Social networking is growing huge — and it is only going to get bigger. In fact, according to Nielsen/Netratings , the darling of the social networking genre, MySpace, is the fastest growing Web brand in the US. Traffic of MySpace grew from 16.2 million unique visitors in July 2005 to 46 million in July 2006. Looking at those numbers, you can’t help but think – is there a way to bring a slice of that huge pie to your site? How can you tap MySpace to further your business and bring traffic to your site? My first impression with social

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We are in the midst of revamping the PowerHomeBiz.com forum, with all its contents removed and new posts not allowed. As we are rethinking of what to do with the forum, here are some of my learnings in how to get your forum noticed based on our, um, less-than-stellar performance: 1. Start with content. Think of your audience and what they want to talk about. Then make sure you have those categories. Start with the most pressing issues, then expand as your forum grows. 2. Make sure that your forum does not look “dead”. Make your forum appear that there’s

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In an issue of Business 2.0 a few months ago about what types of businesses venture capitalists are looking to fund, Roger Lee of Battery Ventures answered that he is willing to provide $6 million to those who will develop an auction site that would facilitate product placements for movies. Product placements in movies have become a big thing for big companies — e.g. Ray-Ban’s sales tripled with the release of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith’s Men in Black; James Bond’s Die Another Day featured products from various companies such as Samsonite luggage, Omega watches, a Phillips heart rate

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I just responded to an email sent by a visitor asking about government grants and whether he can get one to start his business. This is a common question that I suppose is on a lot of people’s minds. Even on Yahoo Answers where I am the #1 in the Business and Finance category, this is my bread-and-butter question (or where I get most of my best answers) as there are a lot of people asking this question day in and day out. The Small Business Administration even included the question of whether there are grants for starting or expanding

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I’ve met some people who are perplexed why some businesses give their products or services for free — and how they make money. In fact, your products for free has been one of the best business models, particularly on the Internet. With PowerHomeBiz.com, for example, we give away the information for free. But we earn from the ads we post on the articles. Advertising is one of the most common ways information websites such as ours earn from giving away the store for free, so to speak. This strategy has been used to a great advantage by companies who actually

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Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you had a great holidays. Online shopping is such a wonderful innovation for me that I am absolutely hooked to it. In fact, I did almost all of my Christmas shopping online. In doing so, I noticed some little things that some retailers may overlook, but could help online sellers build customer confidence and improve bottomlines: 1. Be consistent in naming your products. Keep the names of your products consistent in your webpages and invoices. For example, if the product’s name on your website is “Golden Pearls”, don’t call it “Yellow Pearls” in your

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It’s almost end of the year. Now is the time to make your last-ditch effort to maximize your tax deductions for next year. Here are some things you can do: – If you are self-employed with no employees other than your spouse, you can open a Self Employed 401K. The main benefit of the self employment 401K is that generally, you can deduct the entire amount of your plan contributions from your taxable income each year. You can read more of how you can take advantage of the tax benefits of this retirement savings tool from the article Self-Employed 401K:

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As the year comes to a close, I’m sure you are now strategizing how to improve your website’s performance next year. At the top of the list typically is how to improve your search engine rankings (both organic and performance of your paid listings). A good start is to read MarketingSherpa’s Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007. While the 200+ page report is pricey, you can read a 19-page excerpt of the study which has some nuggets of wisdom in terms of keyword trends, using press release wire services, and even eyetracking heatmap.

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If starting a business is part of your plans for next year, you need to be sure that you are ready for entrepreneurship and all the ups and downs that goes with it. There are a million and one things that can happen — from hitting on a winning business idea to finding a dud; or from earning a million in a year or finding yourself in the unemployment line asking for doleouts. Ask yourself the following questions to see if you are ready for all the challenges of starting a business: In the event the business fails, am I

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