Here are the initial posts that are already published:

Welcome to DesignM.ag
A general first post.

50+ Fonts for Big, Bold Headlines
This is a big list of some excellent fonts that will make your headlines stand out.

11 Steps to a More Stable Freelance Income
Freelancers are always dealing with ups and downs in terms of work levels and income. This article looks at some things you can do to minimize the down times.

Favorite Design-Related Sites of 21 Designers
Since I was starting a new site for the design community I thought it would be fun to get some others involved in one of the initial posts. This provides an interesting look at what some top designers are reading on a regular basis.

The launch of DesignM.ag should not affect the posts here at Vandelay Design. I’ve been very encouraged by the growth of this blog over the past year, particularly the past few months, and I am in no way moving on and leaving this blog behind. The posting frequency and quality here should remain as it has been in recent months. I recently let go of a few weekly freelance blogging gigs to free up more time to focus on my own blogs.

You may be wondering why I would be working on a new blog as opposed to focusing all of my blogging efforts here at Vandelay Design. The main reason I decided to branch out and start a new site is that I want to be able to have some more freedom to explore things that wouldn’t be a good fit at this blog. Because this blog is attached to the services of Vandelay Design I feel that I’m more limited to what I can do here as compared to a site that is not connected to a design service provider. For example, the job board would not be a good fit here. There are also some other features that I would like to add to DesignM.ag in the future that just wouldn’t be possible at Vandelay Design.

I thank all of you who subscribe to Vandelay Design or visit from time-to-time. If you have an interest in getting more design-related content please consider also subscribing to DesignM.ag. Because of the nature of the site there are three different feeds so that subscribers can get as much or as little as they want.

1. All-Inclusive Feed (articles, news, gallery)
2. Articles and News Feed (no gallery)
3. Articles Only (no news or gallery)

Thanks for your support!

Recently I have decided to de-activate the plugin and return to nofollow links. The amount of spam comments the past few months has really increased considerably. I don’t mind taking time to delete these comments, but I don’t like the idea that those who subscribe to comments are getting spam comments in their email. Hopefully this change will reduce the amount of spam that is left.

A bigger factor in the decision to go back to nofollow is the huge drop in search traffic within the past month. From July to mid-November search traffic had been steadily increasing. About 4 weeks ago traffic from Google was cut by about 75%. It happened basically overnight and has continued every day since that time. Over the course of the last 4 weeks this has caused a loss of about 5,000 visitors. I can’t say for sure, but I believe this blog is being penalized by Google for using DoFollow links, which goes against their recommendations. So, as a result of these factors any links that are left in the comments will no have nofollow tags.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts on this decision in the comments or use the contact form to send me a private message. Helping readers and commenters is still a priority to me, so if there is another way that I can help you, please let me know.

StumbleUpon:

Mob vs Smart Mob: 7 Reasons Why StumbleUpon Traffic Is the Best on the Planet
by Tad Chef
Do you think Digg or Reddit is the place to go nowadays? Never used StumbleUpon until now? You should, both as a user and a webmaster. Users get highly relevant content that matches their preferences, that’s the way of social browsing.

Using StumbleUpon to Connect With People in Your Niche
by Caroline Middlebrook
A lot of people use the SU toolbar just as a discovery tool, and that is of course what it was designed for so there’s nothing wrong with that. But behind the toolbar lies a Social Networking tool that sometimes goes unnoticed.

Blog Resources Online: Increase Traffic With StumbleUpon
by Neena
StumbleUpon is a great resource for discovering new sites. But it can also be used to drive traffic to your site. Find out how to utilize StumbleUpon to its full potential.

My Love Story With StumbleUpon
by Wayne Liew
I wandered off to another service which I find as interesting as or maybe more interesting than Del.icio.us but have a nicer layout. I found my love, StumbleUpon!

17 POWER Tips For StumbleUpon Beginners
by Dr. Mani
Infopreneurs need more traffic, more visitors to see the information they have created or compiled. StumbleUpon has MILLIONS of interested users. They want more information. They are waiting to hear about you. Here are 17 powerful ways you can let them know.

Digg:

Here’s what happens when you get on the front page of Digg
by David Airey
A tongue-in-cheek look at how Digg traffic does have its negatives.

Sphinn:

Why I Love Sphinn
by Marco Richter
Part of my series “The 25 Best Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Blog” about sphinn.com, which is still kind of new, but rising social platform concentrated to articles no internet marketing for targeted traffic to get from there. – Submitted by Marco Richter

Del.icio.us:

5 easy ways to get bookmarked on delicious and become hot
by Mohsin
Every blogger dreams of getting bookmarked by tons of people and making it to the front page of popular bookmarking sites like delicious. So, without further ado, here are five ways to get more of your posts bookmarked, and open the gates to some long term and steady traffic

Twitter:

Big Juicy Twitter Guide
by Caroline Middlebrook
This is a 7 part guide to Twitter which I think is an often overlooked social media service.

Facebook:

Facebook’s ad weakness: our “friends” are not our friends
by Dave Walker
Over the last 16 hours or so, there has been much hue and cry over Facebook’s new ad platform. Many commentators cry “I won’t shill for Coke” or “Don’t tell me what me Facebook so-called-friends are reading”. Fine. I won’t tell you about this excellent band I just found. Do you care if I don’t tell you?

Why Aren’t You On Facebook Yet, Grampy?
by Jon
While #1GF! and I were sitting around the table talking to her friends and their seventeen year old daughter, the following conversation took place…

10 Articles to Get You Started With Facebook
by Jon
After you sign up with Facebook, you spend more time than you expected poking around and kicking the tires. Once you get through that stage, you’ll begin to wonder just how to make Facebook work for you. These 10 articles should help to get you on your way.

Second Life:

Deconstructing Second Life
by Jason Falls
So you think the hip new place to be is Second Life? Hey, 8.5 million users can’t be wrong, right? Think again. A quick look at the Linden Lab-reported monthly stats and you’ll find just .5 million actives.

Jango:

Jango: Putting the Social Into Internet Radio
by Fred
This is a review of the new social Internet radio site Jango.

FitFiend:

FitFiend: Social Networking For Fitness Enthusiasts
by Shannon Nelson
FitFiend.com is revved up to be the new leader in online fitness social networking. Designed to cater to the fitness fiends in all of us, the site provides a platform for members to search for fitness professionals, network with each other for tips and motivation, connect with fitness partners to help stay on track with goals, rate and find gyms and other fitness related facilities, and find out about fitness events in their area.

IQONS:

IQONS: Social Networking For The Fashion Industry
by Shannon Nelson
With so many social networking sites beginning to dominate the internet, it’s about time there was noe that had one main focus to bring people with the same interest together to connect and network. IQONS is to fashion what MySpace is to music. Created by Rafael Jimenez and Suran Goonatilake with co-mentor Diane Pernet, they bring experience to the table that will see this new social networking site blossom.

Dripbook:

Photographers Have A Social Networking With Dripbook.com
by Shannon Nelson
Whether you are a makeup artist, photographer, painter or designer, an noline portfolio community has just launched to give you a space on the web to not only set up a clean, professional and rich online portfolio of your images, but to also give your work more exposure and a great way to network with like-minded industry talent.

Peopleized:

Interviews with Peopleized
by Adam Donkus
Peopleized is a site that allows you to network with others by conducting interviews and being interviewed. Interviews which can then be published no both interviewers and interviewees sites.

General Social Media:

Choose Your Audience: The Uncaring Social Media Crowd Or Your Loyal Readers?
by Mohsin
If you are new to bogging, you know the pains you take to get others to respond to the content you create with so much love. The lack of audience is sometimes discouraging and makes you wonder why in Holy Ghost’s name did you start a blog?

Stop Link Building, Links != Traffic
by Tad Chef
Do you think that link building is the most important part of SEO nowadays? You may be right if you refer to SEO as search engine optimization for Google. In this SEO world you get your links, Google assesses them and sends you traffic after a while if all of your site is optimized and you target the right keywords.

The Real Rules of Social Media Marketing Unmasked!
by Tad Chef
Glen inspired me. He wrote down, among other, some well known rules of social media marketing. As I do not abide by any rules beside my own and disagree with many of those I rewrote them so that all of you out there know what’s really going on in social media.

Social Bookmarking v Story Submission for Self Promotion
by Caroline Middlebrook
Scenario: You are an Internet marketer and you have a whole bunch of websites, blogs, articles etc that make you money. You wish to promote these in order to develop backlinks and drive traffic. I am not talking about the kind of self promotion where you literally promote yourself as a person, such as via a personal blog like this one. I’m talking your non-public earning websites.

78+ Super Web 2.0 Marketing Tools
by S. Kumar
9 Unseen Benefits From The New Web 2.0 Marketing Flavor! Did you notice the sweeping changes happening on the online business scene? Web 2.0 Marketing is slowly taking control over the traditional means. It’s growing and Web Marketing 2.0 can’t be ignored anymore.

Social Media Sites Are Not About Traffic
by YC
Too often we spend time on social media sites to gain traffic benefits. But there are actually better and more powerful advantages to using them.

Social Media Optimization
by Simon Ward
An article about creating content that is optimized for social media environments.

Social Media Networks: Entering the Third Dimension of Connectivity with Web 2.0
by Maya Norton
We are entering a golden age of social media networks enabled by Web 2.0. In thinking extensively about it, I have come up with a paradigm to describe our current place in history: the Third Dimension of Connectivity. Explaining the Three Dimensions– The first dimension is personal. The second dimension is public. The internet extends the second dimension by putting the public persona online, and the social media networks of Web 2.0 mark the third dimension. I also posit that the fourth dimension will be a combined public/private domain in which users create identities for interaction in an artificial world. (This sounds more confusing then it is, keep reading.)

Cause-Based Viral Marketing: How Your Nonprofit Can Maximize Social Networking Tools
by Maya Norton
Nonprofit (and profit) organizations can use viral fundraising to promote the reach of their organization, the power of their brand, and the impact of their cause by using existing social network technologies. For a simple analogy, think of viral marketing along the lines of gossip. Tell one family member about a new boyfriend or girlfriend and you can guarantee a distant cousin you haven’t heard from in months will be calling within days. Your mother tells your aunt, who tells your uncle and cousins, who tell your grandparents, and on. Soon everyone knows. Viral marketing follows the same exponential principle: direct contact with 10 people will lead eventually lead to a thousand. The key is to use an established networking platform so that your organization can do the basic promotion and the proficiency of the application will do the rest.

3 Common Mistakes in Using Listservs: Maximizing Time, Value, and Energy Among Users
by Maya Norton
Tips for maximizing user friendliness (and avoiding common mistakes) with listservs for effective use in social networking. 

Introduction to Social Media and Social Media Marketing
by Tibi Puiu
A basic introduction to Social Media (SM) and Social Media Marketing (SMM), explaining in plain English what exactly those “phenomenons” are, how to use them and how to profit from them. It’s excellent for newbies, but provides some insightful info for those already familiar with them.

What is social media?
by Gary Moyle
An overview of social media, how it differs from traditional media and some key examples of social media applications.

What You Can Learn from My First Social Media Success Story
by Karthik
My recent post on 12 Wordpress Editors that you can choose over the default WYSIWYG editor was one of the posts that took me the longest to write, simply because it involved quite a bit of research. I would have to thank Monika for recommending Windows Live Writer to me, that got me wondering if there were other editors too – which culminated in the post. It all began with Maki submitting the post to Sphinn. The rest, as they say, is history.

Beginners guide to Social Media
by Peter Newsome
I have attempted to break-down the Social Media sites into what I consider to be appropriate categories – Social News, Social Bookmarking / Tagging, Professional Networking, Social Networks, Question / Answer Networks, Photo Sharing, and Video Sharing. There are many other Social Media sites out there, but this should at least give you a fairly solid introduction to the Web 2.0 world.

Link Building – What they don’t tell you
by Peter Newsome
The best content in the world isn’t going to do you much good if no one knows your site exists.

7 Reasons to Embrace Social Media
by Peter Newsome
Some good reasons to get involved in the social media scene

8 Creative Ways to Use Social Media for Your Job Search
by Jacob Share
An offbeat list of how to make the most of the top social media websites for your job search.

Use your avatar to build brand awareness
by David Airey
Don’t overlook the importance of your avatar, and try not to change it too often, as it can help your branding when consistent across many social media platforms.

Why Networking Socially Beats Social Networking Every Time
by Jason Falls
Friend folks on Facebook, shout on Digg, beg for Stumbles, @ on Twitter … social network all you want, but here’s proof that networking socially (i.e. getting off your butt and out from behind your computer) will grow your blog (or your business) more effectively.

Why Advertising Will Not Win The Battle Of Social Media
by Jason Falls
Jeremy Pepper says advertising will win the battle for social media from public relations. Social Media Explorer doesn’t agree because the social media community won’t let it.

Gaming The System Or Web 2.1?
by AdTracker
An article discussing the growth of social madia alliances.

Social Networks – Have the eggs become the chicken?
by Jamie Oastler
I came to the realization of why Facebook bothers me – It has no focus – Facebook is for everyone. I join digitally-based communities all the time, but each noe has a target audience or concept in mind. This post explores the social network landscape today and how / why the future of this concept is important.

The One and Only Rule for Social Media Marketing
by Dave Walker
Social media seems to bring out statements like “let’s spread our brand virally” or “blogging will drive traffic to our web site”. I’ve talked with marketing people who see SMM as just another channel to promote their brand and are not treating it like a brand new communication channel that has its own set of rules. And they are missing the one and only thing they must know about social media marketing.

Is SEO dead? Search traffic vs. social media traffic
by Dave Walker
The last year has seen a pretty radical change in how web sites are getting traffic. Social media is changing the face of web traffic, and a business that is social media savvy is going to do a lot more, and better, business that companies that rely on Google searches.

If Content is King in SEO, It Rules The Universe in SMM!
by Jeannette Cezanne
My niche in the search engine world is content. I’ve spoken about it at conferences and written about it in articles. And I’ve always advocated the importance of content in doing good SEO, in making sure that results stay around. But social media marketing is different – and content is *even* more important there. This blog article talks about why — and how the reader can leverage it in his or her marketing campaigns.

How to Be Social
by Dustin Coates
A primer no how to increase web presence through the use of social media.

Did you know that some social media users won’t call you a spammer?
by Karen Zara
Not all social media users will hate you if you promote your own content to them. In fact, some are pretty approachable and may be interested in your links, as this article shows.

OpenID to pave way for Web 3.0?
by Wayne Smallman
Some time ago, I tried OpenID. The end. Well, not quite. But I did manage to get an account set up with them, despite the trials & tribulations I went through at the time, and due in some part to the intervention of noe of their support guys. The thing is, something like OpenID is needed now more than ever. But a few changes would need to be made to make OpenID relevant for todays very social web…

Social Networks: immersive 3D worlds
by Wayne Smallman
There’s something inherent in the trust we bestow no someone when after a time of anonymity, we finally get to see their face. Think of the number of people you know on the ‘Net and you know neither their real name, nor what they look like. Yet we often trust these people implicitly. But if you met someone in person and they gave you a false name, why would then not trust them?

Do You have a list of your Networks page?
by Adam Donkus
If your involved in Social Networking you most certainly belong to many different networks. Why not create a page that lists all your networks so that others can add you to the networks that you may have in common. Do you have a networks page?

Resources for Submitting to Social Networking News Sites
by Elmer Thomas
If you are a frequent submitter to social networking news sites, then this resource is for you. Following is a list of resources that will make your social news networking experience easier.

Build Your Own Social News Site With Free Tools
by Elmer Thomas
If you would like to build your own social news networking site where users can vote no content, then these tools are for you.

Social News Networking Comment Trackers
by Elmer Thomas
Part of social news networking is interaction via commenting. If you are a regular submitter/commenter to multiple services, this can get tedious. I have rounded up web services to help make that process easier. There are not many, but you should find what you need here.

Using Social Media in a Product Launch
by Jim Tobin
Conventional wisdom about social media marketing includes a few truisms, among them:
1. Social media marketing is a slow, steady burn, 2. It’s hard to turn social media marketing all the way up, like you can with a big ad buy or a big PR push, 3. Social media marketing isn’t about selling, it’s about talking about the topic and hoping sales will gravitate to you.

Did Target Steal Our Social Media Marketing Playbook?
By Jim Tobin
Back in August, we wrote a post about how Wal-mart’s latest social media marketing campaign was inherently flawed. We predicted that it would, once again, blow up in the retail giant’s face. (Note to the folks in Bentonville: Let Edelman focus on the traditional PR. Give us a call on the social media marketing stuff, k?)

Thanks again to everyone who contributed. I’m interested to hear everyone’s thoughts on this collection. I would be open to doing this again with another topic, so if you have any suggestions please leave a comment.

1 – Interviews

Do you have someone in your network that could share a lot of valuable information with your readers? Ask for an interview. It will give your readers some great content and will give exposure to one of your friends. Also, consider opening yourself up to interviews from other bloggers.

2 – Switch Blogs for a Day

Exchange guest posts with someone and each of you will benefit from added exposure.

3 – Write a Series to be Published on One Blog

Gather several of other bloggers and have everyone write one post on a specific topic. Use the posts together as a series on one blog. The blog that publishes the series will get quality content and the other participants will get some exposure and links back to their own blogs.

4 – Write a Series to be Published on Multiple Blogs

Last week I participated in a series with 4 other bloggers. We each published a post on a specific day covering a topic that has helped us to grow our blog. It gave us a chance to refer readers to each other, and we each got a link from all 4 of the bloggers involved in the project.

5 – Write Follow Up Articles to Someone Else’s Post

You can refer your readers to a post from someone else by writing a follow up and linking to the original article. Readers will get another perspective on the topic and you can build on the success of each other’s posts.

6 – Write Reveiws for Others (and Get Reviews from Others)

Use your blog to write a review of another blog that you read on a regular basis. If you think the blog provides quality content, chances are your readers will also appreciate it (and it will be great exposure for whoever is being reviewed).

7 – Exchange Links

Many blogs include a blogroll, and it’s very common for people to exchange blogroll links. If you don’t have a blogroll (like me) you can also use links within your posts. It doesn’t have to be an agreed upon exchange, but link freely to your contacts and they’ll probably return the favor.

8 – Run a Group Writing Contest

Sarah at BlueJar is running a great contest. Everyone had the option to write a “how-to” post on their own blog. Sarah then posted all the entrants (44 of them) and the contestants get to vote for their favorites by linking to them. It’s already providing a lot of links for those involved and everyone is getting a few new readers.

9 – Use Social Media to Share Things You Like (and Votes)

Maki from DoshDosh just wrote a post about sharing pages with your StumbleUpon friends, it’s definitely worth a read. I’ve received a few requests recently from friends for a Digg or Stumble on a particular post, and I’m happy to do it for them. Be willing to help others and others will be willing to help you.

10 – Ad Swaps

Do you have open ad space on your blog? Could you benefit from an ad on another blog? Why not exchange ads for a month? If all of your ad space is used up and you’re making money from it, this is probably not the most productive idea. But for smaller blogs it just might be a positive experience for both bloggers.

11 – Exchange Comments

New bloggers usually struggle to get new comments on their blog. One way to get things rolling is to find a few friends that are also looking for some comments. Everyone benefits and hopefully these comments get the ball rolling.

12 – Friendly Challenges

This isn’t something I’ve tried, but I thought it might provide some extra motivation. If you’re competitive and you like a challenge, contact one of your friends and set up a friendly wager to see who can gain the most new subscribers, get the most visitors, or whatever else you want to measure. I personally have a few blogs that I use as measuring sticks for my own, and it does help to keep me motivated (the others just don’t know they’re helping me).

What other ways do you work together with members of your network?

Also, on weekends I post weekly links, which include links to several readers who have been commenting that week. So please participate and I’ll try to reward you for it.

This week I was part of a 5-day series with 4 other bloggers. We each wrote a post about something that has been helping us to grow our blog. Here are the articles.

• Driving Search Engine Traffic to a New Blog from Vandelay Design.
• Be Selfish and Help Someone from Blogging Tips.
• What’s Your Best Source of Traffic from Blogtrepreneur.
• Be Community Involved to Get More Traffic from Super Blogging.
• Drive Traffic by Commenting First from SiteFever.

Links for the Week:

• Build Your Social Media Profiles with This Extension from Pronet Advertising.
• 10 Color Contrast Checking Tools to Improve the Accessibility of Your Design from 456 Berea St.
• Blogging for the Future from Performancing.
• How to Make Money on a Site with a Small Budget from Shoemoney
• SEO Empire – Part 1 from Blue Hat SEO
• Driving Traffic to Your New Blog from ProBlogger
• 7 Unusual Ways to Use StumbleUpon from SEO 2.0
• Can a Website Have Charisma? from Invesp
• Tools and Plugins to Secure Your WordPress Blog from Average Joe Blogger.
• 45 Working Sites to Quickly Submit Your RSS Feeds from Jason Bartholme.
• A Beginner’s Guide to Affiliate Networks from LGR Webmaster Blog.
• Want a Successful Website? Pour All Your Efforts Into It from Derek Beau.
• Make Web Site Development Easy from Big Technical.
• Better Rankings By Reconfiguring In-Site Link Popularity from Courtney Tuttle.
• How to Manage Your Blog Advertising from Blogging Tips.
• Decrypting Website Statistics from Reality Hosting.
• Screw Digg, Let’s All Use StumbleUpon to Make Money Online from World of Angel.
• Need Traffic? Try BlogRush from Karthik.

Some Contests Going on Right Now:

• Blog Writing Project at Daily Blog Tips.
• Win Free Advertising at Super Blogging.
• Show Me Your Best Post and I’ll Link to It at Blogging Fingers. Ok, so it’s not really a contest, but it is something you should participate in.

Some Guest Posts that I Wrote This Week on Other Blogs:

• Social Media Marketing: Focus or Scatter? at Performancing.
• Using Forums to Grow Your Blog at PureBlogging.
• 10 Ways to Increase Reader Loyalty at Carl Ocab.
• Benefiting from Temporary Waves of Traffic at BlueJar.
• Using a Magazine-Style WordPress Theme at TopSecret Blogger.

Thank you to everyone who linked to my post 77 Resources to Simplify Your Life as a Web Designer. And thank you to everyone who Stumbled it, Dugg it, and bookmarked it. Special thanks to Adam from PixelHead Online and Jon from Freelance Folder for a little extra help this week.

Homepage Excerpts WordPress Plugin from Daily Blog Tips.

An Interview with Aaron Wall of SEO Book from ProBlogger.

Add Your URL to SEO Friendly Directories Free from Super Blogging.

How to Stop Someone Hotlinking Your Images from Blogging Tips.

Google Radar Spots Text-Link-Ads from SiteFever.

Screen Shots and Feature Overview of Delicious 2.0 from Tech Crunch.

16 Ways to Kill Your Blog Strategy Before You Even Start It from Cape Cod SEO.

A Guide on Moving Your WordPress Blog to a New Host from Average Joe Blogger.

Creating Landing Pages Worthy of Getting Ranked #1 from Courtney Tuttle.

Blogging Fingers’ Guide to coComment from Blogging Fingers.

The Ultimate Guide to Leveraging StumbleUpon from Daily Moolah.

New Members Feel Special When Welcomed from Community Spark.

What’s Your Menu from BlogsReview.

A Beginner’s Guide to Domain Names from Reality Hosting.

8 Tips for Visitor-Friendly AdSense Placement from Pat Doyle.

Offering Email Feeds from PreBlogging.

32 Video and Vlogging Tools from AdScoops.

The Top 200 Most Compelling Words of 2007 from Small Fuel Marketing.

Some Contests Going On:

Street Smart Internet Marketing Book Giveaway at Blogtrepreneur.com

“How-To” Group Writing Project at BlueJar.

Win Two Months Free Advertising on the Blog Beat.

Guest posts of mine that were published this week:

Sitemaps 101 at Super Blogging.

Tools for Choosing a Color Combination at Pro Blog Design.

Extending the Life of a Post at Blogging Tips.

Essential Functions for Successful Bloggers at Top Secret Blogger.

11 Ways to Start Getting More Repeat Traffic to Your Blog at Top Secret Blogger.

The Secret to Freelance Blogging from Chris Garrett. Are you interested in making some money writing for blogs? Read this article.

How to Double Your Customer Base Without Spending a Penny from Freelance Folder. This article is written by Dave Navarro.

WordPress Plugin: Custom Query String from Average Joe Blogger. Learn how to easily control the number of posts on your front page as well as your other archive pages.

blogLOUDER: Blog Consulting Competition from Blogtrepreneur. Adnan is starting a new blog consulting service and running a competition to promote it.

Full Posts vs. Partial Posts, on the Homepage from Pro Blog Design. Michael discusses the pros and cons of each option.

50 Tips to Unclutter Your Blog from skelliewag. This article has a lot of useful information about keeping a clean look on your blog.

Blog Help: I Have a Blog and Not Making Any Money from BONTB Blog Tips and Tricks. Get some practical pointers for making some money with your blog.

Six Fun Ways to Generate Traffic from Pajama Professional. Get some ideas for boosting traffic to your blog.

Transform Your Blog by Changing Yourself from Profitable Productive Blogging. This article includes some advice for improving your blog and making it more effective.

Some articles that I have written for other blogs this week:

Converting Visitors to Subscribers – Super Blogging.

10 Ways to Give Your Blog a Personal Touch – Blogging Tips

10 Ways to Get Traffic to a New Website – Blogtrepreneur

1 – Design Your Pages to Load Quickly

The #1 factor in determining whether impatient visitors stay on your site or leave right away is the amount of time it takes for your pages to load. Even a beautiful site with great content will drive impatient visitors away with slow loading pages. In this post I won’t go into the factors that influence the speed at which a page loads, but you can read Designing Pages to Load Quickly for that information.

2 – Use Effective Navigation

Help your visitors find what they are looking for quickly. Your navigational menu should be seen immediately and the navigational structure should be logical. Most visitors are not going to click through more than a few pages to try to find what they are after.

3 – Layout Your Pages to Display Important Information Prominently

Keep your most important information high on the page where it will easily and quickly be seen. Avoid cluttering the page with ads and excessive text and graphics. Effectively use white space around your content to quickly draw the attention of the reader.

4 – Make You Pages Scanable

Very few visitors will read your pages word-for-word, especially the impatient ones. Use headers, bold text, and lists to allow visitors to find what they want by scanning the page. For more information on this subject read 10 Keys to Effective Writing for the Web.

5 – Get to the Point

By eliminating unnecessary text and “trimming the fat” you can greatly increase the amount of visitors that actually read the content. It’s also important to make your point early on a page. Readers will then continue to read if they are interested, but they won’t fell like they’re wasting time getting to the point.

6 – Use Accurate, Strong Headlines to Tell Readers What the Page is About

A great headline draws the attention of a visitor as well as providing some idea of the subject of the article. Effective headlines will even catch the attention of visitors that are in a hurry.

7 – Use the Description Meta Tag

Some search engines display the contents of the description meta tag on the SERPs to let the searcher know what a page is about. Help potential visitors before they even get to your site by using an informative description of the page.

8 – Make it Easy to Contact You

Some of your visitors will want to contact you, but they will not want to search through your site for your contact information. Place links to your contact information in prominent places throughout your site.

9 – Provide a Site-Wide Search

Help visitors find what they are looking for by providing a search function for your site. Impatient visitors are more likely to try a search than to click through numerous pages. You can get a free site-wide search from Google.

10 – Avoid Flash Intro Pages

Nothing annoys impatient visitors more than slow-loading Flash intro pages. They may look nice, but they’re not practical for most sites. Even if you provide a “skip intro” link, that’s one more click that an impatient visitor has to make just to get to your site.

Official homepage of CSS – http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

Official documentation of CSS – http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/

CSS web standards – http://www.webstandards.org/learn/external/css/

Tools:

Validator from W3C (Editor’s Choice) – http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

CSS redundancy checker – http://infovore.org/archives/2007/07/06/the-css-redundancy-checker/

CSS formatting and optimizing tool (not a validation tool) – http://www.cleancss.com/

CSS Optimizer – http://www.cssoptimiser.com/

CSS Analyzer (a validator plus) – http://juicystudio.com/services/csstest.php

CSS Mate: CSS editor – http://cssmate.com/csseditor.htm

CSS Compressor (still in development, may not work correctly) – http://iceyboard.no-ip.org/projects/css_compressor

CSS Tidy – http://csstidy.sourceforge.net/index.php

Layout-o-matic – http://www.inknoise.com/experimental/layoutomatic.php

CSS rounded box generator – http://www.neuroticweb.com/recursos/css-rounded-box/

List creator – http://www.accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/developer-tools/list-o-matic/
CSS form code maker – http://www.maketemplate.com/form/

CSS layout generator – http://csscreator.com/?q=tools/layout

CSS Tweak – http://www.blazenewmedia.com/articles/css-tweak-dashboard-widget

CSS speech bubbles – http://www.willmayo.com/2007/02/10/css-speech-bubbles/

Tutorials:

Tutorial from W3C – http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/011/firstcss

Tutorials from HTML Dog – http://www.htmldog.com/

Complete CSS guide – http://www.westciv.com/style_master/academy/css_tutorial/

W3 Schools CSS tutorials – http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp

HTML.net CSS tutorials – http://www.html.net/tutorials/css/

HTMLhelp.com: CSS – http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/css/

BrainJar: using style sheets – http://www.brainjar.com/css/using/default.asp

Beginner’s guide to CSS – http://friendlybit.com/tutorial/beginners-guide-to-css-and-standards/

Creating a CSS layout from scratch – http://www.subcide.com/tutorials/csslayout/

List building tutorial from MaxDesign.com – http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listutorial/

Tutorial on floating elements from MaxDesign – http://css.maxdesign.com.au/floatutorial/

CSS no crap primer – http://wendypeck.com/css101.html

CSShark – http://www.mako4css.com/

Learn CSS positioning in 10 Steps – http://www.barelyfitz.com/screencast/html-training/css/positioning/

CSS Basics – http://www.cssbasics.com/

The complete CSS tutorial – http://www.echoecho.com/css.htm

An interactive tutorial for beginners – http://www.davesite.com/webstation/css/

CSS styles tutorial – http://www.smartwebby.com/web_site_design/css_styles_tutorial.asp

Understanding CSS (focused on Dreamweaver) – http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/understanding_css.html

Drop shadows with CSS – http://www.phoenity.com/newtedge/drop_shadow/

Navigation Menus:

Dynamic Drive (Editor’s Choice) – http://www.dynamicdrive.com/style/

Listamatic (Editor’s Choice) – http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/

Vandelay Website Design – http://www.vandelaydesign.com/cssmenus/lists.htm

Listamatic 2 – http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic2/index.htm

CSS Play – http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menus/

CSS Showcase – http://www.alvit.de/css-showcase/css-navigation-techniques-showcase.php

Exploding Boy – http://exploding-boy.com/images/cssmenus/menus.html

Vertical menus from Exploding Boy – http://exploding-boy.com/images/EBmenus/menus.html

13 Styles – http://www.13styles.com/

CSS dropdowns – http://www.positioniseverything.net/css-dropdowns.html

A list of navigation menus – http://www.alvit.de/web-dev/tabs-and-pure-css-navigation-menus.html

Links:

Web Developer’s Handbook (Editor’s Choice) – http://www.alvit.de/handbook/

CCS Accessibility and Standards Links (Editor’s Choice) – http://www.dezwozhere.com/links.html

Web Design References: CSS – http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/support/Training/Online/webdesign/css.html

40+ Tooltips Scripts from Smashing Magazine – http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/06/12/tooltips-scripts-ajax-javascript-css-dhtml/

The Open Sourcery – http://theopensourcery.com/oscssref.htm

Galleries:

CSS Vault (Editor’s Choice) – http://cssvault.com/

CSS Based (Editor’s Choice) – http://www.cssbased.com/

CSS Beauty (Editor’s Choice) – http://www.cssbeauty.com/gallery/

Mezzoblue & CSS Zen Garden – http://www.mezzoblue.com/zengarden/alldesigns/

CSS Tux – http://www.csstux.com/index.php

CSS Drive – http://www.cssdrive.com/

W3C Sites – http://www.w3csites.com/

CSS Remix – http://www.cssremix.com/

CSS Import – http://www.cssimport.com/

CSS Fresh – http://cssfresh.com/

Design Shack – http://www.designsnack.com/

DesignShack.co.uk – http://www.designshack.co.uk/index.php

CSS Mania – http://cssmania.com/

CSS Elite – http://www.csselite.com/

Style Crunch – http://www.stylecrunch.com/

Screen Fluent – http://screenfluent.com/

CSS Smooth Operator – http://csssmoothoperator.com/

The Horizontal Way – http://www.thehorizontalway.com/

Dark Eye – http://www.dark-i.com/

CSS Web Design Yorkshire – http://www.css-design-yorkshire.com/

Web Creme – http://www.webcreme.com/

Edu Style – http://www.edustyle.net/

Liquid Designs – http://www.cssliquid.com/category/gallery/

CSS Bloom – http://cssbloom.com/

Unmatched Style – http://www.unmatchedstyle.com/

Net Cocktail – http://netcocktail.com/

CSS Impress – http://www.cssimpress.com/

CSS Collection – http://csscollection.com/

CSS Flavor – http://www.cssflavor.com/

Screenalicious – http://www.screenalicious.com/

CSS Galleries – http://www.css-galleries.com/

Most Inspired – http://www.mostinspired.com/

Submit CSS – http://www.submitcss.com/

Inspiration King – http://www.inspirationking.com/

CSS Love – http://csslove.net/

CSS Princess – http://cssprincess.com/

Articles:

Style Gala – http://www.stylegala.com/

A List Apart’s CSS articles – http://www.alistapart.com/topics/code/css/

CSS Globe – http://www.cssglobe.com/index.asp

CSS Help Pile – http://www.artypapers.com/csshelppile/

Why use CSS-based design? – http://www.vandelaydesign.com/blog/css/why-use-css-based-design/

Expert ideas for better CSS coding from Smashing Magazine – http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/05/10/70-expert-ideas-for-better-css-coding/

CSS Positioning article from About.com – http://webdesign.about.com/b/a/256055.htm

CSS layout article from Glish.com – http://www.glish.com/css/

CSS Edge: advanced CSS – http://meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/

Advanced CSS layouts article – http://www.webreference.com/authoring/style/sheets/layout/advanced/

Exploring the limits of CSS layout – http://www.sitepoint.com/article/exploring-limits-css-layout

CSS articles from Webcredible – http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/css/

CSS articles from WebsiteTips.com – http://websitetips.com/css/

Use CSS for SEO – http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/css/article.php/3682856

10 CSS tricks you may not know – http://itwales.com/997814_textonly.htm

53 CSS techniques you couldn’t live without: Smashing Magazine – http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/01/19/53-css-techniques-you-couldnt-live-without/

CSS from the ground up – http://www.wpdfd.com/issues/70/css_from_the_ground_up/

4 reasons to use CSS-based navigation – http://www.vandelaydesign.com/blog/css/4-reasons-to-use-css-based-navigation/

Templates:

Layout Gala (Editor’s Choice) – http://blog.html.it/layoutgala/

Open Designs (Editor’s Choice) – http://www.opendesigns.org/

Osskins – http://www.osskins.com/main/

Open Source Templates – http://www.opensourcetemplates.org/

Styleshout – http://www.styleshout.com/

Zymic – http://zymic.com/show_templates.php?id=1

Open Web Design – http://www.openwebdesign.org/

CSS Design Templates – http://templates.arcsin.se/

Free-CSS-Templates.com – http://www.free-css-templates.com/

FreeCSSTemplates.org – http://www.freecsstemplates.org/

CSS Templates – http://www.free-css-templates.co.uk/free-templates/page1.php

Mollio – http://www.mollio.org/

Template World – http://www.templateworld.com/free_templates.html

Code-Sucks.com – http://www.code-sucks.com/css%20layouts/

Themes Base – http://www.themesbase.com/

CSS Template Gallery – http://tools.i-use.it/

BenMeadowCroft.com – http://www.benmeadowcroft.com/webdev/

Forums:

Digital Point: CSS forum – http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=39

Sitepoint: CSS forum – http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=53

CSS Discuss (mailing list) – http://www.css-discuss.org/

Bugs and Hacks:

CSS crib sheet (Editor’s Choice) – http://www.mezzoblue.com/css/cribsheet/

Position is Everything – http://www.positioniseverything.net/

Browser compatibility – http://www.quirksmode.org/css/contents.html

Browser bugs – http://www.gtalbot.org/BrowserBugsSection/

Box Model Hack – http://www.tantek.com/CSS/Examples/boxmodelhack.html

Random:

Computer-generated web design – http://www.strangebanana.com/generator.aspx

CSS graph resources – http://dhtmlsite.com/cssgraphs.php

Update: These Resources have been added following the initial posting.

CSS Specifity – www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/07/27/css-specificity-things-you-should-know

Firdamatic – www.wannabegirl.org/firdamatic

Spanky Corners – http://tools.sitepoint.com/spanky/index.php

CSS Tweak – www.blazenewmedia.com/articles/css-tweak-dashboard-widget

CSS Compressor – www.cssdrive.com/index.php/main/csscompressor

CSS Grid Calculator – www.gwhite.us/downloads/css_grid_calc.html

Spiffy Corners – www.spiffycorners.com

Form Architect – www.formarchitect.com/index.php

Dynamic Text Replacement – www.joaomak.net/util/dtr

Generating Dynamic CSS with PHP – www.digital-web.com/articles/generating_dynamic_css_with_php

CSS Button Creator – www.thepcmanwebsite.com/css_button_creator.php

CSS, Image Sprites, Background Images and Website Optimization – www.fiftyfoureleven.com/weblog/web-development/css/css-sprites-images-optimization

1 – Activate Akismet

All new WordPress installations automatically include the Akismet plugin to prevent spam comments. There is a reason WordPress now includes Akismet with all installations – it is highly effective at stopping spam without blocking legitimate comments. Akismet is a huge time saver that helps your blog to maintain a professional appearance that is free of spam.

To activate Akismet, login to your WordPress blog and from the dashboard click on “Plugins.” You will see Akismet listed, and click on the Activation link. You will then get a message that you need to enter an API Key for Akismet to be activated. If you have an API Key you can enter it when prompted. If you do not have an API Key yet you can get one at http://wordpress.com/api-keys/.

2 – Choose a URL Structure

By default, WordPress creates pages that have “ugly” URLs that are not search engine-friendly. These URLs contain characters like question marks and they contain no valuable key words. Fortunately, WordPress gives users the option to customize their URL structure.

Our choice for URL structure includes the category that the post is affiliated with, and the title of the post. By using the category you will get strong keywords into the URL. For example, if you are writing a post about an SEO-related topic, SEO will be in the URL if it is assigned as the category of the post. The title of the post is also likely to contain key words and phrases.

To change the URL structure, go to “Options” and then “Permalinks” from the WordPress dashboard. WordPress will give you a few choices, including the option to customize your own URL structure. For this blog we use the custom option with the following code:

It is best to set your URL structure when you first start your blog, as changing it down the road can cause problems resulting in dead links.

3 – Change the Default Page Title

Effective page titles are critical to having a blog or website that ranks well in the search engines. The default title of pages created by WordPress can be improved upon. Many bloggers choose to use the name of the blog and the name of the post in the title, which helps to get some valuable, targeted keywords into the title.

Changing the structure of the page title is not something that can be done from the dashboard like changing the URL structure, but it is not difficult. The title is contained in the header.php file of whatever theme you are using. To change the title, open header.php and replace the code between the opening and closing title tags. The code that we use for this blog is

Other ideas for page titles can be found at Geek Notes.

4 – Add a Subscription Request to single.php

The single.php file controls the page layout when a visitor is on a page that contains one post. Subscribers are crucial to developing a successful blog, so efforts should be made to maximize the number of subscribers you receive.

An effective way to gain subscribers is to include a short reminder for readers to subscribe to your RSS feed. For most WordPress themes this can be added directly before the post meta data (where the comments are located). Many bloggers place widgets here to add the feed to an RSS reader or to submit the page to a social media site (AddThis is a popular option, and the Sociable plugin accomplishes the same thing).

5 – Add Your Feed Subscription Link Prominently

As soon as a visitor comes to your blog, he or she should quickly see the link to subscribe to your RSS feed. Many blogs accomplish this by placing the common RSS icon at the top of the sidebar. The reader should not have to scroll down the page to see the icon or the link. Having the icon and link near the top of the page and having the reminder at the end of each post (as mentioned earlier) will give you the best opportunity to maximize the number of subscribers you receive.

Some themes will come with an RSS subscription option already located at the top of the sidebar. However, if you are using a theme that does not provide this, it can easily be added to sidebar.php by simply adding the text that you want to use and linking it to your feed.

6 – Sign up for FeedBurner

Every WordPress blog automatically creates an RSS feed. FeedBurner is a free service that will host your feed, provide basic stats and give your readers some additional options with your feed. FeedBurner is a well-recognized service that will also make it easier for your readers to subscribe in their RSS reader of choice.

Being able to track the number of subscribers you have, and how many of them are clicking through to your site are two important pieces of information that you must have to do proper analytical work. FeedBurner’s other options will help you to get the most our of your feed by allowing you to customize many options, like an “email this” and “add to del.icio.us” links at the end of your posts.

7 – Offer an Email Subscription Option

Some of your visitors will prefer to subscribe to your blog via email instead of RSS. If you are not offering email subscriptions you are losing potential subscribers. FeedBurner offers this service for free to its users, and they even produce the code for your sign up form. All you have to do is activate the email subscription option and place the code that they provide on your blog. Any posts that you make on your blog in a given day will be emailed to your subscribers. There’s no email for you to send, and no need to manage the mailing list.

8 – Claim Your Blog at Technorati

Technorati is one of the most widely used blogging resources. It is a search engine and tracking system that specializes in blogs (among other things). First you will need to create a free account. Once your account has been created you can add some information about yourself and your blog. To claim your blog, while you are logged in click on the “Blogs” tab. There you will have the option to enter the URL of your blog to claim it. Technorati provides information like the number of incoming links to a particular blog, and this information is widely used to judge the reach that a blog has. If you plan on selling advertisements you should pay close attention to your Technorati numbers.

9 – Add an About Page

Blog readers are interested in knowing more about you, the writer. Creating a page with some information about yourself is a great way to help your readers to get to know you. Part of developing loyal readers is connecting with them. WordPress allows you to create pages, in addition to blog posts. From the dashboard go to “Manage” and select “Pages.” You should now see the option to edit an About page. WordPress makes it very easy to create this page right from your dashboard.

10 – Add a Contact Form for Your Readers to Reach You

Your About page is a good place to let your readers send you their feedback. Every website or blog should provide a way for readers to communicate with the owner of the site. The PXS plugin is the most common way for WordPress users to add this functionality.

11 – Address Duplicate Content Issues

Duplicate content can be major challenge for blogs and search engine traffic. Blogs by their nature create duplicate content on category and date archives, as well as on the blog home page. Search engines, especially Google, go to great lengths to keep duplicate content out of the search results, which means less traffic for you if they think your pages are repeating the same content. This issue is much too large to cover in depth here (for additional reading see the Google Webmaster Central Blog, SEOResearcher.com, and SEOmoz) but there are a few simple things that you can do to lower the risk of having your pages flagged as duplicates.

First, set your archive pages to show only excerpts rather than entire posts. By using excerpts the search engines see only a few lines of a blog post on the archive page rather than seeing entire posts that are duplicates of the individual blog post pages. The process of changing your blog’s template to show only excerpts is explained by Lorelle, a WordPress expert.

Creating a robots.txt file can also help eliminate duplicate content by telling the search engine robots which pages to index and which ones to ignore. With the robots.txt file you gain some control over which pages will get more attention from search engines. More information about the robots.txt file can be found at Not So Boring Life.

Chris Garrett also covers duplicate content and gives a relatively simple solution for dealing with duplicate content by adding a piece of code in the header.php file.

Another choice is the Duplicate Content plugin. The downside that I see to this plugin is that it prevents search engines from indexing category pages, which can sometimes be very relevant, keyword-rich pages.

12 – Submit to Blog and RSS Directories

Once your blog has been created it’s time to start promoting it. The first thing to do is submit your blog/feed to the many directories that specializes in blogs and RSS Feeds. These will give you some exposure to readers who are searching for blogs in your industry and they will also give you some valuable inbound links to help your search engine rankings. Lists of blog directories and RSS directories can be found at our website.