Drum roll, please! It’s time for Word of the Year, 2011:  Occupy

Each year, the American Dialect Society votes for the “vocabulary item” (perhaps a word, perhaps a phrase ) that was in common use or had a high profile (meaning, all us common folk might not have used it but the media sure did).

Occupy, of course, refers to the movement about…uh, did anyone figure out what it was about? I live near Oakland, which got plenty of media attention for its Occupy Movement, and from what I read, the occupiers  focused on being, to say the least, an enormous inconvenience …

One of the largest mental hurdles to maintaining a consistent business blog is coming up with a topic week after week.  It is easy to trap yourself with an artificial need for novelty instead of sticking to your strengths.  But if you’re really unsure of your ability to come up with relevant topics, the following strategies help.
1. Follow the News
Whether you listen to the radio while you commute or read an industry magazine on the weekends, make sure you keep abreast of current events.  The modern online reader is interested in relevant commentary.

Look for the stories that interest you as …

LinkedIn, Pandora, Groupon, and Zynga are all big names on the modern web, and each has filed with the SEC to hold an IPO. But who are these giants? What do they do, and where do their profits come from.

www.linkedin.com

LinkedIn is the social network for business professionals. When users join they create a profile that summarizes their experiences and accomplishments. According to the LinkedIn website, it has more than 80 million members spread throughout 200 countries. However, unlike most social media platforms, members must know each other or …

Earlier today the newest version of Microsoft’s popular Internet Explorer web browser went into beta testing.

Development of the product has been underway since shortly after the release of IE8.  Contrary to what web developers have come to expect from Microsoft, it looks like IE9 may actually push the envelope, and finally shift enough of the market into CSS 3 and HTML 5.0 to make these standards worth implementing.

If you want to try out some of the new capabilities, Microsoft has set up a site where you can give them a test run.

Yesterday President Obama announced that he intends to target a portion of the remaining TARP bailout funds to the needs of Small Businesses.

According to a summary of the president’s proposal posted on www.whitehouse.gov, this new plan would increase the funds available through Small Business Administration microloans from $35,000 per business to $50,000 to business and the funds available through 7(a) loans from $2 million per business to $5 million per business.

7(a) loans are typically used to purchase machinery, equipment, and real estate and can also be used to re-finance existing debts.  In contrast, micro-loans cannot be used to …