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Today I had a brief chat on Twitter with the ever amazing Sarah Stanley surrounding a technical piece of her RunRideInspire.com website. Most of it took place behind the scenes through direct message, but in the end I believe it was of assistance.

You see part of what Sarah is looking for are Inspire Ambassadors (act quickly by sending an email to RunRideInspire@gmail.com if you’d like to be one). What got me thinking was that there was a domain name intact already, but she was essentially promoting Gmail. Many businesses do this, and I just don’t understand why – whether it’s Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or their internet provider. The list goes on. With domain names starting out so cheap now from a place like GoDaddy.com there’s no excuse to NOT have a company branded domain name. In addition to that, even though GoDaddy.com does hosting, you can easily get your email handled for FREE through Google Apps.

This is where Sarah and I were at a disconnect. Being that Run Ride Inspire is charity, “every dollar counts” she stated. And I agree. Running a fund raising initiative of my own (I need to update it this week), I know that every penny does truly count. I’ve been using Google Apps with my domain names for a few years now and have been fortunate enough to never spend a dime on the amazing service. In fact I just recently switched two separate clients over to the service. I could go off on why it’s a great choice, but there’s already plenty out there on Google as to why it’s a good choice…and even why it’s not.

I was on my iPhone but determined to help Sarah out I did a quick search in Safari. It started to become clear as to why she didn’t want to use the runrideinspire.com on Google Apps for fear of having to pay $50 per user per year. Typical marketing. On the initial screen, you’re presented with two options: Business or Education.

On the following screen they present the nice, pretty blue button to begin a free trial. But if you look closely enough, there are some boring text links under the button. This is in fact where the hidden gold is in using Google Apps with your own custom domain name…for FREE.

When comparing the Google Apps Standard Edition (i.e. the FREE version) to the Premiere version, there’s not a lot of difference that the standard, average user would ever want or use. You still get Gmail, Calendar, Docs & Sites. I’m up to about 7GB of storage space in my App Mail account of which I’ve used about 50% over the last few years…and my business handles lots of large files through email. The rest of the ‘business’ features, controls, support and reliability aren’t really required. I use my hosted Gmail with my iPhone without issue. In fact, it works better then my normal Gmail account does…so there!

As much as I love my Shannon Poole (who yes, does love me), I’m happy that Sarah at least sees some value in me.

So now my question to you is do you use Google Apps and if so, which version? Is Sarah making the right choice by moving (I hope) her email from Gmail to her own domain name? Let me know in the comments.

As I have mentioned many times, including just the other day, I need to write some goals. Some personal goals for me to focus on and for you to police me on. I’ve determined that goal setting works for me when I’m passionate about it and when I have something to prove…usually to those who don’t think I can. It didn’t take me long to write out my goals. In fact I wrote them down on January 15 in about 10 minutes but I’ve been sick, so haven’t had a chance to post them. But today I’m feeling better. At least good enough to sit down in front of a computer and type out some words, so here goes.

My 2010 personal goals are:

• Raise $20,000 for the Tom Baker Cancer Centre & Alberta Cancer Foundation through the 2nd Annual Tight ‘n Bright event to be held March 20, 2010.
• Generate $80,000 through legal online activities like affiliate sales, products & services by September 15, 2010. Roughly 236 days remain, so that would equate to $338.98 per day…if I start making cash NOW!
• Run a full marathon under 4 hours by December 15, 2010.
• Launch BlueBinder by March 1, 2010 with full e-comm capabilities.
• Launch Phase 1 of OoberScoop by February 1, 2010.
• Launch Workshops Everywhere by February 1, 2010 to the Calgary market as detailed in Phase 1 of the plan.
• Travel to three new destinations by December 31, 2010.
• Speak at a minimum of one conference by November 30, 2010.
• Support and love Monica, Ava and the other members of my family on a daily basis.
• Help Monica launch her site to the best of my abilities around her timeline.
• Blog a minimum of five times per week through to June 30, 2010.
• Live everyday and enjoy and appreciate what I have.

So as you can see I’ve no doubt got to get some things going. Couple the above goals with daily life and there’s not a lot of time left to actually do things…but the goal in the end is to free myself from the day-to-day to allow me to have the time to do those things. All of this will be completed in full by December 31, 2010. I look forward to sharing my success, and no doubt failures, with you along the way.

Is there anything I’ve missed? Do you think I’m completely crazy? Wanna know more about something I’ve put in the list? It’s easy, just leave me a comment below.

Thanks to Lyndon for the inspiration and the graphic.

Four weeks ago, at 5:00 in the morning a gun shot was heard and an impressive display of fireworks were set off. That was in Honolulu, Hawaii. I wasn’t really there for business or pleasure. It was determination of achieving one goal by the end of 2009. That goal was to complete my first ever, full marathon. A fool full 26.2 mile race. The primary goal was completion and secondary was under 5 hours.

Looking back at the majority of 2009 it wasn’t that challenging. It did definitely have it’s challenging and trying times. Especially those that caused my stress and blood pressure to rise almost to the breaking point. Those of you close to me, know exactly the series of events that I’m talking about. I try not to focus on them too much so that I can still keep smiling.

Back to Hawaii. It’s often where my mind goes when I need to escape anyways. It was the start of the Honolulu Marathon—MY Honolulu Marathon. Myself and over 20,000 other competitors began putting one foot in front of the other. The streets were dark with the exception of basic illumination from overhead street lights. It was a weird feeling running through downtown Waikiki, running red lights—granted on foot. I was amazed at the number of people out cheering the runners on, even though it was so early in the morning.

The race for me was amazing. I don’t remember a whole lot about running the race. I pretty much got lost in my mind. There were definitely parts that I remember like watching the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean while running through mile 12. The sweltering heat along the H1 around mile 21. And of course the beer keg at mile 24 — which I realized was beer after I’d already passed by.

The biggest single benefit that I got out of the run though was learning that when I set my mind on a goal, and something to focus on that I’m highly passionate about, there’s no stopping me. It boasts well for an upcoming post on my 2010 goals that I know I need to do.

And it’s true what they say about a runners high. It’s been 4-weeks and I still love reflecting on the feeling of it. Even through the exhaustion and pain. I’m looking forward to my next one—once I figure out which one it will be. Have you got any running tips or experiences about running, whether a marathon or anything else? Let me know in the comments. Happy running.

I knew that my one year anniversary for joining Twitter was coming up soon so I set out to find out when I joined. According to whendidyoujointwitter.com it was a year ago today! My how time flies. My good friend Lyndsay had been trying to get me to join for months. And I do mean months; not days or weeks—full on months. I was hesitant as I was already addicted to too many time wasters. As mentioned in a previous post, she turned me on to quite a few great people I have slowly gotten to know through conversation. Now I’m not sure how it seems I could live without it.

I’ve discussed web development concepts, including a few of my “big ideas” with people. Helped troubleshoot Mac OS X issues (which were actually Microsoft issues). Commented on running and even on my own first full-marathon. I’ve found some great SEO tips and genuinely had fun. In fact, thanks to Twitter and some goof ball on it, I managed to go to my first ever PubCon in Las Vegas back in November 2009. Let’s just say when registration opens for the 2010, I’ll be sure to book my space early so I can take in some of the sessions.

All in all, it’s been a pretty sweet year when I look back on Twitter and how it has positively impacted my life. It’s had a few negative moments too, but we won’t go there. So tell me, when did you join Twitter? Leave it in the comments below.

It’s been some time but I finally got around to updating my runs yesterday…mainly because after almost four weeks I finally went out for a run. Not to mention it was eight weeks until my first full marathon I’m supposed to run. While I was approaching the three mile mark of the run I noticed another guy jogging towards me, headphones on & music blaring. As we passed each other the head nod was given and received. It got me thinking about just how universal the head nod is. Maybe it’s a guy thing? I often witness it in the parking lot at work or walking by someone in the hallways while in conversation with someone else.

I’d be interested to know where else you witness the head nod and if you’re a woman reading this (woo hoo I have readers) then let me know if it truly is a guy thing. Guys, I know you do it but feel free to comment around witnessing the female species nodding as well.