Times have changed and the meaning of what is classified as “a hard day at work” has changed as well. I just read a great post by Seth Godin about the true meaning of hard work these days. Times have definitely changed in the work environment. It used to be that hard work meant plowing the farmland in the hot sun for 12 hours a day, or working at a factory producing machinery parts. Nowadays, hard work for a lot of people means taking creative and personal career risks to get ahead. Can you compare taking a risk at your job to a 12 hour day of plowing the fields? I think it’s probably comparing apples to oranges. It’s not that we don’t work hard these days…just in a different way.

I find this kind of insight fascinating as I grow my company. I’m so glad that I decided to take risks in my career. Starting my own business has been one of the hardest jobs I have ever had but I love what I do and I know that I’m helping my clients grow in the process which makes my job so rewarding. The one thing I have learned is no matter what your job is, unless you take some kind of action, you won’t get anywhere.

I’d like to leave you all with a little quote.

“In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing,
the next best thing is the wrong thing,
and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)
26th president of the United States

Happy Labor Day Folks!

Arguably one of the most important things to an online marketing campaign is to have some goals in place. I think that figuring out what goals to focus on can be the hardest part sometimes. Tracking them is the easy part. Here are a few ways you can start tracking some of your goals using Google Analytics.

Goal Funnels and Funnel Visualization:
Setting up funnels for goals and watching the visitor patterns in those funnels can help us see if people are doing what we would like them to do on the site.
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Okay, the title of this post is a bit harsh but it got your attention didn’t it? This is the first in a series of posts answering some relatively basic SEO questions that people typically get confused by. The questions are actually not that stupid, they are common misconceptions about how search engines work.

Today’s question is: What’s worse…duplicate content from within your own site or duplicate content from other sites?

The person asking this question wants to know if having duplicate content on pages within your own site is better or worse than stealing content from other sites and putting it on your site. This is like asking, what’s worse, a broken radiator or a broken transmission? Obviously, both are equally as bad, in different ways.
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Every once in a while, you come across a business name that just leaves your head shaking. Whether the name chosen is a really poor play on words, really hard to spell and thusly, find, or infringes on someone else’s trademarked name, bad decisions are made all the time when naming businesses.

This all took on new meaning in the 90’s when domain names started to pick up popularity and you had another issue to worry about, how well your business name translates online. Take for example, a local Chicago favorite, George’s Hot Dogs. They are celebrating 60 years this year, so they have definitely done something right, but with their new website, George’s Hot Dogs (www.georgeshotdogs.com) looks a lot like George Shot Dogs when you look at the domain name!

Obviously this one is tough to plan ahead for when you’ve been in business that long, but without a doubt something you want to keep in mind for future business endeavors.

What types of business names have you seen lately that have made you laugh or think twice?