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Friday, October 30, 2015

Investing in Startups & Small Biz


Big news! In 2016 you’ll be able to invest in startups and small businesses.

After 3.5 years of delays and rule making the SEC has voted yes on new regulations that allow business to raise money from everyone, not just the wealthy. If you’ve been following along, this is Title III of the JOBS Act (aka the CROWDFUND part of the law).

The new regulations will take effect in early May 2016. We’re still waiting on the final regulations to be published by the SEC.

If you’re eager for details you can check out the SEC’s press release:

http://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-249.html

Friday, September 25, 2015

Stock Photo Options

People are most likely to engage with branded content on social media that contains pictures (44%), followed by status updates (40%) and videos (37%).
                                                                       
                                http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2193987/44-likely-to-engage-with-branded-content-featuring-images



Here’s some stock photo options to help create those images you need:

 www.freerangestock.com
 www.openphoto.net
 www.freeimages.com/
 www.imagebase.net/
 www.stockvault.net/
 www.unprofound.com
 www.morguefile.com/
 www.fotolia.com/Info/Images/FreePicsOfTheWeek
 www.123rf.com/
 www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
 https://unsplash.com/

Friday, September 4, 2015

Twitter Tools


Twitter tools come and go all the time.  Here's a few that are still here:

Map Tweets
1.         TweepsMap
Find where you Twitters followers are located on a map. Free. http://tweepsmap.com

2.         MentionMap
A map of mentions. Each user is connected to the people and hashtags they mentioned in the most recent tweets. Explore neighborhoods. Free. http://mentionmapp.com

3.         TrendsMap
See the latest on-the-ground media from breaking news events, as they happen.
Free and paid versions. http://trendsmap.com

Monday, July 6, 2015

Building Effective Landing Pages

93% of B2B Buyers are using search when starting the buying process. Reach more prospects and attain more customers by creating compelling landing pages.

The top 10 most effective best practices include:

Layouts and Templates: Build simple HTML templates that focus on a single call to action, such as a download or demo.

Graphics: Include a logo or a hero shot and make them clickable.

Content: Make it straight and to the point, but give your prospect a reason to give you their information.

Bullet Points: Bullet points are easy to read. Most people who visit your landing page will read the headline, bullet points and a bio, if available.

Call to Action: A form is the best way to go here, but don't ask for too much information.
White Papers, Registrations, etc: Email the white paper to the prospect. It ensures that you get a valid email address.

Confirmation/Thank You Pages: Do you have something else they might be interested in? Make another offer.

Page URLs: The name of the page is weighed heavily. Use dashes between words not underscores to improve search rankings.

Meta Data: This is still important. Search engines weigh meta data heavily in results lists.

Test, but don't over-test: Testing removes any debate about what works and what doesn't.

Download Marketo guide:  Building Effective Landing Pages:
http://bit.ly/1LT3rC1

Friday, June 5, 2015

Crowdfunding Explained



Let's define the four basic forms of crowdfunding:

1.     Donation-based crowdfunding, where money is given with no expectation of anything in return.

2.    Reward-based funding gives the donor something in return for the donation.

3.    Debt-based funding is a straight-up loan.

4.    Equity-based funding, which is currently only available to “accredited” investors. 

Investors in this group must prove a yearly income in excess of $200,000 (or $300,000 when combined with a spouse’s income) or have a net worth of over $1 million (excluding the value of their residence) and must have had that level of income or net worth for three years running. These investors receive equity in the company raising the capital in exchange for their contributions.

Crowdfunding takes two approaches to the funds collected: “Keep What You Raise” (aka Flexible Funding) or “All or Nothing” (Fixed Funding) where the final amount raised must reach or exceed a predetermined target. Crowdfunding sites generally charge a fee of 4 - 10% of money raised if the goal is met and some take a percentage of projects even if the goal isn’t reached.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Website Builder Platforms & Platform User Interfaces

Great article by Andrei Potorac, Cofounder @Vuzum • @Widgetic.

http://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-websites-similar-to-Wix-that-dont-use-Flash

Website Builder Platforms

  1. BaseKit Based Platform (HostGator, SiteJam, etc) -http://www.basekit.com/
  2. GoDaddy Website Builder - https://www.godaddy.com/
  3. Jimdo - http://www.jimdo.com/
  4. Populr - https://www.populr.me/
  5. Readymag - https://readymag.com/
  6. SquareSpace - http://www.squarespace.com/
  7. Voog - http://voog.com/ (edicy back in the day)
  8. Webflow - https://webflow.com/
  9. Webnode - http://www.webnode.com/
  10. Weebly - http://www.weebly.com/
  11. Wix - http://www.wix.com/
  12. Yola - https://www.yola.com/
  13. Zoho Sites - https://www.zoho.com/sites/
  14. Moonfruit - http://moonfruit.com/
  15. Biznessweb - http://biznessweb.com/
  16. Aircus - http://www.aircus.com/
  17. imcreator - http://www.imcreator.com/
  18. Cloudcannon - http://cloudcannon.com
  19. Webydo - http://webydo.com
  20. Sidengo - https://sidengo.com/
  21. Homestead - http://www.homestead.com/
  22. Virb - http://virb.com/
  23. Breezi - http://breezi.com/
  24. Strikingly - http://www.strikingly.com/
  25. uCoz - http://www.ucoz.com/
  26. Flazio - http://www.flazio.com/
  27. Jigsy - http://jigsy.com/
  28. Webstarts - http://www.webstarts.com/
  29. Webs - http://www.webs.com/
  30. Vistaprint - http://vistaprint.com/
  31. Simplesite - http://www.simplesite.com/
  32. SnapPages - http://snappages.com/
  33. Exai - http://www.exai.com/
  34. WebStartToday - http://www.webstarttoday.com/
  35. Site Sumo - http://sitesumo.com/
  36. DoddleKit - http://www.doodlekit.com/
  37. Pikock - http://www.pikock.com/
  38. Gutensite - http://www.gutensite.com/
  39. Flavors Me -  http://flavors.me/
  40. Airsquare - http://www.airsquare.com/
  41. Mobsyte - http://www.mobsyte.com/
  42. Pagekit - http://www.pagekit.com/
  43. Goodsie - http://goodsie.com/
  44. Freshcreator - http://www.freshcreator.com/
  45. Oxxy - https://www.oxxy.com/
  46. Cubender - http://www.cubender.com/
  47. Lifeyo - http://www.lifeyo.com/
  48. Froont - http://froont.com/
  49. Mozello - http://www.mozello.com/
  50. Pixelhub - http://pixelhub.me/
  51. Dudamobile - http://www.dudamobile.com/
  52. Unbounce - http://unbounce.com/
  53. Nubook - http://nubook.com/
  54. Zyro - http://zyro.com/
  55. Justaddcontent - http://justaddcontent.com/
  56. Mpress - http://mpress.me/
  57. Livecontrol - https://www.livecontrol.net/
  58. Rocketspark - http://www.rocketspark.com/
  59. The Grid - https://thegrid.io/
  60. Website - http://www.website.com/
  61. Sitezulu - http://www.sitezulu.com/
  62. Sitedity - http://www.sitedity.com/
  63. Nikktto - https://nikktto.com
  64. Website builder - http://www.website-builder.com/
  65. Mrsite - http://mrsite.com/
  66. Websitebuild - http://www.websitebuild.net/
  67. Landerapp - http://landerapp.com/
  68. Simplybuilt - https://www.simplybuilt.com
  69. Instapage - http://www.instapage.com/
  70. Broadsheet - http://broadsheet.io/
  71. PageCloud - https://www.pagecloud.com/

Other Platforms

These don't necessarily make sites, but they do blogs or specific interactive elements (such as slides or flyers):
  1. Tumblr - http://tumblr.com/ 
  2. Medium - https://medium.com/
  3. Svbtle - https://svbtle.com
  4. Blogger - http://blogger.com/
  5. Ghost - https://ghost.org/
  6. PageModo - http://pagemodo.com/
  7. Slides - http://slides.com/
  8. Swipe - https://www.swipe.to/
  9. BandPage - https://www.bandpage.com/
  10. Let's Eat - http://www.letseat.at/
  11. Onepagerapp - http://onepagerapp.com/
  12. Noowit - http://www.noowit.com/
  13. Tackk - https://tackk.com/
  14. Smore - https://www.smore.com/
  15. Padlet -  http://padlet.com/
  16. Prezi - http://prezi.com/

Platform User Interfaces

We've been exploring the interfaces of the most popular of these platforms, creating some short 1-2 min video tutorials about how to embed a widget fromhttps://widgetic.com  in each of them.

It will give you a better sense of their UI and concept. This is only 10 of the videos tutorials we did, to see them all you can check: Video Tutorials - Integration with other platforms .