Gallup released their 2011 Retail Sales forecast for the holiday shopping season. They project, based on their historical data, “a modest increase in 2011 holiday retail sales, perhaps on the order of 3% to 4%.”  Given that the holiday shopping season is about to begin I thought this chart on retail sales from BusinessInsider.com would be appropriate.

While Retail Sales levels have fallen off their highs (roughly 11% below peak levels) they are at 1998 levels.  I show the below chart simply to reflect on a few things:

1. While the economy has slowed it didn’t crash.
2. The economy has rebounded nicely from recent lows.
3. Consumers and businesses have been reducing their debt levels so sales are down.

The bottom line is that consumers will always buy items that their children want.  The key ingredient is stimulating demand and making a product a “must have” where the real or perceived benefits far outweigh the cost or where the product / service appears “best in class.”

Dan

via: Small Business Employment, Compensation, Hours Worked All Up in September 2011 [INFOGRAPHIC]

To Your Success,

Dan Ross

I am going to test out posting to WordPress via an IPhone and the app they have in the App Store. I would love to post audio clips but only pictures and video uploads are offered at this time via the app.

Below is the Frisco, Texas Best Buy store with their construction underway inside.

They are shrinking their retail store size given the changing consumer tastes & industry changes like Apple stores, digital downloads (Ex: ITunes, Spotify, Pandora & Netflix) & Amazon Prime accounts.

I hope the pic below (taken with an Iphone4) comes through well! My goal is to iterate, iterate & iterate more until I find a mix of creating/posting that provides greater frequency and the same value to the 2000 + readers out there!

The following Cinchcast was created the same night I scheduled this blog post. It could have posted to Twitter that night if I wanted it to.  This is just another way to create content and then post it to a WordPress Blog.  In this case, I am commenting about the above photo.

Here is another method.  Create the audiocast via Cinchcast and then DOWNLOAD the audio mp3 (5 minutes for free) and then upload that audio to the blog.  What are your thoughts? Which method of audio posting do you prefer? I’d love to hear down below in the comments.

New Media Content Consumption and The Impact to Best Buy.

Here is the above audio file but posted to WordPress as an MP3 file.  What are your thoughts? Which method of audio posting do you prefer? I’d love to hear down below in the comments.

New Media Content Creation and Best Buy Model Impact

The downSide to this blog post…. While I was able to quickly create and post information to the blog with a picture all the SEO details, meta keywords, meta description, etc. wasn’t an option since I am using the Thesis Framework to customize my Meta Data and SEO information. If I had was using an SEO plugin alot of this information could have been automatically created for me and posted “into the wild” immediately. Just something to think about. Tomorrow I’ll post some SEO plugins that have come highly recommended to me over the last year. I think you will find one or two you haven’t heard of before that might add value to your website / blog.

To Your Success,

Dan Ross

The traditional sales process is:

1) Find a customer need / desire

2) Show prospects your solution to that need / desire

3) Take payment

Increasingly businesses have the capacity to make sales “on the go” our outside of their normal place of businesses. Cab drivers, chauffeurs, flea markets, consultants, professional event photographers, etc are just a few businesses that could optimally implement mobile payment solutions.  The possibilities are HUGE.

My driver in Tampa Bay Florida accepted Square payments as a form of payment. Below is the picture of his car and the Square logo on the window. I posted it to Instagram the day I saw it.

Square Mobile Payment Processing

The below infographic from MobilePaymentsToday.com highlights some of the various mobile payment solutions that exist and how they change the traditional payment process for customers and businesses.

Source: MobilePaymentsToday.com

To Your Success,
Dan Ross

WordPress San Francisco

I’ve been in San Francisco the last four days learning more about WordPress, the software that powers my website and millions of others.  Since my wife designs websites for her clients exclusively on WordPress these days we felt attending WordPress San Francisco would be a great escape from the 30 consecutive days of 100 degree Fahrenheit weather we have endured this summer in Dallas.

What is unique about WordPress San Francisco, with the exception of the beautiful 65 degree weather, is that the event is HEAVILY influenced by Auttomatic, the company that publishes the open source WordPress platform.  There were DOZENS of Auttomatic employees in attendance and many spoke throughout the weekend, giving tons of useful advice on the software platform and how people could maximize the benefits from using the CMS (content management software) platform.  I’ll be posting some of the presentations that I feel could be of immense value to SMB owners over the next week or so.  Yesterday I posted a great presentation that discussed how to make your website multilingual by Shannon Smith of Cafe Noir Designs (Montreal Canada).  Tomorrow’s article will be about How to Maximize the SEO benefits from Your WordPress Blog.

WordPress Statistics

Here are a few big takeaways I had from Matt Mullenweg’s “State of the Word 2011″ presentation he made.

• WordPress designers are averaging $56 per hour and $50 as a median value per hour.  Stay tuned to the website and Twitter feed for updates as Auttomatic (aka WordPress) will be providing everyone with the datasets once they remove all the personal information from the dataset. They stated they will provide country information, time submitted, city information, etc.  The interesting statistic I want to know is “What is the average wage per hour in the United States?” I have a gut feeling it is closer to $75 to $100 an hour.
• WordPress accounted for 8.5% of all website domains a year ago and today that number is approximately 14.5%.  <–That data counts WordPress.com as one installation so it is likely understated.
• WordPress continues to gain market acceptance / traction, accounting for 22% of new website installations.
• The most commonly quoted reason people use WordPress, according to their recent poll, was “Ease of Use.”

Without spewing out tons of all the factoids I’ll let you watch Matt’s (@PhotoMatt On Twitter) entire presentation for tons of additional WordPress Statistics / Facts in the below presentation. I hope you enjoy the video!

If your business website is currently in Joomla and not in WordPress I’ll just add that the SEO benefits of WordPress alone are enough of a reason to jump over.  That is why most of the leading internet marketers pretty much exclusively utilize WordPress these days.

To your success,

Dan Ross

Does your website need to be multilingual? Do you do commerce in multiple countries?

I recently attended WordCamp San Francisco and saw this great presentation from Shannon Smith of CafeNoirDesign, a website designer from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Shannon has to design websites that are multilingual as Canada is a very bilingual country. Heck, I know that in Montreal they have laws specifying that the French has to be larger than the English on their street signs!

In the presentation below Shannon shares a bunch of tips for those thinking about deploying multilingual sites. Here in the U.S., English / Spanish websites are increasingly more common and, as a result, I think alot of website owners in the Southern U.S. should take a look at these tips.

Personal Factoid: I am a Canadian-born U.S. Citizen (born in Montreal) and I live in Dallas, Texas where Spanish is heavily spoken. While I only speak English fluently I see these needs rising each and every year. I hope everyone enjoys the presentation as much as I did.

Dan Ross

Looking to have some fun with your Twitter profile this weekend? Are you curious as to how your Twitter profile statistics compare to your closest competitor? How about creating your first Infographic?

There is a company called http://Visual.ly that will enable you to create your own Twitter InfoGraphic (solo or compared to another Twitter user) with tons of different looks / variations.  You can even create infographics using random Twitter IDs.  I’ve created two samples below in case you want to see what they look like

What excites me about http://Visual.ly is that, over time, they will be adding additional datasets and then people / businesses will be able to create additional infographics based on those datasets. Today it costs $2000 to $3000 to create an infographic for a brand or company by most well known designers.  If the infographics you can create using Visual.ly look half as good as the Twitter Visualization graphics below I think you want to have this business tool on your radar.

Why would a business want an infographic in the first place?

• Old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” – Pictures help people understand concepts quickly.
• If the infographic has an “embed code” where other websites / bloggers can copy / paste the infographic onto their website it can lead to “SEO Juice” and helping a website gain authority in its market niche.
• Infographics, when shared on other sites, can lead to viral traffic growth and market exposure.  This can lead to mainstream media coverage.
• Infographics may motivate readers to dive further into the article or post to find out more.

10 Awesome Free Tools To Make Infographics http://t.co/BlJdjnD via @makeuseof

August 12, 2011 3:44 pm via Tweet ButtonReplyRetweetFavorite

@BetterBizIdeas

Dan Ross

To Your Business Success,

Dan Ross

Last Friday the U.S. released its employment numbers. In their numbers the government basically illustrated that the economic recovery from the 2008 financial crisis is very slow when compared to previous economic recoveries.  While big corporations are seeing their sales and profits improve workers aren’t getting hired, unemployment remains high and the average duration of unemployment continues to be at record levels. The below chart from http://BusinessInsider.com illustrates that!

Given the above observations I thought the infographic below, from http://MindFlash.com, was highly relevant. If you are a business owner I thought this infographic might provide some insights as to how you could utilize social media to screen employees. The obvious goal is to hire great employees and avoid prospects that might be problematic down the road (drug use as an obvious concern).  As an employee or jobseeker the goal is to get a job and keep a job so employees need to understand how companies are utilizing social media to screen employees.

Social Media Screening Infographic by Mindflash.com

To your success,

Dan Ross

I was surprised that my Google Adwords article was so well received with over 90 + retweets.  Clearly people are interested in Google and how companies are making money online.

In today’s article I want to share some charts / graphs that I think every business owner should know. They show how some leading technology companies make their money and how the Internet and web usage is changing very quickly, impact business owners in the process. I have provided some comments regarding each chart below.  The charts are provided by BusinessInsider.com, one of three websites I read every day. The other two would be Mashable.com and TechCrunch.com.  I read more sites but some I can only get to weekly like Entrepreneur.com, Fortune.com, CNNmoney.com, etc.

How Microsoft Makes Their Money - They are being attacked on multiple fronts via new competitors (operating system via Ipad / cell phones / Chromebook) and via their MS Office products) so their business is more exposed to negative implications than ever.  The key point is that innovation never stops and that competition in the technology space is fierce.  What potential implications could this have on their product development over the next 5-10 years? Businesses have to plan

What Products Is Apple Selling? - Notice how the Ipad has quickly grown in importance? They have truly been an innovator and their stock price reflects this.  Innovators are rewarded today more than ever.

Facebook’s Effect on U.S. Web Use - Facebook is Up HUGE But The Rest Of The Web Is Down! Facebook Has Attracted Consumer Eyeballs and Advertisers Like to Sell Against Those Eyeballs. This further supports my comments made in the Google AdWords Article.

People Are Spending More Time In Mobile Apps Than On The Web – As I commented yesterday smartphones are quickly emerging as a competitive threat to Google and their Adwords revenue stream so they bought the company that developed the Android operating system.  Their goal is to sell advertising against as many of the applications and websites as they can where people spend their time.

Great Ideas Float To The Top - The Huffington Post Gets More Page Views Than The New York Times! Who would have ever imagined this happening?

Where LinkedIn’s Revenue Comes From (PRE-IPO Days) - I haven’t seen this chart updated since LinkedIn announced their earnings last week.  I’ll update it as soon as I get new data. LinkedIn recently deployed website functionality so people can apply for jobs via using a LinkedIn button on a company’s website.  Instead of having to manually enter tons of information already available on their LinkedIn profile they can use their LinkedIn profile to apply directly for the job or to autopopulate various HR / recruiting tools. The goal is to get more qualified candidates to apply for jobs through reducing the amount of time it takes to apply for a job.

To your success,

Dan Ross

I’ve been trying to learn more about video creation, editing and marketing over the last few years.  Over the next few days I’ll share some tips, tools and resources I have discovered in the last two years.

Today I’d like to share with you a great presentation that was presented by YouTube at the VidCon conference in LA in late July 2011.  This conference is ideal for YouTube video creators and in the presentation YouTube shared tons of great content, ideas and tips for people wanting to create better videos and get more “views” for each video created.

If you are looking to get serious about video marketing I encourage you to flip through this presentation.

To your success,

Dan Ross

Next week I am going to share some tips, tools and resources surrounding Google’s + Social network.  Are you on the Google + network?  If you want to be here is an invite.  I think I have about 140 or so left but they are going fast!

Today I share with you an infographic that describes how Google actually makes their money.  While Google gets all the buzz these days about their Google + social network and Android handset sales lets remember that advertising represents 97% of Google’s revenue.  Google is launching their Google + social network and giving away the Android software to mobile handset companies so that Google can stay relevant and protect their advertising revenue as ENORMOUS shifts occur in the advertising space.  What changes you ask?

1. We have the migration from desktop computing to mobile computing.  Lots of advertising will happen on mobile devices (tablets / phones) moving forward.  Google wants to make sure they have access to that potential advertising audience and doesn’t get “boxed out” by Apple.  I’ll share some eye opening stats with you tomorrow on this.  Stay tuned for updates via Twitter and by subscribing to the blog here via RSS or email.
2. Facebook marked a HUGE change in advertising.  They have tons of demographic information on every user (age, sex, colleges attended, ‘likes’, hobbies and interests, etc).  Advertisers want to be able to target VERY specific groups and Google can’t offer that today.  With the Google + network they hope to build such a repository of information so that they can then sell advertising against this information across Google’s various products (email, YouTube, network usage, etc).

Are you using Google’s Adsense or AdWords programs?  If you notice the below infographic Google is selling over $32 BILLION (with a B) in advertising each year. If you aren’t learning about these tools as a business owner then you are unfortunately falling behind. I need to note that research is required because these sites can send you TONS of traffic but you can waste large amounts of money without proper advertising campaigns.

WordStream, a premium keyword tool used by many Internet Marketers, created an infographic that shows the 20 most expensive keywords in Google AdWords.  Most businesses utilize these keyword tools to find cheaper keywords in their market niche and also to optimize their SEO results in “longtail” keyword searches.  Two other solutions are Google’s keyword tool (FREE) and Market Samurai, another premium paid tool used by Internet Marketers and heavily promoted by Ed Dale’s “30 Day Challenge.”

I’ve heard good comments about both premium tools so they might be worth checking out if you are looking for new keywords in your market niche.  Both tools offer free trials that are worth researching further after you have utilized Google’s keyword tool to determine effective keywords in your market niche.

To your business success!

Dan Ross

January 2010: Google ran their first Superbowl advertisement.  Below is the video they ran.

In April 2010 Google announced the creation of their  “Search Story”  ” video creation tool whereby they have given people and businesses a tool to create their own, unique story, using Google services like web search results, Google image results, Google Maps, Google News, blog and product searches.  The goal was to enable businesses to quickly and efficiently create their own video “search story” that could then be uploaded onto YouTube, another Google-owned website.

How can your business utilize this tool to enhance your brand and reinforce your authority in the marketplace?

Below is a sample video that does just that.

What does the above video show?

1. The video shows Google displaying her as Dallas’ favorite bellydancer, enhancing her authority.
2. The video shows numerous #1 Google rankings for keywords in her niche versus her competition.
3. The video shows her monthly “Dallas Harem Nite” event (community event) that will keep their customer, Stratos Greek Taverna, happy.  Everyone likes free and positive advertising, right?

Now that you have seen the above example do you want to create your own “Google Search Stories” video?

A few tips:

• How do your customers find you on Google?  What keywords / phrases?
• If you are a business, have you created a Google Places location?  They show really nice in the “Google Search Stories videos.”
• Eventually Google will enable SMBs to create “pages” on their new Google+ network so stay tuned to Google’s blog for that announcement.
• Have any other tips / recommendations for people creating “search story videos?”  If so, post them below in the comments!

To your business success,

Dan Ross