My First Guest Post

I don’t have a lot of time here, so I’ll make it quick. Just wanted to let everyone know about my first guest post. Adnan from Blogtrepreneur asked me a couple weeks ago if I would write a guest post. I was honored to even be asked to write a guest post, so there was no doubt I would be writing one.

The idea came up the other day when I asked another designer that I chat with every now and again his opinion of a design and he pointed out that the text really looked “jagged.” Turns out he had ClearType disabled on his machine so all of his fonts were aliased, which makes the text seem jagged. I get in a bad habit myself sometimes of not checking my designs with ClearType enabled as well as disabled to ensure that visitors who may not have ClearType enabled (quite a bit of users) will get a similar experience as those with it enabled.

I just finished updating Nice Stylesheet with 10 new designs and I’ve got quite a bit of other work left to do, so that’s the reason for the short post. I hope to get back to some regular articles by the end of the week or early next week.

Anyway, if you get a chance, go check it out and maybe leave me some feedback.

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Free Blog Tips Review

A while back I came across a link on The Blog Experiment for five free blog tips from Easton Ellsworth. I guess I just got lucky because Easton actually gave me 10 tips instead of five.

Here they are and my thoughts on each:

1. Add a clear tagline so the blog’s title doesn’t make too many people think it’s just random chit-chat.

I agree and disagree. I know that focusing on one specific topic is good, I just like having a few topics I can write about. I don’t want to feel jailed in that I can only write about one thing. Plus, with a name like Random Jabber, I think I need to be able to write about numerous things.

2. The logo is genius - maybe make it bigger.

Yeah, I like it too. cheese

3. Make the favicon bigger.

Can’t do it with the way I designed the talk bubbles in the logo (wasn’t thinking about a favicon at the time). They are not as tall as they are wide and this presents a problem when moving the graphic over to a 16x16 pixel favicon. The sizes just won’t proportion correctly.

4. The footer could probably be removed, or at least everything in it except maybe the copyright info / design info. Move everything in it up into the sidebars.

Yeah, I agree. It could be removed as it’s mostly just a catch all for all of the unimportant stuff on Random Jabber. I kinda like it though. It’s nice to check out MyBlogLog and see who’s been visiting. One thing I do need to get rid of is the Amazon Affiliate links, they are doing nothing!

5. Add a photo or video to the about page.

Done. Uploaded one the other day to the small about section in the footer as well as to the about page.

6. We’re the same age. Okay, not a tip, just a nice fact.

Nice!

7. Put the popular posts list higher than the recent posts list.

Never really thought about doing this before, but it’s a good idea I think.

8. Use keywords in the tag line that you want search engine users to find.

Yeah, I admit, I don’t really pay attention to keywords. I do need to be more conscious of the keywords that I want people to find me listed under in the search engines.

9. Maybe put the top commentators list higher.

Done. Moved from middle column at the bottom, to the right column and up higher.

10. Remember, it’s hard to just have ads on your site make the big bucks. Consider offering something for sale like an ebook or premium membership content or consulting services, e.g.

Yeah, you’re right. I removed the ads from Random Jabber just because they weren’t doing anything really except sitting there, so no point. Offering consulting services isn’t a bad idea though.

Those Are My Tips, What Do You Think?

Is Easton right on par with these suggestions?

I’m always interested in finding out how the user perceives my blog. The way I see it and the way everyone else sees it can be totally opposite.

As a reader, do you have any suggestions that you feel would improve Random Jabber?

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Do You Really Need to Post Five Times a Week to Have a Successful Blog?

You can go online today and find a number of bloggers offering blog tips on everything from how to start a blog to how to monetize an existing blog. I’ve read a lot of these blogs in my time online and one of tips that I see most often for new blog owners is that to be successful, you must update your blog frequently. I agree that frequency is important, but a lot of bloggers will tell you that you need to update five or more times per week. Some bloggers even suggesting that you update more than once per day. Frequency is important, but I’m not sold on this strategy and I’ll share my thoughts in this post.

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Ah Crap! I Forgot About My Top Commenters Again!

Well, I forgot to give my top commenters some link love again. See, the way my top commenters plugin works is that every month on the first, it recycles and doesn’t keep the commenters from the previous month. So, I have to remember to verify who my top commenters are at the end of each month or else I have no way of knowing and needless to say, I forgot. :(

I’ve decided I would just list some of the individuals who do comment frequently here rather than just the top for the month. Thanks to everyone who hangs around Random Jabber on a regular basis and comments. I appreciate it.

If I missed anyone, I apologize. 

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NiceStylesheet Launch Party at the Palms

Nice Stylesheet Launch Screenshot

Okay, so maybe there isn’t an official party at the Palms for my new site Nice Stylesheet, but it sounded good didn’t it?

Even though there isn’t a launch party, there is an official launch, and it’s right now. cheese

About the Site

Nice Stylesheet is a Cascading Styles Sheets (CSS) gallery that recognizes inspirational website designs using CSS and web standards.

I really want to keep it simple. The main attraction here is the designs showcased in the gallery, not the site itself. Sure, I could have loaded the site up with all kinds of pretty gradients, but I didn’t see the point. The point is to update the site with inspirational designs. I feel like the design is good and functional, just not flashy, and that’s fine by me.

NASA and the Zero-Gravity Pen

I had heard this story before but Brian Clark touched on this topic in teaching sells and it reminded me. Even though it’s an urban legend and false, it still rings true in many things we do.

The gist of the NASA Zero-Gravity Pen story is that when NASA first started launching manned space craft, they found that astronauts couldn’t use pens to write with in space. The ink wouldn’t flow through the pen in a zero-gravity environment. NASA spent millions developing a pen that would work in a zero-gravity environment and finally came up with a solution. Russia also had this same problem. They used a pencil.

Nice Stylesheet is the proverbial pencil.

A Couple More Tidbits

  • I plan on updating Nice Stylesheet frequently. Right now I’m thinking once a week, on Monday. I want to update frequently, but not so frequent that the designs don’t get their due time on the homepage (which will most likely be the page with the most views).
  • I have also added a top 10 list to the sidebar (the top 10 list is something that I’ve not seen on other showcase sites, but not sure why?). If your design is inspirational and receives a lot of votes, you’ll be rewarded with a link in the sidebar on every page.

You Can Help

I encourage all of my readers to head over to Nice Stylesheet and check things out. While you’re there, please take a moment to vote on your favorite designs and if you want to keep up with the newest designs, please subscribe to the RSS feed. If you’re a blogger that frequently writes about web design topics and you’re looking for something to write about, feel free to give Nice Stylesheet a plug on your blog. I won’t be mad at ya. wink

Also, if you notice any weirdness going on with the site, please let me know.

Credits

I gave her credit already on the site, but I can’t thank her enough for her help. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with Sarah. Nice Stylesheet could not have been a reality without her help.

Brian helped out a ton as well in scouring the web to find quality designs for me to add to the list to be submitted!

Thanks Sarah and Brian.

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