Want to help people find your business? Embedding a Google Map on your website is quick and painless. Just follow the steps below.

Creating Your Custom Map:

1. Go to maps.google.com. 
2. Sign in to Google. If you don't have an account you can sign up here.
3. On the left hand side of your screen click on My places.
4. Click on Create Map. Give your map a Title and Description, and make sure to leave your map listed as Public. I'm going to title my map Element 74 Headquarters and give it a description of Birthplace of Great Thinking Websites.
5. Up in the search bar type the Address of the place that you want to add to the map and then press Search.





6. On the left hand side of the search in the description area cilck Save to map and then choose the map you wish to save this address to from the drop down.





7. Click My places to go back to your maps, and select the map you just created.
8. Click on the hyperlink chain and then copy the code under Paste HTML to embed in website.
9. Now, if you don't like the way your map looks you have some custom options. I think ours is zoomed in too close, so I am going to click on Customize and preview embedded map. A new window pops up where I have the ability to change the size of the map, positioning and zoom level. I just want to zoom out some more on this map, so I zoom out until I am happy with the view. And then I copy the code from the box beneath Copy and paste this HTML to embed in your website.





10. So if you were happy with your map in step 8 you could have skipped step 9. Either way you will need the HTML code from either step 8 or step 9 on your clipboard for the next process of embedding the map on your website.

Embedding Your Map Using EasyPost:

1. Login to your EasyPost
2. Click on Site Editor and click Edit on the page that you want to add the Google map to.
3. Click on HTML to go to the html view of the page.
4. Paste your code where you want the map to appear. I placed mine beneath the title of the page and the description of the page.*
5. Flip back to the Design view and viola! You should now see your Google map.
6. Click Update to save the page.

*Note - If you're adding the map in the middle of content, make sure to add the map code before or after other strings of code.

At its core concept, Pinterest is an online version of the good old fashioned dream board in which woman reads magazine, woman cuts out outfits and projects she wants to try and then tacks the clippings to a bulletin board.

So imagine the World Wide Web is your magazine and Pinterest is your dream board.

But wait, Pinterest is so much more because:

1. You can have as many boards as you want and categorize them for different interests.
   • Style
   • Hair
   • Recipes
   • DIY Projects
   • Quotes
   • Etc. 
2. You can search pins from other users for inspiration, and if you really like them you can re-pin them onto one of your own boards for safe keeping.
3. You can follow your favorite pinners to see their pins on your feed when you log in.

How do you pin?

1. You can Pin images directly from websites.
2. You can re-pin other users' pins.
3. Or you can actually upload your own images as pins. 

With the first two options the url that the pin came from is attached to the image and therefore allows users to follow the image to it's original location online for any supplemental reading which is always necessary for DIY projects and Recipes.

Pinterest for Business

Now that you have a basic understanding of Pinterest it's time to get creative and think of ways that you can take advantage of this tool for your business! Here's a great infographic, Pinterest for Business, that should get you thinking in the right direction. Basically if you want to sell something to women -- Pinterest is something you should consider embracing.

In the coming weeks I'll be asking several ladies how they use Pinterest and why they love it. (And a couple of men if I can hunt any down!) So stay tuned! 

You can follow Element 74's Pinterest boards at www.pinterest.com/element74. And you can peruse my personal Pinterest board at www.pinterest.com/tonieftink.

Feel free to share your Pinterest url in the comments below!