Submit a 500-word essay explaining your success story to the UPS Best “Out-of-the-Box” Small Business Contest.
Eligible companies must have 2006 revenues of at least $250,000, but no more than $10 million. Prizes range from $5,000 to $25,000 in cash.
Entries must be submitted online by September 1, and will be judged on originality, business implementation and business results.
More at:http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog.html?id=178038.
2.http://www.outofthebox.ups.com/
Friday, May 11, 2007
Stay in Touch with Your Clients with These Tools
Maybe you are looking for new ways to stay in touch with your clients and prospects. Maybe you've tried sending out a newsletter or are considering sending a newsletter. This isn’t about deciding whether or not to send one (Although I’d strongly urge you to ensure whatever communication you’re sending is note worthy and time worthy for them to invest their eyes on, as it’s one email of hundreds some of these people get each day.)
Constant Contact:
They are currently offering a free 60 Day trial and you dont need a credit card to register. You'll discover that you can quickly create professional-looking email campaigns that grab attention and help you build successful, lasting relationships with your customers, clients, or members. It's an increditble communcation tool to also monitor and track who's reading certain parts of each email you send out! Every salesperson needs a way to continually keep their name and face in front of clients and prospects. This is one vehicle that enables you to do so, easily.
More at:http://reseller.roving.com/index.jsp.
Constant Contact:
They are currently offering a free 60 Day trial and you dont need a credit card to register. You'll discover that you can quickly create professional-looking email campaigns that grab attention and help you build successful, lasting relationships with your customers, clients, or members. It's an increditble communcation tool to also monitor and track who's reading certain parts of each email you send out! Every salesperson needs a way to continually keep their name and face in front of clients and prospects. This is one vehicle that enables you to do so, easily.
More at:http://reseller.roving.com/index.jsp.
AMAZON WEBSTORES AS E-COMMERCE SITES?
Recently, Amazon announced their Webstores. These are fixed URL websites that you can set up and sell products from, just like any website. You would supply your own URL and choose from any number of templates that Amazon offers. Amazon acts as the web host and the payment processor in this arrangement. You get a built-in shopping cart and payment gateway as well.
These stores go for about $60 per month and the per-transaction fee is 7%. That's pretty comparable to eBay stores, so it appears that Amazon might be going after frustrated eBay store owners who are looking to migrate to other venues.
One major advantage to these stores is that you get integration with Amazon. You can place anything that Amazon sells on the site and use your Amazon affiliate account to sell those products. That is great for testing products or Adwords campaigns.
Amazon also integrates their search engine and their review system into your webstore. You also get Amazon's descriptions on affiliate products you place in the webstore, although you are able to override those and put in your own.
more at:http://www.allbusiness.com/specialty-businesses/home-based-businesses/4057953-1.html
These stores go for about $60 per month and the per-transaction fee is 7%. That's pretty comparable to eBay stores, so it appears that Amazon might be going after frustrated eBay store owners who are looking to migrate to other venues.
One major advantage to these stores is that you get integration with Amazon. You can place anything that Amazon sells on the site and use your Amazon affiliate account to sell those products. That is great for testing products or Adwords campaigns.
Amazon also integrates their search engine and their review system into your webstore. You also get Amazon's descriptions on affiliate products you place in the webstore, although you are able to override those and put in your own.
more at:http://www.allbusiness.com/specialty-businesses/home-based-businesses/4057953-1.html
A Daily Music Video About the News
Boston.com is proud to present "Pop-Ed," a daily original song and accompanying video written and performed by local musician Jake Brennan, focusing on news and events that take place that day. Jake will find news of interest in the morning and then start writing. Later in the afternoon, you can find his song on this page. Think of it as an op-ed with a new twist. While you're here, read Jake's blog, and check out previous Pop-Ed songs and videos. And be sure to tune into 92.9 WBOS each weeknight during the 9 p.m. hour to hear Jake's Pop-Ed song.
More at:http://www.boston.com/ae/music/poped/
More at:http://www.boston.com/ae/music/poped/
Get Free Books
Get for free, Classic literature is widely available online, as dedicated volunteers and librarians have been scanning and posting thousands of volumes on websites worldwide. Which sites are easiest to use?
1) Wikisource - Wikisource is the virtual library portion of the Wiki-empire. Recent additions to Wikisource are right up the alley of college and high school students studying literature and the humanities: "The Mayor of Casterbridge," by Thomas Hardy, "Daisy Miller," by Henry James, and "Erewhon," by Samuel Butler.
2) Online Books Page - This is more of a directory than a repository, with links to more than 25,000 online books. It offers links to books in their holographic (that is, original format and design) format, especially good for students and scholars.
3) Want a good study guide to “Brave New World?” Go to Bibliomania which offers study guides to classic literature developed by final year and postgraduate literature students from top UK and US universities.
4) Gutenberg Project is the granddaddy of all online book projects. It has continually evolved, and now permits downloads of entire CD-length collections via BitTorrent. Site data indicate that more than 3 million books were downloaded from Gutenberg in the last 30 days. Tops in the last week? “Manual of Surgery,” by Alexander Miles and Alexis Thomson, with 4,597 downloads. According to book uploader Laura Wisewell, the online edition was produced just after World War I and contains accounts of gangrene, tuberculosis and syphilis. “Read it and be grateful that you live in a time and country with antibiotics,” she says. “In this book, amputation is the answer to everything.”
Check all at:1.http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page.2.http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/.3.http://www.bibliomania.com/1/frameset.html.4.http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page.5.http://homepage.mac.com/laurawisewell/gutenberg/pped.html
1) Wikisource - Wikisource is the virtual library portion of the Wiki-empire. Recent additions to Wikisource are right up the alley of college and high school students studying literature and the humanities: "The Mayor of Casterbridge," by Thomas Hardy, "Daisy Miller," by Henry James, and "Erewhon," by Samuel Butler.
2) Online Books Page - This is more of a directory than a repository, with links to more than 25,000 online books. It offers links to books in their holographic (that is, original format and design) format, especially good for students and scholars.
3) Want a good study guide to “Brave New World?” Go to Bibliomania which offers study guides to classic literature developed by final year and postgraduate literature students from top UK and US universities.
4) Gutenberg Project is the granddaddy of all online book projects. It has continually evolved, and now permits downloads of entire CD-length collections via BitTorrent. Site data indicate that more than 3 million books were downloaded from Gutenberg in the last 30 days. Tops in the last week? “Manual of Surgery,” by Alexander Miles and Alexis Thomson, with 4,597 downloads. According to book uploader Laura Wisewell, the online edition was produced just after World War I and contains accounts of gangrene, tuberculosis and syphilis. “Read it and be grateful that you live in a time and country with antibiotics,” she says. “In this book, amputation is the answer to everything.”
Check all at:1.http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page.2.http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/.3.http://www.bibliomania.com/1/frameset.html.4.http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page.5.http://homepage.mac.com/laurawisewell/gutenberg/pped.html
Boutiquecamping
Boutique Camping offers decidedly upscale camping at summer music festivals. Luxury-seeking festival-goers can choose from a variety of places to rest their weary bones, ranging from elegant tipis and bohemian bivouacs to pastel-coloured beach huts and wooden micro-cabins (a.k.a. podpads). All can be booked unfurnished, though guests are better off choosing the furnished option, adding beds, rugs, sheepskins, lanterns and iPod docking stations. Boutique Camping sites include round-the-clock staffed reception, clean toilets and proper showers, and a communal Bedouin tent for after-party lounging.
Boutique Camping will provide pop-up accommodation at a number of popular music festivals in England and Ireland this summer, from the Big Chill to the Secret Garden Party. They're already fully booked for The Electric Picnic, which takes place in August. The mix of available accommodation varies per location, and everything can be booked online. Pricing depends on the festival's duration, but ranges from GBP 399 for a basic podpad to GBP 1,095 for a large furnished tipi. Offering festival-goers an alternative to cramped tents in muddy fields, this should be a fun and potentially lucrative business to set up in other countries. Make sure to target wedding planners and the corporate events industry, too, and pop up for mid-summer parties, art biennales, sports events, meteor showers and any other excuse for a congenial overnight gathering. (For more inspiration, also check out Camp Kerala, a roaming tented village described as “the most elegant and romantic place to stay outside India.”)
Website: www.boutiquecamping.net
Boutique Camping will provide pop-up accommodation at a number of popular music festivals in England and Ireland this summer, from the Big Chill to the Secret Garden Party. They're already fully booked for The Electric Picnic, which takes place in August. The mix of available accommodation varies per location, and everything can be booked online. Pricing depends on the festival's duration, but ranges from GBP 399 for a basic podpad to GBP 1,095 for a large furnished tipi. Offering festival-goers an alternative to cramped tents in muddy fields, this should be a fun and potentially lucrative business to set up in other countries. Make sure to target wedding planners and the corporate events industry, too, and pop up for mid-summer parties, art biennales, sports events, meteor showers and any other excuse for a congenial overnight gathering. (For more inspiration, also check out Camp Kerala, a roaming tented village described as “the most elegant and romantic place to stay outside India.”)
Website: www.boutiquecamping.net
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