As writers, we love what we do. (Right?) We are able to put information, ideas, and opinions in print to help our readers. As a bonus, we get paid for it. It doesn’t matter what our style is; formal, editorial, or whimsical, our words can send a powerful message to readers. And if we want to capture and hold our audience’s attention, we know that a compelling message with strong headlines and a decent flow of ideas are a must. For the longest time I was convinced that my words alone could paint the perfect portrait. Then I realized that perhaps my words alone were not enough. Simply constructing the proper syllables didn’t always capture the targeted audience. However, the right photo will typically catch the eye of most people. Even the best writers have benefited from using photos in magazines. Why not blogs? How to Find the Right Photo There are two options when you are considering the addition – Read the full article
Don’t think that scrapbooks will cut it. Not in today’s world. If you’re a photographer serious about marketing yourself and showcasing your talent to the world, you’ll have to establish your own online presence – with which you can create your portfolio, show your best shots, tell stories through images, and maximize every opportunity to render your professional services. That’s where WordPress comes in. It’s one of our favorite content management platforms here at Lakeshore Branding. It should be yours, too. We’ve already created the ultimate list of awesome small business WordPress themes for the biz owners; now it’s time to show some love to the photographers. In this post we have compiled 49 of today’s most stunning, flexible, and user-friendly photography WordPress themes that are out there right now. If you’re a designer, graphic artist, or illustrator, don’t hesitate to check the themes out, too. These WordPress themes are actually pretty versatile. Feel free to share, tweet, post on – Read the full article
Before a visitor has a chance to read the first line of copy that you perfected over the last few months, chances are good that they will see an image (or ten) and judge your website accordingly. Subconsciously we favor good composition, color balance, and proper lighting in pictures– even if you aren’t a creative person. Ever wonder why your pictures from your camera never look as good as someone else’s? Its usually not the camera… In my humble opinion — please, never try and use your own pictures on your website unless you have some photography experience and can work your way around in Photoshop. In an effort to save money, some people will have friends or their nephew with a snazzy digital camera take some wonderful pictures for their website (SEE LEFT). Most digital camera pictures require a good amount of editing and correcting before they’re worthy of a professional website. With the price of stock photography (Really – Read the full article
When buying stock photos, contracting a photographer, or purchasing images from events these three terms will usually come into play. Here is a brief overview of how you can purchase the right to use an image. Royalty-free images: This simply means you can use the image over and over again, as many times as you would like, without paying any addition money (royalties) to the creator. This does not mean the image is free to use if you have not bought it. Be sure to read over the terms when buying images, as sometimes even royalty-free images can have limitations to how they can be used. These images also can be sold by the image creator to other individuals or companies for their use, so their is a chance you might run into the same image somewhere else. That is just a fair warning, I buy all three of these license types of images and I have never had a – 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
If you’re going to ask us here at Lakeshore Branding which e-commerce platform we would recommend, there’s one answer: Magento. Why? Because it’s loaded with powerful features to help you drive sales: features like product browsing, analytics and reporting, catalog and order management, secure checkout, international support, and an array of marketing promotions and tools. (You can find out more about the platform here.) We’ll understand, though, if you choose to go with something else. Hey, to each his own, right? And there are loads of e-commerce solutions and shopping cart systems to choose from. One of these is OpenCart, an open-source e-commerce platform that’s as feature-rich, easy-to-use, and search-engine-friendly as Magento. Frankly, you won’t go wrong with either. We’ll even help you out developing your online store if you like. Anyway, like Magento, OpenCart also enables you to customize the way your online store looks and works. Because it’s an “out-of-the-box” solution, you can just install it, choose your – Read the full article
WordPress was first released in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg. Yes, it’s that long ago. Before Facebook even happened. Since then, it has grown to host, as of late last year, around 15 percent of the world’s top 1 million websites. It has also been downloaded over 65 million times! But if you’re still looking for reasons that will convince you to build – or redevelop – your website using the WordPress platform, we won’t shy away from giving you several: WordPress isn’t just for blogging. It’s flexible enough to power your business website, your e-Commerce site, your product and services page, your social networks (check out our recent post on BuddyPress), your anything. It’s simple and pretty easy to use. If you know how to use Microsoft Word, you’ll know how to use WordPress, which has its own WYSIWYG editor to aid users who prefer not to use codes (like HTML). Training a client on WordPress site administration is also – Read the full article
You ever heard of something called BuddyPress? If not, well – you should. Established in 2008, Buddypress is a publishing platform for connecting all your social media streams and networks together in one self-hosted and WordPress-powered site. You can use it as a social network for your family, your university, your school or college, or your class; as an internal communication medium for your company or organization; as a network for connecting people with the same interests as you have; or as a socially dynamic site centered around your new product or service. For more uses, check out this BuddyPress showcase. Like WordPress, BuddyPress is an extremely flexible and versatile solution, especially for those who are looking to grow their businesses and brands via social media marketing. Its features include: Global, personal, and group activity streams where you can view all your comments, status updates, mentions, favorites, and notifications, among many others; User groups that you can choose to be public, – Read the full article
