Most small business owners will agree that having periodic specials can be a great promotional tactic. It gets more customers through the door, exposing them to what you have to offer. The idea is that they’ll come back or even spend more in the same visit.

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs seem to go about this in entirely the wrong way. I’ve been to many “mom and pop” type restaurants where the daily special largely remains unchanged. It’s always the pork chop, for example, even though it’s a regular menu item too.

That’s not all that special. It’s perfectly fine to put a regular menu item on special, but it doesn’t make sense when it’s the same regular menu item that is always on special. The point is to highlight other menu items and, if the customer likes it, he or she may pay regular price for it on the next visit.

When you put something on special, think about what your end objective is. What are you trying to accomplish? Is that special going to help you reach that goal?

Some gadgets are useful around the office. They can save you precious time and make doing your job much more efficient. This is not one of those gadgets, but that doesn’t make it any less worthy of your hard-earned money.

It’s called the Phantom Keystroker V2 and it is a prank product that is perfect for the cubicle environment. Looking not unlike a nondescript USB flash drive, this device can be plugged into any computer and will work without drivers. It will then make random mouse movements and keystrokes on an intermittent basis.

Your co-worker will think that his or her computer has either a) been infected with a malicious virus or b) been possessed by an undead receptionist bent on their doom. It’s important to note that the Phantom Keystroker will never hit the return key or click the mouse button, so it is unlikely to have seriously damaging effects.

Prank with caution, but this $12.99 toy from ThinkGeek could prove to be a lot of fun when used appropriately.

A wide range of people from a number of different professions host their websites with BlueFur and one such example is the BlueFur Customer of the Week. Lauren Trimble Designs offers a number of services related to art, photography, graphic design, and other creative work.

The focus with the graphic design services is for entrepreneurs and small businesses, as well as to the arts community. Lauren works to help customers better understand your products and services through effective design, as well as help you expand your customer base and create a more professional appearance to your business.

You can take a look at some of the design work on the website, including logos, publications, advertising, and book covers. More traditional art can also be found on the site, along with information on Lauren’s vision, bio, and social media contacts.

Do you use BlueFur to host your websites? Let us know and we can feature you in a future blog post. Send an email message to blogfeature@bluefur.com with your name, website URL, and a brief description of what you’d like to see highlighted.

Are you enjoying your time with the new Google+ social network? Do you like how, despite showing an abundance of information, it somehow manages to look light, minimalist, and elegant? Now you can bring that same aesthetic to your WordPress site.

There is a new free WordPress theme called PlusOne and its primary goal is to emulate the look and feel of the Google+ design. The main content is in the center, and then there are sidebars on either side for supplementary information.

If you take a look at the live demo site, you’ll see that all the posts are also accompanied by 100×100 thumbnail images. You will need the image plugin for this to work, but that’s simple and straightforward enough for you to do.

Head on over to Hacktrix.com to get more information about the PlusOne WordPress theme, including access to the PlusOne demo site and the free download link for this theme.

What’s going on with the blogs on the Internet? Let’s see what they’re talking about.

Community Spark starts us off with a very simple lesson for those looking to build a community online: features aren’t a selling point; benefits are. Don’t tell your potential members about what you can do. Rather, tell them how these features can help them in a very specific way.

Thursday Bram has an ethical question for all the business owners in the audience: is it wrong to pay someone less based on location? Global outsourcing can certainly have its advantages, but are you taking advantage of the person by doing so? Is good work worth the same regardless of where the worker is based?

Bonnie Sainsbury very much recognizes the power of social media, but she also recognizes that you need to do certain things to get the most out of them. For instance, you should get a custom Facebook page design if you want to get better business promotion from it. Stand out and build your brand.

Chris Bibey gets you ready for your next business networking event. Be prepared for these three questions and have your responses ready to go. Do you know what to say when someone asks for your rates? What if they ask for samples and availability?

Russ Henneberry finishes off this list with a fun, yet informative piece on how to sell like Steve Jobs. Remember that buying is an emotional experience and it’s undeniable that Apple makes you “feel” it even before you commit to the purchase. Telling them what’s different certainly helps too.

You have some extra stock that doesn’t seem to be selling particularly well. You’ve tried a few different tactics to get this old stock out the door, but they’ve been met with limited success. What can you do?

For both brick-and-mortar conventional storefronts and online e-tailers, one option to consider is the mystery grab bag. This works on certain types of customers in certain niches, particularly in those where you may find a good number of bargain hunters willing to take a chance.

Instead of selling a single product, you bundle together several items. However, rather than reveal the exact contents, you simply state that this “mystery grab bag” holds a value of $X but that customers can buy it for $Y. This describes explicit savings. It’s important that you don’t load the bags with “junk,” as it is still important for your customers to get a sense of value from their purchase.

Even when it comes to e-tailers like TeeFury, they’ll occasionally have “mystery” sales where a single t-shirt from the grab bag will sell for substantially less than the regular price. The customer won’t know what he or she is getting until it arrives in the mail, but that’s sometimes even more appealing, especially given the reduced price.