How to get Google Voice in Europe (or anywhere else)

If you’ve already had an invitation to Google Voice and seen those awful words “Google Voice is not available in your country yet,” you’ll know the frustration of once again seeing our American colleagues getting all the new, shiny stuff long before we do.

The good news is that there’s an easy work around for Voice, and I’ve been using it and all it’s benefits for a couple of weeks now. I have my very own US telephone number, which means suppliers, friends and other bloggers there have no problem contacting me at any time.

The secret is to go through the sign up process using a US VPN. And that’s it! Once you’ve done the sign up, you don’t even need to use the VPN again – Voice just works once it’s been through the install.

I use a VPN called Lamnia (Aff) to watch UK and US TV On line, so I simply had to switch to a US server and I was in. Lamnia is a paid service, but I think you can find free to use services as well by searching.

Voice will give you all the benefits advertised – one number to give out, voice mail, call screening, call all phones, selective call screening, free SMS service and so on. The only thing you won’t be able to do for now is set it to call your foreign cell phone. But that’s easy to solve as well! Get yourself a US Skype number via Skypein, then forward Voice calls to your Skype number, and finally tell Skype to forward calls to your mobile. Sounds complicated, but once set up, it works perfectly.

I can now give out one telephone number on line (in the US where most of my contacts are) and they can contact me wherever I am, without making an international call.

All I need now is the apartment in San Francisco to go with my telephone number there!

Other, extremely tenuously related stuff:

1/ At Last! Decent accounts software for European bloggers!

2/ How to get the best from being an Amazon affiliate

3/ Why I’m so disappointed in some A List bloggers

Bonnie Landau said:

I’m really enjoying the book! Read through several profiles and wow, so many great ideas! Then I got so excited I flipped to the blueprint section and I’ve been working on our blog every since. I’m strategizing and have all kinds of ideas…

Brain is loving the activity! I’m working towards changing our revenue model, and I believe our blog will be a big part of it. I am excited to go back and read the rest of the book once I get all these ideas down on paper.