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How to test pay-per-click advertising for just £5
bytestart.co.uk - The world changed with the introduction of the internet and Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. PPC is utterly measurable – you only pay when someone clicks on your advert. Yet still many businesses shy away from advertising in this way.

Set Return Policies That Work for You and the Customer
allbusiness.com - Establishing return policies for a retail establishment can be difficult. Your goal is to be fair and friendly, without letting customers take advantage or commit return fraud. Therefore, you need to strike a balance: setting a clear policy that allows for some flexibility.

8 Steps to Positive Press Exposure
businessknowhow.com - Press exposure can significantly impact a small businesses' success. Press releases are not just for big businesses; many small businesses find press releases to be an inexpensive way to gain exposure and attention. It is not uncommon for reporters from magazines, newspapers or blogs to scan press releases as a means to locate content.

Analyzing with Excel
smallbusinesscomputing.com - Regardless of what you’re calculating you want to compare different solutions to determine which is best for you. Excel is a handy tool for analyzing different scenarios, and its Scenario manager tool helps you manage the task of comparing options side-by-side.

Three Classic Financing Mistakes
businessweek.com - Entrepreneurs looking to get a business up and running should make sure they're not enacting one of these scenarios.

Solid-Gold Music Businesses
entrepreneur.com - You don't have to be a rock star to make a living from music. Find out how four entrepreneurs have turned their love of music into thriving enterprises.

Our Favorite New Desktops
pcmag.com - Pump up your computing one of these desktops, all of which have earned our coveted Editors' Choice nod.

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.

The online numbers game
money.cnn.com - Measuring web traffic is far from an exact science, and that's a big problem for online advertisers, writes Fortune's Jessi Hempel.

Strategies: The best business ideas travel in groups
usatoday.com - Building a company can be lonely work. One way to reduce your isolation and gain a wealth of knowledge is by forming an advisory committee. I've had advisory committees for two of the companies I've owned, and I've found them to bring experience, skills, contacts — and friendship.

eBay Watch: Widgets and Image Hosting
ecommerce-guide.com - Philipp Justus, senior vice president of eBay Auctions, announced some new developments buyers can expect to see on the eBay Web site in the coming weeks. The new eBay homepage will arrive soon, offering quick access to My eBay information, featured items and recent activities.

MS Office 2007: Applying and Customizing Themes
smallbusinesscomputing.com - One of the new features in Microsoft Office 2007 that has everyone talking is Themes. The new themes include colors, fonts and designs that help you create attractive, professional-looking documents and presentations with minimal effort on your part.

New trade mark legislation – free workshops for small businesses
bytestart.co.uk - The UK Intellectual Property Office will be offering advice and practical help on new trade mark legislation in a series of events being held around the country this September.

Hiring a Business Planning Consultant
morebusiness.com - When you’re planning to a business planning consultant for your business needs, you should consider the following factors.

The Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say in Email Subject Lines (Plus 100 Others You Shouldn't Use, Either)
marketingprofs.com - Top 100 words NOT to use in your subject lines.

Send A Ball
about.com - Why send clients a card or a company pen when you can send a ball?

eBay Discusses Seller Crackdown in Podcast Interview
auctionbytes.com - AuctionBytes interviewed eBay Vice President of Trust & Safety Matt Halprin about the new enforcement around the Seller Non-Performance policy.

Brands Get Scary
clickz.com - It's still a couple of months until Halloween, but you'd never know it looking at some of the marketing efforts turning up online. Major brands are taking a supernatural approach to drumming up product sales.

The Database Meets Web 2.0
smallbusinesscomputing.com - Tracking and managing the various streams of data running through a small company can often feel like trying to herd cats. And while spreadsheets and desktop databases can help, they're often difficult to use and limited in scope. Trackvia, a new company with a product by the same name, seeks to remedy that situation with an online solution that marries database function with Web-based ease-of-use.

A Penny Pincher's Guide To Office Supplies
forbes.com - Few tasks numb the mind more than ordering office supplies. Stick with us, though, because you might as well not throw good money after bad.

Apple's surprise weapon: Computers
money.cnn.com - The iPod and iPhone are hits, but they're not the company's hottest line, says Fortune's Brent Schlender.

A Sign of Good Marketing?
entrepreneur.com - Sign spinners--or 'human directionals'--are trying to stop traffic with eye-catching tricks and acrobatics. Does it work?

The Pedometer Challenge
entrepreneur.com - We asked four on-the-go business owners to wear pedometers for one week to find out if entrepreneurs are as active as we think they are.

Hiring and Retaining Good Employees... It's Tough!
inc.com - You need rock stars, not Milli Vanilli! Here are a few things you can do to ensure your hiring and retention efforts attract and keep genuinely great employees.

Before Setting Up Shop on eBay
businessweek.com - To avoid making costly, easily avoidable mistakes, file a DBA, procure a seller's permit, and consider home-business insurance coverage.

Online Advertising Strategies
morebusiness.com - The core of online advertising is acquiring an understanding of the experience that customers want and then finding ways to improve it. The goal of Internet advertising is to drive more customers to your website, to get them to visit your location or make a call about your products or services.

Free for the Giving: The Best Things In Service Situations Are Often Free
smallbusinessbrief.com - You may think customer service requires a huge capital outlay: expensive training, high-falutin' CRM software, and thousands of dollar in expenditures Nonsense! The most important parts of customer service are free. Here's my baker's dozen list of customer service components that are free.

Spam study offers statistics on 'brandjacking'
news.com - MarkMonitor, a San Francisco-based enterprise brand protection company, on Monday released its latest survey. During June, MarkMonitor tracked more than 100,000 drug-related spam landing sites and found a majority of these practice poor Internet security and may not be selling legitimate brand-name drugs, which could endanger users tempted by the low prices offered.

8 Steps to Positive Press Exposure
businessknowhow.com - Press exposure can significantly impact a small businesses' success. Press releases are not just for big businesses; many small businesses find press releases to be an inexpensive way to gain exposure and attention. It is not uncommon for reporters from magazines, newspapers or blogs to scan press releases as a means to locate content.

When It's Time to Spring for a Software Upgrade
nfib.com - The recent release of Windows Vista--and the controversy surrounding it--has sharpened focus once again on the perennial question of just when is the right time to upgrade software on your machine or the machines in your company.

Marketing Basics for the Small Business
about.com - The essence of marketing is to understand your customers' needs and develop a plan that surrounds those needs. Let's face it anyone that has a business has a desire to grow their business. The most effective way to grow and expand your business is by focusing on organic growth.

Run Your Business More Profitably
morebusiness.com - There are only two ways to run your business more profitably: You can either increase your income or you can decrease your expenses. Either way will help to generate additional profit for you to spend on your business (or yourself).

Beware of 'Free' Workshops
businessweek.com - You may pick up some great motivation or business tips, but investigate offers carefully to avoid high-pressure sales and scams.

Tightrope: Out of synch with your partner? Find out why
usatoday.com - My college roommate and I opened a business together almost 10 years ago. Financially we've been successful. However, recently my partner and I don't seem to agree when it comes to dealing with employees.

Companies Invite Product Suggestions
startupjournal.com - If I found a new use for a product other than its intended use, could I bring this to the attention of the company, and how could I be compensated?

Behavioral on a Shoestring?
clickz.com - It had to happen. Once the world's attention moved from the search juggernaut to the emerging behavioral targeting phenomenon, marketers without the budget or corporate backing to engage agencies have started to look for ways to join the party on their own.

Will Mobile Marketing Work for your E-Business?
ecommerce-guide.com - Mobile marketing is a viable new way to create customer loyalty, boost sales and increase awareness about your e-commerce business. But a mobile marketing campaign can be expensive — and if handled improperly — it can backfire.

Windows Mobile – E-mail Basics
smallbusinesscomputing.com - Just as you do on your desktop PC or laptop, you have several options for reading and sending from your Windows Mobile device. Here are a few.

New online guide and tool for international traders
bytestart.co.uk - Government small business site, Business Link, is making importing and exporting easier for businesses trading overseas with the launch of a new guide and interactive tool. The services help businesses select the right payment method when trading internationally. They also support traders in assessing the potential risk associated with completing an international trade deal.

Salespeople Don't Live Off Referrals Alone
entrepreneur.com - Even if you're getting all the referrals you want, you still need to sell.

Understanding VoIP
businessknowhow.com - VoIP wasn't really on my mind when I was channel surfing on a Sunday evening and landed on the show 'Numbers' just as they were explaining VoIP to the uneducated, which of course includes the vast majority of us. I thought it was a great analogy so I thought it would be useful as a means of providing education about a subject that is discussed in the media almost every day.

Monitor Your Site's Links
workz.com - Nothing undermines the credibility of a site like a link that returns an error message or a blank page. Visitors have very little patience for these types of problems. Whether your links are "internal" (taking visitors to another location within your site) or "external" (taking visitors to another site altogether), they can break for a variety of reasons. Checking links on a regular basis is an important part of performance monitoring, and, since it's also one of the simplest and least expensive monitoring processes, there is no reason your customers should ever be derailed as they click through your site.

Amazon Payments: Online Auction Vendors Take 'Wait and See' Approach
auctionbytes.com - Amazon.com put its toe in the online-payments waters in its typically conservative fashion. Amazon Flexible Payments Service (Amazon FPS) is in limited beta and is designed specifically for developers. The company explains that "the set of web services APIs allows the movement of money between any two entities, humans or computers."

Spammers find new ways to slip through
usatoday.com - Just when it appeared tech firms had the upper hand against spam, spammers have unleashed new forms of the meddlesome e-mail to trick filters.

Recommended Reading For Inspiring Leadership
startupjournal.com - Overcoming obstacles and keeping on track are nearly always part of starting a successful business. Drawing inspiration from great leaders can help a company founder stay focused and persevere, says Nitzan Shaer, an entrepreneur-in-residence with IDG Ventures Boston, a venture-capital fund with $280 million under management focused on health-care and information technology.

E-Mail Sender Lines: Do's and Don'ts
clickz.com - What's in a name? A lot if you're using it in an e-mail sender line.

Review: FarStone DriveClone 3 Pro
smallbusinesscomputing.com - Few things can put a business at greater risk than the failure to conduct frequent data and/or system backups. Most backup utilities approach the task from one of two angles-- some concentrate on protecting data by backing up files and folders, while others emphasize complete system protection and employ disk imaging to create an exact replica of a hard drive encompassing data, applications, the operating system and everything in between.

North West entrepreneurs could pocket £60k in business services
bytestart.co.uk - A new business ideas competition has been laucnhed - with £60,000 of business services up for graps for the winning entrants.

The Upside Of Failure
forbes.com - Months, maybe years, pass. You make all the right moves, but for some reason, whether it was inopportune timing or a misguided strategy, you're forced to close Widget-Mart and it forever becomes a stain on your résumé.

Enhance Your Website with Video
entrepreneur.com - Thinking about adding video to your site? Here's how to do it.

Small Businesses Responsible for Nearly All New Jobs
inc.com - A new annual report sheds light on the impact entrepreneurs have on the overall economy.

The Future of Dedicated Hosting Delivery
devshed.com - For all the hype, over the last few years an increasing number of businesses have started moving not just distribution but more important business processes online in earnest.The main reason this much anticipated migration has dragged its heels is that change takes time, and businesses going online are faced with hurdles of cost, complexity, resourcing, and marketing at every step of the process.

Niche Marketing Is Your Key To Avoiding A Common Business Blunder
smallbusinessbrief.com - Niche marketing occurs when you intentionally focus your marketing efforts on a targeted portion of the Internet or another similar market. These targeted portions, known as niche markets, provide a product or service for a defined group of customers who have very specific needs. Niche marketers address the need and market accordingly.

The Basics of Starting a Blog
smallbusinessbrief.com - Blogs are one of the hot ways to start a website right now. They allow visitors to interact with the site owner and to subscribe to a feed so that they can keep up with changes to the site and new information.

eBay UK Holds 1-Day Half-Price Sale on Listing Fees
auctionbytes.com - eBay UK is holding a 1-day promotion for sellers on August 22.

15 Ways to Reinvent Your PC
pcmag.com - Don't toss your old PC just because it can't run Microsoft's new OS. Here are 15 great uses for an older PC (mostly free!) that prove it's worth keeping around.

Ask an Expert: Entrepreneurs, employees separate breeds
usatoday.com - Do you think entrepreneurs are made or born? I say born, my partner says made. What say you?

Marketing Basics for the Small Business
about.com - The essence of marketing is to understand you customers' needs and develop a plan that surrounds those needs to create your offers. Let's face it anyone that has a business has a need and desire to grow their business. The most effective way to grow and expand your business is by focusing on organic growth.

Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught in a Class?
startupjournal.com - Should aspiring entrepreneurs pursue M.B.A.s? There's been a long-brewing debate among academics and entrepreneurial minds over whether business school is worth the hefty price tag for those looking to go into business for themselves.

Home Business Guide to Understanding Trademarks and Protecting Business Names
powerhomebiz.com - The business name is the most important intellectual property asset, yet many small and home-based entrepreneurs fail to take steps to protect their business names.

Burial business breathes life into pet industry
money.cnn.com - Sounds morbid, but Paws & Remember is building a healthy business providing much needed memorialization services and products for beloved cats and dogs.

The Overflowing Inbox
clickz.com - This week I wanted to look at a different type of e-mail best practice: managing your own inbox while you're away.

Using Business Intelligence to Ensure Success
morebusiness.com - Business Intelligence is a process used by companies to gather information from respective business fields to transform it later into knowledge that can be used to understand customer needs. Business Intelligence is particularly important for businesses that require lots of customer data to serve them better.

How to Create the Right Business Model
morebusiness.com - Business models draw from many subjects related to business such as marketing, operations, finance, economics, strategy, and entrepreneurship.

EasyAsk's Search and Merchandising Boosts Bottom Line
ecommerce-guide.com - Every e-commerce company is looking for ways to increase conversion rates. If they're not, chances are they won't be in business for long. But with so many affordable tools on the market designed to help online retailers drive more traffic to their sites and provide visitors a better user experience, how does an e-tailer choose? For Rockler Woodworking and Hardware, a more than 50-year-old mail order business that has been on the Web since 1996, the choice was easy — or rather, EasyAsk.

Widgets Offer Viral Marketing and Affiliate Revenue
ecommerce-guide.com - Widget mania is erupting across the Web, making it easy for both casual online sellers, such as bloggers and hobbyists, and serious e-tailers to expand their exposure and boost sales.

New Channel 4 Documentary on Family Businesses
bytestart.co.uk - If you run a busy home-based family business, you may well like to have a personal assistant to help with the office work and even your odd jobs!

Fake fur has really gone to the dogs
msnbc.msn.com - Hound hairpieces; 'Idol' musical bombs off-Broadway; anti-aging pizza.

The Top Five Digital Threats To Your Business
forbes.com - While the Internet, mobile computing and online advertising can help small fries compete with larger rivals, these digital tools also invite plenty of risk.

Make Your Website Famous
entrepreneur.comMarketing your site on and offline can be just as important as marketing your actual product or service.

Boomer Benefits
inc.com - As workers retire, small companies face a talent crunch.

Building a Cosmetics Brand from Scratch
businessweek.com - An entrepreneur puts her heart and soul into every aspect of her new company, from the branding and packaging to choosing the right vendors.