Welcome to the Ideologic flavour of Carnival of the Capitalists. I am Harish Keshwani, your host for the time you stay at the Carnival. Help yourself with some cappuccino and snacks and enjoy “best of the best” entries for this week. For your reading pleasure, all posts are divided into categories and each link opens in a new window.
Blog Businesses and SEO
Wayne Hulbert from Blog Business World explains how Businesses in almost every industry can benefit from the blog boost in the search engines. There is little doubt that all websites will receive a healthy injection of relevance, simply by posting regularly to a business blog and search engines will rank these websites higher based on relevance.
Yours Truly introduces a new concept in the Blogging World - Blog Process Outsourcing. Small and medium sized companies can now promote their products and services, address customer concerns, provide tips and tutorials about their products, get ranked higher by search engines. All of this can be achieved by establishing a Company Blog with the help of Blog Process Outsourcing. Find out how the process works.
Do Domain names matter for Search Engines? Find out what The Other Bloke, Barry Welford has to say in his post: Domain Names are only for Human Beings.
Browser and Portal Wars
Andrew Hughes from AnyLetter prepares us for wars of different kind-Browser Wars. Internet Explorer, after defeating Netscape in Browser Wars-I, now faces the threat from new enemies Firefox and Opera and the stage is set for Browser Wars-II.
Google recently announced its personalized home pages for internet users. This is being done by Yahoo and MSN for a long time. David Jackson at The Internet Stock Blog analyses importance of this announcement for investors and other Internet companies.
Business Ideas
When I came up with the wild idea of Blog Process Outsourcing, many of friends ridiculed me and called me crazy. However, after reading what Jim Logan has to say about Crazy Ideas, I feel much better and motivated.
Economy and Business
How would you like 365 days of freedom from Tax? I know your answer but it won’t happen. Will Franklin at Willisms.com talks about one day of Tax Freedom, observed in various countries of the world.
Protagonist holding Wyatt’s Torch believes that in today’s world, nothing is safe from inflation, not even precious metals Gold and Silver. In his post, he deflates the legend of Liberty Dollar.
What will be next big reserve Currency? As the Dollar weakens, the Euro and surprisingly the Chinese Yuan are strong contenders to that numero uno position. Toni Straka of The Prudent Investor time travels back to Greek empire to find the answers.
Michael Kantor of Half Sigma thinks, young workers are more likely to receive less pay than their older coworkers even though they contribute the same in his post Are young workers undervalued?
Martin Lindeskog of EGO points us to an Economist article that provides good pointers to Mr. Bush’s administration on how to look after the “American Brand Capitalism”.
Mike Landfair of Mover Mike talks about variations in government statistics from one month to other for Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities.
Outsourcing arrives in News Industry. Reuters is first one to embrace it. Mike Pechar of Interested Participant presents arguments from union and Reuters in his post.
Entrepreneurship
Jeff Cornwall of The Entrepreneurial Mind encourages Entrepreneurs to celebrate every accomplishment.
Learn about “swing” entrepreneurship from Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends. Here she presents three examples of On-Again, Off-Again Entrepreneurs.
Investing and Personal Finance
Ironman at Political Calculations discusses excerpts from a speech given by Rob Arnott at an investing conference in his post: Indexing Fundamentals.
Each one of us has felt the pinch of rising gas prices. Ezra Marbach of Sound Money Tips offers two ways of saving few nickels by finding cheapest gas prices in your area.
Must Preferred Stock Include a Right to Receive Dividends? Read the in-depth discussion using the case of Shintom Co., Ltd. v/s Audiovox Corporation, provided by Gordon Smith at Conglomerate Blog.
Brian Gongol of Gongol.Com shows us a way to allocate our wealth before we proceed to our last journey on this earth.
Patri Friedman at Catallarchy summarizes a talk given by John Bogle on what he calls the “Cost Matters Hypothesis” - an alternative explanation to the Efficient Market Hypothesis on why most mutual funds do not beat the market rate of return over the long term.
Management
Break the shackles of specialization and develop a peripheral vision. This is the mantra provided by Gautam Ghosh in his post - The scourge of Specialization.
Skip Angel from Random Thoughts from CTO reminds us and all Project managers, there is more to Project Management than staying on Schedule. He further tells us about how to avoid the Schedule Trap.
Marketing
Russell Buckley at The Mobile Technology Weblog imparts a lesson to the companies to avoid sending mindless PR to Bloggers. In his other post, he reviews the marketing book “Communities Dominate Brands” by Tomi Ahonen and Alan Moore.
A customer retained is worth six times the effort put to gain a new customer. Joseph DePalma of Joseph’s Marketing Blog presents time-tested marketing idea of membership rewards to retain the ever-demanding customers.
David Strahlberg of The Media Stock finds it strange and ironic that XM Satellite Radio has to rely on the terrestrial radio for pitching “no-commercial” radio to their target audience.
Fiercely loyal Customers are a dream of every Business. From iPods to Harley Davidsons, each of these products has created loyal customers. The Roundtable from Revenue Roundtable reinforces the fact: Nothing is more valuable to the business than their fiercely loyal customers.
Timothy Grayson of Recursive Progress defines the relationship change between Marketer and Consumer using “Funnel of Love”. He compares this transition from an engagement to battle to an engagement to marriage.
Yvonne DiVita of Lip-sticking makes a case why marketing to women is a win-win situation.
MyFoodPhone. Find out what it is and how it works from Michael Pollock of Small Business Branding. He discusses how Mobile Lifestyle Trends is gaining traction and how companies are capitalizing on this trend.
Politics, Policies and Opinions
Tim Worstall defends Mr.Bush’s hydrogen economy in his post:Can You Say “Corporate Welfare”?
Steve Conover, The Skeptical Optimist, explains why it would be fiscally responsible for Bush to sign the highway bill into law.
Pamela at Atlas Shrugs feels strongly about Newsweek’s glowing report on China in the wake of human rights violations, forced abortions and exploitation of children.
Mean Ol’ Meany has submitted a Lesson On Liberal Grandiosity and Self-Righteousness
Joe Kristan at Roth & Company Tax Updates discusses on a court decision that threatens to keep states from bribing businesses via “economic development” tax incentives.
Warren Meyer of Coyote Blog wonders why is it that we are often presented with a range of options that usually range from statism on the one hand to … statism on the other.
Real Estate
Barry L. Ritholtz at The Big Picture rounds up Real Estate statistics, commentaries, and ideas for your reading pleasure.
Venture Capital and Alternate Financing
Micro Venture Capital - I need some for my venture and I am sure there are others like me. M.Simon from Power and Control discusses an article by a MIT Professor and wonders if a new breed of Venture Capitalists can emerge to finance Micro Ventures?
Businessorati (again yours truly) of BusinessWorks Inc provides information about alternate source of financing-Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), a federal funding program.
John Dmohowski of Drakeview says, Mergers and Acquisitions are favored exit strategies for Venture backed firms and IPO activity continues to remain depressed.
Miscellaneous
A blog might reveal something about the blogger’s labor market skills if you know what to look for. This interesting observation is made by Michael Higgins of Chocolates and Gold Coins in his post:Blogging as a Labor Market Signal
This week’s carnival would be incomplete without a mention of Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith. Nikita Demosthenes thinks Mr.Lucas was on the dark side all along.
Importance of Fan Appreciation is avidly described by Heather Burke of Pro Wrestling Impact.
A true story about a work environment that is just plain wrong. Rosa Say from Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching shares it so that managers everywhere correct these unfortunate situations. They happen much too often.
We all have fears and we live with them. Steve Pavlina helps us in overcoming at least one the fears-the fear of Public Speaking.
Mad Anthony thinks that cell phones are not good candidates to replace MP3 players.
I hope you have enjoyed this edition of the Carnival. I have thoroughly, enjoyed reading each and every post. Next week, the Carnival arrives at SlackerManager. Have a great week ahead.
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