I just wanted to let regular readers know that the Business Lounge has moved to a new domain and can be found here.

Please bookmark the new site and I look forward to seeing you over there and continuing to discuss the latest business news and opinions.

Thanks,

Danny.

Leading search engine Google has pulled out of negotiations to buy Digg, one of the best-known names in the burgeoning social media market. Although both companies were close to finalizing a deal as recently as last week, it's believed that Google got cold feet during the final stages.

Conflicting reports say that the deal's collapse is down to some technical issues on Digg's side, while other reports claim that it's more a conflict of character between Google and Digg's senior figures.

Either way, it leaves Digg still searching for a new buyer or investor.

For many small businesses, a professional website can offer the ideal method for attracting new customers. It's less expensive than traditional advertising methods and it offers a one-stop shop for all your products and services, not to mention allows visitors to get to know more about you. Unfortunately, many small businesses simply don't have the time or expertise to create a professional website; nor do they have the often lucrative costs involved to hire a web design company.

However, thanks to software specialist iThemes and their excellent range of premium Wordpress themes, you can now have your own professional-looking website up and running within a matter of hours, for as little as the cost of the theme, a domain name and a hosting package with the likes of Hostgator or Bluehost.

The beauty of using the Wordpress set-up along with the iThemes designs is that they truly do complement each other perfectly. Wordpess has long been recognized as one of the easiest content management systems around - you want to change something, you simply make the required edits just as you would on a Word document. Add to that the fact that Wordpress has some of the best web tools in the business - All-in-One-SEO and Askimet Spam Filter are just two of the best examples - and it really is a powerful tool for both ease-of-use and SEO benefits.

One of the reasons many businesses haven't used Wordpress previously is that it has had the tag of being "just a blogger's platform" for so long that it's hard for these businesses to look past that tag and at how Wordpress shapes up now - a lot of this is thanks to the innovators at iThemes.

Not content with simply designing a good-looking Wordpress theme that could be used professionally, the developers at iThemes have come up with some of the most striking and professional looking Wordpress themes found anywhere today. Indeed, so advanced are they that they put many "professional non-Wordpress" theme templates and designs to shame. For example, I use one for my PR agency, the "Deep Order" theme - I think you'd agree that it doesn't look like your standard Wordpress theme.

There are a host of themes to choose from at the iThemes website - from corporate to Web 2.0 designs, photography-heavy themes and more; there's certain to be one that suits your business. Thanks to their excellent video tutorials for each theme, iThemes even make it easy for a website newbie to design a great looking site.

And with prices starting at only $29.95 for templates, when you combine this with a $6.95 per month web host cost and an average $9.95 domain name fee, you can see how even the smallest and newest of businesses can get off the ground with their own professional website for very little cost. 

In what may come as no real surprise to regular followers of workplace benefits, search engine giant Google has topped the recently announced list of the Top 100 Companies To Work For. As well as excellent pay and work environments, Google also encourages employees to have fun; colourfully decorated workstations are actively encouraged, and there are on-site laundry facilities, state-of-the-art gyms, employee play areas and more.

Couple that with Google's willingness to listen to its employees and encourage change, and it's easy to see why they have topped the list for the second year running. The actual Top 10 list consists of the following companies:

1. Google

2. Quicken Loans

3. Wegmans Food Markets

4. Edward Jones

5. Genentech

6. Cisco Systems

7. Starbucks

8. Qualcomm

9. Goldman Sachs

10. Methodist Hospital System

The full Top 100 Companies To Work for list can be found here .

 

In a joint experiment with project partner Kansai Electric Power Co., Toyota is using the very same carbon dioxide blamed for global warming to grow plants in a specially designed greenhouse, helping to offset the amount of carbon emissions released into the atmosphere. Combined with natural gas for the power source, electricity for the lighting and waste heat for warming the water used to feed the plants, the greenhouse is the first commercial building to use three energy sources at once.

Where the carbon dioxide comes in is via the electricity source – CO2 is created when you generate electricity and remove the nitrogen oxide side result. This in turn falls back onto the plants in the greenhouse, making it a unique way to reduce carbon emissions and put back into the planet at the same time.

Leading news site Associated Press (AP) is finding out the hard way the old idiom, “Do not piss off the online community”. Although the self-proclaimed media darlings have a long history of going after bloggers and websites that use quotes from their news stories, their latest case of “holier than thou” attitude is receiving the attention it deserves.

Online news blog Drudge Retort fell foul of AP because they posted details of news stories that appeared on AP. Never mind the fact that a backlink would act as a nice traffic booster to AP; and never mind the fact that Drudge did nothing wrong as far as fair use copyright laws are concerned. No, AP are obviously Gods of all before them and classed Drudge as naughty schoolboys that had to be brought into line. Cue a letter from AP to Drudge, requesting that the quotes and articles in question be removed. But AP never counted on the reaction from the online masses…

When the blogging community heard about AP’s letter, blogs and forums were immediately active with criticism regarding AP’s stance. Such was the amount of negative publicity being generated towards AP that they had to immediately go on a damage control exercise. Although it would appear that they’re not quite finished with the blogging community yet.

Vice President of AP Jim Kennedy has stated, “We don’t want to cast a pall over the blogosphere by being heavy-handed, so we have to figure out a better and more positive way to do this.” Unfortunately, this “positive way” didn’t include retracting the letter – nor did it state that bloggers would be safe from the wrath of AP in the future. According to AP, they will “attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt without infringing on The A.P.’s copyright.” So, no Big Brother overtures there, then.

In one of my previous lives, I was the Feature Writer for Indie Music at Suite101. This German-owned site had a monthly audience of 7 million visitors, and offered me a wonderful opportunity to meet some of my favorite bands and interview them, as well as receive literally hundreds of CD’s and live gig tickets. However, when I launched my PR agency last year, something had to give and that was my position at Suite101, although I still like to drop the odd feature on the site now and again.

Now that I’m in a business co-ownership situation with my Priceless Writers partners as well, there’s even less time to write for the site. However, I still get regular correspondence from my old readers, and one in particular struck a chord with me, and I thought I’d share her story.

Rokchic (to use her blogging name – she’s actually called Debs) is from New Zealand and is currently managing an up-and-coming indie rock band in her native country. She’s doing all the marketing herself, as well as the PR work and managing the band, so as you can imagine she has her hands pretty full. As an Associate in Marketing myself, I know only too well some of the pitfalls and struggles that Rokchic must be facing. Yet what makes it even more problematic, for wont of a better word, is that often she’s doing all this despite receiving little help from the actual band themselves.

Some of the problems that Rokchic has come up against in her quest to get this band noticed is a reticence by the bassist to show up for a photo shoot; a reluctance of the lead singer to play live without any major marketing; and the normal everyday struggles to get an unknown band recognition.

This is a particularly difficult task in this age of digital downloads (and not all legal ones either). The old marketing and business plans that the music industry used so well are now dead and buried, and any manager, PR person or similar has to come up with some completely new approaches to get a foot on even something as small as the bottom rung of the ladder.

If the winters of Canada weren’t bad enough, there’s a storm brewing in its biggest city Toronto, and it’s one that looks like leaving more than just superficial damage. The problem lies with an idea from new equity officer Lloyd McKell, and his suggestion that Toronto should have an all-black school added to the curriculum. This has led to supporters of both sides of the argument voicing their opinions, some more vociferously than others. So who’s right – or, more to the point, is there a right or wrong answer?

The fact that it’s a city in Canada where this is happening makes it even more pertinent – after all, this is a country that’s prided itself on welcoming all races and creeds to its lands. Which, considering the immigrant history of Canada itself, shouldn’t be that surprising. So why does McKell feel the need for an all-black school in particular – why not an all-Asian, or all-white, or all-anything? Is McKell trying to just stir up controversy for the sake of it – after all, it’s what politicians and civil servants are good at – or does he have a valid point?

McKell’s argument for the all-black school is that it would allow teachers to concentrate more of their time on the students that need it most. This would be black students who are thinking of dropping out of school, and McKell’s solution would be to offer an environment with just black teachers. This would then encourage more black students to study until the end of school – in theory, anyway.

The problem with McKell’s argument is that it doesn’t get to the root of why black students – or any students – decide to drop out of school in the first place. And no amount of “have a teacher of the same colour” is going to change this problem. For example, let’s take a look at neighbourhoods as one root of the problem.

Studies show that if a child comes from a poor or rundown neighbourhood, they are statistically more likely to perform poorly at school. This is regardless of race or colour, and is true of pretty much any country in the world. The US particularly has a problem with this, with its inner-city neighbourhoods struggling.

The difference with the US compared to Canada is that black families populate the majority of its inner city “slums” – Toronto doesn’t share that problem as much. Its poor are multi-racial and multi-ethnic, with families of black, white, Chinese and European descent all sharing the same streets. So why does McKell insist on an all-black school as the solution?

Perhaps the reason is that he’s trying to divert attention away from his council’s own failings when it comes to Toronto’s black community, and the community at large. One of the biggest problems the city faces is that, unlike many other metropolitan areas, it doesn’t encourage one-parent families. There seems to be a moral belief that one-parent families are less suitable to a good upbringing than the traditional “2.5 children” families of the magazines. Because of this, the tax system in Toronto punishes single parent families to the extent that parents can’t afford to buy the books and educational tools that their children need.

On top of this, Toronto has become like so many other places, where the discipline of a child has been allowed to slide. The moral politically correct crew have won the day, and no longer can you “smack” your child for misbehaving. I remember my parents spanking me for being bad, and if it taught me one thing, it was that if you did bad things there would be consequences. Now, a parent can't so much as raise their voice without getting funny looks from the do-gooders. This is one of the biggest causes of school dropouts and poor education results - without the respect for authority, what chance do teachers have of instructing a rowdy class? Agreed, a teacher should still not be allowed to spank kids BUT maybe the kids will have more respect for authority in general if their own parents were allowed to put them in place?   

Yet perhaps the biggest problem of all is the lack of values that was so prevalent in years gone by. Respect for your elders; love for your common man; belief in the law and democracy; all this and more have disappeared. To be fair, this is a worldwide problem – the UK is seeing its inner cities crumble into despair, Europe has a major problem with fascist groups, and America’s powers-that-be seem hell-bent on turning every country against them. So what can we do?

One thing that we don’t need to do is listen to the rhetoric that an all-black school is the answer. Many of Toronto and Canada’s top businessmen and women are black, proving that mixed education has worked, and continues to work. So is the answer to undo over 60 years of hard work, racial acceptance and education? No, and a resounding no at that.

Yes, there is an inherent drug and gang culture that seems to be more prevalent in predominantly black neighbourhoods, yet is this the fault of the neighbourhood? Or is it the simple result of a lack of funding and a failure of the politicians to address what’s happening in our schools? If you want an answer, look at the slums of Glasgow or Edinburgh in Scotland, or the Harehills area of Leeds, in the UK. These are some of the poorest areas in the UK, and home to some of the biggest drug issues and most violent gangs in the country. Yet Glasgow and Edinburgh slums are mostly white, and the Harehills area houses Pakistani and Indian communities. So it’s clearly not a colour problem. 

Until we sort out the root of the education problem – poor funding, no support for home life, etc – we will continue to have high rates of failure and dropping out of school. While this problem affects certain communities more than others, of course the colour and race of that community will become evident when discussing the problem. However, building an all-black, or all-white, school doesn’t help – if anything, it will alleviate the problem, as we ignore what’s really at fault and divide our country at the same time.

A couple of days ago, I posted a Do and Don’t list for businesses, advising where you could be going wrong and how you can keep everyone happy. Well, it seems that there’s one particular company that should have read my “Take note of your customers” section.

Electronics retailing giant Best Buy prides itself as being a friendly face and enjoyable place to shop, with knowledgeable and uber-happy staff all ready to tell you why you should be leaving their store a few thousand dollars lighter. Well, it seems you might be a few more dollars lighter if you ever have the audacity to return something.

My good lady wife sent me this email today, and it makes for some incredible reading. I would love to shake the hand of the guy who wrote it, but unfortunately I don’t know him. So, I’ll give him the stage at my blog here instead, and share his cautionary tale to anyone who has ever used Best Buy for their electronic needs:

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BEST BUY, MY FOOT

Best Buy has some bad policies....

Normally, I would not share this with others, however, since this could happen to you or your friends, I decided to share it. If you purchase something from, Wal-Mart , Sam's Club, JC Penny, Sears etc. and you return the item with the receipt they will give you your money back if you paid cash, or credit your account if paid by plastic.

Well, I purchased a GPS for my car, a Tom Tom XL.S from 'Best Buy'. They have a policy that it must be returned within 14 days for a refund!

So after 4 days I returned it in the original box with all the items in the box, with paper work and cords all wrapped in the plastic. Just as I received it, including the receipt.

I explained to the lady at the return desk I did not like the way it could not find store names. The lady at the refund desk said, there is a 15% restock fee, for items returned. I said no one told me that. I said how much would that be. She said it goes by the price of the item. It will be $45.00 Dollars for you. I said, all your going to do is walk over and place it back on the shelf then charge me $45.00 of my money y for restocking? She said that's the store policy. I said if more people were aware of it they would not buy anything here! If I bought a $2000.00 computer or TV and returned it I would be charged $300.00 dollars restock fee? She said yes, 15%.

I said OK, just give me my money minus the restock fee.

She said, since the item is over $200.00 dollars, she can't give me my money back!!!
Corporate has to and they will mail you a check in 7 to ten days.!!

I said 'WHAT?!' It's my money!! I paid in cash! I want to buy a different brand..Now I have to wait 7 to 10 days.

She said well, our policy is on the back of your receipt.

I said, do you read the front or back of your receipt?

She said well, the front!

I said so do I, I want to talk to the Manager!

So the manager comes over, I explained everything to him, and he said, well, sir they should of told you about the policy when you got the item. I said, No one, has ever told me about the check refund or restock fee, whenever I bought items from computers to TVs from Best Buy. The only thing they ever discussed was the worthless extended warranty program. He said Well, I can give you corporate phone number.

I called corporate. The guy said, well, I'm not supposed to do this but I can give you a 45.00 dollar gift card and you can use it at Best Buy. I told him if I bought something and returned it, you would charge me a restock fee on the item and then send me a check for the remaining 3 dollars. You can keep your gift card, I'm never shopping in Best Buy ever again, and if I would of been smart, I would of charged the whole thing on my credit card! Then I would have cancelled the transaction.

I would have gotten all my money back including your stupid fees! He didn't say a word!

I informed him that I was going to e-mail my friends and give them a heads up on this stores policy, as they don't tell you about all the little caveats.

So please pass this on. It may save your friends from having a bad experience of shopping at Best Buy

It's true! read it for yourself!!
Best Buys return policy

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Now I know stores can often have strange return policies, but come on – 15% restock fee? And $200 maximum spend before you have to wait for a cheque? In a store where your average spend is over $1,000 anyways? I think Best Buy really needs to look at its corporate policies.

It may feel that it has the lion’s share of the market when it comes to consumer electronics, but after a while lions that are too greedy tend to come unstuck. And with the likes of 2001 Audio Video and The Source being just two competitors quite happily waiting in the wings, Best Buy might just find that buyers are better off elsewhere.

Forgive my sports score introduction, but hey – I’m from the UK and a football fan (yes, football, NOT soccer!) and with the European Championships kicking off this weekend I couldn’t resist it. So what’s it all about?

It looks like there are some big winners on the world economic stage, even as the US pushes closer to financial economic meltdown and threatens to drop into a major depression (good luck Obama or McCain). What’s even more surprising is that it’s some of the so-called “third world” countries that are enjoying the benefits of America’s woes – which is kind of ironic considering the US caused some of them!

According to a report from Reuters, the collection of countries known as BRIC – Brazil, Russia, India and China – are enjoying a rather profitable spell, due to the fact that many of them are oil-rich countries or proponents of it. With the high cost of oil at the minute, these countries are now in a position to spend, while the rest of the World – i.e., the West – is tightening its belts.

So what are these countries spending their money on? Large-scale IT projects and infrastructure, which has seen a sharp rise in the popularity of low-cost laptops like the newer Netbooks. Despite only having a screen size of around 7-inches, these little machines can still surf the ‘Net, play games and many other functions from a higher-end machine. As a result, companies like Acer and Asustek are seeing huge profits – indeed, Asustek is expecting to sell around 10 million of its small laptops over the next 12 months.