Archive for August, 2009

SEO Is An Important Factor For Achieving A Successful Website

August 26th, 2009 admin

If you are the owner of a popular website that is located on the Internet and one of your main hopes is that the site is able to earn you an extra amount of enjoyed income, then it is very important to make sure that the proper steps are always taken to ensure that you are offering a site that is SEO or search engine optimized. In taking the extra amount of time that is often necessary in order to achieve this goal, you will end up being able to benefit from several different advantages in the long run.

Of course being able to enjoy a much higher amount of income that is continuously coming in is one the ultimate goal for most individuals and this can only be achieved if you have a large amount of traffic that is consistently visiting your site. This is something that is almost impossible to achieve unless you use solid and successful steps that are a must in achieving search engine optimization or SEO.

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Feed Google Alerts Into Your Twitter Account

August 25th, 2009 admin

This may not be suitable for everyone!…and it may take some time and testing to set up
Google alerts with the right keywords, so that the Google alerts feed relevant
information into your twitter account for your twitter audience.
This process will take 3 different web sites (tools).
http://twitterfeed.com/ – http://bit.ly/ – Google alerts (your account)

Open all 3 in a different window.
You obviously will need a Google and a twitter account for this.
Go to your Google account and click on Google alerts. Enter your Search terms.
I leave it on comprehensive, but you may want to change that later. After some time check
your twitter account and see if the Google alerts are what your “followers” may want to
read about. You can also try different keywords for the alerts until it fits your needs.
Click create alert.
On the next page find your alert and click edit. On the drop down menu change this from
email to feed and click save. This changes the Google alerts into a RSS feed and later it will
be feeding directly into your twitter account as “tweets”. You can also preview in the
Google reader to see what the feeds will look like. Modify your search terms if it is not
what you want.
Click on the feed.

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Incoming Searches that might interest you:

Posted in Website Tools 2 Comments »

Small Biz Health Care Daily: Rationing and the “Experts”

August 25th, 2009 admin

On August 25, a news story in the New York Times reported the following: “‘Rationing.’ It is what many people say they fear most from an overhaul of the health care system — the prospect of the federal government’s limiting the medical care they can receive. Even some people who now have private health insurance through their employers have expressed this concern in opinion polls and public forums. They say they worry that the enormous price tag for providing care to tens of millions of additional Americans will eventually force everyone else to make do with less. Is that a realistic fear? Policy experts say people are rightly concerned about the nation’s health care costs. But they also say there is nothing in the current proposals in Washington to suggest that the country is likely to embark on a system of medical rationing anytime soon.” The article went on to quote four “experts.”

Raymond J. Keating, chief economist for the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, stated:

“Well, if the New York Times declares in a commentary piece dressed up as news that health care rationing is not a concern, then I guess we should all feel at ease. Oh please!

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Taxpayer Cash for Economic Destruction

August 25th, 2009 admin

The government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program was bad economics on so many levels.

I wrote a column on the issue, and National Review has an editorial. Let’s focus on a particularly egregious aspect of a plan only politicians could think up – namely, that economic destruction could be good for the economy.

In my column, I noted:

Fourth, there is the incredible waste of government deciding to destroy vehicles that still operate. Only politicians and their appointees could truly believe that destroying productive assets is good for the economy. As historian Burt Folsom has pointed out, it’s similar to the federal government’s subsidizing farmers, and then in 1948, “the overproduction was so dramatic that the bureaucrats in the Department of Agriculture ordered surplus potatoes destroyed via public burnings.”

And National Review observed:

When we talk about government policies destroying wealth, we usually mean taxes that shift money from efficient to inefficient uses. Rarely do we mean the deliberate destruction of valuable assets. Yet, thanks to the Cash for Clunkers program, which ground to a halt yesterday, we now have a visual aid to help with this abstract concept.

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California Cuts their SBDC Funding Despite Demand and Success

August 25th, 2009 admin

It appears that the State of California does not see the value of its Small Business development Center network. In today’s Los Angeles Times, Cyndia Zwahlen notes that the State is cutting the ability for state colleges and universities to fund their resident SBDC centers by $32 million. The Small Business Administration matches state SBDC funding so this means that the program is losing double the amount of withdrawn funding.

All of this points out the importance of making sure both the business community and legislators understand the value of the SBDC program. At the Small Business Development Center at the University of North Florida, we regularly send out press releases and post articles about the successes our clients have had in starting and/or expanding their businesses, with the attendant new jobs and tax ratables they represent. We compile our data into easy to understand reports and present them to all interested parties.

Let’s hope this article stirs the small business community into action and the California’s legislators will restore funding to their statewide SBDC program.

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What Small Business Investors Need Before Investing in Your Business – Five Key Items

August 25th, 2009 admin
What do Investors want? What do investors seek when they invest in or consider investing in small to medium businesses?

1. A strong return on investment. Ranges from 8% (friendly, debt) to 40%
-Different types of investors investing at various stages of the company’s growth and development will have different expectations. (Notice the emphasis on and repeated use of the word different!) An angel investor who is taking on the most risk by investing when the company is still in its nascent (i.e., very early) stage and has yet to generate much revenue, if any, has no contracts, and has negative cash flow, will want the highest return of 40% or close to it. If the company is successful, due to the early entry stage, one would expect the company to generate at least that. Often, though, the angel investor will sell out during one of the subsequent financing periods. Rarely does an angel investor stay on board until the company reaches maturity.

-Venture capitalists come in later but still before the company is cash flow positive.

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SBE Council: The Consistent Fighter Against Big Government Health Care

August 24th, 2009 admin

The Washington Times ran an article on August 24 about various groups representing small businesses that have either flirted with or endorsed big government health care measures that would only raise costs, reduce competition, and diminish choices for entrepreneurs, small businesses and their employees.

It’s worth keeping in mind that throughout its existence, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council has been a rock solid, consistent and strong voice for pro-market, pro-competition health care reforms that would make positive changes, including reducing costs, and build upon what works in our current health care system.

To support SBE Council’s consistent position in favor of pro-market health care reforms, and against costly, big-government health, you can become a member by going here.

Raymond J. Keating
Chief Economist
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council

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Small Biz Health Care Daily: Massachusetts Bad Example for the Nation

August 24th, 2009 admin

An August 22 Boston Globe report noted: “Massachusetts has the most expensive family health insurance premiums in the country, according to a new analysis that highlights the state’s challenge in trying to rein in medical costs after passage of a landmark 2006 law that mandated coverage for nearly everyone. The report by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit health care foundation, showed that the average family premium for plans offered by employers in Massachusetts was $13,788 in 2008, 40 percent higher than in 2003. Over the same period, premiums nationwide rose an average of 33 percent.”

Raymond J. Keating, chief economist for the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, points out:

“Massachusetts just keeps providing information showing that more government mandates, regulations and programs in health care do not work. We’ve seen that taxpayer costs have skyrocketed, and now data shows that Massachusetts’ health insurance costs are highest in the nation. Given this economic reality, why in the world are our national elected officials so keen on following the Massachusetts example, including an individual mandate to purchase or have health insurance, or a ‘pay or play’ mandate on business?”

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Resource Guide And Planning Tool For Marketing Your Small Business

August 24th, 2009 admin

Small business owners juggle many tasks at the same time. One of the challenges is staying focused and consistent in their marketing efforts, especially once they have created some business for themselves. Many times their revenues fluctuate like peaks and valleys creating tremendous stress. A new online application has been developed to help small businesses stay consistent and focused in their marketing efforts.

Simple Marketing Pro walks the business owner through identifying their income goals and recording their monthly results so their can make strategic decisions. Next, they select the marketing strategies that they are comfortable performing and that brings them results. Once they select the strategies they will be prompted by email every time they have a task to complete. Simple Marketing Pro makes it easy for them to stay on top of their marketing activities without a lot of effort. The results are the small business owner takes consistent action and that action leads to constant revenues and a pipeline filled with prospects.

For more information go to: Small Business Marketing

By the way, they also offer weekly webinars to demonstrate Simple Marketing Pro.

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Small Biz Health Care Daily: The Individual Mandate Problem

August 21st, 2009 admin

The health care agenda being pushed by President Obama and congressional leaders not only includes a “pay or play” mandate on businesses, but also a mandate on individuals – including the self-employed – to either have or purchase health care insurance. What wrong with that?

Raymond J. Keating, chief economist for the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, points out:

“An individual mandate creates a variety of costs and problems. For example, government would have to impose assorted regulations and mandates that cover plan design, costs and allowable premiums; mandate participation by individuals, insurers and health care providers; provide subsidies and taxes to pay for such subsidies; and impose penalties for noncompliance. The predictable result is that costs explode. That certainly has been the case in Massachusetts. The state imposed a massive government-led health care system three years ago featuring an individual mandate. Costs skyrocketed. Last year, new taxes and fees were imposed. But the program still faces massive shortfalls in coming years.”

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It’s About Freedom

August 21st, 2009 admin

In a new column, economist Thomas Sowell boils down President Obama’s agenda on health care to one issue – freedom, or more specifically, the loss of freedom.

Sowell writes:

The serious, and sometimes chilling, provisions of the medical-care legislation that President Obama has been trying to rush through Congress are important enough for all of us to stop and think, even though his political strategy from the outset has been to prevent us from having time to stop and think about it. What we also should stop to think about is the mindset behind this legislation, which is very consistent with the mindset behind other policies of this administration, whether the particular issue is bailing out General Motors, telling banks whom to lend to, or appointing “czars” to tell all sorts of people in many walks of life what they can and cannot do…

Read the entire column here.

Raymond J. Keating
Chief Economist
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council

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What Is The Impact Of Health Care Reform On Small Businesses?

August 21st, 2009 admin

As a follow up to a previous post here at Small Business Resources Cafe … what follows is a synopsis from BusinessWeek of what current proposed health care reform legislation from the House and a Senate committee will mean to both the self-employed and small business owners. It’s a pretty good overview.

Read closely … and be prepared. If you wish to make your feelings known about what it all means specificly to you …. or have any comments whatsoever …. feel free to excercise your rights and contact your representatives to the Senate and House of Representatives. They are supposed to represent your interests … and you might have to remind them of that.

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How do the health care reform proposals stack up for entrepreneurs? After months of discussion, Congress finally released detailed plans that will have broad consequences for small business owners. The House’s proposal was released July 14, and the plan from the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee on July 15. A third proposal, from the Senate Finance Committee, is forthcoming. Any health reform plan Congress passes will be stitched together from the framework established by these three bills.

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