5 Remarkable Resources on Building a Better Blog Today I’ve got 5 resources about building websites that you’ve got to check out. The true cost of entrepreneurship (what your friends and family will never understand) 5 steps to building a better blog (an oldie, but did you finish all 5 steps yet?) The dirty little words that prevent your readers from buying whatever it is you’re selling (I call them wallet-closing words). A remarkable, high-converting feature box download (for Thesis users) 3 beautiful website designs that use Thesis (for design inspiration) Plus, I need your opinion… 5 Resources on Building a Better Blog First, let’s start with the resources: 1. When you begin building a web-based business, your friends will think life is great. (Note, I want you to pay close attention to some of the comments on this article. 2. 5 steps to building a better blog We published this article on DIYthemes a few weeks back, but today I want to check in with you. 3. 4. By now you know I love the Feature Box, so I’ll spare you the “selling.” 1.
BOOKS TOOLBOX: 50+ Sites for Book Lovers Lulu, a book publishing site, is in the news this week. But there are many more sites for book reviews, self-publishing and exchange. Here are more than 50 of our favorites. Disclosure: Lulu currently has an ad campaign running on Mashable. Book Reviews Amazon.com - Search from thousands of books, buy them online and read excellent reviews. Booksprice.com - Users can search and compare prices of new and old books from all major stores. Bookswellread.com - Users can share reviews of some of their favorite books with others. Titlez - Users can perform a comparative analysis of a book or group of books with other books in the market. Whatshouldireadnext.com - Users enter their favorite book and they are a recommended a new book based on analysis of the reading preferences of other registered users. Book Communities aNobii - A great way to create book listings, interact with people and express thoughts. Booksconnect.com - A site which connects book lovers, writers and resellers. Publishing Others
20 Simple Productivity Tools for Bloggers You don't have to subscribe to the cult of GTD, shave your head and donate all your possessions to David Allen to improve your blogging workflow. Even taking a small amount of time to add some new discoveries to your toolkit now and then can reap long-lasting benefits. Take a look at this list of apps, extensions and other tools that aim to help you save time as a web writer. Let us know in the comments if you have a particular favorite not listed here that others might want to check out. Multiple Clipboard Tools If you frequently write for the web, multiple clipboards is simply a class of desert island app you shouldn't live without. Mac users should check out CopyPaste-X, which offers a free lite version that is fairly robust but does not allow you to save clips through restarts. Windows users might want to check out ClipMate or Ditto. Blog Right from Firefox with Scribefire Save Typing Time with Text Shortcuts On the Windows side give Texter a try. Site-Specific Browsers
Mike Davidson: How To Keep Widgets From Slowing Down Sites: WEDJ The whole world is going to widgets. This overused, overhyped term refers to third-party code one places on their website or blog in order to display such things as Flickr photos, Twitter status, or iTunes playlists. Everybody and their mom is putting out widgets these days, and although only about 1% of them are useful or interesting, they are an important new distribution mechanism that is changing the way companies think about syndication. But there is a big problem with widgets: they slow down the sites that use them . The problem is that in either of these cases, the completion of your site’s loading and rendering depends on someone else’s code living on someone else’s server. Following is a breakdown: Root Causes Most widgets are deployed using one of two methods: raw embedding or javascript embedding. Raw embedding usually involves providing a chunk of object/embed code to display a Flash widget inline. The Solution: WEDJE Standard document.write Deferred innerHTML code Caveats 1. 2.
Recommended Blogging Resources I am regularly asked for recommendations on different tools, training, resources and services available to blogging. People particularly want to know what tools I use to run my blogs. As a result I’ve put together a list of recommended blogging resources that I’ve either personally used (in most cases) or which have come highly recommended to me by people I trust. I will add to these lists as I come across new blogging resources that I recommend. Blog Platforms WordPress My recommendation for blogging platforms is pretty clear – WordPress.org. A couple of other platforms exist of course including: WordPress.com – a free hosted blogging platformBlogger – another free hosted option – owned by Google Recommended Reading: Choosing a Blog Platform Hosting There are many hosting services available for bloggers. If you’re just starting out or have a smaller blog I highly recommend you check out BlueHost who have put together a special discount offer for ProBlogger readers. Blog Design/Themes
30+ Great Resources for Blogger Templates Blogger is one of the most popular hosted blogging platforms out there, but many people are still surprised when they learn you can customize the look of your blog well beyond the pre-built options the site offers. Finding these other templates can be a bit of a task, so we've come up with over 30 resources to help you find brand new designs, converted WordPress themes, people who will build unique custom templates, and more. What are you waiting for? What is your favorite resource for Blogger templates? Free Templates 5ColumnTemplate.Blogspot.com - This site only offers one template with five variations, but it isn't every day you see a five column theme for any blogging platform, and it is actually pretty clean in presentation. AllBlogTools.com - A collection of over 100 templates from an assortment of a lot of smaller designers. Blogger-Templates.Blogspot.com - Keeps a small selection of top-notch Blogger themes up and running. Premium Templates Tips & Tricks for Template Design
26 Places to Find Free Multimedia for Your Blog Nothing makes a blog post more eye-catching than a great header image, but not all publishers have artistic talent. And even accomplished digital creatives often crave some found material to start from or work with in a project. Luckily for all of the above, sources abound for finding a compelling photo to grab your readers' eyes and draw them in, or to locate fresh multimedia to remix. Creative Commons search You may be familiar with the Creative Commons free licenses that aim to give creators more freedom to allow sharing and remixing of their content. If not, you can find out more about the history of the organization and the different types of licenses from their About page. Here are several excellent spots to search large pools of Creative Commons-licensed images: 1. Free stock and public domain images Need a professional-looking image but don't have the budget for spendy stock photo houses? 5. WikiMedia Commons 12. Free audio sources Free video sources 20. Further resources 24.
Building a Brand with Widgets The customizable bits of software on Facebook and other social networking sites are the latest trend in viral marketing. But are widgets here to stay? The cards were stacked against A&E Television Network as it tried to generate positive buzz about its new series, Parking Wars. For one, it's a reality show about meter readers. Two, the show doesn't feature celebrities. So A&E hired area/code, a multimedia game developer, to build an online game based on Parking Wars. Grand Theft Auto it's not. Raising Brand Awareness "It's surpassing our expectations," Peterzell says. Interest in widgets is rising as marketers become disaffected by other methods of online advertising, especially on social networks. Some marketers say widgets may do a better job engaging users than, say, so-called banner ads emblazoned across the sides of social network profiles. Some Facebook Campaigns Have Fizzled There's plenty of anecdotal success. The potential audience is vast. A Short Shelf Life for Many Widgets
Alt Design Summit - Blog - Great Blog Resources Every Blogger Should Know Alt Summit Blogging Goodness in SLC, and now Online! Altitude Summit is your definitive resource for the very serious business of beautiful, brilliant blogging. A community of exciting, creative thinkers and entrepreneurs, Altitude Summit is a workshop with all your closest friends, and friends-to-be! Did we mention the Altitude Summit in SLC from January 22-25, 2014 and in SF on July 18, 2013. We’ve convened the absolute bee’s knees of lifestyle bloggers to discuss how to build, brand and beautify your site.
DEL.ICIO.US TOOLBOX: 180+ Del.icio.us Tools and Resources Social bookmarking was one of the earliest trends out on the social web, and del.icio.us quickly took the lead. Today, we outline over 180 of the best tools and resources to get the most out of the number one social bookmarking site. Related: SOCIAL BOOKMARKING: 50+ Social Bookmarking Sites Web browser add-ons and Bookmarklets Randomizer button- A great way to find sites whch you may never have discovered otherwise, the button takes you to a random, recently bookmarked site. del.icio.us Toobar- A Firefox extension allowing you to bookmark and tag sites from a toolbar in the browser. del.icio.us Firefox Extension- The official del.icio.us Firefox extension does a great job of integrating your favorite bookmarks into your favorite web browser. Quicker Tag Bookmarklet- Add to your Firefox toolbar to quickly tag bookmarks with specific keywords. Mischievous- Browser plugin for Internet Explorer using del.icio.us to manage your bookmarks. Outfoxed- Adds del.icio.us to your informers list. Mashups
30 Most Influential Bloggers and Website Owners of 2010 | Robb Sutton dot com 30 Most Influential Bloggers and Website Owners of 2010 2010 is and has been a great year for bloggers and website owners. As the blogging industry continues to stray away from its journaling past to evolve into a solid business platform, we are seeing success by entrepreneurial spirits all over the world. Never before have people from across the globe been able to connect as easily both personally and professionally to work together towards a common goal. Throughout my blogging career, there have been numerous site owners and bloggers that have directly influenced and affected how I run my business. Some of these names will make you think; “oh…here we go again.” as their spread of influence can not be denied. 30 Most Influential Bloggers and Website Owners of 2010 So let’s jump right into it…in no particular order…the 30 most influential bloggers and website owners of 2010. #1 – Darren Rowse Darren is the bloggers blogger. #2 – Alborz Fallah CarAdvice.com.au #3 – David Schloss MacCreate.com
World Wide Web of Widgets The web has seen an explosion in the use of widgets over the past year or so. So let's explore what a widget is and its uses. Note that in this post, we're discussing Web-based widgets only, rather than desktop widgets such as those provided by Yahoo Widgets or Microsoft's Vista widgets. A Web widget can be best described as a mini application that can add functionality to your web page, blog, social profile etc. If you find a widget that you like, you simply copy and paste some code and add it to the HTML of your web page. Give me an example! There have been a lot of very successful widgets to date. MyBlogLog is a widget that allows you to see other bloggers on the MyBlogLog network, as they visit your site. YouTube's widget allows users to place videos on their social networking profiles and blogs. Google Adsense has made a lot of money for website owners since its inception. The FeedBurner widget shows you how many people are subscribed to your RSS feed. Widget Platforms Mobile Widgets
Blog Resources This resource list puts together a very good group of WordPress centric blogs that don’t quite fit into one specific niche. Many of them discuss development, design, news, and tutorials. Be sure to check them out and see which one becomes your favorite! WPForce News, Themes, Plugins and Hacks. WP Mayor Resources, news, and a job board. Code Poet Loads of resources and interviews. WPHub Top quality resources all in one place. WPExplorer Themes, plugins and more! WPSnipp Code snippets for every area of WordPress. Yoast Reviews, Hosting and Plugins. WPEngine Interviews, hosting and WordPress news. WPKube News, themes, plugins and more WordPress goodness. Bill Erickson Tips and tricks from a WordPress consultant. Paulund Tutorials, snippets and other helpful resources. Got any more that we missed? And if there are any that are outdated or that no longer publish consistently then please let us know as well. Like this: Like Loading...
25+ Sites For The Fashion Minded We're going to take a step out of the normal tech stuff today and turn to all you fashion gurus in our audience. We've had several requests for sites related to fashion, so here are 25+ of them to get you started.And don’t forget to check out our new post where you can suggest the subjects of future toolboxes! This one was a suggestion from there! Fashion News Glam.com - A mixture of fashion watching, celebrity news, health and more. InStyle.com - The fashion and trends counterpart to People magazine. LuckyMag.com - The online counterpart to Lucky, has features such as "Cute Outfit Of The Day" and "Bargains Under $50". Vogue.com - What list of fashion would be complete without Vogue? Lifestyle Sites 2Threads.com - Post your latest fashion find pictures and share them with the community and build a profile page. 944.com - See what is going on in major cities around the USA in fashion, nightlife, music, and more. Outfit Tools Shopping & Selling RagingChic.com - Changing your look? Social Sites