Familiarity Breeds Empowerment

I have been thinking lately about the barriers to online marketing for those who have or want to have businesses. A good friend of mine started all of this ruminating I’ve been doing when she told me she wants to sell something that lets her use her creative talents, but she doesn’t want to market her business online. She currently sells multicore processors for a living, so I was a little surprised. I guess I assumed she would at least be open to the idea of selling online. But, I don’t think she trusts it. She’s wary of having her privacy breached. She thinks the online shopping experience leaves a lot to be desired as opposed to having the item right there in front of you. And, really, she is just not familiar with what online marketing is all about.

I think that happens a lot. Whether it’s someone new to online marketing or search engine optimization or anything else—a lack of familiarity can make it more difficult to begin anything. I can’t help but think that if my friend just knew more about the potential and the basics, she would at least entertain the option. How many people who now thrive online once felt confused by terms like organic search, search engine spiders, keywords, optimized content, meta tags, title tags and quality links?

In my opinion, familiarity breeds empowerment. It starts with having access to experts or resources that make it easy to understand new terms, new industries, strange practices, technical complexities.

Maybe my friend will find ways to build her dream business without going online. If so, more power to her. But I would love for her to be able to choose a broader target market if she wants to. There are lots of great resources that explain the basics about getting online and what you can do to get an online business found. Maybe I’ll just be the pest she’ll thank later and send a few resources her way. You never know!

If you know someone—or are someone—who is thinking about building an online business, you can familiarize yourself with some basic terms and concepts with this free white paper. Select the link below and get more empowered.

Getting Found Online - SEO Guide (more)

Focus on search engine optimization (SEO) results and get essential tips to help you make your website more naturally visible to search engines like Google® and Yahoo®.