February 10 Roundtable Poll Winner

Kimbra Orr’s Kimbra Studios was chosen the best business of those presented at yesterday’s roundtable through a poll on our 1M/1M Facebook page. Congratulations! In case you missed it, you can read Sramana Mitra’s roundtable recap here or listen to the recording found here.

Roundtable Recap: February 10 – When Keywords Are Competitive

For this week’s One Million by One Million roundtable, we discussed an important topic that many entrepreneurs are facing. Google PPC is a key channel for customer acquisition for many e-commerce and online businesses, yet keywords have become quite competitive, and the costs of campaigns for certain keywords tend to be extremely high.

Michelle Herbert and Amy Wright pitched Amy Michelle Go Totes, a company selling multi-purpose tote bags that serve as diaper bags, purses, etc. Now if you do the research on the keyword groups that are relevant for this category of products, for example, diaper bags and related keywords, you will find that the query yields millions of searches. However, with the large search volume comes a highly competitive scenario where etail advertisers like Babiesrus, Zappos, and Diaperbagboutique have locked up the top spots.
>>>

February 10 Roundtable Recording

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:

1Mby1M Deal Radar: Pontiflex, Brooklyn, New York

If you have ever clicked on a mobile ad by mistake, you’re not alone. According to a recent survey, almost half of mobile app users say they click or tap on mobile ads more often by mistake than on purpose, meaning that a lot of the effort gone into the ad was wasted. Pontiflex, which powers a new kind of digital advertising called sign-up ads, is trying to change this. With sign-up ads, users opt in to connect with advertisers they like without leaving a publisher’s website or mobile app. Advertisers pay only when someone signs up for their ad, not for wasted clicks or impressions. Users like this approach better, says Pontiflex, and developers and publishers of websites and apps make more money from it. >>>

1M/1M In The IndUS Business Journal

Martin Desmarais with the IndUS Business Journal recently spoke to Sramana Mitra about the One Million by One Million initiative for his article, Sramana Mitra: 1 Million Ways. You can read the entire article here.

1Mby1M Deal Radar 2011: crowdSPRING, Chicago, Illinois

Package design for a new type of potato chip, new pasta shapes, a name for a new building, the next LG cell phone – all are current or past projects on crowdSPRING, which describes itself as “the world’s largest online marketplace for buyers and sellers of crowdsourced creative services.” The designers and writers who join crowdSPRING provide logo, graphic, website, and industrial design; and company names, copywriting, taglines, and other creative services through a competition-inspired model in which they submit posted projects to buyers, who chose the entry they like best. The model has generated controversy, mostly about nonpayment of independent workers, the protection of creatives’ intellectual property, and the idea that companies want professional-quality creative work but are unwilling to pay for it. crowdSPRING says that it is attempting to address these concerns as part of its goal to disrupt old ways of buying creative services and introduce crowdsourcing into mainstream business.  >>>

1M/1M Strategy Roundtable For Entrepreneurs On Thursday, February 10

Entrepreneurs interested in discussing all aspects of a start-up venture are welcome to attend the next free online strategy roundtable on Thursday, February 10, 2011, starting at: 11 a.m. EST/8 a.m. PST/9:30 p.m. IST. You can find more details and register here.

1Mby1M Deal Radar: Camp Bow Wow, Boulder

What do the Champagne houses Veuve Clicquot, Pommery, and Bollinger; the printer of the Declaration of Independence; and the German steel conglomerate ThyssenKrupp AG have in common? At one time, all were run by widows who took over the business after their husband died. It’s a path that many women have followed across the centuries, back through the Industrial Revolution, medieval Europe, the Roman and Sumerian empires, and perhaps even further. Today’s Deal Radar is the story of one woman entrepreneur, Heidi Ganahl, who found herself in a somewhat different situation: Her husband was killed in a small plane crash just as they were getting started on a business together. Ganahl went on to carry out their idea and found Camp Bow Wow, a dog boarding service, and Home Buddies, its in-home pet care component. >>>