Welcome back! It's good to see you again. Please note that I am now publishing all new material at my hub site: StephenPSmith.com

Here are some of the sponsors of this year’s event, we are all looking forward to talking with, and learning from, these companies:

With Intuit small business services, managing your business has never been easier! In addition to providing personal finance software, Intuit has been a supporter of small business for over 25 years, and now we are expanding our efforts to help small businesses thrive. You’ve always known us for providing easy financial software; now we offer fast and easy online marketing services, web hosting and website builder services, payroll services, and credit card processing as well. And we’re just getting started! We’re developing new services all the time — visit IntuitLabs to see some of our latest innovations.

The Allstate Corporation is the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer. A Fortune 100 company, with $133 billion in total assets, Allstate sells 13 major lines of insurance, including auto, property, life and commercial. Allstate also offers retirement and investment products and banking services. Allstate is widely known through the “You’re In Good Hands With Allstate®” slogan. Allstate was founded in 1931 and became a publicly traded company in 1993.

IZEA prides itself on the successful execution of social media marketing campaigns. We work hand-in-hand with agencies and brands to deliver ROI through buzz, clicks and conversions.

ReveNews is a trusted, unbiased source focusing on Internet related industries such as online marketing, SEM, affiliate marketing, retail (e-commerce), analytics, spyware, blogging and much more. ReveNews authors consist of highly respected thinkers, commentators and business people who have real experience and insight. ReveNews readers include industry gurus, top-level executives and CEO’s, plus many of the industry’s top net-repreneurs; all coming together to create a global Internet community to distribute, discuss and analyze the industry at hand.

And, once again, our SOBCon partners for accommodations and the conference space are Hotel 71 and the Summit Executive Center.

A Stylishly Different Chicago Hotel

Hotel 71 is a modern urban boutique hotel experience, perfectly located on the Chicago River at Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue, “the Magnificent Mile”. The hotel’s fresh style, large rooms and suites, beautifully appointed meeting space, friendly service and an unrivaled location at the epicenter of downtown Chicago, make it the best luxury hotel for both business and leisure travelers.

Summit Chicago
Our world-class facility, exceptional staff and outstanding cuisine provides you with all the tools you’ll need to successfully enhance your meeting.
Summit Executive Centre is downtown Chicago’s only accredited member of the prestigious International Association of Conference Centers. Our standard of quality is recognized by leading businesses and decision makers around the world.

Read more about this amazing event at the home page for SOBCon 2010.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/yzl9pwj. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

SOBCon starts this Friday! It is sure to be an exciting time, with over 100 attendees and some fantastic presenters. Our most excellent sponsors are providing some really cool items for all of the folks that will be there, as well as some virtual goodies that they would also like to share with the entire SOBCon community.

So, if you are not coming to Chicago but are interested in sharing in this sponsor love be sure to subscribe to the SOBCon newsletter so that you can get the links to these goodies. Thanks!

Subscribe to the
SOBCon09 Newsletter

Email:

Writing for the Web - DIY SEO training course

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/dfw8c3. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

Whakate has posted their 2008 Web awards and we are pleased to announce that this humble site has been voted the best discussion group of 2008! We would like to thank our members and contributors for this amazing honor, and invite you all to join in the conversations to make 2009 an even better year.

See the Whakate site for the complete listing, and visit the other winners as well:

The Whakate Best of Web 2008 Award

The top websites in each category are as follows:

Best Discussion Group 2008

Work. Life. Creativity (Whakate Rank: 8 out of 10)

Making Sense of Personal Development and Productivity

The goal of the Whakate eMonitor and the “Best Of Web Award” is to help our readers make sense of the plethora of personal development resources that exist on the web at a glance. Our calculation of the final score incorporates traffic ranking as well as article quality, and because most of our sources boast good traffic rankings, this allows the reader to immediately assess if a source is credible.

This is a very exciting piece of news and we are grateful for the attention. Be sure to get involved with the Work.Life.Creativity forum soon!

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/7tmxjj. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

Early Look: Top 10 Android Apps - Website Magazine Consumer Corner - Website Magazine

T-Mobile released the G1 mobile phone to the public this week, the first true competitor to the iPhone. And what makes the G1 a legitimate threat is Google’s Android operating system, complete with apps, just like the iPhone. But Android apps will play a significant role in attempting to dethrone the iPhone - mostly because its open source, developers will face less scrutiny and easier acceptance for app creations, and because Android apps will eventually work across more networks, and more phones. So, let’s take a peek at some of the early apps, ranked somewhat loosely in popularity according to Website Magazine’s Peter Prestipino’s shiny new G1. The numbers are current as of this writing. (If the apps below are not linked, it’s because the Android website is not displaying them, but they are available through the G1 itself.)

1. ShopSavvy: 10,000-50,000 downloads, 538 ratings (4.5/5 stars). Scan barcodes with your camera and find the best prices on the Internet, and at nearby stores. We recently wrote a review about a similar, non-Android application, with mixed results. My guess is that the Android app is much more capable.
2. The Weather Channel: 10,000-50,000 downloads, 432 ratings (4.5/5 stars). No surprise here, and the name pretty much sums it up.
3. MySpace Mobile: 10,000-50,000 downloads, 348 ratings (3.5/5 stars). Again, the name says it all. What’s interesting is that this is the lowest rated (by stars) app on the list. It’s unclear whether that’s because of its functionality, or the G1’s audience.
4. WikiMobile Encyclopedia: 10,000-50,000 downloads, 125 ratings (4/5 stars). Over two million articles, including images. “Faster and uses just a fraction of the network data vs. the Android browser.”
5. T-Mobile HotSpot: 10,000-50,000 downloads, 146 ratings (4/5 stars). Automatically determines when you are in a T-Mobile WiFi hotspot, enabling the user to connect that way instead of the 3G network, saving battery power. Theoretically, would also allow a connection to Skype, saving on minutes.
6. Accuweather: 5,000-10,000 downloads, 205 ratings (4/5 stars). Not much information on this one yet, but one forum I read found that this app was “way better than The Weather Channel app.” Accuweather app includes a live Doppler radar map, also according to the forum.
7. Compare Everywhere: 5,000-10,000 downloads, 205 ratings (4/5 stars). Similar to ShopSavvy - scan barcodes, find out if you’re getting a good deal. Includes reviews, shopping lists and wish lists. The personal favorite of Website Magazine’s editor - and his wife’s.
8. Pro Football Live: 5,000-10,000 downloads, 119 ratings (4/5 stars). A football fan site, with live updates and scoring, news, photos and a personalized home page.
9. Translate: 5,000-10,000 downloads, 81 ratings (4/5 stars). Language translator - type in a word or phrase and get the translation in the language you select. Supports 150 language pairs.
10. PicSay: 5,000-10,000 downloads, 126 ratings (4.5/5 stars). An on-the-fly photo editor. Distort images, add shading and effects, speech bubbles and props to your photos, then share them with friends via email, your blog or online phot sharing sites.

Keep in mind that these are actual applications, and not games. However, many of these applications have more ratings than games and just as many downloads (at least as far as we can tell from the less than precise download numbers.) It’s interesting to note that two on this list are shopping services. It perhaps indicates that the G1 audience is a little more business- or consumer-oriented than the iPhone - also indicated by the low rating of the MySpace app. It might also be a sign that mobile e-commerce is going to heat up, now that consumers are armed with more viable tools.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/59vu5t. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen