Small Business Resources

A Small Business Blog

A Small Business Blog and Small Business Tips Related to Growing, Marketing and Managing a Small Business.

Small business blog for small business owners, includes resources for businesses, small business grants, business plans, business letters, daily business tips, online marketing advice and information. Learn ideas for your small business.

• Best Search Marketing Blogs

  Attempting to stay current on the latest search engine algorithm changes or search optimization tactics can be overwhelming for webmasters attempting to juggle it all. With this in mind, we have put together a list of the industrys best Search Marketing blogs. These blogs are current and discuss important issues related to search engine optimization and search marketing.

• Directory Submissions That Matter

  Links from different directories have different values. A webmasters time is limited, and most webmasters want to get the biggest bang for their bucks. So where should they start when it comes to directory submissions? Search engines assign value to links from the various directories differently, so how do you spend your time where it matters most?
  
  Directory Submissions that Matter

• Web Rules Changing for Big Business

  Federal guidelines for what type of information companies can provide on their official Web sites have not been updated since 2000. On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously to modernize its rules to fit in with an increasingly digital economy.
  
  Under the revamped rules, which have not yet been released in their entirety, information posted on a company Web site does not necessarily have to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley rules relating to a companys disclosure controls and procedures.
  
  The rules also provide clarity on how companies can: provide access to historical or archived data without it being considered reissued or republished every time it is accessed; link to third-party information or Web sites without having to adopt that content for liability purposes; and use summary information in the context of the securities laws antifraud provisions.
  
  Meanwhile, Web sites no longer have to include a printer friendly version of all their documents so sites can include more interactive and dynamic features, the SEC said.

• Four Kinds of Links

  Links are an important component in an online marketing campaign. Websites usually need a significant number of quality links to perform well in organic search rankings. Once upon a time, high-quality links were plentiful. But with the growth of the web, and an ever-increasing number of competing websites, garnering link love and attention is a time-consuming and tedious process.
  
  Four Kinds of Links

• Evaluating Your Competition

  Staying ahead of the competition can be an on-going struggle. While it is not healthy for a company to focus too much time and attention on the competition, it is important to stay abreast of what your competition is doing. When evaluating the competition, assess the industry giants and companies closest to your space. But be sure that you don't exclude the small companies in your assessments. Sometimes a small competitor can have innovative ideas or marketing concepts, but may lack the capital to really benefit from the concept. This may present you with an opportunity.
  
  Evaluating Your Competition

Smart Biz News

SmartBiz RSS FEED

SmartBiz.com Internet Technology Resources For Startup and Small Businesses

• Streamsend Announces Affiliate Marketing Program

  StreamSend, one of today's leading email marketing solutions provider, is proud to introduce its new affiliate marketing program together with robust real-time statistics, reporting and balance tracking.

• Enhance Your Email Marketing Response

  Things have changed since Henry Ford said, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." Customers are a lot more in control now...

• How Will the New President Affect Your Business' Bottom Line?

  Now that all of the candidates are established, we each have a big decision to make in a few months. McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden. But which one will impact your small business most?

• Keeping Your Event Under Budget

  Staying within your event budget is always important to any business venture but it is essential when planning a corporate event. As the goals of a corporate event are generally not profit based, determining the ROI (or return on investment) is often complicated.

• 25 More Top iPhone Apps for Small Business

  Last time, we looked into some of the best applications that you can load into your iPhone. Since we received good feedback from people wanting to know what other business apps we could recommend ...

Freelance Writing Career

Freelance Writers

About.com Freelance Writing

Get the latest headlines from the About.com Freelance Writing GuideSite.

• The Cream of the Crop- Writing Blogs

  Michael Stelzner is a copywriter who focuses on writing white papers. Every year he runs a Top Ten Blogs for Writers Contest, in which the blogs are nominated by readers....

• You're Not An Artiste, You're a Salesman!

  Guess what? You're going to have to take off that smock and get to selling. Coming into this game, you may have some lofty goals of the artist's way, and, in...

• Now Read This: Stephen King's "On Writing"

  When three different writers tell you to read a certain book, I'd say that's a pretty good sign. Today I got an email from a friend, reader and fellow writer...

• Would You Just Start Already?

  I was honored to be interviewed by Thursday Bram, as I am a fan of hers (and not just because of that ultra-cool name!) Her last question was about the...

• New To Freelancing? Now Read This

  I found the greatest interview on my Google Reader this morning. Fellow freelance writer Sharon Hurley Hall does a meta-interview about the writing life. The candid answers and peek into...

Writer's Resource Center

PoeWar.com Writer's Resource Center

News, articles, information and opportunities for writers

• 09/07/2008 Writing Jobs and Links

  Today’s Writing Job Roll Celebrities Blogger — Virtual Freelance Writers — Louisville, KY Chinese Medicine/Acupuncture Writer/Blogger — Virtual Freelance Writer — Telecommute Medical Education Blogger — US Freelance Health Writers — Telecommute Online Finance Writer — New York, NY Senior Technical Writer — San Diego, CA Freelance Copywriter — Waltham, MA Fitness Blogger — Texas Baltimore Bloggers — Baltimore, MD Performance Automotive Blogger — USA Wireless Telecommunications Reporter [...]

• PD30 Day 7: Embrace The Person You Are

  I live about 60 miles from where I work. This is actually an improvement in my commute. During last year’s PD30, I lived 110 miles from where I worked, so I had to stay in hotels during the week. This year, at a mere 60 miles, I can make the drive. It takes about an [...]

• PD30 Day 6: Poets and Parables

  Ending a poem can be difficult. People feel the need to end on a powerful note. They want to sum up the poem. They want everything that lead up to that final line to feel perfect, and think that this is only possible with the perfect final line. That is a lot of pressure to [...]

• PD30 Day 5: Poetry and Pain

  Pain is personal. Pain is powerful. Pain is not original. Accepting the risk of hyperbole, I can say that all poets go through a pain period. All people, and thus all poets, suffer. You may be mistreated by a parent, rejected by a lover, betrayed by a friend or touched by death. These things happen, [...]

• PD30 Day 4: Poetry ? the Writer?s Bridge to Music.

  Today’s Poetry Article is by guest blogger James Garner. Movie goers everywhere are aware of the impact that music can have on the emotions. The combination of musical tones and rhythms can either lull a baby to sleep, or send a shrill down your back. The famous shower stabbing scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic [...]

Design Resources

A List Apart

A List Apart Issue 266

• Mapping Memory: Web Designer as Information Cartographer

  The rise of the social web demands that we rethink our traditional role as builders of digital monuments, and turn our attention to the close observation of the spaces that our users are producing around us. It's time for a new metaphor. Consider cartography.

   

  Hide Your Shame: The A List Apart Store and T-Shirt Emporium is back. Hot new designs! Old favorites remixed! S, M, L, XL. Come shop with us!

• CSS Sprites2 - It's JavaScript Time

  In 2004, Dave Shea took the CSS rollover where it had never gone before. Now he takes it further still—with a little help from jQuery. Say hello to hover animations that respond to a user's behavior in ways standards-based sites never could before.

   

  Hide Your Shame: The A List Apart Store and T-Shirt Emporium is back. Hot new designs! Old favorites remixed! S, M, L, XL. Come shop with us!

design.Principles

Web design news and notes

• How To Create An Amazing jQuery Style Switcher

  There’s a well documented article/tutorial at NETTUTS that outlines the step-by-step process of creating a pretty slick style switcher with CSS and jQuery. It’s definitely something to keep in mind for that next Web project.

• Mozilla Labs Launches Ubiquity

  Yesterday marked a potential fundamental change in how people use the Internet. Mozilla Labs launched (in alpha) their Ubiquity prototype — “…experiment into connecting the Web with language in an attempt to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily.” I’m not sure [...]

• CSS Sprites2 - It?s JavaScript Time

  In the latest issue of A List Apart, Dave Shea revisits his influential CSS Sprites technique for navigation treatment. This time around, however, the technique leans less on CSS as a sole driver and more on JavaScript, particularly the jQuery library. As evident by this very site, I’ve been delving more into jQuery, Moo, Prototype [...]

• Specifics on CSS Specificity

  I’m fairly up on my CSS specificity, but it’s always nice to have a new way to explain it to those that may not quite grasp the concept. CSS-Tricks.com has a nice point-based system that will help anyone regardless of skill level iron out those specificity issues that pop up from time to time. Based on [...]

• design.Pinciples Layout Version Number Something or Other

  To start off the resurrection of active posting to design.Principles, we might as well start with a redesign. The goal with this latest version of the site is to keep it simple. All types of posts (full articles, quick links, site showcases) will all be handled the same and given equal share with their own individual pages.

Dave Shea's mezzoblue

• Sneakernet SVN

  I've gotten myself used to checking all my projects into a pair of USB key subversion repositories. Here's my setup.

• OpenDNS

  I'm wading deep into unfamiliar water here, so take my assessment with a grain of salt because I'm not sure I'm describing it totally accurately. But this strikes me as a Big Deal that needs to be disseminated as far...

• Domain Registry Scam

  This morning's mail brought me a renewal notice from my domain registrar. Except, wait.

• Design Notes

  Time to dive back in to the Bright Creative redesign I wrote about last week, and focus on some of the good stuff that came out of it. Most people got it; but for anyone who misinterpreted my laundry list...

• Design Rants

  Last night I launched a long-needed redesign of my business site, Bright Creative. The site had been languishing for years, but fact is, it is a business and I do keep my contract work at arm's length from what goes...

Web Design Resources

WebReference News

Daily news, views, and how-tos on all aspects of web design and development. Features free web-based tools, open source scripts, and in-depth tutorials on DHTML, HTML, JavaScript, 3D, Graphics, XML, and Design for webmasters.

• The Partial Function Application in JavaScript

  The partial function application is an effective method of applying different inputs to a single object or bind one of the arguments to a function as a constant. This article covers how to use closures to perform two types of partial application: Binding and currying. By Rob Gravelle. 0905

• Creating Dynamic RSS Feeds with Ajax

  If you want to place RSS feeds on your Web pages and don't want to learn how to scrape pages, this tutorial will show you how to use the last RSS script to gather them for you. By Lee Underwood. 0902

• Performance Optimizations for High Speed JavaScript

  In this article, we look at how important JavaScript optimizations are analyzed. These general purpose techniques are designed for JavaScript on all browsers. Detailed graphs of all the performance results are given after each optimization. You will be amazed at the incredible speed improvements! By Joseph Myers

• Advanced Web Performance Optimization

  On the server side, you can improve performance by: Optimizing parallel downloads, caching frequently used objects, using HTTP compression, deploying delta encoding and rewriting URIs with mod_rewrite. By Andrew B. King. 0825

• Simple Comments Meets OpenID

  Beginning with version .960, Simple Comments supports visitor logins using OpenID identifiers. In this article, I discuss some of the specific architectural and developmental considerations that went into the process of OpenID-enabling the Simple Comments system. By Dan Ragle. 0820

Web Design from Scratch

Tutorials and commentary on designing web sites that work

• 10 Best-designed web sites in the world, top web design

  My list of 10 best-designed web sites in the world, with explanation of which great web design techniques work most effectively

• 10 Free Ways to Promote a Business Online

  10 ways to promote your business on the web for free - business promotion sites

• 3D Effects in graphic design for the web

  Guidelines on how to use 3D effects effectively in graphic design for the web

• Media Volunteer Center redesign for 50 Redesigns book

  Summary of redesign of Media Volunteer Center for new Scratchmedia book: 50 Redesigns from Scratch

• Sunhome redesign for 50 Redesigns book

  Summary of redesign of sunhome.biz for new Scratchmedia book: 50 Redesigns from Scratch