The Thirty Day Challenge and Google Groups

Today kicked off the start of the Thirty Day Challenge. I’m sure you are wondering what challenge would take thirty days and why I would be interested in joining it. Basically, the goal of the 30DC is to earn $10.00 online within thirty days without investing any money in the process. At first, I had the same reaction - $10? Are you kidding me? However, the goal is not to become rich in thirty days but rather to realize that it is possible to make money online even if you know little to nothing about the internet. Well, hopefully I am a bit above the little to nothing category, but I thought this would be a great way to hear of some additional traffic building techniques as well as potential monetization tactics that could help improve my own online ventures. It is also important to note that $10 is a very reasonable amount someone could expect to earn after thirty days. If they picked something like $500, then people would assume they were kidding and never even attempt to follow the challenge process. The 30DC is all about motivating those who have tried and failed or never tried out of fear of failure.

Another cool component to the 30DC is the focus on teams and team collaboration. The idea is still to work independently by working on your own product that will earn you $10 in the thirty days. However, they encourage you to form a team that you can collaborate and communicate with regarding your questions, concerns, successes, resources, etc.

For those interested in joining the challenge, entry is still open (although today, August 1st, was officially kickoff). Sign up for the forums and you can start participating as a member right away. After you setup your account, be sure to check out their pre-season recap post to get up-to-date on all their 30DC tips.

A few friends of mine and I have all formed a 30DC team and will be using Google Groups to organize our communications. This was actually and surprisingly the first time I have every used Google Groups and must say that I am impressed. The idea is to create a public or private web space where you can do the following:

• Create forum-like discussion topics
• Create individual pages
• Communicate via private messages and email with your group
• Share up to 100mb of files between your group

I set up our group in 20 minutes and had no problems getting used to the navigation of the site. My only criticism is the way forum topics are organized. As soon as you create a new title for your thread, it creates an entirely separate topic, which gets messy. I was hoping to create 5-7 general topics (SEO, monetization, etc) that we could all post questions/comments in. Looks like I will just have to get used to it, but at least all posts are search-friendly via the Google search engine - so finding past threads shouldn’t be difficult.

Hope to see you in the challenge!!

WeFi: Locating Wifi or Locating YOU

WeFi is a nifty little freeware app that, once installed on your computer, locates and maps out wireless signals. The data is sent back to the WeFi system and shared across its network with other users who are signed up. This is sure to be helpful when you are out of the office (or like me - have no office) and need to find a quick Wi-Fi spot. I doubt how much of a following the social network side of the application will generate, but it has its merits. The only real qualm is the fact that WeFi is literally tracking everywhere your computer goes and therefore tracking everywhere you go . . .

Virtual Voice Mail and Consolidated Phone Numbers with GrandCentral

I recently came across a great resource for those who want to consolidate their phone numbers or access their voice mail from a computer. GrandCentral offers its users a single free phone number that forwards calls to the user’s cell, home and work number. All phones ring simultaneously so you can be reached no matter where you are. What I like most about the service is how easy it is to setup a greeting and the ability to access your voice mail from the GrandCentral interface online. There are quite a few other features including call screening, spam/telemarketer blocking, listening in to voice mails and much more. I still have to figure out how the company makes money, as all these features are free.

I’m going to give the service a trial over the next few weeks and will let you know how it turns out. The one issue I see is that the features such as digital voice mail only work if the GrandCentral issued number is called, not your direct existing cell number. I guess this would require you to issue out this new number to all of your existing contacts. None-the-less, I think it has real potential.

Introducing: Entrepreneur-Resources

Introducing Entrepreneur-Resources: posts that feature some of the most useful resources for entrepreneurs and their ventures. I hope to cover all sorts of different products and services that help improve efficiency, lower costs or make your business more fun. I look forward to digging through the net to pull up some great stuff for us to share. I encourage you all to comment/email me any suggestions!