Trade show is an effective marketing tool, and here are a few keys to its success

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Winter is the height of trade show season. In my company, the largest part of our marketing budget goes to exhibiting at trade shows.

Trade shows are effective not only because key prospects are all under one roof, but they’re eager to see what you have to offer. Trade show attendees have the interest, need and time to look at your products or services.

Here are a few keys to trade show success:

Choose the right show

First, recognize the different types of trade shows: shows for consumers versus shows for industry insiders; tabletop shows versus shows with booths; and expositions for buyers versus educational conferences.

Before you book a show, get a list of past exhibitors and call a few and ask about the nature and number of attendees at previous years’ shows.

Develop a promotion plan

About 75 percent of show attendees plan booth visits before the show starts. Before the show, invite people to visit your booth. Send an e-mail, make personal calls and develop incentives. Preshow promotion increases your chance of having visits from qualified leads.

Choose promotional materials wisely

Attendees come to trade shows to gather information. They need something to take home with them to remind them about you. But keep your materials minimal and easy to carry.

Make your booth inviting

Decide which products to feature in your booth and whether or not to offer show specials. The items you choose to merchandise and the way you display and promote them in your trade show booth will affect the numbers you draw to your booth.

Turn browsers into buyers

In the world of trade show leads, quality, not quantity, is king. Practice what to say to prospects ahead of time to determine whether they’re a qualified lead (“What brings you to the show today? What needs in your business are you trying to solve?”) to tell them about your products or services, to close the deal or follow up. (In “Trade Show in a Day,” I’ve provided sample scripts.)

Follow up

Following up promptly with the leads is essential. If you wait too long, they may forget about your product or service or place an order with a competitor. Act fast and deliver on any and all promises you made to them. If you said you’d call, call. If you said you’d send a catalog, put it in the mail right away.

Evaluate the show

Exhibiting at a trade show or conference takes time, effort and money. So how do you know whether your investment paid off? Taking a critical look at your performance at one show will help you make better decisions the next time around.

For help finding a trade show, contact your industry association. You can also check the Web site www.tsnn.com for a list of some bigger shows.

And remember: Drink plenty of water, keep breath mints on hand and wear comfortable shoes.

This is the opinion of Rhonda Abrams, who is the author of books for entrepreneurs. Her newest is “Trade Show in a Day.” Register for her newsletter at www.PlanningShop.com.

How One Blogger Increased His Revenue From $300/Mo To Over $3000/Mo With Things Other Than AdSense.

Picture this: Online video generating excitement

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Online video is becoming the killer application of the Internet as b-to-b marketers embrace it as an integral part of their marketing programs, using it in such disparate formats as 15-second banner ads and long-form documentaries.

Spending on online video advertising will more than triple in the next three years, growing from $775.0 million this year to $2.90 billion in 2010, according to research company eMarketer.

With the anticipated surge in spending, media companies are scrambling to get in on the action, as demonstrated by the partnership announced last month by NBC Universal and News Corp. to form an online video ad network.

In announcing the as-yet-unnamed venture, News Corp. President-COO Peter Chernin called it "the largest ad platform on earth," with an audience that will reach about 96% of the U.S. Web viewing audience. The video network will be distributed by partners including Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, News Corp.'s MySpace, Time Warner's AOL and Yahoo.

Already, the video venture has lined up charter advertisers including Cisco Systems, General Motors Corp. and Intel Corp.

"The partnership is another great venue for us to reach our audience, which is people who are using their computers for entertainment," said Thom Campbell, senior media manager at Intel. He said the partnership encourages the use of computers for watching video, which is one of the product benefits of Intel's Core 2 Duo Processor.

When Intel introduced its vPro technology last September, it used 90-second video ads to promote the package of hardware and software on sites aimed at IT buyers. "Online video has proven more effective than standard banners," Campbell said.

Doug Scott, senior partner and executive director-branded content and entertainment at Ogilvy North America, said one of the benefits of online video is lower production costs than traditional TV spots.

"It costs less than doing a 30-second TV spot, but a more important question is the value of the video asset versus that of an ad," he said. "The longevity of an ad is three to six months at best, but the longevity of a story being told about business solutions is much longer."

For example, Ogilvy has been working with client IBM Corp. since November developing "long-form documentaries," which are then cut into different formats and distributed across multiple platforms, including online, TV and mobile.

The longer-form films, which range from five to seven minutes, showcase how IBM is helping its customers solve business problems. So far the agency has created 10 films for IBM, including six in the U.S., featuring customers such as the National Football League, New York City Police Department and Professional Golf Association.

The videos are running on IBM's Web site, and shorter versions have been packaged together and are running on CNBC's TV program "The Business of Innovation." In addition, the video content will be distributed across online media properties, including Google and YouTube, as well as business and technology sites.

Visa started using online video in 2002. "At that point, a lot of the ads were taking 30- or 15-second TV spots and throwing them online," said Jon Raj, VP-advertising and emerging media platforms at Visa USA.

Raj said Visa's first "breakthrough" online video project came in 2003, with a program called "Ideas Happen." Visa created a Web site and invited young adults to upload their own videos, much like today's YouTube, with their ideas for business, self-expression and community. Users could vote on the best ideas, and Visa awarded prizes to 12 winners.

Visa has been making use of online video recently with its BusinessBreakthrough.com, a Web site aimed at small businesses. The site, which debuted in October, features five three-minute videos of small-business owners talking about business challenges and how Visa helped them solve their problems.

So far, more than 2 million users have visited the site. Visa also tracks other metrics, such as whether users watch a video and average viewing time. But perhaps more important is the impact the site is having on achieving Visa's business objectives, Raj said.

"A key metric is third-party research that looks at raising the attributes that we know grow our business," he said. "We define our success based on that."

Rick Bruner, research analyst at DoubleClick, said online video ads are proving effective as branding vehicles as well as direct response units. He pointed to recent DoubleClick research that found average click rates for online video ads were five times higher than those for ads without video. "Most advertisers see video ads as more of a branding vehicle than a direct-response vehicle," he said. "Nonetheless, these units get a much higher direct response rate on click-throughs."

Other b-to-b companies that have been experimenting with online video for years are now using it prominently in their marketing communications programs, and they're seeing positive results.

"We've been doing video for a long time, but we have really been more aggressive in the last year," said Helen Lechner, senior manager of Web marketing strategy at Cisco. "We have video all over our site."

Cisco uses online video for product demonstrations, executive speeches, interviews with product managers and excerpts from ad campaigns. The videos range in length from 30 seconds (for ad campaigns) to five minutes (for more in-depth product demonstrations). "My rule is two minutes," Lechner said.

Cisco has also run online video ad campaigns as banner ads and seeded viral video campaigns on YouTube. "You really have to experiment with all of this," Lechner said.

Sun Microsystems has been using online video—encompassing online ads, product demonstrations, interviews with executives, You- Tube videos and e-mail communications—for the past five to six years, said Felix Serna, senior director-global eMarketing at Sun.

"We had videos up very early," Serna said. "It has really changed from being a PR-driven vehicle to a collection of digital assets."

For example, Sun recently produced 10-to-15-minute video discussions on technology, which ran on newsletters and Sun Web sites.

Sun uses a variety of metrics to track the performance of online video ads, such as open rates and time spent viewing the ad. Now the company is exploring new ways to gauge performance, such as tools that allow advertisers to track online video in real time and even change the ending of an ad based on user behavior.
Collection Letter Secrets to Getting Paid

New patent reform bill would streamline appeal process

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Congress is once again preparing to try and fix the US patent system. The Patent Reform Act of 2007 was introduced simultaneously in the Senate and House today. Sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) in the Senate and by Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) and Rep. Lamar Smith (D-TX), the bill is an attempt to update current patent laws.

The new bill is very similar to bills introduced in 2005 and 2006 that failed to pass. It would change the US patent system from its current "first to invent" system to the "first to file" system used in almost every other country. It would also make some changes to how damage awards are calculated in infringement cases.

Another significant change would streamline the process for challenging patents. Currently, anyone wishing to challenge a patent has two options: a lawsuit in a federal district court, or asking the US Patent and Trademark Office to reexamine a patent.

Neither of those two options work very well. Litigation can be prohibitively expensive, and the USPTO's reexamination process is sluggish and unwieldy at best. According to a copy of the bill seen by Ars Technica, the Patent Reform Act would establish a new, post-grant patent review process for disputed patents. During the first year after a patent is issued, anyone can file a "petition for cancellation" that would initiate a review of a patent. After the 12-month period, a review would still be possible, but more difficult to initiate.

Once a review has begun, the presumption of a patent's validity would be put aside for the duration of the review. A "preponderance of evidence" standard would be used to determine whether or not the patent should be upheld, with both parties allowed to present evidence. Once the review process has been concluded, the decision could still be appealed in federal court.

"If we are to maintain our position at the forefront of the world's economy and continue to lead the globe in innovation and production, then we must have an efficient and streamlined patent system to allow for high quality patents that limits counterproductive litigation," said Sen. Leahy in a statement. "This bill is an important step towards achieving that goal."

"High patent quality is essential to continued innovation," added Rep. Berman. "Litigation abuses, especially ones committed by those which thrive on low quality patents, impede the promotion of the progress of science and the useful arts. This is why we must act quickly—to maintain the integrity of the patent system."

Switching from a first-to-invent system to a first-to-file system would be a huge change for the US, and that section of the bill will be the subject of vigorous debate as it moves through Congress. Critics of first-to-file systems say that they inherently favor large companies with the resources to file for patents in a timely manner, while the first-to-invent method theoretically enables the actual inventor to get credit for and receive a patent on his or her original work, regardless of when it was filed.

In contrast, the changes to the patent review process should go down much easier. Most observers agree that the patent process in the US has some serious problems, and as written, the Patent Reform Act of 2007 would do much to fix it.

7 Great Home Business Ideas For Women

Like eBay but with loans

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Bringing small borrowers and small lenders together is the idea behind the online social lending venture called Prosper.com.

Prosper, based in San Francisco, offers unsecured loans of up to $25,000 at a fixed rate for three years. Anyone with money can lend on Prosper, in increments as small as $50.

The system works a little like eBay, except that the bidding is to lend money at lower interest rates.

Since last year when it went live, Prosper has grown to more than 140,000 members and has originated about $33 million in loans.

Why it works

Borrowers pay lower interest rates than they might get from a bank or other lender. They make their pitches online, and they can disclose as much personal information as they wish. Some liken the experience to online dating.

Lenders collect higher interest rates than they might in a savings account, plus the satisfaction of helping another person directly. There is the risk of default, but less than 1 percent of Prosper's loans have defaulted. Close to 3 percent are at least three months late. Prosper encourages lenders to protect themselves by lending small amounts to many borrowers rather than a large amount to a single borrower.

Prosper collects two fees: a 1 percent origination fee from borrowers and an annual loan-servicing fee of 0.5 percent from lenders. It verifies the identities of prospective borrowers and lenders. It uses credit reports to create a borrower "credit grade" ranging from AA to HR (high risk) that lenders see as they look through applications. It automatically withdraws payments from borrowers' bank accounts and sends them to lenders. It also deals with defaults.

The Lovely Bones

Why People Raised With A Silver Spoon In Their Mouth Seldom Develop That Fire-In-The-Gut Motivation.

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I have now lived long enough, survived enough adventures, and observed enough other clueless people get a clue… that I can safely say everyone has a handful of moments in their life that shape who you are and how successful you will be.

Most of these life-changing moments involve some sort of crisis or problem. Finding true love is great… but it’s now you handle heartbreak, for example, that really defines you.

Nearly every super-successful entrepreneur I’ve met started out dead-broke, too. People raised with a silver spoon in their mouth seldom develop that fire-in-the-gut motivation necessary to achieve great things.

However, just being broke or desperate isn’t enough to trigger a life-changing moment.

Heck, some folks seem content to slog through their entire existence hand-to-mouth. Their idea of “thinking outside the box” is to dream about winning the lottery.

I doubt very many of these magical thinkers read this blog, though. So I think it’s safe to assume that you will understand what I’m about to share regarding “life changing moments”.

Here is what I’m talking about: There are certain decisions required of the person who yearns for more. The moment you realize that no one is gonna give you anything… and that wishing and hoping for success in life, love or business is futile… you are ripe for taking control of the “movie” of your life.

If you truly lust after wealth and opportunity and a menu of lifestyle choices beyond what you’re experiencing now… you’re gonna have to make some decisions.

Because the really good stuff will never just magically fall into your lap.

I had two major decisions to make when I finally busted out of my slacker lifestyle. First, I had to take that initial critical step — to decide that, on this day, I would quit my job with The Man, and pursue a new career as a freelance copywriter. That was a nerve-wracking moment… but necessary.

You can’t start any journey without opening the door and stepping outside. And even a simple action like opening a door requires a conscious decision.

My second major decision came about after I’d experienced a little initial success in that new career. I realized I could only go so far… and no further… completely on my own.

I needed some personal mentoring.

So I made the decision to seek out people who knew what I didn’t know yet… and learn from them.

Finding those people was difficult, because there weren’t any seminars on marketing at the time, and no one had declared themselves a “guru” yet. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack (and not even being clear on where the haystack was in the first place.)

However, finding mentors was not an actual “problem”. It was just a task.

The BIG moment… was making that decision to go after additional education.

You never forget moments like that. One second before your mind “clicks”, you are the same old person you’ve been for years. Then, a second AFTER that decision, you are someone new.

It’s like breathing deep after a lifetime of clenched, shallow breathing. Or like turning on a light after stumbling around in the dark for years.

The adventure starts the moment you DECIDE.

Mentoring was critical to my success. Ninety percent of the money I’ve earned in my career would NOT have come my way without mentoring. I would have had a nice little life as a low-level professional… but I would have never tasted the joys of over-the-top achievement.

This is true of every single colleague I know who has broken the code on huge success. They worked hard, yes… but they also eagerly sought out teachers who could shortcut the process for them.

Every… single… successful… person… I… know.

John Carlton, http://www.marketingrebelrant.com/

10 Weird Businesses That Make Money Out Of Nothing

Free Online Resources Help Small Businesses Thrive

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As a small business owner, it often feels like everyone is trying to sell you something. But sometimes, companies give stuff away. That's the case with the online resources offered by Dell, HP, Microsoft and Yahoo. Granted, they hope you'll eventually buy something when the need arises, but the information and services each vendor tailors to potential customers can be a boon to business owners—and all of it's free.

Microsoft Small Business Center: A Complete Resource
With more than 10,000 pages and expert advice on mobility, marketing, security and more — plus in-depth help using Windows, Office and other Microsoft products — the Microsoft Small Business Center sets the bar high for free business-oriented Web portals. And with its recent overhaul (to bring it more in line with the look and feel of Windows Vista), the site is more approachable than ever.

Not to be confused with Microsoft Office Live Basics (the company's online service that offers small businesses free Web hosting, e-mail service and more) Microsoft SBC is a resource center divided into three distinct areas: Products and Demos, Security and Support, and Articles and Research. No matter where you surf within the site, an omnipresent panel on the left part of the screen gives quick access to Microsoft's tech support options, security guidance center, product info, learning center and purchasing options.

The Products and Demos area helps current customers get more from the Microsoft products they already own, and it teaches potential customers how other Microsoft offerings might help a small business. Simply select a product from the extensive drop-down list, and you are taken to a page that offers answers to FAQs, tutorials from product experts, training Webcasts (when available) and document templates for that application (where appropriate).

In particular, the templates are hidden gems (you can access them directly here. You'll find pre-built, nicely designed documents for agendas, award certificates, brochures, calendars, contracts, invoices, newsletters and dozens more, so you don't have to spend time building them from scratch.

The in-depth help product information is what first drew Nancy Simon, creative director for PRX, to the site. The Chicago-based writing consultancy has 20 associates spread throughout the country, and Simon needed to learn how to communicate and collaborate with them more effectively.

"The area I'm weakest in is technology," says Simon. "And since I work for myself, I have to do my own research on products." Indeed, Microsoft SBC is geared toward proprietors with no IT department to lean on. "The site is very clean, very informative," she says.

Once you've learned all there is to know about the software you own (which will take several visits, at least), you can start exploring other Microsoft offerings to see if any fill a need (Microsoft Dynamics Point of Sale, anyone?). The product pages are easy to scan quickly, offering top-level synopsis of the product's key features. Most also have product demos so you can see the app in action.

But Microsoft has gone far beyond just providing information about its products. The Articles and Research area lets you explore 13 subject areas, from Communications and Customer Service to Mobility and Networking. Each topic has a dozen or so articles and case studies — mostly written by outside experts, not Microsoft employees — that are heavy on the advice ("How to write an effective sales letter: 11 tips") and light on the sales pitch. Recent highlights in the Articles and Research area included "5 Ways to Win Over a Dream Client" and "Is Your Business Disaster Ready?"

Simon points out that not all of the pieces are as deep as some people might need. "They're going for broad appeal, which may loose some people," she says. But generally speaking, especially for business newcomers, there are plenty of pearls to glean.

In addition to the year-round updates of Microsoft SBC, the company offers its annual Small Business Summit. The 2007 event is being held from March 19-23, and offers free online (and in-person, in select cities) sessions covering a range of topics pertinent to small businesses. Session leaders this year include Julie Clark (the mom-turned-entrepreneur who built the Baby Einstein Company, recently purchased by Disney) and author and venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki.

HP Small Business: Way Beyond Printing
Like Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard has a wealth of free tools, tutorials and templates on its site geared toward small business customers. Unlike Microsoft, however, the material is woven more tightly with the company's online small-business product offerings (You can access it here, or you can click on the Small and Medium Business tab from the main site. Tucked below the main Browse & Buy Products area of the site, you'll find a header entitled Learn & Use. HP says this expertise center draws seven million visitors per month.

One of the main attractions of the site is the Business Templates area (not surprising for a printer company), which offers about 700 pre-built designs for Microsoft Office, CorelDRAW, QuarkXPress and more. Most interesting to small business owners is the collection of agency-quality graphic design templates from StockLayouts, where you'll find great-looking brochures, letterhead, flyers and so on. There's even a selection of royalty-free logos you can customize, as well as stock photos you can use in your marketing materials. Additional Web-ready images (over 750,000) are available for just $1 apiece.

But templates are just part of the story. Beneath the Learn & Use banner is a link to free online classes in HP's learning center. These have the feel of genuine online college or post-graduate courses — complete with lesson breakdowns and even recommended prerequisites — and are taught by well-qualified instructors. You need to register and enroll for a given course, but all are free of charge.

HP offers a few dozen courses in all, broken down into specific areas such as Software & Technology, Business Skills and In-house Marketing. Recent additions include an introduction to using Adobe Photoshop CS2 and understanding Microsoft Vista Business Edition. You'll want to bookmark the page and check back often, as HP conveniently flags which lessons are new or updated and shows which new courses are coming soon.

If a full online course is more than you've bargained for, HP also offers a host of how-to guide that give solutions to a range of technology problems. You can learn how to build a point-of-sale solution, network your printers, manage documents with workgroup scanners, manage a Windows server environment and much more.

When you are ready to buy a product, HP's site offers buying guides to help you choose the right (HP, of course) notebook, desktop, server, printer and so on. We especially like the "help me choose" tool, which asks you to characterize your typical usage scenario (for example, for a notebook it asks the type of apps you tend to run, how often and far you tend to travel with a notebook, your budget and so on) and recommends the appropriate HP model.

Dell Small Business 360: A Newcomer With Promise
The newcomer in the group is Dell Small Business 360. While we applaud the effort, Dell still has a ways to go to make SB 360 as useful a destination as the others in this space.

The site is easy to follow. A list on the left shows the portal's main areas (IT Solutions, Business Resources, Your Industry, Success Stories, Forums and more); clicking on one brings you to that area's menu page, and clicking on one of those entries brings up the list of available articles and videos. Navigating is straightforward, though you'll find yourself clicking several layers deep into the site to arrive at the meat. And of course, at the bottom of each article you'll find a list of recommended Dell products. Still, the sales pitch is decidedly low-key overall.

The IT Solutions area leads you to articles on Mobility, Networking, Data Management and Storage and Security. Clicking on any of those choices brings up a list of four to eight articles and videos (with more to come) devoted to a specific topic. For example, under Mobility you'll find an informative piece explaining mobile broadband and another offering troubleshooting tips for accessing a Wi-Fi network on the road.

While technical neophytes will find most of the articles helpful, some of the pieces just skim the surface, giving the benefit without any practical advice. For example, the piece highlighted in a recent banner promised how going wireless could boost productivity and save money. The article explained how switching to a laptop PC from a desktop could let you be productive in coffee shops, at the airport and at home — but it provided no specifics.

For new and existing entrepreneurs, Dell offers the Business Resources area. Here you'll find advice on starting a business (managing customer data, estimating startup costs, how to write a business plan and so on), building an existing one (budgeting, motivation employees and more), communication (collaboration solutions, creating a newsletter, etc.), customer service and e-commerce and Web marketing.

Here again, some of the advice just scratches the surface of what a prospective business owner might want. For example, the article entitled "3 Ways to Get Investors Interested in Your New Business" advises you to write a business plan, prepare your spoken pitch to potential investors and create relationships. Moderately helpful, but you'll likely come away wanting more (like advice on how to find potential investors and financing in the first place).

Small Business 360 also includes a handful of multimedia case studies (under the Success Stories banner) that tell how business owners used Dell technology to grow their businesses. The Your Industry area of Small Business 360 currently has areas for real estate, law, accounting and finance, architecture and construction, and retail businesses. This area is clearly still a work in progress, as each industry has only two or three articles devoted to it, although Dell says it plans to add more content on a regular basis. Similarly, the Dell Forums area doesn't yet have the critical mass to make it truly useful yet — though we give the company credit for letting stand all the posts complaining about Dell's service!

Yahoo Small Business: Not Just e-Commerce
Yahoo has made a push for the small business audience with its attractively priced domain registration and Web hosting. But the company's small-business portal offers hundreds of original and reprinted articles. There's advice on starting a business, sales and marketing, management and HR, legal, finance and more.

Under the Sales & Marketing banner, you'll find 10 subcategories covering search engines, e-mail marketing, market research, PR and other topics. The Legal link leads to six article categories, including more than a dozen on legal structures, several on choosing and trade-marking a business name and a raft of pieces on employment law.

Established businesses may be beyond some of the advice doled out here, but people just starting out — or thinking about striking out on their own — would do well to peruse the articles. It's a good way to find out what you don't know you don't know. There's also a handy, searchable business dictionary that explains more than 1,800 business terms. In addition, the site's tools area offers a small-business loan calculator, Zip-code lookup and more.

Jamie Bsales is an award-winning technology writer and editor with nearly 14 years of experience covering the latest hardware, software and Internet products and services.

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American Born Chinese

How To Make 65 Bucks And Hour Teaching Others To Play Video Games

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http://www.gaming-lessons.com/

Tom Taylor never expected to be a player in the business world; he just wanted to play video games. But as he got better and better, his passion for competitive gaming--and his desire to share his expertise with others--grew. Last year, Taylor, a top-five rated player in the pro-gaming circuit, started a video game coaching business to help others who wanted to improve their games.

"I wanted to offer them a shortcut so they didn't have to go through what I did to learn," says Taylor, who started playing video games at age 7.

Running his business, Gaming-Lessons, out of his Jupiter, Fla., home, Taylor draws dozens of clients from middle-school kids to middle-aged parents and from college students to celebrities. Some dream of going professional. Others simply want bragging rights over friends and family who play. Whatever their reasons for signing up, they all have one thing in common: "These are people who hate losing," Taylor says.

Taylor and his staff, most of whom are in their late teens or early 20s, charge between $25 and $65, depending on the instructor's skill level and availability, for one-hour tutoring sessions in Microsoft's "Halo 2" or Nintendo Co.'s "Super Smash Brothers Melee." Students can purchase lessons online, choose instructors from bios listing their specialties and book sessions on the site's virtual calendar. Taylor even has an 8-year-old gamer on hand to work with grade-schoolers.

"Each instructor focuses on different things," Taylor says. "I like to teach the mental aspects of the game."

Instructors conduct Halo 2 classes over Xbox Live, Microsoft's online game service, where users can play against each other. Communicating through a headset with an Internet phone line, teachers help students hone their jumping, shooting and grenade-throwing skills and develop battle tactics and strategies. The idea for the business started as a favor. Taylor was helping Richard Jefferson--a New Jersey Nets basketball player whom he met at a competition--ramp up his "Halo 2" skills and saw a market for his services.

Once he set up his Web site, Taylor received more inquires than he could handle. He recruited other top players to help him and raised his fees to attract more serious students. His toughest decision was firing a few instructors––who were good friends––when they couldn't handle the workload.

"My friends always tell me, 'I wish I had your life.' And I wouldn't have it any other way," he says. "I love playing video games, but most of all, I love doing it for a living."
How Any 13 Year Old Kid Can Become A Millionaire

76 Smart Tech Solutions (part II)

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Improving Your Website
27. Use Autoresponders
Autoresponders are pre-written e-mails that are automatically sent on your behalf so they'll help you provide great customer service and free up your time to do other things in your business. You can use autoresponders to confirm orders placed online, as well as to notify customers when their order ships, so customers are reassured that their order's been placed and processed without problems and they won't have to call or e-mail to check on their order.

You can also fulfill orders through autoresponders if, for example, you sell downloadable software, subscriptions or e-books, you can set up your system to automatically send e-mails that allow access to a password-protected area of your site via a link in the e-mail or by including a password to access the content. This "instant gratification" factor is a great incentive for impulse buyers and impatient online shoppers to purchase your product. You can also send follow-up e-mails like thank-you notes, one of the most effective after-sales techniques. Sending individual e-mails to customers thanking them for buying from you and inviting them to come back would be too time consuming to be efficient; autoresponders can make it happen with little effort from you.

28. Easy Navigation
Make it easy for site visitors to find what they're looking for by making navigation on your site simple. Make sure the following information is easy to find:

1. Contact information, such as phone numbers, e-mail addresses and physical location.
2. Product information, including detailed descriptions of your products or services, including prices.
3. Samples of your products or previous work.
4. Support, including product information, troubleshooting help, FAQs, etc.
5. Shopping, so customers can buy the products online or find a physical location where your products are sold.
6. Company information, such as background information on the business and the management team.
7. News and announcements, including press releases and updated product or service enhancements.
8. An easy way to get back to your home page. The home page is where all paths begin in the customer's mind, and they want to be able to get back to your home page easily.

29. Use Web Analytics
Web analytics track the behavior of your site's visitors. What pages do they visit most? What are the popular paths through your Web site? On which pages do they leave? When customers visit your website, they want information and they want it now. If they can't find what they're looking for, they can get frustrated pretty quickly and leave, or worse--they could wind up looking to one of your competitors for what they need. Site-surfing patterns will show you what pages to modify to better serve the interests of your potential customers.

Web analytics solutions can also usually track search engine positioning, e-mail campaigns, banner ads and other promotional programs. Some solutions provide sales data in addition to visitor data. This enables you to enhance ad campaigns and the corresponding site pages for maximum sales, not just traffic.

Beefing Up Your Company's IT Security
30. How Secure is Your Wireless Network?
The use of wireless networks within many organizations and businesses is becoming more and more widespread. This includes banks, manufacturing assembly lines, airports, restaurants and one-person home offices. What's not so widespread, however, is the employment of information security measures in these wireless applications and networks.

Constant monitoring of access points is one of the best ways to keep a wireless network secure. The most basic security measure you can take with your wireless devices is to immediately change their factory-set passwords and enable encryption keys (commonly known as WEP) so that data transmitted through the wireless network is more protected.

31. Use a Firewall
A firewall is a software application that controls access to your network at the "perimeter," i.e., where it connects to the Internet. This "controlled access" ensures that internet users only have access to particular services provided by your company's network (web servers, e-mail servers, etc.). Any attempts to access unauthorized information or services are blocked.

You can also use your firewall to block employees from accessing some outside information services, such as non-business-related websites or internet chat. Other common firewall add-ons include antivirus capabilities and privacy protection services to block proprietary information from leaving the building in any electronic form (e-mail, file transfer, virus activity, etc.).

For an added measure of protection, you can also add intrusion detection to your firewall. When a firewall allows internet users access to a company's website or other services, system vulnerabilities can also let in hackers. Intrusion detection systems can detect this type of activity and block the would-be hackers before they can do damage or steal vital company information.

32. Perform Security Audits Regularly
Security audits are one of the best ways to identify security risks and validate the protection devices you've already put into place. Comprehensive audits should thoroughly test for vulnerabilities of all systems, correlate the findings, test exploits, identify the true level of risk to the business, and detail remediation requirements.

Such audits should be performed at least once per year against the internal environment and every six to 12 months against the external environment. This frequency is a suggested minimum, and many companies rightfully prefer to test certain aspects of a full audit more frequently. Unless the knowledge, experience and manpower to perform such audits exists in-house, you'll need to consult an outside IT security expert.

33. Establish and Enforce a Security Policy
Security policies provide a roadmap for both IT and non-IT personnel on how your company expects your employees to conduct themselves with any matter that affects the security of the business. In many cases, actions have an obvious impact, such as the disclosure of passwords to unauthorized personnel. But other potentially dangerous actions may be less obvious, which is why it's necessary to outline these risks and your security policies for all employees.

Other security measures you can undertake include swipe cards, changing passwords often, and restricting sensitive areas. A professional consulting firm specializing in security policy development can save time and money and ensure an up-to-date policy.

34. The Enemy Within
Companies usually try to patch every loophole and make every system impenetrable. But guess who knows more about these loopholes and ports of penetration than anyone? Your current and former employees. Disgruntled employees, former employees (especially those who've been fired), and even external service providers--anyone with "insider information"--are the most likely culprits of a security breach. It's for that very reason that four out of five IT-related crimes are committed from within an organization. Consider running background checks on employees as part of your hiring process, and change passwords after employees leave the company.

Maintaining Your PC
35. Think before you install. So many times someone’s computer isn't working properly only to discover they've downloaded several programs from the internet or from a CD of a friend. Installing software on your computer will take up space on your hard drive, which will eventually slow your computer down. These random programs could also be an open door for viruses and cause other programs to crash. So install as few programs as possible on your computer. If you can, use a second computer to “play with” and test programs you're thinking of using company-wide.

36. Install the right software. Ensuring your computer is protected from digital vandals is critical if you want to keep information safe. It's therefore important that you install both an antivirus program and a firewall software program. These two critical pieces of software, which you should update on a regular basis, will serve as a wall of protection for your computer.

37. Update your operating system. Microsoft Windows is the software you're most likely using to power your computer programs and control how your computer operates. It's critical that you update Microsoft Windows on a regular basis by going to the "Windows Update" website www.windowsupdate.com to automatically update your operating system.

38. Dump what you don't need. Every few months you should regularly inventory your computer to find and delete the programs you don't really need. These unused or unnecessary programs take up valuable hard drive space, and if you're not using them, you should remove them from your computer via the “Add/Remove” programs option in your control panel.

39. Defragment your hard drive. Your hard drive is one of the hardest-working parts of your computer—you're using it all the time, every day (whether you realize it or not) to access the programs you use and store the files you create. But the hard drive doesn't save the files in any particular order; instead, it uses the first empty space it encounters (space that's created when you delete files). So the pieces of data become scattered around the hard drive, making it slower for you to access the data stored there. That's why it's critical to defrag your hard drive on a regular basis to keep things running as quickly as possible. Do it monthly if you're a “light” computer user and weekly if you're a power user.

40. Keep things clean. In some offices, people have paper and stickies all over their computers, covering up the air vents. To help ensure your computer runs smoothly, don’t cover the air vents—you need to keep the internal components as cool as possible. You should also vacuum your computer every few months to clean out the dust that accumulates.

41. Security is important. When things do go wrong, you want to be prepared. Therefore, it's important to always backup your important data. You can back it up online, to an external hard drive or to a central server, or you can place the data on CD-ROMs or DVDs. Whatever method you choose, make sure to back it up on a regular basis so that if your computer crashes, you can easily recover your important data.

Smart Tips for Buying Software
42. Consider CRM
A customer relationship management (CRM) solution can help you streamline customer service, simplify sales and marketing efforts, find new customers and generate more revenue from existing customers. You can record customer interactions with sales and customer service personnel and keep a centralized database with current customer information that everyone in your company can access. This will allow your entire organization to understand what each customer wants and needs and give you a 360-degree view of your business 24/7, which will help you keep customers happy and boost your bottom line.

43. Keep It Legal
Make sure your business is always BSA compliant. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is a trade association made up of leading software makers whose job it is to make sure that businesses aren't using pirated versions of their software. If you think making illegal copies of software instead of buying it is cheaper, it's not. Federal copyright law specifies up to $150,000 in damages for each infringed work and BSA is on the hunt for those violating their copyrights. You're better off buying it in the first place.

What to do? Spend a lot of time making sure every program in your company is legal. Yes, it's expensive and hard to keep employees in line, but you don't want to get a visit from the BSA.

44. Take a Test Drive
Try it before you buy it. Check out software company websites for downloadable demos that can help you better gauge how easy their products are to use. If a demo version isn't available, there's usually a detailed online tour that gives you a lot more information than a paper brochure. And before you buy the package outright, check with the software company to see if it's bundled with other software or equipment that you might be in the market to buy anyway.

If you're shopping for a new accounting package or other critical software, consider doing a "scripted demo," where you enter your data and run through test scenarios specific to your business's transactions. It may be time-consuming, but if you buy the wrong software, it will be more costly later.

45. Evaluating Your Software Needs
Before you rush off to buy software, keep in mind that you have several factors to consider other than just the capabilities and costs of the software. Your selections should be based on your company's size, industry, internal organization, computing environment, technical expertise and, of course, the ever-important user interface. Even a great product can end up being a nuisance if it's not intuitive to you as a user.

Re-evaluate your company's staple software. For each program, draw up a wish list of features or enhancements that would make using the package easier. Often, the solution may be as simple as an upgrade to the latest version available. Consider hiring an IT professional to examine your system and business needs and tell you whether you even need to upgrade. Getting an expert opinion can be a money-saving move for small-business owners who would prefer to spend time keeping up on the latest developments in their industries than on the latest in software.

Accepting Online Payments
46. Choosing a Shopping Cart Program
Even if you've got the best-looking site selling the best product at the best prices, you'll lose customers if your shopping cart system is difficult to use. It's important to make the right choice early on, but first ask yourself if you actually need a shopping cart. If your site sells just one or two products, you can probably just set up an online order form for those products, rather than needlessly complicating your life managing a shopping cart program.

If you do need a shopping cart, look into an ASP. This means that the service is hosted and maintained by a third party. They're easy to set up on your site and you don't need advanced programming skills to get them to work. Most ASPs also offer package deals that include a merchant account and payment gateway so you won't have to go through the hassle of trying to get those things sorted out separately. Though an ASP won't have a personalized look, when your company grows you can either buy software or hire a programmer to customize it for you.

47. Credit Card Industry Terms to Know
The following are terms you should familiarize yourself with as you shop for a card processor.

• The discount rate: The percentage of each transaction paid to the merchant account provider. If your monthly charges are less than a certain volume, the processor may charge a higher percentage.
• Transaction fee: a flat rate charged for each transaction processed.
• Equipment: Some examples include point-of-sale terminals, printers and peripherals. Also find out about installation costs, which may or may not apply to internet-only business owners.
• Monthly minimum fees: These are minimum fees that the merchant account provider collects each month from the merchant if the merchant's discount rate and transaction fees don't add up to the monthly minimum specified on the original merchant application. It is usually about $25 per month if the monthly minimum volume isn't reached.
• Reserve fees: If your credit history is in question, or if you own a new or high-risk business, you may be required to set up a reserve account, which protects the processor from any future losses. The reserve account is calculated as a percentage of your sales.
• Chargeback fees: These are the costs charged by a processor to cover disputed charges.

48. Security and Fraud Prevention
Process all credit card payments in real time using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology which encrypts all confidential information during the transmission and authorization of transactions. This can be part of your shopping cart program, or you can purchase the technology separately from companies like VeriSign.

You can also protect yourself using the MasterCard's card validation code 2 (CVC2) system and Visa's card verification value (CVV2) verification system. Visa and MasterCard have basically imprinted three-digit codes on all their cards to help determine whether a genuine card is being used in a transaction. These are especially helpful in online and phone orders since merchants don't have the card in front of them to run their magnetic strip through the system.

49. How to Accept Credit Cards
The first step is to set up a merchant account with your existing bank. If your bank says no, try other local banks or companies like Cardservice International or VeriSign. A typical fee schedule for a small-volume account (fewer than 1,000 transactions monthly) would include startup fees of about $200 and monthly processing fees of around $20. Any vendor that sells you credit card processing should also provide a secure transaction environment as part of the package. If they don't, look elsewhere.

Be sure to ask prospective processors about the costs of storefront solutions that you must have to effectively operate your website, such as shopping carts, web hosting, payment gateways, virtual terminals, virtual checks, databases for fulfilling orders, customer tracking, and a way to calculate tax and shipping charges.

The Children's Hospital