Blogging is fun and I look at a lot of blogs every week. Some are really beautiful. So as a tribute to the visual splendor of WordPress Themes I am presenting 4 exclusive designs. (I know yours is good too, but I chose these. So, send me your link and maybe I can get a little publicity for you.)

http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes/11959.html

http://osc.template-help.com/wordpress_12085/

http://osc.template-help.com/wordpress_11583/

http://osc.template-help.com/wordpress_11190/

http://osc.template-help.com/wordpress_10874/

Yes, I’m genuinely serious send me your link, I want to show off some
blogs.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow,
Arthur Browning

As I mentioned yesterday I will offer some examples of the more popular blogs today as examples of how to get your blog rolling, get readership, get popularity, make money. This list below was chosen from several searches of the internet for “popular blog” lists.

The reasons for their popularity include the 2 easily controlled variables that I mentioned yesterday: 1) Popular Content 2) Regular Posts. And there are other reasons given by the various listmakers: numbers of links and number of clicks being measured. The other less tangible features include interesting graphics and visual displays, emotionality and sensationalism, and cutting edge technology/information/news.

http://www.boingboing.net/ - Boing Boing “A Directory of Wonderful Things”. This website has frequent and varied posts, curiously interesting, almost always shows a good picture

http://www.tvsquad.com/ - TV Squad “Blogging Television”. This blog feeds TV junkies and follows those controversial parts of televison, stars, producers, bloopers, deals, talk - all with a picture.

http://www.luxist.com/ - Luxist (No Subtitle). This weblog lives on shopaholics, rich materialist and status lovers - numerous psts of products per day, all with a picture.

http://www.itconversations.com/index.html - IT Conversations “A GigaVox Media Channel”. This blog informs and entertains net techies and industry gurus with important ideas expressed in interesting ways - author picture is included.

http://www.blogthearts.blogspot.com - Blog the Arts “Recent Trends in Contemporary Art”. This blog showcases the works of various artists working in different media, almost always with 2 or more pictures.

http://knitty.com/blog/ - Knitty Blog “The Inside Dish from the Editor”. This blog speaks directly to people who knit and like to hear interesting comments on other matters - not too many pics, but lots of interesting text links.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ - Post Secret “See a Secret…Share a Secret”. This blog is the best of the emotionality genre, feelings and mysteries daily from many anonymous people, usually by picture.

No Foolin’ Around,
Arthur Browning

Why is one blog so much better known or more popular than another, you might ask yourself? The best weblogs have a large readership and provide valuable sources of information for those readers. The 2 most important reasons for this are: 1) Popular Content, 2) Regular Posts.

You must stay focused on your most popular content areas. The content must be appropriate. Your topical area must be broad enough to be of interest to a large number of people - but specific enough to have meaning within your topical area. Some topical areas just can’t be made broad enough or specific enough to support a popular blog.

Updated Daily or at least several times per week. The blogs that attract the most readers are those that attract readers regularly. Reader loyalty and new reader referral need regularly updated content.

A great way to improve the overall popularity of your blog is to present blog content in a variety of formats. Visit other blogs and determine what type of posts would work best for your blog.

Your blog can thrive, possibly becoming attractive to advertisers. Follow these tips and improve readership. Plan your blogging activities carefully and encourage interaction with your readers. This enhances the overall blogging experience for everybody.
Stay tuned tomorrow for some examples of: THE MOST POPULAR BLOGS

One Stop Shopping,
Arthur Browning

Yes, I found another gadget for my collection. See if you want it too. The META TAG ANALYZER. Run your webpage or blog through it and see how you look to search engines.

At their analyzer page you will find another announcement - “NEW! - Have you seen our new Keyword Density Analyzer? Keyword densities of a Web page is now considered the most important part of search engine optimization.”

“Below are the results fetched from the Web page listed above. From here you can instantly submit this page to several search engines for free, but before you submit you should make sure this page is truly ’search engine friendly’. One of the BIGGEST mistakes you can make is submitting a Web page that is not search engine friendly.”

Later in the analysis . . .”This Tag should contain keywords and keyword phrases that is important to your site. Our recommended maximum number of characters for this tag is 60.”

Still later . . .”WARNING! This Tag is NOT being used or used incorrectly. See source below. Consider using our free META Tag Builder.”

So, try it, you’ll like it.

Born To Be Wild,
Arthur Browning

Just like Rock n’ Roll - Blogging is here to stay. And wherever there is life in this Big-Bang World of ours, there is money. A lot of bloggers are asking the same question that every generation has pondered - “how can I make money out of this?”

The answer is a resounding, “Monetize!!!” Yes, monetize is the new word we all want to know more about. How can you monetize? Let us count the ways.

Ads! (disgustingly commercial, but true). If your blog cliques with a niche market you can sell ad space. Even big corps like to diversify their marketing portfolio and many watch for good ad space on blogs with a following. If those ads attract your niche readers you can start earning money right away.

Google AdSense is an option if you want to make money blogging. Google’s Adsense program makes it easy to advertise on your Blog. You make money every time someone clicks on the Google ad campaign links. Google may even choose advertisers that interest your readers.

Carrying links with ecommerce webpages may help them sell product. By joint agreement you might endorse or promote certain products. The profits from these sales are split.

Affiliate marketing is another way to make money blogging. When you come across a product that is related to your blog recommend the product to your readers by linking to it. If they click the link and a sale takes place, you get a percentage of the profit. Some products can generate real revenue.

Membership: If you write a blog that provides quality content, you can think of converting it - or part of it - into a membership based blog. Once you have loyal readers they may want to join as a member to continue all or a part of your offerings. You can sell membership in many ways, even barter if you like. An annual fee after a trial offer is another way. Monthly fees are probably more work and bookkeeping than you want. However, this can be done after you have established your blog and convinced readers that your blog is worth paying for.

Converting your blog into an E-Book is another interesting approach. You can package content into downloadable or CD recorded formats. If you cater to a niche market, there is usually great demand for an ebook or compilation on a topic. Converting your blogs into content that can be sold will help you earn extra money.

Do not be afraid to ASK for money. You are doing a real service for interested visitors. If you have a blog that meets a real need or fights for a cause you need to get a little consideration - the monetized kind.

If you decide to blog for money, then do it for real. Place your Ads where people can see them. If you need a donation then tell us why? Inform us, don’t hide a needle in a haystack. Don’t be ashamed or defensive, people need to know.

Let’s review - read the above.

Riding the Wave,
Arthur Browning

Flash webpages have not been my favorite thing. Mostly because they take a long time to load. Sometimes because they are stupid or irrelevant to the meaning of the webpage - but somebody wanted a cartoon or a hallucinogenic peak experience on their website. Sometimes the Flash page needs for you to get a special download etc. If you have to use a different or old computer, or you have a worthless ISP, or you have a bad host, or if you have to work from different locations these Flash webpages can be a lot less than entertaining (oooooh! I wanted to use much stronger words just then, but I’m trying to control myself better).

Lately, I have come to appreciate the Flash Webpages that look good, function easily, don’t waste my time, and don’t abuse my attention (see, I didn’t say “and don’t piss me off”).

Four examples of Flash Webpages that do the job well, look and sound beautiful, and were made for one of my favorite things come from Template Monster. They are based on Wine Bistros or Winery Restaurants themes. Have a look at these state-of-the-art Flash webpages.

http://www.templatemonster.com/flash-templates/11925.html

http://www.templatemonster.com/flash-templates/8274.html

http://www.templatemonster.com/flash-templates/8863.html

http://www.templatemonster.com/flash-templates/11626.html

I ask you, are these clean, elegant, attractive? Great visual and auditory presentations.

In Vino Veritas,
Arthur Browning

I love gadgets, validators, scanners? Well here’s one that looks interesting, “LinkAlarm“.

“What Is LinkAlarm?
LinkAlarm is a link validation service for web sites. It checks every link on every page of your site, from your users’ perspective.”

“LinkAlarm’s Automatic Reports

When LinkAlarm has finished checking your site, it sends you an email message that the report is ready. You can access the report on the web, or download the report for making repairs when you’re not connected to the Internet.”

“Your Regular Link Failure Report

Link failures affect all web sites. Your report contains detailed information about the latest problems found.”

” * A list of site pages with alarms, allowing access to each of the pages of your site with the defective links.
* Link failure classified by type of defect, allowing more efficient repair of the links.
* LinkAlarm Score rating for each check, allowing site quality analysis over time.
* Separate identification of defective internal and external links.
* Information about your site - number of publicly accessable pages, internal and external links, unique links.
* Management information and history of the previous checks allowing you to develop an efficient maintenance program for
your site.”

So you can get a trial membership for FREE and check 100 pages; or for $10 you can check 1,000 pages. Let me know what you think. I’m still deciding which 100 to check for my trial.

Prime Time,
Arthur Browning

Customizing a WordPress Theme is becoming very popular. Inserting images, text formatting and style change make a blog more suited to your purposes. I am using Template Monster’s WordPress Theme #11732 here as the example.

Goal: Replace the picture situated in the centre above in WordPress Theme #11732. Move the background image to the centre box, change the color of the main text, links and headlines in accordance with design changes.

The Image Replacement

1) The picture under the headline in this template is not a separate element, to replace it you must open the file webbl.psd located in template_11732_d3tG1IGD00A8411CN6Vq\sources_UWq1EGL4DS\sources\psd\ using graphical editor Adobe Photoshop webbl.psd, and edit it in the following way: Insert a different picture under the headline and increase the height of the whole upper template part in accordance with sizes of the picture; - save «slice» header (header.jpg), increasing its dimensions in accordance with what is necessary.

2) Making corrections in style.css: The height of the blocks Top and Header should be corrected in file style.css (template_11732_d3tG1IGD00A8411CN6Vq\theme85\ style.css) since representation of the upper template part is defined by the blocks Top and Header in header.php (template_11732_d3tG1IGD00A8411CN6Vq\theme85\header.php), and because new picture sizes have been increased: .top {
background-color:#250B1E;
vertical-align:top;
width:100%;
height:324px; /*new block height*/
/*height:292px;*/ /* previous block height */
}
.header {
background:url(images/header.jpg) left top no-repeat;
vertical-align:top;
width:766px;
height:324px; /* new block height */
/*height:292px;*/ /* previous block height*/
text-align:left;
}

3) Text color and text positioning should be changed in accordance with design changes.
We should change positioning for “title� in file style.css:
.co_name {
vertical-align:top;
padding:55px 165px 0px 235px; /*new arrangement*/
/*padding:8px 165px 0px 192px;*/ /*previous arrangement*/
}
Change print color for “title�:
.co_name a {
color:#FFFFFF; /*new color */
/*color:#000300;*/ /*previous color*/
text-decoration:none;
line-height:53px;
}
.co_name a:hover {
color:#FFFFFF; /*new color*/
/*color:#000300;*/ /* previous color */
text-decoration:none;
}
Change print color for “subtitle�:
.slogan {
color:#FFFFFF; /* new color */
/*color:#A41B93;*/ /* previous color */
padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;
}

Background Image Addition

The background image for the center box of the template will be the same picture that we have inserted into the upper template part, but we will make this picture in Adobe Photoshop almost gauzy. We should write for the class “cent� in the file style.css

(template_11732_d3tG1IGD00A8411CN6Vq\theme85\ style.css) the following:
.cent {
vertical-align:top;
min-height:100%;
display:table-cell;
width:438px;
background-image:url(images/apache2.jpg); /*background image*/
background-repeat:repeat; /*iteration and arrangement of the background image*/
}

In connection with the background changes in the center box from white to colored, graphical design elements in this box should be transformed in Adobe Photoshop to gif image format on the gauzy background. Image head_bg.jpg has been changed to
head_bg.gif, image li_bg2.jpg to li_bg2.gif, and image hr3.jpg to hr3.gif. We should change the names of both pictures first to new names accordingly in the archive.php files, (template_11732_d3tG1IGD00A8411CN6Vq\theme85\ archive.php), index.php

(template_11732_d3tG1IGD00A8411CN6Vq\theme85\ index.php), and in file style.css
.content_txt li {
list-style:none;
padding:0px 0px 0px 9px;
margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;
/* background:url(images/li_bg2.jpg) left top no-repeat; */
background:url(images/li_bg2.gif) left top no-repeat; /*changed li_bg2.jpg �½�°

li_bg2.gif */
vertical-align:top;
line-height:18px;
/*color:#444D63;*/
color:#000000;
}

We can change the grey color of the decorative bands/ledges to a color corresponding to the new background image: in file tyle.css .left2{
vertical-align:top;
display:table-cell;
width:266px;
background-color:#C79DC2; /*new color*/
/*background-color:#F5F5F5;*/ ; /*previous color*/

}
.line2 {
vertical-align:top;
/*background-color:#D7D7D7;*/ /* previous color */
background-color:#C79DC2; /* new color */
line-height:2px;
border:0px;
}
.line1 {
vertical-align:top;
/*background-color:#ECECEC;*/ /* previous color */
background-color:#C79DC2; /* new color */
line-height:5px;
border:0px;
}

We can change the print color to something more suitable: in the file style.css For classes «body», «. body», «a», «a:hover», «.head», «.head strong», «.comment», «.comment a», «.comment a:hover », «.content_txt a », «.content_txt a:hover »,
«.content_txt li», «.content_txt ul li a», «.content_txt li a:hover», «h3» write color
(color:#000000;) instead of the current one; write color:#7F2F75 for class «.head a» and
«.head a:hover»..

The elements of the background images that represent two vertical bands with shadow should be removed from the lower template part to preserve design integrity (but without removing them from the right and left boxes). To do this you can write in a white background color in file style.css for the class “footer�:

.footer {
vertical-align:top;
width:766px;
height:40px;
background-color:#FFFFFF; /*white background color*/
}

Done

Jerkin’ Your Chain,
Arthur Browning

Webpage Templates have been in demand for sometime. Especially now with CSS as an established design format. I am always on the lookout for good value in these templates as they become available.

First of all, free is hard to beat. And recently I have found a good selection of free webpage tenmplates at Steve’s Templates and Web Zone Templates. You should have a look at these templates because besides being free they look good - and they are very popular. These templates are of basic design and the look - although not unique provides a beginning for use with a basic webpage.

Free Webpage Templates are used countless times, but they will need some work for any added features, plugins, individualized graphics, or sometimes essential alteration. If you have less time, need something more than a most basic design, or need a more exclusive look and more unique graphics then predesigned templates are your answer.

WHY? Because for $45 to $75 you are way ahead in all these departments. Better design, sleeker and validated code, unique appearance, exclusive and more specialized graphics.

Free webpage templates are great for experimentation, but sometimes it’s a much better value - saver of time and money - to buy a better template. For serious bloggers and businesses this use of a premium template is a natural and often necessary step upward. Many designers need a good template to get the jump on a project that keeps services reasonable in cost, but keeps their profit margin high enough to justify their hours of fine tuning.

Free Templates Online is another place to find nearly premium free templates. Web design quality and visual attractiveness as good as any free template selection available. I have heard good reports on Free Templates Online, so I don’t mind making the referral. Thousands if not hundreds of thousands are using many of these templates because designers rely on them. If uniqueness is not necessary then they are the best choice. Template Monster sells their templates several times, but they do not have the redundant exposure of having been downloaded 90,000 times.

Now You Know,
Arthur Browning