People love buying online and one reason is the freedom from sales tax. Looks like things are about to change and soon we will be telling our children and grandchildren of the “good old days” when there were no taxes online.

Tax-hungry politicians are attempting to force Amazon.com to collect sales taxes from people that reside out of the state. If this really happens, Amazon.com is only the beginning and all other online retailers will have to follow suit. People then will only be left with fond memories of days when it was easy to order items over the internet without having to pay any sales taxes.

Currently, if someone residing in California orders an item from Amazon.com, which is based in Seattle, there is no sales tax charged at the time of the purchase. The reason is because Amazon has no offices in California. There is a long-standing rule that says a retailer must have a physical presence to be able to collect taxes.

However, politicians who are pro sales taxes are trying to find ways to circumvent this rule and New York State has recently succeeded in getting an approval by legislators that says Amazon and other online retailers that have no physical presence in the state, should collect sales tax on purchases made by New Yorkers.

Amazon is not willing to take this lying down and is all set for a legal battle, and as a first step has sued the State of New York. It challenged the new statute by filing a complaint in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, that the new law was vague, unconstitutional, and too broad. (more…)

“A mentor is someone whose hindsight can become your foresight.”

Every person needs mentoring at some point in life. It helps as a motivating factor to do better and excel at work as well as in personal life. Sometimes, these mentoring relationships become invaluable when there is a need to generate solutions to critical challenges that people experience at home or work.

Many online communities that offer mentoring services have mushroomed all over the web and some of them are very professional and include several mentors, each specializing in a field. This ensures the users get expert advice on every problem.

These communities provide users an area to discuss on a wide variety of topics, from how to set up a business to how to deal with a suspicious spouse. People are encouraged to discuss every aspect of their life. If someone is going through a bad phase, it helps to talk to someone who has been in their shoes before and has faced a similar situation.

This need to share is prevalent in most human beings, but often the fear that the other person may not understand, makes them bottle it all up and this is not good for health. Bottling up things may have an adverse affect on the emotional and the physical health of a person.

These community sites are specifically aimed at providing clean and good service that is of benefit to the users, where meaningful interchanges are possible. (more…)

Free and paid music downloads is a big thing online and there are many companies competing with each other to make a mark in this area.

MySpace, the top social networking website is all set to make its foray into the world of music. After capturing the social networking arena, millions of eyes watch this move to see how MySpace fares in the music business.

News Corporation, which owns MySpace, is expected to be joined by giants of music, such as Sony BMG Music, Warner Music, Universal Music Group and EMI, as minority equity holders. MySpace is noted to have had an issue with Universal Music Group earlier, with Universal filing a lawsuit against MySpace in 2006, charging it of encouraging illegal sharing of music and music videos, which seems to be a thing of the past now and forgotten. According to Reuters, MySpace has already signed up with the other three, except for EMI, with which talks are currently on.

As is evident, MySpace is looking all set to compete with the current music giant, Apple iTunes, which is one of the largest retailers for music in the US. According to Chris DeWolfe, co-founder of MySpace, this initiative will be a direct challenge to Apple’s iTunes, which holds around 75% of the entire music download market.

The intention of MySpace is also to ease the restrictions on digital rights, which allow the playing of any downloaded track only on one device. Many iTune users complain about this aspect of music downloads and MySpace promises that their downloads will play on any device, including the iPod. (more…)

Most people think that creating a business online is a fantasy. They feel that one would eventually be overtaken by competition and go out of business. This is not true. It is certainly possible to build a successful business online and the numerous successful businesses online is proof.

A “real” business is a business that earns you plenty of money and can be run by one person without having to work 40 hours a week, and even provides the luxury of taking off for long periods of time, but all the while bringing in the money.

If you are one of those that want to earn a living on the internet, it is understandable that you would be LOST in the beginning. You sit there with your computer screen staring at you and the first thing that comes to mind is, “Where do I start?”

Begin with YOU. To build a profitable business online, you need to understand yourself first. Why do you really want a business of your own? What do you consider a successful business? Are you looking at passive income so that you can do other activities in life?

Having a vision is extremely important and lays the foundation for a good business. Identify the route you wish to go. Do you want to build software, flip websites or write E-books? What are you good at? What is your passion? The crucial fact that most people do not bother about is - understanding their passions and interests. Going the path of another successful marketer will only lead to downfall. Each person’s success depends on their own capabilities and not on someone else’s success.