There happen to be hundreds to thousands of e-business conventions, conferences, and events that occur every year, each of them pushing ticket sales to hopeful entrepreneurs and e-business owners who are looking for the next tip or trick to take their business to a new level.

With so many options it may seem overwhelming, and even take your focus off important tweaks and changes you can simply make with a few modifications to your site like building an email list or improving your overall customer retention.

Regardless, these e-business events and conventions are essential for connecting with people who have weathered the storms of online business and battled through some of the troubles you are currently going through.

These events offer training exercises and in-depth tutorials on which tools to use and which to drop.

The only problem is you certainly don’t have time to go sifting through giant lists of e-business conventions and events to figure out which ones you should invest more time and money into.

That’s why we checked some of the top options out for you and compiled a nice little list of the best conventions that give you a return on your efforts. Keep in mind that some of these events might be a little far for you to travel to, so don’t stretch it.

Pro-tip: Look for one of the events that occasionally stops by a location near you in order to save cash on that international plane ticket you’re about to book.

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For the purposes of this article, there are three categories of online service business:

1. Businesses offering services that can only be delivered within a certain range (e.g. startup ISPs)
2. Businesses offering services where distance isn’t a factor (e.g. freelance coders)
3. Businesses that offer both types of services (e.g. design firms)

This article focuses mostly on the first type, but there’s some advice in here for everyone.

For example, no matter what type of service you offer, the first step to marketing it is to identify your target audience as precisely as possible, whether it’s through a buyer profile or just careful analysis of your analytics data. This will dictate where you should be looking for them and what methods work best to find them.

The second step is to register your business with Google Places. Yahoo Local and Bing will also help. Why? That brings us to our first step…

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When you’re first getting started in the world of e-commerce, it’s not only expected that you read up on what other people have done, it’s encouraged.

There’s many an e-commerce “guru” out there claiming to know what’s up when it comes to selling online in the most effective way. However, how can you tell who knows their stuff from who’s just making noise?

I’ve put together four of the top things you should keep in mind when evaluating anyone who claims to be an e-commerce expert. Remember: real-world experience trumps theory, so always be mindful to take your advice from those who’ve put their ideas into practice and succeeded.

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Just because you run an online store and not a brick and mortar business doesn’t mean you’re not stuck with a to-do list a mile long or tasked with needing to be in a million places at once. Many business owners rely on their mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to get things done while on-the-go.

With the above in mind, below is a list of eight apps I think are helpful in managing day-to-day business activities. You’ll find them to be beneficial whether you’re a sole proprietor, partnership or small business.

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