Storage Options

I've talked about online storage for businesses, but it's also a good idea to cover off-site storage for your physical items. Offices collect a conglomeration of furniture, desks, equipment, and reams and reams of paperwork. So, I found this Self Storage Directory - Moving.bz that makes it super easy to find storage companies in your area.

This directory is also incredibly useful if you're planning on moving your company's location. You'll find links to real estate agents, packing supplies and moving companies, making it a real one-stop shop. Moving your company is hard enough, sourcing out all these services just makes it harder. So, give it a whirl, search by zip code or location, and see what they can do for you. You'll even get competitive bids, making it a smart choice to save money and time.

Handling Employee Bonuses

Do you offer your employees any kind of bonus? Instead of using raises as an incentive, many companies are moving to bonuses instead.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Employers are making employees work harder for their money.

Most workers will receive modest raises this year and next, as employers reward employees with performance-linked bonuses rather than broad salary increases, according to a survey by consulting company Hewitt Associates Inc. to be released today.

The economy and labor market are relatively strong, but employers are loath to increase fixed costs with raises. Hewitt predicts raises for nonexecutive white-collar workers -- the largest chunk of the work force -- will average 3.7% next year, slightly ahead of 3.6% increases this year and last. Raises remain below dot-com-boom levels, when they clocked in at 4% or higher between 1997 and 2001.

So, what do you offer your employees as an incentive? You may want to consider bonuses instead of raises to save money, and keep your employees happy.

Summer is Almost Gone

As summer begins to wane, what are you doing to reduce your summer inventory. Many companies go to blowout sales, while others offer coupons. I'm a big proponent of coupons as an incentive, and Online Discount Mart is doing a great job in illustrating this example. They have an overstock on garden gnomes and they're offering a coupon to encourage customers to purchase these items.

In fact, here's the coupon code to save an extra 10% off of their summer inventory: gnome-bloggers.

Online stores can learn a lot from how Online Discount Mart does business. Check it out and pick up a gnome - they're awfully cute, and you'll be supporting the online marketplace.

The Benefits of a Toll-Free Number

Do you publish your toll-free number on your website? If not, you could be missing sales, simply because of the confidence that a toll-free number can evoke in consumers. If you don't have a toll-free number, you can use a service like ConnectMe Voice to combine a toll-free number with online voice mail.

Yes, it can be an extra expense, but in the long run, it's truly worth it.

Packing, Crating and More

Anytime you deal with tangible goods that are sent to consumers, you've got to worry about getting them there in one piece, and at a good price. Customers don't appreciate high shipping costs, nor do they like to receive broken stuff. In fact, packing an item well has a psychological benefit for your customers. They know that you care about your business, and them, when you take the time to really make sure an item will arrive safely.

If you're shipping large items internationally, wooden crating is often the best way to ensure the items will arrive intact. Unfortunately, wooden crating is becoming less popular, but a new community site is working to change this. This new community is working to bridge the gap between wood crate producers and wood crate buyers, and create a new network to bring them together.

You'll find information on wood shipping crates, tips, techniques, and even the only forum in existence that is dedicated to wood shipping crates.

This is a fantastic example of a niche community, like I discussed a few days ago. When you see a need - fill it! This company has done an excellent job accomplishing just that.

Google Expands

Google premiered their new Office Suite and, pardon the pun, it is sweet. If you're looking for an alternative to Microsoft Office, this just may be it. Google's acquisition of Writely is looking even better.

They also premiered Google Apps for Businesses, which lets you offer Google Mail, Google Talk, Google Calendar and Google Pages to your clients with your brand. Hurry though, for once this beta won't last long and they may begin charging for the service.

Just head over to google.com/a to sign up.

Promoting Your Company with Online Commercials

The prevelance of video sharing sites has made it super easy for companies to begin promoting their products through the use of online commercials. Have you tried this yet? All you need is some video editing software and a way to encode your files and you'll be just a few minutes away from promoting your products to an entirely new audience.

The best part? No bandwidth or storage! You can see one of the commercials I put together for a company below. Although I didn't add an audio track to this one to allow the company to use their own voice-over artist, you can get a general idea of the concept. Just as with television commercials, your online video commercials will need to have a concept, a theme and a message. Before I forget, you don't even have to have a company to use video promotion techniques. You can also use the same idea for blog advertising.



For this theme, I chose luxury items to illustrate what a person could do with the extra money they can earn with this service. I focused on high-end products that many people wish they had, but don't have the disposable income to buy. I also chose scenes for their richness of color, to evoke a feeling of "I wish that was me," or "I wish I was there."

So - get your concept together and start promoting your products today!

Skyped

A fugitive CEO was recently captured in Sri Lanka after making a one minute phone call using his Skype number. Apparently, Skype does track user IP addresses, and it is believed that when the fugitive's billing info was verified, investigators were able to zoom in on his location.

Although this is a case that was definitely a plus for consumers, it underscores the fact that VoIP may not be as private as many people would like. Federal agencies are pushing to be able to monitor VoIP conversations and this case may move them further in that direction.

Online Price Comparisons - For Auctions?

I recently talked about the importance of using online auction sites to maximize your small business' sales. These sites are a great way to really reach out to a global audience and create better brand awareness.

But what do you do if you have a product that several other companies are already selling? Most people on auction sites are looking for the best price on what they're interested in. Enter this awesome price comparison tool. It's completely free and 100% spyware free, so it's well worth a try to start researching your competition.

You can search through 13 different countries, and the software will also search through Ebay stores - a very handy tool. In addition, I found the search tools extremely intuitive and easy to use. It's also handy that you can save your search data, which is useful if you have several products.

And don't forget to use this software when you're shopping on Ebay too - I'm a confessed Ebay nut and use it to buy all of my office supplies. Let me tell you, I gave this a real workout and I am very impressed.

Merchandising Online

While many of us focus a lot of time merchandising products in a physical store, when it comes to online merchandising, many business owners forget just how important it is. Take a look at your online storefront. Is it merchandised well or more of a mish-mash? It's a good idea to really study some of the biggest online stores to get an idea of how they present their products to the public.

This way, you can get your own ideas on how to make your store better. Remember, less is always more. Rely more on useful information and descriptive pictures for online merchandising. These techniques can help you draw a customer's eye, and then get them hooked for more.

What Would You Pay Someone To Do?

With all the news I've been reading lately about people utilizing the internet to create buzz, and paying them for their time, in particular the Get Paid For Blogging news I've been covering - I've been doing some thinking as well. What would I pay someone to do for me? I'm pretty cheap, so it would have to be something worthwhile. :)

I think personally, I'd have to pick paying someone to handle my email. I get hundreds of emails everyday and it's impossible to keep up on everything. This would be something that would really be useful to me and I'd be able to spend my time doing other things for my company.

Which leads me to my point (yes there is one). If there is something that you would pay someone else to do, why not think about outsourcing? It can be something as simple as a call center, or even data entry work. Just think, no more databasing into the wee hours of the morning.

So, here's what I want you to do. Create a list of tasks that you would like to pay someone else to do. Then, see if there is anyway that you can outsource these tasks to others, freeing you up to get more done for your company.

Finding New Ways to Network

Web 2.0 apps are all the rage, and although many of them may seemed geared towards teens, there are some great social networking sites out there that can really help you build an online network of your own. If you don't find a site that's right for you, consider starting your own niche network to fit your needs. Chances are, you'll find a lot of people who share your interests.

Sometimes, it takes not being able to find what you're looking for to get the initiative to start your own project. What areas could use some improvement when it comes to networking for your business. Take some time to study these and see what you can come up with. If you don't have any real business networks set-up in your offline location, start your own! It's not tough, and with the support of a few other business owners, you can be on the road to networking heaven.

Pay Per Click Advertising

If you haven't ventured into the waters of pay per click advertising, it's a good idea to get your campaign started off right. There are many ways to lose money when it comes to these campaigns, and if you don't know what you're doing, you can really come away from the experience with a bad taste in your mouth.

I really recommend going with an agency that specializes in paid search management. These companies can really help you fine tune your campaigns, get the best keywords, and as such, find you the best customers for your products.

PPC is a great way to reach out to new consumers, but if you don't take the time to do it right, you could be missing out on a way to make your business truly successful.

Today's Tip

For today's tip, since it is the weekend, I thought I would focus on spending time away from your work. Whether you have a family or if you are single, if you're running your own business, you can find yourself becoming a slave to it very easily. The world will still keep rotating, and your business won't fall apart if you take a day off. Try to schedule in at least one day a week that will be completely your own.

You'll be refreshed and ready to go on Monday, and this can help you stay focused not only on your business, but what is important to your life.

VOIP Revolution

Have you tried VoIP yet? If not, you're missing out on a great way to take advantage of cheaper phone rates, better connections and a great way to communicate with colleagues, businesses and family. VoIP has come a very long way in the past few years, and most major telephone companies are now supporting it. If you have a broadband connection, you're just a few minutes away from making long distance calls a lot cheaper and a lot easier.

VoIP stands for "Voice Over Internet Protocol" and works by utilizing existing broadband connections. Most of the time, your connecting party won't need a VoIP line, but it does help. With most VoIP companies, you can select your own phone number so that if you're traveling, you can continue to make calls without paying long distance charges. Skype and other internet start-ups have made it even easier to use VoIP - if you have a microphone and some headphones, you can immediately jump into the game.

Pheeder - A New Way to Communicate?

Although Pheeder.com is being promoted as a way to stay in touch with your family and friends by sending them a shout-out all at the same time, I think this could easily turn into something that could be used by companies to stay in touch with their customers.

Of course, it would have to be opt-in, but think of the possibilities of being able to personally connect with hundreds of customers at once - it's the power of the blue light special. Check it out - this may be yet another 2.0 company that's really worth its weight in gold.

PayPerPost Follow-Up

As a follow-up to my post the other day on the new company PayPerPost, they've been getting some pretty good coverage on Digg.com. It was nice to see some good comments and buzz for the company, since the reaction in the blogosphere has been a little...strained.

I think the comments on the Digg post highlight the fact that there is definite interest from people who want to make money blogging, whether they're stay at home moms, or just people trying to make ends meet. Kudos to PayPerPost for providing these folks with the income they need, and helping bloggers out. Whether you like it or not, there's a need for a service like this, and need = staying power.

Google Seeking Exception

Here's an interesting tidbit from Seattle PI:

Google Inc. is facing a hurdle other companies would love to confront: how to get better returns from investing its cash hoard without being regulated as a mutual fund.

Companies whose securities make up more than 40 percent of their assets can fall under restrictions that govern the mutual fund industry. So Google, which has increased its cash and securities to almost $10 billion since its 2004 initial public offering, asked the Securities and Exchange Commission late last month for an exemption.

What do you think - should companies be able to bend the rules to ensure better returns? My jury is still out, but this story proves just how much clout Google can and will pack.

A New Way to Monetize Your Blog

Many new bloggers look at PaidContent.org and a lot of the big name bloggers and wonder "Why not me?!?" Blogging can be extremely profitable, but it takes time to build your name, to build your brand and to begin to attract advertisers. AdSense is great, but payouts are usually smaller than a lot of people would like, and they clutter up your page.

Enter PayPerPost http://www.payperpost.com, a company that is making it easy to get paid doing what you love. It seems to have a pretty solid business model, and some really big name advertisers. The bloggers who are participating love the service and have nothing but nice things to say about it.

While there has been a lot of controversy over similar services, PayPerPost seems to have taken this into account and they are doing a great job as a company to support the blogging community in a new way.

The fact is, it's not cheap to host your own blog, and even if you do have a free blog host, you still need to factor in your time. Until you hit the blogosphere in a big way, this is an interesting and inventive way to keep the lights on.

The Washington Post Gets into Blogs

According to Steve Rubel at Micropersuasion The Washington Post is getting into promoting blogs - and in a big way. Check out their new BlogRoll service and submit your blog for consideration.

From Steve's post:

Basically, the way this works is that the WaPo is building a network of bloggers who want to participate in the program. Like BlogAds, advertisers can browse the network and find blogs to advertise on within their verticals. The bloggers and the Post split the ad dollars. The Post has put out a call for blogs that focus on technology, business, health, automotive and travel topics. Nevertheless, they are interested in all submissions.

However, there's more. Where it really gets interesting is that the bloggers who opt into the program don't just earn dollars but also a rotating link to their site in a special Sponsored Blogroll box that sits right on the Washington Post home page. Three blogs are already in the pilot, Jeff says. The box, below, is already on the WaPo home page in the lower right.

This is a fantastic way to get your blog a lot of exposure.

Saving Money on Web Hosting

Running a business site means that you're going to need a hosting company that is up for the job. It can be really difficult to find a hosting company that offers everything you need under one spot, but they are out there. I'm a fan of 1and1.com, since they have very low prices and really helpful tools for merchants. I was really surprised to find a way to save even more money on their hosting packages - but at CouponChief.com I found some great 1and1.com hosting coupons.

The coupon to get up to five domain names free with a hosting package would be great for a new business owner who wants to register all the variations of their company name - and wants to save money. Considering that you get up to 5 domains with this - that's a savings of around $25 to $60 depending on the registrar. If you don't have your own site yet, or if you're thinking of switching, it's definitely worth a look.

Internet 3.0?

Techworld had an interesting write-up today on some plans that are in the works for a new version of the Internet. From the article:

The US government department that created the Internet is working on a new network that will be able to configure itself, intelligently cache and route data, and allow for fast and reliable sharing of data, all while maintaining military-grade security.

Government, corporate and academic researchers are all working on the project, called Knowledge Based Networking, that is under development by the Department of Defense Research Projects Agency (Darpa).

Marketing Podcast

I love podcasts, listen to a few every day. In fact, I even produce them for a few clients. The field is getting kind of crowded though, and there is a plethora of podcasts that seem to serve no real purpose. I did however, find an interesting marketing podcast that serves up a lot of great and useful information.

My favorite episode was their show on generating revenue with RSS. The tips in this show alone are well worth your time and I learned a lot more on how to truly monetize my RSS feeds. I'll definitely be integrating their tips for my clients and can't wait until the next episode comes out.

This one just got added to my iTunes so I won't miss it.

One Company's Mistake is Another's Cash Cow

Dell's recall of laptop batteries is really hitting Sony hard. Their stock has fallen, and this may really affect their profit margin this year. They have taken the honorable route and promised to make good on the batteries, though, which is admirable.

Their bad news though has worked in favor for two of the main competitors - Sanyo and Mitsubishi, both companies also produce laptop batterhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifies. (Let's just hope theirs don't burst into flames.)

So, what can we learn from this?

1. Your competitors are just waiting for you to make a mistake - take the time to map out all of your business' plans before jumping.
2. Take natural advantage of market swings - if something like this happens to your competitor, don't be afraid to jump in.
3. It only takes one mistake to tank a company.

A Better Way to Ebay

Since many small businesses have gotten their start on Ebay, I thought it was time to review some great Ebay tools that make it easier for people to purchase your items. I simply love the fact that a small business that would typically be limited to their regional area can have the world at it's feet, and this automatic eBay bidder program makes it even easier for buyers to get your items.

This handy little tool provides Ebay customers with a way to easily keep track of the items that they are bidding on, and helps encourage late-term bidding that can really drive up the price of your item. Bidding wars are a lot of fun to watch, and this software can really make it even more fun. If you've ever bid on an item only to have it sniped at the last moment, this software will truly come in handy. Here's a screenshot of the interface:



I use Ebay a lot for office supplies, and I will definitely be utilizing this tool to help organize my bids, keep track of hot items and never, ever lose a bid again in the middle of the night. :)

The company is offering this software for free, and it comes with a no pop-ups, no spyware clause, so it's definitely worth a try. Warning - your urge to Ebay may become even more uncontrolable. I'm off to get the best deal on some CDR's - what are you going to go buy?

Bankrolling Your Business

CNN had an interesting story today on just how much money it takes to start your own business. The consensus? About $10k, and most of it comes out of a business owner's pocket. This raises some very interesting points.

1. Before you start your own business - make sure you have at least $10k put aside
2. Don't rely on your credit cards to get the ball rolling, if your business doesn't take off in its first year, you could be hurting.
3. Consider putting together a cooperative to help spread the costs of your start-up around a few friends. Just make sure all the ground rules are clear to avoid any future problems.

In the general scheme, $10k isn't a lot of money. But it can come close to breaking you if you're not ready. Of course, every business is different, and some may cost more or less, but this does give us a guideline on what to expect.

Newsland - Great Way to Keep on Top of the News

Newsland has some really great software to help you keep updated on all of the latest headlines, via your mobile phone. Now, I've seen the sites that let you download podcasts to your phone this way, but this software takes it one step further.



You'll get news from over 1000 sources, in a variety of topics that you can customize to completely control what you get. I liked how easy it is to use and how much information it actually provides. I highly recommend Downloading a copy to give it a try. Even if you don't have an internet ready phone, you can still use this, making it even better. Just sync up your phone to your PC and Voila!

IBM to Buy FileNet for $1.6B

IBM is to acquire FileNet in a move that will radically reshape the enterprise content management sector.

What an interesting acquisition for IBM. The deal won't officialy close until Q4, but this is certainly a lot of money. Business Week stated that , "FileNet makes enterprise content management (ECM) and business process management (BPM) software."

IBM apparently wants to use FileNet for its content management business, and will further integrate FileNet into their other applications.

read more | digg story

Any Loan Solution Makes it Easy

Business owners frequently find themselves in the need of some extra capital, particularly when they are first starting out. If you have recently quit your job to start your own home business, it can take months before your revenue starts coming in,

For some, a home equity loan is the only answer to make their dream come true. If you haven't checked out http://www.anyloansolution.com I highly recommend it. They have some great resources as well as excellent connections to get you the loan you need at the best rate. It's never an easy decision to follow your dream, but Any Loan Solution can make it a lot simpler.

Coming to a Textbook Near Your

What an interesting development. According to an article today in Access North Georgia, textbooks will soon have advertising. Ads in textbooks? Yep, companies like FedEx, Kinko's and Pura Vida coffee are already on board.

Who benefits? Kids, who now may not have to pay as much (or they may get their books free) because of this new program. While I'm not sure that advertising has a place inside a textbook, I can certainly see why this model is important for underprivileged students.

Considering the fact that in some areas, and depending on the course load, a student can pay up to $900 for books, this may be just the answer. My jury is still out though, we'll have to see how obtrusive (and useful) the ads really are.

Bynari - Interesting Solutions

If you are using MS Exchange and getting more than a little fed up, I highly recommend giving Bynari's Outlook Groupware products a try. They have come up with a Linux-based product (ie: more stable) that can communicate with an Exchange server, as well as Cyrus and Courier. Exchange can be very complicated, particularly for new users, but I found that Bynari's Insight Server was easy to use, uncomplicated and quite frankly - better.

Their Insight Connector product is a terrific plug-in that works with either their Insight Server, Cyrus IMAP or Courier IMAP to provide users with a great set of tools, including a calendar, public folders, scheduling, and other resources that would typically be limited only to those using an Exchange Server. The offline mode was particularly helpful to me, and well appreciated.

I also enjoyed their Insight WebClient product - now this one is a little different. It provides an online collection of tools that are similar (but once again better) than MS Outlook to keep your team or yourself on schedule, on track and on the move. This suite is very easy to use and well worth your time.

Bynari offers 30 day free trials on all of their products and if you're looking for an alternative to MS, or if you're just out of patience, you won't be out anything to give them a try. I enjoyed it and I think you'll agree once you get them installed. It really is a breath of fresh air.

Best States to Run a Company

Forbes had a really great story today on the best places in the United States to have a business. They ranked all fifty states using the following criteria: "business costs, economic climate, growth prospects, labor, quality of life and regulatory environment."

The result? Virginia was clearly #1. Texas was #2, and unfortunately, Mississippi and Louisiana came in near the bottom. The article did state that Katrina had a lot to do with their decision, but in a way, this may hurt the states who are trying to attract new businesses and get old businesses to return.

Nevertheless, it's an interesting read and one that really makes you think about how your home state handles business. Check out their pictures for a graphical view of how your state performed.

MindComet

You've built your site, and you're waiting for the hordes of new customers to come in. Chances are, you're still tapping your fingers and living on your savings. Unfortunately, many home based business owner expect instant success when they set up their new business online. While there are a few of these success stories, the average business owner will need to work like a dog to get their products promoted.

Enter an Interactive Agency that can make this job a heck of a lot easier. They have numerous strategies to help make your business a legitimate success. In fact, they're even good at what they do - they were recently inducted into the Marketing Sherpa's 2006 Viral Marketing Hall of Fame.

They also have some great resources, like their podcast (take some time to listen to this one - it's worth it), as well as a great company blog that's actually useful. I liked their site design, it's with-it without being intimidating to less-technical business owners.

Great idea, great execution and a great service.

More Online Office Tools

If you haven't tried out Zoho yet, you're really missing out on some great online tools. Most are free (at least for up to 10 users) and they really are useful.

My favorites are:

Zoho Show - Online presentation to create, edit, publish, and show presentations.

Zoho CRM - On-demand & On-premise customer relationship
management solution.

Zoho Creator - Create personal and business web applications on your own and manage data collaboratively over the web.

Zoho Virtual Office - Zoho Virtual Office is a web-based collaboration groupware
that includes Email Client, Documents, Calendar and more.

Company Profile: Quality Shells

It isn't often that a truly unique company crosses my desk, but I had to take notice when I came across QualityShells.com. They took a great idea (and one that's available freely in nature - Sand Dollars and turned them into beautiful wedding and party ideas. Unique, huh?

If you know someone who is planning a beach-themed wedding, or just someone who loves the legend of the sand dollar, I couldn't think of a more perfect gift. This company offers sand dollars of all sizes that can be used as wedding favors, place cards and even (with careful handling) wedding invitations. It should be noted that invitations sent out with sand dollars should be hand stamped by the post office and marked fragile so that they are not broken in transit.

This is one of my new favorite niche ideas and the prices are fantastic!

WSJ Moves Into More RSS

Steve Rubel at Micropersuasion had a great write-up on what the Wall Street Journal just released. They are now allowing subscribers to enter in RSS feeds, ala Google Home Pages, which is really a move in the right direction.

As Steve mentions, this is a highly coveted demographic, and since they are paid subscribers, he calls it a "walled garden" effect.

Steve makes a very great point in his post:

If they were to expand their RSS reader so that it cached feeds, rather than just link to them, it could create a potentially lucrative feed advertising platform. Under such a scenario Pheedo or FeedBurner could charge a premium for ads in feeds that are distributed on high profile sites like WSJ.com. They could split these dollars three ways between their publishers, the reader host (in this case the Journal) and themselves.

Active Rain - A New Community for Realtors

With my ties to the real estate industry, I was fascinated when ActiveRain came to my attention. This is a fantastic way for realtors, and other people involved in the industry to connect with one another and really form an online community. These days it seems as though there are enough social networking sites for just about everyone, but realtors had been left out until now thanks to this new Real estate network.



I was really impressed with the overall site design and the features that they offer their members. There's a forum to help you interact with other realtors (and it's a great place to pick up tips and learn more about industry trends, a page dedicated just to you that can easily be discovered by search engines (this is a very important feature, especially for realtors in smaller towns), your very own blog to assist you in becoming a recognized expert and a whole lot more.

You can create a profile on the network, and earn points for every view you get. Check out mine! It is very simple and easy to use, even the most non-technical users will be able to take advantage of all that this community has to offer. I also enjoyed all of the information and tools that they provide to help realtors and others in the industry to really make them a success.

A New Way to Spreadsheet

Have you tried Google's new Spreadsheet feature yet? As someone who uses these on a frequent basis, I was interested to give them a spin. The interface is easy to use, the formulas work well, and overall, it's easier than Excel. I liked the sharing features, which would be a great benefit for companies with telecommuters, or more than one location.

The pasting options are nice, as well as the ability to save and export in .xls format (a smart move from Google). You can also save it as an html file if you prefer.

While I like this new service from Google, I must admit I'm a little concerned about security and privacy. I'm not sure this would be a good fit for sensitive company data, but for a quick data set, or data that is not proprietary, it's definitely worth a shot.

Reverse Mortgages

One of the interesting trends to hit the real estate and home owner market is Reverse Mortgages. If you haven't heard about them, they are a special kind of loan that allows homeowners who are over the age of 62 to draw on the equity of their home, without having to worry about loosing their home.

Personally, I like to see companies that don't leave out this very important demographic. This particular company has some great celebrity backing (James Garner) and an interesting approach. I like their style and they've made their site very easy to navigate. Just the right amount of tools, and information.

If you are over 62 and need some extra cash, this may be something you should really look into.

Internet Advertising Gets a Shot in the Arm

TechCrunch had a write-up on RMX Direct today that was very interesting. Basically, this is a new ad service that will make it easier for online publishers to get better ads, and as such, provide businesses with a way to reach out to their readers.

From the RMX Direct site:

Increase Your Ad Network Revenue

RMX Direct is a publisher tool that allows you to auction your inventory on the Right Media Exchange, make your other ad networks compete for each impression, and manage your overall ad network business.

One word: Awesome!

TV Products Undergo Interesting Phenomenon

First, they were in drug stores, and now they're online! As Seen On TV Products are always popular, but many manufacturers of these products were finding that they were losing sales, particularly with late night ad-spots. The drug store idea kind of worked, but here's an even better (and more 2.0) approach - selling these products on the Internet and making them cheaper too.

You'll find everything from the Pasta Pronto to the bionic minnow, but what really makes this work - the vast majority of these products will ship the next business day. That's a big switch from the 6-8 weeks for the televised products. My view - As Seen On TV Products on the Internet win hands down.

Speaking of Travel...

In an earlier post today I mentioned how travel delays are hitting some businesses hard - well, all except Groople, who was able to land $6 million in funding. Red Herring had a write-up on them that went into more detail on their future plans.

From the article:

ArrowPath Venture Partners and FA Technology Ventures led the round Thursday, Groople’s third and largest. Groople focuses on easing travel-based transactions for groups by providing one-stop shopping for hotel bookings, airfare, and other forms of transportation.

While some of the cash from the round is earmarked for marketing to leisure and business customers, the Denver-based company mainly plans to use the money to overcome its larger hurdle to success.

“It’s really the technology right now,” said CEO Mike Stacy. “If we do this well, and we create a great customer experience, the customers are going to find us. There’s no question about that.”

Groople simplifies the picture by using back-end automation to turn travel booking into a digitalized experience.

This is what I mean - present a problem to solve, and sooner or later, someone will figure it out. Groople seems to be doing just that.

Sourcing the Right Candidate

There has always been an issue when it comes to college students finding the right jobs after graduation. There's a huge crop of potential new hires, but businesses may not be able to attract them. For college students at least, the job has gotten a lot easier with this helpful entry level job search site.

This is a great site that will have a lot of appeal for students - you've got podcasts, blogs, and some great tools to help you find the right job. Business owners take note - this is definitely the place to start looking for fresh young talent. I gave it a spin, just to see what to expect from the service. I love the channel idea which divides up specific industries and then creates a landing point for people with skills in this area. Great idea! I like the RSS feeds for new jobs.

The quality of job listings here is very good - so get your help wanted listing up right away - before someone else beats you to it.

The Changing Face of Business Travel

The recent uncovered terror plot and the resulting airport delays have caused many executives to rethink how they do business when it calls for traveling. The New York Time had an interesting article on this today.

They mentioned that more businesses are figuring out ways to get around traveling, and even switching to driving, because it's quicker when you figure in delays - at least for short-hops.

My favorite quote from the article:

John Wiggin, a management consultant based in Denver who flew to Newark yesterday from Gatwick, said he could not bring his laptop with him on board his flight. Nor was he able to take books, pencils or pads on board. “It was the 1800’s,” said Mr. Wiggin, who travels about 150 days a year. “It’s certainly going to change how we travel. It’s a severe, severe hit to our productivity.”

This is a great time for businesses to start relying more on technology before they leave the office - for example, they can video conference with colleagues, saving everyone the hassle. Granted, this won't work necessarily for clients, but I think we'll start to see some new trends on bringing people together.

Apogee Search Engine Marketing Glossary

Search engine optimization is one of the most troublesome aspects for small business owners. There are so many different techniques, methods and algorithms, trying to optimize your site can be a lesson in frustration.

Enter Apogee's Search Engine Marketing Glossary. This SEO Glossary is amazing. Everyone from SEO newbies to full-on pros will enjoy all of the terms they've defined. Everything from the Google Death Penalty to ROA is discussed, and the definitions are well-written and useful.

This site is definitely worth a visit.

Web Stat Controversy

What kind of stat program are you using for your business? As the recent debacle over del.icio.us has represented, if you're planning on getting funding for your company, it had better be a really good program with verifiable accuracy.

Basically, HitWise has said del.icio.us is booming, Comscore said they were failing. Yahoo! who purchased del.icio.us late last year, agrees with HitWise (and who could blame them.) Apparently, HitWise is closer to the truth, but this really illustrates the fact that third-party stat providers can have wildly different results on one site's traffic.

Keep this in mind if you're in the process of getting venture capital, or if you have investors looking at your company.

Wasting Company Time

One of the major problems facing business owners is trying to keep their employees on task, especially when internet access is freely provided and you can’t monitor them every second of every day. Is your employee putting in their full eight hours for you, or are you getting around 3 hours of work, while they chat with their friends for the rest of the day?

Programs that monitor employee internet access are useful, but adept employees can usually figure out a way around it. You can try blocking certain sites, but this can be an impossible task. How is a business owner expected to do their own work, and still ride herd on their employees?

SpectorSoft has recently launched a new Keystroke Logger. This little tool works very well by running stealthily in the background, monitoring exactly what your employees are doing. If you start seeing OMG! And other keystrokes that indicate your employee is not talking to a client, you can take action quickly.

Parents can also use this to keep an eye on what their kids are doing online. Spying is never fun, whether it is on your children, your spouse or your employees. However, in today’s society, it’s become almost necessary, particularly for business owners who are paying their employees for the privilege of surfing the net.

Media Baron Gets $1 Million Added to Bond

Wow - what a story. New York Times covered the latest news about Conrad Black, who is being held on racketeering and fraud charges. He apparently lied about his net worth, so they slapped an extra $1 Million onto his bond.

From the article:

“It’s appropriate to increase the bond somewhat in this case,” Judge St. Eve told lawyers for Lord Black in demanding an additional $1 million in cash.

“I’m not here to micromanage his finances,’’ the judge said. “I’m here to assure bond is sufficient to assure his future appearances before this court.”

A lawyer for Lord Black said the additional $1 million would be paid.

Up to now, Lord Black’s $20 million bond has been secured by $30 million in assets, including a Florida home. Some of those assets are subject to forfeiture if he is convicted.

It looks like Black may have left out some key information on leins on one of his homes, as well as underestimated the worth of some of his holdings. Wow - what a penalty.

BizChair.com - School Furniture

Well, it's almost that time again. School is looming and the sales are blooming for back-to-school furniture. BizChair.com has some great offerings at some really great prices on School Furniture, and if you're like me, you'll find a bunch of stuff not only for the little nippers, but for yourself too. And let me be the first to say - I never had stuff like this when *I* was a kid.

My favorite was their collection of administrative desks. They have a really wide variety of whole office suites that are priced very well. Looking at my pitiful little table really made me want to upgrade. They even have the old school metal desks with plenty of drawers which I have always loved.

They also had some really good prices on Plasma Display Panels - yet another thing I didn't have as a kid. Overall, this is a great collection of back-to-school furniture that leaves plenty of room for adults to drool, and businesses to stock up on some great deals.

Interesting move for Time Warner Cable

RedHerring had an interesting story today on some plans that Time Warner Cable has to make their company more attractive to consumers. Users will soon be able to use, "Road Runner PhotoShow Deluxe, that lets users add animation, captions, and music to photos and video." Ok... Well, this may be nice for people who don't have computers.

This is a feature that I think naturally techy people will be able to use, but I worry about frustration levels with users who aren't accustomed to using their television to display their photos, add animations, etc...

But here's an interesting quote from the article:

“When you read about what’s going on with the Internet, there is a lot of user-generated content that’s out there. What we do is we bring it to life on the big screen in your living room,” said Bob Benya, senior vice president of Time Warner Cable video on demand (VOD).

Ummm - does this mean they have plans to create some sort of sharing environment here?

It's a nice idea, but in my opinion, it's just virtuosity and a bald attempt at creating some buzz. For crying out loud, you can get a picture frame that will do all that this can do, and it's a lot easier to use. Back to the drawing board, guy!

One Touch Backup

If there's one thing I can never stress enough, it's making a back up of all of your files. Now, I know, this isn't the easiest thing to do, and it can be particularly time consuming. If you are running more than one computer, the need is even greater to keep all of your files in one place. Enter the latest Portable Drive that makes it super easy to keep (and carry) all of your important files safe.



The Store-It Portable Hard Drive is a cute little USB portable hard drive that comes integrated EZ-Touch™ One Button Backup. Now, you don't have any excuses, do you? I rely on my USB drive at least twice a day to save files or transfer them between computers. I remember back when I was still using CD's to do this, and let me tell you, I am never going back.

This particular model includes the Retrospect™ backup software, making it easier to keep all of your files in order, and to schedule back-ups. There are also a few other options I liked, such as the aluminum exterior for durability, and the fact it can be engraved just like my iPod (hey, we all need continuity). If you don't want to engrage your name or company on the back, you can take advantage of their myDrive LOST-N-FOUND service, which features an engraved serial number to help you find your drive if it is ever stolen. Pretty nice!

Your Virtual Assistant

Owning a home based business invariably means having to outsource jobs in order to keep up. This has several benefits as opposed to hiring people to come into your home (zoning laws being one of the most important). If you're currently working with a "virtual assistant," here's some important news for you:

Virtual Assistant Networking Announces Premier Partner Program

Vancouver, British Columbia (PRWEB) August 8, 2006 -- Virtual Assistant Networking (VAN), today’s largest online virtual assistant (VA) organization is pleased to reveal its Premier Partner Program. This program is designed to provide a variety of tools and resources to the rapidly growing virtual assistant industry including discounted memberships to VA organizations and reduced pricing on materials.

VAN continually strives to increase benefits for their 2800+ members while still maintaining their high professional standards. According to Tawnya Sutherland, VAN founder, “This program truly is a win-win situation. Not only are VAN members receiving substantial discounts on the products and services they’re most likely to use, but the affiliates are offered a chance to get in on the ground floor. They gain exposure through out this large group of virtual professionals and are provided the opportunity to remain in the spotlight as this industry continues to explode. VAN has had a 25% increase in membership over the past two months alone and it’s only expected to continue.”

VAN’s Premier Partners are as diverse as their growing membership. These partners offer services beneficial to VAs in any stage of their business. For members just entering the profession VAN has partnered with The University of Virtual Assistants who provides training of the highest standards for aspiring VAs. These training programs are also beneficial to established VAs desiring increased credibility or diversified skill sets. Other VAs may enjoy joining the newest Premier Partner, Virtual Divas, an organization focused on aiding female virtual professionals in adopting a healthier, more balanced lifestyle. There really is something for all the members.

Source: PRWeb

User Driven Reviews

There has been a real trend of late towards social networking sites, and I found an interesting shopping center that took an old concept and gave it a new spin. They encourage their users to post Owner Reviews on a variety of different products.

Nothing really new there, but here's what I like. Their page is well designed and organized. It's easy to find products, it's easy to see reviews and it doesn't look overly crammed with ads, information and visual disturbances. The original consumer review places have gotten a bit cluttered, and this one was really a breath of fresh air.

Fresh Books

If you haven't heard about Fresh Books it's a great new online utility for billing and time management. The interface is extremely professional and so are the results. I really liked how easy it seemed to be to create online invoices, send them out and keep track of everything. This is a really good tool if you do a lot of work with subcontractors, or you just want to consolidate your billing to an online interface.

They are currently offering a free trial, so it's a great time to check them out and see what they can do for your company. It is also a great tool for freelancers who want to get paid quickly and easily.

Personal Access to Mortgage Trends

Came upon Personal Home Loan Mortgages today and was at first a little leery. We've all been subjected to endless copies of mortgage sites, and I figured this one was just another. Was I wrong! This is a great place that provides a lot of interesting information on mortgages, market trends, loans and a whole lot more.

I was impressed that they have actual content in their nice resource center, which is refreshing. I'm getting more than a little sick of keyword stuffed sites that ruin everyone elses chances, so this site is really a breath of fresh air for me. Imagine, content that your site visitors can really use! Wow...

I also liked their daily mortgage rate service that allows you to watch industry trends and kind of keep up on what's going on. This is a great tool for mortgage brokers, and even for the average home owner who wants to understand the industry a little bit better.

Take Me Out to The Ballgame...

Noticed this story today on Bloomberg.com

From outfield walls to bathroom stalls, baseball fans are bombarded with advertisements at the ballpark. This season, players can't escape the barrage even in the sanctuary of their locker room.

As center fielder Juan Pierre of the Chicago Cubs dressed for a game at Shea Stadium in New York, a sign above him was promoting Marquis Jet. His chair was sponsored by Marquis, too.

``It shocked me,'' Pierre, 28, said last month before a game against the Mets.

Visitor locker rooms are the new frontier for stadium advertising. The Mets and Boston Red Sox, striving to maintain $100 million-plus payrolls, became the first Major League Baseball teams to sell access to multimillionaire ballplayers in what was once a commercial-free zone. The advertiser is closely held Marquis Jet, which rents time on Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s NetJets fleet of private planes.

The New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association were the first to bring Marquis Jet into the visitor locker room. Not only did the chairs and towels carry the blue, black and white Marquis logo starting last season, so did signs inside the shower room.

Now - what we really need is a Google AdSense type service that will put together a cooperative of little businesses to get this kind of exposure.

Coupon Chief - Great Concept

Earlier this month, I shared a tip on Using Coupons to Maximize Sales. Well, today, I ran across a business built entirely around coupons which passes the savings on to everyone else. Unlike other coupon mega sites, I actually liked Coupon Chief. They have a unique site design and some really decent online coupon.

One of the best features is that they have coupons from some really great online shopping sites, like Best Buy, Gap and Overstock, something that is sure to keep this company successful. It's also a very good example of how smaller companies can align themselves with larger companies to form a strategic alliance that benefits both parties.

The coupons are good too - like the one that will get you free shipping on a refrigerator at Best Buy, or the $15 off coupon from Overstock.com. This is a great site to check before you go shopping online.

Dell's Slide Continuing

Forbes had an interesting article on Dell today and their slide looks like it is continuing.

Despite a rebounding stock price, Dell's problems will likely persist as the Texas-based computer company has too much exposure to corporate customers in developed countries, according to a recent report from Banc of America Securities.

The research firm said the weakest areas of the PC market are in countries such as the U.S., Western Europe and Japan.

"We expect this trend to continue for the next several quarters," wrote Banc of America analyst Keith Bachman.

What an interesting problem this is - According to this analyst, Dell has too much exposure.

We can all really take a lesson from this, on when to pull back the buzz machines and just let our companies flourish for a bit on their own.

Niche News - ChristianPlacements.com

Sometimes, finding a niche is the best way to promote and run a successful company. ChristianPlacements.com is an interesting example of how this can really work. Their service provides companies interested in finding a specific type of employee with resources to get exactly the new hire they're looking for.

It's growing fast too - over 5,000 resumes have been posted and they see about 3,500 unique visitors each day. This is really good for a niche market and it looks as though they'll be continuing their growth spurt. They offer a tool set for companies looking for new hires that includes an area to perform background checks, but they also provide unique services for job seekers as well.

This is great resource for ministries and other organizations looking for new hires and is a great representation of how niche placement can really pay off for everyone involved.

What kind of niche market ideas do you have?

Business Blogging - How to Get Noticed

Wanted to share this interesting press release from iBlogBusiness - a new directory site that is geared towards business blogging.

The international attention received by last month’s launch of www.iblogbusiness.com has spurred many new enhancements due to the business blog community’s response. More than 900 link requests have been received from bloggers around the world. Numerous business listings have been added and the category selection has increased by more than six times, making this one of the fastest growing resources for business bloggers.

New directory enhancements include:
· Company syndicated RSS feeds available for visitor subscription
· Company/Author names responsible for the business blog they maintain appear under listings
· Character submission limitations to keep listings short and digestible by businesses
· Several new pages including an About Us page with a public mission statement.

"With the addition of RSS syndication, author names, and a public mission, I think the business blog community is getting the message," Christian Del Monte said, TMA E-Marketing’s vice president of operations. "Since iBlog’s inception, we’ve been overwhelmed by the support of bloggers from around the world who show their appreciation each day."

If you're blogging for your company and you're not promoting it, this is a great opportunity to get in on kind of the ground floor with a directory and get your work noticed.

Protect Your Content

If you are selling virtual products like ebooks, software or other applications that you don't really want shared, you need to have a solution to keep your products in the right hands and prevent unwanted file sharing. This is, unfortunately, not the easiest thing to do.

If you haven't used PHPAudit before, it is a great tool that provides store owners with an incredibly easy way to protect their content. It's also more than just a protection program, it allows you to easily take orders 24/7, and track exactly what’s going on in your store. Files are locked down to prevent sharing between friends, and or multiple installations, which is a really nice feature.

This product also integrates well with the IonCube suite to provide you with a complete solution. I really liked the fact that PHPAudit can be used to send out invoices, which is a really handy if you have products like ezines or perpetual subscriptions. This is an area that can be incredibly time consuming and it’s easy to lose a customer without an autorenew feature. PHPAudit can also be integrated with 2checkout, Authorize.net, BluePay, Paypal, WorldPay to make this process even easier.

If you have more than one store, you can easily run them all, right from a single interface, and use multiple brands. This is truly a solution that makes selling digital products a heck of a lot less painful. The admin page is straightforward, and easy to use, which will be a relief for store owners who aren’t as technical as others.

As someone who has lost a lot of sales due to file sharing, this is a solution I will definitely be implementing in the future. PHPAudit is on sale, but only until August 11th, so hurry over and take advantage of their special offer.

Keeping Content Fresh

One challenge facing a lot of commercial site owners is keeping their site fresh, and keeping visitors coming back for more. With a busy schedule kept chock full with running your business, many owners make the mistake of not keeping their site updated at least once a week.

Grazr is a new that offers a unique way to add RSS feeds to your site. I like the clean design, which will integrate well with many site themes, and it has a very fresh feel to it. There is no charge for a commercial site to use the app and you have a lot of options when it comes to adding your own feeds.

You can also program the utility to open any clicked page in a new window, so that your customers stay on your site. Very cool and very useful.

MyAdBox - What a Great Idea

MyAdBox recently launched and they have really filled a niche that is absolutely necessary for small business owners, particuarly if they are running their businesses out of their homes. When you place a classified ad, typically, you must provide a contact number (if you want responses) and at least one other way to contact you. This can be a hassle if you don't want calls at all hours, or if you aren't available to man your phone line 24 hours a day.

Enter MyAdBox, which makes it completely easy to place an ad without having to worry about managing responses. You get a disposable toll-free telephone number (which will increase your chances of getting responses) as well as a disposable mail box and more tools to help you manage your responses.

There are three different levels of service, which provide a basic web page, rental applications for landlords, resume templates, a set number of minutes to use and a whole lot more. As privacy concerns continue to skyrocket, MyAdBox has really stepped up to the plate with a vital service. Give them a try and see what you think: Visit MyAdBox here.

Yahoo! Launches Search Builder

Yahoo's Official Blog announced today that they are rolling out their new Yahoo Search tool for sites. This new app allows you to create a topic or site based search, with complete integration into your own site.

You can fine tune it to match your site's color scheme and layout, and simply embed the code into your pages. Very easy to use, and so far, it seems to be working very well.

As Yahoo states on their post:

We’ve created a basic suite of tools to help you understand your search traffic. With the popular search module, you’ll discover hot searches your users are interested in. With user and traffic reports, you’ll be able to monitor the growth of your search engine.

So, what does this mean for site owners? Basically, let's say you have a site that is completely devoted to the art of origami. You could then use this to pull in results that are completely based around this one topic. Pretty effective.

Company Profile: Online Discount Mart

Online Discount Mart is a treasure trove of hard to find items and a great study on why the General Store concept is still valid, even when it comes to online shopping. I love the fact that you can find everything from wind chimes to replica swords, all in one place.

Since my latest kick is solar power, I was really interested in their collection ofSolar Lights. They have several different varieties, and all are reasonably priced. My favorite is their Solar Lotus Light, which looks just like a flower and will blend in easily with a garden, providing a unique statement.

This is what I really like to see, unique products from a unique store, blending old school with new school.

Click2Scan - Awesome New Application

Found an interesting new application - Click2Scan, that let's you save images with your mobile phone, scan them and then share them. Pretty much 1,2 and 3. Here's the release:

Realeyes3D announce the new way to scan, copy and share with Clicktoscan
Realeyes3D - 08/07/06

Monday 7th August, 2006 - Realeyes3D, the pioneer in handwritten messaging and provider of innovative embedded applications for camera phones, has announced a new mobile service, clicktoscan, that enables you to scan images from your mobile phone and send them direct to an email address or fax.

The service is ideal for when you are on the move and works for everyone, whether you're a student or a professional businessman. You simply take a picture of the selected document or page with your camera phone and, using the application, send it to a chosen email address or a fax machine. The application reads the text content, cleans up the image and then sends it to the chosen output as a PDF document. Using the application significantly reduces paperwork time and is ideal for any business or lifestyle scenario.

Currently in Beta testing – this application can be downloaded free of charge from the clicktoscan website (www.clicktoscan.com) where users can test the service in their own environment.

This would be a great new app for real estate agents, professionals who travel and pretty much everyone who needs a quick way to make a back-up of an important document.

ProBlogs - Newest Entry in the Blogosphere

I recently gave www.ProBlogs.com a try, since they're the new kid on the block and I wanted to see what they had to offer. The sign-up process is very easy and they are free (bonus) but there are also paid accounts available if you want more features.

The available templates and designs were quite frankly amazing, and I like the fact you can still just use a pretty background if you prefer. They also cater to more expert bloggers and will let you design your own template and layout (very cool!)

I was impressed with how easy it was to add your own logo, change details and actually post. This one is good enough to make me think about switching, but for now, I think I'll really give it a try with my latest blog project that is all about Web 2.0.

Overall, I really like ProBlogs and I think they'll go far.

WebLogWire Makes it Easy to Promote Tech Products

The WebLog Wire recently launched as a new PR service to help companies reach bloggers. The concept is pretty simple - The WebLog Wire supplies bloggers with press releases from companies that have products or services they are interested in writing about.

Right now, it looks like it is geared towards tech and web 2.0 companies, but now is certainly the time to give them a try - while the press releases are free! They have some really good quality releases too, so it's well worth it for bloggers.

Heat Wave and Ingenuity

As our last post illustrated, innovations can come out of nowhere, on the spur of the moment. When was the last time you had a great idea and didn't follow through on it? Overnight successes are born when people see a need, form a concept and immediately follow through.

The second key is taking advantage of opportunities to promote your idea, such as news or even weather events.

Let's take a look at this neat example: Auto Cool Solar Car Fan from someone who used the recent heat wave as an impetus to promote their product which is incredibly beneficial. As someone who lived through a solid month of 95-115 degree temperatures, I wish I had this on hand.

The basic concept is ingenious - a solar powered fan that automatically cools the interior of your car, fits in the window and never needs any batteries. It can reduce the interior temperature of your car by more than 30 degrees! Now, if it could only do that outside.

So, what can we learn from this company? They took their idea, got it past the concept phase, and then used the recent heatwave that crippled the nation as their springboard to promote it. What ideas have you been sitting on?

The World's Largest Dry Erase Board??

What an interesting concept - here's a snippet from the press release:

Young entrepreneur, Rohail Rizvi, 18, launched www.WriteonMyBoard.com a few weeks ago, the world's largest spanning dry erase board ad space, and the site has already seen a surge of interest. Rizvi, who maintains his own blog at www.RohailRizvi.com, details how he arrived at the idea of serving up ad space in such a creative manner on his site.

"I had just opened up a fresh dry erase board last night and was ready to write out my summer schedule," says the 18-year old soon-to-be sophomore and Finance major at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. That's when, he says, he was hit with the idea of WriteonMyBoard.com. "I thought to myself- why not have a dry erase board that spans the globe?" Span the globe indeed he did as his site now only being up for a few hours already has had visitors everywhere from New Zealand to Malaysia.

This is a really cute idea - You get to pick the color of "ink" you want on the dry erase board and prices go up depending on the color. For example, black is the cheapest at $3, while red will cost $5. Handy paypal links make it easy to get your message up there fast.

Even Travel.com took advantage of this unique opportunity. What a great innovation!

Company Profile: Rentalo

Rentalo is a highly regarded company that specializes in vacation rentals. The New York Times and National Geographic have loaded them with praise, and there is definitely a reason. Their site is extremely easy to use and fills a void in the travel industry to connect directly with individual users.

You can search by property id, location (and they have them available throughout the world) and even read their Best Accomodations Newsletter for some great tips on where to stay. As someone who loves travel, this site is perfect for me and is no doubt useful for other travelers who may not be familiar with a particular region or area.

There is a section for owners to post listings, which opens up the entire world to small companies who may have never had the ability to reach potential guests on this scale. In all honesty, a company like this can help make a struggling bed and breakfast in the west of Germany an overnight success, or help a homeowner in Utah take advantage of the visitors interested in the Sundance Film Festival.

The live help option is a great feature for vacationers with questions on rental properties, or how to use the site. This is definitely a vacation rental site that is geared around both users and property owners. There's even a section for travel agents.

Overall, Rentalo has all the ingredients of a successful vacation rental super site.