Biz Tips Blog: Internet Marketing Tips

Blog Action Day...What Kind of Consumer are You?

Today is Blog Action Day, a day when thousands of bloggers all over the world are blogging about one issue...the environment.

I'm taking this opportunity to highlight an organization that is dedicated to changing our habits as consumers: Big Green Purse. I learned about this organization from Mary Hunt of In Women We Trust. Mary is intensely involved in sustainable business development.

Big Green Purse believes:

that the fastest, easiest, most direct route to a clean and healthy environment is to shift our spending to environmentally-safe, socially responsible products and services.

Women spend $.85 of every dollar in the marketplace which is a lot of spending power. The goal is for every woman to convert $1,000 of their regular spending to green spending...buying environmentally friendly products and services. A million women can shift $1 billion dollars and make a huge impact on how big and small businesses view and respond to their own environmental impact.   

Blog Action Day...Are You In?

October 15 is Blog Action Day. It's one day where bloggers unite to write about one issue. In this case it's about the environment. This is the inaugural year and so far there are 8,033 blogs participating with a reach of 5,671,653 readers worldwide. You can add your blog to the list if you agree to 1) write about an environmental issue on October 15 and/or 2) donate the earnings from your blog for that day to an environmental charity.

In the meantime you can take a fun quiz to find out what kind of blogger you are. I am...

So I'm putting my thinking cap on and will come up with a post about about going green in your business or some such topic; haven't decided yet.  Will you join me for Blog Action Day on October 15?

The Transparent Marketplace

Trendwatching.com has just released their May Briefing and it's focused on the Transparency Trend:

Old economy fog is clearing: no longer can incompetence, below-par performance, ignored global standards, anti-social & anti-eco behavior, or opaque pricing be obscured. In its place has come a transparent, fully informed marketplace, where producers have no excuse left to underperform.

This is an excellent report on why businesses must evolve to meet the expectations of savvy, Internet-literate consumers who are all too willing to review and share their comments about their experiences for all the world to see.

Daylight Savings Time & Your Computer

Unless you've got your computer set to get automatic updates from Microsoft, you may need to change the time settings to agree with Daylight Savings Time which comes three weeks early this year, at midnight Saturday, at the start of March 11.

Fear not. Microsoft provides a free Time Zone Date update program that is easy to use.

Simply go to their site http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst and follow the simple instructions.

Failure to do so will mean that your calendar and clock functions will be an hour off.

Save a little energy

As a nod to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth winning an Oscar, here's a tip for saving energy in your office...

Activating the sleep mode of your computer uses up to 70% less electricity than using a screensaver.  Shutting down your computer all the way saves even more and gives you and your hard drive a much-deserved break.

This is something I've always done just by habit.  I shut down my computer every single night.  The tip is courtesy of www.thegreencurve.com. Get more tips for taking action to cut energy use and go carbon-neutral.

PayPal Rebates

If you use PayPal to make purchases, this is a good time for you.  Through May 2007, you can get a $15 rebate from PayPal when you make a purchase of $30 or more from eBay or another qualified business that takes PayPal as a form of payment.

If you're a merchant that accepts PayPal, you need to set up PayPal Express Checkout in order to apply to be a "qualified merchant" for the promotion.

What's Your Big Idea?

I received the following announcement today and it's one I actually thought might be useful for some readers of this blog...

Microsoft Corp. today announced the Ultimate Challenge, a nationwide search for the most creative small-business idea in the country.

The contest, which is live at http://www.ideawins.com (direct link at http://www.ideawins.com/contest/ ) ,has been designed to spur the imagination and spirit of entrepreneurism that drives small businesses.

If you want to get a head start, Microsoft will start reviewing applications received through the website via the email submission today. If you want to wait, come back on Nov. 27 when you can submit your application in a very innovative way.

The winner - the business with the most innovative business idea - will receive $100,000 in business startup money, funding to Manhattan-area storefront for one year, and infrastructure and software to help run the business.

The deadline for submissions is Jan. 31, 2007.

The contest also supports the recent launch of Microsoft(r) Office Accounting Express 2007, Microsoft's newest financial management solution, which is still offered on the site as a free download!

Download the UltimateChallenge press release here.

NET NEUTRALITY Update: Sen. John Kerry Adds His 2 Cents

I realize I've been remiss in keeping you posted about the issues surrounding Net Neutrality.  It's not over and today, Senator John Kerry weighs in on the issue over on the SaveTheInternet blog.

You can read more about Net Neutrality on previous posts and listen to or read the transcript from my interveiw with Paul Misener, VP at Amazon.com.

Technorati Tags: Net Neutrality, John Kerry, Paul Misener

Net Fact: Update on Net Neutrality

The following is reprinted from an email I received from It’s Our Net Coalition.

NetMyth:       The Internet has never been regulated.

NetFact:       Until FCC decisions made last summer, consumers’ ability to choose the content and services they want via their broadband connections had always been assured by regulatory safeguards.

In the zone of governmental noninterference that has surrounded the Internet, there has always been one fundamental exception: from the Internet's inception, it has always operated under minimal non-discrimination requirements for the so-called last mile to consumers. Developed by the FCC over a decade before the commercial advent of the Internet, these rules required that the underlying providers of last-mile network facilities – the incumbent local telephone companies – allow end users to access Internet content and services of their choosing, and utilize any device they desired - without interference from the network operator.

These consumer safeguards allowed the Internet itself to remain as open and “unregulated” as was designed originally. This open platform became the heart and soul of the Internet. It is hard to imagine the innovation and creativity of the commercial Internet ever occurring in the 1990s without those minimal but necessary market safeguards already in place. By removing any possibility of interference or discrimination from the network provider this policy paved the way for an explosion in what some have called “innovation without permission.” We witnessed the products of fertile minds like Tim Berners-Lee with the World Wide Web, and Yair Goldfinger with Instant Messaging, and David Filo and Jerry Yang with Yahoo!, and Jeff Bezos with Amazon. And we all have benefited enormously from their myriad inventions.

Net Neutrality Matters. Protect the Open Internet.

For more information about the It’s Our Net Coalition and Net Neutrality, visit www.itsournet.org.

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Contact
Catherine Castro
Qorvis Communications, on behalf of It’s Our Net Coalition

Direct: (703) 744-7839 / Cell: (202) 230-2200

Tech Tags: net+neutrality

Net Neutrality Transcript Posted

The interview I did with Paul Misener of Amazon.com has been transcribed and is available for download.

Patsi also published some posts on Build a Better Blog about the issue while I was on vacation.