In Search of Traffic

A Web site is only as valuable as the number of people who see it. Here's how to make sure customers can find you online.

By KELLY K. SPORS
April 30, 2007

For small companies, just having a Web site isn't enough anymore. To be successful online, they must learn to harness one of the Web's most powerful tools: search engines.

After all, search engines like Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN are often shoppers' first stops when they're looking for a product on the Web. So it's crucial for small businesses to show up prominently in search-engine results -- and that's a complicated job.

THE JOURNAL REPORT

Guerrilla marketing is a great way for a small business to get attention. But it's a tactic that can easily backfire. Plus, ads on cellphones can be annoying, but they can also be a terrific marketing tool.

" See the complete Small Business report.

Search engines don't disclose their ranking formulas, making it tough for small companies to figure out how to boost their site's results. Even worse, big competitors can afford to pour lots of resources into that same effort -- putting small companies at a bigger disadvantage.

The good news? While the exact ranking formulas are a mystery, there are plenty of clues about how to improve a site's position. Add lots of relevant descriptions to the site's text, including the search phrases for which you want a high ranking. Have other sites link to it. Offer a blog or other informational content for customers. And if these efforts prove too complicated for a business to handle, not to worry: A whole industry has sprung up to help companies improve their rankings.

Small businesses are discovering other search strategies, as well. They're getting smarter about ads, for instance. Pay-per-click ads that pop up for general search terms (such as "clothing") tend to be very expensive -- so companies are buying ads for much more specific terms to cut costs. Many businesses are also focusing their efforts on search-engine pages devoted to their own geographic area, instead of trying to compete against businesses world-wide.

Here's a guide to the best ways for small businesses to nab better search results.

DESCRIBE YOURSELF

Placing high in search results for common search phrases -- known as natural, or organic, results, to differentiate them from paid ads -- is getting ever more crucial. Studies show that Web users predominantly click on the top four results for any particular search, and then move on, says Shar VanBoskirk, senior analyst for Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. Very few dig more than three pages into results.

SELECTING KEYWORDS

PODCAST: WSJ's Kelly Spors talks with author and search-marketing consultant Aaron Wall for advice on selecting keywords to make your site more prominent in search-engine results.

One basic way to secure a better search-engine ranking is peppering a site's text with carefully chosen keywords -- the kinds of phrases people would use to find the site with a search engine. The search engines like it best when the keywords appear naturally in the site's text, such as product descriptions, says Aaron Wall, a search-marketing consultant in Oakland, Calif. So a good strategy is to add a generous amount of useful content that uses the keywords frequently, such as beefier descriptions or informational articles.

The keywords on each page should also appear in that page's title tag -- the blue bar that appears at the top of each page. Less important, though still helpful, the keywords should appear in the metatags, the invisible text that gives information about the contents of a page. Some Webmasters try to game the system by hiding keywords in text that blends into the background, but many search engines now penalize such practices with lower rankings.

Smarter use of keywords was one of the first strategies Allan Dick employed to boost business at Vintage Tub & Bath, a Hazleton, Pa., company that sells reproductions of old-fashioned bathtubs online. A few years ago, Mr. Dick, who helps run the 30-employee company with his brother, found he could increase traffic by using certain words in the product descriptions on Vintage's Web site.

For instance, adding more content and product descriptions that used common search terms -- words like "tubs" and "vintage tubs" -- frequently seemed to boost its ranking on search engines. "It was dawning on me that if you were wording things in a certain way, people would find us," says Mr. Dick. "It was, 'Aha, there's a certain method to this.' "

But that was just a first step. Mr. Dick bolstered his efforts by attending search-marketing conferences to learn about search rankings and new optimization techniques. And the work seems to have paid off: Last year, his company had sales of $10.4 million, up from about $8 million in 2005, and well above its $1.4 million or so of revenue in 2001. It recently surfaced as the No. 2 site in a Google search on "tub," out of 35.4 million results.

THINK MORE NARROWLY

The big choice for small businesses is which search phrases to focus on. Some companies concentrate on just a few phrases, while others tackle 20 or more. The best number depends on factors such as how many different products are sold on the site, the number of pages on the site (each page can usually hold only a few keywords) and how much time or money a company is willing to spend redesigning its site to attract search engines' attention.

It's also important to weigh how competitive the search phrases are. Instead of focusing on generic search words, such as "books" or "mortgages," that already have hundreds of businesses wrangling over them, small businesses often fare better focusing on longer, specific phrases, says Mr. Wall.

For instance, he suggests that a used-book dealer who has a book signed by Mark Twain might try optimizing its Web site around terms like "rare used books" or "autographed Mark Twain," instead of just "books." Another advantage of this approach is that more-specific search terms generally elicit higher customer-conversion rates -- turning visits into sales -- since shoppers are more likely to find what they're looking for.

There are other wording tricks small businesses can use to get better results. Businesses aiming to attract a high-end clientele might add the word "professional" to the search phrases highlighted on their site. Or a business might try to boost the search ranking for its top-selling brand name instead of just the generic product type. But "the focus should always be on coming up with terms that customers actually use to find your business online," Mr. Wall says.

Many online forums and free tools can help businesses learn to optimize their sites on their own. Yahoo's Keyword Selector Tool lets users see which terms are typed into search engines most often. Other free tools, such as Google's Analytics software, keep track of a Web site's visitor numbers, keywords used to find the site, and customer-conversion rates. Other free tools available online can track which other Web sites link to a business's site, make content suggestions and scan the site for keyword density, or the percentage of the text in which the keyword is used.

One final wording tip: A business's domain name also plays into search rankings. If the domain is "couch.com," the site will probably rank much better for the keyword "couch" than if the domain name is "tomsfurniturestore.com."

BE THE EXPERT

Loading up on search terms isn't the only way to improve a site's search rankings. Search engines are getting more sophisticated, experts say, and increasingly they're rewarding sites that offer high-quality, useful consumer content. For instance, becoming an "evangelist" on your industry and posting helpful consumer information on your site is likely to boost its popularity and ranking.

Take Ice.com, an online jewelry business based in Montreal. Besides selling jewelry, the site includes a diamond-buying guide, a checklist with steps that couples should take before their wedding, a blog and a feature where readers can ask questions about jewelry. The site recently showed up 11th in a search for "jewelry" on Google, and seventh for "diamond jewelry."

GET LOTS OF LINKS

Another big factor in search-engine results is the number of Web sites that link to a company's site that are highly ranked by the search engines. The more such sites, the better. Many Web sites that do well in search rankings spend time "link-building," or trying to coax related sites to post links to them. Sometimes companies contact Webmasters directly and try to forge relationships, or they get a link in an online search directory such as Yahoo Directory, which costs $299 a year. Having interesting or informative content such as a blog also boosts the chance of getting links from another site.

The words used by other sites in links also factor highly into search results. Let's say another site links to tomsfurniturestore.com, which specializes in couches. If the other site uses the word "couch" in its link, it can help boost "tom's" ranking for the keyword "couch."

Keep in mind, though, that no two search engines are the same. "Google's algorithm tends to place more weight on the authority and trust of the site," such as the number of links, Mr. Wall says. "Yahoo and MSN place more weight on the page content."

Vanessa Fox, a product manager for Google, says the search engines "all have different things that we're looking for in our page results."

GET SOME HELP

For many small-business people, optimizing and asking for links can get technical and time-consuming. So an industry has sprung up in recent years to help businesses with their search results. These companies -- called search-engine optimizers, or SEOs -- come in many flavors. Some are full service, handling everything from redesigning a Web site to writing content to determining which keywords are best to persuading other Web sites to post links.

Others are more like consultants. They provide Web-site audits with recommendations on how to better optimize the site, but the client's Webmaster must implement the changes. Some focus on specific aspects of search optimization, such as writing "search friendly" text or link-building.

But businesses should be careful when hiring an SEO, because not every company offers the same expertise, says Ryan Allis, chief executive of Virante, a Durham, N.C., search-marketing consulting firm. And the results can never be guaranteed, given the changing and sometimes mysterious nature of search-engine rankings.

So businesses should take bids from several SEOs and ask to see the work they've done for previous clients, Mr. Allis suggests. An SEO should also be willing to give regular reports showing how its efforts have affected the business's search rankings for various search phrases.

Then there are fees. The prices for SEOs can be bewildering to many small-business owners. Costs can range from $500 a month to several thousand -- for what often seem to be almost identical services.

Submit Express Inc., an Oakland, Calif., SEO, charges a "setup" fee of $2,500 to $10,000, which includes keyword research, optimization and link-building, says Chief Executive Pierre Zarokian. Then clients can pay a monthly fee ranging from $750 to $5,000 for continuing optimization efforts -- mostly link-building, he says.

The fees vary depending on how much work a site needs and how competitive it is already, says Mr. Zarokian. For instance, propelling a site from No. 10 to No. 1 in the search rankings may be a lot easier than moving it from No. 10,000 to No. 10.

BUY ADS

Ads are another consideration. Marketing experts advise that most businesses are best served by complementing optimization with some paid ads on search engines. It also can be a faster route to getting good exposure in search engines.

Most major search engines now offer paid ads, such as pay-per-click ads, where the Web site pays a set fee every time someone clicks on its ad. Google and Yahoo let businesses bid on their per-click fee for particular search phrases to garner a better ranking for their ad.

Paid results appear right next to natural search-engine results, usually under a "sponsored ads" heading. As with search results, businesses should try to end up in the top few paid ads for common search terms. If the per-click fee is too high for popular phrases, they should focus on more-specific search phrases, which usually cost less -- and convert to business more. For example, the average suggested per-click fee for ranking in the top three paid results for "tennis rackets" recently was $1.38, according to Google's AdWords Keyword Tool. But "graphite tennis rackets" cost only about 43 cents.

For some small-business owners, paid ads aren't a complement to an optimization strategy; they're an alternative to it. They don't want the headache of learning about search-engine optimization or hiring a firm to do it, so they rely exclusively on ads.

That's the case with Geoffrey Searles, owner of Apollo Piano Co., a piano refurbishing and tuning business in Grafton, Mass. Last September, he began running pay-per-click ads through Google's AdWords program. He bid on about 25 keywords such as "piano repair" and "antique player pianos," and capped his monthly expenditure at $200.

Since then, his site has had an average of 270 hits a month, compared with about five a month before he started using ad words. The ads have cost him about $575 total, and he estimates he has received at least $20,000 extra in work. He likes the ability to control his monthly spending and stop the ads when he has enough business. "It's just been so successful that I haven't gone any further," Mr. Searles says.

THINK LOCALLY

Small businesses should also consider focusing their efforts on one corner of the Web. Many small, locally based businesses, such as dry cleaners and restaurants, don't need Web traffic from around the globe. Instead, they want people in their area to find them easily online.

The solution: local search. These listings pop up, sometimes with a map or customer reviews, when somebody searches online for a business type in a particular geographic region.

Type in "Olympia, Wa., pet groomer," at Google, for instance, and you'll get the option to see "Local search results." This calls up a map of Olympia and a list of local pet businesses, with their locations marked on the map.

Google, like other search engines, draws these local listings from third-party directories and other sources.

For companies that want to buy ads accompanying these local listings, the competition is much more limited than with general searches, so the price is lower. Local search also can be particularly useful to small businesses without Web sites. Some specialized local search engines -- such as CitySearch.com, YellowPages.com and Superpages.com -- even provide a free, basic page for businesses that can include basic information about the company, like phone number, hours of operation and address.

A good way to get started in local search is to make sure all the local search directories include a listing for the business and that all the information, such as phone number and address, is accurate. Most local search directories also let businesses embellish their local search listings. Google's Local Business Center, for one, recently began letting businesses post photos, and many local search directories let them post hours of operation, services provided and coupons. Businesses can also buy pay-per-click ads in local search results.

Another consideration: If a local business has a Web site, the owners should be sure all the information there is clear and accurate. Search engines extract some of their local search listings from location information found on Web sites. So it's important for a business to include its address prominently on its home page -- with the state name spelled out, since many search users spell it out when searching. Businesspeople should also include the city and state in the site's title tag to increase the odds search engines will find it.

Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineLand.com, an online forum on search-engine marketing practices, says focusing on local search is easy and can pay off for many businesses.

"Local search is still kind of open, and many businesses don't realize it's an option," Mr. Sullivan says. "So there's a lot of opportunity for that right now."

--Ms. Spors is a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal in South Brunswick, N.J.

Write to Kelly K. Spors at kelly.spors@wsj.com

If You Want to Stand Out, Join the Crowd

Trade-Group Activity Is a Good Way to Land On Recruiters' Radars

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN
August 14, 2007

To find candidates for a senior finance job that opened up last month, executive recruiter Ed Kaye scanned the roster of a relevant industry association and quickly homed in on a longtime member. He placed a cold call, and the recipient, a manager at a similar company, agreed to interview for the position and was eventually hired.

Mr. Kaye, a senior partner at recruiting firm GSP International in Woodbridge, N.J., isn't alone in searching associations' membership directories to identify talent. The strategy is the most common way recruiters find potential candidates who aren't actively looking for a new job, according to a recent survey of 450 members of the Society for Human Resource Management.

"It never hurts to be involved in associations," says Nancy Grossman, a recruiter for Capital H Group, a human-capital consulting firm based in Chicago. "You become more visible to recruiters and it shows you are committed to staying on the cutting edge of your field."

Recruiters and company hiring managers say they also often seek out potential hires at the meetings, conferences and other events that professional groups host. "Trade shows are great fishing expeditions for recruiters," says Barry Shulman, a principal at San Francisco-based recruiting firm Shulman Associates Executive Search Inc.

To increase your odds of landing on a recruiter's radar, participate in association events instead of just attending them, advises Todd Weinman, a regional director at recruiting firm Lander International LLC. "If you're somebody who comes to chapter meetings and always asks outstanding questions, a recruiter will definitely take notice," he says.

John Cronin, a managing director at Capital Finance Recruiters Inc. in Leonia, N.J., recommends nurturing relationships with the recruiters you meet and being patient. He recently placed a candidate he met 10 years ago at an association meeting into an information-technology-audit position at a large East Coast health-care company. "We always kept in touch and finally it worked out," he says.

Another way to boost your exposure to recruiters is to get involved in a professional group's management team or local chapter, says Wendy Alfus-Rothman, an executive career coach in New York. Run for a board seat, volunteer to be on a committee or offer to speak at a seminar, she suggests. You're likely to get to work closely with the organization's leaders, as well as gain opportunities to showcase your skills, she says.

Ray Manganelli, a vice president and senior managing director at Tunnell Consulting, learned about his current job through his work as a board member of the Association of Management Consulting Firms. The group accepts companies as members, not individuals, and Dr. Manganelli represented his employer at the time. During his tenure, he and Tunnell's representatives got to know one another, and in 2003 the company created a position for him. Dr. Manganelli now serves as the AMCF's board program chairman on behalf of Tunnell, which is based in King of Prussia, Pa.

Many associations post job ads on their Web sites, and some limit access to the ads to members. Corporate hiring managers and recruiters say they like to advertise on these sites, sometimes exclusively, to target trade-group members. "All the good candidates seem to belong to a particular association and the ones who aren't as skilled usually don't," says Bob Hatcher, president of Executive Network Inc., a search firm near Chicago that specializes in the food industry. He estimates that 40% of the candidates he places into jobs are identified through trade groups.

Job seekers say belonging to a professional association also allows them to easily connect with others in their field, which often results in job referrals and provides useful insights. While most groups charge an annual fee, it is typically far less than the cost of a career coach, who typically charges between $100 and $250 an hour, according to Frank Fox, president of the Professional Association of Résumé Writers & Career Coaches in St. Petersburg, Fla. Still, there may be other costs involved in attending annual meetings and conferences, including travel.

Networking with fellow members is unlike schmoozing with professionals in nonindustry-specific settings, says Debbie Lew, a senior manager at accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP in Los Angeles. "Members will spend a little extra time with you because there's that connection," she explains.

Ms. Lew says she learned about her current position in 2004 after conversations with several fellow members of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association. After she had tapped their knowledge about the accounting firm, several of them volunteered to give her a referral.

Within a week, Ms. Lew says, she received a call from a practice leader at Ernst & Young asking her to interview for a manager position she hadn't seen advertised. Several ISACA members were among those evaluating her candidacy, she says, and they acknowledged recognizing her from the group's events. Before leaving the interview, she had a job offer in hand, she adds.

Ms. Lew says she pays ISACA an annual membership fee of $120, plus $25 a year in dues for the organization's Los Angeles chapter. "It's definitely a great deal," she says, adding that she also receives discounts on the group's educational events and certification exams and other benefits.

The cost of joining associations varies greatly and often depends on the type of membership. For example, the Public Relations Society of America charges between $60 and $225 a year for national membership, plus as much as $80 annually to join one of its local chapters. The American Institute of Architects charges fees ranging from $338 to $819.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

Firms Go Online to Train Employees

Virtual Classes, Videos Give Workers Flexibility And Save Owners Money

By RAYMUND FLANDEZ
August 14, 2007

A few years ago, David Dam, head of sales development for Golden Harvest Seeds Inc., was frustrated with his company's sales-training program for 250 employees and 2,000 independent crop-seed dealers. Mr. Dam would rent meeting rooms for 30 people, and only 15 would show up. He had trouble finding great trainers. Fuel prices were making travel more expensive, and the sessions took valuable time out of workers' days.

But in the spring of 2004, Mr. Dam's company tried planting some seeds in a new field -- online training.

Golden Harvest hired EJ4 LLC, a video-based online trainer in St. Louis, to produce and post online videos for teaching sales reps how to sell Golden Harvest seeds. Mr. Dam tracked the results and found that employees were watching the videos, mostly on Saturdays or Monday mornings. Sales increased, as did demand for more courses, and training costs fell to less than $100 per person from between $175 and $200.

"This would have been next to impossible if we had just standard [face-to-face] training," Mr. Dam says. Now, Golden Harvest, of Waterloo, Neb., offers about 120 training courses on its internal Web site, with 2,000 page views a month. "We're getting more done with less money," he says.

Flexible Learning

For small businesses looking to cut costs and increase efficiency, online training classes and videos are becoming more available -- and more attractive. Some businesses are turning to specialists in training, such as EJ4. Meanwhile, inexpensive or free management and training courses also are available on Web sites of some big companies, such as Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., and Small Business Development Centers, which are funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration in Washington.

On-demand e-learning, delivered over the Web or by audio or videodisc, has become the second most popular approach to learning and training for small businesses, after print-based materials, says Steven S. Wexler, director of research and emerging technologies for the eLearning Guild, a Santa Rosa, Calif., trade group. About a third of its 17,000 U.S.-based members are small businesses that use some form of online training. In comparing the learning approaches of large and small businesses, people in smaller organizations are engaging more in "cutting-edge" training with online games, private Wikipedia-type sites, blogs and podcasts, he says.

Ken Cooper, a partner at EJ4, says companies typically can obtain unlimited online training from his firm for $100 for each employee per year. The typical online course, he says, averages 10 minutes and includes as many as 70 slides with text, animation and video making it visually appealing. Classes can be downloaded for use in video iPods or hand-held sales devices.

Some online-training providers also customize classes. EJ4, for example, can film a company's own managers or other staff teaching a specific course.

Such training galvanized Golden Harvest workers, Mr. Dam says. The company set records in new customer acquisitions and new dealer recruitments. In 2005, the first full year of the online training, the company's revenue jumped 14%, or about $30 million. (Mr. Dam declined to disclose total annual sales.) The firm was recently acquired by Swiss agribusiness Syngenta AG.

Free Classes

Microsoft offers officeliveseminars.com, a small-business resource with free, downloadable online seminars on topics like time management, guerrilla marketing, franchising and sales. The site is separate from Microsoft's officelive.com, where the company markets and sells Microsoft products and business services.

In March, H-P expanded its online offerings for small businesses with free online classes, how-to guides, business templates and success-story videos. H-P's Learning Center for Small and Medium Business is available to anyone. (Go to http://www.hp.com/sbso/ and click on "online classes" at the bottom of the page.)

The classes aren't limited to H-P products; they also teach how to use other companies' software tools, including Microsoft Access and Publisher, Adobe Acrobat and CorelDraw. Other topics include networking and data management, marketing materials and computer skills. A "Business Toolbox," containing how-to guides on computing, networking and other technology, can also be found at H-P's Small Business Connection Web site, www.hp.com/go/sbc.

'To the Point'

Bob Perry, who owns a cemetery-mapping business called topoGraphix in Hudson, N.H., has been taking the H-P online classes periodically for nearly three years, and says it has been a huge help for him.

Mr. Perry, who is dyslexic, has been downloading classes on the CorelDraw software program to help him learn to develop more mapping techniques for his clients. His business is converting paper-based cemetery maps into digital versions and conducting on-site surveys using a Global Positioning System, satellite imaging and ground-penetrating radar to find unmarked graves.

"The programs are very simplified, direct and to the point," says Mr. Perry, who used to take some courses like Excel at a local college but found it too time-consuming.

Write to Raymund Flandez at raymund.flandez@wsj.com

Blog It and They May Come

Small businesses find blogging can be useful -- but awfully time consuming

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN
August 20, 2007

A few months after launching a blog early last year, Get It In Writing Inc. started seeing traffic to its Web site soar.

Today the small marketing-copywriting firm in Boca Raton, Fla., draws as many as 150,000 unique visitors a month to its site, compared with an average of only 100 before the blog, which features advice and trends on marketing and resides within the company's Web site.

But Allison Nazarian, the company's 36-year-old founder and president, says all that traffic didn't lead to more sales right away. In fact, the site's sudden popularity even brought on a new financial burden. "We ended up having to upgrade our Web site's hosting plan so it could accommodate that level of traffic," she says.

Now, the number of new clients is finally on the rise, as are sales, she says. So far this year, 25% of new prospects have come by way of the company's Web site, http://www.getitinwriting.biz/. Before the blog was launched, it was 1%, and most new clients came through word-of-mouth and referrals. Sales also are up by 18% so far this year from a year earlier, she adds.

Blogging is "worth it," says Ms. Nazarian, "but you definitely need patience."

Most owners use blogs -- which are easy to set up and require little technical savvy -- to drive people to their company Web site. But entrepreneurs also use them to get consumer feedback or answer commonly asked questions. And some blogs serve as stand-ins for Web sites as a way to describe what a business does.

Nice to Visit, but...

Still, getting people to visit isn't the same as getting them to buy.

"A blog can help you...establish your credibility and expertise, and that is what encourages people to click and buy," says Debbie Weil, an author and corporate blogging consultant in Washington, D.C. "But it takes time achieve it. You don't get instant high search-engine rankings. It's a fallacy to think you blog and you sell."

Small-business owners often create blogs to boost their company Web sites' search-engine rankings. High rankings can help draw more visitors to a site because people tend to click on the top results of a search first.

WRITE IT UP

What's New: Small-business owners are increasingly turning to blogs as a marketing tool.

The Uses: Most owners use blogs to drive people to their Web sites. For others, it's a place to post information and get customer feedback. Some even use a blog in place of a Web site.

The Caveat: Although a blog may get more people to visit a site, it won't necessarily get them to buy.

Search engines rank blogs with fresh content higher than ones that are rarely updated, says Caroline Melberg, president of Melberg Marketing Inc., an online-marketing firm in Wayzata, Minn. So the higher a blog is ranked, the greater the chances of consumers finding it, she says.

Indeed, fresh blog content has brought lots of visitors to Ms. Nazarian's site. In addition to writing two to four brief entries on her blog each week, she posts lengthy ones twice a month titled "Amazing Advertisements." These generate the most traffic, she says, and feature snapshots of clever advertisements from around the globe, plus pithy commentary. The company promotes the entries by submitting them to user-generated social Web sites such as Digg.com and Reddit.com, which publicize online items recommended by members.

Feeding the Appetite

But coming up with compelling content on a regular basis for a blog can be time consuming. Ms. Nazarian says a contract employee responsible for Internet marketing at her firm spends between one and five hours scouring the Web for interesting ads to profile in just one "Amazing Advertisements" entry.

Other bloggers are having better luck turning blog readers into customers.

Since Tracy L. Coenen started her blog, Fraudfiles, in November 2005, she has seen a considerable boost in revenue for her private forensic-accounting practice, Sequence Inc. The Milwaukee-based firm's revenue rose 31% last year from 2005, and is expected to climb 50% this year from 2006, Ms. Coenen says. She spends about 30 to 45 minutes a day posting as many as three entries on her blog, offering news and opinions about her specialty. The blog is located within the company's Web site, http://www.sequence-inc.com/.

Before the blog, Ms. Coenen says, "I don't think I ever had a case that came to me because of my Web site." She says she currently handles about 20 cases a year, and six have come from the blog since it launched. She adds that each case generates revenue ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.

Making the Link

Ty's Toy Box Inc., an online retailer based in Erlanger, Ky., has lured people to its blog about trends in the toy-licensing industry by having other blogs and Web sites link to it. The company arranged a link-exchange agreement in April with TheToyGuy.com, a Web site from toy-industry expert Chris Byrne that features news and product reviews.

"We coordinated it so that occasionally our blog and Chris's blog are about the same issue, but from different perspectives," says George Stolpe, vice president of business development and media relations for Ty's Toy Box. The two blogs link to each other in each post, he says.

Ms. Melberg says the links help boost a company's search-engines ranking because blogs recommended by external sources rank higher than ones without link referrals.

According to Mr. Stolpe, Ty's Toy Box pays a free-lance writer to maintain its blog and says the total cost for it is "a very minimal amount." He says while he can't quantify the blog's role in the near-triple-digit average growth in sales every year since its start, he has no doubt it has played an important part.

Sharing Information

For some businesses, a blog isn't so much about bringing in new traffic to boost sales as it is about sharing information with customers and getting feedback.

In May, Michael Hyatt, chief executive officer of Thomas Nelson Inc., posted an entry in his blog, michaelhyatt.com, asking for input on the cover design of a new book that the publishing company was preparing to put out. Readers were invited to select one of three images, and the company went with the picture that earned the most votes.

But the commentary hasn't always been positive. Two years ago, Mr. Hyatt wrote about how Thomas Nelson, which has about 650 employees, donated around 100,000 bibles to victims of Hurricane Katrina. Several readers posted comments on the blog that criticized the effort, including that donating resources such as food and shelter would have made more sense.

But Mr. Hyatt, who devotes about three hours a week to blogging, says the reaction only bolstered the authenticity of his blog as a source of honest communication between the company and its customers.

Jonathan Ham, an independent enterprise-security consultant in Missoula, Mont., uses his blog to answer client questions that may be of wider interest. He adds new entries to his blog (located within his company's Web site, jhamcorp.com) about twice a month. Mr. Ham says he's under no pressure to write more often because he isn't concerned about boosting traffic to the company's site.

Better Than a Site

In some cases, blogs are actually taking the place of a company Web site.

Take London-based tailor Thomas Mahon, whose blog, called English Cut, is about the tailoring process, or as he puts it, "what happens when you order a suit for $4,000." Mr. Mahon's entries discuss his normal business routine, including his travels to meet clients and photos of him cutting and stitching materials. He says his Web journal helps lend more credibility to his work than a Web site could because he can profile projects as they're being developed without the professional help he would need to regularly update a Web site.

Before launching his blog in late 2005, Mr. Mahon, who employs five subcontracted tailors, says he landed all client accounts through word-of-mouth -- even though he had a Web site, which he has since abandoned. Now he gets twice as many referrals and has had to limit the number of suits he can produce a year to about 150. Previously, he made between 50 and 60 suits a year.

--Ms. Needleman is a reporter for WSJ.com in South Brunswick, N.J.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

The Secrets of the World's Richest Man

Mexico's Carlos Slim makes his billions the old-fashioned way: monopolies

By DAVID LUHNOW
August 4, 2007

(See Corrections & Amplifications item below.)

Mexico City

Carlos Slim is Mexico's Mr. Monopoly.

It's hard to spend a day in Mexico and not put money in his pocket. The 67-year-old tycoon controls more than 200 companies -- he says he's "lost count" -- in telecommunications, cigarettes, construction, mining, bicycles, soft-drinks, airlines, hotels, railways, banking and printing. In all, his companies account for more than a third of the total value of Mexico's leading stock market index, while his fortune represents 7% of the country's annual economic output. (At his height, John D. Rockefeller's wealth was equal to 2.5% of U.S. gross domestic product.)

As one Mexico City eatery jokes on its menu: "This restaurant is the only place in Mexico not owned by Carlos Slim."

Mr. Slim's fortune has grown faster than any in the world during the past two years, rising by more than $20 billion to about $60 billion currently. While the market value of his stake in publicly traded companies could decline at any time, at the moment he is probably wealthier than Bill Gates, whom Forbes magazine estimated at $56 billion last March. This would mark the first time that a person from the developing world held the top spot since Forbes started tracking the wealthy outside the U.S. in the 1990s.

"It's not a competition," Mr. Slim said in a recent interview, fiddling with an unlit Cuban cigar in a second-story office decorated with 19th century Mexican landscape paintings. A relatively modest man who wears ties from his own stores, the mogul says he doesn't feel any richer just because he is wealthier on paper.

How did a Mexican son of Lebanese immigrants rise to such heights? By putting together monopolies, much like John D. Rockefeller did when he developed a stranglehold on refining oil in the industrial era. In the post-industrial world, Mr. Slim has a stranglehold on Mexico's telephones. His Teléfonos de México SAB and its cellphone affiliate Telcel have 92% of all fixed-lines and 73% of all cellphones. As Mr. Rockefeller did before him, Mr. Slim has accumulated so much power that he is considered untouchable in his native land, a force as great as the state itself.

The portly Mr. Slim is a study in contradiction. He says he likes competition in business, but blocks it at every turn. He loves talking about technology, but doesn't use a computer and prefers pen and paper. He hosts everyone from Bill Clinton to author Gabriel García Márquez at his Mexico City mansion, but is provincial in many ways, doesn't travel widely, and proudly says he owns no homes outside of Mexico. In a country of soccer fans, he likes baseball. He roots for the sport's richest team, the New York Yankees.

INTERVIEW EXCERPTS

"This isn't a competition. Being a businessman isn't about that kind of competition. It's a competition for the marketplace."

-- Carlos Slim, in a discussion with The Wall Street Journal. Read the edited excerpts.

Admirers say the hard-charging Mr. Slim, an insomniac who stays up late reading history and has a fondness for reading about Ghengis Khan and his deceptive military strategies, embodies Mexico's potential to become a Latin tiger. His thrift in both his businesses and personal life is a model of restraint in a region where flamboyant Latin American business tycoons build lavish corporate headquarters and fly to Africa on hunting jaunts.

To critics, however, Mr. Slim's rise says a lot about Mexico's deepest problems, including the gap between rich and poor. The latest U.N. rankings place Mexico at 103 out of 126 nations measured in terms of equality. During the past two years, Mr. Slim has made about $27 million a day, while a fifth of the country gets by on less than $2 a day.

"It's like the U.S. and the robber barons in the 1890s. Only Slim is Rockefeller, Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan all rolled up into one person," says David Martínez, a Mexican investor who lives in Manhattan.

Monopolies have long been a feature of Mexico's economy. But in the past, politicians acted as a brake on big business to ensure that the business class didn't threaten their power. But political control faded in the 1990s with the privatization of much of the economy and the slow death of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which held power for 71 years until 2000.

"It is surprising how big companies have captured the Mexican state. This is a risk to our democracy, and is suffocating our economy," says Eduardo Perez Motta, the country's antitrust chief.

As the face of the new elite, Mr. Slim presents an acute challenge for the country's young president, Felipe Calderón. He must decide whether to try and rein in Mr. Slim despite the mogul's standing as the country's largest private employer and taxpayer. Congress routinely kills legislation that threatens his interests, and his firms account for a chunk of the nation's advertising revenue, making the media reluctant to criticize him.

During the past few months, Mr. Calderón has looked to cut a backdoor deal with Mr. Slim. In a series of face-to face meetings -- the details of which have surfaced for the first time -- the president has tried to convince Mr. Slim to accept greater competition, according to people familiar with the talks. The government holds an important card: Mr. Slim can't offer video on his network -- a big potential market -- without government approval.

But even some within Mr. Calderón's camp privately say the closed-door talks play into Mr. Slim's hands by letting him circumvent the country's regulators, underscoring the weakness of Mexico's democratic institutions. Unless Mr. Calderón extracts big concessions from the mogul, they say, he may become too powerful to control. For his part, Mr. Slim says that his companies are "in constant contact" with regulators, but played down the notion of a secret negotiation.

A talkative man who is generally avuncular but who can easily lose his temper, Mr. Slim rejects the monopolist label. "I like competition. We need more competition," he says, sipping a Diet Coke. He stressed that many of his companies operate in competitive markets, and pointed out that Mexico accounts for only a third of sales at his cellphone company América Móvil SAB, which has clients from San Francisco to Sao Paolo.

Mr. Slim's strategy has been consistent over his long career: Buy companies on the cheap, whip them into shape, and ruthlessly drive competitors out of business. After Mr. Slim got control of Telmex in 1990, he quickly cornered the market for copper cables used by Telmex for telephone wires. He bought one of the two main suppliers and made sure Telmex didn't buy any cable from the other big supplier, eventually prompting the owners to sell the company to him.

His control of Mexico's telephone system has slowed the nation's development. While telephones have long been standard in any American home, only about half of Mexican homes have them. Only 4% of Mexicans have broadband access. Mexican consumers and businesses also pay above-average prices for telephone calls, according to the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development.

Mr. Slim agrees that many industries in Mexico are dominated by big companies. But he sees no harm as long as they offer good service and prices. "If a beer in Mexico costs 1 peso and in the U.S. it costs 2 pesos, then I don't see the problem," he says.

Despite countless measures over the years that show his companies charge high prices, Mr. Slim steadfastly rejects that notion. During an interview, he orders an aide to fetch his own telephone bills. "See? We charge $14 per month for basic phone rental, cheaper than the U.S.," he says, pulling up a seat next to the reporter. That may be so, but additional fees in Mexico make most phone bills more expensive than in the U.S. Mr. Slim's total phone bill at his own house was a whopping $470 last month. "I have a lot of maids and my sons make calls," he says.

Mr. Slim says his success comes from spotting opportunity early, something he learned in part from reading futurist writer Alvin Toffler, who wrote the best-seller "Future Shock" in the 1970s, and who sends the mogul manuscripts to review. Pulling a dog-eared copy of Mr. Toffler's last book, "Revolutionary Wealth," Mr. Slim leafs through it and shows off his comments in the margins. "Some of his numbers were out of date," he mutters.

Mr. Toffler says he first met Mr. Slim on a trip to Mexico in 1993. Mr. Slim approached him after a speech, surrounded by his family and carrying one of Mr. Toffler's books, heavily underlined. The two have been friends ever since. "If you didn't know he was the richest guy in the world, you'd just think he was a likeable and intelligent guy," says Mr. Toffler.

The fifth of six children, Mr. Slim was born wealthy. His father, Julian Slim, made his fortune on a general store in downtown Mexico City called "The Orient Star." His father died when Mr. Slim was only 13.

THE FOUR D'S

Companies that dominate their industries often resort to the four D's to defend their turf when facing competition for the first time.

Deny -- When Mexico's long-distance market opened to competition in 1997, Telmex at first denied access to its network, arguing that rivals didn't have the legal authorization to operate in the country, say rivals. In recent years, Telmex has tried to block Internet calling service Skype's entry into Mexico, arguing it needs a government concession to enter the market. Telmex says it follows legal procedure.

Delay -- Telmex dragged its feet on allowing access to its network, often not returning calls from executives of rival companies or not showing up at meetings, rivals say. When Mexico's telephone regulator, Cofetel, tried to regulate Telmex in the following years, the company took it to court nearly every single time, tying up the regulator's rulings for years.

Deteriorate -- Rivals complain that Telmex hurt competitors' service. One small rival, MCM Telecom, says Telmex would route all of its calls through one particular station to overload the calls and create busy signals. Telmex says any such move was inadvertent.

Dump -- Mr. Slim's companies can put the squeeze on rivals. Since his Mexican cellphone company, Telcel, has more than 70% of the market, it collects high interconnection fees for calls between networks roughly seven in every 10 times. Rivals, however, have to pay the fee most of the time, making it hard for them to undercut Telcel's prices and gain market share.

Early on, Mr. Slim showed an aptitude for numbers that would help his career. He taught algebra at Mexico's largest public university while finishing his thesis, titled "Applications of Linear Theory in Civil Engineering." His love of numbers also drew him to baseball, a lifelong hobby. "In baseball...numbers talk," he once wrote. Even today, he enjoys discussing baseball, telling a reporter that slugger Barry Bonds should be remembered more for his walk ratio than his home runs.

After college, Mr. Slim and some friends became stockbrokers in the country's fledgling market. Trading by day and playing dominoes by night, the clique became known as "Los Casabolseros," or "The Stock Market Boys." Despite the success, friends say Mr. Slim, less of a party boy and more private than the rest, wanted to run companies rather than trade. "He never liked money as much as the rest of us. He just wanted to be a good businessman," says Enrique Trigueros, one of the casabolseros.

Mr. Slim soon got his chance. After turning around a soft-drink company and a printing firm in the late 1960s and mid 1970s, he made his first big move in 1981, buying a big stake in Mexico's second-biggest tobacco company, Cigatam, maker of Marlboro cigarettes in Mexico. The company generated the cash Mr. Slim needed to go on a buying spree.

A good time to buy came in 1982, a year that would shape Mr. Slim's destiny. That year, the collapsing price of oil threw Mexico into a tailspin. When departing president José López Portillo nationalized Mexico's banks, the traditional business elite feared the country was becoming socialist, and ran for the exits. Companies were selling for as little as 5% of their book value. Mr. Slim picked up dozens of leading firms for bargain-basement prices, a move that paid off when the economy recovered in the following years. He bought Mexico's largest insurer, Seguros de México, for $44 million. Today, the company is worth at least $2.5 billion.

"Countries don't go broke," an unflappable Mr. Slim told friends at the time. Indeed, Mr. Slim always says his inspiration to invest during the downturn came from his father, who bought out his partner in their general store during the worst days of the 1910-1917 Mexican revolution -- a bet that made his father a fortune when the fighting ended.

Mr. Slim still spots good values. From 2002 to 2004, he amassed a 13% stake in bankrupt carrier MCI, later selling it to Verizon Communications Corp. for $1.3 billion. "He has never overpaid for anything," says Hector Aguilar Camín, a historian and friend. While the pair were on holiday in Venice, Mr. Slim once haggled with a store owner for several hours to get a $10 discount on a tie.

Despite his abilities, many here believe his biggest break was the rise to power in 1988 of Carlos Salinas, a Harvard-educated technocrat bent on modernizing the country. The two men had struck up a friendship in the mid-1980s, and Mr. Salinas spoke of Mr. Slim as the country's brightest young businessman. Local wags dubbed the pair "Carlos and Charlies," after a popular local restaurant chain.

Under Mr. Salinas, hundreds of state companies were sold, including Telmex in 1990. Mr. Slim, together with Southwestern Bell and France Telecom, won the bid over one of his closest friends, Roberto Hernandez, who got together with GTE Corp. Mr. Hernandez later suggested the auction was rigged, something both Mr. Slim and Mr. Salinas have long denied. Regardless of whether there was favoritism in the sale of Telmex, the privatization process created a new class of super-rich in Mexico. In 1991, the country had two billionaires on the Forbes list. By 1994, at the end of Mr. Salinas's six-year term, there were 24. The richest of them all was Mr. Slim.

In retrospect, it is easy to see why Messrs. Slim and Hernandez considered Telmex a prize worth losing their friendship. Although countries like Brazil and the U.S. broke up state monopolies into a number of competing firms, Mexico sold its monopoly intact, barring competition during the first six years. And while countries like the U.S. initially barred local "baby bell" carriers from offering long-distance and cellular service in their same area, Telmex got to do all three at once, and across the entire country. Indeed, it won the only nationwide cellular-telephone concession, while rivals had to settle for concessions that were limited to certain regions. When competition was allowed in long distance, foreign carriers were limited to a minority stake in the fixed-line business. Mexico didn't even bother to set up a telephone regulator until three years after the sale.

Dan Crawford was one of those who took on Mr. Slim and lost. In 1995, the California native became chief operating officer of Avantel, a long-distance company partly owned by MCI and the bank of Mr. Hernandez, Mr. Slim's erstwhile friend. Avantel spent around $1 billion building a new network, but it soon ran into trouble trying to connect to Telmex's network -- something it needed to complete calls to and from Telmex clients. Telmex executives simply ignored phone calls or failed to turn up for meetings, Mr. Crawford recalls.

When Telmex did connect the calls nearly a year later, the price was so high that Avantel paid 70 cents of every dollar it made to Mr. Slim's company, according to Mr. Crawford. When Avantel took Telmex to court for monopolistic practices, Telmex responded by asking a judge to issue an arrest warrant for Avantel's top lawyer in Mexico, Luis Mancera, on trumped up charges, Mr. Crawford says. Mr. Slim confirms the story, but says a Telmex lawyer acted rashly, and that the judicial proceeding was dropped. Mr. Mancera declined to comment.

"Slim is very aggressive," says Mr. Crawford, who recently retired from MCI. Avantel eventually defaulted on its debts in 2001, much of which were scooped up by Mr. Slim and later sold for a profit. Avantel was sold recently to another Mexican firm for $485 million -- a fraction of what it invested in Mexico.

For his part, Mr. Slim says Avantel and others mistakenly focused on the long-distance market, which was in decline, rather than wireless, which was growing.

It hasn't been much easier taking on Mr. Slim in the wireless market either. In 2004, Spain's Telefónica SA began selling handsets at a loss here to build market share. But it soon realized that tens of thousands of phones were purchased but never used. According to a case currently at Mexico's antitrust agency, Telefónica says that Telcel distributors bought the phones to keep them off the market, in some cases swapping the phone's existing chip with their own and reselling the handset.

When asked about this practice, Mr. Slim says "It could be. That happens to all of us. If you sell something for $50 or $20 that costs $100, someone's going to buy it." His spokesman and son-in-law, Arturo Elías, says the distributors acted without Telcel's knowledge.

Attempts to regulate Mr. Slim's companies have largely failed over the years. Mexico's telephone regulator, Cofetel, was so weak in the 1990s that Telmex's rivals dubbed it "Cofetelmex." When the regulator did try to act, Mr. Slim's lawyers blocked it in the country's Byzantine courts.

The Telmex chief also had friends in high places. Vicente Fox, Mexico's first opposition president when he won in 2000, tapped a former Telmex employee, Pedro Cerisola, to be his minister of communications and transport. During his tenure, Mr. Cerisola rarely moved against Telmex, say executives from rival telephone companies. Mr. Cerisola declined to comment.

Using money from his telephone empire, Mr. Slim has expanded into Latin American markets as well as new industries in Mexico. His cellphone company América Móvil has 124 million customers and operates in more than a dozen Latin American nations. In Mexico, he has focused on industries that depend on government contracts. His new construction company, Ideal SAB, is currently bidding to run some of Mexico's biggest highways. His new oil-services company recently built the country's biggest oil platform.

Some of Mexico's business leaders say in private that they feel Mr. Slim has grown too greedy. The death of his wife, Soumaya, from kidney disease in 1999 left him without an anchor, says Mr. Trigueros, Mr. Slim's friend from his stockbroker days. "She was a special woman, the kind who keeps a guy in line. Nowadays, he only has business to think about," he says.

Mr. Slim's empire is so vast here now that doing business without him can be difficult. Two years ago, Hutchison Port Holdings and U.S. railroad Union Pacific teamed up to bid on a $6 billion port and railway in Baja California to compete with Long Beach port. But Mr. Slim felt the project had been arranged behind closed doors and was against the idea of the country's biggest project going to foreigners. He made his feelings known to the Baja California governor and the project was stalled. Mr. Slim has since worked to put together a rival consortium, which includes Mexican rail company Grupo Mexico and U.S. railroad Burlington-Northern. He says his potential bid is a better option for the country because the railroad will run along Mexico's north and help spur development. Union Pacific and Hutchison both declined to comment.

Mr. Slim has recently given more money to philanthropy, but he has often said his most important legacy is his family. In 2000, a few years after heart surgery, he put his sons and sons-in-law in charge of his businesses. He also started a group called "Fathers and Sons" that invites Latin American billionaires and their heirs for annual meetings, where they sip fine wines and attend seminars like "How to Run a Family Business."

There is no obvious successor to the patriarch's empire. That gives some Mexican officials hope that one day the state can regulate his companies. Says one high-ranking official: "When Slim dies, we can finally regulate his kids."

Write to David Luhnow at david.luhnow@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications:

About half of Mexican homes have telephone lines, according to the World Bank. This article about Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim incorrectly said only 20% of Mexican homes have phone lines.

Increasing Traffic to Your Internet Business

Kelly Spors answers questions from readers about entrepreneurship
July 31, 2007

Start by figuring out what phrases people are typing into search engines when looking for your type of products online. Once you know that, you can buy paid search ads, such as pay-per-click ads, using those phrases and pepper your site with them to boost its search-engine rankings.

Showing up high in search-engine rankings is very important since most people use search engines to shop for products online.

There are some key-word suggestion tools that help identify popular search phrases, usually available free. For instance, Google Inc.'s AdWords Keyword Tool and Wordtracker.com let you type in words and see which related phrases get searched most often. Type "Made in America" into the AdWords Keyword Tool, for instance, and you see phrases like "clothing made in America" and "toys made in the usa" have been searched fairly often recently. But "toys made in America" was searched hardly at all.

You also can experiment with various search phrases by signing up for an advertising program, like Google AdWords. The programs let you bid on various phrases. The price you bid is what you pay the search-engine provider each time someone clicks on your ad. The more you bid, the higher an ad for your site appears on the right-hand side of a search-results page. These programs have monitoring programs that let you see what phrases are most effective in generating traffic and customers on your site.

Another way to get attention is to position yourself as an expert on the benefits of buying American, says Aaron Wall, an Oakland, Calif., search marketing expert. You might, he suggests, write a blog on your site with daily updates on timely issues that people who buy American goods care about, such as U.S. manufacturing trends and product safety. A blog should draw more traffic and links to your site, which, in turn, should boost your site's ranking on search engines.

How to Get a Children's Book Printed

Kelly Spors answers questions from readers about entrepreneurship
August 7, 2007

Finding a publisher requires some perseverance, research and, yes, superb writing. A good start is checking out the library to read the most popular children's books and seeing what publishers are behind books most similar to yours. You can then put together a list of those most likely to publish your book.

Many people have written children's books, but few meet a publisher's standards: manuscripts offering intriguing characters with a unique vision. But coming up with that next "Where the Wild Things Are" requires you to understand the publishing world and what sells.

There are numerous classes for aspiring children's authors, but you might also find a writing mentor or two by joining groups like the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, a Los Angeles-based organization that hosts seminars and networking events for people trying to become children's book writers.

Once you have a manuscript in polished form, send a typed copy, a short cover letter and a self-addressed stamped envelope to publishers. You can find one of the most comprehensive lists of publishers and their submission guidelines in the Childrens Writers and Illustrators Market 2007, a guidebook for children's book publishing. Some publishers allow you to send manuscripts you've sent elsewhere while others want exclusive dibs, so know the policies of each one before sending them your manuscript. Others suggest you send a query letter first.

If, after two months, you still have no response, contact the publisher to inquire. If you still don't hear back, you might write a letter withdrawing your submission and send it to the next one.

You don't need to send illustrations with your manuscript -- unless you happen to be a professional illustrator. Most children's book publishers have a pool of illustrators they work with and prefer lining up their own.

Having a literary agent also will greatly boost your odds of selling your manuscript, because they are attuned to working with the major publishing houses and know what it takes to get a book published. Most literary agents take a 10% to 15% cut of your profits. You can find lists of agents in the Literary Market Place, available at literarymarketplace.com. You also could check the "Acknowledgements" section of books similar to yours.

From Parties to Payoff

By SIMONA COVEL
July 21, 2007

(See Corrections & Amplifications item below.)

Just days after Laurel Touby's bank account grew -- by a lot -- the mediabistro.com inc. founder sounds exhilarated and still a bit unbelieving. This week, Jupitermedia Corp. said it agreed to pay $20 million in cash plus a possible $3 million over the next two years for the business Ms. Touby started in the mid-1990s by hosting cocktail parties.

Gary He

Laurel Touby

Ms. Touby kicked off her venture when she mailed postcards to friends and acquaintances in the media industry, inviting them to gatherings to network and socialize. Sometimes, she walked around the bar with a hat, collecting contributions to cover the tab. "People got married, people got jobs, people got free-lance work," recalls Ms. Touby, who says she's "a broker of people."

By 1997, she was sending an email newsletter. In 1999, she built a Web site -- with the help of a friend's boyfriend -- and its job listings took off. Today, mediabistro.com, with close to $10 million in annual revenue, makes money mostly through job listings, ad sales, membership fees and writing classes.

The Wall Street Journal talked with the 44-year-old Ms. Touby, who once covered small business as a journalist, about how she funded her business.

The Wall Street Journal: In 1999, you had an idea that job listings could be the cornerstone of an online business, but you didn't want to go to friends or family for money. What did you do?

Ms. Touby: I started talking to everyone I knew. One thing I learned writing about small business is that you don't want to be undercapitalized. I got into the old-boy network. I met this guy … he was cute, and we got to chatting. He looked like the young-old-boy network. He agreed to let me take him to lunch. I agreed to pay him a finder's fee, and he introduced me to his ex-girlfriend's father. This guy was my first serious meeting -- I wore my million-dollar suit. I was charging for the job listings and [the investor] had the vision to look at this crazy plan … It took him five minutes, and he was like, "I'm in."

He put in $250,000. I said, "Do you know any leads [for more investors]?" I wanted someone who would be arm's length, not angels who often want too much control. Well, the old-boy network really works. He introduced me to [the person who would become] the lead investor, and he put in $750,000.

He put me through the ringer -- he didn't know media. They only gave me half of the money upfront, and wanted certain milestones, like revenues and profits -- hard things to do!

WSJ: Two years later, the dot-com bubble was deflating, followed soon by Sept. 11, 2001. What happened?

Ms. Touby: I was running out of money. I went back, hat in hand, to get the other half of the promised money [from the investors]. They gave me around $50,000 -- enough to get through the panic. It basically bought two months. For three months, I took a pay cut to zero. Much of my staff took a 20% pay cut. I put up my apartment for a $100,000 line of credit, though I ended up not having to use it.

WSJ: How did you turn things around?

Ms. Touby: We launched classes and seminars, and I realized this makes money. People loved it. In 2003, we had our first profitable month. By the end of 2003, we were really [consistently] profitable. Now, 15,000 people have gone through the classes.

FACT BOX

Company: mediabistro.com inc.

Founded: 1997

Employees: 27

Executive: Laurel Touby

Title: Founder and senior vice president

Age: 44

Years in position: 10

Biggest hurdle overcome: The Internet crash and Sept. 11, by launching a series of offline classes and seminars.

Biggest success: Growing by 30%-plus for several years.

WSJ: Did you go out looking for a potential buyer?

Ms. Touby: I don't just go knocking on doors. That's lame. But I'm always at conferences, always running into people. I was always friendly to potential buyers. I've been out and about -- speaking at conferences, on panel discussions. One reason you do that is to get your name and your company out there for a potential sale. I've always been strategic.

WSJ: When did buyers start coming around?

Ms. Touby: Over the past few years, we had a few hard offers and a bunch of whisper offers. Financial buyers wanted to pay low and sell in a few years. I always wanted a strategic buyer who would help achieve my goals, and I always knew in my head I wasn't going to sell for less than a certain number. We were growing at 30% each year, so it made sense to wait [for the right buyer]. Discussions started with Jupiter on March 16. We had lunch and argued. I think they got a bargain compared to what I wanted. But I think I'm going to get more out of working with them than going at it alone. I never really believed it until the money hit the bank. I was sure someone was going to snatch it out of my hands.

Write to Simona Covel at simona.covel@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications:

Jupitermedia agreed to pay $20 million in cash plus a possible $3 million over the next two years for mediabistro.com. An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated the possible $3 million additional payment would be over three years.

Q&A: Building a Brand Around a Personality

By LAURA LORBER
July 2, 2007

Uncle Wally's may not be as famous as Famous Amos, but the same person is behind both brands: Wally Amos.

Once a show-business promoter, Mr. Amos started selling chocolate-chip cookies in 1975 in his store in Hollywood, Calif. The business took off, as Mr. Amos rode a gourmet cookie craze and advocated for adult literacy. Mr. Amos eventually lost the business and became its paid spokesman. It changed hands several times, and now is owned by Kellogg Co.'s Keebler brand.

Rosica Public Relations

Wally Amos with Uncle Wally's Muffins

After false starts with two new companies, in 1992 he co-founded Uncle Wally's Muffins Corp., a firm in Shirley, N.Y. He's chairman and spokesman for the firm, which has 140 employees. Mr. Amos, 71, also owns Chip and Cookie, a cookie store in Kailua, Hawaii, with his wife Christine, and is the founder of the Chip and Cookie Read Aloud Foundation. We spoke with Mr. Amos about building a product brand identity around a personality.

WSJ: What's key to branding a product around a person?

Wally Amos: Here's Wally Amos's philosophy: You're in business to make friends. For someone to buy your product, they really have to like you, which is key to personality branding.

If I'm your friend, you're going to do whatever you can to help me. As a business owner, I have a responsibility in that, though. I have to honor the friendship with my customer by producing a quality product, with integrity, by doing what I say I'm going to do, by being a company that gives back to the community, by being a civic-minded company.

Sure, you're in business to make money. And you have to make a profit, but what are you going to do for the customers? Why would the customer buy your product over another product? What if you have two muffins and both of them taste good? I would believe that if someone had their choice between two muffins or two cookies that both tasted great that they would choose the Wally Amos product.

That's what branding is -- the brand stands for something. The brand creates the income. People buy the product, because they know that the brand has integrity, has credibility, and the company stands behind it. If customers have a problem with the product, they can pick up the phone and get satisfaction. But all of those things create profits.

Why should someone buy your product? It satisfies a need that they have. There are so many choices today. What are you going to do to stand out?

WSJ: What's the hardest part of building a personality-based brand?

Mr. Amos: I've always operated on a very personal level. Because if I can meet you, one-on-one, I'm going to be your friend. I'm going to win you over. You're going to taste my product, and you're going to like my product, and you're going to like me, and that's genuine.

You've got to have a personality. You have to be somewhat of an extrovert, because you're before the public all the time. And you have to be passionate about your product. This doesn't work for everybody, everybody doesn't have the personality to be out front.

When you put your name and your picture on a product, it's a double-edged sword. If people don't like you, or you do something that discourages them or that is not ethical, you can go out of business. When you and the brand become one, whatever you do will ultimately affect the brand. If you're exposed to something other than credibility and integrity, then ultimately your brand is affected.

WSJ: How does Uncle Wally's build its brand?

Mr. Amos: Word of mouth is huge. Word of mouth is the best way to promote a product or to brand a product, which is what I did with Famous Amos. We had huge word of mouth. We had a lot of media attention, because I opened a store selling only chocolate-chip cookies, and we tied Famous Amos in with literacy. To use all of those avenues to bring attention to your product is important.

Public relations becomes a huge part of that. That's why we've always used cause marketing. When I had Famous Amos, I hooked up with Literacy Volunteers of America. I became as identified with adult literacy as I did with cookies, and that endeared me to people, because they knew that I meant it.

WSJ: What's different about how you promote Uncle Wally's, compared to how Famous Amos was promoted?

Mr. Amos: I don't know that there is anything different. With Uncle Wally's, we believe in giving muffins away and letting people taste muffins, because the best way to sell a food product is to let someone taste it. I always tell people: You can't fool your mouth. We align ourselves with nonprofit groups to help their causes, which helps our cause, and it helps their audience taste our product. We'll give away muffins in a heartbeat -- to charities, sometimes at events. It's all basic common sense stuff.

There are a lot of companies that sell muffins. There were no cookie stores. There are some limitations. I can carry cookies around very easily. I can't carry muffins. Muffins are more of a breakfast food, rather than a snack that you can eat all day. Ideas are not all transferable from one product to the next, just because you do it with one thing, doesn't mean that you do it with another.

Even with cookies, I thought starting Chip and Cookie would be a breeze. It's almost two years, and we haven't had a profit yet. We had a big opening party, and I said, 'OK, this is going to catapult me.' But it didn't. It did when I had Famous Amos, but these are different times. It's a different location. I'm in Hawaii. With Famous Amos, I was in Hollywood. Everything is different. It was 30 years later when I started Chip and Cookie. It's a whole different audience.

WSJ: What advice do you have for small-business owners looking to brand a product around their personality?

Mr. Amos: You can't compete with the big guys. So don't even attempt to do that. You don't have the money, you don't have the resources. But many small businesses today, because they don't have the budgets and they can't compete with all these big companies, are personalizing their business.

In this day and age when everything is so big, big is not better. Big is just bigger. People buy from other people. People do business with other people. If you have a product that lends itself to you being the spokesperson for it, you can be the person out front.

Be consistent in who you are. You have to use what you sell, and you're going to have to know everything there is to know about what you sell. You have to be passionate about what you're doing, because otherwise you're not going to be able to convince people to buy it.

You need to do what you like. Too many people get in business to make money. You have to make money. But if that's your single motivation, that's not enough. It's important to have fun. If you don't have fun, I don't give a damn what you're selling, you're not going to be successful with it. I know a lot of people who have a lot of money who are miserable. And I don't want to be one of them.

Write to Laura Lorber at laura.lorber@wsj.com

Making the Most of Online Matchmaking for Small Firms

By SIMONA COVEL
July 30, 2007

Wil Schroter has started nine companies -- some successful, others not. Over the years, the entrepreneur has developed a network of investors, software developers and others who might be able to help out with his businesses. He says friends and acquaintances began to come to him on a regular basis, asking him to put them in touch with advisers or job candidates he knows.

Wil Schroter

"It dawned on me that there was no central Rolodex where anyone who's looking to start a company could come for information," says Mr. Schroter, 32.

Go Big Network LLC was born from that realization. The Web site, www.gobignetwork.com, launched in early 2006, is structured like a dating site for start-ups, where entrepreneurs can create profiles and post ads looking for investors and others to help start their businesses. Posting a profile is free, but users pay a subscription  an average of $49 a month -- to contact someone on the site, says Mr. Schroter, who is based in Columbus, Ohio.

Several lender-borrower matchmaking sites have popped up in recent months. Like Go Big, RaiseCapital.com and FundingUniverse.com are designed for small companies seeking a cash infusion. Prosper.com focuses on individuals looking for money. WSJ.com talked with Mr. Schroter about what works and what doesn't for business owners using his service and how he funded his start-ups.

WSJ: Paint a picture of the typical investor on gobignetwork.com.

Mr. Schroter: The average investor on the site is a wealthy individual. They probably have as much investment capital as an angel investor, but our investor is more likely someone who has a full-time job, but also wants to place an investment in a start-up or film or what have you.

WSJ: There are 10,000 active listings on the site, and it seems most are companies looking for funding. What's the best way to stand out?

Mr. Schroter: There are 99 companies looking for funding for every investor. The best postings are short ads that are really to the point. Four sentences that are well-composed will beat four paragraphs every time. It should say: "This is the industry we're serving. This is the problem we're solving. And this is how we make money doing it."

A bad posting doesn't give any indication to the investor why they would want to invest in that company. It's: "We want to create a great company. We need more money. Invest in us." Instead, they should say: "We're going to be in the health-care industry. We found a cure for cancer. We're going to sell cancer pills for a dollar and make 90 cents on each one." An investor gets that.

WSJ: How often do companies find funding through the site?

Mr. Schroter: We don't have a way to track that. But when the average person posts, they receive three responses. There are 10,000 active listings  including people looking for funding and people looking to fund. People need to be in it for the long haul. You're not shopping for a mortgage  you're talking about a highly-specific fit.

WSJ: How did you fund your first business?

Mr. Schroter: I was 19. I talked to a couple of venture-capital companies and they laughed at me -- my projections didn't go past one year, and I had left things out like the cost of health benefits for employees. After three years, I had about $100,000 in debt -- a combination of credit cards and personal loans.

WSJ: How did you fund your most recent company, Go Big?

Mr. Schroter: Over time, I realized that sometimes you don't really need to raise money, but to convince people to do things for you, like build a Web site. I launched Go Big with less than $50,000. I brought together lots of people who were willing to participate [in exchange for] for stock. I employ 12 people, and they all have options in the company.

People should also pitch everyone all the time. I was in San Francisco last week, and every single person I ran into, I pitched my business. You never know, they might say, "Oh, my best friend happens to be a Java programmer."

Write to Simona Covel at simona.covel@wsj.com