Earlier this month, the California Employment Development Department reported that the unemployment rate in San Diego rose to 8.6 percent in January. This is above the national average, which was 5.1 percent in the same month. On a daily basis, we hear reports of individuals losing their jobs and organizations losing their shirts due to sudden cutbacks in the volume and spending power of their clients and customers. Many experts actually suggest launching a business during a down economy may actually be a savvy move – customers are choosier, the challenges make you stronger in the long run and creativity abounds during underemployment.

Here are some great rules for getting in the game during a down economy:

1. Choose a low-cost idea. Consider ways that you can reduce start up costs, such as renting equipment instead of buying or purchasing second-hand furniture.

2. Build strategic partnerships. Customers have finally thrown in the towel – they have no choice but to curb their spending habits, meaning there are less opportunities for profiting. Turn to the people that already believe in you and give them the tools to sell you.

3. Do more for less. Now, possibly more than ever, price plays a factor in nearly everything. Figure out how you can be competitive in this arena. Rather than sell yourself short, think of ways you can provide added value.

4. Put customers first, no matter what. Because customers are choosier in a downturn, it is essential to focus on always providing them with the best possible experience.

5. Seek out other entrepreneurs. In this or any other economy, remember that you are not alone. There is a wealth of advice out there for new business owners – you just have to know where to look. Check out online discussion groups or forums that let entrepreneurs chat and offer advice. Additionally, you may want to seek out the local Chamber of Commerce or SCORE, which is an organization that counsels small businesses.

So every few months I have trouble syncing my black berry for one reason or another. Here is one of the solutions I have found:

If you are getting the following in the log “An error occurred while pulling data from Sync Services”

This error can occur if there is a problem reading Sync Services data from the Mac.

What you should do is backup your Calendar data and reset the sync history:
1. Go to iCal and choose ‘File’ menu and then ‘Backup database’.
(Leopard – ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Back up iCal’)
2. Still in iCal choose ‘File and then ‘Revert to database backup’ and choose the backup you just made.
(Leopard – click on the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Restore iCal’)
3. In Missing Sync, click on the ‘Help’ menu and select ‘Reset Sync History’
4. De-select other plugins and leave only ‘Calendar’ selected
5. Click the ‘Reset Sync History’ button.

Now try the sync again.

If the error persists, you should do a global reset of the Sync History for Sync Services.

1. Go to iCal and click the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Back up database’.
(Leopard – ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Back up iCal’)
2. Now revert to the same database you just backed up, click on the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Revert to database backup’.
(Leopard – click on the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Restore iCal’)
3. Do the same process for Address Book click the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Back up Address Book’
(Leopard – ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Export – Address Book Archive’)
4. Now revert to the same database you just backed up, click on the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Revert to Address Book backup’.
(Leopard – click on the ‘Import’ menu and choose ‘Address Book Archive’)

Steps 1 through 4 are key to the process, they are not just a backup, but the revert part forces a reset of the relationship between Sync Services and iCal and Address Book.

5. Launch the iSync application, found in the /Applications/ folder. (iSync is not used for the sync, but iSync is where Apple handles Sync Services Preferences.)
6. Click on the iSync menu
7. Choose Preferences
8. Click the ‘Reset Sync History’ button. Read and follow the onscreen directions.
9. This may launch iCal. When the reset process has begun the button will go grey, it is complete when the button becomes active again, but there is no need to re-click it.
10. Restart the Mac
11. Soft reset your BlackBerry. Turn it off, pull the battery for 3 minutes, put it back and turn on.
12. In Missing Sync for BlackBerry, double click the Calendar plugin and reselect the calendar for the field: “Put events created on the device into:”
13. In Missing Sync for BlackBerry, double click the Tasks plugin and reselect the calendar for the field: “Put tasks created on the device into:”

Then, try the sync again.

For more help go to https://support.markspace.com

AliVega Studios Grand Opening happening February 19th & 20th 2009

While YouTube’s announcement that they will start including ads in video comes as little surprise, there are already dozens of companies vying for a piece of the video advertising industry, which is expected to grow to $2.9 billion by 2010 according to eMarketer. Here is a look at 10 of the top players in the market, ranging from startups to some of the Web’s biggest companies.

BrightRoll offers both pre-roll (meaning ads before a video plays) and mid-roll (ads that take place between segments of a video) advertising and places ads based on contextual, behavioral and demographic targeting. To determine content, BrightRoll looks at information like tags and keyword profiles, while using data for its publishers from ComScore to create demographic-based campaigns. The company claims to be the fastest growing video advertising company with more than 800 million ads served.

YouTube’s approach to video advertising closely mirrors that of VideoEgg, who powers video uploads for major publishers like Bebo and AOL. VideoEgg uses what they call a “ticker” that shows a promotional banner within the video that can be clicked if a user wants to learn more about the product or service being advertised. In the example below, an ad is shown for the film SuperBad that when clicked shows a trailer for the movie. Ads are sold through the eggnetwork, a collection of VideoEgg’s largest publishers serving more than 15 million videos per day. The format is less-intrusive than pre-roll advertising since it doesn’t delay the actual video from running and is optional for the user.

AOL’s online advertising network, Advertising.com, now offers pre-roll video as well as in-banner video (video ads that display in conventional banner ad sizes such as 728×90). In-banner ads seem to be growing more common on content-heavy sites replacing traditional graphic-based banner ads. Most in-banner ads require a user to click them in order to play, but some more invasive ads start automatically. In the example below, a video ad is displayed in an article on investment site TheStreet.com.

http://video.advertising.com

Roo is a resource for web sites looking for video content, video producers distributing content, and advertisers that want to advertise via video. This works by Roo licensing video content and selling advertising across their network of sites that host it. Unlike several of its competitors, Roo gives web publishers control over the advertising, allowing you to sell your own ads in addition to those sold by Roo. Through its content channels (such as sports, music, etc.), Roo targets pre-roll advertising based on user interests and demographics.

ClipSyndicate is a video network comprising of web publishers, video content producers, and advertisers. Like Roo, ClipSyndicate licenses video content from a variety of sources and distributes it via a network of web sites. Web publishers then have the option to pay a fee to host videos and sell their own ads, or can do opt for a revenue share on the ads that ClipSyndicate sells for them. At this time, ClipSyndicate ads consist primarily of 15-second pre-roll video ads.

The massively funded BrightCove operates the BrightCove Syndication Marketplace which connects video producers, content web sites, and advertisers. The company offers several different advertising formats, including combined video commercial and banner ad, video overlay (a small ad that appears while the video is playing; similar to VideoEgg), or player takeover, where the sponsor’s ad occupies the entire video player and can either be clicked or skipped.

Broadband Enterprises is another online video network consisting of producers, publishers, and advertisers. The company claims more than 450 publishers including Fox News and Warner Brothers that deliver over 400 million monthly video streams. It appears the majority of the ads Broadband Enterprises sell are of the pre-roll variety.

The largest remaining independent ad network, ValueClick’s video ad program is currently in beta. ValueClick’s “In-stream” product displays pre and post-roll video ads, while also offering in-banner ads to place ads in traditional banner slots. In the example below, a post-roll ad for TaxBrain is shown, while the web site also makes use of ValueClick’s traditional banner network by placing a 728×90 TaxBrain ad at the top of the page.

AdBrite, which operates a marketplace for a wide variety of online advertising including text, banners, and in-line ads (those ads that turn words on a page into ads) recently launched InVideo, its own video player and ad network. The ads show up in “split screen” format so you can continue watching your video as the ad is displayed. InVideo also allows you to place your own watermark into the videos, a nice feature for branding your video content.

Adap.tv places a variety of ads through the video watching experience. While allowing you to have pre and post-roll video ads, adap.tv also attempts to analyze the content of the video to provide relevant text ads while the video is playing. In the example below, the video hosts are talking about the movie “The Prestige” and a text ad promoting the DVD is shown. ScanScout offers a similar technology.

The online video space continues to see a huge amount of venture capital pour in as the race is officially on to grab the market. While it’s unlikely anyone will catch the 800 gorilla of Gootube in terms of reach, “win-win” networks like VideoEgg and BrightCove are already attracting the publishers and advertisers necessary to create a viable marketplace and will help keep the industry competitive in the years to come.