eXpresso brings you eXpresso Spreadsheet Communities, an interactive service which allows workgroups to upload, modify, and compare, and store

The Menlo Park, CA based corporation eXpresso brings you eXpresso Spreadsheet Communities, an interactive service which allows workgroups to upload, modify, and compare, and store their respective spreadsheets. eXpresso Spreadsheets bring several new options to the table which enhance Excel and empower its users. For example, the site’s chat function also allows you to host group chats in which you can exchange opinions and comments, and the “Alerts” function sends you a message every time your spreadsheet is modified or commented on by another group member. Best of all, eXpresso can be accessed anytime, anywhere, is free of charge, and no installation is necessary for those who are already Excel users.
eXpresso is led by an experienced team with decades of collective experience in data management, and enterprise software applications. eXpresso's team comprises Founders and Corporate Executives who have successfully developed and delivered award-winning business solutions for Fortune 500 companies.
More at:http://www.expressocorp.com/

DigitalBucket.net lets you collaboratively share information with co-workers, partners, suppliers, and customers from any Internet connection

DigitalBucket.net lets you collaboratively share information with co-workers, partners, suppliers, and customers from any Internet connection for maximized productivity—files, presentations, spreadsheets, and videos are just a click away. Use DigitalBucket.net as a secure repository for critical business data—and regain peace of mind. Access the information you need to work at peak efficiency—anytime, anywhere. Setup takes minutes—and there’s no software or hardware to buy, install, or manage. Unleash the power of DigitalBucket.net to take your business to the next level.
You can actually create new files and modify existing ones, and share them with friends, family, and business associates. You don’t even need to be registered with DigitalBucket to access and view files, so you can share your data with literally everyone. The application’s privacy controls let you decide who sees what, and when they see it. Registration is currently limited with the Beta version is still in its initial stages of development; though accounts are free, they are limited in space storage.
More at:http://digitalbucket.net/

Mega MP3 Search Engine

Franceradio.net is a mega search engine which brings together at the same time Google, Yahoo! Live...and Altavista that permits the web surfers to extend the coverage of their search by gathering the chief search engines worldwide.The site synchronizes other large search engines in order to generate an enormous list of results. Currently, Franceradio is partnered with AltaVista, Yahoo!, and Google, although the search is by no means confined to just these companies. Each search result page displays not only a list of downloadable mp3s; it also produces several other relevant links (from Google Ads). For example, a query for “Rolling Stones” will give you a list of their songs which you can either download or simply listen to, plus several external links to webpages concerting tours and ticket sales, merchandise, biographical information, etc.
More at:http://www.franceradio.net/

Bet On Your Opinion

BluBet is a representation of the important topics of the day.

BluBet is about collective wisdom. It is about human synergy - people with different complementary skills cooperating. Do you have a question you want answered or a topic you would like to see discussed? BluBet provides a simple and entertaining way to get opinions from literally millions of people.

Simply create a "bet" around your question and express your opinion by participating in the bet. As more and more users participate, your bets, and optionally your story, will rise up in the ranks on the BluBet site.

Are you ready to put your two cents (or in BluBet's case, BluBucks) on what you believe?
Create a BluBet account and you are rewarded
30,000 BluBucks to make your bids with. With each referral of a friend you receive 500 BluBucks. Win your bets and make your BluBuck fortune. Had a stroke of bad luck, don´t worry, if you lost all your money, 10,000 BluBucks will be put into your account, but your bankruptcy will be noted. So how does it work? There are two types of bets. There are polls, Who is the hottest Pussy Cat Doll? then the BluBet users vote. Or there are bets on events or question that have one outcome, Will the Cubs win the wold series? Will Facebook be bigger than MySpace in a Year? You can create a bet in any of the following topics; entertainment, technology, science, world news, business, sports, gaming, and personal. Ask the questions that interest you the most and see what people think.
more at:http://www.blubet.com/

Worklight enabling businesses and professionals’ easy access to corporate data

WorkLight is a server-based software product that provides employees with customized and personalized "Web 2.0-style" access to corporate data that reside in enterprise applications.

Worklight uses 2.0 goodies such as RSS and Ajax enabling businesses and professionals’ easy access to corporate data. Other features for info dispersal include desktop and web-based widgets and gadgets, personalized homepages, mashups, IM, and social bookmarks. Information is obtained through the use of adapters which easily plug in to apps and SQL interfaces among others. Worklight essentially makes work drudge-free. Employees can customize how they want their data displayed and define their application feeds. Worklight currently runs on Linux but a Windows version is in the works. The product's license price is based on the number of active users. Evaluation copies are available for qualified organizations.
More at:http://myworklight.com/

Prospero helps clients make a brand connection

ProsperoTechnologies is the leading provider of community content management solutions for the online publishing industry. We enable organizations to easily, quickly, and
cost-effectively develop branded, integrated communities and social
networks comprised of message boards, blogs, ratings, and chats and to manage them using a single, intuitive platform.Prospero helps clients make a brand connection. Today visiting a website is a different experience that allows you to be part of a community and express yourself. Having these community applications will get your clients involved and Prospero will help you achieve that goal. Prospero caters to both enterprises and small businesses. Some of their clients include well known brands such as America Online, New York Times Digital, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, NASCAR, Disney, ESPN, Fox Broadcasting, iVillage, The Washington Post, Amazon.com, Major League Baseball, BusinessWeek, AOL, and Comcast.
More at:http://www.prospero.com/

Velingo has developed a system that finds "related keywords" for Search Engines

Velingo has developed a system that finds "related keywords" for Search Engines. As any Internet user knows, Search Engines are very useful once the user queries with the exact keyword that will trigger the desired results. The slightest change in spelling or verb tense is enough to invalidate the usefulness of a search. Even worse, if the user doesn’t know exactly what to search for, the results often become meaningless. Velingo offers a solution for finding “related keywords.” Regardless of the tense or spelling, Velingo’s results are based on the related concepts, more than the actual keyword.
Their tags are based on user actual behaviors, which means searching is a lot easier. Once you execute a query on Velingo you’ll find suggestions for better keywords and social relevancy rankings. Try it today.
More at:http://www.velingo.com/

Change Your Written Blog Into Podcast

Ch4tter provides you with crisp voice recordings of your blog for your readers to download and enjoy. With our blog voice recording services we boldly introduce the convenience of mp3 portability -- and iPod compatibility -- with the flexibility of on-the-go blog listening. Ch4tter.com can provide high quality downloadable voice recordings for your subscribers to listen to and enjoy at their own convenience on their iPods or mP3 compatible devices or maybe just on the computer if they would rather listen than read. Ch4tter offers a free sample to show how effective and quality its services are. The prices start off as low as 9.95 a month and the prices vary dependent upon how many different recordings needed monthly and also the length of those recordings.
more at:http://ch4tter.com/

Entrepreneur Steve Poland had decided to create a start-up that was entirely ‘Crowd-sourced'

Poland’s idea is still viable. It’s a valuable way for entrepreneurs and anyone curious about the web startup process to learn about everything from ideas to execution. It’s got that hint of democracy and participation that the 2.0 crowd loves.
Entrepreneur Steve Poland had decided to create a start-up that was entirely ‘Crowd-sourced.’ I guess you could say he was taking web 2.0 to its logical extreme. Poland’s ultimate goal was to raise $20,000 ++ in contributions, or donations from blog readers and anyone else feeling particularly generous, whilst blogging about the whole venture. Readers would actually be able to participate in business decisions by taking part in polls and discussion. Originally and aptly titled Ringside Startup, the project has now been renamed WeBothLike. Poland ran into problems raising the money. The scheme and plan remain the same—that is, we, the public will still be able to get all the inside details, however, the venture has already been started. The aim of WeBothLike is to connect like minded people. Poland will keep blogging, he’ll keep his panel of experts, and he’ll continue to accept contributions. Follow his progess and vote on the future of WeBothLike.
More at:http://blog.webothlike.com/

"LaunchFeed" a great resource for both the people launching the websites and seeking exposure

LaunchFeed,this site could prove to be a great resource for both the people launching the websites and seeking exposure and also for the people searching for different websites and different services. LaunchFeed is dedicated to showing exactly that, people can freely post their news startup websites and what exactly they do. Its looks as if lately they have been posting anywhere between 1 and 5 startups a day; a number which will surely increase with time and as people become more accustomed to using the site and referencing the site for new websites. Reviews and comments can be added to the startups by members of the service who are logged in, but reviews do not necessarily accompany every startup, only if someone feels compelled to write a review.
More at:http://launchfeed.com/

"Job Jabber "It's all about sharing your work experiences

Job Jabber is dedicated to the working man and woman. This site is all about people supporting people. It's all about sharing your work experiences with the world and letting everyone know what your company is all about.Anyone can give their two cents about the company they work(ed) for; comments are anonymous, so you’re free to rant and rave as much as you please. In each review you’ll find both the name and location of a company along with details such as salary, benefits, stress level, work environment, and management. If you’re looking for a job, JobJabber’s the perfect place to find out the inside story. Search for companies by name or follow the discussions in the forums. Check out the JobJabber Hall of Fame and find out what the best and worst companies to work for are. Workers of the world unite, indeed.
More at:http://www.jobjabber.net/

TagBulb

TagBulb ,its aims in syndicating content from multiple sources and provide users with a dashboard to search all tags. TagBulb is an amped-up tag search engine which lets you narrow down your queries by category. Not only does the site feature the standard audio, video, and image searches, TagBulb also allows you to search for jobs, blogs, podcasts, and a variety of other less-common categories.The site continually adds new search categories fortified by new search sites. Every search you execute takes you directly to the results page of a larger relevant search engine; for example, the “Books” search may lead you to Amazon, whereas the “News” search will bring you to Yahoo or Google. The site also lets you add their search engine to your start page, install a plugin for IE or Mozilla, and offers a blog to keep yourself up to date on the site’s improvements and enhancements.
More at:http://www.tagbulb.com/

Oobing does offer some functions not available on similar social networking sites

Oobing does offer some functions not available on similar social networking sites; the chat function and photo-rating feature, to name a few. Its layout may seem less intimidating than MySpace or Facebook. Ample advertising space should generate considerable revenue, if the site proves successful.
Its interface will look very familiar to the MySpace user, and it offers most of the same options. Users register, create a profile, and keep in touch with contacts via live chat, messages, and blogs. A few things that separate Oobing from its competitors are the “Rate Photo” and “Send Ecard” functions, which let users do just that: rate other user’s photos and send your friends cards over email. Also, Oobing offers a unique chat function which lets you communicate with multiple contacts at one time. Unlike some other popular social networking sites, if you’re not signed up for the site, you cannot run searches or browse members.
more at:http://www.oobing.com/

How To Value Your Websites

My second project, the one that doesn't have a ton of long-term potential, actually grew out of personal necessity. It's a group of tools for valuing websites based on historical website sales. About 18 months ago, when Businesspundit had a pagerank of 7, I realized that I could bump up the pagerank for a really low site just by linking to it. I got the bright idea that I could monetize this by buying websites with low PR, linking to them, waiting for an update, and selling them off. Initially, I bought what the internet marketing community calls Made-For-Adsense sites. These sites have several pages of content or some sort of free tools, but are primarily constructed so that you find them through a search engine and then click on an ad. (Don't confuse these with parked domains that only have ads, they are two different things) Many web marketers set up thousands of these sites. They may only make a few cents, or at best a few dollars a day, but multiply that by 4 digits and you can make some decent money.

After buying and selling several of those websites, I became interested in other types of sites. I bought directories, tutorials, ecommerce sites, and I went through a VERY steep learning curve. The website market is not very liquid or transparent. The seller has a massive information advantage over the buyer, so much so that websites typically sell for 10-12 times monthly earnings, which would be a steal for any other kind of business. But they sell so low because of the risk you take on when you buy a site. I was burned a few times early on, but I stuck to sites in the $100-$300 range, so it was money I could afford to lose and chalk it up to a learning experience. I also did really well with a couple of sites, making some easy money for doing very little work.

As a quick aside, I need to tell an interesting story that I think accurately reflects the stupidity of the average person. If you search for making money online, buy and sell websites, and stuff like that, you will get a lot of these wild pages with red text, yellow highlights, letters that say "From the Desk of..." and always start with "Dear Friend." It's really pretty ridiculous. Well, several months ago I bought one because it sold a video series of How to Flip Websites. The videos won't make you rich, but if you like to write and build simple sites, they really can show you how to make $50-$100 with a few hours of work. Knowing that I was going to build this website valuation tool, I wanted the videos as an add-on, and I wanted the list of previous customers because they are good candidates to sign up at my new site.

I had never owned one of these crazy text sites before, so my first thought was that I would clean it up and make it look more professional and mainstream. But I like to experiment, so I decided instead to put up two new sites - one with a blog format and one built on Joomla with a professional looking business template. I spent a few weeks getting the Google Ads right so they had a good click through rate, then I changed them weekly to point at the different sites. All sites had similar levels of traffic, yet the cheesy sales page site outsold the others 5 to 1. I was shocked.

The other sites came down, and I'm trying to figure out what I can do with the existing site because honestly, I feel somewhat uncomfortable owning it in it's current form. Making money online is all fine and good, but with this site I feel like I'm part of the web underworld. Anyway, if you find the internet marketing world interesting, I would encourage you to check out the extremely funny blog at Internet Marketing Sucks.
More at:http://www.valueontheweb.com/
via-businesspundit

Million Dollor Idea

Evolving Vox got its name from the Dartmouth College school motto, vox clamantis in deserto, which means "a voice crying out in the wilderness." So when Russell D'Souza and Jon Groetzinger heard the cry of dorm residents as they abandoned their furniture each year, the pair took it upon themselves to provide furniture that cuts down on that waste.

"Students don't want to deal with the hassle of putting [furniture] in storage," D'Souza says. "We realized there's a great market for a furniture rental company that provides everything students need for their dorms."

In summer 2006, D'Souza and Groetzinger used their personal savings to start Evolving Vox. They stocked up on dorm essentials: 24-inch flat screens, DVD players, compact refrigerators and futons. Then they created a website to give students a fast, easy way to place orders. Delivery is free.

While D'Souza says many rental companies see the college market as an afterthought, catering to college students was Evolving Vox's key to success. D'Souza, 22, and Groetzinger, 23, adopted the concept of "temporary ownership," reinforcing a sense of sharing furniture with their student customers, the same way they share a college experience. "It's meaningful that peers are buying from their peers rather than from an impersonal rental business," Groetzinger says.

Evolving Vox hit the Dartmouth College campus with resounding success--2007 sales are expected to reach $250,000. The founders have also received a number of inquiries to start similar services at colleges around the nation. Early this year, Evolving Vox branched out to Brandeis University and Cornell University. They plan to expand to 10 colleges by the end of the next academic year.
More at:http://www.evolvingvox.com/

Venture watch

Kongregate is a niche social community around user generated online flash games.
Kongregate allows developers to upload their own flash games. Kongregate then places a set of community features around each game.

Features are added to each game such as a chat system, where players can chat with each other and the game developers. The social features allow users to tag, rate and comment on the games to provide developers with feedback. Users are also able to create friends lists and set up a profile page with their player stats.

Kongregate generates revenue through advertising and shares revenue with the game developers. Since the launch in early 2007 there are 1,500 games from 750 developers and over 850,000 unique visitors per month.
They raised:Kongregate raised $5 Million from Greylock Partners.
more at:http://www.kongregate.com/

How Mommy Made Millions

What: Clothing for newborns packaged as a bouquet for the new mom
Who: Bryony Boxer and Simon Martin of The Baby Bunch
Where: New York City
When: Started in 2006
Startup costs: $250,000

Before visiting a new mom in the hospital, family and friends often get flowers for her or a gift for the baby. Thanks to The Baby Bunch, they can do both at once.

When Bryony Boxer, 33, was pregnant with her first child, she says she noticed a "shortage of products in the market that were gifts for the mom and the baby at the same time." She also saw people becoming increasingly busy and putting less thought into gift-giving. So she and her husband, Simon Martin, 36, came up with a practical, convenient gift idea: infant clothing packaged in the form of an attractive bouquet that could be purchased online and sent directly to the recipient. Offered in various sizes and styles, the bunches include bibs, socks, T-shirts and onesies. The filler flowers, made from wood and paper, can be saved for display, and the gift box is reusable.

"The idea of using everything in it--not just having superfluous packaging--is important to us," says Boxer.

Expanding on its practical, economical and eco-friendly thinking, The Baby Bunch recently launched a line of organic bouquets, which earned the company the 2007 Innovation Award from the Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association.


Although the couple's 2-year-old son has outgrown the line's infant clothing, the company still has lots of room to grow. Projecting $1 million in sales for 2007, the couple plans to create gift bouquets for other occasions and age groups.

More at:http://www.thebabybunch.com/#

Are you born with the entrepreneurial spirit or can you acquire it?

Are you born with the entrepreneurial spirit or can you acquire it?

With £180m earmarked for enterprise education in the UK, a new poll by leading qualification provider NCFE has revealed that 62% of people in education believe that you can create entrepreneurs in the classroom.

National awarding body NCFE carried out the survey, asking colleges, training providers and students throughout the UK if they thought that enterprise could be taught.

The web-poll at www.ncfe.org.uk asked “can you teach entrepreneurship?” 62% of respondents said yes while 38% said no. The results mirror the increase in requests for NCFE’s enterprise qualifications with candidate registrations increasing by 49% in July alone.

David Grailey, Chief Executive at NCFE, says:

“Enterprise is a hot topic in business, politics and education so it is important we develop the nation’s entrepreneurs via education. We are seeing a significant growth in the number of colleges, training providers and students taking these courses so it is important that they are delivered by staff and institutions who believe in them, and that students see them as beneficial.

“NCFE is committed to developing high quality qualifications that really do make a difference to students’ enterprise skills and awareness of opportunity.”

NCFE qualifications deliver flexible, vocational learning and help individuals with innovative business ideas to progress to the next step. They have also been used to support a number of self-employment initiatives around the country.

The qualifications cover many key aspects including understanding and exploring enterprise, planning and carrying out an enterprising project, evaluating projects and self development.

Enterprise is becoming a higher priority for both the Government and education providers, with Gordon Brown announcing in the recent budget that a further £180m will be spent over the next three years to continue funding enterprise education in the UK.
more at:http://website.ncfe.org.uk/

Live Blog Traffic Feeds

FEEDJIT has two awesome free widgets that don't require any registration. Just cut, paste, and you're all set. With FeedJit.com these site owners can cut and paste a widget to see where the last 100 visitors to the site are located. There is also a widget offered by the site which is a live arrival and departure report, which will show who is on the site, where they are from and exactly what time they enter and leave the site. FeedJit.com is absolutely free and obviously prides itself on quickly correcting any bugs that people inform them of; on their site it shows that they have corrected a few within the first few days of launching the widgets and the site encourages its users to report any problems so they can fix them ASAP.
more at:http://feedjit.com/

HubSpot software tracks leads in detail

HubSpot Internet Marketing Software

HubSpot is an Internet marketing software platform that enables your company to get more leads from your website by driving more prospects to your website and converting more of them into leads. HubSpot software tracks leads in detail, automatically producing useful lead profiles so you convert them to customers more effectively. HubSpot is web based, does not require any IT staff, and is designed to be used by a marketing person, not a techie. Learn more about HubSpot Internet marketing software.
Hubspot.com assists its clients in driving more people to their websites through search engine optimization and other tactics, then tracks in great detail the leads thereby creating lead profiles and better understanding who the target market is so they can be focused on more through the advertising. The site boasts recommendations from CNN Money and is testimonial-rich from users. There is a blog that goes along with the service to interact with others and ask questions about how to utilize the service in the best manner possible.
More at:http://www.hubspot.com/

OGGtours are opensource audio guides to the world's most interesting and offbeat destinations

OGGtours are opensource audio guides to the world's most interesting and offbeat destinations. Anyone can contribute to the development of an OGGtour by adding text or audio comments from right within the OGGtours blog.

An OGGtour can then be downloaded and loaded onto an iPod or Mp3 player to provide a self-guided tour of any available travel destination. You may also listen to OGGtours on location if you have a web-enabled mobile device such as a Blackberry, smartphone, iPhone or compatible GPS device.
The tours can be downloaded to an iPod and mP3 player and accessed through, if you have a GPS enabled device you are able to access the OGGTours.com from those devices. The service provided is totally free however they request that you sign up for a free box.net account that expires in 14 days, and surely they hope you decide to keep the service and pay the applicable fees. OGGTours.com is open source so anyone is free to contibute what they want to the site.
More at:http://oggtours.com/

Social Network For Financial Set

MarketWatch.com, a division of Dow Jones, has launched a MarketWatch Community where users can create profiles and share information, as well as suggestions, with one another.

All stories can be tagged by the users and will be added to the community tag cloud so that members can find the stories related to the subjects that interest them. You also have the ability to just look through the latest stories and see which ones other users found the most worthwhile by glancing at the five star system.

Like any blog or news aggregator today, you can leave comments on the stories and discuss the happenings of the day, but with the financial leaning of the site, you never know what sort of pointers you might pick up. Also along those same lines, you can make fantasy stock picks: the better you do, the more points you score.

The site is live now, but it is unclear if this is the exact site that was rumored to be coming from a combination of Dow Jones and IAC as far back as March. It is difficult to believe Dow Jones would be involved in two such sites, but odder things have happened.
More at:http://www.marketwatch.com/
Via-Mash

How To Make Millions With Simple Idea Of Flylady

Here is how Marla Cilley, better known by her nom de guerre, FlyLady, runs her business. Every morning she rolls out of bed and starts nagging. She sends a first e-mail to her 400,000 subscribers at about 7 A.M., reminding them to get up and get dressed. Throughout the day she'll send about ten more e-mails from her Brevard, N.C., home, nagging them to polish their sinks or plan a healthy dinner. She'll also pen an essay or two on topics ranging from the evils of perfectionism to the importance of self-love. Her office administrator will send a few more e-mails, giving subscribers tidying tips. By the time Cilley's last e-mail - "Please go to bed!" - goes out at 10 P.M., her flock has received about 15 messages. Last year sales hit $4 million.

It may seem odd that Cilley, 51, should spin such gold from nagging, something most of us do our best to avoid. Yet her customers - almost exclusively female middle-aged homemakers, who call themselves FlyBabies - cannot get enough. They log on to flylady.net and purchase thousands of dollars' worth of FlyLady-branded products - kitchen timers, license plate holders, ostrich-feather dusters, books, calendars, mouse pads, T-shirts, tote bags, sink stoppers, water bottles, and lapel pins. They convene at occasional Flyfests around the country, where Cilley gives personal encouragement. And every day they send her about 5,000 grateful messages - so many that Cilley has had to hire a team of six offsite readers to help respond to the deluge. "You are the mother I never had," one recent e-mail read, "loving, caring, understanding, available with a big hug and a kick in the butt when needed."

Cilley is not the only entrepreneur to command a cultlike following among legions of housewives. Jeanne Bice, "head quack" at quackerfactory.com, a QVC clothing company, presides over her website's chat groups in the Quack a Smile Club, building such customer loyalty that she can easily pack a Princess Cruises ship (princess.com) for her annual Quackers Caribbean cruise. Stacy DeBroff, creator of MomCentral.com, parlayed her parenting-advice site into a career as a bestselling author, marketing consultant, corporate spokesperson, and frequent guest on the "Today" show. Her books, website, newsletter, national media tours, and appearances reach millions of women, many of whom bond over MomChat on DeBroff's site.

Yet Cilley says she didn't set out to become a guru. The FlyLady juggernaut began innocently enough, after Cilley married her third husband in 1996 and found that neither of them knew how to keep a tidy home. When the mess became unmanageable, Cilley turned to the Internet, finding clutter-busting pointers on a website called Sidetracked Home Executives (shesintouch.com).

Before long Cilley started posting her own tips on the site's message board, eventually building a grassroots following with her no-nonsense, country-girl wisdom, along with her unbridled joy over her newly uncluttered life. She began individually mentoring other slobs in the group, and in 1999, FlyLady's listserve was hatched, with just ten women as subscribers.

Even neat freaks can benefit from viral growth. The original subscribers recommended the list to friends, and before long Cilley's following was large enough to win her write-ups in "Woman's Day" and "Ladies' Home Journal." "We never set out to have a business," Cilley says. "We set out to help people. And the business grew because of their needs."

One of those needs, apparently, is to find out how great the latest FlyLady products are. Anytime one of her FlyBabies e-mails a gushing testimonial praising one of her offerings ("I first bought the FlyLady calendar last year, and I LOVE it!"), Cilley forwards it to her entire mailing list. The testimonials typically result in a sudden sales surge of several hundred of the mentioned item.

Cilley's growing enterprise presented new demands - namely, how to keep up with the crush of fan mail. Kelly Burns, a devoted subscriber, volunteered to help in 2000. Today she and her husband, Tom, work at Cilley's distribution center as two of FlyLady's 24 paid employees.

Cilley attracts new subscribers by writing a self-syndicated column that appears weekly in 225 newspapers and doing a live weekly call-in satellite radio show with Leanne Ely, a nutritionist and cookbook author, on worldtalkradio.com, where "The Fly Show" is rated No. 1 among more than 70 weekly shows, drawing about 140,000 listeners. Ely has also launched a successful Internet enterprise (savingdinner.com), with no small thanks to Cilley, who promotes it to her subscribers.

Now FlyLady is looking to expand her self-help empire. Her followers, she points out, face bigger issues than clutter. Already having penned bestsellers on controlling household and "body clutter" (weight and emotional issues), she is at work on a third book, FlyLady's take on spirituality. And now, with a full-time product-development officer (Jack Sgroi, whom she hired away from MiddleRiver Aircraft Systems), she is anticipating subscribers' needs with a spate of new products, including more efficient mops and roadside emergency kits.

As Cilley constantly tells her loyal FlyBabies about getting their houses in order, "If I can do it, you can do it." But when it comes to creating a business out of nagging, she flies alone.
more at:http://flylady.net/

ForSaleByPublisher

ForSaleByPublisher is a directory of websites that sell advertisements on their websites directly to advertisers, as well as a community for website publishers to discuss the direct advertising market. Ad Networks can be very helpful in generating some income for websites, but publishers who sell directly to advertisers are able to make more money, whilst charging lower prices.
Unlike ad networks, selling ads straight to advertisers cuts out the middle man, saving you money. As a publisher, you’ll be able to take more control over the ads shown on your site and possibly get in on longer ad deals. Advertisers, on the other hand, can find better, more pertinent websites to host their ads, while avoiding network fees. ForSaleByPublisher makes it extremely easy for publishers and advertisers to connect without having to spend precious time on hours of research.
More at:http://www.forsalebypublisher.com/

How To Get Maximum Ad Revenue On Your Websites

PubMatic.com's purpose is to help websites increase its revenue per ad, maximize click throughs and get consolidated reports instantly. PubMatic is an account that can be set up in just a few minutes, like Google AdSense for instance. PubMatic.com is free for its Alpha users, and the wording that they use seems as if they are impying that when they do launch the beta version of their site it will no longer be free, so if you are interested in possibly using the service, hop on it while you can still give it a test spin for free.
PubMatic is focused on serving the needs of publishers by providing an industry leading platform that allows publishers to maximize their revenue while simultaneously reducing complexity.

Being a publisher is difficult these days. On the one hand, publishers want to focus on developing rich content and sustaining a user community based on common interest. On the other hand, they're forced to spend ever more time and energy running the "business" of being a publisher.
More at:http://pubmatic.com/

TaskBin is our "company" management tool

TaskBin was born out of a very strong need at MangoSpring. MangoSpring believes in what we call "Naked organizations". Everyone needs to be on the same page. Everyone should have access to everyone else's task list. We do not believe in status reports and weekly status meetings. Everything should be transparent and flat. TaskBin is our "company" management tool.
The idea is that everyone in the group begins and stays on the same page. The site is easy to use and as simple as typing in the test box, clicking on a time and priority and pressing enter. By understanding the progress and priorities of team members, others can work smarter and collaborate in a more meaningful way. Information such as, time, date, who created the task, when it should be finished, and the progress helps everyone stay abreast of what is going on within the group and with specific projects. Members can be a part of more than one group and can personalize their task bin. Every group member’s TaskBin is shared with everyone else in the group and is organized by timeframe: ‘today,’ ‘tomorrow,’ ‘this week,’ ’sometime soon,’ etc.
more at:http://www.taskbin.com/

Fuzzwi ch lets anyone create animated shorts using a pre-made cast of characters and backdrops

Fuzzwich Mini-Vids are short accessible animations that are dead simple to make. Mini-Vids are built to be used conversationally as video messages and have zero barrier to entry.
Fuzzwi ch lets anyone create animated shorts using a pre-made cast of characters and backdrops. Just drag and drop elements into the screen, change backgrounds, try out different soundtracks (If neither Wagner nor Timbaland are your cup of tea, try some Benny Hill or George Clinton), and presto, you’ve got your very own cute and clever video short. Once you’ve finished your screen gem you can take a gander at the wonderfully weird and wacky animations your fellow Fuzzwichers have come up with. It’s really insanely simple—your two year old toddler could whip up something brilliant.
More at:http://www.fuzzwich.com/

Joopz is a web-based text messaging service that enables “web texting” – two-way communications from the Web to any mobile phone

Joopz is a web-based text messaging service that enables “web texting” – two-way communications from the Web to any mobile phone in the U.S. and Canada... and back.
Along with all the features offered by traditional web-texting services provided by messengers like MSN and AIM, Joopz also boast a variety of more complex options including group messaging and their trademark “two-way” texting service (allows the message recipient to send a text back directly to the PC from which the text was sent, instead of only to the recipient’s mobile device). For the absent-minded user, Joopz also has“Reminders” options which let you keep track of your schedule and commitments by sending you a “reminder” text. Currently, Joopz messages can be sent from any web-enabled device worldwide to US or Canadian cellular phones. Their basic service is free of charge and allows users to send ten texts per month and have access to most of the advanced features.
More at:http://www.joopz.com/

Venture Which Have Great Potential

Batanga is a niche social media network focused on the Hispanic market, Batanga describes themselves as a media and entertainment company. They state they are more than a social media site, as they not only have an online social network but they also reach the hispanic market through 20 exclusive online Latin radio stations and more than 5,000 user-programmed radio stations.

Their goal is to build the first Latino online brand. You may have the language of the site displayed in either English or Spanish.

Batanga stats: over 4.5 million+ unique visitors per month, streams 90 million+ songs per months, streams 10 million+ videos per month, and has 100,000 members as of August 2007.

They Raised:Batanga raised $30 Million in series C financing from Tudor Ventures and H.I.G. Ventures.
More at:http://www.batanga.com/

Home Equity Share matches home buyers with investors

Home Equity Share is targeting a very specific niche: real estate down payments. It matches the parties and provides them with contracts, but doesn’t facilitate the exchange of money. Home Equity Share matches home buyers with investors. To be exact: it brings together buyers who can afford monthly payments but not a 20% down payment, and investors who want to get into real estate but don't want to become landlords or make monthly payments.

Potential home buyers post a profile listing their preferences, including the area they want to buy in, and the price range they're looking for. They're automatically matched with compatible investors, come to an agreement and sign a preliminary commitment. This allows the buyer to become pre-approved for a loan, and to start looking for a property. Once buyer and investor agree on a property, the investor provides the down payment, the buyer arranges a mortgage for his home and moves in. At the end of a specified agreement term—usually three to seven years—the buyer can purchase the investor's interest in the property, or they can sell the house share its appreciation in value.

Home Equity Share provides the matching service and contracts at no cost to buyers and investors, but requires that they use a real estate agent who is registered with the company. Agents pay a referral fee of 20% of the commission earned on transactions referred by Home Equity Share. (Since the service is still in its soft-launch phase, it won't be accepting new agents until early fall 2007.) We featured a similar business idea last year: Shared Spaces, a British network that also matches co-buyers. The major difference is that Shared Spaces is mainly targeted at buyers who'll be inhabiting a property together—roommates who are buying instead of renting to get a first foot on the real estate ladder.
More at:http://www.homeequityshare.com/
Via-Springwise

ReputationDefender

Job hunters perfecting their resumes for that dream job are being urged to also polish their online profile — and clean it up if need be, with a new breed of companies emerging to help mold Internet images.

A study of 1,150 hiring managers by Careerbuilder.com found 26 percent of managers admitted to using search engines such as Google and 12 percent of managers said they used social networking sites like Facebook.com in their hiring process.

Those numbers may be low, but not the repercussions.

Of the 12 percent who checked social networking sites, 63 percent declined to hire an applicant based on what they found, citing lying about qualifications and criminal behavior as two of the top disqualifiers.

For $10 a month, ReputationDefender.com will search your name everywhere — even “beyond Google” — including password-protected sites, and give a report of their findings.

For about $30 a month, clients can have them do a clean-up, which involves ensuring all links to, for example, a college kegstand on Facebook.com or a disparaging blog entry from a former partner, will not appear during an online search.

“More than half of my clients use us just to search and don’t even ask us to clean anything up,” the company’s chief executive and founder Michael Fertik.

While ReputationDefender.com caters to individuals not employers, DefendMyName.com services both camps.

The two-year-old Portland, Maine-based company, a division of QED Media Group LLC, will conduct an online clean-up for any size client, from individuals to large corporations. Some clients are companies seeking positive brand image online.

Using proprietary technology, company founder Rob Russo said DefendMyName creates links to promotional sites and blogs on clients in order to bury negative search engine results.
More at:http://www.reputationdefender.com/
Source:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20143819/

PicnicMob is a social experiment of sorts, where the idea is to get a large group of people together in one city and have an online picnic

PicnicMob is a social experiment of sorts, where the idea is to get a large group of people together in one city and have an online picnic.

By figuring out your interests, the team behind PicnicMob will know where to seat you at this giant picnic in the sky (well, on the web–same difference). So you’ll get to sit by people that you’ll find most interesting, and vice versa. Meet others in your area and maybe find someone new in the offline world. There are 30 questions for you to fill out. They seem mostly nonsensical, but they’re targeted to sift out the information needed for the purpose of this picnic. All that’s needed for your participation in this project is an email address. Once 1000 people have completed the questionnaire, a virtual picnic will be held one Sunday at noon. The current cities supported are Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington D.C. and San Francisco.

PicnicMob insists that none of the data collected will be used for purposes other than matching you up for the virtual picnic. That means no third party research tools, or targeted picnic ads. In the end, this is really an art experiment, and I’m wondering how picnics will enable users to chat with each other, and how they will handle multiple picnics. It could be fun.
More at:http://www.picnicmob.org/

SearchToPhone Your Virtual Assistance Only For Calling Businesses For Goods And Services

Using the SearchToPhone service would be ideal for those who don't want to mess around and call 411 or search through the yellow pages, instead of that, you can easily make a quick call and then get the service providers to call you and you can begin to interview them about their services.
Its your own virtual assistant, but only in the realm of looking to call businesses for goods and services, not exactly as cool as having a full time assistant, but hey, its free. Simply call the SearchToPhone service, inform them of what exactly you are looking for, then the virtual assistants will start calling these businesses on your behalf and leave them messages that you may be interested in their services and the people will call you back within one minute and after speaking with them you can decide who you choose to do business through. You have the option to search on or offline, if you want to conduct a search online, simply type in the service you are looking for and the same process will happen.
More at:http://searchtophone.com/

InsiderScore is an insider trading data monitoring and intelligence service

InsiderScore is an insider trading data monitoring and intelligence service. Their proprietary algorithms score and filter transactions in real time, allowing you to zero in on the most important and notable insider transactions. You can easily monitor your existing coverage realm and scan the entire market universe for timely, telling, and actionable new ideas via the one or two daily consolidated emails we send and/or by visiting our in-depth website.
With the Sarbanes-Oxley act being in effect in 2002 partly because of the horrific happenings with Enron, people working within the companies are now more well watched and need to publicize their trading moves more when buying or selling company stock. This is an invaluable tool for investors who are trying to figure out which way a company might go in the near future. Subscribers to the service of InsiderScore.com can receive emails stating the moves of prominent insiders of different publically traded companies to see if this can help add any insight to the investing that they are doing. Any serious investor would benefit from the insights that this information would provide.
More at:https://www.insiderscore.com/

EbayConverter.com is powered by Flyingcart so you can customize your store and create your own unique style

EbayConverter.com is powered by Flyingcart so you can customize your store and create your own unique style. There are four easy steps to create your store; enter your ebay ID, create your store, customize your page, and promote your store. You have all the benefits of ebay, you can sell an unlimited number of items, it accepts all major credit cards, and no commission fees to worry about. At the moment there is a waiting list and you must sign up for an invitation.
For only 12dollars a month you can change your ebay account into your own store. This means that you have relieved yourself of transaction fees and can make your ebay items into your own store.
It seems as though the low cost of 12 dollars a month would be much less than the commission fees presented on ebay, so why wouldn't you convert your ebay items to your own store? Also converting your ebay account items to your own store is as easy as a couple of clicks, so there is no hassle in changing your items from your account to your store. Who wouldn't want there own online store, where they can customize their page and have more ownership over their sales?
more at;http://www.ebayconverter.com/

Gastus--- Tracking Your Expenses

Gastus is a free service, and will remain free forever. Maybe they'll add some extra funcionalities in near future available only to payment accounts, but current functionalities will be free forever, they promise us. They guarantee you that they don't access nor share your personal information, including email and expenses. Your data is only yours.
Gastus provides an easy 1-click way to find, modify and introduce expenses. Optionally, you can enter a description to identify better that expense later. You can see expenses by date or by concept and have a listing of this month’s expenses, this week, last week, or last month expenses. Each expense must belong to one concept, lets say Internet, Electronic Gadgets, Electricity & Gas, or Vacations and Special Weekends. You can add, edit, and delete a concept. A concept belongs to a type of expense, and is mainly used to categorize expenses in a more detailed form. You can use types like Home, Extras, Vehicle, Personal, Taxes, to easily classify your expenses. Gastus also provides an easy and visual way to control your expenses, with integrated graphic pies and ability to compare between months. The dashboard offers a simple evolution graphic for the last 12 months, but many other features will be added soon. To work with Gastus you’ll need a modern standard-compliant web browser such as Firefox 2 or later, Internet Explorer 6 or later, or Safari, and obviously, an internet connection.
more at:http://www.gastus.com/

Startup Addict Is A Social Networking Plateform For The Startup Community And For Many More Things....

Whether you are an entrepreneur, investor, advisor, job seeker or service provider you’ll be interested in visiting this site. Startup Addict is a social networking platform for the startup community. But Startup Addict is much more than a destination; it is a toolbox of people, skills and resources. As a member, you can create a custom profile, network with the startup world, mingle, comment, share, IM and email. You can also look for funding, get advice, and join groups and forums. Browse startups, investors, advisors, service providers, and job seekers. Each search topic will bring up a different matrix or trade. Browse startup industries such as real estate, legal, sports, travel, marketing, Web 2.0, sales, SEO, and automotive, among many others. Entrepreneurs can also get their most difficult questions answered. Some advisors give free advice and others charge a fee per question. As entrepreneurs can then leave a positive or negative response based on advisors answers, this will force advisors to give you relevant and important advice. Startup Addict has also created an affiliate network in order to pay users who create traffic and build the Startup Addict community. It offers $9.95 - $29.95 commission to affiliates for every user that subscribes to the Startup Addict network above the free basic user service.
Come join the startup community that embraces greatness. Ranging from entrepreneurial musicians and real estate moguls to the next big Web 2.0 startups. Get your idea financed and brought to fruition with the help of other startup addicts. Build your team of specialized startup heroes from your supercharged Rolodex and community of business savvy gladiators to thwart the powers of convention. Build your profile and shout your startup idea from the highest peak of Mount Capitalism until you have enough mojo to be recognized for dreaming big and being great.
More at:http://www.startupaddict.com/

Conneting Travellers

Epic Trip is a new and unique way for travelers to know what their destinations and their hotels are all about, even before setting off. By connecting our travelers with videos, virtual tours, reviews, and the wealth of experience brought to bear by the very users of Epic Trip, it is our mission is to spark people's desire to discover their own epic trip. This is just the beginning. We are working to provide you with a greater coverage of destinations, hotels and helpful features. So go ahead. Discover your next epic trip.

It allows travelers to view detailed information about their destination. There are hotel videos, virtual tours, reviews, and journals written by fellow travelers. You can add your places and leave photo trails. Just upload your photos to the Epic gallery and start sharing your travel experiences. Search for hotel videos by destination, beaches & waterfronts, casino areas, golf areas, or by spa & wellness. You can also search for hotels, restaurants, and attractions in the U.S, meet like-minded people, and participate in blogs. If you're a student or a teacher, check the Student Travel Guide to find lots of interesting places for you to explore, as well as hot travel deals specifically for students.
more at;http://www.epictrip.com/

Backflip is offering a fundamental advance in how consumers capture enduring value in their everyday Web experiences

Backflip is offering a fundamental advance in how consumers capture enduring value in their everyday Web experiences. As a team, Backflip is excited to help people enjoy, personalize and get the most from the Web.
This site offers a free web-based service, where users can create a personal web directory of the most valuable websites they discover on the net and just by using the Backflip it! button this sites will be saved and automatically organized by Backflip.com, there’s no hard work needed. When users want to visualize their sites, they simply need to go to their Backflip account and they will find the pages filed in their personal directory. Moreover, at Backflip.com users are also able to share and discuss with friends or other users about the sites they choosed, and by this also contribute with other interesting sites. As a user you are also provided of a list of the top sites in topics you care, so start exploring others view right now.
more at: http://www.backflip.com/

What’s the best thing to do with money: Spend it, save it or give it away?

What’s the best thing to do with money: Spend it, save it or give it away?

The ideal answer, says Eulalie Scandiuzzi, is to recognize the importance of all three. That’s why she created colorful children’s banks with three compartments: spend, save and share.

Too many families, she said, either don’t talk about money at all or discuss it as an obstacle, the reason they can’t do certain things.

“I wanted something that brought the conversation to the dinner table in a fun way, so money would became a ‘yes’ conversation rather than a ‘no’ conversation,” said Scandiuzzi, executive director of a family foundation and a past director of Coyote Central, which offers life-skill experiences to middle-school students.

Since the bank’s debut in 2002, more than 1 million Moonjars have been sold — credit unions, banks and charities give them away — and the product line continues to expand into books and games to spark family conversation.
More at:http://www.moonjar.com/
Source:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2003817958_inventors050.html

Timesonline has a number of videos from entrepreneurs offering advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.

At the Bank of Scotland launch dinner for The Entrepreneur Challenge, business figures and entrepreneurs offered excellent advice for contenders
Getting started in business can be a daunting task, no matter how much determination and drive an entrepreneur has. It can be a lonely path at times, but there are people willing and able to give great advice on how to keep going through the tough times and what not to do to save trouble in the future.

Therefore, when Bank of Scotland hosted a dinner at London’s Quaglino’s restaurant in May to launch The Entrepreneur Challenge, we took the opportunity to ask the great and good of the business world for advice for up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

We spoke with business figures and entrepreneurs at the dinner resulting in a series of interviews, the first three below, where established players on the business field gave their top tips and advice for becoming a success.

Full text:http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/related_reports/entrepreneurs/article1965482.ece

Could You Turn Sheep And Duck Doo Into A Selling Point?

If you want to be an entrepreneur but need a business idea, consider renting ducks. It's apparently doing very well in Germany.
Germans are lining up to rent farm animals to help with the gardening as part of a new green scheme.

Werner Kiwitt, who runs an ecological park in Schleswig-Holstein, is offering sheep to cut the grass and ducks to eat the slugs.

He said: "You get free fertiliser provided by the animals as well, so it's not a bad deal."
Who would have thought you could turn sheep and duck doo into a selling point? Now that's a good entrepreneur.

More at:http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2464126.html?menu=
Via-Businesspundit

Venture Watch

KickApps provides a hosted web 2.0 platform.
KickApps allows any one to easily add social networking features and media to their site. The application is a hosted platform, meaning the social networking features and necessary servers, code etc. Everything is running and maintained by KickApps. You do not need to worry about scalability or other code and hardware related concerns as your site grows.

Their solution is "white label" and will match your sites look and feel, therefore no one knows that these social networking features and media are provided by a third party, KickApps.

KickApps provides an entire management console, reporting and other tools. Their ease of use and speed of deployment makes them worthy of consideration if you are in need of these types of services.
They raised:KickApps raised $11 Million in series B financing from SoftBank Capital, Spark , and Prism VentureWorks.
More at:http://www.kickapps.com/

With Taskee, web developers can assign, comment, and manage tasks directly on their website

With Taskee, web developers can assign, comment, and manage tasks directly on their website. Taskee makes it easier and cheaper to collaborate during the website testing process. As web developers know, the testing process may not be a process so much as a way of life.

After visiting the Taskee login page, you are shown a list of the pages with assigned tasks. The Taskee control panel resides above the pages of your site as you test them, waiting to be accessed via a small button in the top right corner of the screen. When a tester finds a problem on a page of the website, the tester assigns the problem to a developer. These tasks can be commented on, and the developers are notified of the task via email as soon as it is created. Each created task is URL specific, allowing for quick and efficient problem solving.

Taskee is really useful, and very creative. The simple way each task is assigned to a specific URL allows for simple multiple user problem solving. Taskee can help anyone coding a page, or even just someone who may notice a spelling error occasionally.
more at:http://www.taskee.com/

Personal Finance Tool

Intuit is getting ready to launch an online version of Quicken, the personal finance software. The upcoming service is currently in private testing, and the beta site is set to launch in the middle of September and becoming largely available to the public this winter or early next year.

The web-based, personal finance tool will let you create balance charts and reports, as well as track your bill payment services. All additional features for Quicken have not yet been revealed. A good amount of security issues had to be overcome on the part of Intuit, as the company notes that consumer trust levels are just now reaching a point that warrants the development of online applications for tracking personal finance information. Not sure on how integrated the online Quicken version will be with the desktop service, but it would be great to get a basic service for free, though consumers may not be that ready for business, web-based applications merging with the concepts of web 2.0.

Additionally, Quicken’s desktop software versions to be released this year have also been improved, and the Home & Business Edition comes with a desktop gadget for Windows Vista, and Paypal integration. With improved security measures and an increasing use for web-based applications, as well as paperless billing and electronic payments and banking, now is a better time to develop services for consumers to this end. While Intuit moves towards web-based applications, Adobe has hinted that it’s moving in the opposite direction, with the use of its AIR runtime.
more at:http://quicken.intuit.com

Video Converter

All2Convert.com, just go to the site, browse through your computer to find the file that needs conversion, recognize which format you wish to convert to and select it, then click start, when the conversion is finished you will be able to download your media back to your computer in the new format.
Their free online video conversion service allows you convert video from web sites like: google.com, youtube.com , break.com, metacafe.com, myspace.com in all known video formats, such as *.3gp *.mp4 *.wmv *.mpeg *.mov *.swf *.avi *.mp3 files.

They use the new method of video conversation technology for your computers (OS: Windows, Mac) and your mobile devices. It converts all video files (all known video formats) to your desired video format faster with high quality than a typical transcoder software installed on your PC.
More at:http://all2convert.com/

Realtravel.com provides detailed accounts of trips all across the globe that real travelers have documented and shared with the online community

Realtravel.com provides detailed accounts of trips all across the globe that real travelers have documented and shared with the online community. This site also offers a clear and simple way to organize a trip and good methods to lead to a better experience. Dynamic rout maps are very helpful to visualize a trip, and users can view information from Frommer´s for free! The plans are easily changed and travelers can send their information and plans to family and friends through the website. Realtravel.com also provides a massive amount of information on specific attractions and destinations. For example, users can view current weather, news, exchange rates, visa and border rules, other articles about the location, travel advisories, economic and social information, local calendars, compare prices, etc.
They Say:
"At RealTravel, we believe that travel information is about more than price and star ratings - it is about the whole experience. You want to know what it is really like there. You want information on the people, the culture, how to get around, how to avoid problems, as well as suggestions for itineraries, accommodations, dining and things to do. We also believe that the best way to find out about a place is from someone with similar tastes who has already been there. So we've created an exciting new online community that lets people like you find and share detailed advice and experiences on places around the world. And we make it easy for you to connect to other travelers who are just as passionate about travel as you."
More at:http://realtravel.com/

How To Survive In Business

Couple of quick items I thought you’d find interesting.

First Interesting Item: The Wall Street Journal ran a great story the other day on the follies of MBA-powered mismanagement.

Well, I thought it was a great story, anyway. No one else seemed to pay much attention… probably because it doesn’t fit into the average person’s belief system that a Master’s in Business Administration is good for anything.

Seems that Harvard lost $350-million bucks in a hedge fund… run by guys with Harvard MBAs.

Let that idea roll around in your head for a moment.

If you have a stake in believing that MBAs rule, then it’s just an annoying news item. Move along. Nothing to see here.

However, if — like me — you enjoy these tidbits of proof that MBA actually stands for Massive Bullshit Acquisition, then the irony is truly delicious.

I’ve always maintained it is harder to teach people with too much education how to run small biz and entrepreneur shops, because the nonsense is piled so deep and thick in their skulls. An MBA is often a red flag that trouble lies ahead… like getting in a car with someone behind the wheel who learned how to drive solely from books.

A lot of the people who come to me for private consultation have MBAs. They can wax prolific on all sorts of business theory… but when it comes down to actually making sales, they’re like a babe in the woods. Helpless, clueless, and desperately trying to bluff their way through whatever disaster they’ve created.

Okay, there’s probably some worth in getting advanced degrees in biz. If you’re looking to nail down a soul-devouring gig in middle management at some faceless corporation, for example, it’s definitely the way to go.

And it will, at the very least, force you to read some books. I guess that’s a good thing, too.

But a vast number of the most frightingly successful entrepreneurs and small biz owners I know have zero college under their belt. Many dropped out of high school.

And yet you would consider them intellectually “inferior” at your peril. They’re usually smarter than the most “officially” educated guy in the room, and possess infinitely more real-world “pedal to the metal” savvy. The world of small biz doesn’t do so well using theory and grand concepts like “branding”. Entrepreneurs generally do better by breaking rules, and employing old-time classic salesmanship to deliver targeted product via killer pitches to hot markets.

All my mentors were self-educated. That generally means they were obsessive about reading. If rumor of any good book in any MBA program leaked out, they were on it. And because they filtered all incoming data through the real-world crucible of making sales happen, I would bet on their comprehension level being higher than any student’s.

But they never relied solely on books. Often, they would stop reading the latest bidniz best-seller half-way through, having quickly picked up the essential knowledge they could use. Books are tools.

It’s how the info works in the laboratory of everyday selling that counts.

I’m a broken record on this, because it’s important: Whatever happens to the economy (and things are, admittedly, getting scary)… whatever happens in your market (including the sudden threat of increased competition)… and whatever happens in your life in general… the one key survival skill will always and forever be raw, classic salesmanship.

Learn how to sell. Learn how to identify your best prospects, how to find them, how to nurture their innate desire for what you offer… and, most importantly, learn how to needle their emotional sweet spot to get them to act. To buy, to try your stuff out, and to allow you into their complex, fuzzy-focused lives as a “go to guy” provider of goods, services and content.

And remember — if the dudes teaching the MBA courses really knew their stuff, do you think they’d be grinding it out in academia?

The School of Hard Knocks remains the best university out there.

Second Interesting Item: Last night, I had dinner with a friend who also happens to be the top real estate broker in Northern Nevada.

Nevada, you may or may not know, went from being one of the top ten hottest real estate markets in the country… to being one of the top five worst. And we did it in a matter of shell-shocked months.

Most real estate-related businesses around here are in full panic mode, laying people off, closing up shop, fighting off bankruptcy, wringing their hands and hiding under the covers.

Ask your average agent how things are going, and he’s liable to burst into tears (and ask to borrow twenty bucks for lunch).

My friend, however, is doing just fine. He’s not matching his record-setting pace from the recent boom years, but he’s not far off, either.

And how, you ask, is he able to survive and thrive while others struggle and fail?

The answer is very simple, it turns out.

He ignores all the strategies other agents and brokers rely on.

And, instead, he uses old-time classic salesmanship to help his clients sell when no one else is selling, and buy when no one seems to be buying. Any good salesman would immediately recognize his skill-set as bonding, smart message-to-market targeting, and (most notably) working within the rules of the real world.

No theory. No tricks. No special magic at all.

Most agents simply do not know how to sell. They violate the most basic principles… like forgetting that it’s not all about them, but rather all about the prospect.

You never “sell” a house to anyone. You create the opportunity for a prospect to sell himself. And you do this by completely understanding his needs and desires, and genuinely matching him up with the right house. However you need to define it.

Most agents get all caught up in self-defeating conversations about “no one’s buying”, “the market’s in the tank”, “we’re in a recession” and all sorts of other nonsense. The glass is half empty, and leaking.

A great salesman assesses the situation, adjusts, and stays frosty.

And they get real. People are still buying and selling, even in the most dire market conditions. Sure, they’re harder to find, but they’re there. The housing industry is a fluid, moving parade of action. And there is always a way around a problem. Always. The reality of the solution may not thrill you, but there are endless choices and alternative paths.

The world may or may not be headed for some kind of economic Armeggedon. We may weather the coming crises just fine, or we may all be living in caves in a few years.

But however the reality plays out, one stark fact remains: Those who survive and thrive will be the ones with the most real-world experience, and the best salesmanship skills.

It has ever been thus.

Stay frosty…
Via-http://marketingrebel.com/

JumpKnowledge, a brand new online notation tool. JumpKnowledge gives its users the ability to note and comment directly on web pages

JumpKnowledge is a lightweight and simple tool which is dead easy to use. It’s great for jotting down your thoughts in context without any disruption of the original text. It’s also a good way to share notes with fellow students or coworkers. You can even use it in jest, to mock bloggers by inserting witty asides in their witless posts.
JumpKnowledge, a brand new online notation tool. JumpKnowledge gives its users the ability to note and comment directly on web pages (unlike Google Notebook) whenever a thought occurs to them. Annotated pages can be saved, linked and sent to friends. All your notes displace the underlying text so that none of the original content is lost or obscured; your text is highlighted and can be read in context. JKN supports international character sets and includes soft links for cross referencing your annotations. There are add-ons for both IE and Firefox; you can also just copy and paste the web address into the text box on the homepage.
More at:http://info.jkn.com/

Shopify, one of a number of services for creating niche online stores

Shopify, one of a number of services for creating niche online stores, has launched the Shopify Marketplace, a venue to search all items on Shopify stores, browse by tag, vendor and product type and use the slick interface to view the featured stores of the day. The site was announced to users today.

Shopify claims to have more than 20,000 stores running on the platform, with pricing between free and $299/month. Rivals include Zlio and Amazon aStores.

Speaking of marketplaces, you’ve got 24 hours left to list in the Web 2.0 Marketplace, which I’m happy to say is getting hammered with traffic.
more at;http://www.shopify.com/