To give you more variety right out of the box, you may want to divert your attention over to the Templates Box. This online directory promises a good range of free and premium web templates for building a successsful web business.

Premium Templates of All Shapes and Sizes

As you make your way around the Templates Box library, you’ll find quite the variety of site templates for you to consider. These range both in type and style.

In addition to regular site templates, you’ll also find that Templates Box has full Flash sites available for sale as well. Further still, they have PowerPoint templates, Word templates, and even templates for logo design too.

For each of these, you are initially offered a small thumbnail. Clicking through to the template’s individual page, you are shown the source files available. For instance, most full site templates will sell with the PSD files, HTML files, CSS files, and font files. On the same page, you can see a full quality sample and some low resolution samples.

From Christmas to Military

It doesn’t really matter which niche you are trying to approach with your website, because it seems that Template Box has a template that suites your industry. Again, going to the left sidebar for the categories, you can look at everything from cars to computers, agriculture to religion.

Sampling the Swimming Site

While the primary image reminds me more of the Nirvana album cover than the pool, the swimming school template is fairly indicative of what you can expect from Templates Box. There is a clean navigation bar along the top of the page, an eye-catching image in the center, and three columns of content in the bottom.

You have one of two options should you want a template like this. For the swimming site template, you can access the premium template section of Templates Box for $39. Alternatively, you can purchase the exclusive rights to the template for $600, not including anyone who has already downloaded the template to date.

Why Advertise for the Competitor?

The site templates offered through Templates Box are reasonably well-designed and there is a good variety for you to consider. The exclusive rights price is a little rich, but that’s the price you pay for having something unique.

Where I disagree is with the placement of Google AdSense (and other advertising) on the site. From what I can gather, Templates Box operates primarily as an online store; why would you send your visitors elsewhere for a 10-cent click when you can capitalize on a $600 purchase? This would be like Coca-Cola running Pepsi ads on its site.

Link: TemplatesBox.com

* This was a Paid Review. If you are interested in having your site reviewed on Blogging Tips, please check out our Advertising Information Page.

Diving Deep into the Templates Box


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

Simply put, the loading time of the site was nowhere near my personal standard and, though no one had complained about the time it took to load, I wasn’t pleased with the numbers I was seeing and even Google Webmaster Tools was providing less-than-subtle hints I needed to improve.

So I set my mind to do just that. I took an afternoon to research the problem and try to devise a solution. Fortunately, I didn’t need the entire time or even a quarter of it.

In fact, after about 30 minutes of research and just nine minutes of actual work, I was able to to shave an estimated four seconds off my site’s loading time. How did I do it? The answer is below.

Diagnosis: Slowdown

I used two different tools to attempt and diagnose the problem. The first was YSlow, an extension for Firebug, which is in turn an extension for Firefox.

Yslow allows you to test the loading time within a page and gives your site a grade from A to F as to how well it performs. Initially, YSlow gave my site an E, the next-to-worst grade, but many of the alleged problems, such as the lack of CDN and Gzip compression, appeared to be errors on YSlow’s part. With other issues, there wasn’t much I could do about as the errors came from external sources, such as statistic programs.

So I decided to change tactics and use Pingdom’s Site Speed Test. This test works by having their server pull down a copy of your Web page and then tell you how long it took to load the various elements. Elements that take a long time need to either be optimized or removed.

Initially, my site loaded in 5.6 seconds, a decent time by itself, but I knew that end users were likely experiencing longer delays.

The good news was that the test provided two very powerful insights. First, I realized that Disqus, which I was using as a comment manager, was adding significant loading time as it loaded all of the variables. Second, two plugins I was using were forcing the download of very large images and/or JavaScript files that weren’t necessary on most pages.

With this information in hand, I went into action.

Taking Action

Using WordPress, I simply went in and disabled the three plugins involved. The process only took a few seconds.

Most of my time was spent purging my site’s cache and making sure that I had a clean copy of my front page stored before going back and redoing the test.

When I did, I was very surprised by the results.

9 Minutes Later

After double checking that everything was ready, I re-ran the test and the results were stunningly different.

Free from the burden of loading many different Disqus elements as well as heavy JavaScripts/images, the load time of my site went from 5.6 seconds to 1.5 seconds, an over four second and an over 55% decrease in load time. Rerunning the test gave similar results, almost always below two seconds (outside of a few outliers).

In YSlow, my grade improved to a “D” though the errors and other issues remained. I immediately sent out messages to many of my friends to test the site and all reported a marked improvement in loading time. Though there were still issues to iron out, and still are, the site was clearly performing much better.

Though I am still not satisfied with the site’s performance, I am happier with it now than I was before I made the changes. Clearly, they were a major step in the right direction.

Some Basic Advice

If you’re a blogger in a similar position, in addition to running the two tests above, here are five easy things you can do to ramp up your site’s performance drastically without changing the look of your site.

1. Disable Unneeded Extensions: Weigh every extension you are using to see if you really need it. Though different extensions will affect your site in different ways, many will add new elements into your page that can drag it down.
2. Use Good Caching: WP Super Cache is a great caching plugin for WordPress as is the more advanced W3 Total Cache. Caching plugins are probably the only plugins that actively make sites faster in the long run.
3. Maintain Your Databases: Routinely repair and optimize your databases (as well as back them up obviously). Doing so will help keep your databases speedy and ensure your server has to do as little work as possible to load your site.
4. Optimize Images: Make sure the images that you use are sized correctly before being uploaded, are in the correct format and have been optimized for use on the Web. Using large or high-resolution images unnecessarily can be a tremendous drag on your server.
5. JavaScript at Bottom/CSS at Top: Finally, put non-urgent JavaScripts at the bottom of your template, in the footer, and ensure that all of your CSS files are in the top. Though this may not improve your scores significantly on Pingdom’s test, it can drastically improve the user’s experience.

But while these are some good tips, you should definitely give YSlow a test and see if it can offer you additional suggestions or if any issues stick out in Pingdom’s test results. You might be surprised what happens if you address those issues.

Bottom Line

To be certain, speed is not everything but without a reasonably fast site you do have nothing. The reason is that, if your site takes to long to load, readers won’t even bring up the first page and, if they do, they won’t stick around long or come back.

The good news is that, with a few simple changes, you can probably drastically improve your site’s speed, though you may have to sacrifice some of the more beautiful elements.

The other good news is that, as I was working on this article, Disqus reached out to me on Twitter and said they are working on a fix for their loading issues. So, I may be able to comfortably go back to it again soon.

In the meantime, I’m going to keep an eye on my site’s loading time and keep tweaking it until I’m finally happy with it.

Putting My Blog on a Diet


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

Today YouTube announced a new beta program that will allow you to view the movies on its site using pure HTML5, no Adobe Flash required.

To be fair, it isn’t a huge change if you enter the beta. The controls for the movies are different and the loading animation says “HTML5″ rather than having the familiar YouTube spinner, but the potential impact could be huge.

Even though it is just an early test and has several limitations, including it only working on Safari/Chrome and does not support full screen viewing or videos with ads/annotations, YouTube’s efforts to shift away from Flash could signal a major change for the Web and one that will likely be for the better.

Why is it important? The reasons lie below the surface but it is very easy to see why this feature has been so heavily requested by YouTube and why the have decided to act.

A Brief History of Flash

Flash started its life in 1996, almost 15 years ago, for the purpose of adding animated and interactive content to the Web. Since then, it has been used in absolutely everything from annoying banner ads to gorgeous games, from animated buttons to entire Web sites.

Though Flash has always been important, for much of its existence, one could easily surf the Web without Flash installed and largely have a complete Web experience. However, in 2002, when Flash Video was added to the product, the floodgates were opened.

For years effective video playback on the Web had been something of a holy grail. The first attempts were bogged down by a combination of codec issues, which prevented people without the proper codecs from playing the file, and lack of broadband. However, increased availability of inexpensive high-speed Internet solved the second problem and Flash Video solved the first since almost everyone had Flash on their computers.

However, this changed the purpose of Flash. It went from being something most people had but rarely used to a critical part of the Web experience. No Flash meant no YouTube or other video sites and watching videos online quickly became one of, if not the single, most common activity online.

In short, Flash went from being a nice thing to have to a necessity and a daily part of nearly every Web user’s life. While this isn’t bad by itself, it brought with it a series of problems to consider.

Why Less Flash is More

Most of the problems with Flash stem from the simple fact that it is a plugin that resides in your browser. Essentially, when you run a Flash element, it is running inside a separate program that runs within your browser, including the following:

1. Security: Like any program, Flash has security issues that often need to be patched and can be exploited. These security issues can, very often, be very dangerous.
2. Stability/Speed: Every layer you add to a browser the more you slow down the system and the less stable it becomes. Flash is well known for crashing on computers, often taking the browser with it, and can be a major performance drag.
3. Privacy: Finally, Flash adds another layer of privacy issues to the browser. Flash can and does save cookies and will do so even in private browsing modes on most browsers.

This isn’t a case for eliminating the use of Flash, or any other plugin for that matter, but a definite argument for minimizing their use when possible. Fortunately, HTML5 gives us the chance to do just that when dealing with video sites and the Web will be better off if we seize the opportunity.

Why HTML5 is Better

The reason HTML5 is better is simple, unlike Flash that requires another program, HTML5 runs natively in your browser (so long as it is compatible). You can view multimedia without a plugin at all. This brings with it improvements in performance, security and privacy.

It is especially good for users of operating systems other than Windows, most of all Linux, who have not gotten the same level of support for their Flash plugins as Windows. Though the versions are the same now, at least numerically, there are many reports of Flash being more problematic on OSX and Linux.

Imagine, for a moment, if every single image on the Web required a third-party plugin to view it and the plugin was controlled by a single company. The Web would be almost impossible to use for many and we would all be at the whims of this company, their choices of operating systems and decisions about features. That is not what the Web wants.

Fortunately, you can insert images (of multiple formats) into pages without plugins but with the rising popularity of video it is not too difficult to imagine a Web where video is as, or even more, important than still pictures. As such, it is important to make sure that technology is not dependent on a plugin or a lone company for maintenance.

Bottom Line

Once again, none of this is an argument against Flash itself. HTML5 video will not kill of Flash as it can do many things that HTML5 can not. However, reducing our dependency on it is important and switching to open standards even more so as it is crucial for the future of the Web.

That being said, the most wonderful thing about the HTML5 version of YouTube is how much it is like the old one. Videos look and play the same and someone not paying close attention might not notice the difference.

With some tweaking and additional work, as well as better browser support, HTML5 can clear be a full replacement for Flash video and, when that time comes, it’s a bandwagon I hope other video sites jump on as well.

Why YouTube’s Move to HTML5 May be Huge


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

The latest logo contest service on the scene is Cullogo. The site is completely brand new so in this review I will be looking at the potential of this new website (rather than compare it’s current state to alternatives).

How it works

Cullogo works the same way as most other logo design contest sites. You write your brief, explain to designers what you are looking for and determine how much they will earn if you choose their design (i.e. determine the prize money).

After that designers will submit their logo designs so it is your job to give feedback to them and rate them so that they know whether they are on the right track or not. Finally you choose the design you want and the prize money is sent to the designer.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, Cullogo is very new. The only project on the site just now is the one for the Cullogo logo itself. However, as you can see, the whole process is the same as other contest sites.

Pricing

The minimum prize for most logo contest sites is $200 however on Cullogo it’s only $100. This suggests that they are trying to target the lower end of the market as few top end design companies would design for that price.

On top of the prize money you need to pay a $25 listing fee and 10% of the prize money. So if you offered $100 for a logo design your final cost would be $135 and if you offered $200 prize money your final cost would be $245.

Popular logo design contest sites like LogoMyWay only charge 10% of the prize money and don’t charge a listing fee so although Cullogo lets you offer a smaller prize to designers, it offers much less value for money. In my opinion, if they want to be a viable alternative to 99Designs and LogoMyWay they need to remove the $25 listing fee, at least until they have enough traffic to justify it.

If you want to highlight your contest you can pay a little extra by highlighting the project in bold or having a blinking star next to it. There would be no point doing that just now since the site is still new but it may be worth doing in the future.

Cullogo also offer a no fuss money back guarantee if your contest receives less than 30 entries.

Needs more work

I spoke with Faisal Anwar, the owner of Cullogo, about reviewing his site. I mentioned that his site was new so I could not give a complete review as one of the most important aspects of a design contest site is it’s traffic i.e. it’s ability to match webmasters with designers. Therefore in this review I have tried to look at the process of holding a contest and the potential of the site.

That being said, the site has been officially launched. Which surprised me a little as the sites documentation, which is very important for a site such as this, is incomplete.

If you check out their help section you will see that most questions only have one sentence answers and pages like Community Guidelines and Contest Holder Guidelines have a message saying that they are still under construction. This is a big no no for any website; no website of this kind should be launching without a full comprehensive help and frequently asked questions section and no website whatsoever should be linking to pages which are incomplete.

I also found that all pages on the site load really slowly. The site went down a few times for me too which suggests that the site needs to be moved to a faster more reliable hosting package.

Overview

Cullogo is a professional looking site and from a designer/coders point of view, everything seems to be in place for the service to be a success. Though in order for anyone to consider Cullogo for hosting their logo contest they need to bring in more designers as the main selling point for hosting a logo contest rather than hiring a designer directly is choice. And with no designers, you have no choice.

However, to get to that stage I believe they need to improve on a few things. Firstly they need to move to a more reliable server as the site went down a few times for me and the rest of the time pages were taking an annoyingly long time to load.

Secondly they need to remove their $25 listing fee. They don’t have the traffic just now so charging more than their direct competitors who have thousands of designers on their books is madness.

Lastly, they need to complete the sites documentation and make it clear to everyone how the site works. I’ve used logo contest sites before so I understand how the process works but I imagine those who haven’t will want answers to some basic questions. It might be worth creating just one F.A.Q. page with answers to all questions. Currently there are several questions and each answer is only one sentence long, so why do we need to visit another page for an answer that short? By putting all the information on one page it would be much easier for users to get answers to the questions they have.

In our email conversations Faisal Anwar came across as a nice guy. So I hope he takes my suggestions on boards and improves Cullogo. Though Cullogo will not be a good choice for a logo contest until it has established itself and got more designers on board. One for watching.

Link: Cullogo

* This was a Paid Review. If you are interested in having your site reviewed on Blogging Tips, please check out our Advertising Information Page.

Cullogo – A new place to hold a logo design contest


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

However, despite its popularity, it seems that most of its users have missed one of the most important improvements to the service in recent years.

Historically the only drawback to GA has been that it is somewhat slow. It has a tendency to block other elements from loading while it churns, causing sites to slow to a crawl, especially during times of high load for GA, and that forced most to put the code in their footer, where it fails to catch “quick” visits to the site. This caused many to be torn between having a slower site and going without Google’s impressive stat tracking tools.

But on Tuesday Google announced a new Google Analytics tracking code snippet. The new code is asynchronous, meaning that other content can load even while the tracking JavaScript code is opening,

This has been a major boon for my site, according to Pingdom, I managed to shave about 2 seconds off of my loading time (from about 5.6 seconds to 3.9) between when I added the new code and a test taken shortly before. Furthermore, GA itself is reporting about 10% more visitors from the prior day despite no noticeable changes in other statistics.

Though far from definitive as it is too soon to be certain if these changes will hold, it’s a sign that others should be looking into this code as well.

The Basics

When a browser loads up a Web site, it is actually pulling in dozens of elements including the HTML code, the images, the stylesheets, the images as well as any other media. This is downloaded by the browser, rendered and then displayed to the user. Though many elements can download and render at the same time, such as images, JavaScript files “block” the downloading and rendering of other content.

The effect can be like traffic on a one-lane road with a large truck going down it. The other vehicles have to wait for the slow truck to get to its destination before they can travel at normal speeds.

With GA, the solution many took and was recommended by Google was to put the code at the bottom of the page, thus putting the “truck” at the end of the line of traffic. However, this limited the accuracy of the code, causing it to load later, and still slowed down sites as many elements, especially complex media ones, were likely waiting to load until after GA was finished.

What the new code does is effectively create a “passing lane” that lets other items pass it by. This not only speeds up the loading time of sites that use GA, but also means that the code can be moved to the HEAD of the Web site, making it more accurate.

Clearly it is a win-win for current GA users and, with that in mind, here’s how to get the code and put it on your site.

How to Use It

If you want to use the new GA code, the process is very simple. All you have to do is follow these steps:

1. Remove Your Old Code: Remove the old code from your template (most likely in your footer below the final /BODY tag. If you use a plugin to automatically add the code, disable it for right now. However, keep a copy of your old code, or your GA ID as you will need it.
2. Get the New Code: Visit GA’s Google Code page and get the new tracking code.
3. Insert your GA ID: Where the new GA code says “UA-XXXXX-X”, replace it with your ID number, which should be in that format.
4. Put the New Code In Your Site: Place the new code in your site just before the /HEAD tag, which is mot likely in your header file, rather than your footer.
5. Clear Your Cache: If you use WP Super Cache or any similar caching program, clear your cache to make sure that all of your pages are refreshed.

Once you do that, you’re done. The new code should be working fine and you can check in your GA account tomorrow to see if it is reading normally.

Bottom Line

GA is a powerful tool for any Web site, including a blog. Knowing how many people visited your site, how long they stayed, what they read and how they got there is crucial information and GA makes it easy and free to collect some of the most robust information possible. Now, with the new code, it is also incredibly fast.

There’s literally almost no drawback to using GA on your site now, unless you have privacy concerns with Google, so it makes sense to at least give it a try. Though WordPress stats and other programs are interesting an useful, GA is the most in-depth solution available right now for free and certainly the most extensible.

I use GA currently with PostRank, on my site and love the combination. But even without PostRank, GA provides so much valuable information, I can’t imagine working without it.

Google Analytics Gets Faster, Better


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

What LogoBee can do

The reputation of any design company is dependent on their previous work. So before we move on, let’s look at some samples from LogoBees portfolio.

Logo Design

Logo Design is clearly LogoBees main service and thankfully, they are very good at what they do. They have done design work for some very large websites and businesses over the last 9 years. Logo design prices start from $199.

I was interested to learn that 2-4 designers work on every logo. I’m not sure if other design companies do this as well however I like the idea of a few designers working together on a logo I want designed as it should encourage more ideas and ensure I get the logo I want.

At LogoBee we value both creativity and diversity. Our logo design team is comprised of designers from diverse ethnic backgrounds and age groups and all our LogoBee designers work full time in the company’s studio. A team of 2 to 4 designers collaborate on each logo design project, combining their diverse skills, talent, and experience to create a logo design that is suitable for any kind of company.

We have an open, flexible approach to corporate logo design and draw from a wide variety of styles to create the logo image you want. We will provide you with 6 to 8 different logo design samples based on your field of business and your preferences. At LogoBee, we believe in working closely with the client to build a logo design around your company’s image and philosophy.

Web Design

LogoBee also do website design. I wasn’t too impressed with the overall quality in their web design portfolio. Some of the designs looked pretty good (e.g. Bestline Pro) but many of them looked quite generic, certainly not good enough to warrant the $1,500 they charge for the service.

Of course, you don’t know what the client originally requested for their website redesign so it’s not fair to criticize them completely. Though in my opinion the work suggests that their strength lies in logo design and not website design.

Stationery Design

Their stationery design service uses the logo they have designed for you to create letter heads and business cards.

The letter stationery looked good but I was particularly impressed with the business cards. Their stationery design service currently costs $120 though the service is part of some of their logo packages.

Logo Design Packages

LogoBee offer 5 packages for logo design. All packages except for their entry $199 package comes with a full Money Back Guarantee which gives you a full refund (less $10 admin fee) if you are not happy with their work.

Within 5 days of sending payment LogoBee will send you a certain number of design samples to choose from. You select the one you like the best and then you can have revisions done. The final product is available to you in a high resolution format which should make it very easy to crop and resize for other projects in the future.

Once you approve the final logo design your logo Kit will be sent to you by email with optimized files for the WEB: (*.GIF 72dpi, *.JPEG 150dpi, *.PNG-24 (transparent)), vector resizable files for printing (*.AI, *.PDF, high-resolution image (*.TIFF 300dpi) in RGB and black/white colors, if the logo has less than 4 colors we will also provide Pantone colors.

Here is a rundown of the 5 packages they currently offer for logo design:

• Christmas Sale Special Package – $199: 6 logo design samples, 6 revisions, No refund
• Christmas Sale Silver Package – $279: 8 logo design samples, unlimited revisions, money back guarantee
• Christmas Sale Gold Package – $349: 8 logo design samples, unlimited revisions, stationery design, 500 free business cards, money back guarantee
• Platinum Package – $549: 8 logo design samples, unlimited revisions, stationery design, camera ready art, all files sent in CD format for free via UPS, money back guarantee
• BumbleBee Package – $1,199: logo design samples, unlimited revisions, stationery design, 500 free business cards, custom web design, 5 pages, 5 free pictures, 5 changes free of charge

For a complete understanding of how their logo design process works please visit their ‘How it works‘ page.

For me, the Gold Package offers the best value for money. Not only do you get your logo, you also get stationery designed and 500 business cards sent to you which incorporate your new logo.

The BumbleBee package is essentially the Gold Package with web design included. This pricing seems to contradict their prices a little as they state $1,500 for web design itself.

LogoBee also offer additional services such as brochure and flyer design from $249 and Microsoft Word templates for $55.

Additional Information

LogoBee has two informative tutorials which show you how they designed a particle logo and a shiny ball in illustrator. They also have a blog but isn’t updated much, which is a shame as I think it would be interesting to see more examples of how logos are designed.

They also have an affiliate program which offers $20 per purchase you refer. I think this is actually a bit low. It should really be a set percentage. It’s one thing getting 20 dollars for referring a $200 sale but I would be expecting a much larger commission if the person I referred to them spent over a thousand dollars. Perhaps this is something they will address in the future because as it stands, their affiliate commission won’t inspire many people to promote them.

Overview

Logo design is a very competitive market but I believe that LogoBee can hold their head up high against most design companies out there. $200-$250 seems to be the average price for a good logo these days so their prices are certainly competitive. Their Gold Package, which offers logo and stationery design, offers great value in my opinion.

As always, when shopping for any design work you should look around and see all the different services on offer. Though LogoBee should definitely be included in your short list. If you are curious about LogoBee then I recommend checking out their testimonials page for some feedback from previous customers.

Link : LogoBee

* This was a Paid Review. If you are interested in having your site reviewed on Blogging Tips, please check out our Advertising Information Page.

LogoBee – Quality Logo and Stationery Design


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

Though, with high-speed Internet becoming as prevalent as it has, these issues have become somewhat less important, though that same speed, combined with instant streaming videos and audio, seems to have frayed people’s patience over the years, taking away some of the seconds broadband bought Webmasters.

So it is important to ensure that your site loads as quickly as possible, not just to prevent people from clicking away before a page loads, but to encourage them to read and spend more time on your site.

With that in mind, here are five quick ways you can improve your site’s speed and give your visitors a better experience.

1. Remove Unneeded Elements

We all love “Share This Page” links of all sorts and have plugins that we simply don’t think we could do without. However, the more items you have loading on your page, the slower it moves.

Try reducing the number of items that a visitor has to load on your page. If you can combine elements into one, such as a single Share This button, do so. If an element isn’t doing your site much good, remove it.

The fewer elements to load, the faster the site goes, it’s that simple.

2. Keep Them On Your Domain

Along the same lines, try to keep as much content on your own server as possible (images, JavaScripts, etc.) as, in most cases, loading files from other servers not only decreases reliability, but also can slow down your site as browsers have to look up information for every domain (and subdomain) used.

Exceptions include sites using content delivery networks, such as Amazon Cloudfront, to distribute some files. Also, Google does host JQuery JavaScripts, which can improve performance.

Still, most of the time, it is best to keep it on your domain unless you are sure that the other site is faster and more reliable.

3. Reduce Image Size

Certain images, such as your logo, your background, sidebar fillers, etc. load on every single page and can provide a tremendous drag on the loading time of your site. However, through proper image size reduction, you can reduce the drag, in some cases, by 90% or more.

First, make sure your images are sized correctly for the Web. You should never use HTML to reduce the dimensions of an image as that forces the browser to download more than needed. Second, ensure that you are using the correct format and then, finally, reducing the quality of the image until it is as low as it can go and still be acceptable for the Web.

This can be a very fast way to reduce the amount of data a visitor must download and display, thus speeding up your site and saving you money on bandwidth.

4. Use CSS Heavily

CSS is far more efficient than in-line styling for many reasons and it can also replace some of the functions done by images and summarize a style element that would need to be repeated hundreds of times in one or two lines of code. They reduce file sizes and are generally easier for browsers to download and parse.

Many blogs don’t make enough use of CSS and, as they develop their site, add elements in without putting them in the actual stylesheet. This can quickly grow into a mess that is a nightmare for the end user.

Learning CSS and using it is one of the most important things you can do for your site in terms of making it both faster and easier to edit.

5. Consider Caching

If you are a WordPress user, WP Super Cache is a well-known plugin that may give your site a significant speed increase by converting your dynamic site into a static one, saving your server from having to load content from the database on every page load.

However, not every site sees those benefits. Some, where the database server is faster than the content server, may actually be slowed. Still, most WordPress users on shared hosts, such as GoDaddy and Hostgator, will likely see a benefit.

If you haven’t already, install it, let it run for a few days and see if it helps with your loading time, if it does, keep it on as much as possible.

Bottom Line

If you are unsure of how well your site is performing and what your weaknesses might be, consider using Pingdom’s full page test to find any potential issues that you may have.

Fixing these issues is critical for your site as they can help increase the number of visitors your site gets, encourage search engines to index more of your site and send you more traffic not to mention prevent people from leaving.

Your site’s speed still counts, even in the age of broadband, and it is important not to lose sight of that.

5 Fast Ways to Speed Up Your Blog


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

Thus, I find I am playing catch up with my headspace counterparts. This morning, as I was sipping coffee and trying to wrap my brain around all that is web, I realized that there are probably others out there like myself.

So I am here to lend a bit of advice for those of you who are overwhelmed by the internet. These are a few things I have learned from those around me.

1. Find great resources

I am lucky; I have had the fortune of being surrounded by a group of experts who have been more than generous with sharing their wealth of information. Finding people who are dealing with the web on a regular basis and who are willing to give you guidance is invaluable. You will be surprised the mistakes you will avoid. I have been taught in the ways of everything from optimizing a site to cross browser compatibility. If you find yourself in an abyss with no nerds around to offer assistance, I recommend reading Designing With Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman.

2. Make life easier

As a designer, I knew that some day I would work on the web in all its splendor. I dreamed of the day I would stand on top of the world and declare myself among the most capable and talented web designers that the planet has ever known. Perhaps that’s that’s a bit far but I did have hopes.

I have realized that being a web designer is a lot easier if you fully understand what you are designing for. Understanding how sites are built will push your designs to be better and more efficient, thus more appreciated by the user and the programmer who has to cut it up. So learn your code. I am not saying geek out, but do some research. Don’t be one of those designers who likes to make pretty things but doesn’t want to get too involved.

3.great addons

I have come across some really helpful tools that have progressed my work and they were not hard to find. One being firebug. This little gem for Firefox allows you to edit your css and a number of other things inside the browser. Gone are the days of going back and forth when you can see the results of your labor right in front of your eyes.

Another great one is xhtml validator, which tells you exactly what you are doing wrong and how to correct it. These are just a few of some brilliant tools that will help you understand what the web demands of you when writing the markup for your site. Check out firefox and what they have to offer or just start looking for addons and software that you think would help you, likely it is out there waiting for you.

4.research

The web is an ever-changing entity, and there are an endless amount of programmers and developers out there doing their best to keep it that way. Your task, try and keep up. Doing research about new addons, new software, and new techniques will be a major asset to your tool belt. Finding great sites to help you with this will make this process easier. Smashing magazine is a great place to start, and they will lead you on to other links as well. Dont’ be discouraged to take it one task at a time.

5.submit your work

Its hard I know, I am trying to adjust to it myself, but passing your work on to be scrutinized is unavoidable if you want to improve. When I was in school we had to sit around and allow the complaints pour in, and whilst I didn’t always agree with them, it certainly did help me understand that I am not designing for myself. This is more true on the web as you are not going to be able to know all of the things out there at your first crack at it.

Pass it on to friends and co-workers (even your mom!). Anyone who might land on the site who could give you some positive feedback. Working with people who know the web and how to design for it has helped me a lot along the way, so if you find yourself in the position to nag some web designers to look at your work take advantage of that.

The best piece of advice that I can give it be persistent and not to get discouraged. It may all seem overwhelming at first but the dividends will be rewarding.

This post was not written from a bloggers perspective however I thought you would all be interested in reading it as it was written by someone who has just entered the industry. Plus, it’s always good to hear a viewpoint from the other side (I’m that used to being the customer!) – Kevin

What every beginning web designer should know: 5 tips for fresh web designers


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

WordPress has a standard 404 page built in but it simply says “ Error 404 – Not Found” this is not exactly very useful and it can be enough to make your visitor leave your website. They may have come to the 404 page from various different origins including an old link in the search engines or a bad link from another website or even an incorrect link from your own website. You need to give the visitor every chance to find what they are looking for or at least give them a way of looking through the content on your website.
Open up 404.php in your theme folder and you will see something like:

<?php
get_header();
?>
<div id="content">
<h2>Error 404 - Not Found</h2>
</div>
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Instead of the Error 404 - Not Found why not use something like this:

<h2>Sorry page not found</h2>
<p>We are sorry the page you were looking for cannot be found. It may have been removed, had it's name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.</p>
<ul>
<li>If you typed the URL, check the spelling </li>
<li>If it is a page link that is incorrect, please could you report the bad link by using the contact form. </li>
<li>Start from the <a href="/">The Funk House</a> home page and look for links to the information you want. </li>
<li>Click the <a href="javascript:history.back(1);">back</a> button and try another link. </li>
<li>Try our <a href="/site-map/">site map</a> to find what you are looking for. </li>
</ul>

This gives them some reassuring text to let them know the content they were looking for has either been moved, deleted or changed. This does not try to put any blame on the user, it does politely ask them to double check their spelling if they typed in the web address but if they didn’t then it provides the user with a few options to choose from to decide what to do next.
The first option is to point them towards the home page so they can start from the beginning.
The next option is to give them the chance to go back from where they came from in case they came from a link on your own website. If they have JavaScript enabled then the link will allow them to move back or they can click back on their browser.
It also gives them the option to report the error by using your contact form, this is good as it shows you at least care about it and not trying to point them in another direction.
Finally there is a link to your site map, this is very important as it can show them other information on your website but it is a helpful way to find the information they were looking for originally.
You may need to amend it slightly as it links to the site map which you may or may not have on your website. You could also take out the Javascript and use some PHP code to get the referrer.
Remember always be polite and always be helpful.

I would be very interested in seeing examples of your 404 pages have you got a funny one or do something a bit different?

Simple 404


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

An Introduction to HTML for Bloggers

Releasing an ebook is something I have thought about doing for a long time. HTML was the language I learned 9 years ago when I first started working on the web and to this day nearly all websites still use HTML to mark-up their code.

A basic understanding of HTML is something which I believe will greatly benefit all bloggers. Learning HTML will reduce the need for you to hire a designer or ask for help on a forum every time you want to modify your blog. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to learn too, you’ll be spicing up your blog posts in no time!

In this e-book you will learn :

• How HTML can help you improve your blog
• The basic structure of a web page
• How to link to other websites
• How CSS works with HTML
• How to organise information with tables
• And much more

To download this ebook, all you need to do is sign up to our newsletter using the form below. You will be emailed a link to the pdf document after signing up.

Bonus: HTML Cheat Sheet

As an added bonus, I have designed a one page HTML Cheat Sheet for reference. I encourage you all to download this document and print it off whilst working through the Basic HTML e-book.

The sheet contains the most common HTML elements that you will use when using HTML.

A direct download to this cheat sheet is at the bottom of our RSS feed so all you have to do to download is subscribe to Blogging Tips to download the document. Alternatively, a direct download link is also provided to those who sign up to our newsletter.

Blogging Tips Books

I have 3 or 4 topics which I would like to cover via e-books in the future. These will probably be more technical in nature. Blogging, making money online and marketing are topics that I would like to cover in the medium to long term however in my opinion, there are already some great guides out regarding these subjects, so I’d like to write about different topics first. I won’t give away too much at the moment though

When writing this e-book I was aware that too much information could have made it more difficult for some people to learn. As a result, the book was shortened from 73 pages in length to 63. Rest assured that the book contains everything you need to get started with HTML, it just wasn’t practical to list every HTML attribute and element available.

I could not have wrote this book without the help of Sarah and David Anderson. Sarah in particular as she proofread the whole book, pointed out mistakes and suggested alternative ways of describing things. It’s amazing how a second pair of eyes can help!! Thanks Sarah!

If there is anything in this e-book that you would like to clarify or expand upon please let me know and I will cover it in an article or add to the e-book itself. Plus, if there is a subject that you will like covered in an e-book in the future please let me know and I will do my best to accommodate you.

As always, I’d love to hear what you guys think of the ebook. Praise and constructive criticism welcome

Best of luck,
Kevin

Free ‘Basic HTML’ E-Book For Blogging Tips Readers


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

However, they are far from perfect. Whether they don’t align an image perfectly, can’t make a table just right or cause some other problem, at some point you’re going to need to delve into the HTML code itself to fix a problem. Furthermore, you never known when your editor might stop working or you have to write a post offline or at another computer, making those tools useless.

This can be intimidating for beginners as HTML, at first glance, looks strange and has an unusual syntax. However, there are a few simple HTML tasks that every blogger should know how to do and, best of all, they only take a few minutes to learn.

5. Add a Table

Tables are not as important as they once were. In the early days of the Web, tables were used for the layout of most pages in addition to their intended use of displaying information in an organized fashion.

However, tables are still useful in that they allow bloggers to lay out data in a structured way. They are still a very efficient way to present a large amount of information to a reader that is attractive and interesting. Unfortunately though, most visual editors struggle with tables, especially complex ones that require merging cells or other unusual layouts.

Understanding how a table works and building a few small ones from scratch will teach you how to pull apart larger ones, even if you use a table generator to help you get started. This knowledge comes in very handy in preventing the table from becoming an unintelligible mess, which is always a danger.

For Help Visit:W3Schools Table Page

4. Place an Image

Adding an image to a post or a template is one of the most common tasks anyone will do. Though WordPress and most blogging platforms make this easy, knowing how to do it yourself lets you customize the image in various ways. It also makes it easier to correct any issues that you might have with it.

If you don’t know how the IMG tag works and you place images in your posts, its worth taking a minute to understand the basics of it and even try to do a few yourself, without the aid of your editor. Not only will it help you improve on what your visual editors does, but it can save you should something go wrong, such as a broken image.

For Help Visit:W3Schools IMG Tag Page

3. Add a Link

Links of the currency of the Web and are a part of nearly every blog post post or page. Knowing how to code one is vital as it will be very difficult to write a post or article that doesn’t use at least one. Furthermore, knowing what goes into a link will also help you get more out of your visual editor by telling you what the elements are and let you further customize the link itself.

Furthermore, knowing how to code a link will also help you fix broken ones and put you in a better position to quickly correct any errors you see.

For Help Visit:W3Schools A Tag Page

2. Format Text

Whether you need to bold, italicize or otherwise modify text, its important to know the basics so you aren’t reliant on your editor for every highlight.

Specifically, it is important to know how to bold, italicize, enlarge text, use headings and make text subscript/superscript. All of these HTML tags are among the most basic, literally the easiest in the language. However, they are also some of the most common.

These are important tools to know for that very reason.

For Help Visit: W3School Text Formatting and Headings Page

1. Edit Styles

CSS isn’t technically HTMl code, it’s a different syntax and it serves a different purpose. However, a lot of the functions that, ten years ago, would be done (awkwardly) in HTML are now done in CSS. CSS can determine everything from the size of your text to the gap around your images to the layout of your site.

All of this is controlled within either one or a handful of stylesheets. Editing these stylesheets can have a drastic impact on your site, your posts and that is a double-edged sword. For one, they are simple way to fix problems that you have with your site or improve your look. On the other hand, they are a wonderful way to mess up your whole blog.

As such, you can not afford to not understand CSS, at least enough to fix any problems you see or make adjustments. You don’t have to know every attribute or every possible use, just a solid understanding of the syntax and some of the more common functions.

Knowing this will help you avoid “blowing up” your site and let you lean on CSS more, making it easier to manage and style your site.

For Help Visit: W3School CSS Site

Bottom Line

These are actually just some of the more important HTML tricks bloggers need to know. Every blogger, depending on their style, will likely have different needs. For example, my style requires me to be very familiar with making HTML lists while others might have more use for HTML forms.

Take a quick look at the HTML you’re using the most and, when you get a little free time learn how to do it by hand. Not only is it rewarding, but it frees you from the mercy of your visual editor and gives you the control to create the best code possible.

You don’t have to be a computer nerd to do some basic HTML, just someone who is willing to learn.

5 Basic HTML Tasks Every Blogger Should Know


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

What is Blog Themes Club?

Blog Themes Club is a brand new premium WordPress store which aims to provide quality WordPress designs at affordable prices. You can purchase themes individually however if you choose to join our themes club you will get unlimited access to all of our themes, unlimited access to all theme updates and tutorials and access to our member only forum, where we will directly help you get your design looking the way you want it!

For launch we have 4 designs though we have already started to develop our 5th theme and we have brainstormed a few ideas of what we should develop for our 6th theme too

Our 4 launch themes are :

Anima

A beautiful yet simple WordPress Theme which is incredibly easy to modify.

Demo | More Info

Invictus

A bold yet elgant red and black based WordPress Theme which boasts a useful mutl information tab. This is the theme which powers Blogging Tips itself!

Demo | More Info

Kronos

A clean and functional blue and grey design which would be suitable for a variety of blogs.

Demo | More Info

Profectus

The Profectus theme is the ideal CMS solution for aclient and boasts it’s own options area and a seperate page for your blog too. We are currently using it on Blog Themes Club to highlight how it can be customized for your site.

Demo | More Info

As I mentioned above, we are already taking steps to develop our next themes. I don’t want to put an exact number of the number of themes we will release this year but at the very minimum we will release one every 2 months. Though if memberships prove to be popular you can expect a lot more!

Club Membership

Our membership will cost $49 for 3 months unlimited access to our members area, $79 for 6 months and $99 for 12 months.

However, to celebrate the launch of Blog Themes Club we are dropping our prices until 31st July 2009. Until then you will be able to join our club for the following :

• 3 months membership – $49 $29
• 6 months membership – $79 $49
• 12 months membership – $99 $69

Considering most Premium WordPress Themes sell for between $49 and $99, we believe our prices to be very competitive

If you would like to know more about the benefits of being a Blog Themes Club member please refer to our Membership Frequently Asked Questions page.

Blog Themes Club Launch Competition

To celebrate the launch of Blog Themes Club we are giving away 10 membership accounts for free to readers. These accounts are valid for one month. During that time you will be able to download all of our themes and get daily support from both myself and Sarah.

Entering our competition is easy. All you have to do is help us spread the word of our new site via Twitter. Here’s what you need to do :

• Follow us on Twitter @BlogThemesClub
• Tweet or ReTweet the folling message via Twitter :
  

  @BlogThemesClub have just launched their new wordpress themes club http://tinyurl.com/n7rhnh – 10 memberships up for grabs in a competition

• Leave a comment linking to the status link of your tweet

The deadline for this competition is Thursday 25th June 2009. Therefore, no tweets after midnight Eastern Time (New York Timezone) on Thursday will be counted. We will select the winners randomly and do our best to announce the winners the following day.

Please note, in order to leave a comment you must be signed in to Blog Themes Club. Registering will only take a second and will allow you to post comments on our blog and ask questions about themes in our Public Forum Room.

Also, please be aware that if you do not leave a comment about your tweet on this page and you are not following @BlogThemesClub, you will not be eligible to win a prize in this competition.

Overview

We are really excited to developing Blog Themes Club over the next few months and looking forward to helping bloggers get their blog design just the way they want it.

If you would like to know more about Blog Themes Club and take part in our competition please visit our announcement post on the site itself.

As always, queries, criticism and kudos all welcome

Link : Blog Themes Club

Blog Themes Club Launches


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

Site Development

All the themes have been developed and the site is ready for launch. However, we are still putting the finishing touches on a few things so we probably won’t launch til next week.

The site has taken a little longer to develop than I would have hoped however it was important to get it right. One thing that has held us up a little was the integration of Wishlist Member, the member plugin which we are using to create our members section. It’s a great script however it isn’t working exactly how we want it (which isn’t anything against the script, we are just trying to set things up in a different way).

One of the reasons it is taking longer is because Wishlist encrypts all member data. Therefore we have not been able to setup things exactly how we want it. However, they are releasing the API soon, they are fixing an error we found and through it all, their support has been top notch. So we are still in a position to launch and once they release the API, Sarah should be able to tweak the site to get it exactly how we want it.

Although we are trying to focus all customisation support in our forum, we are also installing a helpdesk for members. We have changed our minds on which helpdesk script a few times so this has taken up some of our time, but this is something which will be vital for providing great support for customers so it’s very important it works well.

The last thing we are looking into is an affiliate program. We have looked at 2 or 3 different affiliate services like e-junkie and clickbank but we would prefer to integrate an affiliate script ourselves and have full control over everything. I’m not sure if the affiliate program will be completed by launch, which is not exactly ideal. However, we don’t want to delay the launch of the site any longer and we are a little reluctant of introducing an affiliate program and then asking affiliates to transfer to a new system.

Granted this isn’t perfect and we may lose some sales because our affiliate program has been delayed but again, I’d rather get it right from the start instead of setting up some temporary solution.

Blog Themes Club Membership

Although we will let people buy our themes individually, Blog Themes Club will essentially be a members site. We will be offering 3 different options for members : 3 months of unlimited access, 6 months and 12 months.

Members will be allowed to download all of our themes and will get daily support from myself and Sarah in changing their blog design and getting it the way they want it. I don’t want to give away prices at the moment but I can say they are very competitive and we will be dropping prices for members considerably during the first 6 weeks.

Stay tuned because at launch, we will be offering 10 membership accounts to Blog Themes Club readers in a Twitter competition.

Blog Themes Club Update


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

From simple, elegant designs to quirky, feminine and elaborate styles there are Blogger templates to suit every taste and requirement.

Through this recent post from Blogger Buzz, the Blogger team discussed options for uploading custom templates to our Blogger blogs and hinted that a new selection of default templates will be available later this year.

In this post, I’ll highlight 20 of the best resources where you can find free Blogger templates to enhance the design and attractiveness of your Blogger blog.

1. B-Templates

Since March 2008, B-Templates has collected the best free Blogger templates to offer an organised gallery of the most up-to-date and stylish designs around.

Organised by category with links to the most rated and downloaded templates, B-Templates is one of the most popular and respected sites to find free Blogger templates, complete with screenshots and links to the original designers’ sites.

Visit B-Templates

2. GosuBlogger

The Gosu Blogger site offers a variety of excellent quality Blogger templates which have been converted from popular Wordpress themes. These templates tend to be highly elaborate and very stylish (the “Wow” factor certainly springs to mind when browsing through the templates in the archives!).

On this site, you can easily locate the free Blogger templates on offer by clicking the Blogger tab in the navigation section, then search through the archives to locate the template you like.

Visit Gosu-Blogger (Templates section)

3. Falcon Hive

A relative newcomer to the Blogger template scene, Alvaris Falcon has quickly established himself as one of the best designers and converters of quality Blogger templates.

Visitors to this site can nominate the templates they would like to see designed (or converted from popular Wordpress themes). All templates work perfectly and offer complete instructions for installation, which is especially useful as many of these templates are “magazine style”, requiring tweaking to operate properly when uploaded to our blogs.

Visit Falcon Hive

4. Chica Blogger

This Spanish-language site offers beautiful feminine Blogger template designs. Presented by Claudia Contreras, this site offers a great selection of “girly” templates for Blogger, many of which are converted from popular Wordpress designs.

You can easily translate the pages of Chica Blogger to English (or your language of choice) using Google Translate to view and read about these wonderful templates with ease.

Visit Chica Blogger | Translated to English

5. Gisele Jaquenod

Gisele offers beautiful unique designs (not converted from other templates), many of which include her iconic “Birdy” avatar.

These templates are mostly feminine templates, elaborately designed with attention to detail throughout. She also offers templates for Wordpress and a custom blog design service on request.

Visit Gisele Jaquenod’s Free Templates Section

6. Deluxe Templates

Deluxe Templates offers a wide selection of theme conversions designed by authors of the site and gathered from other sites too.

It is not so easy to navigate through categories on this site, so instead browse through the archives or look at the “favourites” located in the sidebar.

Visit Deluxe Templates

7. Blogger Templates

A simple site (which has recently undergone a massive make-over), this is one of the oldest resources for Blogger templates, and also offers a selection of tools and resources to help improve your overall design.

Find a complete list of available templates in the archives section, or simply browse through the “older posts” to find more designs of interest to you.

Visit Blogger Templates

8. BlogCrowds

This community-based site offers a simple and easy to use gallery of free Blogger templates. Rather than download the XML files for these templates, users are invited to “copy and paste” the template code (a practise which makes for simpler installation of new template files).

Blog Crowds offers a small but excellent quality selection of templates, plus a useful forum where you can pose your Blogger questions or troubleshoot installation of new templates.

Visit BlogCrowds (Templates section)

9. Jackbook

Jackbook has been designing and converting templates for Blogger for several years now, and this site offers a wonderful variety of designs.

Although this site has drifted away from providing content exclusively for Blogger users, you can still find a huge variety of interesting designs on the site in the Blogger templates Gallery.

Visit Jackbook (Blogger Templates Gallery)

9. Theme Lib

Originally based at All BlogSpot Templates, Michael Nguyen has begun a complete new site which offers conversions of other templates for those using Google Blogger.

Many magazine-style templates and colourful designs are offered on this site; it is best to locate your favourite styles by browsing through the Blogger template archives as there are no facilities for browsing by style or category.

Visit Theme Lib

10. Quite Random

I’ve only recently discovered this site which offers unique designs for Blogger (not conversions) and a great variety of Blogger tutorials to boot!

Some pages are in English while others are in Spanish (though easily translated using Google Translate). The site offers easy navigation with thumbnails of popular Blogger desins on the front page.

Visit Quite Random

12. Pyzam

This site offers hundreds of free Blogger templates with easy “copy and paste” installation. Most templates are based on simple layouts with altered backgrounds and headers.

Navigation is easy: simply select the style of template  you are looking for in the Blogger templates section to be presented with thumbnails matching this category.

Visit Pyzam (Blogger Templates section)

13. Zona Cerebral

This Spanish Language site has always been one of my favourite haunts for free Blogger templates.

Most of these designs are converted from Wordpress themes, though the choice and selection are of excellent quality and are coded very well.

You can easily translate this site using Google Translate to read about the templates and installation methods in your native language if preffered.

Visit Zona Cerebral | Translated in English

14.  Our Blogger Templates

This site offers free templates which are exclusively available for Blogger.

These designs typically feature a beautiful header and simple layout (in one, two and three column versions) which are easy to use and install.

Visit Our Blogger Templates

15.  Ray Creations

Ray Creations is a professional web desin company which offers a beautiful selection of unique Blogger templates for download.

A small selection is available at present, but these are of premium quality and are very well designed! Be sure to check these out if you’re looking for a beautiful style for your Blogger blog – I’m sure you won’t be disappointed at the quality of free downloads on offer.

Visit Ray Creations

16.  Final Sense

Here is another site which offers simple layouts in a variety of colours and designs.

Finding your ideal template is easy since navigation in the left column enables you to seek out templates by category. Live demos are provided and installation uses the copy-and-paste method for ease of use.

Visit Final Sense

17. Ipietoon

Here you can find a wide range of template styles including feminine and technological designs.

It’s easy to find templates for your particular tastes using the categories in the right column or simply by browsing through the archives.

Visit ipietoon

18. Yummy Lolly

Formerly “Suck My Lolly”, this site offers a range of designs which are especially appropriate for female bloggers.

Many of Yummy Lolly’s desins are kitch or cute, and all are desined exclusively for Blogger, rather than being converted from other platforms’ templates.

Throuh the sister site, Acorn Glue, you can also order a unique template designed particularly for your blog which will not appear anywhere else.

Visit Yummy Lolly

19. Blogger Styles

This is a directory of Blogger templates with a difference: templates are rated according to the quality of images, ease of use and installation and are rated from Bronze to Gold.

Readers of the site can vote for their favourite templates, and navigation is wonderfully easy with thumbnails of all templates and categorical links in the sidebar.

Visit Blogger Styles

20. Blogger Buster templates here on Blogging Tips

In conjunction with my main site, Blogger Buster, we present a selection of unique Blogger templates for you to download here at Blogging Tips.

These templates offer a wide variety of designs, from simple minimalist to feminine and corporate styles. All of these designs are free to download.

View Free Blogger templates provided by Blogging Tips

I hope you will enjoy the resources discussed in this post and will find the ideal template for use in your own Blogger powered blogs! Feel free to let us know of other Blogger template providers in the comments below.

20 Fabulous Resources for Free Blogger Templates


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/

TwitterBackgrounds.com has the largest selection of free Twitter backgrounds and also provide custom backgrounds for $79. Their backgrounds are professional and unique. You can also create a your own personalized Twitter background with up to 4 of your own photos. Plus, new designs are constantly added on a regular basis.

Twitter-Images.com also provides free backgrounds as well as custom backgrounds for $49. They have a large selection of regular and high quality backgrounds. By entering your Twitter username and password you can make use of their auto install feature and even send an automated tweet announcing your new background.

Twitbacks.com lets you customize our own Twitter background for free. This site is great for social media addicts with profiles all over the Net and want to showcase them on their background. You will need to create an account in order to create a background. If you don’t have a background image in mind, you can use one of their premade backgrounds.

TwitterPatterns is a very simple site with free background “patterns” for Twitter. You simply click on the image you like and it will prompt you to save it on your computer. There are 8 different styles to choose from and you can also subscribe for updates if you choose to. There’s even a tutorial on creating your own Twitter pattern if you can’t find one there you like.

MyTweetSpace.com lets you customize your own free Twitter background. You first pick a theme, create a badge and then you can auto-update your profile with the new background. You will need to create a MyTweetSpace account to get started. If you prefer a custom background, you can get one for $59. You can also create “follow me” buttons to use on your other profiles across the Web.

TwitRounds.com has a great variety of background form artistic to girly to sports. They also have an auto-install features and will also send an automated tweet announcing your new background if you choose to. You can also rate the backgrounds and even see how many views each one has gotten. If you don’t feel like looking through the numerous pages of backgrounds you can simply search by keyword.

Which site do you prefer and what is your favorite Twitter background?

6 Great Sites With Free Professional Twitter Backgrounds


A selection of e-books to help you improve as a blogger. Find out more at www.bloggingtips.com/books/