy with my social interaction on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, so I really don’t need yet another place to spend my time.

What is your take on Google+?

Website Magazine on what others are saying
http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2011/07/15/what-the-web-s-saying-about-google-plus.aspx

Vertical Response Marketing blog on what is it and what does it mean for my business?
http://blog.verticalresponse.com/verticalresponse_blog/

Mashable on 19 Essential resources for Google+
http://mashable.com/2011/07/16/google-plus-resources/

TechCrunch with a warning!
http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/15/google-one-hell-of-a-trojan-horse/

ReadWriteWeb on how to use Google+
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_start_with_google_plus.php

All things Digital on how this may be the biggest social media launch … evah!
http://allthingsd.com/20110715/by-the-numbers-google-the-biggest-social-network-launch-ever/

Google on getting started!
http://www.google.com/support/profiles/?p=help_center&hl=en

Chris Brogan on 50 ways that you might want to use Google+
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ad-free-google-plus-50/

Lifehacker with a cheat sheet
http://lifehacker.com/5820794/the-google%252B-cheatsheet-is-a-quick-reference-to-using-google%252B

Mashable with a “complete guide” to using Google+
http://mashable.com/2011/07/16/google-plus-guide/

Here’s how to Decide what gadget to buy

Jerry Kidd — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 02:00:04 +0000

I am often asked “what laptop should I buy?” The answer of course depends on the intended use and the budget the person asking the question has set aside.

But, after those two issues are decided, they want to know which specific brand and model is best. Essentially, I am being asked to do their research for them! Let me go on record and say that I am happy to set up a business that will shop for them, but my rate is $100.00 per hour, with a 3 hour minimum! Clearly that isn’t going to happen.

So, I snooped around the interwebs and found a new site that launched in June of 2011. They have a team of PhDs and computer programmers that have figured out a way to analyze all of the TVs, Cameras and Computers currently being offered sale. They strip out all of the marketing hype and apply scientific principles in the algorithm they have developed to allow you to make informed decisions. They also show you which store has the lowest price. But, even better, they can advise you to buy now, wait for a better price or not to buy a specific model at all!

Once you settle on a specific model, you can go to the store that has it buy now if that’s what they advise or you can set up an alert that will advise you when to buy according to their projections.

I took a spin around on it today because a friend just asked me about a laptop for her to buy. The screen shot will show you which model I chose for her. I was able to set filters that screened all the choices by price, processor and RAM. Once you see a model that you like, you can click on it to see the full specs.

There is no complicated set up process. You can set up alerts by simply connecting with your Facebook account or just by giving it your email address.

This has been needed for a long time and I think it will be helpful to many people. Even if you are not in the market, go check it out…you may need it sooner than you think! Here is the link: http://www.decide.com/