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
Online Lead Generation It’s time to take the guesswork out of your marketing and sales cycles. Connect to your target audiences and your customers with Lakeshore Branding’s online lead generation solutions. Leveraging state-of-the-art lead generation tools – coupled with a rich, multi-industry customer acquiring network brought by our many years of experience in the business – we deliver the most qualified leads in order to help you grow. Our team works with you as we: Craft custom lead generation strategies Streamline your lead qualification process Build your customer acquisition network and database Introduce your products and services to people who have a genuine interest in them Improve your conversion rates (prospects are always prequalified before you receive the lead) Implement organic SEO and paid search results strategies Update your lead tracking forms Track your progress with our advanced reporting systems and easy-to-understand lead generation metrics Call us today at (312) 229-0038 and let us help you drive the right people – Read the full article
Cloud computing solutions are the latest popular development in technological advancements. However, a number of businesses still fear that adopting these solutions would not be in their best interests. So what are the major concerns held by businesses and are they well founded? Concerns on Security, Implementation, Reliability? Research has suggested that the main concerns surrounding cloud technology include security worries alongside adoption or implementation difficulties and reliability. The truth is that while SaaS (Software as a Service) can be exposed to a number of vulnerabilities and dangers, such as those listed, the services are all protected with high security measures in order to ensure that ultimate safety and security of data is maintained. This means that a number of businesses could be needlessly rejecting cloud computing solutions based on unfounded or misguided concerns. (Editor’s note: Be sure to check out our post on the best cloud computing services and apps for small businesses!) Security of Data and Information Perhaps – Read the full article
There is a multitude of WordPress plugins that can make your site more SEO friendly and the same ones are repeatedly recommended with little variation. If you have not installed WordPress’s All-in-One SEO Pack, W3 Total Cache, Google XML Sitemaps, SEO Slugs, Trackable Social Share, or similar SEO plugins, go do that right now. If you have already addressed your SEO needs with these handy dandy helpers, then you might want to think about installing these less frequently lauded but still awesome plugins. After all, good SEO is about solid, engaging content, and these plugins will provide the opportunity to connect with your users in different ways. BuddyPress BuddyPress elevates your site by enabling you to construct your own social network on your WordPress site. When installed, it will make your site more interactive and encourage users to build upon what you have started. This powerful plugin provides a whole host of social networking components including activity streams, fully editable extended profiles, and extensible groups – 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
If you think E-commerce is just a fad – poised to flounder amidst economic crises – then think again. Thanks to the increasing popularity of smartphones and tablets, millions more people are shopping online and on-the-go. In fact, in a recent article by eMarketer, it was reported that mobile commerce (“M-commerce”) sales (including travel) in the US grew by 91.4% to reach $6.7 billion. And that’s just mobile. If one were also to consider the continued expansion of Wi-Fi availability across the US and all over the world, one will come to understand that E-commerce – regardless of the device driving it – is here to stay. WordPress E-commerce themes That’s why we created this fresh new list of WordPress e-commerce themes – to help you find the best possible look for your WordPress store. If you’re… giving your WordPress-powered site, blog, E-commerce site, or online store a makeover to herald the New Year, looking for ways to improve the – Read the full article
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who participated in the Lakeshore Branding Happy New Year 2012 Giveaway that we organized with UPrinting.com. You all posted awesome responses! Unfortunately, there can only be one winner. And we’ve chosen Andi Luther-Philippe of WeLoveSoap.com as the recipient of a custom set of 250 business cards from UPrinting. Congratulations, Andi! We certainly hope that the cards help you jumpstart your new handmade artisan soap company. (Hey, we might order ourselves some, too.) Again, thank you so much to everyone who participated. We’re liekly going to run more promos soon, so stay in touch and please do keep visiting our blog regularly for updates. *** We here at Lakeshore Branding would like to thank our clients and readers for a great year. Thank you! The year 2011 was an absolute blast, but 2012 is going to be even more fun. To celebrate the transition, we’re going to do something cool here. We’re going to run a contest – Read the full article
