There are several free websites and applications out there that can help your group be super organized and efficient.

The whole premise of that buzz word “Web2.0″ that you hear thrown around is that we can utilize existing technology to make things as easy to access and use as possible.

I have dealt with a multitude of community organizations that were hindered by one thing: bureaucratic omnipresence that is self created. These groups have so often mired themselves down in Robert’s Rules that they have trouble getting anything accomplished in their monthly meetings and then want to spend less and less time together because of the frustrations of the meetings – thereby destroying both the purpose and effectiveness of having the group.

What if you only met once a quarter and were 4 times as effective? Keep reading…

You can do it. I promise. All you need are members with regular access to the internet and motivation. It’s nothing complicated, and you can do it. Here are the elements:

1. Email – I know this seems like a no-brainer, but email is something that gets seriously under-utilized. It usually stems from email fatigue caused by being on the mailing list of a million people sending you the same forwards and junk mail that clogs our inbox and makes us not want to big through the filth to find the good. You can change this though.
   1. Switch to Gmail – Some people may think that email is email, but it’s not. Google’s Gmail service has redefined email for millions of people. Imagine an environment where only ONE item of spam gets through a month. That’s what it’s like. No extra software. No false-positives where friends emails get trashed – just the email you want. Plus, you can access it from any computer with internet, from your mobile phone, and from most any other mobile device. Not to mention it frees you from having to switch email addresses when you change service providers. I don’t even know my email address from my current provider.
   2. Stop the forwards – Trust me, you can do it. Starting right now, reply to every person that regularly sends you forwards, and say “Hi! I want you to know that I appreciate you thinking of me when you receive something cool in your email, but I am trying to organize my life – and that includes my email. I’d love to receive messages directly from you, but I’d rather not receive forwards. Thanks!” It works, I promise. It also works face-to-face with friends, family, and co-workers. Just say it without malice. I only receive forwards from my grandfather, and I usually like them. Everyone else has stopped.
   3. Use Filters & Labels – When you switch Gmail (and you will), you’ll learn how easy it is to start a new filter. For example, I have several companies from whom I voluntarily receive sales emails. The first time I get an email from that company, it gets a filter with Gmail’s “Filter Messages Like This” function. The next time I get a message from them, it has a bright red SALES prefix. That way I can visually separate it from the other email. Labels also allow me to quickly pull up any message with that label at any time, and Gmail’s large storage capacity means I can keep all the messages that I want in the archive.
   4. Declutter – Right now there are 7 messages in my inbox. All of them are active conversations or actionable items. Anything that I’ve read that I’m not going to follow up on, or that I’ve read and no action needs to be taken is either deleted or archived. Archive means that it’s still there, it’s just not in the inbox. I went from 7,600 messages to 7. Read more from LIfehacker. (1) (2) (3)
   5. Have One Inbox – When you start using Gmail, you’ll be able to use it to reply to any address that you can get to forward to it. I have 11 addresses coming to mine I think. Every domain or webmaster account that I have comes back to my primary account except for work. Simply set your other email accounts to automatically forward all messages to your gmail or Google Apps account and then tell Gmail about it. Bam! Time Saved!
2. Google Docs – stop wasting time revising documents, sending them to someone, getting them back, sending them somewhere else… just stop it. Google Docs (included in Google Apps for Domains as well as with your free gmail account) gives you the ability to share and collaborate on Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations in real time. You start a document, you share it with others, and you all access it at anytime to work together on it. It has revolutionized our workspace, it can do the same for yours.
3. Newsletters – it’s never been easier to put together an opt-in newsletter for your organization. Every organization has key people, and every group has people that need simple actions for simple causes. If we are honest, we know that a few people really run the show – so in order to pull off the bigger projects we need to know how to motivate the others. One way to do this is to use a newsletter with simple calls to action. Newsletters are most effective when people know to expect them and are prepared. If it’s daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly make it on time every time. We use 4th Monday of the month as close to 1pm as we can. Use newsletters to tell your people where to be, when to be there, and what to do once they get there – and see your organization flourish.
4. Contact Relationship Mangers – To some of you, this may be a new concept, but a Contact or Customer Relationship Management is a very necessary device. CRM’s like Highrise from 37Signals provide cost effective access to simple CRM software that is accesible from anywhere. You can input your entire organization or upload their contact info from an existing utility like Outlook using Windows CSV formats. With Highrise you can keep up with interaction with each member (up tp 250 for free), what you told them, what you did, and then easily set a task that will remind you of what needs to be done. We use this at my office, for my High School Reunion, and at home. Next up: my Lodge. One way around the subscription fee for more users is to create your second account as a shared account while you retain the admin account.
5. GTD Apps or To-Do Lists – I can’t even begin to tell you what good can come from using a To-Do list like Remember The Milk. Several of the key members of our office staff now collude on this incredible free application with share lists. Image being able to set a task, put a due date on it, add a note about how to accomplish it, set it to repeat however often, and then have each person that is sharing that list get email or a text message about it when the time comes. How awesome is that? Learn More.
6. Get a Phone Number – You used to have to pay for this stuff, huh? Google acquired a company by the name of GrandCentral last year. GrandCentral is a site dedicated to the concept of a permanent phone number. For example, you can sign up, get a new phone number (yeah, a real one, in your area) and then put all of your contact numbers in and the create simple or very complex rules about who can reach you when and where. Here’s the real trick though; once you get it, you can turn all your phones off (so that calls aren’t forwarded) and then just have everything go to voicemail. Bam. Instant phone number and voicemail for your organization. GrandCentral will just send you an email or text message letting you know that there is a new message. If you enter the email as a mailing list address, then it notifies everyone on that list. Cool, huh? GrandCentral’s Closed Beta has closed. We’re all waiting breathlessly to get it back open. Get on the wannabe list on the main page.

Now, don’t freak out over the volume of stuff I just told you about. You don’t have to do it all at once. Pick one place to start and complete it. With a list of things like this, I might suggest Remember The Milk first. When you get done with one project make time for the next one.

For Example

1. Register for Gmail, tell everyone who matters that you’re switching, and pick a date to make it final.
2. Set Up Remember The Milk, get others in org to sign up and share some lists
3. Register for Highrise and import your outlook or other contacts, agree on who is responsible for keeping it updated or share the responsibility
4. Put in your email for a chance at GrandCentral if you need digits.

The important part of all of this is to make your organizations (and thereby your life) easier to manage. When you have to spend less time to accomplish more in each of you groups then you’re time ahead. When you get time ahead on your groups, remember to make time to organize your home life too. (my wife and I use the shared To-Do lists to manage our house maintenance and other chores).

This month the focus will be on higher conversion rates with less traffic and expense from AdWords.  We dropped our two highest traffic keywords due to CPC being high, and conversion being low.

• Google Apps for Domains – KEPT - Oh heck yes.  I can’t stress this enough.  Even if you don’t get a website, you owe it to your company, your clients, and everyone else to use this product.  This includes Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Sites, etc. all on your own domain name.
• IWantSandy – DROPPED - I can’t make it work.  I’ve tried.  I want to like her, but she doesn’t deal with my iPhone (won’t recognize my email) and she’s not accessible.  She’s not a calendar, not a to-do list… she’s just not.
• RememberTheMilk – KEPT - LOVE is a good word.  RTM has two or three features that I can’t get enough of.
• Highrise – KEPT - Can’t beat an amazing contact manager that allows me to keep notes and collaborate.  We use it at work, at home, and in various organizations that I am a part of.  Especially helpful for our class reunion coming up.
• Jott – KEPT - Limited usage, but amazing for making things work on the road.  Walk out of a meeting with a client, hop in the car, call Jott, send a text, add an event, etc.  It just works.
• GrandCentral – KEPT - I kept it, but for a different reason.  I’m not going to use it for myself – I’m going to use it for my Lodge, which doesn’t have a phone.  This way we can list our phone number and have voicemail at no cost.  I would have gotten a new one for them (Since my digits rock so hard) but alas, invites are CLOSED.  So sad.
• SplashUp – Dropped - I can’t get away from Photoshop.  Too much experience, too much flexibilty.  It would be nice if there was an API to make it interact with your sites that need photos uploaded, but to a certain size.
• Twitter – Added - Interesting concept, we’ll see how it works out.  It’s fun to use, but I don’t know my long term investment.

I have reached my March goal 5 days ahead of schedule.  My April goal is another 50% increase in total visits while maintaining our quality time-on-site and bounce rate scores.

I’ve noticed a number of sites in our general sales area starting to copy our model, but I doubt it’s going to happen for them like it will for us.  Here’s hoping.

What I’m proud of (Month over Month, Feb. over Jan.)

• Visits up 62%
• Unique Visits up 35%
• Pageviews up 102%
• Average Pageviews up 25%
• Time on Site up 144%
• Bounce Rate down 29%
• New Visits down 17% (Google thinks bad, I think OK in this instance – we were at 75% -ish)

This is no traffic spike either.  It’s the result of focused determination.  It’s a progressive upswing in traffic.  I can’t wait to have figures to go Quarter over Quarter.
Just had to brag for a minute. We also increased out page rank in several key phrases and keywords (key keywords?). We’re on the first page on 2 of the 3 key phrases we’re banking on.

1. Simplified User Management and Permissions
2. Public, Private, or User’s Choice for files & folders
3. Easy User Server Space Setup – Default Layout for
4. Server Queue – groupthink files, tag clouds, general shared resources
5. Disk Imaging built in

My business has 14 employees, 2 laptops, 3 terminals, and 1 Windows Business server in the closet. We use this network for the following things:

• QuickBooks – running our relatively large QB Pro database on a server instead of a end-user terminal means that in the busiest billing time of the day that we don’t have one persons computer slow to a crawl. QuickBooks says they support “servers” but what they really mean is “one persons computer can act as the QB server”. We completely floored the Tech Support people on their staff by using the term “server” as it is meant to be used, not as their typical moron customer. QB does not offer any semblance of a server-side service or application. Period. We pay for one extra license to have this service. This means the server has to be up, logged in QB loaded, and locked out.
• DentLab for QuickBooks – this is a case-management software package for our lab. We purchased this because of the low cost, only to find out at the point-of-purchase that we have to pay an additional $250/month to receive ANY tech support (phone or email or otherwise) or to get any of the software updates. Beyond that, this is a symbiotic program that runs congruent with QuickBooks. It also runs on our server. See, any instance of this program running on any computer has to at least reference the primary instance running alongside QB. So, we have an extra license of this as well. If you’re reading this to find out info about DentaLab for QB, then don’t buy it.
• Storage – we have every intent of using this as a storage space for every person in the lab – but we can’t manage permissions without a degree in Computer Science. For example, I am an Administrator, and I have an account name. I have a folder on the server. For permissions on that folder, I added ALL SUPERVISORS and ME and made Read/Write/Change the option of choice – still can’t access it when I’m logged in from somewhere else.

In my opinion, the ideal small business server solution would be a simplified permissions scheme that allows the admin (or any admin) to quickly log in (remotely if necessary) and add news users, the new users default folder, disk storage quota, and email (if necessary). Then, the user should be given the choice of storing files on the server, where, and whether they’re publicly available.

Secondly, there should be a public queue system that allows specified members of whatever group to assign files to the group, tag them, search them, index them, etc… quickly and easily find collaborative information.

Finally, there should be automatic scheduling of imaging of groups, files, folders, or the whole disk.

That’s my two cents.