Facebook is Going To Disappear in Eight Years Analyst Say...



Don't expect to find your Facebook inbox full of friend requests eight years from now -- it's likely Facebook is going to disappear. At least, that's the future according to Eric Jackson, founder of investment firm Ironfire Capital.
Jackson appeared on CNBC’s "Squawk on the Street" on Monday to discuss Facebook's inevitable demise and how web companies strive to evolve.
"In five to eight years [Facebook is] going to disappear in the way that Yahoo has disappeared," Jackson said during a phone interview on the show. "Yahoo is still making money, it's still profitable, still has 13,000 employees working for it, but it's 10 percent of the value that it was at the height of 2000. For all intents and purposes, it's disappeared."
Jackson described three generations of web companies. The first generation was dominated by websites like Yahoo, which aggregated everything you need to know in one place. Those big web portals, which Jackson dubs Web 1.0, were followed by the dawn of social networking sites, including Facebook. The current generation is composed entirely of web companies focused on monetizing the mobile platform.
Jackson said Facebook's struggle lies in a web company's inability to easily move from one generation to the next. Take Google for example. The web giant reigned supreme in Jackson's designated first generation, but struggled to move into the social networking realm, with several failed models. Google+ may be the most successful of Google's social networking efforts to date, but its more than 100 million active users still does not rival Facebook's astounding 900 million.
"When you look over these three generations, no matter how successful you are in one generation, you don't seem to be able to translate that into success in the second generation, no matter how much money you have in the bank, no matter how many smart Ph.Ds you have working for you," Jackson said.
In Jackson's view, Facebook cannot effectively create and monetize a mobile platform by simply buying up as many mobile apps as it can muster. Sure, Facebook can purchase Instagram for $1 billion, but that will not transform Facebook's core business model. At its heart, Facebook is a social networking site, not a mobile company.
"[Facebook] can buy a bunch of mobile companies, but they are still a big, fat website," Jackson said.
The bottom line behind Jackson's comments is that Facebook may be stuck in the social networking realm forever. And as we've seen with Facebook predecessors like MySpace and Friendster, there will always be a new competitor on the horizon.
"Facebook is not going bankrupt. I think what's going to happen is something new is going to come along that we haven't seen yet," Jackson said, and "people are going to be fascinated by it and attracted to it."
From the Huffington post.

A March for Women Entreprenuers

March is the month for women so, we are spotlighting women entreprenuers.

Comparison Between Self-Employed Women and Wage-Earning Women
Are There More Advantages For Women Who Own Their Own Businesses?

By Lahle Wolfe, About.com Guide

Are There More Advantages For Women Who Own Their Own Businesses?
In April 2008, the Small Business Administration (SBA) published a summary of an analysis about business women derived from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement.
There were many interesting findings reported about self-employed women in business, especially when compared to wage- and salary-earning women. But perhaps one of the most unsurprising (to me) observations was offered in the following SBA statement: “Contrary to expectations, neither wage and salary-earning nor self-employed women significantly shifted industry participation over this portion of the study period.”

I am perplexed why the authors of the study would consider this “contrary to expectations,” as this should not surprise anyone familiar with the challenges of women in the workforce who have significantly greater industry-limited opportunities when compared to men. Or, that it should strike anyone as unusual given the amazing entrepreneurial spirit of women breaking barriers in the privately-held business world. In fact, the study’s summary goes on to support my own thoughts:

“However, wage and salary-earning women were somewhat more likely than self-employed women to be in industries with the greatest degree of female ownership (primarily social services and education services). Self-employed women were more likely to be in industries with a medium presence of female ownership. This suggests, according to the authors, that self-employed women were branching out of industries traditionally associated with women.”

Even prior to this study, as early as 2002 it was statistically measurable that despite gender barriers women in business are slowly branching out into male-dominated industries, and doing so with success, even if not yet in mass proportions.

Women Entreprenuers

Iman Abdulmajid

                                          Company: Iman Cosmetics

                                           Position: Founder and CEO

                                         Industry: Personal Care Products

---

Leigh Magar

A 21st-century hatmaker marries old-world techniques with fashion-forward vision.

Yolanda Owens

Losing her job led to a major career switch — and a truly fresh line of beauty products.

---

Tasia Malakasis

This former marketing exec followed her foodie dreams back home to run her own goat-cheese creamery.

See other realted articles:

http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/02/be-dressed-for-party-learn-how-to.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-history-of-entrepreneurship.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-start-online-business-101.html



How to Design A Website that brings Traffic

Developing a branded logo                   
From: WebMarketing All-In-One for Dummies

Perhaps one of the most overlooked elements of doing business in general-let alone online-is the importance of having a meaningful logo.  Many Internet marketing gurus will tell you not to waste you time or money producing a logo.  But, If you are promoting a real company on the Web, a good logo is a vital ingredient:  It helps you communicate a lot about your business to a Website visitor in a fraction of a second.  When people see your logo (or lack of one), they can immediately rate various elements of your business in their minds, this act of evaluation might even occur in their subconscious.  Some of these include your

*Level of professionalism
*Ability to create or innovate
*Enthusiasm for you product
*Level of traditionalism
*Attention to detail

Visitors will associate words to your business based on the appearance of your logo, such as funny, silly, exciting, desperate, growing, content, or curious.  So, be careful what you ask your designer to create for you.  When it comes to your website, it's more important than ever to at least have a logo to identify your business, if not a logo for each of your products too!  The following list invites you to take a look at some good logos that are memorable but also define the business and even the personality of the business.

*www.TheAccidentalLawyer.com-The Accidental Lawyer logo features a somewhat common approach to a law firm logo in that it has the roman pillar theme in the background.  What's not so common is the linking between that traditional image and the The Accidental Lawyer name with the hat on top of the letter A. This tells me, maybe only on a subconscious level, that this is a law firm that links tradition with business sense and just the right amount of personality and charisma.

*www.ContractorAccess.com- I chose to feature this logo because I didn't know that the company did until I saw their logo.  Now I understand that they offer the high-rise equipment you see window washers standing on, among other things.  So, a logo alone can sometimes bring it all together to tell a visitor what your business does.

*www.monkeybizness.com-On the other end of the spectrum, there is Monkey Bizness, with the tag line "where kids monkey around."  Everything about this logo is playful and not too serious, from the font type used to the coloring and the slight animation of the monkey jumping up and down.

The point of mentioning these three logos is that each paints a memorable picture in your mind.  And, that's what branding is all about creating something that remains in people's minds for days, weeks, or months to come.

Professional designers are you best resource for creating a logo that matches how you want your business to be perceived.  Keep in mind that logos take time to conceptualize and create.  So, be prepared that by the time you approve a logo, you might see several iterations, costing several hundreds of dollars.  The best scenario from a time standpoint is when your Website designer is also the creator of your logo.  That way you don't have to worry about the logo designer getting the right formats to your Web designers and waiting for the communication to take place.  But, many Web designers do not work with logos and require a logo to be submitted before beginning work on your Web site.  In that case, here are two low-cost methods for getting a logo created

One shortcut to logo production is to hold a contest between many designers.  At 99designs (online), you can post your logo design request for a little as $39, plus whatever you're willing to pay to winner.  Usually, you need to offer enough-say $100 or so-to give incentive for designers to jump on your projects.  but, it's often just as professional a result (and faster) than using a traditional designer for logo creation. Here's how it works:

1. Visit http:99designs.com
2. Start a free account.
3. Click Launch a Contest and describe the project
4. Post your "brief" and set a price amount $39 is required to post your contest
5. Respond to designers as they post their logo concepts and ask for refinements
Within a few days, you'll have several logos to choose from produced by different graphics experts
6.Choose the winner
The payment in the form of credits is sent to the designer, and the designer then sends the completed logo files o you by e-mail.

How to Start an Online Business 101

Welcome back everyone, I hope that everything is well with you. I wanted to post this blog not only for those who want to start their own online business and for those of us who already have businesses online. Because as an online retailer, we should never stop learning.

ONLINE BUSINESS

From: The Everything Start Your Own Business Book
Author: Rich Mintzer

Rivaling traditional retailers today are online retail businesses. For the most part, e-tail (as it’s affectionately called) has not made a significant dent in the retail world… yet. In fact, many people still research products on the Internet and then walk into a bricks-and mortar retail location to see and purchase the products. Certain products, such as books, CDs, and toys have shown tremendous results over the Internet. For someone who wants to maintain a low overhead, selling a niche market item via the Internet can also be advantageous for a small business. Specialized services such as gift items or custom-made products such as a golf clubs have also enjoyed success. The Web has also proved a marvelous way to promote and increase sales for established bricks-and-mortar businesses that do additional sales over the Internet but don’t base their entire business on e-tail sales.
One of the biggest concerns of many customers shopping over the Internet is not knowing from whom they’re buying and not feeling confident that their privacy is respected and maintained. Other than dealing with established online companies, many people are reluctant to give their credit card number to unknown and possibly unsecured source. While many source show more breaches of security with traditional credit card methods used in retail stores, consumers are still wary of cyberspace. Fraud and privacy issues as evidenced by the ever-increasing rash of unwanted spam mailings that occur whenever they sign up or put their personal information on certain Web sites. If you’re going into e-tail, be sure to make yourself as accessible as possible with a toll free number, good customer services policies, a business address, and so on. People have become quite concerned about the anonymity of many e-tial-only businesses.
Another problem of starting a Web based business is unlike hanging a sign out front-as you would do for walk-in business with a retail location-you need to find a way to draw people to your site. For many entrepreneurs, Web marketing has not been an easy venture. The glut of reported, demise of many those sites, has not been as favorable for new e-tail businesses in the new millennium. It has become increasingly difficult for Web startups to find venture capital. While this trend may change in the near future, at present most people looking to start up an Internet business are thinking small or looking to start up an adjunct business (to a bricks-and-mortar business) but not use the Web site as their primary business source.
There are plenty of Web-based success stories, and if you find a niche, a way to market yourself, and enough venture capital to survive, you can still get a Web-based e-tail business off the ground. To your advantage is that you can very likely get by without many (or possibly any) other employees. Other than possibly needing someone to help set up and run the site from a technical standpoint, it’s quite possible that you can handle the orders yourself with a fulfillment house. You also don’t need an inventory, an alarm system, a night watchman, or a shovel for clearing the snow off the sidewalk so that customers can get to your shop.To succeed with an e-tail business, you need to think like an online consumer. It helps to either be one yourself or, at the very least, talk to regular online consumers. Get to know what people look for from an e-commerce site. Browse numerous sites to get a feel for how they look and how they operate. (Visit www.gomez.com or www.sites.com for Web site reviews.) Evaluate which sites are easy to navigate and purchase what you want and which ones are not. The point of ordering is the most important juncture of the process. If customers are clicking repeatedly to get through the process, they will simply click off of the site. You need a fast dependable, foolproof server. You need to be able to handle various payment methods, not unlike a bricks-and-mortar location. Because the Web is global, you may improve your sales potential by being able to handle foreign currencies as well. Finally, you need to have very reliable methods of shipping; otherwise your reputation will diminish quickly. Web sites have gone out of business by taking more order than they could handle or ship.

Remember, you’re providing customers with the ability to shop from the comfort of their own homes or offices. Ask yourself: How can you capitalize on that? How can you gain their trust and confidence? How can you make the shopping experience easy and time efficient?
E-Fact One of the largest target audiences online is the college student. About 90 percent of U.S. college students have access to the Internet--most through their schools. College students spend an estimated $700 million online annually. Now that's buying power!

What They Don't Tell You About Sales and Social Networks (Pt.3)

Good evening everyone, we have come to the conclusion of our three part series on sales and social networks. I hope that you have enjoyed it and feel free to comment on the subject matter.

Now a social network site works better for those who are selling services and or consultation because you are selling only yourself (meaning your experience and/or expertise) so its VERY important to be sociable. However, when you are selling a product you have to sell yourself and the product so its more than being social its about getting them to buy. On the social site they can view your profile page and ge to know you and visa versa to spark conversation, view your website and any videos about your services and/or consultations.

Overall, when you are on an online network (be it social or e-Commerce), you will recieve more traffic than by just having a blog and/or website (my business partner and I have three blogs and are on multiple social networks,  an e-Commerce site and our own website).  On a network there are  more people who visit than on a typical blog or website and that is because of the content that is on networks.  The content is produced by the members, the more members the more content; content is important in the search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and others have "crawlers" or "spiders" that search for good content (by content I mean: blogs, videos, photos and profiles). The members also live links to any sites that they have be it professional or personal, which is searched by those "crawlers" or "spiders", where people can find and/ or follow them.

See more related articles:
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-sales-and.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-sales-and.html 
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/04/5-tips-for-resurrect-your-business.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/11/give-them-more-of-you-how-to-build.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/12/10-ways-to-get-your-business-organized.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-start-online-business-101.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/02/be-dressed-for-party-learn-how-to.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-history-of-entrepreneurship.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-start-online-business-101.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-customer-service-for-2012.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/7-tips-to-great-profile-picture-your.html

What They Don't Tell You About Sales and Social Networks (Pt.2)

Hello everyone and welcome back...as promised I will be continuing our discussion on sales and social networking with the part two to the discussion.

Starting off, let's first define the term "social network" by breaking it down into two separate words. Webster defines the term social as being: " marked by or passed in pleaseant companionship with one's friends or associates tending to form cooperations, interdependent relationships with others of one's kind" and a network as an interconnected or interrelated group, chain or system.  Now that we know what a social network  is will it work for your business?  It will only work to a certain extent depending upon the type of busines you own.  If your business is a service than social networks will work great for you because you can network with people that have an interest in your service that you offer.  Push them to your website which (because it is a service business) probably will not a have a lot to download, this can cause you to loose a sale if you have slow or long downloads.  Your website should basically have information about your services and your contact information (general rule: K.I.S. "keep it simple").  However, if you have products to sell then an e-Commerce network website would be the best choice.  Why is that? An e-Commerce network is know for selling merchants / sellers (that is you the online small business owner / entreprenuer) products, with your products being setup to make immediate sales safely.  You can sell to members and non-members of the e-Commerce network.  Some social networks say that they have a marketplace but all that you can do is place a link for your company and a picture / image and hope that they go to your website.  Then they have to navigate to your site and find that particular item.  "Time is money", if it takes to long to find it the sale is lost.  Most people from social networking sites will only visit, they won't buy because they are just about soicializing. If they do visit your site that may be there just to see what it is that you do so that they can sell their products and/or services to you.

The atmosphere on an e-Commerce networking website is unlike that of a social network, in that it is an marketplace (a marketplace: is a place where buyers and sellers meet to exchange money for goods and/or services).  When non-sellers come to an e-Commerce network they come to buy, not to socialize (unlike on social networks), they same is true for sellers (small business owners / entreprenuers) they come on the site to sell not to socialize.  Also e-Commerce networking sites are ready to handle an order in a speady and secure manner because they know that a sale can be lost in two seconds.
* The e-Commerce website isn't to replace your existing personal website if you already have one, but can be an additional arena to sell your products.
The sellers have a secure account on the e-Commerce network with companies such as: PayPal and Charge.com to properly handle the transaction and to keep your and your customers information confidential.

Thanks everyone for reading our blog...part three is coming this Friday October 15 so be sure and read it! And please subscribe to this blog and our sister blogs: http://www.uniquic.blogspot.com/ and http://www.hwheeler06.blogspot.com/. May GOD bless and keep you in JESUS name, Amen.

See related articles:
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-sales-and_16.html  http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-sales-and.html 
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/04/5-tips-for-resurrect-your-business.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/11/give-them-more-of-you-how-to-build.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/12/10-ways-to-get-your-business-organized.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-start-online-business-101.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/02/be-dressed-for-party-learn-how-to.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-history-of-entrepreneurship.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-start-online-business-101.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-customer-service-for-2012.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/7-tips-to-great-profile-picture-your.html

What They Don't Tell You About Sales and Social Networking (Pt.1)

Welcome back! Just as I promised before we will discuss those statistics about sales and how to get the most of our social networking for your business. This blog post is a three part series, so I hope that you read all three in that each one picks up where the other left off.

So, you have a website  and now you need to bring in traffic.  You say, what must I do, hmmm network right? So you find as many people as you can and make friends with them on a large social network.  Then you tell them about your website (exposure, exposure, exposure) and sit back and watch the money roll in right...wrong.  When you join social networks you can make hundreds of friends, have your website posted with links to it, send them emails with coupons and discounts but the are catches to all those things. First of all, from all those hundreds of friends you will need a thousand people to see your site and from those thousands only 15 percent will buy from you. Secondly, make sure that your links work and that they aren't being seen as something that could be potentially harmful to the person's computer (some sites don't send people directly to the links that are posted on their site for fear that you could be viruses). Thirdly, people could get turned away from your company from the emails that you sent with coupons and discounts, seeing them as spam. I know what you are thinking, you say this is what everyone is doing, so it must be the right thing to do. But do you really know if they are making money from all "these" efforts?

Statistics state that out of every thousand visitors to your site you will only get 15 percent of those people to buy (which is 1.5 percent of those thousands of visitors). For example if you get two hundred friends in 6 months, then yu have picked up 33 people in a month and one person a day. That's not a lot of potential customers to visit your site. How many other sites do you have a membership? Do you make profiles and them leave them because of low membership on that site? All these are important factors in determining if you make sales because the more sites your on the better and inorder to generate traffic to your site you need a large number of visitors, so the site that you are on needs a large memebership base. In the political arena, they post campaign flyers everywhere from school yards to light poles and they post in areas of HIGH traffic (even if their is an abandoned building on the street, if it is a busy intersection, they are there).

See next blog for Part 2...

See related articles:
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-sales-and.html  http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-sales-and_16.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/04/5-tips-for-resurrect-your-business.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/11/give-them-more-of-you-how-to-build.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/12/10-ways-to-get-your-business-organized.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-start-online-business-101.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/02/be-dressed-for-party-learn-how-to.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-history-of-entrepreneurship.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-start-online-business-101.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-customer-service-for-2012.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/7-tips-to-great-profile-picture-your.html