Want to create your own Facebook Fan page for yourself, your business or your website?  It is easy to do – if you know the right places to look.  I recently created one to help promote my various projects, and now I want to help you do the same.  This is my guide on how to setup and create a Facebook Fan Page.

Getting Started with the Facebook Fan Page

If you have never created a Facebook Fan Page before, the place you want to start Facebook Pages.  Once there, click the “Create Page” button in the upper right hand corner of the web page.

Basic Facebook Fan Page Information Help

Next, you can choose to create an official page or a community page.  Official pages are controlled by one (or a team) of people on your end and is the route you will probably take.  The community pages are more for a cause or an idea, like the “I Love Toast!” fan page.  The scary thing is, that might exist.

Depending on what your Facebook Fan Page will be about, you will need to select:

• Local Business
• Brand, Product or Organization
• Artist, Band or Public Figure

Then in the drop down box, you will choose another classification for yourself.  For example, you could select that you are a Brand, Product or Organization and then choose Website.  This just helps Facebook organize your placement and also will help others find your Facebook Fan Page within Facebook itself.

Naming Your Facebook Fan Page

Type your page name in next.  Keep it short, descriptive and to the point.  Click the check mark box saying that you are an official representative and blah blah blah, then click the “Create Official Page” button.  Your new Facebook Fan Page has been created.  Now you can go in there, and start customizing it, inviting friends and more.  I will touch on that topic another day.

Hope this helps you when it comes to creating your own Facebook Fan Page.  Remember, you are all invited to come join my own Facebook Fan Page I created for all my various projects.  Come join in on the fun at Mitch’s Projects on Facebook for more Mitch-like goodness.

Import POP3 Accounts into Gmail

First things first, we have my Gmail account.  This acts as my main mail account.  From there, I have added all my other mail accounts from other various locations (such as lunarpages.com or mitchkeeler.com) to Gmail.  Google’s e-mail client can act as an e-mail fetcher for all your other POP3 e-mail accounts.  Here is a post from them describing how to set that up:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=mail&answer=21288

The short version would be go to Settings > Accounts and then “Add Another Mail Account”.

Get Gmail to Work with IMAP

This is where problem two comes into play.  I want to be able to use Thunderbird on my desktop PC to manage my e-mail and then Gmail via the browser on my laptop (or anywhere else) to get to all my same mail via the Web.  To enable IMAP in Gmail:

1. Sign in to Gmail.
2. Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page.
3. Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
4. Select Enable IMAP.
5. Configure your IMAP client and click Save Changes.

To configure Thunderbird for Gmail/IMAP, be sure to check out this post here:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=77662

Now for the Little Annoying Things

Alright, my mail system is in place and I can mirror Thunderbird with Gmail (or vice versa).  There are a few small kinks yet to be worked out though.  The worst of them is that your address book will not stay in sync between platforms.  You can do this manually of course, but that is a pain in the rear.  There are also a few configuration tweaks you have to change to get your tags and folders to match up with the right spot inside of Thunderbird.

Lifehacker has done a good write up on most of these other little tweaks you may wish to do, so check that out for more information.  There you have it.  It might not be the prettiest system but it does get the job done. 

With that said – I figured I’d share with the masses the week long guide that we got published over there in hopes that it helps somebody else out there with getting WordPress installed and configured right.

• How to Find the Right Web Host for Blogging
• Tips on How to Pick the Right CMS for You
• The Fun of Installing WordPress by Hand
• A Few Post Installation WordPress Configurations
• WordPress Themes and Plugins – Get Them Going

If you want to listen to the entire show or save the mp3 to listen to later – you can download it and listen to it over at WebHostingShow.com.