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Have you ever thought about starting an online business?

What held you back?

Was it money? time? lack of experience?

Or were you just afraid someone might already be doing the killer idea you’ve had in your head for some time or that the market was “over saturated”?

Well, step up, do something, and watch this video to inspire you to continue doing what you’ve always done…

So here’s my new challenge:

Every time I talk to a prospect on the phone who has a “break-through” idea, something we’ve “never even HEARD of before”, the “next Facebook for ______ industry” – or whatever – I commit 110% to sending them a link to THIS VIDEO!

How do you think they will react? Think I’ll “close the deal”?

Have you ever caught yourself saying any of this?

This post was all in fun. If you want realistic help in starting an online business that will succeed, contact Moller Marketing today for a free consultation.

What’s an “Infographic”?

Why do companies even use them?

What help are they, especially for SEO and Social Media purposes?

We get these questions quite a bit and decided today is the day to answer some of them.

What’s an Infographic?

According to a Quora answer,

“…An infographic can be described as a collection of images, charts, visualizations, and text that illustrate an idea or position.  I generally like to think of infographics as more of a combination of other forms of data visualization than a separate form itself.”

Why do companies even use them?

This is a good question and can be summarized with 10 simple reasons:

1. Infographics make information more appealing.
2. Infographics show valuable ideas.
3. Infographics are attention grabbing.
4. Infographics are easier to understand.
5. Infographics lessen boredom.
6. Infographics awakens one’s interest in a topic.
7. Infographics are easily accessible.
8. Infographics can be more persuasive.
9. Infographics are memorable.
10. Infographics can easily relay information.

 What help are they, especially for SEO and Social Media purposes?

Look at this image one more time:

150, 91, 158, and 1,053. Those are the number of back-links for this infographic (not all are followable links but “word of mouth” can work wonders via social networks…).

Not only are we able to track with pretty good accuracy how many links an individual infographic is getting, but we’ve been able to see direct results in SEO placement for specific targeted phrases based on infographic campaigns.

Show me an example

Infographics can come in all shapes, sizes, and topics. They can be really informative, funny, or just plain informational. Here’s an example of a recent infographic, including some of the share numbers it got in just a short time:

If you like this infographic and would like to share it with others, simply copy and paste the code below on to your website and party on:

I signed up for Facebook in 2007 (much to the chagrin of my wife who assumed I was going to hook back up with old high school flames – which is what her little brother was doing at the time ).

Since that time, I’ve seen a lot of changes to the Facebook interface – some for the better and some that didn’t last very long.

The following infographic gives a pretty detailed timeline about the evolution of Facebook. Thanks for sharing!

What are things you like about Facebook changes?

What DON’T you like?

I’ve talked with lots of clients about the benefits of having a self-hosted website.

To sum it up frankly:

• Credibility
• SERPs
• Functionality
• Ownership of Content
• Credibility

Yep, one of the biggest factors, in my opinion, about having a free hosted website like yourdomainname.blogspot.com is that you’re basically advertising for another company – in this case blogger. How can an online business really be taken seriously if they aren’t even willing to get their own domain name and promote what they are doing?

To help the “unbelievers” understand a bit more, here’s some hosting education:

What’s a Self Hosted Website?

“Self Hosted” means you pay a minimal fee (around $7.00 per month) for hosting and a domain name. That’s right, you get BOTH for that small fee.

The scope of hosting services varies widely. There are a few costs to a “self-hosted website”, but they are minimal for the benefits you get.

Here are a few details on specific self-hosted options according to Wikipedia: (I generally recommend the first option if you are just getting started)

• Shared web hosting service: one’s website is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. The features available with this type of service can be quite extensive. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.
• Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a reseller. Resellers’ accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a collocated server. Many resellers provide a nearly identical service to their provider’s shared hosting plan and provide the technical support themselves. (BTW – I was compensated for the link in this paragraph.)

Hopefully you have a better understanding of what the options are out there for running a legitimate website.

Now the Pros and Cons:

Benefits of a Free Hosted Website

• “Free”
  • Is it really free if you lose all your content and have to start again?
  • Is it really free if you can’t modify the look and functionality of the site very easily?
  • Is it really free if you can’t use affiliate links or ad space without permission or without paying a price?
  • Is it really free if the content you write really isn’t owned by YOU at the end of the day?

Downsides to a Free Hosted Website

• Free blogs are not very search engine friendly.
  • Can’t customize Title Tags on all pages
  • Can’t add landing pages
  • Can’t modify friendly URLs
  • Sub-domains, like yourname.blogspot.com,rarely (if ever) show up high in search engine results
  • Often times, the home page is the main indexed page in search engine results
• Free blogs use a sub-domain.
  • This hurts your credibility
  • All the content you’re providing is actually “owned” by the main domain (blogger.com or wordpress.com), meaning they could turn it off at any time for any reason (see Janet’s case study above)
• Free blogs give you little to no online credibility.
  • How many big, professional sites can you list that use blogger or wordpress.com? I can count them on one hand.
• Free blogs limit what you can and can’t do.
  • In blogger, you have to be approved to use affiliate links within the Google Affiliate Network
  • In wordpress.com, affiliate links aren’t accepted. Here’s what WordPress.com says:
    • We have a feature called Ad Control that lets WordPress.com bloggers with a lot of traffic (generally 25,000 pageviews/month or more) and appropriate content turn on AdSense and Skimlinks for their blog and split the resulting revenues 50/50 with us. If you’d like to apply to try Ad Control, please use the form below to send us a message.
    • Adsense, Yahoo, Chitika, TextLinkAds and other ads are not allowed on free WordPress.com blogs. If you would like to run ads on your blog, one of these options may work for you:
• Free blogs can be turned off at any time for any reason.
  • There’s really no way to back up all your information unless you understand computer hacking and exporting…

Benefits of a Self-Hosted Websites

• Inexpensive: about $7.95 per month (all paid up front)
• Free Domain Name for life
• Unlimited add on domains
• Unlimited email accounts
• $50 worth of Google Adwords Credit
• Unlimited 24 hour access support via phone and chat

Does this information help to clear up your doubts?

I don’t post as much here lately for a few reasons, some of which I won’t reveal at this point.

However, I’m still blogging!

Today I saw the powerful effects of guest posting on credible sources FIRST HAND!

I wrote a post this morning on an Internet Marketing Blog titled: “When It’s OK to Say No to a Prospective Client”

Some of the highlights of this post:

Saying No may simply mean “Not yet…”

Here’s why:

1. EDUCATION: The prospect needs a bit more education on what you’ll be offering and what expectations they should have. Unrealistic expectations are the most difficult thing to deal with. You I don’t want to tell the client “I can’t do that…” but in some cases, I just can’t.
2. ORGANIZATION: The prospect needs to make sure they have all their “ducks in a row” before you dive into the complex world of SEO and Social Media. Do they have at least one dedicated employee who will be working closely with your team? If not, they need to get one. I’ve realized that my job is NOT to run their business or make their business decisions; instead, my job is to take what their doing and help get the word out there and optimize their efforts accordingly. Without a dedicated staff member who is teachable and preferably internet savvy, it’s going to be a long road and one I’m not sure I want to travel down.
3. EXPECTATIONS: The prospect needs to determine what they what to achieve with your SEO efforts: increased brand awareness, more traffic, higher ROI, ORM, etc. If they don’t really know what they want to achieve, none of your efforts will completely satisfy. As I said before, unrealistic expectations are the most difficult thing to deal with and are a HUGE RED-FLAG. Using case studies of other clients you’ve worked with can help people understand what they should expect. If they don’t think what you’ve done is enough, then NOT YET is a perfect solution. Chances are, they’ll go with another firm and then possibly come back to you anyway.
4. COMMITMENT: The prospect needs to fully commit to helping you help them. This is similar to organization. If a client expects you to learn their business or industry overnight, NOT YET is a good answer. If a client can’t give you any time to meet together, they just want you to run with it, NOT YET is a good answer. Clients have to be willing to dedicate at least some time and resources if your efforts are going to pay off.
5. BELIEF: The prospect needs to believe that what you’re doing is truly of value. A lot of this goes right back to education: if they have no idea what SEO is or why they need it, but instead their buying from you because they know their competitors are using an SEO firm, they most likely don’t truly believe that what you can do is going to help them. I know, you may be asking the same thing I am – “Then WHY would they invest the money?” Good question! Just like the other points, though, if they don’t really believe they need this (and sometimes it’s hard to catch this right away), “Not Yet” is the best answer.

The article was definitely from the heart and based on real-life experience.

The article was well thought out (IMO) and gave practical advice.

After writing the article, I passed it on to all my Internet Marketing friends.

When comments came in, I was prompt to respond.

And now the Home Run…

The article got a link on Search Engine Land! That’s right, a PR SEVEN (I spell out the word because my English teacher in high school told me to and for emphasis) WEBSITE!

Here’s the proof:

The Take Away From All This

1. Write Good Content that’s applicable!
2. Titles that explain are helpful.
3. Guest post on credible websites.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask for interaction from friends.
5. Respond to comments promptly.
6. Celebrate when “Small success leads to Big Success!”

Thanks to Mat, Andy, Dave and team for the opportunity to work with them! I wouldn’t be where I am today with out Mat’s clogging dance skills!