What's not to like about Google Apps for Business – Docs, Gmail, Calendar, Sites and Video applications over the Internet for only $5.00 a user per month?
How about the Google registration process which is cumbersome, complicated and aggravating?
If you're a small business owner keen on cloud computing and think, like I did, that Google Apps would be a great cloud computing toe dipping experience, I offer my notes on getting started with Google Apps.
(Read Why Cloud Computing Is Ideal for Small Businesses.)On October 7, 2011, I decided to sign up for a free trial to use Google Apps for Business. I was particularly interested in the possibilities of Google Apps for Business serving as a replacement for Microsoft Office. My intent was to sign up, jump into their word processing app, Google Docs, and document my experience getting started with Google Apps as I went through the process.
That turned out to be a pipe dream. Here are the problems I encountered and how you can avoid them when trying to sign up for Google Apps for Business.
1) You must make sure you're signed out of Google before you try to register for a free trial.
The first annoyance in the Google registration process was being faced with a long form asking for excessive amounts of information. (Come on, Google – you don't really need my home address, phone number, and multiple email account addresses just to grant me a free Google Apps for Business trial for 30 days!)
Because all fields were required, I dutifully filled them out, only to be rejected and told to fill out the entire registration form again because, said the screen message, I was already signed in to a Google account. Now this was true. But why not spare people the aggravation of having to do everything twice by adding a simple warning at the beginning of the registration process?
My frustration mounted because having committed this sin threw me into what seemed to be an endless error loop. Even though the browser screen informed me my information had been rejected, I was sent a welcome email inviting me to be guided through the set up procedure for Google Apps for Business, featuring tools such as a set up wizard and a four minute overview video. However, all the links in the welcome email took me only to the same error page in my browser.
I eventually ended the situation and got back on track with my Google registration by closing my browser and restarting it, clearing my cache and making sure I was logged out of Google before trying again. I have already wasted about an hour at this point.
2) Google Apps for Business requires that you have a website.
There is a way around this, which I will explain. But first: the problem.
When you sign up for Google Apps for Business, one of the first pieces of information you are required to provide is your domain name.
This was really problematical for me because I don't have one. I write and maintain the About Small Business Canada website, but the domain belongs to About.com.
And I don't see why a small business needs to have a website nowadays when a Facebook page or pages could serve as a Internet presence perfectly well. (See How to Create a Fan Page for Your Business on Facebook.)
Especially when the Google Apps I'm trying to access are not going to be resident on my website or server, but on Google's. Hey, isn't that the point of cloud computing?
But, I shrug, okay. I will get a domain. Domains are cheap now. I purchased one with email and domain parking for less than ten bucks and spent two seconds congratulating myself on leaping another hurdle in the Google registration process.
Except I didn't.
Getting started with Google Apps for Business doesn't just require you to have a domain; you have to verify that you are the owner of the domain.
The verification process Google recommends in its instruction pages involves uploading an html file Google provides up to your website by FTP.
Not thinking ahead (or thinking clearly at all by this time), I went into my domain registrar account and created a new FTP account on my domain. I was then able to upload Google's HTML file.
Which did absolutely nothing for me, because as all I have is a parked domain, with no developed website (a.k.a. hosted account), the FTP file might as well have been beamed into space. (Presumably it went to one of my domain registrar's servers... somewhere.)
I emailed my domain registrar for help. They told me that just having a domain is insufficient for using Google Apps for Business and that I need to have a hosted account.
At this point, I roll around on the floor for a bit, gnashing my teeth. (Not pretty, but I do want to give you a complete, unvarnished account here. You have to remember that I have been messing around with this for over three hours now and am still not even registered.) When I recover, I wonder why I am bothering to do this, as I do own and use Microsoft Office. I know one thing for sure – I am not going to buy a hosting service and build/develop a website that I don't need just so I can use Google Apps.
Fortunately, while I was rolling around on the floor, my techie husband heard my piteous cries and rushed to assist me.
The Solution: How to register for Google Apps if you don’t have a website
On the verification procedure page of the Google Apps registration process, Google does offer several other alternatives to uploading an HTML file to your website.
The verification method that worked for us is to amend the DNS file on your domain. The only difficult part of this was finding out how to do this through my particular domain registrar's account dashboard, but once I found the obscure tab that opened this option, I was home-free – and finally able to complete Google Apps required verification process!
My grade for Google Apps for Business Registration – D. You shouldn't have to be a techie or spend hours researching stuff to sign up for a free trial.
Next in this series: How to Set Up Google Business Apps
How to Set Up Gmail for Google Business Apps
