What Can You Do With a Custom Domain?

What can you do with a custom domain? Let's say you register your-last-name.com. There are many things you can do with that. For example, you can create a custom email address for everyone in your family. This can be done for free, if you have less than 10 people in your family, through Google Apps. Below is a step by step guide on how to set this up:

1. Head on over to Google Apps and click the 'Get Started' button.
2. If you've all ready bought a domain (which can be done here), go ahead and enter it. If not, Google gives you the option to buy one right from within the setup page.
3. Enter the rest of the required information and click 'I Accept, Create My Account'.
4. You should now be on a page asking you to set up/verify your domain. Google provides clear instructions on how to do this. If you are stuck at this point, contact your domain registrar and they'll be able to help you.
5. Click on the Organization and Users tab. Once you've clicked on this, you sould see one account; that is yours from the previous step. To create users, click the 'Create New User' button, or create a CSV and upload it. The CSV must contain the following: 

email address | first name | last name | password

This can be created in Excel or Google Docs.

   6. Once all the users are created, you can create shared calendars, have an IM client set up to your family or many other things within the Google Experience.

   7. Make sure to tell your family members how to access their email/calendar etc.

One of the other things you could do would be to create a website for every member of your family. You can create things called subdomains which are essentially "something.your-surname.com". For example, let's assume that you have a family member called Mary. She could have an email address (as mentioned above) like mary@smith.com and a website like http://mary.smith.com. You can create hundreds of subdomains and point them to many free services that offer website creation like Tumblr or Blogger. 

With the TLD (Top Level Domain, i.e your-surname.com) you can have a family intranet of sorts. An intranet is a central place for files, pictures and other things that you might want to share with the rest of your family. Google offers a free intranet service within Google Sites. You can use these in association with your new Domain Name/Google Account. 

There are multiple possibilities of what you can do with a personal domain. We have only mentioned a few, but here are some reasons (besides the ones above) why you moight want to get a custom domain name anyway.

• It looks better than an @gmail.com or @hotmail.com email address.
• It stands out on a CV or Resume
• You can keep it forever (in case Google/Yahoo/Microsoft ever dies!)
• People tend to pick up the differences on a piece of paper, whether it be as simple as "My email address is john@doe.com. 

If you have any suggestions, you can leave a comment below. We are always open to suggestions and questions, email us at team@thegeekpanel.com.

How to Keep on Top of Email

If you're like us, you've probably had more than one email address on the go. That is to say that as well as a personal account, you have several business accounts. Maybe you have one from your ISP for official stuff like bills, payments, banking etc, one that you give to your friends like "coolchick123@hotmail.com", one that you give to official people like your boss "j.smith@gmail.com", and finally a business email, like team@thegeekpanel.com.

Up until recently, our communications department had a few problems managing email. I had suggested that we use only 2 business email accounts (one mail one and one for each employee). That  dwas out of the question, until tonight when I decided to play around with Google and it's wonderful GMail features. Here is what I found...

I had planned to have only one email address; team@thegeekpanel.com, but as you know, we've all ready had various email addresses, all of which were active at the time. I decided to take the time to go through a list of all the online services we use including Twitter, Facebook and even Blogger. I edited the email address and we now have one address for all the blog/business side of things.

I also decided to set one email address for internal communications, which was easy enough using Google Apps for business.

Now there was only one thing left; to organize my personal email account. I have registered a domain name and have an email set up on that, which is now my primary email address, but only 2 months ago, I was using Google's free email service, which I know and love and have done for many years.

The email I had before (@gmail.com) was easy to set up forwarding to another email address; simple going to Mail Settings > Forwarding > Enter the Email > Confirm the Address > Enable the Forwarding and Done!

That was really simple. Now, all of my email goes to both accounts at the same time, making it a lot easier to manage.

Here are a few tips on email:

• Buy a custom domain and pay for email hosting if you are scared your email might go away over night...
• Use a desktop client if you deal with a lot of email per day. This can significantly increase productivity. I just can't do web mail. I use Thunderbird on the desktop to manage all my email.
• Send replies in bulk. If a lot of people are sending the same questions, reply to them all at once. Also consider setting up a template telling them to go to your forum/live chatroom or forward the email to someone else who has a better understanding of that query.
• Don't just select all and delete. This can be a complete waste. If you're note managing to keep on top of your email, consider employing a "Social Media Expert". Here at TheGeekPanel, we offer Social Media services free to any one of our followers. Contact us for info.

We hope that these tips make your life easier. As always, comments are welcome.

How to Add a Trusted Site to Google Chrome

If you use Google Chrome, you've most likely seen a page telling you a site is not secure when you know it is. There is a way to add this site to Google Chrome's proxies so you don't see this warning again. To do this follow these instructions:

What's next for TheGeekPanel?!

Merry Christmas! We hope you all had a great time yesterday (or whenever it was, depending on where you are...). This article is simply going to enlighten you in "What's next for TheGeekPanel".

Will Facebook Replace Email?

Will Facebook replace email because of it's ability to receive and reply to external messages if you have a Facebook email address?

How to Enable the New Google Bar

Google+, Facebook and More!...

So now that Google Plus is finally released to the public, I thought it was time to write about them. Maybe bring them into the picture again. Anyway, I was on Facebook earlier on this evening (Yes. I said Facebook...) and I saw a setting that made me think: Is that copying or not? It had integrated so called "Smart Lists" into there friend lists. They were very similar to Google Plus's circles, but Facebook has made a "complicated" job of it whereas Google has again, done there work and made it user friendly.

Google Plus is now open o the Public (aka: all of you "uncool" people reading this post) which means you can now join and add me! (TheGeekPanel) to your circles. http://Plus.Google.com is where you can sign up. It is an incredibly easy process; only a few clicks, Name, email address etc. and you now have a profile with G+.

I particularly like the feature that you can set each post to who you want to share the content with. I think that Facebook also copied this feature too... no disrespect though Facebook.

One of the main reasons for me to write this post today was the disadvantages of G+. I absolutely LOVE it but here is what I have found:-

• All of my Facebook friends do not want to change to Google Plus
• Not all of my friends on Facebook understand the capabilities of Google +
• Not all of them are very "tech savvy" and example being that they believe the pictures of the so called iPhone 5 (see blog post about iPhone 5 rumors)   that EVERYTHING they see on the web is true.

I asked one of them "Do you actually believe that?" Do you know what he answered? He said "They were the real pictures. Not the fake pictures." 

HOW DOES HE KNOW THAT THEY ARE REAL? SOMEONE COULD HAVE USED A PROGRAM CALLED ADOBE PHOTOSHOP TO EDIT THEM OR JUST MAKE A STICKER WHICH SAYS iPHONE 5 AND STICK IT ON AN iPHONE 4! HOW STUPID COULD HE BE?

I was actually yelling at the computer as I wrote this. Basically, don't believe everything you see on the internet. NOBODY KNOWS. 

Anyway, if you haven't all ready, join Google+. You can get a "Facebook, Twitter experience". It is basically a Facebook page with the Twitter update thingy. Yes. THINGY. Got a problem with that? Just kidding. 

I have made up my own...'equation' to Google Plus:

FaceBook+Twitter+Circles+People=G+

All of you know that this is true.

Follow me on Google Plus (search for TheGeekPanel in Google search and you will find us) and on Twitter:

http://Twitter.com/TheGeekPanel

Google Buys Motorola for $15 Billion!