New York SBDC Research Network

From MarketingProfs "Domain names play a crucial role in branding and SEO of a website," begins an infographic by review site Website Builder. So it's important to think about your business's website domains carefully, understand how they work, and know your resources for purchasing and maintaining them. The infographic explains all that and more about domains, from the parsing of a URL to a timeline of domain names. (The first domain to be registered was symbolics.com in 1985!) It also answers some common questions about domains and SEO. For example, avoid using numbers and hyphens in a domain name, the graphic suggests, and keep your domain name as short as possible.

From Digg : In August, the U.S. Small Business Administration found that self-employment is ticking upward, but hasn't yet reached the heights it reached before the 2008 financial crash. Now, using census data, the office estimates that just over 15 million Americans are self employed. The SBA also reported that in 2013 there were 28.8 million small businesses — that is, a business, or firm, that employs less than 500 employees.3 Which might explain why the U.S. Census Bureau found that small businesses employed 56.8 million people, about 48 percent of the private industries. The new face of a small business is the perpetual freelancer, which means we have to start considering what this means when this entire generation retires — or, more likely, can't afford to. We already worry about how we'll provide for the population as more and more people live longer but are unable to work. If there's a place for mid-level earners on the internet, does that carved-out space incl...

More and more people are browsing, shopping, and doing business on their phones and tablets. Currently, 11.3% of the digital population uses mobile  only , compared to 10.6% desktop only use*. This may not seem significant now but these numbers will continue to grow as mobile capabilities advance and mobile devices become more and more integral to day-to-day life.  Seriously, if you are not mobile ready you are missing an opportunity to connect with mobile users who may be future customers and partners. So how do you get started? You see, mobile is really about your audience. Here are some tips to help you get started. Click  HERE  to learn more!

 Does your website seem to lack something?Maybe your'e not receiving the feedback or traffic on your site as you envisioned... well there are some simply ways to add more substance and glamour SBA  has 7 ways to do so- giving you the tools to reinvent yourself

There’s plenty of advice out there about choosing a business name, such as the need to do a name search in your state, a trademark search, register the name, and other key legal issues.  Those are all important factors to consider as you choose a business name. But I’d like to focus today on five considerations you should also be thinking about. These five things may be overlooked when choosing a business name (or thinking about a re-branding of your business): Dot Com Domain Names Still Rule Today’s small businesses depend on Web presence to generate leads.  Prospective customers are researching businesses online before they buy, so being findable online is crucial.  Before you settle on a choice for a business name, go to your favorite domain registrar, and search to see whether the .com URL is available.  The “dot com” version of a name is still the go-to address that most of the public thinks of automatically.  So whenever possible, try to get the ...

The high cost of these keywords is the result of competitive bidding, according to the report. For mesothelioma-related keywords, attorneys set high bids in Google AdWords because they stand to receive large sums of money when a plaintiff in a lawsuit gains a favorable judgment or settlement. One thing to note is that keywords with the highest average CPCs tend to be more niche and do not generally correlate to the biggest overall ad spends. An analysis of 2014 data by Adgooroo found the top keywords by spend are for the most part broader terms, such as "free credit report" and "car insurance." Read more from MarketingProfs

Imagine your a small-town entrepreneur, looking to build a local business. You may end up using your last name as part of the company name... That's all fine and good and rarely causes a problem. If you were really ahead of the curve -- say, you knew about the Internet in the early to mid-1990s -- maybe you even registered yourself a domain name, your last name followed by the now-ubiquitous dot-com. If you did, chances are you ended up something with a lot more valuable than you bargained for. Unless your last name is Nissan. In that case, you probably ended up with a big headache -- and a lot of legal bills. Since the 1980s, Uzi Nissan -- that's his real name -- has owned a number of small businesses branded with his last name. In the early 1990s, he started the Nissan Computer Corporation. He registered the Nissan.com domain in 1994. More from Now I Know .

The digital era not only makes big bets possible but increasingly necessary. The Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming a force that is driving innovation and new opportunities by bringing every object, consumer, and activity into the digital realm. At the same time, leading businesses are making similar changes within their enterprises by digitizing every employee, process, product, and service. This year, we conducted our first Technology Vision survey, polling more than 2,000 business and technology executives across nine countries and 10 industries, in order to understand key technology challenges as well as priority investments. Our survey revealed that 62 percent are investing in digital technologies, and 35 percent are comprehensively investing in digital as part of their overall business strategy. Taken in aggregate, enterprises find themselves connected to a digital fabric that has the potential to touch all aspects of their business, their customer relationships, and the worl...

From SmallBusinessNewz : No matter how small or "old fashioned" a small business is, it is vital that the owners stay informed of technology advancements because it impacts consumer behavior. A few of the technology trends to keep track of in the coming year Internet of Things. Wi-Fi technology will soon take everyday items like appliances, TV sets, and more through the next wave in connectedness: The Internet of Things, or IoT . The general concept is that all of these IoT-enabled will create a "smart" network all on their own by pinging off of each other.

Most consumers already know the websites they visit collect their data, so when they get personalized offers and content, they're not surprised. Consumers also are increasingly aware of the distinction between first-party and third-party data and that some companies collect third-party data and resell profiles of personal information to willing buyers. Third-party data aggregation is under attack, which presents an opportunity and incentive for digital marketers to favor first-party data to build a more strategic and personalized marketing strategy. The more you know about the way your customers engage with your digital properties, the better you can align what you're selling with what customers are interested in. Though third-party data can be useful in the marketing process, a skilled and nuanced first-party data strategy is a more reliable and respectful way to deliver offers with a higher likelihood of engagement and conversion. Read more at Marketing Profs

The Internet Retailer bills itself as the portal to e-commerce intelligence, and it is. The site contains articles, a vendor directory, many free resources, and a helpful blog.

From the Sales Tax Institute . You collect the tax for the state where the property is delivered to your customer. If the item is shipped to the customer, then tax applies for the delivery state. You should collect the tax only if you are registered to collect tax in that state. If the customer picks up the item at your location, tax should be collected for your state. If you are selling goods over the Internet and your company has a presence in the state of delivery, your company has established nexus and will be required to register to collect sales tax on all taxable items regardless of method of order placement. Whether the order is placed over the Internet or through traditional means, if a company has nexus with the state in which the product is being shipped, sales tax should be billed and collected. For example, if a New York company ships to New York, there is nexus, and tax is collected. If the New York company ships out of New York, whether they collect sales tax or not...

Nolo.com : The Internet takes tax-free shopping to a new level. In fact, no-tax shopping has become a prime lure of online retailers looking to hook consumers on click-and-charge buying. Despite what you sometimes hear, however, some Internet sales are subject to sales tax, and even when a site doesn't collect sales tax, consumers are technically responsible for remitting any unpaid sales tax on online purchases directly to their state. For information on the Internet sales tax laws for each state, see Internet Sales Tax: A 50-State Guide to State Laws . Collecting Sales Tax: Some Sites Have To, Some Don't If an online retailer has a physical presence in a particular state, such as a store, business office, or warehouse, it must collect sales tax from customers in that state. If a business does not have a physical presence in a state, it is not required to collect sales tax for sales into that state. This rule is derived from a 1992 Supreme Court decision which held that ...

We've searched high and low to bring you the first annual list of FORBES 100 Best Websites For Entrepreneurs . Whether you’re seeking advice on raising capital, scaling your business or looking for general industry insight, these sites are worth reading. The picks here are arranged in no specific order. Selected unscientifically, they have been chosen for their ability to address a range of topics of interest to entrepreneurs. Frequent posts and content quality helps get a nod. The list is a combination of practical tools – sites to crowdsource funding like Rock The Post or AngelList, or sites with educational resources, like Stanford’s eCorner – and inspirational advice from bloggers like Seth Godin and Steve Blank.

A report published by the Office of Advocacy analyzes the impact of an internet sales tax on small business. As the popularity of online shopping has grown, states have seen their sales tax revenues drop. Federal legislation has been introduced over the past several years to authorize online sales tax collection. With small business owners on both sides of the issue, the Office of Advocacy recognized the need for objective research for small businesses and policymakers. This report analyzes the number of firms that will be affected by the small seller exemption (SSE) if current legislation passes and how much e-commerce is likely to be affected. The report, An Analysis of Internet Sales Taxation and the Small Seller Exemption , was written by Donald Bruce and William F. Fox of the University of Tennessee’s Center for Business and Economic Research.

From MoneyWatch : Conventional wisdom suggests that as we spend more time on the Internet, we also spend less time on face-to-face interaction and other traditional kinds of socializing. But a new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that these online hours come less at the expense of family and friends than they do from another source: people's jobs. The study, by Scott Wallsten of the Technology Policy Institute, a research organization that focuses on innovation, found that Internet users carve 27 percent of the time they spend online out of productive work hours. By comparison, people spend 15 percent of their time on the web instead of watching television, while 12 percent comes from sleep.

When it comes to finding the right Domain name for your website, it can be nearly impossible to get a good vacant domain name. Many people often come up with great ideas, however, they are unable to keep a domain name that reflects their website content because of unavailability of domain names. In my experience even friends and family can be of little help in such a case, as thousands of domains are getting registered as we speak. This means that every idea that you can think of, has probably been used already. If you are looking for a good Domain name that reflects your website content or can help you keep a novel name such as perhaps, “YouTube”, then it might be worth seeking help from a few handy web services given below. More from Techwalls HERE .

From MoneyWatch : According to VeriSign (VRSN), more than 6 million domain names were added to the Internet in the fourth quarter of 2012, bringing the total number of registered domain names to more than 252 million worldwide. Somewhere in those hundreds of millions of names may be one you really want, one that appears to be unused or for sale. Countless domains are bought and "stocked" by aftermarket resellers, and others are bought by prospective users who never wind up doing anything with them. The aftermarket domain business can be tricky and frustrating -- sometimes you can't even get as far as finding and contacting the current owner. So what do you do when you see a URL out there that you'd like to buy and know or believe might be for

From SLATE . The Internet, in the popular imagination, is supposed to be free... But you don’t have to be a right-winger to recoil at the idea of an Internet sales tax. People who shop online have always gotten a free ride... Many states require you to pay that extra sales tax on your tax return, but who does that? Nobody, that’s who. The net effect is that shopping online earns you a big, permanent discount. If you’re buying anything big, it almost always makes sense to avoid physical stores. At least, it did until recently. During the last two years, Amazon, which had long led the charge against efforts to collect sales tax on online purchases, suddenly began striking tax deals with states. This was a strategic capitulation—by agreeing to collect taxes, Amazon can now build huge warehouses across the country. (It had previously avoided setting up warehouses in many states in an effort to avoid creating a “tax nexus.”) The warehouses allow Amazon to significantly increase its shi...

If you operate a small business that provides internet access to your employees and customers, you may find a warning popping up on your monitors, alerting you to the fact that someone your system has illegally downloaded copyright-protected material. That warning is part of the newly implemented Copyright Alert System (CAS). The CAS, commonly referred to as the "six strikes program," is a joint undertaking between major content creators and Internet service providers, designed to reduce illegal downloading of digital material from peer-to-peer sites. Since the advent of peer-to-peer computing, companies that create digital content--movies, television shows, music--have faced challenges to both copyright and revenue. More HERE .