ADUTAINMENT: Advertising as Entertainment
JellyBasket.com - JELLY by the CASE or as a GIFT BASKET.

Terms Used The In The Stock Photography Business
So you are a small business person or web designer and you want to purchase some stock photography for your website. Great.

China Search Marketing Tour Heads To Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen & Hong Kong
The China Search Marketing Tour will be held May 19 - 28, 2007. Tour members from around the world will attend the China Search Engine Strategies & Conference Expo in Xiamen

World Video Games Market to Exceed US$61.9 Billion by 2012, According to a New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
Video games market is characterized with a wide consumer base ranging from children to young adults and grown-ups. The market came into existence way back in 1980s when different varieties of electronic toys, watches, games, family computers, and the like flooded the market. Reflecting the immense popularity of these products, new products were introduced in the market at very frequent intervals, with each one better than the previous model.

Choosing To Pursue A Home Business Is A Life Changing Event
Taking the leap into a home business opportunity can be a true-life changing event. As nearly every aspect of life can be changed for either the good or bad when making a career change, you have to prepare yourself for its effects. Prior to making the decision to leave a career outside of the home for a home business, one should do some personal reflecting, speak to family and extensively review both a personal and business budget. By doing so you are making a plan for the unknown. You can think of it much like creating an emergency plan for yourself. If there is a fire, tornado or flood, you have to have materials to protect and care for yourself and your family. Preparing for your needs when entering a home business is quite similar.

Starting Your Business: 3 Tips for Bootstrapping Your Way to the Top
Bootstrapping a business startup does not necessarily mean that you are unable to find traditional sources of capital. It may mean that you are clever, or that you know a bargain when you see it, or that you are the type of person who derives a certain satisfaction from crafting something using your own hands and vision, from scratch.

5 Popular Home-Based Business Ideas
Since receiving child support payments and back-child support payments for over twenty years, it's no secret how that support has helped to provide for my child's well-being. Fortunately I was able to use a portion of my child support funds to make more money by starting a small business.

Marketing Strategist Teaches Entrepreneurs To Get Creative About Their Success
Michele PW says that creative approaches to marketing and PR campaigns can yield unexpected results plus being a lot of fun.

Is The Company You Keep Hurting Your Business?
When you look at your friends, it's like looking into a mirror. Take the sum of characteristics of the five people you spend most of your time with and you will be the average of that sum.

Door Number 3 to Cover Marketing Trends During 10-day International Conference
Door Number 3, a full-service branding and advertising agency based in Austin, is covering, from a marketer's perspective, the annual SXSW Music, Film and Interactive conference through its blog, "Advertising Anarchy"

Boost Your Legitimate Home Internet Business With HitTail
Legitimate home internet business owners know that to be successful, you need a lot of targeted traffic coming to your website or blog. This is not rocket science but if you do want to see more traffic, you must first how to make this happen. In this article I will focus on how you can easily improve the natural search results to your home business but not necessarily using your present top keywords.

Lancaster Named Most Business-Friendly City
Lancaster Emerges as Winner of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC's) Annual City Recognition Award

Who Plays Video Games?
With the great number of video games for sale and the huge variety of video games that are downloadable through the internet, it probably will not surprise you to learn that 60 percent of the American population has played some kind of video game. They are rivalling baseball as the great American pastime. Indeed, there are versions of baseball and NFL available as video games. Video games grew out of our fascination with computers and they are played by young and old alike. Video game playing is not limited to kids and teenagers, although children are starting to play video games at younger and more tender ages. Nearly half of all American children aged 4 to 6 are estimated to have played video games, and a new market has sprung up to d...

Blogging ? Is It Worth The Effort For The Home Business Entrepreneur?
A few years ago all the gurus were screaming ?You?ve got to have a web site? and they were right. Now we are being told ?you have got to have a blog?. But is this true and are they really worth the effort?

Importance Of Using GPS Advisor Tracking In A Business
People are able to do more with the options on their GPS products due to the advance in technology creating some very interesting and innovative features in these useful products. One thing that is really good about this, is that is makes it a lot easier for business owners and managers to be able to locate and monitor their employees and make sure that their vehicle is secure. Using a GPS system will be a huge help for those that need to be able to monitor company vehicles and also be able to locate all the information that you need with little hassle.

MLM Recruiting - The 5 Types of Network Marketing Recruiters in MLM
It is amazing.Every where I have the honor of speaking, I see over and over the 5 types of recruiters on MLM, and they all remind me of animals.

Customer Service, the Internets Primary Neglected Business Concern

Customer service is everything to a business. Just look at big, successful retail chains: They let you return perfectly good merchandise just because you changed your mind. Is that insane? Yes, pretty much, but it's also good customer service, and it's a good investment, and the "secret" of success, for a lot of big companies.

Let's turn to the Internet. I find that the vast majority of companies selling things on the Net can't be contacted at all. Not presale, postsale, or anywhere in between. The only time they talk to you is if you get really angry and start complaining. Everyone else is apparently seen by customer service, but ignored.

Even if you're using an autoresponder to handle 99% of your customers automatically, the least you can do is try to personalize the messages based on whatever meager information they've given you. While I'm at it, what's wrong with allowing people to contact you on the phone if they're getting frustrated? Does this increase or decrease the chances that a person will develop a vendetta against you and your company? I think the answer is obvious.

Most Internet companies simply do not offer personalized service. It might sound like a contradiction, but I believe in both automation and service. Some people want to call someone on the phone before they sign up for anything online. Customers beware: The biggest, most respectable companies on the Internet are even harder to talk to than your phone company. Small scam-based companies are extremely likely to have a toll-free number.

Sole proprietors like me don't want to get phone calls all the time, so I don't show you my phone number. Of course I have a phone number that you can call, but you have to commit a little bit of effort to get it. First, send me an email with your question or complaint, and explain why it would be easier to talk to me on the phone about it. Give me your number and I'll call you. If you're afraid to give me your number, ask me for mine and I'll probably give it to you, if you don't sound like a crazy person. You can also talk to me on AOL Instant Messenger, which is a free download with only a little bit of adware/spyware. (I hate AOL in general, but AIM is less of a spam magnet than ICQ.) Just get my contact info from the little "contact" link on this page.

I mentioned that you can make autoresponder messages personal; In fact, personal enough that some people think you're sitting there typing them in and hitting the "send" button. This can only be done by acquiring extra information from the customer. The type of information depends on what your mailing list is about. In the case of my mailing list, this information mainly involves Internet, business, and general computer experience.

If you're currently on my mailing list and don't remember giving me this information, perhaps I obtained it subtly or just haven't asked you for it yet. I know it might sound scammy, but this truly is the best way to take care of the needs of the customer with the limited amount of time available to a small Internet business.

Let's think about it from another angle. My phone company is making tons of money from me, and It takes me an hour to get on the phone with them. They have a nice Web site to take care of most of my concerns, so they don't have to hire as many customer service reps. This is a win/win for everyone, except that this same phone company fires so many reps that my phone experience returns to normal, i.e. unacceptable.

Compare this to someone like me. I work alone, and I don't have a long queue of phone calls at any given moment. I get a lot of emails, most of which are spam, but I know how to handle that. When I get an email from someone who is actually interested in Online Honesty, I'm pretty excited, and I make it my #1 priority to solve whatever problem this person has, even if they're not remotely interested in buying anything from me. I might be on vacation or something, so I might not be reachable by phone for a week. I can, however, read my email several times a day no matter where I am.

It's a matter of respect. I try to respect people, no matter who they are (sometimes unsuccessfully, but I try). If they just want advice, I'll do it for free. Give people respect, and they respect you in return. You don't have to buy anything from me. Just tell your friends, if they're looking to do business online, that I seem like an honest person and I know certain things about business and the Internet. That's all I ask.

I recently heard the term "karmic marketing". I guess that's what I've been trying to do: Make people happy first, then worry about money later. This is possibly the safest kind of marketing in terms of legality, though probably not the best way to make fast money. This is the kind of tradeoff we all have to make.

Mike Jolley is a longtime programmer and writer who recently turned to Internet marketing and publishing full time. Find lots of related articles at OnlineHonesty.com.