Via Hotels.com. Infographics to put you in the mood. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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Most Topular Stories
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Romance survey [infographic]
Holy Kaw!9 Feb 2012 | 12:02 pm -
HTC: Ice Cream Sandwich Will Start Hitting Our Handsets In March
TechCrunch9 Feb 2012 | 10:55 amAt long last, HTC fans can finally stop holding their collective breath. After months of relative quiet, the Taiwanese company has taken to their Facebook page to spread the word: the Ice Cream Sandwich is coming, and it’s coming soon. For owners of certain HTC devices, the long-awaited Android 4.0 update will begin hitting handsets next month. HTC originally promised that Ice Cream Sandwich would be hitting most of their top-tier devices in “early 2012,” but that doesn’t seem to the case anymore unless you own one of their numerous Sensation devices. If anything, it… -
Mass Effect 3 Gets iPad Version with Action-Packed ‘Infiltrator’ [PREVIEW]
Mashable!9 Feb 2012 | 11:35 amMass Effect 3 is coming to an iPad near you in the form of Mass Effect Infiltrator, an iOS game aimed at expanding the game’s narrative and give players some mobile combat. Infiltrator isn’t a direct port of the latest Mass Effect game. Unlike its big brother, a sci-fi role-playing game known for its first-person shooter gameplay and massive, branching story-lines, Infiltrator is all about fighting. Mashable got a demo of the game played on an iPad and hooked up to a television at an EA showcase. The story follows a soldier called Randall Ezno as he travels the universe tracking… -
Off the Cuff #2
The Tom Peters Weblog7 Feb 2012 | 8:17 amOur Off the Cuff video series is a direct response from Tom to your questions. This is the second video in the series, which poses the question, "What is the greatest piece of advice you ever received that has made you a better writer or communicator?" It's a terrific question for Tom, and he discusses not only writing influences, but touches on public speaking as well. Don't miss the Dan Pink technique at the end; it may feel excruciating in practice, but there's no denying the improvement gained. -
Inaccurate labels and why we need them (and need to improve them)
Seth's Blog9 Feb 2012 | 2:46 amIf I tell you, "I'm going to the baseball game," it seems as though you're likely to understand what I mean. Of course, you won't. When George Will goes to a baseball game, it's a religious experience. Me, I don't even like baseball. Or maybe it's my nephew's ball game (the playoffs), or maybe going to the game causes me to miss an important event, and on and on. We label the experience with just two words, and two words can't possibly capture the emotions and circumstance surrounding an event. The same thing is true with brands. If I tell you that a new business was funded by USV, that might…
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Holy Kaw!
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Romance survey [infographic]
9 Feb 2012 | 12:02 pmVia Hotels.com. Infographics to put you in the mood. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Do aliens go invisible by 'going green'?
9 Feb 2012 | 11:24 amAs we discover more and more planets around other stars, the Fermi Paradox is becoming, well, more paradoxical. The Fermi Paradox simply asks the question "where are they?" Our Milky Way galaxy is so big and so old -- and we are estimated to be accompanied by at least 100 billion planets -- that aliens should have visited us by now. Instead, when we peruse the heavens, we are faced with the Great Silence, which is one of the biggest challenges to modern astronomy. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Mysterious sounds reported around the world
9 Feb 2012 | 11:23 amPeople around the world have reported hearing strange sounds from the skies over the past month. Sometimes they describe it as a hum or low rumble; other times it’s a whine, thump, or even a melody. Often the sounds have been recorded and posted online, fueling rumors and conspiracy theories. One blogger wrote, "either the world is ending, aliens are landing or everyone is getting hoaxed. Or, possibly, there’s an actual scientific explanation for the mass amount of YouTube videos capturing bizarre sounds that are being heard around the globe. Are we witnessing the beginning of a… -
Costa Concordia: an ecological time bomb
9 Feb 2012 | 11:21 amAs workers begin to extract the half-million gallons of fuel in the shipwrecked cruise liner, locals are worried that their pristine waters are in danger. Reporting by Rossella Lorenzi. Written and produced by Rossella Lorenzi and Martin Berman. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Inside Syria's capitol: nervously normal
9 Feb 2012 | 11:18 amAs the violence in Syria continues to escalate, Syrian citizens are arming themselves to resist their oppressive regime. For days, Homs, the third-largest city in Syria, has endured shelling, tanks and attacks by heavy weaponry. Syrian protestors react with more violence against forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, resulting in all-out war zones in some residential neighborhoods. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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TechCrunch
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HTC: Ice Cream Sandwich Will Start Hitting Our Handsets In March
9 Feb 2012 | 10:55 amAt long last, HTC fans can finally stop holding their collective breath. After months of relative quiet, the Taiwanese company has taken to their Facebook page to spread the word: the Ice Cream Sandwich is coming, and it’s coming soon. For owners of certain HTC devices, the long-awaited Android 4.0 update will begin hitting handsets next month. HTC originally promised that Ice Cream Sandwich would be hitting most of their top-tier devices in “early 2012,” but that doesn’t seem to the case anymore unless you own one of their numerous Sensation devices. If anything, it… -
100 Million Americans Watch Online Video Per Day, Up 43% Since 2010 -comScore
9 Feb 2012 | 10:53 amTelevision is in trouble. Americans streamed 43.5 billion videos in December 2011, up 44% since December 2010, according to comScore’s 2012 US Digital Future In Focus report released today. The study also showed that 105.1 million Americans now watch videos online each day, up 43% from 73.7 million in 2010. comScore says YouTube is largely driving this, and that average minutes per video view, average videos watched per user, and total ads streamed are way up as well. TV and film studios should take notice and consider how they can create companion content to engage this growing… -
Glancee: A Nice-Guy Ambient Social Location App For Normal People
9 Feb 2012 | 10:44 amSome of us can’t be bothered to check in, but still want to find interesting people nearby. The challenge for developers is how to do this in a way that is both useful and not creepy. Glancee, available for both iOS and Android, gets closer to solving these problems than most I’ve seen. The app lets you sign in with Facebook, then it shows you people within 100 yards, or one, two, or ten miles who have things in common. In some ways this sounds similar another app I recently covered, Highlight — but there are key differences, that will make each app appeal to different sets… -
Pixloo Helps You Sell Your Home With Free Virtual Tours, Exports To Zillow, Trulia & More
9 Feb 2012 | 10:28 amIn December, Eric covered Open Home Pro, a startup that lets realtors sell homes via their iPads. Today, there comes a similar effort from Pixloo, except this service is designed for use by anyone – realtors and homeowners alike. With Pixloo, you can upload information about your home, including text, photos and even videos and then immediately export that data to major real estate sites including Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com and others, all for free. OK, technically, Pixloo is freemium. The pricing tiers depend on whether you need one virtual tour, the number of exports per tour and… -
Avast, Me Hearties: How The Pirate Bay Changed The Way We Steal
9 Feb 2012 | 9:41 amThe Pirate Bay, in many ways, is disappearing. It is one of the most popular torrent sites on the web and its database of millions of torrent files – essentially pointers to pieces of files hosted elsewhere – has long been the go-to spot for budding pirates around the world. While it still exists in spirit, the admins are now moving all of the torrent files off the site and are instead offering magnet links. This is an important distinction that will move the locus of general piracy from a single site to any number of sites, reducing the Pirate Bays importance as a source. First,…
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Mashable!
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Mass Effect 3 Gets iPad Version with Action-Packed ‘Infiltrator’ [PREVIEW]
9 Feb 2012 | 11:35 amMass Effect 3 is coming to an iPad near you in the form of Mass Effect Infiltrator, an iOS game aimed at expanding the game’s narrative and give players some mobile combat. Infiltrator isn’t a direct port of the latest Mass Effect game. Unlike its big brother, a sci-fi role-playing game known for its first-person shooter gameplay and massive, branching story-lines, Infiltrator is all about fighting. Mashable got a demo of the game played on an iPad and hooked up to a television at an EA showcase. The story follows a soldier called Randall Ezno as he travels the universe tracking… -
WikiLeaks Suspect Bradley Manning to Be Arraigned Feb. 23
9 Feb 2012 | 11:24 amU.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and war reports to WikiLeaks, will be arraigned before a military judge at Fort Meade, Maryland on Feb. 23, the Pentagon announced Thursday. Some of the 22 charges against Manning include aiding the enemy, disclosing classified information to a person not authorized to receive it, wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the internet knowing that it is accessible to the enemy, and violating Army computer use rules. The charge of aiding the enemy potentially carries the death penalty, but… -
5 Essential Spreadsheets for Social Media Analytics
9 Feb 2012 | 11:13 amAnn Smarty is a search marketer and full-time web entrepreneur. Ann blogs on search and social media tools. Her newest project, My Blog Guest, is a free platform for guest bloggers and blog owners. Follow Ann on Twitter @seosmarty. Social media analytics and tracking can be very time-consuming and expensive. You’ll find quite a few smart social media monitoring tools, but what if you can’t afford them? That’s why many social media marketers and power users are in constant search of free, efficient alternatives. Here, we’ll share a few ready-made spreadsheets you can… -
Google: No, We’re Not Launching Retail Stores Yet
9 Feb 2012 | 10:55 amGoogle planned to open its first-ever public store at its European headquarters in Dublin, if you believed a rumor reported by Bloomberg. But according to a company spokesperson, no plans are definite right now. A Google planning application for an expansion of its Dublin office indicated plans for an employee swimming pool, a restaurant and a store. But Google says the company doesn’t have plans to get into the retail business right now. “We already have an online store selling things like Google T-shirts and pens,” a Google spokesperson told Mashable. “We have the… -
H&M Has the Most-Followed Brand Page on Google+
9 Feb 2012 | 10:44 amFashion retailer H&M has beat out heavyweights Pepsi, Starbucks and Coca-Cola to become the most-followed brand on Google+. In a testament to the network’s viability as a marketing vehicle, Google, the former number one on Google+, is now number 13. Following H&M is Samsung USA, Pepsi, Starbucks and Burberry. The rest of the top 10, compiled by Simply Measured and based on the number of “circlers” for each brand in early February, is below. The full list, which is based on Interbrand’s Top 100 Brands, is available here. Simply Measured’s report, which…
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The Tom Peters Weblog
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Off the Cuff #2
7 Feb 2012 | 8:17 amOur Off the Cuff video series is a direct response from Tom to your questions. This is the second video in the series, which poses the question, "What is the greatest piece of advice you ever received that has made you a better writer or communicator?" It's a terrific question for Tom, and he discusses not only writing influences, but touches on public speaking as well. Don't miss the Dan Pink technique at the end; it may feel excruciating in practice, but there's no denying the improvement gained. -
TLBT Video #73Strategy: Measure Innovation
3 Feb 2012 | 8:46 amWe've posted the latest video in The Little BIG Things series on YouTube. Do you think it's impossible to measure innovation? In this video, Tom offers a brilliantly simple, easy-to-implement method for ensuring that a good portion of your work meets the mark on innovation. You can find the video in the right-hand column of this page or watch it at YouTube (time: 2 minutes 3 seconds). Or, get a PDF transcript of the video's content: Strategy: Measure Innovation. -
MOAP #4
30 Jan 2012 | 7:53 amThe latest installment of Tom's "Mother of All Presentations," or MOAP, is now available at ExcellenceNow.com. You can download the PowerPoint version or a PDF. We'll be releasing a section every other week throughout 2012. Part 4 introduces Tom's conviction that encouraging your people to make friends in other functions of the organization should be a top priority. Tom says you should reward such behavior, make it an agenda item. Download Part 4 of Tom's Mother of All Presentations, and learn how and why cross-functional socialization (read, idea-sharing) is essential to business excellence. -
Race to Nowhere
27 Jan 2012 | 4:51 amTom has said, "We tell our kids to 'be still,' then tell them to 'read history books'—which are replete (100%!) with tales of people ... who never sat still." This is obviously not the ideal way to cultivate a talented workforce. The education system in the United States still seems to be attempting to churn out well-behaved factory workers. With the enormous pressure placed on teachers to produce sufficient test results, the classroom becomes more about test preparation than exploration and discovery. Albert Einstein, long since deceased, had this to say: "It is nothing short of a… -
Advice, For What It's Worth ...
25 Jan 2012 | 7:20 amI was asked to contribute (a very few words) to a family page offering words of wisdom to a graduating high school senior. That's a serious challenge—and I literally spent days on the task. Here, for better or for worse, is the result: Rules For Living Life to the Hilt Nothing will turn out the way you thought it would. There is no bigger waste of time than making plans. Any success you have will be the byproduct of having thrown yourself headlong and without reserve into what you were most passionate about—and then ridden the wave you created wherever and at whatever speed it…
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Seth's Blog
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Inaccurate labels and why we need them (and need to improve them)
9 Feb 2012 | 2:46 amIf I tell you, "I'm going to the baseball game," it seems as though you're likely to understand what I mean. Of course, you won't. When George Will goes to a baseball game, it's a religious experience. Me, I don't even like baseball. Or maybe it's my nephew's ball game (the playoffs), or maybe going to the game causes me to miss an important event, and on and on. We label the experience with just two words, and two words can't possibly capture the emotions and circumstance surrounding an event. The same thing is true with brands. If I tell you that a new business was funded by USV, that might… -
How do they know you're not a flake?
8 Feb 2012 | 2:43 amBefore your link gets clicked or your proposal gets read, a busy person is going to triage it to find out if it's even worth glancing at. Since everyone is now connected, the new permeability has created a deluge of noise, and just about everyone worth contacting is taking defensive measures. Do I know this person? Did someone I trust send them over? Where does she work? (Ideo? the FDA? The New York Times?) Has she won an award? Is she famous? Are there typos and is the design sloppy? Are they pestering me? Do I already follow this person online? Does music play when I visit the website? Will… -
Horizontal marketing isn't a new idea
7 Feb 2012 | 2:09 amBut it is the new reality for just about every organization. Vertical marketing means the marketer (the one with money) is in charge. Vertical marketing starts at the top and involves running ads, sending out direct mail and pushing hype through the media. Your money, your plans, your control. It might not work, but generally the worst outcome is that you will be ignored and need to spend more money. Horizonal marketing, on the other hand, means creating a remarkable product and story and setting it up to spread from person to person. It's out of your control, because all the interactions are… -
Who is your customer?
6 Feb 2012 | 2:26 amRule one: You can build a business on the foundation of great customer service. Rule two: The only way to do great customer service is to treat different customers differently. The question: Who is your customer? It's not obvious. Zappos is a classic customer service company, and their customer is the person who buys the shoes. Nike, on the other hand, doesn't care very much at all about the people who buy the shoes, or even the retailers. They care about the athletes (often famous) that wear the shoes, sometimes for money. They name buildings after these athletes, court them, erect… -
In search of a timid trapeze artist
5 Feb 2012 | 2:01 amGood luck with that, there aren't any. If you hesitate when leaping from rope to another, you're not going to last very long. And this is at the heart of what makes innovation work in organizations, why industries die, and how painful it is to try to maintain the status quo while also participating in a revolution. Gather up as much speed as you can, find a path and let go. You can't get to the next rope if you're still holding on to this one.
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800 CEO Read
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Sharpen Your Heels
8 Feb 2012 | 1:38 pmTweet Mrs. Moneypenny, long-time Financial Times columnist, concludes her book, Sharpen Your Heels: Mrs. Moneypenny’s Career Advice for Women, with this: One more piece of careers advice. A final word to all the ambitious women who will read this book. When you get to the top — and if you follow my advice, you will do so — remember to turn round and reach back to help the generation of women behind you. As Madeleine Albright once said, ‘There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.’ At the risk of ‘giving away the… -
Paper Promises
7 Feb 2012 | 2:43 pmTweetOur economic lives could literally stop on a dime. All it would take is an agreement redefining what a dime is, or is worth, backed by or tied to. It’s happened before, and The Economist‘s “Buttonwood” columnist Philip Coggan believes it will inevitably happen again as the great international play of creditors and debtors enters its next act. Coggan, in his new book Paper Promises: Debt, Money, and the New World Order (released today by PublicAffairs), identifies turning points in the history of economies, nations and international affairs by examining the… -
Business Book Awards Lab
7 Feb 2012 | 9:13 amTweet “Reading leads to more reading. It leaves you hungry and leads you to the ideas, information and inspiration to try something new. As the book of the year, Great By Choice begins: “We cannot predict the future. But we can create it.” – In the Books, 2011 800-CEO-READ has spent the past 28 years helping lead people to ideas that can change the way they think about business. Join us on February 14, 2012 at a very special Translator Lab as we facilitate a conversation about each of the winning books from the 2011 Business Book Awards. You’ll hear lessons and insights from the… -
The Start-Up of You
2 Feb 2012 | 9:36 amTweetIt used to be that there were entrepreneurs, and then the rest of us who were happy to help others achieve their goals and somehow find our own in the process. That’s changed. Many people are pursuing their own business ideas, and catching up on ideas and knowledge to help them run that business. For those that work for others, they too sense that stability is not what it used to be, and might be mentally preparing for the next step – whether they decide to take it, or it’s decided for them. Here’s a book that can help people on either side of the fence. Reid… -
Have a Nice Conflict
1 Feb 2012 | 1:03 pmTweet In a serendipitous turn of events, a copy of Have a Nice Conflict landed on my desk the same day that I happened to watch a current episode of Sesame Street with my son that features Mother Goose and her struggle to write a new rhyme because she had run out of conflicts to inspire her. As with all Sesame Street skits, there is a lesson to be learned. Conflict happens, and while the drama of a good conflict can be sensational (or rhyme-spirational), it’s important to learn how to work through them to maintain good relationships between friends. It struck me that day that while we…
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MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page
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Amazon Hits Apple with New 'Three Kindles for the Price of an iPad' Commercial
9 Feb 2012 | 8:42 amWith its prominent position in the smartphone and tablet markets, it's no surprise that Apple is a popular target in its competitors advertising as they seek to differentiate themselves from Apple even as they ride on the popularity of the company's brand and products. Samsung has been one of the most prominent users of this tactic lately with its series of ads showing Apple fans waiting in line for the next new product launch only to be wowed by the latest Samsung product being used by a passerby. Back in 2010, Amazon took on the iPad with a Kindle ad touting its E Ink capabilities that… -
High-Resolution Sharp Display Reportedly for iPad 3 Surfaces
9 Feb 2012 | 8:08 amThe flurry of iPad 3 part leaks continues today following yesterday's interior photo of the rear shell and some follow-up photos of the exterior of the shell and the Smart Cover magnets. Among the most prominent additions today are new photos of what may be the iPad 3's display. Japanese blog Macotakara points to a posting by repair firm iLab Factory showing a 9.7-inch LCD panel from Sharp that is said to be a 2048x1536 high-resolution display set for inclusion in the iPad 3. The panel shows three ribbon cables connecting the display to its circuit board, in line with a previously-leaked… -
Steve Jobs' 1991 FBI File Released, Reveals Consideration for Presidential Appointment
9 Feb 2012 | 7:33 amAs noted by Gawker, the FBI has just released a 1991 background check on Steve Jobs. The 191-page document was undertaken as Jobs was being considered for a presidential appointment to the President's Export Council by George H. W. Bush. The file was released following a Freedom of Information Act request filed through the open government site MuckRock. Beyond basic biographical information, the report makes reference to comments from a number of Jobs' acquaintances who were interviewed to help build a picture of his background. Gawker notes that the report contains an unusually high number… -
Apple to Introduce iPad 3 in First Week of March
9 Feb 2012 | 6:01 amAllThingsD, which has an accurate track record in revealing Apple's new product media events, is reporting that Apple will hold an event to launch the iPad 3 in the first week of March.Sources say the company has chosen the first week in March to debut the successor to the iPad 2, and will do so at one of its trademark special events. The event will be held in San Francisco, presumably at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple’s preferred location for big announcements like these. No word yet on a street date for the iPad 3 (assuming that’s what it’s called), though my guess is… -
Photo of the Back of an iPad 3 Rear Shell, Smart Cover Magnets
8 Feb 2012 | 9:44 pmApparently, iPad 3 enclosures are easy to come by these days. Earlier today, Repair Labs posted a photo of the interior the iPad 3 rear shell. They concluded that there were some minor changes that suggested a larger battery and redesigned logic board. Tonight, Apple.pro posts an image of the back of the same shell, showing it to look quite simliar to the current iPad 2 backing, though the camera appears closer to the edge. There's no markings on the enclosure, however. No "iPad" or serial number markings. The site also claims to have a photo of the Smart Cover magnets, suggesting the iPad 3…
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Fast Company
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The Google Wallet Hack Is Not The End Of The World (Or Even NFC) As We Know It [Update: Google Reacts]
9 Feb 2012 | 11:30 amStay calm and carry on, people: It's way too soon to say that NFC should stand for Now Fatally Corrupted. Yes, Google's breakthrough NFC payments app Wallet is being mentioned all over the news thanks to a flaw--it's vulnerable to a hack that gives nefarious types access to your secure PIN number. But don't believe any doomsayers or fearmongering that you may encounter on this matter; it's not as evil as it seems and, believe it or not, it's actually a sign that the future of wireless mobile payments is probably more secure than your current credit card. As reported over at the blog of… -
Fast Talk: How This Bartender Is Rebooting The Condom
9 Feb 2012 | 7:41 amMeet Richard Pessall, a 20-year-old British entrepreneur who wants to take the condom where no man has gone before (no, not space).Richard Pessall, 20, lives and works as bartender in Shropshire, England. He spent nine years living in the United States, but when he ran out of money to pay for college in North Carolina, he was unable to renew his visa and was forced to return to the U.K. He’s decided to make his fortune before attempting to return stateside. His big idea? Reboot the condom. Forplay, the condom company he's been bootstrapping with his barman’s earnings, has grown to a staff… -
Inside INTERPOL's New Cybercrime Innovation Center
9 Feb 2012 | 7:09 amINTERPOL, the international policing agency, is opening a massive innovation center in Singapore in 2014. At the center, law enforcement will learn all about the latest cybercrimes... and have access to cutting-edge forensics laboratories and research stations.INTERPOL, the international policing organization, is building a law enforcement tech geek heaven in Singapore. The INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation will function as a R&D lab, training facility, and forensics lab for all things cybercrime. Slated to open in 2014, the Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) will be part of the… -
5 Ways To Put The "Pro" In Profile Pics
9 Feb 2012 | 6:29 amYour profile photo is an important part of your online image, so if you still have an egg as your Twitter avatar or a blue-and-white silhouette for your Facebook page, it's time to step things up. (Hint: This photo is a "don't.")If you still have an egg as your Twitter avatar, it's time to step things up. Your profile photo is an important part of your online image. Not only is this pic the first thing people see when they look you up on the web, whether you're using Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+, this image is now regularly transported into people's in-boxes and pulled onto their phones as… -
Apple May Sell iPads To Air Force, Groupon Reports Surprise Q4 Loss, Foxconn Servers Hacked
9 Feb 2012 | 6:17 amBreaking news from your editors at Fast Company, with updates all day.Rumor: iPad 3 Announcement In March. The latest buzz on the iPad 3, this time from AllThingsD, is that the new device will be unveiled at an early March event. Sources, per usual, are anonymous, but their tips confirm what's already expected of the device--a faster chip, Retina Display, and better graphics. --NS--Updated 9:15 a.m. ESTApple May Sell iPads To Air Force. The Air Force is on the lookout for about 18,000 new tablets, and chances are the iPad--the only device mentioned on their recently spotted notice--may fit…
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Entrepreneur Update
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Eight Creative Marketing Ideas to Make Your Business Stand Out
9 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amIf your marketing could use a new twist, consider these new ideas to reach today's customers. -
Four Questions to Ask Before Setting a Price
9 Feb 2012 | 5:03 amBefore you figure out your pricing, figure out your business. -
Three Ways to Extend the Battery Life of Smartphones and Tablets
9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amConsider these options for extending the battery life of your mobile devices. -
Fashion Mogul Christopher Burch Talks Business
9 Feb 2012 | 2:00 amAs Fashion Week kicks off, we sat down with the man behind brands like Tory Burch and Monika Chiang to find out what it takes to make it in the business. -
Seven Ways to Kill Your Meetings and Unleash Productivity
8 Feb 2012 | 12:08 pmDespite studies showing that meetings are a colossal waste of time, they remain common. Here's how to collaborate while cutting back on meetings.
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Inc.com
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Redbox's Smart Move: What You Can Learn
9 Feb 2012 | 8:45 amThe company's movie streaming deal with Verizon is a classic adjacency move that leverages the brand while limiting the risk.Redbox and Verizon announced this week they are teaming up to offer an online movie streaming service that competes directly with Netflix. We think it’s a great strategic investment that will likely reap positive returns. In studying their moves, there’s a lot any business owner can learn from the decision.Coinstar, Redbox’s parent company, is led by a very savvy management team. In our recent article, Lessons from a Dying Business, we noted that… -
Pinterest's Not So Controversial Business Model
9 Feb 2012 | 7:40 amHow else did you expect the site to make money? My company uses the same business model--and there's nothing unethical about it.How else did you think Pinterest was supposed to keep the lights on?That was my first question after I read an article forwarded to me recently about how the visual bookmarking tool makes money off of users' pins. For anyone who doesn't know what Pinterest is, it's a site where people "pin" images and videos from around the Web to a virtual pinboard that other users can follow. It's a lovely and compelling site and growing fast. According to Hitwise, the site had 11… -
When Daily Deals Work: 8 Scenarios
9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amYou'll likely take a revenue hit and strain your operations. So make sure you're doing a daily deal for the right reason.Dear Jeff,Everything I read seems to say daily deals are a bad deal for the business. I’m a contrarian by nature, so are there any situations where running a daily deal can make sense?—Name withheld at requestDaily deals don’t work for a lot of businesses. Aside from the revenue hit, the short-term customer influx and strain on operations can push away existing customers.But you can still make a daily deal program work, especially in situations like… -
Which Numbers Matter Most?
9 Feb 2012 | 5:31 amHow can you tell if your e-commerce company is going to grow or fall flat on its face? These three measurements hold the key.How can you tell if your e-commerce company is growing? I use three metrics to measure top-line growth in my portfolio companies: traffic, conversions, and sales. TrafficNot all traffic is created equal. Any old eyeballs will no longer do. You need visitor engagement that can translate into sales. Getting the right visitor engagement is more complicated than just having a lot of money to spend. And as a young start-up, you can’t rely on snagging cross-over traffic… -
Find Your Company's Native Cannibals
9 Feb 2012 | 5:30 amHow (and why) to disrupt your own business before your competitors or upstarts have a chance to.Many years ago, I was lucky enough to work on a project with one of the original Apollo 13 mission-control engineers. One day, while he was patiently answering questions from his wide-eyed colleagues about how NASA got the astronauts safely home via their Lunar Escape Module, he paused, looked down at a gadget in his hands and cracked a wry smile. "You know, this little device has more computing capacity—by a large order of magnitude—than we had to work with in the entire LEM." No lie,…
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Men with Pens
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Why You Should Ditch Your Blogging Schedule
5 Feb 2012 | 10:00 pmFor several years now, you’ve been given advice from probloggers (and not-so-probloggers) that just wasn’t very good advice at all. The advice made sense. The analogies were understandable. But the theory was wrong. I know, because I dished out that advice and followed it strictly for years. I was convinced it was good advice and that if I didn’t follow it, all hell would break loose. Lightning would strike me dead. All my loyal readers would string me up, tar and feather me and throw rotten food as I pleaded for mercy. I was wrong too. After all, the advice made sense: Have a… -
What to Do When You Hate Your Blog
29 Jan 2012 | 10:00 pmYears ago, I started this blog with a pretty big mission in mind: to help you succeed. I wanted to tell you things you didn’t know. I wanted to point you in better directions. I wanted to share lessons I’d learned the hard way so that you didn’t make the same mistakes. I wanted to give you shortcuts that helped you succeed faster, easier and with a lot less stress than I had to go through to get where I am today. Somewhere along the way, I lost sight of that goal. My business got big. My blog became popular. It was explosive growth. I got busy. I had clients and readers who wanted… -
Damn Fine Words Writing Contest: The Winners!
22 Jan 2012 | 8:53 amToday we’re announcing the winners of the Damn Fine Words writing contest… but boy, was it EVER tough to choose just two submissions. 25 people fought hard to win a chance to get into the Damn Fine Words writing course and learn effective techniques that would change their life. Some posts were straightforward. Some were thoughtful. Some touched our hearts. It wasn’t an easy choice. But after great deliberation and many discussions, the judges and I narrowed the many submissions down to two lucky winners. Lynn Hess and Rena Tucker, you’ve each won a free membership to… -
How Achieving Your Goals Kills Your Motivation
18 Jan 2012 | 10:00 pmHeard you need constant improvement to become a master? Heard you need those 10,000 hours of practice? It’s hogwash. A goal of ‘constant improvement’ won’t lead to success. I learned this when I signed up for Damn Fine Words, James Chartrand’s writing course. Signing up excited me. I was excited because I was taking action towards my goal of ‘constant skill improvement’ so I could further build my business. The first half of the course taught me a lot. This was the most valuable part – a complete writing system, an approach that could be used to take any… -
How to Find Time to Write: A Casual Conversation with Laura Vanderkam
16 Jan 2012 | 10:00 pmYou’re invited to a very exclusive event. How to find the time to write. That’s one of the biggest complaints I hear from busy businesspeople, freelancers and entrepreneurs. (Even writers complain they can’t find the time to write!) There aren’t enough hours in a day. There’s so much going on. You’re barely keeping up. You’re just trying to stay afloat and get through the day. It’s overwhelming. You have too much work. Too many obligations. Too much to do. Time to write? Forget it! But you need to find the time to write. Writing is integral to…
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Our Editors
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Wanted: Idea Fusers
7 Feb 2012 | 6:40 amIt's become pretty much common knowledge that great innovation springs from the ability to pull two unlike things together to create a beautiful third. Steve Jobs famously shifted a paradigm when he fused calligraphy with technology to create the Mac's graphical user interface. Many great inventions fuse something very simple, cheap and widely accessible — say, a small piece of paper — with something expensive and complex — say, a medical laboratory test — to come up with a marvelous solution, such as George Whitesides' postage-stamp sized diagnostic tool. And though… -
HBR's Best Videos, Infographics, Podcasts, and Slideshows of 2011
29 Dec 2011 | 8:13 amAs you take some time to reflect, relax, and renew before the year to come, we offer you our most popular multimedia content from the year that was: podcasts, videos, slideshows, and infographics that we hope help you chart a successful course in 2012. First off, our most popular podcast this year was Justin Fox's interview with Bob Pozen, "Productivity Secrets of a Very Busy Man." Perhaps if I, too, were willing to eat the same bowl of cold cereal every morning — all in the name of simplifying and streamlining — I could be as prolifically perspicacious as the Harvard Business… -
Amazon Should Partner with Independent Bookstores
27 Dec 2011 | 11:48 amI didn't buy any gifts from Amazon this year. I, whose entire job basically depends on the Internet — including editing HBR Singles like this and this, both sold through Amazon — developed a moral and intellectual aversion to purchasing goods from this Internet stalwart. Here's what happened. My original plan this holiday shopping season was, as usual, to order a pile of books — and kitchen gizmos, and DVDs, and who knows what all — from the online giant. I'd re-up my Prime membership, have everything shipped directly, and be done with it less than an hour. Merry… -
The Euro Crisis: Was Cameron Right?
13 Dec 2011 | 7:52 amIn yet another effort to solve the euro crisis, France and Germany last week agreed on a stability pact that essentially offers increased bailout funds in return for even stronger fiscal austerity on the part of the major debtor countries of Europe. But the deal arguably necessitated changes to the Treaties governing the European Union and as such required assent from all 27 EU member countries, ten of which are not members of the euro zone but whose economies are nonetheless closely integrated with it. To get around this problem and to provide the markets with a united front of governments,… -
How Technology Made Me Love to Shop
21 Nov 2011 | 8:01 amThis blog post is part of the HBR Online Forum The Future of Retail. Like many men, I've never been very enthusiastic about shopping. That's partly because I'm frugal, and don't enjoy spending money. It's partly due to the hassles I associate with visiting retail stores — a series of inconveniences that begins in the parking lot (hunting for spaces), continues in the aisles (where I can never find what I need), and ends at the cash registers (where I have little patience for long lines). Much of the problem, though, lies in psychology. While I can be confident of my decision-making…
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Copyblogger
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How to Recover From a Social Media Hangover
9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am“Hello. My name is Cori and I’m a social media addict. “Today is day 1 of my commitment to give myself a regular break from technology and the foggy, uncreative haze it can unwittingly lead to.” I was reading a post the other day by blogger Michael Brenner at B2B Marketing Insider, talking about getting your social media game on. Of course, being the skimmer that I am, the first thing that caught my attention and made me go back and read the whole thing was his mention of having a Social Media Hangover. His hangover was induced by sometimes (as we all do) forgetting to… -
The “New” SEO Secret Weapon
8 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amIf you have a web site, you may have noticed one of two things about the traffic you get from search engines. Your search traffic may have dried up overnight, with once-healthy streams turning into a sad little trickle. Or you may have noticed a nice, steady improvement as you’ve climbed higher in the SERPs (search engine results pages), while other sites that used to outrank you suddenly evaporated. There’s a super-secret new ingredient in SEO. It was always a factor, but it’s become even more important recently, as the Google team relentlessly declares war on what they see… -
8 Quick Tips for Writing Bullet Points People Actually Want to Read
7 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amIt’s a Twitterized world, we’re just living in it. Blog posts, Tweets, quick videos, Google+, the Facebook Timeline, and tens of thousands of images pinned to digital boards are flying past us faster than we can read them. Faster than we can even scan them, depending on the time of day. What does this mean for writers trying to cut through it all? At least two things that I can think of: You’d better know how to write a compelling headline You’d better know how to write bullet points that grab (and keep) your reader We’re not telling you to keep your copy short. -
7 Crucial Tactics for Writing a Wildly Successful Guest Post
6 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amWe all know that guest posts grow blogs. But not many people realize that tactical guest posting grows careers. Most bloggers I see pump out these articles while reciting the mantra “quantity over quality”; there’s no real strategy and there are no real long-term benefits. In this post I am going to show you the seven crucial tactics for writing a radically successful guest post. Done right, these strategies will get you more email subscribers, coveted Google ranking positions, and a big head-start on your content marketing goals. Who am I to teach you about guest blogging? -
7 Smashing Social Media Marketing Links
4 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amThis week on The Lede … What really works on Twitter One thing social media copywriters should never do 9 productive social media hacks A reminder of the power of the original social media If you just can’t wait for The Lede every Saturday, and you want even more practical, useable links than the seven we highlight here every week, follow @copyblogger on Twitter. It’s painless. Really. // 9 Social Media Hacks You Need to Embrace Now Mr. Baer makes a good case that though social media is inexpensive in monetary terms, it can get good and costly when it comes to spending your…
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Bill Taylor on HarvardBusiness.org
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Are You Learning as Fast as the World Is Changing?
26 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amTom Kelly, general manager of IDEO, the world-renowned design firm, likes to quote French novelist Marcel Proust, who famously said, "The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes." What goes for novelists goes for leaders searching to craft a novel strategy for their company, a new product for their customers, or a better way to organize their employees. In a world that never stops changing, great leaders never stop learning. Today, the challenge for leaders at every level is no longer just to out-hustle, out-muscle, and out-maneuver the competition. -
Average Is Over. What's Your Extra?
19 Dec 2011 | 6:05 amI approach a book by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman with a mixture of wariness and anticipation. Wariness because Friedman's books tend to go on for many pages longer than they need to, and many of those pages contain his trademark blend of Davos Man self-congratulation and cheesy metaphors. Yet I still have a sense of anticipation because in every one of Friedman's books there are a handful of insights that are so clear, so sharp, so flat-out right that they frame how you look at the world going forward. That Used to Be Us, Friedman's newest book (written with Johns Hopkins… -
Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should
6 Dec 2011 | 11:52 amAs we come to the end of a bitter, divisive, downright ugly year in business and society, it's hard to pick the one big story that defines the climate of the times. This summer's rancorous debt-ceiling talks come to mind, as do the collapse of the feckless Italian government and the rise of Occupy Wall Street and its satellite movements around the country and the world. But if I had to pick one small story that provides a huge "teachable moment" for business leaders going forward, I'd choose Bank of America's late-September decision to charge customers a $5 monthly fee to use their debit… -
Don't Let What You Know Limit What You Imagine
29 Nov 2011 | 12:03 pmOne of the most perplexing features of these troubled times is that so many capable people in so many fields look so lost and ineffective. Whether it's the stubborn inefficiencies of the health-care system, the ever-rising costs of the higher-education system, even the slow-motion collapse of the US postal system, leaders with unrivaled expertise and decades of experience can't seem to develop creative solutions to dire problems. Why are so many smart executives so ineffective? One answer may be that all this experience is itself a problem. In her underappreciated book, The Innovation Killer,… -
The Values Proposition: Do Small Things with Great Love
24 Oct 2011 | 7:18 amThe world confronts vast uncertainty, from unrest in the social climate to accelerating shifts in the climate itself. The economy faces huge challenges, from public-debt crises in Europe to the overhang of mortgage debt in the U.S. The business community faces an ongoing series of stops and starts, from the loss of an icon like Steve Jobs to the rise of new-economy giants like Amazon and Facebook. There is a temptation, amidst the turmoil, for pundits to conclude that the only sensible response is to make bold bets — new business models that challenge the logic of an industry, products…
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Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
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How to Use a WordPress Blog as a Referral Generator
9 Feb 2012 | 5:19 amHow to Use a WordPress Blog as a Referral GeneratorThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’ve seen and heard this scenario countless times. Two perfectly suited strategic partners determine they should start doing some things together in an effort to create referral opportunities for each other. They shake hands and agree that it’s a fabulous idea, but then nothing happens. Mostly nothing happens because there’s no catalyst to get the ball rolling in a way that makes sense. I mean, sure, they could both send out a mass mailing to their clients professing how great the other is, but… -
Turn Your Business Into a Community Building Platform
8 Feb 2012 | 5:36 amTurn Your Business Into a Community Building PlatformThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I believe the future of business and commitment building resides in the idea of viewing your business as a platform for your community. The notion of a platform is one that receives a fair amount of play in various contexts. An author is said to possess a platform when they have built a following. Consultants might work with a business owner to build a platform through speaking, writing, blogging and connecting in social media. And finally, many tech firms have built platforms by creating open source… -
Is Your Marketing Producing the Results You Expected
7 Feb 2012 | 5:58 amIs Your Marketing Producing the Results You ExpectedThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Quipol Image:One-Fat-Man via Flickr CC The poll question above is a bit loaded and, not that I want to skew the results, the answer for most lies in the fact that they don’t really know what results they expected or what result they are actually getting. Mostly they know the results aren’t what they had hoped for, but that’s another issue. Setting expectations One of the simplest, yet most effective, things you can do is set expectations or goals for your marketing. You can create… -
This Is a Message from Your Heart
6 Feb 2012 | 5:51 amThis Is a Message from Your HeartThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I had a heart scan the other day – mainly because I’m old and my spouse is convincing in the most loving way. a4gpa via Flickr CCIf you’ve never done it, it’s a pretty incredible experience to get to watch the awesome mechanical miracle that is you heart spray blood in and out through a series of valves, tubes, chambers, levers and doors that any engineer would be challenged to recreate. More often than not the heart is the subject of poems and songs about romance and love but in addition to being a physical… -
Weekend Favs February Four
4 Feb 2012 | 5:32 amWeekend Favs February FourThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or from my own travels. First run of the day Telluride Good stuff I found this week: Quipol – Easily create and embed social polls that are very easy to use and very good looking Transcribe – free online tool that makes it much easier…
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Business Blogs
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How to Focus SEO Activities For Results
9 Feb 2012 | 5:41 amOverwhelmed with SEO Options? There are many choices available when it comes to search engine optimization, or SEO, and you probably have many questions: Should you do your own SEO or hire a firm? Is SEO worth it? Will you be able to get to the top of the search engines? With all of the services, tips, articles, expert insights, updates, and more, it’s enough to make your head spin. If you are starting to feel overwhelmed, but feel you need to take advantage of SEO to get more people to your site, here’s a simple question that will help you focus: What are you trying to accomplish? If you… -
5 Things You Need to Know About Marketing Your Business On Pinterest
8 Feb 2012 | 6:57 pmI’ve found a new addiction on the Internet; it’s Pinterest. And it appears that I’m not the only one that’s addicted to this amazing website. With close to 12 million active visitors in the US per month Pinterest just happens to be the newest “big thing” in the social media world. In case you haven’t heard of it, Pinterest is like a virtual version of the bulletin board that you keep in your office. Users have their own “boards” where they can post images of things that they find interesting, inspiring, or memorable online. Users can… -
The Rules of Networking
8 Feb 2012 | 6:15 amI know you may find this surprising since I am always chatting about connecting on the Internet, but I am a big believer in face-to-face networking. In fact, if you spend all your time being social on social media, it is my belief that you will get nowhere fast. The main idea behind using social media for business is to convert your connections into real time engagement as in pipeline, networking, collaboration. Lately, I have been putting my money where my mouth is and getting out and networking. It has been both fun and rewarding for me. I met a few key business people and engaged… -
Are You Missing Out on This Direct Marketing Opportunity?
4 Feb 2012 | 6:14 pmLast weekend I went to a local farmer’s market to buy some fresh fruits and vegetables. As I visited the different businesses exhibiting at the market, I couldn’t help but put on my marketing hat. After all that’s what I do! My biggest observation was that while all of the businesses were there to sell their products to as many people as possible, they were missing out on a huge opportunity for continued sales. Small businesses, especially ones like the ones at my local farmer’s market, have a special place in my heart. I immediately wanted to go give them… -
Leading Moms in Business: What a collective!
3 Feb 2012 | 7:29 amI was planning on a different topic for this week, and then I had a change of heart. This week marked the beginning of the 3rd annual StartUpNation Leading Moms in Biz Competition. Yes, I do realize that you are on the StartUpNation site, but I really want to call your attention to this unique opportunity. First of all, huge thanks to StartUpNation for holding this competition. It is an extraordinary feeling for moms in business to be recognized for the momentous effort behind running a business and growing a family at the same time. For someone who manages a family and business along…
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BusinessWeek.com -- Small Business
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DIY Apps Save Small Businesses Time, Money
6 Feb 2012 | 8:25 pmA study estimates that small companies have cut 725.3 million annual employee hours by using mobile apps, equaling $17.6 billion in savings -
Turning Girls into Tech Entrepreneurs with a Single App
6 Feb 2012 | 8:23 pmTechnovation Challenge is a contest for high school students run by Iridescent, which uses online software called App Inventor -
For Some U.S. Manufacturers, Time to Head Home
2 Feb 2012 | 3:00 pmMore companies are assessing the true cost of outsourcing -
Michigan Wants More Immigrants
2 Feb 2012 | 3:00 pmRepublican Governor Rick Snyder wants to attract talented foreigners he sees as crucial to the economy -
After Hedge Funds, a Career Rejuvenation
2 Feb 2012 | 3:00 pmA TSA inspection helped Julie Macklowe switch careers from hedge fund manager to entrepreneur, selling luxury, travel-friendly toiletry kits
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Springwise
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Games developer launches themed restaurant
8 Feb 2012 | 3:50 amRegular Springwise readers may remember our article from 2010 about Snakes and Lattes, a themed café in Canada stocked with 1,500 board games. Taking the idea of a game themed eatery to the next level, Capcom, the Japanese video games developer, recently launched the Capcom Bar in Tokyo complete with in-house game kiosks and game-inspired dishes. Situated on the first floor of the Pasela Resort in Shinjuku, the Capcom Bar’s playful menu features a range of dishes inspired by the company’s famous releases. On offer is a meat dish recreating the stamina-boosting drumstick from the… -
Single-estate coffees curated and delivered monthly to the door
3 Feb 2012 | 5:40 amThe march of the subscription services continues! The virtual ink had barely dried on our story about UK-based Trinkets when we came across Kopi, a like-minded company whose focus is single-estate coffees from around the world. Also based in the UK, Kopi sends subscribers a different gourmet coffee each month, hand-picked by a team of experts that includes some of Europe’s most respected green bean coffee traders, the company says. Roasting is done just days before delivery by a specially selected UK-based boutique roaster, and beans are available either whole or ground. Either way,… -
Offline to online platform rewards diners with Facebook credits
3 Feb 2012 | 4:01 amFacebook credits are a virtual currency that can be purchased with a credit or debit card to buy virtual goods in games and apps on the Facebook platform. However, never before have they been earned through purchasing goods offline. That is until Plink — a credits-based loyalty program that rewards Facebook users for dining at chain restaurants. Launched last month, Plink was created to help restaurants and offline retailers reach and motive their customers online. To start using the program, consumers log in via their Facebook account, register the debit or credit they use when eating out… -
In Norway, dog ‘locker’ keeps pets safe while owners shop for groceries
3 Feb 2012 | 2:46 amAccording to In Defense of Animals, approximately 5 million family pets go missing each year. No wonder, then, that a pet “locker” has popped up outside a Norwegian grocery store, offering dog owners a way to keep their canine companions safe and dry while they get their shopping done. Spotted by Swedish designer Henrick Eriksson recently outside an Oslo grocery store, the Hundehiet (translated roughly from Norwegian as “dog burrow”) gives consumers a safe, lockable place in which to keep their dog while they shop. Pricing, according to Eriksson, is NOK 10. How the Hundehiet units are… -
Restaurants’ takeout menus made interactive via QR codes
2 Feb 2012 | 8:36 amIt’s become increasingly common for restaurants to build and offer custom, branded mobile apps that let patrons place orders by phone, but it’s still up to consumers to go to the bother of downloading and installing them. Enter Paperlinks, a Los Angeles firm that has created a service that lets restaurants embed their takeout menus with QR codes for quick and seamless mobile ordering. Using Paperlinks’ new Order Takeout feature, restaurants can quickly develop mobile-optimized menus which can be accessed by scanning a QR code located on the printed menu, poster, or other…
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Forbes - Entrepreneurs
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Sperl: Offshore Reinsurance Scheme And Other Tax Evasion Nets Accountant 36 Months
9 Feb 2012 | 11:23 amU.S. v. Sperl, 2012 WL 373313 (6th Cir., Slip Copy, Feb. 6, 2012). Full Opinion at http://goo.gl/e6AMk A reinvoicing scheme is one where somebody sets up a bogus offshore company that submits an invoice for something-or-other to a U.S. company. The U.S. company then pays the invoice, and takes a full dollar-for-dollar deduction for the moneys paid. The money moves from the U.S. into the offshore account, where it is not reported to the IRS and thereafter grows tax-free with interest income not reported to the IRS either. The problem is that this is blatant tax evasion, and the IRS had seen… -
Young African Invents Touch Screen Medical Tablet
9 Feb 2012 | 11:22 amHere's an example of African innovation at its finest. -
Why Most Leaders Need to Shut-up & Listen
9 Feb 2012 | 11:09 amWhile some may be impressed with how well you speak, the right people will be impressed with how well you listen. Great leaders are great listeners, and therefore my message today is a simple one - talk less and listen more. The best leaders are proactive, strategic, and intuitive listeners. They recognize knowledge and wisdom are not gained by talking, but by listening. Take a moment and reflect back on any great leader who comes to mind…you’ll find they are very adept at reading between the lines. The best leaders possess the uncanny ability to understand what is not said, witnessed, or… -
Thanks For The Memory
9 Feb 2012 | 10:16 amThis story appears in the Feb. 27 edition of Forbes magazine. -
Why Women Are To Blame For The "Pink Ghetto" Of Entrepreneurs
9 Feb 2012 | 10:11 amWell-intentioned women, with the mission of driving more and more female entrepreneurs into high-powered tech, are putting other women down for the cause.
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HBR.org
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How to Start the Big Project You've Been Putting Off
9 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amI want to write a screenplay. I wanted to write one last year, but other work took more time than I expected, and I kept pushing "write screenplay" off my to-do list. I know I'm not alone in struggling to make incremental progress on long-term projects or goals. How do you get started when you have "all the time in the world"? Maybe you have a project with no deadline, like my screenplay. Or maybe you have a deadline that's months away — like preparing a speech, developing a business plan, or designing a training program. Perhaps you have a habit of procrastinating on projects with… -
How to Get Promoted in China
9 Feb 2012 | 7:43 amMichael Black is an American employee working in China for one of the country's oldest and most traditional consumer products manufacturers. Michael has been in China for two years and has done quite well. He's mastered the local language, been very successful in meeting his performance goals, and believes that he deserves a promotion. Michael is a bit uneasy "tooting his own horn," but he also realizes that if he doesn't do it, no one else will. When meeting with his boss to argue his case, Michael explains how he has met or exceeded all of his performance goals over the past two years and… -
The Case of the Rolling Stone (that Gathers No Moss) Resume
9 Feb 2012 | 7:30 amWhat would you think if a job candidate sent you a resume listing six jobs held in the last four years? Some of you would probably have an instinctively negative reaction: "This is someone who can't make up her mind or settle down — probably a flake. In 'my day' everyone knew that you couldn't change jobs more often than once every two years." Or would you have a more sympathetic interpretation? Perhaps that this is evidence of a candidate who is willing to take risks and seek out new opportunities? Resumes must be truthful — if you've had six jobs in four years, you need to say… -
How Employers Can Help Solve the Skills Gap
9 Feb 2012 | 7:30 amIn my consulting work with large, multinational companies, I see a pervasive anxiety among managers who have trouble finding people for skilled positions, no matter what industry or region. At the same time, employees are just as stressed about the growing skills gap, Accenture research shows, and most of them are unclear about which skills they need to advance their careers. There's a lot at stake here. The mismatch between the skills that companies need and the capabilities of people applying for job openings can result in delays in product releases, lower customer satisfaction, and loss of… -
The Most Important Question You Can Ask
9 Feb 2012 | 5:52 amWhy are you here? It's arguably life's most important question, but is it one you ask yourself? I recognize it's a question some people might view as self-indulgent, while others would see it primarily through a religious lens. But is there any part of an answer we could all agree on? I've found a very simple one for myself, and it's provided me in recent years with an increasingly powerful sense of clarity, inspiration and even joy. It's this: I'm here to add more value to the world than I'm using up. I use up resources every day — the gas I burn driving my car, the heat and…
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zenhabits
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The Pause Upon Which All Else Relies
9 Feb 2012 | 7:56 amPost written by Leo Babauta. There is one little habit I’ve learned that has changed everything else in my life. The pause. When we fail, it’s because we act on urges without thinking, without realizing it. We have the urge to eat junk, and we do it. We have the urge to check email instead of writing a chapter of our book, and so we open our inbox. We have an urge to smoke, to drink, to do drugs, to chew our nails, to play a Facebook game, to procrastinate, to skip a workout, to eat more fries, to criticize, to act in jealousy or anger, to be rude … and we act on that urge. -
The Thousand Cuts Fitness Program
6 Feb 2012 | 9:43 amPost written by Leo Babauta. I’ve trained for marathons, triathlons, 10Ks, a 13.5-hour challenge, Ubanathlons, and more. But my favorite fitness program isn’t one where you train for a major event. It’s where you get fit by a thousand little actions. When the actions are tiny, they are easy. You have no excuse. You can do them anywhere, all day long. I fold fitness into my life, like blueberries into batter, and it becomes a part of the recipe, not just a topping. If you haven’t found a way to get fit, try the Thousand Cuts Fitness Program. There is nothing better for… -
The Two-Headed Beast of Successful Habit Change
2 Feb 2012 | 8:20 amEditor’s Note: This is a guest post from Tyler Tervooren of Advanced Riskology. I used to have a lot of bad habits. I still do, but I used to have a lot more. Here’s just a small sampling: I woke up late and went to bed early. I procrastinated on my most important work. I neglected my relationships. I drank too much. I bit my fingernails. I slouched a lot. I picked my nose (no joke). I bought worthless things I didn’t need. I chewed with my mouth open. I dressed like a slob. I ate tons of junk food. I could go on, but none of that’s incredibly important. What’s… -
Create the Habit of Meditation, & the Zen Habits Premium Membership
31 Jan 2012 | 2:03 pmPost written by Leo Babauta. It’s something I should have created a long time ago: the Zen Habits Premium Membership, and a mini-course that’s included with it called Create the Habit of Meditation. The membership is a monthly subscription of $19.99, but really it’s a commitment to changing your life, and the tools needed to do that. If you’ve been looking to simplify, get healthy & fit, become more effective, do work you’re passionate about, eliminate debt, find contentment, declutter, create new habits … this new program is meant to show you how to… -
Creating Silence from Chaos
27 Jan 2012 | 2:20 pmPost written by Leo Babauta. We are often afraid of silence, because its emptiness feels idle, boring, unproductive, and scary. And so we fill our lives with chaos, noise, clutter. But silence can be lovely, and therapeutic, and powerful. It can be the remedy for our stress and the habits that crush us. If we want quiet in our lives, how do we create it? I’ve been exploring this myself. As a father of six kids, I have to admit that I don’t always have silence in my life. That’s not a complaint — I love the messy noise that my family brings — but silence can be a…
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Young Entrepreneur - Small Business & Entrepreneur Community » Blog
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4 Keys to Reining in Social Media Overload
9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amMost businesses understand that they need at least some kind of social media presence nowadays. But what about those who are too deeply entrenched in Facebook status updates and tweets? Or those that can’t keep up with LinkedIn invites and Tumblr reblogs? What about entrepreneurs who are finding it harder and harder to manage all of their social media profiles and run a business at the same time? It’s easy to get overloaded with social media, but if you feel like you’re drowning, it might be time to start simplifying your routine and finding ways to cut back on your time… -
Making Sense of the Application Landscape
8 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amNew year, new toys. Consumer electronics, that is. I’m just getting back and reflecting on CES (Consumer Electronics Show), the largest tech geek kickoff of the year. This year I got the chance to see the new consumer electronics and tech industry trends from three lenses: that of a journalist, an entrepreneur, and a marketer working with EachScape, an application creation and management platform. This year’s gadgets and exhibits confirmed the expansion of the tech market as a whole. This results in large opportunities in the application space, which is now trending well beyond… -
Your Dream Will Die Without The Startup Essentials
6 Feb 2012 | 7:22 amI’ve noticed a great tendency among startup founders to ignore the essentials of business accounting in the early stages of their startup. Just because you are not profitable yet, doesn’t mean you can skip the record keeping. In fact, just the opposite is true. When you anticipate losses for the first year or two, it is more important to properly document all expenses, including tricky ones like business travel, business meals, and your home office. Sloppy documentation and reporting of these expenses is an open invitation to an IRS audit, which is the last thing you need or can afford… -
Five Mistakes to Avoid in Global Marketing
3 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amTaking the leap and marketing your business overseas could be the best decision you make this year. The economic outlook might be gloomy in the United States and Europe, but that’s far from true in the rest of the world. And for small to medium business owners, the internet is a relatively cheap way to tap into growing markets. That’s not to say it’s foolproof. As with any marketing strategy, it pays to do your homework. We’re sure that Ford wishes it did a little more research before launching its Caliente car in Mexico. The name is slang for “streetwalker” – perhaps not the… -
10 Reasons You’re Not Reaching Your Goals; or, What I Learned from Writing a Really Crappy Novel
1 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amI hit a big goal of mine – finally – just before 2011 ended. I finished writing the novel I began five or so years ago. When I say finished, however, what I mean is that the very first, very rough draft is complete, ringing in at just under 80,000 words. I am now the proud author of one really crappy novel, but it’s a completely written crappy novel. And one day, after much editing and revising, it may move from “complete but crappy” to, simply, “complete.” I learned a few things through this novel-writing process. Like most of you, I don’t have…
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I Will Teach You To Be Rich
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Where I’ve been for the last two weeks
7 Feb 2012 | 8:11 amAfter a month of hyper consumption of caffeine, sleeping 4 hours/night, and a team around the world that outperformed any team I’ve ever worked with, the Dream Job launch is complete. Here’s a PDF with 50+ pages of uncensored feedback from new Dream Job students talking about why they joined my new course on finding your Dream Job: “Why I joined Dream Job” (PDF, no opt-in required). The course was an instant IWT bestseller, and it’s closed to new students now. Soon, I’ll share some of the marketing lessons behind the launch. I’m doing my traditional… -
What I think of information addicts
22 Jan 2012 | 7:04 pmI’ve spent a lot of time thinking about giving away free material vs. charging for it. Here’s a recent 1-hour interview where I talk about free vs. paid material, including how I went from charging $4.95 for my first ebook to $12,000 for my most recent course. I also did another interview on the psychology of monetization, too, where I cover more academic psychological and marketing theory. This is for the true psychology/marketing nerds, so I reveal some gems that only they would appreciate. Based on the kinds of emails I get, I assume about 80% of you are huge huge nerds. So, let’s… -
What The Pros Know About Networking That You Don’t
20 Jan 2012 | 9:57 amWhen I was on the Today Show a couple years ago, I sat down to prep a few minutes before air time. About 45 seconds before we went live, Meredith Viera came onto set. She took one look at the topic sheet, then reached out to shake all of our hands. In the next 30 seconds, she asked a couple questions to get to know us, and then we started the segment. What was fascinating was that, within those 30 seconds, she was so personable that we instantly felt a connection to her (“Wow, she’s so friendly!”). And I realized that the masters — like the world’s top TV anchors, politicians,… -
How to use Natural Networking to connect with anyone — including the exact email scripts
18 Jan 2012 | 8:36 amHow many of us have heard career experts telling us to “go out there and network”? What does that actually mean? They never seem to specify. So we end up going to 1 or 2 pointless networking events, which actually turn out to be a bunch of unemployed people looking for jobs, until we realize the pointlessness of random networking. We stop going. But we keep hearing about the importance of our network, and we hear about how most jobs are found through personal contacts. Pretty soon, it becomes clear to us that it’s WHO you know, not WHAT you know. But we have no idea how to actually turn… -
How to write a resume that wins
17 Jan 2012 | 10:31 amLast night, 3,000+ IWT readers from all over the world tuned in, live, to learn the inside techniques to craft a winning resume. These are the same techniques I used to get jobs at Google, Intuit, and many other companies. Attention jackasses: These are not my curtains. I’m not 78 years old. I was at a hotel. I had nothing to sell. I just wanted to show people that — instead of blaming the economy, or believing that “I don’t have enough experience” is a valid excuse — they could take their Dream Job search into their own hands. Here’s what attendees had to say:…
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EveryJoe
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Volkswagen “The Dog Strikes Back” – 2012 Super Bowl Commercial
6 Feb 2012 | 6:40 amIn 2011, Volkwagen’s Super Bowl commercial with a little boy imitating Darth Vader went viral, capturing the hearts of Star Wars fans and even non-geeks. So this year, Volkswagen decided to stick to the Star Wars theme, but this time used an overweight dog rather than a young boy. The ad was considered one of the best from the 2012 Super Bowl commercials. In case you missed it check out the video below, as well as “The Making Of: The Dog Strikes Back.” Post from: EveryJoe -
Teleflora Adriana Lima Ad – 2012 Super Bowl Commercial
6 Feb 2012 | 6:17 amAdvertisers know that hot chicks can really make a Super Bowl commercial. So it was no surprise to see sexy Adriana Lima in the Teleflora ad during this year’s Super Bowl. The commercial features Lima as she prepares for a special Valentine’s Day date. Post from: EveryJoe -
Doritos “Sling Baby” – 2012 Super Bowl Commercial
6 Feb 2012 | 6:14 amOne thing that I didn’t like about the Super Bowl commercials this year is that so many of them were released in the days and weeks leading up to the game. That takes away a lot of the excitement and shock value. Doritos always has a few good commercials during the Super Bowl, let’s take a look at their Sling Baby ad. Post from: EveryJoe -
Stripping M&M – 2012 Super Bowl Commercial
6 Feb 2012 | 6:10 amM&M’s latest character — Ms. Brown — got a lot of attention during yesterday’s Super Bowl. The stripping M&M commercial was one of the hottest Super Bowl ads of the day. She’s sexy and she knows it. Post from: EveryJoe -
Hyundai “All for One” – 2012 Super Bowl Commercial
6 Feb 2012 | 6:07 amYou can’t go wrong with a commercial featuring the Rocky theme. Fans loved Hyundai’s “All for One” Super Bowl commercial — one of the many ads from car manufacturers shown during the big game on Sunday. Post from: EveryJoe
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Big Red Tomato Company
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Weekend Round up January 28
28 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amWelcome to Weekend Roundup. This is a collection of some great posts that I’ve come across over the previous week. I don’t go into major depth on each one, but encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting: Make sure your tweets are being seen with business owners trying to get their message out, how can you be sure they are being seen? Here’s some tips to make sure your tweets get read. What’s in a business name? 20 considerations for getting it right When you start in business, you may have decided what you’re going to sell or what you’re… -
How to read business books in less than 15 minutes
23 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pmBusiness books are a cheap way of improving your business education without a large time commitment or financial outlay. For many years I’ve been a big fan of buying business books. In fact I’ve got shelves stacked high with them in my office and even some boxes of them in my parents garage. Some of them I’ve actually read. Books are cheap, easily portable and potentially full of profitable ideas. But there lies several problems: 1. Overbuying because they are cheap 2. Books take time to read and discover the profitable ideas 3. You never have them to hand when you need them… -
Weekend Round Up January 21
20 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pmWelcome to Weekend Roundup. This is a collection of some great posts that I’ve come across over the previous week. I don’t go into major depth on each one, but encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting: Mark Cuban’s 12 Rules For Start Ups Article from Entrepreneur.com lists Mark Cuban’s 12 rules for starting a business together with some other links to some sage advice from the billionaire sports owner. 10 Books Every Entrepreneur should read from 2011 - pretty much what it says on the tin. 10 Books from 2011 you should make sure you read. Having read… -
Weekend roundup January 14
13 Jan 2012 | 9:30 pmWelcome to Weekend Roundup. This is a collection of some great posts that I’ve come across over the previous week. I don’t go into major depth on each one, but encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting How to get 1 million visitors in ONE year - Steve Scott shares his one year goal to get one million visitors to his website in 2012 and explains how you can do it too. How to conduct (and master) a webinar interview (Video/podcast) with Lewis Howes who shares his secrets in launching FB Influence mainly on the back of holding Webinars. Marketing Grader by… -
52 Business Books to Read in 2012
5 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pmI could take the time to read a fiction book, but I don’t. I would rather read websites, newspapers, magazines, looking for ideas and concepts that I can use. I spend time in bookstores because one idea from a book or magazine can make me money. Mark Cuban How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It Personally speaking, the best investment I have ever made has been in improving my own education. Consistently I’ve found this to be one of the best ways of making more money. The more I invest in myself the more money I make. Over the years the best way I’ve…
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BuzzMachine
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Economist debate on sharing
8 Feb 2012 | 1:28 pmThe Economist has just launched a debate between me and Andrew Keen — and you — on the proposition that society benefits when we share information online.” Here is my opening statement; follow the link for Andrew’s and the discussion: We are sharing for good reason—not because we are insane, exhibitionistic, or drunk. We are sharing because, at last, we can, and we find benefit in it. Sharing is a social and generous act: it connects us, it establishes and improves relationships, it builds trust, it disarms strangers and stigmas, it fosters the wisdom of the crowd,… -
Sin or sense?
8 Feb 2012 | 7:04 amOh, no, the “original sin” meme of newspapers not charging for content is rising again. Sigh. Dick Tofel, general manager of Pro Publica and former assistant publisher and assistant managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, is a very smart and reasonable man and he has written a smart and reasonable Kindle Single (enabling him to charge as a matter of metaphor) about “why newspapers gave away the future.” But his case is not exactly what it appears, for this is more of a history than a reverse-Reagan (that is, “Mr. Gorbachev, build this wall!”). Tofel… -
Facebook goes public: Zuckerberg in Public Parts & WWGD?
1 Feb 2012 | 12:12 pmRelevant to the expected Facebook IPO announcement, here are excerpts from my interview with Mark Zuckerberg for Public Parts. “I’m in the first generation of people who really grew up with the internet,” Zuckerberg tells me. “Google came out when I was in middle school. Then there was Amazon and Wikipedia and iTunes and Napster. Each year, there were new ways to access information. Now you can look up anything you want. Now you can get cool reference material. Now you can download any song you want. Now you can get directions to anything. The world kept on getting better and… -
Efficiency over growth (and jobs)
26 Jan 2012 | 12:29 amThe hook to every song sung at Davos is “jobs, jobs, jobs.” The chorus of machers on stages here operate under an article of faith that growth can come back, that they can stimulate it, that that will create jobs, and then that all will be eventually well. What if that’s not the case? I am coming to believe, more and more, that technology is leading to efficiency over growth. I’ve written about that here.This notion is obviously true in some sectors of society: see news and media, retail, travel sales, and other arenas. But how many more sectors will this rule strike:… -
Davos, disrupted
24 Jan 2012 | 11:53 pmI’m among the disrupted of Davos. Outside, there’s an #OccupyDavos encampment in igloos (really). Down the road, someone will be giving out an award to the worst company of the world. But the disruption is no longer outside. That’s what I sensed in past years; that’s what they wanted to believe here. Now the disruption is inside. Every institution is challenged. Every. The World Economic Forum issued a list of global risks (though Google’s Eric Schmidt countered on his Google+ page that he’s optimistic; that’s because he’s a disruptor).
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How to Change the World
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Raising Money: What Not to Say and What Not to Believe #OfficeandGuyK
20 Jan 2012 | 10:46 amOver the past two weeks via my partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve provided templates of models for you to create enchanting PowerPoint pitches, Word business plans, and Excel financial models. They are all available for you to download from my SkyDrive account. I hope these documents and blog posts help you save a boatload of time and increase the quality of your efforts.I leave you with two sets of top ten lies: one of entrepreneurs and one of investors so that you know what not to say and what not to believe. Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs “Our projections are… -
Design a Sam Adams beer
20 Jan 2012 | 8:24 amNow this is a fun project. I’m helping Sam Adams “tap” the knowledge of beer drinkers and crowd source its next brew. Join the party by getting the app and designing your beer: The final brew will be released in Austin in the first week of March. #sponsored -
How to Create an Enchanting Financial Forecast #OfficeandGuyK
17 Jan 2012 | 1:52 pmThis is the third post in my Microsoft partnership, and it’s all about numbers. The topic is crafting your financial forecast to include in your pitch. Bill Reichert, my partner at Garage Technology Ventures, created an Excel model and wrote this blog post. There’s a lesson in this too: Get the best person for the job. His grasp of financial models and how to present them exceeds mine by two orders of magnitude. The Purpose of Financial Projections When it comes to financial projections, there are two types of entrepreneurs: first, the “visionary entrepreneur” who… -
How to Create an Enchanting Business Plan #OfficeandGuyK
12 Jan 2012 | 8:16 amHere is the second post in my series about planning, pitching, and launching a new business venture. In partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve created a Word document that outlines a good business plan. It’s saved to my SkyDrive folder here. Feel free to download it and use it as inspiration. And if you’re working with a partner, you can use the free Word Web App to stay in sync. I provided the PowerPoint document before the Word document because a good business plan is an elaboration of a good pitch as opposed to a good pitch being a distillation of good business plan. -
How to Create an Enchanting Pitch #OfficeandGuyK
9 Jan 2012 | 8:01 amWelcome to the first in a series of blog posts I’ll be doing as part of a partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps. Over the next two weeks, I’ll cover everything a budding entrepreneur needs to turn an idea into an enchanting investment opportunity—from the perfect pitch to a killer business plan to financial forecasts. I’m going to start with a little dissertation on creating effective PowerPoint pitches for your company. I embedded the sample deck for you to click through by using the PowerPoint Web App. When you’re ready to get started, you can download the…
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Small business news - CNNMoney.com
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A gold mine in sterling silver beads
8 Feb 2012 | 7:22 amDave Schowalter, the son of a former gold miner, hit a gold mine of sorts when he started manufacturing specialty oval-shaped sterling beads. -
Obama loan program turns a profit
7 Feb 2012 | 2:52 amAn Obama administration lending program set up to funnel cash to small banks was expected to cost taxpayers $1.3 billion. Instead, it will turn a profit of $80 million. -
Small manufacturing firms want more from Obama
4 Feb 2012 | 9:32 amA new Obama administration push to strengthen U.S. manufacturing has the support of smaller firms, but it might not be enough to stir many into action. -
Small biz scores huge Angry Birds deal
2 Feb 2012 | 3:09 pmA small Seattle-based company hit it big after snagging the first-ever license to make Angry Birds baby products. -
Small biz loan demand up, Federal Reserve says
1 Feb 2012 | 6:19 amA growing portion of the nation's banks saw a spike in demand for loans to smaller firms late last year, according to the latest Federal Reserve figures.
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@ProBlogger
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6 Powerful Guest Post Tactics that No One’s Talking About
9 Feb 2012 | 6:05 amThis guest post is by Tom Ewer of Leaving Work Behind. Guest posting is a hot topic amongst startup bloggers. It is one of the most widely-adopted blog promotion strategies in existence, and has been made perhaps even more popular by the success of “serial” guest posters such as Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing. His “blitzkrieg” strategy may come across to some as a triumph of quantity over strategy, but nothing could be further from the truth. He understands the key concepts that we will be exploring in this post, and executes them in a highly effective manner. Whilst… -
How to Succinctly Report a Blog Issue to Tech Support
8 Feb 2012 | 6:07 amThis guest post is by Matthew Setter of Malt Blue. How often do you find it happening to you? You discover an issue with your site, or one of your community members emails you to tell you about it, and soon you start to see tweets about it too. Maybe it’s as simple as an error message that detracts from the professional appearance of your site. Perhaps the contact form doesn’t send messages to your contact email address. Or is it that the whole site just displays as a blank page, otherwise known as the white page of death? You’re not a programmer, a software engineer or a seasoned… -
Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger: Part 2
7 Feb 2012 | 12:05 pmThis guest post is by Devesh of WP Kube. A few months ago, I wrote a guest post here called How to Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger. Today, I’ll go into some more detailed advice to help you speed up your site even more. If you’re a blogger, you already know about the importance of blog loading speed, and the role it plays in search engine rank and marketing your blog. But if this is new territory for you, here are three quick reasons why you need to speed up your blog: Google includes website loading speed as an important metric in their ranking algorithm. If you want… -
How I Beat my Best Month Ever by Doing Something Good, Better [Case Study]
7 Feb 2012 | 6:04 amMid-December 2010: on my photography site, we launched a new campaign—our first ever 12 Days of Christmas promotion. The result was my biggest month of earnings ever up to that point. The idea was simple: offer discounts on 12 products over the 12 days leading up to Christmas. I used a mix of my own ebooks and products from other photography sites with affiliate commissions. The result was massive. Not only did we see some great revenue generated, it created some lovely buzz on the site. Due to the success of the 2010 campaign, in mid-December 2011 we launched our second 12 Days of… -
Six Steps to Make Sure Your Site Is Ready to Go Viral
6 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amThis guest post is by Nancy Sathre-Vogel of Family on Bikes. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Surely Google Analytics was confusing my site with another, way more popular site. There was no way my visitor numbers could be so high! And yet they were. One of my posts had taken off and was spreading like wildfire. Those viral post phenomena that happen to others were now happening to me. The first day, 17,000 visitors came to my website. The next day we topped out at 56,000. Readers were coming in droves. It was exciting. It was exhilarating. My site, viral! Wow! And then I took a…
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Toilet Paper Entrepreneur » Blog
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When Is It Time To Seek Financing?
9 Feb 2012 | 6:19 amCompiled by Mike Michalowicz, Author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur -
How To Give Employees A Sense Of Ownership
8 Feb 2012 | 5:44 amHaving a sense of ownership and pride in a business will help motivate employees to get involved. When you have a sense of ownership in anything, you care more and take active participation to another level.... Another video by Mike Michalowicz, Author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur -
Reclaim Your Life From Distractions
7 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amCompiled by Mike Michalowicz, Author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur -
All the Wrong Business Moves
6 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amYou have probably heard before how important body language is. It can literally make or break a sale. In the business world dollars are attached to the outcome, so it is important to make sure you take body language into account, as in everything you are saying non-verbally. Body language includes all the things that are being said by everything from your posture to the way you play with your hair in the midst of a conversation. Believe it not, all these things express what you may not be saying verbally, and the person on the other side of the table is picking up on every… -
Don’t Hold Meetings, Hold Huddles
3 Feb 2012 | 6:05 amEvery successful (and not-so-successful) sports team on the field starts the game with a huddle. Heck, sometimes even during the game, they need to go for a quick huddle or two. The purpose? To re-group, make sure everyone knows what the mission is, and say what needs to be done to be successful. In business, we aim to do the same thing, only we often fail at it. Case in point – the painfully long and drawn-out meeting. Most businesses hold meetings, especially for those who are in management positions. Held weekly or even daily, these meetings become bull sessions where people…
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chrisbrogan.com
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Throw Away the Maps
6 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amPeople judge us by the path they’ve seen us walk before. They can’t anticipate our future steps. We, ourselves, look to how things have been, what seems to be the lay of the land, without realizing that the maps are not the territory. Want to succeed at work? Then don’t try to do your job. Instead, work towards something larger, more meaningful, and something that blends your convictions internally with your best ability to help others externally. Want to create something new? Then throw away the old, or maybe join two disparate old things together into something new. The… -
The Next Social Networks
5 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amThe rage in social networks right now is Pinterest, partly because it’s probably the first social network that has a much higher adoption rate by females than males, and partly because it’s an interesting concept: somewhere between visual social bookmarking and scrapbooking. What also might not be immediately obvious is that it’s just “easier” to interact there. In that way, Pinterest has something in common with Instagram, which is community around photos. What I’m interested in, though, is Gentlemint, which I keep calling “Pinterest for… -
Learn From Adele – Build Your Platform
3 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amJacq and I just watched Adele Live At The Royal Albert Hall (amazon affiliate link), and though every song was just wonderfully done, I found myself fascinated by what Adele was doing in between each song. Because even though most people would be interested in hearing her belt out her amazing repertoire of hits, what I took away from the performance was Adele’s real magical ability: the ability to resonate with her audience. What Adele Could Teach You About Impact I’m writing something about this right now for my upcoming book with Julien Smith, but I had to share some of the… -
Rob Gokee is a Musical Wizard
2 Feb 2012 | 8:05 amI had such a great experience working with award winning musical composer Rob Gokee. We did some musical work together, and the process was so amazing. Rob helped me create my theme song for Shhh! The Secret Show. So anyhow, he and I sat down to do an interview, and it’s a bit long, but it’s totally worth it. We talk about what collaboration feels like at a distance, what it takes to get music like this made for your own show, and a lot more. Rob’s a hero to me, and has been part of the community for a while. I was so fortunate to have worked with him. Can’t see the… -
Build Your Platform – Start
30 Jan 2012 | 1:30 amThe following is part ONE of a series called Build Your Platform. If you find it interesting, please consider subscribing for free to get the rest of the series. This post is long. You might want to bookmark it for later. The age of social media oversaturation is upon us. People are declaring Twitter bankruptcy to go along with their email bankruptcy. They cite not wanting to start on yet another social network as their reason for not getting more involved with Google+. And just as soon as you start getting into Pinterest, you hear about Path, but wait: there’s Gentlemint, which is…
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Daily Blog Tips
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New Backlink Analysis Tool
8 Feb 2012 | 3:56 amSince Yahoo! closed the Site Explorer service bloggers and webmasters (myself included) were left without any solid alternative. I have been looking for similar tools since then, and an interesting one I found recently is called ahrefs.com. It’s a paid service, but there are many free tools you can use on their website as well. For instance, right on the homepage you can type your domain name and click on “Explore Links” to get an overview of how your website is doing. As you can see from the screenshot above you get a lot of data back. For instance, you can see the total… -
Come Join the Social Media Club
7 Feb 2012 | 4:37 amBack in 2009 I created two clubs, one called “Retweet Club” and the other one called “Facebook Club”, where members would share each other’s content, with the goal of increasing social media traffic to their blogs and websites. The clubs worked as mailing lists (using Google Groups), but eventually the activity died down. The main reason was the following: sharing wasn’t fair. A member could be selfish and only send requests to the club, without ever sharing the content from other members. A couple of weeks ago I started thinking about what could be a… -
How Many Posts Should You Write Each Week?
5 Feb 2012 | 7:01 pmWhen I started blogging, four years ago, many experts advised posting daily – to increase traffic and keep readers hooked. And many popular blogs do post every day (at least on weekdays). Should you post every day, though? Probably not. Why? Because: If you write two posts each week instead of five (or seven), those posts will be much better written. If you only post once or twice a week, you’ll usually find that you get more comments on each post. If you don’t post too frequently, readers may actually read every post, instead of one in five. If you don’t use up all your ideas in the… -
How Much Does A New Customer Cost?
3 Feb 2012 | 8:28 pmFor someone who is about to start up their own business, whether online or not, this is an essential question to ask. When you sell a product or service you need someone to make a purchase so you can make money. The most important principle in business is that there are two different types of people involved in your business; customers and clients. While both of these may appear at first to be the same they are critically different and concentrating on one over the other can be the difference between success and failure. This concept, what I call the $1 Customer, I teach to clients in order… -
10 Ways to Ensure No-One Will Read Your Content
2 Feb 2012 | 8:44 pmSo many bloggers put tons of time and effort into getting more traffic – but perhaps that sounds like trying way too hard. Your ideas are so awesome, your personality so strong, that readers will just come to you. I’m going to give you ten straightforward ways to make sure the whole world knows you’re not going to pander to your readers. (Oh, and if you would like to have a few more readers – try doing the opposite of everything on this list.) 1. Give Your Post the First Title You Come Up With You’re in a hurry, right? So your post will do just fine with the…
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Chris Garrett on New Media
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When Should You Start Selling from Your Blog?
31 Jan 2012 | 3:18 pmHow do you know when your audience is ready to buy from you? Should you wait to “monetize”? How big does your audience need to be? These are common questions and the answers have been debated over the years. I am going to share an answer I gave George from the Man Up Blog during his blog critique. George spent some time in the dating world, sometimes called the “pick up artist” niche. This is shy dudes learning to pick up the ladies mostly, but obviously the market caters to all genders and tastes. It’s pretty obvious what people want from dating advice, but… -
Why You Shouldn’t Drive Traffic
16 Jan 2012 | 7:58 pmIn the first 7 days of this blogs life, 20,000 visitors checked it out. Sounds like a pretty nice result doesn’t it? I was super happy, but a little disappointed in one specific respect. Only 500 people subscribed. Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved and nurtured those 500 subscribers and 500 subscribers in any time frame is not to be sniffed at! My problem was, how can you have 20,000 visitors check out my blog and only 500 of them want to stick around? The cause? I was “Driving” traffic … Big Lessons Learned I had been involved with a couple of successful blogs at… -
How to know what your audience really wants
23 Dec 2011 | 11:53 amYour audience does not want your content. Your audience probably does not want to hear from you at all. If you think that because your website looks great that people will want to visit it … think again. What do they really want? Your audience and potential customers know who they are and probably have a very good idea of their goals. At the very least they know their immediate needs. They are looking for answers to questions, advice, and resources that help people like them get the stuff people like them want. When someone seeks out and clicks on your content it is only as a means to… -
Finding and Communicating Your Value
5 Dec 2011 | 11:06 amMany bloggers don’t have a value problem. They have a great deal to share. I am sure you do – I have never met someone who doesn’t. Why then do people struggle to find an audience. Never mind an audience who knows, likes and trusts them – ANY audience? It’s weird but a lot of the time it is because you have SO much to offer, it’s hard to know who you are for and what specific benefit you provide. A lot of my coaching clients have this problem and, thankfully, there is a solution. The solution is simple, but it isn’t always easy. Check out Ryan… -
How to REALLY make money from a website
23 Nov 2011 | 3:08 pmAs much as I tell people to seriously reconsider buying too much into the hardcore “Make Money Online” hype, I can not argue against its allure and the fact that, well, people DO make money online. The problem is, there are the usual caveats: It’s not fast. It’s not easy. You WILL encounter problems and tough challenges. You might not always enjoy it. These are challenges facing Roman who asked me for a blog critique. He has been building a site all about his experience of creating a website that makes money called “How this website makes money” (how meta).
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Jim's Marketing Blog
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Are you prepared or playing?
8 Feb 2012 | 1:51 amOne of the BIG differences between successful business owners and those who struggle, is preparation. The average business owner doesn’t prepare very well. They want their business to succeed or their marketing to generate bankable results, but they fail to do the heavy lifting beforehand. They fail to prepare correctly, in advance. Preparation Last Monday, I launched a new project via an announcement on this blog. Just 7 days after launching Creative Thinking Hub, it has over a thousand subscribers, a Google Page Rank of 3 and more daily traffic than most older sites get. Here’s… -
Tip: Do great work & put it where the right people can see it
6 Feb 2012 | 10:10 amNo one likes to be pestered. Yet, when it comes to marketing, it seems some people still think they can pester their way to success. This post is about a different way to do business. It’s based on one of the most powerful ideas in commerce and I strongly recommend you take a few minutes to read this post in full. Pestering their way to the bottom Over the weekend, I received more than 100 emails from people I don’t know, all asking me to do something for them. Most want me to blog about their latest product or tell you how great their blog is. They send me spam email, because I… -
Generate massively more sales leads, with this simple yet powerful idea!
4 Feb 2012 | 1:32 amThis short post gives you a simple, yet powerful way to massively increase the number of sales leads you attract with your marketing. When someone who is interested in working with you calls you, emails you or meets with you, you welcome it. Furthermore, you are helpful, extremely friendly and not at all pushy. So, let people know! Lead generating: Removing the pressure If you want to increase the number of marketing leads you generate, your marketing needs to reassure prospective clients. It needs to tell them that their call is welcome and that they will be under no kind of obligation to… -
What everybody ought to know about their competitors
2 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amWhen was the last time you researched your competitors? It has never been easier for you to research the marketing you are competing against, than it is today. In minutes, you can tell if someone is serious competition to your business or simply a dabbler. For example: You can read their website and tell instantly if it was professionally written or written in-house. You can see the range of services they offer and the promises and guarantees they make in their marketing. In some cases, you can see what they charge too. You can check their social media footprint and see if they are using it… -
7 Simple, powerful productivity tips!
1 Feb 2012 | 1:07 amSuccessful business development is all about achieving measurable progress in reasonable time. Here are 7 productivity tips, to help you get the very most from your working day: Break your yearly business goals down into monthly and weekly goals. This makes it easier to ensure you are on track. When you have months and months to achieve something, without measurement points along the way, it’s too easy to drift off course. Plan your day and then work to that plan. The plan needs to incorporate the goals in the previous point. Set out what you need to achieve and make that your priority…
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ViperChill
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How I Reached #1 on iTunes: A Guide to Launching a Podcast
16 Jan 2012 | 2:35 pmAs many of you will know, last week I stuck to my promise of launching a Podcast in the new year and released the first episode, ‘How I Would Make Money Online If I Was Starting from Scratch‘. I had hoped that a lot of people would get some value from the recording and be able to start 2012 in style, but I didn’t anticipate what happened next. Within 24 hours the podcast made it to #1 in Marketing and #2 in Business on iTunes which totally blew me away – sandwiched in between 9 podcasts by the BBC and the Financial Times. In just 6 days (I don’t have stats for… -
Case Study: How Campbell Makes Up to $10K/m in the Forex Niche
7 Dec 2011 | 8:49 amWhen I was working in a clothes shop, dreaming of making a living from the internet, I remember one thing that really kept me motivated was reading success stories from other people. Just knowing that someone, somewhere was doing exactly what I wanted to do was enough to keep me putting in the hours. Earlier in the year I shared an example of two moms making over $5k/m online. Today I want to share another case study with you and reveal how one guy in New Zealand is making up to $10,000 every single month in the Forex industry, one of the most profitable but competitive industries online. His… -
Data Mining: The Ultimate Guide to Niche Analysis
29 Nov 2011 | 2:30 pmIn my post on how to become a niche rockstar I said that in order to be at the top of your industry (in a lot of cases online) it’s important to know as much about it as possible. What your competitors are doing, how they’re making money and how they’re getting traffic are just a few things that you can discover with some in-depth niche research. In that particular post I looked at the green industry from the perspective of a blogger and shared some of my findings. Based on some of the comments and emails I received at the time, a few of you were interested in how I… -
The Post on Productivity I Wish Someone Else Had Written
11 Nov 2011 | 12:30 pmThough the title of this blog is ‘viral marketing’, regular readers will know that it’s far from being the only thing I talk about. Sometimes I’ll share a case study to inspire you. Sometimes I’ll offer insights to educate you, and sometimes I’ll give you step-by-step advice so you can take action. This post is, purely and simply, for those who want more from their lives. If you’re happy with the position you’re in or at least like how you spend your days, then skip this post and come back next week (I have $7K/m case study on the way). Today… -
It’s Here.
3 Sep 2011 | 3:41 amThere’s more documentation on ‘how to make money online’ than most subjects out there, yet I can safely say that 99% of people who try to replace their offline income fail to do so. Many of you have seen the case studies of marketers – who clearly already know what they’re doing – building another successful website. Inspiring? Without a doubt. But obviously there’s still something missing. For a long time I wondered what it would take to fill that gap. What would increase the number of people who follow advice in this space and actually achieve some…
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MarketingProfs How-To Articles
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Never Waste an Opportunity: The Value of Lead Nurturing
7 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amWhen new visitors arrive at your website, you have two ways to seize the opportunity and guide them toward becoming customers. Both opportunities can evaporate in the blink of an eye--if you don't have the proper systems in place. Read the full article at MarketingProfs -
Four Keyword Research Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs
6 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amIf you are serious about the words "sales," "profit," and "conversions," you must master keyword research. Learn four common pitfalls marketers make when selecting keywords--and how to avoid them. Read the full article at MarketingProfs -
The Inside Scoop on Using Twitter Lists for Profit and Sanity
3 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amThe dirty secret of Twitter is that as helpful as it can be, it's also a time sink. Learn how properly using and cleaning up your Twitter lists can help you save time--and generate leads for your business. Read the full article at MarketingProfs -
10 Hot Tips (and a Promo Campaign Planner) for Seasonal Sale Success
2 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amCustomers today expect more deals and offers during holiday seasons, so it's important to create seasonal campaigns to increase revenues. Here are 10 tips--and a campaign planner--to help you achieve seasonal sale success. Read the full article at MarketingProfs -
Five Tips for Implementing a Successful QR Code Campaign
1 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amQR codes can be inexpensive to implement and can provide you a measureable return on investment--if you use them correctly. Learn five invaluable tips for implementing an effective QR code campaign. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
