SmallBusinessNewz

Competition benefits the small business market

As they compete for the small business market, Microsoft hopes to turn Office Live Small Business into a one-stop shop, and a conduit to its search marketing services.

Search marketing services provided by Microsoft's adManager represent the key to making the free side of Office Live's Small Business package work. If customers sign up and find profitable conversions from ad placements on MSN, Live Search, and Ask.com, they should be more likely to expand that ad budget.

Microsoft hopes to make a compelling value argument with Office Live. They deliver a number of services for free: web hosting and do it yourself design tools; custom domain and email accounts; and content, document, and project management applications.

Search marketing won't be the only revenue option for Microsoft, for clients who opt for additional services. The Store Manager service offered by Microsoft will not charge transaction fees until April 1, 2008. Customers can create and stock an ecommerce site, place items on eBay, and accept credit card payments with Store Manager.

Also in a free beta until April 1, the beta version of Microsoft's E-mail Marketing gives small business a way to turn contacts into a mailing list for promotions, with campaign reporting available from those mailings. (We'll take a moment to urge small business owners to remember opt-in lists are good, because people resent being added to lists for which they must opt-out.)

Small businesses will want to explore Yahoo options too. Yahoo has a lengthy history handling ecommerce and small business web hosting, the latter of which they recently expanded to unlimited data and email storage.