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Here’s something to ponder: 10 Businesses Facing Extinction in 10 Years. Or Entrepreneur magazine’s opinion on the matter, anyways. Like I’ve said before, you can’t go wrong with a list if you want to get people reading. This article is a good example. I tend to agree with them on pay phones, record stores and camera film mfr’s, but I’m not so sure about newspapers (the alternative user interfaces just suck). Care to add anything to the list?

Planning to get into securities or real estate sales? If you are planning to take the real estate sales exam, series 6 exam, or appraisal exam, prepare for the exam right by taking an exam course recommended by many professionals. Compucram offers exam courses which help you to maximize your chances of success.

Sponsored by Compucram.com

For a look at some brilliant, thinking-outside-the-box ads, check out this post with ads from Amnesty International. The designers must be awful proud of this campaign, each image just stops you dead in your tracks. That’s the kind of emotional impact so much lesser advertising aspires to, without success.

Lately there has been no shortage of news articles regarding personal loans, especially mortgages, since so many are going into default. Mortgages are secured loans, meaning the loan from the bank is secured by the house purchased with the loan. This makes it very important for you to know up front, before you take the loan, whether you can afford to make the payments or not. One of the big issues right now stems from adjustable rate mortgages… the initial rates were very low, but now people find that once the rates go up, they can no longer afford the payments. You should do the research and understand the loan before you take it. These days it’s possible to look for online loans; since you’re doing the search on your computer, you can look at many different offers to be sure you’re getting the best deal for yourself.

 Sponsored by UK Personal Loan Store

I enjoy the trendwatching website, which keeps an eye out for trends, and attempts to distill the essence of what those trends are about. One of the trends they’ve pointed out recently is Pop-Up Retail, which is getting enough visibility it’s popped up in some business magazines. The concept is this: it’s hard to get people to come to the store. So why not take the store to people? Thus is born instant, impermanent stores. They might be modified shipping containers, or tents, or blow-up carnival tents. They might be linked to a particular event, or time of year (xmas anyone?), or might just be randomly placed so that the very randomness itself establishes buzz. What a great idea… by putting something where (and when) it’s not expected, you confound people’s expectations, and get their attention. Getting their attention seems like more than half the battle in our over-advertised age.

I’ve been down to North Carolina a few times, and Raleigh NC a few times in particular. Really enjoy it down there. The people are pleasant, and it’s one of those nice southern towns. The Carolina barbeque style is my absolute favorite, I have to get myself some pulled pork every time I visit. I was just down there recently, and the BBQ was as good as ever. So here’s a great deal for you– how about a chance to win yourself a FREE Raleigh Getaway? (Just visit the link to apply). The winner gets a package which includes:

• One night accommodations for two at the Courtyard by Marriott Raleigh Crabtree Valley
• $25 gift certificate to Bloomsbury Bistro
• Free VIP admission for two to Rum Runners
• 2 tickets to the North Carolina Theatre
• 2 tickets to the N.C. Museum of Art’s Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism
• 2 tickets to Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences

What an amazing fall getaway this would be! There are so many things to do down there at this time of year. First off, the weather isn’t as cold as it is up here in the Northeast. So that means you can get outdoors and enjoy things like the 2007 N.C. State Fair. If you’re into Harleys, go to Bike Fest. Catch a concert by Branford Marsalis. See a play or a musical. Visit a museum - for example, the NC Museum of Natural Sciences has an exhibit on dinosaurs called Ancient Fossil, New Discoveries.

I spent 2 days this week at the offices of one of the larger Fortune 500 companies. Was able to see firsthand how they approach marketing, and product rollouts. It’s interesting to see how the other half lives. You know, the half with the millions of dollars in the marketing budget, and tons of people resources. A few observations:

• ‘Big’ buys lots of resources, and great facilities. And great connections.
• ‘Big’ can buy lots of very talented people.
• ‘Big’ doesn’t necessarily buy perfection. For whatever reason, the plans might still have holes, and the products might have flaws.

If you’re ‘Small’, it’s important to recognize the pros and the cons of ‘Big’. Then if you have to compete with Big, you’ll know enough to aim for the soft underbelly.

Series 65 is a certification required in order to act as an investment adviser. A person must obtain this certification by taking the Series 65 exam, which consists of 130 multiple choice questions to be answered within 3 hours. That’s a lot of material to cover in just a few hours, so those who wish to pass the test on first try would be smart to plan ahead and study.  There is a do-it-yourself preparation course (follow links above) available which includes such features as highlighted key words, chapter exams, and final exam questions designed to be as like the actual exam as possible. There is also a drill cd so that you can practice, practice, practice. Also available are a variety of other ‘Series’ certification test courses.

Sponsored by Long Island Institute of Finance

Do you use Google Alerts? Here’s 2 reasons you should if you don’t: 1) it’s useful, and 2) it’s free. Google Alerts lets you set yourself up to receive email alerts whenever the mighty Google spider indexes a particular item of interest to you. Here’s a few ways you can use it:

• notify you whenever someone links to your website, or to a particular page on your website
• notify you when someone writes something online about your company
• notify you when someone writes about your competition
• keep apprised of topics of interest to you

It takes just minutes to set up, and works for you day in and day out. Really cool service, the sort of tool you might have once dreamed about. The world’s best press clipping service, and it’s free.

One of the hassles of collecting business cards is figuring out what you’re supposed to do with them afterwards. Sure, you could stuff them into a rolodex, but who uses a rolodex anymore? It seems a little antiquated. What you really need is to get all of your contacts into Outlook. But who has the time to type out all of the data on the business cards they’ve collected over the years? And with each trade show and industry event, you collect more cards, getting yourself further behind the 8-ball. So here’s a solution: the Scan2Contacts business card reader, a scanner which integrates right into Microsoft Outlook (it’s Vista-compatible too), and lets you take your business cards and dump them right into Outlook where you can actually use them.  The scanner uses OCR (optical character recognition) to capture a text version of the card, and also captures an image version. The scanner is battery powered, thus requiring no external power. That makes it an ideal scanner for trade shows, where you might not have easy access to an outlet. It’s very easy to setup– the software will add a small toolbar to your Outlook to make it easier to perform your scans. For just $179, you can have the hardware and software combination to give you everything you need to unlock the value of your business card collection.