According to TechCruch, Yelp recently walked away in the last hour from nearly selling its business profile website to Google over half a billion dollars.

Nearly everyone is aware of Google, or possible Google addict such as myself. Yet, many of you may not be aware of Yelp. Yelp was founded in 2004 and is a local search and business review site. It is a local reviews website that is driven by local consumers that sign up and rate their favorite hole in the wall or businesses in their communities. Yelp uses social networking features to let people write reviews and share their reviews with friends.

Why do you need a dynamic website? Why does the number one professional athlete in the world need one? Everyone on Earth knows him. Well for Tiger Woods it gave him a venue to let the world know what is going on in his life. He did not do it on TV…he did it online.

More and more businesses are entering the online world and engaging the conversation that is already taking place. Many business owners are finding their customers are shaping their brand online through social networking sites like Yelp with reviews and star ratings.

You can actually control the conversation with the right online marketing strategy. If this sounds foriegn to you or if you simply don't have the time or expertise to engage online consumers, we can help.

This year was a first for Heisman Voting. Nissan, the corporate sponsor of the Heisman Trophy Trust, will be giving its vote via results of their online poll. What effect will this have in the 75 year tradition? Maybe the trust will consider letting its voters submit its 2010 votes online.

In years past it has always been the issue of the ballots being mailed in. This causes some writers to have to submit the ballot before the league championship games are played. So, if their vote did not live up to hype in the final week, it may have skewed the vote. This online option would allow the voters to consider the players whole body of work.

This year was one of the closets votes in the history of Heisman voting. Alabama's Mark Ingram may have slipped past Colt McCoy of Texas and Tim Tebow of Florida due to this advance in this online technology.

It is a sign of the times. Little Rock National Airport adds a online booking system to replace the old static website. In their attempt to provide options to Expedia.com and Travelocity.com, they have come out with fly-lr.com using a professional firm to build the site to provide convenience to their customers in hopes to win friends, and make more money.

As a small business owner you need to consider redesigning your site to provide the same convenience to your customers. If you feel your site is underperforming or causing frustration to your visitors, let 1011 Web Solutions remodel your site to increase usability, conversions, and sales.