This morning I found a very cool blog tool called MapMyPage (in beta) that easily adds a link to a pop-up Google Maps page whenever you mention a location. Such as...Richardson, Texas and it adds a small globe that you can click on to get to the map.

I found the site though a neat blog called iDezy.com because he added me on his Twitter account, thanks.

All you have to do is add a simple few lines of javascript and it is all automatic (assuming that javascript is enabled).

I'm testing it now to see how it works and how much of a strain on the page load it makes.

Go check it out at MapMyPage.

FreshBooks, the online billing service for freelancers and small business people has gotten a really nice interview on Fox Business News. The interview was with the President and founder Mike McDerment.

I did a review of FreshBooks, which I use to do invoicing and billing for my freelance web design clients.

I can't tell you how much time it saves me dealing with the money side of this business. Well worth the $9.80/month I pay for my subscription.

Way to go FreshBooks. I really love this company and am glad to see them get some high profile press.

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Recently I was introduced by a fellow Dallas Web Designer, Kat Rice to a very interesting and useful Free Firefox extension called ScribeFire. I met Kat at a Meetup.com group I attend called Dallas Interactive Marketing & Internet SEO SEM Meetup. Yeah, I know, they really need to shorten that name.

I use WordPress for this blog and for 7 other domains I have in my personal and business web site repertoire. ScribeFire makes it very easy for me to manage all 8 WordPress blogs from one tab of my Firefox web browser without having to go log into 8 different blogs in 8 different tabs of the browser. Not that I really would work on all 8 at once, but with ScribeFire I can if I want to.

The extension currently supports 15 different blogging systems. it does not yet support Joomla.

It installs like any other Firefox plugin and then the fun begins. Once you give the extension all the info for logging into each of your blogs then you can begin using the extension.

This extension allows you to write posts, pages, update posts and pages, save a post as a note (basically a draft), easily insert links, easily insert photos and you have full control over categories and tags from each blog you post on.

There is even a Flickr button to easily allow you to search Flickr for a photo for your post and it puts a link to the Flickr page of the photo's owner, which is an ethical and necessary step for using other people's images on your blog.

I like it because it allows me to post from a central place for all my blogs and sites. You have to try ScribeFire yourself to see the huge benefits for your blogging speed.

There is also an ad program that you can subscribe to. This will allow you to put ads on your blog that are targeted to your content. Sort of like Google Adwords, but with a special twist. I have signed up for that free service, but have yet to find the time to devote to using it.

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I happened upon a very cool Firefox extension called Ubiquity tonight.

It works on Mac or PC platforms and allows you to do a huge variety of tasks.

I installed the extension, restarted Firefox and began the fun. There is a long list of commands you can issue. I suggest copying the list to a text file or printing it out for reference or you will be lost.

So, you ask, what does this Firefox extension do?

If you have used a Mac and have tried Quicksilver, you have a taste of what is possible here. On my Mac, I use the keystroke combination of option and space bar and a little black window shows up on the top left of the browser window (in the site area, not the menu area).

This is where you type the commands. If you had an address highlighted and type the command "map this", a small map will show up, which you can click on to make it a bit larger and then you can move around the map, zoom in or out and what not. If you were writing an email (works with Gmail only for now) and you highlighted an address, you could then click to have the map inserted into the email.

Another example is you can post to your Twitter account from any browser page. It even counts down the 160 characters for you.

It does calculations, you can browse Flickr photos, you can search Google, Wikipedia, Ask.com, Amazon, eBay, YouTube, do translations, define words, look up the weather in anyplace and so much more.

I could go on and on, but really, just check this extension out! It is very fast too.

It's one of those things that could be a real important part of your work flow if you get in and learn the functions and use this. It's not for everyone. I showed it to Ruthie, my wife, and she kind of guffawed and said "who's going to remember all those commands?"

I'd love some feedback on this one. I think it will be one that catches on. Gotta use Firefox of course, but why in the world would you not be using Firefox?

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Back a number of months ago I started using this online invoicing and time tracking program from a company in Toronto, Canada called FreshBooks.

As a new user they offer you the use of the program for FREE and the only limitation on the free account is that it is limited to 3 clients.

This is perfect for me, as a freelance web designer, as I can now track the time I spend on each client and their project and the program automatically inserts that time into an invoice for the client.

You can choose to have the invoice emailed to the client or have it sent via snail mail. It is very customizable for each client, project, billing rate and you can even add your logos to the online program (as I have) to let your client log-in and view their invoices online in a custom site that you can design to have it look like it is your own online invoicing application.

It is pretty easy to set up, but if you want to customize the look it might take you a few hours to fully set up the site. The help section is easy to use and does actually help.

You can have it send late notices and create reports. It is a serious time saving application for the freelance professional.

Since I now have more clients I happily needed more than the 3 free clients and upgraded to the $14/month plan, which lets me control up to 25 clients at a time, all with unlimited number of invoices you can send, full customer support (M-F 9-6 EST), data backups, unbranded emails and more.

There also is a very cool Mac OS X widget that allows me to have the small widget open in Dashboard and log time for any client and project I want, then submit those hours to the online program, all without having to be logged into the online web site of FreshBooks. And you can start and stop this timer many times before submitting the hours worked.

I urge you to go to FreshBooks and test drive the program yourself. Yes, my links to it are affiliate links (I try to be up front about this), but this only costs them a portion of the signup cost (nothing if you are just trying out the free version).

I stumbled across a discount of 30% for the service by signing up for a membership at a freelance help site called Freelancer's Union. They have health insurance, a job board, events, freelancing advocacy and a directory of freelancers. You should join this just for these benefits alone. The discounts are a bonus to membership. So if you want to get 30% off any level of service you buy with this great freelancing invoicing and time tracking tool, go there and sign up first.

Note: I did wind up having to call to get them to give me a code to get the 30% off, but the customer service people at FreshBooks were so nice and helpful, it only took a couple of minutes for me to save about $50 a year off the service.

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