Google Analytics
This is a must have on your site! Why? Because then you learn about people who visit your site. You can see where they come from even to the city where they are surfing. Where they came to your site, was it via Google search or direct or link from another source. With analytics you can analyse your own marketing efforts and see what brings traffic and adjust accordingly. This is tool that I think every business owner must know and learn how it works

Keep it Simple
And by that I mean the site design. Make it easy for people to navigate your site. People have very short attention span so make sure you don’t loose people because they can find the information they came for from your site quickly.

Buy the Pictures You Use on Your Website
Get professional pictures from stock photography websites instead of using free creative license ones. You can use free photos on your blog but all other pictures on your website should be professionally photographed. Having professional quality pictures gives you also professional appearance. Nothing kills first impression quicker than un-focused, completely irrelevant picture on a website.

Can you Read it?
Although the world if full of fantastically creative fonts to be used it is better to be somewhat old fashioned and boring about this issue. Font you use must be easily readable by everyone, people are not going to stick around if they need to make effort to try to read you website. Remember, first impression counts.

Make sure people find it!
OK, you have shiny new website, great pictures and loads of information with great font but only thing that is missing is people! What can you do about it then? There are numerous options out there, some free, some paid ones, some easy and some darn difficult.

Let’s start with the easy and free. Tell all your friends, family, relatives, milkman and neighbours about your site. Open Twitter account, have Facebook Fan page, do networking both online and offline. Make sure you have links going from one place to another so you twitter profile has link to your website and your website has link to your Twitter account. Start a blog. This might be daunting idea at first but it can have huge impact on traffic to your site and effectively your Sales figure!

The not so easy techniques are the one you would hire someone else to do it for you. Your time it better spent on doing what you are great at and selling your services and hire SEO specialist do what they are great at doing. They can take your site further, and get high ranking on Google and other search engines.

Check out TED talk by Chris Anderson who says... 
"The rise of web video is driving a worldwide phenomenon he calls Crowd Accelerated Innovation -- a self-fueling cycle of learning that could be as significant as the invention of print. But to tap into its power, organizations will need to embrace radical openness. And for TED, it means the dawn of a whole new chapter ..."
Check out the video on YouTube on TEDTalk Channel

Spurred by aggressive promotions from retailers, American consumers opened their wallets over the holiday weekend in a way they had not since before the recession, setting records in sales and traffic.

The National Retail Federation said Sunday that spending per shopper surged 9.1 percent over last year — the biggest increase since 2006 — to an average of almost $400 a customer. In all, 6.6 percent more shoppers visited stores on the Thanksgiving weekend than last year.
Read rest of the article from The New York Times here.

BBC: Online shopping is nothing new, especially in plugged-in South Korea. But one company says it’s going further. It’s testing out a virtual supermarket in a public place.

At Seolleung underground station in Seoul, there’s a row of brightly lit billboards along the platform, with hundreds of pictures of food and drink – everything from fruit and milk to instant noodles and pet food.

Shopping by phone at South Korea’s virtual grocery [BBC]

I think anyone in business should follow others in business to get ideas, learn and develop their business. And if someone has "made it" then surely they have some good advice for others. Here is an example of one, who you might not know or heard of, nevertheless she has made it - and made it big.

Know SlideShare? Do you know who started it? 

I must admit, I didnt - but do now! Rashmi Sinha is the Founder and CEO of SlideShare.

Who is Rashmi? (taken from her site)
"Rashmi Sinha is a designer and entrepreneur. She is confounder & CEO for SlideShare, the best place to share your presentations on the web.
Rashmi believes that good software comes from a true collaboration between developers and designers. Her background is social software & interface design. She did a Phd from Brown University and researched search engines & recommender systems at UC Berkeley. Deciding that she wanted to build products, she cofounded Uzanto which did design consulting during the day and built MindCanvas (online games meet online surveys) at night! Her appetite for products was whetted and SlideShare is her next venture".

Check out Rashmi's Blog - Thoughts about people, technology and running a company

You’ve seen these famous logos countless times on billboards, passing by on trucks, and at the grocery store, but there is more to them than meets the eye. If you take a closer look, you will find that these recognized logos have hidden images and messages. Check out these inventive designs that cleverly use white space and optical illusions to display subliminal messages.

FedEx

This logo appears to be very simple, but if you look at the white space between the "E" and "x" in “Ex," you'll find it is more complex than you thought. Can you spot the arrow?


Other great examples of logos with "hidden" meanings check the article here

What does your logo says about your company? Do you have hidden meaning and pictures in your logo?

Steven P. Jobs, one of the most successful chief executives in corporate history, once said he never thought of himself as a manager, but as a leader. And his notion of leadership revolved around choosing the best people possible, encouraging them and creating an environment in which they could do great work.
Read the whole article here -> The New York Times

What do you think will happen to Apple without Steve Jobs? He is an icon and he has been the image of Apple and its design for years. Will this hurt Apple or does it take Apple to new direction? I look forward seeing how the transition goes and what happens during nex

Is there something you've always meant to do, wanted to do, but just ... haven't? Matt Cutts suggests: Try it for 30 days. This short, lighthearted talk offers a neat way to think about setting and achieving goals.

Check out TED talk here.

I am currently reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Know the book? If you dont, I highly recommend reading it.

Enjoy yourself.  It's later than you think.  ~Chinese Proverb