by Susan Woodside, Team Editor Hi, I’m the team editor for the Office Live Workspace User Assistance team. One of the reasons I’m excited about Office Live Workspace is that it’s a service that can replace the many pieces of paper we need to manage our busy lives with online documents that we can share with others. Remember the “paperless office?” I look at the piles of paper on my desk, and on the...

There is a buzz around the Microsoft Office Live Small Business offices today. It’s just been announced that we’ve surpassed 1 million subscribers to our service, a pivotal milestone we reached in less than two years of being publicly available (we made our commercial debut in November 2006)! Check out the press release . Obviously, without you, the customer, we wouldn’t have accomplished this feat...

I saw a statistic the other day that blew me away. According to Jupiter Research, 61% of online consumers use search engines on a daily basis . For anyone with a Web site – whether you’re selling products or offering services – that’s got to be a pretty compelling reason to advertise on search sites. Now, I know some of you think search marketing is a bit mysterious. And if you’re new to keywords and...

To save bucks in today’s rocky economy, many small-business owners are abandoning their downtown offices and setting up shop in their homes, according to a recent Associated Press article . This not only allows them to avoid rent payments, but also transportation costs, parking, eating out, insurance, and other nickel-and-dime expenses that add up. Of course, at Microsoft Office Live Small Business...

I’ve managed many Web sites in my career and often come back to the same concept: Keep it simple! I found that one of the toughest parts of Web site creation is figuring out what to write. I’m often surprised at people’s natural instincts to go overboard and want to add everything to a Web site. The result is paralysis, brought on by being overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to create all the content...

Posted on behalf of Roman Frillarte You know, there’s always someone out there trying to make a fast buck, but we don’t want it to be at your expense if we can help it. So here’s a word of caution: If you receive a letter telling you that your Microsoft Office Live Small Business domain is about to expire, please read it carefully. Chances are it’s not from us, it’s not a bill, and there’s no need...

If you're like me, you're a visual learner, and tend to understand something best when you see it demonstrated. A lot of people prefer to see how-to instructions in a video format. That is why we've just released seven how-to demos that provide step-by-step instructions for important small-business features and tasks. We chose these topics based on feedback from Office Live Small Business...

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know we’ve devoted some space to the virtues of e-mail marketing for small businesses. Now, see what others have to say on this topic. Our colleague David Baker of digital marketing services firm Avenue A|Razorfish offers some great insights on why e-mail is such a vital tool for small business . On a related note, last week we published some interesting...