One would think Bill Jelen is crazy. As “Mr.Excel” (www.MrExcel.com) he’s an expert in using a spreadsheet to figure things out – so how does one write the formula for Free? Bill has some very specific advice for consultants and service providers on how Free=3*x or more.

Jelen has written about 25 computer books, many for Que imprint publishing, some are self-published. He tells me in the computer book field, selling 10,000 books is considered a best seller. His first book took almost 3 years to reach that mark. For his next book, he set up a system where people could give him their email, and they’d receive a chapter a week. Over 40,000 people signed up for this offer, but he sold 10k books in less than 1 year (and that’s 3 times as fast for you folks that aren’t good with Excel.)

Since this experiment, you can obtain copies of Jelen’s latest tome at his website, for free. “Pirates were scanning the books, and I figured I’d just beat them at their game and give it away. I think I sell more books anyway, and somewhere in the world there’s someone who can’t afford my book that’s benefiting. I believe this good karma will help me eventually.”

The giving doesn’t stop with books. Jelen also creates a daily podcast, 5 days a week – he’s up to over 1100 episodes. Chances are, if you need to know how to do something with Excel, he’s probably covered that. His message board community has over 60,000 registered users, and his Facebook page has greater than 1000 fans.

Bill is in demand as a seminar speaker, but each participant also gets a book as part of the price. “They’re selling tools. I tell them: When you get back to work, coworkers will want to borrow it. Don’t let them. Here’s link for them to download the book for free.” His sense is that he sells books at a faster rate because he gives away chapters at a time.

His advice for others who want to use this unorthodox method? “If you have a quality product, and have a low cost way of giving things away for free, it is a great way to get the word out. New fans may be skeptical – let them try the product. Your satisfied fans will be happy to give you money for the full product.” Take him at his word: http://www.mrexcel.com/previewsig.html will get you a free book.

I’d welcome your comments about this business model.

At a recent event I was talking with the director of a 10 person non-profit, and she mentioned an important database she was trying to convert to a newer format. “Where is it kept?” I asked. “On my computer” she said. “Where else?” And then I got that look – the look that says “what do you mean – where else?” Ah. How much would it cost to replace that data? Perhaps a million dollars, which is her approximate annual fundraising income. So one more time, for you folks who have not done so – Back up your work. Please.

Google engineers did a scientific study (it's a PDF) of failure in consumer grade hard disks and found that over 56% of drives that failed didn’t raise any concerns using their built-in error checking hardware. What does this mean for you? Well, when your hard disk’s time is up you probably won’t know it until it happens. Which is why you should back up constantly.

Jennifer Walzer, President of BackupMyInfo.com, a New York-based service provider for small business backup, told me that a common problem is “People will set up a backup – tape, CD, extra hard drive, online - and they think it is great, only to find out that it hasn’t been running right. They are not testing to make sure it works. We do hand holding and monitor to ensure backups run every day.”

Recently, she had a customer who runs a party and event-planning business lose 10 years worth of Quickbooks data when the owner’s computer crashed. They were able to restore to another computer in the office in seconds.

“We keep multiple versions of your data and we don’t delete what you delete on your side until you specifically ask us to,” said Walzer. Small business can backup their offices for $55 to several hundred dollars a month. However, this is a higher level of service than a simple desktop backup, with 24 hour support.

For those looking for more simple solutions, SugarSync, Carbonite, and Mozy are very popular choices. Drew Garcia, VP of Product Management of Sharpcast, makers of SugarSync, told me “We have lawyers, contractors, real estate developers, graphic designers, and they have important data backed up, plus they use other features such as road warriors relying on the mobile app via Blackberry, iPhone, or Windows Mobile to get their documents on the go."

Sugar Sync has real time sync – you make a change to a document and it is immediately uploaded to the cloud. Some graphic designers use sharing functionality to show work to clients via a browser. This sharing can be “View only,” or permissions can be set to allow collaborators to download a document, change and re-upload it. This sharing can be done among employees or with those outside the company.

Garcia is hearing road warriors adopt Netbooks, and they use Sugarsync to sync important files from their main computers, edit them, and sync back.

The three solutions mentioned above allow backup of a certain amount of data at a fixed price. For those working with Windows and Office 2007, http://www.officelive.com gives you up to 5GB of free storage for Word, Powerpoint, Excel files. With an add-in, you can save directly from these programs to your online storage area and you can access the files anywhere there’s a net connection and a browser.

Don’t end up like the presenter I saw at a conference last week whose laptop had been taken from the coatroom at the reception the night before. She was lucky she had emailed her slides to the conference organizer. Please backup. Go do it now. Share your tips for backup via the comments.

Tomorrow’s launch of the iPhone 3GS and last week’s launch of the PalmPre focused my attention on the way people are doing more search and research on products and services while on the go. US consumers are the top group in the world for mobile browsing and spending according to mobile development house Bango, exceeding UK customers. (Not surprisingly, Bango offers tools that allow companies to track mobile website usage.) Site LocalMobileSearch.net notes that 13-14% of US consumers have smartphones, but cites survey data pointing towards 25% penetration in the next few years. So, people with SmartPhones soon could be one out of every four of your customers.

If you are an early adopter type and have one of these smart phones, likely you’ve used it to find a restaurant, coffee bar, the nearest auto mechanic, or some other relevant search. Now, think about your own customers – it won’t be long before they’re looking for your business – and not just coffee houses. Much of what is now done on the desktop will be easy to do on the go.

With web browsing functionality becoming more popular in “regular” mobile phones it won’t be long before someone will ask why your website isn’t usable (or visible) on their phone. Or maybe they won't ask - they'll just use your competitor's mobile site instead.

Don’t fear, though. There are some simple tools out there to help convert your site to a view that mobile devices can see and deal with properly. One solution is Mobify -  Their free version allows your site to appear on someone’s phone browser in a different view. This shows the user what they need to see, and avoids heavy graphics or widgets that wouldn’t show well on mobile anyway. More expensive versions offer more extensive feature sets, including analytics. If you use Wordpress’ self-hosted version the Mobilepress plugin allows your site to be viewed on a number of phone browsers. This has fewer features, but you can load it yourself and forget it.

There are also other tools to help and I'll be covering them in future columns. Has your business website been optimized to appear on a mobile browser? How? Let us know in the comments.

Two weeks ago, I put forth the case of Matt Pollitt of PTE Golf and his challenge – lack of follow up marketing with his customers, and a change of phone number and address.

I asked several marketing experts to comment, and here I’ve provided some of their responses.

Hart Hooton, President of Marketechnique.com suggested,

“Matt should send a ‘We’ve moved and forget to tell you’ mailer – done in a format that keeps it fun. Then come up with a humorous way to follow this up. Try getting a temp or intern to follow up the mailer with calls to everyone on your list. Don’t forget to get the client’s email address. And, do something on the website that references the mailer so that if people go to look it up, they’ll recognize the visual.”

When I contacted the Direct Marketing Association, Neil C. O'Keefe, V.P. Multichannel Segments, gave Matt more than a few ideas.

“You have an advantage over a typical start-up in that you already have an existing customer base. Since you have their contact information, whether you realize or not you now have a database - albeit a very simple one. Add the date of the event and the dollar amount they spent with you and how long ago? If you have their email address, add that too. And by all means ask for the email going forward and be sure to store that information. If your budget allows - do that mailing you considered to your full file of contacts. If resources are tight you can prioritize by dollars spent and how long ago. A recent customer and a high dollar customer are more likely to respond.”

Neil had a lot more to say, including suggestions to advertise in the trade magazines around the trade shows PTE already attends “Advertising here would also spread the word and allow you to more broadly communicate your 800#, Web address, email, and potentially LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook pages. Also consider making a Golf blog, where readers contribute to the conversation without turning it into an infomercial. You have a wealth of experience and there are many people who can benefit from what you have to say.”

Finally, Belinda Lang, VP, Marketing Strategy at American Express tells Matt,

"As you put together your plan to reconnect with former customers, thank them for the business in the past, and if you have the information, include some reference to what they had purchased, and for how many years they were a customer. Tell them about something new added to your product lineup, and add an incentive for coming back and buying again from you. Finally, let them know you would love to hear from them with any feedback or suggestions. Like any good relationship, you want to recognize them, give them a reason for engaging with you and demonstrate that you are listening. They may even end up talking about you with their friends."

Matt, hopefully these 3 experts have given you some things to think about as you reengage with your customers. Check back and let us know what you did, and thanks for letting me use you as a case study.

Sometimes I get reader questions, and this seemed like a good one to share with readers of the Toolkit. Today I’ll put forward the case, and during the next week, several marketing experts will forward me their opinions and I’ll deliver the results next week in part 2.

Matt Pollitt, CEO of PTE Golf told me “We run a golf company that sells tournament enhancement items to country clubs for their first tee area such as embroidered table covers and special tournament cases for their starters areas. We have never done any marketing with the company, only doing 1-3 trade shows a year. Otherwise, all of our business is word of mouth.”

He also noted “We've never marketed to past clients and I think that is a big mistake. We do get reorders, but our contact info has changed over the years.” So unless customers actively look for his website, they can’t reorder via the old phone number.

Matt wanted to know the best way to connect with his old customers. Some of the contacts at the golf clubs may have changed. One thought he had was a post-card mailer, since he has the addresses and contact info for all his previous customers.

Whatever method he chooses should allow him to make customers aware of new products, while also generating inquires and reorders.

How would you help Matt reconnect with old customers? And Marketing folks? Feel free to weigh in via the comments below.

In July of last year, I wrote about A Twitter Success Story. In that article, I said, "Chances are, if you're not an early adopter type, you may not have heard of Twitter, the online community that is a kind of instant-messaging social network." Today, chances are if you're not living under a rock, you've at least heard of Twitter, and might have noticed that Oprah, CNN, the ladies of The View and about 9 million other people in the US have been actively using Twitter to communicate, and also to get business.

Yes, people get business via Twitter. At a recent event in New York (organized via Twitter by PR guru @PeterHimler), I met Lisa Cruz (@LisaRedShoesPR), Co-Founder of Red Shoes PR , a 5 person startup agency in Northeastern Wisconsin. It was created about a year ago as an integrated shop helping clients with both traditional PR and Social Media services. Lisa told me that while many folks are still questioning the way to obtain business on Twitter, her shop had just signed a client who found and actively sought them out because of their activity on Twitter.

Friday Shamblen, Founder of Hawaii-based Alluminare (@Alluminare) was looking for a PR firm and had been watching Lisa, the @RedShoesPr account, and another co-Founder, Jessica Dennis (@JessDennis) on Twitter. "I was seeing them tweet and they were really "Akamai" as we say in Hawaii -- smart and clever. Other firms I saw had bad websites, and bad tweets. These folks were always working, and most important were always doing something interesting. They don't Tweet negatives like "have to do X for a client, sigh," so for me this was important."

Friday went to their site, sent an email to their general mailbox, and got a response, then conversed via Twitter Direct Messages. She has just signed with Red Shoes as her agency. This wasn't that unusual for Alluminare. They run a site where you can customize lighting fixtures, pillows, and other things with a special fabric. A customer can visit, take any design and fully customize it - shrinking or expanding the pattern, changing the colors and more. They're always looking for new patterns. Friday has been recruiting designers via the web, who then submit patterns to add to Alluminare's collection - and she found their latest designer via Twitter.

I constantly see small businesses who are using websites created for the owner in 1999, by his nephew who can’t or won’t update it, with inaccurate and outdated information and offers. There’s no excuse for this. Today, anyone who can use a word processor or send an email can have a functioning website. And you can also have blog functionality, which is something critical for helping you site be found in search. Additionally, it is an easy way to create fresh content that brings users back to your site on a regular basis.

(For more about what or how to blog and why read Building Success by Blogging or Smart Blogging Strategies.)

At the Web 2.0 expo I met Vinny Lingham, CEO of Yola.com (formerly Synthesite.com) This simple service lets anyone build a respectable website, including the ability to upload your own logo and simple graphics, and layout the page in a flexible and easy manner. There are also components that can be added, including blogs, photo galleries, and an online store. If you think you can’t do this – well, 1.6 million other folks have already succeeded.

Perhaps you need to update content on a regular basis – weekly or daily. A blog platform may be a good solution for your site. Wordpress.com, TypePad.com and Blogger.com all feature standard templates that let you create not only a landing page that’s as easy to update as typing an email, but you can create other fixed pages that can contain company and contact information, marketing material, and more. Wordpress and Blogger offer free versions, and Typepad is has a nominal fee. Most plans will allow you to add your own Domain name, changing “joesbusiness.typepad.com” to “joesbusiness.com” in just a few minutes.

Even the folks who sell you domain names offer simple hosting tools. GoDaddy.com offers a quick setup of hosting when you purchase a domain name. It costs just $4.99 a month and has the features you need to get going.

Facebook can be a supplement (but not really a substitute) for a website. Create a Page for your business, and you can post notes (like blog posts), business information, pictures and more. People can become “fans” of your business and they’ll receive updates when you change your page. Pages are also searched by search engines and usually get good ranking, so this may help your business be ‘found.’

Finally, Posterous is the no excuses version for the person who says “I can’t create a website.” Try sending an email to Post@Posterous.com. (Go ahead, I’ll wait). Whatever you put in the subject line will be the title of your blog post, and whatever is in the body of the email will be the body of your post. Posterous will email you back with the address of your blog, which you can customize. You an also set it up so that emailing to your Posterous blog can also post to and update Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Livejournal, Blogger, Movable Type or Typepad. In other words, you can send an email and update your blog site and even Facebook with the latest about your business.

No more excuses. Get your business out there.

Blogs can be a very effective way to promote your startup or small business, as I've noted in "Love is All You Need," "Smart Blogging Strategies," and "Building Success By Blogging."

However, keeping your blog content fresh by finding links to relevant articles or pictures can sometimes be a manual process of searching Google, Flickr, and other sites. Enter Zemanta. CEO and Managing Director Ales Spetic sat down to show me the product at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco last month. 

Zemanta can be installed into your blog platform, including Wordpress, Movable Type, Drupal, or it can be an add-in to your Firefox or Internet Explorer browser. It can also be used as a "bookmarklet" in any other browser. 

Once you install it, blog as you normally would. Zemanta will suggest related links and images for your content. Type "Inc. Magazine" and Zemanta suggests it will tag a link to the right site. It may also find a relevant logo or picture.  An especially nice feature is that that the images suggested are "blogger friendly" - they are creative commons licensed, or Getty Images that have blogger-use permissions.

Zemanta also suggests tags for posts based on the context of your writing. Some bloggers don't understand why tags are important, but they're quite good for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Using relevant tags that match the context of your post makes it easier to find when someone is searching.  

When you're stuck for content, you can use the "Related Articles" feature for inspiration. (The feature suggested this post about "Free blog content" which discusses Zemanta - hey- it was definitely related.) Zemanta also puts a "Reblog" button into your posts - so if someone sees your story and wants to pass it along, you get links.

"Zemanta helps bloggers increase traffic, because by using it, your own story gets added to the network and may show as a related story on someone else's post. A great way to judge us is that 41% of our users are still actively using it 6 or more weeks after they try it" says Spetic. 

The other night at the New York Tech Meetup, Zemanta announced an effort called "Blogging for a Cause" which allows non-profits a chance to win money when people blog about them. The details are on this Zemanta site.

"Now is a great time to start a company," according to David S. Rose. David should know, he's started several, and is Chairman of the Board of the New York Angels, Inc., the leading angel investment consortium in the New York region.

Last week at New York Entrepreneurship Week's BootupNYC event, Rose's keynote discussed the differences in cost and investment between starting a tech based business just a few years ago, and starting one now. The orders of magnitude are considerable.

"When the Internet started, it was the Wild West, so everything was custom created, both for business models and engineering," says Rose.

When he launched AirMedia in 1993, a venture funded wireless internet broadcast "newscatcher" product, it took roughly $20 Million to finish the hardware and software development. The company became an Inc. 500 company, though the product was somewhat ahead of its time and they restarted the company.

In 1998, Airmedia became an Internet backend to let others create information, and it took $2 Million to create a shipping product and platform. When Rose invested in WIFI startup Joltage, a competitor to the "WIFI only in certain coffee shops" model popularized by T-Mobile in 2001, it took only $200k to ship the product.

Earlier this year, NY Angels funded Pond 5, which created a user-generated video stock footage website. They had a team of 3, and they had started their company by bootstrapping a site to the point of generating revenue. The cost? $20,000. Because they were able to show revenue and demand, NY Angels invested $500,000 to grow the company.

It is common to hear of developers creating iPhone applications at $2000. $2k is a long way from $20 million - because there's much more Internet infrastructure to support your development. Back then, Rose said, "You had to convince people that your concept had a chance to work, then you raised capital and developed a Proof of Concept. Today you should be able to develop a web site before you show it, and get much, if not all, of your product created out of your own pocket or with funds from friends and family."

Once you do that, Rose advises, get the product out there and find an audience. "Investors need you to show that you have users and traction before they will fund you. At that time you can use angel funding to accelerate your marketing and growth to show real customers spending real money on your product. The new reality for companies is to get to break even-or to profit-on angel money, and then you can get a follow-on round and really grow the enterprise. But remember, fewer than three companies out of 100 get angel funding, and the only ones who do are the highest quality ones. These are the startups with all the pieces of the puzzle pulled together: large market opportunity, great product, scalable business model, demonstrated customer acceptance, competitive advantages, tight operating budget, clear exit strategy, and above all, great management with a proven ability to execute."

(Disclosure: NY Angels' incubator provides space to NYSIA. I am a consultant to NYSIA).

As part of the StartUp process, it is important to know the resources in your community. If you are creating a tech company, or a product or service that will be delivered on line, many of the resources you want to know will be developers, marketers, interface experts and of course, funders. What if you could find them all in one place, test them out, and see how you work with them, all in one weekend?

I saw this in action this 2 weeks ago in San Francisco at StartUpWeekend SF 2, held in the offices of Microsoft on Market Street.

When I arrived Saturday morning, Tyler Willis, the SF organizer of the event, greeted me. Willis works for Involver, but for this weekend his role was everything from master of ceremonies to helping people find teams, helping teams find resources, and handling more mundane things like keeping the WiFi network going so the teams could continue to collaborate.

Photo credit: (cc) http://www.flickr.com/photos/seebe/3416047815/

The room was filled with teams collaborating on different ideas, drinking coffee and writing on white boards or pads of paper. The weekend had kicked off Friday night with a team of Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs hearing pitches from some of the more brave participants.

The “idea people” got feedback, and then started groups. Those with good ideas initially attracted crowds of developers, marketers and others who wished to contribute. As Lydia Sugarman, of CEO of Venntive told me, “Eventually, teams realized they may not need 5 marketers, and people with ability to contribute end up more evenly distributed among the teams. Regardless of the team you end up on, if you go with the flow and remember to have fun, and you’re going to do great work.”

The weekend has about 54 working hours (it is not an overnighter) for people to create a prototype and present it. While Startup Weekend has generated a few actual companies including SKRIBIT.com, the real goal is to get people in the community collaborating, learning about each other and thinking about whether they could work together in a less frantic environment (not that startups don’t end up frantic).

Andrew Hyde, community manager of Business Accelerator project TechStars.Org created Startup Weekend two years ago around a conversation with friends related to missing collaboration with others. While Startup Weekend LLC. is a company, the event itself is run very much like an “UnConference” where the participants drive the agenda and the outcome. Hyde told me “It’s a unique networking event where you meet people and see what they can actually do, instead of hearing them tell you about it.”

I spoke with Kevin Rochowski, a Brit working as a project manager for a major tech company in the valley, about why he came to Startup Weekend, especially since he’s not planning on voluntarily leaving his job anytime soon. He told me the startup environment has always fascinated him: “It seems to be filled with talented people who get together, create ideas, work together, and generate camaraderie.“

The idea he brought to the weekend is very viable, in his opinion, and it is his long-term aim to produce this service. For the purpose of the weekend, he wants to create a proof of concept and bullet- proof the idea so that he has a way forward. He also came to develop relationships with marketers, programmers, and others with whom he could potentially work in the future.

If having a Startup Weekend in your town seems like an appealing idea, head over to StartUpWeekend.com and learn how you can bring this to your town. June 5-7 is the date many towns and cities are running their own. In a similar vein, New York is running Entrepreneurship Week ** with all kinds of events for those who wish to learn more about starting a business. There are lots of other Entrepreneurship-focused events going on. Tell us about yours in the comments.

(**Disclosure: I run one of the groups that has a meeting in NY that week, but get no compensation for doing so or for publicising it.)