I’ll be keeping the schedule up to date and including a listing of winners, as well as any relevant/newsworthy notes. Let the Games begin!

Right. Now that you’ve got Keith’s plugin installed, and upgrading you wordpress install is literally as easy as 6 or so clicks, you may or may not receive the dreaded ‘memory exhausted on line xyz…bla bla bla’ error. The error may refer to the kses.php file, class-simplepie.php file or any number of other variables. In your dashboard, you’ll most likely see something like this:

Yikes! That looks pretty nasty. But fear not, Captain O’ WordPress, it’s a relatively easy fix. Basically what’s going on here is that the server your blog is hosted on isn’t giving you enough juice to power everything that’s going on in your dashboard. Or rather, I should say, your wordpress installation isn’t telling the server to give you the required juice to make everything play nicey nice. Let’s go ahead and fix that bugger, shall we?

To fix the exhausted memory error:

1. Log in to your FTP client. I use Cyberduck to manage mine, but any FTP client will do the trick.

2. Locate the wp-settings.php file. In my installation, it’s hanging out in the main directory.

3. Download this file to your desktop, or anywhere else you want to store it, just remember where you’ve put it.

4. Open your code editor. I use dreamweaver, but as with the FTP client, any text editing software (even the one included with your OS) will do the trick.

5. On line 13 (shown below), you should see the text – define (‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’ , ‘32M’ ). Ah ha! Exhausted memory, memory limit….see where we’re headed with this?

6. Change this variable to anything higher than 32mb. I like to be on the safe side, and ask the server for double what the standard wordpress install calls for, and up it to 64mb.

7. Save the file

8. Upload the file back to its initial location

Click that dashboard button again inside your wordpress installation, et viola! Pretty text and all other goodies returned.

If you’re still having the exhausted memory error after following the procedures above, try upping the memory limit to 128mb. However, keep in mind, with 128mb you’re really pushing the limit on what your host will deem as ‘acceptable’ behavior from the one of perhaps hundreds of sites that are sharing the server with you. I’d recommend testing with 128mb, and upon ensuring this memory allocation solves your problem, try backing the usage down until you get the error again. If problems persist, you might want to open a support ticket with your host.

Problems or questions? Leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to help!

Again, as this is more of an expansion pack rather than a completely new OS, Snow Leopard will be Apple’s cheapest OS upgrade to date – priced at around $29. And frankly, at that price, I’d be hard pressed to see why anyone wouldn’t want this update. The exhaustive list of planned features is available from Apple, but for this article, I’d like to present the highlights that do it for me.

Dock Exposé

I arrived to the Mac world with a fresh copy of Leopard in my hands, but I have worked on Tiger, and rapidly discovered the benefits of Exposé. Spaces, I’m not that much of a fan of, but Exposé provides a number of productivity benefits, as well as the occasional…wait, which window was that yadda yadda in, answer. Snow Leopard is bringing exposé to a dock near you. Personally, I use hot corners and mouse shortcuts to access my exposé goodies, but Snow Leopard will now offer users the option to place an icon on the dock. Clicking and holding this dock icon will arrange all open windows in a far more organized manner, aligning themselves to a grid.

QuickTime X

Oh QuickTime, how I love to hate you most times. I’m pretty certain I’m not the only one on this trip (think VLC development community), and it looks like Apple’s noticed. Other than the addition of the H.264 codec in Leopard, not much has changed with QuickTime for quite a while. In addition to a new icon to be used, QuickTime X includes a number of interface enhancements including improved streaming video ability, speed increases, and last but not least, a gorgeous border-less display window (finally!). Oh, and did I mention screen recording? Seeya iShowU.

Stacks

Stick ‘em up buddy! Stacks first appeared in the Mac catalogue with Leopard, and personally, I love them. The idea is simple enough, one way to navigate through entire folder contents directly from the dock. And while highly functional, one of my major gripes is that you only were able to access the top level of this folder structure. Snow Leopard addresses this and allows you to drill down through folders while still in stack mode. Sft+cmd+a is looking further and further away.

Install Speed and Space

If the niceties above didn’t make you smile, perhaps improved system speed, and a bit more HDD real estate will. According to Apple, Snow Leopard will reduce the time spent installing the OS by up to 45%! Granted, this is a (hopefully) one time only deal, but shaving the install time in half? Well done Cupertino. And how about some extra storage space? Snow Leopard is touted to free up to 6GB of space!!! Granted, both of these claims come with fine print, but heck…even if I got only 3GB back, my iTunes collection would be mighty thankful.

The Architecture

If you’re a developer, Snow Leopard is either going to cause you a bushel full of woes, or make your life much easier. Either way you look at it, Apple is fundamentally changing the way things work under the hood. If you’re not a dev (I assume a majority of my readers full into this category), you’ll probably only notice the changes via improved speed, security, and system stability/reliability.

64 Bit Speed

All the latest Intel Macs ship with 64 Bit processors and are capable of performing at much higher speeds. Leopard has taken advantage of this technology, to an extent, but Snow Leopard will really saddle this pony and take it out for a ride. The OS update includes a number of re-writes for system applications that should make things noticeably faster.

These re-writes will also reduce the amount of memory that can be handled by any given application, thereby (theoretically) allowing for a maximum of 16 billion gigabytes of memory!

These leaps in speed aren’t going to melt your face off, but they should provide a noticeable snappier Mac (provided you’re running on a 64 bit system).

Do More with Core Duo

If you’re running a Mac with Intel Core Duo technology, Snow Leopard’s addition of Grand Central Dispatch will offer even more speed. Preliminary research of how GCD works caused a mild headache, so I’ll leave it at this: It makes things go faster.

OpenCL

Chances are the graphics on your Mac are already pretty darn impressive. With the addition of the new OpenCL architecture, your graphics processor will be able to handle a wider range of tasks. Hailing from the gaming world, this new technology will stand by waiting to assist and increase the speed of your every day use tasks.

Exchange Support

Even the most die-hard Mac offices have to interface with the outside world, and their non-Mac toting counterparts. To this end, Snow Leopard represents Apple’s first steps in making Macs better suited to the suited world. The new Exchange support features will integrate MS features into local OSX applications including Mail, iCal, and Address Book.

Again, a full list of Snow Leopard’s features are available directly from Apple, and I’d suggest you take a look at it to get the full lowdown. The above represent the ones that get me jazzed, but there are sections I didn’t even get to (i.e. if you’re using a Time Capsule for Time Machine backups, you’ll be delighted to discover the process should be up to 50 percent faster).

With that said, my top 5 reasons for upgrading ASAP are:

• Price – $29? Seriously? For that price, heck, I’d buy two if it’d quadruple my speed increases.
• Speed – anytime someone says to me, “Hey, I’ve got something here that’ll make your machine run faster” I’m generally all ears. Knowing that it’s coming out of Cupertino directly from Mac engineers, call me sold.
• 6GB of free space – for $29 and most probably half an hour of my time to install the upgrade, and I get speed and space? Hmmm…what to do with 6 extra GB? iTunes what?
• 64 Bit optimization – perhaps falling under the speed category, but re-writing how the OS accesses and handles key hardware components is nothing short of brilliant.
• The Future – Obviously any time Apple makes a significant OS change, application developers scramble to get the very best out of their current product to take advantage of these features. I’m quite excited to see what type of updates/changes some of my favorites make to meet the new limitations of OS X Snow Leopard

So from where I’m sitting, September looks only a mere 41 days away. Apple’s not given a definitive date for release, but chances are, I’ll be lined up at 9am at the shop to get my hands on Snow Leopard. Will you be upgrading? Leave a comment below.

At 20 seconds in, the guy in the green t-shirt joins (possibly crazy) guy number one, and we’re not quite certain if he’s a 100% participant, or a 99.44% mocker.  My guess is that we’re probably a bit closer to option 2 than 1.  At 54 seconds in, guy number three enters the picture and joins the dance.  He’s our key figure here.  Notice that it only takes another 15 seconds for not just one, but two additional participants to join the what will soon become an all hillside dance party.  For the next two minutes festival goers continue to add to the frenzy, until just about everyone in the shot is dancing like it’s 1999.

While dancer number one may have started the craze, and dancer number two’s commitment is questionable at best, it’s dancer number three that started the tipping point here.  He’s the guy that was clearly not mocking, saw something that he liked or enjoyed, and decided to unabashedly commit to it.  Couldn’t we draw the same parallels between your product or marketing message?  You would be dancer number one (again, possibly crazy), dancer number two may represent your competition, naysayers, the popular media, etc., but  dancer number three is the one that you need to be on the lookout for. He’s the one that received the message, and made it ok for everyone else to join in as well.

Naturally, it’s scary and challenging being the leader, the initiator.  It’s not quite as scary to have dancer number three’s role, but that doesn’t make it any less important.  A good lesson to be learned in the seemingly comic video.

Always be on the look out for dancer number three.

Now settle down there Skippy.  I know what you’re thinking…I thought the same thing – OMGZ!! games are gonna be unbelieveable with this thing.  Not so much.  This Enterprise bridge like display has a highly unusual 32:10 aspect ratio (standard widescreen is 16:9 or 16:10).  Rather, NEC says that this monolith is targeted at high end users in the simulation, digital imaging as well as the command and control industries, which require lightning-fast response times, a broad field of view, greater dynamic range, wide color gamut and employ multiple monitor set-ups.  In other words, not your typical home office setup.

Since this big ol’ monitor is DLP, it’s not exactly svelt in the dimensions department.  Weighing in at 52.5 pounds, she’s not exactly going to get carried to the next LAN party.  Have a look at the side views in the images below to get a better idea of just how wide and deep those hips run.

The users taskbar extends across the entire width of the monitor, which according to NEC increases productivity and lowers frustration by eliminating the bezel and screen gap issues that occur with multiple monitor setups.  That, and it just looks really f@(*%#ing cool!  Windows users, might not get the whole panache, but my mac peeps – imagine your bottom task bar just wrapped all the way around.  Oh dear god…I can plz haz?

One input setup may be achieved thanks to a single DVI-D and HDMI 1.3 input connects.  And while it should go without mentioning, Big Bertha also comes with usb 2.0 connectivity.  The LED backlighting provides for a wide color gamut with 100 percent coverage of sRGB and 99.3% coverage of Adobe RGB.

Originally unveiled at the 2008 CES, NEC plans on bringing this behemoth to market new month.  Bragging rights are going to set you back a bit though.  At $7999, Bertha isn’t exactly cheap, and not the most cost effective multi-monitor solution, but seriously…just look at this thing.

It’s quite easy – provided your DVD optical drive still works.

I had the lucky happenstance to find out that mine is dead. I’m probably not going to have it fixed, as I’ve read estimates anywhere from $380 – $466, and to be honest, I rarely every use it. However, this does bring up an interesting quandary; how to reinstall the mac os x with a dead optical drive? Apple provides you with a copy of the OS on two DVDs. Ok, first thought – see if I can’t copy these DVD’s using my old PC, and then just use the .dmg’s directly from an external USB drive. Great. But hold up there bucko, as it turns out, Apple Macintosh computers, both laptops and desktops can only boot from firewire drives. Hmmm. Personally, I don’t own any firewire external harddrives, they’re all USB based. So there goes that solution out the window. So here I am thinking that I’m really screwed, and either going to have to pull the main harddrive and plunk it into a friends mac, and do the reinstall that way (a major pain in the ass as far as I see it), until I did a bit of further digging.

Target Disk Mode

Now while I don’t have a firewire drive handy, I did have a 6-pin firewire cable lying around that I use with an external soundcard. As it turns out, you can use a firewire cable to connect two macs, and it’s quite simple at that. Here’s how.

For the purpose of this example, and for simplicity, I’m going to call the MacBook (to be used as the target disk) Black, and the MacBook Pro (where we’ll be installing the new OS) Silver.

1. Make sure that Black is turned off, attached to the power supply, and all external devices are unplugged.
2. Connect the 6-pin Firewire cable to black. Silver does not need to be turned off.
3. Boot Black, and immediately hold down the T key. After a few seconds, you should see a large Firewire icon floating around the screen.
4. Black should now appear as an additional disk on Silver. If you’re like me and do NOT have harddrives displayed on the desktop, press cmd+shft+c to bring up you list of available disks.

Et voila! Black, just became the words most expensive external harddrive/cd/dvd burner/reader combo drive known to man. So far so good, however, we’ve not yet installed the OS. From here, things should be pretty straight forward, however I did have one minor, ‘will that work?’ moment which I’ll describe below.

Upon popping the OS X installation disk in, you’ll get an auto prompt asking what you want to do with it. Select install OSX. The computer (Silver) will then ask you to reboot to begin.

Leave the firewire cables connected, and upon reboot, Black should remain in target disk mode, while Silver will now pick up the install straight from Black. If all goes well, everything should proceed as if you’ve inserted the disk directly into Silver (and the drive works).

So we’re all set, right? Yes and No. If you take a look at that DVD package that came with your computer from Apple, you’ll notice that there are 2 disks. Everything is cooking along, the OS is pretty much installed, but now you’ve reached that crucial moment of ‘Please insert disk two’. Ok, no problem, I’ll just eject the disk from Black and carry on. Hold on there partner, as Black is now in target mode – how ya gonna eject that disk? Can’t do it from the OS, and the hardware button no longer functions. Remember, when in target disk mode, Black ceases to be a fully functional machine, but again, a rather expensive external HDD/DVD drive.

To solve this problem, I took a round about way of solving this, and since I couldn’t find this info anywhere else, I took my own guess at it. Throughout this entire process, DO NOT remove the 6 pin firewire cable.

1. Press and hold down the power button on Black until it shuts down
2. Press the power button again, and immediately press the eject button. This should pop the DVD out before target disk mode launches.
3. Press and hold the power button down again, until Black shuts down again.
4. Press the power button down again, and now quickly slip disk two into the dvd drive.

This will handle the problem of inserting disk two.

As much as I’d like to have a functioning DVD drive, from what I’ve read this isn’t an uncommon problem for MacBook’s, both standard and pro. I tend to leave my machine on 24/7, and reboot it generally once a week. It has occurred to me that the additional heat generated by this prolonged usage may have not been the best thing for an optical drive (some parts are made of plastic).

If you’ve fried, or in my case, melted your DVD optical drive, if you’ve got another mac handy, hopefully this guide has walked you through the steps of using it in target disk mode to regain the features/functions lost. Any questions? Leave ‘em in the comments below and I’ll respond ASAP.

The report, social networking in the enterprise is based on detailed interviews with 21 companies spanning a wide variety of industries including utilities, consumer goods, technology, and finance.

With the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston bearing down on us, this report from Burton couldn’t have come at a better time, as businesses are struggling to not only understand, but utilize and maximize the technologies potential.  The Enterprise 2.0 Conference is a gathering of tech vendors that create social applications similar to facebook, twitter, etc., but specifically tailored for business usage.  In addition to the old standbys such as IBM (Lotus Connections) and Microsoft (SharePoint), new players including Socialtext, Jive, and Six Apart are slated to be in attendance.

But according to Mike Gotta, a principal analyst with the Burton Group, it’s not a problem with vendors’ product offerings that are the stumbling stone, but rather the corporate culture itself.  Gotta says that the challenge is in addressing specific generational differences, and getting them all on the same page.  Specifically Baby Boomers have demonstrated that they’re not inclined to embrace social technologies in the workplace (although they’re flocking to them from a consumer perspective).

According the Burton survey, the problem may not lie with the Boomers, but rather in how their employer presenting the tools to them.  Many companies have used social networking tools to share expertise, collaborate, and connect with others, especially in multi-location global enterprises.

“Some vendors are saying employees will go in and naturally fill these enterprise social networking profiles out, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true,” Gotta says. “If you’re an employee, you have questions. Why should you maintain it? What are you going to do with it? Those questions still need to answered.”

What else does Gotta see holding corporation adoption back?

• Creating a business case is difficult for people who don’t understand the technologies or have rigid ways of defining their success. Your CFO might want hard ROI, which social tools have a difficult time showing because they aren’t necessarily replacement tools. So, for instance, if people begin trading information on a wiki, that maintains a document’s changes in real-time. This is generally better than sending around reply-all e-mails with messy attachments. But while you know the wiki has helped your collaboration efforts, it might be hard to figure an exact dollar amount in savings since e-mail isn’t being replaced. “For that person that who wants blood on paper ROI , it’s a hard conversation,” Gotta says.

• Getting the proper players involved. Gotta says it’s essential to have a presence from HR in getting these technologies off the ground. If, for instance, you want to turn your corporate intranet into a social network with employee profile pages, you need to help people feel comfortable to share and know the ground rules. If people feel awkward about inputting information, it’s as good as dead. In addition, stakeholders (often department heads) must show they believe in the adoption of the technology by using it themselves and encouraging adoption. If they use it, it’s not guaranteed their employees will use it, but it’s more likely.

• Traditional corporate communications structures and etiquette. More old, conservative organizations communicate in a top-down fashion, which runs counter to social networks, where people collectively weigh in and discuss issues. Burton quoted one participant who noted the following: “We have a classic company — we communicate ‘at’ people rather than ‘with’ them.” On the upside, the proponents of enterprise social networking say that the technologies, if used effectively, can uproot that type of communications model.

My thoughts have echoed so many other iPhone owners, “Hey, where’s my skype application?” and I’d tried a number of work arounds, but nothing that delivered voip.  Fring is a great app for iPhone that will handle all your IM programs (think Adium for iPhone), including skype, but again, no voice features.  So you can imagine my excitement when the news broke like wildfire across the net yesterday when rumors were confirmed and skype would be made available (for free no less) today.

To my surprise, upon entering the app store via iTunes, skype is not (yet) the top free app, and I had to do a little searching.  Needless to say, there’s quite a few mentions of skype in the search results, but here’s the direct link to the skype app for iPhone.

Note: I am currently running the 3.0 firmware on my (obviously) jailed iPhone.

Installation

As with any iPhone application, installation is a breeze, literally a click and a password (if you have this option selected) away.  A quick install and eject later, I fired up my shiny new skype for iPhone application.  Sadly, I wasn’t able to grab a screenshot of the entry screen, but the folks at skype thoughtfully repeated their message about skype not being a replacement for a regular phone, and that emergency calls may not be made with skype (or any other voip service, for that matter).  Not necessary, but a nice thing to do.

Setup

The skype for iPhone setup is very familiar to any user of the desktop version, and is appropriately styled the same way.  Simply enter your user name and password, and you’re off to the races.  No ‘unknown error’s thus far.  Nothing but smooth sailing.

Use

If you’ve used any other type of IM service on your iPhone, and/or are fairly familiar with the way iPhone lays out lists (think of your contacts book), the UI is instantly recognizable.  Contacts are displayed alphabetically, and you have the option to display all contacts, or only those currently online.  As with the desktop version, contacts’ display icons appear next to their name, along with their status.

As with any new toy, I wanted to really test just how far this tiny little app will take me.  A quick view of my contacts list revealed that my friend Bree in Hawaii was still awake and online.  Hawaii?  Sure, I think that’s approximately half way around the world from where I am – looks like a suitable test location.  And here’s where things started to get a bit rocky.  First, Bree didn’t show up as online on the iPhone, but did show up on the desktop version.  I sent her a message via the desktop, and her response showed both on the desktop version and the iPhone.  Needless to say, the minute I got a response, poof!  Bree’s now online.  Perhaps I was a bit impatient, and didn’t give the system the proper amount of time to load all the data.

My initial call to Bree went through (technically), but I could not hear her, nor could she hear me.  At this point the application froze, and I had to ‘home’ button, close and relaunch.  Fair enough, it’s a first release; I’m willing to cut the Swedes some slack.

Our second attempt at a call can only be described by Borat as, “Great Success!”  Voice quality was just as good if not better than the desktop version, and on par with actual phone call quality.  We talked for about 5 minutes, all the while me moving about the house, closer and further away from the router.  All good.  As a point of comparison, I decided to hang up and call her back, but only using the 3G network this time.  Third attempt worked like a charm.  No lag, no dropped call, semi-instant connection.  I’d almost go so far to say that skype for iPhone performed better on 3G than over my wireless connection.  Although, to be fair, perhaps the application was suffering from stage fright, and that first misfire was the one and only bobble I’ll ever have (crossing fingers).

Just to put the distance question to the test, I gave a call to my buddy Olivier here in town, and low and behold, no misfires, instant connection, perfect voice quality.  So maybe there is something to routing a call 10,000 miles away vs. 3.  Either way, the application met my expectations.

Conclusion

Other than the first misfire while calling Hawaii, the skype for iPhone application works, and works quite well.  Is it perfect?  Yes/No.  I’d love to give the application 5 stars, but the first bobble knocks off half a star.  Given that the application is free and there’s a pretty good chance you’ve already got skype running on your desktop,  there’s absolutely no reason this little app shouldn’t be sitting on the front page of your iPhone.

Kudos skype – it’s been a long time coming.  Welcome to my phone.

Update: According to TechCrunch, within three short days, the skype for iPhone application has been downloaded over 1 million times.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Skype for iPhone: It’s Real, and It’s Spectacular (readwriteweb.com)
• Skype for iPhone to Launch Tuesday (cultofmac.com)
• iPhone Users to get Skype (Finally) (netnewsdaily.com)
• Skype For iPhone: It’s Official (cbsnews.com)

Results:

1. Martin ‘Iznogud’ Herdina
2. Daniel ‘Eat my Dust’ Petri
3. Dan ‘Knows No Limits’ Taylor
4. Stevie ‘KillCreek’ Case
5. Tom ‘Herr’ Stagl
6. Clive ‘Louis Hamilton’ Jefferies
7. Johannes ‘Mo’Hawk’ Sperlhofer
8. Patrick ‘LocoLoki’ Krippner
9. Ritchie ‘Datenschmutz’ Pettaur
10. Cynthia ‘Get that Camera outta my face’ Lederer
11. Georg ‘What Crash?’ Nader

Special thanks go out to Clive Jefferies for joining us from the UK, and Stevie Case for that long-assed flight from San Francisco.

I run my own small business (and when I say small, I mean moi) doing various writing, marketing, and consulting gigs.  To add to the OMG, WTF do I do with all of this, I live in Austria and pay taxes here, but thanks to our good friends on capitol hill, I also have to pay taxes on any work I may have done for any American companies.  Lovely.

Needless to say, I’ve already started combing the mountains of information out there, but wasn’t able to find a whole lot pertaining to my particular industry segment.  Enter stage left, 101 Tax deductions for bloggers and freelancers courtesy of Paul Michael via wisebread.com.  Before digging into the list of deductible items, a notable suggestion from Paul:

“…your expenses shouldn’t really outweigh your income (although sometimes it’s inevitable in your first year of business, taking into account start-up costs and so forth). But, if you made $1500 from your blogging adventures, writing off a $3500 computer system may trigger a big bad red flag. The IRS doesn’t like it when you spend more than you make.  And if in doubt, double check with an accountant.”

Without further adieu….

101 Tax Deductions for Bloggers and Freelancers

1. Industry books & periodicals, including audio books
2. Other books and periodicals used for research
3. Library book charges
4. DVDs and CDs related to your blogging
5. Movie or theater tickets, if related to your blogging or freelancing
6. Music and TV show downloads
7. Magazine subscriptions
8. Research sites that require a subscription
9. Further education classes
10. Webinars
11. Business podcasts
12. Business-related websites (for me, that would be Adweek)
13. Memberships to professional clubs and affiliations
14. Internet access fees (at about $40 a month, that’s a biggie)
15. Public internet access fees (Internet café’s, airports etc)
16. Stock photo purchases for your blog
17. Search Engine Optimization services and fees
18. Paid site submissions
19. Website hosting fees
20. Website design and/or maintenance fees
21. Website/blog templates
22. Domain name cost(s) and renewals
23. Blog expenses (e.g. WordPress additions)
24. Film & Digital cameras
25. Web cameras
26. Handheld video recorders
27. Digital memory cards
28. Recordable CDs and DVDs
29. Zip drives
30. Photo printouts
31. Film & film processing
32. Printer ink and copier toner
33. Phone charging stations (e.g. at the airport)
34. Second phone line for your business/fax machine
35. Long distance charges related to business
36. Cost of phone/fax/scanner/copier equipment
37. Cell phone & PDA expenses (bills, equipment, accessories)
38. Personal voice recorders and memo machines
39. Business equipment rental
40. Computer equipment & peripherals
41. Computer upgrades (I had to upgrade my RAM twice last year)
42. Depreciation costs of computer equipment
43. Data storage (both online and external HDDs)
44. Any business related software (not games…unless you review them)
45. Software licensing fees
46. Anti-virus and anti-spam subscriptions
47. Unpaid invoices. If you do some work for someone, be it a simple blog article or a much bigger job, and you get stiffed on the bill, you can write off your loss.
48. Fees for other bloggers and freelancers. If you get overwhelmed and pay a friend or relative to help out, any money you pay that person for their assistance is a tax deduction.
49. Tax and accounting software
50. Tax preparation fees
51. Business incorporation costs
52. Costs for Trademarks or Copyrights.
53. Business logos and graphic design fees
54. Business cards, letterhead and other stationery (even stuff you print yourself)
55. Office supplies (everything from paper to paper clips)
56. Home office expenses. You can deduct the part of your home you use exclusively for blogging or freelancing as an expense, including a portion of the rent, water, heating bills and so on.
57. Percentage of your home insurance (for your home office)
58. Online self-promotion fees (that includes banners and Adwords costs)
59. Trade show fees
60. Advertising costs (newspapers, stickers, posters, postcards etc)
61. Photography fees (e.g. headshots, pack shots etc)
62. Photocopying/faxing fees
63. Transportation costs: car mileage; airline tickets; taxis; buses; trains.
64. Highway tolls
65. Parking fees
66. Hotel costs for business trips.
67. Cleaning & laundering services when traveling for business.
68. Costs of conferences, plus all related expenses (e.g. BlogHer)
69. Health insurance costs (if you’re self-employed)
70. Computer equipment insurance
71. Food and drink purchased on business trips
72. Client entertainment (be reasonable…not sure you’ll get away with Strip Club deductions)
73. Postage costs (Stamps.com is ideal for keeping track of postage, and the service itself is tax-deductible)
74. PayPal and Western Union fees
75. Post Office Box fees.
76. Safe Deposit Box fees.
77. Self-storage fees, especially useful if your files and records are spilling over into your garage and you need extra space.
78. Advice. Any professional advice you pay for that pertains to your business is a tax deduction, and that includes counseling or coaching.
79. Membership dues to labor unions (do bloggers have a union?)
80. Charity work or donations (this one’s tricky. It’s limited to your out-of-pocket costs, not the final cost of the product. In my case, I’ve done some writing for charity, which is not applicable because you can’t deduct time spent. But any materials used during your charity work can be deducted).
81. Prizes and giveaways. Here at Wise Bread, we give away some very nice things. Often, they are generously given to us as gifts to pass on to you, or readers. But when we go out and spend money on a prize to give away, that can be deducted, as well as the cost to mail it out to you.
82. Business furniture. If you use it exclusively for your blogging or freelancing, then anything from a chair or filing cabinet to the whole desk can be written off.
83. Business functions. If you hold a little get-together for clients, even just one or two, then everything from the rental of the room (or golf course…know what I mean?) to food and drink can be deducted.
84. Business lunches. You can’t include your own meal, but if you pick up the tab at a power-lunch (or just a meeting with a potential client) you can write off their part of the check.
85. Props. I sometimes use props for photoshoots, and the cost of those props can be deducted.
86. Job search expenses. Any money you spend trying to get work, from postage to travel, is a deductible expense.
87. Alcohol and drug abuse treatment. If the pressure turns you into a Betty Ford patient, you can deduct the expenses of treatment. Let’s hope you never have to though.
88. Any losses due to theft. Away on business, your laptop gets stolen…write it off.
89. Moving expenses related to your blogging or freelancing.
90. You can deduct 50% of your self-employment tax
91. Home improvements. Turn the basement into a home office, those expenses are deductible.
92. Clothing and accessories. If you have to buy any clothing for a particular job (maybe you needed protective clothing & headwear to write an article about a building site) then those costs are also deductible. But don’t try and write off your new Gucci watch.
93. Business checking expenses. If you have anything more that free checking, it’s a deduction.
94. Business gifts. This is cool. If your mom watched the kids while you went off to do an interview or write an article, and you then bought her flowers or choccies, well, the gift is tax deductible. Very sweet.
95. Annual fees for business credit cards.
96. Physical therapy. Writing for eight hours a day can cause all sorts of problems, including the dreaded Carpel Tunnel Syndrome. I’ve been advised by many accountants that you can deduct the cost of that therapy. However, medical expenses are a complex beast, and usually need to be a percentage of your income. Check with your accountant for details.
97. Headache pills, eye drops and so on. If staring at the screen all day gives you a killer migraine, you can write off the cost of the meds to help you get through it and keep on working.
98. Wages. Say you pay your kid $20 a month to empty your office trash can, maybe as a way to earn an allowance. Well, you can deduct that expense.
99. Your dog. No kidding, if you can prove it’s a guard dog and is protecting your equipment, you can write-off the doggie expenses.
100. Net operating loss. If your deductions outweigh your earnings, which often happens in your start-up year, you can use that loss to lower your taxes next year.

And one big final deduction you may want to think about:

101. Your TV cable or satellite bill. I can deduct it because I need it…I work in the movie business. It’s a very nice deduction, too. If you blog about soaps, movies, TV shows, or anything else in the entertainment field, this could be a nice write-off for you.

Thanks Paul!