Posted on behalf of Ajay Sethi Many Microsoft Office Live Small Business users have requested a way to get usage reports for their Web sites that aren’t bloated by their own visits. While adding that feature is under discussion, you can still get a fairly close idea of the number of actual customer visits using the available data in Site Reports. Before I explain how to do that, consider three ways...

I hear a lot of stories about people making a living selling items on eBay – and from the sound of it, some of them are doing pretty darned well. In fact, in an article posted on our Resource Center, writer Christopher Elliott suggests millions of people today rely on eBay for at least part of their income. However, Chris also points out that the road to eBay riches can be fraught with peril if you...

Does a “fourth-level domain” make you insane? Let me explain! The subject of domain names generates a lot of questions among our Office Live Small Business subscribers. It’s not hard to see why. There are fourth-level domains, custom domains, primary domains … To help explain these terms, I’d like to put forth the simple facts about domain names in the land of Office Live Small Business. F ACT 1: When...

We built Microsoft Office Live Small Business to be a do-it-yourself Web site solution. And from some of the terrific sites I’ve seen our subscribers create, I think it’s working out nicely for many of you. But we also understand that some who sign up for our service may get, well, stuck. You discover you don’t really have the time or necessary oomph to get your site up and running. That’s why I’d...

We wrapped up our Vision to Venture tour with a sold-out event in Redmond on May 9, and I feel blessed to have been part of this amazing entrepreneurial road show. We met some incredible women (and men!) during our cross-country tour – and each one of their inspirational stories touched me. In Redmond, for example, there was the woman who has had 20 businesses fail – and never gives up! There was the...

If your business sells items that are easy to ship, you’ve probably considered launching an online store. A whole lot of people— about 875 million at last count —shop on the Internet today, so it just makes sense. However, many of the very sensible home-based business folks, solo entrepreneurs, and small-business operators I chat with are not doing e-commerce—even though they could. It’s clear to me...

While flying home from a conference in California the other day, I got to chatting with the woman sitting next to me. I was telling her that I work for a Microsoft service that helps small businesses get up and running on the Web. She stopped me mid-sentence, wanting to know if I knew anything about the next Microsoft Small Business Summit. Apparently a colleague of hers had caught some of the presentations...

Here’s a question that might be uncomfortable for some of you: When was the last time you updated your Web site? Web experts rightly tell us that it’s smart to refresh your site content regularly. By doing so, you convey that you have a dynamic business and are eager to engage your customers with new opportunities and experiences. Conversely, by letting your original content camp on your site forever...