Cnet’s Ina Fried calls the move possibly unprecedented, and I have to agree: I can’t ever recall a time when Microsoft has cut the price of a current operating system. I can’t recall Microsoft cutting the price of any current product at all, for that matter.But here we are: If you buy an upgrade version of Vista at retail, you’re in for a discount.

Two versions are seeing price corrections, and only in the U.S.: Vista Ultimate, upgrade version, falls from $299 to $219. Vista Home Premium, upgrade version, goes from $159 to $129. All other Vista editions remain priced the same.

Microsoft rationalizes the move by saying that it was shocked to see how, in pricing tests, the increased sales volume “more than made up for” the amount of lost revenue and concedes that it probably set initial prices too high. (Still, why not cut the non-upgrade pricing, too, Microsoft?)

Critics are curious as to why Microsoft didn’t cut the price that computer vendors pay for the OS to be preinstalled on new machines, but it’s clearly a case of the good old Microsoft monopoly at work. OEM manufacturers have little choice but to install Microsoft’s latest OS on their machines, and they’re largely beholden to the price that Microsoft sets.

Still, it’s nice to see some weakness in the armor of Microsoft’s hubris as well as a non-verbal acknowledgement that Vista is not selling as well as Microsoft would like everyone to believe. So, how long before people who paid full price for the upgrade start clamoring for a refund? (Ha!)

So you have decided to go online with your new enterprise. That is fantastic, but have you given a thought about what type of online operations you wish to have? Suppose you are an expert potter, you could just churn out several different kinds of pots and sell them on your website. But internet offers wide possibilities for you: auctioning your pots to highest bidder could be a great way to increase your income and interest in your pots. Your website could offer customers facility to virtually create the artwork for their pots, provide complete information about different material, designs, manufacturing methods etc about pots and make it a complete portal. You could even team up with lots of people in similar business and create a co-operative marketing website. The possibilities are endless.

There are several internet business models which you could adapt to succeed in your enterprise. But understanding the requirements, operations, internet platform/ technologies and components of each model is necessary. Depending on these aspects the costs of setting up your online enterprise also varies.

The most widely online business models and how they work have been discussed hereunder: marketing finished goods; marketing services and offering specific knowledge about certain subjects. In each of the three models there are immense possibilities of revenue generation.

Marketing finished goods
This is fairly straightforward and simple business model wherein you market goods you manufacture or deal with on the internet website instead of a brick and mortar shop. You could employ one of the three most common methods to accomplish this, setting up a virtual store, creating auctions online and listing your goods on an online marketplace and compete with other sellers. The transactions can be completed using secure online payment gateway to receive money and a reliable courier to ship products to customers.

Marketing Services
Akin to selling finished goods or physical items, you could offer services to prospective customers online too. Say for instance you could create marketing collateral for companies, offering backend support for online markets, offer programming services to companies who wish to host their own websites. You could have hosting services for websites etc.

Offering knowledge/ data online
Most of us consider that people want all information free on the internet. But it is not true. There are several netizens who are willing to pay for specific information even if it is delivered online through the web. You could create a data bank on specialized and advanced data and offer it to your customers. Apart from these online magazines (ezines), pay-to-access information websites and other knowledge portals also offer good money making opportunities.

It is not necessary that you stick to one of the above models when you do business on the internet. You could combine one or more models and establish a successful online enterprise. There are other variations too which could be used to succeed online.

Today, any business either online or offline is equally competitive. Retaining offline customers is easier when compared to retaining online customers for a simple fact that online customers have no idea who they are dealing with, as in they do not get to see the who you are in person. It is a major draw back when one has to deal with an anonymous identity.

Business owners will have to go a step beyond and put in effort and implement newer technologies to ensure that their customers feel safe and ensure that they are ‘heard’ when they have something to speak. Just like any other offline business, interaction with customers becomes top priority and also it is very important that customers feel comfortable dealing with you. The whole experience serves as a deciding point if they return back to you or not, if they recommend you or not as viral recommendation is very important in any form of business.

Listed below are some of the strategies online business owners can implement in their business to get their online business to the next level.

Live Chats

One of the most common methods is to have a customer service operator available online during specified working hours. An easy to use live chat Java applet will enable the operator to talk to several customers at a time. This will help drive more sales by answering their queries immediately. Remember people love being heard and will like it if their queries are answered, and if it happens almost immediately, then nothing better.

Support Groups/ Forums / FAQ sections

Create a group of your customers who can answer common queries to other customers. This will give your business a certain amount of credibility and also help cutting costs while improving your business. If you have a good product and service you’ll pretty much find folks ready to help you, after all there are a lot of good folks still waiting to go to heaven.

Recruiting and preparing employees for deployment online

Finding good employees is difficult in an era where there is an acute shortage of trained people. And online customer support executives are a rare species and a valuable asset. Get some and ensure they stick by to help customers who are eager to buy your product or service.

Coercing your customers into providing personal details

It is important for an entrepreneur to find out who his online customers are. One effective way is to establish a news letter so that people who sign up can be profiled; another is to install an IP tracker to find out who is visiting from where and what search queries they use to come around to your site. This helps you in understanding your customers’ needs and requirements.

Serve your customers to make their online shopping experience pleasant and they not will be back soon but will also get you more customers.

Off late we see an increase in the number of entrepreneurs who are coming up with unique ideas and they are putting in effort to convert those ideas into reality. There begins the journey of a start up. But, to transform those ideas into reality, you need lot more than just the idea. Not always, everyone is backed by “Angel Investors”. Logistics, office space, staff all these come with money. So a start up needs to wisely plan and invest money in areas only where it is necessary.

If a start up needs cost effect network management solution then, Pure Networks - Network Magic is a perfect fit.

Easy to use (you don’t need a geek to set it up for your), all the network and related aspects are addressed by the software, cost effective and great customer care if in case you run into problems. Sounds a perfect solution when you do not have a lot of money to spend, without compromising on the features that makes a start-up or a small businesses life.

Pure Networks smarted move has been that they have tied up with Lenovo and the company aims to supply software to all Lenovo consumers by default. The desktops of Lenovo would be equipped with Network Magic. Quite a good marketing move as the Lenovos brand image will help Network Magic get more recognition. Also the fact that Lenovo trusts Network Magic should say something in itself.

Not that Lenovo is not benefited from this deal. I as a customer would buy a ready made solution (when it comes to networking I better buy a ready made solution ), than fiddle around later looking for good technicians. Lenovo plans to assist entrepreneurs to set up their home office business and maintain a reliable network. It aims to create awareness about the network set up on how easy it can be.

It looks as though the software has been exclusively designed for entrepreneurs who wish to start an office on a smaller budget.

Success lasts only when it is earned. It’s always preferable that way because the hurdles which make success a difficult process would prevent a person from a complete downfall. Although these obstacles seem discouraging in the beginning, they help people to discover innovative ways to succeed.

Have you ever thought of initiating a campaign to promote your business online?

It is crucial to raise the question whether it is possible for small business firms to advertise online or not at the cost of least investment option. Yes, small firms need assistance in this regard without which it’s impossible to succeed. They might lack information on how to go about advertising online and how to find customers.

What small firms can do is seek out campaigns online, which would transform small business firms into big corporate houses. Small business firms can also energize the campaign for excellence.

Here’s one such initiative to help small business houses succeed:

The top most Search Engine Google has tied up with salesforce.com to provide assistance to small and medium size businesses to advertise and plan campaigns online. They might not be aware of the advertising and campaign planning strategies. This site would have all the necessary information.

Small firms can create their accounts on sales force profile and can have access to different software’s like ad words and customer relationship management software’s. This will enable them to buy and place ads at the same place. The firms can constantly be in touch with customers as well.

Apart from this, the service would enable small firms to search for key words which would best suit their businesses along with customer related information. To create awareness among the small business firms, one week free trial is being offered by salesforce.com. Customers can also avail of various promotional offers now.

Do small firms lack marketing support? Is that the reason for their loss?

Here’s a solution….

A California based marketing firm, 10 step marketing has unveiled a membership club designed exclusively for small investment firms.

The investment firm aims to provide continuous marketing and sales support to its members. This would give small firms recognition in the market.

Step of the Month Club wishes to provide young entrepreneurs with marketing assistance on various topics every month. This will help them focus on different marketing fields and its problems.

The club will also organize seminars and online discussions with experts from marketing fields speaking on various marketing problems and solutions. This would help the small firms overcome problems to some extent.

Debbie LaChusa is the founder and president of the club.

Members can also choose the topics that interest them. At the end of the year, club members can try out different strategies for their business growth.

Some of the topics which have benefited a large number of small firms include: “How to Publish an eZine,” “Developing a Marketing Message etc.

The main aim of the club is to provide small firms with marketing assistance at a very reasonable cost.

The membership fee for the club is $ 24.95. The new members will get one month free membership.

So, isn’t it the time to get started?

Well, it’s too simple…Just log on to http://www.StepOfTheMonth.com

Yes, small companies are battling for survival. They are in a helpless situation. Small firms are unable to face their competitors.

Unbelievable but true…….

Here is a survey report which proves the fact.

A joint study conducted by Dell and International Council for Small Business Global, a research group based in Washington shows that big giants are not coming to the rescue of small companies. They are not providing them any type of technical and service assistance.

The most common problems which respondents (small companies) faced included server problems, PC security problems and problems faced during manufacturing.

The questions were divided into 3 categories namely Installation, maintenance, and upgrades; data security; and problem-solving. The respondents had to answer questions under all the 3 categories.

The study was conducted on 1,800 small business companies from across the globe. The results of the study proved the fact that only 25% of firms received help from software manufacturing companies while 22% respondents had to depend on consultants for their survival.

The survey stated that big companies often tend to ignore small firms. This led to small firms facing innumerable problems.

Hiring consultants is expensive for small firms. Small companies cannot shell out more on consultants because of low investment. Hence, they depend on big firms for all types of technical and service assistance.

What would happen when no assistance is provided?

* The operations of small firms would come to a standstill
* Small firms would not have most of the resources (Intellectual and finance) for manufacturing.
* No clients would be interested in their products because of lack of quality
* Competition from big giants could lead to the closure of the companies.
* Small firms would not be able to pay the employees well. So, employees may shift to different firms.
* Small firms might face data security problems since installation of such systems requires a lot of investment.

However, the companies will have to look at other ways to compensate for their losses.

Here are a few tips which could help them to some extent:

* Attract investors. Have more shareholders
* Consult a legal practitioner before investing
* Maintain good employee, share holder relations. Respect their opinion
* Never give a chance for misunderstanding

The findings of the study concluded that small companies do not depend on single solution for their survival. Instead they always try to imitate what their other small counter parts. But researchers felt that this would not serve any purpose.

Promotion is an essential factor when it comes to branding yourself/company/product. Well, it’s a well known fact that putting up a blog comes a long way in promoting your self/company/product. Every other person involved in the marketing industry, either directly or indirectly is associated with blogging and it’s so for obvious reasons.

When it comes to promoting anything, there are two ways, one is the good way known as good promotion and the other, yeah, bad promotions. Well, do I hear you saying, promotions are promotions so what’s the deal with good or bad promotions now?

Let’s face it, good promotions can portray you/your product a “must have” substance in front of your potential customers where are bad promotions can be a major turn off. Bad promotions can turn you into a laughing stock and ensure you look like a joker.

Well by now you are wondering WTF? The title talks about Google Video Blog and am uttering absolutely irrelevant stuff, right? Hold on, mm coming right there.

I was forced to write this post as I came across an interesting post, which speaks what a blunder google had committed, though it’s an age old post, there are some “marketing lessons” to be learnt from it.

If you are blogging for fun, then these kind of mistakes don’t matter much, but when it’s a corporate blog and there are millions of eye balls watching every single word you type, every word you speak, every single thought you express, you need to double check before presenting anything.