Last week I wrote a post on Google Voice for real estate professionals, how to sign up, and its features/uses. I recently added the Google Voice widget to my ActiveRain blog, and it's easy to set up once you have an account (thanks to Bob Southard in GA for the inspiration). There's one permanently on my sidebar (to the right) and one in this post (below).
**If you can't see the widgets, they sometimes load slowly. For reliability, I'd recommend placing them in your sidebar over directly in a post**
You need a Google Voice account first, apply for an invitation at voice.google.com. Set up your name, phone numbers, and forwarding phones. After your account has been full set up:
1. Log into Google Voice and Click on "Settings" on the upper right.
2. Select the "Call Widgets" tab.
3. Select "Add a new Call Widget", fill out the forms for your appropriate phone, and Save.
4. Copy the "Embed" Code from the box shown above.
Move over to ActiveRain.
1. Click on "My Home" in the upper right corner.
2. Click on "Settings" on the left sidebar.
3. Paste the code into the "Blog Description" box.
4. Don't forget to press the "Update" button below the box to save the code.
(Option 2 - To insert directly into post - only for those comfortable editing the HTML of your posts) At the top of your post window, click on the "HTML" tab instead of the "WYSIWIG" Tab. Paste Google Voice code directly into HTML code and save. The reliability of this has been quirky, if you go back and edit with WYSIWIG.
Now you have a functional, web-calling feature on your Active Rain blog. So, why wouldn't people just call you directly? Isn't a phone number easier? Does it even makes sense for a person to click on a web button, have Google locate and ring your phone, calling the customer back, and then connecting the two of you?
Of course it is doesn't make sense, but people are curious. Someone who may not want to call an agent directly might just want to know how Google Voice works. They may click on the button, call you, and just say:
"Hi, I'm Tony in Ballard, I was on your blog and just thought I'd click on the Call Button to see how it works."
You may have never spoken with Tony otherwise. Every contact counts.
I see where the widget is supposed to be but I didn't see the widget in the post or the sidebar. I can see the space where the code has placed the widget but no widget is visible. Any ideas?
I have the code pasted in to my sidebar. You can see on the right right that I also typed in "Google call me button" and the code is below it. Just as you showed in your post. I don't see the button on your sidebar or mine or on your blog or mine?
Thank you for this great info and it looks easy to do. I am bookmarking you and will get to this next week. Great info and makes me gladf to be a member of this great netwrok
Bob, Lane - The widgets are slow to load sometimes. Since there two of them, and they're calling scripts from Google, along with a Mybloglog widget calling yahoo, it may take a while to show up. It overloaded my browser once.
Larry, insane is probably right, in that it's all free.
Awesome! I saw that widget feature and wondered about it, I just had not had time to mess with it yet! Thanks for the specific instructions on how to set this up!
It didn't work. Here's what I get..."Google Voice is currently available for GrandCentral users only, but will be open to new users soon. In the meantime, please leave us your email address and we'll notify you as soon as Google Voice becomes available. To learn more about Google Voice, check out our feature videos."
How cool is that? I got my invitation this week and signed up immediately since I'm a Google addict - Just hadn't figured out how it could be of any use to me yet...I guess I know now and will be including it my next blog. Thanks for educating me...
Okay, so 20 minutes later I've added it to my sidebar...Thanks again!
Thanks for all the comments. Active Rain does support it, you just have to be careful with the code.
As for all of the Seattle comments, we're enjoying Seafair weekend, a heat wave, Blue Angels Air Show, and barbecues all weekend. Doesn't get much better.
If you have to wait for your Google invite, it's worth it, just sign up on the list, you won't regret it.
Thanks for the idea on what to do with it other than the obvious, ie using it as a screen number for those times you dont want to give out your cell number.
I've had a "Call Me" button on our website for years and I don't think we've ever received one call off it. I don't expect such buttons will really become useful until more people start doing everything from their phone... and then it will become really popular!
Thanks to Denise Hamlin (Vermace Realty)! The widget won't show if you are a Firefox user. I went and look at my blog with IE and the widget is there.
I am going to keep it on my sidebar and in my signature even if I can't see it. I know more people use IE so most readers will see it.
I am much more excited about using the one number feature. I have ine set to ring my home/office and my cell phone. Once I am comfortable with Google voice I'll begon using it for my outbound calls ( so the number shows up on caller ID) and start publishing the number. Having it ring both phones will make me even esier to reach.
I just got the invite last night. This is a really powerful and interesting service. Great features that can be leveraged in a lot of ways. Google is seriously spoiling the world at this point. All these great toys that they just hand out for free (which I hope this one stays free) all the time. They are like the Santa Claus of the internet.
I have the code pasted on my sites, ietrealestate.com and ietcapital.com, the widget only shows up in chrome, IE is broken link and FF doesn't show up at all, weird part is that when I view this blog post in IE your widget does show up??..
Ben here, just called you figured out why it wasn't working for me in IE, my CMS is stripping out the
' type="application/x-schockwave-flash" ' code , I manually put it back in but it keeps getting ripped out, got talk to my programmers tomorrow, Thanks for your help though!
I started requesting an invitation when it was Grand Central last April. I've requested an invitation every month since then, including when Google took over. Still haven't received any response from them. Sounds like a great service but I feel like a broke little kid looking in the window at Baskin Robbins!
I just saw the widget on another blog and searched for it...and your blog was on the top. I have submitted the request for the invitation. Can't wait to add to my blog.
Ran across this old blog today doing research on Google's new phone call button via Gmail. Pretty amazing you can now use Gmail like Skype with no fees (unless you call international numbers and maybe 900 numbers).
I wonder what happens when someone clicks on the Call me now button that doesn't have the ability to use their computer as a phone (i.e. no microphone installed or activated).
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I like that. Thanks for showing an easy way to add it.