Companies aside, what criteria do you usually use when looking for a commercial theme? Is price the most important factor? Is support critical? Do you want the PSD files, so you can use the theme as a starting point for your own design?

Take a minute to answer the poll. You can choose as many responses as necessary.

If you are viewing this in a feed reader, you will have to click through to the original post to see the poll.

I’d like your opinion on the slow, but definite growth of paid WordPress plugins. Are you glad that developers are finally getting serious about developing and supporting plugins for the long term, and making a business of it? I am.

Note: If you’re reading this in an RSS aggregator, you may have to click through to see the poll.

Personally, I think commercial plugins will greatly increase the quality of available WP plugins, just as has happened with themes.

What is your tool of choice? Are you one of the many Bit.ly users, a Tr.im fanatic, an Ow.ly devotee, or one of those still loyal to ye olde TinyURL? Maybe you use more than one?

Please take a minute to answer this poll. It would be interesting to see which services are more popular, and to learn of lesser-known ones.

(If you’re viewing this in an RSS reader, you may have to click through to the original article to vote.)

Have you upgraded yet?

Note: If you’re reading this in an RSS reader, you may have to click through to the website to vote.

The “2-5″ option recieved the most votes (35%), and “20+” was the second most popular option (23%). After that came “6-9″ (18%), “10-15″ (10%), and “1” (8%). The least-voted options were “Do I have to count them all…?” and “16-19,” with 5% and 3% respectively.

I particularly found it interesting that the most popular choices were two to five domains and more than twenty. They do seem to add up though, don’t they? After you start a couple of websites, you kind of become addicted to domain registration. You start to think all the time “Hey, that sounds cool; I wonder if it’s available as a domain…”

Are you an AdSense maniac or an affiliate fanatic? Do you direct-sell ad space to advertisers like I do on Webmaster-Source?

Or are you part of a marketplace like BuySellAds, or a network like Casale Media or Doubleclick?

Or is your blog an ad-free zone?

Take a minute to vote in this poll (no registration, no hassles, just two clicks), and maybe elaborate upon your choice a little in a comment. We’d like to know.

I’ll start. I direct-sell 125×125 ads on Webmaster-Source mainly, and I voted that since it’s my largest source of blog income. I do have a single AdSense block that I haven’t been able to bring myself to delete (I’m halfway to another check again ), and I put the occasional affiliate link in, but mainly I try to keep to the 125x125s, which are noticeable enough, yet unobtrusive enough not to be a bother.

Okay, now it’s your turn. Vote in the poll below, and share what your solution is. (If you’re reading this in an RSS reader, you’ll need to click through to the permalink to vote in the poll.)

We ended up with some interesting results, and, predictably, Google is the #1 choice.

An interesting strategy, though quite different from mine, which is to have a custom page with links to my Google Apps email page, and the like.

The numbers are as follows: 40% of the 50 votes have Google.com, 20% use Netvibes, iGoogle, or similar; 20% use “other,” 16% about:blank, 6% a custom HTML file, 2% use Yahoo or AOL, and another 2% have their blog set as their homepage.

Google is leading by a large margin, which I kind of expected. Really, it makes a good homepage. It’s quick to load and fairly empty, sort of like about:blank, but it provides some useful function as well.

Michael Martin of Pro Blog Design uses this strategy:

My blog, Todoist, Google Reader and Digg.I read Digg first, then Google Reader. Once I close each of those tabs, I try not to open them again until the next day. It usually works.

What page you choose is obviously up to you, and it’s generally a choice made depending on browsing habits.

That brings us to the question: What site do you use for your browser start page? Take a moment to vote in the poll (you’ll have to click through if you’re reading this in an RSS aggregator).

Are you a Googlemaniac or do you prefer About:Blank? Or do you prefer to load up Netvibes or Pageflakes with RSS feeds and Twitter streams?

A lot of bloggers are using Twitter, and many are extolling in their posts the benefits of using Twitter in conjunction with your blog. It’s a venerable pandemic. Twitter has invaded the blogosphere, and it shows no sign of leaving any time soon.

Daniel Scocco (who is a Twitter user, I might add) has an appropriate reminder for those of you who have become addicted to Twitter: Twitter Less, Blog More!

Now, I’d like to know what your take on Twitter is. Vote in the poll below, it only takes a minute. (If you’re reading this in an RSS reader, you’ll have to click through to the blog to vote).