• ProBlogger’s 31 Days to a Better Blog series continues with 113 Must Read Blogging Tips, another collection of reader-submitted links.
• Looking to make some more $$$ off your blog? Take a look at 101 Ways to Monetize Your Website or Blog.
• Full feeds or summaries? Scores of readers will scream “FULL!”, but in the end it’s up to the blog owner. Take your pick, or offer both with the DualFeeds plugin for Wordpress.
• Want to start a forum? Mashable has yet another huge list that may help you there. 70+ Resources for Creating a Forum.
• Pro Blog Design has another design tip to offer. Make Sense of Your Blog With Proximity teaches you how to group blog elements in logical ways.
• StumbleUpon is a great way to pull traffic to your blog. Blog-op’s Be A Good Stumbler post covers the basics of StumbleUpon…and how not to annoy the heck out of the Stumblers.
• Comments… They allow your readers to respond to your posts and they make things harder for you as a webmaster. 5 Comment Management Plugins for Wordpress helps you manage your blog’s comments, and improve your users’ commenting experience.
• YouTube is now putting ads in their videos. Instead of annoying pre-roll ads, they’re using a less intrusive ad design that overlays the bottom of the video for 10 seconds, and allows you to close it immediately. Profits from the $20CPM (minimum) ads are split with the publishers. 70% of users leave when they see a pre-roll ad, so good move, Google.
• I didn’t know this, but some moron has been trying to patent virtual subdomains. You read that right. The technology that allows sites like Blogger, Newssvine, or any other site that gives you an URL like you.thesite.com to function. The Apache Web Server has been using this for years, and someone’s trying to patent it!
• Is your blog a mess? Maybe you should read 50 Tips to Unclutter Your Blog. By the time you’re done, you’re blog should look like an iPod (clean, simplistic, uncluttered).
• Want more reader-submitted tips from ProBlogger? There’s more, all right.
• The Opera web browser has a cool feature called “Speed Dial”, which shows a grid of nine thumbnail buttons on every new tab. It allows you to jump to oft-used sites easily. Well, we Firefox users can do that now too with the Speed Dial Extension.
• Wordpress Cheat Sheets.

Is it a good idea to have more than one blog? Why or why not?

• Argument #1: No, because you’ll be spreading yourself too thin. You’ll be spending twice as much time on maintenance, ad optimization, link-building, writing, etc.
• Argument #2: Yes, because you can write about more than one subject. You’d get bored writing about the same thing every day.

Both are good points. You definitely don’t want to get bored with your blog’s topic, but it’s not a good idea to double your workload. If you’re a serious blogger, you could already be spending over three hours a day doing blog-related things. You don’t want to double that, do you? Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome back to Design Spotlight! I know it’s been awhile, but there have been a lot of other things to post about. Today we tackle Pro Blog Design.

ProBlogDesign has a cool, well-designed, template sporting a three-column layout. [Random thought here: We need to come up with a short name for this type of layout. It's awkward to say "Three-columned layout with the two sidebars positioned to the right."] The template uses few images, and features interesting positioning.

The logo (featured in 78 Inspirational Logos) sits inline with some useful text links, positioned at opposing ends of the screen. Floating atop some a green-striped background, the logo text is white, but almost metallic, somewhat reminiscent of the current iMac’s white finish. Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t settle for an <h1> tag, put a cool logo at the top of your blog!

If you’re starting a new website, or revamping an existing one, spend a bit of time thinking-out a logo. If your site doesn’t have one, get one as soon as possible. A good logo tells users where they are, and implants your site in their brains. Look at the image below:

The image shows Smashing Magazine with and without it’s logo. I purposefully picked a site with a spartan layout so you wouldn’t be distracted from my point. Which looks more memorable? The bottom or the top? Obviously the top.

Logos are important. Take a look at any business and they’re sure to have a logo (though the cool factor may be lacking). Amazon, CNN, Pizza Hut, etc, they all have logos. Obviously your website shouldn’t be without one. Logo making doesn’t take much work, just Photoshop (and a little experience), some creativity, a little inspiration, and a bit of time.

Photoshop costs $630, so I can’t help you there (sorry). If you don’t have Photoshop and you’re on a budget, you may want to take a look at the much cheaper Photoshop Elements, which can do most of the essentials, though it has a few features stripped-out. Creativity and time are up to you as well, but I can help you with the inspiration bit.

Here are some notable logos. Take a look at them, maybe they’ll give you some ideas. Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve seen them on the web. You may even use them on your blog. Snap.com’s Snap Shots system quickly spread across the web, infiltrating many popular and semi-popular blogs. Some people like them, others loathe them. The question is: Should you use them or not?

It depends. Snap recently introduced more functionality into the Snap Shots lineup. Some of the features are actually useful, while others are just annoying. Let’s take a closer look. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday (around noon) I posted an article called Don’t Block Firefox! I wrote it after reading about an annoying site called WhyFirefoxIsBlocked.com on Reddit (and later on Digg). I submitted it to StumbleUpon, and posted comments on Digg and Reddit (including a link to my post).  Within two hours, it was the most popular post on Webmaster-Source. I looked at the “Popularity: 100%” in disbelief. How did that happen? I immediately opened a couple of tabs and logged into Google Analytics and pMetrics.

The pMetrics “Spy” tool (the main reason I have a pMetrics account) showed a steady stream of people coming in from StumbleUpon. SU has been the top traffic source on Webmaster-Source for a couple of months now, so I wasn’t too surprised about that, though the amount of people coming in was a lot more than usual. Read the rest of this entry »

A site has sprung-up recently called “Why Firefox is Blocked.” They claim that webmasters should block all users running the Firefox web browser (sorry, morons, but Firefox is king) because of the AdBlock Plus extension. They claim that users of the extension are thieves because they use websites while blocking the advertisements. By some weird logic, they believe that webmasters should be given the option of blocking AdBlock. Seeing as they aren’t, they think that Firefox itself should be blocked.

There are several holes in their argument. Read the rest of this entry »

• Hey, guess what! Limewire’s pulling a Napster!
• Blogsolid.com has just spoofed Darren Rowse’s “31 Days to a Better Blog” series with “31 Minutes to Building a Better Blog.” It describes a lot of bloggers well.
• If you’re having trouble explaining RSS to your readers, you could link to yet another Blogsolid post, or you could send them over to this cool video.
• Sprint has plans to roll-out WiMax service in “select cities” by the end of this year. They’ve dubbed the service “XOHM.” How the heck do you pronounce it? And why can’t they just call it WiMax?
• ReadWriteWeb says “JavaScript is Slowing Down the Web.” Speed issues or not, cut down on the widget mania anyway.
• Which JavaScript framework is the one for you? I like Prototype/Script.aculo.us personally. ZenPerfect.com reviews Prototype/Script.aculo.us, jQuery, Yahoo UI Library, MooTools, and points you in the direction of some others.
• Mashable: 30+ Firefox Tools for Bookmarking & Search
• WordPress Bloggers: Full Posts or Partial Posts? It’s up to you. If you choose the latter, which method are you going to use?
• ProBlogger Darren Rowse wants you to play around with another Statistics toy. Seriously, it can be useful to Create a Heatmap of Where Readers Click on Your Blog.
• Movable Type 4.0 is out, and they may have one-upped Wordpress. Get your two cents (75 cents in some cases…) in and tell the Wordpress devs what you want to see added to Wordpress. While you’re at it, vote for one of my suggestions…
• Arg! Mashable beat me to it! MovableType 4 vs. Wordpress 2.2.
• You’ve written hundreds of great posts, now how do you get people to read the older ones? Create a “Sneeze Page”!
• Did anyone (besides The ProBlogger) know that you can buy StumbleUpon traffic? Sure enough, S.U. allows you to run “Sponsored Stumbles” for $0.05 per impression.
• American Airlines is suing Google over AdWords. Really, another lawsuit over that? There’s nothing wrong with allowing competing companies to run ads for search results like “American Airlines” or “Geico”.
• What the #@$@%!? People are trying to block Firefox! Because of Ad-blocking plugins! People have a right to block ads if they want….and I run ads on my websites. Bloggers, voice your opinions to WhyFirefoxIsBlocked.com. I don’t use AdBlocking software generally, but I believe people have a right to if they wish. We should be blocking Internet Explorer, not Firefox. Also, here’s a big flaw in their argument: There are ad-blocking add-ons for Internet Explorer. Anyway, if you ever run into a site that actually is blocking the ‘fox, just install a user-agent switching extension.
• WORDPRESS GOD: 300+ Tools for Running Your Wordpress Blog. Mashable’s at it again…
• …and again. 50+ Digg Tools and Resources.
• Performancing.com has released their Wordpress theme for this month. This one is called “News Theme.”
• Wordpress Plugin Releases For 8/18

There’s writer’s block, but what about designer’s block? I’ve been trying to design a new template for a tech blog, but I’ve been unable to do so. I’ve got a general idea of how I want to lay-out the content and sidebars, but as for the overall look….

Not even design galleries have helped so far. I open up Photoshop to make a mock-up, and a pay around for a little, but I don’t end up with any viable results. I even tried “just having fun with CSS” to see if I’d get anything good. Did I? Not really.

If you have any tips for combating “Designer’s Block,” be sure to post them in the comments.

• Facebook had some code leakage recently. It was nothing much, just the code for the main page (which was mostly includes). Nik.com.au has a nice tutorial on preventing code leaks.
• Google’s not being nice about paid-link advertisements. They seem to have banned Text-Link Ads from the search results. Oh well, at least they have an ad at the top…
• A history of the Amiga, part 2
• 30 Most Popular Blogs | August 2007
• You’ve seen those ridiculous websites like Earthle.com? Finally, someone’s written an article explaining that having a dark page background does not save power.
• Skype is now usable on the iPhone. Digg users exclaim “Take that AT&T,” though it’s benefiting them if anything. Data minutes are expensive, and you can’t guarantee you’ll be at a Wi-Fi hotspot all the time.
• How do you explain RSS to your readers? It’s hard to sketch-out the general idea with words alone. ProBlogger has dugg-up a great video from VideoJug. Just embed the video on a “What’s RSS?” page along with a link to your feed (maybe an email subscription link) and you’re done.
• I think we now have conclusive evidence that Alexa is virtually useless. YouTube bigger than Google? Yeah, right. Time spent on a site is not a great metric of how “big” a site is. I tend to leave sites open in extra tabs for hours on end, and I may not stay on Google search results for too long, I use it a heck of a lot more than YouTube. Some Digg users have argued that you’re using YouTube when you view videos embedded on blogs. If you want to be like that, don’t forget AdSense ads. Also note that YouTube is owned by Google. So all those stats count toward Google’s total, right?
• Should Links Open in a New Window or Not? I try to avoid opening new windows on people (I use Firefox, and I hate having unwanted windows/tabs opened).
• The iPhone is now fully unlocked.
• Who’s been anonymously editing Wikipedia? You’d be surprised…
• Did you know that half of Americans are clueless about online threats? Luckily I’m part of the other half…
• Movable Type 4.0 has been launched, and ProBlogger has an interview related to it. Hey Wordpress devs! Get to work, their catching up!