Business Information for Entrepreneurs by an Entrepreneur

I don't have Skype… but I hate to admit it. I'll eventually have to get it because colleagues always ask me to communicate with them on it. But there are two reasons why I don't have it.

The first is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype. I realize you can't trust everything you read on the Internet but this has me concerned enough to think twice before I use it. Some of the things I'm concerned about include (quoting from Wikipedia):

• Keeps chatting on the network, even when idle
• Blind trust in anything else speaking Skype
• Skype makes it hard to enforce a (corporate) security policy
• SkypeOut can be more expensive
• The continuous access pattern does not allow the disk to enter "sleep" or "idle" modes while Skype is active, even when offline

Other reasons were mentioned but these 5 are my biggest concerns.

The second reason is anecdotal: Every time someone has called me (on my landline phone) from their Skype, the quality has been low, the delay between talking has been painfully long (even on local calls), and some of the time I'm put on hands-free, which means that my voice is coming out of the computer speakers and I can hear myself talking. All of these things are very distracting to having a real conversation with someone.

I love new technology and I love to see it leveraged for better business use. But to me, Skype just isn't there yet. Right now they're on version 2.5. I'll wait a couple more versions before I look at it again.

Some have called 2006 the year of the Internet video . (In fact, one person posted that prediction on October 19th, 2005.) From what I can see, they're right.

I used to receive the odd joke or link in my email from friends. This year it's all been video. When you combine the omnipresence of cameras in cell phones with wireless Internet connections and sites like Google Video and YouTube, you get a recipe for nearly immediate videos posted online.

Companies are using video, too. They create advertising in the form of videos that could potentially "go viral." They don't have to be expensive, just creative. In fact, a clever commercial that is ONLY posted online can earn you more business for less than a commercial that is paid to air on television.

Check out Google Video and Google “commercial” and see what comes up.

Delaney L. writes, “Buzz, I serve a niche in which I sell information to both realtors and home owners. How do you recommend I market to them effectively?”

Dear Delaney,

“You'd be surprised how often I'm asked this question. Many people try to ‘kill two birds with one stone' and market to two niches. I think if your business is going well then you should expand!

My first recommendation, though, is to master one niche and add products that meet their needs. If you do want to market to another niche or if you already market to another niche, I would recommend separating your efforts. After all, in most cases neither niche uses the same online search terms to look for your information or goes to the same sources to find what you're selling.

In your specific case, I would guess that the information you sell might be passed over by realtors who are afraid it's too "watered down" to appeal to home owners' general interests. And, home owners may not buy it because they are afraid it's too technical and geared more to realtors.

I usually end up recommending that you start two businesses. Or, if that's not practical, create two websites with their own separate domains. If you want to leverage your name and reputation, create each business “as a division of” your original business. If you're still getting traffic to your original business site, have a single splash page with two links: a home owners link that takes them to your new home owners page and a realtors link that takes them to your realtors page. This will also allow you to measure the success of each side of your business.”