LK Publishing & Design

WordPress 3.0 “Thelonius” Released

admin — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:22:50 +0000

WordPress, the easy to use and popular blogging platform released its latest major version update Thursday, June 17. This latest version now merges WordPress with WordPress MU (Multi-user) along with a load of other upgrades and enhancements that every WP user will eagerly want to employ. For bloggers and website developers with multiple sites, they will find the new version network capabilities (MU) a blessing for organization and administration tasks. For those wanting only the single blog installation the update is quick and easy, one of the many reasons for the success of this blogging and now “CMS” platform.

Included in this new version amongst many other enhancements, is the new default theme called “Twenty Ten,” aka “Thelonius,” named after the jazz great Thelonious Monk. A big improvement over the old default theme and includes a library of stock images, the ability to change background colors and/or use images, header graphics/photos can be easily changed for each page or you can just use a single master graphic header. All easily customized to your own tastes.

The new features don’t stop there… for a full list of all of the new enhancements, upgrades and bug fixes, CLICK HERE. For a brief overview watch the video below.

Whether you are a “newbie” or a “veteran” user of WordPress you will greatly appreciate the latest enhancements and updates of this major release.

CLICK HERE to Download Your Copy Now.

FYI…

WordPress Stats (From WordPress.org)

There are over 25 million WordPress publishers as of June 2010: 11.4 million blogs hosted on WordPress.com plus 13.8 million active installations of the WordPress.org software.

WordPress 3.0 Video Overview

Ten Common Small Business Tax Deductions

admin — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:53:12 +0000

The government looks kindly on the small business owner. They applaud your entrepreneurial spirit with tax deductions to lower your taxable income. Small business owners pay more taxes than they should because they are not aware of common deductions that are allowed.

1. Start-up costs. The biggest obstacle for a new business is getting over the hurdle of start-up costs. It can take a big slice out of the pie but you can get back a portion at tax time. Costs can include travel, advertising, and legal fees. Check with the IRS to see just how much you can deduct.

2. Vehicle use. The government allows you to deduct certain expenses for business vehicles including mileage. Keep good records for this deduction in case you are challenged on any point. If the vehicle is used for business and personal activities, you can deduct only the amount represented by the percentage used for business.

3. Equipment deductions. All businesses need equipment of some kind. The amount can be deducted all at once, check with the IRS as to what the deduction limits are.

4. Entertainment deductions. Who wouldn’t want to have a fancy dinner on the government? Business meetings over dinner or attending business conferences in sunny Florida can be deducted as business expenses. Meals can also be deducted.

5. Travel costs. Traveling for business is a tax-deductible expense. Keep your receipts for airline tickets, hotel stays, and meals. Any service that was necessary during the course of the business trip is subject to a deduction. Money spent on family members who are along for the ride is not deductible.

6. Advertising costs. You can deduct for expenses incurred for advertising. This includes print, billboard, radio, and television.

7. Legal fees. Businesses consult lawyers from time to time about business matters or to review contracts. The fees charged by your lawyer are tax-deductible.

8. Charitable contributions. Charitable contributions are tax-deductible based on the value of the item. Money given can be deducted for the actual amount, but goods can only be deducted for the amount received when they were sold by the charity, not what you paid for it originally. This includes cars.

9. Software deductions. Small businesses can deduct the cost of software purchased for exclusive use by the business. The deduction applies for the tax year that the software is purchased.

10. Educational expenses. Knowledge is power and more money in your pocket. Expenses for classes taken to further your knowledge for your present business are tax deductible.

Businesses have a distinct advantage when it comes to tax breaks. Take advantage of all the deductions available to you. Check with a qualified tax professional for further information on these and other tax deductions.

PLEASE NOTE: This post is for informational purposes only and not legal advice. IRS limits and regulations change yearly so before filing for any deductions verify what your legal obligations are with a qualified tax professional or at irs.gov website.

Internet Marketing For Small Business

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:52:33 +0000

When doing internet marketing for small business, you have to run an even tighter and more planned campaign than if you were doing it for a large business. The smaller the business, it seems, the more tightly the plan should be. Large companies have a much larger advertising budget, so even if their online marketing strategies aren’t very successful, traditional advertising can make a huge difference for them.

But smaller businesses typically don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on the more common forms of advertising. Online marketing often becomes the main thrust of the marketing campaign, so it’s necessary that it’s done very well.

An advantage that small businesses can have over large corporations when it comes to marketing online is that they’re more likely to have a very focused niche. While large companies have niches, too, sometimes larger companies market a variety of products and services over a very broad customer base. Then marketing each individual niche has to be a separate campaign.

When internet marketing for small business, you’ll probably only have to worry about one very specific niche. You’ll know exactly what your customers are looking for, and can focus on filling that need with every aspect of your marketing plan, instead of having to spread the campaign over several different groups of consumers.

Internet marketing for small business, because of the smaller budgets, often doesn’t involve heavy pay-per-click advertising. The cost involved with PPC ads can end up being quite high with not necessarily a very big return. If you have a specific budget set up for PPC marketing, then by all mean use it, but monitor the returns very carefully so you can abandon keywords that aren’t working and focus on those that bring in the customers.

Search engine optimization is an excellent method of internet marketing for small business. There can be expense involved if you pay a marketing expert or an SEO service to handle this branch of your marketing efforts, but the money spent will probably be well worth it. This is also where many small businesses fail.

They don’t make sure their content is optimized for the search engines, so it’s very difficult for someone to find them unless they’re searching on the company name. People search for what they want, though, not the company that might have what they’re looking for. So internet marketing for small business should always include a plan to get your website higher in the search engine rankings on the best keywords for your company.

Part of the search engine efforts should involve getting other websites to link to yours. Search engines don’t just take keywords into account, but they also pay attention to a website’s popularity with other sites. The more sites that link to yours, the more valuable your information is according to most search engines. These methods of internet marketing for small business can get a small company’s website ranked well ahead of a corporation’s, all while spending much less money on advertising.

Customer-Friendly Shopping Cart Design Tips

admin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:29:02 +0000

The popularity of online shopping is largely due to the convenience it provides customers. All other things being equal, offering a customer-friendly shopping cart gives the etailer a better chance of gaining and keeping a consumer’s business. Here are seven tips toward that end:

Tip One: Make It Easy to Use

Shoppers want to view information, add products to the cart, review selections, make changes, and pay simply by clicking buttons. The “add to cart” button should be prominently displayed. Navigating between product pages and the cart should be easy. Modifying the cart should be simple. Conversion is more likely when the cart is easy to use.

Tip Two: Make It Interactive

What colors and sizes are available? Is it in stock? How much money will they save if they buy in quantity? What will shipping cost? Building interactive features into the shopping cart allows consumers to explore options and be assured they are getting exactly what they want.

Tip Three: Give It Time

Making the customer’s cart savable lets him build his order over time. For example, eBay’s half.com site lets customers save selections to a wish list. They can return later to purchase selected items. If a sale is not completed in a given period of time, the shopper receives an email reminding them to update their wish list.

Tip Four: Automatically Calculate Totals

Keeping the consumer informed of total costs will build his or her confidence in shopping through the website. The shopping cart should show the product total, tax, and shipping costs. Many sites show a summary page as the final step before the consumer completes the transaction.

Tip Five: Allow Multiple Payment Options

Accepting payment through a number of methods will increase the likelihood that the transaction will be completed. Some customers prefer using credit cards. Some use PayPal. Still others use echecks. Providing a variety of payment options makes purchasing possible for a wider range of customers.

Tip Six: Keep It Secure

Consider becoming a member of a third-party privacy seal program, which verifies the credibility of ecommerce sites. Ensure encryption of personal data. Display the website’s privacy policy. Assuring consumers of the site’s trustworthiness eliminates concerns and encourages a mutually beneficial business relationship.

Tip Seven: Confirm the Purchase

An automated email confirmation following the sale assures the customer that his or her order is in progress. As added assurance, many etailers find it a good practice to include contact instructions so the consumer can keep tabs on the status of the order, make inquiries, and track shipping.

Consumers look for ease of use, efficiency, and security when purchasing online. A well-designed shopping cart can meet these needs and increase conversion rate and revenue for etailers in a highly competitive market.

How to Display RSS Feeds on Your Website

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:49:11 +0000

RSS, Really Simple Syndication, is an excellent way to add content to your website. More relevant content on your website means a higher search engine ranking and a benefit to your visitors. Here’s how to add RSS to your website.

Step 1. Find a reader to subscribe to. There are many available online. A quick Google Search will provide you with many to choose from. Look for ones that offer PHP scripts rather than JavaScript. JavaScript isn’t read by search engine spiders and the content will not help your search engine ranking.

Step 2. Register. Generally all you need to provide is an email address and your website URL. A confirmation will be sent to your email along with a password and logon.

Step 3. Confirm via email and logon with your assigned password and logon ID.

Step 4. Customize your content. Choose the topics you want to cover. For example Google News, Yahoo Finance, or Reuters Health. You can choose several. Make certain to choose topics that are relevant to your website subject. You wouldn’t want to choose finance if your site offers health information.

Step 5. Choose keywords. You can customize your feeds by choosing specific keywords. For example, if you have a website dedicated to fitness you can add the keyword “fitness” to your code.

Step 6. Choose appearance. You can customize the shape and size of your content block. Whether there are pictures included, the author, the title of the article and so on. This is usually a check the box type menu.

Step 7. Choose formatting. Here you can choose the font you want, size of font, and the general formatting of your feed.

Step 8. Generate the code and follow the directions to get it onto your website. Generally the code is given to you in PHP or JavaScript. PHP is recommended because JavaScript is not read by search engine spiders. If you’re using RSS to add content to your site, you’ll want to use the PHP script offered. PHP isn’t automatically added to HTML so if you have an HTML based site, you’ll need to add a bit of code to it to have it recognize the PHP. No worries, the RSS feed you use will offer you instructions on how to do that.

RSS is a technology that is fairly easy to use and it can add significant content and value to your website. All it takes is a few simple steps and you’re done. Quality content with the click of a button.

BQ7WJZWA36SY

Is Google Adsense Right for Every Website?

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:36:49 +0000

Many websites that provide information on internet marketing stress the importance of adding Google Adsense to a website, while other internet marketing gurus caution against it. With so many conflicting opinions, it can be hard to figure out what to do.

Google Adsense is a program that allows website owners and bloggers to earn money by allowing Google to place ads on their websites and blogs. When a person signs up for Adsense, they create the shape and colors of the ads.

When satisfied with the display, the website owner clicks a button and the Google Adsense program generates some HTML program that the website owner places on their site. Google is then able to read the content of these sites and blogs and insert ads related to the content. When someone visiting the site clicks on these ads, the website owner receives a credit to their account.

The exact amount a person earns per click will vary depending on what ad the visitor clicked on. Once the credit balance has reached $100, the website owner can ask for the funds to be sent to them.

Some people are claiming to make a very large income with Adsense, but the majority of people do not make that much. However, it can be a small additional income stream that you do not have to work any extra hours to earn.

It is important to note that Google decides what ads are shown and the order in which they appear. While it is not their intention to put anything explicit or distasteful on your site, you still do not have much say in what appears and what doesn’t. If you don’t agree with this, your only option is to decline to participate in the program.

Whenever a website owner chooses to display ads on their site, they are giving their visitors an invitation to leave the site. For people who participate in a lot of affiliate marketing or sell many of their own products and do not want to distract their readers’ attention, putting up Adsense may not be the best idea.

As mentioned earlier, various internet marketing gurus will have different opinions on whether a person should put up Adsense. While each side has their own strong points, the ultimate decision is a very personal choice.

How Video Can Enhance A Website

Gain Exposure for Your Internet Business in Your Own Neighborhood

admin — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:10:22 +0000

Creating a marketing strategy for an internet based business certainly involves a generous level of online marketing however many businesses would prosper if their marketing strategy also included local exposure.

Local exposure is easier to obtain and often blooms into larger scale publicity. For example, a local news program might feature your product or service on an “about town” segment which is then picked up by the larger networks, blogs, and mainstream press. Additionally, it is always good to be able to say, “As seen on…” on your home page and in your marketing materials.

Local exposure is also good for business. People like to do business with folks they can relate to. Who better to relate to than a business owner who lives down the street?

So you know that local exposure is good for business but how does a company or business owner go about gaining that exposure? Here are 5 ideas on how to tap into your local market.

Host a seminar or workshop for free through your local small business association, chamber of commerce, or community education program. This seminar or workshop will inevitably draw a number of attendees but more importantly it will be a reason to generate local press releases which may be picked up by the networks or local radio stations thus bringing bigger awareness to your company.
Partner with a local brick and mortar to cross promote or establish a joint venture. For example a local fitness shoe store could post advertisements, coupons, or business cards for your business as an online nutritionist or fitness coach and likewise you could promote the local fitness store. Giveaways and cross promotion can be publicized with a press release.
Post flyers locally. Flyers are a great and economical way to communicate with your neighborhood prospects who may or may not have seen your business online.
Sponsor a local team. Sponsorship is fun, it gives back to the community and it is an excellent way to gain local recognition. There’s nothing more fun than seeing a team wearing your company’s name on their team shirts.
Donate time, education, or funds to a local charity. Again, not only are you giving back to your community you’re gaining recognition. The charitable acts can also generate a press release for double exposure and awareness.

There are any number of ways to connect with your neighborhood prospects, gain awareness and grow your business. The important thing is to plan for it as part of a larger marketing strategy. Integrate local marketing into your complete plan for maximum results and growth.

Effective Planning Tactics Make For Better Internet Based Marketing

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:13:31 +0000

If you are going to have a successful website, then it is imperative that you take advantage of everything that internet based marketing has to offer. A great website that is full of content takes planning. In order to have a well designed website, you must take special care when creating the site’s architecture.

You must combine the information delivery with the navigation in order to make it easy for the visitor to find exactly what they are looking for. Even if you have a website that is award worthy, it is still not enough. You have to make sure that people are actually viewing the web site.

If people are not aware of the existence of your site, then it doesn’t matter how great it is. This is what makes internet based marketing so important. In order to have a successful website, it is important that you make use of the many methods of marketing that are available online.

These methods include: website design, search engine placement, marketing for search engines, submission to search engines, analytics, email marketing campaigns, and branding programs. Taking advantage of each of these methods will get you a high amount of traffic to your site that can be converted into revenue.

When developing a website, you can’t really afford to make mistakes. That’s why it is important that you take advantage of the best internet based marketing methods available and don’t waste too much time on the scams out there. Perhaps the first method of internet marketing out there that you should take advantage of is search engine placement. As a matter of fact, studies have shown that nearly 80 percent of all website traffic comes from search engines. Merely submitting your web site to these search engines is not enough, you have to make sure that your site makes use of popular keywords that can help these search engines improve your rating.

When searching for information on internet marketing techniques, there are many sites out there that will be able to help you out. These sites may include advice, information, thoughts, checklists, and recommendations on how to improve your web traffic. If you have the right tactics and tools, you will find that you are better able to create a website that is successful. Some sites will even offer to do much of the legwork for you in exchange for payment.

When marketing your website, always take advantage of link referral programs as well. These are sites that will link to your site if you offer to link back to theirs. It’s not a bad way of increasing both the traffic to your website as well as the search engine ranking as well. Just a few examples of the many different ways of marketing your website include: Search Engine Optimization, Pay per click ads, web analytics, branding, and SEO conscious web design. If you pay special attention to these and other internet based marketing tactics out there, then you will find that you will be able to increase your website traffic and business substantially.

Free Website Templates Can Take the Pain Out of Setting Up a New Website

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:59:36 +0000

It seems like now just about everybody has a web site on the internet. If you haven’t set up your own site as yet, you may think it could be beyond your experience or expertise to create your own web presence. Years ago you needed to be technically skilled and proficient in HTML code in order to design a web site, but today there are literally dozens of online sites where you can find website templates for free. All you need to do is download the template to your local PC, make some simple modifications to the design (or even use it exactly as it is), then upload it to the server where your web site is hosted.

Most of the places where you can find website templates for free provide those templates in exchange for a link back to their site. Usually these links are small, unobtrusive text links at the bottom of the page, and therefore there is no reason not to keep those links intact. Removing the link back to their site (also known as a “backlink”) would likely violate the terms for using the template, so make sure you give the original site the proper credit for the design you’re using. After all, if you get website templates for free, a simple backlink doesn’t cost you a penny and it ensures that the designer will continue to offer more interesting and unique designs to the web community at no charge. Make sure you fully read and understand the terms of use before you publish your content using a free website template.

Most sites offering website templates for free organize their designs by various attributes… and that’s a good thing because some sites have hundreds or even thousands available for download. Many offer a “most popular” category where you can find all of the most frequently downloaded templates. Others will allow you to sort the layouts by the number of columns on the page, some allow you to search for designs by type (such as “business” or “blog” or “news site”), others even allow you to find designs by color.

Many of the website templates for free you’ll find on the internet use CSS (cascading style sheets) for their formatting. That means if you’d like to change the fonts, font sizes, colors, column widths and so forth, you’ll have to edit the style sheet in order for the changes to appear on your site. One of the great things about style sheets is that you only need make the change in one place and the modifications you made will show up on all pages within your site. That makes editing easy! And don’t worry, if you don’t understand CSS you don’t have to edit the style sheet at all — just use the template exactly as it is.

If you’re looking for website templates for free you’ll find lots of them on the internet. Just do a simple search on Google or any of the other search engines and you’ll find page after page of resources offering free templates. These free designs can save you lots of time developing your own layouts and they won’t cost you a dime!

Some Basic Internet Marketing Promotion Tips

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:25:48 +0000

Internet marketing promotion is a lot like weight loss diets; there are so many options available, but most of them seem to be scams. One of the most used methods of increasing web site promotion is Google adwords .

This is a pay per click method of advertising that anyone can easily incorporate into their online marketing plan. When placing an online ad, you should always keep your target audience in mind. You will want to have your ads written in the language that your target audience speaks. If you are using English, then don’t advertise to countries that do not have a large English speaking segment of the population.

You should also test 2 new ads at the same time. This is known as an A/B split test. Using this method, you can see which ad performs better by achieving a higher click through ratio. Continue to use the ad that performs better and get rid of the one that performed poorly. You can then write up a new ad and test it along side the one that performed the best. Continue doing this so that you can have the most powerful ad.

One of the most important things you can do in internet marketing promotion is to include your keywords in your ads. Since online ads are relatively short, you will not be able to put too many keywords in and have it still make sense. If you can fit 3 or 4 keywords in your ad then you are doing fine.

Make sure that you are using the same keywords that are being used in your web site description. The reason this works is because the keywords that you type into a search engine show up in bold in the results. Studies have shown that ads with bolded keywords in them will be clicked more often.

When writing your ad, you need to lay out what you can do for your customer. The catch is you only have a very limited space to do this in. Stay simple and do it in a couple words. If you are helping people lose weight, then simply put “get slim.”

If you are helping people make money, put “make more money.” You can see how these simple phrases will not take up that much needed space while still informing people of what you do. Use attention grabbing words like: New, Proven, Discover, How To and etc. Use words that are a call to action. Just make sure that the words you use truly fit your site. Search engines such as Google consider the alternative to be spam.

Finally, do your best to remove stop words from your ad. These are words such as: a, an, it, in, on, and, but, if, etc. You have to make sure that every word in your ad helps you to get a click. With these and other internet marketing promotion tips at your disposal, you are sure to see an increase in the amount of traffic to your site as well as an increasing customer base.