Thursday, November 1, 2007

Use Baynote Recommendations To Elevate Your Company's Business.

What Company is Offering:
Baynote delivers on-demand recommendation technology for websites. Businesses use Baynote to automatically display the best content and products to website visitors. Baynote increases the number of products purchased, impressions on the site and the number of leads generated.Baynote Recommendations tap into the collective wisdom of the silent majority without collecting any explicit feedback.
How It Works:
Based on the silently observed visitor actions, Baynote is able to identify and leverage the virtual communities of like-mided visitors on your site. The virtual community includes every visitor on your site and each visitor is completely anonymous. Baynote identifies emerging patterns among the visitors of your site thereby capturing the collective wisdom of the crowd.
Send them a little information about yourself and they'll put you on the path to experiencing Baynote Recommendations on your site.Over 60 ecommerce, media, and enterprise customers use Baynote Recommendations to elevate their business.

Who Is Backing Them:
Hummer Winblad
1.The firm's goal is to provide the capital, experience, and vision that will enable its companies to become leaders in the new software economy.
John Hummer is a member of Baynote's Board of Directors.

http://www.humwin.com
2.JK&B Capital
K&B was formed with the sponsorship of Charles Wang, the founder of Computer Associates, Inc., and financier George Soros, investing through Soros Fund Management LLC, (the Soros Group). JK&B currently manages $900 million in captial committments in the communications and software markets.
Tasha Seitz is a member of Baynote's Board of Directors.

http://www.jkbcapital.com
3.Steamboat Ventures
Steamboat Ventures is the venture arm of the Walt Disney Company. Steamboat invests in early- to mid-stage, technology-focused companies that are pursuing opportunities in emerging media and entertainment markets.Dan Beldy is a member of Baynote's Board of Directors.

http://www.steamboatvc.com
4.Chess Ventures
Chess Ventures is a private equity firm that invests in earlier-stage technology companies that have direct application to the financial services industry.Charles Schwab, Jr. is an investor with Baynote.

http://www.chessventures.com.

More detail at:http://www.baynote.com/

Lookery Is Ad Network For Social Networks

What Company is Offering:
Lookery provides demographic marketing services in and around social networks. We’re working to fix the the basic economic problem that social networks face: great user profiling but unpredictable ad inventory. We make it safe and easy for social networks to distribute their data as targeting information outside their web sites, in order to make money in partnership with web sites that have great inventory but little or no user targeting information.
How It Works:
Lookery for the Web, a service to which social networks contribute basic, anonymized profile information and get paid when we use it for real-time ad targeting. The critical issue in designing the service is that user anonymity is strictly maintained. They’re sticking solely to Age, Sex, and Location in order to provide concrete value to marketers while holding absolutely no data in our system that puts users at risk.
More at:http://www.lookery.com/

Unusual Business Idea Of Teen Ager Fraser

What Company Is Offering:
SuperJam is a range of no added sugar ‘super fruit’ spreads.These are made from the most nutritious fruits around; such asblueberries and cranberries and are sweetened with grape juice,rather than sugar or sweeteners.
How 18year Old Fraser Becomes Millionaire:
Fraser sells jams and preserves that target a new, younger audience. They stay true to his grandmother’s original recipe but attract more health-conscious consumers. For example, instead of using sweetener like the other, big name jams, Fraser uses grape juice. He also focuses on the “superfoods” like blackcurrants, blueberries and ginger which are attracting buyers looking for a healthier diet. “I think people are looking for something a bit healthier, and it’s more fun and modern. It appeals to people who might not normally buy jam.”

Despite the growing revenues, Fraser has not taken any money out of the company, preferring to pump it back into the business. “For me, it’s not really about making lots of money. You have to create something you enjoy and have a passion for. I genuinely do love jam. When I read that sales had been falling for a couple of decades, I was horrified by the idea of it becoming extinct.”

Fraser started the company four years ago at the age of 14, selling his jam door to door as a way to earn extra spending money. He expanded by setting up shop at a local farmer’s market and soon found that he could not keep up with the demand for his jams. “I think I’ve still got a lot to learn. It’s not easy to set up a business and you have to really believe in it. There were points when I thought it would never be ready to go on the shelves.”

With his recent success, Fraser is about to release a book that discusses his story called “How to be a Teenage Millionaire.” It just goes to show that if you have enough passion for your business and a product that is in genuine demand, you can create a real business no matter how old you are.
More at:http://superjams.co.uk/

Millionaire's Saga

Jerry Alonzy figured he'd be working into his 70s at least.

As an independent handyman at the mercy of weather patterns near Hartford, Conn., he'd always made a decent income that rarely grew.

Then he found Google and his life changed. Alonzy, 57, now makes $120,000 a year from the ads Google places on his Natural Handyman website, and he couldn't be more thrilled.

"I put in two, maybe three hours a day on the site, and the checks pour in," he says. "What's not to like?"

In return for placing its ads on websites and blogs, Google pays Web publishers every time one of its ads are clicked. Those clicks help keep Alonzy and his wife living comfortably and talking about moving to Hawaii. "All I need is a laptop and a high-speed Internet connection, and I can live anywhere."

The Internet may be a young person's medium, but the retired and those nearing retirement such as Alonzy have found that they can work the Web just as well. Sometimes, such "Gray Googlers" can live a richer, more financially rewarding life than when they were supposedly working.

"Google isn't just for kids anymore," says Google executive Kim Scott, who runs the company's AdSense program, the ad platform that provides the income for Web publishers such as Alonzy and others.

Take Jerrold Foutz. The former Boeing engineer, 75, started a website a few years ago devoted to one of his passions — switching mode power supplies, which help drive, for instance, the inside of video cameras.

He put Google ads on his smpstech.com site four years ago. After just one month, the first Google check was for $800. The second check totaled $2,000.

"I thought, 'Wow,' " he said. "This was the most amazing thing that ever happened to me. Something I thought would make $50 a year now equals my Boeing retirement check."

That comes out to around $25,000 yearly.

Foutz's experience is not an anomaly.

After Hope Pryor's four kids left home, she grew intrigued with the Internet and learned how to design a Web page. She didn't want it to focus on just her, so she posted some of her favorite recipes on the site.

Now, her Cooks Recipes site is bringing in nearly $90,000 yearly, mostly from Google ads. The holidays are the biggest-producing months of the year.

"Last December alone, I netted $30,000 from Google," she says. "There's not too many people I know who can walk into a car dealership and buy two vehicles at one time. I did just that recently."

While the upside of working with AdSense sounds exhilarating, it's not that way for everybody.

Scott says she posted an unsold novel on Google and earns about $5 a month from the AdSense ads on the site. Al Needham, 74, who runs a site about the care of bees (bees-online.com) from his home near Boston, reaps about $250 a month.

"Forget about getting rich overnight," says Alonzy. "It takes time to learn."

Jennifer Slegg, a consultant whose JenSense blog is devoted to tips for using so-called contextual advertising, says the easy part is getting AdSense up and running. Google provides computer code that must be copied and pasted onto a website. Figuring out how to do that "is very easy for new publishers."

Foutz says even if you've never cut and pasted code before (hint: On Windows PCs, highlight the text, press Control C to copy, then Control V to paste it), "Just follow what Google says. They have very easy-to-understand instructions."

Hard work, big reward

Introduced in 2003, AdSense was an outgrowth of Google's AdWords program, which put sponsored ads at the top of search results at Google's own site. Google created AdSense as a way to expand beyond search listings and onto hundreds of thousands of websites and blogs.

Google rivals Yahoo and MSN have similar programs, but they have found limited acceptance on the Web, where Google dominates both search, with more than 50% market share, and search advertising, with 90%.

Now everyone from big sites such as the New York Times and CNN.com to mom and pop operations such as Cooks Recipes and Natural Handyman have the familiar "Ads by Google" text-box somewhere on their site.

"With AdSense, we fund creativity on any topic," says Google's Scott. "If you have a subject you know something about, write about it, find a like-minded audience on the Internet and we'll take care of monetizing the content."

Or, as Joel Comm, author of the AdSense guidebook The AdSense Code, puts it: "People are amazed. They say, 'Really, all I have to do is write, Google will put ads on my site and pay me?' Yes, it's that simple."

There is a little more to it. The folks who reap the biggest rewards put in long hours setting up their site and feeding it lots of content.

"Write about what you know, write like mad and often," says Alonzy. "The more you write, the more opportunities you have to make money. If you post 500 pages on a topic, you'll have 500 pages with ads, and many more potential clicks."

Google's computers scan the content on Web pages to match it with appropriate advertisers. Articles on Alonzy's website about how to keep mice away might result in ads for pest control services, while a recipe for turkey casserole at Cooks Recipes might generate ads for diet tips and beauty makeovers.

"The beauty of our system is that we have so many advertisers," says Scott. "The content may not change, but our ads change every day. So you'll always see something different there."

Slegg says the biggest mistake new AdSense publishers make is clicking on AdSense ads — their own or others. That's a big no-no in Googleland, and can get you dumped from the program.

The computer won't break

Alonzy and other Gray Googlers say they haven't experienced any problems working in a young person's world.

"Many people my age are scared of computers; they think they're going to break them," says Needham. "The computers aren't going to break. But you won't find out unless you get in there and try."

At $250 a month, Needham's site generates revenue in line with its niche audience of folks who want to learn about bees.

"I bring in enough to fund a free vacation to Key West every year for the family," says Needham, a retired Department of Defense employee.

One stumbling block for many people is translating a great idea into a nice-looking Web page.

In the past, creating a Web page required knowledge of complicated HTML computer code, or learning off-the-shelf Web design software such as Microsoft's FrontPage or Adobe's Dreamweaver.

Now, Google and Yahoo have free tools to create Web pages or blogs. And many Internet website-hosting companies (such as GoDaddy and Brinkster) have online site creators that come as part of their monthly fees. Apple's iWeb is another such tool. With these, AdSense can be automatically added to your pages with the click of a mouse.

"When you retire, you have to have some interests," says Needham. "This is my indoor activity. I did a search online for how to create a website and found lots of good help out there for nothing."

The Internet, he says, opened up a new world for him.

"I started searching for other sites about bees and met some people from Australia with similar interests. We've since become friends, and I went to Australia last year to visit."

The same thing happened with Gail Bjork, 63, who runs the Digicamhelp site from her home base near Tampa. She designed her site but made a friend online in Ireland who has since redesigned it for a more professional sheen.

"My background was art," says Bjork. "I was an art teacher. I didn't know about code. My friend does. So now she handles the design, and I operate the site."

Bjork is a former local school board member who ran a print shop with her husband. A camera buff, she started the site because her friends were always asking for photo tips.

"This started as something to help my friends, and I've gone from a 14-page site to one with over 700 pages," she says. "I'm legally retired now — but not mentally."

Her site brings in around $1,500 a month. Bjork's advice to others: "For anyone, no matter what age they are, if they find something they truly love, write about it. You have nothing to lose but time. And it could really pay off."
Via-USA Today

Bunnybot is a new live shopping tool that lets you combine chat with shopping

What Company Is Offering;

Bunnybot is a new live shopping tool that lets you combine chat with shopping.
How It Works;
With a web-based application that shows your shopping activity on the left, and you chat conversations on the right. You can start by importing your buddies from Yahoo, AIM or MSN.

Click on an item’s details and you’ll see a “Share with Friends” button. Mind you, this will only work if you’ve already initiated a conversation with friends.

Once you click the share” button, the link to item details is automatically sent to your friend. There’s nothing really innovative about Bunnybot–it’s really just a faster way to share links with all your friends. And the biggest downfall for Bunnybot is the fact that you can’t surf any shopping website you’d like–you’re limited to the shopping items available through Bunnybot.
Bunnybot does seem to aggregate a good amount of third-party shopping sites for its application, which you’ll be directed to once you decide to purchase an item.
More at;https://bunnybot.com/

eXelate received $4 million in first-round financing from Carmel Ventures

What company is offering;
eXelate is setting up eXelate Targeting eXchange, a marketplace that tells you what kind of users are likely to visit what site. So, if you need to deploy a baseball-related ad, they’ll tell you which sites in their network are visited by baseball fans. eXelate was created to address the deficiency in targeted data, which we believe delays the progress of web-based advertising as a whole. Unlike the other major targeting-related players, eXelate™ believes in sharing data and related revenues
Why Is It Different;
The ads aren’t contextual, like on Google AdSense, but behavioral. The user’s browsing habits and interests determine which ad will be shown, not the content of the site itself. This way - or so they say - ads work better, and ad networks get more money.
What's New Feature;

eXelate is also launching Delayed Ads, which are basically shown to the user later, when they visit a site that’s affiliated with your ad network.
How Much They Got From VCs;
They received $4 million in first-round financing from Carmel Ventures.

More at ;http://www.exelate.com/company.html

YoungEntrepreneur.com

What Company is About:
YoungEntrepreneur.com is an award-winning small business website for entrepreneurs and small businesses and is comprised of entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs who are truly passionate about economic development and enjoy promoting the formation and success of innovative and growth-oriented companies.
How It Works:
On this site several topics discussed and some of the many features include networking with like-minded business professionals including venture capitalists, private investors, industry experts, business service providers, inventors, other up and coming and successful entrepreneurs. YoungEntrepreneur.com members understand that the future economic vitality of the World must come from the emergence of new businesses through entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs add new jobs, create new opportunities for prosperity, and also help support the World's creativity and cultural richness. Their goal is to help you start, manage or grow your successful business venture. In order for this to occur, there must be an entrepreneurial culture, a pool of resources to draw from, and successful models to follow.
More at:http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/

Spigit Is A social network for ideas, entrepreneurs, developers, venture capitalists and collaborators helping to evolve ideas

What Company Is Offering:
An online simulator and social network for ideas, entrepreneurs, developers, venture capitalists and collaborators helping to evolve ideas
spigit's metrics give the best and brightest people and ideas a chance to shine, rather than relying on simple thumb's up/thumb's down measurements. spigit brings advanced metrics to social networking to create truly relevant ways of measuring user reputation and contribution.
How It Works:
User reputation and expert rankings determine how much "weight" a person's votes receive. spigit's calculations of conversation levels, buzz and weighted ratings result in a true measure of value.
More at:http://www.spigit.com/homepage

InsideView automatically finds key selling opportunities for you and delivers proactive Opportunity Alerts

What Company says:
InsideView is a new class of sales performance technology called Opportunity Intelligence. Opportunity Intelligence transforms sales from a haphazard activity, dependent on cold calls and luck, into a highly targeted, efficient and effective process. InsideView’s Opportunity Intelligence solution was introduced in 2006.
How It Works:
InsideView automatically finds key selling opportunities for you and delivers proactive Opportunity Alerts. You never miss an opportunity and build a high-performance pipeline.And it provides the inside information you need to close the
deal—details on the target company, key decision makers and connections you can leverage to engage and sell.Using advanced technology, InsideView monitors hundreds of verified data sources on your customers and prospects, their personnel and activities. It automatically detects key selling opportunities such as leadership changes, new product offerings, acquisitions and expanding operations. When it finds an opportunity, it alerts you in real time.
More at:http://www.insideview.com/

InsideView automatically finds key selling opportunities for you and delivers proactive Opportunity Alerts

What Company says:
InsideView is a new class of sales performance technology called Opportunity Intelligence. Opportunity Intelligence transforms sales from a haphazard activity, dependent on cold calls and luck, into a highly targeted, efficient and effective process. InsideView’s Opportunity Intelligence solution was introduced in 2006.
How It Works:
InsideView automatically finds key selling opportunities for you and delivers proactive Opportunity Alerts. You never miss an opportunity and build a high-performance pipeline.And it provides the inside information you need to close the
deal—details on the target company, key decision makers and connections you can leverage to engage and sell.Using advanced technology, InsideView monitors hundreds of verified data sources on your customers and prospects, their personnel and activities. It automatically detects key selling opportunities such as leadership changes, new product offerings, acquisitions and expanding operations. When it finds an opportunity, it alerts you in real time.
More at:http://www.insideview.com/

"Sell it Speedy" The Fastest Way To Sell Anything

What Company is Offering:
Sell it Speedy Quicksale is designed to help you sell anything within 24-48 hours for less than the cost of a classified ad.
How It works:
You simply fill out the form and they do the rest. Within 24-48 hours they provide you with at least 3 persons contact information who are willing to buy what you are selling immediately at fair market value, GUARANTEE or you money back.SellItSpeedy has developed special, proprietary and very advanced software that searches through out the Internet, classifieds, and auctions to match up buyers and sellers.Sell it Speedy uses the latest custom search engine technology combined with good old fashion elbow grease.
That is all they tell you, and yes there is a PATENT PENDING on this technology.
More at:http://www.sellitspeedy.com/

Search Free Apps for entrepreneurs, small businesses, nonprofits, freelancers, home based businesses

What Company is Offering:
Search Free Apps is the first search engine dedicated to finding high quality 100% free applications on the Internet. Their team of experts has hand-picked over 500 valuable applications across the full spectrum of online services.
How It Works:
Search Free Apps includes sites offering the widest possible range of applications for users. To be included in this search engine, sites must meet one of two criteria:

First, the site must offer a valuable version of its service or product 100% free on a permanent basis. We are happy to include sites that offer valuable free services as well as even more valuable paid upgrades or variations of these services.

Second, we will include a site that offers a Free Trial of its service where no credit card is required, and no other obligations of any other kind are required. In such cases, the user must have the complete ability to use a product or service for a specific number of days 100% free with no need to cancel the service at the end of this free trial period. The Free Trial period simply ends with no consequences, of any kind, for the user.
For Whom It Will Help Most:
It is designed for entrepreneurs, small businesses, nonprofits, freelancers, home based businesses, and ad hoc project teams who are looking to access sophisticated services without adding costs.
More at:http://www.searchfreeapps.com/

SLurl provides direct teleport links to locations in Second Life

What Company Is Offering:
SLurl provides direct teleport links to locations in Second Life. If you have Second Life installed, clicking on the map link will automatically teleport you to that location in-world.
How It Works:
It give you option to customized control over mapping locations in Second Life, SLurl also provides a better experience for web users who don't have Second Life. Instead of getting an error when clicking on web links that begin with "secondlife://", visiting a SLurl link gives potential new users a chance to sign up.
More at:http://slurl.com/