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Getting People To Sign Up for Newsletter?
"I am having troubles getting people to sign up for my newsletter. I have a sign up on every page and also a pop up one on the home page. I also offer a free ebook with the sign up, but am not getting ANY sign ups! Help PLEASE!"

Use Of Forms Vs E-mail Link In Contact Page
"I'd like to hear opinions as to the use of forms (where a page is presented for you to fill in blanks) versus providing a simple mailto: link in order to provide a website visitor with means to contact us."

Buying Websites Vs. Creating From Scratch
"Has anyone bought an existing website an owner put up for sale? I'm creating a website and finding how much time and work this takes as opposed to just buying one. Any tips on buying?"

Getting People To Sign Up for Newsletter?
"I am having troubles getting people to sign up for my newsletter. I have a sign up on every page and also a pop up one on the home page. I also offer a free ebook with the sign up, but am not getting ANY sign ups! Help PLEASE!"

Use Of Forms Vs E-mail Link In Contact Page
"I'd like to hear opinions as to the use of forms (where a page is presented for you to fill in blanks) versus providing a simple mailto: link in order to provide a website visitor with means to contact us."

Buying Websites Vs. Creating From Scratch
"Has anyone bought an existing website an owner put up for sale? I'm creating a website and finding how much time and work this takes as opposed to just buying one. Any tips on buying?"

Tightrope: Get a go-to person for the best insurance
usatoday.com - I am becoming cash poor from all the different business insurance that I pay. I understand that every business needs insurance, but it seems every week a new guy shows up at my office to sell me different "must have" policies.

Loans From Strangers Can Help a Start-Up to Prosper
ecommercenews.org - Desperate to jump on the chance before the Book Worm's owner decided instead to use the space for storage, Stewart turned to another start-up, San Francisco-based Prosper, to raise $15,000.

Google's Ads: Less Is More?
webpronews.com - Ads are a necessary part of the Internet experience, but they have an undeniable power to annoy and frustrate. So when Google’s results pages seem a little less cluttered than those of its competitors, we breathe a collective sigh of relief without another thought. Yet as Robert Scoble points out, this clean presentation may be influenced by a keen business sense as much as it is by kindness.

Tackle Data Quality Upfront to Increase Marketing ROI
Errors in your database of customers and/or prospective customers are causing you to waste time and money on your direct marketing campaigns. Such errors can range from invalid postal and email addresses or phone numbers to duplicate records on a single person, each of which containing partial information about that person.

Bank Lenders Are Branching Out
startupjournal.com - After years of neglect, more banks are rolling out the red carpet for small-business owners.

Online Advertisers Bet on Video but Count on Display
emarketer.com - Nearly all Web sites with streaming content are monetizing it with video advertising, according to a survey of sites in the Advertising.com network.

Spam, the Law, and E-mail Marketers
clickz.com - Everyone knows spam is a problem. Spam now makes up between 70 and 90 percent of all e-mail sent. Most marketers don't understand the full impact of those statistics in the real world. Filters are so effective and statistics so dry that the scale is hard to comprehend.

E-Coupons 101: Offering Digital Discounts
ecommerce-guide.com - It's no secret that shoppers love bargains, and if done the right way, offering discounts can increase conversions and nurture customer loyalty. In fact, Forrester Research analyst Lisa Bradner's report "E-Coupons Engage Customers Beyond Discounts" shows that Web shop owners would be wise to ramp up their efforts in this area.

Small Business Finds Real Success With Virtual IT
smallbusinesscomputing.com - Managing information technology is always a problem for small businesses. Most companies can’t afford to hire full-time computer professionals, so their best solution is to find a trusted consultant who can function as a virtual IT department. It’s not the same as having somebody in the office, of course. If your server crashes, it could take hours to get a technician out to troubleshoot. That is unless your virtual IT department is like WechTECH Inc., an eight-person network integrator based in Tamarac, Fla.

The Perils Of Running A Family Business
forbes.com - Companies and families are a lot alike: rewarding, passionate, dysfunctional, infuriating. Cram the two together, though, and life really gets complicated.

Time Out
entrepreneur.com - Never enough time? Practice these simple time management techniques, and get your life back in control.

Why You Need to Visit WhoIs
smallbusinessbrief.com - Recent case studies of 5 small business owners who had their web sites disappear from the internet may be the subject of an upcoming eBook. The situation happens more frequently than some people realize, so the following advice is being released now. Free domain registration information is easily retrieved and should be reviewed by any site owner who is unfamiliar with the term "WhoIs".

Business Advertising Ideas: Fax Machine Marketing
smallbusinessbrief.com - With the wide spread dislike of telemarketers, many home-based and small business owners are hesitant about using their own phone for advertising. However, there is another powerful marketing tool they tend to overlook, their fax machine.

My BussinessAssistant.com Thrives on Evolving Trends
smallbiztrends.com - MyBusinessAssistant.com provides a menu of services to help the back office operations of startups and smaller businesses. It provides call center, phone answering and PBX/switchboard; Website management; administrative and back-office services; bookkeeping; IT support; and shared office space and a virtual office presence.

Mobile Payment Systems Get Traction
internetnews.com - Cell phones have evolved from being simple voice transmitters to productivity tools and entertainment devices. Now, as several new services illustrate, they are poised to replace international wire transfers and banks cards as well.

Review: New NetSuite Features Deliver
ecommerce-guide.com - While accounting programs continue to increase their Web-based features, NetSuite has long offered a complete, powerful, all-in-one solution that integrates accounting, sales, payroll, order fulfillment, purchasing, inventory, billing and more. And with new features that support eBay, NetSuite fortifies its excellent e-commerce platform and remains a viable alternative to the major accounting programs.

FreshBooks Makes Invoicing All But Automatic
smallbusinesscomputing.com - The second-biggest lie in business, after “the check is in the mail,” is “I never got the invoice.” For a small business owner or sole proprietor trying to manage cash flow, hearing either of these can mean the difference between a month in the black and one in the red. FreshBooks can help.

New £50m fund to support early-stage start-ups
bytestart.co.uk - NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts) has launched a new £50million fund to invest in innovative early-stage businesses over the next five years.

Privacy for Internet Names Moves Forward
topix.net - Many owners of Internet addresses face this quandary: Provide your real contact information when you register a domain name and subject yourself to junk or harassment. Or enter fake data and risk losing it outright.

Flag Down Customers While They're Asking for Directions
reuters.com - Have you been looking for a better way to bring your small business to the attention of local customers? HopStop.com, a website that gives door-to-door travel directions using public transportation in major cities, recently launched a beta version of a location-based local advertising platform, which lets business owners reach out to potential customers when they inquire about travel routes.

How To Beat The Big Boxes
forbes.com - Rather than quake in your boots when a Wal-Mart, Lowes or Home Depot breaks ground, instead press your advantage. Your store is more than a store; it's even more than a solution to a customer's problem. It's an experience. And who better to deliver that experience than mom-and-pop shops?

Distance Vision
entrepreneur.com - When choosing technology, it's best to be far-sighted.

Why You Need A Mentor
businessweek.com - Plato had Socrates. Tom Peters had Peter Drucker. Luke Skywalker had Obi-Wan. Here's how to find yours

Mitchell Baker and the Firefox Paradox
inc.com - Its products are free. Its work force is largely volunteer. Its meetings are open to anyone. It's a nonprofit. It may be the hottest tech company in America.

Point/Counterpoint: Is Wholesale an Option for eBay Sellers?
auctionbytes.com - Is buying wholesale to resell on eBay a viable business model? Product-sourcing is an important issue for eBay and online sellers, and in today's issue, we invited two sellers who also write about eBay to debate the wholesale option.

Begin with the End in Mind
businessweek.com - A reader asks: "Once I do get started, do I really need a formal business plan?" Our guest expert offers her answer

How can a business plan be helpful if it is quickly outdated?
about.com - In today's breakneck fast-paced business world, the only answer to outdated business planning is BPM or Business Plan Monitoring. BPM is primarily set-up for internal use. This process begins with identifying the performance metrics for the business. Performance metrics are key ratios and numbers vital to the company's success.

Biggest Traffic Generation System
devshed.com - The biggest traffic generation system you could ever get, has to be built by yourself.Building your own traffic generation system is not hard at all, it just takes work and effort. Once you have built your own traffic generation system you will have the blueprint to sell anything online.

Planting Seeds for Success
smallbusinesscomputing.com - There are tens of thousands of green industry companies around the country, and the vast majority are small businesses. Garden centers, nurseries, landscapers and green maintenance firms can be found just about anywhere.

Solve Filing Needs With Business Tax Software
nfib.com - Unless your business is an accounting firm, tax season creates a whole new set of concerns for your company. If you don't have an in-house accountant or an outside CPA on retainer, you must decide whether to hire tax help or tackle the task yourself.

Call off the Funeral, the Press Release Is Alive and Well
marketingprofs.com - The press release is certainly not dead, despite what some PR people may have you believe.

Article Marketing for Increased Traffic and Sales
businesstoolchest.com - Article marketing is one of the most popular methods used by internet marketers to increase traffic to their web sites and hence increase their income. However, there are right ways and wrong ways to use articles to drive business to your site. Let’s look at the right ways.

Create Direct Mail campaigns with Royal Mail’s Mailshots Online
bytestart.co.uk - Direct mail can be a very cost-effective way for small businesses to reach new customers and to build stronger relationships with existing clients. It can be used by virtually any type of company – from accountants to window cleaners - to drum up business and increase profits.

Stop Justifying Your Price and Start Touting Your Benefits
smallbusinessbrief.com - Many business owners fall into the trap of justifying their price over and over. You need to stop doing that right now. When someone hesitates to sign on the dotted line or to purchase your product, do you look at that as a lost opportunity or a gained opportunity?

Buying and Selling Tips for Ebay
smallbusinessbrief.com - A potential Ebay seller only needs a few simple things to put an item up for sale. If you're thinking about putting an item or items up for sale on Ebay or any other auction site here are several things you'll want to consider before you do.

13 Tips to Maintaing Feed Subscribers
smallbusinessbrief.com - You have an RSS feed and you have worked hard to get the word out. According to your logs you have subscribers! Now the hard part: how to retain the subscribers to your RSS feed. Follow these simple steps to insure that your subscriber base will grow.

Seven Laughable Warning Labels
forbes.com - Goofy warning labels on product packaging and company Web sites. Here are some of most bizarre we've come across.

How to Research Your Market
entrepreneur.com - Do your homework before opening your doors to avoid business-busting mistakes.

Is Your Web Site Having a Mid-Life Crisis?
ecommerce-guide.com - In the summer of 2006, after a decade of providing legal guidance to entrepreneurs and small business owners, attorney and e-commerce entrepreneur Nina Kaufman and her partner, Ron Paltrowitz, took a long, hard look at their legal practice — where they had been, where they were and where they wanted to go.

David Allen and GTD on the DTM Podcast
ducttapemarketing.com - David Allen's mega best selling book, Getting Things Done, has spawned an entire industry of productivity products, but in a recent interview I conducted on the Duct Tape Marketing podcast he shares his vision and beliefs about goal setting and productivity.

How Much Does a Web Page Cost?
clickz.com - I'll break it down and help you to understand exactly what things cost.

Startup Margin of Safety: When Value Investing Meets Entrepreneurship
businesspundit.com - What if it doesn't work? That is the question that entrepreneurs must always be asking themselves.

Want Website Traffic? Start A Free Blog!
smallbusinessbrief.com - Blogging has become increasingly popular in the past couple of years. There are more and more blogs created everyday on a vast array of topics. Both personal and business.

The Basics for Starting a Business
businessweek.com - First, determine if your idea can really lead to a viable enterprise that uses your strengths. Then write a brief plan and look for funding.

One-woman business is a virtual success
bizjournals.com - There's something about administrative assisting that makes Judy Segawa's heart beat fast, which is exactly what happened when she first read about virtual assisting in a self-help book.

Fees and Fraud Remain eBay Sellers' Biggest Concerns
auctionbytes.com - An AuctionBytes survey found that fees and fraud remain the biggest concerns to eBay sellers.

Strategies: Go on a spring savings spree
usatoday.com - As spring arrives, I have a suggestion for an annual spring ritual for every small business: Lower your bills.

Marketing: What Works Best?
smallbusinessbrief.com - Should you use a long headline or a short headline in your marketing materials? Which one really works best? Well, there are solid arguments for using both.

Laying a Foundation
inc.com - Employees shouldn't be expected to hit the ground running. Use this very simple two-step process to ensure new hires start off on the right foot.

The End of Direct Mail?
about.com - It's easy to fall prey to the assumption that the marketing techniques of today will be here tomorrow.

eBay Watch: Top Sellers, Free Store Offer, Alternative Auctions
ecommerce-guide.com - After a quiet period following last year's store fee hikes, eBay is launching a promotion designed to bring in new subscribers by offering a free 30-day trial to those who have never had an eBay Store. The free trial period ends March 18th, and for those who meet the eligibility requirements, an initial store fee is posted as a credit to their account.

AuctionBytes Polls eBay Sellers on Online-Auction Issues
auctionbytes.com - Last summer, there was a seismic shift in the online-auction industry when eBay significantly increased fees for Store inventory and urged sellers to move items from Stores to the core auction platform

Ask an Expert: To boost Web presence, make these basic concepts click
usatoday.com - I would like to expand our online business offerings but frankly, e-commerce is not our strong suit. That said, it does seem like something we should devote more energy toward. Do you know of any way to shorten the learning curve or otherwise do it right?

Email Newsletter Subscription Renewals - Any Value In Forcing Ezine Members To Re-Subscribe?
emailuniverse.com - Is there ever a good argument to force or ask your email newsletter members to resubscribe? ...to confirm their interest in receiving your emails? Let's address this ezine subscription renewal issue together by listening to Dale's story and my response.

Microsoft Dials into SMB Phone Systems
smallbusinesscomputing.com - Using its five-day nationwide Small Business Summit as a backdrop, Microsoft today unveiled new software that the company says is designed to make full-featured phone systems for small businesses easy to use, manage and expand.

For Better Sales Copy Take a Tip From Zig Ziglar
businessknowhow.com - In his keynotes and recordings world-class motivational speaker and sales trainer Zig Ziglar often talks about the importance of having meaningful, specific goals. And he'll drive home his point with the rhetorical question, "What would you rather be in life, a meaningful specific or a wandering generality?" As marketers and business owners if we want our sales copy to produce profitable results we would do well to heed Zig's admonition.

Keeping the Brand Healthy: The Annual Brand Checkup
marketingprofs.com - One of the keys and biggest challenges with building premium brands is maintaining a healthy balance between growing the business and maintaining consistency in your brand communications program.

The age of Blogging. What is this thing anyways ?
businesstoolchest.com - Everyone is taking about it, you hear it everywhere, in the forums, in articles its everywhere. What is Blogging.

eBay Customer Retention and Satisfaction
allbusiness.com - Customer satisfaction builds customer loyalty, and customer retention is the key to the long-term success of your eBay business.

Spring-clean your finances for the next tax year - Top Tips
bytestart.co.uk - With a new tax year nearly upon us, it's the ideal time for small businesses to spring-clean their finances, improve administrative procedures and streamline for the year ahead according to Bibby Financial Services. Here are some tips to help companies get themselves in ship-shape condition for a successful 2007 and beyond

Offbeat Franchises
entrepreneur.com - Looking for a franchise that ventures off the beaten path? A "miscellaneous" franchise could be for you.

What's Your Company Worth Now?
inc.com - The market is flooded with capital, and more investors are putting it into private companies. That's just one reason you need to know the value of your business. Here's how to find it.

Gen Y Rewrites the Rules for Family Biz
businessweek.com - Boomers' kids are quick out the gate—and may end up hiring mom and dad to work in their own startup.