By Andy McLoughlin, Co-founder and EVP Strategy at Huddle, can be reached on Twitter@Bandrew.

When you hear the phrase “virtual business,” it’s likely that the names of pioneers such as Amazon and eBay spring to mind. Hot on the heels of these two goliaths, you may also think of online retailers such as Dell, Zappos.com and ASOS. However, thanks to advances in high-speed connectivity and the rise of cloud computing, going virtual isn’t only for organizations selling physical goods online. Any business without a full-time physical office and a geographically dispersed workforce can be considered virtual.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many technology start-ups are virtual businesses. Using Software-as-a-Service tools, such as Highrise CRM, Zendesk and Shoeboxed, small companies can now deploy technology that was previously reserved for large organizations. As well as not breaking the bank on enterprise software, the team has the ability to work from anywhere and not waste large amounts of cash on renting office space. Whether it’s a shed at the end of the garden or a bedroom, an employee’s physical location is irrelevant. Take for example Nononina, the company behind Alltop. The team consists of (and I quote the site): “one guy in home office (Will Mayall), one gal on a kitchen table (Kathryn Henkens), and one Guy in United 2B (Guy Kawasaki).”

At the other end of the scale, we’re starting to see established organizations and more traditional industries venture into the realms of virtual business. Rimon Law Group, for example, is one of the first high-end virtual law firms in the U.S. The organization claims to be nearly paperless and, rather than having centralized offices, its attorneys operate “local work hubs.”  While the company opened a new San Francisco headquarters this month, the firm maintains that attorneys still have the option to work from “wherever they like, whenever they like.”

Saving money on office rental, pricey IT infrastructure and travel costs are compelling arguments for an office-free life. But can any organization be virtual?

In a nutshell, no. There are some industries, such as manufacturing, that require access to specific equipment and facilities. Think of a car manufacturer with an assembly line – a central physical location is required to construct the product. However, I believe that the majority of organizations across many different industries can benefit from elements of the virtual business. We’re already seeing a rise in distance learning and streamed lectures,telediagnosis in the medical profession, and traditional enterprises rolling out remote and flexible working practices. In the UK, there are already an estimated 4.3 million remote workers, while research by Forrester back in 2009 found that there were 34 million Americans working from home occasionally.

Businesses that lend themselves to going virtual are those where people are the key commodity. For example, consultancies and creative companies, such as marketing and PR agencies, can provide the same service to their clients regardless of where they are located. Armed with a laptop or smartphone and an Internet connection, PR and marketing consultants can still produce campaign ideas, copy and collateral, and organize meetings with journalists and analysts. Search for “virtual PR agency” and you’ll find a wealth of organizations from all over the globe. Without pricey city offices, agencies such as Joshua PR promise to deliver experienced staff and the best results without the large fees. Hospitality management and consulting firm OnSite Consulting has a 65-person workforce, but no headquarters. Employees go to wherever the client is based.

Going virtual isn’t just about technology, though; it also requires a cultural shift. Journalism should be well-suited to virtual working: the team of writers at GigaOM, for example, are based all over the world. However, consider the differences between an online publication that was born and bred on the web and a traditional print publication. Many of the processes that result in the creation of your daily newspaper have remained unchanged for decades. The day starts with the editors’ morning conference, during which the content for the publication is decided. Articles move from reporters to section editors to subeditors as the print deadline looms. There’s the laying out of pages, the newsroom discussions and the face-to-face collaboration with colleagues. These are routines and procedures that the workforce has grown accustomed to. To simply close the office doors and tell everyone to work from home would cause chaos.

The right support network needs to be deployed and processes need to be amended to fit the virtual business. For example, rather than gathering together in the same room for an editorial meeting will it be held by phone or video conference? For many traditional enterprises, going completely virtual may be impossible or simply too daunting. However, a hybrid approach that gives people the opportunity to work from home a few days a week is possible. Traditional newspapers have people based in physical offices as well as journalists out in the field.  By balancing practices such as home working with a central office, organizations can still benefit from the efficiency and cost-savings associated with a virtual business without changing their whole model.

Source: http://gigaom.com/collaboration/going-virtual-can-any-organization-do-it/

Simple things are easy to recognize, understand, and remember. For example, a simple puzzle game that has few twists is easy to solve but a complex one with a lot of turns and twists is not. Similarly, a dumbed down article in Scientific American is easy to understand because it is targeted at common masses, but a scientific paper with highly technical details is as hard to comprehend as digging your way through a mountain with bare hands.

Minimalism has quite a few features of simplicity, but it’s an entirely different concept. While simplicity is aimed at the general masses with average knowledge, minimalism is an art that is created by and for the people who understand the core laws of the art being produced.

Therefore, “Minimalism describes [...] various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features and core self expression.”

It’s impossible to create truly minimalistic art unless you know its very basic traits and core principles.

Minimalism and web design

In web design world, the term ‘minimalistic design’ is thrown around carelessly.

Minimalism = Less clutter = Less distractions = More time focusing on the important stuff.

But do all minimalist designs work with this principle in mind? Do you not feel that in some cases, a designer has just thrown a few divs together and dubbed his theme minimalist?

“Minimalism” Is Just Designer Speak for Laziness

Minimalistic design is not about producing the same fundamental black and white typography-based layouts over and over. It’s about creating unique layouts the same way as any other form of deign. Only it’s much harder because there are not a lot of choices at a designer’s disposal.

It’s funny that when a designer creates a design with plenty of graphics, he takes his time and tries to be as creative as possible. But when the same designer creates a ‘minimalistic design’ he quickly slaps together a few basic divs and viola!

It’s impossible to give hard and fast rules about what makes a minimalistic design, but remember that a minimalistic design contains all the important features necessary for a functional web site. You can add as many new features to your design as you want (widgets, extravagant graphics etc.), but they are not required for your design to function properly.

The only ‘rule’ I’ll emphasize is: Clarify your purpose with the design and make sure it represents your purpose in the clearest and purest way.

My goal with this blog is to focus on the content and community. So my content area contains the content and nothing else. However, in the side bar I’ve plenty of stuff to highlight community involvement on Blogging Bits.

At first sight, my sidebar may look a bit cluttered to you, but it does exactly what I want it do, without bloating my design.

So a minimalistic design is not simple, featureless, and boring. But it’s a design that does the job it’s given using least possible resources, and showing only the most fundamental elements, with utmost elegance.

For more on what constitutes a minimalistic design, check out The Anatomy of a Minimalistic Web Design by Steven Snell.

Source: http://bloggingbits.com/minimalism-in-web-design/

Quality product descriptions can transform e-commerce conversion rates — it’s common to see increases of 30-100%. As well as converting more visitors, search traffic increases drastically when unique copy is written for each product. Most online retailers use manufacturers’ copy or rely solely on images to sell products. They then use inadequate copy elsewhere on their site and fail to achieve a consistent tone to persuade their audience. This creates a compelling opportunity for savvy retailers — by writing quality e-commerce copy you will create a unique competitive advantage.

Essentially, your copy must achieve two goals:

1. Establish trust and
2. Convince visitors that your product is right for them.

Potential customers cannot see or touch the product since it’s not physically there in front of them. This is why it’s important that your copy anticipates the needs of your visitors while convincing them that your company can be trusted to provide excellent products. Persuasion and creating trust are difficult things to do with words alone; yet, they are still achievable.

You must establish the right tone, a mix between informative and engaging, while showcasing your product’s usability, practicality and benefits. If the copy on your website makes sense, it follows that your products and services will meet your customers’ needs. In this article, we’ll discuss some techniques that will hopefully help you learn how to sell more products and create distinctive, appealing copy.

Formatting

E-commerce websites should usually opt for a combination of bullets and paragraph form. When 79% scan the page versus read word-for-word, bullets effectively communicate key product details and benefits. Paragraphs add color and texture to your products, eliciting a deeper emotional response.

Running Warehouse uses both bullet points and a short paragraph to describe the product. Notice that a paragraph format is used for a general description, which in this case required more than a few words for its explanation. Quick facts about the product are listed in bullets, allowing the customer to gather information quicker than in paragraph form.

Basics of Good E-Commerce Copywriting

To keep your writing as simple and readable as possible, think about these rules while you write and proofread your copy.

Avoid long sentences

Long sentences are usually difficult to digest and therefore inappropriate for persuading your audience. To shorten sentences, avoid pointless modifiers and break up independent clauses into two separate sentences. Avoid wordy phrases such as “for the purpose of” when “for” will do, and refrain from peppering your copy with too many adjectives and adverbs.

Avoid jargon and clichés

Achieve clarity. Clichés are cheesy, unoriginal and usually only distract your readers. Using jargon that visitors may not know will result in confusion. If someone doesn’t understand something about your product, he or she certainly won’t take the risk to buy it. Remember the only goal of your website is to convince visitors to buy your product, so leave out extraneous, flowery language that won’t help customers decide.

Speak simply

Your writing should be easily understood. There’s no reason to use complex words in product descriptions. You are going for simplicity, not trying to impress your readers with your vocabulary. Using large words will either sound like you’re trying too hard or lead to confusion.

Active voice

Write in active voice. This means you should lead with the noun that is doing the action. Active voice is clearer and makes it easier to persuade your visitors to buy your products.

Apple provides a good example of clear and crisp copy. On their MacBook Pro product page, they make sure technical product features are easily understood. Their processors “boost performance up to 50%” and the aluminum enclosure is “thin, light and durable.”

Avoid Common Mistakes

Many mistakes are easy to make but simple to avoid. Make sure your website always achieves its potential by avoiding these common mistakes.

Nothing to say

The most common mistake is to have no copy on product pages. Without copy, you lose a vital mode of expressing your product and building trust. The lift in conversion rates and search traffic are always palpable.

Inconsistent tone

It’s common for someone to write homepage copy and it’s another thing to write product descriptions, for example. With different writers and no defined tone of voice, this tends to lead to inconsistency. Your homepage, FAQs and “About”-page should all be written with the same tone. This is also imperative in the checkout pages and in error messages deployed on your site.

Exaggeration

Don’t exaggerate in order to make the product more desirable; this will cost your website authenticity and trust. Always use logically coherent arguments when explaining the benefits and applications of your product. It’s OK to exaggerate the emotional response to a product, but not the product itself. Even if you increase sales through misrepresentation, chargebacks, returns and negative reviews will eradicate any gains.

Ignore convention

With wording on buttons and links, it can be tempting to get creative but this is unlikely to be a good idea. Consumers have inbuilt notions of how to shop from their collective experience across thousands of websites. Stick with “contact us”, “add to basket” and factual, descriptive anchor text to link to product pages. From the experiments I’ve seen, the result is either indistinguishable or negative when creative wording is employed.

Forget to localize

Everyone has heard an example of translation gone wrong. Pepsi’s slogan “come alive with the Pepsi generation” became “Pepsi brings back your ancestors from the grave” to a Chinese audience. Without cultural sensitivity, copy fails.

American and British consumers have different expectations yet are often presented with the same copy. British people view American advertising as too aggressive, or at least that’s the conventional wisdom. So, some retailers believe American copy should be decaffeinated for a British audience. If you are unable to write different copy for different cultures speaking the same language, write copy that is compatible for everyone. Many retailers fail to even consider localization when writing their copy.

Establish Trust

One of the most important things your website needs to do is establish trust. Customers are wary to spend money and risk not receiving what they expect in return.

Flawless copy

The first way to establish trust is the most obvious; that is, to have flawless copy. Grammar and spelling mistakes make you look careless and incompetent. If you can’t put the time into flawless copy, visitors won’t invest time and money into your products.

State the obvious

Be clear when explaining payment, shipping and return processes — do not be afraid to state the obvious. If a customer is uncertain about any of these details they won’t buy your product. It’s that simple. Customers do not want to waste time on wondering whether payment and shipping will be carried out in accordance to their expectations. Keep things straight and clear: actual shipping costs and payment conditions shouldn’t be displayed in tiny font sizes nor be clarified using extra asterisks or footnotes. It doesn’t really elicit trust which you are actually aiming for with your customers.

A Forrester study showed that 20% of people have abandoned a purchase because shipping costs were unclear, so make sure your terms are easily understandable even when they are not a selling point. Free shipping has such profoundly positive results that it’s almost always worth apportioning the costs elsewhere and having minimum order requirements where necessary. For a more detailed look, read the article How the Offer of ‘Free Shipping’ Affects On-line Shopping.

For one company that wants their policies easily understood, check out Zappos. The shoe retailer won’t let you get far without discovering their return and shipping policies. For Zappos, this approach serves two purposes:

1. Ensuring visitors understand their policies, creating trust and confidence and
2. Communicating unique selling points of shopping with Zappos, including their 24/7 customer service and free 365 day return policy.

Make sure any error messages are clear and to the point. Simply explain what the problem is and what they need to do to fix it.

Above and Beyond the Basics

Your copy needs to strike the right balance in tone between informative and engaging. To do this, good sales copy will explain details about the product and will explain why each detail matters to the customer.

For example, the product description for this Under Armour HeatGear work-out shirt describes in bullet points what each characteristic of the shirt means to someone who is using it. Under Armour doesn’t just say the product has a “new ergonomic fit” because what does that mean? Instead it says, “new ergonomic fit adds to an overall comfort by reducing abrasion in high impact areas.” Ergonomic fit probably won’t convince someone to buy this shirt, but overall comfort and reducing abrasion will.

It’s important to keep product descriptions straightforward and primarily informative. This doesn’t mean your copy should be boring; it should be positive and inspiring, which will draw readers in. But be careful about how enthusiastic your copy sounds. You want to pique visitors’ interest, but you don’t want to overwhelm them. Make sure informative facts about your products and company are sprinkled throughout.

Dyson, which makes vacuums, achieves this well on their homepage, which briefly describes a few of their products and what makes them special in comparison to other vacuums. You can see how they weave the informative in with the creative: “Other machines are still designed to need replacement bags, belts and filters. Over five years, the maintenance costs are up to $267. With Dyson vacuums there are no bags, belts or filters to buy. So they don’t cost a dime to maintain.” Combining informative and engaging copy will keep visitors on your site and convince them to buy your product. Also, notice the vivid and strong product images on the page. They strongly support the copy, providing a very detailed, useful and attractive impression to the customers.

Source: OfficeMax Customer Reviews at Bizrate

During the research phase, copywriters should read reviews written by your customers and your competitors’ customers. This can be a great way to travel into the mind of your target audience.

Copywriters should work with marketers, developers and designers to increase conversion rates by performing split and multivariate testing. It’s possible to do this for free usingGoogle Website Optimizer. On a large website, this may seem like an untenable task but there are ways to do this efficiently:

• Start with the highest selling products moving in descending order,
• Test the pages all visitors experience — checkout, FAQ, delivery,
• Template copy — perform tests on the copy appearing on all product pages.

SEO: Outranking the Competition

To achieve the most from your e-commerce copy, SEO should be intertwined into the structure of your website with each page having target keywords.

Homepage: Widget Shop and Widgets
Category pages: Wooden Widgets and Metal Widgets
Brand pages: Peter’s Widgets and Sally’s Widgets
Product pages: Peter’s Blue XX1 Widget and Sally’s Red YY2 Widget

Do not use manufacturer’s copy. Individual category, brand and product pages should have unique text. Work with your copywriter to craft a message around each page.

If you have affiliates, provide them with alternative copy or change your own. Through giving them alternative copy, both you and your affiliates can rank for different keyword combinations.

Keyword research and SEO copywriting is a sophisticated process and it can be difficult to find copywriters able to do the task. Look for someone who understands the interrelationship between a keyword’s competitiveness, revenue potential and its relevancy to your website. A skilled SEO copywriter will know how to incorporate primary and ancillary keywords into your copy without destroying your message or credibility. It’s common to have a copywriter work from an SEO’s keyword research rather than have them perform keyword research themselves.

Source: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/12/20/ecommerce-copywriting-the-ultimate-guide-to-selling-more/comment-page-1/#comment-504968

I recently wrote about ways to find out if anyone reads your blog, and in that post I briefly mentioned analytics as one of the many ways to measure it. I’ve used Google Analytics for years to learn about which of my blog posts people actually read, but it’s one of those tools that I tend to take for granted.

It’s free and easy to get started with Analytics, but there are also a lot of advanced features that can make it even more useful. I’m sometimes surprised by how many people only look at their dashboard page and never really drill down into some of the more interesting details and features. I thought it might be time to do post with a few quick tips for getting more out of Google Analytics.

1. Alerts. If you want to keep on top of your sites and know when something out of the ordinary is happening, you should visit the “Intelligence” section and set up a few alerts. You can configure the service to email or text you when something specific happens. For example, on one of my websites, I have it set to alert me when the number of visitors goes over a certain threshold on any one day. Alerts can be set using most of the many different metrics available in the various reports. You can also apply your alerts to multiple profiles and use them on several different websites.
2. Custom Reports. Don’t just use the built-in reports; create your own custom reports (available in the “My Customizations” menu). Spend a few minutes thinking about what you really want to know, and create a custom report that you can view every time you log in. For example, I have a custom report that shows the unique visitors, new visits, time on page and pageviews for each blog post, and when I drill down into a single blog post, I can see which keywords people used to arrive at the page from search engines. The best thing about these custom reports is that you can share them across your Analytics accounts and use them on multiple blogs.
3. Export. Most of us would probably think about exporting our data as a CSV or XML file that we could use to crunch the numbers in some other application, and Google Analytics can certainly do that. However, it can also be used to create some nicely formatted PDFs of your data that you can send to your manager or your clients. This is a great way to quickly give someone who isn’t familiar with Google Analytics an overview of some specific event or a monthly analytics report with little extra work on your part. My favorite is to create a report by exporting from the dashboard, which gives you a multiple page file with overview numbers and graphs for visitors, traffic sources, maps, content and anything else you’ve added to your dashboard. You can get PDF exports by using the “Export” drop-down menu of any report; you can even export your custom reports.
4. Customize Your Dashboard. You should also take the time to customize your dashboard. First, add any frequently-used reports to your dashboard using the “Add to Dashboard’ button at the top of any report. You can even add your custom reports to the dashboard. Each box on your dashboard also has a very faint and tiny “x” in the upper-right corner that you can use to remove any unwanted information. Now that you have the right information on your dashboard, you can use the upper-left corner of each box to drag the components around to put the ones you want to see first near the top of the page. and less frequently-used items further down the page.
5. In-Page Analytics. I saved the best for last. In-page Analytics is one of my favorite features, since it lets you see where people actually click on your pages. You can find In-Page Analytics under the “Content” section in the left-hand navigation. You can navigate to various pages on your website to get a different view of where people are clicking on your subpages. You can also use the drop-down filter at the top to hide any clicks below a certain percentage to focus on where most people are clicking, or you can create your own filters to only see clicks from new or returning visitors, certain geographies, or based on almost any other available metric.

Source: http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-simple-ways-to-get-more-out-of-google-analytics/?go_commented=1

The set consists of web application icons, user interface icons, e-commerce icons, general use icons, desktop icons, blog icons, smiley icons, button icons, keyboard icons, national flags icons, popular online services icons and many others.

Download the icon set for free!

You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.

Behind the design

As always, here are some insights from the designer himself:

“In January 2009 I released my first pixel-based iconset ‘Flavour’ right here on the Smashing Magazine. A couple of months later, in May 2009, I extended that set and released ‘Flavour Extended’. Now, over one year later it’s time to finish this set. ‘Addictive Flavour’ will be the last part of the Flavour series. (At least for now I think it will be ^_^ ).

In my releases I asked you for your feedback on the iconset and that feedback was overwhelming. I received hundreds of e-mails and read even more comments here and on Twitter. With ‘Addictive Flavour’ I hope to give you the icon set that you wanted and that you need for your web development projects. Though, if there is a special icon missing in the set that you need for your project or site, please feel free to contact me on Twitter (@mywayhome or via e-mail (icons [at] addictedotocoffee dot de) and we’ll see what we can do for you!

Thanks a lot, Oliver.

Thank you very much, Oliver! We appreciate your efforts.

Source: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/04/15/the-ultimate-free-web-designer-s-icon-set-750-icons-incl-psd-sources/

Was the name of your company taken in the dot-com world? Or did you add a hyphen or change an “s” to a “z” at the end of your company name figuring that customers would just figure it out?

Putting up a website expands a small or local business’s market to the worldwide marketplace. Choosing the right domain name is crucial to helping potential customers find you — with shorter, simpler, intuitive descriptive names ending in dot-com considered better.

However, most of the short domain names have been taken, says Douglas Shuman, senior vice president of customer marketing for Register.com, a domain name registration company. “All the four letter domains are taken. There are some five letter domains left, but they are not intuitive,” Shuman says. “You’ll probably have to settle for a long word or multiple words strung together.”

Facing the dearth of short, simple name, some companies have gotten creative with names, to ill effect. When choosing a domain name, experts warn against common mistakes, and offer advice on selecting a catchy, easy to remember name.

Here’s what not to do when naming names

Common mistakes include creative spelling, using numbers, choosing unpronounceable or undecipherable names, spelling something embarrassing, or offensive by stringing words together.

• Creative spelling. The most common and damaging naming decision involve confusing spelling. Be creative, but not with spelling, says Alexandra Watkins, chief innovation officer of Eat My Words, a boutique naming firm in San Francisco. Make sure your domain is spelled the way it sounds. “If you have to spell it for customers, it’s a bad name,” Watkins says. Takkle (pronounced tackle) is a social networking site for high school sports. How many high school sports fans spell it the way it sounds and end of at Tackle.com, a site for fishing supplies? “They’re losing people and they’re annoying people,” Watkins says. If you have to spell the domain name to avoid confusion, it’s a bad name, Watkins says.
• Using “z” instead of “s,” for example, simply confuses customers. “You might think you’re picking a pithy way to spell a common word, but customers are not going to remember the spelling,” Watkins says.
• Unpronounceable or indecipherable names. Using “x” as a first letter is often a recipe for confusion. Take Xobni.com. It’s inbox spelled backwards, “but nobody would get that,” Watkins says. Xobni won Eat My Words’ “Headscratcher of the Year” award last year, voted as the name most confusing and annoying.
• Inadvertently spelling something unintentional. “You have to be careful when you put all the words together, that they don’t spell something naughty,” Watkins says. Double-check the way your name appears when multiple words are strung together. A company recently registered the name “World of Art” at Register.com, Shuman says. When spelled out for the Web or print, the site’s name takes on a scatological tone: worldofart.com.

Other pointers, from Watkins: using an i or an e in front of a word makes your name look dated. Don’t make the mistake of choosing a domain just because the URL is available. Don’t use a number, as in 2guysfromitaly.com. Customers might wonder if two is a numeral, or if they should spell the word.

Choosing the right name

If your desired domain name already taken, get creative. If pandorasbox.com is taken, for example, try pandorasboxrocks.com. “I would say 90 percent of companies can use a modifier,” Watkins says.

Here are some other tips to find the right domain name:

• Shop the secondary markets. “If you want a simple domain name, you have to go to a secondary market,” says Shuman. Don’t be discouraged; even if a name is not available, it may be for sale for a reasonable price, he says. Marriedbutlonely.com just sold for $8,000, but planourwedding.com changed hands for only $750.
• Buy all the extensions. Always go for the dot-com version first, and consider buying up .net, .org, and .biz extensions. Invest in a dot-ca if planning on doing business in Canada, or a dot-tv if the business is related to video, or dot-mobi if the business may expand into the cell phone market.
• Think about misspellings and buy those domains too. “Buy alternate spelling that redirect them to the main site,” Watkins says.
• Have fun. A domain name doesn’t have to be serious. It doesn’t even have to match your name, Watkins says. “If you have it printed on your business card, that’s fine,” she says. For example, a dance studio’s site could be learntosalsa.com.
• Get your name appraised. Check with the experts on how your name will be received. Some websites, such as Nameboy.com, offer a free appraisal, basing its outcome on the number of letters, number of words, use of hyphens (a detractor), or use of numbers.

Source: http://technology.inc.com/internet/articles/200806/domain.html

Why give a Flip? Because the tiny Flip video camera and a growing variety of handheld camcorders can help you develop more content for your website, such as customer testimonials and behind-the-scenes views.

Southern California-based Aquatic Fitness Concepts often finds potential customers scratching their heads and wondering just how the company fits its 16-foot by 8-foot swim spas into backyards.

“It’s surprisingly easy using a crane, but everyone is terrified of and fascinated by the process,’ explains Paul Roberts of West Coast Marketing, whose company handles marketing for Aquatic Fitness Concepts. “So, John Trzcinka, the owner, has started using his Flip camera to film these crane installations. It’s quite something to see.”

The video is posted on Aquatic Fitness Concepts’ website, and potential clients are reassured — all for the cost of an inexpensive, hand-held video camcorder.

Small businesses are leveraging video

The proliferation of video across the Internet includes a multitude of business applications. Nimble, pocket-sized video cameras such as the Flip and the Kodak Zi line, coupled with consumer expectations about online video quality, are changing the ability of small businesses to compete with far larger companies, says author and analyst Scott Steinberg, who publishes the gadget/tech website DigitalTrends.com.

“This is a potential game-changer,’ says Steinberg. “It used to be that you had to have thousands of dollars in video equipment to shoot something that looked semi-professional. All you need now is a good idea, a strong opinion and some inexpensive hardware.”

Users say these factors explain the pocket video cameras’ appeal:

• cost
• portability
• ease of use
• ease of uploading and editing video

Since the cameras are easier to use, business owners are more likely to exercise a little creativity and shoot video more often. The drawbacks are relatively minor and include lighting, occasional sound quality issues (the Flip lacks a jack for an external microphone) and the lack of a professional producer’s eye.

The tradeoffs are well worth it in the age of online video says Andon Carling of PilmerPR, a Utah firm that specializes in public relations for small- to medium-sized businesses. “Some experts have calculated that TV-quality video can cost $2,000 a minute. The same minute with a Flip camera would cost a small fraction of the price,’ Carling says. “Furthermore, online viewers may not trust a high-quality, production-studio film as much as they would a grass-roots ‘man on the street’ production. From a public relations standpoint, a shaky picture adds a level of sincerity.”

Five ways pocket video improves business

Here are five easy ways you can put a pocket-sized video camera and that man-on-the-street sincerity to work:

1. Use video to raise your profile. Use a Flip to create simple instructional videos or to establish your expertise in your field, advises Steinberg. Video also raises your SEO profile. For less than $300 a month, Fliqz’ SearchSuccess offers a platform to manage video on your site and a suite of tools for submission to search engines, then tracking.

Jason McAninch, who owns J-TEK, a small computer consulting firm in a Kansas City, Kan., suburb, says his videos are enabling him to brand his business. He has begun posting computer tips and tricks in a series of videos he calls TEK Talk. “I’ve had some clients call and say that it looks like a professional TV series,’ he says. “I can see this definitely being a powerful business tool for anyone.”

2. Create authentic testimonials. Mikey Moran, founder and CEO of Thai food brand Curry Simple, uses his Flip to ask customers what they think of his products, which include sauces made in Thailand and sold in the United States in stores such as Whole Foods. “The Flip works great for testimonials because of its small size,’ he says. “The smaller video cameras seem to be less intimidating for customers. People tend to freeze up with larger cameras but not with the cute, hand-sized Flip.” Moran has abandoned his two “prosumer” video cameras that cost $2,000 each. His Flip Mino HD was $200.

3. Provide quick feedback. Video can offer you feedback on how a client is using a product or a problem a client has in the field. It also allows you a way to demonstrate a point to a client. Maine-based pet behavior consultant George Quinlan uses his Flip Mino to record the behavior of both dogs and their owners.

4. Go behind the scenes. Create more interest in your business by telling your story. Show how a product is made or document the progress of a project. Don’t feel comfortable producing the video from start to finish? Companies such as Pixability will send you a Flip, then take your video and edit and package it with music, titles and logo.

5. Enhance news releases. It’s better to show than tell when it comes to new products, events or developments. Pyxl, a Knoxville, Tenn., marketing firm, mails Flip cameras to its clients when they have news to share. The clients shoot brief videos, return the cameras and Pyxl handles the videos, embedding them in online versions of news releases and social media releases.

“You don’t need a production studio, you don’t need a crew, you don’t need a catering tray,’ says Steinberg. “The inexpensive budget digital cameras are a godsend when it comes to grassroots and viral marketing.”

Source: http://technology.inc.com/hardware/articles/201003/flip.html

Apart from iOS 4.1 that was announced today in a media event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, Apple also gave us a sneak peek at some of the features that are coming in iOS 4.2. Rather than reveal the full feature set of the software, Steve Jobs, who hosted the media event today, highlighted only a couple of enhancements like wireless printing and AirPlay.

“It’s bringing everything to iPad”, Jobs noted. Yes, you’ll be finally able to enjoy the latest iOS 4.1 features on the tablet, the stuff like Game Center and high-dynamic range photos, in addition to iOS 4.0 capabilities like Folders and multitasking (shown below).

In addition, iOS 4.2 will bring a couple of new capabilities to the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, including wireless capability and AirPlay media sharing. Wireless printing works as you’d expect, just as Jobs’ on-stage demo proved. You just push the new print button in enabled apps to send whatever document you may have open to a chosen network printer. The new Print Center app that sits in the multitasking bar will let you manage your print queue, cancel‹ print jobs, etc. This should be a big hit with mobile workers and enterprise users.

AirPlay appears to be the most significant iOS 4.2 enhancement, at least among the features Jobs showed on stage. It literally powers the new wireless media sharing inherent to iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads  running iOS 4.2, in addition to the new Apple TV and Mac or PC desktops with iTunes 10. Basically a successor to AirTunes, an iTunes feature that streams music wirelessly to your home stereo via an AirPort Express base station, the AirPlay feature lets you beam music, videos, and photos between devices, via WiFi.

This lets you share your media across the room, between various devices, without syncing any device manually via iTunes, which should be a big boon for many people. iOS 4,2 will be available “this November” as a free download for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Source: http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/multitasking-printing-support-wireless-media-sharing-and-more-coming-to-ipad-in-november-2010091/

Buy an iPhone from any certified distributor and you’ll get Apple’s cellphone locked to a network, or unlocked ready to accept a SIM. What you won’t get is the option to have your iPhone jailbroken in-store. There is the odd exception, though.

Visit China, however, and jailbreaking can be done at point of sale. China Unicom is the store to visit if you want this done as part of the buying process. Several unauthorized apps are also thought to be available as an install option by staff. They’ll even trim your SIM card for you.

At the moment the jailbreak service will be limited to previous generation iPhones as iPhone 4 has not been released in China yet.

Apple has yet to respond to the news, but will surely be contacting China Unicom about its in-store practices with Apple hardware.

Images of the jailbreaking service advertisements can be seen on the WeiPhone forums(translated).

Read more at The Mac Observer

Matthew’s Opinion

Apple will want to kill this service as quickly as possible. Jailbreaking is easy to do now, but not that common. Having a store offer it as a service will certainly increase the number of jailbroken device, especially if it is a service charged for and therefore the store pushes it to customers.

Whether China Unicom care what Apple has to say is another matter. If customers are willing to pay for the service, and sales have increased since its introduction, then I doubt it will stop.

We would never see this happening in the West as distibutors know how much iPhone is worth to their bottom line. It’s just not worth getting cut off by Apple to even consider offering jailbreaking.

Source: http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/buy-an-iphone-in-china-get-it-jailbroken-in-store-20100831/

Apple is expected to double iTunes song previews to at least 60 seconds, maybe even more, a new report has alleged. Multiple sources told CNET that the Californian gadget maker is considering doubling song preview length following the criticism that the currently imposed 30-second limitation isn’t enough to sample a song.

Steve Jobs is expected to make an announcement concerning the feature at tomorrow’s media event due to take place at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern.

Critics would say that longer iTunes previews are way overdue in the age of full music videos being readily and legally available for streaming on YouTube, through VEVO’s channel and content owners’ video channels. In addition, consumers nowadays have a wide variety of music options at their disposal beyond individual song sales, the stuff like free or low-cost radio streaming on desktop and mobile via apps like Pandora and Spotify.  Strangely, Apple has remained committed to selling individual song downloads and full albums and has refrained from introducing any subscription-related music offering thus far.

NET also repeated that Apple hasn’t inked new license agreements with the labels concerningcloud iTunes. The rumored service is said to let users upload their music library – both iTunes purchases and the songs ripped from CDs – to Apple’s North Carolina datacenter scheduled to go live early next year. The servers would power on-demand streaming of users’ songs to their iTunes-authorized devices like Mac and PC desktops and mobile devices like iPhones and iPods.

Source: http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/itunes-song-preview-length-to-double-but-no-music-streaming-20100831/