The information I shared with the students I spoke with is relevant for many of my readers and others out there.  With that being said I thought I’d share it here as well.

First off a small back story to put everything in context…

Over the last six months or so I’ve given probably five different speeches/presentations, primarily to start-ups and second stage companies.  This actually included a talk at the Florida Technology Partnership event in Ft. Myers two days prior to my talk at UCF.  As I was in my hotel room in Ft Myers, after my speech to a group of CEOs and marketing executives, I had a thought….I’ve given essentially the same presentation the last five times or so that I’ve talked focused on marketing strategy, SEO, Social Media and branding.  Though this presentation was good I realized this information and delivery is perfect for those who already have companies and are trying to grow them, but will it add the same value to motivated college students.  Many of these college students aspire to be an entrepreneur, but don’t have a venture in mind let alone a product or service to market now.

What should I do…Should I give the same presentation or craft a new one.  My talk was scheduled for 1 hour and I altruistically always want to make sure my audience gets the most from my experiences and insight.

Unsure of how to approach it, especially with a  day and a half to go and lots of work to do at Brand Advance the next day…I decided to sleep on it and plan my attack on my drive back to Orlando from Ft. Myers (about 3-4 hours).

I started to go through a simple marketing exercise that I take my clients through at Brand Advance and thought about who I was trying to reach and influence….what are their problems, motivations, experiences, etc.  What can I offer to impact them the most and add the highest value.

In the case of students, learning new marketing tactics to grow brand awareness of a business isn’t as important and essential as learning how to market themselves…after all you are the only product you will have for the rest of your life.  If you can perfect marketing and building your personal brand through the process you will learn and understand how to market other brands as well.   Building brand you will continue to pay dividends and attract great opportunities into your life.

Personal branding is more important today than ever before.  Unemployment is extremely high, more people are graduating and more people are getting laid off from their jobs.

What does this mean?

It means that you have more competition for both obtaining a job, and growing your entrepreneurial ventures. What causes you to stand out and land that good job, find investment funding, gain experienced mentors, or align yourself with those who will be energized to work on your start up?

It’s your personal brand- made up of your credibility, past achievements, experiences, the way you carry yourself, who you associate with, and the knowledge you have in your respective field.

Here’s how I foresee many falling into the trap…

1. A student graduates excited to get a job in their field
2. Realize that unemployment is extremely high and get a job in an un-related field to pay the bills until they can find a better job, or launch their start-up.
3. They end up working in that unrelated job for years, not building experiences and credibility in their respective field and not keeping educated on new trends and industry knowledge.
4. When the market turns around in a few years an employer is going to hire either a fresh college grad that they can mold, or hire someone who was laid off in the field with industry specific experience.
5. The college student working in an unrelated field to pay the bills will be stuck in a weird spot…they won’t have enough industry specific knowledge to get a relevant job or launch a viable start-up that solves a market need.
6. They then are at a time to move on in their life and get married and have a kid at some point making it even harder to close the gap as others who get on the inside track in an industry so to speak.

So the question becomes….How do you solve this and avoid the trap?

Here’s my thoughts…

1. Get Educated…I’m not talking about a school education, though in some fields like medical and education this is essential.  I’m talking about keeping up with industry trends and learning how others in your field are staying on top of their game.  School is great at teaching you how to learn or the basic fundamentals in a given area.  Truth be told many of the trends that can really help you can’t be taught in school because the teachers are too busy teaching older text book lessons to keep up with them.  Even if they did teach you something innovative or forward thinking they are also teaching everyone else.  You need to learn more than other students in your classes….remember you are competing with students graduating at schools all across the country as well as those experienced industry professionals who have lost their jobs.
2. Stand on the Shoulders of Giants / Get Connected…It’s essential to begin developing relationships with influencers in your respective field.  These influencers can connect you to other influencers and if you’ve built your personal brand, have credibility and deliver good results this can be a continual never ending process.  You can meet potential business partners, employers, investors and much more.  Also- those who are more experienced in an industry also will be able to see trends that you may not that can assist you in developing new ventures.  Building your network of mentors is also another very wise thing to do.  They will have a personal interest in seeing you succeed and will be able to connect you to others in their network to assist with your endeavors.
3. Flex your expertise / Build your brand awareness:  Once you’ve found innovative trends and can begin constructing your own thoughts on various industry topics begin flexing your expertise by starting a blog utilizing wordpress.org or blogger.com.  I also recommend identifying top bloggers in your field and build a relationship with them by commenting on their blog or talking with them on twitter…If possible see if you can become a guest writer for their blog, which in many cases will have thousands of readers.  I also would suggest finding online groups and physical networking groups (ex: Linkedin, Google/Yahoo Groups & Meetup) to join as well as answering industry related questions in Q&A sites like yahoo answers.  Revealing your expertise through blogging and online networking will work wonders…I have gotten clients from my blog, job offers, new venture opportunities, media coverage and much more.
4. Leverage your successes: Often times people will achieve something that can differentiate them from their competitors, but will not put it out there.  It’s not bragging, it’s establishing credibility and showing your value.  Create an achievements page, it’s essentially an interactive resume.  It’s much more powerful than a regular resume because it can go more in depth, show pictures and even link off to other pages where you elaborate.
5. Control your brand online or someone else will:  You ideally should want to own the page when someone types your name into Google with content that you want them to see.  Employers will search for you, potential business partners, customers, investors and many more.  This is a huge part of building your brand online.  You want it to be easy for others to find you and when they do you want their findings to represent how you want your brand to be perceived.Purchase your own domain name if you can get it, or some sort of variation.  This can be done at godaddy.com.  Get a wordpress blog up, which should take about 10 mins or so and start blogging!  Also be sure to watch what you post on Facebook as well as what others post.  Know your brand and what you are trying to convey and don’t do anything contradictory to that because it may end up online.  Everyone has smart phones with cameras and video recorders these days…Your slip could be the next viral sensation and really damage your brand.
6. Launch a start up:  Once you’ve taken time to build your personal brand you should have connections and an understanding of trends occurring in the market place.  In my mind at this point it’s not a bad thing to start planning and getting your start up concept in motion.   Even if you fall flat on your face you’ll learn.  Don’t get discouraged entrepreneurship can have a lot of ups and downs, but more potential risk…more potential reward.  Note:  I would never recommend running up your credit cards and sinking all your money into a startup.  This kind of financial strain is never really a good idea unless you have some strong proof of concept.  Best case scenario….Your start up will be a success and you’ll create a job for yourself or better yet an asset that will make you millions.  At a minimum you can equip yourself with something to differentiate yourself from others in a job interview.  Working on a pet project and showing potential and traction is in my eyes much more impressive than a coffee grabbing internship, unrelated job, or high gpa.  It shows that you are a self starter, are resourceful, disciplined and can add the same value to another organization as well.By the way colleges are a great place to launch a business for a large variety of reasons.

Anyway I just looked at the clock and it’s 3:48 am…time flies when your in the zone.  Another thought on that note…be prepared to work long hours at times.  Launching a start up and building a personal brand, especially when working another job takes a lot of hours.  Don’t let your health suffer, but be prepared to put the time in.  It will eventually pay off.

Remember:  If it was easy everyone would be doing it!

I hope this post helped.  If you please share it with others in your network via Facebook, Twitter, Digg, delicious or Stumble Upon.

Good luck on your journey to success and watch out for the trap!

Let me know what you thought about the post in the comments below.

I need some help marketing my last two dance classes. Any suggestions on where and how to get the word out?

There are a number of ways that you can do this….

1) SEO: If you have a website optimize it for local keywords so that people can find you.  There are two main aspects of search engine optimization what happens on your website and what happens outside of your website.  The on page factors include your website’s code, content, urls, page titles, etc.  A website’s off page SEO is basically their link portfolio- how many sites are linking to you, what is the quality of the sites linking to you, etc.  Here is a previous post that I wrote regarding link building.  There are many different tactics, but this article will go over the basics.  http://davidbrim.org/seo-and-link-building-101

Also be sure you are listed on google places, yelp, etc and the other major local listing sites.  Check out www.getlisted.org

2) Facebook Ads: Advertise to your potential customers on Facebook.  You can select your target customers demographics, interests (including dance or dancing with the stars, etc), location and more.

3) Google Adwords: Similar to SEO, but pay for placement.  You basically bid on keywords and the combination of highest price and quality score (relevancy and authority in google’s eyes) will show first.  You only pay on a per click basis.  If going this route make sure you track your costs and the amount of sales generated to make sure your getting a return on investment.  You can also target your ads to a specific geographic area so you won’t be paying for those who are not in the right area to take advantage of your service.

4) Social Media: Use tracking tools like www.socialmention.com and monitter.com to see who is discussing dance related topics in a certain geographic area on twitter and facebook.  Viralheat.com is another good tool for monitoring social media conversations globally or locally, but that is a paid subscription based tool.Once they are found you can engage these users with various tactics to raise your brand’s visibility.

5) Craigslist & other Classified marketing sites: Post your service on craigslist in your city.  This is a very highly trafficked classified site and can be very effective.  Other popular classified marketing sites include: Back Page and Epage.

6) Referrals: Tap into your current client’s social circles of influence and ask them for referrals.  It’s also wise to have your current clients become a fan of your brand on facebook so your brand gets out to their friends.  Possibly offer an incentive of a free class or discount to those who refer other clients.

7) Direct mail & Traditional Marketing: We worked with a dance company and did a direct mail campaign to kick off their grand opening.  We had formal invitations developed and mailed them out to homes tax assessed at $350K+.  They had a great turn out, but direct mail can be very expensive.  Radio and TV are also options depending on your budget, but internet marketing will provide a more cost effective and measurable solution.

Give a free performance- Attract people in with a free show or performance.  Once they are there give them food and/or wine (if legal aged) which can be donated from sponsors.  While there have people offer a free lesson to those who attend and sign them up on the spot.

9) Local Coupon Sites like Groupon- The local daily/weekly coupon craze is going full blast.  Leading the charge is Groupon, however competitors like LivingSocial, Tippr, and Buywithme are all gaining traction.

10) Harness the power of Local Meetup and Facebook groups- Local online groups can be a very powerful way to raise awareness of your venture.  Visit www.meetup.com and do a search for your zipcode and a relevant keyword.  Also visit Facebook and do searches to find relevant groups and fan pages.  There are several ways to utilize these groups and pages.

• First- you can simply participate in a popular local group- by sharing an insightful comment with a link to your website people will be intrigued to learn more and click through the link to learn more about your business.
• Second- You can contact the group creator or page admin and ask them to send out a message to their audience.  This may cost some money, but will give your brand good viability if you can find the right group.
• Finally- Start your own interest group.  If you have the time, it can be very valuable to start an online group around a topic of interest yourself.  You can network with people interested in this topic and if you ask intriguing questions and share thoughtful responses you will be perceived as an expert and someone a potential customer would want to hire.

I hope this helps!

If you have any additional questions let me know.

–

What do you guys think…Did I miss any anything?

If so feel free to comment.

All the best,

David

This may seem like a small adjustment, but what does this mean to your business?

This small preview icon in the search engine results means a great deal to a business…It can work for or against you, bringing you more customers or less.

If you show up highly on the search engines for various keywords, but have a poorly designed website you now have a higher chance of a customer selecting a lower result that appears (from instant preview) to better fit their needs.  On the other side if you have a strongly designed website you now have the chance to steal away customers who in the past would immediately click the first or second result that they came across.

Now if you have a strongly designed website, but are on the second or third page Google Instant Preview doesn’t necessarily help you, because consumers often don’t venture past the first page when making decisions via search.  Having a strong SEO presence consisting of optimized title tags, url structure, content, proper keywords and quality links is still extremely important.

If you have a website that is not being found through search engines now is the time to assess how it was built (functionally and aesthetically), enhance or re-design the website and implement an SEO strategy.

Have Google Instant Previews work for your business, not against it.

By doing this exercise you’ll witness first hand the power of social proof.

Here is how Wikipedia explains Social proof:

Social proof, also known as informational social influence, is a psychological phenomenon that occurs in ambiguous social situations when people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior. Making the assumption that surrounding people possess more knowledge about the situation, they will deem the behavior of others as appropriate or better informed. Since observation of others usually provides only inconclusive information about what behavior is most profitable, the term ‘informational social influence’ is superior. Social influence in general can lead to conformity of large groups of individuals in either correct or mistaken choices, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as herd behavior.

Social proof is an inherent social principle that can be leveraged in social media to increase traffic and visibility to your venture.  The way I would recommend to best utilize social proof is the following:

1. First have a clear idea of the offer you’re trying to promote
2. Make sure the website of your offer has a strong call to action (or is a buzz worthy product).  Social proof is much more effective principle if the thing you’re looking at is actually worth while….If your product or service is worthwhile it will gain significantly more traction.
3. Plant the social proof seeds…This could be through well written or enticing content (articles, blog posts, press releases, etc) or through a genuine recommendation.Recommendations are a great way to facilitate the social proof process.  This can be done through sponsored conversations, which can be done by reaching out to online influencers with talking points and asking them to review or plug your product.  This kind of activity can be done by sponsoring blog posts, tweets, check-ins, or having a creator of a relevant social network send a message out to their group members.Now many people disagree with sponsored conversations, but lets face it….If you have a good product/service and can help facilitate the propensity for the site to go viral and reach the masses…why not?  (In the art/good practice of disclosure I did work for IZEA until May of last year, but I am not getting paid for this post.)  Another way to plant social seeds are through social bookmarking.  If you have a good product,service  offering or content share it with others by utilizing services like Digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon or sharing the post via Facebook/Twitter.

Social proof is in my eyes a natural catalyst for word of mouth marketing.  The good part is many times you don’t even have to say anything….simply revealing your actions to your social circle of influence or helping facilitate the process/enabling others to share your offer or content with their social circle of influence can do wonders.

Word of Mouth marketing…or in the case of social proof….(Traction by Action Marketing <–I coined that! ) is a very powerful asset to incorporate into your marketing campaign.

Now it’s your turn…Do you agree with my comments?

What role do you feel social proof plays in marketing?

What’s the Empty Party Scenario?

Well…One perfect example comes to mind:

When I was in college there was a party that several of my neighbors organized. They had been planning the party for some time and had the perfect set up, lighting and speaker system. However there was one major flaw…when people came rolling in there was hardly anybody there. In College, the “Party Industry” is a competitive landscape and if students walk into a party and see it doesn’t have a decent crowd they will turn right back around searching for the next one. When I talked to my neighbors I asked if they had a good turn out they said yes, but it was so fragmented that nobody stayed and the party didn’t gain traction. They were not happy with the way their party turned out.

The Empty Party Scenario is magnified 10 fold when you are referring to online ventures.  For example….Let’s say you have a concept for a social network tailored for Fishing that allow users to connect with other fisherman in their area. You’re very excited and get the best web-design and the standard features of a social site (discussion boards, groups, ability to friend, etc.  You plan on using social media to market your website and get a reasonable amount of sign-ups. All is well right….Nope

The users who have signed up are all in different cities and you built your concept around networking with local fisherman. Consequently you have a very fragmented userbase consisting of users in Long Island, Miami, LA, Portland, etc….Once your users have signed up and realize that there is hardly any people in their specific area or little activity on the site in general and they will leave and not come back.

How can the Empty Party Scenario be solved or prevented?

1. Utilize the bowling pin strategy for Market Entry
   From a marketing perspective you are not able to boil the ocean all at one time.  You have to boil water in a small area first then open it up to a larger body of water and expand gradually.  The same premise is with the bowling pin analogy….You first have to knock down one pin, then two more, then three more, etc.  Facebook used this strategy to exxpand.  They first started at Harvard, then several other schools in the Ivy league, then all Ivy league then Northeast schools, etc.  This not only creates buzz, but enables you to get a very relevant and targeted audience.
2. Make Your Venture/Party Sticky
   What do I mean about making a venture sticky?  Well going back to the party analogy if there was awesome food people would most likely stay.  As more and more people came in the party would seem better because people are staying.  This can be done for your online venture by providing a great tool or good food for thought in the form of content.  When planning GroupTable we constructed it in a way that if a small group of 3-5 went onto GroupTable they really don’t care if there are 10 people on the site or 10 million.  The group receives the same benefit regardless.
3. Encourage Referrals (Incentives & Word of Mouth)
   When launching a business if you are able to offer incentives or referral perks to current customers your business can grow immensely.  Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate lots of referrals if it fits your business model.  The other side of this is that you should craft a product or design your party in the way that is worthy of a referral.  This could also include having a track record for throwing successful parties or launching successful ventures.

   You should also strive to make it very easy for others (your customers) to share their experiences with others.  Offering SWAG (or promotional items) is a great way to do this…providing a code for them to embed on their blog or website that promotes the event or venture is another.

4. Develop a Captive Beta Audience (Private Party)
   When throwing a party it helps to have a nice crowd already there.  When launching an online social/community site don’t do a public launch or loud opening until you have everything in place and have a decent amount of people already there.    Stay in Beta for a period of time and get all the kinks worked out.  Thinking back to the party analogy invite a small amount of people first who can tell if the DJ is not good or if the food isn’t up to par.  Once everything is fixed up based on your findings and you have a decent amount of people you can then open it up to a wider audience.  Then when others come it will be a better party, not only because of what you fixed, but because there are others there.
   
   
5. Find other Parties & Convince People to Leave
   One way to solve your empty party scenario is to find other parties or social settings and encourage people to leave to attend your party.  The same is true online.  You have to be very careful when you do this because you can position your brand in an unfavorable way as well as create some enemies.  Actively seeking out places where your target market interacts and sparking up communications I feel is the best way to do this.  One caution is that you don’t want to spam people.  You don’t want to go into a party and start bashing the party loudly the party your at to get people to go to yours.  I recommend talking about the party and seeing if people like it then mentioning there is another alternative that they may want to check out.  Focus on educating people on something new not selling.  This will spark people’s curiosity and if everything else is in order will bring you more people to your party/customers.
   
   

What are your thoughts about the Empty Party Scenario?  How else can this be prevented?  Do you have any other examples that you’ve personally experienced.

SEO

• Search Engine Land: Link Building Trends For 2010
• Search Engine Watch: 5 New Year Resolutions for Search Marketers in 2010
• Acidgreen: SEO Trends in 2010: Search Engine Optimization Techniques for Online Marketers
• Internet Marketing Inc.: Three 2010 SEO Trends to Look Out For: Social Media, Onpage SEO & Link Diversity
• Small Business Trends: SEO Trends to Watch for in 2010
• SEOptimise: 20 SEO New Year’s Resolutions for 2010
• Search Engine Land: 6 New Years Resolutions For In-House SEMs
• Search Engine Journal: 2010: A New Age For Search Marketers
• SEOmoz: 8 Predictions for SEO in 2010
• David Harry: White Coat SEO resolutions for the New Year

Search Marketing/PPC

• Search Engine People: My 3 PPC Resolutions – Why 2010 Will be Defined by Mobile, Facebook and the Website Optimizer
• PPC Without Pity: Three PPC Predictions For 2010
• Search Engine Land: My PPC New Year Resolutions
• Search Engine Watch: Search Marketing 2010: Plan ahead by looking back
• PPC Hero: 5 PPC Resolutions for 2010
• Search Engine Land: Five Search Marketing Predictions For 2010
• Web.com: 5 Pay-Per-Click Trends to Watch in 2010
• Google: Think2010: Personalization and accountability (Google AdWords video series)
• Search Engine Land: 2010 Planning: 3 Tips To Improve Search Results Next Year
• eMarketer: eMarketer Weighs In on 2010: Online Advertising & Usage

Local/Mobile Search

• GigaOM: Will 2010 Finally be the Year of Location?
• Local SEO Guide: Local SEO Predictions 2010
• Mashable: Location, Location, Location: 5 Big Predictions for 2010
• Small Business Trends: Five Can’t-Miss Mobile Marketing Trends For 2010
• Search Engine Land: Predictions For The Changing Local Search Landscape In 2010
• Marketing Charts: Top 10 Wireless Predictions for 2010

Social Media

• Social Media Explorer: Five Things We Should All Do In 2010
• Mashable: Facebook: 5 Predictions for 2010
• ReadWriteWeb: 10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010
• Dan Zarrella: My Predictions for Social Media Marketing in 2010
• DreamGrow Digital: 22 Social Media Marketing Trends for 2010
• Social Media B2B: 11 B2B Social Media Predictions For 2010
• eMarketer: eMarketer Weighs In on 2010 Trends: Social Media & Paid Content
• Search Engine Land: 12 Social Media New Year’s Resolutions For 2010
• 10e20: 6 More Social Media New Year’s Resolutions For 2010
• Harvard Business Review: Six Social Media Trends for 2010
• 451 Marketing: Top Social Media Strategists to Watch in 2010
• SmartBlog on Social Media: Looking ahead to 2010 with Shiv Singh

Video

• Reel SEO: 11 Predictions for the Online Video Industry in 2010
• VidiSEO: 2010 Video Marketing Predictions

Analytics

• Search Engine Land: 5 Web Analytics New Year Resolutions
• Avinash Kaushik: Five Sweet Web Analytics Resolutions To Kick It Up A Notch

General Online Marketing

• Online Marketing Blog: 5 Online Marketing Resolutions for 2010
• Conversation Marketing: 11 internet marketing trends to ignore in 2010
• Search Agents: The Search Agents Predictions for Online Marketing in 2010
• Search Cowboys: Disa Johnson’s 2010 predictions
• Online Marketing Blog: 5 Top Email Marketing Tactics for 2010
• Ad Age: 9 Digital Marketing Mistakes I Won’t Make Next Year
• Hit Search: 43 Internet Marketing predictions for 2010
• MediaPost: 10 Things Changing Marketing In 2010
• Mashable: Marketing in 2010: It’s All About the Data
• Fast Company: 10 Marketing Predictions for 2010
• Search Engine Land: 5 Things On My B2B Wishlist For 2010
• Jeremiah Owyang: 2010 Trends: More Speed and Integration (video)
• eMarketer: Seven Predictions for 2010 from eMarketer’s CEO
• Forrester: 2010: The Year Marketing Dies…
• eMarketer: eMarketer Weighs In on 2010 Trends: UK & Europe
• Online Marketing Blog: SES Chicago: Internet Marketing Tips for 2010
• Web Profits: 2010 Online Marketing Predictions
• Evan Carmichael: The Top 50 Marketing Blogs To Watch in 2010

Miscellaneous

• Small Business Trends: Public Relations Trends for 2010
• Kosmix: Some predictions for 2010
• ineedhits: Our Search Wishlist for 2010
• Small Business Trends: Top Web Design Trends For Small Business In 2010
• John Battelle: Predictions 2010
• PR Squared: 2010 Predictions for Communications
• New York Times: Five Tech Themes for 2010
• TechCrunch: Ten Technologies That Will Rock 2010
• New York Times: Five 2010 Predictions About Tech Companies
• Google Operating System: Predictions for Google’s 2010
• USA Today: Ask an Expert: Top 10 Trends in Small Business for 2010 (Part 1)
• USA Today: Ask an Expert: Top 10 Trends in Small Business for 2010 (Part 2)
• CNN: 2010: Year of digital distraction?
• Web Design Ledger: Web Design Trends for 2010
• iMedia Connection: 9 digital trends to watch in 2010
• Digital Media Buzz: Top Digital Trends For 2010
• CNN: 10 Web trends to watch in 2010
• Trendwatching: 10 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2010

Have a Safe and Successful 2010!

What colors will be used in the design world for marketing in 2010?

Your brand creates an emotion?  The question is, is it the right emotion to positively influence your audience?  The following information will give you some insight as to which colors may work best to achieve your marketing goals through visual communication.

Here’s a list of frequently used colors and what emotions are generally associated with them:

• WHITE – White is associated with innocence, purity, peace and contentment. It’s considered clean and sterile. It’s cool and refreshing. White can have a calming, stabilizing influence.
• BLACK – Black is the ultimate power color.  It suggests strength, potency, authority, boldness, seriousness, stability and elegance. It’s distinguished and classic, great for creating drama. Black has more weight than other colors. Too much can be ominous.
• Gray or Silver – Gray can be associated with conservative qualities and considered traditional. Business-wise, it symbolizes high tech and suggests authority, practicality, earnestness and creativity.
• GOLD – Gold suggests wealth. It’s considered to be very classy.
• BLUE – Blue is the favorite color of many businesses. It suggests sanctuary and fiscal responsibility. It inspires confidence. It is the most popular and second most powerful color. Darker shades are authoritative. Dark and bright blues represent trust, security, faithfulness and dignity. Paler shades can imply freshness and cleanliness, although they can imply weakness.
• RED – Red stimulates many kinds of appetites. Red commands attention, alerts us and creates a sense of urgency. It’s considered the sexiest of all colors. Red symbolizes heat, fire, blood, love, warmth, power, excitement, energy, strength, passion, vitality, risk, danger and aggressiveness. Financially, it’s associated with debt.
• YELLOW – Yellow is the sunshine hue and is a spiritual color. Yellow represents a warning, but it can also bring happiness and warmth. The most preferred yellows are the creamy and warm ones. Bright yellow can be irritable to the eye in large quantities. Yellow speeds metabolism. It’s often used to highlight or draw attention.
• GREEN – People associate green with the color of money, as well as nature. Olive greens are associated with health and freshness — a good choice for environmental concerns. Green suggests fertility, freedom, healing and tranquility. Green represents jealousy. Businesses use it to communicate status and wealth. Green is a calming, refreshing color that is very easy on the eyes.
• BROWN – Brown is associated with nature and the earth. Dark browns represent wood or leather. Brown and shades of cream are associated with warmth and coziness. Brown suggests richness, politeness, helpfulness and effectiveness. It is solid, credible, mature and reliable. Light brown implies genuineness.
• ORANGE – Orange is associated with vibrancy and the tropics, as well as warmth and contentment. It can instill a sense of fun and excitement. It implies health. It suggests pleasure, cheer, endurance, generosity and ambition. It can make an expensive product seem more affordable. It appeals to a wide range of people, both male and female.
• PINK – Pink is considered to be a very feminine color. It represents gentleness, romance, well being and innocence.
• PURPLE – Purple represents royalty and luxury. In darker shades, it’s considered a wealthy color. It suggests spirituality and sophistication. In paler shades, such as lavender, it’s feminine and romantic.

When choosing your color choices for your next graphic design project, make sure you consider your marketing goals and the emotion you want your audience to experience.

link to original post

So well done I had to share…Hope you guys enjoyed it!

The next was a post I came across was by internet marketing guru Seth Godin.  It was very short, but pro-found, so I decided to post it below:

I’ve attended lots of internet industry conferences around the country such as Search Engine Strategies in San Jose, Search Marketing Expo in New York and Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas.  At these conferences I’ve listened to, interacted and built relationships with top thought leaders in the internet space.  Through my research and interactions I believe this image is one of the best depictions of what it takes to dominate the search engines.  The image was put together by Matt McGee of SmallBusinessSEM.com:

Utilizing the various aspects of the SEO pyramid properly will absolutely bring you success on the search engines.  However it takes time, commitment and lots of effort to implement.  Also keep in mind that if internet marketing is not your core competency there can be a large learning curve which can be quite costly.  You can learn from your mistakes, but it is best to hire someone who has experience in the field that can help your business get the results your seeking.  If you’re interested in taking advantage of SEO, social media marketing or lead generation services to grow your business leave me a comment or drop me a line at david [at] abco-solutions.com and I’d be happy to chat with you about your online success.

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