How Podcasting is Used

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.

While RSS has had the capacity to include audio files for a few years, only recently have entrepreneurs made the conceptual leap, taking advantage of the new power held within this communication medium. In reality, podcasters cover the gamut; some are professional broadcasters, while others are obvious amateurs.

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10 Rules for Bootstrapping Your Business

Does starting a business with a small amount of money sound too good to be true? No! There are many home based entrepreneurs who have successfully started their own businesses with little money. We’ve interviewed entrepreneurs who bootstrapped their businesses for as low as $500, yet they are now raking in money from their businesses. The lesson? Do things right!

Of course, the ideal scenario is to start a business with enough money to enable you to move more aggressively and expand your business faster. But even if you do not have money, that should not prevent you from starting your own business. If you have great idea and a viable business plan, you can use Other People’s Money (OPM) to start your business. Or if you do not have access to OPM, you better learn how to tighten your belt and bootstrap your fledging business. Remember, while you may not be spending money, you still have to pay with something ­ your time and energy.

Below are 10 rules that you need to follow to successfully launch a business with very little cash:

Read Steve Ma. Reyna's full article

Using Both Catalog and Internet to Boost Sales

Catalogs were supposed to go the way of the dinosaurs with the advent of the Internet, so says the proponents of the hyped-up dot-com boom in the late 90s. The Web was supposed to become the dominant business channel, relegating all others to the dustbin.

Well, not only was this prediction proven to be false, but catalogs are now emerging as a viable strategy to work hand-in-hand with the Internet. In fact, some of the biggest retailers and e-commerce sites nowadays are integrating catalogs into their successful Internet-based retail strategies:

• The Internet's biggest auction site, eBay.com, mailed its first-ever 32-page holiday catalog to its members in November as a way to boost holiday sales in their web site.
• Lands' End, one of the most active catalog mailers, integrates all of its marketing channels so that catalogs drive customers to its Web site.
• BabyStyle.com is offering free shipping and 10% discount to its catalog recipients who orders from their web site.

Why are marketers rediscovering the power of the catalogs? For one, catalogs can be more appealing to the senses given that photography is almost always better (and bigger) and the item description is more detailed. In fact, a recent study of online shoppers by the U.S. Postal Service and comScore found that direct mail working together with the Internet can increase a consumer's spending by 16% or more. The study also found that catalog recipients accounted for 37% of retailers' web site sales. Other interesting findings found by this study include higher levels of engagement from the shopper:

• Consumers are twice as likely to make an online purchase following receipt of a catalog
• They make 15% more transactions than who did not receive catalogs
• More likely to spend "quality time" on the web site
• 75% more likely to enter the secure areas of a retailer's web site

5 Breakthrough Marketing Ideas

Do you ever get frustrated with your marketing? Are you putting in a lot of effort but not getting the results you want? Don't you wish you could just hit a switch and get a better response from your mailings, sales calls and web site?

You hear a lot about breakthroughs; is it all hype, or can you really create a breakthrough in your marketing and sales? I know that you can.

I spent last weekend skiing in Vermont with my spouse, nephew and his finance Sonia. We were all having a great time on the slopes, except Sonia. Sonia doesn't have as much experience as the rest of us and was struggling to keep up. Her problem wasn't one of effort. She was working much harder than the rest of us, fighting each turn and slowing her progress down the hill. In a few minutes, I showed her how to tip her skis to make easy, graceful S shaped turns that took advantage of the new shaped skis. After making a run or two, she was skiing twice as fast with less effort, and having more fun.

You too can experience a breakthrough in your skiing, golf swing or in your marketing. If you are like most business owners, you advertise, send out mailings, make sales calls and have a web site. This is what you do to market your business; the way you do these things will make the difference between success and failure.
What would constitute a breakthrough in your business? Like Sonia, you may be inadvertently working harder than you need to be to get the results you want. With a few changes to your marketing strategy and techniques you could be getting a lot more attention, generating more qualified leads and converting more prospects to clients and having more fun.

Here are five ideas to get your marketing headed for a breakthrough:

Read full article by Charlie Cook

Three Roads to Business Ownership

Congratulations! You decided to leave the corporate rat race to start your own business. After a careful analysis of your skills and know-how, you are convinced that you want to be your own boss and have what it takes to succeed.

But do you know where and what to start? The first thing to remember is that there is no surefire formula for starting a business. What works well for some may not be the best choice for you. In the same token, the enterprise that you can turn into a financial success may not augur well for others.

Your road to business ownership can lead to three directions. You can opt to develop your own concept and start a business from scratch. However, if you find this approach too difficult or tedious, you can either buy a franchise or purchase an existing business. Why reinvent the wheel when you can buy your dream business? The choice is yours.

Here are the pros and cons of each road to business ownership.

Read full article by Steve Ma. Reyna

Getting the Best Customer Response from Direct Mail Marketing

If you are thinking of running a direct mail campaign to promote your business and increase your sales, one study that you may want to look into is Vertis' Customer Focus® 2005: Retail Direct Marketing study. The study offers a number of findings that can help you understand what type of direct mail campaigns can generate action from the recipients of your mailings.

Some of the interesting findings of the study include:

• Interesting packaging is extremely important in getting your direct mail opened. The study found that 63 percent of adults consider the packaging first and foremost. A special offer or discount is also a critical consideration for 51 percent of the respondents.
• Consumers respond best to buy-one-get-one free messages, discounts off a single item, and coupons. Consumer tips and loyalty card offers elicit the lowest response from the recipients.
• Overall, 76 percent of the adults surveyed said they read direct mail advertising, a number that remains high despite consumers' growing time constraints.

You can read the full study at the Vertis web site

The Novelty of Advertising on Foreheads

Andrew Fischer of Omaha, Nebraska made waves (and plenty of publicity) by offering his forehead as an advertising space for 30 days on ebay. His auction, wherein he offered a non-permanent logo or brand name be tattooed on his head for 30 days, attracted 113 bids to close at $30,100!

And of course, with the sweet smell of success, can copycats be far behind?

A cursory check on eBay shows that there are more than two dozens of auctions from people selling their forehead as an advertising space, albeit none of the success of Mr. Fischer. Bids range from $0.99 to $1,275 -- definitely a far cry from Mr. Fischer's ending numbers. Others are now selling their pregnant bellies as an advertising space, while others offer their legs. Some are also starting websites created for the sole purpose of hawking body parts as an advertising space.

This "bandwagon effect" is interesting for like, 2 minutes. Let's see how far it will go.

Low-Cost Promotional Strategies for Home Businesses

Regardless of what type of business you are in, you need to get the word out there that your business exists. As such, you need to develop promotional and marketing strategies for your business. The possibilities for promotions can be as varied as your imagination. However, home-based entrepreneurs with shoestring budgets need to identify the strategies that give the most bang for the buck.

Whether your target market is based on a limited geographical area, or your business reaches worldwide, here are some low-cost promotional strategies that you can develop for your business.

Read full article by Lyve Alexis Pleshette

12 Ways to Evaluate Your Business Ideas and Products

Starting a business is easy. Deciding on what business to engage in is the difficult part. There are literally hundreds of ideas you might think of that could bring in extra income. How do you know which of these business ideas will bring you success?

Most home business entrepreneurs start-up with very little money and a strong belief that success will come to them if they work hard enough and offer a quality product or service. While this positive attitude is essential, it is not enough to guarantee financial success. A lot hinges on your management and marketing skills - and your product or service.

You can either choose a product-oriented or a service-oriented home business. A product-oriented business allows you to either create or manufacture the product yourself, or resell products that are made by others on a direct sales or drop-ship basis. On the other hand, you can opt to engage in a service-oriented business where you perform services at your home (work generally performed at home after sale of service) or perform services from home (some or all work performed away from home after sale of service).

Before you begin to develop your business idea, you need to determine its strength and viability. Below is a checklist of criteria to help in evaluating ideas that is particularly well suited for you and your goals. Ask yourself the following questions when evaluating an idea for a business or product:

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Micro Loans: A Way to Finance Your Business

If you are looking for a little cash to jump-start or expand your business – and rich Auntie Lorie has already closed her doors on you – then you might want to look into a microloan program.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) introduced its Microloan Program in 1992 to provide for startup or growing small businesses. Under the program, qualified borrowers may be approved for loans for use as working capital, inventory purchase, procurement of supply, fixtures, machinery and equipment. The loans are distributed through non-profit community-based lenders or intermediaries, and not at SBA directly.
What’s the catch?

First, the loan amounts are small. Microloan amounts may range from $1,000 to $35,000 (sometimes less, depending on the maximum amount set by the loan intermediary) – just the right amount for less capital-intensive home businesses. The average loan amount is $10,500. Businesses that require extensive capitalization like building or land procurement may find the amounts offered by the Microloan Program too small and limiting. The maximum lending term for a microloan is 6 years.

Second, there are eligibility requirements. If you think Microloan Programs are less strict than a bank, think again. While each intermediary sets their own criteria for loan eligibility, the general requirements include some type of collateral, and the personal guarantee of the business owner. The collateral may include equipment, contracts, inventory or other property.

Read full article by Lyve Alexis Pleshette

10 Ways to Publicize Your Home-Based Business

If you're a member of the pajama set, dutifully plugging away at your job while wearing your raggedy bunny slippers, you're not alone. The number of home-based businesses is growing, partly due to advances in technology, and partly due to a slow-down in the economy. (If no one will hire you, you hire yourself.)

The advantages of a home-based business are obvious: no commute time, you can set your own hours, increased job satisfaction. One disadvantage is that it's hard to achieve visibility in your market. (You don't have a storefront or a marketing department; it's just you and your slippers.)

Following are 10 ways to get the visibility you want for your home-based business:

Read full article by Yvonne Buchanan

Deferring Income for Small Business Owners – Keogh and Alternatives

While the powers that be in Washington debate how the country should deal with the Social Security system and private accounts, small business owners have to make their own decisions about funding retirement. From a tax viewpoint, this is all about deferring tax from the present to the future, and meanwhile compounding your earnings pre-tax.

Tax law permits many kinds of retirement plans, each with its own complications. Negotiating the maze is aided by J. K. LASSER’S YOUR INCOME TAX 2005, which looks at multiple variations.

The classic small business retirement plan since 1962 has been the Keogh plan (named for its Congressional sponsor, Rep. Eugene Keogh of New York City) for the self-employed and partnerships. Keogh plans can be used by self-employed individuals or partnerships with any number of employees to make greater contributions than individual IRA’s permit.

Legal Tip: For tax purposes, “partnership” includes general and limited partnerships, as well as a multi-owner limited liability company (LLC) or limited liability partnership (LLP). LLC’s and LLP’s can also be single-owner enterprises; these are not tax “partnerships” and are taxed on the owner’s individual return. No matter how owned, LLC’s and LLP’s achieve broad limitations on liability under state law without incorporating, and all can use Keogh plans.

Keogh plans come in two basic types:

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When Not to Seek Loan Financing for Your Business

Loans are an important source of start-up funding for small and home-based businesses. However, obtaining loans from banks, government programs and other financial institutions is not always easy. Sometimes, the process feels like going through a needle, more so if you have the following characteristics:

1. You have poor personal credit history. Poor credit could make it difficult or temporarily impossible to achieve your dream of getting bank financing for your startup business. Banks and other lending providers look for good personal credit history when reviewing business loans. In fact, it is one of the first things that a bank looks into when reviewing loan applications.

Alas, a poor credit history cannot be repaired overnight. In the United States, a poor credit history can haunt you for seven years -- and for 10 years in the case of tax liens and Chapter 7 and 11 bankruptcies. If your credit history is less than perfect, it may be worth a shot to include a note in your loan application explaining what you’ve done to rectify some of the black marks in your credit history.

Read full article by Lyve Alexis Pleshette

How To Protect Your Idea or Intellectual Property

If your business is built on a truly original idea, one of the first steps you need to take is to get a legal protection of that idea.

You need to consider the protection of your intellectual property early in the formation of the business. It is heartbreaking to find that the idea you’ve worked so hard to conceptualize and develop is stolen by other people and companies. You end up losing your product, and most importantly, your profits as well! Plus, failure to protect your proprietary information could lead to complex and expensive legal actions later on.

The best course of action is to visit your country’s patent and trademark office. In the U.S., patent grant provides "the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling" the invention in the United States or "importing" the invention into the United States.

Before you can patent an idea or a product, it must meet various tests. First, only the concrete embodiment of an invention or an idea is patentable. You must build a working model and test it in the environment in which it is supposed to work. Second, you must be the first to conceive the idea, and it must be different from what already exists. The idea must not have been described in a printed publication elsewhere.

The process of patenting your invention takes time and money. At present, the average patent application takes about 24.6 months. The patent usually lasts for 20 years for utility and plant patents; and 14 years for design patents.

The costs can range between $1,000 and $100,000, depending on the complexity of your idea. While expensive, you will find that aggressively pursuing patents is an integral long-term strategy that pays off.

Read full article by Steve Ma. Reyna

Checklist for Going Global

The international markets fuel the growth of many small and home-based businesses. When starting your business, you should not limit your potentials by ignoring international realities.

Marketing to a geographic area outside of your hometown will boost your market share and help you keep pace with your competitors. Small businesses throughout the United States and other countries have gained international exposure and increased profits through exporting. In fact, the Small Business Administration (SBA) reports that small businesses represent 96 percent of all exporters of goods.

The advent of the Internet has made the daunting task of going global easier. Today’s home business owners are successfully adding international components to their marketing programs. Two principal strategies are commonly used: establishing a relationship with a business or individual overseas, and developing a Web presence that makes products and services available worldwide.

There are no hard-and-fast rules as to which businesses should export, and which should not. However, making the export decision requires careful assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of expanding into new markets. Here’s a checklist to help you determine whether your business can make it in the international markets or not:

Read full article by George Rodriguez

Thinking of Selling Your Web Site? How to Determine Your Web Site’s Value

Web site owners have a different reason for creating their sites. You may have created your web site with the goal of making it as your sole or additional revenue source. Or you may have altruistic motives whereby you don’t really aim to make big money (or any money, for that matter) out of it, but simply want to get your message across your target audience. Whatever your objective, you put time, energy, even considerable expense in nurturing the web site and seeing its audience or customers grow.

However, for some reasons, there may come a time when you would want to sell your web site. Maybe, it has already served its purpose and you want to move to a different direction. Or possibly, it is only marginally successful and you think spending more time and energy to it is a waste. You may also possibly consider the web site as a short-lived opportunity that you want to dispose quickly.

Whatever the situation, selling your web site will be one of the most important business decisions you will ever make. After making it grow possibly for years, you only got one chance to sell your site. Once you sign on the dotted line and closed the sale, that’s it! No turning back for you, whether you think you sold the web site for a price too low or whether you shouldn’t have sold it at all.

It is therefore important to carefully consider some steps before selling your web site. And one of the main questions you will ask is: how do I set a price tag on the web site? What is the web site’s value?

One important point, though: there are no clear-cut ways and established formula to determine a web site’s value. In fact, making an accurate valuation is a judgment call, where not all parties may agree. Nevertheless, below are two ways commonly used to assess a web site, which you can use in combination of other factors that may be relevant to it:

Read full article by Nach Maravilla

Profit from the New Tax Law Changes

We read and hear about tax changes, some looming, some happening all year long, and there were major changes at the end of this October found in hundreds of pages of a new tax statute. But it’s not always clear: “Does this affect me or not?” As autumn rolls into winter, the drumbeat of worry becomes more insistent – in fact, sometimes a headache.

Some of what’s new in 2004 for individuals:

• Option to deduct state/local sales tax or income tax (this is great for residents of states without income taxes)
• Automobile donations – 2004 is last year to donate used cars before tougher rules kick in for you to prove the value of your claimed deduction
• Computer donations – extension of the enhanced deduction for contributions of qualified computers (and don’t ignore that “qualified” component)
• Civil rights tax relief – Attorneys’ fees and court costs for unlawful discrimination claims can be deducted above-the-line, that is, even if you do not itemize other deductions
• Improvements in child care credit – multiple considerations here: More people will now qualify for the credit based on the definition of “child”; The refundable portion of credit is raised from 10% to 15%;
  The continued maximum credit of $1,000 is continued, not phased down to $750.

For small businesses, a lot is changing:

• SUV “loophole” closed – from Oct. 22, 2004, $25,000 cap on first year write-off of SUV cost (6,000-14,000 pounds), but only until year-end can you get the bonus first year depreciation on top of the $25,000 write-off
• New $5,000 deductions for start-up and organizational expenses of new businesses
• Increased limit on first-year expensing of property placed in service before 2007

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Savvy Advice On Year-End Tax Planning From The Experts At J.K. Lasser

Ben Franklin may have been right that “in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes” – still, you can improve your odds on one with healthful living and you can time your hits on the other with J. K. LASSER’S savvy advice on year-end tax planning

What should I shoot for?

First, figure out whether your tax rate will be higher next year or this year.

• Could be due to income variations – up from a new job, promotion, bonus or investments, or down from unemployment, going back to school, maternity leave, whatever.
  
• Or because of deductions and exemptions going up from the good news of a new house or baby or down from the bad news of medical expenses or storm damage.

Next, even out the taxable income by moving income into, and deductions out of, the low tax year. Or shift income out of, and deductions into, the high tax year.

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Take the Test: Does Your Marketing Copy Sell?

Your marketing materials must grab your prospect's attention long enough to convince them to investigate further. Assuming you get past this hurdle, your piece's message must next convince the reader to call or buy.

To make the copy in your marketing materials pull its weight and then some, take this simple test: pretend you re a potential buyer who knows nothing about your product or service, then answer the following questions:

Read full article of Nancy J. Wagner

Small Businesses and the Power of Strategic Alliances

No man is an island --

While you may be bravely striding down the path of managing and growing your businesses, there may come a time when you need to form strategic alliances for your business.

Given the current state of business today, competitive pressures are forcing companies to come-up with imaginative ways to enhance brand identity, connect with customers and attract top-notch employees. Companies, both big and small, are teaming up more today than ever before to enhance their competitiveness in the marketplace and keep pace with the rapid changes of technological innovation. More than 20,000 corporate alliances have been formed worldwide over the past two years. According to studies by Booz, Allen & Hamilton, the number of alliances in the United States has grown by 25 percent each year since 1987.

A strategic alliance is an arrangement between two companies that combine resources to gain additional business. Strategic alliances are formed when one company alone cannot fill the gap in serving the needs of the marketplace. It involves two companies that pool together expertise and resources to enter new markets, share financial risks and get products and services to market faster.

Some strategic alliances are formal written agreements; others are informal as a handshake. With the Internet, some alliances are entered into after several email exchanges, even without the physical meeting of the parties concerned. Some alliances involve sharing of resources and an exchange of funds; or sharing of traffic between two dot.coms; others are as simple as a cooperative marketing arrangement. Whatever their structure, one goal prevails: strategic alliances are opportunities for small businesses to accomplish things that would otherwise take much more money or staff time.

Small business owners, with their limited resources and marketing reach, could benefit from cooperative arrangements with other organization and business entities. Joining forces with another organization can allow your business to finance certain services or production functions by sharing expertise, assets, expenses, and risk without necessarily incurring cash debt or trading equity. For small businesses, strategic alliances often consist of simple "bartering" with customers, suppliers, and even competitors.

Here are several ways that you can collaborate with another person or company to bring added value, revenue, traffic and/or expertise into your business.

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Small Business Financing: 10 Reasons Why Investors Say "No"

You know you’ve got a strong business idea which you foresee has a huge financial potentials. You believe that there’s a ready market who needs your product or service. From all accounts, you are convinced that your business will be a success, and even become the next big thing! All you need is capital, and investors who are willing to support your vision and convert it to reality.
Yet after looking far and wide for potential investors, all you get are rejection letters. The banks, venture capitalists and angel investors all said “No” to your proposal. You are unable to convince them of the viability of your business. Here you are, with the “perfect” business plan, and yet no one wants to support your idea.

Here are 10 common reasons why investors say “No” to a business proposal:

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How to Legally Save Thousands of Dollars a Year in Taxes by Incorporating

Someone once remarked, "Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is quite so satisfying as an income tax refund." There's no question that saving money in taxes is high on everybody's list of financial priorities, especially self-employed business owners.

However, unlike individuals who work as employees for an employer, business owners actually have the "luxury" of choosing how much in taxes they pay each year by picking one form of business entity (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, etc.) over another. Unfortunately, the majority of business owners choose a business entity once (usually when starting out) then keep the same entity for the life of the business. This isn't necessarily the smart thing to do.

While some companies can get away with sticking with the same form of business throughout the life of the business, countless others are just simply throwing money out the window by overpaying their taxes. For some small business owners, this "financial nonchalance" can actually cost an extra several thousand dollars in unnecessary and avoidable taxes each year.

If you are a business owner concerned about reducing his or her tax liability, here's a way you can dodge the tax bullet by utilizing what's known as a Subchapter S corporation:

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4 Steps to Selling More With Your Web Site

Most web sites are more like stage sets than real buildings; they make a good impression and they look substantial at first, but when you open a door, you end up back stage in the dark. They don't generate large numbers of leads, help build relationships with prospects or generate the desired volume of sales.

• Is your web site helping you get attention for your business?
• Does it prompt prospects to contact you?
• Is it helping you build long-term relationships?
• Does it generate the volume of sales you want?

Building a web site that works should be more like building your dream home than constructing a stage set. You want to build a solid structure to support the growth of your business, not a flashy facade. First, you'd talk with your partner about what kind of house you want and how it fits into your long-term plans. You'd discuss your budget and the location, style and size of the house, as well as the functions of the rooms and the flow between them. When you were in agreement, you'd seek out an architect to help you plan your home.

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How to Increase Your Chances to Get Publicity

Small business owners and home-based business have to be constantly looking for new leads and prospects to increase their chance to survive and grow their business in such hectic times. Here is a checklist of what should be included in a press kit to increase your chances of publicity.

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How to Get an Extension to File Your Business Tax Returns

The tax season is upon with the first filing date for some businesses being March 15, 2005. If you can't imagine getting your tax returns together by that date, you need not worry. The IRS automatically gives you an extension if your file the appropriate form.

To know the different forms for different businesses, read full article.

How Managers Can Help Retain Their Best Employees

According to a landmark labor relations study, the top three things managers thought employees want from their jobs are not what employees said they REALLY want. If your business has employees, learn what they really want in order to retain your best workers by reading the full article.

Project Your Business Financials Based on Reality

First-time entrepreneurs gearing up for the launch of their company have a tendency to overstate the company's revenue forecasts. They even believe the sky's the limit for their new company. However, without cold, hard facts in the form of actual performance, a startup company's revenue forecasts are nothing more than a work of fiction waiting to be proven true.

To increase your chances of getting the financing you need and understand the true potential of your business, read full article.

21 Tips and Tactics to Keep You on The Path of Perseverance

Even beyond passion and planning, perseverance is the critical element that gets the winner to the finish line every time. Changing your life is hard work, so what do you do when your energy is flagging and it seems like there’s a setback at every turn?

To learn 21 tips and tactics to help you go the distance and to persevere toward your big-picture vision, read full article.

New Equipment Financing Program for Small Businesses

Small businesses -- as a collective whole -- is a big business. Companies who ignore small businesses, and focus solely on the big boys, are missing significant revenue opportunities. That's why I am glad to read that IBM has reversed their long-standing policy on focusing on big businesses to extend their equipment financing program for small and medium enterprises.

According to a news report from Reuters, IBM now offers an office equipment financing program that offers SMEs "competitive market rates, a simple rate structure, and a credit approval process that promises, in most cases, contracts are delivered within one hour for deals of up to $300,000. " The financing program is called IBM Financing Advantage, and will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Britain and the United States. It covers both IBM and non-IBM equipment.

For the complete story, visit Reuters

Selling Globally through a B2B Exchange

Participation in B2B Exchanges is increasingly becoming one of the fastest growing marketing methods for businesses looking for augmenting their client base beyond their local markets. Any good B2B Exchange offers direct contact with thousands of prospective buyers in a single location. For some new participants of a B2B Exchange, it appears to be a goldmine as they discover unexpected quantity of readymade clients without much effort from their side. Of course, there are many other great benefits companies can reap from getting involved in a B2B Exchange.

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Additional Revenue Potential with Adsense Referral Program

Web sites currently running (and making good money) from Google's contextual advertising program Adsense would be delighted with the new program that Google has introduced: the Adsense Referral Program. For every referral made -- when a user clicks on a referral program link and signs up to serve Adsense on their site OR participates as an advertiser in the Adwords program -- the referring web site owner would receive $20.

Twenty bucks only? Well, that's why I only said "additional." (sure, there are so many more affiliate programs that offer you bigger commissions). Given the Google brand name and the increasing attraction of pay-per-click advertising on the search engines, many web sites can benefit from the program.

The catch however is that the program is still in beta, meaning that it is open by invitation only. However, interested site owners can already apply on the Google web site to be considered as a participant once the program is opened to the general public.

Visit the Google referral program

Get People to Receive and Open Your Marketing Emails

The deluge of spam has affected the legitimate marketers’ goal of reaching their customers’ email boxes. Email filters are becoming more sophisticated, even to the point of being excessive. The firewalls and email guardians filter out even permission emails --which the customer has signed up for and agreed to receive. Studies in fact show that as much as a third of permission emails that customers have indicated they want to receive are being blocked by email filters and corporate firewalls.

To get some tips to get your marketing emails pass through the filters and have them opened by the customer, read full article

Choosing Your Business Strategy

One of the first decisions you will make as a new small business owner is to determine your business strategy. Your business strategy will spell out your choices of inventory, your approach towards your business, and how you will steer the business. The success or failure of your start-up business will greatly depend on the strategy that you have decided on.


It should be noted, though, that the choice of your business strategy would depend on a number of factors. First, the characteristics of your particular industry will shape your strategy. One strategy may be acceptable (and even prove to be a winner) in one industry while it may not work in another industry. Second, your strategy will depend upon your own organization’s competencies (or if you are a solo entrepreneur, then your own), and how aligned they can be to a particular strategy.

To learn the strategies you can employ for your business, read full article:

Learning from Starbucks: 10 Lessons for Small Businesses

Starbucks, the specialty coffee retailer, is one of the great 21st century American success stories. Considered as one of the most successful and admired companies today, Starbucks has grown from a single store in Seattle 33 years ago to 5,945 outlets in United States and 2,392 more in 28 countries. In fiscal 2003, the company posted revenues of $4.1 billion.

Cup by cup, Starbucks has changed the way people from different continents drink coffee. More remarkably, the company successfully transformed a pedestrian commodity into a high-end accessory. It has created a “Starbucks lifestyle” that more people continue to embrace in the United States and abroad.

From tasty beverages to proprietary whole bean coffee blends to strategic relationships, small businesses have so much to learn from Starbucks. You may not have the resources that Starbucks has in its arsenal, but there are a number of things you can emulate from this company and apply to your own business, albeit on a significantly smaller scale.

More than the taste of its coffee, there are a number of factors that propelled Starbucks’ latte to the forefront. Below are some of the things that you can learn from Starbucks – a company that started small, dreamed big and grew to be a gigantic global corporation:

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