PowerBlog Review: E-Bitz

Editor's note: It's time once again for another PowerBlog Review of a business weblog! This is the thirty-seventh in our popular weekly series.



Just what is a Microsoft MVP? That's a question I needed to answer when I saw the E-Bitz blog.



The E-Bitz blog is one of a series of Microsoft MVP blogs at the domain msmvps.com. E-Bitz is edited by Susan Bradley. Susan is a Microsoft MVP in the Small Business Server platform.



As Susan told me recently, she took over the MSMVPS.com domain from someone else. The MSMVPS.com domain is host to a large number of blogs by the other Microsoft MVPs, and Susan appears to be the webmaster. E-Bitz is one of those blogs.



OK, so back to my original question: what is a Microsoft MVP? It's a select group taken from the user community of those who have been recognized by Microsoft for their expertise and passion about Microsoft products, and their willingness to share that expertise with the user community.



Susan has turned her blog into a tips and tricks resource for the Small Business Server 2003 platform. The blog is yet another way that she volunteers her help and support to the Microsoft user community.



E-Bitz covers technical subjects, but does it in a way that's understandable even by non-technical people. It is packed with useful information, even if you don't use Small Business Server.



One of the attributes that I admire greatly about this blog is the way it ties technical points back to everyday business issues and makes them relevant. If technology is going to be a critical partner to business -- walking hand in hand, so to speak -- then it has to be relevant. And understandable. And interesting, to boot. E-Bitz accomplishes that.



For instance, in a recent post, Susan gives one of the best explanations I've seen in print to justify a Network Administrator position, and why networks need ongoing care and feeding:

"You know what this business is like, the things you did ten years ago, five years ago are not what you do now. Heck, did we even know what Voice Over IP was a few years ago? And now more and more businesses are integrating it into their networks.



Security is not an end goal. It's a process. We don't get a map, a final destination, it's like life.... we keep growing, learning, changing, evolving.



***



Our "digital lives" need constant attention. Setting networks up, of any flavor, whether Linux or Small Business Server flavors, is not just about setting them up securely right NOW. Keeping safe on the Digital Information SuperHighway age means that you will reevaluate that network on a regular basis."

There's no overt promoting of any particular business on this blog. It's not that kind of site. Rather, it shares information and in so doing demonstrates the power of the Microsoft Small Business Server technology. In many ways it's the best kind of product endorsement. It's not trying to sell anything to anyone. Because it's authentic and informational in nature, it is more powerful than any ad.

No review of E-Bitz would be complete without a few words about the blog's logo - Yoda, from Star Wars. When I asked her about it, Susan told me she is a HUGE fan of Star Wars. And Yoda has special significance according to Susan:

"If you hover over the image of Yoda and the Small Business Server 2003 logo you'll see why I chose it. SBS 2003 has been a bit historically the 'runt' server of the Microsoft fleet. We break every rule in the book, we don't do best practices, yet as can be seen in recent reports, the platform is selling like hotcakes. The philosophy of SBS is that it is and can be everything that a Small Business needs for a server. Yoda says 'Size matters not! Judge me by my size do you?'. The SBS 2003 logo says 'Ditto what the green guy said.' The tools that the SBS 2003 platform give a small firm are EXTREMELY powerful. It puts you on the same platform as the 'big guys'."

E-Bitz is a global blog, getting visitors from across the globe. Susan blogs from Fresno, California, USA.



The Power: In terms of business blogging, E-Bitz is a terrific example of using a blog to communicate with a user community and share product knowledge. E-Bitz also does a great job bridging the gap between technology and business.

Why is Oz Small Business Optimistic But Not Hiring?

The vast majority of small business owners in Australia are optimistic that their country's good economic conditions will remain through 2005. That's according to a survey by Cashflow Manager, an accounting software firm in Adelaide, based on surveying 600 small firms.



A full 92% of the 600 small firms surveyed expect conditions to either improve or remain stable over the next 12 months.



However, only 27% thought they would employ more staff over the next 12 months. This article in NineMSN suggests that the reason for limited hiring plans is due to a hint of caution.



But let me suggest another possible conclusion.



These days, it's a common refrain among businesses of all sizes to be able to do more with fewer people. Productivity gains -- resulting from lightning fast technology advances and ever cheaper technology -- are the key reason.



There was a time not so long ago that it was cheaper to hire people to do tasks than to invest in technology to drive out inefficiencies. Technology was dear.



Now that situation is becoming reversed. The cost of technology keeps going down. Often the cheaper route is to purchase technology to improve business processes.



So whenever I see reports of otherwise healthy economic conditions and business owners with a sense of optimism, yet with limited hiring plans, I can't help but suspect that productivity improvements play a large role.

Smaller Law Firms Merging

Mergers of law firms in the United States are up compared to 2003.



Through the first three quarters of 2004 there have been 44 mergers completed. Last year there were only 35 mergers for the entire year. This information comes via Mergerwatch, a service of Hildebrandt International.



At the same time, the average size of the smaller law firm involved in a merger is getting smaller.



One thing this signifies to me is that more smaller firms are merging. I think they have to. It's just getting tougher to compete with larger firms for clients.



The practice of law has become so complex that no one attorney can be well-versed in all the areas necessary to serve a client. That's especially true for business clients. Smaller law firms can't staff with enough legal specialists to address in depth such varied needs as trademarks, commercial law, litigation, antitrust, labor law, patents, tax law, intellectual property, creditors' rights, etc.



As a result smaller firms may lose existing clients as those clients grow larger and their legal needs grow more complex. And the ability of smaller law firms to attract new clients can also be limited by their small size. Business clients want to know that a firm can bring in several attorneys across practice areas when needed on a complicated issue.



As this story puts it, when a smaller firm merges with a larger one, it gets more "giddyap". It can offer more to clients.



The majority of law firms are still relatively small, however -- just look in the Yellow Pages and you'll see what I mean. Small firms are not going away overnight. But look for them to gradually grow larger as the practice of law becomes more complex.

The New American Dream: Start a Business

A recent survey by Capital One and Consumer Action finds that 40% of Americans dream of starting their own business.



If 40% of Americans dream of starting a business, how does that percentage compare with other countries?



This post I did earlier this year suggests that America falls somewhere in the high end, but not the highest, in the range of the most entrepreneurial countries.



The United States generally would score as less entrepreneurial than many of the developing Asian countries and South America. But it tends to be more entrepreneurial than European and developed Asian countries.

The Promise of Earning Revenue from Blogs

Valdis Krebs (or as he is warmly known to his friends, "Valdis Who-needs-a-blog-when-everyone-blogs-about-me Krebs") sent me this link to a downloadable Morgan Stanley report about the future potential of blogs and RSS.



Authored by analyst Mary Meeker (remember from the dotcom days?), the report predicts among other things, that:

• Internet usage will continue to grow by 20-30% annually for the next few years





• Monetization of the Internet will grow at an even faster rate, at 30+%





• RSS holds the promise of allowing smaller Web publishers, especially weblogs, to make money, through inserting relevant ads in RSS feeds





• Yahoo has the potential to become the central syndicator for weblogs' RSS feeds, in effect becoming the modern day equivalent of the Associated Press, especially if it were to share a portion of the ad revenue from ads inserted in RSS feeds.

If you want to see an example of inserting relevant and useful contextual ads in RSS feeds, go check out some of the blogs that are part of the Creative Weblogging group, such as TJ's Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship blog, which contains relevant links to market research reports.