Do you have a 10 seconds marketing speech for your small business?

But too often I walk away and I'm still wondering what it is my new contact does, that is not good.So here is something I think you should do, get a piece of paper - or even better use my comment form below - and create a little 10 - 15 second marketing and PR speech for your small business products and service. Here is what I tell people who ask - and some who don't ask actually:WinWeb provides an on-demand online small business infrastructure, including an OnlineOffice and LiveNet, a social networking community and online marketplace for small business and business startups in the US, Europe and Australia.Every meeting is a opportunity for you and your business, so don not let it pass.

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

Verifying Bill Payments as a Fraud Prevention Technique

A small business with few staff members is ripe for employee fraud. I have seen it over and over again. There may be only a few employees in the office, and one trusted employee is in charge of the books. That often includes preparing checks to pay the bills.

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[Source: AllBusiness.com - The Small Business Blog]

Conflict in the Workplace

Sometimes a lack of conflict can be just as bad as the alternative. It all depends on how you deal with it.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

The Case for Case Studies

Using a third party to illustrate your point can bring you the kind of publicity you want.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Control in a General Partnership

When you're in business with partners, make sure your agreement covers how much control each person has.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Bewitching Businesses

For these entrepreneurs, every day is like Halloween. Ghosts, spirits and other things that go bump in the night help bring in the chills and the business.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Body Language Speaks Louder Than Words

Hire smart by looking past what references say about former employees and finding out what they mean.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Yahoo! Store Owners Get New Features Just In Time For The Holidays

A holiday enhancement is coming for Yahoo! online store owners.

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[Source: AllBusiness.com - The Small Business Blog]

Skype + 3 = 3 Skypephone, but is it for small business?

SkypeOut will not be available anytime soon.Things got a little heated when Mr. van Swaaij, was asked about possible future outages, he said "This was not really an issue since the last outage was only 24 hours in four years and the service was free and not a replacement for a normal telephone!"... The 3 Network will hope that they will not react soon, to give them more time to get a bigger market share, but time will tell.I believe the appeal for endusers - especially the facebook generation - will be huge, free calls to friends and family via Skype has got to be a winner.But more importantly for me - with my focus on small business and Skype's apparent customer support issues - the 3 Skypephone has some growing up to do before I will consider it a small business tool.

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

Less Networking Can Mean More

Cultivating the relationships you have is more effective than planting yourself at more events.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Home Based Small Business the Ultimate Green Gig

As you may remember I was part of the Blog Action Day for our Environment and I keep on finding great little posts about eco-friendly issues relating to small business, including home business - my personal favorite. Tony Clark writes a blog about working from home from his home-nest called "Success from the Nest" and has tips how to save energy in your home based business:"As a home-base entrepreneur, you have the unique opportunity to have a small impact on the environment, all while having a big impact on the world.Just another good reason to give it a go"I think he is right, and remember all the green/eco-friendly benefits of working online for the environment and also for yourself.

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

Marketing for Small Business: Do Pro-Bono work.

I believe it can be better resources or money spend, than doing google ads, it is a good bootstrapping technique - and a win-win situation for you and the sponsored organisation.For example, the College StartUp blog has an article today about "5 ways to get paid for pro bono work", they talk about the marketing benefits you may gain by doing good. Every small business or start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants has something to give, which could make a difference.

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

Ready To Retire Right Now? Find Out If Its Time To Quit The Rat Race

Does your work-life balance "s***"?Well here is a great article I think you should read, and don't forget the comments to this post on the The Digerati Life blog: "I thought Id try retiring at 50, but Im now actually aiming to do it in my forties......... I was happy enough that I didnt want things to change, satisfied as I was with how my job and boss were treating me."You will find a checklist attached to the article, so you can check if you are ready to let go, improve your work-life balance, and have a more full-filling life.This is just what you need to read monday morning when you are in a dead end job - don't you love my blog?

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

Q & A: What protection does a limited liability company offer to small business owners?

Sooner or later you will think about doing a little more business, protecting yourself more, and that will bring you to the question of changing business and trading environment All small business, micro business, sole traders, freelancers and home businesses can be run in the form of limited liability companies.A limited liability company - LLC in the US, Ltd. in the UK - is a legal entity, like a different person, so you, the business owner is not direct liable for any debt. The company is to be conducted by laws governing limited liability companies, and providing you do, your company has "limited" liability.The protection a limited company offers is that when the business fails, and you have to close it down, the company is only liable with it's assets, i.e any positive bank balance, inventory and other assets.What does a limited company not protect you from?

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

Observations on Life

Anja Merret is hosting the "Blog Carnival of Observations on Life" and it seems to me some of the articles in there are really good, so go and have a look and see what takes your fancy. Don't bother clicking on my entry, if you have been reading my blog, you will not have missed this entry.

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

Q & A: Why is it a problem if I do not want to grow my business?

Sometimes it sound like it is important to grow your business, along the lines of if your business does not grow, it is going backward.To tell you the truth most people talk about growing their business to attract fundingThat is total rubbish, if you achieve your objectives, whatever they are, why would you want to grow your business?... ST.Disclaimer: As with any of my readers questions, I do not have all the answers and here on my blog I can only give you some ideas, since I know very little about your small business.

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

Win Money to Start Your Business

Find out more about one of many contests you can enter to possibly fund your startup.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Learn About Customer Focus From Big Business.

So let's do the next best thing, have a look at what big business does.Anna Farmary, on her The Engaging Brand Blog as an article "Focus on Customer Experience Delivers Profit" - being nice to customers and focus on their needs, to you and me. While she laments Amazon for failings, the facts of a study remain:Peer Insight did a 3 year study of 40 Fortune 500 companies - the results show that companies that focused upon customer experience design outperformed the S&P 500 by a 10-1 margin from 2,000 to 2,005.I guess, we do not need a brain surgeon to tell us that a similar trend would be seen for small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants, so be nice to your clients and service them well, go the extra mile and be rewarded with a loyal client and more revenue down the road.Being focused on your clients pays, 10:1 margin, think about that.

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

Using Images to Create Visitor Rapport or "That Little Look..."

Using Images to Build Rapport with Your Visitors ...

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[Source: AllBusiness.com - The Small Business Blog]

Photobucket: Finding the Missing Link

Being #1 is just a drop in the bucket for this popular photo-sharing site.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Small Business Creates Americas Jobs

U.S. Small Business Administration, the Office of Advocacy has just released the latest figures for 2004 on small business activities, and the central statement is:Small Business has added 1.9 Million New Jobs.Other updated profiles show that: In 2006, the nation had an estimated 26.8 million small businesses, of which 6.1 milion were employer firms.Small businesses employed 50.9 percent of the nations non-farm private workforce in 2004.America had 1.1 million Asian-owned firms, 1.2 million Black-owned firms, 1.6 million Hispanic-owned firms, 201,400 Native American-owned firms, and 28,900 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander-owned firms in 2002 (latest data). (Note: cannot be totaled, as business owners chose multiple ethnic and racial categories).Women-owned firms totaled 6.5 million and generated $940.8 billion in revenues in 2002 (latest data).Small businesses are Americas job-creating dynamo, said Dr. Chad Moutray, Chief Economist for the Office of Advocacy.

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

The Week Ender: There Is Hope Yet For Small Business.

While I have been quiet annoyed with the current Labour government and it's failure to understand small and micro business, it is nice to see that some parts of the political establishment, seem to have some sort of idea what small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants need.In the US, the Office of Advocacy at the SBA-Small Business Administration, is listening to the authors of the Small Business Growth: Searching for Stylized Facts - in order to get a better understanding of the right business environment for small business in the US. Hardly surprising, with almost 27 million small businesses in the US, government pays attention - good for them.Even in the UK, some are waking up to the fact that red-tape may be a problem for small business and may prevent entrepreneurs from starting new ventures. In this case Edward Leigh, the chairman of the PCA-Public Accounts Committee said:"It is vitally important that new businesses get the assistance and simplified requirements they need so that, right from the start, they can get their tax affairs in order and are well-placed to continue to comply as their tax affairs become more complicated.

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

Technorati Broken Again!

It is a shame, that Technorati still has not manage to get things sorted out, it is not working again, and I wonder how long they can go on like this, before everyone just walks away? I emailed them a few days ago about missing links - no reply!They have been missing links for weeks and month!Today my blog is not being updated at all, even after manual ping requests!The service level is bad, and the support level not much better - technorati what is going on?

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

The Small Business Blog Makes The Top 100 Business Blogs

John Crickett compiled a "The Top 100 Business Blogs" list and I'm delighted to see, I made it to position 70 - he says:"......... The blogs are listed in order of their Technorati rankings (T), their Alexa rankings (A) are show as well.

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

What a Jerk

Remember, the idea isn't to change the jerk's behavior but to manage it the best you can.

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[Source: AllBusiness.com - The Small Business Blog]

An A-Mazing Moneymaker

Family-friendly ag-tourism attractions like corn mazes are helping keep small farms alive.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Q & A: What is Staff Turnover and how large or small would it be for Small Business?

Here it would be desirable to have a large turnover, of cause.In both cases it is true to say, it does not matter what kind of small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants, you run. It may be more related to things like: Market segment;Management environment;Staff experience, to name but a few.You can always speak with some other small business owners or get some market segment data from information agencies, maybe they can give you a better idea of where you should be with numbers, comparing yourself to your peers is always a good idea.I like the question, it makes for some interesting planning exercises for bootstrappers.

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

Copyright Violation - Err Piracy Lands this Jailbird

An Illinois man was sentenced to two years in prison for violating copyright law through the unauthorized sale of video games on his Web site, the U.S. Department of Justice announced late Thursday.

Hall pleaded guilty May 8 to one count of criminal copyright infringement for his unlawful distribution of hundreds of thousands of copyright works on his Web site, Morbidbackups.net.

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

How do you get ideas for blog posts and RSS feed posts?

The best blogs and feeds are those that contain unique, fresh, compelling, content. So where do these prolific posters get their ideas? I talked to a handful of bloggers to determine where their inspiration originated for their content.

Not surprisingly, ideas for blog posts or RSS feed items originate or are influenced by other web content. The following are venues for finding your online muse:

How do you get ideas for blog posts and RSS feed posts?

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Web Logos

In need of a new logo? This website contains a variety of logos at very reasonable prices. Check out Logo Search!

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Online Libel Protection Grows

Websites that publish inflammatory information written by other parties cannot be sued for libel, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The ruling in favour of free online expression was a victory for a San Diego woman who was sued by two doctors for posting an allegedly libellous e-mail on two websites.

Complete Article

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Small Business Grants

About.com has compiled agencies by state that may give you a government grant loan. This site has a wealth of information for funding your business wherever you are located. http://usgovinfo.about.com

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Finance Companies Embrace RSS Feeds

Financial institutions are reaching out to clients using RSS feeds. While banks and financial institutions are usually slow to adopt new technology, that is not the case with RSS adoption. More and more professionals are using RSS in innovative ways, to stay ahead of their competition.

Finance Companies Embrace RSS Feeds

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Audio Recording Software

Great new audio recording software. With RecordForAll, podcasters have the ability to record new audio files from scratch, or edit and enhance existing audio files.

Podcasts have evolved into a popular means for individuals and companies to expand their reach and improve communications by creating portable on-demand broadcasts.

RecordForAll was designed from the ground up, with ease of use in mind. RecordForAll has an intuitive look, and built in tutorials to walk users through the process of recording and editing their first audio file.

One click audio recording easily records voices, music and other sounds. RecordForAll has reduced the learning curve, making audio recording easy even for beginners. RecordForAll allows podcasters to layer, synchronize and transition multiple audio tracks. Podcasters can now easily create transitional effects between show segments or insert advertisements into their podcasts. Existing audio files can also be imported into RecordForAll for editing. RecordForAll even has built-in filtering that helps eliminate extraneous background noises and distortions.

Simply put, RecordForAll is an all-in-one recording studio that assists users in recording, editing and mixing their podcasts, resulting in a professional podcast, even for beginners.

RecordForAll can be used in conjunction with FeedForAll, an easy to use RSS feed creation software, to publish all kinds of podcasts, including podcasts that are compatible with the iTunes Music Store.

Download a trial version of RecordForAll.

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Business Logos

A unique new web logo directory has launched. The Logo Search directory, found at http://www.logo-search.com , is designed for businesses struggling to establish an online presence, a brand, or an identity. Logo Search uses a unique new model that allows companies or individuals to purchase a subscription for 1 year for only $99.00. With the full subscription, subscribers have unlimited access to all the logos in the directory or single logos can be purchased for a fixed fee of $19.95.

There are currently more than 1500 logo images in more than 45 categories, available on Logo Search, and new logo images are added on a regular basis. Subscribers are granted access to download zip files containing the selected logo in a variety of formats including (.bmp, .gif, .png, .jpg and .tif).

Search features are available for individuals who do not have the time to browse the categories. The keyword search retrieves all the logos related to the searched topic, and each graphic provides alternative keyword searches that are related to the original search term. This allows webmasters to preview all related logos prior to making a decision.
Logo Search is a perfect solution for webmasters struggling to create a brand and identity for a new website or business.

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Microsoft and Yahoo Take a Step to Protect Piracy

Hopping on the privacy-protection bandwagon, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. are limiting how long their Internet search engines retain potentially sensitive data about their users.

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

How to 'Invent' Your Book

Take your blank page to national bookshelves.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Trademarks and Copyrights

Copyright is a type of intellectual property. A copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted by the government for a limited time to protect the particular form, way or manner in which an idea or information is expressed. Copyright is the legal protection given to artists or producers of creative work which protects them against unauthorized copying of their work.

All copyrighted material must be produced in a tangible medium (photo, paper, CD, or video). Concepts, processes and ideas can not be copy protected in the United States. If a statement is made yet not recorded or published it is not protected under the US copyright laws. In other words things must be recorded in a physical form in order to be protected under the copyright laws in the United States.

Trademarks and Copyrights

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Tips to Press Coverage

Press exposure can significantly impact a small businesses success. Press releases are not just for big businesses; many small businesses find press releases to be an inexpensive way to gain exposure and attention. It is not uncommon for reporters from magazines, newspapers or blogs to scan press releases as a means to locate content.

Tips to  Press Coverage

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Google Adwords - All the Answers

The Competitive Edge Newsletter really does a great job digging into the issue of Google Adwords. Shareware Promotions invited Adword users to send in their questions then two Adwords qualified specialists responded with their answers.

Google Adwords Questions and Answers

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Masters of Invention

We rounded up the world's most prolific inventors alivethree of them have more patents than Thomas Edisonand asked them the big question: Where do the big ideas come from?

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Protect Your Reputation

ReputationDefender.com searches the Internet for information that has been posted about customers. Working with you they identify inaccurate information and work to have it removed.

I would encourage everyone to use ego searches and monitor online chatter regardless of whether you wish to act on it you should know what is being said.

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

A Niche to Grow

Expand your business by targeting qualified niche markets.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

RSS Does Not Equal Blogs

RSS Does Not Equal Blogs
Many assume that RSS is only for syndicating the contents of blogs, nothing could be further from the truth. Blogs and online journals have rocketed to popularity in the last few years, and many bloggers use RSS as a means to distribute and syndicate their blog posts. Subscribers receive information each time the blog is updated. However this is NOT the only use for RSS. RSS can deliver any kind of content, including forum posts, discount coupons, newsletters or press releases. Blogs are just one type of information syndicated by RSS feeds.

RSS Does Not Equal Blogs

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Thinking Outside the Bottle

Beer entrepreneurs quench the thirst of increasingly savvy consumers.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Filter RSS Feeds

Use a PHP script to filter RSS feeds.

RSSFilter is a PHP script that filters the contents of an RSS feed. The filters can be defined by the publisher so that the resulting RSS feed contains only the information they want. RSSFilter uses rules to filter the items that are included from a feed in the resulting feed.

RSSFilter is designed to be able to be used in conjunction with other RSS Scripts to provide additional RSS solutions. For example RSSFilter can be used with RSSmesh, so that mulitple feeds can be filtered and then merged into a single RSS feed.



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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

The Luxury of Flexible Ownership

Partial ownership has moved beyond yachts and ski chalets. Find out how businesses are capitalizing on this trend sweeping the middle class.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Buy Google Ads on AOL

AOL on Monday launched a program that lets companies use Google's advertising system to buy ads targeted to AOL sites. The program stems from AOL's 2005 agreement with Google, in which the search leader expanded its partnership with AOL and agreed to invest in the company. It's the first time Google is offering the ability to target search ads on specific sites.

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Podcasting Quiz

How much do you know about podcasting? Take the podcast quiz and test your knowledge.

Pocasting Quiz

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Technology and Politics

Americans have always had a say in their government, at least in theory. Since the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, the United States of America has been the land of opportunity, where even a lowly log-splitter, exercising sufficient brains and dedication, can raise himself to the highest executive office. The U.S. Constitution safeguards the right to vote for every citizen over eighteen years of age, with few exceptions, ensuring a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Nevertheless, only about half of eligible voters historically vote for their president. Those who do make it to the polls are more educated than unschooled, more white than black, more men than women, more wealthy than poor, and more old than young.

Technology and Politics

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Top 10 Small Business Resources

The following are the Top 10 Small Business Resources:

1. Small Business Administration (SBA)
Free services to US small businesses funded by the US government.

2. SCORE
Small Business Plan Preparation And Free Business Advice Services From Score Offering Startup Help And A Free Nonprofit Business Plan Consulting Advice And Startup Help Services Ask SCORE Find SCORE

3. Inc. Com
Small business resources for the entrepreneur, home based business, advice and ideas for starting a business, writing a business plan, management, and related small business information.

4. Small Business Software
Articles for small businesses, business letter samples and business tips.

5. Entrepeneur.com
Articles, advice and resources

6. AllBusiness
AllBusiness.com provides practical advice and resources to help small and medium-size businesses succeed.

7. Business Week
Advice and resources.

8. Business.gov (US Centric)
Business.gov guides you through the maze of government rules and regulations and provides access to services and resources to help you start, grow, and succeed in business.

9. Women Owned Businesses
WomanOwned was formed in 1998, and since then we have provided the information, tools, networking opportunities and advice that have helped hundreds of thousands of women.

10. Business Know How
Small business and home business ideas and resources from Business Know-How. Small business marketing, management, internet marketing, business loan and finance information.

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Common Search Misspellings from Yahoo

Everyone has certain words they struggle to spell correctly. When it comes to spelling, we are not perfectyou can count on us to occasionally botch recieve (sic), accomodations (sic), and relavant (sic). With the Scripps National Spelling Bee on the horizon Yahoo posted the most commonly misspelled words in search.

Wallmart (Wal-Mart)
Rachel Ray (Rachael Ray)
Amtrack (Amtrak)
Hillary Duff (Hilary Duff)
Katherine McPhee (Katharine McPhee)
Britany Spears (Britney Spears)
Geneology (Genealogy)
Jaime Pressley (Jaime Pressly)
Volkswagon (Volkswagen)
Wikepedia (Wikipedia)
William Sonoma (Williams-Sonoma)
Tatoo (Tattoo)
Travelosity (Travelocity)
Elliot Yamin (Elliott Yamin)
Kiera Knightley (Keira Knightley)
Kelly Pickler (Kellie Pickler)
Brittney Spears (Britney Spears)
Avril Lavinge (Avril Lavigne)
Rianna (Rihanna)
Jordan Sparks (Jordin Sparks)

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

How to Locate Podsafe Music

Fortunately the popularity of podcasting has spawned an industry of "podsafe" music. All podcasters need is an Internet connection, and they can have access to a variety of songs and musical clips that are deemed podsafe and available for use in podcasts.

How to Locate Podsafe Music

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

The Google Bubble Doomed to Burst?

Could copyright infringements lead to the demise of the media giant?

Google Inc.'s video service faces at least one copyright infringement lawsuit, the company confirmed on Friday, and the Web search leader faces a separate subpoena tied to the service.

Investors are concerned that Google could be financially liable for videos appearing on sites it runs, while the company has said it did not face financial recriminations if it acts quickly to take down copyrighted material once alerted to it.

complete article


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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Software Industry Conference

The Software Industry Conference is a three day event, July 12-14, 2007, that culminates with the Shareware Industry Awards ceremony. There are also dozens of informative, educational breakout sessions covering a wide variety of topics. And if that is not enough there's three nights jam packed with plenty of time to mingle with other attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors including an Exhibit Night featuring the best software development products and services.


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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Have Some Fun in 2006

Take the super hero quiz and find out who you most resemble! I'm happy to report I am Wonder Woman - "You are a beautiful princess with great strength of character". Enjoy!

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Answers.com buys FAQFarm for 2 Million

Capturing user generated content has not been lost on Answers.com owners. They recently purchased the FAQFarm which is a collective topical wiki.

Answers Corp., the creators of search engine Answers.com, marked its first foray into the popular area of user-generated content by acquiring wiki-based community site FAQ Farm for $2 million. FAQ Farm, founded in 2002, has 280,000 questions and answers written and updated by its 100,000 registered users.

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Software Industry Conference Overview

This overview will not be as detailed as in the past but I did want to touch on a few conference highlights. The conference had a high percentage of new attendees.

FastSpring
FastSpring is a new ecommerce service run by Dan Engel (developer of Piccassa, and Morpheus), Ken White (former RegSoft owner and current owner of NextUp) and Ryan Dewell (former coder at RegNow).

Digital River
Digital River changed their name to Global Direct. They also launched a software marketing resource for software developers and marketers at DR Developer Resource. The site contains lots of "how to" articles and some great statistical information.

Tucows
Tucows launched a new website, that uses Ajax and is more interactive. No longer do customers have to select a file mirror, the website does it for them.

Globell
HC Topp Systems was renamed Globell and they launched a new website.

Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann has just broken into software ecommerce and could potentially challenge Digital River with their size.

W3i
W3i  is a content network with a huge subscriber base, they are looking for software. They suggest action based on the users past behavior, similar to Amazon.

TrialPay
TrialPay is obviously thriving, after their introduction last year they already have a competitor on the block, LiftMedia uses a similar model.

47 Hats
Bob Walsh has launched 47 Hats.

SIC will be in Boston in 2008 July 17-19th mark your calenders!

Software Industry Conference Photos

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Unique Selling Proposition

Often businesses define themselves with what is called a unique selling proposition. Many businesses market their unique selling proposition to illustrate the advantages of their product or services. When trying to establish a unique selling proposition, it is crucial to find ways to differentiate and distinguish your business from your competitors, place emphasis on the positive differences between others in the marketplace.

If you can not differentiate your company based on what you sell, try to capitalize on how you sell or support your products or services. A unique selling proposition defines why customers should buy from one business rather than a competitor.

Unique Selling Proposition

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

New Software Developer and Marketer Resource

Digital River, Global Direct has just launched a resource for software developers. The DR Developer Resource contains how to articles for software marketers and developers as well as some very interesting statistical information about software sales.

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Fill In the Blanks to Generate Feed Autodiscovery Code

Increase the number of RSS subscribers by adding autodiscovery code to your website. NotePage has made a free online tool that automates the creation of the auto-discovery code for RSS feeds.

The free auto-discovery tool automatically creates the code necessary for the auto-discovery of RSS feeds on a website. Simply enter the title, and the URL of the RSS feed and a code will then be generated based on the information entered. The code can then be entered in the "header" section of an HTML web page, to assist RSS readers in automatically detecting the presence of an RSS feed for that website.

Many RSS Readers can automatically discover that an RSS feed is available for a specific website and notify the website visitor if the auto-discovery code is in place. Browsers and aggregators including FireFox, Safari and IE 7 are just a few applications that will take advantage of the presence of RSS auto-discovery code.

The RSS auto discovery tool can be accessed by clicking the following url http://www.feedforall.com/autodiscovery.htm


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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Google Faces Yet Another Trademark Lawsuit

American Airlines is suing Google Inc. over the Internet companies sale of keywords ads for rivals triggered by its own trademarks. American filed a lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth seeking unspecified damages.

A Google visitor who enters certain words or phrases that American trademarked for example, Aadvantage, the name of its frequent-flier program will get links to American's Web site but also its rivals under sponsored links targeted ads that appear alongside the regular search results.

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Blogging Etiquette

Citizen journalists and writers have become common place on the web. Perhaps you are considering blogging, but are unsure of how to enter the world of online journaling. As the medium has grown, I thought it might be a good idea to put together some general guidelines for new bloggers and reminders to veteran bloggers about blogging practices.

Blog Etiquette

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Software Growth

Software market will double between 2003 and 2010.The market for large enterprise software is set to grow at up to nine per cent a year until 2010, but the software support service will suffer a slump in growth, according to market research company Ovum.

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

One-Hit Wonders

From gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches to mac and cheese, these specialty spots have found their niche by focusing on one simple item.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

All You Need to Know About SEO in 2006

The year 2006 has been full of news about Google and the way it ranks web sites. Alexa has put together a 2006 guide to search engine optimization in 2006.

All You Need to Know about SEO in 2006


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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Get Off Those Annoying Mailing Lists!

Web Worker Daily has a piece on getting yourself off those annoying mailing lists, he uses a company called ProQuo.com, which is still in Beta and it is free, so definitely something for the regular bootstrapper. This could be a very good service to subscribe too, not sure if it is only for the US or can be used world-wide?

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

Business Plan for Pandemics

Gartner Inc. is recommending that businesses complete planning by the second quarter of next year for an influenza pandemic and in particular stock up on supplies that would be needed by data center workers.

Among the suggestions offered today by a Gartner analyst at the research firm's data center conference here: Store 42 gallons of water per data center worker -- enough for a six-week quarantine -- and don't forget food, medical care, cooking facilities, sanitation issues and electricity.

Complete Prep Guide

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Politics and the Internet

Can, and will, the next generation of politicians exploit the communication mediums available to them? Will the new communication mediums have the power to influence public opinion? Will politicians be the victims of technology, or will they use it to their benefit? Will one party benefit from the use of the technology more than another? All reasonable questions, considering the role technology plays in todays society.

The Internet and Politics

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

TIME Magazine Looks at New Inventions

TIME Magazine has bestowed YouTube with the honor of being the best invention for 2006.

The best transportation invention uses Hydrogen to run.

Check out all the best inventions.

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Understanding the Ins and Outs of Digg

Digg is a popular user drive social network. ProNet Advertising wrote up a nice Beginners Guide to Digg.

If you have ever felt like you had to dig around the Internet for good content, you might want to look at something called Digg (digg.com). Digg is a site that will help you avoid the process of digging and instead, get exactly what others have dug up so you can see some of the great sites/stories/things out there on the Internet. Many people reading this might already know what Digg is all about so if you fall into this category, quit reading now and go elsewhere or you might feel this is a bit basic. If you haven't heard of Digg, read further and you can not only understand one of the more successful sites on the web these days but also get an idea of how you can leverage it for your business. Digg epitomizes the value of collective intelligence and community on the Internet in a way that not only brings value to its users, but also to businesses that are savvy enough to take advantage.

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Blog Action Day For Our Environment Was A Big Success

On October 15th I posted three posts for Blog Action Day For Our Environment and I was in very good company, the statistics are impressive: 20,603 blogs participated23,327 posts where published14,631,038 RSS readers aloneThe reach of the postings is likely a multiple of the 14 Million readers via RSS, since most will have been read on the blog sites. My contributions for that day where: Blog Action Day For Our Environment: WinWeb PledgeThe World Without USSlow Progress With Eco-Friendliness in Our Daily LivesNext year there will be another Blog Action Day, so why not get involved?

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[Source: THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG]

A Look at Slogans

When considering a slogan or a tagline, keep in mind your objectives. What image do you wish to portray? Slogans should be short, but not to the point of being pithy. Slogans should conjure positive images and distinguish the value your company or product provides.

A Look at Slogans

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

Travel Accessories for the iPod and iPhone

These add-ons for Apple gadgets, for the plane, car, and hotel room are cool--but are they worth the money?

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Content Rich Website

Content rich means different things for different individuals, because what one person finds useful, another may not. Content rich is all about providing information that is considered valuable to your target audience. Information that visitors might find useful could consist of product or industry facts, statistics, reviews, tutorials, or educational information related to a specific industry.

Content Rich Websites

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]

The 16 Greatest Moments in Web History

From a blog about a stained blue dress to the day Larry met Sergey, these are the pivotal moments that made the Web what it is today.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Latest Articles]

Spy On Your Competitors

The old adage, "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer", is applicable not only to personal relationships but business relationships as well. While I'm not suggesting that you befriend your competitors, it is important that you are cognizant of your competitors' business ventures and methods.

Spy On Your Competitors

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[Source: A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.]