It’s never a good idea for me to read Entrepreneur Magazine right before bed as I get to revved up and end up eating a midnight snack in front of my laptop. The same can be said for Inc., Business 2.0 and Fast Company.

(In fact, when Spider-Man recently revealed his secret identity at a press conference that kept me up half the night as well! Was it a dream? An alternate universe? Will there be a mass-hypnosis to make the world forget again?)

Here are some of the articles I dog-eared last night:

• Bird’s Eye View: Entrepreneurs painting their rooftop for some "free" advertising from satellite photos like those at Google Maps. The article warns that many of these satellite photos are months or years old, so don’t expect immediate results. I’m making a note to stop my nude sunbathing on flyte’s rooftop veranda.
• Candid Camera: An interesting approach to using a Webcam. ScubaToys will bring products to a Webcam when customers call in with a question to explain things. Owner Larry Dague attributes "at least four sales every day to the technology." (Wow!)
• What’s in a Name?: Catherine Seda doesn’t exactly say this, but it appears in the negative space in her article: if your company is well-known enough, some people will say negative things about it, and these nasty messages may appear in the first page of the search engine results. How to keep them off page one? Make sure your site is optimized for your company name and the products and services you sell. Press releases, blogs, and articles that appear on other Web sites will help you appear multiple times on page one. Also, if there are negative comments that can be found online, see if you can find an online solution. An angry blogger may be converted to an evangelist with the right approach.

As you can see, Entrepreneur posts (seemingly) all of their articles online, which is great. However, a big thumb’s down to their "blog" which has no RSS feed, no comments and no trackbacks. There’s nothing wrong with posting Web-only material, but to call something a blog that obviously isn’t makes it look like they just don’t get it.

Rich Brooks
Entrepreneur

Tags:
Entrepreneur Magazine | Satellite Photos | Webcam | SEO