Venture/Startup News and Resource Site

I got a chance to look at this site a friend send me called Discoverion: http://www.discoverion.com. This is really a cool site that provides a great way to read syndicated news from various top technology news sites, venture and entrepreneur blogs.

Free local voicemail

NetZero recently put together a really nice feature that allows anyone to get a local voicemail for free. It is called Private Phone that provides free local phone number and voicemail via the web. I think it is a great tool for sellers and buyers who wants to get in touch with each other without giving out their contact information initially or whoever have an online presence to have a way to get messages without disclosing his real life phone number.

You can access your voicemail messages any time, anywhere over the phone or on the web. The Embedded Voicemail feature is powerful as you can now leave yourself a voicemail and post that audio on your website as if it were an audio blog.

Most of all, it is Free!

Amazon Omakase link

One of the key benefits of using Google AdSense is that it “supposely” understand your web site and can optimize the ads automatically. Recently, Amazon comes up with a similar model called Omakase Link (still in beta) that suppose to offer a similar ease of use. Instead of pay-per-click model Google is using, Amazon is using pay-per-action. So you get paid not when your visitors click on the ads, but when they make the purchase. You need to be an amazon associate to take advantage of this.

Creating fancy logo for your startup company

There are two leading logo providers to get you started: Logoworks and LogoMaker.

• Logoworks is mainly for a person who has no sense or desire to create his own logo and want to choose the best work from a number of design choices. Through Logoworks, you will get a logo back quickly by automatically outsourcing your project to 2 – 5 designers at once and pick the best logo for your business. The price range from $299 – $1499 depends on number of designers assigned, number of logo concepts you need and revision rounds. Once you finalize your idea, you can view the original concept online within 3 days. Click here for a $20 LogoWorks Coupon

• LogoMaker is for people who can design logo themselves with the right tool. It provides online tools to allow you customize colors, fonts, and sizes. In addition, LogoMaker provides over 15,000 unique icons to choose from. So if you have a good sense in graphics, go for it since it is a cheap alternative. The solution is only $79.

Startup E-Commerce

There are many cheap ways to start on e-commerce. Most of the hosting plans provide shopping cart option for you to conduct e-commerce (see hosting plan comparisons below) and all you need to do is add payment infrastructure (see below). But you can also start by going direct to a marketplace.

Marketplaces

• eBay Stores
• LiveDeal.com
• Amazon Marketplace

Payment Transaction

• PayPal: No upfront fee, very realizable, backed by eBay
• Google Checkout: New

Free business web site for startup

Here is a new offering that allow business owners to have a free web site: FreeWebsitesDirect.com
Now sure where the real catch is, but seems like a good deal. If you are into hosting your own site, here is a comparison chart for all the offerings

Startup executive readings

According to a recent survey among startup executives, here are the top 5 readings:

• Wall Street Journal: Get 294 issues of The Wall Street Journal for ONLY $.67 per issue
• Entrepreneur Magazine: Special Discount Offer: Save $10 on books to help you start your own business
• BusinessWeek Magazine
• Forbes Magazine
• Fast Company

Comapre hosting packages

	StartLogic	Netfirms	iPowerWeb	EasyCGI	Lunarpages	PowWeb	BlueHost
Price	$4.95	$4.95	$7.95	$7.96	$6.95	$7.77	$6.95
Bandwidth (GB)	500gb	300gb	250gb	1000gb	400gb	400gb	750gb
Storage (GB)	15gb	6gb	10gb	6gb	5gb	20gb	30gb
Domain	Free	$4.95	Free	$10.00	Free	$15.00	Free
Setup Fee	Free	Free	Free	Free	Free	Free	Free
Control Panel	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
PHP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
MYSQL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SSI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
PassWord Pro.	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Shopping Cart	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SSL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Frontpage	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Blogger	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cronjobs	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Email	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
CGI-BIN	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
PayPal	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes

Startup Setup: Voice mail, fax, business card, insurance

Virtual voice mail and fax.

Setup a separate voice and fax number so that you look professional from start. eVoice can provide you with a local number for voicemail by email and new message notification to cell phone for only $5/month, and eFax makes it possible to use your existing email account to send and receive faxes, which is very cool.

Get your business card ready.

Both iPrint and VistaPrint are great resources to get your business cards designed and print out in professional quality.

iPrint provides business cards as low as $14.99

Vista provides 50% Off All Postcards, free business cards for your business or personal use, 30% Off All Letterhead, Brochures, Flyers, Folders

Get health insurance online

You don’t want to be sick when you are on your own. Get health insurance early so that you can get the right coverage.

eHealthInsurance: Choose and compare leading insurance plans and companies

InsureMe.com:: get a free health insurance quote.

Top Venture Bloggers

Here are the top venture bloggers who spend a lot of time helping startups understand the venture world

VCs

• Brad Feld – Mobius Ventures
• Will Price – Hummer Winblad
• Peter Rip – Leapfrog Ventures
• Guy Kawasaki – Garage Technology Ventures
• Ed Sim – Dawntreader Ventures
• Josh Kopelman – First Round Capital

Strategic Investors

• Ray Wu – HP Ventures
• Jeff Nolan – formerly of SAP Ventures