Christmas '07 Online Shoppers Set Records 

Study: Web-based instant messaging is growing fast

Who needs downloads? Not instant-messaging fans, apparently, according to Nielsen NetRatings. The online division of the legendary statistics-crunching company just released a study that tracks the fastest-growing instant-messaging software products from August 2006 to June 2007, and the results indicate that Web-based is the way to go.

Meebo's Ajaxy prettiness (Credit: Meebo)

What Does "bootstrap a Business" Mean?

Author: Clint Jhonson / ArticlesBase.com
Posted: 01-11-2007

The term bootstrapping is very popular these days for web entrepreneurs and offline businessmen as well. When you bootstrap a business, it simply means that you put up a venture using your own resources without any outside help. A bootstrap is actually a small loop of leather or some other material that can be seen on the sides or the top rear of a boot. Its main purpose is to help you pull your boot on. The concept of a bootstrap has been extended into the business sector to mean "putting up your business on your own terms."

As a web entrepreneur, when you bootstrap a business it would mean that you will carry all the responsibility for financing, promoting and developing your business. You will use your own initiative and resources to put up a business and not seek for outside financing. From the looks of it now, you might think that bootstrapping is difficult. It might be, and it will definitely take a lot of effort on your part. However, if you think of it from a brighter side, you will see how potentially advantageous it is to bootstrap a business. The most obvious advantage is that you do not have to think about outstanding loans that you need to work hard for to pay up. Also, when you bootstrap a business, you focus on your role as a web entrepreneur in providing utmost services to your customers.