Small business owners are sticking to the “tried and true” marketing strategies in this tough economic year.  An October 2008 Small Business Marketing Outlook report by Adology shows that small businesses continue to be optimistic about marketing, but that they are not venturing out into new marketing efforts.
According to the Adology survey, small businesses say they will spend money for online advertising (69%), Yellow Pages (54%), newspapers (51%), and direct mail (51%).  This is pretty typical, standard marketing; nothing new and exciting here.  Even online marketing has been around for almost 15 years.
Top of the list. Most small businesses …read more

Is expected to become Google’s biggest source of profits in the future, according to Eric Schmidt;
“During a question-and-answer session at an event hosted in San Francisco by Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, Schmidt reiterated his belief that advertising on mobile devices eventually will emerge as Google’s biggest source of profits. The company hopes to be in a better position to deliver ads to people on the go during the second half of this year when it’s scheduled to unveil its new mobile software package, ‘‘Android.”
Google’s plans to make Android available to wide variety of mobile handsets have caused …read more

The mind set that is possible today in light of our economic news contains the ability to send many of us into a conservative shell or even into a deep isolationist negativity cave. Thankfully, there are those who can see the positives!
Opportunity of a Lifetime by Seth Godin;
“So, there’s plenty of bad economic news floating around. From the price of oil to Wall Street to bailouts to the death of traditional advertising.”
Which sounds negative in its beginnings but what Seth says next removes the down attitude quickly;

What appears to be a negative?
Google Drops More Than 160 Points
“Since its peak back in the Fall at nearly 750, Google has dropped to 584 currently, a 166 point drop (it’s dropped more in after hours, all the way down to 568). It’s on a steep decline in the past few days, perhaps due to the new search stats from Nielsen, as well as jitters about the economy at large.”
No, I really don’t think Google is making anything big of it. They have other things on their mind;

Certainly image recognition software is only the beginning of the story…
Today’s BBC News offers us more on the mobile topic;
Intel Predicts The Personal Net
“Mobile devices will deliver a more personal internet within five years, using chips with the power of today’s desktop PCs, Intel’s head has said.”
Paul Otellini told BBC News: “Intel, as a leader, has to advance the silicon technology every generation.
Our business model is one of very high risk: We dig a very big hole in the ground, spend three billion dollars to build a factory in it, which takes three years, to produce technology we haven’t invented …read more

From TechNewsWorld by Anick Jestanun;
Mobile Advertising: Still in Wild, Wild West Phase
“In the weeks leading to Christmas, an online wine retailer gave 15 percent discounts to anyone who sent in a photo of its newspaper ad snapped with a camera phone.
SnapTell, the company helping Wine Enthusiast and other merchants offer such services, uses image-recognition software to determine what offer, video clip or other content to return to the phone. In the coming months, the same technology could deliver movie reviews and discounts to anyone snapping a picture of a movie poster or billboard.
It’s one of a number of emerging approaches …read more

Is a really big if…
Of course, this is about being able to monetize “communication” in 140-character bursts on a messaging service. ???
Calacanis says;
“Once you have critical mass you can’t help but make a fortune. An absolute idiot with 10-20M users can make a ton of money. So, get to tens of millions of users and forget about money.”
“When you’re playing in the big leagues with unlimited access to capital you shouldn’t worry about revenue BEFORE you have critical mass.”
Terrence Russell says;
“Our advice for the aspiring entrepreneur? Business plan or not, developing an overall strategy that fits both your levels …read more

“You can start monetizing your mobile site by accessing a growing number of our mobile advertisers.”
Good for you, bad for others? Interesting…
“If you have a mobile-compliant website that complies with our program policies, you’re welcome to participate in AdSense for mobile.”
Well, of course Darren would somehow be the first to let us know about Adsense for Mobile, followed by soooo many others including Duncan. Its the comments that have piqued my interest. Consider;
Kat: “For those of us on pay-by-the-byte services, it’s expensive enough to download a regular page, even with images turned off.”
Andrey: “Another issue is that screens of mobile …read more