Adwords Shopping Campaigns Set to Replace Product Listing Ads

Recently, Google announced that PLA campaigns, or Product Listing Ads campaigns, will be replaced by the end of August with Shopping Campaigns. There are new features you’ll find with the Shopping Campaigns that are meant to help you manage your campaigns at scale. According to the announcement, these campaigns have received great feedback so far.

Shopping campaigns have actually been available for advertisers since February of this year, so for many the transition won’t be too overwhelming. You have quite a bit of time to get accustomed to the new types of campaigns. If you’re an advertiser already running a regular PLA campaign, you can choose to either replace all of these campaigns with Shopping Campaigns right away, or you can slowly move over your campaigns one by one.

Nevertheless, the sooner you can learn about the benefits and how it all works, the better forward you can move your AdWords campaign and get ready for the big August switch.

New Features of Shopping Campaigns in AdWords

As discussed above and in the announcement, Shopping Campaigns were introduced in February of this year and offered:

“. . .the ability to browse your inventory directly in AdWords, report on your performance down to the product-level, and bid competitively with new metrics like benchmark data and impression share.”

The latest features of the new Shopping Campaigns include:

• Bid Simulator: This tool will help you estimate how bid changes will affect your impressions, clicks, or costs.
• Shopping Campaign Options: There are now new options available that help you either create a campaign from scratch or use one of your regular PLA campaigns to help you keep things consistent such as product targets, negative keywords, and your content.
• Advanced Retailers: Some advanced retailers may want to create multiple ad groups, so now Shopping Campaigns make it easy.

The above three features are new to Shopping Campaigns, but many of the other benefits still remain true. You still get powerful reporting that allows you to see how your products are performing at any level (no new product groups needed), competitive data and advanced optimization (using the bid simulator tool), and retail-centric campaign management (browse your product inventory directly in AdWords).

Some of the Changes You’ll See with Shopping Campaigns Instead of PLAs

Although you have until August to use your PLAs, it’s important to start familiarizing yourself with some of the things that are different about the Shopping Campaigns. A few of these differences include:

They Use Product Groups, Not Product Targets

In the past with regular PLAs you would need to manually create and manage each of your product targets. With Shopping Campaigns, all of your product data is accessible within AdWords. These campaigns are powered by your Merchant Center product data, but you can browse and organize your product inventory without having to reference your Merchant Center product data.

Custom Labels Overtake AdWords Grouping

Shopping Campaigns use Custom Labels instead of AdWords labels or grouping. Custom Labels helps you subdivide your products in a campaign. You can create up to five custom labels for every product.

Note: Until August, if you’re still using PLA campaigns you shouldn’t replace your AdWords Labels with Custom labels in your product feed because it could affect your performance.

In the end, it’s really the way you manage and monitor your campaigns that has changed. So what hasn’t changed? What the new Shopping Campaigns offer users and potential customers is just the same as with the old PLAs. The ads will still appear in the same places on the Web and on the same networks, so the need for these campaigns hasn’t changed.

Resources to Help You Learn More About the New Shopping Campaigns

Google has been publishing quite a few different options for those of you who are still unfamiliar and want to learn more. Some resources that may help you:

So what does this all mean to you?

In the end, it’s important to understand how Shopping Campaigns work and the benefits they can offer because come August, these will be your only option. I think you’ll find that they aren’t too different than your regular PLAs. But it’s still important to become familiar with some of your options so that you can move your AdWords efforts forward over the next year and beyond.

Are you familiar with Shopping Campaigns in AdWords? Let us know about your experience and what you think about Google retiring PLAs ads.

Republished by permission. Original here.

Image: Google

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How Do You Feel About Raising the Minimum Wage?

President Obama’s efforts to encourage Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 have received a lot of press. The Small Business Majority polled (PDF) small business owners to see how they feel about this controversial issue and found thatâ€"well, actually, they found that there’s a lot less controversy than the news media might lead you to expect.

Although Republicans in the House and Senate have signaled they are unlikely to approve an increase, The New York Times reports, Republicans in the survey were far more supportive. The majority (57 percent) of survey respondents favor increasing the minimum wage in three stages over two and a half years, then adjusting it annually to keep up with the cost of living.

In fact, 61 percent of those in the retail and restaurant industries, which are typically thought to be the most affected by minimum wage issues, supported an increase. Nor was this issue divided among party lines. Overall, 47 percent of respondents identified as Republicans, and 35 percent as Democrats.

Why do small business owners support raising the minimum wage when the media portrays businesses as universally opposed? There are several reasons.

Many Already Pay More

Many employers already pay their employees more than the minimum wage. A whopping 82 percent of small business owners in the survey pay more than the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

A Benefit to Sales

Small business owners think increasing the minimum wage will benefit their sales. Fifty-two percent of entrepreneurs in the survey say raising the minimum wage will help small businesses because minimum-wage earners, who are more likely than other consumers to shop at local businesses, will have more money available to spend on products and services.

Help in Competing

Small business owners also believe that raising the minimum wage will help them compete. Thirty-five percent expect that a higher minimum wage will prevent competitors from undercutting them on labor costs.

Relief to Taxpayers

They want to relieve the burden on taxpayers. More than half (54 percent) of survey respondents think it would be helpful if minimum-wage earners had more of their own money to spend and could rely less on government assistance, thus on taxpayers, to survive.

It’s the Right Thing to Do

They believe it’s the right thing to do. Finally, the same percentage (54 percent) of respondents think it’s not right that the current minimum wage only provides a salary of $15,080 annually for a full-time worker. When adjusted for inflation, the study notes that this is significantly lower than the salary of a full-time minimum wage worker in the 1960′s.

Depending on what state you’re in, of course, whether the federal increase passes or not may not matter. The Times reports that 34 state legislatures are currently mulling increasing their state minimum wages, some of them to levels even higher than $10.10 per hour, and that eight more states may add ballot initiatives this fall that would increase the state minimum wage.

Do you support raising the minimum wage?

Minimum Wage Photo via Shutterstock

Is Your Small Business Maximizing Its Use of Email Marketing Software?

Email marketing software can be a powerful tool for small businesses. It can drive traffic to your website, increase sales, build brand loyalty, and more. And the software is even more powerful if you take full advantage of the tools available to you.

Of course, every email marketing software provider offers a unique platform, but they all provide similar fundamental functions that will help your business either a little or a lot. How much is up to you.

Many email marketers believe they’re using email marketing software to its full potential. They’re designing aesthetically appealing emails, providing valuable content, and seeing acceptable results. However, results could be better than acceptable, and small business email marketers often don’t realize it.

If your small business is running email marketing campaigns through a software provider, and you’re not sure you’re making the most of that investment, consider the following questions.

These three questions will help you discover new ways to maximize your email marketing software, and hopefully, improve your email marketing results.

1. Are You Analyzing Your Data?

In this era of “Big Data,” most email marketing software providers offer at least some form of numerical feedback. When you send an email, you generally get data on who opened the email, who clicked, what they clicked, who opted out, who marked the email as spam, and who, if anyone, forwarded your email. Every email blast generates a treasure trove of information about subscribers.

Despite the availability of this valuable data, small businesses often ignore its potential. You may send out an email and check its results, thinking that means you’re taking advantage of your software’s data reporting features. In reality, if that’s all you’re doing with all that data, you’re just touching the tip of the iceberg.

Email marketing data is most valuable when you use it to learn about your subscribers and adjust your strategy according to your conclusions. You could, for example, keep track of which content topics generate the most clicks, and then use those topics more often.

Depending on your software provider, this tactic may have a learning curve and require time spent on initial implementation. But once you discover what your subscribers really like, your email marketing campaigns will never be the same.

2. Is Social Sharing Integrated Into Your Marketing Emails?

There are two key ways to integrate social media into your marketing emails. One is fairly standard - including links to your company’s social profiles in each email. If you’re not already doing this, start now.

The second tactic isn’t always given the recognition it deserves. That tactic is social sharing. When it comes to marketing emails, taking advantage of social sharing means giving your subscribers a way to easily, immediately post your email content to a social network. You can either allow recipients to share specific pieces of the email (pin a photo to Pinterest, for example), or you can allow them to share the entire email (or both). Both are useful.

Because social sharing requires very little time to implement in your email marketing campaigns, this is one software tool your small business can’t afford not to take advantage of. According to a study by BlueHornet:

“37% of consumers share emails to their social networks.”

And furthermore, a study by GetResponse found that emails with social sharing buttons achieve click-through rates 158% higher than those without them.

3. Are You A/B Testing?

The more you test and tweak different email components, the more your campaign will resonate with customers. Although single-version email blasts already generate useful data, you can produce more precisely actionable data by A/B testing emails with multiple versions.

Unfortunately, some major email marketing providers don’t make A/B testing easy. Constant Contact, for example, has yet to integrate any type of automated A/B testing tool into its software platform, so users have to create completely separate emails and subscriber lists in order to run tests. If your small business uses this type of email marketing software, you may find testing to be a burden, but it’s definitely useful if you have the time.

Luckily, email platforms with built-in split test tools do exist. GetResponse, for example, offers an integrated A/B testing tool that lets users create an email, choose an element to test in two versions, and automatically send out both versions to custom percentages of an email list. You can set both versions of an email to gradually go out to selected percentages (i.e. 50/50), and then as results come in, the software automatically determines which version is performing better and sends that version to the remaining recipients on your list.

Running simple A/B tests like this through email marketing software can help you continually optimize your emails to improve results. Optimize subject lines, greetings, font colors, button colors, content organization, etc.

By taking advantage of these three neglected email marketing tools (or just one), your small business can increase the ROI of your software investment and improve your overall marketing strategy. And what you learn from email marketing might even benefit other marketing channels.

Viewing Data Photo via Shutterstock

EU telco/ISP/CSP data retention rules ruled invalid

April 10, 2014

"I do hope the Home Office has properly thought-out contingency plans" - Professor Peter Sommer, data forensics specialist

European Union data communications storage legislation has entered a period of limbo, following the European Court of Justice ruling this week that the requirement to store citizen's data for up to two years is invalid.

The EU Data Retention Directive - which became law across the EU in 2006 - requires telcos and CSPs (Communications Service Providers) to store data on people's communication interactions for two years. This allows law enforcement agencies and other interested parties  - subject to court orders being required - to monitor someone's identity, the time of their communication, the location where the communication took place and the frequency of the communications.

This data has been instrumental in a number of high profile terrorist and criminal court cases, but is also used by the Police and the CPS to add weight to their evidence in a wide variety of serious, but more routine, crimes.

Following complaints from Austrian and Irish entities, the European Court of Justice has declared the 2006 law to be invalid, on the basis that it violates two basic human rights: the respect for citizen's private lives and the protection of their personal data.

The European Commission is now hard at work drafting a new data protection law.

CSPs and telcos in the UK have told the Home Office they will continue to maintain their two-year collation of customer data - but have requested urgent clarification from the UK government and the EU. The Internet Service Providers Association has said its members will continue to operate as if the EU data retention obligations are still in place.

The ruling comes amidst reports that the police and spy agencies in the UK are filing around 140 requests a day for access to telco and CSP records - a fact that Sir Anthony May, The UK's Surveillance watchdog is currently investigating.

The British government is widely reported to be privately upset at the EU ruling, although publicly it must acknowledge the EU legal hierarchy.

Commenting on the data retention legal limbo imposed on UK telcos and CSPs, Steve Smith, Managing Director of Pentura, a security consultancy, said that the key point with this ruling is the protection of personal data.

"Customers expect their information to be protected against the risks of hacking, theft and surveillance, which means having a set of enforceable security standards that companies need to show they comply with," he explained.

Digital forensics specialist Professor Peter Sommer - who is often involved in preparing, analysing and presenting IT evidence in court - took a different view, saying that there are potentially major problems ahead for the law enforcement, intelligence and security agencies, as well as telcos, ISPs and the Home Office.

"In the UK, the retention of communications data - who called whom and when, mobile phone locations whenever the phone is powered up, email transactions and Web sites visited - is based not only on primary legislation but on a statutory instrument which itself relies on a EU Directive now stated to be invalid," he said, adding that there has never been a situation like this.

"A gloomy analysis would say: for ISPs and telcos they can now only retain such data as they need for their own business purposes - the Data Protection Act (DPA) criteria - and not all the extra stuff the Data Retention regime requires," he explained.

Professor Sommer - a visiting Professor with de Montfort University - went on to say that the ISPs and telcos should now be destroying anything outside the DPA requests.

The ruling, he says, may also affect old cases, where individuals convicted on evidence from communications data could appeal on the basis that the evidence was illegally obtained.

Against this backdrop, Professor Sommer adds that any law revision will not be easy.

"The judgement allows for targeted data preservation orders - for law enforcement to order the retention of data in respect of specific individuals and against the future possibility that they will demand access when there are sufficient grounds," he said.

"But what will then be the tests for the targeted preservation order - friends and families of actual suspects, individuals themselves peaceful and law abiding but in protest groups where others might possibly resort to unlawful means," he added.

"I do hope the Home Office - who should have been watching the progress of this EU litigation - have properly thought-out contingency plans."

An Update on the Greater Opportunities for Small Business Act

Government contracts for small businesses were discussed this week on Capitol Hill.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) asked the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday to include more contracting for small businesses in a defense spending bill for 2015. Graves serves as chairman of the House Committee on Small Business. Graves testified before the committee that a bill he proposed should be included in the National Defense Authorization Act.

The act is a law passed annually specifying budget and expenditures for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Graves introduced the Greater Opportunities for Small Business Act of 2014 earlier this year.

The bill as written would give small businesses more opportunities to compete for federal government contract work. It has been the goal of the federal government to award at least 23 percent of its sub-contracted work to small businesses. But government agencies have historically fallen short of that goal.

Graves’ legislation actually calls for an increase on that 23 percent goal to 25 percent of all contract work going to small businesses. In addition, Graves also asked the House Armed Services Committee to include another bill that would de-bundle larger government contracts. When some contracts are bundled together, that often leaves small businesses feeling unable to compete for the work.

Asking the House Armed Services Committee for help in his fashion is not new. In fact, small business legislation has often looked for support in the House Armed Services Committee.

In a statement following his testimony to the committee, Graves said:

“Recognizing that this is a crucial area for small businesses, over the past three years, the Armed Services Committee and the Small Business Committee have worked together to reduce barriers to entry, create guidance that allows small businesses to compete and facilitates the Department of Defense (DoD) meeting the needs of the warfighter, and ensure that we have a strong small business industrial base.”

In the past, the House Small Business and Armed Forces committees have teamed to better fund small businesses through government contract work. This has included offering incentives and bonuses to federal employees when contracts are awarded to small businesses.

Also, according to Graves, the committees have joined forces to better ensure that larger companies don’t use fronts to procure government contracts posing as small businesses.

Capitol Hill Photo via Shutterstock

DDoS attacks: Bigger, Badder and Nastier than last year

April 10, 2014

DDoS bots are evolving, developing immunity to cookie and JavaScript challenges along the way.

A raft of next-generation DDoS attacks have marked the first months of 2014, says a new report from Incapsula, which notes that large-scale SYN floods attacks now account for a hefty 51.5 percent of all large-scale attacks.

The research - which covers the whole of 2013 and the first two months of 2014 - says that 81 percent of DDoS attacks seen in 2014 are now multi-vectored, with almost one in every three attacks now above 20 Gbps in data volume terms.

The analysis - entitled the `2013-2014 DDoS Threat Landscape Report' - says that application (Layer 7) DDoS attacks are becoming a major headache for IT professionals as this year progresses, with DDoS bot traffic up by 240 percent in the three months to the end of February this year.

[ Report URL: http://www.incapsula.com/images/blog/images/2013-14_ddos_threat_landscape.pdf  ]

Interestingly, Incapsula says that 29 per cent of botnets have been seen attacking more than 50 targets a month.

The analysis - which is based on 237 network DDoS attacks that exceeded 5 Gbps and targeting Web sites on Incapsula's network - concludes that DDoS bots are evolving, developing immunity to cookie and JavaScript challenges along the way.

In fact, says Incapsula, during the final quarter of 2013, the firm's research team reported the first encounter with browser-based DDoS bots that were able to bypass both JavaScript and Cookie challenges - the two most common methods of bot filtering.

The problem, concludes the report, is that the DDoS attack perpetrators are now looking to raise the stakes even higher by introducing new capabilities, many of which are specifically designed to abuse the weaknesses of traditional anti-DDoS solutions.

As a result, in 2014, the research predicts, many IT organisations will need to re-think their security strategies to respond to latest Layer 3-4 and Layer 7 DDoS threats.

According to Barry Shteiman, Director of Security Strategy with Imperva, the report exposes advancements in both network and application layers. The most interesting take-out from the report, he says, is that the application DDoS attacks are now originating in botnets.

"Last year we wrote extensively about the trend on CMS hacking for industrialised cybercrime where attackers use botnets in order to turn onboard infected machines into botnets and then use those as platforms for network and application attacks," he said.

"For DDoS attacks, it just makes sense. When a hacker has the power of masses with a large botnet, there are great opportunities to disrupt service. When servers are being infected rather than user's computers, it's even worse, just because of the bandwidth and computing power that becomes available to the hacker," he added.

Ashley Stephenson, CEO of Corero Network Security, said that it is essential that the governments take a more active role in encouraging private sector organisations to address the issue of DDoS attacks - and to put in place the appropriate plans to deal with these unavoidable security risks to their business and the nation's financial infrastructure.

"As consumers saw in late 2012 and early 2013, in both the US and UK, banks and financial institutions were successfully targeted by attacks which compromised their online services," he told SCMagazineUK.com.

The Corero CEO went on to say that his company believes that mandated controls - like those recently proposed by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) - will drive organisations to take pro-active steps to regaining control of their online presence.

"These mandates, at a minimum, offer guidance for financial institutions for appropriate DDoS activity monitoring and adequate incident response planning, this will ultimately lead to the deployment of more effective DDoS defence solutions," he explained.

15 Best Marketplaces to Find Skilled Freelance Writers for Your Startup

As more and more business owners turn to content marketing strategies, the demand for talented writers is rising. But finding the cream of the crop isn’t always easy.

To find out where other businesses are sourcing their content writers and editors, we asked 15 entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question.

“What is a great marketplace to find skilled freelance writers to support your company?”

Here’s what YEC community members had to say:

1. Stay-at-Home Moms

“Stay-at-home moms have been a saving grace to RTC. They are oftentimes highly educated, incredibly organized and looking for part-time work that can be completed on their own schedule. These women are a godsend.” ~ Corey Blake, Round Table Companies

2. LinkedIn Groups

“Try posting a part-time job offer in the LinkedIn Groups for your industry. While not everyone spends a ton of time in the groups, very often those looking for work are participating and looking for just this kind of opportunity.” ~ John Rood, Next Step Test Preparation

3. Textbroker

“I’ve used Textbroker many times to find writers for Web content. The thing that I like about Textbroker is the consistency of its service. Articles are always delivered in a timely fashion. The main problem I had with hiring independent writers I found from other places was that there was no level of redundancy. If a person was out sick, then my project had to wait indefinitely.” ~ Lawrence Watkins, Great Black Speakers

4. The Local Business Paper

“The best freelance writers aren’t using freelance hiring sites. That’s because the quality writers won’t be the cheapest. If you can’t write 500 words, why would you pay just $5 for that service? Instead, look in the pages of the local business paper. A Google or Twitter search should reveal if those writers are freelancers. Then reach out!” ~ Rakia Reynolds, Skai Blue Media

5. Published Articles

“We actually hired a freelance writer because of an article we saw on her in Entrepreneur magazine. When we were looking for someone to help us with content, we kept our eyes open for blog posts, business journals, magazines and social media. All of these avenues can bring super talented people into the mix. We recently hired this writer and brought her on full time from contract work.” ~ Parker Powers, Millionaire Network

6. Content Runner

“Content Runner is a great service for finding freelance writing talent. The company maintains a “favorites” list of its top writers, and you can submit topic ideas to that pool of freelancers instead of tracking one writer down for every article you need. That’s an invaluable feature for time-strapped content managers. The administrative team is also highly responsive to client needs and questions.” ~ Phil Laboon, Eyeflow Internet Marketing

7. Guru

“Guru is our preferred freelancer marketplace because it’s easier to connect directly with real individuals. Many other sites are flooded with companies that turn around to re-farm your project. Our experiences are much better when we deal directly with writers rather than a middleman trolling a marketplace.” ~ Nicolas Gremion, Free-eBooks.net

8. Zerys

“We’ve used Zerys for several years. It has a great selection of writers, and you can post either for bid or by a direct rate. You can also post jobs on Elance, oDesk and other job sites, but they are not as specialized.” ~ Gideon Kimbrell, InList Inc

9. Craigslist

“It’s amazing how many people I know have found terrific freelancers, collaborators and help via Craigslist. Don’t shy away from using a platform just because it’s ugly!” ~ Derek Flanzraich, Greatist

10. ODesk

“We’ve successfully used oDesk to find many capable and talented writers at affordable rates the past few years.” ~ Josh Weiss, Bluegala

11. The Local Honors College

“The local honors college in your town is an often overlooked and underutilized way to find freelance writers. Offering an internship to honors students ensures they’ll be decent at writing, eager to learn and willing to follow instructions. Plus, they will work for decent wages due to their lack of work experience.” ~ Brett Farmiloe, Digital Marketing Company

12. Elance

“You can search for exactly what you need and do it all virtually. Elance is a great service for businesses that need support but can’t hire someone on a full-time (or even part-time) basis.” ~ Alexis Wolfer, The Beauty Bean

13. ProBlogger

“I like the writers on the ProBlogger job forum because they’re more trained in writing great headlines, organizing posts with subheaders and bullet points where necessary, and more. The prices are reasonable, and it’s been tough for me to find this level of quality elsewhere.” ~ Eric Siu, Single Grain

14. Contributor Blogs

“More and more high-end sites such as Forbes and Fast Company are publishing the work of (often unpaid) contributors in exchange for exposure. Pay attention to the bylines following your favorite columns to see if their authors are on the market.” ~ Sam Saxton, Salter Spiral Stair and Mylen Stairs

15. Scripted

“Scripted will deliver writing sourced from its vetted pool of freelance writers who have been approved to write for relevant topics. I am a big fan of Scripted because it helps minimize internal resources spent by providing you with account management services for creating writer guidelines, editing submissions and monitoring submission timelines.” ~ Ryan Stoner, Freelance

Writer Photo via Shutterstock

15 Best Marketplaces to Find Skilled Freelance Writers for Your Startup

As more and more business owners turn to content marketing strategies, the demand for talented writers is rising. But finding the cream of the crop isn’t always easy.

To find out where other businesses are sourcing their content writers and editors, we asked 15 entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question.

“What is a great marketplace to find skilled freelance writers to support your company?”

Here’s what YEC community members had to say:

1. Stay-at-Home Moms

“Stay-at-home moms have been a saving grace to RTC. They are oftentimes highly educated, incredibly organized and looking for part-time work that can be completed on their own schedule. These women are a godsend.” ~ Corey Blake, Round Table Companies

2. LinkedIn Groups

“Try posting a part-time job offer in the LinkedIn Groups for your industry. While not everyone spends a ton of time in the groups, very often those looking for work are participating and looking for just this kind of opportunity.” ~ John Rood, Next Step Test Preparation

3. Textbroker

“I’ve used Textbroker many times to find writers for Web content. The thing that I like about Textbroker is the consistency of its service. Articles are always delivered in a timely fashion. The main problem I had with hiring independent writers I found from other places was that there was no level of redundancy. If a person was out sick, then my project had to wait indefinitely.” ~ Lawrence Watkins, Great Black Speakers

4. The Local Business Paper

“The best freelance writers aren’t using freelance hiring sites. That’s because the quality writers won’t be the cheapest. If you can’t write 500 words, why would you pay just $5 for that service? Instead, look in the pages of the local business paper. A Google or Twitter search should reveal if those writers are freelancers. Then reach out!” ~ Rakia Reynolds, Skai Blue Media

5. Published Articles

“We actually hired a freelance writer because of an article we saw on her in Entrepreneur magazine. When we were looking for someone to help us with content, we kept our eyes open for blog posts, business journals, magazines and social media. All of these avenues can bring super talented people into the mix. We recently hired this writer and brought her on full time from contract work.” ~ Parker Powers, Millionaire Network

6. Content Runner

“Content Runner is a great service for finding freelance writing talent. The company maintains a “favorites” list of its top writers, and you can submit topic ideas to that pool of freelancers instead of tracking one writer down for every article you need. That’s an invaluable feature for time-strapped content managers. The administrative team is also highly responsive to client needs and questions.” ~ Phil Laboon, Eyeflow Internet Marketing

7. Guru

“Guru is our preferred freelancer marketplace because it’s easier to connect directly with real individuals. Many other sites are flooded with companies that turn around to re-farm your project. Our experiences are much better when we deal directly with writers rather than a middleman trolling a marketplace.” ~ Nicolas Gremion, Free-eBooks.net

8. Zerys

“We’ve used Zerys for several years. It has a great selection of writers, and you can post either for bid or by a direct rate. You can also post jobs on Elance, oDesk and other job sites, but they are not as specialized.” ~ Gideon Kimbrell, InList Inc

9. Craigslist

“It’s amazing how many people I know have found terrific freelancers, collaborators and help via Craigslist. Don’t shy away from using a platform just because it’s ugly!” ~ Derek Flanzraich, Greatist

10. ODesk

“We’ve successfully used oDesk to find many capable and talented writers at affordable rates the past few years.” ~ Josh Weiss, Bluegala

11. The Local Honors College

“The local honors college in your town is an often overlooked and underutilized way to find freelance writers. Offering an internship to honors students ensures they’ll be decent at writing, eager to learn and willing to follow instructions. Plus, they will work for decent wages due to their lack of work experience.” ~ Brett Farmiloe, Digital Marketing Company

12. Elance

“You can search for exactly what you need and do it all virtually. Elance is a great service for businesses that need support but can’t hire someone on a full-time (or even part-time) basis.” ~ Alexis Wolfer, The Beauty Bean

13. ProBlogger

“I like the writers on the ProBlogger job forum because they’re more trained in writing great headlines, organizing posts with subheaders and bullet points where necessary, and more. The prices are reasonable, and it’s been tough for me to find this level of quality elsewhere.” ~ Eric Siu, Single Grain

14. Contributor Blogs

“More and more high-end sites such as Forbes and Fast Company are publishing the work of (often unpaid) contributors in exchange for exposure. Pay attention to the bylines following your favorite columns to see if their authors are on the market.” ~ Sam Saxton, Salter Spiral Stair and Mylen Stairs

15. Scripted

“Scripted will deliver writing sourced from its vetted pool of freelance writers who have been approved to write for relevant topics. I am a big fan of Scripted because it helps minimize internal resources spent by providing you with account management services for creating writer guidelines, editing submissions and monitoring submission timelines.” ~ Ryan Stoner, Freelance

Writer Photo via Shutterstock

The First Consumer 3D Printer Is Now In Crowdfunding

It’s called the Micro and developers of the device call it the first consumer 3D printer. A crowdfunding campaign is under way on Kickstarter, and has already raised well over the amount needed to put the device into production.

Maryland-based developers M3D have said that the 7.3 inch cube, weighing about half a pound, can be used for a variety of purposes, including creating items for a business. As an example, TechCrunch made a mold that was then used to make specially branded chocolate bars. You could also make other things such as promotional trinkets to hand out, and small items to sell.

To quote the Kickstarter page :

“Bring your ideas to life, turn them into businesses, educate, learn, personalize products, make toys, make jewelry, start a curriculum, run a modern workshop, and unleash your creativity. The power of creation is yours!”

This video from the Kickstarter campaign gives an overview of the device:

What makes this 3D printer stand out is the price. Normally the prices for 3D printers are prohibitively high, and therefore out of the range of ordinary consumers and some small businesses. But the Micro will cost a very affordable $299 and should be ready between August 2014 and March 2015. It is also supposed to be ideal for beginners, who are just starting out in 3D printing.

Because of their high price and complexity, 3D printing seemed firmly in the grip of specialists before this. In fact, last year the UPS Stores announced availability of 3D printers at some locations to make them available for small businesses.  But the Micro seems to be taking 3D printing to the general public, both with cost and apparent  simplicity of operation.

Of course, as TechCrunch points out, at $299, some corners were probably cut. So don’t expect top quality results. Remember the old saying “you get what you pay for.”

The printer comes with specially designed companion software to enable you to download and select what you would like to make. 3D modeling designs are only a Google search away, and the software helps you to download the ones you are interested in. The software is touchscreen-capable and has a minimalist interface.

If you want one of the first ones off the production line, you have until May 7 to become a backer on Kickstarter.

Image: M3D