04/28/2008
Avoiding Googles sandbox can be a challenge for even the most experienced webmasters. Considering the volume of traffic and number of searches conducted each day in the search giant, appearing in the top search results for critical keywords and phrases can make or break an online business. Take care to avoid Googles sandbox, so your business can benefit from Googles traffic.

How to Avoid Googles Filters

04/24/2008
Sponsoring events is an interesting advertising opportunity for small businesses struggling to get attention. Inc recently did a piece that highlights the benefits small businesses encounter from sponsoring events. read Blessed Events

Sponsorship opportunities cover the gamut, everything from Golf Fund Raisers or Software Conferences.

04/21/2008
Choosing a domain is one of the first steps in establishing an online presence. Changing a domain after-the-fact can be time consuming, and can be harmful to search engine ranking, so it is best to get it right the first time around. Follow these simple steps to select a domain name that will represent your online brand...

Choose a Domain

04/15/2008
This is an interesting article entitled There is No Such Thing as Free Software:

Software is always acquired at some cost, even if you don’t pay a penny to the people that write it. In fact, for most downloadable software available to a general audience, the license fee is only a small part of the price you pay for using the software.

First, there’s the time you spend getting the product to run and learning how to use it.

Here is another one When Something Is Free:

There is value to free just be sure that you know what it is. Next time something is offered for free, evaluate the quid pro quo and determine what you are giving in return, because very little is ever really free.

04/14/2008
Who wants to make money from AdSense? Or a better question: who does not want to make money from AdSense?

Value Ad - Made for AdSense Websites

04/08/2008
Blogs are now a dime a dozen, and bloggers need to make their blog posts stand out. Developing a blog following is not as easy as it once was. Learn how to write blog posts that attract readers and retain their attention. Follow these guidelines to cultivate readers...

Blog Posts that Get Attention

04/05/2008
Google Scholar is a new beta search tool from Google that provides a search of scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles.

04/04/2008
Performing and perfecting search engine results can save web surfers lots of time and energy. Understanding the nuances of searching allows researchers to immediately drill down and locate the information they are seeking, without having to wade through a myriad of irrelevant search results in the process. The increasing complexity of search engines has made understanding search engines a necessity for those who spend any amount of time online. The following search tips are standards that will work in most of the major search engines.

How To Find What You Are Looking For?
As the popularity of the Internet grows, more and more results are returned for even the most obscure search phrases. In order to save time, web surfers need to increase their search relevancy. It is advisable to use multiple search terms to produce better search results. Searchers should use specific words and phrases to find what they are are looking for, while filtering out irrelevant and unwanted results.

Performing Better Web Searches

04/03/2008
Representatives from the major search engines have all made it clear that they prefer search engines that contain unique content. Webmasters who want to avoid any current or future bans will do well to follow these simple guidelines in order to avoid duplicate content penalties:

Avoid Duplicate Content Penalties

04/02/2008
Shareware Promotions has posted a very important and revealing post about Google and how they want to use Google Analytics data and Adwords!  Anyone with half a brain should have seen this coming.

In fact I wrote a piece about this awhile back, here is an excerpt:

Google Analytics is free, no one can beat the price, but what is the real cost? The cost is your data. While not terribly important when analyzed alone, when aggregated with other information Google has access to, it could be damaging. Data mining has made the collection of data meaningful. It has become easier to find patterns and trends in large volumes of data.

While any of that information independent of other data, might be non-threatening or irrelevant to someone doing analysis, when combined with other data Google has access to, it can paint a very clear picture of how, not only individual companies are performing, but the aggregate data could possibly paint a picture of how entire business sectors or industries are performing.

If you are using Analytics consider yourself warned yet again!

Full Shareware Promotions Blog Post
Full Article Google As Big Brother

04/01/2008
Here are a selection of sample business letters (ie. letter templates) that cover a variety of issues.

03/26/2008
Google has introduced tools for translating blocks of text in Web pages into multiple languages.

The language application programming interface can also identify a particular language before translation. The API makes use of the Web 2.0 technology Ajax and covers 13 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The API also supports 29 translation pairs.

complete article

03/25/2008
Creating a marketing and business plan for a small business can at times seem like an overwhelming task for a new business owner. Yet, it need not be. A business plan is simply a formal statement that contains a set of business goals; and a marketing plan outlines the necessary actions which the business needs to take in order to achieve its marketing objectives.

How is Your Business Different?

03/24/2008
What defines a good podcast? Make no mistake -- there is a difference between a good podcast and a not-so-good podcast. A high-caliber podcast is much more than just decent content. The sound quality, and the way a podcast is recorded, will impact the value of the podcast as well. Podcast structure and pre-planning are also important; do not skimp on the production, as it too can make or break a podcast.

10 Podcasting Tips