Deadlines are a part of every freelancer’s daily grind. But not everyone can honor timelines graciously. Most freelance writers, bloggers, Internet marketers, and SEO professionals hustle up to meet deadlines and end up botching their assignments. This can cause you to make mistakes and also gets you mentally exhausted. In addition, the work churned out is often low in quality. If you are having hard time meeting your timelines, here are a few tricks that can help you set things right. 1. Create a time table This is the most important part of getting an assignment done on time. Break up the work into specific tasks and mete out time for each activity. You can create a detailed timetable with hourly tasks or just make a rough weekly sketch. Create a checklist of all tasks and tick each one when you complete it. Thus, you will know how much work is done and what is still pending. 2. Understand your – Read the full article
Our recent post on premium WordPress templates was a hit. (Thank you, readers!) So we decided to make another list showcasing even more WP templates and themes. Hopefully, it will help you: Enhance the visual impact and usability of your WordPress-powered website, blog, e-Commerce site, or Web page; Ease the development and administration of your site and lift some burden off your shoulders (or Webmaster); Reflect more appropriately the personality and character of your brand and business; Enable you to organize your template files more efficiently and configure them for use under specific situations or seasons; And drive your WordPress site in a way that meets your specific requirements and business goals. If you’re an Internet marketer, online advertiser, blogger, business owner, entrepreneur, online retailer, musician or artist, journalist, photographer or designer, or mom-and-pop store owner, we highly recommend that you use WordPress, Lakeshore Branding’s favorite content management system. (The very site you’re reading is powered by WP, too.) It – Read the full article
You asked for it. Now we’re giving it to you: a list of the best WordPress themes of 2012. From designer WordPress themes to business WordPress themes – classic, elegant, simple and minimal, flashy and fancy, nice, naughty (or whatever adjective with which you want to describe them) – we’ve got the 2012 WordPress themes to suit your every need. The list is a result of our efforts to help users recognize the value of a content management system like WordPress, which, with its easy-to-use interface, rich SEO features, and excellent flexibility, is something we here at Lakeshore Branding have grown to love. And we hope you love it as much as we do, because we’ve got the best 2012 WordPress themes for your blog, company website, creative portfolio, wedding website, online magazine or news site, and online e-Commerce store. Let us know what your favorites are by tweeting about the post or leaving a comment below! U-Design WordPress Theme – Read the full article
Aspiring musician? Budding young artist? Aspiring novelist? These days, it’s not enough that you have your own album, creative portfolio, or published book. You have to have a website, too. It may not seem fair to be a one-man (or one-woman) team and to have to develop your own website and market your product to your audience, but that’s just the way it is. If you’re determined to succeed, you might as well go with the flow and start building your online presence. One of the best ways to do so is by using WordPress, our favorite content management system here at Lakeshore Branding. Not only is the entire platform easy to use; it’s also fully customizable, and it evolves in accordance with today’s Web standards. Now, we understand perfectly your desire to have a website that serves as an expression of yourself (and your work), and that’s why we came up with this list of the best WordPress themes – Read the full article
Raising funds online isn’t easy. Thank goodness there are useful social media marketing platforms like Kickstarter and Twitter. (Check out our tips for fundraising on Twitter and our coverage of some of the most successful social media fundraisers!) But if these tools aren’t flexible enough for your charity organization, political advocacy, or religious community – and if you think you’ll need a bigger Web presence, like a website or a blog – then you might as well create your own WordPress site. WordPress is Lakeshore Branding’s recommended content management system (CMS). Why? Because it’s focused on aesthetics. Because it’s built on evolving and upcoming Web standards. And because it’s so easy to use. To help rally your cause, we compiled this list of 15 WordPress themes sure to strike at the heart of your online audience. These WordPress themes are great for non-governmental institutions, public sector groups, charity organizations, environmental organizations, fundraising events and committees, advocacy groups, political aspirants, churches, – Read the full article
Content marketing can be used to attract more traffic and build a better online reputation for your business. Here are a number of tips to help you do just that: 1. Be consistent in providing new and valuable information One thing that you need to do with content marketing is to make sure that you actually have new and valuable content to market. So, write up some articles, publish them, make sure you consistently provide useful information to your audience, and establish your expertise on the topic you’re writing about. 2. Always create keyword-targeted content Don’t just create any content. Your content must be optimized for the search engines, using certain relevant keywords, in order to be found and read. Remember that we are working with search engines to attract more (and better-targeted) potential customers to your website. In this case, if you are not doing SEO for your content, if you are not optimizing the textual content you’re writing, – Read the full article
Last week we published a guide on how to monitor Google Places reviews, Web updates, and content changes. It was well-received by our readers, so we’d like to build on the post and share info this time on tools for online reviews monitoring and management. Hopefully, this list will help you track online reviews of your brand, product, establishment, service, or business – and enhance your reputation as more customers talk about you on Google Places, Yelp, online directories, local business listings, and social media sites. Or, if you’ve used any of the online reputation management tools below, do let us know by leaving a comment below and sharing with us your experience. ReviewPush Texas-based ReviewPush markets itself as an “online review management tool for small to large businesses”. It offers a dashboard for monitoring / tracking reviews, protecting your brand and reputation, engaging with customers, and enhancing product offerings and promotions (such as coupons). ReviewPush features include: Continuous social – Read the full article
It’s not uncommon for businesses today to use social networks – namely, Twitter and Facebook – as a platform for engaging with customers and managing customer relationships. This development has given rise to an increasing number of social media solutions and dashboards, each promising to streamline all tasks and bring a new level of ease in customer engagement. Let’s take a look at the best of these solutions and their features. MediaFunnel MediaFunnel is a social media suite for businesses and enterprises, with a host of features designed to make Twitter and Facebook accounts easier to manage. One of these distinguishing features is Multiple User Roles, or the ability to assign Administrator, Publisher, and Contributor roles and grant various levels of permission to review or publish tweets and Facebook posts (for greater editorial control and efficiency). Apart from monitoring Twitter and Facebook for mentions and tracking the performance of links via Bit.ly and BudURL, MediaFunnel also enables you to – Read the full article
