Santa Monica-based Internet company Business.com has launched Work.com, a Web designed to help the nation’s more than 25 million small business owners run their operations.

Chief Executive Jake Weinbaum would seem to know his stuff. The company has projected revenues of $30 million for 2006 (a 156 percent jump over the last three years), and is ranked 37th in the Los Angeles Business Journal’s annual list of fastest-growing L.A. County businesses.

Weinbaum describes Business.com as “a search engine and directory that helps you find business products, services and whatever you want that is business related on the Internet.”

Whereas Business.com targets the ready-to-transact business-to-business buyer, Work.com can function as a sort of owner’s manual, telling entrepreneurs where to go, what to know, and how to get the most value from the ever-growing array of Web resources for the small business owner-operator.

The current listings on the site address a range of 25-30 subjects, including “Business Loans from Families,” “Applying for an Export License” and “Attracting Employees,” as well as archived material.

Experts in the respective fields, through a program straightforwardly called “Expert Generated Content,” write the material in the guides.

What makes the site work, Weinbaum said, is the degree to which the content is specifically aimed at the small business audience.

“You type in accounting software to Google.com and you get 203 million results,” Weinbaum said. The same search on Work.com produces far fewer hits, but nearly all are links to user-friendly, practical applications.

The guides complement the search capabilities.

“The how-to guides contain an overview of the problems and step-by-step directions of how to solve those problems,” Weinbaum said. “We think of it as a cross between an article and a search result.”

Business.com has 3.2 million users coming to the site every month and it has another 28 million in the network across all of the different sites to which it distributes the listings, including Business Week, Hoover’s Forbes and Entrepreneurs.com.

Magic Media

Magic Johnson, the former NBA star and urban entrepreneur, is entering the wireless content fray with Magic New Media.

Johnson announced at the Association of National Advertisers’ Multicultural Marketing Conference last week that the new venture will launch in early 2007 and will include mobile and Internet content.

Heading the new business is John Huffman, who is currently behind L.A.-based hip-hop mobile content provider Real Hip-Hop.

“I get to do what I have always loved. Now I have more assets and resources to push that,” Huffman said.

He and Johnson will focus on “urban” or minority communities through the new media outlet, including the African-American, Latino and Asian populations, and next year will launch different Web and mobile lifestyle “communities,” like hip-hop, Latino and faith-based properties.

Huffman said he’s planning to team with evangelist T.D. Jakes to launch the faith-based content and is seeking other celebrities to help draw users.

The business plan calls for Huffman to roll out three segments of content under each community entertainment, information services, and lifestyle content.

More than offering ring tones, wallpaper and the like, Huffman said the venture will focus on social networking and lifestyle content including invitations to clubs and events, discounts on food, drinks and retail item.

Huffman had an extensive background in music and choreography before he got involved with Real Hip Hop two years ago. He met Johnson a decade ago when he pitched a hip-hop search engine to Johnson and actor Keenan Ivory Wayans.

“At the time they looked at me like I was a total nut, just some excited kid pitching this crazy search engine I had built,” Huffman said. “Over the next 10 years I just kept in touch with people working with him and stayed in the loop.”

Digital Delicates

For intimate apparel, everyone knows Victoria’s Secret and Frederick’s of Hollywood. Now online retailer GraffitiPink.com wants to join the game.

Light Silver and Jasmine Imani are hoping to break into the online market for sensual undies with their just-launched site.

“Visually we were captivated by what we saw in the European markets risk-taking photography, trend-driven content with unique lines,” said Silver. “We hadn’t seen anything like that, so we created what we couldn’t find, an intimate’s destination site for playful and stylish women.”

A few of the luxe brands featured include Wendy Glez, Third Floor, Princess Tam Tam, State of Undress and Wrap Up by VP.

The site is also creating its own brand, Cotton Candy, which will consist of “lush and cozy staple items.” The site will also offer jewelry collections by CC Skye, Citrine and Disney Couture and a specialized perfume line called Miss Graffiti Pink.

The lines were introduced at a party last week hosted by MissBehave Magazine.

GraffitiPink.com team also has decided to donate 10 percent of sales for the first month to go to the Los Angeles Breast Cancer Alliance.

Help Yourself

Pasadena-based Perfect Market Technologies Inc., which runs the Snap.com search engine, has rolled out free services for Web site and blog owners. The Snap Anywhere services will now allow anyone to create their own pages that provide visual site previews using Snap.com services and allows for custom searches.

Staff reporter Dan Cox can be reached at

[email protected]

or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 230. Staff reporter Anne Riley-Katz contributed to this column.