A new company called Sonopia is offering a service for brands to customize their own cellphones and wireless service plans.
In place of a carrier's brand at the top of the phones, organizations that partner with Sonopia can label the phones with their own logos, and customize the colors. Marketers and hobby groups can then distribute news and entertainment to their customers and loyalists. The back-end billing and technical side of the phone plans is handled by Sonopia, much like credit card companies manage affinity charge card programs for charitable and alumni groups.
Innovative business model or simply phone shwag. What do you think? Maybe a bit of both.
More at:http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/06/business/ad07.1-40769.php
Sunday, May 20, 2007
www.oldversion.com
This website called oldversion.com. It contains downloads for many old applications including original AIM, Skype, realplayer and many more. It is definitely a great idea and the guy is making a nice little allowance off of it. I would recommend a quick look.
more at:http://www.oldversion.com/
more at:http://www.oldversion.com/
Free International Call
Once again you can make calls to landline phones in many countries around the world for the price of a call to Iowa. Pat Phelan, CEO of Cubic telecom group, posted the good news that www.yak4ever.com is now live replacing the defunct allfreecalls.net which was driven from business a few months ago by large telcos including at&t who stopped completing calls to these numbers. Michael Arrington has taken allfreecalls out of theTechCrunch DeadPool although he warns: “AT&T and others are going to continue to fight to kill this, since they are effectively subsidizing the service.”
More at:http://blog.tomevslin.com/
More at:http://blog.tomevslin.com/
Startup Robot Genius
CNet writes about a new startup: Start-up Robot Genius deploys new security technology
Robot Genius, an Oakland, Calif.-based start-up, announced Monday that it has created a new suite of security products designed to combat malicious software attacks like spyware, adware, and rootkits through a threefold approach of prevention, detection, and remediation.
More at:http://www.robotgenius.net/
Robot Genius, an Oakland, Calif.-based start-up, announced Monday that it has created a new suite of security products designed to combat malicious software attacks like spyware, adware, and rootkits through a threefold approach of prevention, detection, and remediation.
More at:http://www.robotgenius.net/
Make Upto $100 Profits In Just Few Minutes
How much is needed to be successful at PPC Arbitrage? Not a lot. Most of the guys doing it have created their site with AdSense or YPN, which took them a few hours, which is expected with your first site/page, because you’re not used to it just yet. But even so, a few hours of making a few pages on some information topic they don’t really know all that much about, slapping the contextual ads on there, and then driving traffic to it. So, aside for the work amount, the cost is so basic too. All you need to do is just prove it to yourself that at it works before you allocate a larger budget to the project. Typically, people will invest about $100 to maybe $300 at most. It’s up to you if you want to burn through that budget in a few hours, a few days, or a month. Most people let it run for about a week, and almost everyone sees results immediately. Sure, you may have to wait on a net 30 basis to get your check, but when you compare it to anything else, it overrides it so quickly.
Just to prove how goddamn easy and quick the ROI took, a friend of mine tested a small site for some weight loss drug called Hoodia. Put up the content, slapped the ads onto it, put some links to affiliate products as well, and that was it. He had already cleared $50 in profit within the first 20 minutes. He used some Tier 2 PPC traffic, which comes pretty quickly, especially for a topic like that. The positioning of ads was very creative, but everything stayed within the rules of Adsense. Again, he wasn’t doing this as a form of making cash for himself, it was strictly as a test to prove that what I said works, and does so very well.
Here’s another example. A friend of mine who happens to own a very large ad network, obviously doesn’t need to money, but likes to dabble in all sorts of interesting and creative ways to make money, put up an information site on mortgages and loans. Very popular and expensive topic, no need to tell you guys that. Typically clicks for it will cost about $9 on Adwords for almost every major keyword on the topic. He took traffic from one of the 2nd tier engines, Searchfeed I believe, pushed some traffic to it, and now, in month 2, he’s averaging $5k a month. Not bad at all. I think his total investment was a little over $2k for both months combined!
In the second example, my friend used a practice that I mentioned a few times to other people as a way to make even more money, or maybe convert the non-clickers of your ads into clickers, because again, that’s all you want them to do. You aren’t building it to make them come back time after time for updated information, because there will be none. All you want them to do is clickthrough to the advertiser who can either supply them with better, more accurate information, or a product/service that they are already looking for. So back on topic, using different forms of contextual based advertising and maybe tossing in some affiliate links on the sides is a good way to go. This way, if the user has no interest in your ads that they can tell are from Google (which aside for people within our industry don’t really notice this stuff like we do), they may click on something else. Perhaps you should add some Adbrite ads, or maybe something like Intellitxt or Kontera. Even Chitika ads can do well if it’s targeted to something in the shopping or consumer electronics area.
My point is, just because you’re making a site for something like arbitrage, doesn’t mean it has to look like it’s a MFA page (MFA - Made For Adsense). Spruce it up a bit with more ways to make cash, things to compliment the ads in ways that may not look like blatant ads, but can still drum up lots of clicks. Alright, you may not make $1 a click from it, but I’d rather make $0.15 a click instead of zero. You’ll see, it will hike up your profit margins.
In closing, I’m really glad people are using the advice I give, and not just making assumptions about it, or bashing it without trying it. I will always catch shit from people who disagree, and that’s fine, but 99% of those people who usually disagreed, never even tried it. Of all of the people who have tried it and failed, it was a minor failure and they usually go over where they failed and how, fix their mistakes, and poof, back on the horse they go, and into the ranks of success stories. So if you hit a snag, keep trying. We aren’t talking about investing a ton of cash here or something that you can lose your shirt over. It’s simple trial and error. Pick a topic, make a page/site, slap some ads onto it, spend $100 or so on some cheap 2nd tier traffic, and watch it go.
More at:http://www.aojon.com/category/pay-per-click-arbitrage/
Just to prove how goddamn easy and quick the ROI took, a friend of mine tested a small site for some weight loss drug called Hoodia. Put up the content, slapped the ads onto it, put some links to affiliate products as well, and that was it. He had already cleared $50 in profit within the first 20 minutes. He used some Tier 2 PPC traffic, which comes pretty quickly, especially for a topic like that. The positioning of ads was very creative, but everything stayed within the rules of Adsense. Again, he wasn’t doing this as a form of making cash for himself, it was strictly as a test to prove that what I said works, and does so very well.
Here’s another example. A friend of mine who happens to own a very large ad network, obviously doesn’t need to money, but likes to dabble in all sorts of interesting and creative ways to make money, put up an information site on mortgages and loans. Very popular and expensive topic, no need to tell you guys that. Typically clicks for it will cost about $9 on Adwords for almost every major keyword on the topic. He took traffic from one of the 2nd tier engines, Searchfeed I believe, pushed some traffic to it, and now, in month 2, he’s averaging $5k a month. Not bad at all. I think his total investment was a little over $2k for both months combined!
In the second example, my friend used a practice that I mentioned a few times to other people as a way to make even more money, or maybe convert the non-clickers of your ads into clickers, because again, that’s all you want them to do. You aren’t building it to make them come back time after time for updated information, because there will be none. All you want them to do is clickthrough to the advertiser who can either supply them with better, more accurate information, or a product/service that they are already looking for. So back on topic, using different forms of contextual based advertising and maybe tossing in some affiliate links on the sides is a good way to go. This way, if the user has no interest in your ads that they can tell are from Google (which aside for people within our industry don’t really notice this stuff like we do), they may click on something else. Perhaps you should add some Adbrite ads, or maybe something like Intellitxt or Kontera. Even Chitika ads can do well if it’s targeted to something in the shopping or consumer electronics area.
My point is, just because you’re making a site for something like arbitrage, doesn’t mean it has to look like it’s a MFA page (MFA - Made For Adsense). Spruce it up a bit with more ways to make cash, things to compliment the ads in ways that may not look like blatant ads, but can still drum up lots of clicks. Alright, you may not make $1 a click from it, but I’d rather make $0.15 a click instead of zero. You’ll see, it will hike up your profit margins.
In closing, I’m really glad people are using the advice I give, and not just making assumptions about it, or bashing it without trying it. I will always catch shit from people who disagree, and that’s fine, but 99% of those people who usually disagreed, never even tried it. Of all of the people who have tried it and failed, it was a minor failure and they usually go over where they failed and how, fix their mistakes, and poof, back on the horse they go, and into the ranks of success stories. So if you hit a snag, keep trying. We aren’t talking about investing a ton of cash here or something that you can lose your shirt over. It’s simple trial and error. Pick a topic, make a page/site, slap some ads onto it, spend $100 or so on some cheap 2nd tier traffic, and watch it go.
More at:http://www.aojon.com/category/pay-per-click-arbitrage/
www.hitchsters.com
Everyone loves New York, except for when they have to take a cab to or from the airport and it ends up costing almost as much as airfare. Which is why smart New Yorkers are starting to plan their airport commutes via Hitchster.com. Founded by New York attorney Terry Crawford and wife Gloria, Hitchsters.com is a combination of a social networking and a ride matching site. Hitchsters' software connects travelers scheduled on the same flight and living in the same area of the city so they can save money by sharing a taxi. Customers can also specify their preference for a male or female co-rider and make a new social connection.
Would-be co-riders enter their first name, cell phone number, cellular carrier and email address into the Hitchsters’ system. Hitchsters makes the match and facilitates a cell phone number and email exchange so co-riders can coordinate their trip to the airport. No information other than cell phone number and email is ever revealed to the co-rider, and Hitchster maintains a database of cell phone numbers as a security precaution.
More at:http://www.hitchsters.com/
Would-be co-riders enter their first name, cell phone number, cellular carrier and email address into the Hitchsters’ system. Hitchsters makes the match and facilitates a cell phone number and email exchange so co-riders can coordinate their trip to the airport. No information other than cell phone number and email is ever revealed to the co-rider, and Hitchster maintains a database of cell phone numbers as a security precaution.
More at:http://www.hitchsters.com/
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Paradise Could Be Yours
If owning a $2-million to $3-million home complete with tennis courts and a waterfront location in Cabo San Lucas sounds appealing, Calgary-based M Private Residences has a deal for you. Think of it as a time-share on a whole new level. "We specialize in the shared ownership of luxury vacation properties around the world," says co-president Paul Poscente. "The word 'ownership' is key and differentiates us from time-shares. Each investor actually owns an undivided interest in our properties and gets the luxury of travelling to those properties." In other words, this investment property doubles as a getaway home.
Currently, there are 12 luxe homes in M's stable. By the end of the year, there will be 13 homes in six countries. There are two types of shares: class A and class B. When the company was founded in September 2004, A shares were going for $340,000. They're now up to $465,000. Investors who go with the premium shares are entitled to 60+ days of time per year at any one of the homes, explains co-president Ken MacLean. They also pay $20,000 in annual dues for maintenance fees and elaborate concierge services. Class B shares go for $265,000, with $12,000 in annual dues, and allow for 21+ days of use per year. "You're allowed to book a month of time up to two years out," explains MacLean, "excepting Christmas and Easter, which is lottery-based."
Douglas Gray, a former real estate lawyer and author of 23 books, including Making Money in Real Estate, says M's business model is intelligent and eclectic. "They've taken the best of all the investment options out there and blended them into this opportunity," he says. "It's a natural evolution. It will be a good fit for a select group of sophisticated investors." So far, about 90% of M's clients are Calgarians, but the company is expanding east. As the number of investors grows, so does the portfolio. "For every six shares we sell, we buy a house," says Poscente. What's the latest location under review? A property in Italy with its own olive grove and vineyards. "In the morning, you go and test your grapes," says Poscente. "It's living the dream."
More at:http://www.canadianbusiness.com/after_hours/lifestyle_activities/article.jsp?content=20061204_83826_83826.
2.http://www.mprivateresidences.com/
Currently, there are 12 luxe homes in M's stable. By the end of the year, there will be 13 homes in six countries. There are two types of shares: class A and class B. When the company was founded in September 2004, A shares were going for $340,000. They're now up to $465,000. Investors who go with the premium shares are entitled to 60+ days of time per year at any one of the homes, explains co-president Ken MacLean. They also pay $20,000 in annual dues for maintenance fees and elaborate concierge services. Class B shares go for $265,000, with $12,000 in annual dues, and allow for 21+ days of use per year. "You're allowed to book a month of time up to two years out," explains MacLean, "excepting Christmas and Easter, which is lottery-based."
Douglas Gray, a former real estate lawyer and author of 23 books, including Making Money in Real Estate, says M's business model is intelligent and eclectic. "They've taken the best of all the investment options out there and blended them into this opportunity," he says. "It's a natural evolution. It will be a good fit for a select group of sophisticated investors." So far, about 90% of M's clients are Calgarians, but the company is expanding east. As the number of investors grows, so does the portfolio. "For every six shares we sell, we buy a house," says Poscente. What's the latest location under review? A property in Italy with its own olive grove and vineyards. "In the morning, you go and test your grapes," says Poscente. "It's living the dream."
More at:http://www.canadianbusiness.com/after_hours/lifestyle_activities/article.jsp?content=20061204_83826_83826.
2.http://www.mprivateresidences.com/
How important is it to have a great idea for starting a new business?
How important is it to have a great idea for starting a new business? I think that the idea is not really important at all. I often hear from people around me about what great ideas I have for business. It might seem like it when looking at one of my existing businesses that it was great idea, but it wasn’t at the start.
I started many of my businesses by accident. When I look back on how I came up with the ideas I can say there was no major thought process behind any of my business venture. I didn’t even have any substantial experience in those businesses when I started.
I knew I would be moving to Nevada and I tried to think of what I could do there. I knew Nevada was a very popular state for incorporation because of the very friendly business climate. So I figured it might be worthwhile to try an incorporation service. I also started another business in real estate, but I will talk about that later. Let’s go back to the incorporation business.
First, I went to Google trying to find other companies offering an incorporation service. I was trying to figure out how they worked, what was their pricing, if a person needed a lawyer to incorporate a business or if I could do it myself, what were the state fees, what forms must be used, etc.
The next step was to start it. This is the most important step in any venture. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen around me, most people never do this step! I decided to offer just one service: Nevada corporation. I didn’t want to start by offering all kinds of company structures and additional services. Honestly, it was too much information at that time so I wanted to keep it as simple as possible so I could handle it. So one service was complicated enough at the time.
After that I decided to create a website. I forgot to tell you that I was really cheap (“didn’t have too much money to spend”) so I designed the site myself. I am not a webmaster or graphic designer. I know very basic HTML so I could do basic table designs or forms which people could fill out and send to my email. That was all that I needed for making my first website. You can see it here in the Internet.
At the start I even used free web hosting. Later, when I received my first order I paid the cheapest hosting company I could find at $25 per year. That didn’t work well so I upgraded to $50 per year when the money started flowing in. The most important lesson was that I tried to do it the simplest way possible. Do you see some genius idea behind this business? Being realistic, these were very amateur web pages done by an amateur who tried to start something,
More at:http://www.to-done.com/
I started many of my businesses by accident. When I look back on how I came up with the ideas I can say there was no major thought process behind any of my business venture. I didn’t even have any substantial experience in those businesses when I started.
I knew I would be moving to Nevada and I tried to think of what I could do there. I knew Nevada was a very popular state for incorporation because of the very friendly business climate. So I figured it might be worthwhile to try an incorporation service. I also started another business in real estate, but I will talk about that later. Let’s go back to the incorporation business.
First, I went to Google trying to find other companies offering an incorporation service. I was trying to figure out how they worked, what was their pricing, if a person needed a lawyer to incorporate a business or if I could do it myself, what were the state fees, what forms must be used, etc.
The next step was to start it. This is the most important step in any venture. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen around me, most people never do this step! I decided to offer just one service: Nevada corporation. I didn’t want to start by offering all kinds of company structures and additional services. Honestly, it was too much information at that time so I wanted to keep it as simple as possible so I could handle it. So one service was complicated enough at the time.
After that I decided to create a website. I forgot to tell you that I was really cheap (“didn’t have too much money to spend”) so I designed the site myself. I am not a webmaster or graphic designer. I know very basic HTML so I could do basic table designs or forms which people could fill out and send to my email. That was all that I needed for making my first website. You can see it here in the Internet.
At the start I even used free web hosting. Later, when I received my first order I paid the cheapest hosting company I could find at $25 per year. That didn’t work well so I upgraded to $50 per year when the money started flowing in. The most important lesson was that I tried to do it the simplest way possible. Do you see some genius idea behind this business? Being realistic, these were very amateur web pages done by an amateur who tried to start something,
More at:http://www.to-done.com/
Japanese Entreperneurs Become Millionaire By Selling Just Free Photocopies
An innovative Japanese company is offering university students free photocopies. This free love is made possible by printing ads on the back of the copy paper, which is slightly thicker than normal to prevent ads from shining through. For JPY 400,000, advertisers can have their message printed on 10,000 sheets of paper.
Tadacopy machines have been placed at a few dozen campuses, and are a big hit with students. The company was founded by students at the universities of Keio, Chuo and Hosei, who installed the first free copy machine in April of last year. Nice one for student entrepreneurs to set up in other countries! You'll make some extra money, your fellow students will thank you, and local advertisers will be able to reach a targeted audience in a novel way. Like any good free love concept, it’s a win-win-win situation.
More at:http://www.tadacopy.com/
Tadacopy machines have been placed at a few dozen campuses, and are a big hit with students. The company was founded by students at the universities of Keio, Chuo and Hosei, who installed the first free copy machine in April of last year. Nice one for student entrepreneurs to set up in other countries! You'll make some extra money, your fellow students will thank you, and local advertisers will be able to reach a targeted audience in a novel way. Like any good free love concept, it’s a win-win-win situation.
More at:http://www.tadacopy.com/
BocOnline.com
Business Opportunities Classifieds (BocOnline.com) - Serving the small business and work at home based business opportunity communities since 1996. BocOnline.com features small business and work from home based opportunity resources, classifieds, ideas, opportunities, tools and technologies, news and articles, a links directory, a monthly newsletter, an affiliate program, bizopp forums, and more.
More at:http://www.boconline.com/
More at:http://www.boconline.com/
uShip
uShip is an online marketplace for shipping and moving. Customers with something to ship post a request on the website, and service providers bid for their business. uShip certainly caters to customers who have a truckload of furniture to move, but the concept comes into its own when a customer isn't shipping enough to fill a truck. Shipping companies tend to think in terms of full loads, making it difficult for consumers to get a quick quote for shipping an inherited pinball machine or the Eames chair they're selling on eBay. On uShip, customers list their needs and a target price, and the bidding process keeps pricing competitive. Shipping companies benefit, too. Besides having access to an additional sales channel, they can find shipments for what would have otherwise been empty backhaul trips. Because carriers can efficiently fill extra cargo space, many offer discounts of up to 80% off their traditional prices.
Listings include all relevant information: dimensions, weight, packaging, origin and destination. uShip displays a map and route information for each freight that carriers are bidding on, along with pickup and delivery timeframes. To find shipments along their route, freight companies fill in their departure and arrival zipcodes, and how many miles they're willing to go out of their way. Listing is free for customers, and they're under no obligation to accept a bid. uShip generates revenue by charging service providers 7.9% of each completed transaction.
uShip launched in 2004, so we're admittedly late to the party on this one. However, we haven't seen anything like this on other continents. Time to start up something similar, or partner with uShip to set up international versions? If you're not into shipping, the concept can provide inspiration in a wider context. uShip capitalizes on the intention economy — buyers notify the market of their intention to buy, and sellers compete for their purchase, creating an open and more efficient marketplace. More on the intention economy in trendwatching.com's crowd clout briefing, which focuses on the power of aggregated intentions.
For more at: www.uship.com
Listings include all relevant information: dimensions, weight, packaging, origin and destination. uShip displays a map and route information for each freight that carriers are bidding on, along with pickup and delivery timeframes. To find shipments along their route, freight companies fill in their departure and arrival zipcodes, and how many miles they're willing to go out of their way. Listing is free for customers, and they're under no obligation to accept a bid. uShip generates revenue by charging service providers 7.9% of each completed transaction.
uShip launched in 2004, so we're admittedly late to the party on this one. However, we haven't seen anything like this on other continents. Time to start up something similar, or partner with uShip to set up international versions? If you're not into shipping, the concept can provide inspiration in a wider context. uShip capitalizes on the intention economy — buyers notify the market of their intention to buy, and sellers compete for their purchase, creating an open and more efficient marketplace. More on the intention economy in trendwatching.com's crowd clout briefing, which focuses on the power of aggregated intentions.
For more at: www.uship.com
Would you like to spend more quality time with familyand friends?
Would you like to spend more quality time with family
and friends?
Would you like to boost employee morale and productivity?
Then let BizEbodies Errand Service be your answer!!
BizEbodies Errand Service is a company that provides businesses and individuals with two of the most precious commodities in today’s modern society – time and convenience. BizEbodies is a service provider that offers consumers personalized errand services, shopping and same day delivery, at an affordable price!
As busy people struggle to maintain a balance in their lives, conserving time has become a rather daunting task. By offering individuals and corporations a one-stop shop for the everyday “to-do list”, BizEbodies service concept addresses consumers desire to foster a more satisfactory work/life balance. With the variety of services and its affordability, BizEbodies aims to be the number one resource for errand services throughout Baltimore County, Baltimore City and surrounding areas.
More at:http://www.bizebodieserrands.com/
and friends?
Would you like to boost employee morale and productivity?
Then let BizEbodies Errand Service be your answer!!
BizEbodies Errand Service is a company that provides businesses and individuals with two of the most precious commodities in today’s modern society – time and convenience. BizEbodies is a service provider that offers consumers personalized errand services, shopping and same day delivery, at an affordable price!
As busy people struggle to maintain a balance in their lives, conserving time has become a rather daunting task. By offering individuals and corporations a one-stop shop for the everyday “to-do list”, BizEbodies service concept addresses consumers desire to foster a more satisfactory work/life balance. With the variety of services and its affordability, BizEbodies aims to be the number one resource for errand services throughout Baltimore County, Baltimore City and surrounding areas.
More at:http://www.bizebodieserrands.com/
Method Music
Method Music is a piece of online software developed by mathematician/composer Lawrence Ball and software developer Dave Snowdon, under the direction of Townshend. Users sit for what they call "musical portraits" in which the software "paints" a music picture based on user input. It may not be as polished as the music Ron Jones and Walter Murphy compose for "Family Guy," but the results the software spits out are suprisingly, well, musical .
More at:http://www.lifehouse-method.com/index.html;jsessionid=7C48638562F07D94D33844AF5C3C7673
More at:http://www.lifehouse-method.com/index.html;jsessionid=7C48638562F07D94D33844AF5C3C7673
Is Vertical Search Space Finished?
Back in September of last year they wrote about the rise of vertical search engines here. In that article they emphasized the superiority of vertical search over generic search, in terms of search results. They argued that knowing the semantics of the underlying domain allows a vertical search engine to excel both in filtering the result, as well as the presentation.
In a follow up post at the beginning of this year they explored the The Race to Beat Google, by dissecting the different approaches Google's competitors are taking to unseat the search king. They discussed three major categories: a better technology, a better user interface, and vertical search as a domain-focused blend of the first two. We concluded that Google is still the search king and even if there is a technology out there that has promise, Google is not going to miss it.
This week, when Google rolled out Universal Search, our expectations were confirmed. The morning after questions are: who is hurt? who is wounded? and who is dead? The big question is: does Google Universal search mean the end of Vertical Search era?
More at:http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_universal_search_vertical_search_finished.php
In a follow up post at the beginning of this year they explored the The Race to Beat Google, by dissecting the different approaches Google's competitors are taking to unseat the search king. They discussed three major categories: a better technology, a better user interface, and vertical search as a domain-focused blend of the first two. We concluded that Google is still the search king and even if there is a technology out there that has promise, Google is not going to miss it.
This week, when Google rolled out Universal Search, our expectations were confirmed. The morning after questions are: who is hurt? who is wounded? and who is dead? The big question is: does Google Universal search mean the end of Vertical Search era?
More at:http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_universal_search_vertical_search_finished.php
Friday, May 18, 2007
Deal-a-day Sites That Sell Discounted Product Everyday
Deal-a-day sites--websites that sell one deeply discounted product each day--are sprouting up all over. They sell pretty much everything, from jewelry to electronics, in limited quantities at up to 90 percent off retail prices. These sites resemble blogs in that they're updated frequently and usually provide catalog summaries of previous deals shoppers can browse.
Deal-a-day sites were pioneered in 2004 by Woot.com in Carrollton, Texas. Founded by electronics wholesaler Matt Rutledge, Woot's product selection emphasizes computer components and electronic gadgetry--all at closeout prices.
Today, nearly 100 deal-a-day sites can be found on the web, many started by e-tailers looking to expand. One such entrepreneur is Ellen Craw, general manager and co-founder of Bits du Jour, which started in 2006. It sells downloadable software discounted 40 percent to 50 percent on average.
More at:1.http://www.woot.com/
2.http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2007/may/177214.html
Deal-a-day sites were pioneered in 2004 by Woot.com in Carrollton, Texas. Founded by electronics wholesaler Matt Rutledge, Woot's product selection emphasizes computer components and electronic gadgetry--all at closeout prices.
Today, nearly 100 deal-a-day sites can be found on the web, many started by e-tailers looking to expand. One such entrepreneur is Ellen Craw, general manager and co-founder of Bits du Jour, which started in 2006. It sells downloadable software discounted 40 percent to 50 percent on average.
More at:1.http://www.woot.com/
2.http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2007/may/177214.html
Business Class Instant Messaging
One company is hoping instant messenger will take over the buisness world as it has the lives of generation Y.
A UK and Canada based software development company is set to revolutionise business communications with the launch of an affordable ‘Business Class’ Instant Messaging (IM) service.
Rozmic Wireless has developed Rozmic Messenger having identified the need for organisations in both the private and public sectors to support collaborative business processes securely.
Rozmic Wireless was eatablished in April 2005 by Ross Cooney, a software developer and entrepreneur who has been at the forefront of spam and virus and instant message research for more than a decade. During this time Ross has helped hundreds of US and Canadian based organisations with their online communications needs.
Research indicated that IM is the best way to accelerate new forms of collaboration and communication among distributed workforces.
The system increases productivity as e-mail inboxes swell with spam. Large and remotely distributed teams require continuous real-time communication, but public access IM systems present a security risk which is unacceptable in business.
More at:http://www.rozmic.com/
A UK and Canada based software development company is set to revolutionise business communications with the launch of an affordable ‘Business Class’ Instant Messaging (IM) service.
Rozmic Wireless has developed Rozmic Messenger having identified the need for organisations in both the private and public sectors to support collaborative business processes securely.
Rozmic Wireless was eatablished in April 2005 by Ross Cooney, a software developer and entrepreneur who has been at the forefront of spam and virus and instant message research for more than a decade. During this time Ross has helped hundreds of US and Canadian based organisations with their online communications needs.
Research indicated that IM is the best way to accelerate new forms of collaboration and communication among distributed workforces.
The system increases productivity as e-mail inboxes swell with spam. Large and remotely distributed teams require continuous real-time communication, but public access IM systems present a security risk which is unacceptable in business.
More at:http://www.rozmic.com/
On Raising Venture Captial
Mary Erb from leading corporate law firm Heatons, explains how to set about raising funds to turn your business ambitions into profitable reality through the search for venture capital.
There are times in the lives of most business people when a compelling opportunity presents itself, often in circumstances where you least expect it.
Perhaps an important existing customer asks you to quote for an order that wildly exceeds current capacity or a synergistic competitor's business comes up for sale.
Maybe a business that has clearly proved its viability in one area demonstrates the potential to be replicated in a half a dozen demographically similar regions or countries.
Years of work that has gone into an agency or franchise might be rewarded by the offer of a major expansion opportunity from the prime manufacturer.
It may be that an invention or technical development within your business shows unmistakable promise, if only you had the funds to expose it to a wider national or international market or develop and exploit it fully.
It may simply be that you find yourself in a situation where natural succession, a change in ownership or shift in the parent company's management focus opens up an opportunity for you to mount a management but-out.
"What heights I might reach", you ask yourself, "if only I knew where to find the funds".
The first point to dwell upon is that a business operating in a recognised format such as a limited liability company is more likely to be taken seriously.
Ideas, plans and ambitions are all very well but start-ups do not usually fare well unless proposed by someone with a recognised track record of success and a formal structure on which to build.
How much?
If, by funds, you mean sums measured in some hundreds of thousands of pounds, it's possible that you (or your colleagues, family or partners) will have sufficient personal or business assets to act as security for a conventional loan arrangement with your bank.
More at:http://uk.businessesforsale.com/uk/raising-venture-capital.aspx
There are times in the lives of most business people when a compelling opportunity presents itself, often in circumstances where you least expect it.
Perhaps an important existing customer asks you to quote for an order that wildly exceeds current capacity or a synergistic competitor's business comes up for sale.
Maybe a business that has clearly proved its viability in one area demonstrates the potential to be replicated in a half a dozen demographically similar regions or countries.
Years of work that has gone into an agency or franchise might be rewarded by the offer of a major expansion opportunity from the prime manufacturer.
It may be that an invention or technical development within your business shows unmistakable promise, if only you had the funds to expose it to a wider national or international market or develop and exploit it fully.
It may simply be that you find yourself in a situation where natural succession, a change in ownership or shift in the parent company's management focus opens up an opportunity for you to mount a management but-out.
"What heights I might reach", you ask yourself, "if only I knew where to find the funds".
The first point to dwell upon is that a business operating in a recognised format such as a limited liability company is more likely to be taken seriously.
Ideas, plans and ambitions are all very well but start-ups do not usually fare well unless proposed by someone with a recognised track record of success and a formal structure on which to build.
How much?
If, by funds, you mean sums measured in some hundreds of thousands of pounds, it's possible that you (or your colleagues, family or partners) will have sufficient personal or business assets to act as security for a conventional loan arrangement with your bank.
More at:http://uk.businessesforsale.com/uk/raising-venture-capital.aspx
Poptotheshops
What Poptotheshops offers North Wales residents. Poptotheshops, which was launched late last year, currently serves four high street areas, who each sell between 3300 and 4500 products using the internet shopping service. 292 shoppers have registered so far, and 36 shops have signed up. One shop actually left the system, because its owner didn’t want the ‘aggravation’ of extra work caused by extra sales. More stores will be joining soon, and Poptotheshops’ founder, Will Seward, hopes to expand beyond North Wales as soon as possible.
Seward came up with the idea after being dismayed about being too busy to shop at local stores. Besides supporting the local economy and keeping the high street alive, PTTS also sees other benefits: independent stores often offer great local products and produce that aren’t available in nationwide stores, consumers save time otherwise spent in supermarkets and helping small retailers thrive decreases the control that supermarkets have over pricing, produce and suppliers. We like the ‘still sold here’ aspect, and believe consumers will be more likely to support neighbourhood retailers if it’s convenient to do so. One to set up with your local high street! If you're based in the UK, you might want to contact Poptotheshops: their system was designed to enable territories to be created, and for those to be coordinated by a single person. Territories can be as small as a postcode area, or as large as a county.
Website: www.poptotheshops.net
Seward came up with the idea after being dismayed about being too busy to shop at local stores. Besides supporting the local economy and keeping the high street alive, PTTS also sees other benefits: independent stores often offer great local products and produce that aren’t available in nationwide stores, consumers save time otherwise spent in supermarkets and helping small retailers thrive decreases the control that supermarkets have over pricing, produce and suppliers. We like the ‘still sold here’ aspect, and believe consumers will be more likely to support neighbourhood retailers if it’s convenient to do so. One to set up with your local high street! If you're based in the UK, you might want to contact Poptotheshops: their system was designed to enable territories to be created, and for those to be coordinated by a single person. Territories can be as small as a postcode area, or as large as a county.
Website: www.poptotheshops.net
Business Spoting, After Spoting it He Become Millionaire
In 2004, Corey Kossack was a college sophomore doing some online shopping from his dorm room for a digital camera memory card. One of his stops was eBay to see if he could find a deal. Although he says he "always thought of eBay as a place for people to get rid of junk," he found someone selling hundreds of memory cards that day. This was clearly a businessperson, not an individual selling castoffs from their personal collection, and it changed Kossack's thinking about eBay. He saw a business opportunity and wanted in.
Recognizing the need to carve out his own niche, Kossack decided on DVDs. He reasoned that there are always new titles coming out, creating an ongoing demand for the product, and most DVDs are the same size and weight, which makes the process of packing and shipping them much simpler.
However, "finding suppliers was difficult," he says. By calling major distributors from the study room in his dorm, Kossack eventually got his foot in the door. But he says the sales terms at the outset "weren't very good," mainly because his sales volume was low.
That soon changed as Koss DVD's sales volume increased. In its first year in operation, the company sold $500,000 worth of DVDs. But what has kept the business on course has been Kossack's focus on profitability, not sales. "Sales volume isn't all that's important," he says. "What's really important is profit."
While most businesses focus on the top line--sales--Kossack has paid equal attention to keeping costs down. One change to the company's shipping process, replacing the bubble envelopes it had been using with a lightweight alternative, shaved 0.3 ounces off each package's total weight and saved the company $10,000 in its first year.
From the start, Kossack has tracked each order's profit margin carefully, taking note of all the factors affecting profitability to make constant improvements. But in 2006, recognizing how important such calculations could be for any eBay business, he paid another student to create software and used the new formulas to replace his manual calculations. Since then, he is selling it commercially.
In addition to automating his profit tracking, Kossack has renegotiated deals with his suppliers based on his company's track record of growth and success.
More At:http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2007/may/177166.html
2.http://www.kossdvd.com
Recognizing the need to carve out his own niche, Kossack decided on DVDs. He reasoned that there are always new titles coming out, creating an ongoing demand for the product, and most DVDs are the same size and weight, which makes the process of packing and shipping them much simpler.
However, "finding suppliers was difficult," he says. By calling major distributors from the study room in his dorm, Kossack eventually got his foot in the door. But he says the sales terms at the outset "weren't very good," mainly because his sales volume was low.
That soon changed as Koss DVD's sales volume increased. In its first year in operation, the company sold $500,000 worth of DVDs. But what has kept the business on course has been Kossack's focus on profitability, not sales. "Sales volume isn't all that's important," he says. "What's really important is profit."
While most businesses focus on the top line--sales--Kossack has paid equal attention to keeping costs down. One change to the company's shipping process, replacing the bubble envelopes it had been using with a lightweight alternative, shaved 0.3 ounces off each package's total weight and saved the company $10,000 in its first year.
From the start, Kossack has tracked each order's profit margin carefully, taking note of all the factors affecting profitability to make constant improvements. But in 2006, recognizing how important such calculations could be for any eBay business, he paid another student to create software and used the new formulas to replace his manual calculations. Since then, he is selling it commercially.
In addition to automating his profit tracking, Kossack has renegotiated deals with his suppliers based on his company's track record of growth and success.
More At:http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2007/may/177166.html
2.http://www.kossdvd.com
How To Start Business From John Chow's Poin Of View
1 - The Business Must Have Low Start Up Cost
I don’t like spending $1 million (or even $100K) to start a new business. I just don’t enjoy taking that kind of risk. If you look at the average B&M business that takes hundreds of thousands to start, you’ll see that none are profitable for at least a few years and the owner have to have enough reserved funds to live on because he can’t draw from the business (so he’s working 14 hour days for free). And to top it all off, there’s an 80% chance the business will fail within five years. What that tells me is most people would be better off putting that spare $100K into investments and keep working.
The ideal business requires very little cash to start. This is why I like the Internet so much. My total investment to start this blog was $8.95 for the JohnChow.com domain name. The software that powers the site is free and so is the template. Until recently, the blog was hosted for free as well. When something cost that little to start, it’s not that hard to break even or turn a profit.
2 - The Business Must Have Exclusive Rights
If you’re selling the same stuff that Walmart is selling, chances are you’re not going to do well against them. To give your business the best chance of survival, it must have an exclusive right to some of the products or services. Remember, there is always going to be someone who is willing to sell the same thing cheaper than you. I don’t want to deal with that.
Having an exclusive protects you from market price pressures. If the customer wants your product and can’t get it anywhere else, then you can charge pretty much what you want. This is where terms like branding and private labels come in. In the tech sector, very few companies actually manufacture their own stuff. They are all subbed out to ODMs who make the products with the client company name on it. Want an OCZ power supply without paying for the OCZ name? I know where to get it.
A content base site or blog fits this requirement perfectly because your exclusive right is your content – it’s protected by copyrights.
3 -The Business Runs Itself
For most business owners, having their own business doesn’t mean freedom. If anything, it means more hours than when they were working. Owners of a new business are the first to open and the last to close. The hours are long and there’s a high chance of losing all the money you’ve invested.
The ideal business should run itself without you having to be there. If you have to be there all the time to run the business then you lose one of the biggest potential benefit a business can offer you - freedom to sit on your butt and do nothing.
Look at Markus from Plenty of Fish. This is a 100% user generated content site. Markus’s only job is to make sure the servers stay up and he can easily hire an admin to do that. The site makes over $10,000 a day and Markus runs it out of his apartment. To put that into perspective, Markus makes almost as much as the busiest McDonald’s in Canada, which cost millions to start and employs over 100 people. I’m sure once you account for operating expenses, Markus makes way more.
More at:http://www.johnchow.com/my-five-requirements-for-investing-in-a-new-business/
I don’t like spending $1 million (or even $100K) to start a new business. I just don’t enjoy taking that kind of risk. If you look at the average B&M business that takes hundreds of thousands to start, you’ll see that none are profitable for at least a few years and the owner have to have enough reserved funds to live on because he can’t draw from the business (so he’s working 14 hour days for free). And to top it all off, there’s an 80% chance the business will fail within five years. What that tells me is most people would be better off putting that spare $100K into investments and keep working.
The ideal business requires very little cash to start. This is why I like the Internet so much. My total investment to start this blog was $8.95 for the JohnChow.com domain name. The software that powers the site is free and so is the template. Until recently, the blog was hosted for free as well. When something cost that little to start, it’s not that hard to break even or turn a profit.
2 - The Business Must Have Exclusive Rights
If you’re selling the same stuff that Walmart is selling, chances are you’re not going to do well against them. To give your business the best chance of survival, it must have an exclusive right to some of the products or services. Remember, there is always going to be someone who is willing to sell the same thing cheaper than you. I don’t want to deal with that.
Having an exclusive protects you from market price pressures. If the customer wants your product and can’t get it anywhere else, then you can charge pretty much what you want. This is where terms like branding and private labels come in. In the tech sector, very few companies actually manufacture their own stuff. They are all subbed out to ODMs who make the products with the client company name on it. Want an OCZ power supply without paying for the OCZ name? I know where to get it.
A content base site or blog fits this requirement perfectly because your exclusive right is your content – it’s protected by copyrights.
3 -The Business Runs Itself
For most business owners, having their own business doesn’t mean freedom. If anything, it means more hours than when they were working. Owners of a new business are the first to open and the last to close. The hours are long and there’s a high chance of losing all the money you’ve invested.
The ideal business should run itself without you having to be there. If you have to be there all the time to run the business then you lose one of the biggest potential benefit a business can offer you - freedom to sit on your butt and do nothing.
Look at Markus from Plenty of Fish. This is a 100% user generated content site. Markus’s only job is to make sure the servers stay up and he can easily hire an admin to do that. The site makes over $10,000 a day and Markus runs it out of his apartment. To put that into perspective, Markus makes almost as much as the busiest McDonald’s in Canada, which cost millions to start and employs over 100 people. I’m sure once you account for operating expenses, Markus makes way more.
More at:http://www.johnchow.com/my-five-requirements-for-investing-in-a-new-business/
When Prices Fall You Know it
Some new web companies are beginning to use sophisticated price trending tools, long the preserve of Wall Street traders, to more day-to-day, mundane purchases. Do they work?
Read/Write Web once again does the heavy lifting with its explanatory piece on complex charts and when to buy, based on the inflection point. According to R/WW: “The best time to buy is at or near the inflection point, but to forecast the inflection point one has to consider the slope of the growth curve. Historical information sheds light into the rates of growth, as well as length of the pricing cycles; and it helps estimate where the prices are headed tomorrow.
Farecast is designed to be a “travel oracle” for people who plan their trips just slightly in advance. After you fill in your dates and destinations, the service shows you price trends for the last 90 days and then issues a recommendation on when to buy the ticket. R/WW calls Farecast “impressive.”
Mpire uses a similar approach to help people save money on products.
More at:1.http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_art_of_char.php#more.
2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflection_point.
3.http://www.farecast.com/.
4.http://www.mpire.com/
Read/Write Web once again does the heavy lifting with its explanatory piece on complex charts and when to buy, based on the inflection point. According to R/WW: “The best time to buy is at or near the inflection point, but to forecast the inflection point one has to consider the slope of the growth curve. Historical information sheds light into the rates of growth, as well as length of the pricing cycles; and it helps estimate where the prices are headed tomorrow.
Farecast is designed to be a “travel oracle” for people who plan their trips just slightly in advance. After you fill in your dates and destinations, the service shows you price trends for the last 90 days and then issues a recommendation on when to buy the ticket. R/WW calls Farecast “impressive.”
Mpire uses a similar approach to help people save money on products.
More at:1.http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_art_of_char.php#more.
2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflection_point.
3.http://www.farecast.com/.
4.http://www.mpire.com/
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Creating Custome Guide Books Which Could Make Money
Two years ago, Colleen Cavanaugh Anthony and Alexis Owens, who met in Los Angeles while working on film and fashion projects, came up with the idea of creating their own series of custom guides, tailored to the special interests and needs of travelers headed to a particular destination at a specific time. They envisioned a personalized guidebook that would travel well, containing information unavailable to most other tourists. "Aside from setting up shoots, we were always figuring out where to have a client dinner," says Owens.
The pair, already avid globe-trotters who had often put together listings of activities for clients arriving in town for a photo shoot, poured their experience into launching in 2005 a custom travel-publishing outfit, Miss Information. The company reaped $5,000 in sales that year and tripled sales its second year. It doesn't yet have a sales goal or a projection for 2007.
More at:http://www.miss-info.net/
The pair, already avid globe-trotters who had often put together listings of activities for clients arriving in town for a photo shoot, poured their experience into launching in 2005 a custom travel-publishing outfit, Miss Information. The company reaped $5,000 in sales that year and tripled sales its second year. It doesn't yet have a sales goal or a projection for 2007.
More at:http://www.miss-info.net/
Mymuesli
Which is what Mymuesli offers through its online cereal store.
Using a simple and user-friendly interface, customers build their own personal muesli. First, they pick a foundation (oats and other grains), then add fruits, nuts and seeds, and finally extras like organic gummi bears and alfalfa. Prices and quantities are tallied along the way (60 eurocents for 30 grams of chopped almonds, 40 cents for 45 grams of dried apricots, etc), and a 575 gram pack costs around EUR 5-9, depending on which ingredients are used. Shipping is extra.
Customers can name their mix, which is also assigned an ID that's printed on the muesli box. This makes it super easy to reorder a specific mix, or recommend it to friends. Those who aren't feeling creative can order one of the German start-up’s personal favourites, like tropical Copacabana Days, or Alte Freunde, a choc and nuts mix. Mymuesli only uses organic ingredients (which helps explain the hefty price tag), and offers exotic fruits like goji berries and sour cherries to spruce up the most important meal of the day.
Website: www.mymuesli.com
Using a simple and user-friendly interface, customers build their own personal muesli. First, they pick a foundation (oats and other grains), then add fruits, nuts and seeds, and finally extras like organic gummi bears and alfalfa. Prices and quantities are tallied along the way (60 eurocents for 30 grams of chopped almonds, 40 cents for 45 grams of dried apricots, etc), and a 575 gram pack costs around EUR 5-9, depending on which ingredients are used. Shipping is extra.
Customers can name their mix, which is also assigned an ID that's printed on the muesli box. This makes it super easy to reorder a specific mix, or recommend it to friends. Those who aren't feeling creative can order one of the German start-up’s personal favourites, like tropical Copacabana Days, or Alte Freunde, a choc and nuts mix. Mymuesli only uses organic ingredients (which helps explain the hefty price tag), and offers exotic fruits like goji berries and sour cherries to spruce up the most important meal of the day.
Website: www.mymuesli.com
When Student Become Entreprenuer
As students at Stanford University, Lily Kim, Shu Lindsey, and Adrian Mak had trouble finding the precision pens they liked to use, the Japanese-made ultrathin ones with tips half the width of the average ballpoint.
They started importing their own in 2004 and turned their passion into a business, pooling $9,000 in savings to launch JetPens. They built a customer base by e-mailing fellow students and contacting artists they found on the Web.
JetPens now sells 10,000 pens and other items every month. Among its best-sellers are a pen with a tip fine enough to write on a grain of rice, novelty erasers (some that look like packs of gum or pieces of sushi, another designed to never run out of corners), and the "popcorn" pen, with ink that puffs up on the page, a favorite with scrapbook fanatics.
More at:
http://www.jetpens.com/
They started importing their own in 2004 and turned their passion into a business, pooling $9,000 in savings to launch JetPens. They built a customer base by e-mailing fellow students and contacting artists they found on the Web.
JetPens now sells 10,000 pens and other items every month. Among its best-sellers are a pen with a tip fine enough to write on a grain of rice, novelty erasers (some that look like packs of gum or pieces of sushi, another designed to never run out of corners), and the "popcorn" pen, with ink that puffs up on the page, a favorite with scrapbook fanatics.
More at:
http://www.jetpens.com/
Make Money With Only Your Ideas
Have a brilliant idea. Sell it to one of many idea brokers. This is how the process works. You submit your idea. Idea brokers evaluate it and see if it can be monetized easily.
If no, your idea is declined. If your idea has a good potential, you sign a contract, the idea is sold, idea brokers get commission, you get money. Not bad, aint' it?
The only requirement is that your idea has to be unique and you have to be the author.
for more:Idea Broker,http://www.socialnetworkcenter.com/default.asp?p=80247&t=intermarkmedia
If no, your idea is declined. If your idea has a good potential, you sign a contract, the idea is sold, idea brokers get commission, you get money. Not bad, aint' it?
The only requirement is that your idea has to be unique and you have to be the author.
for more:Idea Broker,http://www.socialnetworkcenter.com/default.asp?p=80247&t=intermarkmedia
ReviewMe
If you have not heard of ReviewMe.com, you are living under a rock. ReviewMe is currently the smartest way to advertise on the net, as well as to make money as a blogger. For instance, last month, John Chow has made $4500 from ReviewMe.com.
Now, if you take a close look at John's blog and browse through ReviewMe reviews, you'll find out that a good deal of these reviews were written by Michael Kwan and not John Chow (this does not violate ReviewMe TOS in any way, it's perfectly OK).
More at:http://www.reviewme.com/
Now, if you take a close look at John's blog and browse through ReviewMe reviews, you'll find out that a good deal of these reviews were written by Michael Kwan and not John Chow (this does not violate ReviewMe TOS in any way, it's perfectly OK).
More at:http://www.reviewme.com/
SawStop
Power tools aren't exactly a hot industry. And when Business 2.0profiled Stephen Gass's company SawStop, not even his competitors took him seriously.
A table saw that instantly stops when a finger touches the blade? "Safety doesn't sell," they said. At the time, Gass had sold 1,000 of his $2,800 saws and had revenues of $4 million in 2005; now, with 6,000 sold, SawStop is a $12-million-a-year company and has moved out of Gass's barn into a new headquarters in Tualatin, Ore. $1,000 hobbyist model is scheduled for delivery in late 2007.
More at:http://sawstop.com/
A table saw that instantly stops when a finger touches the blade? "Safety doesn't sell," they said. At the time, Gass had sold 1,000 of his $2,800 saws and had revenues of $4 million in 2005; now, with 6,000 sold, SawStop is a $12-million-a-year company and has moved out of Gass's barn into a new headquarters in Tualatin, Ore. $1,000 hobbyist model is scheduled for delivery in late 2007.
More at:http://sawstop.com/
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Hakia
Hakia, a new "meaning-based" search engine, is cookieless. hakia's COO, Melek Pulatkonak, writes on the company's blog:
"hakia.com does NOT place a cookie on your PC when you search at our site. We are the very first search engine not to do so. We will always ask your permission if and when we will have to put a cookie in your PC or cross the privacy line."
What does this mean for Web surfers? It means that hakia, unlike other search engines, will not track your search history or monitor your search behavior. This issues seem to be of major importance to many Web surfers, and hakia is breaking out of pack to provide users with more privacy.
Overall, hakia's approach to search promises to be revolutionary. The company's search strategy focuses on the development of a "natural language" technology that returns search results based on meaning, assimilating the human cognitive process involved with searching. Because of this, hakia does not rely on popularity or indexes like many other search engines.
More at:http://www.hakia.com/
"hakia.com does NOT place a cookie on your PC when you search at our site. We are the very first search engine not to do so. We will always ask your permission if and when we will have to put a cookie in your PC or cross the privacy line."
What does this mean for Web surfers? It means that hakia, unlike other search engines, will not track your search history or monitor your search behavior. This issues seem to be of major importance to many Web surfers, and hakia is breaking out of pack to provide users with more privacy.
Overall, hakia's approach to search promises to be revolutionary. The company's search strategy focuses on the development of a "natural language" technology that returns search results based on meaning, assimilating the human cognitive process involved with searching. Because of this, hakia does not rely on popularity or indexes like many other search engines.
More at:http://www.hakia.com/
shawncasey.com
Shawn Casey is now giving away hia five hundred dollar e-mail marketing software for free. I grabbed my copy and while I don't feel that it's worth $500, you'd be stupid not to get it for free. This "business in a box" concept if freaking genious. So, who's Shawn Casey?
Shawn—a successful self-made millionaire and Group Leader at SFI—takes readers step-by-step through the process of succeeding on the Internet with an online home-business.
Shawn Casey is real big on teaching about the power of Joint Ventures. I know Joint Ventures are a valuable part of any business persons life, but I also know, just about every marketing guru in the world is teaching them. So I think the topic of Joint Venture is getting over-done to some degree.
When I read what Shawn Casey had to say on the subject of Joint Ventues, the following appeared to be his stance on the topic.
The way I understood him, he says if you do have a product, joint ventures almost eliminate the risk of advertising. You pay your partner nothing until AFTER he's made sales for you. And you only pay in direct proportion to the number of sales he generates!
And then of course, he plugs his own company, name and website by saying "You can even joint venture with ME! (Get all the details when you order "Mining Gold"). Now you see why I guarantee you $1,000 within your first 5-15 days."
He claims to have this one special technique that is only available to a priveledged groups he calls his circle of "power players."
More at:http://www.shawncasey.com/
Shawn—a successful self-made millionaire and Group Leader at SFI—takes readers step-by-step through the process of succeeding on the Internet with an online home-business.
Shawn Casey is real big on teaching about the power of Joint Ventures. I know Joint Ventures are a valuable part of any business persons life, but I also know, just about every marketing guru in the world is teaching them. So I think the topic of Joint Venture is getting over-done to some degree.
When I read what Shawn Casey had to say on the subject of Joint Ventues, the following appeared to be his stance on the topic.
The way I understood him, he says if you do have a product, joint ventures almost eliminate the risk of advertising. You pay your partner nothing until AFTER he's made sales for you. And you only pay in direct proportion to the number of sales he generates!
And then of course, he plugs his own company, name and website by saying "You can even joint venture with ME! (Get all the details when you order "Mining Gold"). Now you see why I guarantee you $1,000 within your first 5-15 days."
He claims to have this one special technique that is only available to a priveledged groups he calls his circle of "power players."
More at:http://www.shawncasey.com/
5 Simplest Way To make Money If You Love writing
1. Make easy money online naming domains. The original idea comes from Dane Carson’s blog. While you can earn money as a contributor for services such as PickyDomains.Com, here is a better idea. Go to Google or any other search engine, find sucky domain names and contact their owners directly, offering them your services. The key to success is to make it 100% risk free. Inform your prospective clients that you’ll accept money only if they like your domain name. If you come up with one approved domain name a day and charge what PickyDomain charges, you can make $1500 a month. Another twist – come up with cool domain names, like SiteToRemember.Com or ItsMe.Com, register them yourself and sell them on the aftermarket.
2. eBay arbitrage. A lot of people like buying stuff on eBay, because it’s cheap. And some people never buy on eBay, because they are afraid of being ripped off. Here is your solution to making easy money on eBay. Go to Craigslist.Com and see what items people buy and sell most often. Look at prices. Then go to eBay and see, if you can get it cheaper. Once you find your niche, you can buy things on eBay (or better yet, act as a representative for an eBay powerseller) and sell them for a profit using local classifieds and Craigslist. You can do this online as well. Set up a proxy store, and when you get an order, simply buy the same item on eBay for less, substituting shipping address from your own to that of your buyer.
3. eBay copywriting. If you are good at copywriting, go to eBay and look for highticket items, like boats. Find auctions with totally sucky descriptions. Contact an owner and inform him or her that good description of his or her item is likely to increase the chances of that item being sold. Then offer your services for a 1% of the selling price. You can use free eBay software
4. Get Paid Writing Reviews. This idea comes from a blog called Business Ideas That Work. A site called SoftwareJudge.Com pays up to 50 dollars per good review. However, if you are good at reviewing software, you can do this on your own. Go to CNET or any other site that lists software. Find sites that don’t have any reviews or testimonials. Contact developers directly, offering them your review services. Good reviews and testimonials increases sales, so you shouldn’t have any difficulties convincing developers that they need your services. And you get free software and games too! Oh, and you don't have to limit yourself to software alone.
5. Social Bookmark Whoring (oops, I meant to say PR). This is really easy money online. RedDit and Digg can bring a crapload of traffic. And traffic means money. If you have experience creating linkbate titles and getting to the top, why not offer your services? Say, you charge 10 dollars for submitting news to RedDit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Furl, NewsVine, Fark and all the other social bookmarting sites. The key is to work only with interesting stories, so you don’t become a spammer. 10 news a day and you are 100 dollars richer. You can probably work out a deal with online PR agencies, because they are totally clueless
For detail:1.http://www.pickydomains.com/.
2.http://www.ebay.com/.
3.http://sfbay.craigslist.org/spo/.
4.http://search.ebay.com/power-boats_W0QQfromZR8QQssPageNameZWLRSQQsubmitsearchZSearch.
5.http://www.softwarejudge.com/.
6.http://reddit.com/
2. eBay arbitrage. A lot of people like buying stuff on eBay, because it’s cheap. And some people never buy on eBay, because they are afraid of being ripped off. Here is your solution to making easy money on eBay. Go to Craigslist.Com and see what items people buy and sell most often. Look at prices. Then go to eBay and see, if you can get it cheaper. Once you find your niche, you can buy things on eBay (or better yet, act as a representative for an eBay powerseller) and sell them for a profit using local classifieds and Craigslist. You can do this online as well. Set up a proxy store, and when you get an order, simply buy the same item on eBay for less, substituting shipping address from your own to that of your buyer.
3. eBay copywriting. If you are good at copywriting, go to eBay and look for highticket items, like boats. Find auctions with totally sucky descriptions. Contact an owner and inform him or her that good description of his or her item is likely to increase the chances of that item being sold. Then offer your services for a 1% of the selling price. You can use free eBay software
4. Get Paid Writing Reviews. This idea comes from a blog called Business Ideas That Work. A site called SoftwareJudge.Com pays up to 50 dollars per good review. However, if you are good at reviewing software, you can do this on your own. Go to CNET or any other site that lists software. Find sites that don’t have any reviews or testimonials. Contact developers directly, offering them your review services. Good reviews and testimonials increases sales, so you shouldn’t have any difficulties convincing developers that they need your services. And you get free software and games too! Oh, and you don't have to limit yourself to software alone.
5. Social Bookmark Whoring (oops, I meant to say PR). This is really easy money online. RedDit and Digg can bring a crapload of traffic. And traffic means money. If you have experience creating linkbate titles and getting to the top, why not offer your services? Say, you charge 10 dollars for submitting news to RedDit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Furl, NewsVine, Fark and all the other social bookmarting sites. The key is to work only with interesting stories, so you don’t become a spammer. 10 news a day and you are 100 dollars richer. You can probably work out a deal with online PR agencies, because they are totally clueless
For detail:1.http://www.pickydomains.com/.
2.http://www.ebay.com/.
3.http://sfbay.craigslist.org/spo/.
4.http://search.ebay.com/power-boats_W0QQfromZR8QQssPageNameZWLRSQQsubmitsearchZSearch.
5.http://www.softwarejudge.com/.
6.http://reddit.com/
How To Make Money Via Text Links Ads
Chances are, you've already heard of Text Links Ads (TLA). Several bloggers reported that TLA makes them more money than AdSense. For instance, last month John Chow has made $1352 from Text Link Ads from his blog, while AdSense income for the same website is 'only' a thousand dollars. I've tried TLA ten days ago and has made $200 so far. I've also recently added TLA to my discounted software shop DePrice.Com
TLA has one major advantage over all other traffic monetizing tools. It does not require clicks or purchases. You get paid simply for placing links on your website. Here is a very cool tool you should check out, it shows how much money you can make with TLA - TLA Link Calculator. Try plugging in http://uncommonbusiness.blogspot.com (I've actually added this blog to TLA database, but still haven't added the code yet because it requires some tech expertise I don't have).
A single link from this blog gets me $41 a month. You can put up to 12 links. Do the math. However, selling links from sites or blogs you currenly own, isn't the best tactics.
The best tactics is buying PR4-5-6 domains, websites and blogs and monetizing them from TLA. It's a perpetual money making machine. You can buy a PR5 domain for $150. You'll need to put up a pretty page to attract advertisers and to make sure that Page Rank is real and not pumped up artificially.
Because TLA pays via PayPal once a month, you can easily reinvest money in new websites or buy links for your projects to increase PR.
More at:http://uncommonbusiness.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-make-money-with-text-link-ads.html
TLA has one major advantage over all other traffic monetizing tools. It does not require clicks or purchases. You get paid simply for placing links on your website. Here is a very cool tool you should check out, it shows how much money you can make with TLA - TLA Link Calculator. Try plugging in http://uncommonbusiness.blogspot.com (I've actually added this blog to TLA database, but still haven't added the code yet because it requires some tech expertise I don't have).
A single link from this blog gets me $41 a month. You can put up to 12 links. Do the math. However, selling links from sites or blogs you currenly own, isn't the best tactics.
The best tactics is buying PR4-5-6 domains, websites and blogs and monetizing them from TLA. It's a perpetual money making machine. You can buy a PR5 domain for $150. You'll need to put up a pretty page to attract advertisers and to make sure that Page Rank is real and not pumped up artificially.
Because TLA pays via PayPal once a month, you can easily reinvest money in new websites or buy links for your projects to increase PR.
More at:http://uncommonbusiness.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-make-money-with-text-link-ads.html
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
5 Most Unacceptable Ideas Which Worked
1. Million Dollar Homepage
1000000 pixels, charge a dollar per pixel – that’s perhaps the dumbest idea for online business anyone could have possible come up with. Still, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old who came up with the idea, is now a millionaire.
2. SantaMail
Ok, how’s that for a brilliant idea. Get a postal address at North Pole, Alaska, pretend you are Santa Claus and charge parents 10 bucks for every letter you send to their kids? Well, Byron Reese sent over 200000 letters since the start of the business in 2001, which makes him a couple million dollars richer. Full Story
3. Doggles
Create goggles for dogs and sell them online? Boy, this IS the dumbest idea for a business. How in the world did they manage to become millionaires and have shops all over the world with that one? Beyond me.
4. LaserMonks
LaserMonks.com is a for-profit subsidiary of the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, an eight-monk monastery in the hills of Monroe County, 90 miles northwest of Madison. Yeah, real monks refilling your cartridges. Hallelujah! Their 2005 sales were $2.5 million! Praise the Lord. Full Story
5. AntennaBalls
You can’t sell antenna ball online. There is no way. And surely it wouldn’t make you rich. But this is exactly what Jason Wall did, and now he is now a millionaire. Full Story
1000000 pixels, charge a dollar per pixel – that’s perhaps the dumbest idea for online business anyone could have possible come up with. Still, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old who came up with the idea, is now a millionaire.
2. SantaMail
Ok, how’s that for a brilliant idea. Get a postal address at North Pole, Alaska, pretend you are Santa Claus and charge parents 10 bucks for every letter you send to their kids? Well, Byron Reese sent over 200000 letters since the start of the business in 2001, which makes him a couple million dollars richer. Full Story
3. Doggles
Create goggles for dogs and sell them online? Boy, this IS the dumbest idea for a business. How in the world did they manage to become millionaires and have shops all over the world with that one? Beyond me.
4. LaserMonks
LaserMonks.com is a for-profit subsidiary of the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, an eight-monk monastery in the hills of Monroe County, 90 miles northwest of Madison. Yeah, real monks refilling your cartridges. Hallelujah! Their 2005 sales were $2.5 million! Praise the Lord. Full Story
5. AntennaBalls
You can’t sell antenna ball online. There is no way. And surely it wouldn’t make you rich. But this is exactly what Jason Wall did, and now he is now a millionaire. Full Story
How To Make A Million Dollars With A Site That Maps Cellphone Dead Spots.
As a startup business, it's sometimes tough to know where you're going. But Allen Tsai and other online entrepreneurs who use new mapping technology make it their business.
Tsai, 27, is the founder of CellReception.com, a mapping website that locates cell reception, towers and dead spots across the country. "Cell phone reception was and still is widely variable," says Tsai, who launched the site in 2003.
Other websites mapped only bits and pieces of tower locations, and the FCC's tower registration database was just a "chart of coordinates," says Tsai. "It wasn't very useful unless mapped. So that's what I did."
CellReception.com links to Tsai's other website, Mobiledia.com, an educational resource on the cell phone marketplace. Tsai said he did this to increase traffic and boost visitor comments about cell reception, which add value to the coordinates Tsai maps. Today, CellReception.com gets more than 90,000 visitors a month, and the sites earned combined sales of more than $1 million in 2006.
More at:http://www.cellreception.com/
Tsai, 27, is the founder of CellReception.com, a mapping website that locates cell reception, towers and dead spots across the country. "Cell phone reception was and still is widely variable," says Tsai, who launched the site in 2003.
Other websites mapped only bits and pieces of tower locations, and the FCC's tower registration database was just a "chart of coordinates," says Tsai. "It wasn't very useful unless mapped. So that's what I did."
CellReception.com links to Tsai's other website, Mobiledia.com, an educational resource on the cell phone marketplace. Tsai said he did this to increase traffic and boost visitor comments about cell reception, which add value to the coordinates Tsai maps. Today, CellReception.com gets more than 90,000 visitors a month, and the sites earned combined sales of more than $1 million in 2006.
More at:http://www.cellreception.com/
Make Money For Free On Somonelse's Site
Back in the early days of internet marketing, there wasn't much you could do to get started with marketing your business online until you actually launched your own website.
Before you could make money, you had to:
Choose a domain
Set up your hosting
Design your website
Put it all online
Optimize and test your website
But maybe you want the chance to "get your feet wet" before you commit to building a website and getting really serious about marketing your business online
Or maybe you're trying to discover your online business niche: the problem you want to solve, the people you want to sell to, and the best possible way to create a viable business. Maybe you don't want to commit to a website until you've had a better chance to experiment with different ideas.
Well, fortunately for web newbies, there are more options for getting started with e-commerce than ever before. Now you can actually market and sell products without ever creating your own website. Here's just a few.
Start Selling on eBay
eBay.com is the hottest e-commerce site on the web today, and for good reason:
More than 2 million people visit eBay.com every single day, spending an average of two hours navigating through eBay's pages and listings.
More than $1,000 in sales happen on eBay every single second.
72% of eBay users have incomes in excess of $50,000 per year--so they come ready to spend!
And--most important to you--95% of eBay users are individuals or small businesses. eBay is clearly a place where newbies can go to find instant profit and success--and you can get started selling in less than an hour. And while those listings will cost you only pennies to place on eBay's pages, you gain immediate access to millions of buyers who are looking for items just like yours.
More at:http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/ebusinesscolumnist/article159416.html
Before you could make money, you had to:
Choose a domain
Set up your hosting
Design your website
Put it all online
Optimize and test your website
But maybe you want the chance to "get your feet wet" before you commit to building a website and getting really serious about marketing your business online
Or maybe you're trying to discover your online business niche: the problem you want to solve, the people you want to sell to, and the best possible way to create a viable business. Maybe you don't want to commit to a website until you've had a better chance to experiment with different ideas.
Well, fortunately for web newbies, there are more options for getting started with e-commerce than ever before. Now you can actually market and sell products without ever creating your own website. Here's just a few.
Start Selling on eBay
eBay.com is the hottest e-commerce site on the web today, and for good reason:
More than 2 million people visit eBay.com every single day, spending an average of two hours navigating through eBay's pages and listings.
More than $1,000 in sales happen on eBay every single second.
72% of eBay users have incomes in excess of $50,000 per year--so they come ready to spend!
And--most important to you--95% of eBay users are individuals or small businesses. eBay is clearly a place where newbies can go to find instant profit and success--and you can get started selling in less than an hour. And while those listings will cost you only pennies to place on eBay's pages, you gain immediate access to millions of buyers who are looking for items just like yours.
More at:http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/ebusinesscolumnist/article159416.html
Big Idea Guru.com
Big Idea Guru.com...
They believe in the power of ideas and strive to engage our members in discussions that reveal the true potential of their ideas
... provides actionable advice to entrepreneurs, growing business leaders, and independent professionals to help them create, nurture, and grow successful enterprises.
We believe in the power of ideas and strive to engage our members in discussions that reveal the true potential of their ideas, and to help them define realistic goals and action plans that will produce results through implementation of their ideas.
More at:http://bigideaguru.com/
They believe in the power of ideas and strive to engage our members in discussions that reveal the true potential of their ideas
... provides actionable advice to entrepreneurs, growing business leaders, and independent professionals to help them create, nurture, and grow successful enterprises.
We believe in the power of ideas and strive to engage our members in discussions that reveal the true potential of their ideas, and to help them define realistic goals and action plans that will produce results through implementation of their ideas.
More at:http://bigideaguru.com/
When Your Question Turn Into Sales
Turn Challenging Questions into Sales
Make the sales process a collaborative one and you'll find yourself in the position of trusted advisor instead of just another company trying to make a sale.
One of the most difficult and feared situations in selling is getting hit with hard to answer questions early in the sales process. Questions such as: "Why should I buy from you?" and "What makes your product better than your competitor's?" For most salespeople these questions are an irresistible invitation for what I refer to as the "Presentation Trap," an open invitation from the customer to "tell me all about your product." Most salespeople jump at the opportunity and declare why their company is better than the competition's and in most cases this wastes time for both the customer and the salesperson.
The exceptional salesperson will turn even the toughest questions into an opportunity to help their customer and themselves more clearly understand the situation and determine if their solution is actually a fit. They recognize the key thought -- "Prescription without Diagnosis is malpractice."
To demonstrate this, think about how a doctor would respond to a question from a patient, before the doctor has completed a diagnosis. The patient asks, "Why should I choose you for my surgery?" The doctor's response would likely be: "I'm not sure that you should. There are many fine surgeons here at the hospital and at this point I don't know enough about your condition to recommend surgery or if I would be the right surgeon for the job. Let me ask you this..."
Link:http://www.inc.com/resources/sales/articles/20070401/jthull.html
Make the sales process a collaborative one and you'll find yourself in the position of trusted advisor instead of just another company trying to make a sale.
One of the most difficult and feared situations in selling is getting hit with hard to answer questions early in the sales process. Questions such as: "Why should I buy from you?" and "What makes your product better than your competitor's?" For most salespeople these questions are an irresistible invitation for what I refer to as the "Presentation Trap," an open invitation from the customer to "tell me all about your product." Most salespeople jump at the opportunity and declare why their company is better than the competition's and in most cases this wastes time for both the customer and the salesperson.
The exceptional salesperson will turn even the toughest questions into an opportunity to help their customer and themselves more clearly understand the situation and determine if their solution is actually a fit. They recognize the key thought -- "Prescription without Diagnosis is malpractice."
To demonstrate this, think about how a doctor would respond to a question from a patient, before the doctor has completed a diagnosis. The patient asks, "Why should I choose you for my surgery?" The doctor's response would likely be: "I'm not sure that you should. There are many fine surgeons here at the hospital and at this point I don't know enough about your condition to recommend surgery or if I would be the right surgeon for the job. Let me ask you this..."
Link:http://www.inc.com/resources/sales/articles/20070401/jthull.html
Monday, May 14, 2007
Thats Free
For those of you who enjoy hearing the torque and crunch of poetry, PennSounds is systematically making short readings available online, mostly in MP3, and always free.
In hopes of developing a market for "song-length" poetry, the manifesto explains the emphasis on MP3, poetry "singles" and the embedding of bibliographic material in each cut so that the poem is able to live in the wild on its own. The poems are also available via podcast.
More at:http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/
In hopes of developing a market for "song-length" poetry, the manifesto explains the emphasis on MP3, poetry "singles" and the embedding of bibliographic material in each cut so that the poem is able to live in the wild on its own. The poems are also available via podcast.
More at:http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/
Last.fm
Online radio station Last.fm is adding a video section to its site this week, enabling users to create their own personalised video channels - similar to how users can already create radio stations based on their music tastes. Last.fm is partnering with major and independent labels for this. The company also claims that the quality of videos on its site "will be significantly higher than that of YouTube", with audio encoded at 128kbps compared to YouTube’s 64kbps.
Initially it will be mainly independent labels featured on the video Last.fm - such as Ninja Tune, Nettwerk Music Group, Domino, Warp, Atlantic and Mute. However among the rosters of those independents are brand name artists like the Arctic Monkeys, Moby and Aphex Twin. Last.fm has also made partnerships with big labels like EMI and Warner, along with "over 20,000 independent labels".
More at:http://www.last.fm/
Initially it will be mainly independent labels featured on the video Last.fm - such as Ninja Tune, Nettwerk Music Group, Domino, Warp, Atlantic and Mute. However among the rosters of those independents are brand name artists like the Arctic Monkeys, Moby and Aphex Twin. Last.fm has also made partnerships with big labels like EMI and Warner, along with "over 20,000 independent labels".
More at:http://www.last.fm/
How To Scale Mt .Google
A little over a year ago, Giovanna Villanueva was toiling away in virtual obscurity. No matter what she did to her website, where she sells kitchen cabinets for several brick-and-mortar businesses, it ranked so low on Google that the search engine was hardly bringing her any customers.
Yet today KitchenCabinet-Mart.com is a remarkable turnaround story: Search "kitchen cabinets" - the most popular phrase in the category - and her site pops up near the top of Google's all-important first page, even trumping one of the country's largest cabinetmakers, Merillat. The result: revenue of $10,000 a month and more inquiries than her one-woman business can handle. "I can't keep up with the e-mail," Villanueva says.
A methodical application of SEO techniques did the trick. SEO - shorthand for search engine optimization, the craft of increasing your rank on search engines - is now a $4.1 billion industry. Ad agencies have entire SEO divisions. Companies hire SEO pros. Yet expertise isn't a must; understanding basic SEO strategies can help the smallest site climb Google's "organic," or nonpaid, results.
How to make money without really trying
How? By diligently working two of the key factors that affect Google placement: links and search phrases. A few years ago, you could exchange links with just about any website and then watch your site shoot to the top of Google. Those days are all but over. Inbound links are critical to building what's referred to as "link authority," but Google tirelessly works to sniff out bad ones - from spammers, those irrelevant to your topic, or newly registered sites that don't yet have Google creed. Such links will hurt your ranking and could even get you banned from Google. Says SEO veteran Greg Boser, who runs a firm called WebGuerrilla, "These days Google pretty much looks at a site as guilty until proven innocent."
Different sites need different kinds of links, of course. But certain rules apply: Google tends to give weight to links from major companies, trade groups, government organizations, and especially sites built on .edu domains reserved for educational institutions.
The quest for the perfect online ad
Spammers are currently one step ahead of Google on this front. Search "buy Vicodin," for instance, and you'll find loads of sites connected to .edu addresses. If it works for Vicodin peddlers, it'll work for you (at least temporarily). So find academics and hit them up for links. But remember that for lasting credibility with Google, the links need to be relevant. Villanueva, for instance, e-mailed dozens of college instructors who teach woodworking and courses about the lumber industry and snagged two .edu links.
Next figure out who's linking to your competition and cut deals with them. Yahoo's Site Explorer (siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com) will show you a site's inbound links. Joining Web directories is also worthwhile. Lesser-known ones like BOTW.org and JoeAnt.com can be helpful, but be careful: If your site is about phone services and you don't see Sprint (Charts, Fortune 500) or Verizon (Charts, Fortune 500), you might be right to assume that they won't provide much of a boost on Google (Charts, Fortune 500). Yahoo (Charts, Fortune 500)'s and Business.com's directories can cost a few hundred dollars each, but you'll likely get what you pay for when it comes to your search ranking.
More at:http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/05/01/8405661/index.htm
Yet today KitchenCabinet-Mart.com is a remarkable turnaround story: Search "kitchen cabinets" - the most popular phrase in the category - and her site pops up near the top of Google's all-important first page, even trumping one of the country's largest cabinetmakers, Merillat. The result: revenue of $10,000 a month and more inquiries than her one-woman business can handle. "I can't keep up with the e-mail," Villanueva says.
A methodical application of SEO techniques did the trick. SEO - shorthand for search engine optimization, the craft of increasing your rank on search engines - is now a $4.1 billion industry. Ad agencies have entire SEO divisions. Companies hire SEO pros. Yet expertise isn't a must; understanding basic SEO strategies can help the smallest site climb Google's "organic," or nonpaid, results.
How to make money without really trying
How? By diligently working two of the key factors that affect Google placement: links and search phrases. A few years ago, you could exchange links with just about any website and then watch your site shoot to the top of Google. Those days are all but over. Inbound links are critical to building what's referred to as "link authority," but Google tirelessly works to sniff out bad ones - from spammers, those irrelevant to your topic, or newly registered sites that don't yet have Google creed. Such links will hurt your ranking and could even get you banned from Google. Says SEO veteran Greg Boser, who runs a firm called WebGuerrilla, "These days Google pretty much looks at a site as guilty until proven innocent."
Different sites need different kinds of links, of course. But certain rules apply: Google tends to give weight to links from major companies, trade groups, government organizations, and especially sites built on .edu domains reserved for educational institutions.
The quest for the perfect online ad
Spammers are currently one step ahead of Google on this front. Search "buy Vicodin," for instance, and you'll find loads of sites connected to .edu addresses. If it works for Vicodin peddlers, it'll work for you (at least temporarily). So find academics and hit them up for links. But remember that for lasting credibility with Google, the links need to be relevant. Villanueva, for instance, e-mailed dozens of college instructors who teach woodworking and courses about the lumber industry and snagged two .edu links.
Next figure out who's linking to your competition and cut deals with them. Yahoo's Site Explorer (siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com) will show you a site's inbound links. Joining Web directories is also worthwhile. Lesser-known ones like BOTW.org and JoeAnt.com can be helpful, but be careful: If your site is about phone services and you don't see Sprint (Charts, Fortune 500) or Verizon (Charts, Fortune 500), you might be right to assume that they won't provide much of a boost on Google (Charts, Fortune 500). Yahoo (Charts, Fortune 500)'s and Business.com's directories can cost a few hundred dollars each, but you'll likely get what you pay for when it comes to your search ranking.
More at:http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/05/01/8405661/index.htm
7-Eleven
7-Eleven® has been a convenience retailer for eight decades, and a leader in the franchise industry for more than 40 years. Today, 7-Eleven is the world’s largest convenience retailer, and offers a very different franchise opportunity… an opportunity to operate a truly neighborhood business with all the advantages of a global retail giant.
Global scale
7-Eleven, Inc. is the premier name and largest chain in the convenience retailing industry. Based in Dallas, Texas, 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses more than 7,200 7-Eleven® stores in North America. Globally, 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses some 32,000 stores in 17 countries and U.S. territories. To customers everywhere, we are synonymous with convenience. They know our products and they know they can rely on us 24/7.
More at:http://www.7-eleven.com/franchising/franchising.asp
Global scale
7-Eleven, Inc. is the premier name and largest chain in the convenience retailing industry. Based in Dallas, Texas, 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses more than 7,200 7-Eleven® stores in North America. Globally, 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses some 32,000 stores in 17 countries and U.S. territories. To customers everywhere, we are synonymous with convenience. They know our products and they know they can rely on us 24/7.
More at:http://www.7-eleven.com/franchising/franchising.asp
Why Vertical Integration Is Working?
In microeconomics and managing management, the term vertical integration describes a style of ownership and control. The degree to which a firm owns its upstream suppliers and its downstream buyers determines how vertically integrated it is. Vertically integrated companies are united through a hierarchy and share a common owner. Usually each member of the hierarchy produces a different product or service, and the products combine to satisfy a common need. It is contrasted with horizontal integration. Vertical integration is one method of avoiding the hold-up problem. A monopoly produced through vertical integration is called a vertical monopoly, although it might be more appropriate to speak of this as some form of cartel.
One of the earliest, largest and most famous examples of vertical integration was the Carnegie Steel company. The company controlled not only the mills where the steel was manufactured, but also the mines where the iron ore was extracted, the coal mines that supplied the coal, the ships that transported the iron ore and the railroads that transported the coal to the factory, the coke ovens where the coal was coked, etc. Later on, Carnegie even established an institute of higher learning to teach the steel processes to the next generatio.
More at:http://www.informationarbitrage.com/technology/index.html
One of the earliest, largest and most famous examples of vertical integration was the Carnegie Steel company. The company controlled not only the mills where the steel was manufactured, but also the mines where the iron ore was extracted, the coal mines that supplied the coal, the ships that transported the iron ore and the railroads that transported the coal to the factory, the coke ovens where the coal was coked, etc. Later on, Carnegie even established an institute of higher learning to teach the steel processes to the next generatio.
More at:http://www.informationarbitrage.com/technology/index.html
Mointoring You
Helping Institutional Investors turn Internet information into alpha generation
Monitor110 gives you unique information few have seen before it becomes news .
More at:http://www.monitor110.com/
Monitor110 gives you unique information few have seen before it becomes news .
More at:http://www.monitor110.com/
New Company Insights Center
If you do much investing and are looking for new sources of information, check out Businessweek's new Company Insights Center. It has all the usual financial information, news, and analysis you would expect to see in a tool like this, but everything is very slick and easy to use. Plus, there is information about employees and compensation that I haven't seen in most free tools. If you are like me and lean towards a focused portfolio and value investing style (I only own six stocks in my main account), then you probably spend lots of time on research. This is an excellent tool for that. It's much more useful for fundamental analysis than for technical analysis.
More at:http://investing.businessweek.com/research/company/overview/overview.asp
More at:http://investing.businessweek.com/research/company/overview/overview.asp
Local.com
Local.com will begin offering a new service it says will help small businesses compete "with the big boys" in the online ad world. As MediaPost explains, Local.com's new "Local Verified" service gives businesses the choice of paying an annual fee to receive top placement in its localized search results. For a premium listing with the website, businesses can expect to pay $249. Is it worth it? According to comScore, it is. The site found that almost half of consumers who visited a local search website visited a local retailer as a result of their search. And it doesn't hurt that Local.com attracts about 10 million visitors per month.
Local.com also provides free listing services for businesses not wanting to purchase the premium services. "Local Promote Basic" is the name of its free online listing service, which allows local businesses to post and update their business' name and contact information, even if they don't have a website.
More :http://www.local.com/
Local.com also provides free listing services for businesses not wanting to purchase the premium services. "Local Promote Basic" is the name of its free online listing service, which allows local businesses to post and update their business' name and contact information, even if they don't have a website.
More :http://www.local.com/
New Face Of Facebook
Facebook add classified ad listings to their services. Yesterday, Facebook announced the decision to promote free listings to their 22 million active users. The site joins the ranks of MySpace, the largest social networking site, by offering the classified listings. Friendster says it also has plans to add the service to its site. Facebook's listings will be broken up into four categories including housing, jobs, "for sale" and "other." Users who create classified ads can only share them with their designated friends on the service or anyone in their "networks." This type of advertising makes selling a bit more personal. "The advantage of having classifieds linked to a social network is that you know something about the seller. You're less likely to buy a lemon from someone who's a friend of yours," said Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research.
More:http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/index.html
More:http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/index.html
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Reverse Auction
A supplier's survival guide.
On days when Gartner Studios is trying to lock down a major sale, Greg Gartner turns his employee lounge into a war room. An arsenal of laptops and phones and reams of data are brought in for employees to use. Shouting matches among workers are common. So is heavy perspiration. If Gartner's team wins the deal, there's a lot of whooping and the boss hands out tequila shots. These back-breaking dealmaking sessions can last for eight hours or more.
For Gartner, a company that supplies stationery and related products to mass market retailers and office superstores, selling paper ain't what it used to be. Deals that 10 years ago would have started with a cold call and ended months later with a handshake are now governed by a process that was virtually unheard of when the Stillwater, Minnesota, company was founded in 1998: the online reverse auction.
During a reverse auction, a customer allows suppliers only a short window of time to bid down the price on their products or services. The practice was pioneered by automotive and aerospace buyers, which used reverse auctions to procure commodity parts. Today, many large companies use them to buy everything from paper clips to their employee health care plans. Reverse auctions are loved by corporate purchasing managers, loathed by suppliers, and rarely discussed publicly by anyone involved.
Typically, a buyer announces an auction months in advance. After a qualifying process that may include interviews, presentations, and a preliminary bid, a group of suppliers--usually between three and 12--is selected to participate. At a set date and time (often between 6 and 8 in the morning to accommodate Asian bidders), companies log on to a secure Web-based program and bid against one another anonymously. Most auctions are limited to an hour or two, but they can drag on as long as the bids roll in.
Easy enough, right? It depends on whom you ask. Among procurement professionals, reverse auctions are considered a best practice, a tool that can reduce costs by as much as 20 percent. Target (NYSE:TGT), Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), and General Electric (NYSE:GE) are said to use them liberally. Sandy Jap, a professor at Emory University who studies reverse auctions, says it's possible that half of all corporate spending could someday be decided by reverse auction.
For small suppliers, however, reverse auctions are incredibly stressful--win or lose. "The prices can fall quickly, and it's a frightening situation," says Michael Roberts, who runs Kid-riffic, a St. Louis-based toy distributor. Roberts first faced reverse auctions five years ago when his former company, a private label manufacturer and distributor of items such as drum sets and toy walkie-talkies, lost $3 million in sales through reverse auctions in a matter of months--in spite of having long-term customer relationships. "They had us competing directly against factories," says Roberts, who sold that company to a Chinese rival shortly after the debacle. "Reverse auctions are great for buyers, but I'd have to use my imagination to see how they're good for suppliers," he says.
More at;http://www.inc.com/magazine/20070501/salesmarketing-pricing.html?nav=mostpopular
On days when Gartner Studios is trying to lock down a major sale, Greg Gartner turns his employee lounge into a war room. An arsenal of laptops and phones and reams of data are brought in for employees to use. Shouting matches among workers are common. So is heavy perspiration. If Gartner's team wins the deal, there's a lot of whooping and the boss hands out tequila shots. These back-breaking dealmaking sessions can last for eight hours or more.
For Gartner, a company that supplies stationery and related products to mass market retailers and office superstores, selling paper ain't what it used to be. Deals that 10 years ago would have started with a cold call and ended months later with a handshake are now governed by a process that was virtually unheard of when the Stillwater, Minnesota, company was founded in 1998: the online reverse auction.
During a reverse auction, a customer allows suppliers only a short window of time to bid down the price on their products or services. The practice was pioneered by automotive and aerospace buyers, which used reverse auctions to procure commodity parts. Today, many large companies use them to buy everything from paper clips to their employee health care plans. Reverse auctions are loved by corporate purchasing managers, loathed by suppliers, and rarely discussed publicly by anyone involved.
Typically, a buyer announces an auction months in advance. After a qualifying process that may include interviews, presentations, and a preliminary bid, a group of suppliers--usually between three and 12--is selected to participate. At a set date and time (often between 6 and 8 in the morning to accommodate Asian bidders), companies log on to a secure Web-based program and bid against one another anonymously. Most auctions are limited to an hour or two, but they can drag on as long as the bids roll in.
Easy enough, right? It depends on whom you ask. Among procurement professionals, reverse auctions are considered a best practice, a tool that can reduce costs by as much as 20 percent. Target (NYSE:TGT), Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), and General Electric (NYSE:GE) are said to use them liberally. Sandy Jap, a professor at Emory University who studies reverse auctions, says it's possible that half of all corporate spending could someday be decided by reverse auction.
For small suppliers, however, reverse auctions are incredibly stressful--win or lose. "The prices can fall quickly, and it's a frightening situation," says Michael Roberts, who runs Kid-riffic, a St. Louis-based toy distributor. Roberts first faced reverse auctions five years ago when his former company, a private label manufacturer and distributor of items such as drum sets and toy walkie-talkies, lost $3 million in sales through reverse auctions in a matter of months--in spite of having long-term customer relationships. "They had us competing directly against factories," says Roberts, who sold that company to a Chinese rival shortly after the debacle. "Reverse auctions are great for buyers, but I'd have to use my imagination to see how they're good for suppliers," he says.
More at;http://www.inc.com/magazine/20070501/salesmarketing-pricing.html?nav=mostpopular
Kidpreneur/Teenpreneur
An annual business education program for young, African-American entrepreneurs opens this week at Walt Disney World's Swan and Dolphin Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., organizers said Tuesday.
The Black Enterprise Kidpreneur/Teenpreneur Conference aims to give young people all the tools required to run a successful small businesses, including workshops geared towards would-be entrepreneurs between 7 and 17 years old.
"This top-notch, step-by-step program covers everything from creating a business plan to actually establishing and managing a mini-company," Black Enterprise vice president Alfred Edmond Jr. said in a statement.
This year's conference begins May 10 and is sponsored by Wendy's.
More at:http://www.inc.com/news/briefs/200705/0508event.html.
2.http://www.blackenterprise.com/events/events.asp
The Black Enterprise Kidpreneur/Teenpreneur Conference aims to give young people all the tools required to run a successful small businesses, including workshops geared towards would-be entrepreneurs between 7 and 17 years old.
"This top-notch, step-by-step program covers everything from creating a business plan to actually establishing and managing a mini-company," Black Enterprise vice president Alfred Edmond Jr. said in a statement.
This year's conference begins May 10 and is sponsored by Wendy's.
More at:http://www.inc.com/news/briefs/200705/0508event.html.
2.http://www.blackenterprise.com/events/events.asp
For Only Women Entreprenuers
The Scholarships are being provided by the Jennifer d'Abo Scholarship Foundation which exists to help women entrepreneurs access top quality management development.
Jennifer d'Abo was a prolific entrepreneur in the 1980s and 1990s, best known for transforming the stationary company Ryman from an unprofitable chain into a business which was sold for £20 million in 1987.
Her son Joel Cadbury has helped to create the scholarship scheme to support women displaying his mother’s skills, talent and enthusiasm to achieve as much as she did.
The Business Growth and Development Programme has run every year since 1988, making it the UK’s most successful and longest-running programme for ambitious owner-managers. During that time, BGP has helped nearly 1,000 owner managers to achieve their business and personal ambitions.
Firms that have taken part in BGP form a roll-call of Britain’s most dynamic owner-managed businesses. Brands such as Cobra Beer and Hotel Chocolat have achieved national prominence and founders such as Karan Bilimoria, the creator of Cobra Beer, acknowledge the importance of BGP in helping them on the path to success.
More at: www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/bgp
Jennifer d'Abo was a prolific entrepreneur in the 1980s and 1990s, best known for transforming the stationary company Ryman from an unprofitable chain into a business which was sold for £20 million in 1987.
Her son Joel Cadbury has helped to create the scholarship scheme to support women displaying his mother’s skills, talent and enthusiasm to achieve as much as she did.
The Business Growth and Development Programme has run every year since 1988, making it the UK’s most successful and longest-running programme for ambitious owner-managers. During that time, BGP has helped nearly 1,000 owner managers to achieve their business and personal ambitions.
Firms that have taken part in BGP form a roll-call of Britain’s most dynamic owner-managed businesses. Brands such as Cobra Beer and Hotel Chocolat have achieved national prominence and founders such as Karan Bilimoria, the creator of Cobra Beer, acknowledge the importance of BGP in helping them on the path to success.
More at: www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/bgp
BSE Market Watcher
Foe all kind of latest on BSE markets,IPOs,charts,earnings,site search.Global Market watch as well.
more at:http://india.123jump.com/?gclid=CLyt3Ii7iowCFShtTAodrDBp5Q
more at:http://india.123jump.com/?gclid=CLyt3Ii7iowCFShtTAodrDBp5Q
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