Well it has been a long time coming. I have finally gotten off of my duff and am going to start targeting keywords in my local niche. What I mean by this is to rank #1 or thereabouts for keywords in my surrounding area. Part of what I do is to help local businesses rank for keywords in their respective niches. Say a brick company in Fargo wants to rank for Fargo Brick, I would help that to happen. In the process of ranking others for more niche keywords, I haven’t been working on my own niche as much as I should. So words like SEO Fargo and Marketing Fargo have been neglected by me. So, don’t be surprised if over the next few months I drop a few of these words into my posts from time to time.

Now, just because I have decided to start conquering my own local niche more doesn’t mean I will stop working larger keyword terms. I am calling this my Fargo Marketing campaign. The goal is to dominate my local niche and expand from there.

In case you are wondering, there is a huge void in the middle of our country for people who know search engine marketing or comprehend how to rank sites to #1 in the respective niches. I am going to try my best to take as much of that market as I can while the gettin is still good.

Of course, all of this takes time and I am not expecting to rank for Marketing Fargo the very first week I try, but you never know in a month or two. Along with ranking for keyword terms I am increasing my public exposure to local business people. This week I will be speaking at the Fargo Moorhead Lodging Association meeting on the topic of Embracing Technology. Boy do I have a surprise for them. That is if I can get it put together in time for the meeting . If not I will still be talking about increasing their exposure to the digital world and different ways to embrace it. I hope to record the speaking and post it here so you can critique it for me. I hope to not disappoint.

If you are interested in having me speak to your company, group or organization, visit my media page for more information. I am willing to travel out of the Fargo area.

Another thing I will be helping to increase is local blogger / twitter interaction. Last Saturday we had the first blogger meetup and the second tweetup (the day before) in Fargo / Moorhead. I will post the video below of some of the people saying hi. Hopefully next time the tweeters and bloggers can coordinate the next meeting. We had a few people travel about 150 miles to Fargo (really cool of them). Also here was the list of those in attendance. If you are in the Fargo / Moorhead area you should definitely add them to whatever communication medium you prefer.

Blogger / Twitter Meetup Attendees:

@therealjosh
@bonnyface
@cbensen
@fmsphotography
@magicderivative
@kalyke
@epizoic
@mpool
@jeffspad

The best business model meshes the best of online with offline. By finding a unique and interesting way to combine the best of both worlds, you will succeed in both.

The ultimate way to mesh online business and offline business it to have a product or idea that can flow between the two. A family friend of ours owns the Mt. Shasta View souvenir shop in Weed, CA. The funny thing about this shop is the merchandise the store sells. Located at the foot of Mt. Shasta in Northern California, Weed was named after a timber baron, Abner Weed. Nowadays the use of the word “weed” is more often than not associated with marijuana. Needless to say, the town of Weed has a lot of jokes surrounding it. Back to my friends shop.

This store has been in business selling souvenirs for about 60 years. I am also willing to bet that some of the best selling t-shirts were created not long after. As of lately, they have started moving their tangible business from the store in Weed more online. Sales have been trickling in from all over the country. My guess is that most of the sales have resulted in some potheads finding the site after searching for different t-shirts on Google. Now this is an instance of a “real world” business making its way online and growing even more.

The million dollar question is how do you take your online business and incorporate both businesses and people offline? As I was flying to Washington State yesterday it occurred to me that probably the easiest solution is through the use of business cards. What if you had not only a business card, but a business card with value attached to it? What if your card had $500 off first-time Internet business consulting? This would convey that not only do you do consulting, but that you also must be doing a good job to deliver $500 off. Make sure to express that this only works by having the business card. Now that card becomes something of value and worth. Who loses something worth $500 bucks, right?

Now if you know how to hold someones attention by getting them to see that you have a skill that they like, and they have a need you can fill, you are on the right track. They have your card in hand and wont easily lose it, knowing that it is worth $500. Perhaps, to make it even more dramatic don’t have the discount printed on the card, but rather, lay out a line that you enjoyed their time and their company and write the discount out on the card before handing it to them.

I recently talked about the 3 steps to building a successful blog, and most of that is centered around good content and building your community. I have been blogging for just over 3 months now and in the blogosphere, that is roughly the equivalent of being an adolescent. Now I am going to sound like the Miss USA winner here and thank everyone who helped to build my blog and my community. So without further adieu, here are all of the people who have contributed to my blog. Drum roll, please!

Lindsay LUCKYLADY Robert cash boy Rachel Janet Jeannine Blake blogzilla Ty Hurd aeirin tyclayhope Tawna MarketingDeviant Joe Lundell wyche128 Ten Things Mark tazdog Susie Theresa laketrees Max Shanker Bakshi Gaje Master Mike Huang RPM Millionaire ravi karandeekar Ramona Iftode wtricks.com Filipino in Canada AdJingo Margaret BigPappa emarketed Aromatherapy Essential Oils Diane Jena Isle Louie Laurent Larry Brauner Metroknow – AlmostFit.com boris Michael Aulia Andy The Realtor – Cecilia kent Tom Chetan Adam Ruchit Surati MAGGIE AT COFFEESHOPMAFIA RegretfulMorning Robert MacEwan tony dee Jake Loraleigh Vance aliman Melo steve vladi Felix Mrs. Mecomber Deimos Tel`Arin Bryan Adrian Corscadden Jason Zedomax guinness416 Richard Dawn @ Coming to a Nursery Near You Chelle Cynthia Blue theaffiliatepost androo SiteHoppers Popular Wealth baldeagle kgaihc Rob Schultz Townboy danandmarsh Eric P. Martin Dave from Welcome Back Rosenthal Dennis Edell Shravan Jonathon Diane Scott guardian angel CindyS Justin JTPratt’s Blogging Mistakes arnold mikey777 Cassie Alfred Saforo Luke Ian Mandi BoBo Roxiticus Desperate Housewives Blue Licorice Jeff Millman Reena waterrose Jodith Marty ksc7 Sean Buvala curryegg Debt Free Revolution nabinkm Nicola Pedley Bill Stanley Wade Balsdon Saphrym Patsy ( Patricia Sawyer) Luke Charles NaijaEcash Jasko Karlonia Matt Ellsworth Carlo Dette Beth Amber W Scott Pooler jtrigsby.com MindBlogger Curt jamesd Ben Health Is Wealth Miranda ideasandmoney Cynthia Susie B Carter Mark stewartallyn Lafeeu John Lockwood John Bougearel Jeff Millman Sue Mrs. Mecomber Brazen Lass Crystal Chris Moran Brian Fitzpatrick Gary R. Hess issa Woody Morrisah Spears ukion Adam Doolittle A. Tim PinoyProducts 1 Million in 365 Day Enchanted Crafts Mike Roo Stewart Schatz Susie Octavia Zopito DiGiovanni Robert MacEwan Shaun Jacob Share Coop Jon Christensen Tina Su – Think Simple Now Amy Shane Lowry PinoyProducts Kimberly Clay heidi ATV Style Jackie Matt Marty ATV Urge TL money making blogger Nikolai Shanker Bakshi StanHayes sukosaki Frank Kanu Ohio Realtor WillThink4Wine David TYPELiFE JoNathan Blogsters Guild Look 4 Dream Girls Reward Rebel

If you are wondering if I copied and pasted all of those links and name the answer is yes. These are all of the people who have commented on my blog in the last 100 days or so. I would also like to thank everyone who subscribed to my RSS feed. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Kiss, wave, kiss, wave. Now all the world needs in a few more puppies to give a way.