Screencast of my Favorite Websites

This Screencast is a short introduction to some of my favorite small business marketing must-have website services. I hope you find them as useful as I have. If you are interested in learning more about them, Googleing their names should be relatively easy.

Which Programs do you Use?

Currently, social media networking sites are soaring in popularity. However, there are so many that businesses usually do not know which ones will provide the most visibility or even will be the most effective for promoting their company online. The following spreadsheet acts like a poll so that our readers can gain a better understanding of which programs are most popular. Add to the quantity the programs you have used in the last 12 months.

Web 2.0 and Beyond

Web 2.0 and Beyond- Understanding the New Online Business Models, Trends, and technologies by Tom Funk is an incredible book that provides an easy to read, concise, and clear alternative to other web 2.0 books. Funk’s book was a great reminder on topics I had forgotten from my college courses in addition to a plethora of information on ideas I never came across. This book tailors to not only experienced, marketing professionals but website owners, and novices alike. In this book, Funk changes subjects rapidly maintaining anyone’s attention. He even seems to explain the essentials from each topic in a way that even the novice readers would be able to maintain a knowledgeable conversation with their marketing team or outside consultants.

Funk discusses the most recent technologies on the Web, and even has a section for readers called the Ten Things You Should Do to Make Your Business More "Web 2.0." This guide covers much of the recent information on today’s most well-known activities on the Web; new ways to attract customers, market, and maintain one’s web site; and methods to prevent the growing issues with cybercrime from affecting the reader. He discusses case studies of many relevant topics and illustrates how each area can and is utilized in real-world situations. He also provides an instructional guide to increase profits through social media and how to foster new relationships through social networking. Furthermore, he discusses the history of web 2.0 and how it has evolved and is leading to web 3.0.

The topic of web 3.0, on the other hand was quite exciting to read about. People feel web 3.0 will be a number of different trends. Some people feel that what is defined as web 3.0 will be when a web application has an overlay of scalable vector graphics (pg 127) or 10 megabits of bandwidth which will be the full video web (pg 128). Others believe that the distinction between professional, semi-professional and consumers will get blurred creating a network of business and applications pg 128). Eric Schmidt, Google CEO feels that web 3.0 will be applications that are pieced together, are small in size, the data is in the cloud, the apps run on all devices whether they are PC or Mobile. The apps are rapid and very customizable, and are distributed through social networks, email, and so forth (pg 128). However, Tom Funk believes that the semantic web, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, universal, portable, and online identities, 3-D internet, and true convergence of web, mobile devices, and other equipment are the trend toward web 3.0 (pg 128).      

The only real short fall of the book was that it only covers the aspects that Tom Funk deems necessary to learn. He does a good job summarizing information but for those who would like a more in depth read into a certain aspect of web 2.0, I would recommend to look elsewhere. The real problem with a book on the subject of technology though is that no matter how new the book is some material will be outdated and inaccurate causing recommendations on methods to no longer be as effective as others. The most effective way to learn about technology is through online articles among other periodicals.

The topic covered that I gained the most background knowledge from was on blogging. I learned that blogs have been around since the 1990s. It was interesting to learn that Blogger launched in 1999. In 2004, the usage of blogging by the novice to the American media surged. By 2006, Time magazine mentioned people who created blogs and other user-generated web content in its celebration of the Person of the Year. Currently, blogs are accepted to the point that mainstream reporters consistently reach out to industry and amateur bloggers for their articles. Also, due to the blogging community being so interlinked, Google’s algorithm is able to filter the quality and nature of the content on the web determining what appears at the top of the search results. It is also interesting to note that according to the book there are over 200 million abandoned blogs and that 120,000 new blogs are created every day with a quarter of them are never revisited by their creators (pg. 4). Additionally, blogs can provide access to authors, scholars, speakers, and authorities that were previously impossible to reach. With this said, just about anyone from all walks of life use a blog. The people who do use them are attempting to get the word out there about their view on a specific subject and the topics are quite diverse.

I would have to say that what stood out to me the most compared to the online tutorials was how blog programs have changed over time and adapted to current needs. When blogs first were introduced, they were limited, standardized daily posts onto a single page, sequential links to archived postings, and visitor comments (pg 5). Now, the variation of blog-authoring tools has increased and the addition of new widgets, as well as design themes has enabled bloggers with significant customization capabilities (pg 5). With the online tutorials, I was only able to experience the current format of blogging and only with Blogger. Furthermore, I did not learn much about the blogging history while using the online tutorials. However, the online tutorials were great at providing a visual for Blogger which allowed me to actually learn how to use the program.

How to Use Flickr to Market Your Business

Flickr is another crucial low budget avenue for effective marketing. According to Matt McGee who wrote "How to Market on Flickr", owned by Yahoo!, Flickr provides free photo sharing and a number of related services for users with any level of experience. Flickr is one of the fastest-growing photo sharing community sites on the web with a very strong and active user base. Most users of Flickr simply upload a photo, add the photo to a personal photo album, and then share the photo in related groups the person has joined. With this emphasized, posting to groups is the most effective way to share your photos and gain exposure.

As Flickr prohibits the use of the service for any commercial activity, posting a photo specifically for the purposes of advertising one's company, products, or services will cause the community to be shut down. Therefore, individuals need to actively contribute to the Flickr community through indirect marketing exposure.

One's web site address should be used as one's Flickr screen name. In doing this, one's screen name will be attached to everything one does on Flickr including photos one uploads and messages one posts in a Group discussion. With each photo one uploads, one should write appropriate informative text while adding keywords that describe the photo and a description of the image addressing one's company name, location, and web site address. 

One's Flickr profile should be used in an informative way to advertise one's company, products, or services. One can also make one's “Buddy Icon” in the profile system one's company logo. One should upload quality photos of one's products/services, and things related to one's business.


One should find, join, and share one's photos in appropriate groups. For this matter, one should be sure to find and join any groups related to one's geographic location including city, nearby cities, and one's state so one can increase one's reach to local audience.

One should be active in the Flickr community in several ways. One way to do this is by commenting on other photos one likes. In addition, one should add photos to one's “Favorites” list. Furthermore, one should respond and initiate discussions in one's groups. Every time a person does one of these activities, one's screen name will appear with one's comment, with one's discussion posts, and so on providing free advertising especially if one uses one's URL as one's screen name. In addition, one should reference and link considerably from one's web site to one's Flickr account because search engine crawlers generally follow a prominent link from one's web site to one's Flickr photos, increasing potential matches for search engine users.


When Flickr is used correctly it can be an effective tool for marketing one's small business. The most crucial aspect of its success is to be an active and responsible member while avoiding the usage of direct clear marketing in photos, comments, discussions, and so forth.

For more information and tactics from Matt McGee's article titled "How to Market on Flickr" click here: http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/articles/marketing-on-flickr/

Three of my photos in my slide show represent marketing opportunities for four different businesses. When you go to my slide show for example, one will find that I placed notes, tags, descriptions and titles for the Paris, Bellagio, Flamingo, and Rio Resort and Casino.  

Wikis: Smallbusiness.com

Smallbusiness.com is a great Wiki to help entrepreneurs and small business owners alike. This site covers knowledge one needs in order to start, run, and grow one's business. What I like most about this wiki is its layout. It is easy to find local agencies that provide services for small businesses. Also, one can find assistance with how to do many different things in one's business including incorporation, marketing, payroll, customer loyalty, seo, and so on. Another thing to note about the site is that it possesses a glossary of terms. When a business owner wants to verify a key word or issue he or she will be able to easily with this site. There is also a section for current events, business news, and a directory with links to small business resources across the web. Unfortunately, this site is far from its potential with minimal entries and involvement. Once more people begin using the site, it has the ability to become the meca of small business information. I highly suggest to become involved, share your knowledge, achievements, and what you learned from past failures. Who knows, maybe someone will have the solution to the problems your business is facing.

The URL for this Wiki is: http://smallbusiness.com/

Effective Tips for Entrepreneurs using Twitter

I recently came across an article on how entrepreneurs can use Twitter more effectively and it proved rather insightful. Not only is Twitter a great low budget tool but it is a Web 2.0 technology that is currently very popular. The problem is that many small business owners do not know how to keep their followers active and alert to their offerings. The article titled "8 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Get More Out of Twitter" by Scott Gerber provides tips that several small business owners have found successful. These include:

1) Using Twitter to have genuine interaction with customers and fans while answering their questions. Make sure to be listening, relating, brand conscious, and engaging.

2) Time needs to be limited to less than a half hour per day while only responding to crucial posts.

3) Making one's product embedded into the fans' daily lives.

4) Using an automatic responder to direct “followers” to one's website.

5) Establishing oneself as an expert and providing relevant valuable content. One should post tips, advice and guidance that will assist one's potential customers.

6) The majority of one's tweets should be fun, informational, or personal in nature, while commercial content should be tweeted to a much smaller extent. One should also tweet about interesting links and useful articles.

7) It's always more important to have quality over quantity of followers in regards to social media.

The URL for this site is: http://mashable.com/2011/01/24/twitter-entrepreneur-tips/

Score Southern Nevada Chapter 243

There is indeed a SCORE chapter in Southern Nevada. For the readers who do not know what SCORE is, SCORE is a nonprofit association that helps educate entrepreneurs and the development of small businesses nationwide according to their site found at http://scorelv.org/about-score. The local chapter covers Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Mesquite, and Pahrump. SCORE is exceptional for what it provides and it is highly recommended that small business owners either use the SCORE, NSBDC, or the SBA for their services. SCORE offers seminars, workshops, counseling sessions, mentoring, and advisory teams to help educate small business owners. Furthermore, their site provides very useful information on the requirements of opening a business in Nevada and the United Sates.