fedgovtWe are going to revisit a great article from last week today. After the debates, which some outlets characterized as delivering a big win for small business, we took exception, pointing out that the debates were long on rhetoric and contained almost no practical discussion of small business issues. Take a look.

Some of the other best stories for today:

A great article about converting visitors to your website into sales. The suggestions seem simple but are extremely practical and in our experience while most businesses have done SOME of these things, very few have done ALL. 7 Tips for converting website visits into sales.

Following on from our look at the political scene is an impassioned plea from a small business owner and advocate in Oregon about getting big money and big business out of politics in order to restore the voice of the smaller business. It's a good point regardless of any other reasons for or against the Citizen's United decision.Big, secret money in politics hurts

Small business got few specifics from first debate

The term "small business" was uttered a total of 27 times in 90 minutes by President Obama and Governor Romney on stage in Denver Wednesday night, prompting headlines such as "Small business front and center in the presidential debate" in the Washington Post and a Bloomberg editorial that proclaimed small business the biggest winner of the debate.

But for all their references to small business, did the candidates address the real concerns of small business owners, or just play to them with sound bites?

Before the debate, we asked six leaders of small business and entrepreneurship advocacy organizations what questions they'd most like to hear answered. Post-debate, we've reviewed the transcript to determine whether the candidates delivered. For the most part, they did not.

Two small business leaders—Small Business Majority founder John Arensmeyer and Young Entrepreneur Council cofounder Ryan Paugh—hoped the candidates would specifically address how they would improve access to capital

mavenlink-infographic-small-businessWe had the first presidential debate this week and while small business came up, it came up mostly under the guise of taxation or with a great deal of rhetoric and no specifics. We had proposed seven great questions that could have been addressed and in the end one of the seven was addressed, two were alluded two and the four most important were ignored. Despite all the talk, small business owners know that carrying on the hard work of finding new customers, fulfilling contracts, making sales and all the everyday operational work must go on. But we can all take heart from the teacher who has made $1 million selling lesson plans online - while continuing to teach. More and more startups and entrepreneurs are coming from the ranks of the baby boomers or even retirees - whether that is because of a desire to keep working or a necessity. Regardless, the SBA has some programs to help. And even though many of them are over, you can still get help from SCORE and other SBA programs. If you are

smallbusinesselectionWe had the first of the presidential debates yesterday. Unfortunately, despite using the phrase 'small business' a total of 29 times between them, very little was showcased in terms of specifics. We showcased seven questions we would have liked to have seen addressed. Unfortunately only the last three were even discussed and the answers to those were long on rhetoric and short on specifics. Hopefully we'll see some more answers in the debates to come.

Some of the other best stories for today:

How to protect your small business from lawsuits.

Why are small businesses hiring?

How YouTube can be a marketing tool for small business.

Are you fighting the wrong business competitor?

Brought to you by Yahoo! Small Business. Take a look at our domain, web hosting and ecommerce solutions. Follow us on twitter and on Facebook.

Inc. has a good article reporting on a discussion Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg had with reporters at the IAB MIXX Conference during Advertising Week in New York. Much of what she had to say was about small business, what a problem it is for advertising online and how Facebook is hoping to find the solution. This is a subtle shift from the focus of her discussion earlier that day with Charlie Rose where she talked about social advertising, re-emphasizing a theme that Mark Zuckerberg brought up on his recent trip to Russia.

Local advertising has indeed been a hard problem for tech companies to solve, but perhaps not as difficult as the Facebook team is making out. When supplied with any form of location data, google search ads on any site can be locally relevant for example, as can ads from The Yahoo! Bing partnership. And here at Yahoo! for example, there are local listing services, the ability to locally target advertising within the Yahoo! Shopping portal and even local solutions

Small businesses want the candidates to discuss key issues

Domestic policy, presumably including topics of interest to small businesses, will be debated by the U.S. presidential candidates Wednesday evening in Denver starting at 9:00 pm ET. What single issue of interest to small businesses would you like to hear President Obama and Governor Romney discuss?

Yahoo! Small Business Advisor asked leaders of six small business organizations what one crucial question they want the candidates to answer during the debate. If small business advocates were hosting the debate, here's what they'd ask:

1. John Arensmeyer, founder, The Small Business Majority: What will you do to specifically improve the opportunity for small businesses to have access to working credit?

2. Ryan Paugh, co-founder & chief of staff, Young Entrepreneur Council: The JOBS Act, signed last spring at the White House, is a tremendous leap in the right direction. However, there are still many opponents who believe that the way the SEC has set up the new law actually makes investing

October is National Women's Small Business Month. Plus five other small business reads for October 1st, 2012.

• Four tips to get local TV coverage for your small business.
• Small business retirement plan resources from the IRS.
• What business expenses can you claim for your small business?
• Is your small business in a cash crunch?
• 20 entrepreneurs share tips on increasing sales

One in four people age 44-70 are interested in becoming entrepreneurs.

We hear a lot about young entrepreneurs and the many programs designed to encourage college students and 20-somethings to build their own businesses. But what about not-so-young entrepreneurs?

If you're over age 50 and want to start a business, or if you're nearing retirement age but facing up to the fact that you won't have enough savings to stop working, Tuesday is your day. The Small Business Administration and AARP have partnered to celebrate National Encore Entrepreneur Mentor Day on October 2. The event is part of a broader effort by the two organizations to promote entrepreneurship among individuals ages 50 and older.

According to SBA, 25 percent of people aged 44-70 are interested in becoming entrepreneurs. More than 60 percent of Americans plan to work during their "retirement" years. Whether that's because their retirement savings disappeared during the recession, their investment portfolios have dwindled, or they just want to keep active, SBA says small business ownership