These days, you can’t call yourself an entrepreneur or a marketer without any knowledge of how to use the Internet to drive your business. That’s why we here at Lakeshore Branding keep pushing WordPress – because it’s an awesome tool for anyone wanting to establish themselves online. It’s a semantic personal publishing platform with focus on aesthetics, Web standards, and usability. So, whatever your title is – small business owner, online retailer, Internet startup founder, online marketer, social media guru, new media advertiser, affiliate marketer – you’ll find something valuable and unique in the way WordPress works. But to change the way WordPress looks? That’s what this list of WordPress themes is for. We picked out a number of the best business and marketing WordPress themes so that you won’t have to. With this list, we also hope you’ll be able to enhance the ease and efficiency of your WordPress experience. If you find a favorite business or marketing WordPress – Read the full article
You saw the money tree analogy coming—after all, money is usually the end goal of a startup company. This got me to thinking about the many ways a company can try to yield a profit. I found that people are constantly discussing the importance of content on a company website, but what people are not constantly discussing is the idea that this content does not always equal revenue. I will admit that I frequent many company websites simply to read their blog, yet I have no intention of ever buying their product. The point is, you first want to drive traffic to your webpage, but you cannot stop there. There are many things you can do to make sure that when people are visiting your website, they are tempted to buy. Consider a few of the things your startup company can do to make sure you are attracting the right kinds of visitors and keeping them interested: How to Bring – Read the full article
Who knew the power of blogging would explode like it has? It seems like everyone has a blog now, from stay-at-home moms to chefs to local business owners. Blogging is a powerful Internet marketing tool for local businesses as it gives you a new, yet subtle way to promote your company. Think of a blog as a way to communicate to the local community without all the business jargon. The point of a blog should be to put out information only. Write about relevant topics that relate to your business and give important facts that people want and need to know. Avoid being a salesman in your blog or people won’t read it. But provide an invaluable resource that people trust and you will build credibility within your community and generate more traffic. 5 hidden benefits of blogging for local business Change your perspective. Blogging forces you to examine your industry from all angles, not just as a provider of – Read the full article
Social media is buzzing, QR codes are all the hype, and e-mail marketing is trendy, but where does that leave good old-fashioned referrals? Unfortunately for many startup companies, taking the time to consider the importance of referrals is the last thing on the “to do” list. After all, if you do a good job and someone wants to refer you, they can—it is out of your hands, right? Wrong. Believe it or not, it is not enough to simply hope someone refers your business to others. Someone may work with your business and say it is the best experience they have ever had, yet this does not guarantee that they will refer your business to someone else. In many cases, your clients and customers will have to seek out someone they know looking for your particular services. This takes some work, so you have to give your customers and clients a reason to do this work. According to activerain.com, a – Read the full article
Technology constantly affects the way that we are doing business. Without technology, our business is slower, less efficient, and if we chose to ignore the changes, our business could suffer dramatically. One of the best business tools that has revolutionized the way we do business is the Mac by Apple. With the Mac (iMac, iPad, MacBook, iPhone), connecting business deals, emails, and even live conferences, can happen with simplicity. The innovative design offers so many benefits to business users around the world. With a large interactive screen you can be networking, staying on task, and most importantly making money for your business with the click of a mouse. Developers know the advantages of using an iMac as a business tool, and have made some great apps to match, many of which are free. Here are the top ten FREE business apps as ranked on iTunes for your Mac! 10. Chimport Chimport is a business tool that allows you to – Read the full article
An ever-expanding set of WordPress themes also guarantees that you look the part. If you’ll notice from the last few weeks, we’ve been creating lists of WordPress themes that we hope will reflect your business identity as well as complement your branding strategy. Today? We bring you another list: this time, it’s a set of 45 Business WordPress themes. We think they’re all awesome. If you have a favorite, let us know by leaving your comment below. We hope you’ll also share the list to others by tweeting the list and posting it on Facebook. Kids Toys WordPress Theme $40.00 | Demo | Buy Radial WordPress Theme $35.00 | Demo | Buy Smoke WordPress Theme $35.00 | Demo | Buy Hotel Classica WordPress Theme $30.00 | Demo | Buy Sport and Grunge WordPress Theme $40.00 | Demo | Buy Cars Dealer WordPress Theme $35.00 | Demo | Buy Child Care Creative WordPress Theme $40.00 | Demo | Buy – Read the full article
If you’re planning an online business or e-Commerce site that will sell products or services, or require membership fees to access content through the website, you must have a way to accept credit cards. You simply won’t be successful if you expect your customers to stop using your site, write and mail a check, and wait for it to clear before they can buy something from your website or access content in membership areas. Indeed, consumers have come to expect instant access and ordering through the use of their credit and debit cards. But how can a small online business or startup company accept credit cards affordably and securely? Two Credit Card Processing Options for Small Businesses With an Internet-based business, you have the option of getting a merchant account or working with a third-party processor. For most new businesses, particularly those selling exclusively online, a third-party processor is the ideal method for getting started. Once your business is more – Read the full article
Starting an online marketing campaign can be a difficult and confusing proposition for many small companies. Which sites should you have a presence on? Is a “group” better than a “page”? Should you take support requests via social networking sites, or keep them all funneled through your website? These questions could be answered easily if you were to enlist the help of an online marketing company or social media agency. It’s easy to make the mistake of assuming that all an online marketing company does is throw up a few pages and produce flow charts with pretty buzz-words on them. In truth, an Internet marketing company or social media agency does a lot more than that, and can help you to make sure that your promotion efforts are not wasted. What will an online marketing company do that I can’t do myself? While it’s true that setting up accounts and making a few friends on social networking sites is easy – Read the full article
