To get all the amazing features of Gmail for your own domain name email addresses, you’ll want to sign up for Google Apps. The standard edition of Google Apps is free and offers up to 50 custom email addresses. I only use one per domain name so 50 is more than sufficient.
To set up Google Apps, head over here and sign up as an administrator for your domain name.
After you enter some basic contact information, Google will walk you through verifying that you control the domain by uploading a file. Once you’ve uploaded that file, you’re account is ready to go.
On you Google Apps dashboard, press the “Activate Email” link.
This next step is the most complicated of the entire process. You now need to change the MX records with your domain registrar and/or host to direct your incoming emails to Google Apps.
- Google provides step by step instructions for many hosting companies but not for either the registrar or host I use so instead it involves a lot of poking around their websites looking for the options. At mydomain.com (my registrar) I found the MX records under DNS Management and at Hostgator (my current host) I found them under MX entry. I set them at both so that the mydomain.com MX records act as a backup at any time I change or cancel my hosting in the future.
Just copy and paste the information that Google Apps provides into the MX fields at your registrar or host (if you’re having trouble, take off the period at the end of the MX Server address).
Here’s what it looks like after I enter the information at Hostgator:
Then click completed at the bottom of the Google instructions page and wait. It can take up to 2 days for Google to verify the records you just entered, but the account I just set up was ready in about 25 minutes.
Once they are verified, you can log in at google.com/a and use it just like you would a Gmail account.
If you have several email accounts, you may want to set up one of your Gmail accounts to check them all so that you don’t have to repeatedly log in and out of different accounts.
Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links.
Subscribe to blogs liberally
If I come across a blog and I think there’s any chance I might want to come back, I subscribe to their feed. I check out all the blogs of people I interact with on Twitter, people who comment on my blog, and links and blogrolls from blogs I already read and if they look like they might be interesting I subscribe. Subscribing is the new bookmarking. I use Google Reader and if you do too, the following tips will help you keep things organized and manageable while subscribing to many RSS feeds (I’m currently subscribed to about 450).
Use folders
With hundreds of RSS subscriptions, you’re not always going to have the time or inclination to keep your unread count at zero. One feed can be placed in multiple folders so create folders for all the different things you might want check for in one reader sitting. I’ve got folders for things like:
- family
- friends
- humor (LOLcats, xkcd, Clients from Hell)
- events (for example all the bloggers I read who will be at BlogHer)
- specific topics (some of mine include tech news, food, World of Warcraft, local store deals)
- blogs I’ve commented on in the past (and thus will likely comment on again)
- if you’re hesitant about subscribing to a ton of blogs when you haven’t done so in the past, try folders for your existing favorites and new blogs that you’re just testing out
Experiment with different sorting options
Sort by magic puts the articles you are most likely interested in, based on your past interactions with posts in Google Reader, at the top of your reader. This has been much more useful to me than viewing the oldest or newest posts first and saves me from feeling like I’m missing something good. Each of your folders can be sorted in it’s own way so if newest or oldest makes the most sense for one of your folders then sort it that way.
Comment on posts when you have something to say
Bloggers love comments! Use the keyboard shortcut “v” while viewing the post you want to comment on to open the post on the blog’s website and leave your comment. If you’re a blogger yourself, leaving meaningful comments is a great way to bring loyal new readers to your blog.
Clean out inactive feeds
On the Trends page in Google Reader, you’ll find a bunch of statistics about the feeds you subscribe to and your interactions with them.- Click the >> to check the website. If the blog has been updated since the feed has been updated then it’s likely the feed moved. Resubscribe to the feed while you’re at the site and then delete the old inactive feed from your reader.
- If the blog is inactive but you want to know when it becomes active again then stay subscribed (for example, my brother and sister’s blogs are the top two on my inactive list). If you don’t expect the feed to become active again and you want to remove it from your reader, hit the little trashcan to the left.
Shared in Works for Me Wednesday.
Who else always feels like Apple events are such intense experiences that they require a debriefing before you can get back to your normal life?
I think these are today’s biggest paradigm jolters:
- iBooks now supports PDF I see this as a big step towards standardizing the ebook format.
- App store as a “curated platform” Content curation is the next big thing. It’s the only way to deal with the overwhelming volume of digital information available in this day and age. Apple is putting their stamp of approval on the concept.
- Netflix for iPhone Free app coming this summer. But will you still need a paid Netflix account to use it?
- Farmville for iPhone With push notifications so your crops won’t wither no less. (No I don’t play Farmville myself but with 35 million users this is big news. And the iPhone is suddenly going to appeal to a lot more little old ladies.)
- iPhone 4! Available June 24th with preorders starting on June 15th. OS updates for older devices coming June 24th as well.
- HD Video and iMovie Will these new video features make the new iPhone a suitable rival for the Flip?
- Multitasking Now you can play Pandora (and get your cloud music fix) in the background while using other apps.
- Search Engine Options Set your default to Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Several months ago I played with a tool to help you find out which option is best for you and decided that Google is best for me so I won’t be adjusting my settings.
- iBooks comes to the iPhone See point #1. This move pretty much brings everything that I thought made Amazon’s Kindle the strongest ebook reader on the market to Apple.
But what didn’t we see?
- colored iPhones (The Perfect Thing talks about how the pink iPod mini was such a shockingly huge hit. Why not bring that to the iPhone as well?)
- iTunes in the cloud
- Apple TV updates
- wireless syncing for iPhone
- iTunes/Safari/OS X updates
- Beatles on iTunes (but maybe the new Guitar Hero app is a step closer)
Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links.
265 readers
2931 followers
484 fans
Here at 