ReadWriteWeb

Apple recently took actions to dissuade developers from participating in incentivized install programs, meaning programs that encouraged consumers to download new apps in return for virtual goods and other bonuses which could be used in mobile gaming and other apps. But while those changes may have negatively affected some companies' programs, for example, Tapjoy, it has led to opportunities for others.

Today, one of those hoping to benefit from the increasingly important marketing needs of app developers is Appia. It's launching a pay-per-install ad network that it says offers guaranteed ROI to developers. The service launched today at the 2011 AppNation conference in San Francisco.

A new contest sponsored by OPEN, American Express's small business division, is offering five small businesses a $20,000 check $2,500 in Facebook ad credits and a trip to the social networking giant's Palo Alto headquarters to learn more about social marketing.

The "Big Break for Small Businesses" contest is open to the owners of U.S.-based small businesses with $10 million in annual revenue or less.

A recent post on ReadWriteWeb, titled, "Why Most Facebook Marketing Doesn't Work" has received some attention as of late. The compelling headline surely gets brands, agencies, developers and anyone else interested in the Facebook eco-system to click. Essentially, the author puts forth a case that certain marketing tactics on Facebook don't work, across the board. These tactics include like blocks, extended permission, unbranded apps, lots of apps on one tab, sweepstakes, and photo and video contests.

In my experience working advising some of the world's largest brands on Facebook, I agree with the author that some of these tactics are generally not best practices, however, applying a blanket statement to anything when it comes to social media is a slippery slope.

Most startups start small, thinking to expand after learning some valuable lessons, including making sure they're not releasing bad products that could sink the company or making bad decisions that could do the same. Toward that aim, most startups focus on building one product at a time, which may be their only product for the first several years of the business.

But there are pros and cons to selling only one product. For some startups, it may make sense to stay focused on one product, where others would be happier and more successful if they sold multiple products.

After years of being prevalent in places like Japan and South Korea, QR codes are finally showing up all over the place in the United States. In magazine ads, on public signs and even on vehicles, these two-dimensional barcodes are popping up more and more. But how effective are they?

About 72% of smart phone users say they would be likely to recall an advertisement that contained a QR code, according to a recent study by Baltimore advertising agency MGH. Of course, that's just people who own smart phones, which is only a fraction of the overall population (about 27% according to Comscore).

Keeping up with every tech headline is hard enough for anybody, let alone busy professionals. To help, ReadWriteBiz rounds up the week's most important tech news and insights for small- and medium-sized businesses.

As tablet adoption grows, so too does the amount of sensitive data people transmit using the devices. Almost half (48%) of tablet owners have transmitting sensitive data from the device, according to a survey we wrote about on Monday.

As more and more of us are shopping online and are conducting research online before we shop, many local retailers are finding themselves at a disadvantage. Many small businesses don't have the resources to do battle with the online presence and marketing power of the online retails and the big-box stores.

Wishpond, which launches today, seeks to help local businesses manage their online marketing activities so as to drive foot traffic into their stores. Wishpond wants to be a "gateway for retailers," in the words of founder Ali Tajsekandar, giving them a single place to manage their Google AdWords, Facebook, Twitter activities and more.

We've discussed previously why it's important for businesses to create a Facebook Page, rather than a profile. Pages come with detailed analytics and unlimited fans (as opposed to the 5,000 friend limit profiles have). Perhaps more importantly, representing a business on Facebook with a standard profile is a violation of the site's terms of service and can result in the account being shut down.

It's easy enough for companies just getting started on Facebook to create a proper Fan Page, but what if you've already established your brand's presence using a standard profile? Unfortunately, Facebook doesn't provide a magical button that automatically converts profiles to pages, so it's up to you to manually make the switch.

Teenagers in the United States are constantly connected to the Internet. About 75% of them go online on a daily basis, and that number increases every year. Whether they're connected via their phones, gaming consoles, laptops or the computer lab at school, they're online pretty much all the time. Social networking - on Facebook and elsewhere - is a huge part of what they're doing.

You'd think this would be a potential boon for social media marketers, right? Not quite. According to research released today by Forrester, only 6% of U.S. consumers aged 12-17 are interested in interacting with brands on Facebook, even though they are active users of the site in general.

Hubspot has just announced a Series D round of funding for their marketing-as-a-service platform. Investors include some very big names like Google, Salesforce and Sequoia, which shows how much interest there is in its service aimed at small businesses. It's also a big boost for the Boston startup scene, as Hubspot is now one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in history by revenue, only behind Salesforce according to their CEO Dharmesh Shah.

Along with main competitors Eloqua and Marketo, Hubspot helps small businesses move away from traditional cold-calling and display advertising and into the new world of social media, search engines and blogging. On my recent visit to Boston, Shah explained to me that the initial idea came about when he noticed how much traffic he was able to drive through his OnStartups blog, when many of the businesses he was helping were struggling to get a fraction of the exposure.