Best of the Web -- Sign Up for a FREE 60 Day Advertising Trial!
Sponsor a Category for Free for 60 Days. No Obligations. No Charges. No Kidding.

WoW Directory
Powerful world, local and regional website directory advertising.

New! Team Skaffe Directory from the editors of Skaffe.com
Up to 4 links per submission. Free non-commercial submissions.

Skaffe.com Directory
A long established quality directory to promote your website.

Professional Business Cards for Distinguished Entrepreneurs
Design color business cards online with instant print proofing.

Aviva Web Directory
Submit your website to increase your visibility on the internet.

Marine Leadership Skills And Small Business
"...the U.S. Marines are known and respected the world over for their leadership ability. The featured guest in this episode is Wally Adamchik, a former U.S. Marine. Much has been written and chronicled about the leadership success associated with the U.S. Marine Corps. Walley shares the essential characteristics of good leadership that will earn you the respect and trust of your employees."

Boy Do I Need Some Help With My Web Site's Conversion Rate
"I've had my site for around 5 years...it is a yo-yo. Sales have always been sporadic. ...I have improved my rankings in the search engines, but my conversion rate stinks!"

Dell Faces Consumer Lawsuit Over Service Issues
"Other than their customer service however, I must say that Dell is the first choice for me when it comes to computer purchases. Any other horror stories out there either with customer service, their products or both?"

Marine Leadership Skills And Small Business
"...the U.S. Marines are known and respected the world over for their leadership ability. The featured guest in this episode is Wally Adamchik, a former U.S. Marine. Much has been written and chronicled about the leadership success associated with the U.S. Marine Corps. Walley shares the essential characteristics of good leadership that will earn you the respect and trust of your employees."

Boy Do I Need Some Help With My Web Site's Conversion Rate
"I've had my site for around 5 years...it is a yo-yo. Sales have always been sporadic. ...I have improved my rankings in the search engines, but my conversion rate stinks!"

Dell Faces Consumer Lawsuit Over Service Issues
"Other than their customer service however, I must say that Dell is the first choice for me when it comes to computer purchases. Any other horror stories out there either with customer service, their products or both?"

Open Source Opportunities for Cash-Strapped Startups
ecommercetimes.com - More companies are using open source programs as they become mainstream, but most still use proprietary software such as Microsoft Office, said Guy Suter, a founder of BitLeap. Proprietary, or closed, software does not give users access to the programming language. The push for emerging technology companies to use open source is pure economics.

Online Ad Legislation: Too Much or Not Enough?
clickz.com - What additional legislation and regulation governing online advertising is necessary? Is there enough? Too much? Are the current laws applicable to traditional advertising sufficient?

A Community Launching Strategy
workz.com - There is nothing more discouraging to visitors to a community than finding nothing there, so you need to do some careful preparation to make sure something's happening at your forum before you launch. Here is a checklist of steps you can take to ensure a successful launch.

20 Must-Have Tools to Automate an Online Business
sitepronews.com - With all the information online about tools and techniques available to help someone effectively manage and run an online business, how do you ever decide which ones are truly useful to have in your business management toolkit? Here's my listing of the 20 indispensable tools that I cannot live without.

Cold Calling Made Easy
businesstoolchest.com - In my many years of sales and marketing work with small businesses, many of them would ask me all kinds of questions about cold calling like the ones below. They would profess to be leery of doing it for fear of rejection or simply through fear of making the call. See if any of these resonate with you?

Web Site Promotion: Branding With Banners
devshed.com - You might have heard that banner advertising is dead. Nothing could be further from the truth!If you can find a banner exchange that gives you a decent ratio you can begin branding of your site, and branding may be the one thing

Six Marketing Tactics Worth Paying For
forbes.com - Here's the trouble with marketing programs: Unlike with hard assets like buildings or machinery, you may have little to show for your investment when the money's all spent.

How to Make Money with Voice Mail
businessknowhow.com - The telephone can be a powerful tool for generating leads and selling products and services. Unfortunately most business owners are so ineffective using the telephone their only accomplishments are frustrating prospects and removing them from the sales channel.

How You Can Profit From an Invention
startupjournal.com - We have invented an innovative technology. However, we aren't in the best position to commercialize it, as we have jobs we love, too little experience in the market and too few contacts there. Are there brokers who could help us validate, value and sell the technology to a company better able to exploit it?

Repeat: It Pays to Repeat Yourself
businessweek.com - Offering your customer the same information in different ways can help get your message across and close the sale

Find the Perfect Domain Name
entrepreneur.com - Think all the good ones are gone? These 8 steps will take the frustration out of finding a name for your internet business

eBay Watch: Match-Up Marketing
ecommerce-guide.com - This week in eBay news, the auction company entices new sellers with a special promotion, embraces affiliates and PayPal offers an Express Checkout partnership program and spreads its love overseas. We also show you how to use eBay Match-Up, a game that mixes business with pleasure by letting you promote your merchandise for free while having a bit of fun.

Wireless Network Configuration Tips for Windows XP
smallbusinesscomputing.com - Configuring or reconfiguring a wireless network — or just adding a new device to an existing one — can often be a hassle.

United Parcel Service Scores on Interception
smallbusinesscomputing.com - United Parcel Service, more commonly known as UPS, opened a new front in the war of technological one-upmanship with other national couriers recently when it introduced Delivery Intercept, a Web-based service that allows customers to put a stop on a delivery and change the destination or have the shipment held or brought back. They can stop a delivery right up to the point the driver is getting out of his van and walking up to the receiver’s door.

Creating successful email marketing campaigns
ecommercenews.org - To most eCommerce businesses and eTailers, email marketing today is one of the most cost-effective and efficient methods to sell products to prospective or existing customers, to generate repeat sales or simply to stay in touch with Internet users from all over the world.

Review: PhotoShow Shines
ecommerce-guide.com - Small businesses can leverage the power to deliver their own multimedia shows, whether as embedded slide shows at your online store, distributed via e-mail or burned to CD or DVD for distribution. PhotoShow is ideal for realtors, online power sellers, travel agents — any business that deals in things that are visual in nature.

Tightrope: Avoid the yada yada in your big speech
usatoday.com - When you prepare a good presentation — whether it's to one person or a room full of people — start with the end in mind. In other words, when you end your presentation what would you like the listener to do? Vote for you? Buy your products or services? Sign a petition? Stage a boycott? You get the point — write in a few words what you want your listener to do.

The Four Keys to Doing Business Online
smallbusinessbrief.com - Articles and reports have saturated our collective consciousness with how the Internet is revolutionizing business, I'm told by participants at our "How to Grow Your Business Using the Internet" seminars. But perhaps what you've read up to this point has been lacking in specific details that would allow you to gauge the depth of your company's website for creating the best conditions for doing business. You're not alone.

The Basics of Building an Online Business
entrepreneur.com - 8 tried and true steps for attracting visitors to your site--and getting them to buy.

Driving change
sbnonline.com - Do you see the value of long-term planning?

Keep Out
inc.com - Reminiscing about the good old days is not a pastime that owners of fast-growing businesses typically indulge in. But when it comes to the rapidly evolving world of technology security, it's hard to blame entrepreneurs for feeling nostalgic. The good old days were merely months ago, and they were a time of relative tranquillity for small companies.

Health Insurance for the Self-Employed
businessweek.com - A huge number of Americans are uninsured—many of them entrepreneurs and people employed by small companies. But there are options out there.

Online Article Marketing Brings Customers To You
smallbusinessbrief.com - If your are not making use of online article marketing to help promote your business, you may be passing up an unlimited amount of advertising opportunities.

Profits In Principles
smallbusinessbrief.com - There is a moral to this story.

Most Common Questions Asked When Starting a Business
powerhomebiz.com - Whether you are planning to start a candle making or storage business, you have to comply with a number of regulations and business requirements before starting-up. Here are the common questions asked by a start-up entrepreneur.

E-mail Bounces, Hard and Soft
clickz.com - Whenever I discuss bounces with marketers, someone inevitably asks about hard and soft bounces. Virtually every information request that crosses my desk asks whether we split bounces this way. A straw poll of deliverability professionals indicates they all struggle with the same issue: disagreeing with the concept of hard and soft but having to live with it.

How to Avoid Common Legal Mistakes
morebusiness.com -As attractive as running your own business and being your own boss may be, it is often not as easy as it sounds. Erring on the side of caution should be your motto with regard to all legalities - and arming yourself with knowledge on business laws and business ethics will help keep you and your business safe.

Save time by interacting with the Government online
bytestart.co.uk - Businesses can now create a personalised online profile on the Business Link website. The new facility, My Business, gives them access to a wide range of government services and tailored advice to help them through all phases of their business life cycle.

Are You Investing In Long Term Marketing?
ducttapemarketing.com- I know that you need the quick fix, you want result now, you need the hot new thing. Ask yourself this question - how long do you plan to be in business?

eBay Encourages PowerSellers to Join Affiliate Program
auctionbytes.com - eBay is holding a sweepstakes to encourage PowerSellers to become affiliates. eBay recently expanded its affiliate program to allow all sellers to get rewarded for driving traffic to their own eBay.com listings.

11 Ways To Find Products To Sell On eBay
smallbusinessbrief.com - I was part of an eBay Roundtable discussion recently with six other experts and we all agreed that the number one question most new (and even old) eBay sellers ask is: "Where do I find things to sell on eBay??"

Are You Confusing Your Web Site Visitors?
smallbusinessbrief.com - If you have a cluttered mess of banners and multiple text ads on your site, unless it is a specified site of resources such as a recommended links section, link exchange or a topic specific portal, etc... then you are confusing your visitor.

Empty Net?
entrepreneur.com - Will snagging a government contract ever get easier?

5 Things You Should Do NOW to Gear up for Summertime Sales
morebusiness.com - Below are 5 things that you can do now get your business ready for the summer rush.

Transit Hubs Present Unique Retail Challenges
startupjournal.com - "I get a lot of walk-bys," says Laura Barton, who for the past 10 years has owned a Westport, Conn., framing shop and art gallery across the street from the town's commuter train station. "People are focused on getting to work, or they're on their way home, tired and want to get to the car. Out of the corner of their eye, maybe they'll notice my shop." Still, she says her 500-square-foot store now counts 1,500 customers, five times the number she started with.

Ask an Expert: Better hone your sales pitch
usatoday.com - While it is difficult to say what the average entrepreneur needs to know about sales (as we are all at different levels), I think I can safely say that there are some mistakes that are fairly common and also fairly easy to avoid.

Five "First Items" to Get You Started Selling
about.com - Many eBay members who have never sold a thing on eBay have more than a passing interest in selling but don't quite know how to get started. Sometimes the most difficult part of selling is simply knowing what to sell—especially if you don't own your own business or have other obvious caches of products in your life just waiting to be shifted to buyers.

Our Favorite Small Business Tools
pcmag.com - Let's face it: in the world of consumer technology, purchases are often a simple case of keeping up with the Joneses. When it comes to small business (SMB) technology, however, a valuable app or hardware device could mean the difference between taking your company to the next level and getting left behind.

Yahoo Helps Small Sellers Open for Business
auctionbytes.com - "If you build it, they will come" does not necessarily apply to ecommerce websites - merchants must find ways to drive traffic to their sites. So what's a small online seller to do? Jimmy Duvall, Yahoo's Director of E-Commerce Products, discusses Yahoo Merchant Solution and Yahoo Stores in the latest Ecommerce Industry SoundBytes podcast produced by AuctionBytes.com.

Jenny Lefcourt: Online Wedding Business Pioneer
womenhomebusiness.com - Jenny Lefcourt is one of the first visionaries who saw the potential of the Web for the wedding business. After leading WeddingChannel.com to success, she is revolutionizing the wedding photography business with her new venture Bella Pictures.

How Much Do You Need to Start Your Small Business?
powerhomebiz.com - Every new business needs some money to start operating. Yours is no exception. Here are four steps to help you better understand your financial picture, and determine whether you will be able to finance your business without losing your shirt.

Ice your Competition with a Cool Return Policy
ecommerce-guide.com - Though online sales continue to grow, there's still room for improvement, specifically in five areas, including site merchandising and return policies. Those e-tailers who address these issues can maintain an edge over the increasingly crowded field of competition, according to a report issued yesterday by Forrester Research, Inc.'s e-commerce analyst Sucharita Mulpuru.

Communicate, Store and Protect
smallbusinesscomputing.com - Samsung's new SyncMaster 225UW widescreen LCD monitor is designed to take advantage of Microsoft's unified communications solutions, such as Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. That capability, according to Samsung, makes the 225UW suitable for audio, video and Web conferencing without having to use a phone or headset.

Things You Don't Know About Organics
entrepreneur.com - The organics industry has been dominating headlines, but there may be some facts that still surprise you, such as who is buying.

Can Website Statistics Really Improve Site Usability?
smallbusinessbrief.com - Site usability. It sounds a complex term that is thrown around by high-paid web design experts – but the reality of it is quite simple: Is the user of a website able to do or find what they set out to accomplish on your website?

Free Advertising On The Internet For Your Direct Sales Business
smallbusinessbrief.com - Here are several forms of free advertising.

Developing At Google: Podcasts And Code Sessions
webpronews.com - Some developer-oriented news items emerged from Google about their forthcoming Developer Day, and a pair of new podcasts just for fans of code.

How to Develop a Winning Sales Plan
powerhomebiz.com -How do you plan to sell your products? To sell your products, you need to think of specific steps on how you actually plan to move your products. This is the process of creating your sales plan.

With a little innovation, who needs outsourcing?
money.cnn.com - Gentler scalpels? Floats that never fail? Delivered yesterday? No problem! That's why small U.S. manufacturers are on the rise.

Breaking down vision into smaller pieces could help reach ultimate goal
bizjournals.com - Staying focused on the big picture of your corporate vision is difficult when you're mired in the details of the day-to-day operations. Yet staying focused on the those details is what makes your big vision come to life. So how do you do both?

Measure and Manage the Online Buzz
clickz.com - At a recent ClickZ Web metrics event in New York, a session on buzz, blogs, and social media reminded me of an apt adage: if you don't measure it, you can't manage it.

Factors to Consider Before Starting a Business
morebusiness.com - Before you give yourself a big pat on the back for having a great business idea, ask yourself if you have all the know-how to go about it the right way.

Practical Tips for Spotting Trends
smallbiztrends.com - There are a lot of trend spotting sites out there, but many are focused on short term fads.

eBiz News: Tax Trouble Brewing, Free Feedback Tool
ecommerce-guide.com - In e-commerce news is a "disturbing" proposal by the IRS to collect social security numbers of online sellers, a free "eBay-style" customer feedback and reviews tool called Feefo, the beta launch of an online community-business directory and a new multivariate testing application that works with most analytics programs.

Don’t Get Burned by a Small Fry
smallbusinesscomputing.com - HP, Dell, Gateway and the other handful of brand-name manufacturers have the PC market all but locked up, and their vast buying power makes their wares tough to beat—on price, at least. But if you would prefer a more hands-on, service-oriented approach to your PC and server purchasing, there are literally thousands of independent options, and likely one right in your town or neighborhood.

Blurb Books a Great Tool for Telling Your Story
ducttapemarketing.com - I ran into a service called Blurb at the SXSW Interactive Conference this March and think they have a tool that has some great small business marketing applications.

Raise Money Using a Self-Directed IRA
entrepreneur.com - This clever twist on retirement fund investing could draw the patient investors business owners love.

"Course-Correcting" for Growth
businessweek.com - Expanding a company is a process requiring constant change. One key quality for a leader is the ability to get back on track when something has gone awry

Strategies: Find an angel to fund your business
usatoday.com - If you're looking for money to grow your company — and who isn't? — one possible source are angel investors, individuals who invest their own money in growing businesses.

IRS Asks: A Business Or Is It Just a Hobby?
startupjournal.com - The Internal Revenue Service is stepping up efforts to prevent taxpayers from deducting losses on activities that aren't genuine businesses run to make a profit. The problem: It's not so easy to tell a budding business from a hobby.

Book Publishing for Entrepreneurs
businessinfoguide.com - If you are considering publishing a book yourself, you have two primary options: self-publishing and print on demand (POD).

Tips on Choosing Your Home Business
powerhomebiz.com - You want your own business, maybe to be financially independent, be your own boss, work at your own time, and maybe, just maybe, retire as a multi-millionaire at the age of 35! But do you know what business you should start?

Millionaire moms: From M.O.M. to C.E.O.
money.cnn.com - Making the transition from running a household to running a business isn't easy, but it may not be as hard as you think.

Harnessing E-mail's Strengths
clickz.com - E-mail. One small word that can drive so many negative opinions from the marketing side of the house: "It's spam." "It's too cheap." "It's not strategic." "It's insignificant." "Customers get annoyed by it." "No one reads it." We often forget, though, this same word drives a very different opinion in consumers.

Own Your Life Weekend - 2nd & 3rd June 2007
bytestart.co.uk - Under-achieving Brits can change the way they approach their life. Four of the world's most successful individuals are heading to the UK to teach us how to copy their success, and they're coming at a time when we could use their help.

Dumb Advertising Moves to Avoid
entrepreneur.com - Want to make an effective ad? Don't make these common mistakes.

Tying It All Together
inc.com - How do small retailers compete with big-box stores? By selling quality products with great customer service, obtaining higher initial markups, and avoiding corrosive sales down the road.

The Problem with Loyalty Programs
businessweek.com - Companies measure customer commitment by their transactions. But that often has little to do with how people genuinely feel about the business.