AroundMe is a free software solution for those who would like to create a collaborative web space as MySpace clone.People who dreamed off eariler aboout making his own website and his social networking site components could be true with this tool.
With this tool you can make your own website and layer in social networking components such as wikis, blogs, and forums. OpenID integration is one of the options that can be extended to the end users as well. AroundMe is released under a GPL license, is free to download, and also features a plug-in API. The hope for the creators of AroundMe is that people will use this tool to create websites for others to network around, forming groups (as with Ning) and offering up user-generated content.
More at:http://www.barnraiser.org/index.php?ws=1&wpn=SwAmOverviewPage
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Fuzz is a new music community for artists and bands to sell music and connect with friends.
Fuzz is a new music community for artists and bands to sell music and connect with friends.
The focus of Fuzz is on the musicians, and it’s created a music label for unsigned artists to work under to help promote undiscovered musicians. Artists can sell music, and will soon be able to sell merchandise as well. There are a few ways to share information about the site, as Fuzz has badges in a few different sizes that can be placed on websites or blogs and link back to Fuzz profiles. New users can sign up as a fan or as a musician, add artists’ music to their playlists or listen to another user’s playlist.
No widgets yet for selling (or even playing) music, which limits the marketing potential of artists signed under Fuzz’s label. There are sections for people, music and buzz, but there is no section dedicated to events and concerts, which is unfortunate. Incorporating ways for users to subscribe to events, add events to their own calendars, or search through events that have been added by artists would reaffirm Fuzz’s focus on musicians.
Fuzz of course is entering an extremely crowded space which is dominated by MySpace, and includes Sonific, which recently expanded its service to allow artists to submit music, and VLES, which uses avatars and a neighborhood replica for bands to promote music, among others.
More at:http://www.fuzz.com/
The focus of Fuzz is on the musicians, and it’s created a music label for unsigned artists to work under to help promote undiscovered musicians. Artists can sell music, and will soon be able to sell merchandise as well. There are a few ways to share information about the site, as Fuzz has badges in a few different sizes that can be placed on websites or blogs and link back to Fuzz profiles. New users can sign up as a fan or as a musician, add artists’ music to their playlists or listen to another user’s playlist.
No widgets yet for selling (or even playing) music, which limits the marketing potential of artists signed under Fuzz’s label. There are sections for people, music and buzz, but there is no section dedicated to events and concerts, which is unfortunate. Incorporating ways for users to subscribe to events, add events to their own calendars, or search through events that have been added by artists would reaffirm Fuzz’s focus on musicians.
Fuzz of course is entering an extremely crowded space which is dominated by MySpace, and includes Sonific, which recently expanded its service to allow artists to submit music, and VLES, which uses avatars and a neighborhood replica for bands to promote music, among others.
More at:http://www.fuzz.com/
Iloho is a new online community for travelers
Iloho is a new online community for travelers, with a distinct focus on airfare, set to launch sometime tonight. The company is backed by WebFlyer Network owner Randy Petersen.
This community is for user-generated news and reviews from travelers. Partnering with FlyerTalk and the WebFlyer Network, Iloho has created a community for trip planning in a more defined manner while layering in information gathered from other users. Stories can be rated so that the most helpful users’ content is the most relevant for searches. Users can share itineraries and use geo-tagging to better provide an integrated travel experience, while Iloho provides fare comparison functionality to help you find the best airfare deals.
More at:http://www.iloho.com/
This community is for user-generated news and reviews from travelers. Partnering with FlyerTalk and the WebFlyer Network, Iloho has created a community for trip planning in a more defined manner while layering in information gathered from other users. Stories can be rated so that the most helpful users’ content is the most relevant for searches. Users can share itineraries and use geo-tagging to better provide an integrated travel experience, while Iloho provides fare comparison functionality to help you find the best airfare deals.
More at:http://www.iloho.com/
Double Your Earning By Google Referals
Business
Anyone who is new to computers or unfamiliar with the Internet can appreciate the usefulness of grownupgeek.com. Founder Randy Brown started the site because friends and acquaintances constantly asked him for computer help. Today, Brown’s audience has expanded beyond his immediate circle of friends. Between 5,000 and 6,000 unique visitors each day come to his site for referrals, recommendations on security products, tips and information to help them keep their PCs running smoothly and securely. The site is written in plain English, making it ideal for technology novices.
Approach
"AdSense is superior in terms of ad targeting, reporting, and a richer inventory of ads. If I had to choose between AdSense and other services, I would choose AdSense every time. It is my most effective tool for generating income."
Randy Brown
Founder GrownUpGeek.com
At first, Brown was wary of starting grownupgeek.com because of the cost of website hosting. He heard about Google AdSense™ in an online forum, and thought it might be a way for him to cover his costs. "I wanted to start a computer information site for beginners, but not unless I could at least break even," he recalls. "I probably wouldn’t have started the site if it weren’t for the ability to earn revenue from AdSense."
Implementing AdSense on his site, according to Brown, "couldn’t have been any easier," despite the fact that Brown says he’s not a practiced webmaster. He was immediately satisfied with his revenues. "I only wanted to cover my $7.77 per month hosting fees, but AdSense far surpassed that right away," Brown proclaims. "The income I started earning blew me away."
Although he was immediately happy with this revenue, Brown heard about AdSense Referrals and realized that it could help him earn more money and improve his visitors’ experience. This is an AdSense feature that enables website publishers to increase their revenue while expanding their visitors’ awareness of useful products and services.
For example, Brown often recommends the Firefox web browser because of its powerful security features. By adding a referral button to his site, Brown realized he could direct users to Firefox with the Google Toolbar. When a referral connects a user to Firefox, Google pays Brown each time.
"Much of the information on my site is security-related, so I immediately saw that AdSense Referrals for Firefox were the perfect match with the content on my site," says Brown. "I believe in Firefox and use it myself, so it made sense for me to recommend it to my readers."
Results
Brown reports that "about 50 percent of my income now comes from AdSense Referrals – and sometimes it even accounts for 75 percent of my earnings." He says he’s tried other services, but AdSense and AdSense Referrals surpass other options. Plus, advanced features in AdSense such as channel reporting and the ability to combine several ads in a single box have helped him optimize his earnings performance.
"AdSense is superior in terms of ad targeting, reporting, and a richer inventory of ads," says Brown. "If I had to choose between AdSense and other services, I would choose AdSense every time. It is my most effective tool for generating income."
More at:here
www.grownupgeek.com
Anyone who is new to computers or unfamiliar with the Internet can appreciate the usefulness of grownupgeek.com. Founder Randy Brown started the site because friends and acquaintances constantly asked him for computer help. Today, Brown’s audience has expanded beyond his immediate circle of friends. Between 5,000 and 6,000 unique visitors each day come to his site for referrals, recommendations on security products, tips and information to help them keep their PCs running smoothly and securely. The site is written in plain English, making it ideal for technology novices.
Approach
"AdSense is superior in terms of ad targeting, reporting, and a richer inventory of ads. If I had to choose between AdSense and other services, I would choose AdSense every time. It is my most effective tool for generating income."
Randy Brown
Founder GrownUpGeek.com
At first, Brown was wary of starting grownupgeek.com because of the cost of website hosting. He heard about Google AdSense™ in an online forum, and thought it might be a way for him to cover his costs. "I wanted to start a computer information site for beginners, but not unless I could at least break even," he recalls. "I probably wouldn’t have started the site if it weren’t for the ability to earn revenue from AdSense."
Implementing AdSense on his site, according to Brown, "couldn’t have been any easier," despite the fact that Brown says he’s not a practiced webmaster. He was immediately satisfied with his revenues. "I only wanted to cover my $7.77 per month hosting fees, but AdSense far surpassed that right away," Brown proclaims. "The income I started earning blew me away."
Although he was immediately happy with this revenue, Brown heard about AdSense Referrals and realized that it could help him earn more money and improve his visitors’ experience. This is an AdSense feature that enables website publishers to increase their revenue while expanding their visitors’ awareness of useful products and services.
For example, Brown often recommends the Firefox web browser because of its powerful security features. By adding a referral button to his site, Brown realized he could direct users to Firefox with the Google Toolbar. When a referral connects a user to Firefox, Google pays Brown each time.
"Much of the information on my site is security-related, so I immediately saw that AdSense Referrals for Firefox were the perfect match with the content on my site," says Brown. "I believe in Firefox and use it myself, so it made sense for me to recommend it to my readers."
Results
Brown reports that "about 50 percent of my income now comes from AdSense Referrals – and sometimes it even accounts for 75 percent of my earnings." He says he’s tried other services, but AdSense and AdSense Referrals surpass other options. Plus, advanced features in AdSense such as channel reporting and the ability to combine several ads in a single box have helped him optimize his earnings performance.
"AdSense is superior in terms of ad targeting, reporting, and a richer inventory of ads," says Brown. "If I had to choose between AdSense and other services, I would choose AdSense every time. It is my most effective tool for generating income."
More at:here
www.grownupgeek.com
Thoof
Thoof is the latest company seeking to offer news readers articles that are relevant to them.But its totally different from digg,reddit,rojo etc.
The Austin, Tex. company launched today, boasting an approach it says is more useful to the wider masses than competitors such as Digg, Reddit, NewsVine, NowPublic, Topix and others that seek to rank articles. Thoof's trick is to latch on to information it finds about users' news tastes, store this information in a place where it constantly updates its list about you, and then steadily improve ...
More at:
http://www.thoof.com/
The Austin, Tex. company launched today, boasting an approach it says is more useful to the wider masses than competitors such as Digg, Reddit, NewsVine, NowPublic, Topix and others that seek to rank articles. Thoof's trick is to latch on to information it finds about users' news tastes, store this information in a place where it constantly updates its list about you, and then steadily improve ...
More at:
http://www.thoof.com/
Venture Capital's Survey By Silicon Valley For2007
Background — We analyzed the terms of venture financings for 117 companies headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area that reported raising money in the first quarter of 2007.
Overview
The results of the 1Q07 survey showed a continuation of the strong positive trend in venture valuations. The highlights of the quarter were as follows:
Up rounds exceeded down rounds for the thirteenth quarter in a row (79% up vs. 9% down, with 12% flat). This was the largest ratio of up rounds to down rounds since we started the survey in early 2002.
Barry J. Kramer
Author
Michael J. Patrick
Author
Start-ups & VC
Start-ups and Venture Capital Group
Life Science VC Survey (2006)
Israel VC Survey (Second Half of 2006)
Explanation of Certain Terms Used in Venture Capital Surveys
The Fenwick & West Venture Capital Barometer showed a 75% average price increase for companies receiving venture capital in 1Q07 compared to such companies’ previous financing round. This was the largest increase since the survey began. This increase was driven in part by eleven 1Q07 financings in which the purchase price of the stock sold in the financing was at least three times higher than the prior round. Of these eleven financings, most were in Web 2.0 and related fields.
The non price terms of financings in 1Q07 were also company favorable, with the use of senior liquidation preference and participating liquidation preference at the lowest levels since the survey began.
Other U.S. venture industry related results for the quarter include the following:
The amount invested by venture capitalists in the U.S. in 1Q07 was approximately $7 billion in 584 transactions, compared to $6.3 billion raised in 598 transactions in 4Q06. The amount invested this quarter was the second highest amount of venture investment in a quarter since 4Q01. Venture investment in healthcare hit $2.9 billion, the highest investment level on record for that industry.1
Investments in internet and cleantech companies also increased significantly.2
Acquisitions of venture-backed companies in the U.S. in 1Q07 was very strong, with 95 transactions totaling $9.4 billion compared to 79 transactions totaling $7.5 billion in 4Q06. Acquisition activity in 1Q07 was the highest amount in dollar terms since 4Q00. The median acquisition amount, at $105 million, was very strong, and approximately equal with the internet bubble year of 2000.1
IPOs of venture-backed companies declined on a transaction basis but were flat in dollar terms compared to 4Q06, with 13 IPOs raising $1.2 million in 1Q07 compared to 18 IPOs raising $1.2 million in 4Q06. Seven of the 13 IPOs were IT, the most since 3Q04, five were healthcare and one was retail.1
Nasdaq was flat in 1Q07, but is up 5.6% in 2Q07 to date.
More at:http://www.fenwick.com/publications/6.12.1.asp?vid=1&WT_mc_id=venture-beat_052407_VCQ107
Overview
The results of the 1Q07 survey showed a continuation of the strong positive trend in venture valuations. The highlights of the quarter were as follows:
Up rounds exceeded down rounds for the thirteenth quarter in a row (79% up vs. 9% down, with 12% flat). This was the largest ratio of up rounds to down rounds since we started the survey in early 2002.
Barry J. Kramer
Author
Michael J. Patrick
Author
Start-ups & VC
Start-ups and Venture Capital Group
Life Science VC Survey (2006)
Israel VC Survey (Second Half of 2006)
Explanation of Certain Terms Used in Venture Capital Surveys
The Fenwick & West Venture Capital Barometer showed a 75% average price increase for companies receiving venture capital in 1Q07 compared to such companies’ previous financing round. This was the largest increase since the survey began. This increase was driven in part by eleven 1Q07 financings in which the purchase price of the stock sold in the financing was at least three times higher than the prior round. Of these eleven financings, most were in Web 2.0 and related fields.
The non price terms of financings in 1Q07 were also company favorable, with the use of senior liquidation preference and participating liquidation preference at the lowest levels since the survey began.
Other U.S. venture industry related results for the quarter include the following:
The amount invested by venture capitalists in the U.S. in 1Q07 was approximately $7 billion in 584 transactions, compared to $6.3 billion raised in 598 transactions in 4Q06. The amount invested this quarter was the second highest amount of venture investment in a quarter since 4Q01. Venture investment in healthcare hit $2.9 billion, the highest investment level on record for that industry.1
Investments in internet and cleantech companies also increased significantly.2
Acquisitions of venture-backed companies in the U.S. in 1Q07 was very strong, with 95 transactions totaling $9.4 billion compared to 79 transactions totaling $7.5 billion in 4Q06. Acquisition activity in 1Q07 was the highest amount in dollar terms since 4Q00. The median acquisition amount, at $105 million, was very strong, and approximately equal with the internet bubble year of 2000.1
IPOs of venture-backed companies declined on a transaction basis but were flat in dollar terms compared to 4Q06, with 13 IPOs raising $1.2 million in 1Q07 compared to 18 IPOs raising $1.2 million in 4Q06. Seven of the 13 IPOs were IT, the most since 3Q04, five were healthcare and one was retail.1
Nasdaq was flat in 1Q07, but is up 5.6% in 2Q07 to date.
More at:http://www.fenwick.com/publications/6.12.1.asp?vid=1&WT_mc_id=venture-beat_052407_VCQ107
GlamMedia
Glam Media is going to become the number one online destination for women, overtaking iVillage, which had the stronghold on the market for the past eight years.
With its large network of blogs and premium content, Glam has grown rapidly, gained over $150 million in funding, and amassed a great amount of media and advertising partners along the way. The media company has about 350 magazines, blogs and websites included in its network, providing information and outlets for women in topics such as well-being and shopping. With women being a primary target for advertisers, Glam has also earned a high CPM rate and very targeted marketing options for companies as well. iVillage commanded a high valuation when it was acquired by NBC for $650 million. Analysts are giving Glam a current valuation of $500 million.
In related news, Glam signed an advertising and search deal with Google earlier this month.
More at:
http://venturebeat.com/2007/06/17/glam-surges-to-no-1-womens-property-overtakes-ivillage/
With its large network of blogs and premium content, Glam has grown rapidly, gained over $150 million in funding, and amassed a great amount of media and advertising partners along the way. The media company has about 350 magazines, blogs and websites included in its network, providing information and outlets for women in topics such as well-being and shopping. With women being a primary target for advertisers, Glam has also earned a high CPM rate and very targeted marketing options for companies as well. iVillage commanded a high valuation when it was acquired by NBC for $650 million. Analysts are giving Glam a current valuation of $500 million.
In related news, Glam signed an advertising and search deal with Google earlier this month.
More at:
http://venturebeat.com/2007/06/17/glam-surges-to-no-1-womens-property-overtakes-ivillage/
Mobile Website
On Zinadoo you get to customise your site even more .Change your text font size, type and colour .Link to another mobile sites .Link from any page to any page on your site .Have your site visitors call or email you at the click of a button .Get feedback from site visitors The list goes on, What will we do next?”
Zinadoo, rather, is a new kind of mobile community. The promote and enhance mobile communities by proving the user with a single, unique application which allows you to create, publish, costumize and share your very own mobile site. You can sign up for a free website, use their provided customization options, and then send out invitations to your friends to view it. From there, you can SMS for your friends, interact with the people who are visiting your page, create polls and much more.
More at:www.zinadoo.com
Zinadoo, rather, is a new kind of mobile community. The promote and enhance mobile communities by proving the user with a single, unique application which allows you to create, publish, costumize and share your very own mobile site. You can sign up for a free website, use their provided customization options, and then send out invitations to your friends to view it. From there, you can SMS for your friends, interact with the people who are visiting your page, create polls and much more.
More at:www.zinadoo.com
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Moodmill
Mood Mill is a social mood management website. Who made this site wanted to know mood fast. He found out that he was very lazy to update blog (2 blog sites had already abandoned). He want a good personal mood management, a log, a quick ‘n easy website for managing and sharing my short logs.
The research and development continued. The mock-up was done in October 2006. After hair-pulling domain search phase (nearly 1 month), the project officially named: Mood Mill.
Due to the lacking of spare time, the project was abandoned for nearly 3 months. Just the moment before he decided to launch it, Twitter launched! He was thinking that Mood Mill really needed more developers, especially a decent designer and a programmer. The condition was: 80% code, 0% design.
The search for a team didn’t go quite well. One local ex-office mate designer said no, another ex-office mate designer never gave an answer. And yet another ex-office mate designer said yes but she never worked it out eventually.
Finally, when Christine (ex-office mate programmer) joined the Mood Mill wagon, He decided to stop searching for any designer. Both’ve decided that she will focus on the code and I’ll take care of the design & marketing.
So here we are, ready to begin our dream.
Here:http://www.moodmill.com/
Felix Widjaja - he considers himself as a web technology activist, mac enthusiast & sushi lover. Spends his time reading news feeds, dating his lovely girl, playing Warcraft III while thinking what’s the next web big thing while putting up ideas for moodmill.
The research and development continued. The mock-up was done in October 2006. After hair-pulling domain search phase (nearly 1 month), the project officially named: Mood Mill.
Due to the lacking of spare time, the project was abandoned for nearly 3 months. Just the moment before he decided to launch it, Twitter launched! He was thinking that Mood Mill really needed more developers, especially a decent designer and a programmer. The condition was: 80% code, 0% design.
The search for a team didn’t go quite well. One local ex-office mate designer said no, another ex-office mate designer never gave an answer. And yet another ex-office mate designer said yes but she never worked it out eventually.
Finally, when Christine (ex-office mate programmer) joined the Mood Mill wagon, He decided to stop searching for any designer. Both’ve decided that she will focus on the code and I’ll take care of the design & marketing.
So here we are, ready to begin our dream.
Here:http://www.moodmill.com/
Felix Widjaja - he considers himself as a web technology activist, mac enthusiast & sushi lover. Spends his time reading news feeds, dating his lovely girl, playing Warcraft III while thinking what’s the next web big thing while putting up ideas for moodmill.
Code Generator
Generating code and scripts will save time and give you the fine grain control of being able to modify the code to suit your business needs. GENNIT code is FXCOP"d, Unit Tested and uses solid industrial stength foundations (ActiveRecord, NHibernate). There"s no black box with GENNIT, you get all the code in a ZIP file ready to be built and run. What you get with GENNIT: Access to tested generators, a designer for building your project, FXCOP"d source files, XHTML, NUnit Testing Code, VS.NET 2005/Express solution files and SQL scripts. Does it Work?: The proof is in the pudding! GENNIT web site and account management was built on top of a code generated DAL using the same templates available here."
http://www.tangler.com/group/7951
http://www.tangler.com/group/7951
Photobucket has created a new application for Facebook–Photobucket Postcards can now be sent to your friends on Facebook’s social networking site.
Photobucket has created a new application for Facebook–Photobucket Postcards can now be sent to your friends on Facebook’s social networking site.
With Photobucket Postcards, you can send an image, slideshow, mashup or video with a greeting attached. You can use your own Photobucket media, or choose from Photobucket’s images and videos catalog for your postcard, which is searchable directly on Facebook. Friends will need to install this application in order to view the postcard you sent. You can also add a postcard to your own profile. From here, friends will be able to forward postcards to other friends, or view the full size on Photobucket. This all works in the same manner as gifting other friends; unless you change your settings for this app, your postcard and who you sent it to will show in your feeds.
While the postcards you add to your own profile are saved, it would be handy to save those sent to friends as well. And while the other slide show creators like Slide and RockYou already have Facebook apps, this is the first for Photobucket. Considering its acquisition by MySpace, and MySpace’s own views on widgets, we’re rather surprised to see a Photobucket application on Facebook at all.
More at:http://apps.facebook.com
Via -mas
With Photobucket Postcards, you can send an image, slideshow, mashup or video with a greeting attached. You can use your own Photobucket media, or choose from Photobucket’s images and videos catalog for your postcard, which is searchable directly on Facebook. Friends will need to install this application in order to view the postcard you sent. You can also add a postcard to your own profile. From here, friends will be able to forward postcards to other friends, or view the full size on Photobucket. This all works in the same manner as gifting other friends; unless you change your settings for this app, your postcard and who you sent it to will show in your feeds.
While the postcards you add to your own profile are saved, it would be handy to save those sent to friends as well. And while the other slide show creators like Slide and RockYou already have Facebook apps, this is the first for Photobucket. Considering its acquisition by MySpace, and MySpace’s own views on widgets, we’re rather surprised to see a Photobucket application on Facebook at all.
More at:http://apps.facebook.com
Via -mas
Cluztr
Cluztr takes it to the web by tracking every site you visit online through your browser. Not only that, it also keeps a history log or “clickstream” of all those sites. One word of advice, avoid visiting sites that your mother would not think much of, as it’s all out there for your friends to view. Cluztr installs a plug-in to your FireFox or Flock browser (sorry IE and Safari users, Cluztr is hopeful for a mid to late 2007 release) where it then captures your entire web surfing history and compiles it into your “clickstream” which you are free to share or publish on the web for all your friends to see. There are also social functions built into the sidebar which allow for posting of messages for that specific site which other users can see when visiting that same site.
For more :http://www.cluztr.com/
(Via)-Mashable
For more :http://www.cluztr.com/
(Via)-Mashable
Saturday, June 16, 2007
iphone Boom Could Create Good Business Opporunities
Core Cases has been developing and selling metal cases for consumer electronics since 1999. Now the tiny company is designing at least six products for the iPhone, including what it calls the "fusion case," which uses a combination of metal and other materials to protect the phone. It expects to sell about 25,000 of these cases, helping double revenues this year.
More at:http://corecases.com/
2.
IStyles has been making and marketing iPod fashion accessories for the last three years and just launched a new collection of sleeves to hold the iPhone. The company, which relies mostly on wholesale and e-commerce sales of fashion accessories for various gadgets, also intends to launch patterned skins for the iPhone once the device is released. "We can't estimate the success of the device, but if the iPod is any indication, Apple will soon be a dominant player in the mobile-phone market by the second or third revision of the iPhone, and we want to be in on the bandwagon starting from revision one," says Ming Keong Kuan, the business's director.
More at:http://www.istyles.com/
More at:http://corecases.com/
2.
IStyles has been making and marketing iPod fashion accessories for the last three years and just launched a new collection of sleeves to hold the iPhone. The company, which relies mostly on wholesale and e-commerce sales of fashion accessories for various gadgets, also intends to launch patterned skins for the iPhone once the device is released. "We can't estimate the success of the device, but if the iPod is any indication, Apple will soon be a dominant player in the mobile-phone market by the second or third revision of the iPhone, and we want to be in on the bandwagon starting from revision one," says Ming Keong Kuan, the business's director.
More at:http://www.istyles.com/
Sites Personality
How about giving site as a form of personality which can impress others from head to heart.I 'm still finding the best way to develop a site personality as I'm just teen in that field but here are lot of sites which have full blown personality and their charm speaks louder.Here are few:
http://www.demotivation.com/
http://www.despair.com/
http://www.surefiremarketing.com/
http://www.demotivation.com/
http://www.despair.com/
http://www.surefiremarketing.com/
Become.com provides to be your favorite site for online shopping, as they combine product research with comparison shopping
Thats What They claim"Search and shopping in one easy to use site. Frustrated with researching products on the web? Tired of time-wasting spam results from general search engines? Exhausted from scouring the web for the best products and prices? Well, so are we! That"s why we created Become.com: the only fully integrated Web-wide product search and comparison shopping site on the Internet. Become.com is fast and easy to use whether you are researching what to buy or simply deciding whom to buy it from. Here"s a quick look at some of the powerful, intuitive features on our site. Our relevant research results save you time We designed our search engine with your shopping needs in mind. We"ve reduced the spam and irrelevant results that general search engines produce. We know that Become.com users are focused on researching and/or buying products so we eliminate results that don"t fit the bill. We crawl over 3.2 billion web pages to bring you current buying guides, expert reviews, consumer reviews, articles, specifications, forums, merchants, and a variety of other useful information to help you make better buying decisions. Zoom in on what you want. We can fine tune your search results even further by giving you the specific types of information you want. Only want to read buying guides? Prefer to focus on technical specifications? Love reading discussions between real customers? Then click on our new Search Zoom feature and we"ll prioritize your results that way. No other site can zoom in on your search requirements the way Become.com can. You"ll find this feature at the top of your search results page. Choose the button that delivers the results you want: all results; product reviews; buying guides; discussion forums; product details."
More at:Here
More at:Here
Business Or Company Who Want To Make His Brand Of Channel
PermissionTV Says Quote" is a media technology company that empowers media brands and video content owners to create one-to-one relationships with their audience. Our quality Internet video publishing platform is used to build profitable on-demand broadband TV audiences. Media companies use PermissionTV to configure and manage their own branded Internet TV channels and monetize their audience through ad-supported, pay-per-view and subscription-based services. Viewers love the high-quality experience that PermissionTV delivers. With PermissionTV, you offer top-notch video programming accessed at will by measurable audiences. PermissionTV: your profitable video platform on the web."
PermissionTV is aimed at those businesses who want to create their own online video programming or their own internet TV channel. It simplies the creation and management of branded internet TV programming by providing its own video player and content management tools so a business can integrate their brand name into a professionally produced video, while making money from that program as well.
More at: Here
PermissionTV is aimed at those businesses who want to create their own online video programming or their own internet TV channel. It simplies the creation and management of branded internet TV programming by providing its own video player and content management tools so a business can integrate their brand name into a professionally produced video, while making money from that program as well.
More at: Here
Blurb offers free software to create, publish, and ultimately market bookstore-quality books
In past there were so many writers and poets died without publishing their cherished work due to unwillingness of publishers who most of the time bought or published only selected works but internet and blogging has changed all ,in that direction Blurb is another addition. Blurb offers free software to create, publish, and ultimately market bookstore-quality books. Users pay only when they publish their books. Given that their are million blogs out there, Blurb believes they are providing a long-overdue service that could help bloggers and other writers turn their ramblings into actual for-sale books. This is a populist site and exactly why the internet is revolutionizing so many industries, from art to politics. The site is well-funded, well-designed and great fun.
Blurb is a company and a community that believes passionately in the joy of books – reading them, making them, sharing them, and selling them. Holding a finished book with your name on the cover is a truly amazing feeling; it"s one of those experiences everyone should have. we put our minds together, and developed a creative publishing service simple and smart enough to make anyone an author – every blogger, cook, photographer, parent, traveler, poet, pet owner, marketer, everyone.
More at: www.blurb.com
Blurb is a company and a community that believes passionately in the joy of books – reading them, making them, sharing them, and selling them. Holding a finished book with your name on the cover is a truly amazing feeling; it"s one of those experiences everyone should have. we put our minds together, and developed a creative publishing service simple and smart enough to make anyone an author – every blogger, cook, photographer, parent, traveler, poet, pet owner, marketer, everyone.
More at: www.blurb.com
Friday, June 15, 2007
Find The Professionals And Get The Job Done
Elance is an online agency that matches technical, design and other professionals with businesses needing such services. Project “owners” post their requirements and service providers bid on them. The company was founded in 1999, currently receives 130,000 unique visitors per week, and matches 2,500 projects with service providers every week.
Elance launched in 1999 as an “eBay for outsourcing”, a marketplace where project sellers could shop for professionals to get the work done, and vice versa. The company raised $80M, $60M at the height of the bubble, only to see the market collapse. Worse, at the time “outsourcing” was viewed by many as distasteful and distributed workforces were not well understood. Due to all of these factors the online marketplace struggled.
One bright spot, however, was in large corporations. Although Elance was founded to bring outsourced, decentralized workforces to a range of businesses, it found that big companies were the segment of the market that had most embraced the concept. Many of these companies had engaged the services of numerous contractors, yet had no reliable systems to manage their distributed workforces.
In 2001, then, Elance both scaled down to conserve its cash and refocused on the opportunity to serve large corporations. It kept the online marketplace, but put its principal energy behind the development of an enterprise software package to permit big companies to manage and track contract workers. By 2005 the enterprise software product was used by 200,000 employees of companies such as American Express, BP, FedEx and GE, to procure manage over $10B of contract work.
In 2005 Elance perceived that the enterprise software industry had started to consolidate while the general public had come to understand and accept distributed workforces. Elance then re-evaluated its product line and decided to return to the original business idea by selling the enterprise suite to ClickCommerce for a reported $15M. Elance’s CEO Fabio Rosati described this product arc as a “long detour” on the road to deployment of the founders’ original vision.
Elance could have sold off or simply abandoned the marketplace product to simplify its operational workload. I asked Rosati why the company didn’t do this, and he told me that the company analyzed the situation and concluded that the marketplace, if properly managed, would not damage the enterprise product or divert undue resources from it (in cash or personnel). That being the case, there was no reason to abandon the possible long-term opportunity it represented.
The founders and investors originally envisioned the idea of a broad market to match many thousands of service sellers with buyers. The enterprise software “detour” secured the company’s survival during the dot com meltdown and culminated in the sale of the enterprise suite for $15M, a return of less than 20% of investors’ capital but more than adequate to fund future growth. If Elance’s only product line were enterprise software it would be deemed a less-than-successful exit for the company. Maintaining and returning to the original idea, however, gives the company another chance to fulfill the original vision.
Elance’s early vision caused it to launch before the market was ready. As noted earlier, I suspect that many companies have the same problem and need to adapt. Elance adapted by reviewing the market landscape and developing a product to satisfy the immediate revenue-generating opportunity. Many businesses may be able to develop a service offering that can bring steady cash flow sooner, and fund development of the original product.
At the same time, keeping the original product rather than changing the business model entirely gave the company a chance to evolve with the market. Elance’s strategy illustrates one way a company can be flexible and capitalize on available opportunities while preserving a range of options for the future.
More at:http://www.elance.com/
Elance launched in 1999 as an “eBay for outsourcing”, a marketplace where project sellers could shop for professionals to get the work done, and vice versa. The company raised $80M, $60M at the height of the bubble, only to see the market collapse. Worse, at the time “outsourcing” was viewed by many as distasteful and distributed workforces were not well understood. Due to all of these factors the online marketplace struggled.
One bright spot, however, was in large corporations. Although Elance was founded to bring outsourced, decentralized workforces to a range of businesses, it found that big companies were the segment of the market that had most embraced the concept. Many of these companies had engaged the services of numerous contractors, yet had no reliable systems to manage their distributed workforces.
In 2001, then, Elance both scaled down to conserve its cash and refocused on the opportunity to serve large corporations. It kept the online marketplace, but put its principal energy behind the development of an enterprise software package to permit big companies to manage and track contract workers. By 2005 the enterprise software product was used by 200,000 employees of companies such as American Express, BP, FedEx and GE, to procure manage over $10B of contract work.
In 2005 Elance perceived that the enterprise software industry had started to consolidate while the general public had come to understand and accept distributed workforces. Elance then re-evaluated its product line and decided to return to the original business idea by selling the enterprise suite to ClickCommerce for a reported $15M. Elance’s CEO Fabio Rosati described this product arc as a “long detour” on the road to deployment of the founders’ original vision.
Elance could have sold off or simply abandoned the marketplace product to simplify its operational workload. I asked Rosati why the company didn’t do this, and he told me that the company analyzed the situation and concluded that the marketplace, if properly managed, would not damage the enterprise product or divert undue resources from it (in cash or personnel). That being the case, there was no reason to abandon the possible long-term opportunity it represented.
The founders and investors originally envisioned the idea of a broad market to match many thousands of service sellers with buyers. The enterprise software “detour” secured the company’s survival during the dot com meltdown and culminated in the sale of the enterprise suite for $15M, a return of less than 20% of investors’ capital but more than adequate to fund future growth. If Elance’s only product line were enterprise software it would be deemed a less-than-successful exit for the company. Maintaining and returning to the original idea, however, gives the company another chance to fulfill the original vision.
Elance’s early vision caused it to launch before the market was ready. As noted earlier, I suspect that many companies have the same problem and need to adapt. Elance adapted by reviewing the market landscape and developing a product to satisfy the immediate revenue-generating opportunity. Many businesses may be able to develop a service offering that can bring steady cash flow sooner, and fund development of the original product.
At the same time, keeping the original product rather than changing the business model entirely gave the company a chance to evolve with the market. Elance’s strategy illustrates one way a company can be flexible and capitalize on available opportunities while preserving a range of options for the future.
More at:http://www.elance.com/
On Becoming Entreprenuer
I always wonder and sometimes get amused when I see people who are exceptionally successful in their respective field.But,one thing is quite common among all of them or most of them,whether they are scientist,artist,film makers,politicians or entreprenuers.
They had always a different vision and they are quite apart in passion of their work,approach,excutation and most of them far ahead from their time.Since childhood I love ,admire and follow those people who have different vision or look towards life and work.I always wanted to be an artist or entreprenuer.On net ,I found million of people who had vision and drive but lack direction how to excute it.Only those people achieve who fiercely believe in what they think or say.As John Chow prove it,he love to say "the best entreprenuer idea is which have minimum input and maximum output".As far example ,John Chow himeslf who become millionaire and how much he had invested?Do you know?Just registered his domain name for $8.Making money with his different idea or vision.So the ultimate winner in the race of entreprenuership is,Vision or Idea is king,no matter,how weird it looks at first.When Sabir Bhatia of hotmail fame went for selling his "e-mail vision",many Vcs laughed at him Or king of all entreprenuership is Richard Branson who took world by storm with his all wierd ideas.I update everyday in my blog about new start ups but many of them just copy others idea.I"ll keep saying to those person who are keen to jump in any creative field or in pure entreprenuership.Vision or idea must be original ,its not important how much time you waste on investing on it.At last it bound to rock....
They had always a different vision and they are quite apart in passion of their work,approach,excutation and most of them far ahead from their time.Since childhood I love ,admire and follow those people who have different vision or look towards life and work.I always wanted to be an artist or entreprenuer.On net ,I found million of people who had vision and drive but lack direction how to excute it.Only those people achieve who fiercely believe in what they think or say.As John Chow prove it,he love to say "the best entreprenuer idea is which have minimum input and maximum output".As far example ,John Chow himeslf who become millionaire and how much he had invested?Do you know?Just registered his domain name for $8.Making money with his different idea or vision.So the ultimate winner in the race of entreprenuership is,Vision or Idea is king,no matter,how weird it looks at first.When Sabir Bhatia of hotmail fame went for selling his "e-mail vision",many Vcs laughed at him Or king of all entreprenuership is Richard Branson who took world by storm with his all wierd ideas.I update everyday in my blog about new start ups but many of them just copy others idea.I"ll keep saying to those person who are keen to jump in any creative field or in pure entreprenuership.Vision or idea must be original ,its not important how much time you waste on investing on it.At last it bound to rock....
Geezeo is an online community and service that operates around helping you track your personal finances.
Geezeo is an online community and service that operates around helping you track your personal finances.
You can create accounts within Geezeo to connect to your checking and savings, student loans, car payments, brokerage payments, credit cards, and mortgage. Now Geezeo will keep track of all your transactions and balances for you, giving you an at-a-glance view of your debt as well as your balances in a consolidated manner. Geezeo can also send you account balances on your mobile phone via text messaging.
More than a tracking service, Geezeo is also a community, where groups can be formed for users to discuss planning and spending behavior, hints and tips. You have the option of sharing your personal information with other users to get advice and feedback. With this social structure integrated into Geezeo, adding a blog option for users wouldn’t hurt. Geezeo is currently a bit focused on students, but could easily extend its service to just about anyone else, offering tailored advice and planning and tracking tools for those looking to buy a home, new car, or start a family.
More at:https://www.geezeo.com/
Via-Mashable
You can create accounts within Geezeo to connect to your checking and savings, student loans, car payments, brokerage payments, credit cards, and mortgage. Now Geezeo will keep track of all your transactions and balances for you, giving you an at-a-glance view of your debt as well as your balances in a consolidated manner. Geezeo can also send you account balances on your mobile phone via text messaging.
More than a tracking service, Geezeo is also a community, where groups can be formed for users to discuss planning and spending behavior, hints and tips. You have the option of sharing your personal information with other users to get advice and feedback. With this social structure integrated into Geezeo, adding a blog option for users wouldn’t hurt. Geezeo is currently a bit focused on students, but could easily extend its service to just about anyone else, offering tailored advice and planning and tracking tools for those looking to buy a home, new car, or start a family.
More at:https://www.geezeo.com/
Via-Mashable
Cuts.com
Cuts.com lets anyone edit and annotate online video. The site's CutMaker software lets members import an existing video and save only the clips of interest. Clip producers can add captions and sound effects before republishing the video to the Cuts.com website or across the Web using an embedded Flash player.
Its rivals are jumpcut and vSocial.
More at:http://cuts.com/blog/
Its rivals are jumpcut and vSocial.
More at:http://cuts.com/blog/
Pipeline Deals
Pipeline Deals is a hosted CRM and sales tracking product. Small businesses can keep track of key contacts, open leads, outstanding payments, and upcoming tasks. A single user account is available at no cost. Paid accounts receive unlimited deal tracking, secure web access, and other premium features.Highrise and Streetsmarts are their competitors.
More at:http://downtownecommerce.com/
More at:http://downtownecommerce.com/
Become Millionaire Through "Artoprenuer"
After launching a successful natural-gas and electricity brokerage firm on Wall Street in the 1990s, Bruce Silverstein was making a seven-figure income by his mid-20s. But while he enjoyed building the business, the trading world left him miserable. "I couldn't convert any of the money into happiness," he says.
Though not yet financially secure enough to retire, Mr. Silverstein amassed enough of a cushion to take a risk with a business that tapped into his real passion in life: photography. He quit trading and, in April 2001, opened a small gallery in a 500-square-foot studio on the first floor of a townhouse on West 22nd Street in New York; today, Silverstein Photography is in a space 10 times that size a few blocks away, on the hottest block in the sizzling Chelsea art district, selling works from iconographic photographers like the late Hungarian-born André Kertész alongside edgy emerging artists.
Ditching the corporate life to pursue a personal passion is a dream for many executives and entrepreneurs, whether they make a windfall on Wall Street, take a golden parachute or sell their start-up. And if that passion can translate into more financial success, all the better. Of all the passions to cash in on, the art market seems a potent place to make a second fortune these days: A flood of new collectors and a weak U.S. dollar have driven prices to new highs. Photography prices, though not in the same stratosphere as paintings, are setting records, especially for the vintage prints in which Mr. Silverstein specializes. Some fine-art photographs that sold for a few thousand dollars in the 1980s can now fetch $1 million or more.
But as Mr. Silverstein and others who have jumped into the art business can attest, it takes deep pockets, patience and plenty of determination to break into the famously clubby art world -- and higher prices are translating into more competitive scrambles for salable works. Finding and nurturing new artists whose work can sell at prices high enough to justify mounting their shows is tough. And outside major cities, luring buyers is a challenge.
Just ask Ben Gall, who left a career heading smaller high-technology companies and, at age 54, started Holland Art House in 2002 in West Chester, Pa., a historic city 25 miles southwest of Philadelphia. Born in the Netherlands, he wanted to sell works of the contemporary Dutch artists he collected, including abstract landscape painter Luc Leestemaker. But it was a tough slog in a competitive market, where 12 galleries that started in recent years have been whittled to three.
Mr. Gall closed his gallery in 2005, and is now trying his luck with a venue called The Arts Scene, which he opened a few miles out of town. It includes lower-priced emerging artists, a frame shop, a café and musical events. Says Mr. Gall: "If you want to do something for artists and promote more progressive art outside big cities, don't ever expect to make money or do more than break even."
Laura Grenning, a former Wall Street analyst, has had better luck with the gallery she opened a decade ago at age 32 in Sag Harbor, N.Y., close to the fashionable Hamptons. She specializes in contemporary artists including Paul Rafferty, Walter Us and Nelson H. White, who paint in a classic style, with prices ranging from $1,000 to $45,000. She lost money the first three years, and has had good and bad years since. But she is now able to contemplate buying a larger building and diversifying into sculpture. "The last two years have been great," she says, allowing her to work on her own paintings, some of which she has sold.
Mr. Silverstein, who turns 40 Monday, had an early influence: His father, Larry Silver, was a commercial photographer whose award-winning artistic and documentary works appear in museums. Mr. Silverstein started collecting in 1993 when he began earning money from brokering natural-gas contracts, spending his spare time exploring the history of photography. His timing was perfect; vintage prints by famous photographers such as Walker Evans, who documented the Depression, and Harry Callahan's intimate portraits and streetscapes could be had for as little as $3,000.
He couldn't afford a big inventory at first, so he started his gallery with works on consignment from other dealers, including the lesser known early works of Aaron Siskind, a documentary photographer who made the transition to abstract expressionism. And he struck a deal to represent the estate of Mr. Kertész, whose still-lifes, portraits and street scenes of Budapest, Paris and New York from about 1915 until his death in 1985 are in leading museums. He was the sole employee, designing his Web site, doing framing, sending out invitations, hanging his own shows -- and mopping the floors. "I worked as hard as I could and immediately saw the benefits and mistakes," he says. "It was great." (He now has four other employees.)
Mr. Silverstein also made some astute purchases, paying $145,000 at auction for a work by eccentric Boston photographer F. Holland Day in which he depicts himself as the dying Christ in seven portraits. Though he was a bit nervous -- no one was bidding against him -- he got his validation when the Whitney Museum of American Art borrowed the series as the centerpiece of a show last March titled "Photography and the Self: the Legacy of F. Holland Day." Though Mr. Silverstein won't estimate what he thinks he could sell the picture for now, he smiles and says, "It could be worth considerably more."
Collectors who buy regularly from Mr. Silverstein say the business skills he honed on Wall Street have served him well.
More at:http://www.silversteinphotography.com/
Via_(http://uncommonbusiness.blogspot.com/)
Though not yet financially secure enough to retire, Mr. Silverstein amassed enough of a cushion to take a risk with a business that tapped into his real passion in life: photography. He quit trading and, in April 2001, opened a small gallery in a 500-square-foot studio on the first floor of a townhouse on West 22nd Street in New York; today, Silverstein Photography is in a space 10 times that size a few blocks away, on the hottest block in the sizzling Chelsea art district, selling works from iconographic photographers like the late Hungarian-born André Kertész alongside edgy emerging artists.
Ditching the corporate life to pursue a personal passion is a dream for many executives and entrepreneurs, whether they make a windfall on Wall Street, take a golden parachute or sell their start-up. And if that passion can translate into more financial success, all the better. Of all the passions to cash in on, the art market seems a potent place to make a second fortune these days: A flood of new collectors and a weak U.S. dollar have driven prices to new highs. Photography prices, though not in the same stratosphere as paintings, are setting records, especially for the vintage prints in which Mr. Silverstein specializes. Some fine-art photographs that sold for a few thousand dollars in the 1980s can now fetch $1 million or more.
But as Mr. Silverstein and others who have jumped into the art business can attest, it takes deep pockets, patience and plenty of determination to break into the famously clubby art world -- and higher prices are translating into more competitive scrambles for salable works. Finding and nurturing new artists whose work can sell at prices high enough to justify mounting their shows is tough. And outside major cities, luring buyers is a challenge.
Just ask Ben Gall, who left a career heading smaller high-technology companies and, at age 54, started Holland Art House in 2002 in West Chester, Pa., a historic city 25 miles southwest of Philadelphia. Born in the Netherlands, he wanted to sell works of the contemporary Dutch artists he collected, including abstract landscape painter Luc Leestemaker. But it was a tough slog in a competitive market, where 12 galleries that started in recent years have been whittled to three.
Mr. Gall closed his gallery in 2005, and is now trying his luck with a venue called The Arts Scene, which he opened a few miles out of town. It includes lower-priced emerging artists, a frame shop, a café and musical events. Says Mr. Gall: "If you want to do something for artists and promote more progressive art outside big cities, don't ever expect to make money or do more than break even."
Laura Grenning, a former Wall Street analyst, has had better luck with the gallery she opened a decade ago at age 32 in Sag Harbor, N.Y., close to the fashionable Hamptons. She specializes in contemporary artists including Paul Rafferty, Walter Us and Nelson H. White, who paint in a classic style, with prices ranging from $1,000 to $45,000. She lost money the first three years, and has had good and bad years since. But she is now able to contemplate buying a larger building and diversifying into sculpture. "The last two years have been great," she says, allowing her to work on her own paintings, some of which she has sold.
Mr. Silverstein, who turns 40 Monday, had an early influence: His father, Larry Silver, was a commercial photographer whose award-winning artistic and documentary works appear in museums. Mr. Silverstein started collecting in 1993 when he began earning money from brokering natural-gas contracts, spending his spare time exploring the history of photography. His timing was perfect; vintage prints by famous photographers such as Walker Evans, who documented the Depression, and Harry Callahan's intimate portraits and streetscapes could be had for as little as $3,000.
He couldn't afford a big inventory at first, so he started his gallery with works on consignment from other dealers, including the lesser known early works of Aaron Siskind, a documentary photographer who made the transition to abstract expressionism. And he struck a deal to represent the estate of Mr. Kertész, whose still-lifes, portraits and street scenes of Budapest, Paris and New York from about 1915 until his death in 1985 are in leading museums. He was the sole employee, designing his Web site, doing framing, sending out invitations, hanging his own shows -- and mopping the floors. "I worked as hard as I could and immediately saw the benefits and mistakes," he says. "It was great." (He now has four other employees.)
Mr. Silverstein also made some astute purchases, paying $145,000 at auction for a work by eccentric Boston photographer F. Holland Day in which he depicts himself as the dying Christ in seven portraits. Though he was a bit nervous -- no one was bidding against him -- he got his validation when the Whitney Museum of American Art borrowed the series as the centerpiece of a show last March titled "Photography and the Self: the Legacy of F. Holland Day." Though Mr. Silverstein won't estimate what he thinks he could sell the picture for now, he smiles and says, "It could be worth considerably more."
Collectors who buy regularly from Mr. Silverstein say the business skills he honed on Wall Street have served him well.
More at:http://www.silversteinphotography.com/
Via_(http://uncommonbusiness.blogspot.com/)
Thursday, June 14, 2007
The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch
Ryan Allis, the 22 year old CEO of North Carolina-based iContact was interviewed the other day on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch on CNBC. Ryan offers some great advice for young entrepreneurs and talks about his entrepreneurial background. Here is the video clip:
Clip: Here
Clip: Here
ON Building The Next Billion Dollor Company In Massachusetts
Interested people can join conference.Here
Promote Your Business And Start Up At Jump.com
JumpUp.com — is a small business community created by Intuit for small business owners. The community is designed to assist you in getting your business up and running quickly by providing the support and networking needed to promote your new business.
FREE tools and services – are available at Jumpup.com. Some of which are sample business plans, a starting cost calculator, and an interactive business planner.
You can request — to appear on JumpUp.com’s Small Business Spotlight page for additional visibility and promotion of your business.
The JumpUp.com forum — is a great place to participate and share or gain access to knowledge, advice, and tips, from other small business owners and entrepreneurs.
You can bookmark — website pages in JumpUp.com and benefit from Intuit’s performance and page rank, which also helps you to gain visibility for your business.
More at:http://jumpup.intuit.com/
FREE tools and services – are available at Jumpup.com. Some of which are sample business plans, a starting cost calculator, and an interactive business planner.
You can request — to appear on JumpUp.com’s Small Business Spotlight page for additional visibility and promotion of your business.
The JumpUp.com forum — is a great place to participate and share or gain access to knowledge, advice, and tips, from other small business owners and entrepreneurs.
You can bookmark — website pages in JumpUp.com and benefit from Intuit’s performance and page rank, which also helps you to gain visibility for your business.
More at:http://jumpup.intuit.com/
SiteTradr
SiteTradr allows educators to post their favorite web sites in an educational community forum with other educators from around the world. Search SiteTradr to find sites that have been tested and approved by other educators.
More at:http://sitetradr.com/
More at:http://sitetradr.com/
Audio Search
Thats for those people who were till then wondering how to search audio.To find a certain song, or audio clip, and surfing the web just isn’t cutting it? Skreemr can help you find the song you are looking for. It is a search engine for only audio files on the web. Currently, the search results only include MP3 files, but in the future more file types will be available. Other site features that are available to users include a suggestion page, where users can suggest a song or blog to be included by providing a direct link to the MP3 file, or the URL of the blog. Users also can search MP3 files in the most popular page, where it provides results of the most popular searches. The MP3 is played in a flash player, requires no downloads, and is free to listen to. Each song is accompanied with a pop-up window that includes information about the song, such as artist, year, album cover and others.
More at:http://www.skreemr.com/
More at:http://www.skreemr.com/
xalead is an alternative search engine with lot of new features which is not in any other search engines
xalead is an alternative search engine with lot of new features which is not in any other search engines. First thing is the ability to customize shortcuts; you’ll be able to access your favorite sites from within Exalead; if you have an account, your preferences will be accessible from any computer. Other features include phonetic search, if you don’t know how to spell a word, type it out phonetically and Exalead will find results that sound like what you typed. Search for topics in a specific language or date. Search by prefix or specific sites. With Exalead you can search over four million videos and images. Narrow your image search by specifying size, width, height and you can even search for faces only. All Exalead results show a thumbnail preview. A side panel lets you narrow your search further by related terms, site type, media, language and file type. Advanced search functionality lets you filter searches by date, country and terms. Exalead can also be used to search your desktop. There are widgets for your blog, for Mac and PC. Overall, Exalead packs a decent punch.
More at:http://www.exalead.com/search
More at:http://www.exalead.com/search
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
incuby
incuby is an online community for
inventors to show the world
their innovations.
More at:http://www.incuby.com/
inventors to show the world
their innovations.
More at:http://www.incuby.com/
ArenaAsia,All About Business Networking
ArebaAsia is an online place where you can show to market your ptofile and experties,skill etc and start business networking in asia.
Professional success is usually driven by the personal relationships you have and your contributions in it. It’s not just about who you know. ArenAsia is an online place that will let you do just that in Asia! Create a profile and a showcase to market your skills and business. Find people, join groups and meet at events to expand your network in Asia. Share business expertise and news via blogs and comments to build reputation and get discovered.
More at:http://www.arenasia.com/
Professional success is usually driven by the personal relationships you have and your contributions in it. It’s not just about who you know. ArenAsia is an online place that will let you do just that in Asia! Create a profile and a showcase to market your skills and business. Find people, join groups and meet at events to expand your network in Asia. Share business expertise and news via blogs and comments to build reputation and get discovered.
More at:http://www.arenasia.com/
Unique Business Idea About How To Gain From Single People
Singles are into anything that can make their lives easier, says Peg Samuel, founder of Social Diva, a New York City-based event marketing company. Samuel, 36, reports on the hottest trends for single women in Atlanta, Miami and New York City via her website, www.socialdiva.com, building her business to $550,000 in annual revenue. "I'm great at finding what the demographic likes because I am the demographic," says Samuel. "The challenge with so many opportunities is making sure you're catching them all."
More than 89 million unmarried adults in the U.S. are single and loving it. Most, according to experts, are not spending every minute looking for a mate, but enjoying life in the now. Census figures reveal that for the first time in history, more than half of women are single, says Thomas F. Coleman, director of Unmarried America, an informational resource for unmarried people. "You hear the word single and you think partygoers," says Coleman. "Most single people have a lot more on their minds than that."
Singles are thinking about work, family, home, leisure time, retirement--everything married folks do. Coleman cites market opportunities for homebuilders to cater to single home-buyers. Home improvement products could be a niche as well. Financial services and insurance products are also important to singles, notes Jennifer Ganshirt, senior vice president and director of strategic planning for Frank About Women, a marketing firm specializing in female consumers. "Older single women in particular have the means, so give them the opportunity to invest in luxury-type purchases," says Ganshirt. Industries such as travel and food hold other possible niches.
More at:http://www.socialdiva.com/
More than 89 million unmarried adults in the U.S. are single and loving it. Most, according to experts, are not spending every minute looking for a mate, but enjoying life in the now. Census figures reveal that for the first time in history, more than half of women are single, says Thomas F. Coleman, director of Unmarried America, an informational resource for unmarried people. "You hear the word single and you think partygoers," says Coleman. "Most single people have a lot more on their minds than that."
Singles are thinking about work, family, home, leisure time, retirement--everything married folks do. Coleman cites market opportunities for homebuilders to cater to single home-buyers. Home improvement products could be a niche as well. Financial services and insurance products are also important to singles, notes Jennifer Ganshirt, senior vice president and director of strategic planning for Frank About Women, a marketing firm specializing in female consumers. "Older single women in particular have the means, so give them the opportunity to invest in luxury-type purchases," says Ganshirt. Industries such as travel and food hold other possible niches.
More at:http://www.socialdiva.com/
One Click
“Sxipper is a free Firefox extension that saves you time on the web enabling you to easily control the release and management of your identity data. With a single click, Sxipper is trained to securely log you in with a username or an Identity 2.0 authentication mechanism such as OpenID.”
Are you tired of always having to fill in the same information when logging into sites, or when registering online? Well, now you can save time by using Sxipper. It is a free Firefox add-on that lets you login into any website with just one click. It stores all the users’ passwords and usernames securely in the users computer, and when the user is confronted with a form to fill out, Sxipper takes the users personal data it was provided with, and fills in the form for the user. Users can create multiple personas, whereas, when filling out a form they can opt to use professional info, personal, or private, depending upon the form they are filling out. At every login or form, users are able to choose which information they want shared and what they don’t want shared.
More at:http://www.sxipper.com/
Are you tired of always having to fill in the same information when logging into sites, or when registering online? Well, now you can save time by using Sxipper. It is a free Firefox add-on that lets you login into any website with just one click. It stores all the users’ passwords and usernames securely in the users computer, and when the user is confronted with a form to fill out, Sxipper takes the users personal data it was provided with, and fills in the form for the user. Users can create multiple personas, whereas, when filling out a form they can opt to use professional info, personal, or private, depending upon the form they are filling out. At every login or form, users are able to choose which information they want shared and what they don’t want shared.
More at:http://www.sxipper.com/
Just like Microsoft Windows is the personal computing platform to manage your data, Ponoko is the personal manufacturing platform to manage your atoms
Ponoko is a creative space where people meet to buy, sell and share product designs, and make them for real. Creators can become famous, consumers can get individualized products and everyone can click to make almost any product, on demand. With no traditional manufacturers in the middle, everyone gets a better deal and the environmental impacts of manufacturing are reduced. Ponoko’s personal manufacturing platform is changing your world by connecting creators, consumers, product designs and raw materials with a global network of digital manufacturing hardware controlled direct from your PC.
Just like Microsoft Windows is the personal computing platform to manage your data, Ponoko is the personal manufacturing platform to manage your atoms.
How to make products
1) Upload your product designs to Ponoko
2) Select production materials and manufacturer
3) Get instant price and pay
4) Products made and delivered, on demand
How to sell products
1) Set licence rights and pricing
2) Display product online in the Ponoko showroom
3) Customers see, love and order it
4) Product made and delivered, on demand
More at:http://www.ponoko.com/
Just like Microsoft Windows is the personal computing platform to manage your data, Ponoko is the personal manufacturing platform to manage your atoms.
How to make products
1) Upload your product designs to Ponoko
2) Select production materials and manufacturer
3) Get instant price and pay
4) Products made and delivered, on demand
How to sell products
1) Set licence rights and pricing
2) Display product online in the Ponoko showroom
3) Customers see, love and order it
4) Product made and delivered, on demand
More at:http://www.ponoko.com/
Marketing Master Of Online Business
Patrick Pretty offers marketing tips for owners of online businesses. Discovered by famed photographer Hedda Christiansen, Patrick Pretty was voted the "Most Beautiful Little Boy In The World" in 1964. He began his career as "child spokesman" for the United States Grape Federation. When grape and raisin sales skyrocketed, Patrick Pretty was on his way. Patrick Pretty has been in the public eye for decades, having appeared on thousands of magazine covers and on more than 800 television .
More at:http://patrickpretty.com/blog.html
More at:http://patrickpretty.com/blog.html
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Gold Rush,Its Amazing Business Opportunities
This is quite literally a golden opportunity for ordinary people to launch their own businesses at low cost and make serious money’ – Laban Roomes
The picks, shovels, pans and finger callouses may have disappeared but the UK is about to witness a brand new 21st century ‘goldrush’.
A London-based businessman dubbed the ‘Ring Bling King’ after he supplied dozens of his £800, 24-carat gold plated mobile phones to dozens of superstars at the ‘Emmy Awards’ last year, is looking for ‘serious entrepreneurs’ nationwide to help grow his burgeoning GoldGenie gold-plating empire.
Laban Roomes (36) who has been mentored by multi-millionaire Yo! Sushi founder and ex-Dragon’s Den TV panellist, Simon Woodroffe, plans a nationwide roll-out of ‘GoldRush Roadshow’ events which will introduce the easy to use Goldgenie gold-plating system to independent–minded businessmen and women.
Said Roomes, who is currently filming a BBC TV programme about the global gold market: “Goldplating has become very fashionable and it’s not just mobile phones. The list is endless; golf clubs, bathroom taps, jewellery, car badges – even flowers.”
He added: “There is a massive demand out there and that’s why we have set up this new business opportunity. We plan free roadshows across the UK which will reveal the secrets of running a highly profitable business without a huge investment or the need for extensive training. This is more about prospecting with gold than prospecting for gold.”
Roomes’ business partner Terry George added: “We did our market research with the Goldgenie Pro 900 system at a recent Business Start-Up trade fair at London’s ExCeL Centre. Hundreds of people watched the demonstrations and as a result we decided to roll-out this new business opportunity.”
So how does it work and what do you get for your money?
George explained: “Serious entrepreneurs can now buy into an exclusive ‘Goldgenie Pro 900 Postcode Operator’ programme.”
The overall entry costs just £1,995 (ex VAT) and that buys rights to a designated postcode area. GoldGenie provides comprehensive product training and in addition, a full day’s marketing assistance, complete with flyers, posters and a complete DIY press release guide.
Over £2,000 worth of plating chemicals are included in the price, enabling the operator to fully recover the initial cost of buy-in. Users get the benefits of a franchise but without having to pay an ongoing monthly percentage of turnover or profit”
The GoldGenie package includes two goldplating machines, the Pro 900 and its entry level Pro 100 sibling, plus all accessories needed to get the business started.
Said Roomes: “This programme enables people to get into business at very low cost and with marginal risk.”
More at:http://www.goldgenie.co.uk/
The picks, shovels, pans and finger callouses may have disappeared but the UK is about to witness a brand new 21st century ‘goldrush’.
A London-based businessman dubbed the ‘Ring Bling King’ after he supplied dozens of his £800, 24-carat gold plated mobile phones to dozens of superstars at the ‘Emmy Awards’ last year, is looking for ‘serious entrepreneurs’ nationwide to help grow his burgeoning GoldGenie gold-plating empire.
Laban Roomes (36) who has been mentored by multi-millionaire Yo! Sushi founder and ex-Dragon’s Den TV panellist, Simon Woodroffe, plans a nationwide roll-out of ‘GoldRush Roadshow’ events which will introduce the easy to use Goldgenie gold-plating system to independent–minded businessmen and women.
Said Roomes, who is currently filming a BBC TV programme about the global gold market: “Goldplating has become very fashionable and it’s not just mobile phones. The list is endless; golf clubs, bathroom taps, jewellery, car badges – even flowers.”
He added: “There is a massive demand out there and that’s why we have set up this new business opportunity. We plan free roadshows across the UK which will reveal the secrets of running a highly profitable business without a huge investment or the need for extensive training. This is more about prospecting with gold than prospecting for gold.”
Roomes’ business partner Terry George added: “We did our market research with the Goldgenie Pro 900 system at a recent Business Start-Up trade fair at London’s ExCeL Centre. Hundreds of people watched the demonstrations and as a result we decided to roll-out this new business opportunity.”
So how does it work and what do you get for your money?
George explained: “Serious entrepreneurs can now buy into an exclusive ‘Goldgenie Pro 900 Postcode Operator’ programme.”
The overall entry costs just £1,995 (ex VAT) and that buys rights to a designated postcode area. GoldGenie provides comprehensive product training and in addition, a full day’s marketing assistance, complete with flyers, posters and a complete DIY press release guide.
Over £2,000 worth of plating chemicals are included in the price, enabling the operator to fully recover the initial cost of buy-in. Users get the benefits of a franchise but without having to pay an ongoing monthly percentage of turnover or profit”
The GoldGenie package includes two goldplating machines, the Pro 900 and its entry level Pro 100 sibling, plus all accessories needed to get the business started.
Said Roomes: “This programme enables people to get into business at very low cost and with marginal risk.”
More at:http://www.goldgenie.co.uk/
Serial entrepreneurs push themselves to start new ventures over and over again. So what do they know that we don't?
Serial entrepreneurs push themselves to start new ventures over and over again. So what do they know that we don't?
by Kerry Miller
Lawrence Gelburd remembers the exact moment he realized it was time to cut loose from the high-tech company he had helped found nearly 10 years earlier. It was during a staff meeting, and for the first time he had heard an employee say, "That's not my department."
"I was stunned," he says. All of sudden, "it was like I was running a big company." And while his business, American Auto-Matrix, was doing quite well, Gelburd's paradigm for success was somewhat different. Like other entrepreneurs, he thrives on the excitement of starting a new business—taking an idea and actually making it happen (see BusinessWeek.com 5/7/07, "Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur").
Success Can Be a Letdown
Gelburd relished American's early years, when they first started challenging big competitors like Honeywell (HON). "We felt like we were killing Goliath with a slingshot," he says. Once they started winning, Gelburd realized they had lost the rights to the "outsider" status they had so relished. "We had won the war, but it felt like a Pyrrhic victory."
Gelburd now keeps himself firmly planted in what he considers the more exciting early stages of things, consulting with a variety of startups and small companies to help develop business plans and strategies and teaching courses in entrepreneurship at the Wharton School. "There's something very intoxicating about starting at zero and getting to 100," he says, and that's what pushes serial entrepreneurs to start new companies again and again.
It's About More than Money
But generalizations about the psychology of successful entrepreneurs aren't terribly useful to those who hope to duplicate their success. That's why we rounded up a group of those who have been there and done that to share their observations and advice in the accompanying slide show. From Sam Yagan, who started his first business, SparkNotes, during an all-nighter at Harvard, to Pam Marrone, who is now running her third company, Marrone Organic Innovations, each of them say that financial success was almost a byproduct rather than the goal of their ventures. That's good, because fulfilling entrepreneurial curiosity doesn't always result in a big financial payoff (see BusinessWeek.com 5/22/05, "Failure Is Part of Success").
"You need that kind of brash attitude…to create huge change out of a small idea. It doesn't always work, but when it does work, it's better for everyone," Gelburd says. "And when it doesn't, we're silly enough to try again."
More at:http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2007/sb20070601_336379.htm?chan=smallbiz_smallbiz+index+page_top+stories
by Kerry Miller
Lawrence Gelburd remembers the exact moment he realized it was time to cut loose from the high-tech company he had helped found nearly 10 years earlier. It was during a staff meeting, and for the first time he had heard an employee say, "That's not my department."
"I was stunned," he says. All of sudden, "it was like I was running a big company." And while his business, American Auto-Matrix, was doing quite well, Gelburd's paradigm for success was somewhat different. Like other entrepreneurs, he thrives on the excitement of starting a new business—taking an idea and actually making it happen (see BusinessWeek.com 5/7/07, "Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur").
Success Can Be a Letdown
Gelburd relished American's early years, when they first started challenging big competitors like Honeywell (HON). "We felt like we were killing Goliath with a slingshot," he says. Once they started winning, Gelburd realized they had lost the rights to the "outsider" status they had so relished. "We had won the war, but it felt like a Pyrrhic victory."
Gelburd now keeps himself firmly planted in what he considers the more exciting early stages of things, consulting with a variety of startups and small companies to help develop business plans and strategies and teaching courses in entrepreneurship at the Wharton School. "There's something very intoxicating about starting at zero and getting to 100," he says, and that's what pushes serial entrepreneurs to start new companies again and again.
It's About More than Money
But generalizations about the psychology of successful entrepreneurs aren't terribly useful to those who hope to duplicate their success. That's why we rounded up a group of those who have been there and done that to share their observations and advice in the accompanying slide show. From Sam Yagan, who started his first business, SparkNotes, during an all-nighter at Harvard, to Pam Marrone, who is now running her third company, Marrone Organic Innovations, each of them say that financial success was almost a byproduct rather than the goal of their ventures. That's good, because fulfilling entrepreneurial curiosity doesn't always result in a big financial payoff (see BusinessWeek.com 5/22/05, "Failure Is Part of Success").
"You need that kind of brash attitude…to create huge change out of a small idea. It doesn't always work, but when it does work, it's better for everyone," Gelburd says. "And when it doesn't, we're silly enough to try again."
More at:http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2007/sb20070601_336379.htm?chan=smallbiz_smallbiz+index+page_top+stories
Inexperienced entrepreneurs who live or want to live in market towns might be interested in a fitness franchise
Inexperienced entrepreneurs who live or want to live in market towns might be interested in a fitness franchise whose expansion is focused on those areas.
Attiva’s strategy of providing affordable gym services in mostly market towns has worked well so far, as it has grown steadily since it was established in 2003.
It has clubs in Malvern and, rather incongruously, Barbados, with new franchises opening in Bridgnorth, Market Harborough, Newport, Evesham, Uttoxeter and Coventry soon.
Just two days ago one opened in Andover, courtesy of former O2 manager and fitness enthusiast Andrew White and his wife Helen.
Andrew White has worked in the corporate world all his life, first for NatWest and then for O2, where he rose to the rank of corporate accounts manager.
“After 20 years I wanted to go it alone and was eager to look at various business options,” says the 38-year-old.
With this in mind, Andrew attended The National Franchise Expo late last year. He was almost out the door, disappointed with the exhibition’s offerings, when he saw the Attiva stand. After a one-hour consultation he decided to buy the franchise, happy to have found a business model that would combine a life-long passion for fitness with his wealth of business know-how.
Andrew took Attiva’s six-week training course on business and operational management. The ‘gym-in-a-box’ programme includes coursework in business management, accounting, marketing and promotion, health and safety, human resources and equipment operation. Andrew also participated in a job share at the Malvern club, which provided him with invaluable hands-on experience.
Ongoing support
Appreciating the comprehensive nature of Attiva’s support, Andrew’s experience demonstrates how the franchise model can be a manageable way into business for new entrepreneurs apprehensive about the risks and pressures of setting up their first business.
“I was uncertain about starting a business completely by myself.
“I gave up a nice comfortable job and salary to make a leap of faith with a new business, but I’ve been very pleased with Attiva. Unlike some franchise models where you are left alone, I’m receiving top-notch attention and expertise. I get on very well with Craig Farman [managing director] and Richard Noble [operations director] and I feel like they are my business partners.”
Attiva says its 35 years of experience in the fitness industry means franchisees are in good hands. The ongoing support they provide ranges from helping to secure loans, to finding and kitting out premises, to the recruitment and training of staff and beyond.
Attiva’s emphasis on market towns is shrewd if Andrew’s assessment of the market in Andover is applicable to other market towns.
More at:http://www.attivauk.com/
http://www.franchisesales.com/
Attiva’s strategy of providing affordable gym services in mostly market towns has worked well so far, as it has grown steadily since it was established in 2003.
It has clubs in Malvern and, rather incongruously, Barbados, with new franchises opening in Bridgnorth, Market Harborough, Newport, Evesham, Uttoxeter and Coventry soon.
Just two days ago one opened in Andover, courtesy of former O2 manager and fitness enthusiast Andrew White and his wife Helen.
Andrew White has worked in the corporate world all his life, first for NatWest and then for O2, where he rose to the rank of corporate accounts manager.
“After 20 years I wanted to go it alone and was eager to look at various business options,” says the 38-year-old.
With this in mind, Andrew attended The National Franchise Expo late last year. He was almost out the door, disappointed with the exhibition’s offerings, when he saw the Attiva stand. After a one-hour consultation he decided to buy the franchise, happy to have found a business model that would combine a life-long passion for fitness with his wealth of business know-how.
Andrew took Attiva’s six-week training course on business and operational management. The ‘gym-in-a-box’ programme includes coursework in business management, accounting, marketing and promotion, health and safety, human resources and equipment operation. Andrew also participated in a job share at the Malvern club, which provided him with invaluable hands-on experience.
Ongoing support
Appreciating the comprehensive nature of Attiva’s support, Andrew’s experience demonstrates how the franchise model can be a manageable way into business for new entrepreneurs apprehensive about the risks and pressures of setting up their first business.
“I was uncertain about starting a business completely by myself.
“I gave up a nice comfortable job and salary to make a leap of faith with a new business, but I’ve been very pleased with Attiva. Unlike some franchise models where you are left alone, I’m receiving top-notch attention and expertise. I get on very well with Craig Farman [managing director] and Richard Noble [operations director] and I feel like they are my business partners.”
Attiva says its 35 years of experience in the fitness industry means franchisees are in good hands. The ongoing support they provide ranges from helping to secure loans, to finding and kitting out premises, to the recruitment and training of staff and beyond.
Attiva’s emphasis on market towns is shrewd if Andrew’s assessment of the market in Andover is applicable to other market towns.
More at:http://www.attivauk.com/
http://www.franchisesales.com/
Task Managment Go Simple
Todoist is a to-do list application that claims to be "useful, fast and easy to use". In the crowded market of task management apps, led by the likes of Ta-da List and Remember the Milk, it has to be. And, as I found out in my tests, it is.
Interface
Built with a focus on absolute simplicity, this application is a joy to use for my task lists. It allows a hierarchical structure of categories or projects - each with their own task items. Sub-projects can be collapsed to simplify the interface even more.
More at:http://www.readwriteweb.com/
Interface
Built with a focus on absolute simplicity, this application is a joy to use for my task lists. It allows a hierarchical structure of categories or projects - each with their own task items. Sub-projects can be collapsed to simplify the interface even more.
More at:http://www.readwriteweb.com/
How To Set Right Price For Your Product
Your website is getting thousands of hits a day, and customers are banging down the doors. But how do you know what to charge?
You’re not the only one with this problem. Large companies also struggle with this issue. Professor Kent Monroe of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, says that across the U.S. price setting has been sloppy and that the common instinct to match prices to cost is foolish. Even investigating historical trends can’t accurately determine pricing.
So how do you do it?
If you are a bigger small business, you can hire professionals. Researchers can perform discrete choice analysis, meaning that they ask participants to evaluate prices assigned to goods and services. However, this method is costly.
A cheaper alternative: talk to your employees and customers. They know what customers want, and you can set your pricing accordingly.
Consider selling your goods at different prices to different customers. Audiences have different demands based on their environment and income. Businesses don’t lower their prices for students and seniors just to be nice.
More at:http://www.fastcompany.com/online/68/pricing.html
You’re not the only one with this problem. Large companies also struggle with this issue. Professor Kent Monroe of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, says that across the U.S. price setting has been sloppy and that the common instinct to match prices to cost is foolish. Even investigating historical trends can’t accurately determine pricing.
So how do you do it?
If you are a bigger small business, you can hire professionals. Researchers can perform discrete choice analysis, meaning that they ask participants to evaluate prices assigned to goods and services. However, this method is costly.
A cheaper alternative: talk to your employees and customers. They know what customers want, and you can set your pricing accordingly.
Consider selling your goods at different prices to different customers. Audiences have different demands based on their environment and income. Businesses don’t lower their prices for students and seniors just to be nice.
More at:http://www.fastcompany.com/online/68/pricing.html
Idea Which Could Be Equal To Million Dollor
Dwight Schultheis was waiting for a business idea to inspire him. Then he noticed something: He and his male friends had shaving-related skin problems, and the products they used didn't help. "We're spending $200 on jeans, but using soap on our faces," he says. "It felt to me like it was a really untapped market."
Months of market research and a few focus groups later, his upscale men's grooming products company, Amenity, was born. The New York City business has grown to nine employees and annual revenue surpassing $1 million--quite a leap from last year, when Schultheis and co-founders Lisa Lehan, 28, and Kimberly Pecoraro, 32, started the company with $500,000 from personal funds and angel investors. "We're trying to be a first-mover and innovator in the men's category of clinical grooming," he says.
Moving could get a little trickier now that the proverbial 800-pound gorilla has entered the market. In January, Schultheis, 32, learned that Procter & Gamble was acquiring DDF, one of Amenity's competitors. The news brought a mixed bag of emotions for Schultheis, who was excited that such a big player saw potential in the $75 million U.S. market for men's premium skin care but also worried that DDF would be even more competitive with Procter & Gamble's marketing, innovation and distribution power behind it. Amenity spent the following weeks reassessing its business strategy. "If we're going to stay competitive," Schultheis says, "we're going to have to sharpen our mission."
More at:http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2007/june/178520.html
Months of market research and a few focus groups later, his upscale men's grooming products company, Amenity, was born. The New York City business has grown to nine employees and annual revenue surpassing $1 million--quite a leap from last year, when Schultheis and co-founders Lisa Lehan, 28, and Kimberly Pecoraro, 32, started the company with $500,000 from personal funds and angel investors. "We're trying to be a first-mover and innovator in the men's category of clinical grooming," he says.
Moving could get a little trickier now that the proverbial 800-pound gorilla has entered the market. In January, Schultheis, 32, learned that Procter & Gamble was acquiring DDF, one of Amenity's competitors. The news brought a mixed bag of emotions for Schultheis, who was excited that such a big player saw potential in the $75 million U.S. market for men's premium skin care but also worried that DDF would be even more competitive with Procter & Gamble's marketing, innovation and distribution power behind it. Amenity spent the following weeks reassessing its business strategy. "If we're going to stay competitive," Schultheis says, "we're going to have to sharpen our mission."
More at:http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2007/june/178520.html
Yoorl service provides a way to monitor the spread of links to web resources, and their popularity, in real time
“Yoorl service provides a way to monitor the spread of links to web resources, and their popularity, in real time. This is done independently of the web resource, its contents, and the means by which the link to that resource is shared (IM, forums, email, air mail)”
Yoorl is a means to monitor the dispersal of links in real time. The idea is that people send out interesting links to their friends all the time; sometimes those links get sent back to them from a completely different source—a sort of chain or meme has been started. Curious minds might want to know how that link got around, and how popular it is. Yoorl lets you see what kind of resonance your link made. Once a yoorl member sends a link they will know if the person who received the link viewed it and how long; whether it was further spread and to whom. All members can see the spread of URL’s in real time. Registration is free.
More at:http://www.yoorl.com/
Yoorl is a means to monitor the dispersal of links in real time. The idea is that people send out interesting links to their friends all the time; sometimes those links get sent back to them from a completely different source—a sort of chain or meme has been started. Curious minds might want to know how that link got around, and how popular it is. Yoorl lets you see what kind of resonance your link made. Once a yoorl member sends a link they will know if the person who received the link viewed it and how long; whether it was further spread and to whom. All members can see the spread of URL’s in real time. Registration is free.
More at:http://www.yoorl.com/
Monday, June 11, 2007
Boxbe
Wired News introduces Boxbe - a startup that allows you to whitelist your correspondents, while requiring everybody else to pay up.
San Francisco-based Boxbe lets you set up an e-mail address and add your friends, family and co-workers to an approved senders list, allowing them to e-mail you for free. Anybody else who wants to reach you will have to pay. You set your own price, which can be as low as 3 cents or as high as $99 (if you think you’re all that). Boxbe will give 75 percent of funds collected from advertisers to users, who could optionally direct the money to a favorite charity.
More at:https://www.boxbe.com/ama/home
San Francisco-based Boxbe lets you set up an e-mail address and add your friends, family and co-workers to an approved senders list, allowing them to e-mail you for free. Anybody else who wants to reach you will have to pay. You set your own price, which can be as low as 3 cents or as high as $99 (if you think you’re all that). Boxbe will give 75 percent of funds collected from advertisers to users, who could optionally direct the money to a favorite charity.
More at:https://www.boxbe.com/ama/home
Document Managment Tool
Cincom iD Solutions helps enterprises deliver high-value, highly personalized customer communications efficiently and cost-effectively. Cincom iD Solutions creates all types of customer communications, both interactively and in batch, from letters to high-volume statements, and delivers them via the web, e-mail, fax, print, and wireless. Leveraging existing systems, hardware, and databases has enabled several of our customers to achieve cost reductions of up to 80 percent.
More at:http://www.capterra.com/document-management-software
More at:http://www.capterra.com/document-management-software
How To Build A Business Plan
Though many successful companies have been started without the benefit of a formal business plan (see "Seat of the Pants," Inc 500 2002), it can be an essential factor in the birth and growth of your company. A good business plan will help you obtain financing, arrange strategic alliances, attract key employees, and boost your confidence. It sells your company to the world and gives you direction as the world answers back.
From the table of contents to the financial tables, a business plan covers a lot of ground. How can you make your executive summary stand out? How much detail is appropriate when outlining your marketing strategy? What is the best way to present the financial projections? Here are Inc.com's best resources to help you create each part of your business plan.
Getting Started
Is Your Business Idea Feasible?
Making a critical evaluation of your business concept at an early stage will allow you to discover, address and correct any fatal flaws before investing time in preparing your business plan.
Telling Your Story
No matter what type of business you plan to start, when your story is complete it will be an important part of the risk management process and a key to effectively understanding your business and its critical success factors.
Developing Effective Vision and Mission Statements
Vision and mission provide direction for a new or small firm, without which it is difficult to develop a cohesive plan.
Simplified Start-Up Plan
Before you do anything else, you need a simple business plan. Here's a checklist to get you going.
Mastering the Basics
Creating Your Business Plan
In a nutshell, here are the areas you'll need to address in a business plan to offer prospective lenders and investors a complete view of your business, as well as provide you with a tool you can use to start and run your company.
The Basics of Business Plans: Sell, Sell, Sell
When viewed as a selling document, your business plan takes on a new meaning. Here, Gumpert provides four compelling reasons for writing a business plan.
The Bulletproof Business Plan
Build a plan that stands up to even the worst economy with these tips.
The Finer Points of a Business Plan
David E. Gumpert, author of How to Really Create a Successful Business Plan, gives a brief overview of what information every business plan should contain.
Filling In Your Plan: What to Say Where
Once you understand the skeletal outline of your business plan, you need to know what to say in each section. David E. Gumpert, author of How to Really Create a Successful Business Plan, fills in the details.
Company Description
Cover All the Bases in Your Business Description
Describing your business in the plan may sound deceptively simple. In reality, a nuanced company explanation is needed, and will serve as a strong foundation for your entire plan.
Executive Summary
Executive Summary as a Guiding Light
It's not an abstract, preface, or introduction, but the executive summary is one of the most critical parts of any business plan. David E. Gumpert argues that an effective executive summary should be the entire plan in miniature.
All Summary, No Substance
Through this annotated example, learn what not to write in your executive summary.
Market Analysis
How do I research my industry?
Where can you find specic data that applies to your industry and its market? Here are a few places to start.
Hitting the Market
To be successful, you have to know your potential customers inside out. One entrepreneur reflects on the essentials of market research.
Segment the Target Market in Your Business Plan
It's a big market out there, so how can you break it down for your business plan? Learn the simple principles of segmenting your market and drilling down to a more precise view of your target audience.
Write a Marketing Analysis that Will Simply Dazzle
After you've crunched the data and analyzed the market, you need a succinct and clear approach to best communicate that information in your plan. This article will help you decide what to include in your marketing section and offers a step-by-step format for doing so.
Competitive Analysis
Competitive Research on a Shoestring
You can learn a lot by researching online and targeting the right people.
Get a Local Look at Your Competition
You can gather endless information regarding potential competition by immersing yourself into the Internet. However, the best strategy is to stay local and get a firsthand look at them.
Financials
Making It All Add Up
Even if you find finances intimidating or tedious, they're critical. The financial section of a business plan is not the time to add creative flourishes; instead, this author advises, stick to a conventional approach.
Persuasive Projections
Predicting the future is hard. But when you're making financial projections, that's exactly what you need to do. You can avoid some of the most common mistakes by following this list of dos and don'ts.
More at:http://www.inc.com/guides/start_biz/20660.html
From the table of contents to the financial tables, a business plan covers a lot of ground. How can you make your executive summary stand out? How much detail is appropriate when outlining your marketing strategy? What is the best way to present the financial projections? Here are Inc.com's best resources to help you create each part of your business plan.
Getting Started
Is Your Business Idea Feasible?
Making a critical evaluation of your business concept at an early stage will allow you to discover, address and correct any fatal flaws before investing time in preparing your business plan.
Telling Your Story
No matter what type of business you plan to start, when your story is complete it will be an important part of the risk management process and a key to effectively understanding your business and its critical success factors.
Developing Effective Vision and Mission Statements
Vision and mission provide direction for a new or small firm, without which it is difficult to develop a cohesive plan.
Simplified Start-Up Plan
Before you do anything else, you need a simple business plan. Here's a checklist to get you going.
Mastering the Basics
Creating Your Business Plan
In a nutshell, here are the areas you'll need to address in a business plan to offer prospective lenders and investors a complete view of your business, as well as provide you with a tool you can use to start and run your company.
The Basics of Business Plans: Sell, Sell, Sell
When viewed as a selling document, your business plan takes on a new meaning. Here, Gumpert provides four compelling reasons for writing a business plan.
The Bulletproof Business Plan
Build a plan that stands up to even the worst economy with these tips.
The Finer Points of a Business Plan
David E. Gumpert, author of How to Really Create a Successful Business Plan, gives a brief overview of what information every business plan should contain.
Filling In Your Plan: What to Say Where
Once you understand the skeletal outline of your business plan, you need to know what to say in each section. David E. Gumpert, author of How to Really Create a Successful Business Plan, fills in the details.
Company Description
Cover All the Bases in Your Business Description
Describing your business in the plan may sound deceptively simple. In reality, a nuanced company explanation is needed, and will serve as a strong foundation for your entire plan.
Executive Summary
Executive Summary as a Guiding Light
It's not an abstract, preface, or introduction, but the executive summary is one of the most critical parts of any business plan. David E. Gumpert argues that an effective executive summary should be the entire plan in miniature.
All Summary, No Substance
Through this annotated example, learn what not to write in your executive summary.
Market Analysis
How do I research my industry?
Where can you find specic data that applies to your industry and its market? Here are a few places to start.
Hitting the Market
To be successful, you have to know your potential customers inside out. One entrepreneur reflects on the essentials of market research.
Segment the Target Market in Your Business Plan
It's a big market out there, so how can you break it down for your business plan? Learn the simple principles of segmenting your market and drilling down to a more precise view of your target audience.
Write a Marketing Analysis that Will Simply Dazzle
After you've crunched the data and analyzed the market, you need a succinct and clear approach to best communicate that information in your plan. This article will help you decide what to include in your marketing section and offers a step-by-step format for doing so.
Competitive Analysis
Competitive Research on a Shoestring
You can learn a lot by researching online and targeting the right people.
Get a Local Look at Your Competition
You can gather endless information regarding potential competition by immersing yourself into the Internet. However, the best strategy is to stay local and get a firsthand look at them.
Financials
Making It All Add Up
Even if you find finances intimidating or tedious, they're critical. The financial section of a business plan is not the time to add creative flourishes; instead, this author advises, stick to a conventional approach.
Persuasive Projections
Predicting the future is hard. But when you're making financial projections, that's exactly what you need to do. You can avoid some of the most common mistakes by following this list of dos and don'ts.
More at:http://www.inc.com/guides/start_biz/20660.html
Bill Gates Vs Steve Jobs
This year was the 5th addition of Walt Mossberg's and Kara Swisher's "All Things Digital" conference. I'm sure that it will come as no surprise to you that I have attended all five and intend to attend the next five as well. They say that first year conferences are a huge crap shoot because of the chicken and egg problem of attracting fantastic speakers and a fantastic audience -- you need one to get the other but can't get one without the other. By force of personality and reputation, Walt and Kara blew that away the first year by simply getting the most amazing speakers ever. The fabuloous audience quickly followed. But they created a problem for themselves.
The speakers at their first "D" were just too good: Gates, Jobs, Diller, Larry and Sergey, Meg Whitman, Terry Semel, Mark Cuban. I mean, give me a break. Year two: Gates, Jobs, Ellison, Carly Fiorina, Masa, Henning Kagermann. Year 3: Gates, Jobs, Mel Karmazin, McNealy, Zander, Diller, Jerry Yang and Dave Filo. Year 4: Gates, Al Gore, Howard Stringer, Terry Semel, Vinod Khosla, Bob Iger (Jobs couldn't make it and was sorely missed). So what were Walt and Kara going to do to make their 5th anniversary "D" a special one? They touted the answer on their homepage -- "Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to Make Historic Joint Appearance at D5."
Now I have to admit that, as much as I looked forward to seeing Gates and Jobs spar on stage, I thought that perhaps Walt and Kara had gone a bit too far calling the Gates/Jobs smackdown a "historic joint appearance." The cardinal rule of showmanship is to under-promise and over-deliver. It is hard to imagine that calling a chat "historic" could be viewed as under-promising, and harder still to imagine that after advertising a talk as "historic," one could possibly over-deliver. But I was wrong.
The "historic" joint appearance of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs wasn't just historic, it was, in fact, awe inspiring. I envisioned a half-hearted quarrel, punctuated by clever but cynical jabs at one another. What I got was a history lesson taught by the principal protagonists of the story. As I sat and listened to Gates and Jobs recount their 30 year journey to bring the best possible personal computers to the world, it struck me that no two living humans have had a bigger impact on my quality of life than they (case in point, I am typing this blog post on my MacBook on Microsoft Word).
It would be hard to replicate the energy and mood of the room with simple words. It may even be hard to replicate with video. Nonetheless, I strongly urge you to watch the videos of the conversation over at Kara and Walt's great new "news and opinion site" called AllThingsD.com. In the videos you will see a pair of mature, thoughtful moguls. Bill Gates was erudite, statesmanly, and utterly charming. Steve Jobs remained the consummate performer, yet managed a bit more humility than is his norm. They traded fours like an old married couple. And their recounting of the history of the personal computer industry had the cadence of an on-again off-again romance. In the end, Jobs had the turn of phrase that brought us to our feet -- a snipped right out of a love letter -- "There's that one line in the Beatles song, 'You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead,' and that's definitely true here."
Great conferences are all about great theater. And I have never seen better theater than Jobs and Gates on stage together, modestly recounting how they changed all of our lives, in incalculable ways, forever. Hats off to Walt and Kara for orchestrating this once in a lifetime event. When can I register for D6?
The speakers at their first "D" were just too good: Gates, Jobs, Diller, Larry and Sergey, Meg Whitman, Terry Semel, Mark Cuban. I mean, give me a break. Year two: Gates, Jobs, Ellison, Carly Fiorina, Masa, Henning Kagermann. Year 3: Gates, Jobs, Mel Karmazin, McNealy, Zander, Diller, Jerry Yang and Dave Filo. Year 4: Gates, Al Gore, Howard Stringer, Terry Semel, Vinod Khosla, Bob Iger (Jobs couldn't make it and was sorely missed). So what were Walt and Kara going to do to make their 5th anniversary "D" a special one? They touted the answer on their homepage -- "Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to Make Historic Joint Appearance at D5."
Now I have to admit that, as much as I looked forward to seeing Gates and Jobs spar on stage, I thought that perhaps Walt and Kara had gone a bit too far calling the Gates/Jobs smackdown a "historic joint appearance." The cardinal rule of showmanship is to under-promise and over-deliver. It is hard to imagine that calling a chat "historic" could be viewed as under-promising, and harder still to imagine that after advertising a talk as "historic," one could possibly over-deliver. But I was wrong.
The "historic" joint appearance of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs wasn't just historic, it was, in fact, awe inspiring. I envisioned a half-hearted quarrel, punctuated by clever but cynical jabs at one another. What I got was a history lesson taught by the principal protagonists of the story. As I sat and listened to Gates and Jobs recount their 30 year journey to bring the best possible personal computers to the world, it struck me that no two living humans have had a bigger impact on my quality of life than they (case in point, I am typing this blog post on my MacBook on Microsoft Word).
It would be hard to replicate the energy and mood of the room with simple words. It may even be hard to replicate with video. Nonetheless, I strongly urge you to watch the videos of the conversation over at Kara and Walt's great new "news and opinion site" called AllThingsD.com. In the videos you will see a pair of mature, thoughtful moguls. Bill Gates was erudite, statesmanly, and utterly charming. Steve Jobs remained the consummate performer, yet managed a bit more humility than is his norm. They traded fours like an old married couple. And their recounting of the history of the personal computer industry had the cadence of an on-again off-again romance. In the end, Jobs had the turn of phrase that brought us to our feet -- a snipped right out of a love letter -- "There's that one line in the Beatles song, 'You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead,' and that's definitely true here."
Great conferences are all about great theater. And I have never seen better theater than Jobs and Gates on stage together, modestly recounting how they changed all of our lives, in incalculable ways, forever. Hats off to Walt and Kara for orchestrating this once in a lifetime event. When can I register for D6?
Escaping The Resource Curse
Messrs. Humphreys Sachs and Stiglitz explain why countries with lots of natural resources tend to do worse than countries with less resource wealth.
This vade mecum for governments advises on how to gain advantage over oil corporations and how to effectively redistribute (oil) revenues. Foreword by George Soros.
More at:http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/978023114/9780231141963.HTM#cart
This vade mecum for governments advises on how to gain advantage over oil corporations and how to effectively redistribute (oil) revenues. Foreword by George Soros.
More at:http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/978023114/9780231141963.HTM#cart
Apple's style of innovation
Economist.com has a good story about Apple's style of innovation.
Listening to customers is generally a good idea, but it is not the whole story. For all the talk of "user-centric innovation" and allowing feedback from customers to dictate new product designs, a third lesson from Apple is that smart companies should sometimes ignore what the market says it wants today. The iPod was ridiculed when it was launched in 2001, but Mr Jobs stuck by his instinct. Nintendo has done something similar with its popular motion-controlled video-game console, the Wii. Rather than designing a machine for existing gamers, it gambled that non-gamers represented an untapped market and devised a machine with far broader appeal.
The fourth lesson from Apple is to "fail wisely". The Macintosh was born from the wreckage of the Lisa, an earlier product that flopped; the iPhone is a response to the failure of Apple's original music phone, produced in conjunction with Motorola. Both times, Apple learned from its mistakes and tried again. Its recent computers have been based on technology developed at NeXT, a company Mr Jobs set up in the 1980s that appeared to have failed and was then acquired by Apple. The wider lesson is not to stigmatise failure but to tolerate it and learn from it: Europe's inability to create a rival to Silicon Valley owes much to its tougher bankruptcy laws.
What I find interesting is that Apple does two things that most companies don't. First, they sometimes ignore the current state of the market when designing products. Second, they learn from failure rather than stigmatizing it. That sounds like a pretty different corporate culture than most companies.
More at:http://economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9302662
Listening to customers is generally a good idea, but it is not the whole story. For all the talk of "user-centric innovation" and allowing feedback from customers to dictate new product designs, a third lesson from Apple is that smart companies should sometimes ignore what the market says it wants today. The iPod was ridiculed when it was launched in 2001, but Mr Jobs stuck by his instinct. Nintendo has done something similar with its popular motion-controlled video-game console, the Wii. Rather than designing a machine for existing gamers, it gambled that non-gamers represented an untapped market and devised a machine with far broader appeal.
The fourth lesson from Apple is to "fail wisely". The Macintosh was born from the wreckage of the Lisa, an earlier product that flopped; the iPhone is a response to the failure of Apple's original music phone, produced in conjunction with Motorola. Both times, Apple learned from its mistakes and tried again. Its recent computers have been based on technology developed at NeXT, a company Mr Jobs set up in the 1980s that appeared to have failed and was then acquired by Apple. The wider lesson is not to stigmatise failure but to tolerate it and learn from it: Europe's inability to create a rival to Silicon Valley owes much to its tougher bankruptcy laws.
What I find interesting is that Apple does two things that most companies don't. First, they sometimes ignore the current state of the market when designing products. Second, they learn from failure rather than stigmatizing it. That sounds like a pretty different corporate culture than most companies.
More at:http://economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9302662
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