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We would like to first start by giving a huge thanks to our loyal customers, students, website fans and readers. We are ever so grateful for your continued support of what we do here at Web Marketing Therapy and it is you who we strive to serve with our educational writings, humorous musings and our therapeutic approach to marketing. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

On that note, it is a holiday tradition that Web Marketing Therapy’s team of Wild Web Women put together a list of things we are grateful for each year. As a team of She Geeks we constantly have fun playing with the latest and greatest tech toys. This year we asked our team, What tech gadgets are you thankful for in 2011? And while the team is definitely having a love affair with Apple right now (and forever it seems) we have room in our hearts for all types of gadgets, even if they aren’t all so high tech:

Lorrie Thomas:
For being a wild web woman who geeks out online for a living, I am a very slow adopter to technology. I still love to read books (you may remember them: the ones made out of paper where you can fold the edges and make notes in the margins?). As much as I rely on tech tools to run WMT and work, I do unplug from technology as much as I can to recharge so when I am “plugged in”, I am refreshed. Before I share my fave tech tools, I need to give a proper thanks to the two un-tech tools that inspired me so much this year: SUCCESS Magazine (success.com) and Inc. Magazine (inc.com). I learn something new every issue and feel inspired to keep our work at WMT rocking! (Plus, as a new mom with lots of infant time, these mags have been by my side educating me and keeping me company). We are the product of what we read and who we associate with, I love that there are still great reads out there that fuel my mind so I can use technology wisely!

Ok, ok: Gadgets I am grateful for:

Macbook Pro, headlamp and Box.net

My favorite gadget is my Macbook Pro. It holds a charge longer than my former PC, is intuitive, sleek and just WORKS. I’ll never go back to a PC. If Mac could just make a gold version to match my accessories, I’d be in heaven!

My second fave tech gadget is my headlamp. Great on hikes that end after sundown AND to walk about at night with baby so I can see and be hands free!

Lastly, Box.net allows me (and team WMT!) to store company docs on a cloud so our virtual Wild Web marketing team has access to docs no matter where we live. Love it!

Jennie Jacobs:
I am not one to hoard or collect amazing gadgets. In fact, I would say that my tech gadget collection is relatively thinned out compared to some people I know. And because I am not as enthusiastic about the tech gadget revolution, I tend to be a little behind the times. But in 2011 I made the switch to the best gadget I could ever have hoped for: my iPhone! My iPhone is my life companion. For work and play I can utilize the power of technology to make my life so much easier than before. Case in point; I recently went on an almost 2 week long road trip and not once was I even compelled to open a map while on the road. My iPhone gave me the ability to search the yummiest local food joints in Portland, while simultaneously giving us the quickest route to said restaurant. It was amazing! And so, I give thanks! Thank you to a gadget that has saved me time, shown me best pizza ever, let me photograph that pizza, and saved me from countless arguments with my directionally challenged boyfriend!

Kate McMillan:
Like many people, I spend lots of time online.  Most of it has to do with my job, but some of it has to do with things like keeping in touch with friends and family, or shopping, or learning, or the bevy of other non-work-related online activities.  I work from home, so until recently all my online activities took place from the same computers – work and play.  And then we got an iPad.  Now I can shut the door on my office when I’m finished working (!) and still use the internet for non-work-related activities.  It offers the kind of separation between work and play that I need to stay sane.  And when I travel for pleasure, I can easily bring it along to easily keep in touch or just watch Netflix at the end of the day without feeling like I’m bringing my work along with me.  Thank you, iPad!

Kelly Kohen:
I, like Jennie, don’t tend to be a tech gadget junkie, but I was anxious for the iPhone to come out on Verizon because my out-of-date smart phone was having WAAAYYY too many issues.  So, on the day that they became available, I stayed up late so that I could push the “purchase” button the second they were available.  To all of my friends and family that kept saying the iPhone was the best thing ever, but I continued to argue that it just couldn’t be that great, I apologize profusely!  It is by far the BEST thing ever!  It allows me to work from any location, catch up on the morning news even before I get out of bed and entertains my 4-year-old during really long drives or quick trips to the grocery store.  It allows me to easily keep in touch with my family via messaging and I have a wonderful photo album of my son’s wish list for Santa (to save the Jolly ol’ man any confusion on the MANY requests).  Thank you iPhone for making my life complete!

Nicki Gauthier
I am Thankful for my vinyl record player. Love, obsessed, can’t live without. The record player was invented in the late 1800’s which makes this sweet musical technology over 100 years-old HOWEVER it is WAY better than any new music tech gadget out there. I listen to music while I work because it helps get me in the “work zone” and the background noise is GREAT for my over cluttered brain. I listen to music while I clean, cook, and shower. I listen to music whilst relaxing with family and friends. I listen to music all day, every day.  SB Local Peeps: I recommend Warbler Records on De La Guerra in Santa Barbara for musical goodness. Catch Warbler on Facebook.

Please enjoy this beautiful picture of my record player with one of my favorite vinyl’s – Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.

Amy Dunn:
I agree with Kelly- the iPhone is amazing.  I too used to resent iPhone snobs- but I get it.  Then I got mine in May this year and use it for everything- photos, organizing, to do lists, email, texting, calls (of course), music, recipes- even sleeping (love the White Noise App).  There is an app for everything you could imagine.  I think the iPhone is the most innovative and important piece of technology of this decade.  I am so glad that I waited for it and did not settle for anything less.

Darla Bea Smith:
This Fall Season I’m giving thanks to my colleague Nicki Gauthier for encouraging me to purchase my MacBook Pro. I’ve been a Mac girl since the 1980’s when I used to play on my parents MacIntosh personal computer. By the mid-90’s I was excited to bring home a fruity colored iMac G3 (remember those?). What I like best about Apple computers in general is there is minimal maintenance; no sign of bugs and the design of the product is visually appealing. Now that I actually own a portable laptop I find I’m not chained to my desk and having the freedom to do work in any location is very convenient. As Wild Web Women we have a joke that we work in our PJ’s – well sometimes this is the case and with my MacBook Pro I can actually do Pajama Public Relations! The MacBook Pro is lightweight too – allowing me to trek it across town to visit the team at our virtual headquarters aka a local coffee shop. Portable, convenient, fast and a clean desktop — I’m loving yet another genius Mac product. Thank you Steve Jobs for helping us online marketers do our work and do it well

Anne Orfila:
I love gadget-y things, once I get the hang of them. One thing that I am ever-so-grateful for is the iPod Touch.  Why not the iPhone, you say?  Well, I am not there yet (it’s complicated and has to do with a family phone plan). Surprisingly I have had little time on the iTouch (as we call it in our family) because it actually belongs to my 8-year old son. He wanted it so badly for his birthday that he was willing to forego a huge birthday blowout for a scaled down family-only party as we gave him an ultimatum: expensive gadget or expensive party (can’t have everything in life!). The Touch has really honed his technical-proficiency of Apple products (which I believe currently rules the world – or at least the world that I exist in – and, I believe, will continue to reign into his adulthood), exposed him to the world wide web (within certain parent-approved parameters), and encouraged his creative juices to flow through self-made videos, recordings and pictures. He also loves to wikipedia everything and occasionally “window shop” to see what’s new in the world of Lego. And let’s face it, it’s a great companion for him, whether it be in the car on a long road trip or at home on a lazy afternoon. Some may say that I use it as a “babysitter” for him, but I would disagree with that. The Wii, now that’s a babysitter, whereas the iTouch opens the world to him – so to speak. And having my kid interested in the world wide web, to me (a “wild web woman”), is priceless.

Mary Sandor:
I wanted to tell you about the tech gadget that I am thankful for: Diamond computer speakers. They look like little mushrooms that belong in Munchkinland but I have grown to love them. A friend gave these to Mark a year or so back and I started using them over the summer and fell in LOVE! They are great music blasting/movie watching companions that are super mobile and just need a charge every now and then – the charging gets done via USB post/cable. Because they run on battery, they can pack into my computer bag easily and travel with me wherever I go. They’re not perfect Bose quality sound, but great for rocking out to Pandora while creating great copy!

For those that haven’t had the chance or desire to upgrade (or should I say “change”, whether or not it’s an upgrade is still up for debate) to the new design, here is a run down of the new features:

1. HD Themes-Themed Gmail is nothing new, but now you are able to add iStockPhoto imagery to add some color to your email.  I initially tried the beach theme-but it was too distracting and cluttered my screen, so I opted for one of the color themes instead-I’m not sold on this being a huge improvement-while I like things to look pretty, the photo’s, at least for work email, are just too distracting since the messages themselves are translucent, allowing the images of the theme behind your conversations to be seen.
2. Density – You can choose how many or how few email messages you want to have displayed by selecting Comfortable, Cozy or Compact.  I like the Cozy setting,  but this will end up being a personal preference.
3. Streamlined Conversations-With the addition of pictures next to people’s emails and minimized clutter, email threads are supposed to be easier to follow.  They do provide an alternating color scheme for email threads, which does make it easier to see the different responses instead of lumping them all together, but I’m not certain that this is a huge improvement-I’ll get back with you after I have a few more days to play with the new interface.
4. Better Email Search – Now this one really interests me-you are able to do more elaborate searches right from the search bar vs. having to open up “Search Options”.  I ♥ this feature so far!  I’m constantly searching for old emails and this allows me to do so more efficiently – big thumbs up for this one!
5. Easily Resize your Chats and Labels-This navigation allows you to choose how much space your chats and labels take up on the left hand side of your screen.  I personally had my chats on the right side and labels on the left in the old version of Gmail since I used both features often, but it appears that the Right Hand Chat Lab is no longer available in the new version.  They do have an easy toggle feature between the chat section and the gadget section though, so I’m sure this is something that users will adapt to very quickly.

Ultimately, if you use Gmail, you will eventually be switched over to the NEW user interface.  There is an option to revert back to the old look “TEMPORARILY’, but why wait!  Go ahead and dive right in  and let us know what YOU think!

Some people doubt the validity of using Facebook to grow your business.  Three Texas mom’s sure didn’t think much about starting a Facebook page, “Crock Pot Girls” to share recipes among friends.  That was on August 19th, just a few weeks ago.  I heard about the page through multiple friends on Facebook, as well as my mom talking about some of her Facebook friends liking the page, so I decided to check it out.  I was interested enough in the content to “LIKE” the page on August 31st-heck yeah I want to hear about great recipes that are the result of throwing a ton of stuff in a crock pot in the morning and coming home to dinner being DONE and DELICIOUS!

Since I work in a virtual office (ahhhh, love pajama PR!), I often find myself working at all hours of the day and night-it’s sometimes hard to find the balance when you can easily hop online and work “just for a second!”  BUT, I don’t necessarily want my emails sent at 3 am or on the weekends-and this is where Boomerang comes in!

I have to admit that I was not expecting much initially.  My installation of the app wasn’t seamless, BUT I emailed the “help” address and what do you know…I actually got a LIVE person replying to my email and offering support.  Ok, at this point, I was curious to see this new program would live up to my expectations.  After a few more tries, I was up and running.  After a week, I was hooked!  It’s been a month now and I can confidently say that this is a MUST have for folks using Gmail for business or personal use!

A quick rundown on WHAT boomerang can do for you:

1. It allows you to send an email later – you get to pick the day and time OR you can allow boomerang to pick a time for you ( it typically defaults to 9:37 am for me)
2. It sets up follow-up reminders – you can select “boomerang” for each message and it will bring it back to the top of your inbox at the time you select
3. It sends reminders if you don’t hear back from people – if you don’t get a reply for a message you send, it will bring it back to the top of your inbox at a future date that you select

This is a GREAT tool for so many reasons, but I think the best way to explain what it does is watch their video:

Thanks Alex at Boomerang for getting me up and running.  Also, what other company can boast that they closed their first investor by picking him up and driving him to his auto mechanic.  Really!