Entrepreneurs Share Their Favorite Sites In New .Net 100 Rankings

Entrepreneur Magazine’s website asked readers recently to rank their favorite .net sites. The result is the .Net 100 Ranking.

The most popular domain names in the English-speaking world remain .com names.  Search engines love them, and when people are looking for a specialist site, they more often than not assume that the best site is a .com one. But Entrepreneur claims that their ranking shows that .net domains have now become mainstream, and can more than hold their own against a .com.

The editors at Entrepreneur certainly seem to think the most recent list bears this out. After all, .net domain names are hosted in more than 200 countries worldwide, and the .net zone has doubled in size since 2006, surpassing 15 million domain names registered globally in 2013. Raymond Hennessey, editorial director at Entrepreneur.com, said:

“Doing this ranking made it obvious to us that the .net domain is truly mainstream - and it can actually be a competitive advantage for entrepreneurs. When we really looked closely at .net sites, we saw an eye-opening range of brands and businesses brimming with passionate followers. These already successful sites seemingly are a major driver behind why others are following suit when they’re ready to register.”

We’re not sure it proves that. Using anything other than a .com tends to cause confusion, as most of us automatically insert the .com extension. And it’s hard to extrapolate based on growth of .net domain names. After all, holders of the .com domain often snap up the .net version simply as a defensive move, to prevent squatters and infringers for capitalizing on their brand.

But it is interesting to see the top 10 .Net sites from Entrepreneur readers. Here’s the full list:

1. SlideShare.net
2. PHP.net
3. Battle.net
4. Behance.net
5. Speedtest.net
6. Explosm.net
7. SourceForge.net
8. AmericanApparel.net
9. Slickdeals.net
10. DocuSign.net

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After Declining AOL Offer, Business Insider To Raise More Funds

Business Insider may be gearing up to raise more funding. Clearly, the company is not ready  for acquisition, at least not yet. Reports in the media suggest the business news site already turned down an offer of between $100 and $150 million from AOL last year.

But Business Insider did raise about $5 million in investment last spring. Some of that money came from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s private investment firm Bezos Expeditions. But it also included funding from Institutional Venture Partners, RRE Ventures and angel investor Marc Andreessen. In total, the company has raised $18 million from investors since its founding in 2007. Sources say a future investment may come from the same investors and may be for considerably more, Recode reports.

Business Insider co-founders, Henry Blodget and Kevin Ryan, seem to feel the time is right for raising this more ambitious round of funding and they may be right.

For comparison, Tech news site Mashable recently raised $13 million in outside funding. Mashable sees about 30 million unique visitors a month and reportedly raised its funding on a valuation of more than $50 million. Meanwhile, Business Insider now receives about 20 million unique visitors a month and raised its $5 million in funding last summer on a valuation of $60 million.

Meanwhile, the news site continues to grow.

In 2013, the company more than doubled it’s profits over the previous year bringing in an estimated $20 million in revenue. In 2012, Business Insider generated $10 million in revenue but posted a $3 million loss, Bloomberg reported.

In a post in June, Blodget said the most recent round of funding (the $5 million raised in 2013) was being used for additional investment in editorial and technology at the company.

Those editorial and technology resources have been used with great economy. Last spring, The New Yorker reported that Business Insider had already gained more monthly visitors than CNBC. And only sites owned by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Bloomberg still outdistanced it in terms of online audience.

Image: Business Insider

New Survey Tool from GetFeedback.com Optimized for Mobile Viewing

There’s a new survey tool aiming to compete head on with Survey Monkey.

Launched by the former CMO at Salesforce.com, GetFeedback.com is made, from the ground up, to be very visual and make it easy to take a survey on small screens.

I believe that we’ll see a small differentiation between “legacy” products that fit best on a larger computer screens and products, build to fit on large screens or small screens.

When building your web site, an app or any other product that someone will access via the Internet ensure that it looks good on the small screen a cell phone, tablet or any other gadget coming our way.

You can check out a short video about GetFeedback.com below:

GetFeedback - Product Overview from GetFeedback on Vimeo.

Small Business Loans for Minority Women Entrepreneurs

Loans for minority business women and entrepreneurs may seem non-existent to some, but if you know where to go and who to talk to you will find that they are out there.

Women who are minority entrepreneurs are often at a disadvantage when it comes to having the necessary resources to start and grow a successful business. So it’s no surprise to me when I hear them say small business loans for women just don’t sound realistic. In fact, the lack of resources for women who are minority entrepreneurs was recently discussed in an article written by the multi-million dollar heiress of the Washington Post, Katherine Weymouth.

The Disadvantage

In the article, Katherine discusses the plight of minority women entrepreneurs by using Facebook Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, “Lean In,” as a reference. In the book ‘Lean In,” Sheryl says she is writing the book for any woman who wants to take her career to the next level.

However, most of the women who will be able to relate to what she says are women who have a choice on when and how much to work â€" a choice that most minority women entrepreneurs do not have. Most of the information is for women who have the financial resources and support to take them to the next level in their careers.

Katherine posed a question regarding Sheryl’s book and that question is: How do you lean in, when you don’t have someone to lean on?

Build Your Own Network

The fact of the matter is minority women entrepreneurs are going to have to build their own network of resources to “lean on,” especially if they want to obtain a small business loan.

Small business loans for women are offered through many SBA microloan programs. SBA microloans are mainly offered by local community based, nonprofit micro-lending organizations that provide up to $50,000 to entrepreneurs in disadvantaged communities. Minority women are often considered disadvantaged because they simply don’t have access to the financial resources and support needed to start and build successful businesses.

If you’re a minority woman entrepreneur and you’re in need of small business loan for women, you should definitely consider applying for an SBA microloan. An SBA microloan may be just what you need to get your business off the ground and take you career to the next level.

The Statistics

Consider these statistics (PDF), complied by Opportunity Fund and the Accion U.S. Network, a microloan lender who provides small business loans for women, when deciding whether or not an SBA microloan may be right for you:

• 97% of the entrepreneurs who received microloans, were still operating their business two years later as a result of obtaining the funding.
• 54% of the entrepreneurs who received microloans, were able to hire an average of 5.6 employees as result of obtaining the funding.
• 32% of the entrepreneurs who received microloans, said their revenues increased as a result of obtaining the funding and 41% said the increase in revenue met or exceeded their expectations.

With statistics like that, it sure seems that a microloan is worth considering if you are looking to grow your business.

If you’re looking for loans for minority business women, then a microloan can definitely be a step in the right direction. Check with your local SBA district office to find a microloan lender in your area and you may be glad you did.

Coin Photo via Shutterstock

More in: Women Entrepreneurs

New Small Business Breakfast Series from Wix & Infusionsoft. Skin Care Company’s Healthy Growth from Online Marketing

Launching February 5th, Wix (do it yourself web sites for small business) and Infusionsoft (all in one online sales and marketing CRM software for small business) are launching a fresh, new small business breakfast series.

Each breakfast will feature one successful small business owner and bring out their practical tips, challenges, success and best practices.

You’ll learn how they’ve used online marketing to grow their business. You won’t just learn of the “success” but we’ll also share their challenges and their journey - so you can learn too.

Find out more details and register here - http://www.smallbizbreakfast.com/

Hosted by Ramon Ray and Annie Malarkey, our first guest in the Wix Small Business Breakfast Series is Tara Atwood co-founder of Amber Blue, the luxurious natural and organic skincare company based in Boston and New York City.  She has worked in both London and New York City for startups and large public companies in Business Development, Operations, Marketing and Investor Relations.  Her experience has given her the confidence to build Amber Blue Skin Care from the ground up.

Find out more details and register here - http://www.smallbizbreakfast.com/

Apple Stores Will Fix Broken iPhone Displays Starting This Week

Apple stores will begin fixing or replacing broken displays on the iPhone 5c starting this week, according to multiple media reports. There’s no specific mention of the repairs on the Apple Retail Store page. But some sources indicate those repairs could begin being offered as early as today.

Local Apple retail stores already offer face to face troubleshooting and tech support with many problems. And in some cases on the spot repairs are already available, the website says. The company began offering a similar service for iPhone 5 users last summer. As with many similar in-store services, you can make an appointment ahead of time to speak with a technician. Apple is gearing up to start fixing iPhone 5s screens, too. But that program is only in limited roll-out in select retail stores at the moment, 9to5Mac reports.

The service could be important to iPhone users. Without the repair, many could be looking at replacing the whole phone. That could be costly and inconvenient in terms of having to reload apps, contacts, etc. onto a new phone. With the new service, customers should be able to walk into a retail store and come out with a repaired phone in about an hour.

Display repair or replacement not covered under the phone’s warranty is expected to cost about $149, according to 9to5mac. That’s in line with the cost of repair service being offered for the iPhone 5. That’s still less than a new iPhone 5c when purchased unlocked and contract free.

The iPhones 5c and 5s hit the market in late-September last year. The iPhone 5c is considered Apple’s first foray into the affordable smartphone market. It starts at $99 when purchased with a two year contract. The new repair service should be available in all U.S. retail stores beginning this week.

Apple Photo via Shutterstock

Wickr lays down US$ 100,000 bounty challenge to hackers

January 20, 2014

Secure messaging app provider Wickr has joined the top echelon of software developers by launching a bug bounty programme that offers up to US $100,000 for hackers who can find flaws in its software.

Security is fundamental to San Francisco-based Wickr, the service which launched two years ago and offers free text, audio, picture and video messaging that self-destructs.

The company is now aiming to ramp up its security, in a bid to be safe from hackers and government spies, by offering bug bounty rewards to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of its users data.

In a recent blog post, co-founder and CTO Dr. Robert Statica said: “Wickr is looking to recruit the best hackers in the world in a continuous effort to protect our users. Starting today, we are offering generous amounts of money for critical security bugs found in our app and responsibly disclosed.”

CEO and co-founder Nico Sell added that Wickr has already extensively stress-tested its software, but told SCMagazineUK.com that the bounty was the next logical step.

“We don't think anyone will find anything - but it's worth it to us if they do. The level of bug bounty is high because security is important to us. It's as much money as anyone offers."

‘Bug bounty' is a controversial area with over 200 software companies now offering rewards, against competition from ‘black hat' cyber criminals and nation states who pay generously for bugs that they can exploit. It is estimated that the most significant bugs can command prices of around £250,000 on the black market.

Andrew Beckett, a cyber security expert with Airbus Defence and Space, confirmed that these market forces are driving bug bounty programmes.

He told SCMagazineUK.com: “Unfortunately the black economy in this market is financed by the serious amounts of lucre that successful cybercrime can deliver - that's millions - which means that Governments and the IT sector are forced to compete for the best expertise and reward accordingly.”

 “The bounty being offered to researchers to identify bugs or issues with software is comparable with the rewards offered to individuals who can identify exploits, viruses and other cyber attack mechanisms,” he added. “The cyber environment is no longer a technology driven field of enterprise but a serious market driven by capitalist market forces.”

Statica said in his blog that as well as paying up to US$ 100,000 (£60,835) for vulnerabilities affecting user confidentiality and integrity: “We will also consider paying the same amount for defence techniques and novel approaches to eliminating the vulnerability that are submitted at the same time. Our goal is to make this the most generous and successful bounty programme in the world.”

“Beyond making lots of money, you can feel good about helping Wickr because we were founded to protect the basic human right of private correspondence. Private correspondence is extremely important to a free society. People all over the world depend on Wickr. Please help us with this mission.”

Wickr says its software is used by “reporters, sources, senators, cops, freedom fighters, doctors, patients, lawyers, bankers, military, intel, boards, billionaires, celebs and college students”.

The company provides a method to send encrypted text, photos, videos, voice and PDFs and leave no trace. Both sender and receiver must have the app to communicate. Only the receiver is able to decrypt the message once it has been sent. Wickr does not have the decryption keys.

“Companies like Apple, Facebook and Google offer messaging that is archived, easily traceable, controlled by the recipient, shared with strangers and sold to marketers,” said the company. “Wickr flips messaging on its head, giving control to the sender instead of the receiver (or servers in between).”

20 million South Koreans hit by massive banking breach

January 20, 2014

South Korea's regulators say that 20 million bank and credit card users have been compromised

The Korean Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) released a statement over the weekend, which revealed that the compromised data includes customer names, social security numbers, credit card numbers and expiry dates. The leak is said to affect at least 20 million users in a country of around 50 million people.

The source of the leak is said to be an employee from personal credit rating firm Korea Credit Bureau (KCB). The person apparently stole the information from internal servers at credit card firms KB Kookmin Card, Lotte Card, and NH Nonghyup Card while working as a temporary consultant, and was selling the data onto phone marketing companies, but has now been arrested.

As a result, regulators have launched investigations into the security measures employed by the aforementioned credit card companies, who themselves have vowed to cover any financial loss suffered by their customers.

South Korea has been a hotbed of data breaches in recent times. Just last month, a Citibank Korea employee was arrested for stealing the personal data of 34,000 customers, while hackers stole data from 8.7 million customers at KT Corp, the nation's second largest mobile operator in 2012. Local social networking site Cyworld and games developer Nexon have also suffered major data breaches in years gone by.

This latest breach once again reinforces the growing threats from companies' own employees, a rising issue since the NSA leaks from former CIA contractor Edward Snowden.

“As with recent government super leaks this breach once against demonstrates the threat that a malicious internal employee poses to organisations, no matter how robust their internet facing security is,” Rob Cotton, CEO at NCC Group, told SCMagazineUK.com, who said that stopping “motivated malicious employees” is “nigh impossible”.

"Whilst in this case it was allegedly the employee themselves, it could have easily been malicious code abusing the employee's legitimate system access. A robust organisational security posture is a blend of staff vetting, technical countermeasures, separation of duty and monitoring for egregious abuse of access legitimate or otherwise. Only by taking this blended approach can organisations hope to detect and minimise the impact from such attacks. 

“Data leaks by employees or trusted partners, whether accidental or intentional, are still one of the biggest risks facing companies,” Keith Bird, Check Point UK managing director told SCMagazineUK.com.

“In 2013, our DLP survey found that 52 percent of knowledge workers regularly risk accidental breaches with unsafe computing practices, such sending emails to wrong addresses, or using unencrypted USB sticks. 

“So if a trusted person chooses to harvest and leak a large amount of data, the damage can be severe, in terms of remediation costs, fines from regulators and loss of reputation.  Trust is a precious commodity, and it's all too easily exploited.”

Nickel Bags, Not Bags of Nickels

Opponents of the legalization of marijuana in Washington and Colorado have worried that sanctioning its recreational use would increase criminal activity. While this concern is largely unfounded ( careful scientific studies show little evidence of a causal link between pot consumption and increased criminal activity by its users), opponents may have missed the real way the legalization of cannabis will increase crime: By making its sellers cash-only businesses.

While 20 states and the District of Columbia have sanctioned medical marijuana, and Colorado and Washington have legalized its recreational use, the industry is largely cut off from the financial system. Federal anti-drug laundering laws have made banking difficult for the businesses selling cannabis. As a result, most of the industry currently operates outside the banking system, with some merchants unable to even get checking accounts.

Policy makers need to get the small businesses in this emerging industry connected to the financial system before real problems emerge.

Right now, virtually everything in this industry is cash-only. Buying the product requires cash - no checks or credit cards. Checks are a non-starter because too few merchants have bank accounts. The major card processors Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. bar the use of their credit and debit cards to make purchases of the product, the Wall Street Journal reports.

This is on the operating side of the house as well. Without checking accounts, many of the companies pay all of their bills, including tax bills and payrolls, in cash or money orders bought with stacks of cash.

As one might imagine, this situation makes many types of criminal activity possible, as Colorado’s two senators and four of its representatives outlined in a recent letter (PDF) to officials in the Justice Department and the U.S. Treasury. Cash-filled retail outlets are targets for thieves, as are the business owners and employees when they move money to physically pay bills.

The potential for fraud emerges when merchants and credit card processors bend their rules to allow businesses to use credit cards, or when business owners use their personal accounts to give their businesses access to the banking system. Auditing and regulating these companies, and ensuring their compliance with tax laws, are also more difficult when all of the transactions are cash-only.

Fortunately, these problems are easily averted by amending federal law to facilitate connecting these businesses to the banking system. Representative Ed Perlmutter, a Colorado Democrat, has already introduced a bill to Congress to do just that. Entitled the “Marijuana Business Banking Act of 2013 (H.R. 2652),” Mr. Perlmutter’s bill keeps regulators from taking action against lenders or borrowers solely because the business seeking access to the banking system is a marijuana-related company.

Congress should pass this law. Failure to do so will increase the chances that marijuana legalization really will increase criminal activity.

Dispensary Photo via Shutterstock