Like her or not, media queen Oprah has turned unknown businesses into overnight success stories thanks to her stamp of approval. So how does she decide which of the hundreds of thousands of product pitches she receives get air time? According to this Advertising Age article, "It helps a whole lot if Oprah likes your brand or its ads. It helps more still if Oprah's producers like you. And it possibly helps even more if Oprah likes you or the person endorsing your brand. Oh, and another, murkier point: Some PR people believe it may help to 'do a sponsorship,' as one put it."

Check out the rest of the article for more details and tricks of the trade.

With the world going increasingly digital, here's yet another opportunity to stay up-to-speed. Webcards, developed by Smalltown, act as online Yellow Page ads, created by you, to keep customers informed. Use Webcards to share product and service information, list store locations and offer promotions. These listings--which can be outfitted with photos and maps--may also stand on their own (with their very own URL) and as embedded advertisements in search engines like Google, Yahoo! and AOL.

If your business doesn't have any other online presence, consider Webcards to increase visibility and keep customers up-to-date. If you already have a website, Webcards can be used instead as an advertising and outreach tool. Check out the Webcards and Smalltown websites for more details.--Whitney Chen

Think of it as making your own treasure map--with your store or business as the treasure. Wayfaring.com facilitates any person's wanderlust by allowing users to create personalized, shareable maps. Bolstered by Google Maps technology, the user can landmark various locations like favorite restaurants or knitting stores, and share them with others.

Not only can this tool locate the hottest restaurants, coffee shops and pubs, but it can also create custom, convenient routes to your store, saving clientele and employees the time and headache of getting lost. If you'd rather make the experience of finding your business--well, an experience--try partnering up with local businesses or organizations (like recycling locations or charity donation sites, for example) and mark them as key stops along the way.--Whitney Chen

Add this to the "Why didn't I think of that?" column: tear-off labeling for wine bottles. We've all been there, desperately trying to memorize the name and year of the delicious bottle of wine consumed at dinner, only to wake up the next morning with no memory of it whatsoever. South Australia's Oxford Landing has the solution. According to Trend Central, Oxford Landing's Shiraz features a tear-off section on the back of the label, complete with all the pertinent information. It's a great example of taking a traditional product and putting an innovative twist on it--something consumers will appreciate.

Even if your company doesn't celebrate Earth Day every day of the year, there are plenty of ways you can show you're green. Entrepreneur Robyn Rhodes, who we featured in our March article, Confessions of Workaholics, found a way to integrate Earth Day into her jewelry design company.

Rhodes' ecological awareness campaign donates 20 percent of the proceeds from the sale of her Rumi necklace to Global Green USA. Model and actress Josie Maran is the face of the campaign and a supporter of Global Green. The necklace, Rumi, is named after Maran's youngest daughter as a symbol of future generations.

Check out the campaign and the necklace here.

Leap year day only happens every for years--and companies across the country want to take advantage of it when it arrives this year, on Friday, February 29. From frog-oriented promotions to marketing campaigns playing off the date, leap year day is becoming another day for marketers to integrate into their plans. Some businesses, like Boston Market and Morton's The Steakhouse, are offering free lunches or dinners to those born on February 29. Other promotions, like Papa John's Perfect Pan Pizza, which launches this Friday, play off the name of the day with a tag line like "One Giant Leap for Pankind." According to the Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies, there are about 200,000 leap day babies in the U.S.

Before you try to work leap year day into your marketing this week, here's some advice from Allen P. Adamson, director of the New York office of branding firm Landor Associates. "For certain brands, it perks things up," Adamson says. "But it wouldn't fit with anything serious like insurance, financial services or medical things. Using leap year in those instances could really undermine the rest of the message."

If you're looking for marketing advice for your small business, OPEN from American Express may have some hints for you. Their "Inside the Entrepreneurial Mind" series of online forums offers small-business owners insight from successful entrepreneurs in niche-specific industries. The latest forum focuses on "The Business of Technology," and is available to view starting today at openforum.com/eventcenter. Learn from notable names like Facebook founder Sean Parker and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales as they share their business experience to benefit your business. Here's a sneak peek at some of the topics:

• Viral marketing--How is viral marketing different than word-of-mouth marketing? Wales believes the best of "old world" business principles still applies in the world of new media.
• Transparency--Wales explains how radical transparency works and why your customers will respect you for it.
• Branding and marketing--Parker talks about the importance of creating an experience in order to engage your customers online.

Across the country, Americans are spending hundreds of dollars on Valentine's Day goodies to please that special someone. But for the hundreds and thousands of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen deployed in Iraq, Valentine's Day is yet another holiday spent away from loved ones. That's where these three companies come in. Not only have they all figured out ways for Americans to reach out to loved ones away at war, but they have each done so with the help of Google AdWords. Here's a look at each company, what they're contributing to American soliders and how they're spreading the message:

• Cards4Heroes--This Michigan-based online greeting card retailer specializes in greeting cards and stationery for troops, veterans and families. Company founder Donna Nakagiri launched the website after realizing she couldn't find patriotic or military-themed cards to send to deployed military men and women. Nakagiri says AdWords helps her adapt her ad text and keywords to reflect seasonal holidays like Valentine's Day.
• Soldiers Angels--This Southern California company was founded by Patti Patton-Bader, the mother of a former solider. Though Patton-Bader sent care packages to her son every day, plenty of other soliders weren't receiving any mail or support from home. So, Soldiers Angels helps cheer up troops by sending care packages, letters and other forms of support. Patton-Bader says 78 percent of her unique users and 75 percent of her pageviews come from Google.
• FlowerShop.com--Arizona-based FlowersShop.com, a flower and gift basket retailer, specifically markets military care packages full of food, games and stuffed animals. Since the company began using Google AdWords to advertise their special packages, they've seen a vast increase in the number of orders.

Do you know how to write a thank you letter? Or fake being sick? A new startup called Howcast is combining filmmakers, experts and business for one purpose: to create entertaining, well thought out how-to videos. Anybody can get involved. For example, if you're dying to let your inner Spielberg out, you can get paid to make videos as a Howcast Director. Or if you own your own business, the Howcast Network provides a great opportunity for free promotion of your company. It's a simple idea with plenty of potential.

Techcrunch recently wrote about Howcast and its founders, Jason Liebman, Daniel Blackman and Sanjay Raman, all former Google employees who worked on Google Video and YouTube before they left the company eight months ago. According to Techcrunch, Howcast recently announced an $8 million series A financing led by Tudor Investment Corporation.

Not only are these videos entertaining, but they actually teach you a thing or two. Our favorite how-to's are "How To Fix a Wet Cell Phone"--which could come in handy-- and "How To Dance Without Embarrassing Yourself," purely for the comic value.

Let’s face it. Good marketing tactics are essential when it comes to getting your business to stand out from the crowd. So it came as no surprise that the room was jam packed for Catherine Seda’s session on Low-Cost Marketing Tactics at the Women in Charge conference sponsored by OPEN from American Express and Entrepreneur magazine that took place on Tuesday in Florida.

 Seda, an internet marketing veteran, had a big task in front of her. She had been given a powerpoint presentation that consisted of 20 marketing tactics prepared by Kim T. Gordon, author and Entrepreneur columnist. Gordon had intended on presenting the information herself, but when she fell ill shortly before the conference, the logical person to pass the baton to was Seda.

So, with the help of Gordon’s slides, Seda presented invaluable information to a room full of rapt listeners. The first task at hand for all entrepreneurs is to develop a unique point of differentiation for your business, she said. After all, it’s much easier to market your business when you have distinct reasons why customers should pick you over your competition. Audience members shared their points of differentiation with others. High quality, same-day service and discounted prices were just some of the factors that attendees came up with.

Seda went on to discuss the use of search engines, online directories (which are free in most cases), print directories, and newspapers as effective ways in which to attract new consumers. She also addressed how effective an effective website can actually be and tips on how to run a great e-mail campaign by personalizing the correspondence and using an e-mail marketing service. And, in addition to a plethora of other tactics, she discussed how to create buzz around your product or service by getting people to talk through contests, news stories, free trials and events.

Marketing is essential but it doesn’t always have to break the bank. By thinking creatively, entrepreneurs can stand out and make it big with some very simple tactics.--Sara Wilson

I'm back from Miami and ready to share some insight to those of you who were unable to attend  Entrepreneur's fabulous Women in Charge event, sponsored by OPEN from American Express. The first session I attended was called Internet Marketing: Secrets for Success, led by  Catherine Seda. Seda, chief internet strategist at Savvy Agency, has spent almost 13 years specializing in internet marketing. She had a jam-packed agenda for our hour-and-a-half session, and was able to cram just about all of the information in.

One thing Seda touched on was how to write an effective press release. I agreed with the comments she made, because as a member of the media, I deal with press releases on a daily basis. Seda recommended business owners write press releases like articles, just like a journalist would. She suggested distributing press releases through websites like  PRWeb and  Newsforce. A specific, detailed press release offering facts, survey results or even statistics can make the difference between whether I press delete or whether I save the pitch in my file.

As for blogging, Seda suggested all business owners try to contribute to a blog as often as possible. If it's too much for you to keep up your own blog, try posting comments to other people's blogs. "Search engines love blogs," says Seda. "I'm not a tech person, but I can blog!" Seda recommended sites like  Blogger,  WordPress.com and  TypePad  for creating your own blog. She said both Blogger and WordPress.com are free, while TypePad charges a fee each month.

Overall, the number one rule Seda suggested in search engine optimization to get free traffic is relevancy. "Think about how to be a specialist in your field--differentiate yourself," she said. Seda asked all the entrepreneurs in the room to raise their hands for how many pages they scour when they research a certain phrase or keyword on Yahoo! or Google. The majority of participants put their hands down after page 2, and just about everyone had their hands down by page 3. So, as Seda pointed out, the right words can make the difference between coming in as a top 30 hit on a search engine, or being ignored. For more information on how to find the right words to get your business traffic, check out Catherine Seda's newest book,  How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders.--Kristin Edelhauser Chessman

Today's under-10-year-old crowd makes up one-third of digital music player users. According to Advertising Age, that means there's a new market for specialized players and other products, in addition to a growing demand for kid-appropriate video and music content. "By third grade, half of the kid population in grade school has an MP3 player," said Paul Metz, senior VP at C&R Research. Their player of choice? The iPod Nano.

So far, accessory makers haven't flooded the market yet with cartoon-themed iPod cases, despite an estimate from the Consumer Electronics Association that the market will top $1 billion this year, increasing 45 percent from 2007. Forrester analyst James McQuivey believes marketers may be hesitant to push products to young children. But, he suggests they take a different approach--marketing with a positive parenting angle. "Smaller headphones with limits on audio [volume] for children could be beneficial, as well as things like packaging appropriate music for children. I would expect that we'll see more things like that by next holiday," said McQuivey. Don't forget about what goes inside those iPods--children will also be on the lookout for more kid-themed content, from videos to podcasts.

According to  a MediaPost Publications article, internet advertising is skyrocketing. In fact, Yankee Group predicts that advertising will more than double from $21.7 billion last year to $50.3 billion in 2011. Currently, the research firm estimates that the internet is responsible for about 20 percent of overall media consumption, but only 7.5 percent of ad budgets.

The group forecasts increasing investments in new online media formats like video, gaming and virtual worlds. Yankee recommends that advertisers double online advertising budgets each year to take advantage of video and mobile ad opportunities. "The reality is it takes time, and this market is just about reaching adolescence now," said Daniel Taylor, senior analyst at Yankee Group.

The holiday shopping season is officially over. But it's never too early for retailers to plan ahead for 2008. According to this MediaPost article, the final online holiday shopping numbers are in. comScore, Inc. reported that online shopping for the 2007 holiday season totaled $29.2 billion, a 19 percent increase from the same period in 2006. The heaviest day for online shopping was Monday, December 10, with $881 million in sales. Tuesday, December 11 wasn't too far behind with $819 million. "Cyber Monday," which is usually the day online shopping kicks off following Thanksgiving, came in as the ninth heaviest day.

The best-selling categories included video games, consoles and accessories, which experienced a 129 percent increase from the 2006 holiday season. Furniture, appliances and equipment jumped about 67 percent from the previous season, while sales in the jewelry industry declined marginally thanks to the rising cost of precious metals.

A new kind of marketing is taking to the slopes. Mobile-marketing software firm RocketBux is helping Mt. Bachelor ski resort in Bend, Oregon, reach resort guests via mobile messages. Through a deal with RocketBux, Mt. Bachelor will be able to send skiers scannable mobile coupons. By embedding a link in each promotional text message, RocketBux will make it possible for guests with web-enabled mobile phones to click on the link and open the coupon page. The resort is currently using the opt-in service to drive traffic to one of its restaurants. The communications manager for Mt. Bachelor said the resort signed on for the service to cut operating costs and to better deliver information to guests.

Overall, mobile marketing in the U.S. has grown slowly, mostly due to pricing and general adoption issues. But the president and founder of RocketBux said the popularity of devices like the BlackBerry and iPhone have been "the best things for our business." Currently, RocketBux is getting ready to launch another mobile marketing promotion with Wyoming's Jackson Hole ski resort.