As tempting as it is to dish out advice on who Americans should vote for in today’s United States Presidential election, I am no more qualified than any non-American with an opinion!

However, I will say that if you have the right to vote, you’re wise to exercise that right.

Election day may be the only time the average person can really have any kind of influence over the decisions of the government, by virtue of who they choose to govern. Decisions that heavily impact your everyday life - from how much tax you pay, to the availability of health care and education, to the state of the roads, to how you conduct your business. And in a zillion other ways I couldn’t possibly list in this article.

The point is, if you don’t vote and make your voice heard about who you think should make decisions on your behalf, plenty of other people will do so for you. And they might NOT have your best interests at heart.

What are the issues for you to keep in mind as an Internet marketer?

Well, these would be issues that affect most small and mid-sized businesses - economic policy (specifically policies that impact on inflation, interest rates and the strength of the U.S. dollar), taxes, employment laws, trade laws, competition laws - as well as issues that specifically relate to the Internet and doing business on the Internet.

I’m not sure where Barack Obama or John McCain stand on all these issues, but they are all factors to consider, along with the other issues that are important - and may be far more important - to you.

Of course, however important these issues are… and whatever the elected administration does once it gets power… nothing will affect your success as an Internet marketer more than YOU. So while it’s important to have your say about who governs - and the government of the day WILL make decisions that affect you… none of that will have anywhere near the same influence on your success as YOU and what YOU DO.

I feel fairly confident saying this about the United States (and a number of other countries). I’m not so sure when it comes to the various totalitarian regimes that still exist in the world. Which is all the more reason to celebrate democracy and vote. And after you to that… it’s back to business!

Yet another big ad publisher is seeking to enlist small and mid-sized businesses (SMB) to advertise on its network. News Corporation-owned MySpace has released a self-serve media buying system for small advertisers called MyAds, which is available at advertise.myspace.com.

Essentially, the ad platform, currently in beta, allows anyone to bid between $25 and $10,000 for performance-based display ads on the site. MyAds also comes with ad templates for advertisers to use and includes a basic analytics package that reports on impressions, click-throughs, and a campaign’s running cost.

Although it may sound as if MySpace is jumping onto the SMB bandwagon in light of dropping corporate ad budgets, MyAds has officially been in the works since November 2007.

Source: Zachary Rodgers, “MySpace Launches MyAds: ‘HyperTargeting’ for Small Biz”, The ClickZ Network, October 13, 2008