I was sipping my morning "wake-cup" of coffee over the Sunday
San Francisco Chronicle this weekend when I came across an
article by staff writer John Batteiger referencing web sites
useful to small business. Great, I thought, I'd love more of
those valuable resources. Silly me.
Although I think this is an example of a reporter not doing
his research and glossing over an important subject, I can't
even begin to comprehend the absurd references provided by
that reporter! The SBA, the FTC, the Yahoo Small Business
Information section, which although they each have some small
part to play in helping the little guy, don't provide a great
resource for small business information beyond their own
meager references to other web sites.
I've faced this oddity for three years now while trying to
gain links across the web for the WebSite101 Small Business
Ecommerce Tutorial I provide online. Nobody wants to listen
to those of us that practice what we preach each day and go
daily to maintain the house payments and bills by earing our
living online. Everyone wants to hear what the Monsters have
to say about being a little guy! David doesn't want to BE
Goliath, David Wants To SLAY Goliath! Hello! Anyone home?
I dashed off a letter to that reporter which I've included
below and realized that my own readers could benefit from
hearing this stuff as well. So I've attached my note to
that reporter below.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John,
(You'll note that I've sent copies of this letter to each of
the sites I referenced here, who I'm sure will have thoughts
of their own to contribute.)
I'm fascinated at how folks consistently look to Goliaths to
learn how to be an effective David! When I saw your article
today at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file/chronicle/archive/2001/
10/14/BU222086.DTL
I thought I might see some links to things such as
http://www.freeagentnation.com a book by Daniel H. Pink
(he relies on praise from the big boys in his reviews but
did confide to me that he'd consider quotes from little guys
like me.) My raves about his book are online at:
http://www.WebSite101.com/arch/archive100.html
The Chronicle is quoted on his site in an article by your
colleague George Raine, but you don't return the favor?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file/chronicle/archive/2001/
09/02/BU147439.DTL&typebusiness
Come on John, if you were about to go out on your own, would
you rely on the sources you quote in your story and wade deeply
through the mire of that bureaucratic gobbledygook to get to
the occassional gem? How about sources like
http://www.workz.com where I am proud to be a columnist in
their guest expert section on Small Business Ecommerce at:
http://www.workz.com/content/1679.asp
How about true home business based sites like
http://www.ahbbo.com (short for "A Home Based Business Online"
run by Elena Fawkner).
How about truly valuable stuff for independent professionals at
sites like
http://www.learningfountain.com
run by Paul Siegel where valuable community among freelancers
helps all become better business owners?
One of your listed sources is http://ecommerce.About.com
Where I used to have a link to my website until they began the
requirements of the new http://lunanetwork.about.com/ which
requires that linked sites cross promote About.com and that
partners must serve a minimum of 150,000 pageviews a month
from their own sites. Now you must be a Goliath to be listed
by Goliaths.
The same happened at the former small business section of
about.com where the entire category was dropped and merged
with the ecommerce section, which then dropped all of the
Davids from their Goliath-only links list!
Now we see all over the web how Goliaths are courting business
from Davids as they suddenly realize that we make up almost
50% of the US economy. Oh really? What a surprise! Big
business falters after absorbing all of each other's money,
then begins luring smaller fish when they've eaten all the
big ones. I did a piece on that as well at:
http://website101.com/arch/archive96.html
I have a much better list. Here's a few additional sites for
you to review so you can gain a true understanding of what the
little guy truly needs to survive as a small business.
http://www.ideacafe.com
http://www.guru.com
http://www.elance.com
http://www.allbusiness.com
http://www.website101.com I'm not too proud to list my own site.
About the Author
Mike Valentine does Search Engine Placement for the Small
Business http://website101.com/SearchEnginePositioning.html
WebSite101 "Reading List" Weekly Netrepreneur Tip Sheet
Weekly Ezine emphasizing small business on the Internet
http://website101.com/arch/