College Students Have Saved Over $46 Million on Textbooks at Best Book Buys(R) Over Last 10 Years

La Canada, CA (PRWEB) July 25, 2007

Best Book Buys(R), a leading online comparison shopping service for books and a service of Best Web Buys(tm), announced today that college students and consumers have saved more than $ 46 million compared to suggested list price over the last 10 years by purchasing their textbooks and books through BestBookBuys.com. Ten years after launching one of the first comparison shopping sites for books, the company also reported that the average savings on each book has increased from 31 percent five years ago to 53 percent today.

"Buying textbooks has become such a struggle for college students today due to their ever escalating costs and many students are taking the alarming step of choosing not to get their books as a result," said Steve Loyola, founder and president of Best Web Buys. "We hope students continue to adopt searching for the best possible deals they can find on their textbooks. We are extremely proud that we have helped save students millions of dollars on their textbooks and made their education a bit more affordable."

According to the College Board's recent reports Trends in College Pricing 2006 and Trends in Student Aid 2006, costs for tuition and fees at four year public colleges are up 35 percent from five years ago after adjusting for inflation. And according to the Government Accounting Office, since 1994 the price of textbooks has increased at nearly four times the rate of inflation. Students spend on average about $ 900 on textbooks annually, representing 17.5 percent of tuition and fees at four year public colleges and 8 percent at private institutions.

"I have been buying my textbooks online through Best Book Buys since high school and have saved hundreds each year," said Elizabeth Smith, a college sophomore at the University of California at Irvine. "It's really easy to use their service. Once I have my book list I just plug in the ISBN number and instantly find out where to get the best deal. The key thing is to not procrastinate and to look for my books early online to make sure I get the best deal possible."

Price Comparisons Demonstrate Dramatic Savings

A search for three college textbooks titled Marketing Management (ISBN 0130336297), Computer System Architecture (ISBN 0131755633), and Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm (ISBN 0131538411) illustrate the savings that Best Book Buys offers. These three books have a combined list price of $ 420.73. A search today at Best Book Buys finds these same books selling for $ 261.70 new, $ 56.03 for international editions and $ 20.60 used. This amounts to a savings of 95 percent (used), 87 percent (international) and 38 percent (new) off the list price.

About Best Web Buys

Best Web Buys first made a name for itself 10 years ago with the launch of one of the first online price comparison sites -- Best Book Buys(R). Best Book Buys has been helping college students from more than 1500 colleges across the nation find the best prices for their new and used textbooks since 1997. Best Web Buys' five product specific sites -- Best Book Buys(R), Best Music Buys, Best Video Buys, Best Bike Buys and Best Electronic Buys -- compare prices, shipping and availability of more than five million titles and items at hundreds of online stores and thousands of Alibris, eBay, half.com and Amazon marketplace sellers. Steve Loyola, a former Jet Propulsion Laboratory computer scientist, founded the company.

Editors Note: Best Web Buys, Best Book Buys, Best Bike Buys, Best Electronic Buys, Best Music Buys and Best Video Buys are trademarks of Best Web Buys. All other trade or brand names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

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Webs, Inc., Celebrates its 10th Anniversary: Do-it-Yourself Solution for Website Creation Now Serves More than 40 Million Users Worldwide

Silver Spring, MD (PRWEB) June 10, 2011

Webs, the popular, do-it-yourself solution for website creation, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week, having grown from 34 daily sign-ups to more than 40 million businesses, that have launched their own websites with Webs.

Started in 2001 by three brothers--Zeki, Haroon and Idris Mokhtarzada--Webs was founded on the principle that the average, nontechnical person should be able to make a great website.

Zeki and Haroon Mokhtarzada, while students at the University of Maryland, College Park, created Webs (then known as Freewebs) after realizing that a website-creation tool would be more efficient than creating websites for others by hand. They each invested $ 1,000, bought a few servers, put the servers in a closet in Zekis apartment, and Freewebs was born.

We wanted to make it easier for people to get nice looking, organized websites, according to Haroon Mokhtarzada, Co-Founder and CEO of Webs. The brothers chose their mother as the ideal Webs user: "My mother is a professional and a very intelligent person, but she doesn't have any technical skills. If she could use our Site Builder, most people could," explained Haroon.

In a recent interview, the founders of Webs shared the Webs philosophy and their mothers role in the company:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VbwI6LQP30

In 2001, two or three new users signed up with Freewebs each day. Then something strange happened: a lot more people started signing up. The mystery was solved when Haroon and Zeki found out that their younger brother, Idriswho was then only 14had added Freewebs to dmoz.org, a popular website directory. We werent even ready to launch, noted Haroon.

But the business was put on the back burner in 2002 when Zeki began working for the National Institutes of Health and Haroon began studying law at Harvard University. They kept Freewebs going by working on it part-time. After Haroon graduated from law school he considered his options: Freewebs was making enough money to pay our salaries, so we said, lets give it some love. In 2005 the brothers gave Freewebs their full attention and set out to fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams.

High-octane growth

Their hard work paid off: in August 2006 they received $ 11 million in Series A funding from Novak Biddle Venture Partners and Columbia Capital.

Between 2003 and 2007 the company grew 1704%. In 2008, Webs placed fifth in Deloitte's prestigious Technology Fast 50 Program for the Greater Washington region. By this point, Webs was getting 20,000 new user signups every day and each month 30 million unique people visited sites created with Webs Site Builder tool.

2008 was also the year the company rebranded itself by changing its name from Freewebs to, simply, Webs. This 2.0 iteration of the Webs platform let site owners create community-driven sites that visitors could join as members. By giving site members the ability to comment on photos, post to a blog, add to a site calendar, and more, a site becomes more of a living, breathing entity, notes Haroon.

In November 2009, Webs launched an App Store to make helpful third-party applications available to all Webs users. Some of the most popular apps in the App Store include the e-commerce Web Store, Cafe Press, DudaMobile, Meebo, and Etsy.

The Webs family of products

2010 was the year Webs developed a family of products to give Webs customers primarily small business owners -- easy and cost-effective ways to develop an online presence across web, mobile, and social platforms. In addition to the Webs DIY site-creation tool, the Webs family of products grew to include:

ContactMe, the first online, lightweight customer relationship management (CRM) tool created exclusively for microbusinesses.

Pagemodo, a do-it-yourself Facebook page builder that enables small businesses to design and customize their Facebook fan pages for free. With Pagemodos Pagebuilder, entrepreneurs dont need to have any technical or design skills to create fresh, stylish Facebook pages for their business that attracts visitors and promotes their services.

Continued innovation

But growing its family of products didnt stop Webs from innovating within the Webs platform as well, particularly to give small businesses an edge in the mobile arena:

Mobile Websites are available to every Webs user. The mobile version is optimized for todays mobile devices, like the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, and automatically stays in sync with the original site.

A Webs Redesign in 2010 presented a stylish and more functional version of Webs to the world. The Webs.com website and the Webs Site Builder were overhauled to make their site-building tools and processes even easier for people to use.

All of this innovation was recognized in July 2010 when Webs was named one of the Hottest DC Area Companies by Lead411. The awards review noted that Webs is among the top 100 most trafficked websites in the world. The company has tripled its revenues in the past 3 years.

The Webs family

Webs now has 50 employees and offices in both Silver Spring, Maryland, and Silicon Valley. The Silver Spring office has an open floor plan that facilitates brainstorming and collaboration. Zeki, Haroon, and Idris sit with their teams but often move around the office to answer questions, solve problems, fix bugs, and discuss plans for helping Webs users achieve their own entrepreneurial dreams.

About Webs, Inc.

Webs (http://webs.com) is the worlds largest do-it-yourself solution to create a free website, serving over 40 million users. Webs enables small businesses and entrepreneurs to easily make a great-looking website and project a professional image. The Webs family of productsincluding Webs, ContactMe, and Pagemodoprovide small businesses with simple and cost-effective ways to launch and grow their companies across web, social, and mobile platforms. Founded in 2001 by the Mokhtarzada brothers, Webs is funded by Novak Biddle Venture Partners and Columbia Capital. For more information, contact Chuck Hester at hester(at)webs(dot)com or visit http://www.Webs.com, http://www.ContactMe.com and http://www.Pagemodo.com to sign up for free today.

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Your Trading Room Retains Investment Bank Dailey Partners to Assist In Raising $10 Million VC Expansion Capital Round

Santa Monica, California (PRWEB) October 20, 2011

Dailey Partners has trusted relationships with more than 1,200 venture, buyout, hedge and mezzanine funds as well as strategic investors. Principal partners have closed more than 60 transactions representing $ 600 million of cumulative capital raised.

Richard Waryn, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Your Trading Room said, "After a careful selection process, we determined that Dailey Partners provides us with the best opportunity to raise the capital that will enable us to achieve our ambitious growth objectives. The firm understands our space very well and their history of success with companies like ours gives us confidence that we will succeed."

Tim Dailey, Managing Director and co-founder at Dailey Partners, stated, "We have worked with many companies in the technology and financial services sectors, and we understand the space, particularly in terms of capital required for high growth companies. He went on to say, Your Trading Room is the ideal type of high growth company we look to represent and is perfectly positioned for institutional investment given the exceptional management team, differentiation in the market place, and projected growth in the Forex market over the next 5-10 years. We look forward to lending our expertise to the execution of the Company's strategic growth plans."

ABOUT DAILEY PARTNERS: Dailey Partners is a boutique investment bank that provides Private Placement and Mergers & Acquisitions services for emerging and middle market companies. The Company focuses on $ 5 - $ 75 million transaction sizes, including growth financings, acquisition financings, management buyouts, and sell-side advisory. Dailey Partners is a trusted referral source for more than 1,200 venture, buyout, hedge and mezzanine funds as well as strategic investors. The Company sources clients through a referral-only network and puts all companies through a rigorous screening process prior to engagement. The goal is to only work with high quality companies and management teams. For more information, please visit http://www.daileypartners.com.

ABOUT YOUR TRADING ROOM: YTR is an international provider of online foreign-exchange financial education, training and proprietary trading services. Dynamic and forward thinking, the Company empowers traders globally. The YTR difference is based on market leading solutions supported by four key disciplines: research and development; proprietary indicators and strategies; education and training; and live professional coaching. YTRs LIVE trading rooms provide a superb framework of real-time support throughout a 24 hour, 5