NEW YORK - Just because your band doesn't have the bucks for a six-figure advertising campaign doesn't mean you wouldn't be interested in promoting it on MySpace.

When a small business cuts back advertising, it is like tossing kerosene on a fire — in this case, faltering sales. If promotion is considered a “soft” expense, many small businesses reduce the size and/or frequency of their advertising.

With their tourism-driven economies battered by a stagnant U.S. economy, expensive jet fuel and airline cutbacks, Caribbean leaders meeting this week have agreed to launch a $60 million campaign to market their region as one tourism destination.

To see how the Wall Street crisis has spread to the broader economy, check out Pier 1 Imports. In the past month, as the stock-market panic spread, customer traffic dropped sharply at the Fort Worth retailer, and then sales suddenly fell off the table.

A new Harris Interactive study on people's attitudes toward the economy and technology reveals that despite skyrocketing fuel prices and rising costs for daily household staples, over one-third of consumers say the dire economy will not affect their spen