Twitterrific will tweet on the iPhone - If you don’t mind spending actual money, you can use Twitter in style on your iPhone. Now, how about Twhirl for the iPhone?
The default comments template included in the Kubrick theme, and by extension a lot of other freely available themes, isn’t very interesting. It suits the theme, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, ready for use in any theme. If you go through the trouble of finding or creating a more unique theme, shouldn’t the comments be styled differently as well? It surprises me how many blog themes have pretty much the same comment style as Kubrick.
Whether you’re putting together your own theme from scratch, or customizing an existing one, don’t neglect the comments. After all, you want to draw readers to them, don’t you?
Here are a couple places to read-up on the comment template:
No, not browser bookmarks, physical bookmarks. You know, the strips of paper you use to mark your place in a book? Here’s the idea:
You print-up some bookmarks branded with your site’s logo and domain name. (You can do this yourself with an inkjet printer and some card stock.) Make them funny/interesting/cool-looking, and put a prominent logo and URL on it.
Now, go to your local bookstores and public libraries, bringing a large stack of the ‘marks. Go through and find some books on the topic of your blog, and put the bookmarks inside the books, like you were reading the book and marked the spot. Now the next person to come along and check the book out, or purchase it in the case of a bookstore, will notice the free bookmark (people like free stuff) and possibly visit your site.
How is this targeted? You put the bookmarks in books that fit your blog’s topic, especially books you’ve read and recommend. It’s cheap, it’s unobtrusive, and it works pretty good.
I’ve mainly done this with business cards, though bookmarks work even better, as people are more likely to keep them, and reuse them while reading other books. In one such case, I put cards in all of the library’s copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince before the seventh and final Harry Potter book was released, advertising an HP site with a big “Prepare for the final book” legend, the card’s background being the upcoming book’s cover art. I’d planned to do bookmarks, but didn’t have the time to print them up.
Do you know what one of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is? Putting too much in their sidebar.
Yes, I know it’s tempting to put as much as you can fit into that column that runs down to the side of your content, but don’t. Optimally you want to put as little as possible there. I try to, and it can be hard at times to keep a clean sidebar, but it’s worth it. It keeps things uncluttered, and improves usability.
What can you get rid of?
Date-based archives. If you plan on blogging for any length of time, that list is going to get really big, and make your sidebar far too long.
MyBlogLog
Valid XHTML/CSS/RSS badges
Assorted widgets and badges from various sites.
Just a few suggestions. I’m sure you’re case will be different, and you’ll have a unique assortment of stuff in your sidebar that needs pruning.
Are you just a couple of scripts away from never again having to find a workaround for an IE CSS bug? Probably not. I haven’t had the time to test the script extensively, but the test pages look promising. It will make things a lot easier for you, but I doubt it will magically make everything work flawlessly in IE.
When Twitter Goes Down, You Still Have Twiddict - Twiddict saves your tweets and posts them to Twitter when they come back from a downtime. Sad, isn’t it, that the downtimes are bad enough that someone’s trying to capitalize on them…
Whats your opinion of PeelAwayAds? - I think they’re kind of cool, and a good sort of ad. As one of the commentators said “peeling over means that there is minimal fuss until peel over, and it is a user generated action that triggers the ads(intentional or otherwise). Much better solution than those huge banners screaming ADS…ADS.” I like the way they stay hidden until hovered over, reducing add clutter significantly. Also, as someone who generally ignores ads, I tend to hover over them, because they’re kind of fun to play with, in a “ooh buttons and flashing lights” sort of way.
The MeeboMe widget allows you to easily accept anonymous instant messages from visitors to your website. It’s good for talking with clients and offering live tech support if you run an online business. It’s also a way to add some interactivity to a blog.
With a little work, you can setup your desktop IM client to receive MeeboMe messages. I will assume that you are using a multi-network client like Adium, Pidgin, or Trillian. This should work with any IM client that supports XMPP/Jabber.
Create a MeeboMe widget and put it on your site
Start the process of creating a Jabber (aka XMMP) account.
Enter the username as your_meebo_id@meebo.org, the password as your Meebo password. Put meebo.org as the server.
Find the option that makes your IM client not prompt to allow people to add you to their buddy list (otherwise you’ll get a request for every pageload on your site pretty much…). In Adium it’s “Presence Subscriptions” under the Options tab of the account configuration (set to “Accept”).
I’ve talked about Network Neutrality here before, posting a simple explanation I’d written up. This time I’ve done something better. I’ve rounded-up a collection of videos on the topic.
These Net Neutrality videos are worth a watch, whether you know what Net Neutrality truly means or not. (Hint: If you don’t care about Net Neutrality, you need to watch these videos.) They’re interesting, and very important.
Yay, it's finally been approved! My WP125 plugin is now in the WordPress plugin repository. This means I will be able to more easily deliver updated versions to those of you who use the plugin. Once the judging for the WLTC plugin competition ends, I'll start work on the next version, which will introduce some further customizability.
It looks like Google might be about to buy Digg! The reported offer is reported as $200 million. Link 1, Link 2. I don't mind, as long as they don't Google-ify the already good-looking design, integrate Google Accounts with the site, and rename it something generic "Google Vote" or "Google Crowd."
Some n00b WordPress developer apparently thought it would be funny to remove the Image button in the WYSIWYG editor. Well it isn't. Do you have any idea how often I insert images into my posts? Often enough I shouldn't have to tab into HTML mode and do it manually.
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