Search Engine Optimization – Does It Really Work?

Search engine optimization is the hottest marketing tool going at the moment. When a website climbs the Google rankings, it can be a very exhilarating experience watching your sales and customer activity increase at the same time.

Implementing a successful inbound link building campaign is regarded as the most legitimate fundamental SEO strategy technique. Whilst there are many types of link building strategies one can undertake, it is wise to target inbound links that are relevant to a particular websites theme. A

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This is from Steve Akers’ recent presentation, Estate Planning in Light of One-Year ‘Repeal’ of Estate and GST Tax in 2010:

“the Administration proposes to dramatically change the rules regarding valuation discounts (emphasis added). If there is an estate and gift tax reform package adopted next year, it could include that provision.

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That’s the poster from the not so good 1979 movie, The Shape of Things To Come. You kinda get the picture from the tagline Beyond the earth… Beyond the moon… Beyond your wildest imagination!

The movie was an adaptation of  the 1933 science fiction novel, The Shape of Things To Come, by H.G. Wells which speculates on future events from 1933 until the year 2106.

My own prognostications for the future are not nearly as expansive. But rather limited to the world of 401(k) for 2010. Here’s a link to my January 2010 column in Employee Benefit News, The Shape of Things To Come for 401(k) Plans. 

This month our theme across our blogs is “Planning/Starting Your Business”. To kick that off here on Grow Smart Business, we have a guest contributor, Richard Greenberg of “State of the Startup” to give some great advice on starting up.

So you’ve decided to start a new business? Congratulations! Let’s be sure you start on the right track in your endeavor.

First, we will assume you already have your idea, you product, service or profession. And moreover, let’s assume you already have sufficient capital (money) to create your business, and last long enough to pay your personal iving expenses and the costs to run your business until profitable. If you are si

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Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, in his book The Art of the Start  put it like this: “Think of investor’s deal flow as a funnel. Two thousand business plans enter at the top of the funnel. Two hundred are moderately credible. One hundred are interesting enough to read. Forty undergo due diligence. Ten get funded. One makes a bundle of money.”

Imagine that, only five percent of all business plans submitted are interesting enough to read, two percent get to the due diligence stage and one half of one percent actually get funded. Those odds are incredibly long indeed. But th

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The livestock sector needs Sh700 million to restock, following massive deaths of the animals due to drought and current floods.

Speaking during a leather stakeholders meeting at Jacaranda Hotel on Thursday, Livestock Development permanent secretary, Kenneth Lusaka, said the Sh130 million already provided for was inadequate.

“This is a far cry from what is needed. We have developed a memo asking the government for more support,” he said.

Mr Lusaka added that the ministry is preparing a comprehensive report on the losses suffered by farmers due to the drought and floods.

He said another Sh500 million that was provided for buying livestock from farmers during the height of drought was also meant to cushion them by way of assisting them restock once the weather improved.

“We shall soon be moving to these areas to see if farmers are using the money to restock. We ho

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