New Cartoosh Widgets

Widgets have been gaining lots of fans in the last couple of years. The small widgets that originate from their ancestors - portlets in the portal about ten years ago have evolved significantly thanks to technology innovations, such as, RSS and Web 2.0.

The widgets have come out their enterprise habitats, sprouted in the consumer-oriented portals like MyYahoo and iGoogle, and now blossomed on many blogs, websites, and social networks. Along that move, the purpose of widgets has shifted from personalization (of, say, your iGoogle home page) to Internet marketing and beyond. Many widgets are used on social networks as an extension of socialization. For example, one may make new friends via a "virtual pet" that lives in a pet widget rather than simply say hello to a total stranger.

Widgets are even spouting a new industry. There are several start-ups riding on the rise of widgets by easing the learning curve in creating widgets, lowering the entrance barrier in distribution of widgets (like market penetration), or providing such intelligence as who's installed your widgets (similar to market analysis).

If you're a blogger or a website owner, take a look at the four new Cartoosh widgets at Cartoosh.com. By embedding these widgets in your blog or website, your readers automatically get up-to-date cartoons without leaving your site.

I'll have more coverage on widgets, since they are important stepping stones in the next phase of my Internet adventure.

Fishtarian.com Launched

I'm glad to announce that the whole new Fishtarian.com website is officially launched. With the goal to become your trusted partner in pursuing your heart healthy diet and living, we've designed Fishtarian.com featuring both blog posts and a variety of personal care products. Our editors will continue to bring you the latest medical information about your health as well as share with your their personal experience. We look forward to your continuous support and working more closely with you to satisfy your needs in the Fishtarian living.

Cartoosh.com Officially Launched

I'm glad to announce that Cartoosh.com is now up and running. As we continue to provide you the best blog, the whole new Cartoosh.com is designed to offer easy access to our merchandises. Our goal of Cartoosh.com is to make it a fun-filled cartoon-centric mall where you would enjoy reading our cartoon posts, touring our gallery and bookstore, and much more. Come visit Cartoosh.com today and give us your feedback.

New Comic Strip: giggleBites

I'd like to introduce to you our new comic strip - giggleBites. The giggleBites comic strip presents lot of funny things and conversations between the two little kids - Andy and Kerry. The series is featured at our two cartoon blogs - giggleZOO and Cartoosh. Hope you enjoy giggleBites!

(Click to see the full sized comic strip!)

Celebrate Grand Opening at giggleZOO

Hello World!

I'm so glad to announce that giggleZOO has finally opened for you and your kids. giggleZOO for Kids is the clean and fun place for your kids and gigglePets to hang out together. They'll enjoy reading their own cartoons and comics just like you do at Cartoosh as an adult.

Upon your arrival at giggleZOO, you'll be greeted by our three adorable gigglePets - giggleCubby and the giggleBunny twin (see the new pictures of the bunnies below). We've learned that many more gigglePets are on their way to the zoo. We've also heard that the hosts of our new comic strips - Andy and Kerry are arriving soon.

For more details, read the press release from giggleZOO for Kids and visit the zoo!

Donate Your Love with Valentine Bunnie by cartoosh
Shop the t-shirts section of zazzle.com
More Major Holidays T-Shirts

Donate Your Love with Valentine Bunny by cartoosh
Make Custom T Shirts At www.zazzle.com
Browse other Major Holidays T-Shirts

Press Release: Cartoosh Has Arrived

Hello World! I'm glad to announce that our long waited cartoon blog - Cartoosh™ has finally arrived. What is Cartoosh™ about?

• Cartoosh™ expresses a casual view of our lives through cartoons. I hope these cartoons bring some giggles to your hard working days. After all, life can't be so serious with cartoons.

I hope you all enjoy Cartoosh™ and don't forget to give us feedback and comments. Thank you for your continuous support.

Note: Problem with Flash Player 10 on Vista x64

I'd like to give you a heads-up that you need the Flash Player 10 plug-in for your browser in order to see our blogs properly. The upgrade to Flash Player 10 is necessary due to the slide show widget from Amazon that displays the selected items I would recommend to you. The upgrade is normally painless except Flash 10 does not work with the 64-bit version of Internet Explore (IE7) on Windows Vista x64. To work around the problem, you can switch to run the 32-bit version of IE7 by following these steps:

1. Create a new shortcut on your desktop and set the Target field to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" instead of "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
2. You should consider giving a different name to the new shortcut to differentiate from existing ones that point to the 64-bit version.
3. Use the new shortcut to launch the 32-bit IE7.
4. The upgrade to Flash Player 10 for the 32-bit IE7 should be very easy and smooth.
   
5. You can drag and drop the new shortcut to the Quick Launch list or the doc, if necessary.

Sorry for any inconvenience. If you still have problems, don't hesitate to drop me a note or send me an email. Otherwise, enjoy your reading...

Press Release: Sports Sentry and The World of Horses and Ponies

Hello World! I am so glad to announce that Project BKO: Online Business Incomes has added two new blogs to its family.

• Sports Sentry covers many of the latest developments in all kinds of sports including baseball, football, and more. The author shares with everyone his in-depth knowledge and insights on the most interesting subjects and events on the sports scene.
• The World of Horses and Ponies tells you everything you possibly need to know about horses and ponies. The author shares her love for horses and ponies, and gives interesting facts and stories, from different breeds of horses, to English and Western Riding.
  

We as the editors of the Project BKO blogs are committed to sharing with you our best knowledge, honest opinions, and interesting stories. Go ahead and bring a cup of hot chocolate now. Take a comfortable seat and check out our two new blogs. As always, don't forget to give us your valuable feedback. Enjoy reading...

Celebrate 2009 New Year with PageRank 2/10

I wish all of you have a wonderful holiday break. It's still not too late to enjoy the quiet and peaceful time with your family over the next couple of days, before you head back to the office and the schools start.

First of all... a good news and a great gift I'd like to share with all of you - Project BKO is currently ranked 2 out of 10 by Google PageRank. This is an incredible accomplishment, given that Project BKO has done no advertisement and little in search engine optimization (SEO). Although I have some experiments with keywords and back links, I attribute the PageRank result primarily to readership. For that, my kids and I are truly thankful to have you visiting our blog and giving feedback to our posts.

The two month old Project BKO currently has two sister blogs - Fishtarian for health diet and lifestyle for wellness and Online Business Review that aims to provide the best reviews and recommendations to online business starters and Internet entrepreneurs. Over the next few weeks, we plan to launch an exciting blog featuring series of cartoons that hopefully bring some fun to you and your family. We also plan to launch our online printing business in Spring. We are committed to making our blogs valuable and useful to your own online business, your personal health and daily life. We look forward to having your continuous support in growing Project BKO to the next level.

Lastly, let me propose a toast to... our health, prosperity, and success in 2009. Happy New year to you all.

[picture source: www.californiawinehikes.com]

Press Release: Online Business Review

Hello World! To help online business starters speed up the development of their websites or web services, I've put together a new blog - Online Business Review. The blog aims to be the best and most comprehensive resource for online business starters who look for the best choice of products and services to support their business development. I hope you find Online Business Review useful and keep it as your business companion.

Two Weeks Into Project BKO

[Updated 11/15/08]

Today is a day that is worth celebrating. Two weeks into Project BKO, I made my first 42 cents out of my articles at eHow. 42 cents obviously sounds very little, but it means a lot to me.

First of all, it is always encouraging to see the feedback or responses to what I have done. Blogging is a lonely job initially. Hopefully, what I write makes sense and starts getting interactions with my readers.

Secondly, these articles continue to have their long lifespan out there and to produce income over time. I can not predict how much my blogging and writing will produce. (We are going to find out, won't we?) But, I know they are like seeds; you work hard to put them out in the field, take good care of them, and then watch them grow. I think farmers would agree that farming takes love, tenacity, and patience. This is a precious culture with which we want our kids to grow up with, rather than a culture of making quick bucks followed by reckless spending.

Lastly, Project BKO is now an official AdSense publisher to provide you with useful and related sponsored content in addition to my posts.

How to Write a Winning Business Plan

[Updated on 12/10/08]

Before you start your business adventure, you should have a business plan as the blueprint of how you want to go about it. A business plan provides you and your team with the guidelines and the execution plan to materialize your vision. Your business plan should span over three to five years, or even longer. A good business plan also makes it easier for you to raise capital or discuss your business with potential partners. A thorough plan includes a "plan B," just in case plan A does not work out as you expected. Keep in mind that a business plan is a live document that can start as a draft and evolve over time. In fact, it is very important that you put in place a list of checkpoints or milestones for periodical reviews and revisions.

Here are some key elements for your business plan:

1. Mission Statement, Business Goals and Objectives - What is the mission do you want to achieve via your business adventure? What are the goals and objectives following the mission statement? Your mission statement and business goals/objectives should be loud and clear as well as coherent. Be specific, so people who read your business plan immediately are set in the correct context before reading further on about details.
2. Market Analysis and Strategies - The term "market" refers to customers. You have to spend time studying the market and identifying your customers. Who are your potential or targeting customers (using profile information, such as, geography, age, gender, income, occupation)? What would they buy (using factors, such as, features, packaging, volume)? And, why (e.g. brands, price, motivation)? Based on the analysis, you'll be able to identify the market segments and estimate their potential sizes. If you are a new comer in the market, consider growing from a niche market rather than the general. You will have to explain how you come to the conclusion that opportunities exist there. How big is the opportunity window (e.g. one or five years)? Are there any competitors? How big are they? What strategies do you plan to deploy to reach out to your prospects and compete against your competitors? For example, your top-down or pushing marketing strategy would be to develop close relationships with your partners and value-added resellers (VARs). Your bottom-up or pulling marketing strategy would be to raise the awareness of your prospects via TV commercials. In any cases, you must be customer-focused and market-driven to succeed. Analyze customer behavior changes and watch out for the trend breakers (e.g. climate changes and rising oil prices). You must be loyal to your customers, before they become loyal to your business. Don't hesitate to reward loyal customers.
3. Operation Plan - This section describes how you plan to operate the business. Is it a local shop or an on-line store? If the latter, how is the site going to be hosted? How big is the team? This is the place where you put down all the implementation details of your business. How do you run the business to achieve both effectiveness (i.e. do the right things) and efficiency (i.e. do the things right)? To be effective, you need to find the right approaches to solve the problems or handle the challenges. To be efficient, you have to focus on crisp execution and performance optimization. Exercise your best judgment knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your business. Lastly, timing is critical. For every small business, time-to-market is always at the top in prioritizing numerous of daily tasks, especially when the opportunity window is small or approaching.
4. Financial Plan - Starting a business takes patience and persistence. Your business plan should at least span over three to five years, like I said before. You should lay out the plan of how to raise the capital. Based on your operation plan, try to answer the following questions. What are the costs of the goods? How much in expenses for salaries, equipments, and utilities will you have? Do you plan to get a loan? How much is the loan amount, the interest, and the related expenses? Or, are you looking for any venture funding? What is the estimated operating profit? Carefully project the revenue your business is likely to receive. Be prepared that your business is not likely to have any substantial profits any time soon especially during the economic down turn. Consult your financial adviser or accountant for proper tax planning and accounting practices.
   
5. Milestones or Checkpoints - Your business plan should include checkpoints, for example, every three or six months. You have to set quantified and measurable objectives for each checkpoint including the financial goals. At each checkpoint, you will review your progress and financial situation to see whether you have to make any adjustments to your original plan. I also recommend you do it with your family members, friends, or business partners who can give you objective opinions. The intention is to have an honest look at where you are and make sure you are on track according to your business plan.
   

A few final words about a winning business plan

Believe me, you do not need an MBA degree to set up a business plan. You can find useful information in books, such as, Business Plans for Dummies (the link is included at your right for your convenience) that contains in-depth discussion of every aspect of business planning. You can find very useful information at U.S. SBA (Small Business Administration) web site. SBA is a government organization whose main charter is to help small businesses. They also provide various workshops for small business owners including writing their business plans. Keep in mind that a long business plan is not necessarily better than a shorter one. Remember, a winning business plan is to get your points and ideas through whomever you will be talking to about your business. You may feel it is bureaucratic and time-consuming. But, in my experience, you will be rewarded for the time you spend. If necessary, you may always seek professional help.

Read this post on eHow, HubPages, and Squidoo.