I was reading ShoeMoney today and noticed that the sponsored themes debate is still raging on. Specifically, Weblog Tools Collection is very vocal about this (see this post).

Here is my view on the subject :

• I do not believe that designers should embed copyright links using encrypted code. It should be clear before downloading how many copyright links are in the theme
• The decision to remove links should be the designers. Bottom line, if you do not intend in keeping the copyright links then you should not use the theme.
• I believe that a lot…

The rise of personal publishing (a.k.a. blogging) in recent years is due, in large part to popular platforms like MovableType (my first love), WordPress, ExpressionEngine, Drupal, etc. and their elimination of the need for a web publisher to have any technical skills. All that is required to start a blog is an account at a hosted service like WordPress.com or TypePad.com. In fact, these are wonderful ways to enter the blogging fray. But Blogging Tips is for people who want to take their blogs to the next level, and doing so…

If you’ve recently moved to your first hosting package you may be struggling to get to grips with getting the files you want online. This guide should explain how you upload your blogging files and images online to the webspace you have with your hosting space. If you still have some questions at the end of this guide please let me know and i will clairfy and update this post accordingly

Step 1 - Choose your FTP Client

In this example i will be using Netfile however the steps i will be…

One of most common bad design flaws i see in blogs every day is the lack of a comment link at the bottom of a post in the home page or in the archives. There are a lot of blogs who are not getting as many comments as they should because of this.

My suggestion to all bloggers is to add a comment link at the very top of the post near the title and also at the bottom of the post excerpt which is where you find the social bookmark…

There are still a lot of blog themes out there with little or no comments in the design. If your simply uploading the theme and changing the logo then this isn’t something that you will not really have problems with. However, anything beyond that i would strongly advise adding comments throughout your design.

2 minutes adding comments to your templates and coding can save you 10-20 minutes trying to get to grips with your design again at a later date.

This applies to bloggers who are just making small edits to there…

I found a great little blog recently and i thought id share it with you all. It’s called Invader Stu. Its written by a man from England who moved to Holland several years ago for a job and the blog is a diary of his adventures. The blog has unique cartoons of himself in all his posts - i think its a great example of a personal blog