ShoeDawg.com = $4.3 Million a Year

Inspired by a “20/20″ TV show about small Web companies that got their start on eBay, Adam Henrich and his wife, Nicole Henrich, built a $4.3 million Internet footwear retail business in four years.

It all started in October 2002 when the duo — both with long-time experience in wholesale and retail footwear — bought a few pairs of shoes off the deep-discount, close-out rack at Nordstrom, pitched them for sale on eBay and made a nice profit.

Today, McKinney-based ShoeDawg.com LLC not only pulls down $1.2 million in sales annually as the eBay Internet retailer Shoe Professor (“It’s just smart to wear comfortable shoes”), but also $3.1 million a year from its own proprietary site, www.ShoeDawg.com (“When it comes to stylish comfort, we are man’s best friend”).

See Article http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/salespower/2007/01/31/1.html

Plugmyevent.com a nice concept

Www.Plugmyevent.com is a nice web that does only one thing .

The business model is simple. You create your free account. There are 2 types of events as far as the software is concerned: 1) A Free Event which does not allow for paid registrations and 2) A Paid Registration event.

If you create a Free Event, you can collect registrations and PlugMyEvent does not charge you. However, if you wish to opt for the Paid Registration, PlugMyEvent will charge $25us one-time fee for the Ecommerce-type service.

Are You building a web app ? then READ THIS

Basically read the artical then the comments . Some entrepreneur are answering the questions below

1. How much did it cost to build your app?
2. What percentage was spent on each area (Development, Design, Marketing, Legal, etc)?
3. Did you bootstrap or raise funding?
4. Are you glad you funded it the way you did, or would you do it differently next time? Why?
5. What are some lessons you’ve learned that you would like to share?
6. Are you profitable? If so, how many months did it take to get there?
7. How many hours per week do you spend on tech support? Who takes care of it?

See Full Blog http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/share-your-opinion-for-a-techcrunch-article#comments

How to build a software company

Ian Landsman is founder, programmer, chief marketing officer, evangelist and bookkeeper for his 1-man software company, UserScape. (Actually, I’m not sure he does the bookkeeping anymore…) UserScape currently has one product — HelpSpot, which Ian describes as user centered help desk software.

See Full Article http://startupspark.com/ian-landsman-userscape-helpspot/

TheLogoHomepage.com – Add Your Logo

The site has a bunch of web 2.0 logos

http://www.thelogohomepage.com/

Uglyhotels.com

 http://uglyhotels.com/  Acquires ugly hotels . Do you have one for them  ??

Nearly half of U.S. small businesses still don’t have a Web site.

al Hance, a practice manager at a small doctor’s office in New York, says having a Web site would be unnecessary at the office he runs. “In medicine, especially in private practice… there really is no point,” he said, “except maybe to provide demographic or biographic information.”ance isn’t alone. Indeed, of the nearly 25 million U.S. small businesses, 46 percent do not have a Web site, according to the Kelsey Group, a research firm in Princeton, N.J.

But Web sites are not only powerful tools for e-commerce, they also can boost almost any business, as consumers look into products they might buy.

“When customers are doing research for purchases, they are going to the Web,” said Jed Alpert, vice president of marketing for WebCollage, a provider of online media technology based in New York City. “Sales that happen in the store are influenced by online research.”

http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/24/smbusiness/websites/index.htm?postversion=2007012506

List intelligence = Dollars

A veteran of established marketing agencies such as Dickinson Direct and Digitas, the 32-year-old entrepreneur says his objective has been to focus primarily on one niche area of the direct marketing program while challenging an industry paradigm for data providers that tends to be more transactional, and less consultative, in nature.

Oceanos’ incremental revenue growth — over 400 percent for the two-year period from 2003 to 2005 — landed it on the Boston Business Journal’s list of the “Area’s Fastest Growing Private Companies” last year. This year, Hession expects to reach $3.6 million, up from $2.2 million in 2005.

See Full Story http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/entrepreneur/2007/01/29/1.html?t=printable

8 Ways To Generate Buzz Like Apple

Click Here For Slide Show

11 Ways to Land Media Coverage

Be able to clearly explain what your business does in the time-span of an elevator ride. A sentence or two which summarizes the objectives and products of your business should appear on your website and at the bottom of press releases.

Click Here For Slide Show

Priceyourmeal.com – Ebay for Restaurant Meals

new eBay style website, www.priceyourmeal.com, has been launched in Edinburgh that allows diners to bid against each other for meals at top local restaurants.

Edinburgh’s Malmaison hotel, the Montpellier group which includes Tigerlilly, Opal Lounge and Rick’s and other independents such as First Coast, Vintners Rooms and the Mussel Inn have already signed up to the site. 

Founder Sukhvir Dhillon, 31, from Glasgow, said: “The Edinburgh restaurant scene has experienced a culinary renaissance recently with a variety of different eating styles on offer and priceyourmeal.com will help diners access different types of restaurants. Our website usually spurs people into being more adventurous by trying out places they wouldn’t necessarily go to.”

The Edinburgh launch follows the success of Glasgow-based priceyourmeal.com, where more than12,000 diners have already signed up. Dhillon also plans to expand priceyourmeal.com in London and other major UK cities. 

http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=124522007

Biggest Internet fraud case in history

Bank hit by ‘biggest Internet fraud case in history’

Swedish bank Nordea has been hit by what security company McAfee has called the biggest Internet fraud case in history.

Up to £600 000 has been stolen in the past three months from 250 customer accounts. E-mails were sent asking Nordea customers to download a piece of software which they were told was a piece of anti-spam software. In fact it was a piece of software which was activated when customers tried to log into Internet banking with Nordea. Out-Law.com reports that it recorded their login details and asked them to log in again because of a fictional error. It then recorded their second attempt to log in, which would give hackers enough information to access accounts. Security Park reports that police have established that login information was sent to servers in the US and then to Russia. Since then unknown criminals have logged in transferring large amounts from the bank. According to Boo Ehlin, Nordea’s Swedish spokesperson, most of the affected customers did not have antivirus software installed on their computer. Data Monitor reports that this is not the first time that Nordea has been affected by online fraud. The bank, which has 2m Internet banking customers in Sweden alone, was also hit in August 2005, when it was forced to temporarily cease the operations of its online unit after a phishing attack.
Full Out-Law.com report
Full Security Park report
Full Data Monitor report

Web 2.0 Entrepreneur Story – Powersnap.Com

For the last 18 months, ever since he earned his MBA from Oxford University, he has devoted almost every waking hour of his life to trying to create a new company. He moved back to San Francisco, where he had once been a salesman for a tech company, reconnected with a couple of old acquaintances — Indian immigrants like himself — and set to work. Each morning he said goodbye to his wife, Dawn, as she drove off to work, then settled into a local coffee house with his laptop and got down to business.

The next step was to fund development. Being a new MBA and having been taught the traditional rules of entrepreneurship, Santosh and his team made the tour of Valley venture capitalists — only to be told to come back when they had a finished product.

See Article http://abcnews.go.com/Business/SmallBiz/story?id=750595&page=1

Oh Baby Fitness LLC

This is not an internet company but it is an interesting niche . 

In September 2005, two local entrepreneurs — Clare Schexnyder, a former CNN producer, and Cyndy Norford, a former Wachovia Bank executive — launched Oh Baby! Fitness LLC, which provides fitness classes to help pregnant women stay fit and new moms lose their baby weight. Oh Baby! Fitness started with just a handful of classes at a couple of local hospitals, but now offers 100 classes taught by 40 instructors at 25 locations. They partner with fitness centers and hospitals to offer the classes at their facilities.

“Now I find myself responding to requests to offer our classes more than me having to go out and look for partner facilities, so we’ve really caught on,” Schexnyder said. “Doctors are starting to refer their patients to our classes.”

Full Story Here

Stolenidsearch.Com – Great Idea

This site lets you search the internet to see if you Social Security Number or Credit Cards are online .  I thinks it is an innovative idea .

Http://Www.Stolenidsearch.Com

Make Free International Calls

Just Call    712-858-8094.

To see the countries you can call for free Click Here

I used the number to call London and the call was clearer and better than when I use calling cards I have paid for . The number above is a United States Number . I dont know how the company is doing it . The service is free and you dont even have to register . http://www.allfreecalls.net/

Advertise On Eggs ! Yes Someone Is Doing It

Eggfusion.com lets you advertise on eggs . I think is an innovative concept . Why didnt I think of that ! ! ! ! 

News Link  http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=21678

MySpace files suit against ‘Spam King’

This is for all you current and aspiring spammers . You cant make money by spamming people . Infact in a recent Article craiglist ceo talked about cracking down on spamvertisers . If your marketing plan involves spaming people start early to think of alternate ways to market your products .

See Link To  Myspace/Spamking Lawsuit

Retiring at 45 . Must Be Nice

While some people are just starting their careers at 45 the man below wants to retire . It must be nice to have that option .

NEW YORK (Money) — Question: I am 45 years old, earn $105,000 a year working as a nurse and hope to retire within three years and collect a pension of $25,000 to $30,000. My wife, 54, has just retired from a nursing job that paid $80,000 and now gets a pension of $22,000.

We have real estate investments worth roughly $900,000 after mortgage debt, a home worth about $1 million net, $375,000 in 401(k)s and $75,000 in assorted mutual funds. We also have health insurance that will be subsidized in retirement.

See Full Article http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/17/pf/expert/expert.moneymag/index.htm?postversion=2007011809

The 20 Richest Women In Entertainment

1. Oprah Winfrey
2. J.K. Rowling                             
3. Martha Stewart                   CLICK HERE TO SEE SLIDE SHOW            
4. Madonna
5. Celine Dion
6. Mariah Carey
7. Janet Jackson
8. Julia Roberts
9. Jennifer Lopez
10. Jennifer Aniston
11. The Olsen Twins
12. Britney Spears
13. Judge Judy
14. Sandra Bullock
15. Cameron Diaz
16. Gisele Bundchen
17. Ellen DeGeneres
18. Nicole Kidman
19. Christina Aguilera
20. Renee Zellweger