According to Yahoo Finance via BusinessWeek, there are ten different types of “bad bosses”. The list is fairly amusing, that is, unless you fit into one of these descriptions! I’ve only chosen to list five of the ten, but if you’d like to read the entire article by Jeff Schmitt, click here.

1. Don’t Know Your Job- These types of bosses are the ones who are sort of out of touch with reality- the ones who tell their employees that they need to do everything (usually because their boss is simply clueless him or herself!)
2. Don’t Listen- This is a popular one. I can remember attending several meetings with my “superiors” in which they were more interested in sending text messages, emails and checking their Blackberries than they were actually interested in the conversations going on around them at the meeting! It would behoove you to pay attention to what your constituents are saying, this way you are well-informed about what direction your business is heading in.
3. Close-Minded- Part of being successful in the business world means being open to new ideas and ways of thinking. Just because you landed in a successful position based on hard work and other factors doesn’t mean that doing things one way, all of the time will yield the same results. Before shooting down an employee’s idea, set aside your pride and really hear what it is that they have to say.
4. Poor Preparation- Remember when you weren’t listening earlier? Well, now it’s come back to bite you. In a management position, every time you make unexpected changes, start hosting ‘emergency meetings’ or start subpoenaing your employees for last-minute workload dumps, your employees will be able to figure out what is going on pretty quickly. Poor management indicates poor preparation for the unexpected, which translates to your employees as “Start looking for another job QUICK because my boss has no idea what the heck he/she is doing!” Nobody wants to stay on a sinking ship, so get it together before there’s a mutiny.
5. Not Building Skills- As a manager, part of your job description entails encouraging your employees to broaden their outlook, push them beyond their comfort zones (but not too much), exemplify corporate values and focus on learning and advancing. No one likes to have a micro manager as a boss; but then again, no one likes to have a boss that is so hands-off, that your employees start to wonder whether or not they even work for someone.

…Internet traffic, that is.

When you own a business, you naturally want things to succeed. This is why many small (and larger) business owners have turned towards the Internet in recent years. Like so many of us, they realize that most people spend a considerable amount of time on the Internet. Why, the Internet is everywhere you go! From coffee shoppes to cell phones that have Internet access as a feature, it seems as if we simply cannot escape it, and invariably, we become addicted to “surfing”.

Keeping all of this in mind, business owners are becoming more and more Internet savvy and are counting their lucky stars after they’ve realized how much money can be saved by turning to various forms of online marketing to help drive traffic to their business’ website. The following are five simple examples of this.

5 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Site

1. Blogging-Blogging is a more relaxed, fun and personal way to get in touch with your target market. It puts you into direct contact with the consumer, allowing for feedback, advice and other information through insightful often well-thought out blog posts that vary between 150-350 words typically. Blogging can also help with search engine traffic because it helps to add content to your already established website.
2. Link Exchanges- A link exchange is a great way to keep in touch with other people within your niche market. Not only this, but the more link exchange relationships that you form, the more your business gets seen by other people on other sites, which can increase your popularity.
3. RSS Directory Submissions- RSS directory submissions are great because they allow you to submit your RSS feed to a select network of people within your industry. This helps you to reel in a more focused group of visitors to your site who are actually interested in what you have to say/sell/offer.
4. Social Networking- Social media and social networking are ALL THE CRAZE because they are super effective when used properly. It’s no longer about your kid creating a Myspace page so that he or she can chat it up with friends and gossip. Rather, social networking (from a business perspective) is about creating a profile for your business on a few social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and then keeping these profiles strictly for business-related items. You’d be amazed at how many business owners have experienced success from the creation of Facebook Fan pages and large numbers of Twitter followers. Try it out!
5. Pay-Per-Click (PPC)- For a nominal fee (depending on the company’s objectives), business owners can pay to display their website’s name along with a brief description when a person types a term that is relevant to that particular business into a search engine. PPC is typically a great (and fairly quick) way of getting advertising results. However, for it to be effective, you should have a clear understanding of what the main keywords in your industry are as well as how much is in the budget for PPC. For this reason, it is usually a good idea to find someone who specializes in PPC and is certified to help you out.

In a recent article published by the LA Times, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is envisioning a future in which people can check their email and flip between their favorite cable television show all from the same electronic device: their television sets. According to the article:

Comcast Corp.’s chief executive, Brian Roberts, was gushing last week about his company’s impending takeover of NBC Universal, saying the deal would give consumers what they want, “which is access to all different types of content on different platforms and different times.”

That’s not the half of it — but it may not be Comcast in the driver’s seat.

If federal regulators have their way, the next big thing on the tech horizon will be a brave new world of Internet-ready, work-with-any-network set-top boxes, offering consumers unprecedented multimedia options through their TVs, not just their computers.

And if this plays out as the Federal Communications Commission envisions, the world as cable companies know it will radically change, making the potential synergies of the Comcast-NBC deal all but obsolete.

“The consumer will be king,” said Colin Crowell, senior counselor to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “You’ll be able to get your own set-top box that does all the whiz-bang things you want it to do, and you’ll be in control.” [source]

But wait a minute…Can’t we already sort of do this?

For instance, in my boyfriend’s brother’s house, he took the CPU to one of his computers and hooked it up to his main television in the family room- this way he can check his email and/or do computer-related work. If he wants to watch television, all he has to do is press a button on his remote control for the TV to switch it back to cable.  That being said, I am not really sure how the FCC is going to introduce something similar without making the prices extremely competitive.

With all the talk of maybe combining television with Internet access, there is a great deal of speculation that the official merge of the two will result in more people walking away from cable television- especially since many of us can catch our favorite shows on sites such as HULU and YouTube for free and sans commercial interruption (for the most part).