Kudos to Navarrow Wright for his article on BlackWeb 2.0 where he speaks to the growing use of mobile internet access by minorities but yet the market for mobile tools and applications that target this audience seems to be lacking. It’s a prime opportunity for those who truly understand the nature of the hustle to fill the gap and make some money in the process. If you can develop or outsource the development for the next hot application for iPhone, Android or any number of other platforms, you can definitely pocket some cash and entertain or inform our community in the process.

Related articles

• Navarrow Wright: Will Mobile Supply Meet Minority Mobile Demand in 2011? (huffingtonpost.com)

For you MacBook users, check out Hidden. For ten bucks this app will track your machine once you mark it as “Stolen” via the web. The app then will collect location data, take screenshots and even snap pictures  of whoever is using your MacBook. Check out the video below.

Hustletown readers: Is there any anti-theft software you personally use? Share your recommendations with our readers below!

Hustletown readers: What technology do you use the most in your day-to-day grind? Whether it is iPhone or Android (or, gulp, Windows-based) let us know so we can review the latest apps for your hustle!

Julius Genachowski via Yahoo!News

The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) released a joint statement responding to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) vote towards keeping the internet open.

“We are pleased that the FCC considered diverse perspectives on this issue and arrived at a thoughtful decision that allows for forward progress of the implementation of the National Broadband Plan.  We look forward to working with the Commission to expand affordable open Internet access to everyone.” Read their full release here.

The vote for net neutrality was split down party lines, with three Democrats voting for, with the remaining two Republicans against.

“Today, for the first time, we are adopting rules to preserve basic Internet values,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said. “For the first time, we’ll have enforceable rules of the road to preserve Internet freedom and openness.”

Opponents decried the decision for promoting unnecessary regulation. “The Internet will be no more open tomorrow than it is today,” said Meredith Attwell Baker, a Republican. Read more opinions from Yahoo News here.

Hustletown readers: Are you satisfied with the FCC vote, or does more need to be done to protect net neutrality? Weigh in with your comments below!

This is how you pioneer new technology to increase your social reach and broaden exposure for your company: Hoodgrown Magazine will become the first hip-hop magazine to offer an application exclusively for the iPad.

This will provide them an additional outlet beyond their website in a digital magazine format that will become a full replacement for their printed magazine entirely. The magazine will be free based on advertising support.

Read more about it at BlackWeb 2.0.

By Mitchell Harris

The formula for making money in business is actually quite simple, you must make sure your customers find you and buy from you. This formula is dramatically simplified when you can simply attract customers to your business instead of having to go find them.
Fortunately, today’s entrepreneur has Google Inc, which offers a menu of- mostly free- services that gives the average person capabilities that major corporations use to pay billions of dollars for.   

No. 10: Google Adsense
For most people who want to use their website to publish advertising, Google Adsense is the perfect solution. There are plenty of advertising publishing networks out there but Google Adsense allows you to publish advertising on your website, search results, mobile websites and even your unused domain names.
Benefits: Publish ads on your website, mobile website, RSS feeds and site search results

No. 9: Google Checkout
In order to make money online, you must have the capability to process transactions online. While there are several payment processing applications available online, Google Checkout’s biggest advantage is that it’s a Google product. That is, since most searches begin on Google, having the Google Checkout badge on your advertisement or product listing has been shown to increase leads and convert more sales.
Benefits: Attract new leads, convert more sales and protect you from fraud

No. 8: Google Webmaster Central
Google Webmaster Central is one of those incredibly powerful free tools that simply wasn’t available to the average user prior to Google offering it. With Google Webmaster Central you find out how Google sees your website, analyze your search data, receive alerts about your website, check which websites link to your website and deepen your relationship with Google Search.
Benefits: Get data about crawling, indexing and search traffic. Plus, receive notifications about problems on your website

No. 7: Google Analytics
The truth of the matters is that there are no real secrets to success in business, there are only truths that you haven’t discovered yet. In order to discover these truths about your customer and your customer’s behavior online there is Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a powerful, flexible and easy to use way to analyze your website traffic that allows you to make adjustments accordingly.
Benefits: Track sales and conversions, track web-enabled phones, and analyze traffic sources

No. 6: Google Website Optimizer
People who land on your website prefer certain layouts. Certain text, image and headlines bring more sales than others. Unfortunately, there are no formulas that work every time for every type of website. The only way to figure this out is to test the different combinations. Google Website Optimizer is a free testing and optimization tool that allows you to easily test different combinations of content on your website in order to determine the most effect structure.
Benefits: Increase sales and conversions, get more leads, and eliminate guesswork from web site design

No. 5: Google Admob
Recently acquired by Google, AdMob is one of the world’s largest mobile advertising networks. As far as the web goes, mobile devices dominate Macs and PCs. AdMob not only allows to you to target specific geographic locations, but also target specific cell phone manufactures, operating systems and device models with your advertising.

Benefit: Click to call, Click to map and iPhone Search ad types

No. 4: Google Product Search
Often, prospective customers know exactly what they want and are interested in comparison shopping against different retailers. As a seller, you can submit individual products to Google Product Search, allowing shoppers to quickly and easily find you site.
Benefits: Reach shoppers that are actively looking to buy the product you’re selling

No. 3: Google Places
If your business has a physical location, the most effective free way to generate new business is through Google Places. Google Places is a search optimized business listing service that works even if you don’t have a website.  So think YellowPages, but the listings appear at the topic of search engine results.
Benefit: Ranking and search results, coupons and mapping tool availability

No. 2: YouTube
Unless you live under a rock, you know that YouTube is by far the largest online video community. What you may not know is that YouTube is owned by Google and YouTube represents nearly a third of all search queries on the Google network (according to comScore). That essentially means that Youtube is the second largest search engine. By posting interesting videos and leading users back to your website you can have a dramatic impact on your sales for free.
Benefit: Increase traffic

No. 1: Google Adwords
If you want instant results, use Google Adwords. Your ads appear beside related search results, people click your ads and connect to your business online. Google Adwords integrates with Analytics, Checkout, Places, Adsense and Website Optimizer. Adwords also offers the ability to purchase TV ads.
Benefits: Reach more customers, cost effective

Mitchell Harris is the head of the business development firm MJ Harris Co and product manager of the company’s Tested Marketing Methods web property. Sign up for the newsletter to receive more business strategy information.

Highlights from Interactive One’s Digital Summit « Black Web 2.0.

BlackWeb 2.0 has published a brief summary of the inagural multicultural digital summit. The event was hosted by Interactive One and The Council of Urban Professionals and featured the current thought leaders of multicultural and black online media. Take a look at their recap video as hosted on the link to the BlackWeb 2.0 site above.

The mad rush for internet real estate has started all over again now that .co domains are available but some restrictions apply. Read all about it via this great summary article by Rahsheen at BlackWeb 2.0. With almost 200,00 registrations so far, it just got a little harder to pick a good, descriptive domain while also worrying about whether somebody else will try to hijack your brand. BlackBusiness.co?

With all the iPad frenzy going global nowadays, many of you may be wondering if you can use this “magical” device for actual entrepreneurial work. This article from Entrepreneur magazine is focused on a few ways that having an iPad might just give you a competitive edge and result in an even better bottom line.