Neustar and .Biz are celebrating 10 Years of small business successes and is excited to announce the First Quarter 2012 Recipient of the Best of .biz Awards. Of the ten Best of .biz Nominees featured in the .biz 10th Anniversary promotion, ArteWorks.biz, an Austin SEO company based in Texas, closed the first quarter as the undisputed winner.

Shortly after its inception as an Internet marketing and Web design firm in 1995, ArteWorks shifted direction to fill the gap as SEO gained prominence. Today, ArteWorks is an award-winning SEO firm recognized for delivering innovative, long term results and staying ahead of the curve. Matt Foster, ArteWorks SEO founder and CEO credits his business’ success in part to its .biz web address. Foster says, “Our .biz domain shows customers that we mean business. My.biz allows us flexibility in choosing a domain name that reflects who we are, is widely recognized, and is ranked well on the search engines. ArteWorks SEO has experienced tremendous success and growth using the .biz domain extension.”

Awarding ArteWorks SEO the coveted Best of .biz Award is just the beginning of this yearlong promotion to recognize the achievements of small business around the world. Congratulations to Arteworks.biz!

The second quarter Best of .biz Promotion is well underway, featuring ten new Best of .biz Nominees vying for a chance to take home the title. Be sure to our 10 Year page to vote for your favorite the small business.

Nominees for 2Q include – Who will Win Your Vote?  Vote NOW!

• Westwinds
• Ministry Websites
• Become a Franchise Owner
• The Light Site
• the-site.biz
• Jinx
• Buzz
• Green Alliance
• Fifth Media
• iCapital

Looking to get your small business recognized? It’s not too late! The Best of .biz Promotion wants to celebrate you. Tell us how you’ve leveraged a .biz domain to boost your business and marketing for a chance to be featured as a third or fourth quarter Best of .biz Nominee.

This week we are shining the spotlight on another Best of .Biz nominee, thelightsite.biz.

The Light Site is a perfect example of a brick and mortar store expanding its reach with an online presence. For the last 20 years, locals near Crows Nest, Australia have known where to find the finest European lighting, Egyptian crystal chandeliers and Austrian outdoor lighting.

With the addition of a .biz domain, the rest of the world can window shop and purchase high quality, affordable lamps from The Light Site. So even though you can buy online, if you’re lucky enough to be nearby, the knowledgeable staff at The Light Site really appreciates it when customers stop in too!

Check out the Light Site now and put your vote in!

For small business owners, efficiency and cost are key attributes of the applications chosen to run their organization. Recently, Mavenlink revealed an infographic that highlights the preferred applications of small business owners and the trends on the horizon.

The first portion of the infographic focuses on the most popular apps being used for everything from email, customer relationship management, and social media, to the finance and payment processing. With the small business owners being strapped for time and manpower, there is no surprise that most of the popular applications they use are simple to deploy, easy to manage and are cost effective.

Google Apps takes the front runner position for office email, Salesforce for CRM, Paypal for payment processing, Quickbooks for accounting/billing, and Facebook/Hootsuite tied for social media management.

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The trends portion below reveals that small businesses are quickly adopting cloud and mobile apps. According to the highlighted AT&T survey, 30% of small businesses use mobile apps for their business while 50% say they can’t survive without them- which overall is 31% higher than last year.

One of the most interesting results of his infographic shows that education is the leading industry in adopting mobile apps.

Summarizing the results and trends, it is all consistent with the “profile of the small business owner” and their need/desire for scalable solutions that provide efficiency and mobile options with a low cost. Every business needs tools that will empower them to grow. However, small businesses have a greater need for applications that will provide an “all-in-one” option to simplify their day to day operations so they can focus on marketing and promoting their business, as well as ensuring optimal customer satisfaction.