DoubleClick

Google announce acquisition of DoubleClick.DoubleClick provides a suite of products that enables agencies, advertisers, and publishers to work efficiently, that will enable Google to extend our ad network and develop deeper relationships with our partners.

This new partnership represents a tremendous opportunity for us at Google to broaden and deepen our inventory of available ads and to better serve both our publishers and users. Together, Google and DoubleClick will empower agencies, advertisers, and publishers to collaborate more efficiently and effectively, which will, in turn, provide a better experience for our users.

Sponsored information served by Google has always been, and will always be, clearly distinguished from objective content available via our search results and across our partner network. We want you to find the information that you are looking for—be it in an ad or elsewhere—quickly and without hassle. We know that our collaboration with DoubleClick will serve and advance this goal.
Read More:http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/next-step-in-google-advertising.html

Brain With Fantasy

LOTTERIES are a regressive tax on those who can't do math, runs the famous old saying. "Nonsense!" retort critics. "For a dollar, one can purchase the fantasy of being wealthy beyond dreams of avarice. It is cheap at the price."

Over at Overcoming Bias, Eliezer Yudkowsky says "But isn't that a waste of hope?"

But consider exactly what this implies. It would mean that you're occupying your valuable brain with a fantasy whose real probability is nearly zero - a tiny line of likelihood which you, yourself, can do nothing to realize. The lottery balls will decide your future. The fantasy is of wealth that arrives without effort - without conscientiousness, learning, charisma, or even patience.

Which makes the lottery another kind of sink: a sink of emotional energy. It encourages people to invest their dreams, their hopes for a better future, into an infinitesimal probability. If not for the lottery, maybe they would fantasize about going to technical school, or opening their own business, or getting a promotion at work - things they might be able to actually do, hopes that would make them want to become stronger. Their dreaming brains might, in the 20th visualization of the pleasant fantasy, notice a way to really do it. Isn't that what dreams and brains are for? But how can such reality-limited fare compete with the artificially sweetened prospect of instant wealth - not after herding a dot-com startup through to IPO, but on Tuesday?
Read More:http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2007/04/the_future_of_fantasy.cfm

How Internet Business Work

Think the concept of building a successful business on the Internet disappeared along with the money in your 401-(k)? Not so. Here's a collection of stories about businesses that not only have made the Internet the key to their strategy, but also have have developed innovative strategies to make it work.

How Google Grows...and Grows...and Grows
... Its performance is the envy of executives and engineers around the world ... For techno-evangelists, Google is a marvel of Web brilliance ... For Wall Street, it may be the IPO that changes everything (again) ... Keith H. Hammonds
Business Fights Back: eBay Learns to Trust Again
The world`s most successful Internet company is based on two pillars of growth: the global spread of Internet-style capitalism and confidence in the basic goodness of the people who do business on the site. Both ideas came under attack on September 11. George Anders
Why Is This Man Smiling?
You'd think startup wizard Atiq Raza would be getting hammered. He operates in trouble-plagued Silicon Valley, he launches companies in the wildly overbuilt telecom sector, and he runs -- gasp! -- a business incubator. Based on his impressive results, you may want to think again. Bill Breen
The New Face of Global Competition
Not so long ago, India`s Wipro Ltd. sold cooking oils and knockoff PCs. Now its 15,000 technologists cook up vital software applications and research for Ericsson, GM, the Home Depot, and other giant customers. Are you prepared to go head-to-head with the best the world has to offer? Keith H. Hammonds
The Internet Power Grab
Everyone knows that the Internet is moving from free to fee. John Ellis
La Dolce Vita, Internet Style
Colletta di Castelbianco is a 13th-century Italian village that was on the verge of extinction -- until an architect gave it a new design and Internet connectivity gave it a new lease on life. The story of how it became a haven for mobile professionals. Ian Wylie
Don`t Shout, Listen
At Procter & Gamble, branding is almost everything. And in the age of the Web, almost everything is up for grabs. Here`s how P& G has turned the Internet into a device for listening to customers -- and for experimenting with its brands. Fara Warner
For more:http://www.fastcompany.com/guides/digital.html

Boober:New Way Of Banking

Boober launched last month, Boober is bringing peer to peer lending to The Netherlands. The start-up works much like Zopa and Prosper, with prospective borrowers listing the amount they want to borrow, their credit rating, purpose of the loan, interest rate they're willing to pay, etc. Credit ratings are determined by credit report agency Experian. And loans to AA and AAA borrowers are guaranteed by debt collectors Intrum Justitia, at 90% and 99.5% respectively. Investors are required to distribute their capital over at least 10 borrowers to minimize risk. Borrowers pay EUR 19.95 to have their credit rating determined, and if their loan is funded, they pay Boober a yearly fee of 0.5% of the loan. Investors pay a yearly fee of 0.5% over the funds they've invested, as well as an annual contribution of EUR 9.95.

Boober's founder, Guus Drijver, doesn't hesitate to share his feelings about why Boober is better than the Big Banks: "Boober doesn't work with hidden costs and is completely transparent. We don't sponsor yacht races or soccer teams, and don't have expensive headquarters or pay thousands of people high salaries." Boober isn't alone in this sentiment; many consumers are equally discontent with banks and their high profit margins, driving interest in alternatives like p2p lending. After a beta phase in The Netherlands, Boober hopes to expand to Belgium and Germany.

Website:www.boober.nl/

Money Machine

What a Bloomberg can do
Bloomberg users can set up their screens any way they like. These displays show the data an equity investor might order up.
Stock price monitor
Users can get real-time stock prices by paying extra. Delayed prices are part of the standard subscription.
Stock charts
Bloomberg offers data on 136,000 equities.
Sliding tickers
A variety of price, volume, and earnings information moves across the screen to help the user follow three individual stocks.
Live videochats
Subscribers with cameras can have two-way chats, or Bloombergers can offer real-time support.
A portfolio, analyzed
Bloomberg's database includes regulatory filings from all over the world.
Bloomberg tv
The company broadcasts in seven languages in 23 countries. All transmissions from around the world are available on any Bloomberg.
News stories
Bloomberg News has 2,300 employees and publishes more than 5,000 stories daily. Its widely read "top stories" foreshadow the next day's newspaper headlines.
The keyboard
You can navigate on a Bloomberg with a special color-coded keyboard. Yellow keys take you to domains like "equity," green is for functions, red is for logging on.
Tradebook
Subscribers can use Bloomberg's automated broker-dealer to buy and sell equities, futures and options, paying commissions to do so.
Stock data, volume-weighted
Analytics make it possible for a day's trading in a stock to be displayed in a bar chart depicting the total number of shares traded at each price.
For More:http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/04/16/8404302/index.
htm?postversion=2007040506

FreshBooks

According to FreshBooks CEO Mike McDerment:

“FreshBooks has been designed for service-based businesses. Therefore FreshBooks users primarily fall into two categories: service-based businesses that bill for time (i.e. billing for time like lawyers, web designers, IT consultants, PR firms) and/or service providers that offer recurring services and benefit from recurring billing (alarm system monitoring companies, web hosts, ISPs, pool cleaners, lawn care companies). Technical competence does not seem to be limiting factor for uptake as we have both tech savvy customers (IT consultants, web designers, etc) and extraordinarily non tech savvy (dog walkers, dance studios, nannies…). We offer outstanding customer service by phone and email and therefore any business owner can take comfort in knowing help is available if they need it. That said, most of our paying clients never contact us directly, they self-serve thanks to the ease of use of the service.”

FreshBooks is an impressive efficiency tool. I set up a trial account and experimented with it. You can go online and issue invoices and send them out via email — or send a hard copy via snail mail through a service FreshBooks provides. FreshBooks keeps employee or contractor timesheets, including an online timer that automatically logs time spent on a task. You also can use FreshBooks to create an online help center for customers, with the ability for customers to lodge work orders and support tickets online. Your staff then goes in and handles the tickets. As the business owner you can monitor everything from the online control panel.

For more:http://www.freshbooks.com/

Franchise Vs Start UP

Entrepreneurs have plenty of questions that need answered when they’re planning new ventures, covering everything from business type to location to funding.

But there’s one other question that is just as important: Should the new business be a franchise?

Budding restaurateurs Brian Kubik of Buxton-Kubik-Dodd Interiors and Architecture and Paul Freeman of Computech Mailing Service, and industry veteran Jeff Hurshman chose a franchise – Cleveland-based San Francisco Oven – when they were ready to open an eatery in 2006 under the Oven Spaces LLC banner.

“With a franchise, a lot of the headaches have been worked out,” said Kubik, whose group paid $300,000 to renovate their first space, at 1845 E. Sunshine St., in May 2006.

“The menu’s been made, the kitchen’s been decided, the equipment has been decided, the approach, what people wear, what the place looks like, how the business is run.”


Dealing with details

That the details are taken care of by the franchise is one of the biggest draws for entrepreneurs, according to Terry Hill, vice president of communications for the International Franchise Association.

“You’re buying a system that is, as much as possible, perfected in the marketplace,” Hill said. “You also get a recognized brand and the marketing muscle behind that. You get a support system.”

Hill noted that IFA is gearing up to conduct a survey of U.S. franchise operations, but he said that in 2001, when the last survey was conducted, there were 2,500 viable franchise systems in the United States and more than 767,000 franchised businesses by the end of that year.
Read full: http://www.sbj.net/article.asp?aID=84180603.1037104.1001078.5576855.8504842.445&aID2=76997

Offertrax

RSS is mainly used by bloggers and media companies to distribute their latest blog updates and news flashes. Adding to the mix, Offertrax is bringing Really Simple Syndication to the retail sector, offering consumers more purchasing intelligence and online merchants a new way to convert site visits into sales.

According to Offertrax, less than 3% of site visits convert to a sale. By letting merchants use RSS to distribute updates on products, Offertrax aims to bring visitors back for future conversions. How it works? The web-based application creates RSS feeds for entire online catalogues. Retailers just add a 'track this' button to each product page.

Consumers can then subscribe to a product's feed. As soon as a product's price changes or a retailer announces a special offer, trackers are notified. Merchants can also send notes and deal alerts directly to trackers. The service is free for consumers and merchants are charged a fee.
For more:: www.offertrax.com

Start Up Spark

If you’re an entrepreneur, blogger and interested in getting more involved online and working with a great company like b5 media, this is the right opportunity for you.

Check this site:http://startupspark.com/

Spotzer Makes Video Advertising Affordable

Andrew Klein founder of Spotzer at last years ETRE in Barcelona. At this time Spotzer made first headlines as a alpha version but it has progressed tremendously since then. Time for an interview with Andrew:

1) What does Spotzer do?

Spotzer makes video advertising affordable for businesses around the world. We offer small and local businesses a library of pre-produced, ready-to-air video ads. Clients can buy a license to use an ad with a degree of exclusivity that matches their needs and budget. We will then personalize the ad using the client's unique logos, pictures, slogans and contact information. We also help clients plan and buy highly targeted spots on television, web and out of home TV.

2) What is the story of Andrew Klein? Tell us more about your earlier career and why you decided to become an entrepreneur?

I am the son of two entrepreneurs. I never seriously considered doing anything other than starting my own business, though I did go to law school and through six years of a legal career. I just thought I had to learn a few skills first, and save some money. Eventually, I took my first bet, starting a beer company in 1992 at the age of 32.

A few years later, I got lucky. The beer business was struggling to find investors. I came up with a scheme to offer shares in my beer company to beer enthusiasts who liked our Wit beer, and I decided to try to use the Internet to reach out to target investors. When it turned out that this stock offering was the first ever online, the beer company became very famous. Beer sales improved from the publicity and I started a new company, Wit Capital, to help other companies use the Internet to raise capital. Our little online investment bank eventually partnered with Goldman Sachs and itself went public on NASDAQ. By 2000 we employed 600 people and generated $400 million of revenues.

3) Spotzer has raised impressive piles of cash. How did you do it? And for what is all that money?

We are onto an opportunity that could be very large, but it is capital intensive. We are investing in systems that will automate several aspects of media planning and buying. And we are investing in making commercials for our library. And we are building sales and marketing teams in several countries at once. We raised the money we need to execute an ambitious plan. Investors are supporting us because they too believe the opportunity is very large.
Read more:http://www.tjacobi.com/

Online Business Information

Taking your business online and growing your business online can be intimidating if you don't have much experience with online trends and technology.

The first step in the investment of your time (which always equates to money as an SME) is your web strategy. A solid web strategy places emphasis on the Internet as a marketplace, communications medium, and business channel and is best viewed as an integrated part of your overall business plan.

eBC and Small Business BC have developed online resources and in house seminar training (soon to be delivered by video conference) that will help you with each step of your business plan growth. Visit www.e-bc.ca and www.smallbusinessbc.ca and www.smallbizeducation.ca for online resources and information.
For more:http://www.ebizblog.ca/

Tumpang

Tumpang, which is Malay for pooling, makes it easy for buyers to pool their resources to get a bulk discount on everything from fabric freshener to flat screen televisions.

However, Tumpang has added an interesting twist on the seller's side. Much like eBay, anyone can post an item for sale, paying Tumpang a listing fee. The seller states what the discounted price will be and how many buyers are needed. Sellers can be regular retailers who want to offload stock, but Tumpang's blog also lists advice for incidental bulk dealers. Which could be anyone hoping to make an extra ringgit by gathering a group of buyers on Tumpang, and then placing an order directly with a manufacturer in China or Korea. Securing buyers before buying merchandise creates a low-risk form of alternative retail. Which should be music to any minipreneur's ears ;-)

Website: www.tumpang.com

20 Things Not To Do Before Starting A Business

Here’s list of twenty things not to do before starting a business:

Don’t quit your day job.
Don’t incorporate. Seventy five percent of all businesses are sole proprietorships, and they already make money.
Don’t get a bank account. Your personal banking account will work just fine if someone wants to write you a check, or if you need to pay for something.
Don’t rent an office. Work from home. It won’t require a first, last and security deposit. Plus, it’s tax deductible.
Don’t hire an attorney. What’s an attorney going to tell that you didn’t already know, or couldn’t figure out on Nolo or in a good bookstore? There are only two times to call an attorney: if you’re in jail, or if someone else’s attorney contacts you.
Don’t hire an accountant. Quickbooks Simple Start will get you going.
Don’t get a loan. To get a loan from anyone, even your family, will require that you do too many items on this list. And besides, if you get a loan, you know work for the bank — not for yourself.
Don’t hire anyone. Don’t hire someone if you can do it yourself. For everything else, use contractors and give them 1099.
Don’t get a business license. I’m not advocating that anyone cheat the government. Once you can sell your product/service, go out immediately and get all of the necessary business licenses and permits in your jurisdiction.
Don’t try to patent anything. It takes 1.5 to 2.5 years to get a patent. Who knows what the market will look like then.
Don’t design a logo. You are your own brand, you don’t need a logo.
Don’t waste time picking a business name. As a sole proprietor, you already have a business name: your own!
Don’t advertise. Advertising costs money, and takes time to perfect. Selling takes only you.
Don’t buy office supplies. If you need a pencil, get one out of the kitchen or your son’s backpack. You are working from home, aren’t you?
Don’t buy any equipment. Outsource everything. Fedex Kinkos can handle all of your printing, and instead of splurging on a postal meter head down the post office. Need something big? Rent it! If it’s not something you can rent by the day, maybe there’s another local business with one. Can you rent it during their off hours in the middle of the night?
Don’t try to find a partner. What do you need a parter for? Capital? Don’t take loans. Need someone with some sales experience? If you the inventor of your product/service can’t sell it — no one will be able to.
Don’t join the Chamber of Commerce. Chambers of Commerce have great mixers where you can meet and network with other local business people. Right now, you don’t need to network, you need to sell! Plus, you can always go as a visitor.
Don’t tell all of your friends about the business that you’re going to start someday soon. Every minute that you spend telling someone you love about your future business is one less minute you have to either try to find someone to buy your product/service or to refine it. Plus, everyone knows an “entrepreneur” that is all talk and no action: don’t be one yourself.
Don’t write a business plan. Sure you need to know what you’re going to do and how you’re going to make money, but don’t waste time formatting it into a structured plan.
Don’t get a business telephone number or mailing address. You have a cellphone, use it. If someone needs to mail you something, have them send it to your house. You’re working there, remember.
Read more:http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2007/04/11/20-things-not-to-do-before-starting-a-business/

Mog TV

A new online social-network called Mog not only enables members to meet other people with similar musical tastes, but also view music videos based on the songs in your music library, reports Wilson Rothman in The New York Times (3/29/07). “Imagine if YouTube knew what songs were in your music collection … it’s the ultimate mash-up,” says David Hyman, Mog’s ceo. It’s actually just one of a number of online services that promise to build communities — and sell new music — based on what your music collection says about you. You’ve probably already heard of Pandora, where musicologists suggest other artists you might like based on those you identify as your favorites.

Or perhaps you’ve stumbled across Last.fm, which is premised not on expert opinion but rather “the wisdom of the crowd.” You download software that first analyzes the songs on your computer, and then creates your own personal “radio station” by correlating your collection to some “65 million tracks by 8 million artists” worldwide as found on other people’s computers. Last.fm then takes things a step further, by creating a community out of its 15 million users, who can “contact others whose musical tastes correspond significantly” with their own. A newer entry is Slacker.com, which offers a free software player and sells a portable device you can use to take your personalized music with you.
For more:http://mog.com/

Goodreads

Goodreads provides an online platform for discussing just that. Booklovers can share recommendations for their favourite page-turners with friends, online acquaintances and other like-minded bibliophiles. Unlike the reviews found at sites like Amazon.com, Goodreads write-ups have a more personal touch since the site is built around a networking concept.

Users can sign up in just a few simple steps and immediately begin entering reviews. Books are rated on a five-star system, ranging from one star for “didn't like it” to five for “it was amazing.” Members can discuss what they loved or didn't love about books they've read, see right away what the consensus was among fellow reviewers and even comment on one another's reviews. Moreover, they can catalogue their collections on virtual bookshelves that can be customized to reflect their own personalities. Default shelf names are “Read,” “To-Read” and “Currently-Reading,” but it only takes a moment to add new shelves, and users can have fun with their category designations.

The business model for Goodreads and its siblings is based on racking up referral fees from online book stores like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. As the websites grow, they’ll also become highly valuable tools for the publishing industry, which could lead to additional sources of revenue. Since reading books isn’t limited to English-speakers, this is definitely a concept to copy to other countries or languages that don’t yet have their own (popular) online social network for readers. For more inspiration, check out Shelfari, Bookjetty and BuchPfade, to name a few.

Website: www.goodreads.com

Different Kind Of Entrepreneurship

The following is a little story about encounter with the amazing entrepreneurial spirit of homeschoolers and the great company they built, Wakeside.com.
John Hellweg was a normal homeschool guy who had a big vision: start a company. Everyone knows homeschoolers are great at academics, but what about being “cool?” Or, what’s even more dubious, what about building and running a company that makes its bread and butter on being totally awsome?
John was about eighteen years old when he founded Wakeside.com with his father. They took some big risks, like a second mortgage on their house. Building the company was a long, arduous task, and took time away from other activities, such as sleep and college. Mark took the college route, and would prove his talents in the company later on.

I met John’s brother Mark, a bright young sophomore at Patrick Henry College, when I arrived in Purcellville, Virginia as a freshman. This school was a place where 98% of the student body was homeschooled. We had a lot of fun, but I am afraid to say that we were a little too eager to prove that we were not like “the others.” But hey, what young male in the prime of life could resist that agonizing itch? That virulent urge to be different at a place where you were all the same, and all homeschooled? It was beyond me. And I was not alone. We both ended up leaving PHC that year with outstanding academic records, of course (…and no police records).

I reaquainted myself with Mark in my junior year at Hillsdale College, when Mark transferred there after taking a year to work for Wakeside. Mark has been one of my best friends since that time, and we graduated from Hillsdale together.
After getting his degree, Mark joined his brother’s company again as the director of finance. He also got married to a beatiful woman and has a beautiful baby girl.
If you want to meet some cool, bright, entrepreneurial people who haven’t wasted their youth playing video games and doing drugs, you will want to hang out with homeschoolers like John and Mark Hellweg, and the rest of their family.


Go to www.wakeside.com to see this incredible Web site, straight from the minds of homeschoolers. Buy some great towers, incredible boards, and if you are a female rider (and you’re tired of all the boarding stuff being made for guys) you need to check out the section made exclusively for you.

Don’t wakeboard? Then maybe you snowboard and you can see their new Web site, www.TruSnow.com. If you don’t do any of these things, well, you’re a big loser!
Finally, I am a happy customer, not just a friend trying to bring business to another friend. I bought my Nixon rotolog watch (see photo in bamboo wood, check out the walnut also) at Wakeside.com and it was a great experience. They send you little handwritten notes from the guy or girl who packaged the thing. Very cool.

Wakeside.com is beyond cool. What’s cooler than being cool? ICE COLD. No, really. How about being real? Wakeside customer service is out of this world, fusing local-feeling, boutique service with the power of the Internet. Check out the ingenuity of homeschoolers at Wakeside.com.

GOOG411

Fed up with fees? A new bevy of free software-based directories could make you hang up on Ma Bell's operators for good
Related Items
911 for 411
Who isn't tired of paying $2 a pop—or more—for a simple number look-up over the phone? Google (GOOG) and other info providers feel your fatigue. Here's an annotated list of alternatives to the traditional paid-for 411. Just remember: You generally get what you pay for, and these services aren't always speedy. Did we leave any off? Drop us a note in the reader comments section.

GOOG 411
1-800 GOOG 411
labs.google.com/goog411
A nimble product, even in beta mode. Google Voice Local Search uses voice-recognition software that is generally up to the task of finding your information, and the service is quick. You can also get your info in a text message. One caveat: Business categories still seem to have some kinks: Goog 411's computers had better luck finding movie theaters than wine shops in our test drive. That's why the company says Google is still in its "experimental stage" and may not work for all callers.

Tellme
1-800-555-TELL
www.tellme.com
Tellme is the slickest of the new offerings, essentially offering an audio version of an online portal, and possibly one reason Microsoft (MSFT) was keen to buy the company. The voice-recognition software worked flawlessly, but Tellme doesn't connect you to caller-requested search results. (It will for businesses in its system.) Beyond business numbers, there's an array of choices: stock quotes, weather data, travel, top news stories, etc. The service incorporates jingle-style music, chimes, and soft jazz.
For more;http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070411_801392.htm

Best Article From Other Business Sites At One Place

Check Out.
www.gongol.com/cb/

Imagine If We Could Sell What We Say

Skype's latest software release includes a beta version of Skype Prime. The service is very similar to Ether: sellers set a price, fixed or per minute, find buyers for their service, and Skype handles the rest. Of course, instead of using phone lines, both sellers and buyers use Skype's voice over IP platform.

While Skype charges 'call providers' more than Ether does—30% commission versus 15%—Skype's obvious benefit is its existing global user base. Skype has over 171 million registered users, is available in 28 languages and is used in almost every country around the world. Which means a very large reach for minipreneurs who'd like to sell their services, whether they're offering Spanish lessons, tax advice or something saucier. (Note that Skype's guidelines state that call providers cannot offer any content or service that is adult, sexual, pornographic or paedophiliac.)

Other alternatives include BitWine and Wengo.
Website: www.skype.com/share/skypeprime

Is Personality Type Matter In Venture Captial?

I’ll never forget Mitch Mumma of Intersouth telling an assembled group of newly initiated venture capitalists that a degree in psychology would probably be a stronger indicator of success in the industry than a degree in economics. One’s ability to intuit the capabilities of a team, to build trust, and manage bumps in the road are key skills for a VC, and only likely to become more so as investment opportunities become more competitive. Consider the kind of relationship building the Outside.in investment required.

It’s worth noting, then, that venture investors do occasionally bring to bear an analytical method of peering beneath the shiny personality veneer of management pitches and diligence visits when considering a new investment. At Chrysalis we use a tool called the Predictive Index (or PI), one of many options on the market, but one we’ve seen a lot of success with and something many of our portfolio companies have decided to use internally to foster more effective teamwork and as an aid in recruiting efforts. In fact, the Wall Street Journal covered our usage in a 2004 article on the topic:

David Jones Jr., chairman and managing director of Chrysalis, based in Louisville, Ky., said PI has helped his firm gain insight into the companies it considers funding. Before Chrysalis began incorporating PI, Mr. Jones said, “I felt we spent an immense amount of time on people issues, but there was no predictability.”

It was easy enough to look at a resume and see if someone had been a success, he said, but it was hard to tell whether a leadership team at a new company would work well together…

“We made an investment in a company last year where we’d gotten some resistance from the CEO,” Mr. Jones said. “He was probably the most experienced and mature CEO in our portfolio, and had run a number of companies. He went along with [PI], but I don’t think he was thrilled.”

When Chrysalis asked the CEO to bring his team together to go over the results, the CEO brought with him another investor, who immediately took out his Blackberry as if to say he had no interest in the proceedings.

“Their body language was tense,” Mr. Jones said. “The perception of the other investor was that he felt this was an utter waste of time. Within 20 minutes, the BlackBerry was on the table and everyone was leaning forward. When it was over, the CEO said, `You must have been listening in on our management meetings. This is a very accurate assessment of how we get along and what we’re like to work with.’ Now they’re incorporating PI into their business.”
For more:http://www.augurinc.com/art-investors.html

Can Mangment Theory Help In Winning Boat Race?

Can voguish management theory help to win a venerable race?


CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY'S “blue boat”, which faces its Oxford rival in the 153rd boat race on April 7th, glides past the browns and greys of the East Anglian fenland. The oars cup and spill the water, leaving eight evenly spaced dimples in the river behind them. Two catamarans track the boat's progress. In the first, Duncan Holland, the coach, looks for flaws in the rowers' technique. In the second sits a less congruous figure: Mark de Rond, a management theorist from Cambridge's Judge Business School. He thinks this time-honoured contest holds lessons for business today.

As in any company, the members of the boat club are torn between competition and co-operation. Colleagues vie with each other for preferment, yet must collaborate closely to fend off competition from without. To win a seat in the blue boat a rower must outshine his clubmates; but to go fast, rowers must synchronise their efforts with the same people they are trying to outdo.
Read more:http://economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8931858

Get Full Technology Report

Check Out.
http://www.regreports.com/?gclid=CKed9N3nuYsCFQbIbgod-UCULQ

Starting New Business,Don't Worry

I will be starting my own business in a few months. What advice would you give me as a new business owner to help me maximize productivity?
Read More:http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/columnist/edmunds/2007-04-03-time_N.htm

Why Some Ideas Survive?

In their new book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, the Heath brothers — Chip Heath, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford and Dan Heath, a consultant at Duke Corporate Education — isolate and elaborate on six principles for helping ideas succeed. In other words, what makes an idea "sticky"?

Principle 1: Simplicity. How do we find the essential core of our ideas?

Principle 2: Unexpectedness. How do we get our audience to pay attention to our ideas, and how do we maintain their interest when we need time to get the ideas across?

Principle 3: Concreteness. How do we make our ideas clear?

Principle 4: Credibility. How do we make people believe our ideas?

Principle 5: Emotions. How do we get people to care about our ideas?

Principle 6: Stories. How do we get people to act on our ideas?
Read More:http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,2109249,00.asp

How To Raise Funds?

Check out.This site.
http://www.abcfundraising.com/

SitePal

What can you use SitePal for?
Business websites and blogs can use SitePal to:

Welcome visitors with a friendly message
Explain FAQs
Give a tour of your website and point out special features
Explain how to sign up for your RSS feed or your newsletter
Increase sales on landing pages, by providing a virtual sales clerk to orient visitors who arrive after clicking through an advertisement
It’s pretty easy to get started.

For small business websites and blog sites, I recommend the custom avatar. It is more personalized. However, you also could start out with one of the standard characters that Oddcast provides. Pick one that fits your style and personality — have fun with it.
For more:http://www.smallbiztrends.com/sitepal/

Analysis Of Online Venture Or Baby Boomers

Looking for a growth market for your next online venture? Look no further than the 50+ market.

The number of U.S. adults over age 50 will soar over the next ten years. In fact, U.S. Census Bureau data shows that 50+ adults will be the only growth demographic — measured by age — between now and 2015 as the massive Baby Boomer generation enters its 50s and 60s.




Plenty of companies hesitate when it comes to marketing new products to Boomers — especially products with a technology focus. Many marketers adhere to traditional — and wrong-headed — thinking about older consumers: They’ve already made their brand choices and can’t be interested in anything new. They’re resistant to change. They don’t adapt well to new technology.

Marketers will tell you the big opportunity lies in young consumers, because that’s where you can convert a “customer for life.” But with today’s ultra-dynamic product marketplace, the notion of acquiring lifetime customers is obsolete, perhaps with the exception of mundane consumer products such as toothpaste and soap. The pace of product change is just too great for any company to hold on to consumers that long.

What’s more, Baby Boomers are just as open to new products as younger consumers. This is a generation that has broken the mold during every stage of life — and middle age is no different. As Boomers hit midlife, they’re open to a wide range of new products and experiences — just as they have at every other stage of life.

In fact, Boomers always have been at the forefront when it comes to embracing new products and technologies. During the course of their adult lives, Boomers have embraced personal computers, cell phones, PDAs, e-mail, and voicemail, and a wide range of other products.

“Boomers are leading the companies that are bringing new technologies to the world,” says Anne Wall, senior vice president of C&R Research, a Chicago-based market research company that specializes in Boomer consumers. “They’re using it at work, and at home and their kids are using it, too. Their entire lives have been about change.”

When it comes to the Internet, the story is no different. Boomers are using the web at nearly the same rates as other age groups, and in just about the same way. Contrary to the stereotypes, 70 percent of adults age 50 to 64 are online, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, about 12 percentage points less than younger age groups.

And while fewer 50+ Internet users have access to a broadband Internet connection than the general online population, their overall usage patterns mirror other age segments, according to Pew research. They’re more likely than GenX’ers to use the web to gather information, nearly as likely to shop online, and they’re avid consumers of digital health information.
For More:http://smallbiztrends.com/

Business Pundit

Tom Davenport explains why Enterprise Web 2.0 won't take off, but I think he misunderstands what it would be used for. No one thinks that all employees have equally good ideas about how to run the company. The point is to use processes that do allow good ideas to filter to the top, regardless of where they came from.

Fortune wonders if Siberia will be the next Silicon Valley.

Sarah Tavel writes about the venture capital process when you are outside the valley.

Selling products by word of mouth has benefits and pitfalls.

The venom of crowds - what to do when you are attacked online.
For More:http://www.businesspundit.com/

71 Miles

71 Miles is a new travel site with a blog twist (or is it a blog with a travel site twist?), designed to met the needs of urban-dwellers looking for a weekend getaway. Launched in Beta in Northern California, they plan to go national within the coming months covering destinations within driving distances of major metropolitan cities. Supplemented with interactive maps, slideshows and videos, 71Miles content includes info on activities, sights, hotels and restaurants, written by local authorities with editorial cred to back them up. The site to be well-written and pretty accurate down to the "acid-addled, aged hippie."

Driven by real-time pricing from Kayak's discount hotel booking service and sponsored links from hotels, the "Travel 2.0" site combines word-of-mouth-style info with internet-enabled features to make planning a quick trip way easier than calling a travel agent or hounding friends.
For more:http://71miles.com/

The Art Of Googling

The art of 'Googling' (checking people's backgrounds on the internet via search engine Google) -- which started out as a useful tool for weeding out psychopaths from the online dating game and performing a quick double-check on an applicant's claim about his or her astonishing career -- will soon be an integral part of corporate 1:1 marketing strategies.


With consumers disclosing their most intimate secrets online (voluntarily!), Google has essentially created a 'domestic database', i.e. a world-wide database loaded with your customers' details and profiles, with a depth of information your company's database can only dream of.

So instead of consumers Googling you before they buy your services, you should Google THEM, and instantly get more personal information than you'd ever be able to capture with traditional 1:1 in an entire life-time. TRENDWATCHING.COM has dubbed this emerging trend COUNTER-GOOGLING, and the opportunities are tasty!

A real-life COUNTER-GOOGLING example? The Bel Air Hotel in LA already Googles first-time guests upon arrival, based on their reservation details (name and address), leading to personalized services like assigning guests a room with morning sun if Googling shows the guest enjoys jogging early in the day (source: http://blog.outer-court.com).

Where to start? All you need is a name and some address details, to make sure you're COUNTER-GOOGLING the right customer. Best chance of hitting the data-jackpot? Three million or so bloggers: consumers who keep an Internet diary, revealing to all the world their commercial preferences, daily doings, recent holiday photos, habits and customs, family matters and what have you. And what about millions and millions of online resumes, showing detailed career paths, marital status and 'life and work objectives'? ;-)

OPPORTUNITIES
Sure, putting COUNTER-GOOGLING to work could be seen as a form of spam. It may even feel creepy to some consumers. But as always, honesty will do the trick: if consumers put their entire life stories online, and you as a company candidly refer to this public information AND make them an offer they can't refuse, more sales may be on the way. And bloggers, savvy consumers by nature, will no doubt introduce a 'no unsollicited sales' seal, the moment they grow tired of COUNTER-GOOGLING, making it clear what's off limits and what's fair game. Smart bloggers could even, in a dedicated section of their page or site, list the goods and services they don't mind getting personalized offers for!
For more:www.trendswatching.com

Contact ,Would Be Enterprenures

Garage Canada is the first international affiliate of Garage Technology Ventures in Palo Alto. This relationship with Silicon Valley, along with the team’s global connections, provide for direct access to a rich and diverse pool of technical and market expertise, in addition to invaluable follow-on investors, customers and value-added networks.

Our team is supported by other highly experienced external advisors to the fund, including prominent Canadian, American and European venture professionals and senior executives.

Mission
Our team is focused on one primary mission: working with the management teams we invest in to build great global companies. We believe that early-stage investing requires teamwork and a common vision of what needs to be done to build strong foundations.

Our approach begins with people. We are committed to ensuring that Management has the right resources and our full support. We believe that great technology companies have a global mindset, fast clock-speeds, clearly defined value propositions to their customers, well-managed intellectual property and that their business models are based on assumptions and processes that are actively monitored and consistently managed.

We fund entrepreneurs who seek to be winners and companies that will grow to define and dominate their target markets.

For more:http://www.garagecanada.com/

How To Know Which Airline Is Offering Best Deal

Say you are looking for a deal on an airline flight. The Internet abounds with offers for low fares. You can find them on the major Internet travel agent sites like Orbitz, Travelocity or on more specialized sites like Cheaptickets.com or Sidestep.com.

Those can be useful, but they have limits. How do you know, for instance, that that low fare really is a deal? A number of Web sites have recently been created that specialize in spotting true bargains. All of them do what any bargain hunter is supposed to do: watch the marketplace for anomalies, whether they are money-saving air tickets, discount hotel rooms or frequent-flier bonuses.

Farecast.com, which gathered a following with technology that enables it to predict the direction of airfares on a particular route, is back with another innovation that it says can distinguish the best deals in air travel.

Hugh Crean, the chief executive of the Seattle company, said, “We flipped the deal concept.” He said that to determine whether a deal was anything more than a marketing tool, the Web site mined its database of airfares to look for good prices relative to others and those in the past.

What makes this an ideal task for computers, he said, is that a person looking for the best fare for a flight on a particular day from, say, San Francisco, would have to study 600 possibilities from each of the area’s three major airports. Since it was already tracking price data from airlines, Farecast was not daunted by the amount of information.

“We are the only ones who look at everything every day,” Mr. Crean said. Artificial intelligence was all that was needed to spot the deals.

On its site, a person goes to the Farecast Deals section and clicks on the departure city and a list of deals pops up. Each entry includes an explanation, like “record low” or “save $249 off the average low.”
For More:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/07/business/07money.html?em&ex=1176264000&en=f3890c393d8c85d5&ei=5087%0A

WbEx :Free Report ;Instant Messaging

Free Report:
Instant Messaging
Tough Enough for
Business
By Osterman Research

IM is widely used in the workplace today, but unfortunately, most use of IM consists of consumer-grade IM clients. This free report demonstrates the benefits of IM in any size organization, the risks that organizations face from unmanaged IM use, and the factors that must be addressed as organizations upgrade to an enterprise-grade IM capability.

Request your free copy today!
Yes! I want to receive a free copy of Instant Messaging Tough Enough for Business

First Name
Last Name
Email
Company

Phone
Job Function Please Select............................................... Administrative Assistant C - Level Consultant Director Manager Other Owner / Proprietor Team Leader VP
Department Please Select............................................... Business Development / Channels Customer Service & Support Engineering / R&D / Manufacturing Finance, Legal & Administration Human Resources Information Technology Marketing Operations Sales Training Other
Zip/Postal etc.
For more:http://www.webex.com/lp/lzChautauqua0701/IM.html?TrackID=1008807&hbxref=

41 pounds ,New Fighter Of Junk Mail

41pounds.org, junk mail battling organization. I hate junk mail more than anything– every time I open my mailbox and it’s overflowing with crap, I can’t help but to think how much of a waste it is. Why can’t Dominos Pizza use the freaking internet to advertise? Did you know that every year you get about (you guessed it) 41 lbs. of junk mail? 41pounds is equally fed up, and they’ve decided to do something about it. For $41 per 5 years of service, they will contact the 20 or so companies that are responsible for filling your mailbox with pizza coupons and have you taken off of their list. On top of that, they’ll donate more than half of their profits to charities supporting education, conservation, and re-forestation efforts. From all of us (except those of you who make money off of junk mail marketing): thank you 41pounds.org! More freaky facts about junk mail after el jumpo…
For more:http://idunited.wordpress.com/2007/03/29/41poundsorg/

Etailer

Online retailer 20ltd sells no more than 20 items at a time, each of which are highly exclusive and only available in small numbers. Goods currently on offer range from GBP 2,900 white buffalo horn sunglasses (edition of 10), to a GBP 9,000 hammock covered in cashmere and black fox fur (thankfully for black foxes, only 5 of those were made). All items are exclusive to 20ltd, and not sold anywhere else. As soon as a product is sold out, it's replaced by a new object of desire.

The British retailer is backed by private investment, and will operate solely online. Calling itself an "etailer of authentic, ingenious, beautiful and unexpected things," 20ltd hopes to reach a global audience, including rapidly growing luxury markets like Russia, China and the Middle East. The website is currently available in English, Italian, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.
For more:www.20ltd.com

Value Of Web 2.0 Start Ups

So how much is a Web 2.0 startup really worth? Everyone is wondering that these days, especially since there are so few acquisitions or IPOs by which to measure them. That's why I like the slide below created by eSnips CEO Yael Elish. It gives an approximate value for many high-profile Web 2.0 sites by correlating publicly available Alexa Web traffic numbers with the value of known deals like YouTube's. This slide is hardly accurate for many reasons , but it does help you visualize how one company may be doing against another.

By her count, Wikipedia, YouTube*, and MySpace are in that rarefied realm of Web 2.0 sites worth more than $1 billion. Just below that are Flickr*, Facebook, and Hi5. In the $100 million to $500 million range are LinkedIn, Bebo*, Digg*, Feedburner, Last.fm*, and Technorati*. And just below the $100 million mark is StumbleUpon*, Slide*, and Netvibes*. She values eSnips on the chart at about $30 million. (The asterisked names made the Next Net 25 either in 2006 or 2007).
There are lots of problems with this slide, the first being the accuracy of Alexa's traffic data, which is highly disputed. But as long as Alexa is equally wrong for every Website, that shouldn't too big a deal, especially if all you want to know is the relative value of one site over another. The bigger problem is equating eyeballs with dollars. Not every visitor is worth the same.

For instance, it is possible that social network Hi5 may be worth more than Facebook, but is Google-owned Orkut really worth more than either one of those? I doubt it. And Wikipedia might get a lot of traffic, but it is really not worth as much as YouTube since it is a not-for-profit that has no intention of ever displaying ads.
For more slide shows;http://blogs.business2.com/business2blog/2007/03/eyeballing_the_.html

Drobo

With a name like Drobo, you can't expect this robot to spit fire or scare little kids. Instead this $699 bot guards your hard drives from sudden death by automatically sensing when things go awry with one of your HDDs. Should it detect any data corruption, Drobo springs into action repairing any foul play. The enclosure can also detect and format up to four 3.5-inch SATA drives. Pretty fancy for a HDD enclosure.
For more;http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/peripherals/drobo-the-storage-robot-that-keeps-your-hdds-in-check-250435.php

Interview With Google CEO

Among the topics they covered were:

Anti-trust (with a beautiful deke to create “time and space” as we say in hockey)

Innovation

Competitive advantages

Motivation of entrepreneurs

Maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit

Traditional and non-traditional organization design

What Microsoft and Yahoo does that impresses him

Invention of disruptive technologies.
For more:http://iinnovate.blogspot.com/2007/03/eric-schmidt-ceo-of-google.html

AirBus With BMW design Interior

Airplane interiors are boring. Why is there never any innovation? Well, BMW has changed that. The new Airbus A350 twinjet is being unveiled at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, and it has a BMW designed interior. Among the dozens of innovations, the roof lighting can dramatically change and the storage now enables two carry on bags per passenger.

“There are new lighting features and shaping in the cabin,” says A350 chief engineer Dougie Hunter. “We can project onto the ceiling whatever is appropriate for the mood required – for example the night sky or clouds etc.”
For more:www.trendhunter.com

How To Attract Venture Captalist

One of the participants asked a great question about how to get his attention as a company seeking VC funding. So here are the secrets (in order of importance) straight from the source on how to get Guy to pay his Venture Capitalist attention to you :

Do your homework.VC firms specialize in many various industries. Garage Technology Ventures focuses on software, services, clean technology, and material sciences. In the life sciences (or other) field? Don’t waste your time reading further. Find a different VC firm that specializes in your industry.
Get introduced to Guy by a well established Corporate Finance AttorneyWhy? You will have already passed one tried and true “Bozo Filter”.


Make sure you have had your business incorporated by same said AttorneyDon’t use forms from OfficeMax or your relative who usually specializes in real estate law. (No offense meant to past employer Socrates.com or my own lawyer-father, both of whom I’ve used to incorporate past businesses. Good thing I’m not seeking funding!)
If you are still in school or grad school and go to a name brand university, have your Department Head get in touch with Guy on your behalf. You (and the head of your department!) had better make darn sure that you have something impressive to put in front of Guy in the first place. As in, the school hasn’t seen this kind of innovation in years. Or ever.


Have a CEO of a large company like Yahoo or Google company in a VC’s portfolio that’s doing well make an introduction for you.
Guy realizes that many people don’t have these connections. His backup advice? Life is tough. Other people have made these connections. So can you, if you have an idea and company worth investing in.


So let’s say you have none of these things. What do you do?You have one shot, three paragraphs, and there’s no room for bullshit.
And you better have tried steps 1-6 first. Send Garage Technologies an email. Don’t you dare use the words “patent”, “our partner”, “conservative projections” or “hurry because other VC firms are interested” or bother with any of these other lies.

DON’T send an attachment, don’t waste their time.

DO have brand credentials, and you had better have paid attention to #1 (read his blog, know his company).

You have three paragraphs to pitch your company, talking specifically about how what you do appeals to people. This isn’t just about you - this is the golden rule of “What’s in it for Them”.

For more;http://www.emomsathome.com/blog/2007/03/22/8-ways-to-get-venture-capital-attention-from-guy-kawasaki/

Set Your Own Mobile Network

Sonopia works with Verizon to handle calls and data transfer, and lets anyone from a rock band to a church group set up their own mobile network brand. In return, the mini carrier will receive 3-8% of revenues generated by the customers they sign up. Brands create their own calling plans, get a co-branded website and are able to send their members messages about the latest news or special events.

Organizations that have already set up a Sonopia MVNO include the National Wildlife Fund, the American Medical Student Association and the Long Island Ducks (minor-league baseball). Someone also started a San Francisco Foodies group and the LonelyGirl15 Fan Club.

The obvious challenge when setting up your own MVNO is to create a strong enough hook to convince customers to switch from a major carrier to your service. Which could be exclusive content sent only to members/customers, like a pre-release of Fergie's latest song, or daily nuggets of wisdom from Dr. Phil. Non-profit networks are helped by the feel-good factor of knowing that profits are being donated to the cause of one's choice, as is the case with the National Wildlife Fund: "Help preserve our wildlife today... one call at a time."
For more; www.sonopia.com

Bubble Guru

New application called BubbleGuru it allows you to record video footage from your webcam and then place it onto any website, in an email, etc. The idea behind it is that you can convey your ideas in a more realistic and candid way by recording video messages on the fly, and the messages, even once they’re embedded, won’t take up any extra space on the web page or email– the secret (well, not so secret), is that BubbleGuru serves and encodes the video for you. I’ve seen it in action, and it looks pretty good to me. BubbleGuru is currently in beta version and is free when you sign up before May 1st.
For more;www.bubbleguru.com

Managing Your travel Plans"TripSync"

TripSync, an exciting new Web 2.0 app that allows you to book, change, and manage travel plans directly from your calendar. Once you use the easy drag and drop interface to book your flight, rental car, and hotel accommodations through an automatic search of leading global distribution systems, your travel data is uploaded to your calendar in Outlook. From that point, you can click into components of your itinerary on your calendar and review/modify your plans– essentially, it’s a live data itinerary. Even more, the app allows you to keep others (your boss, your co-workers, your nagging wife) abreast of changes you make to your travel plans. TripSync was developed by veteran business travelers who understand how smaller businesses work, so I’m hoping that this tool will be of use to a lot of you. I didn’t fully understand its functionality until I viewed their demo– so that’s a good starting point .

WhiskeyMilitia

The new website WhiskeyMilitia sells one piece of marked-down skate/snow/surf gear for at least 50% off beginning each night at midnight MST until it’s gone. Sound familiar? It’s the same model as woot! and SteepandCheap, but for skaters instead of computer geeks or backcountry gear nerds. Today’s the first day, and there’s a Darkstar complete skateboard for $50.

Is Twitter Safe?

It seems that everyone is talking about Twitter, and while the service is seeing enormous growth and all the celebrity bloggers have started using it like their life depends on it, before you jump on the bandwagon, here are a few considerations to keep in mind.
For More:http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/three-hidden-dangers-of-twitter.html

Something To Sell

Service is offered by JyvePro, which works with Skype. Writers, tutors, web designers, consultants, lawyers, therapists and anyone else with something to say and sell, can download the JyvePro plug-in (an add-on piece of software). This connects a payment system to the user's Skype account, and works like a taxi meter, tracking minutes talked, and invoicing customers once a conversation is over. Calls can be five minutes or two hours -- the systems bills to the minute.

For its automated billing system, JyvePro uses a digital payment service called Click&Buy, which also processes payments for online merchants like Habbo Hotel, iVillage, and the European version of Apple's iTunes.

Since calls run through Skype, customers and consultants can be based anywhere in the world, turning minipreneurs into global businesses. Customers have access to help/employees on demand, and consultants are able to tap into a worldwide client base, selling their time when it suits them. According to Skype, which celebrated its third birthday yesterday, 7 million people were on Skype yesterday morning, breaking all previous records. 7 million buyers and sellers ready to be connected, giving everyone access to the global brain.

Website: http://www.jyvepro.com
Contact: bizdev@jyve.com

Useful Websits

100 most useful websits.
For more:www.tehnology.gurdian.co.uk

How To Advertise

Search advertising (aka keyword advertising) is one of the hottest trends in marketing today, and no wonder--paying only for ads that potential customers click on is an advertiser's dream come true.

Your search advertising campaign's effectiveness, however, depends to a large degree on how effectively you plan, create and maintain it. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your campaign:

1. Know your business. The point of a search advertising campaign is precision: reaching the right users at the right time. And the first step toward achieving this is to know your business. What products and services are you selling? What's your precise market niche? What selling strengths do you want to play toward? Do your homework up front so your campaign planning will be as effective as possible.

As an example, let's assume you're running a gourmet coffee website, http://www.frothing-latte-bean.com, on which you sell a range of coffee products, from beans to machines. Your target market is devoted coffee lovers everywhere, and you want to focus on your great products and easy ordering options.

2. Identify your goals and organize around them. Once you have a clear sense of your business, stay focused on it as you establish the goals for your ad campaign. Then, as you set up your search ads, structure each campaign based on a simple, overarching goal--for instance, getting people who want to buy great coffee products to visit your site so you sell more coffee beans online. In some cases, you can use the same structure for your campaigns as you do for your website. If your site is already grouped into categories, for example, your job is almost done. Mapping your structure on paper first will produce an easy-to-use template.

Now that you've set your campaigns and related goals, you can create logical groupings within each campaign called "ad groups." Ad groups are made up of keywords and ads (and we'll go into this more later). Since you've chosen one goal per campaign, each ad group within a campaign should be helping you met those goals.

3. Choose the right keywords. Choosing keywords is both an art and a science. Start by brainstorming a list that's as wide as possible. There are a variety of online resources that can assist you in brainstorming. Using them, you simply enter a few basic ideas, such as gourmet coffee, French roast and coffee beans, and you'll get back dozens of potential keywords and phrases (two- and three-word phrases usually work best as keywords).

Once you have a good list, you'll want to sort it (many advertisers put them into a spreadsheet to make sorting them easier). Start by selecting a "match type" for each keyword. A broad match means any user who searches on "coffee" or "bean" in any combination will see your ads; more precisely targeted matches--such as a phrase match or an exact match--will deliver fewer ad views but perhaps better targeted ones. You can even choose negative match keywords to eliminate searched phrases you don't want your ad to appear on, such as "cheap" or "free."

Finally, you should refine your list by cutting irrelevant keywords that don't really relate to your business, and then organize the remaining keywords into themed groups. For instance, you might want to place keywords relating to whole-bean coffee in one ad group and those relating to ground coffee in another one.

4. Write ads that get people clicking. Now that you've set up your keywords and grouped them in ad groups, your next step is to write the ads that users will see in their search results when they search on those keywords. You have three lines with which to grab that potential customer's attention. Here are a few tips for getting it right:

Get to the point quickly.
Include your keywords in your headline.
Write copy that encourages users to click through to your site.
Here's a sample ad for our gourmet coffee site:

Gourmet Coffee Beans

Order fair-trade, French roast,

decaf coffee beans. Free shipping.

www.frothing-latte-bean.com
For more:www.enterprenure.com

Adafruit Offering New Laser,laptops,ipods etc.

Adafruit offers custom laser etching of laptops, iPods, phones, cameras and more. It isn't the first company to offer laser etching (see Etchamac, Powerbook Laser Engraving and others), but it is the first to freely share its business model with other entrepreneurs interested in setting up a customization shop.

Adafruit Laser Services was launched by Phillip Torrone (senior editor of Make magazine) and Limor Fried (aka Lady Ada). The duo will freely share information on how to use a high powered laser system, etching techniques, business practices and templates. Adafruit currently operates in New York and is planning to set up a location in San Francisco early this year. Customers can have a small gadget etched for USD 30, and a laptop for USD 100. Bulk rates and services are available to businesses.

The laser etching machine used by Adafruit is an Epilog, priced at around USD 20,000 and capable of doing highly detailed etching (1200 dpi). If a group of interested etchers use their crowd clout by organizing a group buy, they should be able to make a head start by getting the machine's price down. If you're interested in setting up your own laser etching business / gadget tattoo parlor and would like to receive more info, contact Adafruit at laser@adafruit.com.

Website: www.adafruit.com/laser
Contact: laser@adafruit.com

Living Room Theaters

Launched in Portland last month, Living Room Theaters intends to create a more intimate and multi-purpose approach to movie going. The small complex has 6 screening rooms, each seating 38 to 64 audience members in home-theater style recliners and loveseats or at low-lit tables with plush chairs. Customers can sit down and relax in the screening/living room half an hour before the movie starts, ordering drinks from a full bar and finger food from a tapas-style menu.

Unlike regular theaters, Living Room also serves breakfast, lunch and dinner in a casual restaurant and bar with capacity for 50 people. On sunny days, a roll-up garage door opens the restaurant for sidewalk cafe seating. Completing the being space concept, free wifi is available throughout the lounge and cafe. All of which will help bring in the grown-up customers Living Room Theaters is targeting; not just when they want to see the latest indie flick, but also for meeting up and hanging out in a comfortable, well-designed space, or having lunch while working on their own film scripts.
For more: www.livingroomtheaters.com
Contact: info@livingroomtheaters.com


O