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How Klout Found Success by Focusing on Users

There’s no set formula for startup success. Some companies focus on design, mastering industry research or one-upping competitors to make it to the top. In the case of Internet startup Klout, though, the focus is on users.

From day one, Klout Founder and CEO Joe Fernandez’s goal has been to “help people understand their influence and to [help them] leverage that influence.”

Erica Swallow

4 Tips to Keep Your Website Ahead of the Curve in 2012

Sure, having a website for your business serves a practical need: to draw net-surfing users to your product or service. However, it’s also much more than slapping on a run of the mill two-column template and calling it a day. Nothing kills an online buzz like a poorly designed or drastically outdated website. Dry and boring default templates, broken assets, confusing pages and invasive widgets do nothing but harm a page’s style, which in turn reflects poorly on the company.

Lauren Hockenson

Apple Is the World’s Top PC Vendor — If You Consider an iPad a PC

A Deutsche Bank analyst has circulated a research note claiming that — if you lump iPad sales in with PCs — Apple is now the world’s top vendor.
What’s more, Apple’s ascendance occurred not too long after the iPad’s release in 2010. As the company’s market share rose, all of its rivals — HP, Dell, Lenovo and Acer — started falling. They haven’t stopped since.

The analyst, Chris Whitmore, sent the note after concluding that none of Apple’s rivals has yet hit on a viable alternative to the iPad.

Todd Wasserman

The Amazing Power of Deflationary Economics for Startups

I’m often asked by people what investment areas interest me.

It’s true that I have a functional focus on three areas: Performance-based marketing, digital television and mobile computing. I try to invest in things that I know and that I believe I might have better knowledge and relationships than the masses of VCs.

I have other areas of interest & competence such as cloud computing and document management given my background.

MARK SUSTER

Infographic: History of Web Standards

From 1962 to present (no, that's not a typo), Vitamin T and An Event Apart have pulled together A Brief History of Web Standards. This infographic has a lot of interesting factoids and information about the evolution of the Web.

Now, when you're thinking "Web standards," you're probably thinking about things like HTML and CSS standards. The graphic touches on those, but pays particular attention to "standards" like typefaces and Godwin's Law (created in 1990, by the way).

Joe Brockmeier

Graphic Design, Valued

Science Daily recently reported the results of a study involving the relative attractiveness of annual reports. Possibly that sounds a little frivolous. Possibly it is. But I couldn't resist reading the item — and passing it along as a minor weekend post, for your diversion. I remember, as a young reporter, encountering such documents for the first time, being startled by how lavish many of them were: heavy paper, beautiful printing, etc. What a waste of money! Right?

Rob Walker

E-mail Newsletters: Best Practices For Small Businesses

Does anyone actually look forward to e-mail newsletters? Debatable. But it doesn’t mean your business has to fall to the bottom of the e-mail heap.

Nor do those moans and groans over mean you should stop sending them. According to Exact Target data, 42 percent of subscribers are more likely to buy from a company after subscribing to their e-mails. So, it’s a safe bet for your business to continue sending out newsletters. However, it’s important to use common sense, strategic language and ethical practices in order to improve your subscription results.

Stephanie Buck Mashable

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