If you’ve been watching the e-book reader market evolve these last couple of years, you’ve probably noticed that the Amazon Kindle is still largely the most popular of these devices. The Apple iPad almost falls into a different category altogether, but its success needs to be considered as well.

With this in mind, how can alternatives like the Kobo eBook reader and the Barnes & Noble Nook compete? One major difference between these two offerings and the Kindle is that they are much more accessible in the real world. You can walk into a B&N store and try the Nook. You can’t, for now, walk into an “Amazon” store to try the Kindle.

That hands-on experience can win over a few people who are sitting on the fence and it seems that Amazon is recognizing that the competition could be taking away some of its potential customers. So, how is the online retailer combating its lack of real world retail presence? By partnering with existing retail stores!

There’s word that the Amazon Kindle will be sold at Staples stores soon and this may open the door to other “real world” retail experiences for the Kindle in the future. How can you apply this to your own business? If you have an online-only storefront, it may be worthwhile to consider how you can bring a real “hands-on” experience to your potential customers.

This could be by partnering up with existing stores, as is the case with Staples and the Kindle, or it could be setting up a kiosk or booth occasionally in high traffic areas. This way, real people can see your real products, rather than just an image on a computer screen.

Want to give your readers a better way to share your blog posts with their Twitter followers? You already see a number of buttons and other widgets that provide this kind of functionality, but WP-Tweetbox offers several unique features that separate it from the pack.

Instead of showing a simple button that will just redirect your visitors over to the Twitter website, WP-Tweetbox lets your readers compose the tweet while still on the same page as your original blog post. Further still, you can get the plug-in to auto-generate the tweet text ahead of time. This way, the user really can just click on “tweet” to send it out.

This WordPress plug-in supports a number of URL shortening services too, so you shouldn’t have any trouble fitting the auto-generated tweet text into the 140 character limit. WP-Tweetbox can be configured to work with Su.pr, Bit.ly, Bitly.pro, and Wp.me.

For more information, including a live demo of WP-Tweetbox, check out the plugin page at riyaz.net.

In order for your business to reach its utmost potential, you need to ensure that the business model is scalable. You are just one person and, eventually, you won’t be able to do the entirety of the job on your own. That’s only natural and to be expected. It’s also a good problem to have.

However, you will then be faced with the ethics of subcontracting and outsourcing. This is especially true when it comes to service-based industries like advertising agencies, freelance writers, and other creative types. When a client approaches you, they usually expect that you will be doing the work. That may or may not always be the case.

So, how do you handle these situations? When a customer approaches a large company with a task, he usually doesn’t expect the CEO and Founder to do the majority of the work, but what about smaller businesses? It’s not unusual for a large ad agency to outsource its work and profit from the difference. It’s common practice.

In this way, you do need to tread carefully when you reach this juncture in your entrepreneurial career. The professionals that you hire for the subcontracted or outsourced work have to be up to your own standards, first and foremost, so that your clients will not be disappointed with the results. Whether you choose to disclose the subcontracted nature of the work to your clients, however, is an ethical question that you’ll need to answer on your own.

Want to have a party in your pocket? It may not be the best of taglines, but that’s exactly what they’ve decided to use for the iBottleopener. We’ve all been in the situation where we can’t find a suitable bottle opener in a pinch, but we always have our smartphones close at hand.

With this in mind, the iBottleopener can really help you under such circumstances. It is a protective case that’ll fit the Apple iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, but it also comes with a built-in bottle opener. This certainly makes it one of the more unique products we’ve seen, as other iPhone cases may include additional battery life or some other “useful” function. Then again, bottle opening can be pretty useful.

The product is currently patent pending, but the developers are looking to get about $20 for each case, plus four dollars for shipping. The current version will only work with the iPhone 3G and 3GS models, but a iPhone 4 iBottleopener is also in the works.

If you were to develop a new case for the iPhone (or any other smartphone for that matter), what innovative feature would you choose to include to separate your product from the rest of the crowd? A corkscrew? A nail clipper? A screwdriver?

Photography can be a very tricky business, because someone who is good at one type of photography may not necessarily be good at another. Just as you wouldn’t likely rely on a comic book author to write a deep academic essay on quantum physics, the same can be said about the photographers you choose.

If you happen to be a real estate developer or another kind of real estate professional, it can certainly pay to use the services offered by Lattice Photography. They use BlueFur as their preferred web host and they are located in Toronto. Lattice specializes in architecture and interior photography, both for print and for the web.

To get a sense of the quality you can expect from Lattice, be sure to check out the gallery page on the website. More information about the services is also available through the website, as is the contact information.

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.

New a new WordPress theme for your blog? One of the newer templates to hit the Internet recently is StoneHenge. Developed by the team at Themio, this theme features two main columns and it is completely widget-enabled for your customization purposes.

Above the fold, you’ll find an area to have a featured article or a featured image and this section comes with a jQuery-based image slider. It is also fully configurable and provides a great place to highlight some of your best content. The custom homepage comes with featured posts, ad areas, and featured links.

Other features found in this theme include links to your “lifestream sites” like Twitter and support for the WordPress 3.0 menu system, as well as a tabified sidebar with the latest, commented, and popular posts. It is compatible with all major browsers.

Find more information at Themio.net. It is also there that you can find the live demo and the free full download link.

Another Friday means another tour of the blogosphere. What were people writing about this week?

Tiff Chow shares some beautiful iPad sketches by Ryan Smith. It’s amazing what you are able to achieve with a little bit of creativity and a fun piece of technology. Believe it or not, all that art was drawn just using an Apple iPad!

Jeff Cutler offers a poignant discussion on whether or not social media is a waste of time. Those “in the know” are well versed in the realms of Twitter and Facebook, but does the average consumer pay attention to these alternative marketing channels?

Ed Lau has decided to broaden his horizons just a tinge. He has just launched a new food blog where he will document many of his culinary adventures, not only in the Vancouver area, but also all around the world. From authentic Japanese tempura in Tokyo to pricey burgers at DB Bistro Moderne, he eats… and blogs!

Taylor Lindstrom makes a very important point about why your blog doesn’t make money. You have to remember that while guys like Darren Rowse do make some money from their blogs, the blogs are not their primary sources of income. A popular blog and a profitable business are not necessarily the same thing.

Zac Johnson lets us know about an interesting new development. Apparently, Philadelphia bloggers now need to get a $300 license to continue blogging for profit. It doesn’t matter if you only make pennies on your blog. Will this trend extend to other parts of the country too?

Sometimes, the best kind of advertising is the kind that you never really see. It’s not always about landing a 30-second spot in the middle of the Super Bowl or taking out a full page ad in the Sunday newspaper. Those can help, to be sure, but they can also be very pricey endeavors with potentially limited returns.

No, sometimes the best kind of advertising comes in the form of networking and forging the right connections with the right people. Regardless of the industry that you’re in and the profession that you have, you are intimately interconnected with other industries and other professions. The key is to tap into these relationships in the best way possible.

For instance, let’s say that you are a real estate agent. As a realtor, it is a fantastic idea to forge a strong business relationship with a banker, a mortgage broker, a building inspector, a lawyer, a general contractor, and other people who may be of interest to your clients. In like manner, the person approaching the mortgage broker for a pre-approval may also be looking for a real estate agent. That’s how the two-way referrals can work in the favor of all parties involved.

Absolutely, you should consider several different advertising and marketing strategies to best promote your company, along with its products and services. However, don’t forget about the incredible power and value that some good networking can provide as well.

Any time that you have a blog that allows for comments, you are opening yourself up for comment spam. That’s just part of the territory and that’s where utilities like Akismet and Captcha codes can come in handy. Similarly, if you publicly post your email address somewhere on the Internet, you become increasingly susceptible to spam that way too.

In regards to comment spam, you may find that your filter is constantly picking up comments left by a certain IP address or IP address range. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could prevent people from that IP address from posting spam comments (or malicious code, for that matter) on your blog? You can. And all it takes is a simple plugin.

The appropriately named IP Ban is a plug-in for WordPress that, when activated, will return a 404 error message “for IP’s visiting your blog specified in the IP Ban option on the Discussion Options page.” This “page not found” error will effectively prevent them from not only leaving spam comments, but from viewing your site at all.

You can download IP Ban directly from the Plugin Directory on WordPress.org. As always, it is a free download.

Let me preface this by saying that I am not an accountant nor do I claim to be. It is always in your best interest to consult with your tax professional for confirmation and advice, but this post may prove very useful for all the small business and home-based business owners in the audience.

What happens when you purchase something for the purposes of your business, but you do not have a receipt to record the purchase? Can you still “write it off” like any other expense that your business may incur over the course of its daily operations? The short answer appears to be yes, but it comes with several caveats. It is always easiest if you are able to get some sort of proof of purchase, even if it is just a hand-written receipt from the seller, but this isn’t always possible.

In order to “write off” this expense, you have to ensure that the transaction is properly recorded in your books. Note the date of the purchase, the name of the seller (whether it is an individual or a business), the contact information of the seller (if available), the product or service being purchased, the effective sale price, and any other information related to the transaction. You can hand-write a note to document this, as well as entering it into your books.

If you take care to note as much as possible about the transaction, you can then show this information to the government in case you get audited. This information can also be forwarded along to your accountant, who can then have it included as part of your annual tax files.