These findings are documented in Digital Exposure, an article by Elizabeth Svoboda published in the November 2009 issue of Discover.

Svoboda bases the article around “how political campaigns hire consultants to gather data for targeted mailings,” but she also sheds light on the ramifications of our online actions.

Let’s start with the innocent posting of hometowns and birth dates in social media profiles. This data is the determining factor in compiling your social security number, and if that number acts as a password to bank statements, you provide thieves with instant access to your accounts.

Consider research into health ailments, whether your own or another person’s illness. Because your computer maintains a specific online identification, insurance companies may learn through the I.D. that you visit health-related sites and deny your pending policy.

The same type of denial is probable if YouTube videos or pictures on photo-sharing sites tag your participation at parties and gatherings that clients, service contractors and outsourcing firms deem as questionable.

Editorial comments appearing in newspapers are confirmed by a staffer before it’s published but not so when participating on the publication’s online forum. If your anonymous comment leads law enforcement to believe you have knowledge about a criminal act, the newspaper receives a subpoena, and your computer is soon revealed as the source.

It’s a smart move to review your online activities and remove sensitive records or unflattering remarks. However, Archive.org’s WayBack Machine houses past data, making a clean sweep of your history impossible.

As a small or solo business owner, it’s your responsibility to not only keep your personal and business information private but to also secure client information collected through online carts and membership programs. It’s a difficult task, but a dose of healthy paranoia is manageable as you proceed with caution.

1. Secure sensitive Emails. Free online encryption tools are available that allow you to connect with clients without Email account providers matching your message with ads.

2. Search with confidence. Review data that may be considered as questionable through browsing services that don’t require cookies to be enabled.

3. Snap with caution. There’s nothing wrong with having a great time at events, but realize that some photo takers are clicking for cash, which can wreak havoc on your livelihood.

Is data mining by corporate firms and institutions going too far, or is it your responsibility, as an Internet participant, to protect your data?

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About the Author: Shirley George Frazier is chief marketing officer at Solo Business Marketing, a professional speaker at worldwide business and marketing conferences, and author of Marketing Strategies for the Home-Based Business: Solutions You Can Use Today. Shirley twitters at @ShirleyFrazier and blogs at the Solo Business Marketing Blog.

The post How to Protect Yourself Against Data Mining appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Bloggers and sellers are quickly weighing in on this change, mostly with criticisms about eBay’s decision and their beliefs that the firm cares more about making money than making space for random content.

I first learned about eBay’s blogging platform through a 2007 article published in Entrepreneur Magazine. The story explained how anyone could set up a blog, free of charge, to promote their business and gain traffic from eBay’s network.

The idea of routing a piece of eBay’s massive traffic my way, even if I wasn’t involved in auction selling, was enough to convince me to start a blog in addition to maintaining my self-hosted blogs.

My statistics proved eBay’s ability to generate a decent amount of traffic without any self promotion, and though I don’t know how many sales resulted from it, my posts were consistent in exploring the topic and providing relevant reasons to visit my sites.

In its farewell message, eBay encourages bloggers to “…print out or save your blog entries before we close this section of our site.” eBay’s blog discontinuation may not directly impact your business, but it does bring up a valuable lesson in treating your intellectual property as a premium commodity and vital part of business growth.

What would happen if the blogging platform you’ve chosen, whether hosted by Blogger, WordPress.com, or self hosted, disappeared without warning and you had no back-up program in place to capture posts?

Your content would no longer be available for redevelopment into:

1. Case studies
2. Special reports
3. Traditional books/E-books
4. Presentation topics
5. Frequently-asked questions and answers
6. Tweets
7. Web site articles
8. AdWords campaigns
9. Squeeze pages
10. Webinars/Teleseminars

How would you replace all the years of expertise shared with readers who follow, comment, and recommend your firm?

When writing each post on eBay, I immediately saved the content within my computer organized in this manner:

Intellectual Property – eBay – (article name)

That made saving the content easy, so there’s no need for me to copy every article written since 2007 before it’s deleted.

What’s your plan for maintaining a record of your online property, or have you yet to put this procedure in place?

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About the Author: Shirley George Frazier is chief marketing officer at Solo Business Marketing, a professional speaker at worldwide business and marketing conferences, and author of Marketing Strategies for the Home-Based Business: Solutions You Can Use Today. Shirley twitters at @ShirleyFrazier and blogs at the Solo Business Marketing Blog.

The post eBay’s Decision Provides a Valuable Back-Up Lesson appeared first on Small Business Trends.

This is Kiva’s initial launch in a country considered as wealthy, in terms of access to opportunities and capital, and feedback from supporters regarding this expansion has been met with mixed commentary.

Kiva’s founders began the non-profit enterprise in 2005, focusing their efforts on empowering residents of impoverished nations by providing loans through small amounts of money collected from supporters worldwide for men and women to start businesses that serve and strengthen their communities and lift families out of poverty.

The organization has spearheaded loans of $85.8 million that assist approximately 210,000 individuals in 182 countries. Those who are disappointed about Kiva’s decision to assist U.S.-based entrepreneurs believe that loans to business owners in rich lands will dilute the pool of money available to poor nations.

American business owners have many methods available to raise capital. Books and other resource materials remind us that personal savings are first for funding, followed by monies borrowed from family, friends, banks, credit unions, small business associations, and grants and loans from private groups.

Those who are opposed to U.S. inclusion point to these vast resources. However, many American entrepreneurs with credible plans have felt the economy’s sting.

Money sources aren’t as plentiful as in the past, and though the U.S. is not considered impoverished, it’s mending from a domino effect of big business closures that have drastically decreased capital once available to small businesses. Perhaps this classifies many more U.S. start-ups as disadvantaged, at least on a temporary basis.

What’s your feeling about Kiva’s inclusion of American-based entrepreneurs? Are you opposed because it dilutes funds available in destitute countries or, due to your own inability to find traditional lenders, does this news encourage you to apply for funding?

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About the Author: Shirley George Frazier is chief marketing officer at Solo Business Marketing, a professional speaker at worldwide business and marketing conferences, and author of Marketing Strategies for the Home-Based Business: Solutions You Can Use Today. Shirley twitters at @ShirleyFrazier and blogs at the Solo Business Marketing Blog.

The post Is it Wrong for Kiva to Help U.S. Entrepreneurs? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Molding your business into an industry and media darling takes time and planning. If you truly want free publicity, it’s up to you to start and maintain the process of becoming an industry leader. Here are three painless steps to begin.

1. Write a comment or rebuttal whenever you see an article regarding your industry or a situation that impacts on your business.

Articles are published in trade journals, local newspapers, state-based magazines, and on Web sites. Save each submitted comment in a Word or Notepad document, along with the publication’s name and date, to track what you’ve written and to also help you craft future responses.

I practice this consistently, which puts my name and business in front of reporters and other media groups who need expert comments in upcoming stories. The exposure has the potential to increase notoriety and revenue by a minimum of 30 percent each year.

2. Contact television and cable news producers with timely information that makes you their only choice for an interview. Also, watch local news events for opportunities to elevate your expertise.

What’s your specialty – fire safety, social media, personal security? Prepare to call morning show and segment producers, telling them about the valuable tips and new trends you want to share with viewers. Write and practice your 30-second pitch to get on the air.

Contacting show producers helped me secure appearances on CNBC, The Food Network, The Discovery Channel, New Jersey Network, and New York’s Fox Channel 5. Plan the timing and pitch for your on-air fame, which usually lasts three minutes but is worth every second.

3. Speak at trade and public events where your topic attracts many who attend and on-site sales.

Entrepreneurs who are passionate about their businesses can’t stay quiet. They yearn to share their knowledge, but they provide just enough to validate their expertise and motivate listeners to buy.

Making a commitment to follow these three actions will put you in the center of everyone’s radar when it’s time to stretch your 15 minutes of fame into a lifetime of success.

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About the Author: Shirley George Frazier is chief marketing officer at Solo Business Marketing, a professional speaker at worldwide business and marketing conferences, and author of Marketing Strategies for the Home-Based Business: Solutions You Can Use Today. Shirley twitters at @ShirleyFrazier and blogs at the Solo Business Marketing Blog.

The post How to Become the Center of Everyone’s Attention appeared first on Small Business Trends.

That was the verdict I received after explaining my one-person enterprise to another business owner at a networking event in New York City. She was right; I was limp from years of going it alone.

That statement convinced me that it was time to find outside assistance. As I searched, my main concern centered around the cost rather than how much time and revenue I lost every day I didn’t have help.

How many of you focus on the bottom line the same way I did rather than concentrate on the benefits from outsourced individuals who contribute to growth and freedom?

There are 20.8 million independent entrepreneurs in the United States alone, according to the 2006 Nonemployer Statistics released by the U.S. Census in August 2008. How are they finding help to generate the corresponding $970 billion in sales?

Although hiring help would be a major step forward in my business, I was nervous. I asked people on Twitter for examples, but I still wasn’t convinced. Then I realized that long-time friends of mine, who I spoke with practically every day, had all of the answers.

Roz Miller Choice, former news reporter turned real estate investor, and one of my mastermind group partners, found herself at a crossroad last year. Her project list grew longer each day, but she didn’t think there was enough money in her budget for hiring.

“There was no other way to stay on track and move forward,” said Choice, who owns HouseOffTheMarket.com. “I’m doing too much by expanding into a note-buying business and writing a book. My mind is beginning to work against me.”

Choice found help by placing an ad on Craigslist.org. Twenty-five candidates responded, and two were hired. One was dismissed almost immediately due to her lack of commitment. The other continues to live up to expectations. “My assistant knows what I want before I say it, and most times she takes it upon herself to try a technique that streamlines the project more than I imagined.”

As for the cost factor, my mastermind partner can see big benefits in terms of earned revenue and more time for vacations. She recently declared, “I can’t run this business without her.”

Dr. Flora Morris Brown, author and entrepreneur, toyed with the idea of outsourcing. When she decided to write a companion book to her Web site, ColorYourLifeHappy.com, that’s when she committed to finding help.

Rather than go online for support, Brown asked a colleague for suggestions, which led to a referral living in a neighboring town.

“She was doing occasional work for a client of my colleague. I called and talked to her by phone, asking about her computer experience, which types of tasks she has done for other clients, and determining her availability.” They met in person when it was time to start the first project.

This assistant completes a variety of tasks, including indexing blog articles, creating Word documents from handwritten material, and researching for Brown’s forthcoming book.

How does payment work? “I stagger her projects. Since I pay her by the hour, I can control my costs. To free up money to afford her, I continually cancel services I no longer need or restructure services under contract.”

In the first example, the assistants worked directly in my mastermind partner’s home office, while the assistant working for Brown maintained an off-site location.

Listening to my friends convinced me to overrule my mind and hire a person to complete tasks that systematize my business. My new-found assistant, referred to me by my mastermind buddy, monitors social networking sites, performs research that lets me launch products and services faster, and updates blog posts.

Like my friends, I found that the money portion easily fit into my budget because I was now free to develop material that clients request as part of their service packages.

Here are five ways to hire it done, even if you’re convinced there’s no budget for staff.

1. Set a trial time. Let the assistant know ahead of time that the assignment is for 4, 6, or 8 weeks. From there, you’ll know if the arrangement is working and how to proceed.
2. Seek help from local colleges. Intern placements can be scheduled through college counselors who can also advise you about how other business owners set payment terms.
3. Decide exactly what the person will do and how you will communicate each project. Email may not always be the best method, so set time aside to speak by telephone, in person, or through Skype.
4. Set up a common intranet area where you and the assistant can keep detailed instructions of how projects are maintained. I created such an area through Google Apps using my name with the dot net extension.
5. Ask trusted friends if they are working with or know of someone who can assist you. It’s amazing how you can overlook people close to you who have all the answers.

Now a question for you: how do assistants, virtual or on site, help you maximize your time?  Or are you still facing exhaustion?

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About the Author: Shirley George Frazier is chief marketing officer at Solo Business Marketing, a professional speaker at worldwide business and marketing conferences, and author of Marketing Strategies for the Home-Based Business: Solutions You Can Use Today. Shirley twitters at @ShirleyFrazier and blogs at the Solo Business Marketing Blog.

The post How Solo Business Owners Hire It Done appeared first on Small Business Trends.