Let’s face it – our American economy sucks right now. Big businesses are floundering, small businesses are struggling … let’s not even talk about e-commerce. The ‘average Joe’ is broke and it’s hard to keep afloat.

Research from The Harvard Business Review proves that face-to-face meetings can make or break business. But since a lot of businesses have to keep within a budget, meeting clients or associates face-to-face, especially if they are overseas, can be a huge financial drain. But there is one company who would like to help.

British Airways (who have – in my own humble opinion – the single best airline service I’ve ever flown on) is running a contest where 100 small-to-medium size U.S. businesses (who prove they are deserving) will be awarded a year of free Business Class travel and valuable business services and products to help increase their face-to-face meetings and hopefully – grow their business.

"Business Opportunity Grant" recipients will be awarded 10 British Airways roundtrip transatlantic Club World business class tickets to be used at their business’ discretion in 2010. British Airway partners Regus, Courtyard by Marriott, Canon will provide five Businessworld Gold Cards offering access to its business lounges worldwide, $1,000 toward accommodations, and a PIXMA MX860 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer, specifically designed for small businesses. British Airways World Cargo will also offer each winning company five free global shipments of up to 1100lbs, including fuel and security fees, shipped from any British Air World Cargo U.S. gateway.

Pretty sweet huh? Well – there are only a few more days to enter – so please visit the website and apply!

With about half of all Americans on social networks, the glass is either half-empty or half-full. 50% the country has embraced these new tools, using them in their work and lives with increasing confidence and skill.

And the other 50%? They include entrepreneurs, corporate professionals, and key players in mission-driven organizations, who haven’t been ready to adopt these platforms into their marketing activities. Some don’t see the value. Others can’t see when they’d fit it in to their routine. And still others don’t know how to use them in a way that serves their message, mission, and vision.

To help success-minded professionals in that "other" 50%, social marketing firm Epiphanies, Inc. is offering a free audio program, “The 6-Step Social Media Kick Start: How to Get More Leads, Clients, and Results (and Have a BLAST Doing It).” It’s an hour-long digital recording (MP3), available for immediate download at their website.

Lani, along with her business partner Allen Voivod, reveal the #1 Rule, #1 Truth, and #1 Success Strategy for using social media. They also share their own shortcuts for saving hours a day while remaining active on multiple social media sites, and how the six steps became the model for their six-week Social Media Kick Start Virtual Boot Camp, which they’re running for the second time beginning October 5th, 2009.

“The previous Boot Camp attendees included both entrepreneurs at the start-up stage and experienced business owners, plus representatives of non-profit organizations and academic institutions,” notes Allen Voivod. "We’re thrilled to have designed a program that’s proven useful across so many different situations, and look forward to seeing another diverse group of professionals in the Boot Camp starting next month."

Lani & Allen Voivod, the Content Lovers of Epiphanies, Inc., help entrepreneurs, global brands, and mission-driven organizations learn and use social marketing and success strategies to boost visibility, community, competitive edge, and profits through workshops, speaking, and consulting. Get their free 6-Step Social Media Kick Start audio program, designed to help savvy professionals get a convenient, no-nonsense overview of how to put social media tools and platforms to work for their own goals, vision, and careers.

ROCKWORLDEAST.com has officially launched its blog/website sponsorship campaign! ROCKWORLDEAST Merchandise Wholesalers will be supplying various Music & Entertainment blogs & websites with T-shirts from their in-house line of ‘Sick T-Shirts’ and from their massive inventory of officially licensed band merchandise.

Supplying product for these blogs and websites is an alternative to the traditional method of paying for advertising based on a cost per click or a cost per impression. The sites that will be hosting these contests/giveaways will simply display a banner provided to them by rockworldeast.com. Based on the traffic received through these banner links, these websites and blogs will be provided with various prizes including t-shirts and merchandise found on the RockWorldEast website.

Holding Contests and Giveaways is an excellent partnership strategy for both blog owners and RockWorldEast. This method is a reader friendly way to draw new traffic to an already existing website or blog in addition to being a targeted promotion for RockWorldEast. For rockworldeast.com, traffic and sales go up, for the sponsored blog/website readership, marketability and value of the blog/website increase.

The ROCKWORLDEAST Sponsorship program is an ongoing program. Any website can join this program upon approval. It’s as simple as posting a banner link which can be provided to you by emailing the rockworldeast.com marketing team using the contact information below.

This is not only an opportunity to gain free products to give to users of your website and readers of your blog, but an opportunity to build a strategic relationship with a major website in the music merchandise retail and wholesale industry.

For more information contact Melissa Buhagiar at melissa@rockworldeast.com
Website: http://www.rockworldeast.com
Blog: http://www.rockworldeast.blogspot.com

Affiliate marketing programs has never been as popular before as it is today.  Why?  There can be a number of reasons.  The most probable reason, however, could be the fact that the benefits of affiliate marketing have become clearer to a lot of people now than they were before.

Today, both the merchants and the affiliates can see clearly that affiliate marketing can work for both of them.  The merchant sees affiliate marketing today as the chance to advertise their products at a lower cost.  The affiliates, on the other hand, sees affiliate marketing as an easy way of earning profits online by doing what they like most, and that is by creating websites.

So the question now is what type of affiliate marketing will work best for you?  Are all affiliate marketing programs the same?  Are the benefits the same?  Or are there affiliate marketing programs that work better than the others?

» Read more after the jump →

Writing an article doesn’t just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. You have to capture the interest of your readers and get them to keep on reading. To send your message across you have to get the attention of the reader and have a firm grasp of their interest and pique their curiosity.

The main ingredient in baking up an article is a large dose of creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some just gets into a block or something to that effect that can drive someone crazy. Many writers have literally torn their hair out when they get writers block and just can’t seem to get their creative juices flowing.

Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article.

» Read more after the jump →

I’ve decided to really try to work on increasing traffic to my blog at Starryskye. I was hitting around 200 visits a day due to my visiting and clicking around Entrecard every-single-day. Well, I do visit my favorites each day still, but it’s no where near what I was doing. I need to “meet” new people and get them to visit my blog. SO - I’ve been working on what I’d like to call my “Rockin’ Monthly Giveaway!” I’m excited about this and I’m starting off with a beautiful set of wine charms that *I* made. I’ve been crafting and getting ready to open up my very own Etsy shop in the new year! So, this set of charms is just a taste of what I will be offering.

Other giveaways I am planning include a “Relax with Wax” gift basket and maybe even a handmade scarf (from Etsy - but NOT from me, lol) in honor of the new Harry Potter movie coming out in late November. I’ve been writing down ideas as I get them! Hopefully; hosting giveaways will increase my traffic. July 28th I had 50 visitors.  The 30th and 31st I had a mere 25. Yesterday I had 35 so it seemed to creep back up a little again. My honest goal is 100 for now. An AVERAGE of 100 mind you and at least 70 so I can be an active participant in a new advertising program I joined.

What are some good ways of increasing traffic to your blog?

If you are looking for a CAREER and not just “another job” than why not consider becoming a certified Cisco technician? The computer industry is MASSIVE and there are jobs everywhere in any state. Cisco is a company that is well known and provides its clients with everything from business solutions to internet security to huge networks of communication. You can receive your certification in many different areas including IP communications, network security, routing and switching and voice. There are three levels of certification so you can work your way up. In addition to general certifications, network professionals can enhance their core networking knowledge by achieving specialist certification in technologies such as security, IP telephony, and wireless.

Take my husband and I for instance – I am mostly into website design and marketing; he on the other hand is into hardware, software, setting up networks and internet security. He would love to eventually start his own business where I handle what I handle (I’m the artist of course!) and he will handle building computers and installing (for lack of a better word) home and business networks. A Cisco certification would be perfect for him and would teach him all the ins and outs of the trade.

Like I mentioned, this industry is massive and still growing. So many people in the United States (and abroad) own personal computers; and not everyone knows how to properly secure a network – or even just make sure their personal firewall is working. This is THE field to get into – and Cisco just made it a little bit easier for you. So get out there and get your certification! You could be well on your way to becoming the CEO of your very own company!

It’s late right now and the thought just crossed my mind to write a few entries on professional blogging. Everyone has their own ideas about what is considered pro blogging and I’d love to share what I’ve found. So, keep your eyes peeled for more in this series!

Pro-Blogging: Making Money with Your Blog!

So, say you have a blog. What is a blog you ask? Well, according to Wikipedia:

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting) are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging which consists of blogs with very short posts.

So, like I said you have a blog (or would like to start one for the sake of making money - I ain’t gonna shame ya!) and while you love to write it, you think “hey - there must be more I can do with this blog o’mine!” - well young Anakin, there is! You can make MONEY! Maybe not a lot of money, but there is money to be made.

Start off on a free site such as Blogger if you must - but understand that many places offer a domain (yourname.com) for less than $10 a year - hosting can be as little as $5.00 a month if not less! But, I will/

So - if you are considering going “Pro” with your blog(s) then there are a few tips you should glean from those already in the “business” and doing “well” at it. Now, “well” can be taken as me saying “I made $500 this month from blogging” to a BIG Success stating that they have made ” … over $10,000 this month” with their blog. Either way - you are either needing some extra cash. You could be anyone from a stay at home mom to a college student to the Next Big Internet Entrepreneur. Doesn’t matter. Point is, we all don’t know it ALL and we all learn from each other (well, I learn from everyone else!! lol).

My one quick bit of advice for you? Get a domain name. In my own honest opinion (and the honest opinion of several thousand advertisers) you WANT that “.com” (or whatever) behind your name. Sub domains are fine - but make sure it’s yours. I own a few domains - 2 of them are “monetized” and this domain is run by my husband.

Then once you have your blog (either your freebie or domain) get it going - try and post each day. Most advertisers want content - in fact, I’m beginning to see that a lot of advertisers want NICHE content. If you are going for the pay-per-posting route (there are a few out there) I know that Pay Per Post just changed their Terms of Service (TOS) to allow blogs that are 30 days old with a minimum of 10 existing posts written in the 30 days prior to being registered and/or accepted. The company PayU2Blog works on factors including quality and quantity of posts.

Links to Check Out: PayPerPost, PayU2Blog and also DreamHost.

Ps. If you choose DreamHost check out the RetailMeNot coupons here!

While surfing the web I came across a website called Buzzfuse which is a “viral” form of marketing that promises to bring maximum exposure to your blog (or photos, videos, songs, etc.) and help you stand out from the “crowd” of other ‘net users.

Sounds good to me, and it’s free to get an account so I went ahead and signed up to check it out a little closer. I mean, who doesn’t want to get more readers to their blog, right?

In order to have full access to all the features of Buzzfuse you need to pay $14.99 per month or $149.99 for a full year. But, I didn’t do the paid membership. I only have one person in my “Circle” right now also, so just my one friend will get the blog post that I made in regards to how hot Sportacus from LazyTown is.

Anyway, go check it out and add me to your friends list so you can hear about my next weird children’s show fetish.