Google Voice Secrets

You'll be amazed by what you can do... 
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My outgoing email is being BLOCKED by my own gmail account for no reason, and with no explanation!

This is a CRITICAL problem....

If Google / Gmail's anti-spam robots mistakenly target YOU at any
point.... You may suddenly find your own Google / Gmail account
suspended...

You may find yourself LOCKED OUT of your own Email, Gmail Contacts,
Google Calendar, Google Docs documents, Google Voice, even your own
Google Voice TELEPHONE NUMBER.... among all the other Google
services... Feedburner, the list goes on and on and on...

Good Luck fighting with Google to get it back!

I know about this because it has happened to me..... TWICE now....

At first I've been very hesitant of going back to Google.... and
relying on Google for services.... especially my TELEPHONE NUMBER
(Google Voice), my Contacts, (Gmail), Email, Docs, Calendar, etc...

But....

I think I Found a Solution!

(1) Get your own domain name ( like, YourOwnName.com ) at
GoDaddy.com Note that GoDaddy has excellent support. You can call
480-505-8877 any time 24 hours a day and they will talk you through
any of these steps over the phone.

(2) Set up a free email account (comes with your dot-com domain
registration) at GoDaddy.

(3) Configure Gmail to send outgong email as you@yourownname.com (
See Settings-->Accounts and Import-->Send Mail As )

(4) Select the option to send mail out through your OWN "smtp
server" rather than Gmail's server....

(5) Enter the SMTP Server as: smtpout.secureserver.net

(6) Enter the Username as: email@yourownname.com ( whatever
email account you created on YourOwnDomain.com on GoDaddy.com in step
2 above )

(7) Enter the Password: ( the same password you selected when you
created the email account on GoDaddy.com )

(8) Select Port: 465

(9) Select "Always Use SSL" to ON ( checkmark the box )

(10) Click "Save".

Now, whenever you send mail FROM you@yourownname.com (from within
Gmail), your outgoing email will go through GoDadddy's email servers
(smtp servers) instead of Gmail's servers... And that means that
Gmail CAN NOT block your outgoing email...

This means that Google / Gmail's overzealous anti-spam robots can not
target you and block your outgoing email.... which could lead to your
Gmail / Google account being suspended...

Some other side benefits include: The recipients of your email will
never get your Gmail address in the headers of the email you send.
They will only get your professional you@yourownname.com email
address.

You can also set up as many alias email addresses as you want on
GoDaddy.com.... (for different businesses, for example)... all
forwarding to your email@yourownname.com GoDaddy email account. Then,
use POP3 to import them all into your Gmail account. ( See:
Settings-->Accounts and Import-->Check Mail Using POP3 )

For example, I have many GoDaddy Email FORWARDING accounts (for
example, one is called contact@bredmedia.com) each of which FORWARDS
to email@brucewagner.com (my single GoDaddy email account). Then, my
Gmail account retrieves all email from that account via POP3.

With this configuration, Google could lock me out of my account at any
time, and I would still be able to access all of my email at
GoDaddy.com instantly.

Note that I do something very similar with my telephone number. See
my other article about how you can go to Best Buy and buy a MagicJack,
pay $10 extra for an amazing vanity number (mine is 646-368-0000),
then call-forward that number to your Google Voice number..... and
simply put that MagicJack in a drawer..... This gives Google NO
CONTROL over your actual phone number... Only you and MagicJack
control your phone number. (You can even use the Number Portability
Act to transfer that number to another phone company in the future if
you ever decide to.)

Google never controls my actual email address, bruce@brucewagner.com

Google never controls my actual telephone number, 646-368-0000

BOTTOM LINE: At this point, Google's services are irresistible.
However, I recommend using them only with the following two
prerequisites.

First, back up all of your data at least weekly, on your own computer
hard drive. This includes your Gmail Contacts addressbook, your
Google Calendars, your Google Docs, etc... everything.

Second, you must always use a "front end" with Google -- which you
publish, and which only YOU control. This means, use your own email
address (hosted at godadddy and forwarded or POP3'ed into Gmail, for
example)... And use your own telephone number (a magicjack number
forwarded to Google Voice, for example).

Questions, feel free to ask in the comments below.... Or call or
email me. ( You have all my contact details within this article. :)

Bruce

http://brucewagner.com

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Posted by Bruce Wagner 

Comments (3)

Nov 10, 2009
The big lesson here is to always be weary of a single point-of-failure. Of course, I still LOVE Google Voice, but by definition it is a single point of failure. I'm okay with that because I think that anyone who needs to bypass GV and call me in an emergency situation would be able to do so.

The problems that some people have had with being locked out of their Google accounts underscore the danger of this. Imagine losing your VoiceMail, eMail, Documents, etc. all at once. Google gives us many great things "for free". In exchange, they get the information that they need to make money by targeting ads towards us. I'm fine with that. If someone is abusing their GMail account by becoming a spammer, then it's great that Google will lock them out. (In one case that I know of, a person's machine was infected with a virus that then allowed a spammer to use that person's account. Clearly that needed to be stopped and the person needed to disinfect their computer and change their Google password. If that person didn't get locked out of their Google account, they might have never found out that their personal computer had been compromised.) The problem is when someone gets locked out by accident. If that happens, what can we do? Depending on exactly what trigger was tripped, there are steps that we can take to get our account restored (which will make for a good article on www.GoogleVoiceSecrets.com at some point in the future), but Google is not terribly responsive or accountable for customer service on all of these free services that they are giving us. Google makes money by selling ads, not by selling these other services. (I should check to see if my Google AdWords account comes with a customer service phone number - that might be an interesting way of handling the situation, if a problem comes up in the future.)

(Google can't publish exactly what trips their spam filters, because if they did spammers would just work around them. This cat and mouse game is why we now get spam for C1AL1S and Via/g/r/a.)

Using GoDaddy, Magic Jack and other companies as front-ends to Google services still leaves us with single-points-of-failure, but there is an important difference - These other companies want our money. In order to keep our on-going business, they are highly motivated to resolve problems. Google's business model doesn't rely on this. (I've never called Magic Jack's customer service number, but I have called GoDaddy's customer service a number of times and have always been impressed with how knowledgeable and helpful their people were.)

Google is among the best companies out there when it comes to allowing us to export all of our own data - our address book, eMail messages, VoiceMail messages, documents, etc. Don't forget to do so on a regular basis!

Steven (at) GoogleVoiceSecrets.com

Nov 10, 2009
Bruce Wagner said...
By the way, you will find that even advertisers who are spending more than $1,000,000 a year on Google Adwords can NOT telephone Google. They will NOT take their call. Google's business model calls for -- basically -- ZERO customer support.

What super-basic support there is, is in the form of a FORM you can complete.... after your account has been suspended, for example.... They promise that you will receive NO REPLY.... And if you do get a reply, it will be after several days... and it will be a generic pretty-meaningless Form Letter....

That's how Google does business --- from A to Z.

Dec 08, 2009
Jonathan said...
Your magicJack/Google Voice solution is fine if all you are needing is a business line, but for those who use GV as a personal number, the solution is not plausible because you would lose the SMS functionality. Just my two cents.

Btw, I am a Google Voice, Skype, Gizmo and magicJack user. VoIP is awesome!

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