If you’re a CPA, you know how time consuming it can be requesting data files from your clients. Bryce Forney is a CPA who uses Intuit’s QuickBooks Online Accountant to better serve his small business owner clients during tax season and throughout the year. Since all the data is stored in the cloud, he can get the data he needs at any moment without having to inconvenience his clients.

Once you’ve gotten started using QuickBooks Online, what’s the first thing you need to do when looking for new clients? Get certified! Stacy Kildal, CPA, gives QuickBooks Online users some vital info on how to attract customers. Getting certified will get you listed at findaproadvisor.com, which ensures that potential clients will find you and feel secure that you know the product back to front.

Hear from more accounting professionals about the benefits of the cloud and learn about timely accounting trends at: http://www.youtube.com/user/IntuitAcademy

The post QuickBooks Online Tips from CPAs Who Know appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Top small business news stories this week looked at what to do when you get suspended on Twitter, and policy changes.  We also brought you information about new products such as the latest BlackBerry, a new tablet hybrid, and the possibility of a color book e-reader.  Also in the headlines is the life and times of a 26-year-old tech tycoon who has made it big … really big!

Read on as the Small Business Trends editorial team takes you behind the scenes with these stories and more. We don’t just bring you a bunch of noise — we add context to show you how the news affects your business.

Social Media

How to come back from a Twitter suspension. Lately, members of the small business community have experienced unwarranted suspensions on Twitter. Contributors to Small Business Trends and even one of our own team member’s accounts were shut down without notice. We give a behind-the-scenes look at one Twitter suspension — and how to recover from it.  First step – don’t panic!

Google+ Still missing the boat with big brands. Google+ may be popular with users, but some brands don’t seem to feel the same. A recent study finds that 40 percent of the major brands with a presence on Google+ have either never posted content on the social media site or do so infrequently. However, as we point out, that’s not a good reason for small businesses to stay away. Get your Google+ page up and active, and don’t wait until you have to play catch up.

Hangout with pizzazz. You’ve probably heard of Google Hangouts. Some of us may even use them for business. But now an app allows you to add a dash of style as well. We show you Hangout Magix, a tool that will give you new options when it comes to adding Google Hangout graphics like logos, speaker names and titles, captions and more.

Tech

New BlackBerry Q5 – 3 So Far This Year for BlackBerry. The new Q5 smartphone is aimed at developing markets, not at North America. But the phone is a reminder of how pervasive mobile devices have become in the world … and how  BlackBerry is reinventing itself with the BlackBerry 10 software platform.

HP targets iPad with new hybrid tablet. What’s cheaper than an iPad and able to function as both a tablet and a laptop? It’s called the SlateBook x2, and it’s coming in July from HP. The device is priced at $475, just $20 under the current iPad’s recommended manufacturer retail price. And hey, you get a keyboard, which business users love.

Could a color Kindle e-reader be on the way? Sure the Kindle Fire already displays content in color, but it’s really a tablet computer rather than a book e-reader. A new color e-reader would offer advantages over its black and white counterpart without some of the disadvantages of a tablet (such as price and battery life). Rumors abound based on an acquisition Amazon made  - although so far no confirmation has come out of the book etailing giant.

Policy

Immigration: E-Verify isn’t required for all businesses – YET. This online system lets employers check with a government database to be sure workers are legally able to work in the U.S. The trouble is that using it is costly in terms of time and productivity, especially to small businesses. In the opinion of many it needs to be simplified. It could also be mandatory in just four years, if Senate bill 744 making its way through Congress now is passed.  But if there’s any good news in this, it’s that a provision to accelerate mandatory adoption to just 18 months was defeated in committee. So we’ve got that going for us.  :)

Feds owe $3 million dollars in fees to small businesses. The U.S. owes a lot to small businesses in more ways than one. A recent investigation by the U.S. House Committee on Small Business shows the U.S. federal government owes 1,281 small businesses approximately $3 million collectively in termination fees after the government failed to meet its minimum purchase commitment of at least $25,000 each on the GSA schedule. Small business contractors, rejoice.

NFIB Celebrates 70 years. We look back at the history of the organization as it celebrates its 70th birthday.  Learn how and why the National Federation of Independent Business was founded. Learn about its 300,000 members and why we need a strong advocate like the NFIB on the side of small businesses.

Entrepreneurship

Who wants to be a millionaire? It’s probably the dream of every tech entrepreneur young or old to become the next Mark Zuckerberg. This week, David Karp, founder of social blogging platform Tumblr, proved entrepreneur dreams can come true. Karp’s site was bought by Yahoo for $1 billion making the 26-year old the latest tech tycoon and overnight mega-millionaire.

Stay Alive. Your business’s survival may depend upon it. Literally! A study recently found that companies whose majority owner had passed away within the first 10 years of founding performed much worse as time went on — even when there was a company management team in place to carry on. So remember, having the founding entrepreneur stay alive is good for business.

Marketing & Resources

What is Gangnam Style? If you still haven’t heard of Korean-based rapper Psy and his monster hit, read on. Psy became a global sensation when his music video — a self-made effort — reached 1 billion views.  And his success can teach small business owners more than you might think about marketing on a budget and standing out from the crowd.

Who’s in your ExpertCircle? Here’s a new Web service for small business owners who trust their peers’ judgment when selecting products and vendors for their businesses. The site, launched by Doc Stoc, allows you to submit your favorite products and vendors for others to see and to endorse or critique vendors and services on the site.

Learn from your customers. Customer experience is an important thing for companies to pay attention to. Your customers are the life blood of your business, of course. In this panel discussion, three industry leaders talk about what customer experience means to their companies.

Finance

Main Streets May Soon Be Without a Bank. Rohit Arora, CEO and Co-founder of Biz2Credit pulls together some scary numbers regarding the U.S. banking industry. They’re especially frightening for entrepreneurs in need of funding. Over the last three years, banks have been steadily closing branches around the country, leaving some communities without a local bank, he said.

Looking for a financing alternative? Financing for small businesses has never been so complex or has involved so many options. Pierre Debois reviews a book with a funny sounding title. But “Spank the Bank: The Guide to Alternative Business Financing” may provide some of the answers you need.

The post Small Business News You Don’t Want to Miss appeared first on Small Business Trends.

UPDATE: Congratulations to the winner of the Plantronics Voyager Legend UC headset – Michelle, A Dish of Daily Life (@DishofDailyLife)!

Do you love your smartphone or tablet?  Of course you do.  You may not even be able to live without it. But if you’re like many of us, you don’t like holding that phone (or heavens-to-Betsy, that tablet) up to your ear.

Or maybe you use Skype throughout the day in your work.  But banging away on a laptop with the speaker on causes the people on the other end to complain about weird noises and interference. A hands-free headset would solve that particular problem.

So tell us why you need to be hands free, and you just might be the lucky winner of a Plantronics Voyager Legend UC headset. The sound quality is clear and it works with all kinds of devices. Read our review.

The Giveaway!

To enter for a chance to be the random winner, leave a comment below or tweet out a response using the hashtag #PlantronicsLegend, answering this question:

Why do you need to be hands free while working?

We’ll randomly pick a winner from the responses, and send you this beautiful headset.  Responses must be in no later than 11:59 pm, May 8, 2013. Open to those in the United States and Canada only.

Many thanks to Plantronics which is providing the headset for this giveaway.

The post Giveaway: Why Do You Need to Be Hands Free While Working? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

News from the Small Business Trends and BizSugar community this week included an announcement on guidelines for online investment and crowdfunding from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The announcement, which Small Business Trends CEO Anita Campbell described as “not a sweeping endorsement of all crowdsourced venture capital,” came just days after Brian Sutter, director of marketing for Wasp Barcode, complained in a post on BizSugar that the business community was “still waiting” for rules on The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act passed in 2012.

Also this week, while we reported on Google’s controversial doodle of Mexican American labor leader Cesar Chavez on Easter, Emma Jones blogged on Zubin Kutar’s WebTrafficRoi blog on BizSugar about Google’s recently launched enhanced campaigns for online marketing. Those commenting on BizSugar were divided on the doodle, and we’ll be waiting to hear what people think of enhanced programs as more businesses get a chance to use it.

While BizSugar member and online marketing consultant Mike Allton of The Social Media Hat shared April Fool’s content from YouTube, Google and Twitter, Twitter wasn’t fooling about the launch of its revamped Twitter for Business page with plenty of great resources.

Late last week, BizSugar members Daniel Zeevi and Steve Murphy shared posts on Klout’s decision to add Bing and Instagram Data to member scores and Yelp’s new Revenue Estimation Tool respectively. Do you really believe the data either of these services is feeding you?

Meanwhile, Maria Valdez Haubrich of Grow Smart Biz shares these depressing numbers with the BizSugar community from the Capital One Small Business Barometer on how small businesses feel about their financial futures. In the most recent survey conducted at the end of 2012, one fourth of those surveyed said they expected economic conditions to deteriorate over the next six months.

They probably had the looming sequester in Washington on their minds and the anticipated cutting of an estimated $85 billion from the federal budget. It’s a move widely expected to cost the business sector big, especially contractors for the federal government. But don’t get too bummed out, now that the sequester is under way, says Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University Scott Shane in a recent post. The impact might not be as bad as you think.

Read All About It Photo via Shutterstock

The post The Buzz About Crowdsourcing, Google and Twitter Change appeared first on Small Business Trends.

When you read statistics about the growth of the mobile Web, you may be thinking about an iPhone or other small smartphone.  But what mobile web figures often include are statistics about tablets — those hybrid mobile devices that are larger than smartphones, but smaller and more portable than laptop computers.

And when it comes to your website, you want to make sure you have a tablet ready website. An increasing number of your site visitors will be viewing your site through a tablet — versus a regular computer.

Designing a tablet ready website is something that involves special considerations given the size and format of tablet screens, and how humans use tablets.

Has this happened you? You’re out and about, and need to access a website. You pull out your tablet, load up the URL and it’s just not right. Maybe the page is formatted terribly. Maybe it’s just a mobile view that doesn’t cut it compared to the computer experience. Regardless, in a rapidly evolving technological age, these types of mistakes just don’t cut it anymore.

Kevin McNally, the CEO and Founder of Interactive Palette, knows that tablets are quickly becoming a bigger market, and what millions of Americans use to access the Internet every day. When asked about the subject, McNally had much to say about it. He comments that often, much of what appears on the Web is simply just too much for a tablet display to handle. Therefore, designers should focus on a quick-loading and clean-looking mobile design that is specific to tablets.

Further, when browsing a tablet, consumers don’t have the ease of control that a mouse or trackpad allows for. Designers should keep this in mind as well, and design to accommodate for the human finger.

When designing for tablets, often many designers want to incorporate Flash browser plugins and surplus software, as they would for their computer counterparts. McNally stresses to simply leave that all behind. HTML5 is the simplest route, and it will work well across many different platforms. Also, while the grid system of most websites works at roughly 960 pixels, resolutions should be designed at around 1024 pixels for tablets to allow for better, smoother displays.

Tablets, over the past couple years, have rapidly become a vast market to expand into. iPads, Kindle Fires, Galaxy Tabs have all come to create a new kind of ‘fold,’ says McNally. He notes that designers must remember to keep orientation in mind when designing for tablets. Often, what looks spot on in portrait mode will look stretched or distorted in landscape, and likewise it is important that the vital information of your Web page not be covered when switching orientation, or that consumers not need to swipe and scroll to find that information.

Finally, McNally points out the easiest way to ensure that your Web page fits the bill for tablets: testing. Test your design on as many tablets as possible to be sure of its viability, that the resolution and orientation are consistent, and that it won’t fail the “touch test.” If it doesn’t respond to your fingers, it’s not much use being loaded onto a tablet.

The future of business and technology is changing, and it’s tantamount that companies change with them. Kevin McNally knows all too well the importance these emerging technologies have on how consumers access the Web and makes a clear-cut case for how designers should begin to view the tablet space. Either they should bear in mind how they appear on the widening tablet market, or they had better get used to being a thing of the past.

A version of the above article was originally published on SmallBizTechnology and is included here with permission.

Tablet Photo via Shutterstock

The post Insights for a Tablet Ready Website appeared first on Small Business Trends.

How do you fund your first book before making even a single sale?

In a Twitter chat on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, we examined some of the approaches for raising money to fund your first self-publishing projects. Guests included Nancy Spooner Bsharah (@SurfDateBook) Co-author of Everything I Know About Dating I Learned Through Surfing and Susan Payton (@EggMarketing), Author of 101 Entrepreneur Tips and Internet Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs.

Leading the discussion were Ivana Taylor (@DIYMarketers), Publisher of DIYMarketers and Book Review Editor for Small Business Trends and Anita Campbell (@SmallBizTrends), Founder of the Small Business Book Awards, and the Co-author of Visual Marketing, published by Wiley.

Here are excerpts from the chat:

@diymarketers I was going to boot strap until I heard of crowd funding!’ #bizbookawards

— Surf Date Book (@SurfDateBook) March 13, 2013

A1: You can fund a book using a publisher, your own cash, your family/friends cash, crowdsourcing & probably a loan. #BizBookAwards

— Matt Mansfield (@1KContentIdeas) March 13, 2013

But how, asked some, does crowdfunding work, and what steps can an author take to get started?

@bizbookawards I used the Kickstarter platform.People funded our book online and we rewarded them with prints, shirts & books #bizbookawards

— Surf Date Book (@SurfDateBook) March 13, 2013

But, will it really work, some participants wanted to know?

Besides friends & family will others buy in for crowd funding?#BizBookAwards

— Eric Deeter (@EricDeeter) March 13, 2013

Q2 answer it has never been easier to plan, construct, publish, market your interest & expertise. get started, stick with it. #bizbookawards

— Kevin Herbert (@bealakids) March 13, 2013

Participants of the chat also came up with suggestions for generating interest in your fundraising campaign.

A3: I included a video (created with Animoto) #BizBookAwards

— Tai Goodwin (@TaiGoodwin) March 13, 2013

Q4: Many times announcing that you’re authoring a book can create hype and a lot of interest. Spread the title of the book. #BizBookAwards

— Michelle Reynolds (@Aromatic_Health) March 13, 2013

I’ve been blogging for 3 years so my book was an easier leap. RT @eggmarketing: which comes 1st, the book or the blog? #BizBookAwards

— Pravassa (@Pravassa) March 13, 2013

And what kind of qualities, tools, and resources must you have to create a successful fundraising effort for your next book?

A5 – Components include being able to tell yr story well, having a good network and a SM strategy on how to spread the word #bizbookawards

— Joe Wozny (@joewozny) March 13, 2013

A9. Use good organizing tools to research – from Evernote to Baecamp – may get a few idas for associated material #bizbookawards

— Pierre DeBois (@ZimanaAnalytics) March 13, 2013

A10: Look for fundraising mentors. Include more than just authors in this list. #BizBookAwards

— Shawn Hessinger (@Shawn_Hessinger) March 13, 2013

This chat was in honor of the Small Business Book Awards. Cast votes for your favorite titles and book resources through March 26, 2013.  Big shout out to Namecheap, the Presenting Sponsor of the Awards. Namecheap’s generosity made it so that no entrance fees were required from nominees.

The post How to Finance Your First Business Book #BizBookAwards appeared first on Small Business Trends.

According to another report, Apple Inc., Facebook and Twitter were targeted by malware attacks originating from an eastern European gang of hackers intent on stealing company secrets from all three firms.

Whether your company simply maintains an online presence for marketing and communications or actually has data residing on or accessible to the Web, you are likely vulnerable in ways you don’t even realize.

Here are 10 dangers your company faces online right now and suggestions for addressing them.

Online Dangers to Your Data

Viruses and other malware are a constant threat. Computer viruses, worms, spyware and other malicious software inhabit the Web. These viruses can damage your system’s data or performance. To protect your most valuable technology, it’s important to stay updated on the latest antivirus software. Here Darien Graham-Smith gives his picks for the best free antivirus software of 2013 with a link to a review of paid software options you can also consider. PCPro

Cloud sharing also comes with concerns. The appeal of cloud computing with its easy data sharing and almost limitless storage space at low cost is obvious, especially to small businesses with limited resources. However, companies using the cloud for collaboration or data storage must also understand the risks of having that data accessed by an unauthorized third party, says Charles Costa. Here are some tips to keep your business safe while using the cloud. Smallbiz Technology

Your social media accounts are not secure. Both Twitter and LinkedIn have already suffered security breaches, and in this post, Josh Constine suggests it is only a matter of time until the same thing happens to Facebook. The key to remember, whether you use social media for marketing, networking, or just communication, is that all the data you upload, even under privacy settings, might someday be compromised. Be careful you share via social media and never share anything that must remain private. TechCrunch

Even your lawyer’s office can be hacked. Security experts now suggest hackers may target smaller firms to get at the data of bigger companies with which they do business. This means hackers might attempt to get at your customers, vendors and suppliers through you or vice versa. In this post, Michael Holmes suggests that law firms are often targeted to gain access to the client data. Be sure to practice security when exchanging data with customers and business partners too. Small Business Trends

It’s hard to know who to trust. Doing business online requires a certain amount of trust. However, many of the traditional methods of establishing that trust are made more challenging thanks to the distances involved and the ease with which cyber criminals can mislead businesses about their true identities. The key is to follow authentication procedures when doing business with others you don’t know. Here attorney and security specialist Marc Weber Tobias explores some possible solutions for establishing trust online. Forbes

Mobile devices may pose a threat, too. A recent security advisory released by BlackBerry suggests that vulnerabilities could allow hackers to access your company’s servers through malicious code on a single smartphone or even through an e-mail or instant message. There have also been concerns that company data shared over mobile devices might somehow be accessed by a third party, especially if a phone is lost or stolen. An important step toward better security is to pay close attention to vulnerabilities when announced and update with improved software as soon as possible. Naked Security

Online Dangers to Your Reputation

Being hacked can damage your credibility. Whether it’s a hacker taking control of your company’s Twitter account, or getting a hold of sensitive data, being hacked can cause credibility problems for your business. At a time like this, it’s imperative to act quickly to contain the attack, repair the damage, and reassure your customers. Here are some suggestions from security experts about how to recover when the worst has happened. Fox Small Business Center

A rogue domain name could ruin your business. Look what happened when celebrity TV chef Guy Fieri failed to secure the domain name for his New York eatery Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar. The domain name fell into the hands of a New York-based programmer and Internet trickster, and soon joke menus were appearing online, making this online prankster a star. In this Internet age, securing the domain name of your brand is critical. The alternative may not be very funny to you at all. Fast Company

A default admin account could be your undoing. Having a hacker gain access to your blog may not necessarily compromise sensitive business data, but it could be a PR disaster to have someone hijack or disable your brand’s principle online voice. You may not have considered how easy it is for someone to hack into your blog, but Stephen Duckworth suggests that something as simple as failing to delete your default admin account on WordPress could be an open invitation to attack. Here are Duckworth’s suggestions for a more secure blog. Digital Internet

Protecting your brand is a full-time job. A big part of building a personal or business brand has to do with managing your online image and reputation. To do that, you must take control of the way your brand comes up in search, what conversations are taking place about you or your business online, and even how your brand and reputation are depicted by others. Blogger Daniel Sharkov suggests a number of techniques including constantly monitoring what is being said about you online and on the social web. Reviewz ‘N Tips

Danger Photo via Shutterstock

The post 10 Online Dangers Your Business Faces appeared first on Small Business Trends.

The law affects not just big companies like Amazon but small businesses including affiliate marketers for Amazon and other online retailers, says Geno Prussakov of the Affiliate Marketing Blog.

What the Marketplace Fairness Act Says

According to attorney Robert W. Wood, an expert on taxation, the proposed legislation offers a simplified means for the 45 states and 7,600 local sales tax systems nationwide to compel online or catalog retailers called “remote sellers” to pay local tax.

A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Quill vs. North Dakota held that states can require remote retailers to collect sales tax from customers only if the retailer has a presence in the state.

However, brick and mortar retailers who consider the lack of sales tax on many online sales an unfair competitive advantage continued to lobby for change.

The Amazon Tax

Nine states further complicated the issue recently by passing so-called “affiliate nexus taxes” also sometimes called the “Amazon tax.” These states include Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, with other states reportedly considering similar measures.

The tax requires any remote retailers with annual sales in the state exceeding $10,000 a year to collect tax if the sales were referred by an affiliate living in the same state.

In many cases, remote retailers have chosen to simply terminate relationships with affiliates in nexus law states, a measure so-far affecting about 75,000 small businesses, Prussakov estimates.

What Others Think

From the perspective of affiliate marketers like Prussakov, the new law, if passed, will be a good thing since it requires remote retailers to collect sales tax, where appropriate, at the time of the transaction just as local retailers do.

Amazon is also apparently now behind the law, which requires states to first simplify their own tax codes to make compliance easier for remote retailers.

Prussakov says the law essentially takes affiliate businesses out of the equation by making it irrelevant where sales referrals originate.  However, others are concerned the law will still adversely affect small businesses that do retail online.

Despite another caveat in the bill exempting businesses with less than $1 million in annual remote sales from compliance, Ebay, the online auction company that works with small online sellers, is still concerned that small businesses will be hurt, reports Chris Morran of Consumerist.

The post The Marketplace Fairness Act: What You Need to Know appeared first on Small Business Trends.

The 2013 Small Business Book Awards celebrate books for entrepreneurs, small business owners, CEOs, managers and their staffs.

This is the 5th year for these community Awards. In the past, almost 100,000 votes were cast by the community.   Winners receive publicity and the right to display winners’ insignia on books, websites, brochures and elsewhere. Ten overall winners and 5 winners in each category will be named.

Nominating is fast — and free.

What’s New for 2013

In 2013 there are more categories than ever before — and more opportunities  to be recognized. This year features 10 book categories, along with a new non-book category.

Business books may be nominated if published in 2012, relevant to small businesses, and covering one of these topical areas:  marketing, technology, social media, management, economics, startup, self-help, leadership or personal finance.  There’s also a category for business classics, which is for all-time favorite business books published prior to 2012. Be sure to check out the overview of some of the new book nominations so far in this year’s Small Business Book Awards.

The non-book category is for publishing resources such as book publicists, ghost writing services, author apps (such as Story Tracker and the Write or Die app), and similar resources.  So if you know any good author apps, copywriters, publishing platforms and other resources, nominate them!

Welcome Namecheap, Our Sponsor

Namecheap is showing its commitment to the small business community through its generous support as Presenting Sponsor of the Small Business Book Awards. Namecheap is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar and Web hosting company managing 3 million domains with more than 800,000 clients.

Authors, if you need a website for you book, look to Namecheap, which offers some of the most affordable domain names in the industry, full-featured Web hosting packages, SSL certificates and more.  Thank you, Namecheap!

Details

Who: Anyone can nominate. Authors, feel free to nominate your own books. Book lovers, nominate your favorites.  Publishers and editors, also feel free to nominate your books.

What: 2013 Small Business Book Awards

When: Nominations end March 3, 2013 at 11:59 pm Los Angeles, California time.

Once nominations end, voting starts immediately thereafter and runs through March 26, 2013.

Where:  Visit the Small Business Book Awards site.  Or jump directly to the nomination form .

The post Small Business Book Awards: Nominate Through March 3, 2013 appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Adding a photo will make your article more interesting.  But recent research shows that a cartoon may work even better when it comes to getting others to tweet your content on Twitter.

Cartoon vs Stock Photo Tests

In three recent tests, cartoonist Mark Anderson of Andertoons (note, a contributor at this publication) demonstrates that including a cartoon on your post or website will make it more likely for people to share your content on Twitter than if you add a stock photo to the exact same content.

Test 1:  In the first test, he showed online participants two dummy blog articles, one article displayed above the other on the page. The top article contained one of his original grayscale cartoons. The second article showed a color stock photo purchased from a third party website.

For ease of viewing, we’ve simply showed the two articles side by side below so you can get an idea of what the posts looked like. In the tests they were arranged differently.

When participants were asked which blog post they would rather share on Twitter, 90% chose the blog article containing the cartoon.

Test 2:  To double check his findings, Anderson decided to vary the placement of the posts on the page.  He reversed the blog posts with the one containing the color photo at the top of the page and the one with the grayscale cartoon farther down below it. As it turned out, 57 percent of those seeing the page still indicated they would prefer to tweet the blog post with the cartoon — despite being located lower down on the page.

Test 3:  Next, Anderson showed participants a single article on a page.  One page had a single dummy blog post with a cartoon in it. The other page had the same article, but with the stock photo. Again, participants showed a clear preference. Seventy five percent (75%) chose to share the page having the cartoon in it.

When Anderson added a quality post instead of the dummy content he had been using in the previous tests, the cartoon still won out. Sixty-four percent (64%) of participants still preferred the post with the cartoon.

Why did so many prefer cartoons?

According to some, cartoons were preferred because they seemed informal and added more content interest than stock photos.

Anderson says he used Verifyapp.com from Zurb for the test.  Enrollapp.com was used to provide anonymous paid participants.

Participants were asked to add comments on why they made their choices. One said the cartoon made the content feel more informal and that this informality seemed in step with the Twitter audience. Another said the cartoon added value to the other content on the page while the stock image was just “decoration.”

How to use cartoons without violating copyrights 

As with any image you use, make sure you have the proper rights to use it.  Cartoons and stock images — like all original works — are automatically protected by copyright from the moment they are created. It doesn’t matter whether they have a copyright notice on them or not.  Copyright law in most countries does not require a copyright notice.

If you decide to try out cartoons, please remember that Mark Anderson of Andertoons, like many other professional cartoonists, is self-employed. Self-employed cartoonists make their living through selling their work.

We’ve made it risk-free to experiment.  In our Small Business Trends business cartoon gallery we offer six Andertoons cartoons royalty-free.  You will not violate copyrights by using those six.  (We’ve purchased the rights to make them publicly available to you, royalty-free).

Then when you see how well cartoons work, consider a low-cost cartoon subscription from Andertoons. That will give you the legal right to pick and choose from a wide range of cartoons for your website, blog, email newsletters and so on. You’ll have a large supply of images and not have to worry about copyrights coming back to bite you.

The post Research: More People Will Tweet a Post With a Cartoon Than a Photo appeared first on Small Business Trends.