05/31/2005
You're not alone if the thought of running your own business has crossed your mind. Even if your vision of a small business differs from your neighbor's, you probably dream of being your own boss and of providing a needed service or creating a cool new product.

But your very first small-business decision may be to admit that you're not ready for this career - at least not yet. If you're straddling the fence, Small Business For Dummies will uncover whether this career works for you. You'll also gain insight into getting your personal finances in order before exposing yourself to the risk of a new business, and discover how to draw a roadmap to reach your career destination. This easy-to-understand guide is also for those who want to

Write a gang-buster business plan
Create the right legal framework for your business
Locate financing that suits your needs
Develop and market your product
Hire the right employees for the right jobs
Build your business

You’ll also gain understanding of the tactical side of running a small business, from pricing, budgeting, business expansion, and complying with government regulations.


more on Small Business for Dummies

05/30/2005
Wikis generally allow web pages to be written, edited and created collectively in a web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and simple text. Most Wikis are open, and allow any user the ability to edit the contents of a Wiki web page. While some say this opens the concept to abuse, Wiki moderators and self-policing in the Wiki sector appear to be taking hold. Wiki supporters generally feel that it is generally easier to correct mistakes than create the content from scratch. Wikipedia is a standing symbol of what many would consider a succesful Wiki.

Complete Article - What is Wiki

05/30/2005
For small businesses interested in targeting specific regions this resource may prove invaluable:

NationMaster.com, a massive central data source and a handy way to graphically compare nations. NationMaster is a vast compilation of data from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank, World Resources Institute, UNESCO, UNICEF and OECD. Using the form above, you can generate maps and graphs on all kinds of statistics with ease.

05/25/2005
The Small Business Wiki is a community project of smallbusiness.com

The Small Business Wiki is a wiki-model encyclopedia of community-generated knowledge regarding all aspects of starting and running a business. This is knowledge from the grassroots and they invite participation.

05/24/2005
At ClickZ, it's about the marketing: reaching the right audience, delivering the right message, and achieving desired results. But interactive marketers, more than their traditional peers, can often attribute their successes and failings to technology.

Whether you're involved in media planning, Web site analytics, e-mail marketing, or search engine marketing (SEM) management, technology helps you to do your job better and more efficiently. That's why we ask for your input as we evaluate marketing tools -- along with campaigns, networks, even blogs -- for the third annual ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards.

Nominate Companies

05/23/2005
There is an excellent article about small business security on the small business pipeline that all businesses should read:

By the time small businesses start worrying about security, it's too late. We ignore risk until threatened by an attack or natural disaster. If we're lucky, the threat passes us by, and we fall back into denial. If we're unlucky, disaster hits, and it puts us out of business.
Denial about security is self-defeating because the cost of loss is devastating. That's especially true of small businesses, where profit margins are often razor-thin.

I've had personal experience working in, and near, companies that learned those lessons the hard way. The lucky companies only lost information of financial value. In one instance, a security breach resulted in seven dead.

Read small business security

05/16/2005
Highly targeted, focused sites that are related to specific market segments are highly advantageous and can often be created using existing web content. The key is to provide value.

Think of the time spent surfing the web gathering resources and information. By creating a topic-centric resource compiling information, webmasters are providing a service or value. In many cases that value is simply the compilation of topic-specific information in a single resource. The compilation of this information in itself is the value.

Developing Content Sites

05/16/2005
Marketing Sherpa points out 12 regional business marketing awards.

Details on 12 regional US BMA marketing awards, including entry deadlines, fees, categories, and a local contact for you if you have questions.

If you're a business-to-business marketer, adding a Business Marketing Association to your resume looks mighty fine. We've contacted the BMA divisions throughout the US to find out which host awards and get entry details for you.

Complete Article - 12 Business Awards

05/12/2005
What is Google Content Blocker?
Google's mission is to organize the world's advertising for maximum exposure to Web users. Unfortunately, annoying Web content often overwhelms the page, causing many users to become distracted and overlook the ads.

That's where Google Content Blocker comes in. It effectively blocks all Web site content, leaving only the advertisements.

How does Google Content Blocker work?
After you install Google Content Block, just surf the Web as you normally do. When we find a site that has content, we will block that content so you see only the ads. It all happens automatically, with no effort on your part.

See Google Content Blocker

05/11/2005
New free resource to distribute press releases. Press Release Spider is described as a Press Release Search Engine with thousands of press releases. Companies are encouraged to submit their press releases for free.

05/09/2005
The web has evolved into a complex "organism" which, to some, appears to have a life of its own. As the Internet has evolved, so too have online marketers and publishers. The dot-com balloon is said to have burst but savvy publishers have grabbed the coat tails of the Google search monster and employ Google AdSense on content-rich websites. Google AdSense, a pioneer for providing content-sensitive advertisements, has been a boon to webmasters looking for alternatives to amortize their web trafffic.

Google AdSense Progression

05/05/2005
The voting for the SIAF People's Choice Awards has begun. You may encourage your users and website visitors to vote for your applications. Graphics to use on your web page can be found here:

http://www.sic.org/peopleschoiceimages.asp
and the link to associate with it is:
http://www.siafvoiting.com/pca/?ID-SIAF

Voting will end at 12 Noon MDT on Tuesday May 31st. Winners will be announced at the Shareware Industry Awards Banquet.

05/05/2005
The Web Marketing Association is pleased to announce the international call for entries for its 9th annual WebAward Competition.
It's time to be recognized for your outstanding Web development work by winning a 2005 WebAward. Beside the respect, recognition and admiration of your peers, WebAward winners create a marketing opportunity for the site that is recognized and the firm that created it.

Over 90 Industry Categories will be Judged Including: Advertising, B2B, Design, Entertainment, Marketing, Media, Small Business and Much More.

A complete list of past winners and the entry form for companies who wish to compete for 2005 honors can be found at http://www.webaward.org/

Judging for the WebAwards will take place in July and August, and winners will be announced in September 2005. Judges will consist of a select group of Internet professionals.

The fee for each entry in the WebAward Competition is $175, except for sites entered in the non-profit category, which has been reduced to $75. Entry fees are used to minimize the entry of low quality web sites and help cover the costs of the competition.

05/04/2005
Shareware Promotions recently posted a link to langreiter.com which compares keyword listings on Google to those on Yahoo. Creating a grid of how sites rank. The domain is visible by mousing over the dots that are connected by the lines. Surprisingly most sites I've found are # 1 in both engines, while the rest of the links tend to criss-cross.

Give it a try by typing a phrase in the "compare'em" box.

05/03/2005
The American Small Business League welcomed a recent set of changes in Federal small business contracting procedures as long overdue, but warned that significant problems remain.

The ASBL – the only national organization defending the interests of small businesses in the Federal government’s $60-plus billion small business contracting program – has advocated for these and other changes since 2002. The Small Business Act of 1953 directs that at least 23 percent of federal government prime contracts go to small business. But a host of abuses and loopholes allow large companies to get many of these contracts. The Defense Department alone awarded more than $47 billion in “small business” contracts to huge corporations between 1998 and 2003, according to a 2004 report by the Center for Public Integrity.

The new changes attempt to close one of the many loopholes that allow this to happen. On April 22, the Small Business Administration and several Federal agencies announced they have revamped the small business designation process in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database. Federal agencies rely on the CCR database to determine whether a contractor qualifies as a small business.

05/02/2005
The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well, according to a new survey of attitudes toward starting a new business.

Seventy-two per cent of people surveyed by Yahoo Small Business and Harris Interactive said they have considered starting their own business.

And 75 per cent said the growth of the Internet had made it easier to launch one.

Moreover, money is not the prime motivating factor for this decision, according to the poll of 2,290 adults in early April.

Twenty-eight per cent said they aspired to be an entrepreneur in order to do work they love or to integrate a passionate hobby into a career pursuit.