03/31/2005
A key element of controlling cash is to forecast cash flows and requirements. This entails forecasting and tabulating all significant cash inflows relating to sales, new loans, interest received etc. and then analyzing in detail the timing of expected payments relating to suppliers, wages, other expenses, capital expenditure, loan repayments, dividends, tax, interest payments etc.

The difference between the cash in- and out-flows within a given period indicates the net cash flow. When this net cash flow is added to or subtracted from opening bank balances, any likely short-term bank funding requirements can be ascertained.
Complete Article

03/30/2005
Want to try marketing via email, but are unsure about how to go about it? A new resource unveiled by the Small Business Administration (SBA) might be able to help.
Co-sponsored by Constant Contact, a self-described "do it yourself" email marketing service, this new email marketing resource is available through the SBA's Online Small Business Training Network now at http://sba.email-marketing-101.com/. The site includes "Email Markeitng 101, a free on-demand Web seminar series that provides small businesses with email marketing education, easy-to-follow instructions, and advice.

03/29/2005
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication as it is commonly known, is a technology that gives webmasters the ability to easily distribute and publish syndicated content on the Internet. It seems like all Internet businesses now have RSS feeds available; at least your competitors do. You have finally made the decision that you have to have one. Where do you start?

Steps to Creating an RSS feed

03/28/2005
The debate is on with the privacy fanatics on the left and the smart marketers on the right. Amazon tracks the purchasing and browsing habits of their customers, some feel this is an invasion of privacy rights while still others feel that this is simply a form of intelligent targeted marketing.

Amazon.com Knows and Predicts Shopping Habits

03/25/2005
Danny Sullivan just has a knack for saying things the right way!

"Sooner or later, virtually everyone who practices search engine optimization learns the most important "secret" to creating high ranking web pages. Often, after spending hours struggling with the arcana of tuning meta tags, balancing keyword density or spending hours in futile attempts at securing reciprocal links, most people finally see the light. The "secret" to high ranking web pages is almost frustratingly simple: Create good content."

Complete Article

03/24/2005
RSS is a form of eXtensible Markup Language or XML. Viewing an RSS feed in a web browser generally produces code that is not easy for website visitors to decipher. As a result, webmasters use tools to display the content contained in an RSS feed.

Content contained in RSS feeds can be added to websites a number of different ways. Each method for displaying the RSS feed has pros and cons associated with it. Webmasters will need to determine which option will best meet their hosting and technology needs.

Displaying RSS Complete Article

03/23/2005
There is a great article on Axandra that tackles the age old question of how long it takes to get listed in Google. The article explains Google Sandbox and ways to expedite listings.

03/22/2005
Prompted by an incident in which personal information was fraudulently obtained from data broker ChoicePoint Inc., Congress is likely to enact legislation to limit the sale of Social Security numbers, a key lawmaker said last week. But the CEOs of ChoicePoint and information broker LexisNexis Group's U.S. Corporate and Federal Government Markets cautioned the lawmakers not to ban all sales of Social Security numbers.

03/18/2005
The article is interesting, I don't agree 100% with the sentiment expressed but its a view worth considering.

"Greg Boser manipulates search engines for a living, and there's little the Googles of the world can do about it."

"Boser, who owns and operates WebGuerrilla, a web marketing outfit based in Valencia, California, is not alone. An entire industry of search engine optimizers, called SEOs, has sprung up, many of which take advantage of loopholes in the way rankings are calculated."

The best line is at the very end of the article -

"Finally, there is "search spam," which are machine-generated pages designed to appear in the engines to attract traffic (and ultimately increase revenue)."

But Boser defines search spam another way: "It's any site that ranks above mine."

complete article - Search Engine Manipulation

03/17/2005
Yahoo! Users Can Now Create and Share Blogs; Share Photos from the Web or a Mobile Device; Recommend Favorites and More .

Yahoo!, the No. 1 Internet brand and the most trafficked Internet destination worldwide, today announced Yahoo! 360, an innovative new service that allows people to easily share what matters most to them and keep connected with the people they know -- all in one convenient place. Available March 29 through an invitation-only beta, Yahoo! 360 will provide users with an integrated experience, seamlessly bringing together popular communications, content and community services such as Yahoo! Messenger(R), Yahoo! Photos, Yahoo! Local, LAUNCHcast Music and Yahoo! Groups with new services like web logs (blogs), mobile blogging (moblogging) and other sharing tools for recommending favorite movies, restaurants, music and more. The company plans to add additional features and functionality throughout the beta period.

"Consumers are looking for a new type of service that takes the best of first generation social networking services and successfully integrates it with communications, self-publishing and community tools," said Dan Rosensweig, chief operating officer of Yahoo!. "Yahoo! 360 will offer consumers an innovative and engaging way for people to share their lives, leverage their community and get the most out of their online experience."

The Yahoo! 360 beta is designed to give consumers the control to share what they want, with whom they want, in the way that they want, thanks to unprecedented privacy and sharing controls. Yahoo! 360 will also be the first service to offer a convenient "My Friends" page that gives consumers a full perspective on the latest postings and new content from the people they know. Consumers will also be able to view their friends' blogs on My Yahoo!, with Yahoo!'s Mobile Internet service or through any RSS reader.

03/16/2005
In some ways RSS is very similar to HTML, the language commonly used to create websites. Just as with HTML, webmasters using traditional search engine optimization tactics when creating an RSS feed will find that their RSS feed receives additional exposure and interest.
Complete Article - SEO for RSS

03/14/2005
Very cool tool to automatically convert links to hyper-links. Insert article or text that include an url and the converter automatically converts the links to live hyper links.

Additional Details

03/14/2005
Yahoo has revamped the information resources section of its small business site, increasing the section's content tenfold, redesigning the layout, and adding search functionality, according to a Yahoo executive.

The resource center will feature about 1000 articles on topics such as legal issues, starting a business, sales and marketing, e-commerce, and finances. The content comes from Yahoo and from a variety of partners, such as Inc. magazine, Entrepreneur.com, and Nolo.
Read More

03/11/2005
Businesspeople don't necessarily follow flawed strategies because they're greedy, arrogant or careless. Our brains are wired in ways that tend to prevent us from following tried-and-true strategic principles.

That's the view of Charles Roxburgh, a London director of consulting firm McKinsey & Co. who cites behavioral economics studies that show decision-makers commit similar mistakes in ways that suggest irrational behavior is innate.

Complete Article

03/10/2005
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a new way to broadcast corporate news and structured information. RSS offers a quick, easy corporate communication channel. The RSS contents are published as a feed and the feed's content keep customers, partners and journalists abreast of corporate news and information. The RSS feeds are read using a tool referred to as a news aggregator, or an RSS reader. The aggregator periodically checks to see if the RSS feed has been updated. As the feed is updated, new information will automatically appear in the RSS reader.

While RSS was at one point only considered to be a means to deliver news headlines, RSS has quickly become a powerful medium to disseminate all kinds of information. As traditional marketers are attempting to rein in content delivery, measuring e-mail open rates, click-throughs and conversions, Internet users are fighting to gain control over the content they receive. Savvy marketers and business owners are using RSS as a way to improve corporate communication and increase their external exposure and brand appeal.

Additional Details - Innovative Business Use of RSS as a Technology

03/08/2005
The U.S. Commerce Department has ordered companies that administer internet addresses to stop allowing customers to register .us domain names anonymously using proxy services.

The move does not affect owners of .com and .net domains. But it means website owners with .us domains will no longer be able to shield their name and contact information from public eyes.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center said the move violates First Amendment rights to anonymous free speech. And the representative of one of the largest domain-registration companies is concerned that customers who have been victims of stalkers won't be able to protect their privacy without changing their web address to a domain that offers anonymity.

03/07/2005
Google Inc. late on Sunday made its desktop search widely available as it takes on rivals Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. in the race to help users find e-mail and files stored on computer hard drives.

Google in October was the first major search company to roll out a test version of its desktop search offering.

Google Desktop Search locates e-mail, AOL chat sessions and previously viewed Web pages. It also searches various file types, from PDFs and Microsoft Word files to audio, video and photo files.

Office workers and other computer users previously had few effective tools for finding documents and e-mail buried on their personal computers. Search companies and others have jumped in to fill that void with the hope of replicating the success Web search has enjoyed.

03/07/2005
If you've been wondering what John Kerry has been doing since he lost the presidential race against President George W. Bush, look no further. The Massachusetts senator has called for a full audit of the federal government's Small Business Administration (SBA) for fiscal 2003 in an effort to ensure the SBA is protecting small businesses. A December 2004 report from the SBA Office of Advocacy found that more than $2 billion in federal contracts that were designated for small businesses in fiscal 2002, many of which were IT-focused, were, in fact, awarded to large and midsize companies. Kerry called for the SBA to investigate 44 firms.

03/02/2005
Its official today is Yahoo's birthday. As a search engine and directory it certainly has evolved. One thing that can not be argued is that Yahoo has staying power.

03/01/2005
Internet users who use four-word searches are more likely to purchase goods or services or receive items of value than those using fewer words.

Keep this in mind when selecting search phrases for pay-per-click search engines.

Complete Article

03/01/2005
Although podcasting is new, it is well on its way to becoming a mainstream communication medium. Podcasting, simply put, is audio files that are delivered via RSS. Many people believe that podcasting is solely for the distribution of music files, but really, nothing could be further from the truth. This emerging method of audio file distribution has opened an array of marketing and communication opportunities to businesses. Currently, most who are familiar with podcasting are technically savvy, but it is clear that podcasting will be more than a passing fad as many businesses are adopting podcasting and employing it in unusual yet powerful ways. Podcasting can be used for talk shows, tutorials, music demos, educational training, stories, comedy clips, debates or even foreign language tutorials.
Complete Article - Podcasting is Not Just for Music