Embedding a Google map on your WordPress website is no longer a simple (or free) process. Find out why and how this affects you.
In May 2018, Google announced pricing plans for Google Maps.
Beginning June 11, you’ll need a valid API key and a Google Cloud Platform billing account to access our core products. Once you enable billing, you will gain access to your $200 of free monthly usage to use for our Maps, Routes, and Places products. As your business grows or usage spikes, our plan will scale with you.
Here’s the most important note for our clients: “We estimate that most of you will have monthly usage that will keep you within this free tier. With this new pricing plan you’ll pay only for the services you use each month with no annual, up-front commitments, termination fees or usage limits.”
As cyclone press works exclusively with small businesses and soloproneurs, most of you should be fine unless you have crazy high traffic on your website. In this case, the people this affects most are developers. It’s now become a pain for us to embed a Google Map on your website (or more likely, fix the map on your website that is now broken), because we now have to create a Google Cloud billing account and have you log in and assign credit card info.
Here are the key things to note in less intimidating bullet point form:
Use of Google Maps now requires 2 things:
A Google Cloud billing account connected to a valid credit card
An API key (this was already in effect)
You will receive $200 of free monthly usage to use for Maps, Routes, and Places (for now)
Most small businesses will not have enough traffic to exceed the free monthly usage, meaning you will not be charged
Google Cloud has a notice saying they will notify you before billing
So how does this affect you?
If you’re a website client of cyclone press and have an embedded Google Map on your WordPress website, we’ve already emailed you with steps to add billing info to Google Cloud. You’ll need to do that to remove the “Oops! Something went wrong.” notice. Instructions below. We’ll have already created a project in Google Cloud and generated an API key.
How to add credit card info to a Google Cloud account:
Agree to Terms, then enter business name, address, credit card information
How to create an API key for Google Maps:
If you are not a client of cyclone press and don’t have a dedicated developer who manages your website, here’s how to create the API key yourself (do this after creating a Google Cloud account above).
Paste the API key into the API field in your WordPress theme (location/setup will vary)
Conclusion
While this won’t end up being another bill for most of our clients, we’ll still be keeping a close eye on the competition and looking at alternatives. The free $200 credit feels like a promotion, which makes me wonder if they’ll remove that as soon as businesses have gotten used to the new normal.
We’d love to know what you think about this change, whether you’re a website owner revising your strategy, or a developer still looking for his lunch money. Let us know in the comments.
Website encryption changed a lot in 2018, so I’ve updated this post with the current state of website encryption and SSL certificates.
First, a quick explanation. We’re talking about the lock icon that’s displayed next to the URL in your address bar (see note at the end of this article about how this is changing).
The padlock (and the use of “https” instead of simply “http”) announces the presence of a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which encrypts the connection between your browser (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer) and the website you’re visiting.
“SSL allows sensitive information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, and login credentials to be transmitted securely. Normally, data sent between browsers and web servers is sent in plain text—leaving you vulnerable to eavesdropping. If an attacker is able to intercept all data being sent between a browser and a web server they can see and use that information.” via DigiCert.
To set this up, you would purchase an SSL certificate for your website URL and install it on your server. SSL certificates contain a pair of keys (public and private) used to establish a secure connection between the viewer and the website. If you’d like a rough analogy for how this works, click here.
Do You Need SSL? Yes.
Several years ago, when I originally wrote this post, I recommended purchasing SSL for the following reasons:
if you collect personal information through forms
if you collect credit card information/sell products
if customers log in to your website
if you have restricted content
if you wanted a potential SEO boost
Part of the reason for this criteria was because the average certificate cost an additional +$99 per year for hosting costs. It was a good practice to have it, but for a small business with nothing more than service options and contact forms it didn’t seem necessary.
However, in February 2018, Google announced that it would begin marking all HTTP sites as “not secure” in Chrome beginning in July 2018. Since Chrome is currently the most popular Internet browser, this is a big deal. It’s not like your site suddenly became less secure, it just looks that way, particularly to someone who might not understand the nuance of browser security warnings.
We include SSL certificates free of charge with every website we build.
No longer a nice option; SSL is now a must have for every small business on the web. This is also a great example of the power an industry behemoth has – if Google even announces they’re thinking about a change, everyone stops and listens. In this case, it’s a good thing, because it’s making the web more secure.
Important Note About the SSL Icon:
Google is changing the style of the padlock icon. “Users should expect that the web is safe by default, and they’ll be warned when there’s an issue. Since we’ll soon start marking all HTTP pages as “not secure”, we’ll step towards removing Chrome’s positive security indicators so that the default unmarked state is secure.”
This means that instead of looking for a padlock, you won’t even have to think about a secure connection unless you get the red “not secure” notice (in Chrome). This is beginning October 2018.
I hope this article was informative, practical, and gives you a decent idea of how SSL certificates work and why they’re now a must for every business. Keep in mind that while this is a best practice, it doesn’t mean that every website will abide by it. Always check for SSL when submitting credit card or personal information online. Thanks for reading and feel free to ask questions in the comments below.
If we built/maintain your website, you already have SSL. If you’d like us to send you an estimate to build a new WordPress site (or redesign an existing website), schedule a discovery call.
Products with higher adoption rates are often easier to integrate with other services. That’s one of the biggest selling points for Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), which is simply a paid Google account using your own domain ([email protected]). You can use all the features accessible with a free Gmail account, with a few extras and paid support. These are the accounts we set up for our website clients. Once the domain name has been connected and the Google account fully set up, the processes below are how you to add your new email on all your devices. Click the link below to skip to your specific device.
After months (!!!) of not seeing the bottom of my inbox, I finally achieved Inbox Zero, and it feels amazing.
Lest you think I had a backlog of several thousand emails, I should clarify. If I’m managing projects well, 10-15 emails is normal. Most of this year it’s hovered around 60-75. That still low number is a good thing: it means my email habits have been keeping things under control.
You could spend hours reading about tips and tricks to manage your email, but after analyzing my own habits I discovered I only use two main rules. I added a third after seeing a bad habit that had crept in.
If you’re ready to take control of your inbox, here’s how to get started.
1) Batch process your email at set times.
Tim Ferris advocates checking email twice a day, at 11 AM and 4 PM (and setting an auto-response). The idea is to intentionally process your email all at once, rather than multi-tasking. This is one of the biggest recommendations you’ll find in email management advice.
Although I’ve done this in the past, it’s not something I usually practice. I’m often waiting on changes or approval for print projects via email. I usually quit Apple Mail while working and reopen only to send proofs, then move on to the next project. If you need to check more than twice a day, great. Try 3-4 times and see what works for you. The key is making a choice to check your email and actually deal with it at that time. Don’t default to the inbox when you lose focus. That leads us to the most important rule…
2) Don’t open an email unless you plan to do something about it.
If it takes less than 5 minutes, do it now, then delete it.
If it contains info for a project:
save the attachments to your project folder
turn the text into action items on your to-do list
delete it
If you must keep emails, put them in folders filed by project/client (whatever works for you). Just get them out of the inbox.
TLDR: Don’t leave stuff in your inbox. I only leave emails in my inbox that need replies. If I can’t answer a question immediately, I’ll leave it in the Inbox until I have an answer, reply and delete (you could also move it to a “Reply To” folder).
Your email is not an archiving system. Please do not use it this way. It becomes large, unwieldy, and complicates web server migration. How many emails have you accidentally deleted? How many notes have you lost to long threads or unhelpfully named subject lines? Your email is an information receiving system… not an information collecting system. Important documents should always be securely stored elsewhere.
3) Get information out of your email and into your project management system.
Until recently, I used Apple Mail as a pre-task management system. I would flag emails in different colors for different tasks required (yellow = reply, green = design edits, purple = invoice, etc.). The problem is, I also have (and use) a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. This meant I had to split my attention between tasks in two different places. Most of the questions and estimate requests were in my email, while next steps for projects were in my CRM (I use Daylite). This was not a good arrangement.
“Your inbox is a to-do list to which anyone in the world can add an action item.”
– Chris Sacca
If you use a CRM, that should be home base for managing projects. If I miss a detail or forget a task, it’s usually because I’ve forgotten to create a new project or task in Daylite. The more I work out of my email, the more likely this is to happen.
I started turning edits into tasks in Daylite, instead of leaving them in my email. I already saved photos or copy into the project folder, but I’ve stopped leaving the email in my inbox. It’s not like I’m going to forget to send a draft once I’ve finished a design.
This month I cleared out my email in one fell swoop to get to Inbox Zero. Now that I’m aware of my email-as-to-do-list bad habit, I’ve been maintaining an inbox that might have 2-5 messages in it. It’s great.
A Note About Best Practices:
Use an email client (I love Apple Mail). I dislike in-browser applications. Browsers are for (wait for it…) browsing. Using a browser for email is asking for distraction. Please note that using Gmail does not mean you actually have to use the Gmail interface. It’s not bad since you can apply rules/filters and use shortcuts, but I’d still set up Gmail in an email client.
Try not to check email on your phone. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. I haven’t used email notifications on my iPhone for years. Turn off sounds and badges (Settings > Notifications > Mail) so you’re not constantly distracted.
Use email rules/filters whenever possible. Send promotional emails to a promotional folder – that kind of thing – to get them out of your inbox. Sometimes 20 emails will download, but only 3 will be legitimate requests. There’s no reason monthly reports, newsletters and spam all need to show up in your inbox. You can review that stuff after the real work is done.
Don’t check your email–process it. Go in with that mindset and these guidelines, and you’ll be on your way to a consistently cleaner inbox in no time.
Any tips I missed or workflow hacks you’ve discovered? Let me know in the comments below.
I’m a productivity nerd and I love seeing how other people work and picking up new tricks, so here are the apps I use most and how. If you read enough of these types of posts you’ll see the same apps repeated over and over, so you know what’s worth downloading or purchasing. Notes to keep in mind:
These are all Mac/iPhone options, although there are Android counterparts for most all of them.
My criteria is “can’t live without”… so this isn’t a long list. I’m also writing primarily to the clients of cyclone press; if you’re a total productivity nerd, you probably already use all these, but you’re not who I’m writing to. We work with startups, entrepreneurs, small business owners, artists… some of you guys dig this stuff, but most of you just want to know how to make your lives easier by harnessing the power of glorious technology. You’ve got to start somewhere, and that’s what we’re here for.
I’m going to give a couple examples of how I use these so you’ll know if they might be useful for you as well.
This is a classic, and an appropriate one to begin with since I’m using it right now; I do all my writing in a full screen Evernote window, as well as save my final posts here for my own safekeeping. Evernote has been around since the beginning of productivity apps being a thing, which is probably about how long I’ve been using it.
The beauty of Evernote (other than the fact that it’s always at your fingertips) is that you can create “notebooks”, so categorize to your hearts content. It’s not just text, either; you can also snap a quick photo of that thing that reminded you of the other thing that makes you want to go do some other thing. You can save a voice note, sketch directly in the app, save articles from the web. You can also tag notes for additional categorization, and it will save the location where you wrote them down.
I literally could not survive without Evernote – I would never remember anything. That’s not to say there aren’t other note-taking options, and now that Apple has tied their default Note app into iCloud that’s a perfectly feasible option. I still use the free account on Evernote – text notes don’t take up much space, although they limit how many devices you can sync on now (only two, which is all I use it on). I even tried an alternative, Bear, and ended up switching back to Evernote. Read about that comparison here.
How I Use This App:
Within my account I have a bajillion notebooks divided into Personal and Work categories. 90% of my usage is personal; as an artist, every little flash of inspiration becomes a new note within my “Art” notebook. Every business idea gets saved into the “Business” notebook. Every ridiculous quote my husband drops gets saved into the “AJ Quotes” notebook. You get the idea.
I have a “Books” notebook; as I’m reading if a quote stands out or a thought congeals surprisingly well I’ll save that into a note for that specific book. If I’m having a conversation later and happen to remember a good quote from a certain book, I can pull up that note on my phone on the spot.
Password security is a big deal, people. I know it’s endlessly discussed, but it’s never enough – I see average passwords all the time and they are terrible. I have a whole separate blog post on this, but let me give you a quick reminder of why it matters. No one is guessing your password, ok? Unless you have an ill-meaning cousin-in-law snooping around your bank account testing pet names and house numbers, this is generally not what we’re worried about (but please don’t use pet names or house numbers). Computers crack passwords; it’s a brute force thing. How long do you think a random dictionary-cross-checking computer is going to take to decode that short easy password? The longer, the better. Your response: but I have to remember it! No, you don’t.
1Password creates and saves all your passwords for you. It connects to all your browsers – there’s a standalone app you can use to mass add Software Licenses and other such things, but it’s mostly used as an extension in your browser (it works with them all). Let’s say you pull up your bank account. Click the 1Password icon, select the proper login, and it fills the fields for you – hit Enter and you’re in. No need to remember that insanely long string of numbers.
I believe you can use Apple’s Keychain in a similar, limited way, but this is not something I have experience using. There are also other competitors I won’t mention, but it is my personal opinion 1Password is absolutely the best and I’m more than happy to pay for their product. They also have family and team plans which would be super handy. Highly, highly recommended for anyone who spends a significant amount of time on the internet.
How I Use This App:
This app is not optional for me; while I’ve always used secure (memorized) passwords, I work with hundreds of client accounts per month and there’s no way I’m going to keep all that data in a spreadsheet. If you’re one of our web design clients, rest assured that your login information involves a ridiculous password that’s different for every login required (also very important) and is stored in 1Password, not in a text file somewhere. I’m insane about security. I also store all my software license codes here.
This app was a lifesaver. During the course of a workday, whenever I found a new article I wanted to read, I’d open it in a new Tab to read later. This meant I clogged up Firefox with too many tabs to articles I never got around to reading and finally closed. No longer.
Pocket adds a lovely little extension to Firefox (who purchased them – yay on that decision guys). Now if I open an article I want to read later, I’ll hit the Pocket icon and it saves to my Pocket account. Later if I’m winding down in the evening or standing in line at the DMV I’ll pull up the Pocket app on my iPhone, and there’s a massive list of all 6,385 of those articles I’ve saved. On a nice dark background with no ads! (Yes, I do read on my phone… suffice it to say that I’ve been in the top 1% readers of Pocket in the last couple years).
If you have an iPad it would be even better, and there’s an app for your Mac too, although I spend enough time on the laptop I don’t want to be reading on it too. I’ll also add that they tailor articles to your interests over time – the recommended email they send every week is great. You can also follow people in the Pocket app to see what they’re recommending if you’re into that kind of thing.
If you’re a small business owner, a freelancer or an artist who already uses Google, you really should be taking advantage of Google Voice. This is how I keep my business and personal phone numbers separate, while receiving both on my iPhone. It’s free to set up a number you can then forward to your regular mobile phone, and if you log in online you’ll also have the equivalent of a Gmail inbox for voicemails. I’ve helped several clients get this set up, but it’s super easy.
How I Use This App
I use the Google Voice app to make outgoing calls (shows as coming from your work number). I use Google Hangouts (also an iPhone app and connected to Google Chrome on my laptop) for texting clients, which has a better interface and can send/receive photos (the Voice app can’t receive photos via text message).
I’m a bit of an evangelist for meditation, especially if you tend toward the ADD scatterbrained high-energy side of things. While it can be a spiritual practice if you bring that approach to it, it’s about as religious as yoga. It’s simply a way of training your mind; seeing your thoughts for what they are, and having greater mindfulness as you go about your day. In beginning new habits, it’s incredibly important to track your progress, and Headspace excels at this. It will show your current streak (how many days in a row you’ve meditated), as well as give you badges for 15 days, 30 days, etc., and subscriptions to give away for as long as the streak you just completed. Sign up for an account to get a free 10 day trial and you’ll figure out pretty quick if you want to keep going. Yes, the paid subscription is worth the money, but you have to actually use it.
How I Use This App
I was never able to stick with a consistent, daily meditation practice until I started using Headspace. I exclusively use the iPhone app, which is absolutely beautiful and incredibly well designed. Although I actually want to hear surrounding noise, I have used the app with earbuds on a plane and in other distracting locations. While I’ve been doing this long enough that I don’t need my phone to meditate if I’m doing an unguided session, I always use the app simply to track my progress.
I love this app, and my favorite feature is that you can sync with Reminders in order for it to work with Siri. The recipe import feature and meal planning is something I’ve just started playing with recently and I’m seeing a lot of potential.
How I Use This App
If I suddenly realize we’re nearly out of butter, I’ll whip out the phone and say “Add butter to Sprouts list” and Siri will add it to that specific grocery list.When my husband gets off work and goes to the store, he pulls up the list on his phone and sees that we need butter. Currently, we use separate lists for different grocery and home improvement stores, etc., but the Premium version allows sorting by each store.
I know this is just the default Apple app and not real exciting, but I run into people all the time (usually couples with unwieldy work schedules) who have issues with scheduling. It can be so easily remedied; create separate calendars for each person/activity, and the second you get next month’s work schedule or something gets planned, put it on that calendar.
iCloud syncs everything between phones so you always have the latest updates. You can also share and subscribe to calendars.
How I Use This App:
My husband puts his work schedule on there as soon as he has it, so when I’m making plans to go visit a friend who has a ton of adorable baby goats (actually happening) I can pull up the calendar to see what days he’s off work this month. Later, when a friend texts him to ask about getting coffee, he can pull up the calendar and see we’re already going to see adorable baby goats that day (coffee later, dude). How people survive life without this, I do not know.
I previously wrote about an app by a local developer which is no longer supported. I’m currently testing Everlance as a replacement, so I’ll report back on how it works out. So far it does basically the same thing but in a less pretty/less intuitive fashion. I find a mileage tracking app is a necessity. The Quickbooks Online app has now started tracking mileage. I’m comparing the two to see how accurate QBO is, but I’ll probably cancel Everlance since I’m already paying for Quickbooks.
How I Use This App:
I review and categorize trips at the end of each week. That’s it. I’ll export mileage and send to my accountant at tax time.
I have a few honorable mentions. These are apps I use often, almost daily, but don’t add quite as much value to my life as the ones above.
As a designer, I need to run timers while I’m working on projects. TimeCamp is how I’ve been doing that for the last year, and it’s been pretty great. I actually started using it to track personal things as well – I can view a chart at the end of the day that shows how much time was spent on each activity. There’s an iPhone app to track stuff on the go, so I use that when I want to log reading time or something in order to keep on top of overall goals. The interface is a bit much – I feel the developer could have used a strong design lead in working on this but overall it works for me. If you want to get creepy, you can assign keywords to a task and it will automatically track you. I work on too many similar projects for that to be an option, but it might work well for some people.
This is a basic little app that saves your tracking numbers for shipments. I have a widget in my Notifications pane and the iPhone app, so I can check shipment days remaining and get notifications. I use this to confirm delivery for client business cards and such, but sometimes I’ll throw personal shipments in there too.
This is how I keep track of the many, many books I want to read, and the 7 or so I’m in the middle of currently. I’ve recently started trying to leave reviews, but mostly I just use this app for the bookshelf saving options (Want to Read, Currently Reading, Read). Note: I’m currently testing a new, non-Amazon owned player: Storygraph.
I’m a foodie and an advanced cook because of it (also baking – these things are different) and I keep track of all my recipes in Paprika. It automatically imports recipes with the click of a button. After I’ve made a recipe worth keeping, I’ll save it with my changes/notes, so I’m not dependent on a random food blogger’s website or the buggy Epicurious app. I’m often asked for recipes, so it’s nice to hit a button to email recipes from the app. I would point out that while not as robust, AnyList has a recipe feature than has imported from websites beautifully when I’ve used it.
That’s it. I try to update this periodically if things change. If you’re interested in learning more about harnessing the full power of tech and your Mac or iPhone, check out our companion company, first pixels tech. Assessing and helping streamline workflows with technology is something I love to do.
Do you use these or similar apps? Other suggestions or options you’ve recently discovered? Let us know in the comments.
