Pinterest is the latest social media platform to hit the net. Not as big a heavyweight as Facebook giant and Twitter, the site is rapidly gaining traction and attention from marketing experts and businesses alike.

A virtual bulletin board that allows users to create different collages of their interests, individuals are becoming addicted to pinning and re-pinning images, links and objects that have caught their eye. From books to techno gadgets and events, Pinterest is all about getting people to share creative tips and designs with each other within their chosen niches.

For businesses that have drawn up a marketing plan centered on the use of social media tools, there is serious potential for Pinterest to drive sales for company owners. Product and service pins and repins will provide major clout in terms of customer referrals and website traffic.

What’s not to love about crowdsourcing? It’s fast, easy, and cheap. Perfect for a small business, right? Well, when you take a closer look, the pros of crowdsourcing are also the potential cons of it. Fast, easy, and cheap doesn’t always translate into a job well done. While many people tote crowdsourcing as a modern, innovative way to accomplish tasks, others find that it doesn’t always produce the results they were hoping for. Since your small business is your life, it’s important to carefully consider crowdsourcing before you give it a shot. Here are some of the potential disadvantages to it that you should keep in mind.

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Every business owner is required to make important decisions on a regular basis. Whilst day to day choices may not cause much of a stir, choices outside of this comfort zone can be trickier. The whole point of starting your own business is to succeed on your own terms and that means you need systems which offer you control.

As e-commerce and internet trading has become more commonplace, the virtual side of your business is now just as important as the physical side – if not more so. Unfortunately, not all small businesses are as familiar with these systems as others and that makes it harder to know what choice is best.

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This New Year has brought many hopeful and dire business predictions for all industries. One of the businesses that many have given perspectives for is the online retail business. All sorts of folks have weighed in on what they expect for online retailers in 2012. If you listen to the various analysts, economists, business people, journalists and other experts as well as everyday people, you will know that there are many viewpoints on what can be expected for this area of online business this year.

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The success – and subsequent bursting – of the dotcom bubble is well-documented. A business bubble such as that is created when speculative investors believe in an over-hyped product that simply cannot deliver what its proponents say it will. Rather than steady, sustainable commercial growth which supports the long term, it can lead to business failure and bankruptcy. That is then followed by a market shake-down in which only the strongest survive: hence the domination of the big dotcom players post-bubble, such as Google and Amazon.

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Laptops have become a very important part of our lives. Without a computer, we would not be able to do our work, students will not be able to do homework, and others will lose access to their social networking. Taking good care of your computer will give many years of use. Prolong the life of your laptop by avoiding the following issues.

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Lego's New Social Network

Have you ever resigned yourself to sitting on your own in your bedroom building Lego because your friends didn’t share your passion? Or holding in the urge to post an amazing model on Facebook because you know it will be ignored or your hobby ridiculed?

We've all heard of privacy issues with Facebook - from college admissions boards and potential employers judging our Facebook profiles to our friends accounts getting hacked and/or spammed. But how many of us actively make sure that our data (and our identities) are secure on the web?

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When you are developing a website or generating a presentation on the web, it is important that you incorporate illustrations to help get your message across. Not only does a perfectly selected photo add value to your content, but it also increases visual appeal and makes it more likely that visitors will read what you have to offer. As you may know, there are tons of images available on the Internet today. However, the ones which will add the most value to your website are royalty-free images.

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Since the evolution of the internet, it has provided a useful tool for a lot of applications. In an election year, there are plenty of tools and benefits that come from the world of technology. In fact, many viral and social media campaigns are what give candidates the chance to reach out to their supporters in a whole new way. The internet has come a long way in terms of helping candidates get the word out, and citizens have a lot of different things to think about when they decide to utilize technology to figure out exactly what they're dealing with.