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
With the introduction of the Kindle, and Amazon’s growing tablet features, a web browsing solution was needed. This solution came in the form of Silk, a new browser designed by Amazon for their Wi-Fi enabled tablets. Silk was built from scratch and utilizes Amazon’s cloud computation service, Amazon Web Services. Silk is based on a series of small threads that strengthens the connection. How it Works Amazon’s cloud consists of stronger components than that of the Kindle, which allows for their cloud to do the computing as your Kindle does the browsing. The use of cloud services has already proven to assist with computing by using lesser components and still operating as if they were larger computers. The continued evolution of features for cloud computing is leading companies such as Amazon to develop cheaper electronics that operate at a higher level than before. With the cloud doing the work and the Kindle reaping the rewards, we may see a trend – Read the full article
Bing is the search engine by Microsoft, a company that, after having been outperformed by Google, is once again keen on boosting revenues and retaining users via search engine marketing. With Bing, Microsoft has so far succeeded, thanks largely to their mass Internet marketing and continued usage of their Internet Explorer web browser (whose default search engine is Bing). This is why your blog should be optimized for Bing, too – and not just Google. Otherwise, you might lose potential readers and leave potential profit on the table. If you’re a smart blogger, Internet marketing, SEO specialist, or social media professional, you’ll find ways to reach Bing users, too. Here are a few useful steps to help you do that. On-page / on-site optimization: Your first step is to work on optimizing your website and the pages within it. Here’s an on-page optimization checklist you can use: No Broken Links Correct Redirects H1 Tags For Headlines URL Friendly Pages Most – Read the full article
If you want to make sales without chasing customers or making cold calls and do it in a way that is pleasing for you as the marketer and comfortable for the prospect, there are strategies that you can implement so that people will be calling and lining up to do business with you. In this article we will discuss 9 Strategies on How You Can Achieve Expert Status In Your Niche. We’ll begin with: Article Marketing: Writing articles and giving well-researched information to your niche and placing them on your website or social media platforms will be a great way to get started in positioning yourself as an expert in your niche. You can also distribute them in article directories as long as they are of quality such as Ezine Articles or trade publications in your niche (online and offline). Write a book: The book can be in the form of an E-book that is downloadable or it can be – Read the full article
If you abide by the belief that rules exist for a reason, then maybe you don’t need any explanation of why the AP (Associated Press) Style Guide matters. But for the writer who has ever rolled his eyes while reaching for their guidebook to look up the AP rule, or received an editor’s red pen note to “check AP,” then AP Style can feel more like a rulebook than a guide. First, if you intend to work as a journalist, then this book matters simply because your career matters. End of argument! However, a more detailed explanation shows that this book really exists for the sake of consistency in writing for the public. When everyone – or at least every writer – uses the same grammar, punctuation, abbreviations, numbers, etc., it ensures that messages are communicated in a consistent style. This consistency delivers conciseness, correctness and clarity. In a World Wide Web environment where more people than ever are becoming – 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
Twitter helps companies build their brand by introducing a new method of audience communication. Engaging, brief messages build interest and customer loyalty. In 140 characters or less, a company can inform their audience of their latest products or trivia knowledge. Any useful information will propel companies towards this goal. Tweeting and Marketing Companies can write Tweets that are automatically posted three to five times per day. Experts recommend frequency to keep customers interested. From a single article, companies can probably extract 10 or more tweets that represent the main points of the article. Only 25 to 30 minutes a week is required to generate daily Tweets for an entire week. Successful companies engage in a concept called mutual branding. This concept engages both employees and the company on a mutual page. The employee’s photograph and the corporate logo both exist on the page. The better the employee performs, the better the company looks. Feeds and Retweets Retweets and feeds will – Read the full article
While the traditional breadcrumbs are nothing but annoying, the term “breadcrumbs” in technology has a different reputation. For those who are unfamiliar, breadcrumbs are little words and phrases that some websites place at the top of a webpage to help the user follow where they are in the website. They work as little navigation tools to help someone stay organized when working through a website with many different webpages. Consider the example below: In general, only major companies use breadcrumbs because they seem so sophisticated. After all, a small business website can’t be that hard to navigate, right? Wrong. If you have more than one webpage, utilizing breadcrumbs has many benefits. Top 5 Reasons Your Webpage Should Be Using Breadcrumbs 1. Easier Usage – Visitors will likely have a much better experience on your website if they can get around easily. Sometimes users can get frustrated jumping from page to page because they get lost, but breadcrumbs help solve this – Read the full article
