You Are What You Choose: Authors Scott de Marchi and James T. Hamilton talk about all the different buyer behaviors faced by consumers today as they make critical purchasing decisions.

Viral Loop: Adam Penenberg discusses the greatest viral marketing campaigns and why they’re so successful.

Upstarts!: Donna Fenn does a wonderful job here chronicling some of the youngest entrepreneurs and their success stories. You won’t believe how young some of these business people are!

Escape from Cubicle Nation: One of our personal favorites here at UnderstandingMarketing.com, Pam Slim does a great job Illustrating the path entrepreneurs take when leaving their day job to start their own personal business venture.

Check out the rest of the books here.

What are some of your favorite business books for entrepreneurs? Please leave us a comment below!

More Affordable: Traditional marketing and advertising costs can run well into the thousands each month, depending on the breadth of your outreach. Press release marketing, though, only needs to be a minimal budget investment because of the resources available today. In fact, the largest investment involved with press release marketing comes in the form of creative juices. Check out cost-effective press release writing services that can help you accomplish your goal of a compelling release on a shoestring marketing budget.

Third-Party Endorsement: The great by-product of a press release is that a compelling angle can often lead to plenty of pickup from the news media. When a reporter takes your release and writes a story, people see an elevated level of credibility compared with advertising. There is great marketing power in a news story because it comes from a reporter talking about you, not you talking about you. In today’s era of consumer reviews, savvy shoppers often see right through traditional advertising. But a reporter-driven story picked up from a press release can deliver great credibility for your company.

Google Searches:

Example of a press release appearing in a Google search. When people want to inquire about anything today they look to a search engine like Google. Look at the search conducted using the popular keyword “arthritis remedy” in this photo. You’ll notice Flexcin’s press release comes up on the first search page above the fold. This is prime real estate for any search. The company received numerous calls requesting information after this press release went out.

Click here to learn how this kind of a press release could work for your company. You can also download this PR Toolkit to show you how to get reporters to write stories on your company. Put the power of PR to work for you.

What kind of press releases have developed into great coverage for your small business? Tell us about it here.

But here’s a secret: You can get a nice Web presence without spending a lot of money – design and hosting.

HostGator is a great way to get affordable Web hosting for your Web site or blog. Plus, they can also offer all kinds of great services such as Web site editing, e-commerce and taking payments online, domain registration, credit card encryption services and script installation. With plans starting at just $4.95 a month it’s definitely something any entrepreneur, small business or start-up should consider.

Once you’re online you can open up a whole world of small business opportunities and participate in the global economy since your reach will span all seven continents. you’ll be able to tie in your online marketing efforts through landing pages and drive Web traffic to other pages, provide company and product information or PR information to visitors and press, start a Web community or blog where your customers can interact with you and each other, and also sell your own items or affiliate products. Getting online is also a great way for unemployed professionals to launch their entrepreneurial spirit. HostGator can make all of this happen at a low price.

Here are some tips on Web hosting for small business:

1) Domain Name: This is just as critical as the name of your business. The domain name must mirror your business name or be as close to it as possible. You’ll quickly realize that everything you do is tied in with search engines. If you sell ice cream, for example, you’ll want “ice cream” in your domain name so that it’s easier for search engines to find you.

2) Homepage: Every Web site or blog has a home page. Naturally this is arguably the page with the most visitors and will be their first impression (most of the time), so make sure your home page is clean, attractive, visually appealing, informational and easy to navigate. You’ll also want to pay close attention to using your homepage to make sales.

3) Products Page: Whatever you’re selling in your business, make sure you have a clean page or section that talks about your products or services. Make sure it’s easy for visitors to see how much each item costs, how to purchase and how to get access to customer service to ask questions.

Special Note: Don’t make it difficult for visitors to contact you through your Web site or blog. The purpose of a Web presence is NOT so you can avoid human interaction, but rather so you can enhance it.

4) Web Hosting: Work with HostGator to set up your hosting services. They offer excellent customer service and support in the event that your Web site goes down (no provider is perfect so it’s important to work with one that has reliable and friendly customer support).

5) Search Engines: Pay close attention to title tags, meta tags and keywords you use when setting up your Web site or blog. We live in a search engine world and it’s important for people to find you on all of the major search engines and directories. Check out this blog post to learn more about search engine optimization.

After you’ve done your homework and are ready to launch your Web site or blog, click here to check out HostGator and get reliable Web hosting services at a low monthly price.

I can’t stress enough the importance of a good backup system and I highly recommend you invest in Mozy Online Backup, which has been pointed out by leading technology journalists like Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal and Christopher Null of Yahoo! Also, consider that more use through increased social media, online marketing and email marketing has placed a higher chance that your hard drive will fail, and the cost of recovering a crashed hard drive can exceed $7,500, if even successful at all.

Mozy is very small business-friendly by offering 2 GB of backup for free and reliable plans start at just $4.95. It’s a no brainer for every business.

The technology makes it a safe and reliable way to back up all the critical information, spreadsheets and other data on your computer like press releases and loyalty program information. It is stored in a remote and secure location and is super easy to retrieve in the event of a disaster or crash.

Which data is important to back up? The most critical files to backup and save are ones you created using specific programs. Things like text documents, images, videos, spreadsheets with financial information, and other important files are prime for back up. Many times small business professionals think nothing will ever happen to them. Unfortunately this is a problem that can take place when you least expect it and in the case of natural disasters can sneak up on you with no warning.

Here are some really cool features of Mozy that small businesses will love:

–Backs up documents whether they’re open or closed

–Same technology used by banks to secure data during backup process

–Secures files while in storage, offering peace of mind that private data is safe from hackers

–You schedule the time to back up your files and information and Mozy handles the rest

–Following initial backup, Mozy only backs up files that have been added or changed making subsequent backups extremely fast

This month we stop and pause to remember the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Although that day will always be a time to remember the tremendous loss of life, it was also a day that illustrates just how quickly an event can alter the course of business. Disaster preparedness and business continuity are two words that go hand in hand for every small business and entrepreneur. Mozy offers great protection and data backup and should be a mandatory part of every disaster preparedness plan.

Check out Mozy’s great technology. Small businesses and entrepreneurs that click on this link can get 2 GB of backup for free and plans starting at just $4.95.

Does your disaster plan have a data backup component?

A logo should do the following:

1) Entice Customers: A logo needs to be inviting so that customers and visitors feel a sense of comfort with the company.

2) Instill Confidence: In today’s commercial landscape it’s always important to gain a competitive advantage. A logo that offers a sense of trust can help you accomplish this.

3) Build Your Reputation: Companies use logos to build upon an established reputation they feel resonates well with customers and visitors. A good logo can go a long way towards enhancing your corporate reputation and complement the social media marketing work you do to establish that reputation.

4) Extend Your Brand: Your brand identity has a specific look and feel to it. A logo that doesn’t match this identity is always counterproductive to extending your brand.

5) Be Powerful: In business, it goes without saying that you must have the look and feel to be a strong company. A company that exudes confidence. The same way people look at other people and feel they’re strong, a visitor can look at your logo and get a similar feeling.

6) Be Memorable: Naturally, it’s important for people to remember you in business. A logo that is memorable helps your company build effective mindshare so that increased future sales are easier to come by.

7) Evoke An Emotional Response: So much of branding is about establishing an emotional response, attachment or behavior among a certain audience. Your logo should also generate an emotional bond by delivering or bringing back positive memories within your visitors.

Identify With Company Attributes: What are the attributes of your company? Are you known for quality? Exclusivity? Affordability? Whatever your brand attributes are, it should come through loud and clear in your logo.

9) Be Simple: Ever hear the phrase Keep It Simple, Silly (KISS)? This law applies to logos as well. Think of the Nike swoosh, or the orange and red shell for Royal Dutch Shell. Sometimes less is more and this is certainly the case with logos.

10) Have Appealing Colors: Speaking of the Royal Dutch Shell logo, think about using vibrant colors, especially if that matches your brand attributes and marketing. Remember, you want to be noticed but also consistent with you branding.

11) Be Functional For Marketing Use: Today logos are used in all kinds of different applications and platforms. Whether it’s for a large roadside billboard, an on-screen Twitter account or even on a ballpoint pen trade show giveaway, make sure your logo is functional for a variety of different marketing and PR uses.

12) Reach Global Audience: Also keep in mind that we now operate in a global economy. It’s good to have specific campaigns that reach certain demographics, but overall your logo should be well respected and received on a global level. At the very least make sure there is nothing about your logo that would offend any specific group of people in any part of the world.

Use this link to take $20 off logo design services when you need to have a logo created for your small business or marketing project. What thinking went into the development of your logo?