Here is a very short compilation of online blogs and other Internet venues for small business that we put together for a client a few weeks ago.   Here is how the counselor put the request to us, "Please search and compile a list of message boards, forums, communities, blogs, and similar internet venues that are ‘business/entrepreneurship’ oriented."   
We felt it would be a good thing to share with the SBDC network as a whole.  Thus, here is a list of what we found after a quick search.  The format will be familiar to counselors who use our research services.

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I. Industry Trends and Overview
Excerpt: 

Entrepreneur Blogs: 10 You NEED To Be Following This is a blog review from Standout Blogger as of January 2009 that outlines 10 blogs that are leading the pack in content and delivery in the entrepreneurial niche. A brief description of each blog is also included as a quick reference.  

Source:  http://www.standoutblogger.com/blog-reviews/entrepreneur-blogs-10-you-need-to-be-following-in-2009/
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Excerpt: 

Entrepreneurship Blogs – The Top Blogs for Entrepreneurs Here are some of the best blogs with information to help entrepreneurs succeed. These cover a wide range of topics and were selected for their relevance, quality, timeliness and consistency (very important in a blog). If you are only going to read a few blogs about entrepreneurship, this is where to start.

Source:  http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/blogs/Entrepreneurship_Blogs_The_Top_Blogs_for_Entrepreneurs.htm#b
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Excerpt: Top 150 Blogs for Entrepreneurs 

This is a list of blogs useful to entrepreneurs, with a touch of social entrepreneurship and high tech bias. Future updates will be published on this page on Entrepreneur Commons website. 

Source:  http://entrepreneurcommons.googlepages.com/top150blogsforentrepreneurs
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Excerpt:  Top 10 Most Practical Blogs for Entrepreneurs  

With more and more people jumping on the business blogging bandwagon, it’s getting to the point that there is far more out there than you could ever hope to read on a regular basis. To help you filter that infoglut down to a more manageable level, here is my list of the ten most practical blogs for entrepreneurs. 

Source:  http://entrepreneurs.about.com/b/2005/10/24/top-10-most-practical-blogs-for-entrepreneurs.htm
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Excerpt:  10 Social Networks for Entrepreneurs

Social networking is obviously very popular online today. Unlike general networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, there are a number of smaller networks that focus on professionals and businesses. These sites can be an excellent place to gain some exposure and to communicate with other entrepreneurs. Here is a quick look at 10 networking sites that should be considered by entrepreneurs.

Source:  http://www.blogtrepreneur.com/2008/05/13/10-social-networks-for-entrepreneurs/
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Excerpt: Ten Online Tools Your Business Should Be Using 

There are new and exciting business tools being developed every day. These can help you improve your productivity and open up entirely new channels for your business to thrive online. 

Source: http://www.blogtrepreneur.com/index.php?s=message+boards
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Excerpt: Search Marketing 101  

SEO encompasses the strategies for earning top rankings in free search engines. These are called "organic" or "natural" listings. You can actually direct the way your site’s listed–and improve your ranking–by giving the search engines what they’re looking for. 

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/ebusinesscolumnist/article176398.html
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Excerpt: HubSpot Announces Link Grader Inbound Link Tool for Its Internet Marketing Software 

HubSpot offers an Internet marketing system that integrates SEO, social media and marketing analytics to help customers increase website traffic and convert a greater percentage of visitors into customers. 

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29427719/
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Excerpt: Recap: Top Trends Shaping Social Entrepreneurship in 2009 

For the last week, I’ve been counting down the top trends I expect to shape the field of social entrepreneurship in 2009. Overall, I expect that the language of "social entrepreneurship" will become an increasingly large part of the social change lexicon. The combination of a new administration, an economic crisis highlighting systemic failures in our approaches to business, and a growing frustration with promises to change the world and come up short, the idea of new, pragmatic approaches to tackling our toughest problems will continue to captivate. 

Source:  http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org/blog/view/recap_top_trends_shaping_social_entrepreneurship_in_2009
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II. Message boards

Entrepreneur Meetup Message Board
http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/boards/
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Yahoo! Message Boards – Small Business
http://messages.yahoo.com/Business_&_Finance/forumview?bn=17929261
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Young Entrepreneur Message Board
http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/forum/f14-young-entrepreneur-lounge/message-boards-1743.html
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III. Forums

About.com: Entrepreneurs
http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=messages&webtag=ab-entrepreneur
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Entrepreneur Connect
http://econnect.entrepreneur.com/
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Business Nation
http://www.businessnation.com/forums/
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IV. Trade Associations

National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE)
http://selfemployed.nase.org/
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National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)
http://www.nfib.com/page/home
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Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)
http://www.eonetwork.org/Pages/default.aspx
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Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FEW)
http://www.fwe.org/
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SOHO of America – Small Office Home Office
http://www.soho.org/
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The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE)
http://www.tie.org/
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Association for Professional Consultants
http://www.consultapc.org/index.htm
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International Directory of Professional Consultants and Coaches
http://www.igpc.org/
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V. Other Useful Links

SCORE Small Business Resource Links
http://www.score.org/small_biz_power_links.html#a_1
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Google Alerts
http://www.google.com/alerts
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Boost Your Blog Traffic Today
http://www.blogtrepreneur.com/2009/02/02/boost-your-blog-traffic-today/
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By Russ Altman
Assistant Director, Texas Tech University Small Business Development Center

Business technology is a part of business which the level of importance is often overlooked by entrepreneurs until faced with catastrophic loss of business data or equipment. With many segments of the national economy causing concern to the rest of the marketplace, it makes it even more critical to make sure your business technology is operating at maximum efficiency, resulting in reduced costs and positive impact on the bottom line.

Every entrepreneur should make it a point to stay in touch with the most efficient use of current technology strategies, and how they can be applied to their particular business model.

One of the first questions to ask is “Do you really need that specific technology?” Or more important, “What kinds of technology do you need?” The answers are not always easily determined until an understanding of the many technologies is developed

An understanding of the following areas of business technology is critical to business owners achieving their desired levels of entrepreneurial success.

Protect Your Business and Your Data

Data Storage

Increase memory capacity

• Online document storage

• Mobile memory (flash drives, external drives, etc.)

Improved Communications

• Automate customer communications (Customer Relationship Management technology)

• Reduce phone bills with VoIp (Voice over Internet Protocol)

• Choose the right email service provider

Tech Consultants and Service Providers (Due Diligence is Critical)

• E-Mail service provider

• Web host

• Website development

• IT Consultants

Website Improvement

• Use of Autoresponders

• Easy navigation

• Use Web Analytics

IT Security

• Use a firewall

• Anti-Virus Protection

• Perform regular security audits

• Establish and enforce security policies

PC Maintenance

• Install the right software

• Update your Operating System

• Dump what you don’t need

• Clean and Defragment your hard drive

• Keep PC Clean (Dust)

• Security is important

• Back up Data

Accepting Online Payments

• Choose a shopping cart program

• Know Credit Card Industry terms (Discount rate, Transaction Fee, Equipment, Monthly Minimum Fees, Reserve Fee, Chargeback Fee, etc.)

• Security and Fraud Prevention

• How to accept Credit Cards

On the Road

• Take advantage of Hotspots

• Travel light with a PDA or Smartphone

• Choose a Laptop

Email Safety and Security

• Watch what you write

• Educate your employees

• Don’t get hooked (Avoid Phishing)

• Fight Spam

• Anti-Virus solutions and updates

Shop Smart for Technology

• Make sure you need the new technology you purchase

• Develop a system to regularly discuss technology requirements

• Renegotiate existing technology contracts for services and consulting

• Study warranty details before acceptance

• Buy online with care

• Know what you want

Video marketing campaigns have previously been dominated by large global businesses that have huge marketing budgets. But now, thanks to the Internet, small businesses can also benefit from the power of video to reach their customers and drive their brand recognition. Interacting and engaging with customers through the use of online video is an important part of social media marketing or the Web 2.0 phenomenon and this article examines why it should be adopted by all business of any size. It gives examples of a handful of different video sharing opportunities including You Tube, Brownbook.net, My Space and blip.tv and suggests how you may like to use the channel of video to communicate directly with your customers.

Why online video is vital to your marketing strategy•

To demonstrate and show off what your product or service is – Brownbook.net does exactly this with a video showing its users how to use their DIY website creator service http://blog.brownbook.net/2008/12/17/web-site-creator-demo/

• To provide information and explain things about your business:
Hobby Box used its listing on Brownbook to add an informative video http://www.brownbook.net/business/2234317/the-hobby-box
PatientsLikeMe uploaded a video of them speaking at a conference onto blip.tv - http://where.blip.tv/#976819

• To show the personality behind the company, what the company is all about and how you want your brand to be recognised. Miamism uses Brownbook.net’s video uploading feature to give a great insight into their business http://www.brownbook.net/business/31014168/miamismcom—miami-beach-real-estate-resource

• To demonstrate your knowledge and expertise such as financial planner Andrew Horowitz did on Business Week http://feedroom.businessweek.com/index.jsp?fr_story=36a57b3b6982001f5af806073a86811a604be482

• To offer added value services to customers. This wedding planner produced an online video wedding planning guide and put it on My Space http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=28696203&searchid=897faf39-3848-4cca-a2fb-9506a217cb2b

• To create or upload an online advert, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1jywlZG74o

• Videos can give the customers a new shopping experience where the shop is brought directly to them at their convenience. Visual representation is highly effective in assisting us with our purchasing decisions as it makes the business more tangible and provides us with the information we need to form perceptions about the company

• Google seems to like videos and thus ranks them highly. Furthermore, according to Google, “America streams over 10.1 billion videos online” per month and “76% of US internet users view video online”

• Online videos do not require huge marketing budgets as with the advent of mobile, internet and camera technology most people have the ability to produce a video and then upload it to the net

• Use videos to spread word of mouth - Sarah Warren, Head of Marketing from Brownbook says “Business should encourage their customers to give them video testimonials, it’s very powerful to have a real customer telling others about the great service they got from you.

Businesses listed on Brownbook can not only upload their own videos but they can also direct their customers to their listing and ask them for a video review. And lastly, businesses can get in touch with professional organisations and experts to ask them to review their products and services using video like here http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=46822858”A business may chose to produce any number of the styles of videos mentioned above to engage potential and existing customers in order to ultimately generate more sales.
These online videos are part of the creation and development of an alternative online world in which consumers and businesses buy and sell.
Brownbook, You Tube, My Space, blip.tv, are examples of just some of the places where you can upload videos or photos to market your business. Marc Lyne, CEO from Brownbook.net said: “We have made some tweaks and added some new features to the latest version of Brownbook, but the video and photo facilities are already proving to be popular with users.

Video gives small businesses a cost-effective and powerful way to reach the widest possible audience. It enables you to personalize your messages and reach a large, global audience. So, get filming.

I was sitting in a meeting the other day where the conversation was turning into how we contact with our customers. We then discussed how this has changed drastically in the past few years and how people need to start getting on board now before they will be completely left off the bus. Even though many people consider 2.0 to be extremely new, it is not. I think that if you look at the curve of the cycle of users, it has finally started to hit the majority. Social Media as well as other new forms of technology are tools that small business owners now use to reach their customers. It is a combination of these tools as well as some of the older ones that we utilize to let our customers know who we are and what we do.

The discussion started to change though, does the average person want to know how to use all of the forms of media, or do they just want to understand them? So many people ask the question what everything is, so they can just be informed of what is out there. It seems to me that many people who complain about some of the new forms of marketing are the ones who either don’t understand them and/or don’t use them to their advantage. I still commonly hear from business owners that the people who use these forms of technology are not their customers. I will disagree with you as more people are using this technology every day. The largest growth in users for people in viral media is people over the age of 65 and housewives. This combined with the large majority of people under the age of 30 and others who have found its benefits makes up a large body of users. Also, all of these people under the age of 30 will not always be below the age of 30. This new form of marketing is going to be a norm in the way we reach customers. Individual names of the companies that we use may change, but the general philosophy of what they do will not.

The only way to truly understand the new forms of media and marketing is to use them. Using them for one day is not going to do the trick either. Notice, I did not mention to definitely use them for your company. Try them out for yourself individually; you can start slow by just reading or participating in blogs or forums. The key to understanding is to be engaged in what is going on.

These forms are not going to replace all of the old things that business owners have done over the years, it will just enhance the process of reaching customers. Just think of what is going to come out next. Would you ever even of imagined that what we are doing now would ever be out there? What do you think is going to be the next big thing for small businesses in the form of technology?

Kyle Hensel is the Area Director of the Clayton State University SBDC in the Georgia SBDC Network. For more information, please go to www.georgiasbdc.org. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Guest post by Christine Adolf of Brownbook.net

Customer testimonials are one of the most effective marketing tools for small businesses both off and online. Using customer testimonials in your company’s marketing collateral will provide potential customers with a viewpoint other than yours or your employees. If you have a website for your company, providing a page of positive testimonials can show would-be customers why they should choose to do business with your company over your competitors’. You can also ask satisfied customers to write reviews and testimonials in other online media such as review websites, where prospective customers will be able to find you when they search for your company, product or service online.

While customer reviews of your business or product are a great marketing tool, many people view them skeptically if they appear manufactured or unauthentic. Instead of reviews that are simply compliments, ask customers to give specific examples of why their experience in doing business with you was so positive.

Another thing you can do to enhance a customer testimonial is to provide multimedia along with the review. Posting photos or videos illustrating the business interaction will put a human face on the business and will make the review stand out.

Using the internet to showcase customer testimonials is a cost effective alternative and a great complement to producing offline materials. Asking customers to send an e-mail to their friends, share a link on their Facebook profile or post a picture to Twitter (Twitpic) for all their friends and acquaintances to see is an immediate customer testimonial that reaches a vast amount of potential customers.

When speaking with customers either in person, by phone or through e-mail, ask for their approval in utilizing any positive feedback they provide for future use. You can also go a step further and ask them to tell their friends, write an online review or pass out promotional materials branded with your company’s logo.

Harnessing a positive customer experience with your product, service and business in general has the ability to turn the satisfied customer into an evangelist for your business. Happy customers are often the ideal marketers a company can have, as they are genuine, enthusiastic and free!

Are you monitoring what others are saying about you on the Internet? If you are not, you really should start thinking about it. With all of the new technology on the Internet including social networks, blogs, Twitter and others, it is easy for individuals to write anything that they want to at any particular time. Unfortunately, this can come at a price for a business. For example, there were many people out shopping this past weekend and not every one of them was happy 100% of the time. Do you think it could be at least possible that one of them may have complained or vented on the Internet out of frustration? I think that is entirely possible as I have seen many instances of that first hand. Now seeing that most of the technology is viral based marketing, this could mean that 1 complaint could possibly be seen by thousands if not more people. What if this was your company that was being complained about? Is there a way that you can find out when people are talking about you on the Internet? If so, how much will it cost?

Well, there is such a thing for you to monitor yourself on the Internet, and it does not cost a thing. It is as simple as going to Google and setting for alerts. Every time your company, name, or the topic that you select is mentioned online, it will send you an email with a list of where it was mentioned. After you have the list, you can look through them to see what others are saying about you and your company. This may be a way to solve customer problems, or see something that your customers really like about your company.

You have a brand whether it is for your company or individually. You need to make sure that you protect your image online as well as offline. By signing up for Google Alerts, you can at least start monitoring what others are saying about you.

Kyle Hensel is the Area Director of the Clayton State University SBDC in the Georgia SBDC Network. For more information, please go to www.georgiasbdc.org. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Guest post by Ronan Keane
November 21, 2008

Since our new strategic relationship with the ASBDC in September, we’re excited to announce that MyBizHomepage.com has launched over 100 private label SBDC MyBizHomepage.com financial dashboard websites. SBDC Centers are invited to sign up for their free financial dashboard website here. Your MyBizHomepage.com website includes online financial tools for small businesses and SBDC centers.

SBDC centers should sign up for their free online financial dashboard tool at http://asbdc.mybizhomepage.com.

While many people are coming to know terms like SEO and SEM, Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing, respectively, we have forgotten about the tried and true art of Public Relations as an web communications medium. The web, in many ways, makes this much more easy than to do than in the traditional way. Getting articles from websites is much easier than searching newpapers and video on the web is a just as easy and costs next to nothing when compared to the high cost of getting something carried by television. With the emergence of Web 2.0, more and more sites let people add their own comments and exchange information to yield endless possibilities. Try guest blogging on popular or related blogs, starting Facebook, Myspace, or Hi-Five pages and then ask your family, friends and co-workers to add it. Write articles about yourself on online encyclopedias, like Wikipedia or go to forums and answer questions and link back to your site or answer questions on sites like Yahoo! Answers to create positive impressions about your organization.

Jarrett Byrom is the Web & Marketing Coordinator for the SBDCNet.org; He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Not a day goes by that I do not hear a complaint either about working with younger generations, or trying to reach them. The millennials as they are called are a section of “Generation Y” that are currently in the early stages of our workforce or about to leave school. So many people talk about how they do not have an attention span, they use cell phones alot and they play on the Internet more than they should. We need to face it, this is a brand new form of generation that we have not seen before. So many companies have talked about how their customers are not in this generation so they do not need to know how to reach them. One thing to keep in mind though, these customers are getting older and will soon be part of your customer base. There are also many people, not just millennials who are embracing the new forms of marketing and technology.

So what are all of these forms of new promotion? With all of the new forms of technology, there are many new ways to reach customers. It all depends on who your market really is. One of the keys is to be creative and to diversify where and how you are sending it. With the use of smart phones, restaurants are even marketing themselves with the use of GPS and how long the wait is at the restaurant. Social Networks, blogs, smart phones, internet connected televisions and social media are ways that companies are now reaching their markets. The world is now connected online more than ever before. According to the Harvard Business Review’s Working Knowledge Blog, of the 6.5 billion people in the world, about 1.5 billion have Internet access, more than 300 million have broadband access to the home, and 3 billion have cell phones, a growing number of which offer Internet access. The interesting thing about mobile technology is that many people never let it get more than a couple of feet away from them. I am one of those people.

I am not telling you to go out tomorrow and use social media and wireless technology to reach everyone out there; I just think that every business owner should start trying it. It is definitely here to stay and people are using it. The number of users is also growing every day. Soon it will just not be to reach the millennials, it may be close to everyone.

If you need assistance implementing new strategies into your marketing mix, contact your local SBDC office. They will be more than happy to help your business grow to the next level.

Kyle Hensel is the Area Director of of the Clayton State University SBDC in the Georgia SBDC Network.

by Jimmie Wilkins, SBDC director, Oregon

There have been volumes written on e-mail etiquette (Google “e-mail etiquette” if you want more and more and more), and I would hazard a guess that you could write your own book.

I wanted to share a few tips, thanks to Chemeketa Vice President Liz Goulard, Chemeketa Dean, Ron Bassett-Smith and an original author unknown, that we received at a recent meeting. Some of them drew an “of course” from me. Others caused me to blush and rethink some of my own practices. Some helped me see that we don’t all have the same expectations. Still, each one caused me to seriously review this critical tool and its impact on my ability to communicate with colleagues, clients and family.

Don’t use “Reply to All” as your default response. How critical is it that I’m included in your response? Consider sending the originator an e-mail that says “I didn’t need to see this.” It’s sort of like sending junk mail back to the place it came from.

Proof your communication before sending to avoid needing to send it again, missing attachments, or having to send another e-mail to clarify something ambiguous.

Don’t bother to write back to me to say “got it” or “thank you.” I will assume you got it and that you are appreciative unless I hear from you. (This is a hard one for me still!)

Think about whether this communication is best done via e-mail or by phone or in person. If we’re e-mailing more than three times about the same topic, it’s time to walk over and see me. Most communication experts agree that communication is 55 percent nonverbal, 38 percent tone and only 7 percent actual words.

Don’t overuse the high priority flag.

Keep e-mails to one screen and one subject whenever possible.

Use separate paragraphs, bulleted phrases and numbered lists to make your text easier to read.

Don’t respond in anger. Save a draft and review it later or ask another person to look at it before sending. Conflict is seldom, if ever, resolved through e-mail.

Use CC’s sparingly, only when you’re sure the recipient really needs or wants to know.

Please avoid sending chain letters or other junk from the Internet. I get enough of that at home.

Be thoughtful about sending on communications that you have received from listservs. It helps if you provide some analysis of the information or a summary so that I don’t have to try to guess why you forwarded it to me.

Copyright 2008 - Jimmie Wilkins