Internet Marketing Blog
To He Who Said It Couldn't Be Done...
| May 19, 2013Somebody said that it couldn't be done, But, he with a chuckle replied That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one Who wouldn't say so till he tried."
Business Wisdom from the Farm: Planting Season
| May 14, 2013If I were forced to either forget everything I learned in college, OR forget everything I learned on the farm as a child, I wouldn't think twice. Early lessons on the farm were far more valuable.
Things that seemed like common sense as a kid now seem profound. Here's a simple example.
Spire Leads Branding Project for Catalyst Life Services
| May 1, 2013Over the past 18 months, we've had the great privilege of working with The Center For Individual and Family Services Catalyst Life Services.
How Does Facebook Affect Your REAL LIFE Social Network?
| May 1, 2013I just had a revelation. I realized that my network of close personal friendships -- the people my wife and I spend time with in our local community -- has been altered over the years by our exposure on Facebook.
2 Workshops in 2 Days
| April 15, 2013On Thursday and Friday, we offered two all-day workshops for some of our Spire customers.
Is the Firefox Update causing problems with PDFs? Here's how to fix it!
| March 19, 2013Recently we have been getting some phone calls about the new version of Firefox not playing nice. One of the complaints has been that when you try to view a PDF file from
Two Customer Training Intensives are Better than One...
| March 9, 2013Our next Customer Training Intensive is scheduled for April. And as we were putting it together, we were inspired to offer two completely separate events, for two different groups of customers.
What's Happening on Your Website?
| February 26, 2013Every day you have people looking at your website - but what are they doing? Here are some important questions you CAN and SHOULD answer. They will help you find out if you are connecting with your visitors
Spire is Hiring Spring/Summer Programming Paid Internship
| February 25, 2013The lead programmer at Spire is seeking a skilled student (probably a computer science major) with experience in programming for a Spring / Summer Paid Internship opportunity here at Spire's headquarters
Facebook Graph Search: A Marketing Gem, Albeit Creepy
| February 20, 2013Last month, Facebook announced a new feature called "Graph Search." You'll see it on your Facebook page soon. There's already a lot of info out there about the new Graph Search. But it's the features hidden under the surface that has great potential for marketers.
Google Remarketing: It Works, Even When it Doesn't.
| February 7, 2013In a session at our last Spire Customer Training Intensive, I showed customers how a new under-utilized strategy in the Google Display Network called Remarketing could be beneficial, even for smaller businesses with small budgets. I'm not going to re-hash my presentation here, but this video shows the results of a short, very small experiment we did on this website.
Help Wanted: Expectations Manager
| January 31, 2013I have many titles at Spire. Sales Director, Marketing Consultant, Client Representative. They are all correct in many ways. But, none quite right. What I really do is...
5 most Common SpireCMS Questions
| January 16, 2013As a Spire Customer Service Representative, I get a lot of questions everyday on how to use SpireCMS. So to help with these questions, I decided to make up a few quick videos.
Do You Want Short-Term Patches or Long-Term Sustenance?
| December 26, 2012If given the choice, would you take $10,000 today, or $500/month for the rest of your life? While logic tells us to take the ongoing payments -- studies have consistently shown that most people are prone to take what they can get RIGHT NOW, ignoring the added long-term benefits that come from waiting.
How One Snowball Brought 9,000 Visitors To My Website...
| December 17, 2012Three winters ago, I sat down at my desk to write a blog post. I had a million things to do, and it felt like a waste of time. After days of setting it aside to do other things that were more urgent, I finally finished it and stuck it on the website.
Thank You, Zig Ziglar!
| December 3, 2012Zig Ziglar passed away last week, at the age of 86. One can only wish to leave such a mark on the landscape of the world he loved, as did he. When I entered the sales wo
An interview with a local blogger who knows his stuff.
| November 28, 2012In early November I taught a seminar on social media and blogging at the Ashland Chamber Business Expo. The session included an interview with a "virtual guest" -- Jon Nicol.
What Do You Expect?
| November 20, 2012Have you ever eaten food just because you felt like you should? Of course you have. We all have. Maybe you're just not hungry...nothing looks appetizing... you could be doing something else...but it's time to eat. So we eat. Three meals a day whether you need it or not. It's just what you do.
Your Customers Have Forever Changed (Video)
| November 14, 2012Here's a short excerpt from my presentation at the Spire Customer Training Intensive. I talked about how your customers have changed -- and how it has nothing to do with the economy.
It's on the Website.
| October 1, 2012Make sure your website is creating enthusiasm. Then, YOU make the sale.
5 Relatively Simple Ways to Improve Local Search Results
| September 5, 2012Today I'm going to share 5 things you can do to improve your visibility in the search engines with local searchers.
7 Tips on How to Write a Blog Post
| September 4, 2012You've heard that writing blog posts is essential to the health of your website. Here are helpful tips for writing a blog post that gets results...
Talk to Me!
| August 30, 2012Every Thursday morning, every week of the month, every month of the year, I meet with my referral group. We are group of business men and women who each take sixty seconds to explain to the rest of the group something new and interesting about us. So, each week, I speak about internet marketing. Same 26 people. Same 26 businesses. Over and over and over again. Here's the payoff...
Optimizing Your Website for Local Google Searchers
| August 13, 2012Are your customers local? Is the majority of your audience within a certain driving distance of your place(s) of business? Locally-focused businesses have never had more leverage in search engines like Google.
Creating Valuable Landing Pages that Compel Visitors to Act
| August 2, 2012This morning I was teaching a seminar, and I was showing examples of landing pages where companies offer something of value in exchange for a name and email address.
New Habits, New Results
| July 26, 2012If you do the same things today, you’re going to get the same results today. Not necessarily good or bad, but "the same."
Website Copywriting: How to Write Copy for SEO
| July 24, 2012We want you to write great content that gets results. This article will teach you how to write copy that search engines love, without losing sight of your readers.
Video: Multiplying Website Traffic with Archived Content
| July 13, 2012Have you ever written content on your website and wondered if anybody is actually looking at it? This video will show you a mistake that 86% of businesses make. Fix it on your website, and you could see a significant increase in traffic. This video will show you how it works.
First impressions using Pinterest...
| July 5, 2012Today I FINALLY setup my page on As I knew already, the Pinterest userbase is dominated by females. I knew it was used primarily by women, but I was struck by just how
