In many minds, e-mail marketing equates to what is kindly called unsolicited commercial e-mail. But e-mail marketing is different than spam. If done right – and that’s critical – e-mail marketing messages benefit both the business that sends them and the person who receives them. To ensure this, send to only the people who opt in to your newsletter, via a sign-up list on your Web site or a third-party...

Posting on behalf of Sharad Nandwani When we launched our new version of Office Live Small Business last month, we also updated our Reports tool. In a January post , I talked about using Reports to figure out who’s coming to your site, what they’re doing when they get there, and how they got there in the first place (from search engine ads or from partner referrals, for example). Today, I want to tell...

If you’re the type of woman who dreams of starting a business – but needs a nudge – we’re going to provide it. Next month, Microsoft Office Live Small Business is hitting the road to host a series of day-long Vision to Venture events focused on helping women like you start and grow a successful business. We’ve assembled an impressive panel of small-business experts who promise some riveting, high-impact...

If you run a small business, taking time out to educate yourself can be a luxury. That’s why we wanted to make sure you know about the Microsoft Small Business Summit 2008 , which runs March 24-27. The nice thing about the Small Business Summit is that you don’t have to drive somewhere to catch the topics such as new marketing tactics or expert advice on how to ride out today’s rough economic climate...

Store Manager in Office Live Small Business provides an exciting opportunity to sell products to a vast audience online. But like anything new, opening a virtual store can come with some questions. I have good news: There are several ways to get assistance, and fast. 1. Help. Perhaps you’ve read a few Help topics about Store Manager, and didn’t get the specific information you were looking for. One...

If you think your Web site needs a makeover, Office Live Small Business has launched a fun contest you’ll want to know about. Each week for the next 13 weeks, the Save Our Site Sweepstakes is awarding a prize package that gives you a chance to win professional Web site design assistance from Website Pros. Winners will also snag a high-performance ASUS laptop and $1,000 cash. Pretty cool, huh? The Web...

If you’re always on the prowl for a good deal, don’t miss the four limited-time offers we’ve got going. They’re our way of showing off some of the new features and improvements we’ve made to Office Live Small Business. Just keep in mind that to take advantage of these offers, you need to be signed up for our service. (Of course that’s a deal in itself, since you can sign up for free .) 1. Test drive...

I find it perfectly understandable that people (not me, of course) and businesses occasionally make a mistake (or three) on their tax returns. After all, our tax laws seem to change year to year, forcing adjustments in the way we track expenses and keep our books. I’m not so sure the folks at the IRS see it that way, however. That’s why Joseph Anthony’s column on six common tax and bookkeeping mistakes...