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

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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

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I often talk to people who have lost faith in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firms because of bad experiences. Either they saw no results, felt that they were tricked into subscribing to a service that could not work, or that they wasted money on a firm that did them no good. Although I agree that there are bad SEO firms out there, I know that there are also many good ones. It’s your job to make sure you find an SEO firm that will work for you. Search engines are the basis of Internet existence and survival. Recent studies have

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Freelance writer Mark Henricks says that self-employment can allow you you to do what you love and love what you can do in his book Not Just a Living: The Complete Guide to Creating a Business that Gives You a Life. Henricks asserts that not everyone starts a business for the money. In fact, more people are turning to entrepreneurship to support the lifestyle that they have always dreamed of. He calls this under-reported but growing phenomenon “lifestyle entrepreneurship.” Studies support his assertion. According to the market research company Warrillow and Co., as many as 90 percent of the roughly

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In the next few years, the world will see dramatic transformations in how people consume and buy. These changes will be brought about by gradual aging of the population. The imminent retirement of the “baby boom” generation, combined with longer life expectancies, will place extraordinary pressures on the economic resources necessary to sustain the rising standard of living that most people have come to expect. This demographic change has become more significant at the start of the new millennium than at any time since the end of World War II. The world population is aging, which means that the average

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Your business is only as good as the number of people who knows about it. For your venture to grow, you need to start spreading the word about your business. You may have the best products your field, but you cannot expect your business to breach the million-dollar mark in sales if only the people in your street know about it. Some entrepreneurs start doing promotions only when their businesses are up and running, while some market their business even before the products or services are fully launched. There are two ways to get your business noticed: through paid advertising

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Leslie Ann Martin of Cleveland, Ohio was enjoying a successful career as an investment analyst in a bank. When she got married and had a baby, she planned to return to work following a short maternity leave. She hadn’t prepared for a 360-degrees turn-around of her life. “Suddenly, nobody is good enough, trustworthy enough and caring enough to take care of my child,” Leslie Ann said. She decided to quit her job to personally care for her baby. To generate additional income for their growing family, she started a financial consulting business from her home. “It was the best decision

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Starting a website, and starting one that is primed for success are two different things. Anyone can start a web site, but not everyone can succeed. The process of web site creation entails a number of decision points that need to be made, with each one impacting on the eventual outcome of the online business. To create a successful web site, it is important that every single step is done with the conscious thought of achieving your goals. Nach Maravilla and Steve Ma. Reyna in the article “7 Steps to Successful Web Site Development” prepared a complete methodology for developing

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A new search engine service goes beyond what the big three of search — Google, Yahoo and MSN — has so far failed to do: provide answers right there on the screen. Search engines currently provide only a set of links, ranked by a particular combination of algorithms, to web sites that may (or may not have) the information to what you are searching for. Answers.com, a new service launched by the Israeli company GuruNet, provide direct answers to search queries. It eliminates the process of clicking from one search result site to another, as the answer to your question

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Small businesses have different technology needs from big businesses. While they operate their businesses on a much smaller scale than the big boys, small businesses also need power, reliability, premium features and good price from their technology products. Thankfully, technology vendors are responding to meet those needs. To find out what technology products small businesses use and trust, the Small Business Computing Excellence in Technology Awards has awarded vendors considered by small businesses as the best in various technology categories. Given by SmallBusinessComputing.com, the awards were handed to vendors in three categories: hardware, software and e-commerce. Not surprisingly, some of

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