A good portion of our blog readers are small business owners looking to grow their business by expanding their online efforts, or just getting started with their online efforts.
Obviously we think this is extraordinary, as we are essentially doing the same thing, and learning as we go. When we started launching the online side to our businesses, we realized pretty quickly we needed to learn more about Internet Marketing, and specifically more about SEO. We started reading SEO blogs, found all kinds of research tools, and as you all know eventually developed SoloSEO, which then brought on even more questions on what to do to market SoloSEO. At that time we wisely hired Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim fame as a consultant, and it was money very well spent. We learned much from Andy, and were introduced to many brilliant SEO minds, one of those was Aaron Wall while we were attending PubCon last year. Aaron leaves quite an impression. I still diligently read both Marketing Pilgrim and Aaron Wall’s blog daily, I suggest everyone should.
Today Aaron Wall has taken time, and probably too much time, to put together and post what I am going to term an impressive, semi-comprehensive overview of all things online marketing (he left SoloSEO out, but that is why it is only a semi-comprehensive overview 
). He has presented this overview in a Mind Map format, and it is huge, I mean goliath, mammoth, ginormous big. I will warn you, if you are just getting started with online marketing, I would avoid viewing the mind map, it might scare you away from online marketing for good (But please keep it in mind, and perhaps visit it at a later date). It would be similar to giving a CPA exam to someone who just majored in English, not good. I consider myself to have slightly better than average intelligence, I have an undergrad Economics degree, an MBA, and am working on my dissertation for my Ph.D in Organizational Management, so I have seen some stuff, but Aaron’s mind map thing is just mind boggling, I feel dumb. 
After looking the mind map over, and eventually regaining my senses, I eased back into “chunking” through my daily blog reads and came across Seth Godin’s reaction to Aaron’s Mind Map. I must say, few can say it as eloquently as Seth often does, and what Seth states here is perfect. Aaron’s Mind Map is essentially an online marketing check list, it is a really big check list, but a checklist nonetheless. I very much enjoyed Seth’s closing paragraph, as he states,
“Three we can handle. Three is manageable and memorable and actionable. Give me three things and I can find a place for them in my brain. Each of those three things can probably have three subthings if you like. And then, at least for now, that’s it.”
I personally prefer just one thing at a time, but I am a simple-minded boy.
The message to all those getting started with online marketing. Don’t get overwhelmed, it really isn’t as hard as it may look at times. Bite size the process. Start small, work on a few things, just get online. Then we can work on keywords, links and content, then we can analyze the online competitive market you will function within, then, little by little, we can make good progress. We must remember that we have business to run, which have done well all this time without being online, and they must continue to do well. Online marketing can really bolster what we have created, but it can’t replace it entirely, it shouldn’t. Treat your online marketing efforts as just another must do on your must do list, we all have them. We must watch our cash flow, must keep inventory levels maintained, must get the invoices out, must pay the employees, must work on collections, must pay our taxes, etc. And we now must must spend time getting our site online, and then we must work to make our site relevant.
Ahhh… now I am off for a nap, that mind map has my mind all lost.
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