Black Business Rundown on BlackVoices.com

By Blair Walker, AOL BlackVoices columnist

Web Firm to Promote Kirk FranklinGospel singer Kirk Franklin's Fo Yo Soul Productions has signed a promotional deal with GospelCity.com, a fast-growing Montreal-based business. GospelCity.com, owned by A.G. Media Group, Inc., is a popular Web site that attracts about 145,000 unique users and delivers some 1.8 million ad impressions every month.

Black Book Store Chain Branching OutKaribu, which operates five black book stores in suburban Washington, D.C., is now opening a sixth outlet in a Baltimore-area mall. Unlike some black book stores, Karibu has flourished because it's customer-oriented and run like a business -- not a hobby. Simba Sana and Yao Ahoto started in 1992 with $500.

continue reading...

Move Over Oprah: Meet the Other Black Woman Billionaire

By Blair Walker, Special to AOL Black Voices



When she's not managing her sports franchise, starting new businesses, raising her teenage children or preparing for her upcoming nuptials, African-American billionaire Sheila Johnson is busy converting history into herstory.

By now, most people know that her ex-husband, Robert Johnson, created Black Entertainment Television in 1980 and sold it to Viacom 17 years later for a princely $3 billion. Sheila Johnson, 56, wants it to be known that BET wasn’t a one-man concoction by any stretch of the imagination.

She personally signed for a $500,000 loan that got BET up and running, because between her and her then-husband, she was the one with a full-time job at the time. A former concert violinist, Johnson even taught violin lessons in their home to generate income during the early, lean days of BET.

For more than two decades she kept her role as BET's co-creator on the down low, because “it’s the way I was brought up. This was a man that I loved very dearly," Johnson says of Robert Johnson. "He's very intelligent and I wanted to help him."

>Read the entire article<

Keeping It Sticky: Turning your Ordinary Site into a Dynamic One

If you want to roll with the big boys of the Dot Com Industry, you need more than a flash introduction and a few animated gifs, both of which can seriously damage your web reputation if used improperly. In case you haven’t heard, your site needs to be real dynamic, real fast and I’m going to show you how to make that happen. Creating a dynamic website is actually not as complicated as it might sound, but before I get to the details let me give you a quick definition.

When people talk about a dynamic site they are generally referring to a webpage with content that is updated frequently. Yahoo.com is a perfect example. Everyday users can customize yahoo to view an ever changing list of articles, images, and streaming media. Members see what they want, when they want it, with a constant influx of new content to choose from. From a user’s perspective, this is just another cool yahoo feature, but to webmasters this functionality is an ingenious marketing tool.

Keeping your content fresh increases the probability of a viewers return. As a web entrepreneur your initial objective should be to identify a need within your target audience. Devise a strategy to fill that need and maintain an ongoing relationship with your viewers. The goal is to keep your members happy, but you also want them to come back for more.At this point you might be wondering, does that mean I have to update my site daily? Of course not! That would be great if you had the time, but most of us don’t and you don’t have to.

At the very least you should get in the habit of updating your site regularly and including ready-made dynamic functionality, better known as sticky content. Large online companies generally stay fresh by purchasing syndicated articles and media using online resources like isyndicate.com. Unfortunately high quality content comes at a high price. If you’re a small operation, this might not be the best solution for you. Consider also visiting the following sites, which promote free sticky content.

• Urban Dynamics: Web Tools and Free Sticky Content
• eMediaWire News Headlines
• Freesticky.com

You can find a lot of interesting site add-ons, simply do your research, shop around, and utilize the content that best suits your site’s needs. Just be sure not to go sticky crazy! Like animated gifs, too much of a good thing tends to turn out bad. Add free sticky content tastefully and keep in mind that underneath all the fancy packaging, your viewers want to see quality and that’s the bottom line.

LHenry

African-American-Owned Firms Increase Dramatically

45 Percent Growth is Highest Growth Rate Among Largest Minority Groups

By Jim Hopkins, USA TODAY

NEW YORK (Aug. 18) - Cherie Ransom struggled to find work after Bethlehem Steel went bust in 2001, zapping her accounting job near Buffalo during the recession. Ransom moved home to Virginia, but full-time permanent jobs were elusive, and some employers said she was overqualified. Ransom started a bookkeeping service from her Virginia Beach home, focusing on small-business customers.

Now, Ransom, 35, says she has enough work to consider hiring her first employee. "I was so busy last year, it was crazy," she says.

Her business is one of about 375,000 started by African-Americans from 1997 to 2002, new Census data show. That was surprising growth, given that African-Americans trailed Asians and Hispanics five years before, the last time the Census tracked the numbers.

The 45% jump in black-owned firms, to 1.2 million, was the highest growth rate among the largest minority groups, the Census says.

Virtually all that growth among black-owned companies was in mom-and-pop firms, often started at home. Annual revenue averaged $21,000. Few had paid employees.

Read the entire article featured on Black Voices