Topics
Technology
Articles
How a 3-Legged Stool Is Your Best Technology Model
Most businesses large and small have problems that can be solved through investment in a technology or software solution. Many companies will make the mistake of determining that it's just a matter of getting the best price, install the solution and presto...they are one step closer to profit, right? Well, its not quite that easy...
Associations
CommerceNet
CommerceNet is a not-for-profit business-development organization that focuses on promoting the cause of electronic commerce. It combines elements of research labs, start-up incubator, and public interest initiative to create a unique entrepreneurial R&D organization. Members include leading banks, telecommunications companies, online services, and software companies as well as major end users.
Web: http://www.commerce.net
Customer Relationship Management Association (CRMA)
Customer Relationship Management Association (CRMA), formerly the Sales Automation Association (SAA), is an association whose mission extends beyond sales automation to encompass sales, marketing, and customer service, and includes users, suppliers, training firms, and consulting groups. It offers events and publications to help educate members.
Phone: 770-642-1834
Web: http://www.crmassociation.org
Incentive Technology Council
The Incentive Technology Council (ITC), a branch of the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA), conducts research on online incentive programs and provides information on cutting-edge technology for designing, implementing, and tracking incentive programs.
Phone: 630-369-7780
Web: www.useonlineincentives.org
Masie Center
Masie Center is an international think tank dedicated to exploring the intersection of learning and technology. It provides consulting, training, and materials to major corporations & technology providers around the world, for helping people apply technology to learning. The Masie Center provides a clear-thinking leadership hub for the next generation of learning and technology solutions.
Phone: 518-350-2200
Web: http://www.masie.com
PROMAX
PROMAX is a nonprofit, member-owned association of over 2,000 companies and individuals in 43 countries. Members are promotion and marketing professionals in the electronic media. The association's mission is to advance the role of electronic media in increasing the effectiveness of promotion and marketing within the industry, related industries, and the academic community. Membership includes PROMAXFAX, a weekly promotion and marketing newsletter, which is faxed to members directly and is also available on their Web site. Membership also includes Image Magazine, published once a year, and features members and their ideas about concepts and opportunities on building businesses in the promotion and marketing industries. Lastly, benefits of membership also include a member directory, and discounts on events and videotapes.
Phone: 310-788-7600
Web: http://www.promax.org
Books
Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy
Blur explores the emerging economic landscape where knowledge and imagination are more valubale than physical capital. Authors, Davis and Meyer, challenge readers to question their assumptions they know about business and to experiment at the edges of business.
Stan Davis, Christopher Meyer.
Warner Books.
288pp.
Paperback.
Cost: $11.20
Corporate Instinct: Building a Knowing Enterprise for the 21st Century
Drawing on interviews with 350 companies, this book presents management and technology tools to help manage an organization's shared knowledge. It offers a blueprint for a business which focuses on innovation, not administration.
Thomas M. Koulopoulos, et al.
Wiley.
248pp.
Hardcover.
Cost: $35.00
Customer Connections: New Strategies for Growth
Customer Connections discusses information and knowledge management technologies to connect with customers in a new way. This new model promotes collaboration and playing the right role in supply and demand chain. This book is good for any businessperson.
Robert E. Wayland, Paul M. Cole.
Harvard Business School Press.
267pp.
Hardcover.
Cost: $29.95
Customer Relationship Management Systems: ROI and Results Measurement
Customer Relationship Management Systems is an overview of author, Petersen's, experience in the field of strategic planning and the implementation of automation projects. This book will show you how to identify sources of justification for you project, determine readiness of your organization for the initiative, and much more.
Glen S. Petersen.
Strategic Sales Performance.
161pp.
Paperback.
Desktop Database Marketing
This book shows how database marketing can be used profitably even by small businesses or those with small databases.
Jack Schmid and Alan Weber.
NTC Business Books.
288 pp.
Hardcover.
Cost: $34.97
Direct and Database Marketing
This book explains how databases work and why people do or don't respond.
Graeme McCorkell.
Kogan Page Limited.
315 pp.
Paperback.
Cost: $29.95
Harvard Business Review on Entrepreneurship
This series collects articles from the Harvard Business Review on a specific subject -- in this case entrepreneurship. It focuses on financing and raising capital, as might be expected, but also includes material on writing a business plan and commercializing technology.
Amar Bhide, William A. Sahlman, et al..
Harvard Business School Press.
217.
Paperback.
Cost: $19.95
High Impact Sales Force Automation
High Impact Sales Force Automation will show you how to minimize cost, maximize sales productivity, and enhance customer service in today's competitive climate. With this hands-on guide to implementing the latest computer technology in sales and marketing, this book is perfect for anyone in sales.
Glen S. Petersen.
CRC.
296pp.
Hardcover.
Cost: $74.95
Interactive Marketing: The Future Present
Interactive Marketing discusses practical advice about how to deveop strategies for the new interactive media and how to put those strategies to work in profitable marketing programs. It shows you how to maximize the marketing potential of the new interactive technologies while avoiding the porblems that some marketers have experienced.
Edward Forrest (Editor), Richard Mizerski (Editor).
McGraw-Hill.
390pp.
Hardcover.
Internet World Guide to One-to-One Web Marketing,
Describing the latest tracking and analysis tools, this book tells marketers how to use the Web to develop profitable long-term, one-to-one relationships with their most valued customers.
Cliff Allen, Deborah Kania, and Beth Yaeckel.
John Wiley & Sons.
386pp.
Knowledge Management and Virtual Organizations
This book distills the knowledge of leading experts and the experience of several international companies that have implemented knowledge management programs.This book synthesizes the latest knowledge and practices of these individuals and organizations to push the envelope for business relevance of knowledge management.
Yogesh Malhotra.
Idea Group Publishing.
450pp.
Hardcover.
Cost: $149.95
Knowledge Management Fieldbook
Actually a tactical handbook, this book provides a blueprint for setting up, managing, and exploiting a knowledge management system within an organization.
Wendi R. Bukowitz and Ruth L. Williams.
Financial Times/Prentice Hall.
384pp.
Hardcover.
Cost: $21.45
Make Your Website Work for You: How to Convert Online Content Into Profits
Make Your Website Work for You discusses a practical, easy-to-follow business plan for profiting from the new sales opportunities on the internet. This book explains basic rules for online marketing and how to create content that drives consumers to your site, plus much more.
Jeff Cannon.
McGraw-Hill Companies.
208pp.
Paperback.
Cost: $19.95
Managing Knowledge: Building Blocks for Success
Taking a building-block approach, this book helps managers to understand the complexities of knowledge management and provides guidelines for charting a path forward. Based on many years of research and experience, the ideas presented in Managing Knowledge result from intensive collaboration with major organizations including Daimler-Chrysler, Deutsche Bank, Motorola, Novartis, Roche Diagnostics, Siemens, Hewlett Packard and Xerox.
Gilbert Probst, et al..
John Wiley & Sons.
368pp.
Hardcover.
Cost: $75.00
My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley
Author Ben Casnocha had started two companies by the time he was 19. This is his unique story of what he learned on the way in terms of entrepreneurship, customer feedback, mentors, networking, bootstrapping, and a variety of others things related to starting a business. It's a great case history and offers some valuable insights.
Ben Casnocha.
Jossey-Bass.
208.
Hardcover.
Cost: $24.95
Online Market Research: Cost-Effective Searching of the Internet and Online Databases
This book shows how to perform efficient and cost-effective market research using the Internet and online databases. Learn how to conduct economical research using archives, services, and new retrieval systems, and compare the different databases available on competing networks through this coverage, which will prove essential for any involved in business research.
John F. Lescher.
Addison-Wesley Professional.
288pp.
Paperback.
Cost: $19.95
Sales Automation: Concepts, Justification, Planning, and Implementation
Sales Automation is guide to the implementation of automated technology-based systems for any company selling a product. It shows sales, marketing, and information systems executives how to use technology to increase the effectiveness of their sales and marketing personnel as well as increasing their profits.
Todd C. Scofield, Donald R. Shaw.
Amacom Books.
264pp.
Hardcover.
Sales Force Automation: Using the Latest Technology to Make Your Sales Force More Competitive
Offers practical advice for getting started and using the right system for your company in addition to detailing the specific benefits of automation. Many real-life examples are used to demonstrate the strategies. Shows how sales pros can use computers to gain more selling time, reduce costs, minimize paperwork, assure service continuity, improve presentations, and integrate sales data into corporate information systems.
George W. Colombo.
Mcgraw-Hill.
224.
Hardcover.
Cost: $0.98
Smart Things to Know about Knowledge Management
Basics, experiences, and tips from the knowledge management frontier. The book delivers all that the fast-track executive needs to shine and perform. Features things like inside tips and tricks, good allies to have, and creative answers to difficult questions.
Thomas M. Koulopoulos, et al..
Capstone.
240pp.
Paperback.
Cost: $4.49
StrikingItRich.com: Profiles of 23 Incredibly Successful Websites You've Probably Never Heard Of
StrikingItRich.com explores companies who have been successful but without the publicity. This book includes a guide that will show you guaranteed ways to get visitors to your website, what to expect when building your website, techniques for getting top rankings insearch engines, how to get free links to your website, and much more. This book is good for any entrepreneur of any kind.
Jaclyn Easton, Jeff Bezos.
McGraw-Hill Companies.
251pp.
Hardcover.
The Complete Database Marketer
Hughes walks you through the essentials of building and maintaining an effective database.
Arthur M. Hughes.
McGraw-Hill; 2 edition.
550pp.
Hardcover.
Cost: $38.47
The Complete Guide to Associate & Affiliate Programs on the Net: Turning Clicks Into Cash
The Complete Guide to Associate & Affiliate Programs on the Net introduces readers to 100 partnership programs that will increase your revenue by up to $2,000 each month. This book shows readers how to choose the associate/affiliate program that's right for your site, use web space provided by your ISP or online communitities, make your links productive, steer traffic to your site, and much more.
Daniel Gray.
McGraw-Hill Trade.
227pp.
Paperback.
The e-commerce Question and Answer Book: A Survival Guide for Business Managers
The E-commerce Question and Answer Book: A Survival Guide for Business Managers in a one volume encyclopedia of solution for any online business effort. This book touches on every conceivable e-commerce topic from innovative strategies to the technologies you'll need in order to implement them.
Anita Rosen.
Amacon.
210 pp.
Cost: $12.97
The Young Entrepreneur's Guide to Starting and Running a Business
Steve Mariotti, a former New York City high-school teacher, founded the nonprofit National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship after he discovered that students who launched commercial ventures tended to eventually blossom in numerous areas. In this updated edition of The Young Entrepreneur's Guide to Starting and Running a Business, he lays out the critically relevant basics on everything from recognizing opportunities and researching markets to handling finances and protecting ideas--all organized and written specifically for the younger reader. Brief case studies and inspiring tales of notables who started young, including Russell Simmons of Def Jam, Tom Monaghan of Domino's Pizza, and Steve Perlman of WebTV, offer encouragement. New chapters on technology (explaining, for instance, ways that computers and the Net provide competitive advantages) and philanthropy ("ethical business behavior is not only morally right, it's good for business") bring Mariotti's advice into the 21st century. No single volume can provide all the details necessary to get an idea up and running, but this one contains enough information and stimulation to move practically anyone off the couch and into the beginning stages of entrepreneurship. --Howard Rothman --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Steve Mariotti .
Crown Business.
322 pages .
Hardcover.
Cost: $14.98
Virtual Selling : Going Beyond the Automated Sales Force to Achieve Total Sales Quality
Virtual Selling explores the Sales Force Automation (SFA) and the need to incorporate it within the overall philosophy that supports the sales force by fully informing sales reps to assist them in real selling. The idea of the SFA and Virtual Selling are explained thoroughly makes for a great guide to any salesperson or manager.
Thomas M. Siebel, Michael Malone.
Free Press.
256pp.
Paperback.
Cost: $16.95
Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know
This book examines how knowledge can be nurtured in organizations. Having consulted more than 30 companies involved in KM initiatives, the authors pack their book with information on successful projects and cover issues ranging from corporate culture and employee behavior, to the role of information technology in KM and how to measure a project's success. An excellent resource for managers who want to better harness the experience and wisdom within their organizations.
Thomas H. Davenport, et al..
Project Management Institute.
224pp.
Hardcover.
Cost: $19.77
Events
Customer Self-Service Conference
This conference focuses on educating businesses about how to make stronger connections with their customers via self-service and to take advantage of the newest self-service technology. It's an excellent way to network and learn self-service strategies and solutions from fellow attendees.
Producer: Shared Insights
Venue: Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines
Location: San Diego,
CA,
USA
Phone: 781-995-4740
Website: http://www.sharedinsights.com/events/conferences
DMA Database Marketing Seminar
This one-day Direct Marketing Association (DMA) seminar offers a comprehensive list of the key issues and applications in database marketing. It also addresses opportunity identification and technology enablement. The seminar will enable marketing professionals to interact more effectively with technical professionals by better understanding their role and the issues that need to be addressed. This seminar can be applied to DMA's Certificate in Direct Marketing. Non-member: $1,699, DMA member $1,399.
Producer: DMA
Venue: Various locations
Location: USA
Phone: 212.790.1500
Website: http://www.the-dma.org/seminars/database/
International Consumer Electronics Show (CES)
This conference is a great way to gain knowledge about the latest in consumer electronics technology. In a 2005 survey conducted by Burson-Marsteller it was ranked as one of the top ten most desired speaking opportunities by CEOs. The show also has 2,700 exhibitors which cover the entire consumer electronics market, from digital imaging to wireless technology. Also included are two awards programs, the International CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards and CNET's Best of CES Awards.
Producer: Consumer Electronics Association
Venue: Las Vegas Convention Center
Location: Las Vegas,
NV,
USA
Phone: 703-907-7605
Website: http://www.cesweb.org
National Center for Database Marketing Conference
This biannual event from the National Center for Database Marketing (NCDM) provides tools and techniques for the database marketing industry. There are a large number of educational sessions focused on interpreting and understanding database marketing trends. The conference also includes great networking opportunities. There is a three-day exhibit hall that includes top suppliers.
Producer: National Center for Database Marketing
Venue: Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino
Location: Las Vegas,
NV,
USA
Phone: 800-559-0620
Website: ncdmevents.com
Publications
CIO
This publication provides solutions for corporate information officers (CIOs) on how to leverage information technology for company profit,with sections focusing on the Internet.
Phone: 508-872-0080
Web: www.cio.com
Customer Interaction Solutions
This publication offers information on inbound and outbound telemarketing, call center operation, customer service hiring, training, and service agencies. A section focuses on computer-telephony integration and other call-center technologies.
Phone: 800-243-6002 or 203-852-6800
Web: http://www.tmcnet.com/
Inc.
Inc. magazine bills itself as "the daily resource for entrepreneurs." It offers articles on marketing, financing, business growth, technology, business development, and frequent case studies of successful entrepreneurs. The Inc.com website also offers a variety of other downloadable resources.
Web: www.inc.com
InformationWeek
Information Week provides articles on business and technology to aid strategic decision-making. It includes regular features on information technology, networking and doing business on Internet.
Phone: 847-647-6834
Web: http://www.internetwk.com
KM World
This publication reports on events, marketplace developments, and companies delivering knowledge management solutions.
Phone: 207-236-8524 x325.
Web: http://www.kmworld.com
Researchs
The Future of Small Business Technology
This article summarizes the findings of a report by Intuit and the Institute for the Future about what's on the technological horizon for entrepreneurs. Among them: more sophisticated mobile communications connections and a greater blurring of the virtual and physical worlds in terms of marketing. The author offers some suggestions on how entrepreneurs can take advantage of these trends.
Web Sites
10 Businesses You Can Start in Your Pajamas in 2008
Selling homemade organic beauty products or customized T-shirts is no longer just a weekend hobby for earning some extra pocket change. In the age of e-commerce, a growing number of retailers are capitalizing on the Web to sell their products, and making more than a supplementary income in the process.
10 Killer Texting Tricks
Text messaging isn't just kid's stuff anymore. Use these amazing online tools to turn any SMS-capable phone into a productivity powerhouse.
10 Must-Have Tech Tools for 2008
Everyone has heard about the coolness of the iPhone, but the business uses for Twitter and the Google Optimizer might also be influential in 2008.
10 Tips to Better Podcasting
Are you a good presenter? How’s your speaking voice? If the answer to either is, "Not so hot," then either get media training or get a professional to voice your podcasts with your material..and many more tips.
100 Small Business Audio Podcasts
Sometimes it can be hard to determine which of the many small business podcasts will provide what you need. So much audio, so little time.
So we have taken the guesswork out of it for you. We narrowed it down to 100 informative podcasts for small business owners and entrepreneurs.
11 Internet Myths Debunked
Think creating a website for your biz is too complicated? Avoid the myths and find out the simple truth.
11 Steps to Create a Successful Website
An easy-to-follow roadmap that can be used by anyone to build a successful website, with the resources you need to choose and buy software, do the work yourself or hire a pro, and even understand the technical jargon that so often scares people away from setting up shop in the Web's business boomtown.
11 Steps to Create a Successful Website
Now that you've made the decision to put a shiny new business Web site among the tens of millions of others on the internet, you're no doubt in a hurry to see the face of your company looking back from the screen - slick, professional, inviting, with eye-catching graphics and exciting text that just begs new customers to check you out.
5 Essentials of Website Usability
I'm busy. You're busy. We all know that drill. And if you're like me, you probably have a shortlist of things that annoy the heck out of you when they slow you down.
5 Great Ways to Use Spreadsheets and Stay Organized!
Does just the mention of the word 'spreadsheet' cause your mouth to go dry? Do you immediately think of sums, formulae, and figures?
Well fear not any more -- I'm here to tell you that spreadsheets aren't just for sums!
5 Steps to Better, Faster, Easier Wi-Fi
While wireless networking equipment makers tout the high speeds, the truth is that Wi-Fi is highly vulnerable to interference. What can you do to improve the reliability and maintain consistent performance numbers? Read on.
5 Steps to Marketing Your Website
Now that you have created your website and taken it live, it's time to get the word out. This guide will help you to create a comprehensive, cost-effective marketing plan for your site that is sure to bring in traffic and keep them coming back for more.
5 Steps to Marketing Your Website
While many other guides might start with tactics for building traffic, we will start by discussing your content. After all, why make a herculean effort to drive people to your site if, when they get there, it’s a dud? You’ve got to deliver value and make the most of each visitor. So let's start by analyzing the site you’re driving traffic to in terms of content and code.
5 Top Tips for Managing Your Emails
Technology is a wonderful thing - it allows us to work virtually, from anywhere in the world, and makes our lives easier. However, it can also hinder us, and this is particularly true in the case of emails.
6 Free Ways to Make Money with Your Website
Sure, your company's website brings in business, but it can also become a revenue generator in its own right. Using these free services, you paste a little code into your website and pick up revenue when people stop by. Here are six tools that could pad your profit margins -- or at least subsidize your Web hosting fees.
6 Ways to Maximize Responses to Emails and Increase Profits
There's almost no marketer I know who is doing enough to follow-up on their customers and interested prospects. I think it stems from not wanting to "annoy" their list. Well, let me share with you six of the best follow-up methods I use to consistently pull in more profits.
7 ways to get more blog comments
Small business owners can easily take advantage of this tool now that so many people know what it is and know how to interact, but..you can do a few things to stimulate this interaction and draw more conversation.
8 tips to make your YouTube video go viral
Here are some tips to make video go viral. Creating a video is easy and it is free to post onto YouTube. All you need is a simple $300 digital video camera and a YouTube account.
8 Top Tips for Young Entrepreneurs
Online start-up businesses run by young adults are an increasingly common phenomenon. A commonly overlooked demographic, however, are the real youth - those under 18 years of age. With online businesspeople facing very low barriers to market entry, many tech-savvy kids are getting in on the act and taking advantage of the opportunities that abound.
9 Steps to Better Security
As your business gets more dependent on technology, your computer becomes more targeted by hackers and others constantly on the prowl for vulnerabilities.
A New Tool to Supercharge Your BlackBerry
You're a small business owner. You're constantly on the run. And you're tired of having to reformat existing business reports to view them on your BlackBerry, right?
A Wireless Office in 10 Steps
Do your computers have wireless modems built-in? Most do nowadays. If your computer has a button with that says "wireless," you’re set. If not, you'll have to buy each computer a wireless modem to complete your wireless network.
Accelerate Your Network
Tired of slow connections to the office system from the road or from home? A technique once only available to larger businesses - wide area network (WAN) acceleration - is now being marketed in the small to mid-size business space.
Advertising in Digital Media
As entrepreneurs, we have to either adopt--or adapt to--new methods of advertising to reach potential clients and customers. With so many of them connected to the internet with their mobile phones and/or laptop computers, it's no wonder that digital media advertising (DMA) is the new hot button for any seasoned or newbie entrepreneur.
Alternative Memory for Laptop Users
Road warriors need computer memory to commute between branch offices, meet clients, and telecommute. You've hear about thumb drives, CDs, and floppy disks, but what about solid-state hard drives?
Apple: Box By Box
Apple's profits come from its high-margin hardware, but while those machines all look great, they are not without their shortcomings. Here, Michael Fitzgerald, author of the "Prototype" column for The New York Times, assesses Apple's competitive vulnerabilities.
Automate Your Online Business
These 4 easy steps will save you time, make you money and free you up to run your business from anywhere in the world.
Bank of America Launches 'Bank the Way You Live(TM)' Online Banking Microsite
Bank of America today announced the launch of its new Bank the Way you Live online banking microsite, http://bankofamerica.com/anywhere, where in one place, customers with on-the- go lifestyles can learn how to break free of conventional banking and find the freedom and control to manage their personal finances online or via mobile or smart phone, courtesy of the number one online bank.
Banking 2.0: New Capital Connections For Entrepreneurs
Credit-market carnage makes it all the more important for small businesses to understand the full range of potential sources for capital. A growing alternative to traditional sources: person-to-person lending Web sites.
Beat the Clock
E-mails, faxes, phone calls, oh my. Here's how to get it all done.
Become the Key(word) Master
There's a lot of talk about search engine optimization in marketing and PR circles these days. Many are employing traditional SEO techniques while others are using press releases to draw target audiences to specific websites.
Beginner Tips on Using Facebook for Business
By now you've probably heard of Facebook, right? Taking the time to learn Facebook can help you market your small business. And if you are going to use social networking sites like Facebook it is also important to know the proper etiquette.
Better Blogging Tools
No need to outsource your site monitoring with WordPress. The free blogging center has a built-in stat collector to show your web traffic patterns...and many more tools.
BlackBerry Applications for Business
By adding new applications, such as GPS and location-based services, businesses can now distribute BlackBerrys to staff and locate and dispatch workers, manage work orders, process electronic time sheets, and monitor assets.
Blast From the Past
Everything becomes obsolete eventually. That's why looking back at the past can help you predict the future.
Blog, blog, blog ...could turn into blah, blah, blah
Whether an überblogger or a n00ber-blogger, entrepreneurs know the Web is the next marketplace for Internet window viewers. Still, most business blogs are created as a way to drive current or new clientele to a Web site where more information or answers to questions is provided.
Blogging's a Low-Cost, High Return Marketing Tool
TO its true believers at small businesses, it is a low-cost, high-return tool that can handle marketing and public relations, raise the company profile and build the brand. That tool is blogging, though small businesses with blogs are still a distinct minority.
Bring Your Web Site to FaceBook and FaceBook To Your Web Site
What's nice about social networking sites like FaceBook is that more and more users are using them. What's not so good is that you're not sure how you should develop your own communication strategy.
Do you invest money to build your own web presence or do you spend money and time to reach the "web 2.0" audience. Or do you do both?
Building Your E-mail List
When you first start e-mail marketing, it's normal to have a smaller list. It takes a concerted effort to get in the habit of asking for e-mail addresses. There are people who have been e-mail marketing for years and still aren't taking advantage of all the opportunities they have to grow their list. Here are a few simple ways you can build your list.
Charging pads inching from R&D to reality
Sitting at a table in the Kendall Square Au Bon Pain, Ryan Tseng is describing the kind of future I want to live in. It's a future in which there is no longer a giant tumbleweed of charging cables beneath my desk, and no more business trips where you have to hunt for a Verizon or Apple store to buy a replacement charger for your phone or laptop, since the last one was abandoned in a hotel room two cities ago. In Tseng's future, there will be "charging pads" built into everything, capable of reinvigorating all of our power-hungry portable devices.
Check E-mail and Surf the Web -- at 35,000 Feet
It used to be that stepping onto an airplane meant losing hours of precious e-mail time -- legally mandated offline time. Not anymore. American Airlines and newly-launched Virgin America have both announced plans to offer in-flight broadband access to passengers next year, provided by AirCell, a Louisville, Col.-based airline communications firm.
Coffee House Survival Tip: Watch Out for Free WiFi
While I don't normally get into Internet connection tips on this site, the following topic is so important that all entrepreneurs and small business personnel should be made aware of it.
That is: watch out for so-called "free public WiFi" connections.
Collaboration 101: Why You Need These Tools
Collaboration tools are becoming widely available today as major technology players join start-ups to offer new solutions to connect remote workers in just a few easy steps.
Control Your Emoticons
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, what's an emoticon worth? Something as simple as a :-), :-( or ;-) can be complicated, especially when you're talking about business e-mails.
Controlling Your Computer
Overwhelmed by your inbox? Wondering how to leverage your PowerPoint presentations and create new revenue streams? We'll help you conquer your inbox and increase your prowess with PowerPoint technology to make the most of your time and earn more money to boot.
Crank up your website traffic
We all want to maximize the effectiveness of our websites. In this show, hosts Rich Sloan and Troy Janisch talk about how to do just that. Listen in as they discuss email marketing strategy with John Arnold, author of Email Marketing for Dummies. Learn about what you need to know to get started on email marketing, how to build your distribution list and how to approach important aspects like frequency, content, subject lines - all critical components to increasing open rates.
Cutting the Cord
Weigh all the options when choosing between traditional and online software solutions.
Cyber Espionage: A Growing Threat to Business
Cyber espionage is getting renewed attention as fresh evidence emerges of online break-ins at U.S. research labs and targeted phishing against corporations and government agencies here and abroad.
Data Saver
Your most valuable business asset may also be your most intangible one: data. Everything from customer credit card numbers to employee records to pricing information needs protection.
Database in the Sky
Using a web service as your database can save you lots of time, money and frustration.
Does Your Blog Make Your Business Look Stupid?
Mistakes are inevitable. Yet some mistakes should be avoided at all costs. These mistakes tend to give the impression that your company should not be taken seriously. Here are the top ten mistakes bloggers commit.
Don't Fear the Wiki! Business Can Benefit
Fear is one of the obstacles keeping businesses from realizing productivity gains by using internal wikis. But the business gains -- collaboration, informed employees, sense of community -- may outweigh any risks.
Drooling for a Wide Screen Monitor? New Study Justifies The Benefits
The "Productivity, Screens and Aspect Ratio," study, conducted by the University of Utah and sponsored by NEC, found that employees with larger computer monitors were significantly more productive using 24-inch-or-larger widescreen monitors (1920 by 1200 resolution, or larger) compared to 18-inch displays (1280 by 1024 resolution), according to the research.
Easy Money
Aaron Patzer is taking on Quicken by merging personal finance with Web 2.0. Can he get twentysomethings to be smart with their cash?
Eight practical ways to ensure your business is secure
Modern technology is a gift and a curse. As manufacturers continue to slim down electronic devices, users are taking advantage of their portability: taking their laptops, PDAs and removable storage devices wherever they go. Whether they are answering emails, remotely accessing the office network, booking holidays online or arranging their weekly supermarket delivery, the fact remains that over the past half decade the opportunities offered by mobile working have turned large chunks of ‘downtime’ into so-called ‘uptime’, bringing undisputable increases in productivity for all forward-thinking small businesses.
Entrepreneurial Journalism in the Facebook Age
Every now and then, I meet someone idealistic and perhaps foolish enough to want to embark on a career in journalism. Until recently, my advice was largely the same as anyone had given for many decades: Find a gig where you can write - a small town paper, freelancing for an alternative weekly, a business trade publication (my route). If you're good, the story went, you would find you way to bigger publications and forge a career.
Entrepreneurs: 5 Sure-Fire Business Resolutions for 2008
It's that time of year again when we make resolutions in our personal lives that help guide us into the New Year. Hopefully, for most of us, we'll follow through and achieve all of our resolutions - even if we do fall off the wagon once or twice.
Expanding the 24-Hour Workplace
In 1914, Henry Ford introduced the concept of three eight-hour shifts to achieve round-the-clock assembly in an automobile factory. Today we are witnessing the advent of 24-hour knowledge factories.
Experts Predict Cell Phone Revolution
Top technology executives at the World Economic Forum on Friday said mobile Internet will eventually let advertisers tailor messages based on a user's location.
Facebook to Offer Classified Ads
U.K.-based software development company Fuzzle Media has released its latest application for Facebook, the social networking site that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MFST) recently bought a 1.6 percent stake in for $240 million.
Famous Last Words: It Can't Happen to My Website
As more small businesses flock to the Web, security becomes a bigger issue. It's important to understand what motivates hackers, how to avoid becoming a victim, and how to recover if you've been hacked.
First Came Remote Control for TV, now PC
It was like magic. StartupNation's chief startupologist, Rich Sloan, was sitting there in his home office while someone from thousands of miles away took control of his computer. Within minutes the virus was eradicated from his computer.
Five Essential Online Trends for Small Businesses
Small businesses can capitalize on online marketing and sales trends much like sail ships that are well positioned taking advantage of changes in tides and wind. Here are some current online trends that can be used to your advantage.
Five Ways Small Businesses Can Combat Cyber Crime
As small businesses increasingly rely on new Internet technologies to remain competitive within the local and global marketplace, they are also becoming more susceptible to cyber crime attacks.
Cyber crime can have a devastating impact on a small business, which often lacks the in-house technical expertise and resources to quickly and fully recover from cyber attacks.
Five Ways to Market Using Email
There are many ways to market a home-based business. But one of the simplest ways is to use an every day business tool - email. By using these five easy tips you'll see how easily your business can grow without much effort on your part.
Fix Your Facebook Profile
Many college entrepreneurs have decided that Facebook is important to their business - so it's not surprising that most of them have Facebook accounts.
Fostering ties for venture capitalists
People who sign in to the newest social network won't be looking for dates or posting a list of their favorite movies. They will be searching for companies to invest in and listing their interests in areas like clean energy or enterprise software.
Frankly Speaking: The 8 Hot-Button Issues to Watch in '08
Ready for 2008? Budgets may tighten up, but IT's challenges will just keep growing: security problems, virtualization technology, legal issues, users who can't be stopped and that worrisome baby-boomer brain drain. Here are eight hot-button issues to watch out for in the coming year.
Free business tools for the college entrepreneur
Being a college entrepreneur doesn't mean you can't be like the big professional entrepreneurs out there who got all the tools and technology they need to manage their business. In this day and age, anybody has the right to be computer or technology savvy.
Getting Found in ALL the Google Search Engines
Google, the dominant search engine for business searchers, made a dramatic change to its search results starting in 2007. And that change has the effect of making it harder - and at the same time easier - for small businesses to be found in Google.
Give Your Business and Yourself A Break
There are few entrepreneurs left who have yet to venture online and discover the vast possibilities that exist therein. But are they really grasping the power of the Internet to its fullest potential?
Google Presentations Adds New Features
If you were excited by the September launch of Google Presentations but a bit underwhelmed by the feature set of this online-PowerPoint wannabe, here's good news: Google just unveiled a bunch of new features.
Grow Your Biz--From eBay and Beyond
Setting up shop on eBay, Amazon, ProStores, and other auction and e-commerce sites is a great way to live the entrepreneurial dream. The problem is you're not alone.
Guide to Creating a Facebook Fan Page For Your Business
Last year social networking site Facebook saw an 89% increase in unique visitors to the site, and has seen a demographic shift away from college students and towards post grads. Warrillow touts Facebook as a platform on which small business owners are promoting their businesses and learning about their customers.
Guide to Managing Customer Relationships
Your best source of additional revenue is the customers who are already doing business with you. Learn how to better serve them and you'll spare yourself the trouble and expense of constantly trolling for new prospects.
Hacking the iPhone
Just how vulnerable is your iPhone if someone wants to intercept your email or record your conversations? Pretty vulnerable.
Hate Your Cell Phone No More
What if your wireless plan had no early termination charges, no bizarre overage fees, and no self-aggrandizing claims about coverage? Thanks to new legislation, this could be your carrier -- and every carrier -- by law. Do we need laws to get good service?
Hidden Gems: The 100 .edu sites every Entrepreneur Should Read
Whether you're an ivy-leaguer or a high school dropout, chances are you still have quite a bit to learn from others. Why not learn from the people who do learning best? Check out these .edu blogs and other informative sites for strategies, theory, and concrete resources for building and growing your business.
How Entrepreneurs Can Find Value in Facebook
Entrepreneurs are discovering the value of Facebook applications, third-part mini-programs that can run on the site. Since the platform was first made available in May, its popularity has exploded, with even LinkedIn creating a job search application on Facebook.
How Fast Should Your Network Be?
Speeds for business wide-area networks can range depending upon your provider, your budget, and how big you want your business to be.
How to boost your online presence
Got biz? Having a website's a big advantage - that's true. But it doesn't mean there's no way to do online profile-raising other than that. Do more with your site!
How to Conquer the Web
What are the secrets to success online? Internet consultant Kevin Potts has studied the websites of top Inc. 500 companies. A look at what they're doing right -- and which tactics can help you improve your company's own site.
How To Mine All That Customer Data
The seeming simplicity of a term like "business intelligence" belies the rich potential its implementation can provide to a small or midsize company. Data mining is the backbone of BI--it means sorting through company data and identifying and extracting valuable information about operations.
How to network online
Who says your favorite Myspace / Facebook / Multiply / Bebo accounts are plainly for socializing? With a significant number of small or medium enterprise (SME) owners thronging the net to date, online social networking communities have found a new face as potential marketing tools.
How to Secure Your Web-Enabled Business
Stories about new viruses circulating through e-mail have become common. Reports of hackers stealing a company's data or crashing its Web site are less common, but the danger of it happening is ubiquitous and real. As you prepare to Web-enable your business, it is vital that you take the necessary steps to secure your server and business data.
How to Stop Laptop Theft
If you run a small business, your biggest IT worry is probably not when or whether to upgrade to Vista; it's how to keep your valuable equipment--and the even more precious data it contains--out of the hands of thieves.
How to Use Your Blog to Bore Everyone to Death
Your blog can be a potent killing machine. It can cause an online catastrophe without even trying. You can maximize your blog's body count by following advice from regular blog assassins (like, possibly, us).
How Twitter Made My Website Better
A few weeks ago Chris Brogan published a list of the 100 blog topics that he wished people would cover. One of them was, "How Twitter Improved My Blog," and I accepted the challenge to write something along these lines. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with Twitter, you can read "The Tao of Twitter," "Newbies Guide to Twitter," or "Ode to Twitter.") Here is my answer to Chris's request.
Imminent Domaining
The domain name market is a hot investment opportunity for entrepreneurs.
Improve Workgroup Organization with a Free Online Database
We spend a lot of time talking about online word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation apps, but what about databases? They tend to get the short shrift, though that's probably because they're relatively few in number and not as widely used. Still, for a group of workers looking to share information that's centrally located, nothing beats an online database. Web Worker Daily has the scoop on four free databases from IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Zoho.
In Data Leaks, Culprits Often Are Mom, Pop
As more people use plastic to pay for smaller purchases, countless mom-and-pop shops and restaurateurs are running afoul of rules designed to protect people's personal data.
Is Facebook Really Worth $15 Billion?
Maybe not. Microsoft's $240 million investment in the wildly popular social networking site is turning heads, but some insiders describe the valuation as "ridiculous." An inside look at the deal -- and what it means for the tech industry.
Is it a blog or a web site?
Blog software has a lot going for it in terms of dynamic content creation, ease of use, ease of update, content syndication and built in SEO tools. So why not use it as your entire web site? Great question - and one that more and more small business folks are coming around to.
Is it time to redesign your blog?
Gone are the days when blogging's just for blurting out teenage, marital or personal angst. To date, blogs serve a lot of purpose - sales, advertising, service exposition, money-making, etc. If your blog gets on one of these goals, there can be numerous reasons to redesign. Is it time for you to change your blog design? Read on to find out.
IT for the Pajama Generation
Building an IT environment to support a business environment that allows telecommuting involves standardizing on technology, setting perimeters, and taking steps to bolster security.
IT Talent Wars: Hire and Retain Tech Workers
Staffing consumes a large portion of the IT budget for small and mid-size businesses, but in a competitive market it could cost you more to lose staff and have to replace them.
Keep It Simple
Find your focus: Fine-tune your business with our ideas for simplifying and streamlining your operations.
Kevin Roberts's Chaos Theory
What does it take to manage a brand in a digital world? Kevin Roberts, worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, says it takes vision, guts, and the ability to thrive amidst chaos. Here are four ways to keep your footing.
Life With Laptop
It's your constant travel companion, a source of pain and pleasure. Joe Brancatelli shows you how to make living with your portable computer easier on both of you.
Lights! Camera! Sales!
Online video has become a daily fix for millions of people. Now entrepreneurs are starting to cash in on that obsession.
LinkedIn founder sees gold in connections
Few Internet entrepreneurs practice what they preach as devoutly as LinkedIn Corp. co-founder Reid Hoffman, whose business revolves around his belief that good fortune flows from good relationships.
Hoffman, 40, has put that principle to work by mining his own vast network of Silicon Valley connections to rake in one Internet jackpot after another.
Locking It Down
Cyberthieves are watching. Here's how to keep your data safe and sound.
Make More Money with Your Website
Not every Web-based business is financially self-sufficient. One of the benefits to operating a website, however, is that the platform can generate additional revenue streams for your business.
Make Some Noise
The web has long been hailed as the next great marketing frontier for entrepreneurs. But even with the best Web site, it's tough for little-known companies to attract online visitors.
Marketing Your Home Based Biz
Even if it's the only thing you do to promote your home based business, e-mail marketing will get you repeat business and referrals without breaking the bank.
Maximizing Technology
Spend less for tech that works more with these 6 tech tools that can help you maximize your productivity.
My Top 10 Google Search Shortcut Tips
Using specialized Google searches for SEO and competitive research is a pretty simple, but powerful tool. Many times you can improve your ranking for important search phrases by better understanding the construction of pages that rank well ahead of you.
MySpace to Launch Advertising Service
MySpace, a division of News Corp. (NYSE:NWS), has plans to launch a self-serve advertising service targeted at small and midsize businesses and anyone else looking to reach the MySpace user audience. It expects to release SelfServe by early 2008.
New Business Ideas: Wacky Gizmos
Talk about gadgets, and everybody is after the same things: the latest, the fastest, most powerful, most advanced, etc.
Yet makers of gizmos and gadgets are looking into fresh ways to make geeky consumers get excited about their products. They are increasingly incorporating unusual, wacky and maybe even fun ideas into their gadgets.
Newbie Guide to Google Reader and More
Google Reader is an RSS reader that allows you to subscribe to and read RSS feeds (blogs) in one place. There are lots of ways to do this, but I like the way Google Reader has grown. (really nice iPhone interface on the mobile site too.)
My advice to anyone who wants to be better marketer is to read - lots - Google Reader makes it easy and automatic - a big plus for the time strapped small business marketer.
Nine Tips to Choose The Perfect Search Engine Friendly Domain Name for Your Business
A lot of my clients tell me that it's "impossible" to find a good domain name for their business that isn't already taken. While it's true that a lot of the obvious domain names are spoken for, with a little creativity you can still find a great domain name for your on-line identity that will rank well with the search engines – and help your potential customers find you as well.
Here are my 9 top tips for doing just that.
Norm! Cheers vs. a Drive-By
The secret an effective online presence: Become a regular. Make sure everybody knows your name. Like Norm Peterson.
NOT Your Typical Geek Article About RSS
Entrepreneurs are having all kinds of fun with their RSS feed icons on their websites. Elevating them to the tops of the pages, "above the fold" as they say. Dressing them up. Designing their sites around them, in some cases.
One Person's Networking Is Another’s Spam
Is it ethical to add your online social networking connections to your annual holiday update email, your company's monthly newsletter list, or even just to a list of people you routinely contact? Where are the boundaries?
Online Entrepreneur Networks - Worth Joining?
Entrepreneurs, somewhat similarly, have a range of niche online-networking sites seeking their attention. It's easy to see the need. The life of an entrepreneur can be isolating, and entrepreneurs often seek help from peer mentors.
Online how-to videos rise in popularity
Rather than read this article, why don't you learn something useful? In the time it takes to read this, you could instead watch an online video that shows you how to do something practical in the real world -- like fold a T-shirt in two seconds.
OurSpace: Create an In-House Social Network
Now that companies use social networking to connect with the outside world, more are bringing the same technology in-house. It doesn't have to take a lot of time, effort or money to get started.
Paper: It's Wonderful When You Don't Have Any
I'm always amazed at the amount of paper that businesses still go through in what I thought was supposed to be an increasingly PAPER LESS environment. There are two solutions for a paper-less office.
PayPal as a serious ecommerce tool
PayPal has been around now for quite some time. It's always been a choice for Internet marketers looking for easy ways to get and send money.
Pick and Choose: Social Networking Vendors
Before selecting a platform for an in-house social network, decide what purpose it will serve, who’ll use it, and how large it could grow. Then sift through the multitude of vendors vying for the business.
Pitching Small Business Ideas by Video
I visited Grand Central Terminal in New York last week to check out an unusual display by software vendor Intuit as it tries to get more small businesses to adopt its QuickBooks accounting software, even businesses that aren’t really businesses yet.
Printing 2.0
Started on slick and colorful calling cards for the social networking circuit, Moo has quickly become an international stationery brand.
Put the Web to Work (key move)
Be careful what you joke about -- it may turn into your livelihood. As backpacking guides after college, Robert Wolfe and a friend quipped about how they kept sending all their customers to a single store for their gear, and why can't we get a piece of that action?
And now, 13 years later, Robert's own outdoor-supply retailing operation, Moosejaw Inc., has become a rugged success.
Putting the Kibosh on Internal Spam
The latest source of unwanted e-mail in the workplace is coming from an unlikely corner – inside the business. Here's how to deal with so-called "internal spam."
Ready For the Next Computing Platform? It's Ringing Now.
If you think the iPhone is all about listening to music and taking calls, think again. The device's ability to allow rich web-based business applications to run on your phone has raised the bar and is ushering in the cell phone as the next major computing device.
Real-Time IM Translation
The wired population may be able to zap messages around the planet in an instant, but whether those messages are understood is another matter. Language barriers still exist, and that's where a new service called SpeakLike plans to make its mark.
Recommended Reading: Managing IT for Nontechies
nformation technology is changing so quickly that there's no one source for a small-business owner or manager who needs to make critical IT infrastructure decisions to get up to speed fast, says Therese Flaherty, an instructor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Wharton Small Business Development Center in Philadelphia. "Small-business owners have to keep their eyes open all the time," she says.
Return of 1999? Dot-coms making a comeback
Need proof that another dot-com boom is underway? Consider Jangl, Jaxtr and Jajah. They're not part of a Scrabble game gone horribly wrong; they're names of Silicon Valley-area tech start-ups. And they don't just sound alike. Each offers a similar product - a type of Internet telephone service - and is about a year and a half old.
Rise of the Robots
Robots are well on their way from the pages of science fiction to your front door. In fact, advanced humanoid robots could arrive on your doorstep as early as 10 years from now.
Search Engine Optimization : A Primer
You're ready, you want to get your small business website online and start raking in the traffic. Hold on a second, take a deep breath, and remember that as with most businesses, "If you build it, they will come" may work in the movies, but it doesnt cut it online. No matter how tricked out your site is, youll be lost in the vast ocean of websites out there unless you find a way to put your startup business site in front of your target visitors and send them to it.
If youve done any research into methods of driving traffic to your site, you may have heard the terms SEO or search engine optimization bantered about.
Should your business be on Facebook?
A lot of small business owners are asking themselves if diving into the social networking phenomenon will work for them and, if so, where to begin.
Social Media: Valuable Marketing Tools or Time Waster?
It seems like almost everyday a new social media site joins the throng vying for our attention and time. We hear that Web 2.0 – the interactive way to reach your customers – is the best vehicle for building your brand.
But the time involved to research and understand and experiment can take our eyes of the focus of our business. So is Social Media the new "must have" for small business owners or is it a big time-suck?
Some Essential Hardware (Even Away From the Street)
For almost every lawyer, accountant, Wall Street executive or deal maker, the briefcase and the BlackBerry can be a lifeline to the office, particularly for those on the road for business or commuting from the suburbs. Executives these days can’t go anywhere without the cellphone or the BlackBerry, but there are other gadgets and high-tech devices that are also catching on - some for work, but many for relaxation.
Status: Looking for Work on Facebook
As anyone who has ever received a virtual Jagerbomb or fought off intergalactic cyber chickens knows, social-networking sites are designed to be entertaining. If there wasn't so much fun to be had, there wouldn't be so many articles warning that what you post on your profile - i.e., photos of you in a beer helmet and a tequila bandolier - could one day cost you a job.
Storage that's Scalable: Capacity Grows for Data
For many fast-growing businesses, the storage products you start with often don't have the capacity you need down the road. Here's how to plan for storage capacity that can scale as the volume of data grows.
Storing Information for Profit
Three entrepreneurial firms see opportunity in changing smaller companies' perceptions about computers. Rather than keeping all corporate data, confidential and otherwise, in software programs within the organization, the three firms would hold it online.
Sustainable SEO: What Is It and Why Should You Care?
With all the hype around social media it is easy to overlook the potential of search engines to deliver targeted traffic. Search engines are probably the best source of targeted traffic and, as such, they should not be ignored.
Ten Essential Tools You’ll Need to Launch a Blog
As social media grow in popularity, more small business owners are getting interested in blogging. Once they decide to have a blog the next question is: what tools to use, and how much do they cost?
Ten Things You Didn't Know About Facebook
Jesse Stay is a social media guru. He is the co-author of I'm on Facebook--Now What???: How to Get Personal, Business, and Professional Value from Facebook with Jason Alba. This book helps individuals and business owners better manage their lives through Facebook. I asked him to provide ten Facebook power tips...
Text For Food
Big restaurant chains are rushing into what could be the future of takeout and delivery food: text ordering.
The Apps Small Biz Needs Now
Want to get rich? The company that gives small business owners the tools they need to work smarter and faster will be the next Google.
The Art of the Signup Page
A site's signup page is the second most important page on a site (the most important is the home page itself) because this is where you're asking for committment.
The Bigs of the Blogs
The most popular places in the blogosphere, according to Technorati, as measured by the number of links to those blogs during the past six months.
The Case for Tablet PCs
There is a growing field of tablet PCs – those laptops that let you write during meetings instead of type. Swivel screens now let you show what you wrote to a colleague or customer. Are tablet PCs a good idea for your business?
The Digital Divide
Why is it so hard for marketers to fully embrace the digital revolution? Old habits die hard, says Kevin Roberts, Saatchi & Saatchi's worldwide CEO. And there's foot-dragging in all quarters. But denial is not a winning strategy, and recognizing the impediments to change is the first step in overcoming them.
The Great IT Outsourcing Debate: How to Decide
Even small businesses can benefit from outsourcing some technology functions, whether these involve human resources, finance, accounting, or customer service. But how do you make the call? And which functions do you pick?
The Making of an Entrepreneurial Generation
What better measure of a generation than its approach to entrepreneurship? Generation Y, born between 1977 and 1994, may well be on its way to becoming the most entrepreneurial generation in our nation's history -- and for very good reasons.
The New Human Resource
In the old days, waaaay back in the twentieth century, a clear line separated companies that produced products and services from the customers who bought them.
The New Road Warrior
In the past year, a series of new services for road warriors have hit the market, and they go way beyond email and calendaring. It's now much more possible to live away from your computer and stay fully connected.
The Push to "Pull" in Online Marketing
In the Internet age, businesses no longer need to focus on "pushing" marketing information to potential customers. But they had better know how to make sure that customers can "pull" information about their company from the Web.
The Rise Of The Facebook Economy
Most industries do not begin on a single day, but it's easy to see Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's presentation on May 24, 2007, as the starting gun in an entrepreneurial race that some have dubbed "the Facebook Economy."
The Technology You NEED in 2008 (and the stuff to avoid)
There’s a lot of technology out there today to aide our daily business and personal lives. But is it really necessary to own all of it? What proves useful and what is simply an unnecessary luxury? What technology is worth it’s weight in gold?
The Top 100 Business Blogs
While there are many great business blogs about, they are not always easy to find amongst the legions of make money online blogs. So I've gathered together a list of what I believe are the Top 100 Business Blogs on the Internet.
Think Outside the Box With E-Brochures
If your company has ever printed a brochure, you know the time and cost involved--as well as the potential waste. I've seen many businesses spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a brochure, only to have boxes of them cluttering their closets years later. If this sounds familiar, you'll certainly appreciate the many benefits of e-brochures.
This Job Synchs
A growing business is in for a tough time if a strategic corporate goal is to increase the amount of business it does with each customer by 5% annually, while the information technology department's main objective is to custom-build a human capital management application. Wouldn't a better use of everyone's time be to focus on implementing a customer relationship management system, enhancing call center operations or providing mobile devices to its sales force?
Tightrope: Bad cellphone etiquette can cost you business
In today's workplace, so many people are using cellphones, Blackberrys and other PDAs, and so many of them in such inappropriate ways, that there there is a big market for consultants who can conduct seminars and workshops about the proper use of these wireless gadgets for both entrepreneurs and their customers.
Time to Try Online Backup for Your PCs?
Not only have the prices for online backup for business PCs fallen, but big offline players like EMC and Seagate Technology are also getting into the act. But does online backup really provide security, ease, and reliance?
To Gain Competitive Edge, Companies Turn to Blogs, Video, and Social Networks
A study by the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth's Center for Marketing Research found that 51 percent of Inc. 500 companies are monitoring social media, and they are doing so by various methods, including reading RSS feeds, looking at Web statistics, tracking video downloads, and watching online competitive activity.
Top 10 Search Optimization Tools
Tracking software not only tells the number of visitors, but what search words visitors used to find your site. Find the most common keywords potential customers use and change your website accordingly...and many more tips.
Top Ten Trends in the Digital Space
It is no surprise that the internet marketing industry is becoming more and more competitive every day. Thus it is very important that we, as marketers, stay on top of the trends within the digital space. Below is a recap of Google’s Top Ten trends to follow within today’s digital space.
Tracking Trends for Your Small Business
A surefire way to stay ahead of the competition in your business is to keep abreast of innovations and trends. Entrepreneurs must constantly update, enhance and be on the cutting edge of new ideas and technology that will spark and maintain their business.
U.S Patent and Trademark Office
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is the place to go to apply for a patent or to register trademarks or simply to get information about intellectual property rights issues like patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
Understand Google's Guidelines
Don't be a rank amateur! To get listed fast and not banned, know what the leading search engine does and doesn't look for--and what to avoid.
Use Google Apps to Build Your Business
Google is synonymous with searching the Web, but search isn't the company's sole focus. Google also provides top-notch services that other businesses can use to improve their Web presence, reach new customers, and make boatloads of money.
Video: RSS in Plain English
If you do a lot of reading of news, magazine and blog sites on the Web, chances are you’ve run across the little orange RSS icons. Maybe you even are a pro at using RSS feeds, in which case you can skip this video.
But, if you are still learning how to use RSS feeds, watch this Commoncraft video. It's a little over 3.5 minutes long, but interesting and informative - and apparently popular, too, with over 160,000 downloads to date.
Virtual Assistants Help Entrepreneurs Grow Sales
I've heard it said "do what you love and delegate the rest."
For small business owners, one of the biggest challenges is wearing all the hats. We originally went into business because we had a passion and skill for a certain service or product. However, our skills may not include the operational, marketing or financial end of the business.
VoIP: What Are You Waiting For?
Small and mid-size businesses have been suspicious of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), according to surveys. Here are reasons why the time is right to switch from landline phone service.
VoIP: What Are You Waiting For?
Small and mid-size businesses have been suspicious of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), according to surveys. Here are reasons why the time is right to switch from landline phone service.
Website Design for the BlackBerry Generation
Most small and mid-size businesses haven't realized how terrible their websites look on handheld devices. Much less, have they registered their Web address with a dot-mobi extension?
What Is Behavioral Targeting?
Imagine knowing exactly who’s interested in your product and exactly when they're ready to buy it. That's the ultimate promise of behavioral targeting. By using a highly sophisticated set of software tools and analytics, marketers can tailor Web ads based on consumers' online behaviors - the websites they view, the products they research, and how close they come to making a purchase. Since the ad is generated by a consumer's demonstrated interest, behavioral targeting provides stronger, more promising sales leads, allowing marketers to serve relevant ads anywhere within a network of websites.
Why 'Total Geeks' Build Businesses Faster
A recent survey (free, though registration is required to download it) found that employee issues and managing information technology were the top challenges faced by growth-oriented entrepreneurial companies.
Why You'll Be Watching More and More TV On Your Computer
It's "The End of Television as We Know It," suggests IBM's Institute for Business Value's recent report on entertainment and media. The study reveals that 60% of respondents spend 1-4 hours a day online vs. 66% who watch 1-4 hours of TV, and 81% have watched or want to watch PC video, while 42% have watched or want to watch mobile video. Here are some of the best next generation content creators and providers.
Workhorse Laptops
Your notebook means business in every sense of the word. The problem is, not everyone defines their work style the same way.
Working from Home: Creating your first website
Starting a home-based business is a huge undertaking. Creating an online presence for your business can be equally overwhelming. Where do you begin to learn the basics of creating your first website? It's actually much simpler than you'd think. Listed below are a few tips and tricks to make your first website pain-free.
Wow 'Em Like Steve Jobs
Comparing a Steve Jobs presentation to most presentations is nearly impossible - he's in a league all his own. It would be like comparing a silent movie to Independence Day. Where do you start?
Your Mentor Is Out There -- in Cyberspace
Last spring, Morgan Dalley of Austin, Texas, needed guidance on targeting and marketing her fledgling business hosting spa parties. At a meeting of a local business group, she heard about a Web site, MicroMentor.org, that matches entrepreneurs with volunteer mentors.
Whitepapers
Technology
The proliferation of low-cost technology has effectively leveled the playing field in many industries. You will not need much money to look like a Fortune 500 player, so make sure you don't cut corners in a way that will tip off your small size to people who don't know you.
