Oh how nice it would be to be 21 and be able to retire or imagine being 26 years old and worth $75 million…that is exactly the case for young entrepreneur- Angelo Sotira who is the founder of deviantART.com.  DeviantART is an American international online community for artists. It was first launched on August 7, 2000 by Angelo Sotira amongst others.  The site aims to provide a place for any artist to exhibit and discuss works. Works are organized into different categories including photography, digital art, traditional art, literature, Flash, filmmaking, and skins for applications, among others’

To see what kind of qualities Angelo Sotira possessed to become so successful I looked at a few of his interviews; and took a few useful tips from it…

·         “I focus on what I feel most passionately about. When I was younger I was fascinated with MP3’s because they were really cool. I wanted to share them with the world!”- at 15 years old Angelo founded a site called dMusic.

·         “I had the benefit of being the same age as the demographic.”- We are all still young and when targeting a young audience we have the benefit of being the audience, so you can focus your business models on things you’d be willing to pay for.

·         “I also surround myself with people who are smarter than I am.”- and they come up with smart ideas.

·         “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible”- so step out of the box and be different!

Amid numerous small business owners coming to our class and discussing the need for tips for starting or editing their website, I did some research and found some Search Engine Optimization Tips for small business owners.  Below is the address for the informative article.  Even those who are more than proficient in blogging and SEO should check this out…

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/article.php/3816911

Web behemoth youtube is arguably at the top of their market for showing videos online.  Numerous celebrities are made overnight by posting videos of themselves and attracting millions of views.  Several times I have seen shows such as Good Morning America showing the overnight celebrities. 

One may think they are the dominant player in the online video clip business, however, earlier this month youtube announced how they were going to start streaming, for free, classic videos to compete with hulu.  Personally I use hulu about once a week to catch up on The Office but I don’t see any way youtube can compete with network shows.  Currently some of youtube’s top watched shows are Alf and Married with Children…

Should youtube focus on what they do best or try to compete with the network-aided Hulu???

I am an avid runner, but sometimes it is difficult to motivate myself without some form of competition.  What is nice about running in a more distance style is that there are opportunities to enter races that draw runners just like you.  The difficult task however is finding a race in the location you want and in the time that you want.  I was looking for some races for the summer and came across a GREAT website that gives information on races in the United States.

Running in the USA is a website that allows you to pick any state in the United states and it displays all of the races and their location in that state.  What is even nicer is when you click the link it automatically opens the registration document that you simply have to fill out and send to the designated address.

If you want to only see 5k’s, half-marathons, marathons, ultras, triathlons, or trail runs there are links specifically for those races.  Additionally if you decide to register you can post on the message board which can be helpful to ask more professional runners about workouts or any kind of injury you  may have.

Overall, Running in the USA is a great tool if you are looking for a race, training, or want to become involved with runners all over the United States.

As MySpace places an ex-Facebook executive in the CEO position, an interesting discussion arises between the “success” of each social networking community. In one instance, success of a social network can be measured by the number of users. Facebook, in this category, would win the battle between the two giants. Facebook, in February, had 264 million international visitors. Compare this to MySpace which 124 million.

While the visitor numbers tell one story, advertising revenue tells another – after all, these networks are businesses. It is when one evaluates the two companies from this perspective that the effectiveness of two marekting plans is revealed. MySpace, taking the traditional online marketing route of banner ads and sponsorships brought in $1 billion in ad revenue. Facebook took in an estimated $300 million.

Facebook has took pride that it does not follow the traditional marketing plan, going for what they call “Engagement Ads.” There is plenty of talk nowadays about avoiding traditional internet marketing and searching for better ways to promote a brand and bring in ad revenue. While, undoubtedly, this is true and there needs to be a necessary progression in order to avoid consumer “ad fatigue,” the numbers between the two giants need to be noticed.