Author: stevewoda Page 11 of 13

So You Want to Be a Blogging Star?

On March 25, 2008

In Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Web/Tech

I have discovered the hard way that blogging is not an easy endeavor, and this is especially true for folks that have real jobs during the day. At a minimum, it takes time, dedication, and creativity. I have often wondered how to others do such a great job with their blogs while still maintaining excellence in their day jobs. To that point, I thought this article was very interesting, and it included a number of practical tips for all of us aspiring bloggers. I hope you find this useful as well.

MARK CUBAN, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has a full plate. Besides his basketball team, the busy billionaire also owns part of a media company, and serves as chairman of the TV channel HDNet. He recently competed for five weeks on “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC. How on earth does he find time to blog?

Yet his site, blogmaverick.com, is one of the top 1,000 Weblogs, according to the search engine Technorati. Thousands read Mr. Cuban’s posts every single day. If he can do it, why can’t you?

Technorati Tags: Blogging,Mark Cuban,Blogmaverick.com,Technorati,Ted Dziuba,Uncov.com,Xeni Jardin,BoingBoing.net

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-21

By stevewoda

On March 21, 2008

In Bookmarks, eCommerce, Grotech Capital, Microsoft, Online Advertising, Venture Capital, Web/Tech

Report ranks Washington and Baltimore hotbed for investors – Washington Business Journal:

The Washington and Baltimore region was the nation’s fifth fastest-growing area for venture capital funding in the last decade, according to a report released Tuesday. In 2007, 180 Washington and Baltimore companies received nearly $1.3 billion in venture capital backing, the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Financial and the National Venture Capital Association said. That number is up 130 percent from $558.24 million put into 105 companies in 1997. The report lists Timonium, Md.-based Grotech Capital Group and Chevy Chase-based New Enterprise Associates as the most active investors in the region. The top industries for investments around the region were software, life sciences and telecommunications.

Affluent Hobnob on Social Networks – eMarketer

The rate of affluent US Internet user participation in online social networks increased dramatically to 60% in January 2008, from 27% in January 2007, according to The Luxury Institute’s latest WealthSurvey "The Wealthy and Web 2.0." "While some in the luxury industry are still debating e-commerce, search and banner ads, the majority of their customers have leaped into the online dialogue," said Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute. "Luxury needs to catch up quickly."

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-15

By stevewoda

On March 15, 2008

In Bookmarks

HiveLive secures $5.6 million

HiveLive Inc., a Boulder-based company that integrates social and information networks, secured $5.6 million in venture financing from Grotech Capital Group and current private investors. Joseph Zell, a general partner with Grotech, will take a seat on HiveLive’s board of directors.

ID Security: Secure E-Commerce From First to Final Click

What’s most important to consumers when making a purchase online? Personal identity. Consumers are taking more notice of their individual online security after a string of recent identity theft cases made major headlines. According to a recent survey by the University of Southern California’s Center for the Digital Future, 61 percent of adult Americans said they were "very" or "extremely" concerned about the privacy of personal information when buying online, an increase from 47 percent in 2006. Prior to 2007, that number had been decreasing for the past six years.

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-12

By stevewoda

On March 12, 2008

In Bookmarks

Pay-per-click Spyware and Other Scams: Tips on avoiding and detecting

If you thought click fraud was bad, consider this: your Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing ads and Microsoft adCenter accounts are new targets for spyware applications, hackers and scam artists. If thieves obtain access to your pay-per-click account, they are in complete control of your pay-per-click activity and could place ads on their behalf but charge your account for them.

Wikipedia founder defending himself over flap, breakup

Virtually anyone can edit an entry on Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia. But its founder is finding it’s not so easy to cover his tracks after a messy breakup with a TV personality and a dust-up over his expenses began playing out on the Web. It’s not the first time that Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia’s de facto leader, has found his behavior questioned — especially since no subject appears too arcane for dissection by Wikipedia’s passionate community of users. The latest episodes, however, reverberated beyond the usual die-hards.

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-10

By stevewoda

On March 10, 2008

In Bookmarks

Come for brunch. Bring billions. – Los Angeles Times

The Internet bubble of the late 1990s ended with a painful pop. When today’s young entrepreneurs get together, the only bubbles they see are in their mimosas. Even as the rest of the business world frets about the gloomy economy, Silicon Valley is living the high-tech high life. Nowhere is that more evident than at Founders Brunch, a private, invitation-only gathering where new-boom kids and industry veterans pick up whispers of the next big trends, invest in one another’s ideas and push one another to think big. Every three months, these elites of the Web crowd pull themselves out of their beds or cubicles and pile into a different upscale home for a Sunday spread of community and conversation.

Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business

At the age of 40, King Gillette was a frustrated inventor, a bitter anticapitalist, and a salesman of cork-lined bottle caps. It was 1895, and despite ideas, energy, and wealthy parents, he had little to show for his work. He blamed the evils of market competition. Indeed, the previous year he had published a book, The Human Drift, which argued that all industry should be taken over by a single corporation owned by the public and that millions of Americans should live in a giant city called Metropolis powered by Niagara Falls. His boss at the bottle cap company, meanwhile, had just one piece of advice: Invent something people use and throw away.

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-08

By stevewoda

On March 8, 2008

In Bookmarks, eCommerce, Entrepreneurship, Google, Grotech Capital, Marketing, PayPal, Trust and Safety, Venture Capital, Web/Tech

Jeremy Siegel on Politicians, Prices and a Potential ‘Buying Opportunity of the Decade’ – Knowledge@Wharton

The U.S. Presidential race has reached a critical juncture. The Republicans have a confirmed nominee in John McCain; as for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton has bounced back, while Barack Obama retains a marginal lead in terms of delegates. How the presidential race evolves will be shaped in part by the increasingly worrisome state of the U.S. economy. Consumer prices are rising, oil has crossed $103 a barrel and gold is nudging $1,000 an ounce — suggesting that the economy could be entering a phase of 1970s-style stagflation. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, however, told Congress last week that he doesn’t anticipate stagflation, and he continues to indicate his willingness to keep cutting interest rates. What lies ahead for the U.S. and world economies? Knowledge@Wharton discussed these questions and more with finance professor Jeremy Siegel, author of The Future for Investors.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeDUeIBomzM&rel=1&border=0]

Ecommerce Blogging: Who, What And When: Well-written blogs create credibility, interest

Last month I talked about blogging platforms and the value blogging can bring to ecommerce sites. When a website makes the decision to begin a blog and decides upon a blogging platform, it will then have to decide who will blog and how often. Time allotted to blogging is also a relative issue, as is subject matter. So why bother at all? Relative to static ecommerce sites, search engines consider blogs more real and trusted because blogs tend to have fresh content and there is a less financial, more informational link between a blog and its readers. An ecommerce site should take advantage of this tendency by adding a blog to augment the overall site.

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-06

By stevewoda

On March 6, 2008

In Bookmarks, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Microsoft, Web/Tech

The Tipping Point—Web Logo Style

The other day, a friend who runs a small business lamented that his Web site wasn’t worth the trickle of business it brought in. Something told me he’s not alone. In fact, some estimates have found the majority of small-business Web sites fail to generate revenue. Which is too bad, because I think that entrepreneurs like my friend make a mistake by blaming the site itself, or even the medium of the Web. The problem, in my view, is not the site—it’s the lack of trust in the company behind the site. Trust is an elusive concept, of course; the sort of term bandied about freely in Marketing 101 but rarely defined adequately since any of us found ourselves in that class. Building trust is important. Building trust via your Web site is essential. Now here comes the biggie: How?

A VC: Thoughts On Choosing Board Members

I am a professional board member. I’ve been sitting on boards for almost 20 years and I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen some of the best board members in action and have tried to copy them. I’ve seen some of the worst board members in action and have tried hard to forget them. Here are some thoughts on choosing board members. This advice is for everyone, but it’s of particular use when you are a bigger company, maybe public, and need to fill your board with good people.

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-03

By stevewoda

On March 3, 2008

In Bookmarks, ChannelAdvisor, eBay, eCommerce, Online Fraud, Trust and Safety

Lessons in building a better widget

By giving an audience widgets that provide a service and make their lives more interesting or convenient your brand will be on its way to far more free real estate than you ever expected. In helping brands develop widget presences, I can say that for brand managers and agencies alike, the first time through can be an emotional roller coaster. Early in the process, brainstorming sessions are filled with far-flung, fantastic ways to bring enterprise information into the everyday lives of the audience.

Comparison shopping engines more important for some products than others – InternetRetailer.com

Comparison shopping engines are an important part of the e-commerce channel marketing mix, Scot Wingo, CEO of e-commerce channel management services vendor ChannelAdvisor Corp., tells Internet Retailer. But they’re a better spend for some categories than for others, he adds. Wingo says, for example, that comparison shopping engines are strong in categories such as consumer electronics, less so with products such as apparel and jewelry. That disparity is partially a function of how matching on the engines works. Consumer electronics products have a multitude of hard attributes that lend themselves to point-to-point comparison, for example, while jewelry and apparel selection relies more on a shopper’s subjective opinion. That said, ChannelAdvisor customers spend anywhere from 15% to as much as 40% of their online marketing dollars on comparison shopping engines

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-01

By stevewoda

On March 1, 2008

In Bookmarks, Google, Grotech Capital, Venture Capital, Web/Tech

Google Muscles Further Into Business Software – Forbes.com

Google is launching Web-based collaboration software that aims to make it easy for groups to share and edit materials such as documents, photos, video and spreadsheets on a single site. Easy enough, Google hopes, to make selling software applications to enterprises a bit harder for the likes of IBM and Microsoft.

Use of Google for Data Triggers Fears

It’s called "Google hacking" – a slick data-mining technique used by the Internet’s cops and crooks alike to unearth sensitive material mistakenly posted to public Web sites. And it’s just gotten easier, thanks to a program that automates what has typically been painstaking manual labor. The program’s authors say they hope it will "screw a large Internet search engine and make the Web a safer place."

Daily Roundup for 2008-02-27

By stevewoda

On February 27, 2008

In Bookmarks

A CEO Manning the Phones Each Day?

When Alden Kellogg discovered a glitch on Wesabe, he went to the personal finance tracker’s home page, looking for a tech support number or e-mail. Instead, he found a link labeled "Talk to Jason, CEO of Wesabe." The page invites users to reach CEO Jason Knight by phone during a four-hour period seven days a week. Kellogg, a 35-year-old attorney in New Orleans, called the number in July, and Knight picked up.

Amazon.com Tests Retailer Ads – Seattle Times Newspaper

Amazon.com Inc. is testing a new paid advertising program that will drive shoppers away from products on its own Web site. When shoppers click, the advertiser’s site opens in a new window. And Amazon makes money for sending the user along _ sometimes more than if it had held onto the shopper. Razor-thin retail margins have prompted Amazon to look beyond directly selling and shipping merchandise to customers.