How Businesses can benefit and support Filmmakers in New Mexico

By Michael Palombo
filmmakershelp.com
How Businesses can benefit and support Filmmakers in New Mexico at the same time. It’s a fact now that video has become a major part of search results, and the experts are saying if you don’t have video on your website your behind the times.
With the level of talent, small production companies, and the affordability of video production. Thing like web design,
Youtube, new streaming video platforms that offer easy video embedding for your website or blog. In truth the time has never been better for businesses to shine in New Mexico by having
A presents online that could keep up with LA.
Los Angeles is leading the way with sites like turnhere.com
That offers a video directory not just for businesses, but also for filmmaker’s wow! What a concept a site that caters to filmmakers and local business.
Let’s go c. Let’s make New Mexico Shine Online.

Thanks Accion! for giving me a business loan.

By Michael Palombo
From Albuquerque New Mexico
Accion gave me a small loan that was a big help in getting
a home for my business Melon Mountain Productions LLC.
we are a full service company for video production and distribution
our website Big Window Video offers many service's for filmmakers,
business, like website building and design, website automation,
high quality streaming video platform that works like a youtube player
with pay/per/view option. We also provide search engine optimization
service's for your online business, and video upload service's.
We are looking for investor's

Here is some more cool stuff ACCION is doing for small business

ACCIÓN New Mexico is growing and that is good news for small and start-up businesses in more than just New Mexico. For the first time since its inception in 1994, the micro-lender is expanding beyond the borders of the Land of Enchantment — into next door neighbor Arizona.

The Albuquerque-based financial nonprofit has been planning the expansion into the Phoenix and Tucson markets for some time. The plan was given a boost because of a $1.07 million grant from the U.S. Treasury Department. The allocation of the money, administered through the federal agency’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI), was announced late last week and gives ACCIÓN additional monies to support its programs in the two states.

ACCIÓN’s expansion has also brought about a name change. The organization now will be called ACCIÓN New Mexico - Arizona.

ACCIÓN Executive Vice President Marisa Barrera, a 12-year veteran of the micro-lender, recently moved to Tucson and will supervise the Arizona market.

Roberto Valdez-Beltran has been hired as a loan officer in the Tucson market. Bilingual in English and Spanish, he will work out of the Bank of the West, which has eight offices in that southern Arizona city. Headquartered in San Francisco, the bank, which also has offices in New Mexico, made a $300,000, zero-interest line of credit available for ACCIÓN’s lending program and expansion.

ACCIÓN also will hire a loan officer for the Phoenix market. That individual will work out of one of the First Community Bank offices in Arizona’s capital city. First Community, whose parent company is Albuquerque-based First State Bancorporation, made a $1.2 million, zero-interest investment in ACCIÓN’s programs.

“This triples the market we can serve in the two states, considering New Mexico’s 1.9 million population and the fact that Phoenix has 5 million residents and Tucson 1 million,” notes Lynn Trojahn, vice president of advancement for ACCIÓN New Mexico - Arizona. “But the best news is the more volume we do in Arizona, the more we can do in New Mexico.”

By volume, Trojahn explains she means more lending opportunities, more financial training programs and mentorships, and more new products and services, among others, can be offered to ACCIÓN’s clients and potential clients. ACCIÓN's loans range from $200 to $150,000, adds Trojahn.

Trojahn says Phoenix has a higher percentage of foreign-born immigrants than New Mexico and that’s important because proportionally, more of the start-up and small businesses ACCIÓN traditionally serves come from that population.

Adds ACCIÓN’s President and CEO Anne Haines Yatskowitz, “We can’t wait to translate it [the Treasury Dept. award] into greater opportunities for hard working and visionary entrepreneurs throughout our region. Mom and pop businesses, home-based enterprises and small businesses fuel our economy.”

In its 14-year history, ACCIÓN has lent more than $23.1 million to small business borrowers through more than 3,800 loans. The lender serves entrepreneurs in more than 155 rural and urban New Mexico communities through partnerships with local banks and organizations.

For more about ACCIÓN, visit http://www.accionnewmexico.org/

Getting video ads out there is in your best interest

Thursday, September 11, 2008

If you haven't noticed, online video is becoming quite popular, and it stands to reason that opportunities for video advertising are increasing right along with that popularity. Share your online video ad experiences.

Sure, ads in online videos aren't nearly as popular as the videos themselves. Actually, they tend to annoy users who just want to watch a TV show or whatever. It's really not that different than television, except that ad time in online video tends to be much shorter, so the ads don't drive users away.

Ads are how many online video providers monetize their sites though, and they are going to have ads regardless, so they might as well be your ads. In a recent SmallBizTechnology interview with Spot Runner, the company shared some interesting stats:

We’re seeing a big demand for online video services across the board, a trend that is supported by industry data. Leading market research firm, The Kelsey Group, recently released a study indicating that the local online video market will see an increase in growth from $10.9 million in 2007 to $1.5 billion in 2012, a compound annual growth rate of 167.8 percent.


Apart from true online video, Google has even made it easier to get your video ads on television. They just signed a deal with NBC Universal that will see them putting ads for clients on the network's stations such as MSNBC, CNBC, Sci-Fi, Oxygen, Sleuth, and Chiller. If all goes well, they will likely add more stations as well - possibly even NBC.

The interesting part about this is that you can manage your ads from the same place as your Google AdWords account. So think about how easy it would be to transition the ads you make for online rotation to traditional television.

Another interesting nugget that surfaced today, is a new Video Search Engine, VideoSurf, which is said to be the most innovative and relevant of its kind. Search experts are already predicting big things for it and it's not even been released to the public yet.

Getting video ads out there is in your best interest. You may want to consider a viral approach (like is also mentioned in the Spot Runner interview) for the most success with the video search engines. This goes for YouTube as well. If you can create a video that brands your product in a fun, entertaining way, people will watch it and spread the word. This can also be integrated with your social media marketing efforts.

The bottom line is: online video is getting bigger. You don't want to be left behind and miss out on potential customers because you don’t have a presence.

Building Strong Customer Relations

Does your business have a customer relations program? Your relationship with your customers and potential customers could make-or-break your business. SmallBusinessNewz Reporter Abby Johnson discusses several ways to build a strong relationship with your customers. Check it all out here on SmallBusinessNewz.

Small Business Optimism Rises Is there Hope

By Doug Caverly - Tue, 08/26/2008 - 11:30am.

Three cheers (or at least one) for the economy

August is a nice month. Temperatures seem more bearable, kids are going back to school, and, at least this year, the economic outlook of small business owners is heading up.

We encountered some dark times during the past couple of periods, but Danita Blackwood reports, "The Discover Small Business Watch reached 86.9 in August, up 2.3 points from July and more than 15 points higher than June."

Compared to those old measurements, fewer small business owners now think the economy is getting worse, and more owners believe it's getting better. These changes left the optimists far below 100 percent in terms of strength, though, and there remain some problems in other categories.

The main one, as described by Blackwood: "42 percent say they have experienced cash flow issues over the last 90 days, a significant increase from 33 percent in July 2008."

This seems at odds with the numbers concerning the overall economy, unless some of the survey's participants were drawing a line between their own businesses and everything else going on. We'll just have to hope the "good" stats influence the bad, and wait to see what happens next month.

Don't Look Past Your Local Internet Audience

By Chris Crum - Wed, 08/20/2008 - 10:04am.

They might be your best customers...

When it comes to Internet marketing for small businesses, it can be easy to get caught up in the enormous number of tactics and resources available online.

You might even forget about the good-old fashioned local media that has been working for businesses for ages.

I'm talking of course about local television, local radio, local newspapers, etc. You can still look to these resources for advertising in the online world, because chances are, most of these outlets have web sites that offer advertising opportunities, providing not only a chance to have your message appear to users across the web, but have it targeted to local residents at the same time.

You've got your obvious local audience looking for local news and items of interest, and thanks to blogs, social bookmarking, and news aggregation like Google News, stories will be linked to and picked up all over the place.

This will translate to more eyeballs on your ad. Think about it.

On WebProNews, Mike Sachoff talks about a study that finds how consumers trust advertising on local newspaper, magazine and television Websites take action after viewing ads on these sites.

According to that same study, the following percentages of consumers taking action correlate with ads on each type of site: Local Newspaper Site: 46%

- Local Television Site: 44%

- Local Magazine Site: 42%

- User Review Site: 39%

- Portal: 37%

These are not small numbers.

When you are evaluating the different pieces of your own Internet marketing puzzle, it is not wise to count out the sites that hit closest to home for your most likely customers.

Website Content Tips

By Doug Caverly - Fri, 08/22/2008 - 10:05am.

Keep it simple and make a call to action

Henry James was an excellent writer. Even when his stories centered on less than exciting subjects, the rich language made everything worthwhile. But if you emulate his style on a business website, potential customers will probably wander away, and Jon Wuebben has some tips about what might be more effective.

The author of "Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web" first suggests that you skip all the fancy stuff and aim for a conversational tone. "Not only will it immediately appeal to your visitors, but it also enables your message to be easily understood," according to an email sent to SmallBusinessNewz.

Move farther from James's style by using bulleted lists and limiting the number of words on a page to 350 or so. Ideally, people will be spending their time buying your products, not digging through novel-length descriptions. Keep things interesting, though, as an extra draw is always good.

Finally, don't forget to ask something of (or offer something to) visitors. Suggested lines include "order now" and "click here to get your free newsletter," with the Wuebben email stating, "Add these calls-to-action as they promote the visitor to take a more active and involved approach."

It should be easier to implement these suggestions than write a book, so go ahead and review your site's content when you get the chance.