Internet Business

Super Bowl ads 2012: Five key trends and five great ads released before the big game

Max Wiedermann — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:14:31 +0000

For lovers of American football, there is no bigger event than the annual championship game called the Super Bowl.

But this isn’t just the biggest annual sporting event in the US – it’s also become the biggest platform for companies and their advertisers to show off their brands and their skills.

This year, a 30-second advertising spot during the Super Bowl coverage will cost around $3.5 million. A

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Open New Merchant with Loan

Claudia Anthony — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:20:14 +0000

Some people who want to open the merchant should understand how easy to get the financing scenario with the easiest way by applying via internet. Yes, this is the modern time when you do not need to go to any office to get the fresh money for opening the business. One of my favorite places to borrow money for my new merchant store is merchant cash group. This is really good online based company that provides interesting loan for many people including for people who want to open the new business. Merchant funding can be a nightmare for people who are opening new business but they do not have experience with the financing deal. Get full info…

Ethical Consumerism is Hard

Amy Fantin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:25:48 +0000

Its not easy being an ethical consumer, these days — especially if youre hoping to buy products that embody all or most of the ethical values you care about.

Heres an example. If you like salmon, and if youre the sort of consumer who wants to eat ethically, should you buy organic salmon or buy wild salmon? After all, theres a huge effort these days to promote organic foods as ethical — gentler on the earth, and so on. Of course, others arent so sure that theres much benefit to organic foods, and some even argue that the organic label is more a status symbol than anything else.

Now what about wild vs farmed? Som

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4 Ways to Make Your E-Mail Marketing Mobile Friendly

Amy Fantin — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:53:47 +0000

E-mail marketing, with 92% of the U.S. internet users sending and reading e-mail, according to Pew Internet and American Life Project, it’s a no brainer.

Right? Yes and no. E-mail marketing no longer reaches your audience the way it used to. People used to sit at their Gateway desktops every night, dial into their Netscape and check e-mails while watching Family Matters.

The story is now a bit different. One in five marketing e-mails is opened on a smart phone. This changes a few things for your e-mail marketing campaign. T

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CRM Account Management

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:46:02 +0000

In many companies, working on customer accounts is a crucial part of the business. This means that account management is of the utmost importance to ensure you deliver a consistently high level of service to your customers and are also able to make sure your business is going in the right direction based on the response of those customers to your marketing and other activities.

CRM solutions can assist you in your account management processes in a variety of ways. One of these ways is by enabling you to store vital account information in a secure, single place. Get full info…

Avoid This Big Mistake When Buying a Business

Claudia Anthony — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:13:36 +0000

There are many tips for business buyers on buying a business. Most business publications have articles that serve as guides so a buyer avoids making costly mistakes. These articles dwell on the various stages or phases when buying a business making the correct valuation of the business for sale, knowing why the business is being sold, getting information from the seller about the business, reviewing the financial and work records, doing due diligence, seeking legal and financial advice, etc.

Only a few articles touch on the personal or social fit a buyer should have with the prospective business. It is not always all about profitability.

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Shopcreator Stores Outpace John Lewis

Max Wiedermann — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:58:42 +0000

The votes are in. The jury has decided. The teenage scribblers in the City have opined and pronounced. And what they’ve announced is that John Lewis and M&S had a good Christmas. Their Christmas season sales growth of 28% and 22% respectively was deemed to be a success. A sign of supreme ecommerce talent.

On the other hand whilst Next was seen to be treading water at 17% growth, the sales performance of tescos with a mere 14% increase in internet sales was seen as nothing short of the end of an era. The headlines screamed about the eclipse of Britain’s favourite place to shop.

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21 Reasons You’ll Fail at Marketing

Claudia Anthony — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:15:08 +0000

I don’t know what it is about Marketing, but everyone on earth seems to think they can do it. And yet I see so many people NOT doing it or wasting thousands of dollars and not getting results. I see business owners try the same things over and over, wasting more money, more time, and more energy. If I had 1/10^th of what business owners waste on stuff that doesnt work, I’d be the most successful marketing consultant on the planet. And yet, so many business owners would rather go it alone and try and fail and try again and fail again rather than reach out and get professional help. I don’t

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Two builders roll out net-zero energy-efficient homes

Max Wiedermann — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:18:37 +0000

A screen inside a New Town Builders net-zero home displays energy use and costs. Homeowners can expect to pay nothing in electric and natural gas bills when averaged over a year because their houses’ rooftop solar panels will generate enough extra power to offset utility costs. Get full info…

Linfield Adult Degree Program Offers Path to Scholarships Workshop to Students Applying for Admission

Amy Fantin — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:17:31 +0000

Linfield Adult Degree Program, announces that it will be making its Path to Scholarships® workshops available as a service to students who apply for admission to either Linfield Colleges accredited bachelors degree or professional certificate programs. The workshops are being held twice in the coming weeks for those students who plan to enroll at Linfield in the 2012 spring or summer semesters.

The Path to Scholarships® workshops are led by Gerardo Ochoa, Associate Director of Financial Aid at Linfield College, Portland Campus and Co-author of Path to Scholarships® College Edition. Mr. Oc

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Are you part of the Bplans 100,000? Take the poll and enter to win a free subscription to LivePlan

Claudia Anthony — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:42:20 +0000

As membership numbers approach the 100,000 mark, Bplans.com has launched a poll and Twitter contest to celebrate!

Bplans is inviting participants to take a brief, five-question poll, then head over to Twitter.com to for a chance to win a free subscription to business-planning product, LivePlan.

Results of the poll, and winners will be announced early next week.

QBE placed in trading halt, Fed tips improvement in US economy: Midday roundup

Max Wiedermann — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:31:08 +0000

QBE Insurance Group has been placed in a trading halt with reports suggesting the halt is due to an investigation by US authorities into one of the company’s subsidiaries, Balboa.

The halt will remain in place until either an announcement from the company is made, or trading resumes on January 16.

Reports indicate that the investigation will focus on excessive fees for policies that include some of the largest banks in the United States.

QBE has said it will make an announcement today “regarding topics such as preliminary 2011 results and 2012 worldwide reinsurance protections”.

Shares open flat after weak overseas leads

The Australian sharemarket has opened flat this morning after weak results from international markets, which have been subdued over renewed fears over the European debt crisis.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 3.3 points or 0.1% to 4190.8 at 12.00 AEST, while the Australian dollar rose slightly to $US1.02c.

ANZ shares rose 0.33% to $21.15 as Commonwealth Bank shares rose 0.24% to $50.06. Westp

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Asset Based Loan

Claudia Anthony — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:31:08 +0000

Loan is really important for people who want to do something but limited by the number of money those they have in the pocket or bank account. You know how to use information for this purpose and get the solution immediately. If you want to take important loan, you should know how to use the Asset Based Lending because the personal loan is not enough for you to get the lot number of money and so we need to know how to find other way of refinancing our business. There are many people who get success by taking the loan to expand their business but some others do not know how to get this facility in the modern way. Get full info…

Google bans Chrome from its Search Results

Max Wiedermann — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:14:09 +0000

You may or may not have read our previous post about black hat SEO techniques and how you shouldn’t go onto the dark side if you want to have a good ranking on Google. And just to show that we weren’t kidding, in an extraordinary development last week, Google has actually downgraded the pagerank for its own Google Chrome download page. It’s not entirely clear how they got themselves into this pickle, but it seems that they had contracted with an agency, Unruly Media who set up a campaign with various bloggers to get the word out to small business owners about the benefits of Chrome.

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Transparency and Hospital Executive Perks

Amy Fantin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:20:14 +0000

The Globe and Mail reported yesterday that Ontario hospitals are scrambling to eliminate executive perks, in the face of new rules stating that compensation practices must be made public. Ontarios hospitals are funded by tax dollars, and clearly they dont want to be seen spending those dollars on things the public is likely to find dubious.

A few quick thoughts:

1. To a certain extent, transparency is an alternative to good governance: we the public want access to the details if we worry that the people who are supposed to be taking care of those details arent doing a good job of it. Yet the Globe story makes no mention of governance.

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