(Written by guest contributor Joel Ownby) Accepting payment online for your products and services sounds like a pretty simple endeavor, and at a low level it is. Understanding what is happening behind the scenes is an entirely different proposition. Understanding the nuts and bolts of payment processing will grant you the ability to provide better customer service, generate more accurate cash flow and projection data, help you to better understand technical issues involving payment processing... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Kevin E. Houchin Esq.) Let me get right to the point. The reason our economy is in the tank today is that too many people are focused on creating money instead of creating real products and services. To correct this problem, we need to get back to the basics of creating products and services that people need or want, and let the money come as a result. That's the business of... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D) I love buying things online! What I am not fond of is the service, or should I say the lack of service, I often receive after the sale. The great speaker and human development expert Earl Nightingale once noted, "Our rewards will always be in exact proportion to our service." However, with the world markets injured by those who focused more on profiting themselves than serving the... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Joel Ownby) Contactless payments are certainly the wave of the future. They're already a huge trend in Europe and Asia. Contactless payments are poised to revolutionize commerce in the United States. Many of the largest chains have already adopted cashless payment systems and many "touch and go" devices are now available from the largest merchants, credit card companies, and mobile telecommunication service providers. Wikipedia has the following to say about contactless... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Chris Harper) When most of us hear the phrase "show and tell" our minds naturally drift back to those awkward events from our childhoods that required us to bring something interesting to school to share with the class. Drawing on that tradition, YouTube has launched a new Show and Tell channel that they operate in partnership with the Art Directors Club, that aims to show off interesting and effective ways that... Continue Reading

Last month, two of my team members had an opportunity to go to Monrovia, Liberia to work on a project intended to save lives of those in the malnourished and HIV-stricken country. Chris Harper, my Video Producer, and Sarah Jane Griesemer, VP of Project Management, accepted the call to go to Liberia and meet the needs of people through a project called The Peanut Butter House. What they experienced during their week-long trip was undoubtedly... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Sarah Jane Griesemer) These days, there is a long list of ways to avoid having to talk to someone in person: email, Facebook, Twitter, chat, blogs, and text messages are just a few. With all these alternative methods of communication, why bother with real-life meetings at all? The answer is that face-to-face meetings and interviews are still the single best way to get to know someone reliably, quickly, and in such... Continue Reading

Years from now, people will still be asking me this question... "Is your mother proud of you for your success with iFart, the iPhone app?" The answer has always been and will always be a resounding YES! I mean, what mother wouldn't be proud of her boy turning one of man's favorite past-times into something profitable? I recently had the opportunity to give a presentation at our local Ignite meeting in Fort Collins, CO. Equipped... Continue Reading

It was 1979 and I was fifteen years old. I remember staring at the magazine in pure lust. I turned page after page, gawking at the pictures and wishing I could have what was on them. You would think the pictures would have been enough, but I also read every word. I knew that this was something I would be willing to spend my money on. This was worth saving for. $500 may have seemed... Continue Reading

How did Facebook ever get to be so big? Honestly, the site is chock full 'o so much garbage that it has become the new MySpace. But beyond all the stupid vampire and zombie games, there is a solid social media site that can be useful for businesses. For over a year, I have peaked at my 5000 friend limit. However, people close their accounts or unfriend me from time to time. So I've always... Continue Reading

With all the talk of the "world wide" Internet and globalization, it can be easy to ignore the profit potential of people living in your area. People are still people, and they still prefer to buy things from people who they know and trust. So why not make sure those in your physical vicinity are able to find you and your website? Continue Reading

December 12, 2008. A day that will live in infamy. The aftershocks are still being felt (and smelt) throughout the iPhone universe. And the world has never been quite the same. For on that day, iFart Mobile was released to an iTunes AppStore public unaware of what was to come. Pure global flatulence domination. Continue Reading

Let me get right to the point. The reason our economy is in the tank today is that too many people are focused on creating money instead of creating real products and services. To correct this problem, we need to get back to the basics of creating products and services that people need or want, and let the money come as a result. That's the business of creativity, and it's going to be the... Continue Reading

I've now been on Twitter since May 2007. When I wrote Twitter power, I had about 5000 followers. Fast forward to late 2009. I hit 83,000 followers, but that's nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands or millions of followers that some members have acquired. It's been an interesting ride, but a number of things have happened that have caused me to reevaluate my Twitter strategy. Continue Reading