SBA Disclaimer of Endorsement:

Any reference obtained from this server to a specific commercial product, process, or service does not constitute or imply an endorsement by SBA or the United States Government of the product, process, or service, or its producer or provider. The views and opinions expressed in any referenced document do not necessarily state or reflect those of the SBA or the United States Government.

SBA Disclaimer of Liability:

Neither SBA, nor the United States Government, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, or assumes any legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information from this server or the links to servers on the HotList. Selection Criteria for Adding Resources to SBA's Outside Internet resources lists are selected based on their usefulness to the small business community. Because this can encompass many topics, we the following evaluation criteria:

Linking to us from an outside resource:

We do not object to anyone linking to us as long as the descriptive words of our site are accurate and not misleading and do not misrepresent an unofficial relationship between the linking site and SBA. We do object to sites taking our information and logos/graphics and posting any of our information on their site. The SBA logo cannot be displayed on your site unless you have an official Memorandum of Understanding and partership agreement with SBA. We prefer that you link to our information, rather than "capturing" it. Our information changes hourly and a small business person may be misled with outdated information. No permission is needed from us either verbally or in writing to link to us provided the above is followed.

Linking from us to outside resource:

We frown on pointing to sites that require a fee or are primarily advertising a product or service. The following are criteria we use to evaluate sites:

Content:
1. Does the site contribute something unique and beneficial for the small business person?
2. Is the information beneficial to the small business person in starting, running, or expanding a business?
3. Is the resource fee-based or selling a product (if so, we frown on pointing to this type of a site). Is the content free or generally free?
4. Is the information on the site accurate?
5. Is the information factual or opinion?
6. We ask ourselves - "why is the author placing this information on the Internet?" Frequently the answer is that the information is placed to advertise or support a particular point of view.
7. Is there inflammatory political, racial, or offending sexual content on the site (no link will be made to offending political, racial, or sexual commentary or images).
8. How current is the information?
9. How frequently is the resource updated? Are dates of update stated?
10. If there are links to other sites, do they work? Are they appropriate?

Authority:

1. Are sources of information stated?
2. Can the site/content custodian be contacted for clarification or to be informed of new information?

Scope:

1. Is the purpose of the resource clearly stated?
2. A site's purpose should be clear and its content should reflect its purpose, whether it's to educate, persuade, entertain, or sell.
3. Is the site appropriate for the intended small business audience?
4. How does the site compare with other sites on the same subject?

Design:

1. Is it organized and easy to find your way around?
2. Does the site require additional software or hardware?
3. Does it load in a reasonable amount of time and is consistently available?

The "New" items are generally added during the first few work days of any given (once a) month. Because of the multitude of requests, we do not give return emails or phone calls on evaluations; your site will either be posted or not posted based on the above criteria. If you do not see your site added, you may write to the same address below and we will give an explanation.

To submit a site for evaluation, fit the criteria above and click here to fill out the form.

*Last Modified: 01-26-04