Life used to be simple. We lived somewhere, and that place had an address. We might have a second address where we could receive mail at work, and sometimes a PO Box to complicate things a little (still does).

Then email arrived in the mid '90s (although I've been using email since 1983) and that's when the fun started. First we struggled with new ISPs every 6 months and had to let everyone know what our new email address is (you can also use an email router like www.pobox.com to avoid these problems).

Next came online communities of which Active Rain is one of the best. However there are lots of folks that aren't inclined to join (yet?) but they still need an online presence, especially if they're a business owner.

I've been noticing more references to a Google profile, and when I read someone's recommendation that it's a good alternative for the 1,000s of people who don't have a blog, I decided to check it out. I'm planning to share with other handyman & smaller business owners and wanted to learn how long it would take to create thr profile. 

Took a bit longer that most, as somehow google thought I was my husband (he must have logged on last & he does like gmail where I don't use it) so I had to cut & paste everything from his profile to my own.

Pretty straight forward and one more place to earn some google juice, plus as many inbound links as you care to add to the profile.