On my morning walks I usually think of what I am going to do for the day, the specific tasks etc for our blogging platform, for the ITEX Barter System, and often what the days blog post is going to be about. As a professional SEO and Marketing expert, I have to tie every thing back those points and provide helpful tips for online businesses. Because if you are not an online business, I don’t really care about you, just kidding. I care about you, but I would care more about you if you were one the Online businesses using our online marketplace. So folks todays topic is about B2B, what is it and why an online marketplace for online businesses? To make my point stronger, I would love to cite any professors papers on the subject, the b2b eCommerce trends etc. To do that, I was luck to find the following report. Here it is, I am going to give you the abstract version, not the full details, and high light in Bold the most important aspect. This is basically as long as I would want to read, to give you enough detail, it is still long.

RETHINKING B2B E-MARKETPLACES AND MOBILE COMMERCE: FROM
INFORMATION TO EXECUTION

Mahesh S. Raisinghani , Ph.D., CEC
University of Dallas, Graduate School of Management
mraising@gsm.udallas.edu

Hanns-Christian L. Hanebeck, Dipl.-Kfm.
University of Dallas, Graduate School of Management
hchanebeck@aol.com

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the interface between the exchange relationship in the digital economy and the emerging and continuously improving wireless technology. Exchanges become highly relevant when we look at how collaborative processes are performed. A special emphasis is placed on enabling collaboration between multiple business partners. In most cases, companies require standardization of information flows and business processes to be able to collaborate. Here, trading platforms, private and public exchanges will play a much more important role due to their increased ease-of-use (as opposed to EDI for example). The key line of thought is that collaboration is essentially based on information sharing, information sharing enables exception management, exception management relies on near real-time data, and real-time data can be collected through wireless technologies. The key ideas of online marketplaces are discussed along with the evolution and future of exchanges in the digital economy, to help management rethink the exchange relationship in the digital economy.

Introduction
B2B is about connecting the existing buyer and sellers. It is not a disintermediation play. It is about intelligently implementing Internet technology to improve business processes. The online B2B market across the world is increasing in value rapidly, but there are some hurdles and limitations to be met in the near future. The report, from Strategy Analytics (an international research and consulting firm), notes that s global B2B e-commerce transactions will grow from $226 billion in 2001 to $2.02 trillion in 2006 [Bellomy 2002].

The B2B eCommerce revolution includes eProcurement, B2B exchanges, and business infrastructure relationships. eProcurement involves firms selling supplies, equipment, materials, and services with a streamlined online purchasing function that often eliminates traditional intermediaries, thereby reducing costs and cycle times
while offering greater flexibility and responsiveness to changes in demand. Web-based supply chain management networks improve coordination between trading partners by linking a firm’s forecasting and production planning systems with its suppliers’ and distributors’ systems. They can create dramatic savings and quality improvements.
B2B exchanges include various categories of market spaces, including vertical market portals (”vortals”), hubs, and various types of auctions.

A single Infomediary (industry consortium or 3rd party) brings together many buyers and sellers within a specific vertical market, such as plastics, steel, or industrial chemicals, charging a commission on all transactions. Hundreds of industry-specific exchanges have now been launched, and more are being developed every day. Some of these ‘market spaces’ operate with posted pricing models, while others employ collaborative negotiated prices, auctions, reverse auctions, Dutch auctions, and other pricing mechanisms. Many are used in spot markets for industrial materials, overstocks, and perishable goods, as well as business services transactions. More important is the development of entirely new eBusiness infrastructure industries. Many firms support online activity by facilitating the interaction between various parties in eCommerce as preferred outsourcers for eBusiness processes. They have become integral to the effective operation of Internet-based activities and may account for the largest source of profits from the future growth of eCommerce. They provide digital content or improve its delivery, bring new customers to websites, finance acquisitions, and provide many other services. They include application services providers, content maximizers, wireless service providers, and payment processors.

The key questions addressed in this paper are: What does the exchange landscape look like in the digital economy and what can be inferred from the past to chart the direction and value proposition for the future? This paper is structured as follows: Following this introduction, we will describe the characteristics and differentiators of online marketplaces followed by the evolution of e-marketplaces. In the next section we conduct an in-depth assessment of e-marketplaces and discuss event management and wireless-enabled exchanges. The concluding section tracks the transforming future of exchanges in the digital economy and provides a summary of the more general lessons, in terms of rethinking the exchange relationship in the digital economy.

Online Marketplaces: Characteristics and Differentiators

The possible forms of B2B marketplace are point-to-point connections (extranet), or e-marketplaces (Independent Trading Exchange (ITE)). As shown in figure 1, e-marketplaces can be either one-to-many or many-to-many environments. The key pricing mechanisms are fixed/static pricing (i.e., catalog-type/aggregator sales), and
dynamic/variable pricing which includes both exchanges and auctions where price is negotiated in real time. An auction is one buyer and many sellers, or one seller and many buyers, whereas an exchange is many buyers and many sellers. However, caution is advised since almost everything is calling itself an exchange. Most are simply catalogs where buyers can search across multiple suppliers.
Buyer Auction Exchange
Seller Auction

Traditional Electronic Relationship

Fig. 1: Types of E-Marketplaces

As online marketplaces proliferate, a bewildering array of subvarieties and hybrid exchange models will emerge. Here the term ìmodelî is referred to as a general case through a typological meta model (as illustrated in figure 1) and then we discuss the distinguishing characteristics of models. These variants can be distilled into six
primary flavors of online marketplaces, serving both the B2B and B2C markets [Kaplan and Sawhney 2000; Bakos 1991; Malone et al. 198]:
1) Online Buying Services
2) Auctions
3) Functional Exchanges
4) Vertical Exchanges
5) Industry-Sponsored Exchanges
6) Net Markets

The salient characteristic shared by all six is that they increase the ease with which buyers perform one or many steps of the purchasing process, from product consideration to demand generation through to the transaction itself.
Specifically, online marketplaces deliver:
• Price and product transparency (i.e., the ability to easily locate and compare products and prices).
• Supplier and seller discovery, or the ability to aggregate demand and supply.
• Convenient and reliable transactions, by matching buyer and seller orders, and enabling a wide variety of pricing and market-making mechanisms.
Ultimately, value-added services to enhance the selling process, including logistics, inventory management, financing, forecasting, advertising, catalog management, and more.

Raisinghani & Hanebeck: Rethinking B2B E-Marketplaces and Mobil Commerce
Information Service

Fig. 2: Four dimensions of E-Marketplaces

As shown in figure 2, each type of marketplace differs fundamentally along four axes:
1. Level of information provided (e.g., price, availability, and range of substitutes).
2. Breadth of services offered (e.g., quality assurance, financing credit risk, and customer support).
3. Type of market-making mechanism (i.e., the way transactions occur, such as Dutch auctions,
reverse auctions, real-time transactions, and collaborative negotiations).
4. Enabling technology (e.g., web shopping agents, content management, levels of database, and transaction infrastructure).

Next the taxonomy of online marketplaces, i.e., its six flavors are described in detail below:

Online Buying Services
These services offer support during the awareness and demand generation phases of the selling process. Specifically, they provide price and product transparency (e.g., via shopping agents and comparison sites), buyer and seller discovery (e.g., shopping agents, price aggregators and industry catalogs), and quality recommendation and selection aides (e.g., analyst and review sites). Online buying services are targeted primarily to B2C markets, such as big-ticket consumer retail (e.g., electronics) and one-of-a-kind novelty purchases, as well as small business markets. The individual services that make up online buying services will be absorbed into more mature exchanges and net markets over time. Examples include mySimon, CarPrices.com, and CNET.

Auctions
Auctions are online markets that aggregate demand and match buyers and sellers for a wide range of B2B and B2C products. They employ a variety of market-making mechanisms (e.g., reverse, Dutch, English, and sealed-bid auctions) to meet specific business objectives such as demand aggregation and price maximization. Auctions serve B2B, B2C, and C2C markets, including retail, novelty, maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) purchases, distressed inventory/perishables, spot purchases of commodities and raw materials, and secondhand capital equipment. In the B2B space, auctions are generally targeted to small business customers that lack both purchase power and sophisticated purchasing operations. Examples include Amazon.com (auction) and Mercata (demand aggregator).

Vertical Exchanges
Vertical exchanges are trusted intermediaries that facilitate B2B e-commerce with vertical market and product-specific expertise. They offer real-time pricing and complete product information. Eventually, they are to offer a range of value-added services across an array of vertical markets (e.g., MRO, spot purchases of commodities and raw materials, capital equipment, secondary markets, distressed inventory and perishables, and some direct materials such as semi-finished and engineered products). Examples of vertical exchanges include PaperExchange.com and FreeMarkets.

Functional Exchanges
Functional exchanges are trusted intermediaries that facilitate mostly B2B e-commerce involving process, functional, or channel-specific expertise. These exchanges market an array of primary services or solutions that automate or support specific business functions or processes (such as HR benefits or energy management). Functional exchanges offer real-time pricing, complete product information, and value-added services. Examples include tradehub and Celarix.com.

Industry-Sponsored Exchanges
Limited to B2B commerce, these exchanges have equity participation or sponsorship from major industry buyers and (frequently) technology partners as well. They act as intermediaries to facilitate B2B e-commerce in industries with high concentrations of buying power. Industry-sponsored exchanges offer the same range of services as other exchanges, including real-time pricing, complete product information, and value-added services and information. Over time, these exchanges will accommodate more highly engineered products and direct materials. Examples include COVISINT (the GM-Ford-DaimlerChrysler joint venture) and Globalnet Exchange.

Net Markets
The holy grail of online marketplaces will be Net markets, or federated Net markets. These markets are sophisticated networks and combinations of online marketplaces that will emerge over the next three years. Net markets will develop from the quilting of functional and vertical exchange capabilities and expertise, and the assembly of value-added services across the supply chain (e.g., logistics, inventory, demand forecasting). This type of market will deliver more value-added services and will require high levels of buyer collaboration to conduct complex transactions. Because Net markets will demand the integration of many industry supply chains and the coordination of multiple large and small markets, they will not mature for several years. In the short term, each of these online marketplaces creates value by facilitating the sharing of information about products and pricing, matching many buyers and sellers and improving the ease and speed of transactions. Longer term, value will arise from greater levels of purchase-process integration and through the delivery of value-added information and services.

Vertical hubs with market focus in industries such as plastics, steel, chemicals, paper, telecom and so forth. Vertical Net operates over 40 exchanges that attempt to serve nearly all facets of one niche industry, such as Chemical Online, a chemical industry portal; MachineToolsOnline, a machining industry portal; and Aerospace Online, an aerospace industry portal.

Horizontal or functional hubs may ìhorizontallyî cross several different vertical hubs, while providing vital services to different industries with process focus such as logistics management; maintenance, repair, and operations
(MRO) goods or services procurement; project/capacity/HR/credit management; or auction applications. A private exchange is driven by a single seller or buyer and it typically involves a company automating its own supply chain. The customer base and participation is generally open to suppliers or customers of the company. Companies that have perfected this model include Dell, Cisco, and Wal-Mart. A public exchange is an industry consortium or a third-party dot-com forming an entity (such as Covisint and e-Steel) to aggregate the buying behavior of a group of buyers and their suppliers, with an emphasis on the buy side.

The Evolution of B2B E-Marketplaces
The evolution and diffusion of B2B e-marketplaces has occurred in three distinct waves [Berryman and Heck 2001; Swahney 2001].

In the first wave of B2B, there were approximately 1,000 independent online marketplaces for commodities such as paper and steel (e.g., PaperExchange and e-Steel) to specialized components such as airplane parts (e.g., MyAircraft.com). Unfortunately, most of these independent, fee-based marketplaces such as Aluminium.com inc. and Ventro Corp.ís Chemdex and Promedix were not able to maintain their liquidity since a
few large organizations that generated most of the transaction volume could negotiate with the suppliers and vendors on their own and save the transaction fees. Others, such as Vertical Net Inc. and SciQuest Inc. have transformed their business models from charging fees for online B2B transactions to positioning themselves as B2B software
vendors [Hicks 2001].

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE REPORT:

Rethinking B2B Marketplaces(PDF)

The possible forms of B2B marketplace are point-to-point connections (extranet) … relationships, and decent profits for sellers since unlike B2B marketplaces, …

www.csulb.edu/web/journals/jecr/issues/20022/paper8.pdf

**A few points to remember, we placed the abstract part of this report for detailed definition of b2b and online marketplace.  We think you should go download the full report if you want to the full scope of the report.  This is a blog, so we chose to shorten, and we are not the authors of this report.  Also, we write this blog so we could provide information on the topics, and therefore the links go back to our Online Marketplace.  We are partially owned by the barter system of ITEX, there are 24,000 businesses that are part of our b2b trade exchange, so we know a thing or two about building an online marketplace.  Thanks for reading all of our blogs and commenting, as always we really, really appreciate your feedback.  Best Wishes!

This may be the most important question any business has to answer. But in my opinion it’s not enough, it’s important to have profitable customers.  Some of you SEO for clients, some of those clients I am sure you wish you could fire?  And if you had enough profitable clients, you probably would.  I learned that lesson long time ago when I worked for a large company, but as a small business owner, it’s been hard for me to deal with. But, as I have fired a client or two, the key is to not worry about firing bad clients. It’s getting enough profitable customers, so you have a successful business.  How do you do that?   Well SEO is a great way, probably one of the best ways, so is Barter, but we are biased.  As, we seek active buyers as SEO consultants. We never push via email or calling or bothering people, read the Barter article below, but here are my 5 points on attracting profitable clients:

1. Make sure you have more than enough clients, this will always help you price high, as you will never ever be desperate, easier said than done. But, SEO well, Design well, and sell, sell, sell, or advertise, advertise, advertise.

2. Charge a lot, be known as the best, always charge a lot, this will make sure you will make money, and take care of your clients.

3. SEO, well Duh, but SEO for specific keywords, research your keywords well maybe even do some Google Adwords SEM.

4. Get more customers through testimonials, provide information, join an online marketplace like eBay it almost requires you to get Testimonials, focus on one to many marketing not just one-on-one, this will drop your cost of sales.

5. Automate your selling process, join eBay, didn’t we already say that, well we like eBay!  Not the other Seattle online marketplace, starts with an A–they are terrible and too expensive.  These marketplaces will promote your products, Oh yeah blog on MyTypes.com and Blogger, oh on WordPress.com too..Blogging as you know is the #1 key to online marketplaces right now, why, they all want to build communities, even FaceBook!

As some of you know that this small business blogs and blogging company recently partnered with ITEX, a Barter system. We are also helping to create an online marketplace for them/us to help small businesses sell and buy products on line. Well to my SEO surprise we got ranked #54 for online marketplace, in our first 2 weeks of focusing on this wonderful keyword, well maybe 3. I love the speed of our SEO, but I have been waiting for this for a while. Some times we have to be patient, as the results do come, especially with very competitive keywords. Our goal for the online marketplace is not just to help b2b companies but to help them create the best online marketplaces and sell more goods and services, in an easy and beautiful system. Well more on this online marketplace and small business community of ITEX later, here is the blog and an article on How a Barter System can help you attract more customers. It’s all about exposure isn’t it!

 

“Barter system can help attract new customers:”

I wrote a blog article earlier on how Barter can help you increase profitable sales. it got erased, we are moving servers and databases today. Upgrading for all the increased traffic that we have been getting. Increasing your profitable sales can happen, when you follow the secrets of the successful small businesses. They know that no matter what, they have to build a reputation that their customers adore and their friends recommend their small businesses. The article below shows how a professional Barter network can help you attract new customers. It’s an old article, but barter has been around for centuries, and it’s as old as business it self. By the way, the article mentions a Barter company called Bxi, you may be wondering what happened to Bxi, well Bxi is part of the ITEX barter company. The key to any barter network is the size of it’s business marketplace and the number of barter items available. If you check out our online marketplace by going to our new marketplace, you will love it. But, let’s get you to read the article on how to attract new customers first. We will discuss online marketplaces and barter items you can check by visiting our marketplace by clicking here.

Bartering system can help attract new customers – Pacific Business News Honolulu:

In case some of your are new to this series of blogs, we are comparing being on a pier to being out on a Limb (*where we are out on our own, taking risks, waiting for our ship to come in, trying to catch fishes, basically being an Entrepreneur). When I am out on a Pier, I am looking out, waiting to catch a boat, usually a fairy, I do live in Seattle:-). So this tip is about SEO blogs and Blogging, why do we do, how you can do it, and how to best promote your businesses. So here are top 10 reasons why all businesses should be blogging and must have blogs for SEO!

1. Blogging is a great way promote your message, and your businesses. Especially for SEO, as Search engines love blogs content as each post has a time stamp on it.

2. Blogging and blogs help you add content to your website easily, most blogs are very easy to use, and websites are very hard to add content too.

3. Blogging regularly adds up-to-date information about your products, your supplies, your customer testimonials, or whatever you want to communicate.

4. Blogs are the best way to create community around your store, your marketplace, and your customer base.

5. People can comment on your blogs, unlike your comments, and you can control your comments, which is better than forums.

6. Make it multi-media, most if not all blogging platforms all you to add photos to your blogs, and It’s very easy to add videos from YouTube etc.

7. Blogging platforms such as WordPress, Typepad and Blogger all have the best Site Structure and follow W3c standards. As mentioned before many times, Site Structure is the most important first step for SEO.

8. Blogging tools have many many features to enhance the web experience for users, which most companies cannot develop on their own.

9. Blogging platforms such as WordPress which are Open Source, usually have an amazing number of blog templates available for free and for purchase. We are talking thousands here folks, and the can help you personalize your website easily.

10. Blogging is like journaling and it’s fun, most people who blog often love it! The community of bloggers is an amazing force that is not only driving our businesses, but our political campaigns and decisions. The blogsphere and blogs are the #1 tool for most web 2.0 applications, and Social networks.

***As always this blog is sponsored by our small business community of ITEX, the Bartering System and b2bmarketplace. Also, Comfortzone Infrared Heaters which are better than most Eden Pure Heaters, and lastly Cross Jewelry by LoveRelic.com. And as always our true passion from small business blogs of MyTypes.com blogging platform.

Go ahead and read this blog on Small Business Tip #4, how to get over lying ex-clients or ex-staff or any other business partner. We are the blogging people as you know, but we have maintained since day one that we want to help small businesses with their SEO and blogging platform to help them blogcast their brand. All businesses should be focused on getting profitable clients and reducing costs. Reducing their cost is such a personal lifestyle taste matter, we can’t really help them. We can help with an online b2b marketplace and eMarketing, and also by providing the best blogging tools. We also provide writing advice as this seo blog and providing free blog templates for WordPress Themes. So lots of good Karma being earned here.

My Life On A Pier: Small Business Tip #4 by Vipin Singh MyTypes.com

Blog with your Brand in the title of the blog post, just like what I did. Just so you know we started to write this series of small business blogs last Friday, to help the entrepreneurs triumph over liars and cheaters who say bad things about them. In our case it was a disgruntled ex-friend of ours, who has attacked our company and lied maliciously to hurt our company. We don’t mind admitting our mistakes and having gone through financial difficulties, name an entrepreneur or any small businesses who has not? What we don’t like is liars and nasty people, how do you deal with Liars and cheats? That is the same question someone asked on an eBay blog, and I tell you it’s a problem dealing with bad people. Tell us about your challeneges with these people hurting your brand, and we will blogcast about how wonderful you are. My guess is that any small business still around, has an entrepreneur who has made it so, and if they weren’t ethical, they wouldn’t be around.So bad people, stop bad mouthing small business owners and businesses, the spirit of Entrepreneurship will keep on keeping on, and we will be blogging about it to help anyone who needs it! How can you spread the good word on your businesses?

First thing is to write blogs on popular blogging platforms such as Blogger, WordPress, and of course the best community blogs @ MyTypes.com. We actually have great articles on Blogging right there on the front page, and we do really well for SEO and are great to rank your blogs high on Google. Second, get the truth out and don’t be afraid to tell your side, but never fuel their fire of hate or lies, stay positive. We want to make sure that the whole marketplace of your industry knows that you are good people, especially the online marketplace needs to help the hard working entrepreneurs! Third, blog often but always add some value to your readers. Staying positive, asking forgiveness if you made mistakes, and spreading good karma will go a long way.

Online markeplace or traditional small business marketing, it doesn’t matter where your local businesses work or play. What matters is that you provide more value than you get from your clients. Long term success always depends on having raving fans, and we certainly do at MyTypes.com. Just like us, one or two rotten apples can’t wreck the bunch. So look the other way, but blogging about your businesses products and services and talking about how you helped your clients in great testimonials, that will only help you weather the tough times.

So go ahead and blog your way to the top, and keep us your blogging friends in your social network and spread the word about our community blogs. Enjoy!

We write about SEO and blogging to get rankings on search engines here, but you know that the owner of the site gets to use it to promote his agenda right?:-).  Well my agenda is not so bad, it’s pretty much small business as usual, oh we are launching this great online marketplace, oh but you already knew that from yesterday’s blog, sorry:-(.. I promote my blogs, I provide free blogs and advice so you come back here more and more, and tell others to use this great site too.  Some times, i write well, some times, I don’t.  This particular blogging series I am using called My Life on a Pier is inspired by a bad person, to help me turn lemons in to lemonade.  To focus on positive messages and small business tips and inspiration blogs to help all dreamers dream big.  This series is catchy enough that I might even change the name of my book that I am working on.  So now you know what I am blogging about this small business tips and calling it “My life on a pier”.  When we go out on a limb, we some times have to go through challenging times.  But, we need to just go through these times with a positive attitude and just keep blogging our way to the top, especially if we are going to be successful!

My Life On A Pier: #1 Key to Success “being Nice” by Vipin Singh of MyTypes.com

January 22nd, 2008 at 03:25 pm by Admin in small business blogs

I wrote this blog yesterday, so this one is a little older, the one for today will come out tonight. I don’t know how to catalog these small business inspirational blogs, but I guess since we are the blogging people, we will figure this out.

My Life On A Pier: #1 Key to success–being Nice, by Vipin Singh of MyTypes.com

There is nothing worse than a whining looser, or an ungracious winner. While I love and appreciate the under dog, as I rooted for the Giants yesterday, I am always looking for a champion with gracious attitude. I do find that so many of the winners actually are nice and grateful people. In my experience of watching almost all championship matches, I have seen many more nice people than mean and selfish whiners I will call them.

Why is it important to be a nice person, that is being genuienly kind, rather than being a politically correct polite person.   Some of you know that I live in Seattle, a place I call very polite, but not necessarily nice. People from other parts of the country, usually comment on this Seattle trait. Jill my wife and I were shocked at the lack of kindness, and often selfish/self centeredness of this rainy depressed city. We came from Minnesota, a place known for it’s compassion and kind nature. The Minnesota nice is actually a genuine caring kind, and a lot of people from Minnesota and Wisconsin have settled here, so there is plenty of kindness.

You see being nice does not mean being a push over at all.    Some times being nice actually requires having courage enough to do the right thing, and be a little angry, but in a compassionate way. So be honest, be kind, conflict is ok, but try to be graceful and kind. Being nice means often to do the compassionate unselfish thing. I find that no great person ever succeeded alone, especially in business and politics. We need each other, especially if we are going to accomplish something significant. Usually successful people want to help others, and they are looking for the leaders of tomorrow to nurture and show the way. Being nice to all people is just One Of The Most Important Ways to get their attention.

Go ahead be nice on your way to the Top, you will make more friends on the way there, to party with! 

**As always this small business blog is brought to you by the kind folks who choose to help us pay our bills, the cross rings folks of Designer Jewelry @LoveRelic.com, the Online Marketplace of the bartering system ITEX.com and lastly the folks at Comfortzone Infrared Heaters, which are significantly better than Edenpure Heaters.

Posted by Admin in small business blogs

Some of you know that we provide a lot of free blogs and blogging services to over 5000 people.  We also announced 2 weeks ago that we partnered with a small business bartering firm ITEX.  We have been writing blogging and SEO coaching tips so that you continue to provide great content while providing great SEO’ed blog templates.  We ran in to financial trouble last summer, and have since turned the corner and have started to make payments to our contractors.  One of our contractors has gone on to say terrible things about us, lying–we had fired him prior, but he kept on begging us to stay.  He was actually some one that we went above and beyond to help, we helped him move a couple of times.  He also was a friend before he was a contractor for us.  His lies really stressed me out, But the stress helped me to come up with this idea Inspiration blog every day about triumphing, bouncing back, and writing about entrepreneurship, and small business advice to help all dreamers continue to move forward regardless how bad things get for them.

Some times things have gone so bad in the last few months, I did not know what to do.  But, I and Keith kept on working hard, we kept on plugging away, and believing in our dreams.  And, now MyTypes.com blogging platform is thriving again, and we plant to not only pay all of our debts, but we are excited about being financially solvent.  I am writing this article series of My Life On A Pier, it will probably be a book on how to find ways to keep your dream alive.  I want your stories if you have any.  I know that most of you are small business owners and SEO consultants.  So read the blog below most of my blogs with be on my personal Inspirational blog, as this is more personal to me than professional.

My life on a Pier, Confidence of Tom Brady and Champions by Vipin Singh and MyTypes.com

No matter how bad things get, how bad you feel, how painful the circumstances, you need to believe in you. You can come out of it, if you find the confidence to believe in your cause, your desire, your goals. Tom Brady posses this confidence, other wise the team would not have gone 16-0 this year, there were some very close games. Ray Lewis the great line backer from the Super Bowl winning Baltimore Ravens, just mentioned that as a Tom Brady trait that is under rated. I just hear another Vince Lombardi quote, about never giving up, about your character is judged not on how much you fall, but how big you bounce back. Grant, the running back of the Green Bay Packers, had an incredible game of triumph last week, where he fumbled 2 times in a row for a two touch downs right away. But he never gave up, and Grant came back to run for over 200 yards, to lead the Packers to the NFC championship game of today.

No football analogy can be left alone with an equally more impactful Tennis one, which to me is the most visible display of mental strength or weakness. I am watching the Australian Tennis Open, Serena Williams my favorite player won earlier against a tough opponent. What was the main difference, Serena’s fighting will and confidence, even when she lost 2 games in a row and almost the whole set. But every point counts, and she won. Just like in life every thought counts. Here is one of my favorite poems, from James Allens book “As a man thinketh”, written in 1889. I think it should be retitled, as you thinketh you are!

Cherish your visions, Cherish your ideals, (even your ideas), Cherish your thoughts

Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your minds, the loveliness that drapes your finest thoughts

Because of these, if you stay true to them, your world will at last be built!

Go dreamers and Entrepreneurs, you are leading the way to innovations and paving the way for us all!

**Please do support our blogging site at MyTypes.com and our Cross Rings at LoveRelic.com and Infrared Heaters @ Green is Better.com.

Posted by Vipin Singh of MyTypes.com in Inspiration

Writing about SEO tips and small business marketing can be very challenging, especially as we don’t want to be your run of the mill SEO blogs site, we actually want to give you smart Internet marketing 2.0 advice. But lately we have almost run out of things to say, well almost, as people who know me like to say that I love to talk. That is why blogging is such a great outlet for me people like me, but we have to have smart advice or no one is going to read our Small Business blogs. Thank God, we have readers and they see value in our SEO blogs, or I would be a lonely man. Getting to the point SEO ver SEM is always a great debate, and I wrote a couple of weeks ago about research done on the subject. Here are the highlights: SEO get’s 6 times the clicks or traffic, but a lower conversion rate of around 3.16 percent, and SEM or Pay Per click ads on Google get about 3.5 percent click through rates. So for short term and immediate sale, I often recommend that your Internet Marketing 2.0 strategy include SEM not just SEO for better results quickly, and I always recommend Google Adwords, as they are the biggest.

Pay Per Click will also help you identify the best keywords to SEO for, because of ad impressions volume shows demand, and actual click through’s show you match of keyword demand and it’s impact for your product. Adwords success has come due to great utilization by smart small businesses people because of it’s easy to use platform, but the best part is the ability for businesses to research which keywords people are searching for and target their products to those customers. This particular part of SEO and SEM has brought an incredible level of market research to the hands of small businesses world wide, that to me is the true success of Google. I always said, that Microsoft made it’s thousands of small businesses called VAR (Value Added Resellers) tons of money, and that is why they succeeded. I think Google is doing the same for SEO and SEM, it’s because of the Adwords ability to provide this market data that makes small business marketing successful in todays marketplace.

We have been running some large pay per click ads for our Bartering client for the keywords related to Small Businesses, Classifieds, Market place, and many more online marketing related keywords. We know that if we don’t stay on top of them, they get very expensive, so we are working on other small business marketing strategies such as SEO.   But really, it’s important from our real life example that we use Pay Per click data to make sure we SEO for the proper words to attract small businesses. The biggest problem we face is that these campaigns are very expensive, so we have be very intelligent in trying different keywords. Hence we came up with words such as Classifieds for marketplace and classified ads versus classifieds, because these slight variations deliver quite a bit of specific traffic.

Just to promote one my small business blogs, here is what i wrote their about Australia travel:

Aussie.. Aussie… Aussie… Oay.. Oay… Oay…

It’s summer time in Australia, the Australian Open is on in Melbourne, and it’s a great winter get away for North Americans. The people of this large island nation are one of my favorite, they are so well traveled, beautiful, and fun loving, I love everything about them. In fact, my favorite event ever in life was the Sydney 2000 Olympics. The people of Australia showed their true colors and the beauty of the land and sea shows off in it’s green and blue excitements, only to not be forgotten by the big Orange rock Uluru, also called Ayers rock. So a trip to Australia cannot be called complete, without a visit to this amazingly hot and barron Norther central territory. As you will see from a a series of blog articles we will high light the top attractions brought to you by the folks at vacation rental software and online booking software RentExpert.com.

First stop to any vacation hot spot, should start with the official tourism website, and in this case it’s called Australia.com, how original and top of the .Com are the Aussie’s. Go Aussies Go!

My favorite place to visit in Australia will have to be the Sydney Opera house, and Sydney harbor bridge and the beaches of this incredible city. I can’t imagine taking a visit in Australia without renting a beach vacation home, and it must be done through our Vacation rental software and online booking system, right? Hopefully by the time, I plan a trip there, we will have many vacation rentals properties listed. Not to worry, we will list many VRBO type websites, yes that stands for Vacation Rental By Owners, just like For Sale By Owner for FSBO, a term familiar by vacation rentals by Owners. Sorry real estate agents your time has come and gone, the Internet is making vacation rentals better, and our vacation rental software and online booking software will provide more features than you ever did, and no commission to worry about:-).

Now besides Sydney, the #2 vacation spot in Australia has to the Great Barrier Reef, **Click on the picture to visit the Parks website: in Queensland. Did you know that it’s the only living thing visible from space? Did you also know that the barrier reef is made up of living and dangerous sea algae, but don’t worry it’s safe and it’s visited by many hundreds of thousands and millions of people every year.

So what is the #3 most visited vacation spot in Australia, is it Melbourne or is it the Great big rock Uluru. I don’t know, I think the travel channel had a special naming the top 10 places to visit in Australia. Where would you go? Since Australia is about The Outback, and we all want to see a Kangaroo, I think the great rock of Uluru makes the list. So does Melbourne for me, and I bet it’s easier to rental vacation homes in Melbourne and surrounding beaches? No doubt we will be promoting our vacation spots via our blogs at VacationBlogspot.com and of course our vacation rental software and online booking system will power this and thousands of others VRBO destinations.

 

Posted by Admin in Vacation-rentals, Vacation Homes Rentals

No Comments

We do SEO not just to promote a our small business, but to grow our business.  Bartering is a great way to promote your businesses and gain clients through a business community.  I wrote this blog in a matter of last two days, I am a little serious some times, but nothing in life worth having costs a lot of money.

The best things in life..mean business

Are not usually free, but freedom to think what you want and be is often one of the most desirable things, especially if we don’t have it. I was looking to write some thing substantial about small business and or vacation rental software or cross jewelry and cross rings by LoveRelic.com, all of our favorite clients. Well, why don’t I just add the Comfortzone Infrared Heaters, which are better than edenpure heaters. As I really want to help to SEO our blogging clients, with our MyTypes.com small business blogs, the most important aspect of marketing in my opinion. I don’t know why I started to write about free things, I just wanted to start blogging about what would make me feel happy tonight, I guess being productive is what makes me happy, besides hanging out with my family.

Not that I am depressed or anything, I just wanted to write about feeling better or figuring out what I should do rest of the evening. I watched football earlier today, walked for my exercise prior to that and spent time with my family. Life is good, but it’s only 7pm on Sunday, the Australian Open is on, but I don’t want to watch TV, i would rather be traveling to Australia or some other place, hopefully my friends at vacation rental software will allow me too. So I started to write on this blackberry. Oh if you are a small business person, well business person, you really should have a blackberry, why you ask? I don’t care how long it takes you to get use to it, but email and phone are the two most important small business tools, and a blackberry combines them in to it. This tool will also save you time, and add quality to your life, by freeing you from your computer. Imagine you can follow up on your email from any where, instead ofhaving to be stuck in your office.

I want to feel productive, what is this uneasiness that I have about not doing anything. I mean, tomorrow is Monday, and I will be going to work at bartering company ITEX, surely will have enough time to work there. It’s a big week at work, I have a presentation I will be doing to come up with the best solutions for small business, especially my recommendations to grow registerations and signups for ITEX barter network to grow our small business online marketplace. This includes building business community features to either MyTypes or ITEX, I think it is easier easier to build any features. But the key is to know, what small business owners want and provide it to them, and hopefully for free.

To provide the best online services to a small business we have to understand their issues. What are the most important issues they face, and what specifically can we help them with? I am sure they face many issues such as legal, administrative, accounting, marketing and sales. You can read more small business help issues and solutions on our new SBA and small business blog at http://sba-smallbusiness.blogspot.com.

Hey super star Page Rank 4 site, will you trade links with my site? I will link to yours if you link to mine? Or I will write about your blog and you write about mine, well that one is a bit more of a Barter trade, but you get the point, we should do that often shouldnt’ we. Almost all small businesses are in to bartering at some point, we often do it without any hesitations. We at MyTypes.com have joined the professional Bartering network ITEX, it has the largest Barter ITEMS selection because it is the largest Bartering system in the US. Why, because it as 24,000 small business that trade everything from NBA basketball tickets, yes they are bartering tickets for them today. Bartering is a multibillion dollar business and it can help to grow your business, so read on:

 

10
Jan

 

Small Business blogs to marketing and success

January 10th, 2008 at 04:55 pm by Admin in Bartering

If you read our announcement yesterday and PR newswire it all makes sense to you now, doesn’t it. The whole writing about small business blogs and success has actually been a theme since we started blogging in May on MyTypes.com. But, the Bartering and small business community is for the ITEX marketplace aspect. Here is the article, I just found at MS on Barter, and wrote on our small business blogs, enjoy!

Small Business Community, Barter Network & Marketplace

January 10th, 2008 at 06:31 pm by Admin in Barter Items

Some of you have by now figured out that for the last few weeks we have been working with ITEX the Barter Exchange & Barter Network. Small Business success depends on growing sales and keeping costs down. We have also been talking about blogcasting your brand since day one. We think a professional business community can help you achieve this. We have also been on the look out for great Bartering articles, why? Because we know that we all want to grow our sales. So we have been analyzing the barter business and the barter and trade industry, to quantify it’s value and to help small businesses. We are tasked to grow the online registration and our objective is to grow the business community of ITEX with our online marketplace strategies. Yesterday we announced in PR Newswire that ITEX is partnering with MyTypes.com for our small business blogs help, and investing in our company, the Press Release is bit too long, so this blog post now will be too long, look for another post on the announcement of why the Mytypes.com and ITEX partnership makes sense for you the small business blogs reader:-). We are now, 15% owned by ITEX Barter system and also joined the Barter Network.

I learned from our local Seattle Broker, that I can trade for a trip to Bahamas, she is going in 2 weeks. Gosh, I wish I could get away, the Seattle rain is driving me away. It’s not just us, talking about all businesses benefiting from Barter, here is a great article by Microsoft Small Business on Bartering.

Bartering can boost your budget and business

Microsoft Small Business Center

Print

Joseph Anthony is a tax professional in Portland, Ore., who writes about finance and tax issues affecting small businesses. Send Joseph an e-mail .

By Joseph Anthony
Every year, companies transact billions of dollars worth of business without money ever being transferred from one account to another. There’s no cooking of the books going on here.

Companies big and small are using barter to sell and purchase goods and services. When someone first told me that barter was big business, I flashed on a vision of store houses piled high with pukka shells and trading beads. The reality couldn’t be further from that image.

More efficient, better cash flow

In the simplest form of retail barter, a business that trades a dollar’s worth of product or services to another business would get a dollar of “credit.” That credit then can be used to purchase goods or services from other companies in the barter system. The exchange companies help expand barter beyond a direct trade between two entities, allowing literally thousands of businesses to indirectly trade with one another. Please go to their site link Microsoft Small Business Center to read further.

Posted by Admin in small business blogs category: Barter Items in Bartering

 

Paris Hilton’s smart cross necklace & marketing

January 10th, 2008 at 12:25 am by Admin in Jewelry

You hate to have me write about Paris Hilton and her drunk driving and jail time. I am not much of a star gazer, I am however a pretty smart marketing and business person. If you didn’t know this about Paris Hilton, she has some pretty smart business gene’s from her grand father at the least. She is show cased here by Jill Brahms our amazing designer Jewelry friend. Now the Hiltons are in to perfume, not just hotels, I guess business is business, some people just know how to make money!

As I have mentioned before, the most important base for SEOing any site or blog is site structure. It actually can also help you get the most contextual links, without even trying. Here is a real life example. We are just in the process of helping to SEO a very popular small business cashless marketplace. It’s a Barter network of 24,00 small businesses with many more thousands of barter items in it’s trading community. It’s a trading community where cash is not required, but it’s a secure private business network that is professionally managed. Why am I mentioning so much about the details, well they have at least 24,000 web pages, and they could all be very valuable link inventory. This asset needs to be indexed by search engine friendly URL’s, title tags, description tags, content keywords, and footer text, all of them can be done by a proper site structure.

Guess what folks, you already know that, as you are probably big fans of WordPress, and it’s incredible SEO site structure capabilities. Do you have any idea what 24,000 contextual links will do for your SEO rankings? If you could get 24,000 pages worth of links, you would get top Google rankings for sure, pretty much for any category. But, guess what in this case, these pages are not being indexed properly by Google. Don’t worry we will soon fix, that through Mod Rewrite, SEF, and proper Title Tags and Descripton tags, etc. I wrote this blog earlier today, on my small business blogs, really folks Barter works, I think we might be getting a client, and we have only joined the ITEX bartering network for 2 days. Wow!

 

Barter Network, Trade Exchange helps small business
January 3rd, 2008 at 04:10 pm by Admin in Barter Items, Small Business Marketing

How can a Barter Network and a trade exchange help small business achieve success? Bartering has been around for a long time, and a Barter Network such as ITEX with thousands of Barter Items and a Trade Exchange community can help any small business by Increasing sales and increasing cash flow. How? Read on, as you already know we have been talking about Barter and online marketplaces such as ITEX barter network for a couple of weeks. We want to hear from you about your small business success stories, if you have tried Barter or not. Or if you ever belonged to a business networking group such as Business Networking Intl. or La tip.

What are you doing ot increase your small business sales and to reduce your small business marketing costs? We also want to hear about any other ideas for your online marketplace ideas any barter items that you would like to see more of or anything else you have in mind as a small business owner.

Here is a press release from ITEX CEO Steve White about the value his trade exchange provides small businesses. I am going to add my comments in italics and reinforce some main points.

Press Release

Source: ITEX Corporation

A Message From the Chairman of ITEX Corporation
Thursday December 6, 9:00 am ET

BELLEVUE, Wash., Dec. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — ITEX Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: ITEX – News), The Membership Trading Community(SM), a leading marketplace for cashless business transactions in North America, today released a letter from Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Steven White to shareholders reporting on 2007 achievements and looking ahead to the Company’s future.

                    THE YEAR IN REVIEW AND A LOOK FORWARD

    December 6, 2007

DEAR VALUED SHAREHOLDERS:

I am pleased to report that ITEX has continued to maintain its solid record of performance. Today, I will summarize our fiscal 2007 achievements, our strengths and challenges, and the steps we are taking to move the company forward.

What we do

For 25 years we have helped our members attract new & small business through our trading business community. Our identity is encapsulated in our slogan: “ITEX, The Membership Trading business Community(SM) is a leading marketplace for cashless business transactions across North America.” We generate revenue by charging members percentage-based transaction fees and subscription fees. These two revenue streams generated 99% of our $14 million in revenue last year.

Initiatives

Every day, we work to grow our business and maintain a profitable marketplace that assists businesses in becoming more successful. As our members succeed, they are motivated to transact more business and refer new members to our trading community.

This past year we endeavored to more clearly refine what we do, improve our processing methods, and attract more business. Surveys and focus groups provided valuable insight into the needs, wants and expectations of the small business owner: our core customer. We sharpened our message to existing and potential members. We analyzed our value proposition and determined we could offer more. New revenue streams were explored and the groundwork laid to start testing our ideas.

As a result of our efforts this year, our messaging to existing and potential members is more concise, our marketing material and website has been redesigned, and we introduced the Executive Privileges Program. I wonder if there will be any initiatives to help grow small businesses, by building a more powerful online business community.

We seek to expand our presence in the small business services sector and accelerate the velocity of transactions in our trading online business community. In a challenging national economy, we are convinced small businesses can benefit even more from the valuable services we provide. We believe a credible and effective online marketplace for small business is still one of the most needed, it certainly an area deficient within the small business marketing segment.

Strengths

ITEX has three primary strengths — our 24,000 member business base, our proprietary payment processing and trading platform (”Trading Platform”) and our ability to manage our capital and the operations of our business efficiently and profitably.

Our Trading Community has grown more than 50% in the last 30 months. We believe the relationship with our member base is underused and undervalued, but is a significant asset with tremendous potential. To enhance this asset, additional partnerships and services are being explored. Hello, does an online marketplace, and an online business community, of benefit to any one in small business marketing?

Our Trading Platform provides excellent tools for our members, our best franchises network and our corporate staff, and benefits from a steady stream of enhancements and support. This platform can be expanded to attract many payment processing or private currency systems. In the future we may license our Trading Platform to other businesses to manage their private, closed-loop business models. We do not anticipate licensing the Platform to competitive barter exchanges, rather to the growing business opportunity of cashless, private enterprise transactions.

We manage our capital efficiently and continue to generate strong cash flow. Our cash flow in 2007 exceeded $2.5 million. We retired the acquisition debt that originated late in fiscal 2005, funded a new acquisition we completed August 1, 2007, and repurchased and retired shares of common stock. Both acquisitions increased our member base and our revenues, and are expected to contribute to net income. In the near term, we plan to use our capital to either pay off the recent acquisition, buy back more shares at an opportunistic price or fund new acquisitions.

In addition to our cash revenue streams, we generated more than $4 million ITEX dollars in fiscal 2007 and expect to generate more than $5 million in fiscal 2008. The ITEX dollars were primarily used as revenue share and sales incentives with franchisees, and for incentives for existing members. This year we will utilize some of ITEX dollars to offset cash expenses and provide opportunities to enhance our trading community.

Challenges

Our primary objective is to increase member count and generate broader acceptance by the small business sector. Although our revenue has grown 34% and member count by 50% since 2003, this growth has occurred primarily through acquisitions. We are focusing on organic growth, which will help continue our overall successful track record. I am pleased to report we are seeing signs of this growth in the first fiscal quarter of 2008.

    Achievements in the past fiscal year include:
    -- Strong profits, allowing us to realize a sizeable tax benefit
    -- Introduction of Executive Privilege Program
    -- Launch of free online member registration
    -- Placement of educational videos on website - useful for members and
       prospects

A look towards our future

In the almost five years since I began serving as Chairman and CEO, we have overcome several hurdles and mended legacies inherited from the past. I am proud and grateful for the support that has been afforded me by shareholders, our staff and our broker offices. We continue to build a stronger company and find ways to grow and prosper. And, yes a big thanks to all of our small business members in our marketplace and business community!

Many have fore casted onerous economic conditions for the coming year. During times such as these, our Trading Community can flourish as businesses utilize services to not only survive, but prosper as we assist them in selling their goods and services. There is a dynamic energy in our Trading Community that keeps commerce rolling, their ITEX dollars working and their calendars full.

It is our mission to put ITEX on the financial map and to see its greatness achieved. Whether by organic growth or further acquisitions, or both, we will strive to become an expanding force that will benefit our trading community members, assist our franchisees and increase value for our shareholders. Being successful in business requires a lot of endurance, tenacity and resolve, not to mention constant care for your clients, in our case small business barter network. We are resolute in continuing our efforts to maintain your trust and confidence.

On behalf of ITEX Barter Trading Community, I would like to thank our diligent employees; the best franchise network (and their staff), whose dedication and drive is a vital component in our success; our small business members, to whom we strive to deliver value and service; and our valued stockholders for your continuing support and interest.

    Sincerely yours,

    Steven White
    Chairman of the Board
    Chief Executive Officer

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning our expected performance (as described without limitation in the quotations from current management in this release) and comments within the safe harbor provisions established under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted and reported results should not be considered as an indication of our future performance. We believe that these potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation: the continuing development of successful marketing strategies for our concepts; our ability to increase revenues and sustain profitability; the availability of adequate working capital; our dependence both on key personnel and our franchise network; and the effect of changes in the overall economy and in technology. Statements in this release should be evaluated in light of these factors. These risk factors and other important factors that could affect our business and financial results are discussed in our periodic reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Forms 10-KSB and Forms 10-QSB, which are available at http://www.sec.gov., including under the caption, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” All information set forth in this release is as of December 6, 2007, and ITEX undertakes no duty to update this information.

For more information, please visit http://www.itex.com

**This News Release was modified with minor comments in “ITALICS” for the purposes of this small business blog!

 

Barter Network, Trade Exchange helps small business

January 3rd, 2008 at 04:10 pm by Admin in Barter Items, Small Business Marketing

How can a Barter Network and a trade exchange help small business achieve success? Bartering has been around for a long time, and a Barter Network such as ITEX with thousands of Barter Items and a Trade Exchange community can help any small business by Increasing sales and increasing cash flow. How? Read on, as you already know we have been talking about Barter and online marketplaces such as ITEX barter network for a couple of weeks. We want to hear from you about your small business success stories, if you have tried Barter or not. Or if you ever belonged to a business networking group such as Business Networking Intl. or La tip.

What are you doing ot increase your small business sales and to reduce your small business marketing costs? We also want to hear about any other ideas for your online marketplace ideas any barter items that you would like to see more of or anything else you have in mind as a small business owner.

Here is a press release from ITEX CEO Steve White about the value his trade exchange provides small businesses. I am going to add my comments in italics and reinforce some main points.

Press Release

Source: ITEX Corporation

A Message From the Chairman of ITEX Corporation
Thursday December 6, 9:00 am ET

BELLEVUE, Wash., Dec. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — ITEX Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: ITEX – News), The Membership Trading Community(SM), a leading marketplace for cashless business transactions in North America, today released a letter from Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Steven White to shareholders reporting on 2007 achievements and looking ahead to the Company’s future.

                    THE YEAR IN REVIEW AND A LOOK FORWARD

    December 6, 2007

DEAR VALUED SHAREHOLDERS:

I am pleased to report that ITEX has continued to maintain its solid record of performance. Today, I will summarize our fiscal 2007 achievements, our strengths and challenges, and the steps we are taking to move the company forward.

What we do

For 25 years we have helped our members attract new & small business through our trading business community. Our identity is encapsulated in our slogan: “ITEX, The Membership Trading business Community(SM) is a leading marketplace for cashless business transactions across North America.” We generate revenue by charging members percentage-based transaction fees and subscription fees. These two revenue streams generated 99% of our $14 million in revenue last year.

Initiatives

Every day, we work to grow our business and maintain a profitable marketplace that assists businesses in becoming more successful. As our members succeed, they are motivated to transact more business and refer new members to our trading community.

This past year we endeavored to more clearly refine what we do, improve our processing methods, and attract more business. Surveys and focus groups provided valuable insight into the needs, wants and expectations of the small business owner: our core customer. We sharpened our message to existing and potential members. We analyzed our value proposition and determined we could offer more. New revenue streams were explored and the groundwork laid to start testing our ideas.

As a result of our efforts this year, our messaging to existing and potential members is more concise, our marketing material and website has been redesigned, and we introduced the Executive Privileges Program. I wonder if there will be any initiatives to help grow small businesses, by building a more powerful online business community.

We seek to expand our presence in the small business services sector and accelerate the velocity of transactions in our trading online business community. In a challenging national economy, we are convinced small businesses can benefit even more from the valuable services we provide. We believe a credible and effective online marketplace for small business is still one of the most needed, it certainly an area deficient within the small business marketing segment.

Strengths

ITEX has three primary strengths — our 24,000 member business base, our proprietary payment processing and trading platform (”Trading Platform”) and our ability to manage our capital and the operations of our business efficiently and profitably.

Our Trading Community has grown more than 50% in the last 30 months. We believe the relationship with our member base is underused and undervalued, but is a significant asset with tremendous potential. To enhance this asset, additional partnerships and services are being explored. Hello, does an online marketplace, and an online business community, of benefit to any one in small business marketing?

Our Trading Platform provides excellent tools for our members, our best franchises network and our corporate staff, and benefits from a steady stream of enhancements and support. This platform can be expanded to attract many payment processing or private currency systems. In the future we may license our Trading Platform to other businesses to manage their private, closed-loop business models. We do not anticipate licensing the Platform to competitive barter exchanges, rather to the growing business opportunity of cashless, private enterprise transactions.

We manage our capital efficiently and continue to generate strong cash flow. Our cash flow in 2007 exceeded $2.5 million. We retired the acquisition debt that originated late in fiscal 2005, funded a new acquisition we completed August 1, 2007, and repurchased and retired shares of common stock. Both acquisitions increased our member base and our revenues, and are expected to contribute to net income. In the near term, we plan to use our capital to either pay off the recent acquisition, buy back more shares at an opportunistic price or fund new acquisitions.

In addition to our cash revenue streams, we generated more than $4 million ITEX dollars in fiscal 2007 and expect to generate more than $5 million in fiscal 2008. The ITEX dollars were primarily used as revenue share and sales incentives with franchisees, and for incentives for existing members. This year we will utilize some of ITEX dollars to offset cash expenses and provide opportunities to enhance our trading community.

Challenges

Our primary objective is to increase member count and generate broader acceptance by the small business sector. Although our revenue has grown 34% and member count by 50% since 2003, this growth has occurred primarily through acquisitions. We are focusing on organic growth, which will help continue our overall successful track record. I am pleased to report we are seeing signs of this growth in the first fiscal quarter of 2008.

    Achievements in the past fiscal year include:
    -- Strong profits, allowing us to realize a sizeable tax benefit
    -- Introduction of Executive Privilege Program
    -- Launch of free online member registration
    -- Placement of educational videos on website - useful for members and
       prospects

A look towards our future

In the almost five years since I began serving as Chairman and CEO, we have overcome several hurdles and mended legacies inherited from the past. I am proud and grateful for the support that has been afforded me by shareholders, our staff and our broker offices. We continue to build a stronger company and find ways to grow and prosper. And, yes a big thanks to all of our small business members in our marketplace and business community!

Many have fore casted onerous economic conditions for the coming year. During times such as these, our Trading Community can flourish as businesses utilize services to not only survive, but prosper as we assist them in selling their goods and services. There is a dynamic energy in our Trading Community that keeps commerce rolling, their ITEX dollars working and their calendars full.

It is our mission to put ITEX on the financial map and to see its greatness achieved. Whether by organic growth or further acquisitions, or both, we will strive to become an expanding force that will benefit our trading community members, assist our franchisees and increase value for our shareholders. Being successful in business requires a lot of endurance, tenacity and resolve, not to mention constant care for your clients, in our case small business barter network. We are resolute in continuing our efforts to maintain your trust and confidence.

On behalf of ITEX Barter Trading Community, I would like to thank our diligent employees; the best franchise network (and their staff), whose dedication and drive is a vital component in our success; our small business members, to whom we strive to deliver value and service; and our valued stockholders for your continuing support and interest.

    Sincerely yours,

    Steven White
    Chairman of the Board
    Chief Executive Officer

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning our expected performance (as described without limitation in the quotations from current management in this release) and comments within the safe harbor provisions established under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted and reported results should not be considered as an indication of our future performance. We believe that these potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation: the continuing development of successful marketing strategies for our concepts; our ability to increase revenues and sustain profitability; the availability of adequate working capital; our dependence both on key personnel and our franchise network; and the effect of changes in the overall economy and in technology. Statements in this release should be evaluated in light of these factors. These risk factors and other important factors that could affect our business and financial results are discussed in our periodic reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Forms 10-KSB and Forms 10-QSB, which are available at http://www.sec.gov., including under the caption, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” All information set forth in this release is as of December 6, 2007, and ITEX undertakes no duty to update this information.

For more information, please visit http://www.itex.com

**This News Release was modified with minor comments in “ITALICS” for the purposes of this small business blog!