I would like to share a story about an acquaintance who asked me for business advice. She runs a terrific family restaurant not far from my office. I’d like to see her business thrive, and it can.   She started doing press releases, but became discouraged because getting them out was time consuming.

    Whenever I think of the importance of the Internet to small businesses, I think of a USA Today article I read in Nov. 2009 about start-up airlines. Kent Craford and his partners started SeaPort Airlines in June 2008. Since the aircraft are small, passengers don’t have to pass through TSA checkpoints. Instead of

    The number of visitors to consumer review sites is growing and growing fast. A quick look at Compete.com reveals that Yelp.com’s traffic grew 61.55% to 12 million visitors per month over the last year. Urban spoon, a review site for restaurants, has grown 58.82% in12 months to reach 2,797,932 unique visitors a month.