Perils of Running a Business From Home
Matthew Bandyk

Millions of business owners who work from home have avoided the burdens of renting or buying office space. Telecommunications technology has made running a business out of your home easier than ever. But home-based businesses face some unique challenges. They include complicated legal topics that few people think about before they go into entrepreneurship. Here are a few ...

The Baucus Healthcare Plan: What Small-Business Owners Need to Know
Matthew Bandyk

The Senate Finance Committee put forth a new healthcare bill that removes those penalties on businesses. Instead, it offers carrots to employers that provide healthcare, while keeping a few sticks. The bill, associated with its main sponsor, Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, seeks to expand insurance coverage through the creation of nonprofit insurance exchanges at the state level. These exchanges will be open to small businesses with up to 100 employees

Small Businesses Hold on Despite Economy
Matthew Bandyk

Conventional wisdom holds true when it comes to small businesses struggling in an economic recession. Small businesses drive the nation's economy so when the economy slows down, they take the brunt. Compared with large businesses, they have less of a cushion of capital. Tight credit makes business expansion difficult. And economic slowdowns can expose fundamental flaws in business plans. But despite all these disadvantages, the number of small businesses as a whole seems to be recession-proof.

Entrepreneurship Is the New Retirement: 10 great places to start your own business
Emily Brandon

Entrepreneurship Is the New Retirement: 10 great places to start your own business. Entrepreneurs never really retire; they just move on to their next project. These days, it's boomers -- not techie 20-somethings -- who most embody the entrepreneurial spirit. Over the past decade, the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity was among people between the ages of 55 and 64

10 Great Places for Entrepreneurs to Retire: Jump in Start-ups Led by Baby Boomers
Emily Brandon

Entrepreneurs never really retire. Contrary to the stereotype of 20-somethings starting Web-based businesses in their basements, it's actually the baby boomers who best embody the entrepreneurial spirit.

Entrepreneur: 6 Tips for Starting a Small Business After Age 50
Emily Brandon

Starting a business is difficult at any age. Here are some tips to help baby boomer start-ups boom: Tap your network. Use your experience. Find start-up funds

The Failure Myth Revisited
Vincent A. D'Elia, Regional Director Bergen SBDC

The myth of failure that, "9 out of 10 businesses close in their first year" is far from the truth. The US Census Bureau's, Business Information Tracking Series, is used to track 5.5 million employer firms every year. It showed that 66 percent of new businesses survive two or more years, 50 percent survive four years and 40 percent survive six years or more.

It's the Right Time to be an Entrepreneur
Vincent A. D'Elia, Regional Director Bergen SBDC

A PRESIDENTIAL REPORT TO THE U.S. Congress stated that small businesses have always been the backbone of the economy and account for the most innovation and job creation. It further states that small businesses have sustained the economy in weaker times and have contributed to the continuance of long-term growth. Today 90 percent of these small businesses employ more than 52 percent of the American workforce.

Midlife Entrepreneurs: How One Entrepreneur Decided to Take the Leap
Mark Miller

Some people start businesses later in life because they want to; others do it out of necessity after a job loss. Steve Vernon is among the fortunate ones who made the leap to entrepreneurship on his own.

What Your Small Business Can Learn From Vampires

Finding Venture Capital or Angel Investors

It's no surprise that the capital markets have been running low for entrepreneurs wishing to take their business to the next level with a fresh infusion of cash. According to the University of New Hampshire Center for Venture Research, angel investments in the first half of 2009 were over $9 billion, a drop of 27 percent from the first half of 2008. Venture capital fared no better with only $5 billion in the third quarter, a 6% decrease from the second quarter of the year. The upside is while the total value of angel investing has dropped the number of deals has increased.

Home Business Comes of Age

The scruffy haired, unshaven, pajama-clad home business worker is an iconic symbol of the past. Over a decade ago, with the Internet still in its infancy, home businesses based on scams and lowing paying data entry companies; not too many people took home business seriously. Small business magazines and experts featured tips on how you could be more professional by keeping the kids out and the marketplace even had audio recording of office chatter to play while you're on the phone to hide the fact you were at home.

Stevie Awards Finalists Announced

Generating Business with Slides

Business presentations are a normal part of generating business. One useful social media site centered around presentations is SlideShare. This is site allows business or individuals the opportunity to upload presentations, share comments and more. With over 23 million monthly visitors, the company has grown a vibrant community.

Think Small Innovations to Get Big

Innovation is the corner stone of the American entrepreneurial engine. From Google to G.E., big breakthrough ideas have reshaped industries and fattened share holder wallets. Yet, this view of the big "home run" ideas misses the mark when it comes to the innovation game. For small business, small innovations trumps the big ideas.

The Small Business H1N1 Swine Flu Plan

Coupon Crazy Consumers

Shoppers in this current economic climate are looking for bargains. The recession is driving coupon usage by droves with over 1.6 billion coupons redeemed in the first half of 2009. According to Todd Hale, Senior Vice President, Consumer and Shopping Insights for Nielsen, "“More consumers are looking for value and lower prices as retailers and manufacturers are distributing more coupons and making it easier for consumers to leverage technology to access coupons they want with less effort.”

Adding Power to PowerPoint Presentations

PowerPoint presentations have become a drab part of life in the business. The typical presentation is often unimaginative. Well, if you're short on ideas for a good presentation, visit Slide Share, a large community for sharing presentations. Here you'll find thousands of presentations by category, most downloaded and the latest - a source of inspiration for bringing your presentation to life.

3 Powerful Ways to Get More Business

Getting more business these days is far from an easy method. However, the tried-and-true tactics of the past still apply in today's market. Here are 3 powerful means to boost your business:

Invitation to KMWorld 2009

I'm not sure whether, since I'm retiring soon, I'll be invited to present at Knowledge Management conferences from now on. So if you're able to make it to KMWorld 2009 in San Jose November 16-19 this year, I'd love to see you. I'm running a half-day workshop, Introducing Web 2.0 to Your Organization: A Practical Guide, on Monday, November 16. Then on Tuesday November 17 I'm doing a presentation on Risk Management: A KM Approach, as well as serving on a panel later in the day. The links above are to my Slideshare presentation decks for the workshop and presentation, which you can download if you want to assess whether they're worth attending. Always the best part of these conferences is the networking between the sessions, though. More on the conference here. Full brochure here.

Sustainable Work, Sustainable Life

Earlier this month I wrote about the possibility of developing a Finding Your Sweet Spot Workbook to accompany my book Finding the Sweet Spot. I proposed a schema of nine types of what might be called Natural Work, that might help people hone in on their Gifts (what they're uniquely good at doing) and their Passions (what they love doing): Explorers, whose work is study and research, and whose work-product is discovery and insight Interpreters, whose work is mentoring and facilitation, and whose work-product is understanding Inventors, whose work is imagining, and whose work-product is ideas Designers, whose work is crafting, and whose work-product is models Generators, whose work is creating and building, and whose work-product is 'goods' and services Nurturers, whose work is cultivating, and whose work-product is well-being Menders, whose work is sustaining, and whose work-product is regeneration Actors, whose work is re-creating, and whose work-product is fun Connectors, whose work is distributing, and whose work-product is cross-pollination I also proposed to take the various published lists of 'green' jobs and jobs that meet real needs of the 21st century, and classify them into these nine categories, to help people identify their Purpose (what's needed in the world that they care about). Quite a few readers of the book have told me that, while they love the concept of the three circles and the Sweet Spot where they intersect, they have two practical problems using the model. First, they say that the exercises in the book to help them find their Gifts, Passions and Purpose don't 'work' for them -- they're too conceptual and require more self-knowledge and more knowledge of what the world needs than they, or the average person, can be expected to have. Second, they assert that most of what they think fits in their Sweet Spot (work that they love doing and are good at, and which meets a real need) is not 'valued' highly enough for them to make a decent living at it -- either it's something (art, literature, software, music, design etc.) that so many people do (or which is so easy to copy) that the market price for such work is nearly zero, or it's something (e.g. legitimate, practical health, mental health, and geriatric health products and services, and healthy, unpolluted foods) that their desperate customers are too poor to afford. As I thought of this, I began to realize two things that I should have noticed earlier: People learn (including learning what they love doing and are good at doing) by doing things, not by thinking or reading lists of ideas or types of jobs. The entire economy is shifting, fairly quickly and radically, from the unsustainable Industrial Economy to a post-industrial Natural Economy characterized by high prices for scarce materials and low prices for labour. [At a conference of financial forecasters I attended yesterday, I heard that this will be a long-term trend. That means lower prices (as in free) for non-commodities and services, and hence an increasing struggle for entrepreneurs (anyone who isn't subsidized by government handouts, payoffs and bailouts)]. Learning-by-doing is in fact how most Natural Entrepreneurs I know discovered their Sweet Spot. So, my workbook will be light on intellectual exercises (like thinking about what tasks in your life you've been most praised for, or most relished taking on) and heavy on real-life adventures (like going and observing and talking with the owner of a small, local business you admire, with a list of questions to talk with them about, or taking up a new hobby or volunteer role you've always wanted to do, or at least thought you did). My hope is that, just as my friends Paul and Grace had their aha! moment about their Sweet Spot (helping the world eat better) after they made an excursion to Tibet, encouraging people to just get out and try stuff they've never thought of doing, might help a lot of readers really discover their Gifts and Passions, those they might never have considered if they'd stayed inside the confines of their house and workplace. Another thing my Workbook will offer is a way to take some of the research activities discussed later in my book, and apply them earlier in the process of discovering your Purpose. Many people, I've discovered, don't see unmet needs that are staring them in the face and which offer wonderful entrepreneurial opportunities, because they don't know how to look for them, recognize them, research them and ask the right questions to surface them. As I explain in the book, you can't just ask people what they need, because usually they don't know. (I described a product much like an iPod to people in 1971 as part of my university thesis work, and respondents looked at me as if I were from Mars.) Surfacing needs that you can turn into entrepreneurial opportunities is an iterative, emergent process that comes from exploring and prompting and imagining possibilities with the people who will become your customers. The same thing applies to discovering your Purpose. You'll never discover it inside your own head, no matter how knowledgeable and imaginative you may be. So the workbook will take a much more externally-focused, conversational, research-based approach to finding your Purpose, and hence ultimately your Sweet Spot. The issue of how our economy is shifting, quietly but tectonically, from an Industrial Growth economy that rewards wealth, size, ruthlessness and political connections, to what I am calling a Natural Economy characterized by much lower prices (except for scarce resources), generosity, reciprocality, trust, modesty, responsiveness, responsibility, sustainability and the importance of relationships, is staggeringly important, and I'm kicking myself for not recognizing the signs of its emergence earlier. Chris Anderson's book Free demystifies the phenomenon that has delinked price from value and obsolesced hoarding of intellectual capital. The proportion of a car's 'dealer cost' attributable to labour is expected to plummet from 70% to 30% within a decade. Generation Y is justifiably complaining that their wages are subsistence with little hope of improvement, and the returns for fledgling entrepreneurs, no matter how lucky or bright, don't look much better to them. This is a world that no longer pays fair. Unions will wail. Overpaid executives and fat financial industry Ponzi-scheme artists, recently or soon to be laid off, will sell their sports cars and buy taxi licenses. And the poor, working long hours in multiple jobs for pathetic wages, will become even poorer. Not fair, but it's here to stay. Five billion people vying for jobs means labour supply is so much higher than demand that your work is worth next to nothing. What's good about this is that much of what we want and need now will also soon cost next to nothing. Your income will keep dropping, but so will a significant proportion of your costs of living. It's called deflation, and while it's currently being hidden from consumers by price-gouging corporatist oligopolies who are stealing the labour savings as obscene profits and more obscene bonuses, it's only a matter of time before wage-earners run out of money and stop buying products with outrageous markups, opening the way for new providers who will disintermediate the corporatists and offer their products and services for next to nothing. For a short while these may well be Chinese providers, but as oil and commodity and resultant transportation costs soar, the providers will ultimately be mostly your neighbours. We are headed for a relocalized, community-based Gift Economy, with low prices for most things, and low wages. Such an economy will not respond to advertising or hype. It will be based on trust, generosity and reciprocity, and those who try to exploit it will be quickly identified and ostracized. It's already begun, as Chris' book explains. Just as Generation Y has blurred the distinction between work and non-work activities, they are learning that sustainable work is inseparable from a sustainable life. With that worldview, the Sweet Spot no longer identifies just the work you're meant to do, it identifies the way you're meant to live. So, instead of complaining that the work in their Sweet Spot (what they love to do, and are good at doing, that meets a real need in the world) doesn't pay enough, Generation Y is beginning to look at how much they need to earn to do what is in their Sweet Spot, essentially turning my whole model on its head. Some retirees with inadequate pensions are doing the same thing. They are looking not only to find work that is sustainable, responsible and joyful, but to find a way of life that is sustainable, responsible and joyful, of which work is an indistiguishable part. This is part of what Thomas Princen calls The Logic of Sufficiency, and some of us now get it, and a lot more will soon have no choice but to follow. My workbook then, will not just help readers discover the work that is in their Sweet Spot, but help them to determine how much they need to earn, and what they need to do in their non-work lives, to "afford" that work. It will explore, for example, the paradox that often an extra dollar of income can actually 'cost' (in taxes, higher clothing, transportation, child-care, late night fast-food meals, etc.) more than a dollar, and that conversely accepting a lower income can actually increase both your quality of life and your net wealth. The workbook will be, in short, not only a more practical guide to discovering how we can discover the work we're meant to do; it will be a guide to discovering the life we're meant to live. Category: Finding and Creating Meaningful Work

Intention to Practice

A couple of years ago I posted some mid-year and year-end "intentions", to distinguish them from "resolutions". Intentions are not aspirations; they are things we are in the process of doing, achieving, or becoming. They are what we're meant to do, and who we're meant to be. We have already begun to realize them. They are, as the word's etymology implies, what we are "stretching towards". I later shifted from intentions that are results-oriented (goals) to intentions that are process-oriented (practices), because I realized that all of the things that are worth doing for a lifetime are complex, and can never really be completed. There is no mastery, there is only the practice. More recently, I described the importance of aligning our long-term intentions (what we are meant to do and be for what's left of our lives) and our short-term intentions (what we are meant to do and be right now, today, this week). Until they are aligned, we will continue to live in this unreal space, in the knowing/doing disconnect -- we know we should be doing X (we are good at it, we love doing it, and it is needed in the world), but we keep on doing Y. We do Y because it is urgent, because it is easy, because it is fun, or because we don't think we have any choice. Things are the way they are for a reason, and until we understand what that reason is, we will not be able to change it, or adapt ourselves to it. We will keep on doing Y, and X will never get done. If our long-term intentions are X-stuff, then when we identify short-term intentions that are also X-stuff, that are "stretching toward" the same place, we will see starkly the disconnect between it and the Y-stuff we're actually doing. Something then has to shift. Either we stop doing (some of) the Y-stuff to make time and space for the X-stuff, or we acknowledge that we don't actually intend to do X at all. We're merely dreaming about it, or hoping it will happen magically. Recipe for unhappiness, self-dissatisfaction and a life wasted. If we were able to hear our future obituary, and it was all Y-stuff, would we see it as a life well-spent? And if not, what's holding us back from doing the X-stuff? And if it's lack of time or money holding us back, are we really intending to do X? Example: One of my long-term intentions is to create working models of a better way to live and make a living. I've written a book about how to create sustainable, responsible enterprises. I'm working on a novel/screenplay that depicts what life in a sustainable world 200 years from now might look like, to help us imagine possibilities. Right now I have James Kunstler's book World Made by Hand sitting beside me -- airplane reading as I make my way to visit my father for the Thanksgiving weekend. In this, my long-term and short-term intentions are aligned. Second example: Another of my long-term intentions is to work with others to stop the Alberta Tar Sands. I have a book, Andrew Nikiforuk's Tar Sands sitting beside Kunstler's, but beyond the vague idea of some kind of Open Space event, to brainstorm with others creative ways to disrupt and close down this ecological nightmare, I have no short-term intention stretching towards that longer-term one. Worse, I'm anxious about the longer-term intention: I have no passion for this kind of work (though I have great passion for helping others do it), and I know people whose lives have been devastated as a result of having been arrested, for nothing. No question this is holding me back, and that my intentions in this area, if that's what they are, are out of alignment. This brings me back to practices. It occurs to me that, when I retire (soon), I will be best able to align and stretch toward both my short-term and long-term intentions by allocating specific time blocks to three kinds of practices every day (though I recognize I'll have to be flexible on the times): (a) Reconnecting practices, (b) Capacity-building, activism and model-building practices, and (c) Reflecting practices. Or, put more simply, sensing (mornings), doing (afternoons) and thinking and playing (evenings). Starting with these three blocks of time, I developed the chart below that shows my long-term intentions, the long-term practices that "stretch toward" those intentions, and the short-term, daily intentions (exercises) in alignment with the longer-term ones. The long-term practices tie into the nine steps in my What You Can Do graphic above, and the colour (red, yellow, green) is from my 'scorecard' and shows how much work I have to do on each. Long-Term Intention Long-Term Practices Short-Term Intentions (Exercises & Projects) Hrs/day now Hrs/day intended Reconnecting with All Life on Earth, Instincts & Emotions Appreciation (1)  Presence/Paying Attention (2) Heart-Opening/Letting Go (3) 10am to 1pm: personal/group - Forest/ocean walks - Presencing exercises - Gratitude exercises - 'Breathing through' meditation 0 3.0 Increasing Capacity & Competency (Personal and Collective) Understanding How the World Works (4) Capacity-Building (6)  2pm-6pm: learning/exploring: - presentation/conversation skills - demonstration skills - creative writing exercises - SSUQIOC exercises - balance and empathy practices 1.0 1.0 Dismantling Civilization Activism (7)  2pm-6pm: - Open Space: Stopping the Tar Sands - Open Space: Ending Factory Farms 0 1.5 Creating Models of a Better Way to Live and Make a Living Model-Building (8)  2pm-6pm: - novel: The Only Life We Know - film: Earth 2200: A Travelogue - workbook: Finding Your Sweet Spot - unschooling: personal practice guide 0.5 1.5 Joy, Understanding Self-Knowing (5) Being Myself (9) 8pm-12pm: - reflection/questioning exercises - blogging - play: drawing, photography, with animals (original play) 3.5 4.0 (activities not directly related to any of my intentions -- my Y-stuff) other hours: - self-care (sleep, exercise etc.) - networking; serendipitous reading - self-management (gardening etc.)  19.0 13.0 What I discovered in putting this chart together was that (a) many of the things I do today, things which take up most of my day, really don't contribute at all to my intentions, and (b) when I reallocated time in my day to these three blocks of time (right column), it required a lot of thought, imagination and work to come up with a list of short-term intentions (exercises and projects) with which to usefully fill that time -- exercises and projects that would stretch toward the long-term intentions. And even with retirement, I suspect "freeing up" six additional hours a day for intentional work will be a challenge -- it will mean less time on e-mail and casual reading, for example (i.e. getting away more often from this computer). The third column of this chart is new and tentative and incomplete, but it's also for me a personal breakthrough. I am not sure whether this is the solution, for me, to the knowing/doing disconnect and the tyranny of the urgent over the important -- the real formula for Getting Things Done. But I intend it to be. With practice. Category: Getting Things Done

A 'Finding the Sweet Spot' Workbook?

Since my book Finding the Sweet Spot was published, I've been thinking about how to make it more useful. I did set up a companion website, but I was far too ambitious in its design, and was naive in the expectation that people could/would actually compare ideas, Gifts, Passions and Purposes with others online, and that there would be anough traffic on the site to create a self-organized 'market' of ideas and potential partners. Lately I've wondered whether it might be possible to create an online workbook to accompany the book, one that would include exercises to discover your Gifts, Passions and Purpose, and find the Sweet Spot at their intersection. Rather than starting with the industrial classifications, the way most career counselling guides do, I thought it might be more appropriate to start with the types of activities that go on in a Natural Economy and Natural Society. My first attempt to delineate these (which was part of the research for my novel) is illustrated above. Nine "meta-careers" are identified: Explorers, whose work is study and research, and whose work-product is discovery and insight Interpreters, whose work is mentoring and facilitation, and whose work-product is understanding Inventors, whose work is imagining, and whose work-product is ideas Designers, whose work is crafting, and whose work-product is models Generators, whose work is creating and building, and whose work-product is 'goods' and services Nurturers, whose work is cultivating, and whose work-product is well-being Menders, whose work is sustaining, and whose work-product is regeneration Actors, whose work is re-creating, and whose work-product is fun Connectors, whose work is distributing, and whose work-product is cross-pollination I developed this framework in the context of essential work of a post-civilization society. These are all things that are needed in a community, and which we offer to others (because no individual is self-sufficient), to make the community self-sufficient. They cut across all of the modern, specialized 'disciplines' that have become our modern economy's strait-jacket: we think of disciplines like 'sales representative' or 'engineer' or 'musician' or 'athlete' as the only way collective effort can be divvied up and parsed, because it is the only way we have ever seen work categorized. So, for example, the work of a scientist can entail all nine of the work categories listed above, as can the work of an artist or a programmer. My belief is that our natural affinity is more for one or a few of these nine work categories, than it is to a modern 'specialty': People who are good at designing could be as useful designing shirts as designing recipes. People who are good at mending people (e.g. doctors) could be as useful and passionate about mending trains (e.g. mechanics). So I think it might be useful to think about what we are meant to do using these nine meta-ways of being of use, that draw on similar natural Gifts and similar Passions. In thinking about my own Sweet Spot, I generally identify "reflecting" and "imagining possibilities" (category 3 activities) and "writing" (a category 4 activity) as being what I'm meant to do. I am passionate but not especially gifted at facilitation, conversing and demonstrating (category 2 and 9 activities). I am competent but not especially passionate about research (category1 activity). And I am neither competent nor passionate about category 5-8 work, though I recognize their great value and would not start an enterprise that didn't have partners who were both gifted and passionate about such work. When I look at wild creatures, I see evidence of learning and practice of all nine of these categories of essential work. The need for us to be social, to associate and collaborate and, together, to do all nine types of work effectively, transcends history, geography and species. Another thing I like about this categorization of essential work is that it demonstrates the uselessness of a lot of the work that is being done today by millions of highly-paid people, and hence might give pause to young people drawn to these 'professions' simply because they're easy and lucrative. Lawyers, stock-brokers and insurance agents come to mind, for example. None of these professions produce anything of essential value. They are parasites of the current, unsustainable and dysfunctional industrial economy. The post-civilization world will not need anyone to do these things. So if I were to develop a Finding the Sweet Spot workbook, to help people discover the work they're meant to do, I would be strongly tempted to use this nine-category classification of essential work as the basis for doing so, and to re-cast the exercises about discovering your Gifts, your Passions, your Purpose and your Partners (those with complementary Gifts who share your Purpose) accordingly. So, for example, in listing the dozens of possible and needed 'green' careers in Roberts and Brandum's book Get a Life! I would reorganize them into the nine categories above. I'd welcome your thoughts on this plan. Is this way of discovering what you're meant to do too conceptual for most people? Does it require a degree of self-knowledge and the workings of an economy (Natural or Industrial) that is beyond most people's capabilities? Is it counter-intuitive? Although the book has not been a popular success, I still think it could be very valuable to young people about to embark on their careers, boomers about to 'retire' from their first careers, and frustrated and underemployed workers of all ages. I'm just trying to figure out how to make it accessible and useful enough that it gets the attention it deserves. Category: Finding and Creating Meaningful Work

Resilience is Futile (Adapt and Improvise Instead)

I've been using the word resilience to describe the capacity -- of individuals, communities and organizations -- to improvise, to respond well in the moment. But I think resilience is the wrong word -- it is from the Latin meaning "springing back". Humans try to be resilient, acting as if everything is temporary, or cyclical, and as if it will always eventually possible to go back to the way things were before a challenge arose. That's why so many of us live in misery, in false hope. While we aspire to move back to the way things once were -- after the desertification, after the forests and fish have gone -- the rest of all-life-on-Earth is moving on, forward. What we try to do instead of adapting to the changes in our environment, is to try to change the environment to suit us. We've become very good at this, but it's unsustainable. What we've created in human-made environments is fragile, shabby, and ineffective. Much of human employment today is fixing all the human-made things that constantly break, and break down. Much future employment will be cleaning up the mess we've created with the human-made, non-biodegradable broken stuff we've thrown away. We try to be resilient, and to force changes in our environment, because, after learning that our cultural "software" can adapt very quickly (in as little as a generation), we discovered too late that our biological "hardware" adapts over millions of years, not decades. Today we're racked with epidemic rates of diseases of maladaptation -- notably immune system diseases, cancers, and mental illnesses. Our bodies just can't adapt to stress, the malnutrition of the modern processed monoculture food system, and the toxins in our air, water, soils and foods. They're still designed for life in the uncrowded, abundant and unpolluted rainforest. Alas, there's nothing we can do about our bodies, nor is there anything sustainable we can do to our environment. Resilience is, in fact, futile -- we cannot expect things to change back to what they were so that we can bounce back to what we were. And in Darwin's sense we cannot evolve either -- at best we can unschool our descendants to acquire the capacities that we lost, or never had -- like the ones depicted in the charts above. We're probably too late, those of us over 30, to learn them all effectively ourselves now. What we can do, however, is adapt and improvise. Evolution and adaptation are not about springing back, but rather springing forward. Evolution is from the Latin meaning "rolling out", but it is worth noting that Darwin avoided the term he is now so associated with, and instead in his books used the term "descent with  modification" (descent in the sense of 'descendants' -- change only occurred with the passing of genes 'down' from one generation to the next). Adaptation comes from the Latin meaning "fitting in" (hence to Darwin "survival of the fittest" was not about strength or intelligence but about adaptability). Improvisation comes from the Latin meaning "[responding to the] unexpected". These are the only effective responses to change in complex systems. Wild creatures have this ability to adapt and improvise: to fight, to flee, to change what they eat, where they live, what they do. They migrate, they hibernate, they adapt to different foods, neighbours and environments, as well as changes to members of their own community. Evolution helps them do this, by selectively favouring that capacity -- those that can't adapt and improvise, perish. So how do we, poor maladaptive and conservative creatures that we are, learn to adapt ("fit in") and improvise ("respond to the unexpected"), and can we help our communities and organizations do so as well? Last week I visited with one of the most adaptive and improvisational organizations I know, one that I profile in my book, called Mountain Equipment Co-op. It's a true one-person-one-vote cooperative, that began with 6 members and which now has millions. Only a tiny proportion actually participate in MEC's decisions, but it's enough to know that if they started doing things the members didn't like, that could change very quickly. They generate only enough 'profit' to cushion them through economic downturns -- any other surplus is returned as a cash refund to members based on their annual purchases. The people I've met like working there, and they really do care about being of service, offering excellent products (made in Canada whenever possible), and doing excellent work. As I spoke with and visited them it occurred to me that, compared to other, profit-for-shareholders companies that sell sporting goods, MEC is culturally more adaptive and resilient in 18 ways: Less dependence on growth: they would thrive in a steady-state economy, because there are no external shareholders looking for revenue growth and 'share appreciation' (each member gets one voting share, which is always worth $5) Fewer levels of hierarchy to connect and move: MEC is a very flat organization, so when something needs to be changed, everyone knows and everyone works on it More distributed decision making: customer-facing workers have the authority to satisfy customers and improve processes without having to go through approval policies Built-in job/supply redundancy: less efficient but more effective: you never hear "that's not my department" at MEC; their people know a lot about everything in the store, so if someone's away there's someone else who knows what they do, and so people get variety in their work and a chance to learn what others do; and if a supplier fails or is unable to meet demand, there's another available to take up the slack Less debt: big corporations take on debt to provide leverage that allows profits to rise faster than revenues (and exposes them to commensurate drops); MEC is not in the business to make profits, so it doesn't acquire needless debts More autonomy in decisions: less dependence on outside investors; the members own the company, and no outsiders have a say in what gets done, or doesn't get done Less need to create demand: MEC responds to real customer demands, rather than advertising and marketing to create artificial ones More connected to members/customers/suppliers: you'll find MEC people on the slopes, on bike excursions, and in campgrounds, where customers show them what they need and they show customers what they have to offer More connected to community: MEC invests extensively in community activities, because it makes sense to do so; for example, a percentage of sales from bike products go for advocacy for more bicycle lanes and facilities in the cities the company is located in Less vulnerable to downturns: when sales drop, the refund to members drops, but everything else continues Less dependent on government largesse: MEC needs no big corporate subsidies or bailouts like the auto makers, the banks, the steel companies, the energy companies, the agribusiness industry, and all the other big, unadaptable, unimprovising profit-for-shareholder giants feeding at the government trough More diverse people: MEC has one of the youngest and most diverse workforces I've seen More collaborative, less competitive: the people I saw there work in teams and are always talking and consulting with each other More "safe-fail" innovation: they test a lot of products with small customer groups first, so they can, as Dave Snowden puts it, "safe-fail" instead of having new products be "fail-safe" More socially responsive and responsible: MEC's decision to pull its popular bisphenol-A laden polycarbonite Nalgene water bottles off the shelves shook the Canadian government and the industry into reviewing all the toxins in plastic containers; they did it without fanfare, and they did it because the members told them it was the right thing to do Less vulnerable to disruptive innovations: the company is so close to its members, who have their pulse on what's happening, what's new and what's needed in their industry, they're unlikely to be caught off guard by competing innovations More risk-adapting than risk-mitigating: big corporations try to mitigate risks by playing it safe with new products, by selling a wide range of different quality products at different prices, by offshoring etc.; MEC constantly monitors what's in demand and what isn't and uses lower more frequent order quantities to adapt to changes, even though this means not taking advantage of volume discounts Better reputation: the company's products are not cheap, since they insist on quality, and they are astonishingly candid (their blog confesses that it's a constant struggle to manufacture in Canada because if manufacturing plants pay generous wages to assemblers and sewers, customers complain that the product prices -- and remember these have no profit margin -- are unaffordable) Here are 10 other things that organizations can do to be adaptive and improvisational, that I've seen some Natural Enterprises (especially cooperatives) do (I don't know whether MEC does any of these, but it would be interesting to find out): Contingency planning: be aware of and assess the risks and sensitivities of the organization, and discuss with everyone what you would do if and when these issues arose Scenario planning: imagine the longer-term scenarios that the organization might face, and explore strategies that will work under multiple scenarios or which can be implemented as soon as there is evidence an unexpected scenario is beginning to come to pass Simulations: run computer or "table-top" simulations or organization-wide "practice runs" that can help you imagine and anticipate unexpected occurrences ($200/barrel oil, 10% inflation or 4% deflation, a collapse in the $US), their impact on your customers and employees and hence on your organization, and how you might respond to them Analyze narrow escapes: the swine flu was, fortunately, not virulent, but studying it can help you understand what would happen if it has been, and what to do if the next one is; what other narrow escapes have you had that you can learn from? Recruit emotional intelligence: find people who have the ability to live comfortably with ambiguity and anxiety, and who know how to achieve consensus and resolve conflicts amicably Study nature's improvisational ability: have someone in your organization who understands how natural ecosystems work and how to use biomimicry to advantage in your organization Stay ahead of the curve: understand and constantly reassess what differentiates you from other organizations in your industry; never stop innovating your processes, products and tools Self-manage: encourage everyone in the organization to self-assess their "sweet spot" (what they do well for the organization that they love doing and which meets a need they care about), their intentions, and their own performance and success on their own terms, and share that candidly with others Early-warning pattern-recognition: encourage your people to be constantly thinking about "what might come next", and what the early indicators of each major change might be; track those early indicators  Manage "on principle": since decisions aren't made on the basis of "maximizing shareholder value", what are the principles that guide you instead when you have to make quick decisions in response to changing circumstances? So much for organizations wanting to be adaptable and improvisational. What about communities and individuals? Communities (small towns, villages, intentional communities and neighbourhoods within cities) are a form of co-operative organization, the only difference being that they have a wider and more essential set of products and services, and have members instead of customers. But many the same principles of adaptation and improvision apply: autonomy, steady-state, diversity, built-in redundancy, non-indebtedness, collaboration, non-hierarchical connection, risk awareness, self-management "on principle", emotional intelligence, biomimicry, contingency planning (including scenarios and simulations), candour and responsiveness. The town I live in tries hard, but they're zero for fourteen on these measures. Individuals are of course part of communities and organizations, but there are also some things we can each do as individuals to be more adaptive and improvisational in our lives: be autonomous (not dependent on those outside your community), live within your means (a life of sufficiency and comfort, not one dependent on tomorrow's income being more than today's), get debt-free, self-manage, build emotional intelligence and other personal capacity, collaborate, plan for contingencies, always be honest, stay healthy, be good to yourself, and be open, attentive and responsive. Whew. That's enough lists for a lifetime. Category: Complexity and Discovery

Can Groups Be Taught to Resolve Their Own Inadequacies?

Our hosts during my vacation this past weekend in McKenzie Bridge, OR were Charlene and Galen Phipps. Charlene, it turns out, is a facilitator with an interest in complex adaptive systems, and specifically the issue of how an understanding of social complexity can be applied to improving group functionality. Those familiar with this blog know the fundamental factors that differentiate complex from merely complicated systems. Mechanistic, complicated systems (like an automobile) have many moving parts, but they can be fully identified and understood with study and effort. By contrast, complex systems (like the world's climatic system, or a community) are never completely knowable. They have too many variables to ever fully map, and the n-to-n connection between those variables is too manifold and nuanced to fully appreciate. Further, in complex systems, causality is never determinable; one can never separate cause and effect. So while a dysfunctional automobile can be 'fixed' by assessing the cause or causes of the dysfunction, we can never hope to do this with the world's climate, or with community interactions or other social systems. Nature's way of 'dealing' with complexity is to make these complex systems self-managing. A balance is found, and as the infinite number of variables constantly and inevitably change, the entire system itself collectively seeks and finds a new balance, a new equilibrium. The physical and social systems of our world are complex because, in Darwinian terms, they work. They are less brittle than simple and complicated systems -- cars break down much more easily and frequently than ecosystems and societies. If an ecosystem has a quintillion components, it makes far more sense to have all these components working collectively to resolve their problems (the resolution is then said to 'emerge'), than expecting a single superior intelligence, or even a single species, to try to manage the system and impose 'solutions' on it. In her work, Charlene summarizes the work of many social complexity pioneers and then presents what she calls the Discovery Model, which recognizes that groups learn and perform optimally when the people, the environment and the capacity for self-organization are in sync, and when information, interaction, and adaptability are present and working to enable the group to continuously transform itself into one sustainably suited to dealing with the issues of the moment. The facilitator's role in this dynamic is to open up, unblock, encourage and enable the group to be fully functional. S/he does this through coaching, inviting, drawing out, connecting, challenging, articulating, and building personal and group capacities. This is a huge task, and while I do agree that the role of a skilled and present facilitator is essential to effective group function, it's my belief that this is largely because we have been indoctrinated to believe that mechanistic, complicated problem-solving is the answer to every situation (hence organizational hierarchies, and the simplistic and dysfunctional decision-making methodologies that have prevailed throughout our civilization), so we have never properly learned (as I believe indigenous and non-human societies do from birth) to self-manage, to allow resolutions to emerge naturally. Reading Charlene's work and talking with her got me thinking about the model of social fluency that Chris Lott and I co-developed, which is illustrated above. Here's a brief re-cap of what it says: Our ability to impart social value to others is a function of (a) our knowledge,  (b) our thinking competency (critical, creative and imaginative), (c) our communication skills (conversation, presentation and demonstration), and (d) our ability to integrate these three things. This ability to integrate these three things gives rise to (i) insight, ideas and new perspectives (thinking competency applied to knowledge), (ii) reportage and stories (communication skills applied to knowledge), (iii) rhetoric and provocation (articulation of one's thinking), and (iv) art (in its broadest sense, the re-presentation of reality). We are all artists, performers, when we have the stage in a social circle. This aspect of the social fluency model is from the perspective of the actor (presenter, demonstrator, creator, artist), and is shown in black in the model above. The corresponding elements of social fluency from the perspective of the re-actor (audience, listener, student, learner) shown in red brackets in the model above,  are as follows: Our ability to derive social value from others (i.e. to learn) is a function of (a') our openness to others' knowledge and ideas, (b') our learning competency (ability to learn), (c') our attention skills, and (d') our ability to integrate these three things. This ability to integrate these three things gives rise to (i') understanding (openness and competency to learn new ideas and knowledge), (ii') appreciation (openness and attention to new ideas and knowledge), (iii') self-change (attention/awareness of change opportunities and the learning competency to apply them), and (iv') improvisation (the real-ization of learning). Again, this ability to integrate is social fluency. We exhibit social fluency inter-act-ively, as actors (though art/presentation) and as re-actors (through improvisation/attention). Just as individuals' social fluency is a function of these capacities, so is that of groups. The best facilitators have the awareness and skills to recognize the capacities and incapacities of the people in a group s/he is facilitating, and those of the collective group. It's been my experience that groups are more or less dysfunctional depending on the presence or absence of certain preconditions. The work of Dave Snowden and John Kotter supports this. These necessary preconditions for functional groups include: a shared purpose; a shared sense of urgency; the presence among at least some in the group of each of 12 core capacities (I describe these in my book Finding the Sweet Spot): excellent instincts, critical thinking, imagination, creativity, attention, communication, demonstration, learning, collaboration and self-management skills, and a strong sense of responsibility and of intention; sufficient information about the subject to have a context for learning and understanding (this is described in James Surowiecki's book The Wisdom of Crowds); and a shared passion. So my sense is that the role of the facilitator in dealing with complex issues should include the following: Being aware of the presence or absence in the group of the necessary preconditions for a functional group. Being aware of the presence or absence of social fluency among the members of the group, and of the group collectively, as described in the model above. Articulating to the group the presence or absence of these preconditions and the elements of social fluency, so that they are aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Suggesting compensatory ideas and methods (e.g. bringing in people, knowledge or teachers) to strengthen the group. Most importantly, enabling the group to self-assess these strengths and weaknesses and to self-generate ideas and methods to draw on strengths and alleviate or compensate for weaknesses, to make the group and its members stronger and more competent to address the issues at hand. I'm not suggesting that competent facilitators don't do this already, just that there is a tendency for some facilitators to take the inherent problems of missing preconditions and incapacities as a given and hence not explicitly reflect them to the group, and also a tendency to make that the facilitator's problem rather than the group's. It seems to me that, while the facilitator may be able to get the group started in this self-assessment and self-management process (i.e. to facilitate it) the process itself should be directed and managed by the group. This is the very essence of managing social complexity. For example, in my experience dealing with senior executives, they have a propensity (often reinforced by others) to exaggerate their own competencies and knowledge and to be blind to their incapacities and areas of ignorance. In facilitated sessions, they tend to dominate groups of subordinates and rush to conclusions. In such cases I have tried to research their possible and perceived incapacities and areas of ignorance in advance, and pull them aside before the session to urge them to recognize the value of them holding back judgement, listening, and helping draw out the knowledge, perspectives and ideas of others (almost making them quasi-co-facilitators, to disable their dominance, infallability and judgement behaviours). On rare occasions, an executive will even lead off by confessing his/her incapacities and ignorance as a means of leveling the power playing field and eliciting active participation of others. On occasions where the group explicitly acknowledges their strengths and weaknesses, the session can be very productive. A team aware of its individual and collective strengths and weaknesses will generally outperform a team that isn't. Likewise, I have found that business groups in particular often suffer from imaginative poverty, and that there is great value in doing some quiet advance brainstorming with creative and imaginative people, and then pre-seeding some provocative and credible ideas to selected group members, so that these ideas emerge as their ideas during the session and not mine as facilitator. Even better, if the group acknowledges this (or any other factor) as a collective incapacity, it can enable them to collectively invest more attention and effort on that area of weakness, or bring in others who have that capacity, or even follow a course of study or practice to acquire that capacity. Having spent many years in research, I've also found that groups tend to think they are more knowledgeable about issues than they really are. In particular, there is a tendency for bad news and information about problems not to be communicated vertically in organizational hierarchies. For that reason it can be helpful to have the organization's research staff (or group members with that competency) do an 'environmental scan' around the issue, and pull together and present an objective and uncensored precis of applicable facts and perceptions. Of the three sets of elements of social fluency, in my experience the one that is most often lacking in groups I have facilitated is communication/attention skills. Many people come to these sessions with their minds made up, but an inability to articulate the reasons for their belief coherently and compellingly to others (often they don't particularly care if others understand and share their viewpoint). As a result they may convey their ideas, information and perspectives poorly, or not at all, and disengage and be distracted when others are speaking. There is no simple answer to this significant challenge, but being aware of it, and recognizing it as a challenge explicitly, is a first step. It is then largely up to the group to deal with this, and I have seen groups do so very effectively. There is a technique, for example, of requiring each speaker to summarize the point made by the previous speaker before making their own point. The group can use a 'talking stick' to focus attention on the speaker and the importance of courtesy and attentiveness. And if a point is poorly made, asking clarifying questions can help, and can also teach the speaker how to be more coherent and responsive in future. Some facilitators use mindmaps displayed on a screen at the front of the session to ensure the points made are captured coherently and collectively understood. I know that many readers of this blog are facilitators, and would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how you have enabled groups suffering from lack of necessary preconditions for effectiveness, or lack of social fluency, or even total dysfunctionality, to become aware of, name, self-manage and resolve these issues themselves. The word facilitator literally means 'one who makes things easier'. How have you made it easier for groups struggling with incapacities to make it easier for themselves? Thanks to Charlene for inspiring this post, and to Charlene and Galen for their wonderful hospitality. Category: Complexity and Discovery

A Practical Guide to Implementing Web 2.0 (aka Social Networking Tools) in Your Organization

A lot of organizations are struggling with what to do with a host of costly, high-maintenance technologies that they have introduced in the last decade, hoping these technologies would produce (a) improved internal productivity, and (b) better relationships with customers. They have achieved neither objective. So they're stuck with some very large and expensive lemons, three in particular: Public websites that don't reach customers Intranets (internal content management systems) that serve up content almost no one uses 'Groupware' tools (like SharePoint) designed to improve internal collaboration, that actually discourages collaboration Now, we have a host of new tools available, called variously Web 2.0, KM 2.0, social networking tools, social media and social software. Many organizations and software developers are trying to cobble these on to the three lemons above to try to make these lemons less useless. Because these lemons are so tainted in the minds of users, the new add-ons don't stand a chance. At the same time, we have a new generation of workers (Gen Y or Gen Millennium) who have become comfortable using free, commercial Web 2.0 tools, and are using them in the companies they join -- only to run into ferocious opposition from the IT security czars in these organizations, who consider them a threat, shut them down and censure the young staff who use them. Not to be defeated, the Gen Y'ers simply use their own portable hardware to work around the prohibitions. The war escalates. So what are you, as the manager leading a Web 2.0 initiative, IT department or KM group, to do? How can the three giant lemons be fixed? Which Web 2.0 tools can be introduced effectively and usefully, and how? And is there a solution to the generational culture war that Web 2.0 has provoked? I. What's Wrong with Corporate Websites, Intranets and Groupware? an unnavigable, unfathomable website from an advertising agency, profiled by websitesthatsuck.com Most corporate websites simply ported the sales and marketing material that used to be distributed manually to a flat website with a bewildering array of 'pages', accessed through either 'frames' or 'menus'. Tools to allow online ordering are often bolted on. Often the user has to use a search bar to try to find what they are looking for, and usually that's such a discouraging process they give up. The bigger problem with corporate websites is that most of the customers they're trying to reach simply don't use websites to buy stuff. They prefer a more personalized, interactive buying experience. So who 'uses' corporate websites? A study done by one large multinational organization discovered their actual user audience comprised, in order: Needless to say, since the website was designed for customers, it wasn't reaching its intended audience, and wasn't meeting the needs of its actual audience. Some organizations were persuaded that, because the number of 'unique visitors' to their site was substantial and growing, their site must be useful. But if they dug a little deeper they would discover that the average amount of time these 'visitors' spent on the website was as little as three seconds! As soon as these 'users' arrived, most of them quickly realized that this was not what they were looking for. The situation with Intranets is no better. Intranets provide a place for 'content providers' in various parts of the organization to 'house' their content somewhere visible to the whole organization, that they can point to and say "I produced this; I'm doing productive work". They don't generally know (or, often, care) whether that content is of any use to anyone else in the organization. People put content on Intranets because they can (and sometimes because they are rewarded for doing so), not because it's useful. What's worse, the same problems with menus and frames (usually designed by 'taxonomists' who organize information in ways that makes sense to content providers, rather than content users) mean that users have to resort to the dreaded search bar on the Intranet, too. Most people I speak to use this only as a last resort, and rarely find anything useful -- they quickly give up and look for a real person to provide what they're looking for. There's a whole discipline in KM for taxonomists and 'enterprise search' experts, and these people are busily employed like librarians indexing and filing books in a library that nobody visits unless they've exhausted every other possible source of information. What Intranet designers and managers fail to appreciate is that the principal way people share information hasn't changed in centuries -- people get it through real-time conversation with people they respect and trust. This gives them comfort that the content they're given is current and authoritative, and through the conversation they can also appreciate the context behind that content, and ask questions to make it more useful to them. The original idea that Intranets could save the time of experts by reducing the number of conversations needed to convey that information effectively, simply failed to understand human nature and how information without context is worthless. The final lemon in our trio is groupware (though the term, which is now disparaging, is rarely used). Groupware, of which the most notorious example is SharePoint, was designed to facilitate 'communities of practice' (CoPs). The idea was that (a) if the Intranet became too large to find content, there would be an alternative content repository for smaller collections of specialized content that members of a CoP had deemed useful, and (b) certain 'collaboration tools' (mostly those that allowed people to e-mail all members of a CoP) could be bolted on to the groupware tool, so that members could be notified of new content and 'converse' asynchronously about this content. Again, none of this has worked as planned, and most of the failures were predictable if anyone had actually bothered to talk to users. Most groupware tools are so horrifically over-engineered and bloated with 'features' that they require full-time IT resources to manage, and to set up and 'authorize' new CoPs. Most of the 'features' that are added to the tool were added because they could be, not because they actually provided any useful functionality for more than 1% of users. The result is that you need to take training courses to learn how to navigate and use the groupware and CoP repositories and features. This is 19th century design -- users today simply won't use a tool that is unintuitive unless they are coerced to do so. Unless you use these tools often, by the time you need to apply what you've learned, you've forgotten it. More fundamentally, asynchronous e-mail and 'forum'-style 'conversations', which were the basis for the first generations of groupware, are simply not the way most people communicate. If someone is looking for information, or has something useful to convey, they will generally prefer to walk down the hall, or pick up the phone, and ask or offer, in a real-time conversation that is, like the best information communication, context-rich and interactive. What groupware delivers is essentially another way to throw context-free content into a shared repository that quickly becomes obsolete clutter, and to send group e-mails to a large number of people already suffering from asynchronous information overload. II. Can They Be Fixed? In order to assess whether these three lemons can be re-engineered to be useful organizational tools, it's necessary to look at the problems they are trying to solve. Corporate websites were designed to allow customers (current and potential) to learn more about an organization's products and services, without having to go through a sales representative. At least for another generation, this isn't a need in business-to-business organizations, who have to, or prefer to, go through a sales representative, and generally will buy enough to warrant the company's face-to-face investment in that customer. The best examples of business-to-customer websites, like Amazon, eBay and Etsy, all offer a range of products and services you can't get in a store -- they aggregate products from many different, competing vendors, and/or offer a vastly broader range than would fit in a single physical shop. So they succeed because they offer customers something they can't get anywhere else. Other than copycats and wannabees, they have no competition. If a customer wants to comparison shop, they will go to an objective comparison shopping site, like Consumer Reports, not to a whole bunch of competing sites all out to paint their company and its products and services as the best. So what's the best model for a corporate website? If it's for customers, that depends on what the segment of your customers who actually research or shop online need and want. If you make the effort to identify this segment, and go out and talk with them, I think you'll be surprised at what you learn. You might discover that the best thing you can provide is a directory of names and direct line phone numbers of real individual people in your company that your customers can talk to, without having to go through your god-awful automated switchboard ("if you know the extension number of the person you're calling..."). [And know that while the technology exists, they're probably not ready, yet, to talk with you through their computer speaker.] And if you want to design a taxonomy to index your products and services so that people can browse online (if in fact they tell you they want to), design the taxonomy around the problem the product or service solves, the job it does, not by its industrial category. You might find that some tool that lets users self-assess their need for your product or service meets a need, but be careful -- this requires a sophisticated online customer, and you have to avoid hyping your product. For more advice, talk to your prospective online customers. Don't assume you know what they want. It's changing, constantly. My guess is you'll find that the website that meets their needs will be much simpler, cleaner and cheaper to maintain than what you have now. And remember, your website is about them, not about you. Just don't forget those other categories of people who prowl your public Internet site. If you care about them, send them to a separate corporate website designed for their specific needs -- and talk to them about what those needs are. Intranets are tougher to salvage, because they really were a bad idea to begin with. The concept of having information inside a corporate firewall that is different from what's available to your customers is a bit bizarre. So to some extent, you need to do the same thing to fix your Intranet that you do to fix your corporate website -- identify the different constituencies of potential users and ask them what they need, and deliver on that. My guess is that what most will be looking for is the same directory of specific people to talk with that your customers want. When I worked as a senior executive of a multinational organization, more than half of the calls I received were from people asking me for the name (and sometimes an introduction to) someone in the organization that could help them with a specific problem, need or assignment. Don't expect your employees to self-manage this 'corporate directory' -- there's a completely different dynamic at work than exists in voluntary communities of interest where there's a shared passion driving behaviour. Instead of replicating the organization chart, explore what kinds of questions employees are looking for answers to, and design and maintain the corporate directory accordingly -- by the problem to be solved and the job to be done, not by department and hierarchy. Make it easy for people to find the right people, and easy for them to contact them, in real time. The other need you're likely to find in most organizations is for access to company policies and procedures. This is mundane administrative stuff, but it's important. Think from the perspective of new employees -- what policies and procedures are they going to want to look up, and how can you make it easy to find them. From my experience, you should question the need for everything on the Intranet beyond directories and policies. In my experience most of the rest of the mountains of information in Intranets costs more to maintain than it provides in value. I've looked at a lot of so-called 'best practice' repositories on Intranets, and in the absence of context and contact, they're a waste of server space and maintenance effort. So what about groupware? A little study will probably show that the vast majority of the groupware/'community' content, just like most of your Intranet content, is unused and possibly obsolete (and hence dangerous). And you'll probably find that the vast majority of the CoPs are more or less dormant, or defunct. There are Web 2.0 tools -- simple, disaggregated, free -- that do everything groupware tries to do more effectively. So my groupware legacy system advice may sound extreme, but this is it: Seriously consider just closing it down. Stop wasting time and money on it. Don't be sucked into adding Web 2.0 bolt-ons to salvage it, because that just makes an overly-complex tool even more unwieldy. There are better ways. III. Which Web 2.0 Tools Should You Introduce? Blogs, wikis and document sharing, IM and twitters, multimedia tools, canvassing tools, sensemaking tools, risk management tools, personal content management tools, environmental scanning tools, story collection tools, desktop videoconferencing, simulations and scenario planning tools, proximity locators, affinity detectors, e-learning tools, unconferencing tools, mindmappers, virtual world tools, and mashups customized to suit your particular business -- there are dozens of different types of Web 2.0 tools to choose from. How do you decide which ones are best for your organization? In my experience, you have to follow five steps, which I'll get to in a moment. This will be a lot of work, and will entail a lot of conversations with a lot of people (it is 'social software', after all)! My advice is not to introduce anything just because it's easy, or just because one of your vendors has thrown it in for free. Introduce a few tools, pilot them first, and then, if they succeed with the pilot group, show the rest of the people in your organization how they work and why they're useful. Don't teach them, don't tell them, don't sell them -- show them. In one of my previous consulting contracts I ran a successful pilot using a desktop videoconferencing and screensharing tool. When I suggested it be used in another department, I was warned that the department head was a total luddite, and didn't even like telephone conference calls. So I asked her if I could demonstrate a new tool the next time she was running a lengthy audioconference (which she did often, but only because she couldn't get the budget to fly people in regularly for face-to-face meetings). Just before the meeting I gave her the URL of the videoconferencing "meeting room" and asked her to e-mail it to the others on the conference call. The call was to edit, paragraph by paragraph, a new government policy paper. She had the previous draft on her computer and was making changes as they were discussed by the other participants. Unbeknownst to her, as she made these changes, the other participants were immediately seeing them on their screens, through the screensharing feature of the software I was demo'ing. They started saying how useful this was, and as they discovered the other features of the software (notably the IM backchannel) I could hear the users enthusiastically saying "wow!" and "why didn't we use this before?" After a few minutes of this, the department head covered the phone, said "OK I get it!", and motioned me to go. All audioconferences in her department now use this tool, and it's spreading throughout the organization, with no marketing, and no training. A few years ago, I started using a mindmapping tool on my own machine to keep personal notes on what was being decided during meetings I attended. One day one of my colleagues asked me to project my 'map' of the meeting so that all of the participants in the room could see it. The organization I was presenting to was so impressed with this real-time, shared capture of the essential discussions and decisions of meetings that they now use it for all of their meetings. And when those meetings are virtual, they use the mindmap in combination with screensharing so that everyone in the meeting, everywhere, can track what is being decided.  These aren't sophisticated Web 2.0 tools, but they're simple, free, and useful. They're the best candidates to start your Web 2.0 pilot program. And the best way to introduce them is to just demonstrate their value in a live application, in real time. Here are the five steps you need to go through to make sure your Web 2.0 projects and tools will be the right selections: Try out the various tools out there. Pick a half dozen or a dozen Web 2.0 tools and just start using them -- you'll learn a lot more about their value than if you just research them or look at comparative specs. Be prepared to be surprised -- the most popular social networking tools aren't necessarily the ones you're going to find to be of any value in your organization. Some of the simplest tools are the best. And the value of these tools bears no correlation to their cost. Talk to prospective customers. Discover which of your prospective (and current) customers actually spend significant time online, other than answering internal e-mails, and what they do during this online time. What do they need that isn't already available to them? There are two industries developing a lot of new applications that will soon be used in other businesses: gaming and dating. Explore some of the applications these industries are using, and imagine how they might be tweaked to improve the user experience and social connectedness of your customers. Talk to your employees. Understand what they do, and how they spend their online time. What do they need that they aren't already getting? Who are the most 'connected' people in your organization, and what tools are they using to stay connected? Talk to senior management. They are probably disconnected from the people on the front lines of the organization, and their needs. You can help to articulate these needs in ways the executive team can understand. At the same time, you can discover what is keeping senior management awake at night, and if you can develop social networking applications that alleviate that executive insomnia, you'll buy a lot of leeway to introduce innovations that have broader applicability across the organization. Talk to young people. Finally, talk to the kids inside and outside your own organization, and ask them what's out there and free that they use, that can be adapted for your organization's use. Have them show you how they use these tools, because it's often hard to understand their value without a demonstration. The subject matter of their conversations may not be relevant to you, but it's likely the same media they use for what's important to them, can be used to facilitate conversations in your organizations on matters that are important to you. When you go through these steps, you're actually following the same research process that good R&D departments use. You've identified your potential customer 'segments', scanned to see what's currently available and how it's succeeding, doing secondary (online) and primary (face-to-face interview) research, and then drawing together an making sense of all this information to establish a 'portfolio' of unmet needs. The final two steps are to discover (before you go designing a new social networking application) why someone else hasn't already invented it (there may be cultural, technical or cost barriers you're not aware of), and to make sure you have the skill set and resources in your organization to effectively introduce the social networking application to your enterprise. Your focus should always be on the needs portfolio, however -- as long as you're working on solutions to problems that your customers (internal or external) have acknowledged, you'll avoid the problem most organizations encounter: providing solutions nobody wants. What you should end up with is a set of perhaps 3-5 unmet needs that lend themselves to social networking applications. You're likely going to be able to identify off-the-shelf, simple, commercial software tools (probably free of charge) that will address 2-3 of these needs. In one or two cases, you're going to actually have to build the application yourself, probably using open source applications (APIs) with a bit of custom code to 'mash' them together and tweak them for your particular needs. There are thousands of young tech-savvy programmers out there who can do this for you. Writing custom software applications is much easier, and cheaper, than it used to be. IV. Dave's Faves There is no set of social networking tools that is right for every organization. Much depends on your business, your size, and your organization's culture. But everyone always asks me for my own favourites, the ones I have introduced or am working to introduce in companies I work with. So here are my current eight favourites. The first four are off-the-shelf commercial tools. Nothing exciting, just fast, inexpensive improvement to work effectiveness. The second four are leading-edge, and would probably need some custom coding, but could be career-making improvements if you can pull them off. All eight, I have to stress again, are responses to identified needs from one or more of the four constituencies I regularly speak with: customers, employees, management, and young 'pathfinder' users. And all eight are about connectivity, context, conversation and communication, not content. Real-Time Conversation: IM + Google Wave: For all its hype, Twitter is really nothing more than an IM tool tweaked so that the recipients, rather than the sender, determine who the message goes to. Most groupware now incorporates IM bolt-ons, but they're cumbersome and unintuitive, and for security reasons usually unfriendly to recipients outside your firewall. So whether or not you have an internal IM tool available (it's probably not used much anyway), consider enabling all your employees to use a free commercial tool like GMail's GTalk. A large multinational company I worked for introduced it several years ago, with no announcement and no training, and discovered that within ninety days it had become the principal communications medium for the company's thousands of Latin American staff. Why? Because in many of those countries, long-distance telephone is expensive, and telephone service is unreliable. E-mail is asynchronous and too slow for real-time needs. IM met the need perfectly. At a government agency I worked at recently, the young staff used it almost to the exclusion of E-mail, drawing on their networks (including cohorts in university, at previous employers, and online friends) to get immediate real-time text and voice-to-voice answers to every question they faced during their work day.  This fall will see the introduction of Google Wave, an open platform that integrates e-mail, IM, Twitter-type services, and to some extent blogs, into multimedia, flowing "conversations". It will be interesting to see whether the hurdle will be too high for most businesspeople (who have generally not adopted any of its components except, reluctantly, e-mail), or whether, through Wave, we'll see a rediscovery of the advantage of real-time communication and the welcome end of accursed e-mail. Virtual Presence: Screensharing + Document Sharing: Face-to-face meetings are nice, especially for groups that don't know each other, but they're becoming an unaffordable luxury. Free, simple screen-sharing applications like Vyew and Dimdim let you set up a meeting or training session of 2-20 people instantly, share your screen, upload and download files, see who's online, and backchannel chat. You can even use VoIP and your webcam (though I find these technically awkward bandwidth hogs and prefer to use a separate teleconferencing line and use .jpg's of participants instead of full motion video of speakers).  Once you can get users comfortable with the idea of sharing their screen contents in real time, it's easy for them to get their heads around sharing documents in real time as well. Once again, there are simple, free tools like Google Docs that let you do this, using the native editing formats people in business are used to (the Microsoft Office formats), instead of having to learn a new tool like wikis. Mindmapping Tools: Mindmaps are a simple, graphical way to document the results of a group discussion. By displaying a mindmap of the discussion in real time at the front of the meeting room, or to remote participants using screensharing, everyone can follow the consensus-making process, and differences of interpretation of what the collective decisions and learning have been during a discussion can be immediately surfaced and discussed. At the end of the discussion, you get a printed record of these decisions with a single click. And mindmaps can provide hotlinks to supporting materials, so you can even use them as the framework to communicate sophisticated ideas and information. The simplest mindmaps are just tree diagrams with links, like the one made with a free tool called Freemind, illustrated above. Another free tool, Mind42, allows groups to collaborate in the construction of a mindmap.  More recently, some vendors like Prezi have produced presentation tools that are essentially mindmaps where each node is a slide or video instead of a branch, and you create a presentation 'path' to help users navigate through the nodes in a logical order. Consulting firms have long used wall-sized 'single frame' presentations to do the same thing in hard-copy format. These are all essentially variations on mindmaps: high-level pictures of a discussion that you can navigate at your own pace, in a logical order, and zoom in to any node for links or other more detailed information. You can even use a mindmap as the framework for a self-paced training course. Blogs for E-Learning and E-Newsletters: A weblog is essentially a diary or journal that chronicles its author’s stories, thoughts, or learnings, generally available for others to ‘subscribe’ to (so they receive new ‘articles’ or ‘posts’ automatically). While blogs have been an enormous popular means for personal expression and informal communication, they have been largely unsuccessful in business applications. The most effective business use of blogging software in my experience is for the creation and publishing of courseware and newsletters. In such applications, the concept of a blog is ignored, and the tool is used as a framework for managing content that is fed to users one article at a time. Blog tools are designed to allow simple 'publication' of articles, such that as each article is published, older articles automatically drop down lower on the page and eventually into 'archives' that can be retrieved using an electronic calendar. This structure is ideally suited to delivery of both e-learning curricula and e-newsletters, which are generally released to users according to a set schedule or calendar.  Canvassing Tools: Some of the earliest and most popular social bookmarking tools, like del.icio.us and Digg, use a combination of voting (thumbs up or down, or the number of people 'pointing' to a web page) and folksonomy (tags selected by the users themselves), to canvass 'the wisdom of crowds' for the best or most interesting pages on the Web about particular topics. But suppose you want to canvass your own 'crowd' (your customers, or employees, for example) to get their consensus before you make an important business decision, such as a new product launch? What you can do is use a simple, free survey tool (like SurveyMonkey) to do so. But beware -- read James Surowiecki's book The Wisdom of Crowds first, to avoid asking the wrong questions, asking them incorrectly, or asking the wrong crowd. The chart above shows the five types of questions that Surowiecki says best lend themselves to such 'collective wisdom' canvassing, and a process to decide exactly how to put the question to the crowd, and aggregate and assess the results. Simulations and Scenario Planning: The world is full of what Clay Shirky calls "cognitive surplus", mental energy that's just looking for an outlet that is more interesting than the idiot box. If you can engage that cognitive surplus you can create things like Wikipedia, or Second Life. You can create a simulation or set of scenarios that will tell you what would happen to your business if oil spiked back up to $200 a barrel, or inflation rates jumped to 15% or fell below zero, or a virulent global pandemic hit tomorrow. You can't predict the future, but you can prepare for it, become more resilient to possible changes. Scenario planning is an interactive social activity -- the more informed people involved, conversing with each other about future possibilities, the richer and more valuable the scenarios. I still like Peter Schwartz' Art of the Long View, a low-tech guide to strategic conversations and scenario development. The gaming and 'virtual world' industry has brought the cost of computer simulation way down, but even without such tools you can conduct sophisticated 'tabletop exercises' that simulate crises (natural, man-made, or competitor-induced) and help your organization prepare for and mitigate them. And in the process you'll learn some fascinating lessons about teamwork, collaboration and human nature. Proximity/Affinity Detectors: Google bought the pioneer proximity detector, a dating site called Dodgeball, and then closed it down. But the idea of being able to 'see' which of your friends, colleagues or want-to-meets are in your physical vicinity, has just migrated to the iPhone. The new contenders include Loopt, Dopplr and Plazes. The idea is simple: log in and tell the network where you are (or let your phone's GPS do it for you automatically). If you wish, Twitter what you're doing there. Identify others in your networks. Then you get a map showing who's in your vicinity and what they're doing. Perfect for impromptu meetups with people you really care to meet.  Affinity detectors are the flipside of proximity detectors -- instead of telling you which of your friends and colleagues are nearby, affinity detectors tell you, of the people nearby (say at a big conference), what you have in common that might cause you to become friends. The pioneer was nTag, recently acquired by an RFID company that sees the potential in using RFID as a social networking tool. The idea is that you fill in a questionnaire of your interests and this data gets encoded into an electronic stripe on the badge you wear at a conference or other event. When you're close to someone who shares an interest, both tags signal the common interests to both parties, so you can cut through the small-talk. And if you hit it off, you just click your tag and your new friend's contact information is automatically saved for later electronic retrieval -- no need to trade business cards. Imagine how, in your own organization, you could use tools like these to replace the 'water cooler' for serendipitous meetings with business colleagues, or to enable people at large gatherings of your employees or customers to quickly discover issues they really care about -- and possibly the spontaneous launch of innovation and collaboration projects from the bottom up. Or at the very least, people essential to your business more powerfully connected on subjects they are passionate about. Problem-Solving Facilitation: The more I learn about social complexity and effective facilitation, the more I believe that collective problem-solving, using expert facilitators, will probably be the most important business skill of this century. Today's complex problems just do not lend themselves to top-down or outside-in 'expert' solutions. Increasingly, our collective understanding of problems and solutions co-evolves. This means you need a method that will identify who needs to be in the room to address the perceived problem, and to enable them to self-organize and collaborate effectively to come up with viable approaches to the problem. Probably the best known method for doing this is Open Space Technology, but there are a variety of other techniques that can be used, and an effective facilitator can help you find the ones best for any particular situation. V: Mediating the Gen Y Cultural War I suggested earlier that there's a war brewing between the IT security people in many organizations and the youngest recruits, Gen Y'ers, in these organizations. More generally it's a generational culture war. The baby boomer generation that currently runs most businesses were largely rebels in their own time, but they've come to believe in security, hierarchy, expertise, and what I've called a cult of leadership. By contrast, according to Gary Hamel, many in Gen Y, as the above slide suggests, value experimentation, peer-to-peer collaboration, learning from failure, and effort over results. It's a collision course, but not much different from inter-generational differences we've seen before. The key to keeping the peace, and security, is, not surprisingly, information-sharing and communication. If the CEO had any idea how quickly and powerfully some Gen Y'ers can design, develop, test and implement effective new tools that can make a major difference in innovation, connectivity and work effectiveness in their organizations, they would just get out of the way and let them happen. And if Gen Y'ers knew that some seemingly-innocuous information leaks can expose organizations to legal problems serious enough to cause stock prices to plummet and business leaders to end up in jail, they'd be a lot less casual about creating information sieves in the process of working around seemingly nonsensical security restrictions. These generations literally speak different languages. Our job, as people who appreciate the value and perspective of both generations, and value diversity, is what Nancy White calls "building bridges" -- translating Gen Y's ideas and requests into language "the man" can understand (value creation and ROI), and translating the boss' and IT's restrictions into language that Gen Y'ers can understand (the risk of catastrophic financial loss, loss of business reputation, and insolvency). The best way to build these bridges is by telling stories -- of history, of unexpected and astonishing success, and of unintended consequences. Conclusion This presentation has suggested an approach you can use to gently move your organization from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, without a lot of expenditure, other than in energy to actually talk to the users (not the suppliers) of information and connectivity tools in your enterprise. In the process, I think you'll find some ways to reduce the cost of maintaining legacy sites and systems that no longer provide value, get yourself some recognition as a shrewd and focused innovator, and have a lot of fun helping the people in your organization to work a little bit smarter. I welcome your questions, suggestions, ideas, and personal stories. Thank you. Category: Social Networking

Awaiting the Sustainable Enterprise Revolution

Six steps to sustainable, community-based Natural Enterprise, from my book Finding the Sweet Spot I'm in Denver for the weekend at the annual conference of BALLE, the international network of community-based sustainable businesses. The reason I'm here is more about looking for ideas than personal networking. One of the mandates I've taken on in my current work is to make our association (the Chartered Accountants of Canada, equivalent to CPAs in the US) champions of entrepreneurship and of new, sustainable enterprise formation. The reason we're championing entrepreneurs is that no one else will. It's an interesting paradox that the North American economy is driven by entrepreneurs (virtually all new net employment in the last decade has been in the entrepreneurial sector), not by big corporations, but all the money and attention flows to the big corporations. Entrepreneurs don't get bailouts, massive incentives to locate in your community, or big unpublicized government subsidies. Universities say they teach entrepreneurship but what they do is the minimum ('intrapreneurship') lip service to get big corporations to fund 'chairs in entrepreneurship' that let them hire and retain professors. Economic Development Offices of governments at various levels are designed to attract businesses (i.e. property and business tax revenues) so their work for entrepreneurs is mostly low-budget, low-value work like providing names of lawyers and accountants and telling you how to get business licenses, incorporate and file taxes. Accountants and lawyers (especially the smaller ones) will take on entrepreneurs as clients, but generally are unenthusiastic and not terribly helpful for businesses at the critical start-up stage. Bankers (with the notable exception of credit unions) generally avoid entrepreneurial businesses, and lenders of last resort are usually vultures who create more problems for entrepreneurs than they solve. BALLE founder Michael Shuman has written about these challenges in his book The Small-Mart Revolution. What's worse, in some progressive circles, the very word 'entrepreneur' is suspect -- it's almost as if profit and enterprise are considered necessarily exploitative. If you've read my book, you know that what entrepreneurs need, more (and sooner) than they need accountants, lawyers, marketers or financing is: Help to determine what kind of work they're meant to do (something in their 'sweet spot') Help to understand how business fundamentally works (and how that's changing very quickly) Help to find the right partners (not expensive consultants and suppliers with no stake in the enterprise) Help to learn to do excellent market research (to surface real unmet needs) Help to learn to innovate (so they do something sufficiently different from what's already being provided, and hence are commercially viable) Help to establish strong business networks and relationships Help to cope with unexpected problems, and to become more resilient  Most of this assistance that prospective entrepreneurs need is educational, but it's not the kind of learning that you can get sitting in a classroom or reading a text. You learn this through conversation and collaboration with other entrepreneurs, and you learn it by doing it, and making (inexpensive, early) mistakes. As I've written before, I've spoken to many universities about a course curriculum that would entail students going out and visiting with successful entrepreneurs, engaging in Q&A with the entrepreneurs on how they addressed the seven issues above, and then putting together and launching their own enterprise. No lectures, no classrooms, no examination -- the measure of the course's success is whether the students' enterprises succeed or not. The professors I know are enthusiastic, and I've had no trouble finding entrepreneurs who'd love to volunteer their time to talk about and show off their businesses. The problem is that the universities' business model is about filling expensive class buildings with large numbers of students, and finding work for, retaining and paying tenured professors, and my proposal flies in the face of that, so when I talk with university Deans and department heads, they are uninterested. Same problem with high schools. You all know my opinion on the school system -- it's anti-learning, bureaucratic, and propagandizing. Most of those incarcerated there are bored, disengaged, impatient and often angry. Even if we could get a good program into the high school curriculum (which is doubtful) it's unlikely that the students would pay attention or trust that it would be of any use to them. My father is an honorary lifetime member of an organization called Junior Achievement, an organization whose objective is to introduce high schoolers to the fundamentals of business and entrepreneurship. It's been around forever, and a lot of volunteers have spent years working to make it a success, but it's still marginal -- it's just too counter to the high school culture. There is no political party in North America that authentically shares the interests of entrepreneurs. There is no money, influence, public sentiment or political advantage to be gleaned from this cohort. Like the working poor, entrepreneurs are disenfranchised and have no seat at the tables of lobbyists and decision-makers. So what are we to do? If governments and politicians don't care (they don't yet realize that their economies rise and fall with the success and failure of sustainable small enterprises, and that support for these enterprises has 30 times the return on investment of large corporation subsidies), big businesses are hostile, and schools and universities can't help, who are the prospective sustainable entrepreneur's allies? Who cares, or should care, about entrepreneurs? The short answer is: people in communities. Sustainable community-based enterprises create and keep local jobs, keep the money in the community, provide goods and services customized to local needs, and cause less pollution and waste than the multinational corporate oligopolies. They also contribute more to the GDP (if you think that's still a useful measure of anything). The problem is that people in communities aren't organized, aren't wealthy, and aren't informed. Most don't appreciate that they could succeed (by every measure) in their own small sustainable enterprise far better than in their current wage slave job. Few know how important small enterprises are to the economy, or can imagine how uninnovative our society would be without the impetus of entrepreneurs. What can you do to address a need that hasn't been recognized by those who need it? To launch a true sustainable entrepreneurial movement, we need to figure out three things: How can we teach millions of people a survival skill (namely, how to make a living for yourself) that many groups don't want them to learn (they want us kept helpless and in thrall to the job market), and that most don't even realize they need? How do we then help these millions to self-organize into Natural Enterprises? How do we avoid successful entrepreneurs quickly cashing out their businesses as soon as they get a lucrative offer from a member of a multinational corporate oligopoly? I don't think books are enough to solve the first problem. Nor are social networking tools the answer to the second. The truth about human nature is that we don't change our minds or our behaviour until we believe we have no choice. When the economy really collapses, wiping out whole industries, currencies, and wealthy conglomerates, the choice for millions, as it was in the 1930s, will be between entrepreneurship and starvation. Only when this happens will people scramble to find ways to learn entrepreneurial skills, and to find business partners. We are heading into a period of great economic uncertainty, turbulence and volatility. The job market for the next two decades is likely to go "wildly sideways". By that time, the centenary of the last Great Depression, other crises like the End of Oil, the End of Water, global political upheaval and climate change will combine with the crisis of an overextended economy (unsustainable personal, corporate and government debt levels, exhausted natural resources, whipsawing interest, inflation and currency rates, and plunging consumer spending and confidence) to produce a prolonged economic inferno. The resultant massive unemployment will spur an entrepreneurial explosion out of desperate necessity. After some initial stumbles, we'll see a change as profound as the Industrial Revolution. The community-based economy will be born, and it will be entrepreneurial by default. That doesn't mean my association's championing of sustainable entrepreneurship now is futile. People may 'get' the 'sustainable' part (and make their businesses, of all sizes, greener, simply because it makes good business sense), without getting the 'entrepreneurship' part -- and that would be much better than nothing. And enough people (especially boomers and new entrants to the job market) will make the effort to learn entrepreneurial skills because, for these substantial cohorts, wage slavery is already ceasing to be an option -- the wage slave jobs are rapidly being offshored. When they realize that MBA schools don't teach entrepreneurship (and change too slowly to start doing so), they'll use online and real-world resources and relationships to teach each other the necessary skills, and self-organize. And my association will be poised to provide a platform and resources for them to do so. One way or another, a sustainable, community-based entrepreneurship revolution is coming. Sooner or later, we'll have no choice. (P.S. lots of twittering going on at #BALLE) Category: Finding and Creating Meaningful Work

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What Exactly is Podcasting

Unusual Items that May Impact Search Ranking
You may not realize the impact the following items have on your search engine ranking but they are worth considering when developing a plan for your website. While Google provides a whole host of great tools, their motivation may be more selfish than you believe. Google uses the information they gather in these tools to make determinations about websites. The information they gather may impact the ranking of your website in organic searches for important keyword phrases.

Unusual Items that May Impact Search Engine Ranking

Brand Building is a Journey
Brand building is indeed a journey. Branding is all about how your product or service is perceived by customers and potential customers. A brand marketer attempts to manipulate brand awareness by associating traits they would like consumers to associate with the brand.

Building a brand has everything to do with capturing the hearts and minds of consumers. Building a brand is much more than just promoting an image. A brand incorporates and conveys the values and traits that a company wants associated with their product or service. It sounds like building a brand is a simple task, but the marketers must do more than just create a brand image. The magnitude of branding encompasses all aspects of a product. With this in mind, we've put together a guide for marketers on the journey of brand building...

Brand Building is a Journey

Monitor Jobs Using RSS Feeds
In addition to actually seeking a job, there are also other valid reasons to monitor the job market. Perhaps you are satisfied in your current position, but just want to keep an eye on new positions in a specific sector. Perhaps you are just curious to know what the wages are for similar positions. The job market can be monitored quite easily using RSS feeds.

Monitor Jobs using RSS Feeds

Podcasting Ideas
You should not have to look far to find content or new ideas for your podcast show. Look to your daily sources to find fodder and ideas for new podcasting segments.

1. News
Both online and offline sources, from the Associated Press to CNN, contain a deluge of news item each day. Scan headlines on a regular basis to see what catches your eye. In addition, explore your niche market to find any industry-specific news portals that may warrant monitoring.

Where do you find Podcasting Content?

Search Engine Optimization Resolutions
Search engine optimization is a process, one that must always be revisited and adapted as search algorithms are changed by the search engines. Because SEO is a constant process, it is often pushed to the bottom of the "to do list" of marketers. Be that as it may, resolve not to ignore search engine optimization as it cycles its way through your task list. Give search engine optimization the attention that it deserves.

SEO Resolutions

Reflections for 2008 and Predictions for 2009
2008 was a year filled with great triumphs and a year scarred by deep sorrow. What 2008 was not, was a peaceful year, and whether the world is a better place, for having endured is unclear.

Russia's invasion of Georgia has chilled Russia's relations with the West, a resurgence of the Cold War may be on the horizon. The Tibetan monk's protests being crushed in the streets demonstrate that freedom of speech, is not a God given right for all. The continued unrest in Middle East is no longer news, but simply part of daily life in the region.

Close calls with Hurricane Gustav in New Orleans and the water lapping at the edge of overburdened levies caused concern that the lessons of Katrina have still not yet been fully learned. The heartbreaking destruction of Hurricane Ike in Galveston and the Texas coast shows that while the US has made progress, she is still no match for mother nature. Nature's wrath still wields a heavy hand. As horrific as the despair in Galveston, it paled in comparison to the cyclone that hit Burma/Mynamar, taking the lives of more than 100,000 people in the region. China, widely thought to be a rising world power, was no match for the 8.0 earthquake that collapsed buildings like tinker toys.

Through leadership change, we often see policy change. Unfortunately Fidel Castro's retirement in 2008 did nothing to free Cuba from the constrains of dictatorship with Raul Castro stepping into the leadership role on the tiny island.

Early on in 2008, the Hollywood writers strike in 2008 showed that American can in fact live without television. Regardless of the break from television, technology certainly played a role in the 2008 elections.

Reflections on 2008 and Predictions for 2009

What is Hot and What is Not for 2009
The following items are our predictions of what will be hot in 2009!

What is Hot, What is Not for 2009

Offline Advertising
Internet marketing has become so successful that many web marketers neglect other marketing opportunities. Offline channels can boost your online traffic and business. Used effectively, traditional advertising vehicles remind customers to visit your site. Even better, promoting your website offline can drive new clientele to your web business.

Offline Advertising

Good Things to Social Bookmark
It can be tricky to predict what content will perform well on social bookmarking websites. The interests of our democratic populace are widespread and constantly changing. Webpages, podcasts, and images which are deemed more newsworthy, humorous, or intriguing often steal the spotlight. Knowing how to present content on social bookmarking websites can help internet marketers stand out.

Good Things to Social Bookmark

Effective Podcasts
Many people assume that podcasting is all about audio and fail to acknowledge the writing behind the show. Skilled communicators understand the type of planning required in order to pull off a clean final product. The most memorable and effective podcasts are always well planned. Some of the best podcast shows use a script and follow a structured format. The preparation that occurs behind the scenes is similar to what would take place for a radio show.

Effective Podcasts

ABCs of Search Engine Optimization
Follow the ABCs of search engine optimization .

When Requesting Web Links
Link building is an important aspect of search engine optimization. Search engines view a link as a vote of confidence in a website or webpage. The more links from related sources the greater the webpages importance.

When requesting links, use an email template that can be easily customized for specific requests. To locate prospective link partners, search Google or Yahoo for related keywords or phrases.

When Requesting Links

Logo Concepts
A logo concept is more than just an affinity for a specific character. Logos represent a companys brand, and as a result, serious thought and consideration should be put into your logo. Before hand be sure to consider, how the logo will represent your organization and consider the thoughts that will be associated with specific images that you consider for your logo. Does the logo embody traits that can or should be associated with your business? If your company is global, will the image transcend borders or will some of your customers find the image offensive and distasteful?

Logo Concepts

The Ins and Outs of a Stock Photography
Marketers who struggle finding photos for their promotional materials can no utilize the microstock photo websites for instant images.

There are a number of options available to webmasters and publishers in need of images for web content, marketing campaigns, or packaging. Regardless of the website selected, be sure to read the agreement and licensing terms carefully to ensure that you are adhering to the guidelines.

Royalty Free Stock Photography Quiz

Best Search Marketing Blogs
Attempting to stay current on the latest search engine algorithm changes or search optimization tactics can be overwhelming for webmasters attempting to juggle it all. With this in mind, we have put together a list of the industry's best Search Marketing blogs. These blogs are current and discuss important issues related to search engine optimization and search marketing.

Best Search Marketing Blogs

Directory Submissions that Matter
Links from different directories have different values. A webmasters time is limited, and most webmasters want to get the biggest bang for their bucks. So where should they start when it comes to directory submissions? Search engines assign value to links from the various directories differently, so how do you spend your time where it matters most?

Directory Submissions that Matter

Staying Ahead of the Competition
Staying ahead of the competition can be an on-going struggle. While it is not healthy for a company to focus too much time and attention on the competition, it is important to stay abreast of what your competition is doing. When evaluating the competition, assess the industry giants and companies closest to your space. But be sure that you don't exclude the small companies in your assessments. Sometimes a small competitor can have innovative ideas or marketing concepts, but may lack the capital to really benefit from the concept. This may present you with an opportunity.

Staying Ahead of the Competition

Business Mistakes to Avoid
Small businesses and entrepreneurs often repeat the same mistakes. If you are an entrepreneur, the following is a list of critical mistakes to avoid in your new venture:

1. Promising The World
Entrepreneurs will commonly make bold promises that are often impossible to actually deliver. It is important that you stay grounded in reality, and only agree to things that you know you can actually deliver.

Business Mistakes to Avoid

Where to Find the Deal of the Day Websites?
With the economy in a questionable state, everyone is looking for a good deal. Savvy business owners have jumped at the opportunity to carve out a niche for themselves in the struggling economy. Coupon and Deal-Of-The-Day websites have become extremely popular. Everyone is getting into the action, from large conglomerate websites to small specialty shops, and many now have some sort of Deal-Of-The-Day special where an item is offered at a significant discount for a specified and limited period of time. While the Deal-Of-The-Day websites were originally designed to capture impulse purchasers, many financially-conscious penny-pinching shoppers are now monitoring these sites regularly, in search of good deals on products they might need.

Everybody loves a bargain! Where should you look for a bargain?

Deal of the Day Websites - Where Do You Find the Best Deals?

We had an immediate need and found software on Software Deal of the Day at 50% off!

Why Use Web Templates?
Web templates expedite the process of setting up a new website. The idea behind a web template is that it will save time with the creative design and layout process.

In the business world, time is money; hence, using templates can save money. It can be a challenge to find a web designer for hire, and quite often the designers schedule will not always mesh with the needs of a small business. Time rarely controls a web graphic designer. Artists are, well, artistic, and don't necessarily work by the clock. Instead, they work when inspiration strikes, which can be problematic when there are deadlines to meet. Templates are ready-made, and can be easily edited, allowing you to instantly create a website.

Why Use Web Templates?

Take Website Usability to the Next Level
Website usability is more than just a good navigational structure. A large number of people have visual or hearing disabilities, so you should design your website in ways that allow those with either minor or significant impairments to view and navigate your web content. The following tips will help expand your website's usability so that all users, regardless of their sensory perception and abilities, are able to take advantage of your web content...

Take Website Usability to the Next Level

Reaping the Podcast Rewards
Podcasting is a viable and interesting new method of communication. Use podcasting to boost your company to the forefront of your industry. Leveraging this powerful communication tool will give you a leg up on the competition.

Reaping the Podcast Rewards

A Perfect Link
Webmasters are given the advice that they must attract links, but the key is not just to attract links... they need to attract good links. But what is the perfect link? The search for the perfect link need not be a quest in vain. Consider the following when attempting to attract links...

A Perfect Link

Gaining in Google
Google tends to not rank new domains. In an effort to deter spammers from generating new websites, Google has implemented filters for new websites, which means that it can be a challenge for a new website to rank in Googles organic search results until they are deemed trustworthy.

Gaining in Google

Choose a Domain
Choosing a domain is one of the first steps in establishing an online presence. Changing a domain after-the-fact can be time consuming, and can be harmful to search engine ranking, so it is best to get it right the first time around. Follow these simple steps to select a domain name that will represent your online brand...

Choose A Domain

Made for AdSense Websites
There is nothing wrong with profiting from a website -- commercialization on the web is big business. But there needs to be value that distinguishes a website from its competitors. Content should be designed for website visitors, not for advertisements or search engines. Ultimately, the long-term profitability of a the website will rely on the value of the content contained in the website. If the content lacks value, the website will likely be profitable for only a short amount of time.

Made for AdSense Websites

Blog Posts that Get Attention
Blogs are now a dime a dozen, and bloggers need to make their blog posts stand out. Developing a blog following is not as easy as it once was. Learn how to write blog posts that attract readers and retain their attention. Follow these guidelines to cultivate readers...

Blog Posts that Get Attention

Avoid Duplicate Content Penalties in the Search Engines
Large search engines attempt to filter their search results by removing any results that duplicate the content of other search results. Such filtering is referred to as duplicate content penalty.

It is important to understand and identify what duplicate content actually is. Duplicate content is generally defined as substantive blocks of text that are copied from one site to another. Some webmasters try to use duplicated content in an attempt to manipulate and influence search engine rankings. The search community still occasionally debates the legitimacy and existence of duplicate content filters, but whether they exist today, or will exist tomorrow, is really irrelevant. Most webmasters have simply accepted the fact that the duplicate content penalty is currently enforced by at least some of the major search engines.

Avoid Duplicate Content Penalties

Performing Better Searches
Performing and perfecting search engine results can save web surfers lots of time and energy. Understanding the nuances of searching allows researchers to immediately drill down and locate the information they are seeking, without having to wade through a myriad of irrelevant search results in the process. The increasing complexity of search engines has made understanding search engines a necessity for those who spend any amount of time online. The following search tips are standards that will work in most of the major search engines.

Performing Better Searches

10 Podcasting Tips
What defines a good podcast? Make no mistake -- there is a difference between a good podcast and a not-so-good podcast. A high-caliber podcast is much more than just decent content. The sound quality, and the way a podcast is recorded, will impact the value of the podcast as well. Podcast structure and pre-planning are also important; do not skimp on the production, as it too can make or break a podcast.

Podcast production takes effort, but anything worth doing is worth doing right. Use these tips to help produce a quality podcast that will be distinguished above other related podcasts...

10 Podcasting Tips

How is Your Business Different
Creating a marketing and business plan for a small business can at times seem like an overwhelming task for a new business owner. Yet, it need not be. A business plan is simply a formal statement that contains a set of business goals; and a marketing plan outlines the necessary actions which the business needs to take in order to achieve its marketing objectives.

How is Your Business Different

Real Estate Video Podcast
Let the home shine by using technology to help market the property. Present the home in the best possible light, and through a variety of channels, and watch sales soar.

Tips for Realty Video Podcasts

Website Sales Purpose
When designing a website, it is important that webmasters ask some general questions before they begin the design process...

Website Sales Purpose

Web Log Analysis
Everyone who understands Internet Marketing will tell you to analyze your web logs... but what does that really mean? What particular things should you pay attention to when analyzing your web logs?

Web Log Analysis

Avoid These Common Web Mistakes
Webmasters need to avoid making these common web design mistakes. Website visitors who have a pleasant experience on a website are more likely to trust the website, and as such they are more likely to purchase products from that website. Use the following guide to avoid some of the more common web design mistakes...

Avoid These Common Web Mistakes

Research, Optimize, Monitor and Maintain
The formula for webmasters looking for success with the search engines is ROMM (Research, Optimize, Monitor, and Maintain). Here are some helpful tips and details about each portion of the ROMM concept...

Research, Optimize, Monitor and Maintain

Web Design Questions and Answers
How much do you know about web design? Take this web design quiz to find out how much you know about web design...

Web Design Questions and Answers

RSS Feed Etiquette
We felt it would be helpful to provide general guidelines for those constructing an RSS 2.0 feed. In general, the following are guidelines for constructing an RSS feed. It is good to get into the habit of validating the RSS feed, either with software, or with an online validator.

RSS Feed Etiquette

HTML Web Templates
HTML website templates can significantly ease the burden of designing and creating websites by providing webmasters with a ready-made web layout, structure, basic graphics, and color scheme. Templates can generally be edited and customized with any HTML editor. The biggest advantage for webmasters using ready-made templates is the amount of time that can be saved. There are a number of websites that provide ready-made HTML templates. We have compiled a list of some popular sites to make the search process easier.

HTML Web Templates

Internet Marketing Resolutions
Starting a New Year is all about self-reflecting. Most individuals celebrate the incoming year by looking back, determining what goals were met and what goals fell short. Most who have made past resolutions then look forward and resolve to do better in the coming year.

Like any Internet marketer, I have a long laundry list of things that I intend to get to... invariably each year the list grows longer, and rarely do I make any significant headway on new projects, ideas, or marketing techniques. I resolve for that to change in 2008! I have compiled a list of Internet Marketing resolutions for the coming year. If your list is already too long, consider saving time and using the list below.

Internet Marketing Resolutions

What is Hot and What is Not in Technology for 2008
Top 10 Winners Predicted for 2008
After looking into my crystal ball, I have made a cluster of predictions about what will be hot, and what will be not so hot in technology for 2008.

1. Video
YouTube has not shown any signs of slowing down. With the increasing popularity of portability and the increase of video-viewing technology, the growth of video is unlikely to slow down.

2. Healthy
Healthy is in. It is not only fashionable, but now cool to be healthy. Maybe this will help counter the rise in obesity in the US. Even those who give in to their cravings and indulge agree that it is cool to be healthy. Organic foods are at an all time high with an increase of roughly 20% per year in the US! This may also be a top New Year Resolution.

3. Long Tail
The Long Tail is still hot. Small businesses and big business are all attempting to capture the famed long tail.

4. Buy USA
Buying USA is in. The falling dollar has made US products more competitive in foreign markets. Moreover, the quality issues that came to light in 2007 (lead in various Chinese products) have made US consumers more conscious about buying US manufactured products.

What is Hot and What is Not in Technology for 2008

2007 Reflections, 2008 Predictions
The lens through which viewers receive their news has changed. The images of struggle are no longer frozen in time; technology has helped preserve and personalize these conflicts by producing moving tributes to the conflicts of humankind.

The strife and internal conflicts that marred the globe in 2006 continued into 2007: Mynamar (Burma), Palestine and Lebanon all continue to struggle with internal conflicts in their borders. The differences between 2006 and 2007 are not obvious; however, under close examination, it is evident that several external struggles have been transformed into internal conflicts. In 2006, many countries attempted to influence their neighbors. This was evident with Iran attempting to influence the turmoil in Iraq, and Syria attempting to control Lebanon. Both struggles have evolved into internal personal conflicts in 2007.

2007 Reflections, 2008 Predictions

Create Professional RSS Feeds
More and more companies are using RSS as a means to communicate, so having an RSS feed that is professional and well polished will help differentiate your company from your competition. What makes an RSS feed professional? Follow these simple steps to polish your RSS feed and take it to the next level...

Create Professional RSS Feeds

Reputation Management
None of us enjoy having our name, our company, or our product smeared and sullied online. Online libel is difficult, if not impossible, to prosecute. Learn to use the tools within your grasp to manage your reputation and minimize the impact of any defamatory comments.

Reputation Management

Free Web Marketing Tips
Not all web marketing needs to cost money. Aside from website submissions, there are a number of things that web marketers can do that are free, though they may be rather time-consuming. Other marketing tactics are relatively inexpensive, and are often well worth the investment.

Follow these basic steps to market your website and business.

Free Web Marketing Tips

Business Card Tips
Networking is an invaluable opportunity, and one that should not be wasted. In order to maximize networking, it is strongly suggested that all business professionals carry business cards. The business cards can be exchanged during introductions, both as a convenience and as a memory aid. In other words, business cards allow networkers to further the relationship through future contact.

Business cards may include one or more aspects of striking visual design, but should also contain important contact information. Use this guide to make the most of your business cards:

Business Card Tips

Real Estate and RSS Feeds
RSS feeds are becoming an essential tool for Realtors, who are struggling in a declining market. Real estate offices that adopt technology as a marketing tool will remain one step ahead of their competition.

Realtors use RSS to Expand Their Reach

The Internets Influence on Politics
Can, and will, the next generation of politicians exploit the communication mediums available to them? Will the new communication mediums have the power to influence public opinion? Will politicians be the victims of technology, or will they use it to their benefit? Will one party benefit from the use of the technology more than another?

The Internets Influence on Politics

Basic Color Theory
The first box of crayons you ever got probably had the basic eight: black, white, red, yellow, blue, purple, brown and orange. And at that time, this was all you needed—every shade in the world fit into one of these categories. And then you discovered pink and you had to get the new box with sixteen colors. Your palette expanded. Gray, peach, silver…before long, you asked for the big one. The mother of all crayons. The 64 count set with the sharpener on the box. Surely now you had them all; every color was in your grasp.

Color is an important form of nonverbal communication. From the clothes we wear to the food we eat, color influences our choices. Our perception of the world is affected by color. Likewise, the way the world perceives us is also affected by color. In fact, color, many times, is the most significant feature of an item. Designers, therefore, cannot afford to treat color lightly.

Basic Color Theory

Social Bookmarking Quiz
Take this Social Bookmarking Quiz and determine how much you know about the collective voice!

Social Bookmarking Quiz

Technology and Politics
Maybe as candidates are forced back to earth and voters gain a stake in the process, America will become the voice of the unschooled as well as the educated, the poor as well as the rich, men and women of all ages and every race. After all, isn’t that what democracy is supposed to be?

Technology and Politics

What Makes a Good Logo?
What is a logo?
A logo is a design, graphical representation, image or symbol that represents a business or organization. Logos were initially used to distinguish and differentiate products, the logos assisted purchasers in finding the product they prefer or have come to trust (or not trust). When product selections were limited and items were marked with a logo which a consumer was familiar they would naturally assume a certain level of quality or value, even if they had not previously used that specific product from that vendor. Now many companies not only have a corporate logo, but they have a logo to represent each of their products or product lines.

The company or product logo typically appears on all printed media or websites that are associated with the company or product. The logo appears in all marketing material and media.

What Makes a Good Logo

Listen to Your Customers
Mastering the art of managing customer complaints can seem like a thankless job, but keep in mind that for every customer that shares their worries, concerns or complaints, there are likely more that did not express their dissatisfaction, and instead simply moved on to a competitor. Customer complaints can, and should be treated as opportunities.

Customers that are willing to communicate can help provide information on how your product or service is being used in a specific market segment. Complaints give you the opportunity to see how your company is falling short of customer expectations.

Listen to Your Customers

Blog Tips for SEO
Blogs are the current rage, and many webmasters have blogs but fail to use their blog to its full potential. Blogs provide a steady stream of fresh content, and if this content is written and managed properly, blogs have the ability to increase a website's ranking in the search engines.

Blog Tips for SEO

Common Errors that Kill Search Engine Ranking
Tricking the search engines just does not work. The search engines do not look kindly upon webmasters who attempt to deceive the search engines about the content contained on a webpage.

1. Cloaking
Cloaking a website is a stealth technique used to provide a copy of a web page to search engines while providing an alternate copy to website visitors. The website copy provided to the search engine is optimized and not always reflective of the real content contained on the webpage.

Common Errors that Kill Search Engine Ranking

Getting Press Coverage
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.

Getting Press Coverage

Financial Companies are Embracing RSS
Financial institutions are reaching out to clients using RSS feeds. While banks and financial institutions are usually slow to adopt new technology, that is not the case with RSS adoption. More and more professionals are using RSS in innovative ways, to stay ahead of their competition.

Financial Companies are Embracing RSS

Keep Your Website Search Friendly
So you have a fantastic website but no one ever visits. You may ask? Why? Your website should be designed with search engines in mind. Too many web designers are graphic artists that excel at image manipulation, but lack a basic understanding of search engine optimization. Web design and search engine optimization (SEO) should not be mutually exclusive. Webmasters should have a clear understanding of both design techniques and how the search engines work.

Keep Your Website Search Friendly

Royalty Free Stock Photography for Websites
Stock photography websites contain thousands of existing photographs that can be licensed for specific uses. A customer who uses stock photography instead of hiring a photographer can save time, effort and money. Typically publishers can either purchase exclusive rights to a single image or they can purchase a subscription of sorts. The subscriptions allow publishers to download a limited number of photos over a specified period of time.

Stock photo websites allow webmasters, marketers and publishers to locate pictures for their marketing and promotional materials without the hassle of organizing a photo shoot. With copyright laws businesses must be very careful in using unlicensed photos.

There are also risks to using free photographs. Many of the free websites contain collaborative works from multiple photographers and artists. While the websites attempt to monitor the images in their collections in violation of copyright laws, there are no guarantees. If you opt to use photographs or images from a free portal, it is important to keep this in mind.

Royalty Free Stock Photography

Legal Uses of RSS Feeds
Lawyers have never been known as a technical bunch, but more and more often you see a lawyer with a palm pilot making appointments and a blackberry for those urgent messages. Electronic gadgets are now common in the courthouses across the US. Lawyers have increased productivity by utilizing technology so it should come as no surprise that lawyers are using RSS feeds as a means to grow and manage their practices.

Legal Uses of RSS

Copyrights and Trademarks
Copyright is a type of intellectual property. A copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted by the government for a limited time to protect the particular form, way or manner in which an idea or information is expressed. Copyright is the legal protection given to artists or producers of creative work which protects them against unauthorized copying of their work.

Copyrights and Trademarks

How Unique is Your Business?
All business owners like to believe that their business is in someway unique or unlike any other business. At its core though, how different are small businesses really? Nearly all small businesses struggle with relatively similar issues. Most owners wear multiple hats and have had to become jack of all trades in order to succeed and survive in the business world. While it is important to recognize the differences between various small businesses it is equally important to recognize the similarities.

Small businesses often struggle with the same issues, and while its important to establish your own policies, do not be afraid to talk to and learn from other small business owners.

How Unique is Your Business?

RSS and Academics
Academia has embraced RSS as a means to educate, but scrutinizing how educational institutions are using RSS feeds in their daily routines show RSS is utilized can vary across different industries.

RSS and Academics

Why Musicians Should Podcast
Independent artists have a unique opportunity available to them. Podcasting is a fairly new medium that has far reaching distribution opportunities. Independent artists were once restricted by geography, playing at local clubs to increase their base. Podcasting has no borders.

Producing a podcast can mean the difference between success and failure for an independent artist.

Why Musicians Should Podcast

Podcasting and Education
Schools all over the country have flocked to podcasting as a new medium to assist the teaching profession. Professors are using podcasts to instruct students and get their messages out. Podcasting is not restricted to one educational sector, professors at prestigest colleges from Bentley to Purdue have flocked to this medium.

Podcasting and Education

Where to Find Stock Photos for Web Design
Professional photographs in a website give the website a professional look. Many webmasters do not realize that photographs are copy written and in many cases illegal to use a photograph or image that you find on the web without properly licensing it.

Most webmasters do not have time to go out and photograph all of the subjects they wish to include in a website. Webmasters are best off using royalty free photographs. Royalty free photographs are generally purchased and there is no recurring fee for the use of the photograph. The purchaser may use the image(s) as often as required within the license terms and conditions without paying for the use of the image each time the image is used. Fortunately there are a number of stock photography websites where webmasters can purchase a single photograph for a fixed fee, or they can purchase a stock photo subscription, that allows for the subscriber to download multiple photographs.

Stock Photographs for Web Design

Podcast Interviews
Conducting a successful podcast interview can be a tricky proposition for a podcaster starting out. Once you have determined individuals that will appeal to your target audience contact potential interviewees and arrange a time to conduct the interview. Following this guide will insure that the interview goes off without a hitch.

Podcast Interviews

Locating Podcast Music
Adding music and sound effects to a podcast does not need to be difficult. There are a number of podsafe music directories that allow for podcasters to locate theme music or sound effects to enhance their podcast. This new industry understands the complexity of licensing professional music and the majority of these repositiories provide royalty free music clips for podcasters to use in their shows. Music and show sound effects give show a professional edge and really make it difficult for listeners to discern the difference between a hobby and a studio broadcast.

How to Locate Music for Podcasts

Building an Image with a Logo
Image matters by using an eye catching logo you will retain your website visitor's interest and instill confidence that you are a professional organization.

Building an Image with a Logo

Make Your Podcast Standout
Podcasts are relatively inexpensive to create, as a result, and the quality in published podcasts is extremely diverse. Corporate podcasts can be very polished audio productions while hobbyiest experimenting with podcasts may have dogs barking and childrens screaming in the background.

Make Your Podcast Standout

Monetizing Podcasts
Podcasts started out as fun ways for ambitious garage DJs, independent musicians and talk show hosts, who had not ventured into radio broadcasting as a way to show their stuff and make a name for themselves. What started as a hobby for many, has turned into a lucrative profession for some.

Monetizing Podcasts

Please Your Subscribers
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.

Please Your Subscribers

Podcasting Do's and Don'ts
Consider following these simple podcasting tips to get the most from your podcast and make it stand out from other podcasts in the crowd.

DO
1. Make it Professional
Regardless of whether you are podcasting from your garage or a corporate boardroom there is no reason that your podcast cannot have a professional sound and feel. Use software to edit the audio file and filter background noise. Listeners will not tolerate poor audio quality. With the wide range of relatively inexpensive software and hardware available there is no reason you can not provide good quality audio podcast.

10 Podcasting Do's and Don'ts

Podcast Recording Tips
Before you begin podcasting develop a plan and a format for your show. Determine the focus of your podcast and what types of guests you would like to interview. Time spent planning your show will contribute to it's success.

Podcast Recording Tips

Find Niche Feeds
Vertical search and niche directories are becoming authority sites in a crowded online world. These niche directories will help individuals in specific industries locate topics essential to their industries.

Find Niche Feeds

A Quiz: Test Your Podcasting Smarts
How much do you know about podcasting? Take the podcast quiz and test your knowledge.

Question: Are there any size limitations to podcasts?

Answer: There are no maximums or minimums when it comes to podcast size. Obviously, the larger files might intimidate listeners with a slow connection. Podcasts can be successful at any size, generally wise podcasters balance the file size and the quality of their show.

A Quiz: Test Your Podcasting Smarts

RSS Technologies
RSS Does Not Equal Email
RSS is not email, nor is it designed to be a replacement for email. RSS is a supplemental communication channel that can be used to deliver content. Email newsletters have had an increasing problem with spam. Email open rates have plummeted, filtering systems have become increasingly complex and with the complexity and volume even "approved" messages have been unable to get through.

RSS feeds are opt-in, and in most cases subscribers need not provide any personal information to subscribe. RSS is simply an alternative method to communicate with your audience.

RSS Technologies

How to Get Ideas for Blog and RSS Feed Posts
The best blogs and feeds are those that contain unique, fresh, compelling, content. So where do these prolific posters get their ideas? I talked to a handful of bloggers to determine where their inspiration originated for their content.

Not surprisingly, ideas for blog posts or RSS feed items originate or are influenced by other web content.

The following are venues for finding your online muse

What is Hot and What is Not in Technology
Top 10 Winners

1. Content Filtering
With web content and syndication growing at a rapid pace locating information is becoming more of a struggle for web surfers. The abundance of content has made filtering critical to time management. As a result, content filtering and solutions that help with content filtering will be winners in 2007.

2. Pesonalized Search and Vertical Search will be a winner in 2007
Search 2.0 will be all about filtering and personalized search. Niche portals with targeted focus will play in vertical search and authority sites will gain even more traction.

What is Hot and What is Not in Technology

Webmaster and Small Business Resolutions
Each and every year people around the world mark the first day of the New Year with resolutions. They resolve to do a wide variety of things, and while few resolutions are actually kept, the tradition is a hallmark of the holiday each year.

Experts suggest that people should make lifestyle changes rather than resolutions. I am a bit more pragmatic. Tackle a task you know that you can succeed at. Do not bite off more than you can chew, and you will be one of the few who manages to keep their resolutions. Here are a few suggested resolutions for webmasters and small business owners:

Webmaster and Small Business Resolutions

2006 Reflections, 2007 Predictions
For the most part in 2006, the world escaped Natures wrath, but people were far less kind to their neighbors. 2006 is scarred not by the winds and oceans but by political turmoil across the globe. The Middle East quagmire is the epitome of how wrong things can go, with the war in Lebanon, infighting in Palestine, Iran's nuclear ambitions, and Iraq's sectarian violence the deepest scars of 2006 were self inflicted with man being his own enemy. Of course, the Middle East is not alone with it's own self-destruction. Genocide in Chad and Sudan show how truly intolerant the human race really is. North Korea's impatience and nuclear activity have disrupted Asia. In fact, few areas of the world were left unscathed by man's ambitions in 2006.

2006 Reflections, 2007 Predictions

Link Bait vs. Link Love
Regardless of whether you use Link Love or Link Bait, develop a plan to solicit deep links throughout your website use these tips to improve the quality and quantity of your incoming links.

Link Love vs. Link Bait

Unique Selling Proposition
Often businesses define themselves with what is called a unique selling proposition. Many businesses market their unique selling proposition to illustrate the advantages of their product or services. When trying to establish a unique selling proposition, it is crucial to find ways to differentiate and distinguish your business from your competitors, place emphasis on the positive differences between others in the marketplace.

Unique Selling Proposition

RSS Feed and Blog Etiquette
Citizen journalists and writers have become common place on the web. Perhaps you are considering blogging, but are unsure of how to enter the world of online journaling. As the medium has grown, I thought it might be a good idea to put together some general guidelines for new bloggers and reminders to veteran bloggers about blogging practices.

RSS Feed and Blog Etiquette

Content Rich Websites
We have all heard the term content-rich, but what does content rich really mean?

Content rich means different things for different individuals, because what one person finds useful, another may not. Content rich is all about providing information that is considered valuable to your target audience. Information that visitors might find useful could consist of product or industry facts, statistics, reviews, tutorials, or educational information related to a specific industry.

Content Rich Websites

A Quiz: Test Your RSS Smarts
You think that you have mastered the art of RSS, but how much do you really know? Take the RSS quiz to test your knowledge of RSS.

A Quiz: Test Your RSS Smarts

A Look at Slogans
A slogan is a memorable phrase used in conjunction with a political, commercial, or religious advertisement. Slogans are used to convey a deeper meaning. Slogans can be used to elicit emotions, or the slogan might paint a visual image that implies something more.

When considering a slogan or a tagline, keep in mind your objectives. What image do you wish to portray? Slogans should be short, but not to the point of being pithy. Slogans should conjure positive images and distinguish the value your company or product provides.

A Look at Slogans

Top 10 RSS Do's and Don'ts
RSS is not quite a household word, but technically astute individuals are adopting the use of RSS feeds at an alarming rate. If you are interested in jumping on the bandwagon, but not quite sure of where to start, consider following these simple RSS feed tips to maximize feed compatibility and make your feed stand out from the crowd.

Top 10 RSS Do's and Don'ts

My Google Wish List
There are a number of "wishes" that I have for Google and it's future. While I would like number one ranking for all of my important keywords and phrases to top the list, but I would be willing to settle for Google acknowledging at least a few of my wishes that will benefit the search community as a whole.

My Google Wish List

Tips for Webmasters
According to Matt Cutts, there are over 100 factors that affect search engine ranking. For those of you who don't know, Matt is a Google guy guru, he is employed by Google but writes an independent blog and shares information related to Google and search engine optimization. Unfortunately, of those 100 items that account for search engine ranking, there are only a few that webmasters can actually control.

Unless you are a interested in an exercise of futility, it is important to only focus on those ranking factors that you, as a webmaster, can control and influence.

Tips for Webmasters

Spy on Your Competitors; 10 Tips To Monitoring The Competition
The old adage, "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer", is applicable not only to personal relationships but business relationships as well. While I'm not suggesting that you befriend your competitors, it is important that you are cognizant of your competitors' business ventures and methods.

It is important to realize that while monitoring your competitors is essential, it could easily become an obsession. Therefore, it is crucial that you strike a balance when incorporating it into your business plan. There are several ways to conduct successful stealth competitive intelligence operations. While it is fanciful to imagine yourself as a secret agent or spy, none of these techniques are difficult, hidden or secretive. In fact, most of them are tools or services available to all businesses.

Spy on Your Competitors; 10 Tips To Monitoring The Competition

What Are Content Rich Web Sites
If you are like many of those who started out with intentions of making millions online and are struggling to capture the attentions of the large search engines, you are in good company. Times have changed, and due to the low cost of entry, the online world is becoming very competitive for businesses starting out. Unless a website has a regional appeal or caters to a very niche product or service, it is rare that a webmaster can create a website that is only focused on selling.

What Are Content Rich Web Sites

Internet Marketing Quiz
Test your internet marketing knowledge:

Question - If I need to target a specific region, is it helpful to have a domain from that country?

Answer - Yes. Both hosting location and domain extension matter and can influence search engine ranking in regional search engines. If you are attempting to target a specific country, you could very well benefit from purchasing a domain with that countries extension and hosting the website on a server that is located in that country. The larger country specific search engines, generally rank local domains higher in the search results.

Take the Internet Marketing Quiz

Why Pay for Advertising That Does Not Yield Sales, Increase Your Conversions
Why pay for advertising that does not yield sales?
Before you part with your cold hard cash, consider various ways to increase and maximize your conversions. The term conversion simply represents the number of website visitors that take the action that the web publisher desires. In most cases, conversion refers to an individual browsing a website and purchasing the product(s) or service(s) being sold. The idea is that a browser has been converted into a buyer.

Why pay for advertising that does not yield sales?

Blogging is a Dangerous Game
Cyberstalking is a new phenomenon that allows anonymous online stalkers to prowl for victims. Online bloggers traditionally provide personal details about their lives. As a result, many women that blog are becoming victims. Most people are concerned about children on the Internet and set up rigorous posting guidelines for children, adolescents, and teenagers, but few adults heed the warnings and often do not consider that they too can be targeted.

Blogging is a Dangerous Game

Compelling Articles Make Great Content
Writing Articles
Articles are excellent tools to generate web traffic and product interest. Writing articles, may sound easy enough, but it is important that you write the proper types of articles to attract interested readers. Follow these simple steps to create compelling and interesting content.

Compelling Titles
Think of article titles as news headlines. They must strike a chord with the reader and encourage them to read on. Article titles are the writer's opportunity to grab the casual web browsers interest. Consider using a play on words or slightly modifying a common phrase to make the reader pause. Use a provocative title. Consider making the the title a question, and the article the answer. Questions are particularly useful as an article title because readers are naturally curious and will be enticed to read more. Titles can also be calls to action.

Compelling Articles Make Great Content

The Dangers of an Anonymous Internet
The anonymity of the Internet is a cause for concern. Pedophiles hide behind the protection of anonymity, creating ideal profiles being exactly the friend that impressionable youngsters want them to be. The fact is that a child doesn't always know with whom they are interacting with. All of this makes education critically important.

The Dangers of the Anonymous Internet

Search Engine Optimization for RSS Feeds
RSS feeds are a great communication medium, and when properly managed, web feeds can bring in significant Internet traffic. RSS feeds should contain compelling themed content with episodic titles that are united in common broad theme. Use RSS feeds as an online marketing and search engine optimization tool. Just as optimizing an HTML web page will increase exposure, so too will an RSS feed that is properly optimized and promoted. Use these simple tips to improve your web feed exposure.

Improved Newsfeeds for Search Engines

Keep Children Safe Online
There was once a time when you only had to worry about children when they were outside or not at home. Those times have changed. Strangers can now enter your home, without a key or coming through a door. How you may ask? These strangers enter your home using a keyboard. These strangers can befriend your children online.

Keep Children Safe Online

Converting RSS to HTML
Many webmasters have realized the benefit of using RSS to dynamically update websites. This means that the website content automatically changes when the RSS feed is updated. This allows for webmasters to serve dynamic content or a mixture of static and dynamic content on their website.

Converting RSS to HTML

Questioning Online Credibility
Credibility online is becoming more and more of an issue. Anyone can have a blog or post to a forum and anyone can edit wiki entries. Web surfers are beginning to comprehend that just because it is in print does not necessarily mean that it is true. In fact, in today's online world, the collective truth might be the closest thing we can get to the real truth. Peer policing and social bookmarking have become common in the online world.

Human nature invariably prompts a level of trust;if it is written, it must be true. We live in a generation where we expect authors, editors and publishers that are qualified to write on various topics. What qualifications are required to post a blog, write an online article, or edit a wiki? Some web surfers may find the answer startling: None. Expertise is no longer a prerequisite. Wikipedia is a popular online reference, that frequently obtains top ranking in search engines as a reference source. How many Wikipedia readers realize that Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at anytime, regardless of their qualifications.

Questioning Online Credibility

Everything You Need to Know About Linking
Websites that are able to amass a large number of links from related websites that contain relevant content, tend to have an advantage when attempting to rank well in the large search engines. The tricky part is understanding how to build a large quantity of quality links. With the growth of the web and increased competition, search engines are weighing link relevance, and link authority as part of their ranking algorithm.

Everything You Need to Know About Linking

Safety Online
The proliferation of computer technology and emergence of the Internet has enhanced the lives of children and adults. Increasing productivity and efficiency, the Internet is a powerful educational tool, and it provide youths a vast amount of information. That said, it is important to remember that the Internet can also be very dangerous. Criminals are using modern technology to prey on innocent victims.

Safety Online

Top 10 Tips to Podcasting Success
Concrete ideas to make your podcast successful with the masses.

Top 10 Tips for Podcasting

Podcasting Sermons
The Internet has made spreading faith significantly easier. In the past, community residents were limited to the churches, temples and houses of worships that were available within driving distances. Coordinating schedules with sermons could be challenging for busy families.

Podcasting Sermons

RSS Feed Promotion
In order to reap the benefits of an RSS feed, it is important the feed be properly publicized. Taking simple steps to promote an RSS feed will go a long way in ensuring a feeds adoption.

RSS Feed Promotion

Search Engine Tips
Not only do you have just a few seconds to grab the attention of the web visitor, content developers must perform well within search engine searches so they are "found"when web surfers search on related keywords or phrases. In order to perform well, a website must have traffic. Decent traffic will result if a website ranks well in search engines, that is why strong placement in search engines for critical keywords and phrases is essential.

Search Engine Tips

Selecting a News Reader
The contents of an RSS feed can be read any number of ways. A variety of tools, both fee based and free, to read RSS feeds are available on the Internet.

When determining what RSS feed reader to download, thought should be given to security. More an more publishers are using RSS feeds as a way to deliver podcasts or media rich-content. Users of desktop software will want to find an RSS reader that allows for rich media to be delivered safely and securely.

Selecting a News Reader

Fair Use
As the Internet matures, users and governments are struggling to manage controversial issues. Lets face it, the Internet did not exist when the US copyright laws were written;let us not forget, while many countries respect copyright laws, the Internet is global without a governing body. There are not only different laws, rules and regulations, but also jurisdiction issues. RSS didn't exist when copyright laws were written either. While ardent supporters feel any content in a feed can be syndicated, other equally fervernet publishers contend that original works are just that--original works, and in many countries protected by copyright laws.

Fair Use

Networking for Business
Associations and trade organizations are great places to meet individuals. Usually organizations have a common theme, and it is an understood implication that all members participate to improve themselves and their businesses.

Networking for Business

Promoting Podcasts
Podcasting is a great new medium, but creating a podcast is only half of the work. Promoting a podcast is equally critical to it's success.

Tips to Promoting Podcasts

Is Google Really Big Brother?
Anti-Google sentiment is on the rise. Web pundits have tossed around monopoly theories and privacy advocates have warned of a day of reckoning. While Google has made friends on Wallstreet, it has disappointed the technical evangelists who were once its fiercest followers. Google has grown into a big scary company and web watchers are expressing their concerns about the information Google gleans from their various services.

Is Google Big Brother?

Writing a Press Release
Distributing a press release to editors and news organizations is only half the battle. Writing a press release that will be published by the media is equally important. Press releases are public relations opportunities. A well written press release, can generate exposure in publications that could be worth thousands in advertising dollars, for a fraction of the cost.

Writing a Press Release

Interesting RSS Tools and Use
The core use for RSS is generally considered news headlines and blog syndication, but innovative businesses are learning to use RSS in different ways. Consider RSS as a communication channel that can provide current, targeted information as it appears within a very targeted audience.

Interesting RSS Tools and Use

Positive PR Makes a Difference
While controversial issues frequently attract attention they can also alienate potential customers. Sometimes it is better to put a positive spin on public relations. A typical press release announces new leadership, products or services, but consider mixing it up a bit. A well written press release can be published increasing brand recognition and exposure. With that in mind, consider distributing press releases for a wide variety of topics.

Kinds of PR

What is Delicious
Delicious is a social book marking system, that is notable, not only for its unusual web address http://del.icio.us, but for its unusual approach to content building that is becoming increasingly popular. In order to ease the burden of producing consistent stream of fresh content, publishers are turning to users to build, categorize and qualify content. While this is said to be part of the web 2.0 phenomen, publishers realize the value of collaboration.

Social bookmarking allows users to qualify content. With Delicious, each "bookmark" of a specific webpage is seen as a vote of confidence. The more people who bookmark a specific webpage, the more credible the webpage is viewed.

In addition to bookmarking a webpage, users "tag" the webpage. The tags are simply single word keywords that relate to the contents of the webpage. The tagging associates keywords with the webpage's content, making it easier to categorize and classify the content of the webpage. If everyone bookmarking a page uses similar keyword tags, the webpage will be classified as a credible resource in a specific category.

As a webpage recieves more and more bookmarks from different Delicious users, the listing for the webpage becomes more prominent in the Delicious listings. Delicious users can bookmark and tag multiple pages within a website. Content can be tagged with multiple terms. As more users tag the content, it becomes easier to find similar topics.

What is Delicious

AdSense Tips
AdSense allows website publishers to display contextually relevant advertisements on their website. If a web visitor "clicks" on an advertisement, the web publisher will earn a percentage of the advertising revenue generated as a result of the click. Many webmasters have built content websites around the Google AdSense model. In many cases the specific intent of the webmaster is to profit from Google AdSense Other webmasters use Google AdSense to supplement their revenue. Regardless of the webmaster's intent, the following tips will help webmasters looking to profit from AdSense

AdSense Tips

Organic Search Engine Optimization
The fabled tales of successfully tricking search engines into high rankings have given way to a new truth, to achieve decent consistent ranking you cannot engage in tricks but on focused optimization done in a professional ethical manner. According to search sources, with the latest Google update, there is no longer an even playing field when it comes to search placement. The new Google ranking system gives an advantage to large, established businesses that have achieved brand recognition. Does this mean small businesses should give up on the Web as a marketing model? No, of course not, they simply must develop quality content. To increase your natural ranking (search engine rankings that are not paid for) you must:

more on Organic Search Engine Optimization

Profiting From RSS Feeds
Publishers are evaluating options and determining how they can profit from RSS feeds. The two obvious contenders that publishers are considering to profit from their RSS feeds are: subscription RSS feeds and RSS feed advertisements.

Profiting From RSS Feeds

Web Applications Vs Desktop Software Solutions
There has been a long running debate about web applications replacing desktop software applications. While some functions are better suited to web applications. It is my belief that security concerns and legacy systems will prevent desktop software from becoming obsolete.

Some argue that the debate between web applications and desktop applications is pointless; as their is no clear answer. While still others argue that the issue at hand is as much a business and marketing issue, as it is a technological issue.

Web Apps vs Desktop Apps

What is Google Base
In order for Google Base to succeed, it will need the support of both publishers and users. Quite frankly, most are having difficulty seeing the value in Google Base. Google Base, is a new service in beta, from Google that requests that publishers add their information to the "Google Base".

What is Google Base?

Realtors Employing RSS Feeds to Sell Homes
Daily more and more realtors are turning to RSS as a tool to market homes for sale. The growing RSS phenomenon in the realty market makes perfect sense. Unlike email RSS feeds have a 100% delivery rate.

Realtors Employing RSS Feeds to Sell Homes

10 Tips for Unique Content Creation
A website is more than just merging photos and graphics. Webmasters must also integrate quality themed content into their website. A "sticky" website that attracts individuals and encourages them to return contains content that is related and of interest to the prospective customers. A sticky site is a place people will visit again and again. By creating an atmosphere people like to revisit, you will increase their exposure to your product or service.

Top 10 Content Creating Tips

Online Business Resources for Webmasters
As the web becomes increasingly more crowded, it is important for webmasters to take the extra step to make their web sites user friendly. There are a number of free resources available to webmasters.

Online Business Resources for Webmasters

What is Web 2.0
What is Web 2.0?
There has been a lot of chatter lately about Web 2.0, as if the Internet is a versioned software application.

So what is Web 2.0? Simply put, Web 2.0 is a perceived transition of the web to web applications. Web 2.0 is the next generation of technology solutions where interactive content is the norm. There is no agreement on exactly what Web 2.0 means, depending on who you are speaking with, you may receive different explanations. At it's heart, Web 2.0 is about the maturity of the Web and businesses that are thriving online. While many refer to Web 2.0 as companies that employ powerful web technologies, the key components of the new web are said to include: the web as a platform, collaboration, and syndication.

What is Web 2.0

Website Resolutions
As all of us view the new year, we determine various ways to improve ourselves. Whether its eliminating bad habits, or improving quality of life, January 1st is seen as a new beginning and starting point. Your website too, can use a new look. Consider taking the website to task with these down and dirty quick improvement tips for the new year.

New Year's Resolutions for Your Website
Revamp your website. The Internet is evolving at a rapid pace, and websites need constant maintenance and occasional overhauls. As the search engines improve their algorithms, website copy and designs will need to be updated. Here are some starting points:

Website Resolutions

2005 In Review
2005 in Review - Plans for 2006?
2005 literally took the world by storm, the tragedies of the Asian Tsunami, the Hurricanes that blew through the US Gulf Coast and the earthquakes that swallowed parts of Pakistan have left an indelible mark on 2005. While mother nature cast a shadow on 2005, it was technology that delivered the impact that resulted in a huge outpouring of donations. The world was touched by the human element seen real-time in pictures and videos. Today's technology was able to deliver the graphical grittiness that portrayed the nightmares occurring half a world away.

2005 in Review, What is In Store for 2006?

Undervalued Marketing Opportunities
Marketing online has become fiercely competitive. Marketers are attempting to unravel and decipher online marketing to succeed. Some argue that there should not be a distinction between traditional (off-line) marketing and online marketing. Others feel that concepts applied to mail order work well on the web, while still others argue that online marketing is a breed of its own and what works in one arena may not work in another. While some standard practices like "above" the fold, hold true in both print and online copy, it is rare that you see the printed type face on the web the same as in printed advertisements.

Regardless there are traditional forms of advertising that are viable and make sense to use on the web but many marketers do not.

These undervalued marketing opportunities are not the end-all be-all but are great supplemental channels that compliment strong online marketing campaigns.

Undervalued Marketing Opportunities

Why Educated Consumers are Better Customers
Not too long ago, a colleague asked me why we invest so heavily in consumer education. We have made a conscious decision to spend marketing dollars on consumer education for a very simple reason. Educated consumers are simply better customers.

Lets take a closer look at why educated consumers are better customers.

Educated Consumers

RSS Metrics
Measuring and tracking RSS while a fairly simple concept, is really anything but. Unlike websites, RSS have the added caveat of potential syndication, making accurate tracking a challenge to anyone but the extremely tech savvy.

It is not unrealistic for marketers to want to know how many subscribers they have, which items in their feeds attract the most interest, or how many click throughs are generated as a result of an RSS feed.

There are a number of 3rd party providers who focus on tracking the consumption of RSS feeds. Some solutions are rudimetary but likely sufficient for a small business testing the waters with RSS. Other RSS tracking solutions are more complex and while they can come close to being accurate, with syndication there is no solution that tracks with 100% accuracy.

RSS Metrics

Understanding Web Directories
Web directories are an important component to search engine positioning. Directories come in all shapes and sizes, some are generic, while others are highly specialized. Directories, are defined as categorized topics or collections of information organized into a tree like structure where categories are used to define each groups association.

Large directories like Yahoo tend to have general themes and may charge for listings. While smaller niche directories like http://www.finance-investing.com offer free listings and profit from advertising revenue or pay per click models like Google AdSense.

Understanding Web Directories

Content is King
The age old question keeps coming up, how do you retain website visitors, how do you make visitors return to your website? The answer should come as no surprise, fresh content. Content is truly king, the fresher the content the better the site. What many webmasters fail to realize is that there is an endless supply of content on the web that is freely available to webmasters.

Not only can public domain material be freely used and syndicated on websites, but a number of content publishers provide content in exchange for a link back to their websites. A variety of contents related to the website theme that is integrated into the website will attract the interest of both search engines and web surfers. The key to taking advantage of free content is integrating or including content that is directly related to the theme of the website.

Content is King

Advertising in Feeds
As publishers have moved towards monetizing RSS feeds, their have been vibrant discussions as to whether advertisements in feeds are viable or whether they will drive subscribers away. At the end of the day while it appears that many are discussing the philosophical approaches to ads in RSS feeds few are taking the time to examine the options available for inserting advertisements in feeds.

Ultimately the advertisements served are going to determine the success of RSS as an advertising medium. The ads served must be related to the content contained in the feed. If the RSS feed contains quality content, the ads are relevant, and the volume of ads is in balance with the volume of content served, advertising in RSS feeds will succeed.

Advertising in Feeds

What is Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that allows artists, authors, publishers and musicians the option of creating and defining a flexible copyright for their creative works. Creative Commons was officially launched in 2001 by a group of intellectual property experts, lawyers and web publishers. Creative Commons licenses cover art, music, and writing, but is not designed for software.

A Creative Commons license allows creators to place conditions on their copyrights.
Complete Article - What is Creative Commons

Security and RSS
As RSS gains momentum security fears loom large. As publishers are quickly finding innovative uses for RSS feeds, hackers are taking notice. The power and extendibility of RSS in its simplest form is also its achilles heel.

Complete Article - Security and RSS

Ego Searches
Ego searches are free and simple searches designed to monitor blogs and news portals for mentions of your company, product, competitors or other specific keywords. Conducting ego searches not only allows you to stay informed, but also allows you to maintain a strategic advantage over competing companies.

Ego Searches

The Copyright Debate
RSS is commonly defined as really simple syndication. So, this means that any material contained in a feed is available for syndication, right? Well no, not exactly.

The Copyright Debate

Short Term Versus Long Term Marketing Efforts
In order to create consistent sales cycles and a positive growth trend businesses usually engage in both short and long term marketing efforts.

Short-term marketing efforts tend to cause sudden sales spikes which rarely last. These sharp sales increases are usually the result of a targeted marketing campaign or time limited offer. While short-term marketing produces sales, long-term marketing efforts must be mixed in to sustain sales.

More on Short Term vs Long Term Marketing

Tell The World About Your Blog
Well, you've joined the others and have created a blog. It is time to tell the world about your online journal. Most blog services generate an RSS feed. If your blogging software does not create an RSS feed, consider using software like FeedForAll to create an RSS feed. Like blogs, RSS is growing in popularity and is a great way to spread the word about a new blog.

Tell The World About Your Blog

Blogs Are Not the Future of RSS
Blogs vaulted RSS into the limelight but are unlikely to be the force that sustains RSS as a communication medium. The biggest opportunities for RSS are not in the blogosphere but as a corporate communication channel.

Complete Article - Blogs Are Not the Future of RSS

Copyright Infringements - Competition is Good, Copying is Bad
I've always been of the opinion that competition is a good thing. It encourages all of us to be better and make better products. While it might be true that imitation
is the sincerest form of flattery, copying someone else's work is simply wrong.

Copyright Infringements Article

Pay Per Click Definitions
Pay-Per-Click marketing has become an online phenomenon, with marketers only paying for traffic they receive. As Internet marketing has evolved, pay-per-click is seen by many as the middle ground between paying per impression and paying per sale. Advertisers only pay when they receive traffic that may or may not be targeted.

Pay Per Click Definitions Complete Article

When Something is Free
What are consumer expectations when something is free?
Realistically, consumers subconsiously assume free means free, and while that might be the initial intent rarely is it the case.

What Exactly Does Free Mean?
Realistically, consumers subconsciously assume free means free, and while that might be the initial intent, rarely is it truly the case.

Why do Companies Offer Things for Free?
Companies or individuals may promote a free offer or service for any number of reasons. From branding to ad revenue, companies often use "free" to attract attention or interest. As a consumer, it is important to realize what "free" might really mean.

When Something is Free

More on Keywords
Keywords are the heart to effective Internet searches. Whether optimizing a web site or searching for a hard-to-find item, consider tapping resources to locate a variety of keywords. Identify keywords and phrases that are relevant to the products, services, or information you are promoting or searching for.

Synonyms
Use a thesaurus to find terms that are related to a primary keyword. Searching on a synonym will often bring up different Internet search results. A thesaurus groups words that are similar in meaning. Usually, you reach for a thesaurus when you have a word in mind and you are looking for a similar term. Keep in mind that no two words mean exactly the same thing. We turn to a thesaurus to find different, more expressive ways of speaking and writing, this is particularly important when related to keywords.

More on Keywords

What is Wiki
What is Wiki?
Wiki is web server software that allows users to contribute content. Collaboration is the key to Wiki, which is designed as a powerful system for online communities to build web pages and web sites. Unlike blogs and forums, all users are allowed to contribute and edit existing content. Wiki is derived from the Hawaiian term "wiki wiki" meaning "quick". The concept behind a Wiki is that collaboration on projects will move it along quicker.

Wikis generally allow web pages to be written, edited and created collectively in a web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and simple text. Most Wikis are open, and allow any user the ability to edit the contents of a Wiki web page. While some say this opens the concept to abuse, Wiki moderators and self-policing in the Wiki sector appear to be taking hold. Wiki supporters generally feel that it is generally easier to correct mistakes than create the content from scratch. Wikipedia is a standing symbol of what many would consider a succesful Wiki.

Complete Article - What is Wiki

Developing Content Sites
Highly targeted, focused sites that are related to specific market segments are highly advantageous and can often be created using existing web content. The key is to provide value.

Think of the time spent surfing the web gathering resources and information. By creating a topic-centric resource compiling information, webmasters are providing a service or value. In many cases that value is simply the compilation of topic-specific information in a single resource. The compilation of this information in itself is the value.

These highly focused content sites can be great supplemental portals that are invaluable as a marketing tool for niche products. Niche portals help define expertise in a specific market segment, not to mention the added benefit of providing valuable topic-specific links. The topic-centric portals also tend to achieve high search placement and will often provide advertisers high quality exposure, allowing webmasters the opportunity to capitalize on their efforts.

Complete Article - Developing Content Portals

Google AdSense Progression
The web has evolved into a complex "organism" which, to some, appears to have a life of its own. As the Internet has evolved, so too have online marketers and publishers. The dot-com balloon is said to have burst but savvy publishers have grabbed the coat tails of the Google search monster and employ Google AdSense on content-rich websites. Google AdSense, a pioneer for providing content-sensitive advertisements, has been a boon to webmasters looking for alternatives to amortize their web trafffic.

How Does Google AdSense Work?
The concept is simple: The publisher or webmaster inserts a java script into a website. Each time the page is accessed, the java script pulls advertisements from Google's AdSense program. The ads are targeted and related to the content contained on the web page serving the ad. If a web surfer clicks on an advertisement served from Google, the webmaster serving the ad earns a portion of the money that the advertiser is paying Google for the click.

Complete Article - Google AdSense Progression

The Power of Topic Specific Search Engines
What are Topical Search Engines?
Simply put, topical search engines are search engines focused on a specific industry, sector or topic.


While many marketers are scrambling for links, any links, an area that is often overlooked is topic-specific search engines. What many don't realize is that these engines do produce traffic, and they often contain traffic that is very targeted. Anyone who has taken the time to analyze weblogs and track sales sources will likely see that targeted traffic converts at a significantly higher rate than non-targeted traffic.

A savvy online marketer realizes that often, the quality of the visitor is far more important than the quantity of visitors. Web marketers should focus their energies on attracting targeted traffic whenever possible.

Complete Article - The Power of Topic Specific Search Engines

10 Tips for Bloggers Blogging
Tips for creating a blog.
There are no hard and fast rules on how to blog. Having said that, bloggers will likely increase their exposure by following some simple blog guidelines.

1.) Stay on topic.
Opinions are generally accepted but the content of the items in the blog should all relate to a general theme. Unless you have an uncanny knack for wit, humor or cynicism, the majority of your readers will be interested in the content that relates to a specific defined theme or loosely defined area of interest. Most readers won't care that you eat Cheerios for breakfast. They may, however, be interested in the fact that vinegar takes out stains and that toilet paper rolls make great wreaths. Define a topic and stick to it. This will ensure that you create a loyal following of interested readers.

Complete Article - Tips for Blogging

How Podcasting Works
While some traditional radio talk shows have begun providing podcasts of their regularly-scheduled broadcasts, the bulk of the podcasts that have cropped up tend to be independent broadcasters who have a fascination with technology. As a result, some podcasts are a little rough around the edges. Nonetheless, it is clear that the technology provides a significant opportunity and potential. Even nay-sayers believe that podcasting is more than a passing fad.

Complete Article

Displaying RSS Feeds
Webmasters with limited time or capacity can syndicate related content. In a nut shell, webmasters can create RSS radars by combining a mix of content from related sources by grouping similarly-themed feeds. RSS feeds are updated at different intervals, providing an ever-changing collection of related information.

RSS is a form of eXtensible Markup Language or XML. Viewing an RSS feed in a web browser generally produces code that is not easy for website visitors to decipher. As a result, webmasters use tools to display the content contained in an RSS feed.

Content contained in RSS feeds can be added to websites a number of different ways. Each method for displaying the RSS feed has pros and cons associated with it. Webmasters will need to determine which option will best meet their hosting and technology needs.

Complete Article - Displaying RSS

Search Engine Optimization for RSS Feeds
In some ways RSS is very similar to HTML, the language commonly used to create websites. Just as with HTML, webmasters using traditional search engine optimization tactics when creating an RSS feed will find that their RSS feed receives additional exposure and interest.
Complete Article - SEO for RSS

Innovative Business Use of RSS as a Technology
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a new way to broadcast corporate news and structured information. RSS offers a quick, easy corporate communication channel. The RSS contents are published as a feed and the feed's content keep customers, partners and journalists abreast of corporate news and information. The RSS feeds are read using a tool referred to as a news aggregator, or an RSS reader. The aggregator periodically checks to see if the RSS feed has been updated. As the feed is updated, new information will automatically appear in the RSS reader.

While RSS was at one point only considered to be a means to deliver news headlines, RSS has quickly become a powerful medium to disseminate all kinds of information. As traditional marketers are attempting to rein in content delivery, measuring e-mail open rates, click-throughs and conversions, Internet users are fighting to gain control over the content they receive. Savvy marketers and business owners are using RSS as a way to improve corporate communication and increase their external exposure and brand appeal.

Complete Article - Innovative Business Use of RSS as a Technology

RSS in News You Choose
Why is RSS So Magical?
The answer is simple: RSS is news you choose.

How Does it Work?
Publishers and webmasters provide content and news in an RSS feed. Users view the content of interest in an RSS reader or news aggregator. The aggregator or reader contains the collection of feeds that are of interest to the user. As the RSS feed is updated the content in the reader or aggregator updates with the new information. At any point, users can remove a feed from their aggregator or reader and no longer receive information from that source. Ultimately, the user is choosing the news and content they wish to view.

complete article - RSS is news you choose

RSS Tools
Considering the ever-increasing support for RSS in online communities, we have compiled a list of resources and products that will benefit webmasters, web surfers and publishers in their quest to understand the power of RSS. RSS has rapidly become an alternative communication venue. In order to understand the full benefits, consider utilizing some of the following tools and resources.

Complete Article - Tools for RSS

Determining Keywords
Determining keywords is a critical step in web design. If your website and meta tags do not contain related keywords, web surfers will be unable to find your website when they conduct searches.

The formula is a little tricky - you will need to locate terms that are popular and relevant to your site. These terms may or may not be terms that *you* feel are relevant terms. The optimal terms in a site should be terms that a potential customer would use when searching for a website with your content. In order to achieve success your website should be optimized with terms and phrases that are descriptive, related to your content, and which receive a significant amount of searches. The caveat, of course, is that you want to find terms and phrases where there is little competition, so you quickly achieve high ranking in the important search engines.

Complete Article - Determining Keywords

Understanding Web Logs; And Why it Matters
General web statistics give pertinent information about website visitors. Webmasters analyzing these statistics have a better understanding of who their website visitors are and how they perceive the website. A lot can be learned by evaluating navigation patterns, most-viewed pages and exit pages. Deciphering web logs could easily become a full-time job. The information that can be gleaned from close log scrutiny is extremely valuable.

When a visitor comes to a website, the site has just a few seconds to grab the visitor's interest. Slow-loading pages or broken graphics will send visitors and potential customers looking elsewhere. In order to make sense of web statistics, consider using a log analysis program. These programs tend to format the information in an easy-to-understand way, often providing graphs or visual representations that make understanding and seeing patterns that much easier. The downside to using software for web log analysis is that webmasters can easily be confused about what the actual results mean and which results matter the most. The information contained in the log file should be analyzed in conjunction with other information.

Complete Article - Understanding Web Logs

What is Podcasting?
Listeners can retain audio archives to listen to at their leisure. While blogs have turned many bloggers into journalists, podcasting has the potential to turn podcasters into radio personalities.

Complete Article - What is Podcasting

Webmaster Tools
Unless webmasters have a well-established brand, a great domain name and a huge marketing budget, it is important that they appear in search engines via specific keywords. With this in mind, we have compiled a list of resources and products that will benefit webmasters in their efforts to be found. Complete Webmaster Tools Article

Tools for Online Tracking
In order to determine which advertising and marketing efforts are effective you must have ways to measure the results of those efforts. Alerts and instant notifications can be instrumental in monitoring search engine position, trademarked terms, monitoring competitors and staying abreast of online occurrences.

RSS Benefits
RSS streamlines communication between publishers and readers. Since RSS has had a popularity surge, webmasters have been experimenting and using RSS feeds to deliver content in new and innovative ways. Typically, RSS feeds contain news headlines and content summaries. The content summaries contain just enough information without overwhelming the reader with superfluous details. If the reader is interested and wants additional information they can click on the item in the feed, accessing the website which contains additional details.
Complete Article - RSS Benefits

Who Needs RSS?
RSS has been around for more than 10 years but has only recently become popular. RSS provides headlines and summaries of information in a concise and standardized way.

Content Syndication
By creating a niche resource, webmasters are viewed as industry experts and their websites are more likely to receive incoming directory links. A number of publishers provide free content, the only stipulation being that the webmaster serving the content must include the author resource box. Webmasters utilizing free content can easily create portals teeming with themed content.

Blogging for Dollars
Blogging for dollars might sound like the latest game show or some new drinking game, but it's the latest craze to hit the Internet. Bloggers began blogging for a number of reasons, but as the blog movement has increased in popularity, they have found ways to monetize their blogs and are seeing their commitment pay off.

Internet Communication Vehicles; Email, Instant Messaging, Blogs, RSS, Forums and Listservs: What's Next?
How do we keep Internet communication simple? Let's start by taking a look at the different methods used to communicate on the web. It is important to understand the nuances and benefits of the different forms.

Relationship Networking
Relationship networking is simply the art of meeting people and benefiting from those relationships. Often the benefit of these relationship is to obtain information and leads to further grow your business. Any successful relationship, whether a personal or a business relationship, is unique to every pair of individuals, and it evolves over time. Effective relationship networking is all about building those relationships and maintaining long lasting connections with other professionals.

Understanding Affiliate Prorgrams
Affiliate programs are commonly misunderstood, in order to understand affiliate programs lets start with terminology. For clarification purposes, an affiliate is defined as any "referrer" or website that promotes a product in an effort to earn revenue.

Adware, Should I be Afraid?
Developers offering downloads are paying the price for the malformed truths that have been put forth regarding downloads. While not a political campaign the smears are ever present in the adware arena.

Acceptable Responses on the Web
Many online marketers work odd hours, with no beginning of the day and no real end. How does this impact support and customer service inquiries? Some small businesses are afraid to reply to customer queries off-hours, fearful that the message time-stamp will betray them as a small business. Many online marketers work odd hours, with no beginning of the day and no real end. How does this impact support and customer service inquiries? Some small businesses are afraid to reply to customer queries off-hours, fearful that the message time-stamp will betray them as a small business. The Internet however is timeless. The fact is customers appreciate a quick response. With the globalization of the Internet federal holidays are blurred. Customers expect timely responses and often make little note of the time zone the vendor they are working with.

Understanding Google AdWords
Google AdWords provide an inexpensive advertising venue for businesses to advertise products or services to a targeted audience. Advertisers have the ability to control their budget, target their advertising based on keywords. Advertisers are also free to determine the ad contents.

Understanding Google AdSense
Google AdSense allows webmasters to dynamically serve content relevant advertisements on web pages. If the visitor clicks one of the AdSense ads served to the website, the website owner is credited for the referral.

What Are RSS Feeds ?
RSS also known as rich site summary or real simply syndication, arrived on the scene a number of years ago, but was only recently embraced by webmasters as a means to effectively syndicate content. RSS Feeds provide webmasters and content providers an avenue to provide concise summaries to prospective readers. Thousands of commercial web sites and blogs now publish content summaries in an RSS feed.

Recycling Cell Phones
Technological advancements providing users with improved reception through integrated antenna systems, reduced size and weight of cell phones, along with numerous feature sets, and storage improvements have caused the bulk of cellular phone users and enthusiasts to upgrade to new and improved handsets. The low cost of cell phones and the added technological improvements mean that the majority of cellular phone users are on their 2nd or 3rd generation hand set.

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