So, we are taking additional steps in improving our website’s speed as well as our customer’s. Google suggests installing their speed tool, Page Speed, to help diagnose and suggest ways to compress the site and speed it up.  Below are the areas that Page Speed will review:

1. Browser Caching – to help with the browser by instructing it to load previously downloaded resources (images, css, html, etc.) from your local disk rather than over the network.
2. CSS compression – Removing CSS from documents, compression external CSS and removing unused.
3. JavaScript compression -  minimizing and combining javascript code.
4. Images – Optimizing and setting dimensions.

So far I’ve compressed our website’s CSS file by removing spaces and extraneous styles. The next suggestion was installing in our .htaccess file with the recommended caching code. (My next post will include this code)

Before I continue, I want to recommend that you don’t limit yourself to one payment option. Customers like having a choice when paying for  your product or service. Give it to them.

If you are interested, there are other options that you should consider, below are two types:

Merchant Accounts. This is more expensive option but your flexibility is higher and you are not promoting another company. With this option, your customers never leave your website. But you will also need additional customization to your website, for example SSL Encryption and an online form payment customization. Below are some example rates:

• $100 one-time sign up
• 2.3% – 3.5% fees and $0.75 – $1.00 per sale
• There is usually an application fee
• Usually up to $24/month monthly fees.
• No statement fees are about $10/month

3rd-Party Payment Processors. Much like PayPal, this option takes away the frustration of custom coding for your website. But, as you can see below, your fees per sale are higher. This will affect you as your sales volume increases. There may be other downsides, for example, customers leave your website for a moment to make the purchase, but whey may return once the transaction is complete.Another downside is that on the customer’s credit card receipt, the merchant’s name will show and not your company name and phone. This can frustrate you customer if they have a question about their purchase. They will call the merchant and not you. But, depending on your business model, this may work better for you.

List of 3rd Party Merchants

I’ve compiled a list of various merchants that either I have used as a merchant or customer or my customers have recommended.

• PayPal. The most widely used 3rd party merchant.Fees depend on the type of PayPal setup you decide on using.
  • For standard payments. No sign-up fee, 2.9% + $0.30 per sale, but this depends on the purchase payment
  • For pro payments, this setup allows your customers to remain on your website. There is no sign-up fee but there is a $30 monthly fee. Transaction fees depend on the purchase payment.
• 2Checkout. This merchant works much like PayPal but does have higher transaction rates.
  • $49 one-time sign up
  • 5.5% and $0.45 per sale
  • No application fees
  • No monthly fees
  • No statement fees
  • No gateway fees.
• Google Payments. With Google Checkout, you’ll be charged rates that range from 1.9% + $0.30 per transaction to 2.0% and $0.30 per transaction, depending on your monthly sales volume. And there are no monthly, setup or gateway fees.
• Intuit. I have not used this merchant but I have customers that are happy with their service. Besides the ease of being able to process credit cards through your Quickbooks and easing the process, their pricing can be competitive.
  • $100 one-time sign up
  • 2.44% – 3.5% fees and $0.27 per sale
  • $60 application fee
  • Up to $20/month monthly fees.
• ProPay. Another easy way to accept credit cards. I do notice that their rates are variable depending on your ProPay package and type of credit cards you accept.
• ClickBank. Another popular option as they will accept both Credit Cards and Paypal for you, but they have very high transaction rates starting at 7.5%.

As with any business decision, do some research and using a spreadsheet, I suggest calculating a typical sale to help you decide.

This tutorial reviews the following:

• Adding a photo or graphic.
• Editing the style of your graphic.
• Review of adding and editing alternate text.
• Adding a caption to your photo.
• Adding a margin (or padding) around your image.
• Adding a border around your image.
• Finding images that you’ve already uploaded.

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/40-most-wanted-wordpress-tricks-and-hacks/

Copy/paste or write the error message on a piece of paper and copy the message into the search box. You will see results from others that have had the same problem, and if you are lucky a solution.

Don’t see a solution? Try Google groups to see archived discussions that may relate to your problem.

Follow these steps:

1. Select Start | Programs
2. Accessories | System Tools | System Restore
3. Click Restore my computer to an earlier time
4. Follow the instruction in the next window.

If the picture is too big, press (Ctl) (Print Screen) at the same time to capture an image of the error message box. Then you you can paste the screen into Windows Paint imaging utility and press into the picture. Save the picture as a JPEG and you can attach the picture to your e-mail and send to your tech support person.

1. With your memory stick attached to your USB, type Control Panel | User Accounts.
2. 2. Select your account and click Prevent a forgotten password in Related Tasks list to the left.
3. Follow the steps within the Forgotten Password Wizard.

Follow these steps to get to Safe Mode:

1. Reboot and press before Windows loads. This will bring up the ADvanced Options menu.
2. Use the arrow keys to select Safe Mode, and press to launch Windows.
3. You will notice that the computer will look very basic with minimal options available.