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April 28, 2005
Competition Hots Up On RSS Ads
One area where Google is not the percieved leader is in blogs. Although Google owns Blogger.com , which is very popular. Innovation in blog technology and blogging can rightly be claimed by a number of concerns ranging from micro businesses to large businesses. Google it seems has being quietly testing text, banner ads and syndicated content using RSS feed by incorporating them into their Adsence advertising platform and are about to introduce a beta version over the next few weeks - according to 'blog insiders'.
Making blogs pay has been a preoccupation for a number of players including Longhornblogs.com . They are one of the early pioneers experimenting with RSS and ads; their ads are in HTML format and include images and links. Another experimenter of RSS ads is Kanoodle and Moreover, who are jointly working on creating publishing tools that include ads into RSS feeds.
The daily evolution of blogs as exemplified by Google's introduction of text ads, banner ads and RSS syndication built into Adsence are good enough reasons why small businesses should embrace blogs.
Blogs or blogging offer small businesses the opportunity to publish articles that can reach thousands to millions of people
via the search engines and RSS, while continuing to drive traffic into the future for only the time investment of writing content.
Unlike a classic direct marketing campaign you don't incur same costs of acquisition associated with reaching a target audience with your message.
There's more ...blogs are serious business tools that no online business should be without. Blogs are a fantastic bridge tools that allow you to personalise your communication with your customers, prospects and potential partners.
For small businesses that are serious about blogging and RSS
blog for fun and profit is arguably the best resource to tap into.
See also previous article blog and small businesses
David
small Business Resource
Posted by David at 10:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 27, 2005
News: HSBC's UK Small Business £65,000 X Factor Award Ends Soon
Only two days left to get your application for HSBc's UK Small Business X Factor Award. Small businesses that are regarded as the brightest new business should consider applying for this prestigious award.
Ten finalists will receive cash prizes worth £65,000 with the winner receiving £20,000 and £5,000 for runners up. There's also £4,000 of software and consulting services to be had by the winner.
This is your chance as a small business owner to win not only free money to spend on your business but also benefit from free publicity. The HSBC's 2X Factor Award" is aimed at Start-up companies less than three years old that has unique product that is likely to take the UK market by storm, hence the "X Factor".
The HSBC has a strong focus on small businesses and this is their fifth annual search for the UK's most enterprising start-up companies. Winners last year included Start-up Company with an insulating plaster product that's used in the building trade. Another company provided support services to young people in care.
Simon Wainwright who runs HSBC's Small Businesses services said: "We are calling on entrepreneurs to share their success stories. We are looking for entrepreneurs that provide inspiration for others. We believe there are many entrepreneurs with fantastic ideas and we want to hear from them."
Simon Wainwright also said: "By giving praise to entrepreneurs that are achievers we hope this will help other entrepreneurs succeed and that this will help HSBC to continue awarding budding entrepreneurs who will then inspire others and ultimately go on to realize their business dreams".
Nigel Griffiths who is Minister For Small Businesses is a supporter of HSBC's X Factor Award. His comments on the coming awards echo the fact that UK small business entrepreneurs are important wealth creators to the UK's economy and that the future wellbeing of the UK economy relies on providing an atmosphere of opportunity to all entrepreneurs.
The closing date for application is in two days time, Friday, 29 April 2005.
For information on how to apply for HSBC's Start-up Stars Awards 2005 visit HSBC or call the awards organizers on 0870 902 3333.
David
Small Business Resource
Posted by David at 10:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 20, 2005
Small Business Loan Launched Today By United Nations
Small to medium size businesses are being encouraged by the United Nations Development Programme to protect biodiversity and lessen the impact of poverty in the world.
Loan investments of $30,000 to $500,000 are available to small to medium size companies over the next eighteen months as a pilot and will provide professional assistance in helping to build enterprises. The initiative is called Equator Ventures.
Funds from the United Nations Development programmes will be distributed by Equator Ventures who as administrators will distribute the funds to various organisations including: UN Agricultural and Industrializing agencies, The world Bank, Government of Japan, The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund and other organisations.
The small business loan or grant programme is designed to spearhead entrepreneurship that was recommended in a recent report commissioned by the agency called "Unleashing entrepreneurship: Making Business Work For The Poor"
Olav Kjoren, Director of The United Nations Development Program said, "The funds provide critical niche finance by filling a major gap in sustainable development finance that exceeds small grant funding (microfinance) and project finance.
David
Small Business Resource 20.04.05
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April 17, 2005
News: Google Video Just Launched and is great for How To Videos Online including producers of videos including full length movies to distribute and receive payment for videos.
The Internet and multimedia is about to change forever...
The Google video program is no longer in beta it is soon to go live for video producers and searchers of how to videos online. Video producers, Hollywood producers and small business owners likeBill Myers Online who produce how to videos can now take advantage of the power and increasing demand of videos.
Customers around the world can use Google video search to find and buy movies, films and videos online.
There has been much talk about multimedia and how the increase take up in broadband or ASDL by households will act as a catalyst to increased demand for online video. Well, with google video online video is now a reality. Everyone interested in seeing videos and movies online can now instantly be gratified.
So how will Google video work? It will work like this...
when visitors search google (whether in the normal way or by entering "google videos search") or visit a site like Small Business Resource that include Adwords they will find videos that match their keyword search terms.
By clicking on the link to a video title, google presents the visitor with information about the video. Information will include cost to view (if a viewing charge apply), duration of the video, subject matter about the video and the rating.
Should the visitor choose to view the video, he'll pay a viewing fee to google and google will show the video to the customer.
Google acts as the merchant and pays the producer of the video. Google also stores the video on their dedicated, high speed servers. Like web site owners who are paid by google for including Adwords, video producers will be paid by google every time their video is purchased and transmitted.
You can find details about google video here: How To Videos As Small Business Opportunity If you enter the terms "google video", google video search and "how to videos" in google search engine you'll see the number of searches for these search terms. What does that tell you? It tells you that people are searching for videos and that presents an opportunity fro small business owners who produce how to videos online and for distribution offline. Google video program appears to be just what small business video producers like Bill Myers Online have been waiting for - a fast medium to transmit videos for instant viewing by a large potential customer that is hassle free. These are just some of the opportunities for small business video producers that google video program will give: .Use video capture tools such as Camtasia to produce "how to videos online"
Posted by David at 11:00 PM
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In the USA there's Small Business Administration. In the UK there's the Princes Trust and in Australia there's Innovation.gov.au. Although these providers vary in the type of resources and services they provide to small businesses they all have one thing in common; they help turn small business ideas into real businesses for young entrepreneurs. Young Australians have turned creative ideas into thriving businesses. In Australia ("Down Under"), young entrepreneurs are directed to embrace the Internet to see what big organisations can do for them. This advice has paid off for many budding entrepreneurs with diverse ideas ranging from biscuit making to film making. A case study featured on the site is Cindy Lukin who started a successful biscuit business. Another success story is Greg MCLean who has being a film maker since 1992 when he entered "Nestcafé Big Break" competition and won $20,000. This has enabled him to continue making films which culminated in his film, Wolf Creek, which was featured at the "Sundance Film Festival" in the USA earier this year. Approximately 150,000 Australian small business entrepreneurs are under 30 years of age, which reflects the entrepreneurial spirit of youth. Like entrepreneurs everywhere, starting a small business is seen as the way to realize their dreams. Innovation.gov.au provides useful information and ideas for all small business entrepreneurs whether you live in USA or UK. The site has useful information on: How to take a brilliant idea and develop it commercially As remarked by Cindy Luken "I believe there are three main messages for young entrepreneurs starting a small business: Vision; have a vision of what you want to achieve. Great advise! David
Posted by David at 9:14 AM
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Presented with information concerning Microsoft and the European Union you can't escape the fact that the EU sees Microsoft as a threat to competition in the Euro zone. The headlines don't make good reading for Microsoft since they are either dominated by record fines over abusing of it's monopoly power and pressure to comply with EU laws over the naming of it's Windows XP software, Windows XP Home Edition N. So why then is Microsoft teaming up with the EU to help small and medium-size enterprises gain access to IT grants? If you're a small business owner you're probably turned off by the mention of Microsoft's name, infact you probably couldn't care less whether Microsoft was fined $613 million by the EU. So instead of boring you I'll attempt to cheer you up with some good news about Microsoft for a change. Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Intel have teamed up with the EU to help small and medium-sized companies to take advantage of IT grants. These technology giants will promote the EU Grant Advisor (EUGA) project, that'll guide small businesses on technology spending. Small businesses can access a dedicated web site offering advice on grant funding of €118 billion including independent consulting services. The scheme has come about because research by the EU reveals 55% of small businesses in the EU are unaware that they can obtain small business grant for developing IT systems. Jacques Santer, former European Commission president, said: "the EUGA consortium is a natural step to fuel growth in the EU. The small to medium size company union has always believed that structural funding would kick-start growth in the sector." Hence Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Intel believe they can provide advice to SMEs and help them access EU grants. Microsoft's Jean-Phillip Courtois believes that with Hewlett-Packard and Intel they can help small businesses overcome the finance obstacle. The EUGA scheme has being running in Hungary, the Czech Republic, France, Spain and Poland and will roll out to other EU countries. Company spokesman Fernando Campos, said Microsoft has developed a database for SMEs with 7,000 unique funding opportunities, most of which are unknown to small businesses. Despite the good intentions of these giant technology companies it's difficult to see how they can turnaround the poor success rate experienced by small companies applying to the EU for IT grants. Statistics show that only 4% of SMEs have applied for one of the initiatives and success rate of those that applied is only 25%. One of the benefits cited by proponents of the scheme is the fact that grant application time will reduce tenfold by using consultants, while improving small business understanding of the grant specification, resulting in more applications. Small business owners are naturally asking the question what's in it for Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Intel. The benefits for them are that they'll have a massive customer base to market their software and hardware products. Microsoft says they are happy to help commerce partners and small business groups gain access to IT grants. The technology giants have pledge that the EUGA does not seek to impose own brands on small companies. stay tuned for update on the EUGA roll out of the project in the UK. David
Posted by David at 9:07 AM
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Spending on Internet advertising rose by 60% last year, outstripping radio advertising for the first time, a new study revealed. The study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that companies spent over £663 million on Internet advertising while £637.4 million was spent on radio advertising. Internet advertising now accounts for 3.9% of the total spent by advertisers. Analysts said that increasing take-up of fast Internet connections was partly responsible for the switch from more traditional forms of advertising. The question for small business owners is why are they failing to take advantage of marketing their business, products and services on the Internet, that is pound for pound cheaper and more targeted compared to marketing on radio and other traditional forms. Small business surveys reveal that most small business owners never consider the Internet as a marketing medium for their business. Their experience of the Internet post "Internet bubble burst" is almost nil. It appears many small business entrepreneurs lost faith with the Internet and simply gave up. Despite the fact that the Internet has changed post the "dot-com boom" many entrepreneurs still refrain from even considering the Internet as a marketing and advertising channel. Most businesses give up before investigating whether to try marketing on the Internet even though it's the ideal medium for entrepreneurs who are working with small budgets to acquire customers at low cost. Paul Pilkington, the director in charge of the study, said: "The Internet is coming of age. Advertisers understand how accountable it is as a medium, and how they can much better target their advertising than they can, say in outdoor advertising" The study showed that Internet advertising is most popular among financial services companies, followed by recruitment and travel companies. The automotive industry has also increased its spending. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, the trade body that commissioned the research predicts that online advertising would be higher than spending on outdoor advertising in the next few years. The message is clear, UK small businesses should not be sitting on the fence they should be active users on the Internet. They should be active users of the many advertising and marketing techniques used by small businesses in the USA. These techniques include pay-per-click advertising, banner advertising, co-registration, traffic brokers, organic search, joint venture marketing, publicity (PR), affiliate marketing and viral marketing (or affinity marketing). They should use tools for tracking and testing their ads to increase conversion rate so as to optimize their return on investment (ROI). The Interactive Media research Group (IMRG) in their first annual report published recently said it expected 4m more Britons to shop online this year, taking total shoppers to 24m, more than half the UK's adult population. IMRG also states that consumers are expected to spend 35% more buying a host of items from clothes to CDs. Such is the pull of the Internet, large retailing groups - Kingfisher, Argos, Dixons, Tesco and Boots are spending money on developing their internet offering. If ever there was a time for small businesses to get on board and start advertising on the Internet it is now NOT tomorrow! At Small Business Resource we are helping many of our clients to market their products and services on the Internet. We apply a systems approach that focuses on traffic generation and traffic conversion. We can help you optimize your ROI. You want to implement the many marketing strategies mentioned above just send an email and we'll do the rest.
Posted by David at 9:18 AM
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Prior to the dissolution of Parliament MPs were in the process of introducing a private member's bill to set up a version o the US small Business Innovation Research Programme. Now that Parliament is about to be dissolved it's very unlikely that the bill will be presented. The bill is now likely to be introduced after the election and addresses the "gaping hole" in the UK between laboratory research and commercialization where the US has long had a better system for dealing with this. It's a problem for high-tech start-ups because of the high workload associated with establishing the initial proof of concept, developing a prototype while reducing costs to realistic levels while perfecting the technology. Assisted funding is required for customers interested in the technology being developed to create a test bed relationship to further development and to give credibility. The US experience has shown that assisted funding or soft funding to customers is necessary to create interest on their part. Moreover, the customer with the strongest motivation and ability to influence is often the Government itself. An example where this system has worked is the development of the fuel cell industry in the US (also in Japan and Germany). This system could benefit high tech start-ups, as there's a massive lack of funding in this area. UK Government and Department of Trade Industry and Regions have had a blind spot in this regard. Funding has concentrated on basic research and development while further development is left to a market for which ground breaking technologies does not yet exist. David
Posted by David at 2:45 PM
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When many people think about branding and the life cycle of a business, they normally associate branding with established medium or large size businesses operating in a competitive market where brand recognition is considered vital for gaining competitive advantage. Some would argue that branding in an important marketing consideration that should be considered early in the life of the business, for example, having a recognisable logo and imbedding this in all marketing documentation and communication both internal and external. It's true that branding is important to small businesses but some successful small business marketers would argue that positioning is key not branding. Having a logo that looks good and glossy stationery may get you recognised but that alone won't cut it if that does not translate into real cash and bottom line profits. Having a business or product name that distinguishes your business and products from your competitors, like household names like Amazon, Ebay or Google can ultimately lead to advantages but foremost in the mind of small business owners is how to start a business. Positioning comes later! Yet with product naming, business and domain naming tools being available, small business owners could quickly generate business name ideas and ideas for product and domain names. Self made Internet Millionaires who market on the Internet have learnt lessons that small businesses can copy to great effect. Key to the success of many small business Internet millionaires is finding out what people need, what solutions to problems they are looking for and how best to position themselves as experts to provide these solutions. They use the keywords entered in search engines like Google for their market research. Next they develop products and services as solution to these needs. They then positioned themselves as the expert in that market who customers and potential customers come to trust and rely on thus setting themselves apart from any existing and future competition. Using the Internet a small business entrepreneur can quickly and cheaply test the popularity or feasibility of a product simply by using pay-per-click advertising to send traffic to a web page and by tracking the results can determine whether or not to continue with that product or service. It's that simple! In a matter of days and after spending as little as £20 on pay-per-click advertising an entrepreneur can measure the potential success of a product or service. This is powerful! Traditional approach would have been to embark on market research, develop a business plan, looking for small business funding (bank loan, government grant, family finance or seed capital), securing an office, recruiting staff, marketing and advertising. Based on market research the typical small business entrepreneur would them consider how to position his or her business in his or her chosen business niche. Compare the traditional approach to the approach taken by Internet marketers. Internet marketers combine marketing and positioning early on in the product or business life cycle. Furthermore they see branding as setting themselves as experts in their chosen market to win over customers and to extract maximum value from their customer base. Recent research points to customers being more discerning in their buying habits preferring niche type markets rather than high street massed produced goods. This is where small businesses can cost effectively market and position themselves and in developing their brands by targeting by using direct response advertising. David
Posted by David at 12:07 AM
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April 14, 2005
Starting A Small Business - Success Down Under
How to write a business plan
Case studies about successful small businesses
Passion; have passion for what you want to do.
Get started.
Small business resourceApril 13, 2005
Why Has Microsoft Teamed Up With EU To Help Small to Medium Size Businesses?
The small business team at Microsoft believes the project can help start-up companies overcome fatal hurdles.
Small business resource
April 12, 2005
Why UK Small Businesses Should Be Advertising On The Internet
Furthermore, we guarantee our service at take away much of the risks.
David
small business resourceApril 6, 2005
Why UK Small Business Innovation Research Programme Want To Copy USA System
Small Business Resource April 3, 2005
Small Business Marketing And Positioning Not Branding
Small Business Resource.
