Hoping to finish the year on a positive note, stocks opened slightly higher this morning, then gained a bit of steam from tech and energy shares. Silver closed a near-30-year high and gold topped $1,413. The US dollar has weakened against the euro and the yen, and oil prices have stayed above $91/barrel. No economic data was scheduled for release today, but high unemployment numbers still weigh on consumers.

Here are the numbers for late afternoon trading today:

Dow Jones 11,585.38 +9.84 (0.09%)
S&P 500 1,259.78 +1.27 (0.10%)
Nasdaq 2,666.93 +4.05 (0.15%)

Continue reading Closing Bell: Markets Open Stronger, Stay Up (SHZ, RNOW, CPWN, URZ, WEBM)

Closing Bell: Markets Open Stronger, Stay Up (SHZ, RNOW, CPWN, URZ, WEBM) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Started in 2001, Wikipedia has grown into a massive knowledge base, with more than 75,000 contributors and nine million articles.

No doubt Wikipedia is a great resource to learn about the bigger companies - such as Starbucks Corporation (Nasdaq: SBUX), Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), and Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT). But there are also many smaller businesses on the site.

So, should you jump in too?

"Wikipedia is one of the most frequented databases on the Web," said Dan Nichols, director of marketing communications at RightNow Technologies (Nasdaq: RNOW). "We posted an entry on RightNow to make sure we were accurately represented on the site and to increase awareness."

Keep in mind that a Wikipedia page can help improve your website's search engine rank - and perhaps drive some traffic. What's more, a Wikipedia page can lend some credibility to your business.

However, you need to consider some things:

Continue reading Entrepreneur's Journal: Does your business need a Wikipedia page?

Entrepreneur's Journal: Does your business need a Wikipedia page? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.