“I became an entrepreneur in 2009 when I quit my job as a corporate headhunter in Tokyo and moved back to the U.S. with no job prospects, and no experience in the areas where I wanted to work,” Crosland remembers.

He first hit upon blogging as a way to promote his own venture and the services he provides.

“As an English major, I thought it would be a good idea to start blogging to promote my services as a freelance writer,” Crosland writes. “The more I dove into the Web world, the more I thought about what I could do to change it. I taught myself how to program using the Ruby on Rails web development framework, and created the database driven website goldhat.org.”

Launching his own Website quickly taught him the barriers facing most online entrepreneurs.

“User adoption was abysmal,” Crosland said. “I learned very quickly…how hard it was to build a project on such a scale all by myself.”

But, like all good entrepreneurs, Crosland learned from his failures as well as his successes.

“The failure of goldhat, however, opened many doors for me,” he said. “I used it as my resume–showing that I knew how the web works and that I had the skills and initiative to be an asset to any web startup.”

Finding His True Calling

“I quickly realized that my amateur programming skills weren’t a match for what most web startups were looking for,” Crosland said. “My knowledge of code and blogging, however, was invaluable knowledge for an SEO/Inbound marketer to have.

Once he spotted an opportunity, Crosland dived in head first.

That’s what I do now,” he says. “I’m an SEO/inbound marketing consultant for great startups. My two main clients are evenues.com and vittana.org. I help advise these companies on content initiatives and help them with onsite optimization issues to help drive more traffic and conversions to their respective site.”

Crosland uses many tools in his business, including BizSugar.com.

“BizSugar has been an invaluable resource for me to keep in tune with just what kind of content small business owners and entrepreneurs find useful,” Crosland says. “Since one of eVenues target markets is very similar to BizSugar’s demographic, I rely on BizSugar to help me get a clear idea of where we should take eVenue’s content strategy.”

You can also check Crosland out on his own Website, www.unreadyandwilling.com!

Want to be featured as a BizSugar Contributor of the Week? It’s easy. Sign up for a free BizSugar account and start commenting, voting and sharing small business news and information with members of the BizSugar community. You’ll also want to “like” the BizSugar Facebook site and start sharing with the community on FB as well. Who knows! You could be the next BizSugar Contributor of the Week.

Feb 3

10 copies of I Love You More Than My Dog by Jeanne Bliss (US only)

Feb 6

20 copies of It’s Your Biz by Susan Solovic (US only)

Feb 7

3 copies of Visual Marketing by Anita Campbell and David Langton (International)

5 copies of Social Media Marketing eLearning Kit For Dummies by Phyllis Khare (N America only)

3 copies of The Entrepreneur Equation by Carol Roth (US only)

Our Contest
Our contest is being held in conjunction with the 2012 Small Business Book Awards of which BizSugar is a sponsor. We’re proud to announce that over 200 books have been nominated and you can vote for your favorites through Feb. 16 right here!

How To Enter
Entering is easy! Simply copy the Tweet below and Tweet it on Twitter, making sure to include the hashtag, #BizBookAwardsWin:

Tweet this: “Enter me to win a book! #BizBookAwardsWin”

More Details
Our contest will run through Tuesday Feb. 7. Most giveaways are for the United States or North America, but there is one for international winners as well on the final day of the contest. Giveaways are daily with the exception of Saturday and Sunday. For more details and an updated list of the books we are giving away today, click here.

In fact, it was Zebida’s passion for community building that led to his founding of Famous Bloggers, his first online business, two years ago.

His purpose at the time, for himself and for other bloggers who started with him in the community, was simple.

“I wanted to have a quicker start in the blogging world, so I decided to involve others as I believe in ‘working together,’” said Zebida. “So I invited a few talented bloggers who were just starting their business journey, and offered them the best customization and features that a multi-authors blog could have, this worked for us very well, and we started to get good exposure…”

Not only has Zebida’s enterprise given him the ability to dedicate himself full-time to blogging, but the venture has helped him launch a second successful company, a profitable Web design business.

“Being responsible for FamousBloggers.net, I have been actively working with several bloggers in the last two years and I really enjoy what I do,” Zebida added.

His passion during that time has been building communities and helping others get noticed, especially new bloggers who want to build their profiles and get noticed.

In this effort, Zebida said, BizSugar has been a major help.

“I always look for ways to promote the blog contributors,” he said. “That’s my promise to them, and it’s my main goal. BizSugar is simply the [safest] community I’ve ever [come] across, I have no idea how they manage the site in such perfection! It’s a great place to engage and get exposure, and that’s the main point of being an active member, and that’s why BizSugar is on the top of my recommendations.”

If you are looking for a safe, friendly and helpful small business community to call home, one which will supply tips and help you grow your own online business like Zebida, please consider joining the BizSugar.com community. Membership is free and those who “like” and participate in BizSugar.com, contributing articles, voting and commenting as well, may also be featured as our BizSugar Contributor of the Week. Could our next contributor be you?

Personal Email Communications:

• May include excessive amounts of and/or
• May include excessive punctuation (“Help!!!!!!!”)
• May include “YELLING” at the receiver in all caps
• May include expletives at times (%!@#)
• May include a multitude of different colored text in one paragraph

The above examples represent just some of the things that should never become a habit in your business email communications. You may know a business associate on a more personal level and some of the things referenced above may take place in your email communications. If the receiver isn’t offended and this is only on occasion – fine. But if any of the above becomes a daily habit in your email communications to this or any other individual – that may become a problem.

Check out this article over at Business On Main, “Why Are People Always Misinterpreting My Emails?,” which explores this topic in detail. Then come back here and leave us your business email etiquette “no-no.” (But make sure that yours isn’t one already listed in the Business on Main article.)

Leave us your email etiquette no-no (and your Twitter username) by the end of day on February 9, 2012, in the comments section below and our team of moderators will pick the best, most disastrous, one to avoid.

The winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to Amazon!

The owner of this site has an advertising relationship with Business on Main.

In fact, it was a totally random exchange with a business friend confused about how best to use social media to market her business that convinced Strella it was time to strike out on her own.

“I found a mentor named Maria through a program sponsored by a local female executives group,” Strella recalled. “Maria suggested that I might be an entrepreneur. She told me that I was a hard worker, but…I needed to run my own show to be happy.”

As it happened, Strella’s mentor provided her not only with inspiration but with a problem that Strella knew how to solve.

“That same day, she had attended a social media marketing event that left her feeling overwhelmed and uncertain about the new tools,” Strella recalled. “Maria suggested I use my knowledge of social media to help small business owners understand it and use it properly.”

The Rest Is History

This was the only encouragement the budding entrepreneur needed.

“I took a leap of faith and decided to start the business, alongside my day job, in July 2010,” Strella said. “It began as Central PA Webster, a company helping small business owners understand the mechanics of social media. It soon evolved into a social media management business as I found that many business owners did not have time to maintain an effective or consistent social media presence by themselves. By September 2010, I was able to leave my job and focus on the business full-time.”

In August 2012, Strella launched Social Media Manager Profits™, a training program for people interested in becoming social media managers. The program includes seven modules providing a step-by-step program to help anyone wanting to create a successful social media business. She’s also an expert adviser for the Global Social Media Management Association™ (GSMMA)

What’s Next

Strella recently changed the name of her business to Strella Social Media.

“The core of my business is social media management but we also offer consulting, SEO, and personal brand management,” she said.

She says BizSugar has continued to be a huge tool for growing her business. “BizSugar has been a great resource for me as I navigate life as an entrepreneur. I enjoy learning from other business owners and being able to categorize key areas in business such as social media or start-ups.”

Her advice to other entrepreneurs?

“My husband says I’m never satisfied!” Strella said. “But, to my credit, he also believes that’s why I’ve been successful.”

Check out Strella’s blog or hook up with her via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Like to be one of our BizSugar Contributors of the Week? It’s easy! Just sign up for a free account on BizSugar.com and start sharing, voting and commenting with our community, then be sure to “like” us on Facebook to join in and contribute fully to the BizSugar community.

But for BizSugar Contributor of the Week Carolyn Higgins, president of Fortune Marketing, it might just turn out to be true. When Higgins was let go from her job selling Marketing Automation Software solutions in 2009, she knew it was time to follow her dream of launching her own business consulting company, and Fortune Marketing was born.

“I started Fortune Marketing Company because I wanted to give small business owners the marketing tools that larger companies use every day in building effective, sustainable marketing plans,” Higgins explained.

It turns out that Higgins is in a unique position to help. Over a 17 year career, she had worked with all kinds of companies from businesses so small you might not know their names to firms as large as Nestle and Intuit.

“The main difference between them is that large corporations plan and study their customers and their markets and make marketing decisions based on research and strategy and small business owners try to emulate them without doing the necessary research first,” Higgins said.

The problem, she added, is that so many small businesses make the mistake of trying to simply imitate what bigger companies do.

“When it comes to marketing, many small business owners do what they think they should do – usually just copying what everyone else is doing; and marketing is not one-size-fits-all,” said Higgins. “You really need to understand your target customer (and how they buy), your market, competitors, or even your own business and what exactly you want to stand for, otherwise you’re just wasting a lot of time and resources on the wrong marketing tactics.”

Clients who deal with Higgins instantly understand her passion.

“Anyone who spends 5 minutes with me knows I’m passionate about helping small businesses succeed; I’m on a mission to stop them all from marketing blindly – I want to give them the tools to make smarter, more informed decisions so they can thrive!” Higgins explained.

So what’s Higgins’ own strategy when it comes to online and other small business marketing?

“Part of my own marketing strategy for attracting small business owners to work with is to provide relevant, educational, and fun content through articles, blogs, and social media,” Higgins said.

BizSugar is also an important part of that marketing approach.

“BizSugar helps me by giving me an avenue for sharing my blogs and other content that I think my target market will find interesting,” Higgins said. “Besides boosting my exposure and credibility, I know that if I need great information to share on Twitter, Facebook, or even my newsletter, all I have to do is log on to BizSugar and I’ll find great content to learn and draw inspiration from.”

How else can BizSugar help your small business?

“BizSugar is always one of my go-to sites for great marketing and business information,” added Higgins. “I know the quality of articles and information is always going to be top-notch at BizSugar. And I love that I can browse content quickly by what is most popular in the community. I know that if the BizSugar community is voting for an article in large numbers, my small business audience will most likely find it useful too.”

Visit Higgins’ blog today and if you’d like to become one of our Contributors of the Week, just sign up for a free BizSugar account and start contributing regularly by sharing small business news and information. Also, ”like” our Facebook fanpage today and someday you too may be the next weekly contributor in our small business community.

So what changes can we expect to develop in 2012? Chances are, you can expect sites like Groupon to be making some changes. As much as consumers enjoy daily deal sites, the businesses themselves may feel a bit differently. Many found they were unable to keep up with demand while they simultaneously watched their profits decrease from the heavy discounts offered.

One trend that we started to see in 2011 appears as if it’s going to continue into 2012 as well. And that would be the continued rise of entrepreneurial endeavours, many of which we can speculate grew out of necessity due to the economic climate. And speaking of the economic climate, there’s a ray of light there. Unemployment appears to be falling while the recent Holiday season found consumer spending on the rise. Could things be looking up in 2012?

And, of course, we can’t forget about the fast moving mobile industry. It appears smartphones are here to stay:

“It’s clear that the age of the smartphone is upon us. Indeed, Search Engine Land says more than 20 percent of all searches are now done on a mobile device. For the small-business owner, this is a huge opportunity. People are relying on their smartphones for everything from searching to shopping to preventing boredom.”

These changes impacting small business in 2012 and more are covered in a piece titled, “What Does 2012 Have in Store for Small Biz?” They also touch on “election year entanglement.” Check it out and tell us what you think about these changes and any additional changes you see on the immediate horizon that you feel will have an impact on small business in 2012.

The owner of this site has an advertising relationship with Business on Main.

How about finding a way to share that incredible insight with others in a very visible way?

Welcome to Tim Jahn’s world!

Tim is the co-founder of Entrepreneurs Unpluggd, which he describes as “a unique media and event company that brings entrepreneurs together to share their stories and lessons from experience in intimate, ‘unplugged’ formats.”

Obviously we’re very proud to have Tim as our BizSugar Contributor of the Week. Please give him a big BizSugar welcome in the comment section below!

“Entrepreneurs Unpluggd was started at the beginning of 2011 as an event series by myself and my co-founder Stella Fayman,” Jahn says. “Over time, we’ve expanded our online offerings to help reach people beyond only the regions where we produce events.”

Jahn explains the philosopy behind the site and its mission.

“We produce intimate events for entrepreneurs all over the country and our website helps to educate and inspire entrepreneurs with regular interviews and speaker videos covering a variety of topics, and our blog educates and inspires entrepreneurs to grow their businesses,” he says.

And what has Entrepreneurs Unpluggd accomplished for its constituency of startup junkies so far?

“In the past year, we’ve had almost two dozen amazing speakers share their stories, thousands of attendees come to our events, and a rapidly growing online community regularly visiting our website and blog,” Jahn said.

And maybe its his passion for sharing small business and entrepreneurship info with others that makes Jahn and BizSugar such a perfect team.

“I discovered BizSugar a while back while surfing the web one day and I liked the content I found there,” Jahn explained. “The BizSugar community seemed very niche, so I thought it would be a good place to share our interviews, stories, and other content from Entrepreneurs Unpluggd. We get enough traffic from BizSugar that it makes sense to keep sharing our content there.”

Have you discovered the benefits of being a part of the BizSugar community? Maybe you too would like to be featured as a BizSugar Contributor of the Week. It’s easy. Simply sign up for a free account on BizSugar and start sharing small business and information, vote and comment in our friendly community. You’ll also want to ”like” our BizSugar Facebook fanpage and become an active contributor there as well. See you in the BizSugar community!

Without further adieu, the winner is:

Su of the IEShineOn Blog (Twitter: @IEShineOn) ~

“Simple no-no – make sure you spell the recipient’s name on the card correctly and make sure your holiday card doesn’t have any typos or grammatical errors. So basic but often times overlooked.”

Su’s gift giving no-no was so well liked, it received kudos from other commenters. As Su points out, it’s a basic piece of advice, but often times – an overlooked one.

We’d also like to thank moderator, Amanda Stillwagon of MyFindsOnline, for her assistance in helping to choose the winner.

Stay tuned for the month of January’s contest coming soon!

“I’ve always loved marketing, since I first heard the concept in 1999,” said McEachran, our BizSugar Contributor of the Week. “So when my property business in London closed due to the GFC, I returned to Australia and decided to follow my marketing passion.”

It wasn’t long before Fiona had launched a new business based on that passion.

“I started Abnormal Marketing based on the idea that just checking the normal marketing boxes won’t cut it,” said McEachran. “And that businesses, entrepreneurs and start ups really need to think weirder, outside the box, and globally to truly get the best ideas to propel their business, and get the highest return on investment for their marketing money spent.”

Among the marketing tools McEachran often uses online is BizSugar.com.

“What I really like about BizSugar, is that it is a great way to share blogs and articles, and see what other members think through their voting and comments,” she said. “BizSugar is such a supportive community. I use BizSugar just by adding my posts through the Submit page, but then I also vote on other posts I like.”

Now happily based in the Brisbane area, McEacharn also maintains www.fionamceachran.com with more information on her marketing business and www.webbrandingcoach.com promoting her handbook on branding for the Web.

“I love the opportunity that technology, and especially what the Internet presents, and how using new tools with the best marketing concepts and strategies, have opened up a new business world,” she added.

Would you like to be featured as a BizSugar Contributor of the Week just like Fiona. It’s simple and free! Just sign up for a free BizSugar account and start posting helpful small business news and tips, commenting, voting and becoming part of our community and be sure to join us on Facebook as well. Soon you and your business could be featured as our BizSugar Contributor of the Week.