Green Flamingobecause I said so

Going along with yesterdays post, we continue in the series of making your blog friendly to readers and visitors. Today we’ll focus on the logo, and we’ll also dip into the RSS pool just for the fun of it and to add a little bonus.

1. The first step with the logo that you should have, is to make sure it has image, text, and it is something remembered easily. Those are key pieces to the logo, for without them then the logo may not be successful.

Text – the text should display the name,  maybe a catchy phrase as well. It would be nice if a “fitting” font were used, along with on or more of the letters turning into something that provides imagery with it.

Icon – the icon should fit with the site, fit with the text, standout and be unique. We want top quality icons, I have a few requirements myself but those are personal and will not be disclosed. I think the icon should be something catchy like the logo itself, or witty. You want to make an impression, so bright colors, your style, and a decorative fit  will work perfectly.

2. Do not mix up, change up, or screw up logos. In shorter terms this means do not use different kinds of logos, say you use one in your header your should not be using a completely different logo in a 125×125 ad. Try to keep the logo type stuff the same. Also, do not change the logo, really in anyway, I can think of many ways or many meanings to that, just stay natural. Lastly do not screw up the logo by putting anything else in it or making it look terrible. Don’t add images on top unless you have a clear though of what your doing, you knows how easy it will be to get the original back.

Dealing with the designer

When dealing with your logo designer, you have to be straightforward and specific, if you have any kind of idea then specify right away. If you are clueless on the look of the logo, then have them sketch something and criticize the hell out of it until you get what you want.

RSS

While choosing the type of RSS button you are going to get, get something that really fits with the blog, but at the same time draws readers attention so that they will subscribe. If you have seen my new RSS button up there, you will know what I’m talking about. It is very nice, and I have been trying at it for a while. I did like Narendra at techtreak’s free RSS button, which I have used for about a month, but I have decided that it blends to well and to me it is too big. My new RSS button may be too big as well, if you think so then let me know. Choose something you know is right, I should say.

I am wrapping it up, this post, and probably the series. I am not really liking where this is going, I may not be the one to consult over blogging tips. Plus, most of my little design tips are confidential, though I will casually reveal them in a comment/essay. Any way, I think I am terminating this series for now unless it is really well liked.

Thanks guys, I’ll see you tomorrow, probably a wrap up of the month, mentioning something on what kind of blogger I will be, what new niche I will experiment in, maybe some other little comments and surprises, who knows what August will bring. I hope you enjoyed your July!

I am sure you have heard that you need to create a “user friendly” blog, so here we will expand on that idea. Of course, you do want to make your blog friendly to all visitors (excepting spammers) so that they will like the blog and come back. This will be part of a series here, and this is part one, the theme.

A theme distinguishes the look of a site, including colors, pictures, and layout can come with theme. If you look at my blog, the cover that you see is the theme, or if you are noticing how the design is constructed.

There are different types of themes, for different people and for different platforms.

• Probably the most common theme is the Wordpress theme. Since many, many, many blogs are using wordpress as a platform, then wordpress themes are all over. Now there are three main types of wordpress themes, which are:

Free themes – there are many free wordpress themes that you can find, and they really have a great look. The theme I am using is a free wordpress theme, but I have other plans for this blog and it’s theme. The only problem with the free themes are that there are so many out there, and so many good ones too, that it is hard t find the perfect one. I am not going to refer any free wordpress theme sites to you yet, because I think you should search on your own.

Premium themes - premium themes are made by very experienced theme designers. Premium themes cost you a bit, but they can be worth it. One thing notorious for premium themes is that they have a lot of features, meaning there will be places you can easily edit, such as banner ads, featured posts, RSS details, and many other things that can be much easier than going into your code and editing it.

Custom Themes – custom themes seem so great to me. Every blog that I come across with a custom theme really seems to have a nice feel. Custom themes are themes that you pay someone to make for you, it is custom for you, having whatever you need with it, and also is used for only you. It will not be sold to anyone else.

Now we move on to the second kind or type of theme, and these are Blogger Themes. These themes are for people joining Blogger, where it is yourdomain@blogspot.com. There can be some great blogger themes, but I see nothing special about them, maybe the reason being I am not a Blogger user.

Our last type of theme introduced is the plain html template, or CSS or xhtml, but basically it is just code making this template. I have started a site using just code, but that was a practice of Green Flamingo Designs and I have decided not to mess with code so much anymore, it just cannot do the same things as Green Flamingo › Edit — WordPressthe themes can. I do not recommend this type, for it is hard to deal with and a bit of a pain.

Choosing and creating your design

You should always combine certain aspects of a basic theme design into what your site looks like. Those will be introduced here, as well as some guidance on choosing or creating a theme.

• Creative
• Semi unique (not a hugely common theme)
• unique graphics
• friendly graphics
• accessible and usable
• not overwhelming or scrambled
• black on white text, not white on black

Creative – be yourself, be creative. Make the look something that is you.

Semi unique – if you have a free theme, choose one that is not too common, you do not want to be the same as everyone else! Same thing applies to the premium themes, so you might want to move on from the John Chow or Cow “Milk It” theme.

Unique Graphics – you want to have unique graphics, so you should probably get your own header, logo, maybe even RSS button.

Friendly Graphics – you want to keep your graphics friendly, mostly to the eyes, but in general as well. You want to have everything neat and friendly, with fun but professional graphics.

Accessible and usable – we want your visitors to be able to use the theme functions, so make sure they can do that!

Not overwhelming – you want to keep it short and sweet. Do not load up and graphics and pics, ads, or anything else disturbing to the eyes. If if hurts you to look at your blog, it’ll kill others.

Black on white text - I think you should keep it so that your text is black and background white. I have heard complaints from the white text/dark background thing. It does not have to stay completely black and white, you can add some variation, just have dark text on light background.

This was day 1 of the tips! Expect to see more tomorrow! I will be updating all of this, and I may put much of this into separate posts. We do not want too much in one post! I am not sure exactly how I will balance out all the information, I think I will just turn it into a long series of post, each one being about half this length. If you like it all in one, then let me know.

I think that this was a great post and would be very grateful if you submitted this to any sites. Thank you!

In the game of blogging you must think ahead and lay out your plan like in chess. You must predict what others around you are about to do, and you must strike before your competitor. You must be constantly thinking and planning, so as not to lose.

As you can see, you and your blog are like a piece of glass that can be broken with one fall. You have to stay upright, by not letting yourself or others destroy you.

Think ahead – again, you must think ahead to what is going to happen, and if you see any faults you must plan around those. As you will hear many times, you must think ahead and be in front of your game.

Navigate the nooks – you don’t want to stumble on a little nook or cranny. Be careful and wary of where you are going, do not rush it, do not slow it. Just go with the flow being cautious at the same time. Navigating these rough spots is difficult, but to get to the finish you must try not to trip.

Have a plan – as well as thinking ahead as to what’s going to happen, also have a plan for battle. You don’t want the enemy attacking you unprepared. Just be there at 11:00 with a plan.:)

Out Do Competitors – out do those rivals, try to think of something better than them. You also have to use them for an advantage, and that is building your knowledge base. You may learn from them, be inspired by them, just make sure that you do something better and have more success than them, but do not destroy them all together.

Now you see how blogging is similar to the game of chess, and how you must play that game well to win. Goodnight!

As maybe you can see from my lack of activity on the net today, I am having some technical problems. Last night, I did connect to the Internet, and today I was fine in the morning and early afternoon. The trouble then started, and I left my computer unplugged and on for a bit. It ran out of battery, and I plugged it back in.

When I tried to turn my laptop on, the power would go on but nothing would happen. It stayed dark, and a certain light that is always on was not on and running. I did not discover the light the first time, I just thought the laptop needed a little time to charge. It didn’t work later still, and I am worried and at the same time pissed off.

I you are wondering how I am writing this, I am posting quickly from my dad’s laptop, which is a bit hard because the keys are are so close together and some smaller such as the shift(really hard to get a letter in caps this way). So over the next few days I will try to fix my computer, post from my dads or the other in the house, but I will not be able to do as well until my computer is fixed.

Some exciting house things have happened, major improvements taking into consideration the rest of my family. I will try to tell you about them.

Wish me luck! I will try to get back tomorrow!

I am sorry, there has been no internet connection today. Details arrive soon.

If you have been blog traveling lately you will have heard of the Google Pagerank update.

Google Pagerank or PR is measuring the authority of your site, like your technorati rank. How it works is Google counts how many backlinks you have to your site, and from there it gives you a rank from 1-10. It is rare to see a high PR site like PR8 or higher. Most sites are between 0 and 5 for pagerank.

So to increase your pagerank then you have to collect backlinks. It depends how high the PR is on the sites that you get links from. You can search for charts, or use this one, to see how many links of what PR to get to a certain rank.

The PR of Green Flamingo actually went down. I am very disappointed in this, but it is how it is. I used to be PR3, but now I am PR2. In between now and the next PR update I will try to increase the rank, hopefully to 4.

What is funny is that when I had PR3 I got that without even trying. In fact I think I received PR3 when I first looked into making money online. In Internet time this was years ago, but really around January. After I found out what PR was I was surprised at the number.

Now when I have been trying to increase my pagerank, for it can help increase sales or even boost the look of your blog. I am disappointed that is went down, but it is the way it is. For all of you that had a backlink on my site, some of your PR increase will be because of this backlink.

I think I mostly got my pagerank from tech-buzz.net and lionandmagicboy.com. On tech-buzz I no longer have my top commentator spot, and the PR5 or six that it was moved down. Fortunately it’ll be back up and my top commentator spot will be reclaimed in August. Lionandmagicboy will soon close down, but I have other sources for links.

I heard from Jason at theuniversitykid.com that it is not very good to have out going links, so this is one of the reasons I am not linking to some of the sites I mention, though it really does no harm. so I have a little announcement.

The links and banners that I was giving out at the beginning of July (I think it continued to the 5th or 6th though) I will be taking down in the next few days. This would come no matter what, my intention was to keep them up for a month. This is very close to a month, and since most were practically free, they are going to come down now. I am going to begin banner advertising, so if you received a good experience from having your banner up then contact me. My advertise page will be up soon, so if you are new here then you should read that. The links I will keep up until a few of the banners go down, and eventually the links will come down, though not right away. Really nothing will come down right away, but be prepared is all I’m saying. I do have a new category of links, these are the sites I read and love, so a lot of my blogroll if I read those blogs will be transferred. I am also going to add one or two more, some of the ones I read and comment on often.

Back to the PR update, and your status. I want to know what the PR update has brought you! We just want to know how your pagerank has changed, good or bad.

I am here to announce the upcoming of the Green Flamingo Designs services, where there will be some great deals, great promotion, and you could get something for you. I will not release the details of this amazing grand opening yet, but you will see them soon!

Besides announcing the grand opening of the interior design services, then I am here to talk a bit about some of the recent designs I have been doing.

I have totally redone or cleaned up my room, I wish I had time to take a picture or I wish I had a mac with photobooth. I am still not completely settled, maybe some books aren’t unpacked, but I might be moving again soon so darn the whole thing. If I do have to move within the next few months it’ll be like smelling fresh flowers and at the same time a huge pain in the ass. While it will force the rest of my family to get rid of the junk they don’t need (at least some of it I hope!) then I will have to worry that the nutty movers will crack my desk or even snap the side of my dresser off. I also have to pack everything, and though I can do it in a few weekends (I am only doing my things, no one else’s) I still do not want to waste the time. I am not sure if we are going to move even, so I might trash the idea.

I have worked on some fantasy designs, I have a bit of an interior design scheme going, but I think it might be mostly architecture. I hope I will be able to draw these, and then I can publish as part of my illustration portfolio. I need some kind of drawing software, or maybe I have to take furniture drawing lessons (I am good at drawing but maybe not the best at staying focused and perfect details). If anyone has any recommendations for me then I would greatly appreciate those.

These ideas I have in mind would take place in an apartment type building, but not what your thinking. I will try to give you a good picture. Here is a little exercise for you.

Creating a picture

Think Vancouver.

Think tall, glossy, open building.

Think fresh.

Think hotel type.

Think home.

You should now have a picture in your mind, if you can follow that kind of concept. Though it is a bit vague, you can see something there, and you should get an energy, that is most important.

Now think unique.

Think different.

Think sleek.

Think white.

Think wood.

Think metal.

Think beautiful.

Now you should have more of a picture in your mind, it should be developing as an idea. Though it may not be what I see, I am still creating a vision for you which can be treasured.

Think tall.

Think open.

Think window.

Think curves.

Think layers.

Think futuristic.

These are the basic structures, while the others were the styles. Now we move on to dining.

Think red.

Think restaurant.

Think marble.

Think lights.

Think metallic.

Think interior design 2.0.

Those are some characteristics of the kitchen and dining space, now I bet you are getting a clear picture.

Think high.

Think snug.

Think green.

Think orange.

Think brown.

Think books.

Think music.

Think red.

Think bamboo.

Think Ikea.

Think pictures.

These are features of the bedroom. There are some characteristics that fit all categories, follow what you see and you will find them. I am not here to show you the destination, I am here to show you the path.

I hope you liked that little exercise, who says I cannot bring a little more interior design exercise here!

If you don’t like personal posts, have no fear, I will stop in a bit. See you later!

Here we are with the typical “green” lecture. Those can get kind of boring after a while, for there are so many different opinions. Mine lies among them and will not be shared in this post. I am just going to add some things to be “green.”

When “Green Flamingo” started out it was not to be green, live green, give methods or any of that. In fact I think this is the first post on the subject, for there is so much of it elsewhere no having it here wouldn’t be much of a loss. “Green Flamingo Designs” does not really run on “green” lines either, though I will try to recommend materials that don’t harm the earth, which is very difficult for an interior designer.

So again I will present some tips or ways to go green, because it is thought to  be so important I will talk about it.

Shutdown that computer – if you don’t already, you need to shutdown that computer at night ok? Even if you are going to be gone for two hours you should still shut down the computer, instead of just putting it to sleep. There are a few reasons for this, but the biggest is probably to conserve energy. If you keep your computer in the same room that you sleep in, the energy waves can disrupt your brain and your sleep. They could even cause permanent damage so this is another reason to turn off your computer fully. This is part of the green computing, apart from just living “green.”

I use minimum electricity – when I am out of the room, the only electricity on will be my computer – if even. You want to turn off the music, the lights, the electric chair (just kidding) and others. You want to have your computer in a well lit room so you can see what your doing, besides the light of the screen. At night my lights use energy lightbulbs, where the use much less energy than typical light bulbs. These are not difficult or pricy to purchase, and if I design your home I will get a pack of these light bulbs for you.

Recycle – you should recycle things, even if most things that go to the recycling are not used again for years, and they are still using up space on the planet just as much, recycling is still a good idea. You can reuse things in your home too, so instead of putting things in the recycling then you can reuse them within the home for something useful (please, if you think they will come in handy someday, do not keep them, and have your thinking patterns altered a bit to never think that).

Feel green – as long as you feel you are living green, you most likely are. Just do what you feel is right, and you will come out on the right side.

Thanks for reading!

Over the past few days I have been a bit discouraged over what has happened on the net, while at the same time I have enjoyed posting two wonderful articles on facing a blogger’s challenges and some creative ideas to focus yourself while you write.

On the 21st my Adsense account was sadly disabled. This I am very mad about, as I had nothing to do with invalid clicks and therefore am appealing. I have not found any suspicious IP addresses however, and if any of you have tips on how to get it back successfully I would appreciate them. Also I am really bummed about it for I had made $50 with it, the day before was the marking point, and I had made that much in about 10-11 days.

I lost my spot as the top commentator of the month of TUK, and though it wasn’t all that important to me, I like to be the best of the best. Suddenly when I had about 40 comments (sheesh! A lot isn’t it!) I was beaten by a 50 commenter! I have no idea how you should have 50 comments in 20 days, and it was only about a week ago the person started to comment! I wonder if any is spam, I hope not. I don’t really need the spot back, though it would be nice, but I don’t feel like spamming Jason.

I have not gotten my interior design services up still, though I have been on it for about 2 weeks. If I don’t launch soon nothing will come of it. There are a lot of things to be done, that is the problem, and I just don’t put 2 hours straight of work into it. If I did so, I would probably have it done, but I have to visit so many places I am sure to be distracted. I need to focus on one thing at a time, and then I will be ready. I guess I could lauch the first 5 free consultations, but I still have to have things ready if those fly. I will set up, then I will announce the free deals. By the way if anyone knows how to use Paypal to have someone pay 50% before hand and the rest after, then please tell me, for that’s what I need. That is one of the bumps I have to get over.

Jason has written some depressing posts, one on how anonymity is needed for online business, and another on how revealing your sources might be a bad idea. I guess these aren’t terrible, but I know those are two fields I don’t do too well in.

Besides all the bad things that have happened, good things have come out of it all too. Yesterday I was able to revisit the amusement park, but I have gone about 4 times in between when I posted about it.

I have had an increase in Technorati authority, and my rank has gone from 270 something to 264 something. I am happy with this, though comparing the two it is a much smaller difference than I thought.

My Alexa rank has gone from 690,730 to 630,370 which I am also happy about, though Alexa is not thought of as an accurate rating.

I am also writing some killer posts, and hope to do more, and I have had a bad and good week.

There are many methods that people use to write, many methods they use to concentrate on writing, many things to persuade or even force them to write. As I have said before, forcing yourself to write is not a good thing, and I think that is you make yourself write then the writing will not have the love in it that your more natural writing has. Even if you are writing an article or promotional blurb for a company or business, you can still write that in a natural way.

This post is another of my endless series on writing tips, for I want you to become the best writer you can be. I cannot bring out everything for you, to find your real soul in writing you must discover that flame on your own. I have moved away from anything personal, though I am dying to talk of my troubles I have had lately online, for I am afraid when  have a traffic rush one of my worst posts will be up. So here I present to you some methods to concentrate on your writing, getting it done on time while still enjoying life.

Have what you want in mind – you should have an idea of what you want to write, usually before I step up to the plate I have a few paragraphs in my head – which sadly are forgotten by the time I can write. This is why I should carry a notepad in my ear, pants, shirt, etc. Basically you should have a topic, maybe a starting sentence, maybe a little map of what you are going to write in your head. This cannot always be done, I know I hate what teachers call “writing mapping” or the “web planning.” Don’t do that or it’ll kill me, but have an idea.

Get comfortable – make sure you are fairly comfortable with where you are, having a soft seat and good posture. You don’t want to be sitting on a stone bench, forar to me, that is not all that comfortable. I could spend a few hundred dollars on a nice soft, squishy, leather chair but I guess I will stick with what I have.

Don’t slouch – when I said get comfortable I did not mean you should slouch. This has two meanings: (1.) sit up straight in a healthy position (2.) Do not get too comfortable such as lying in bed or in a chair/couch where you are not in a good position to type or write with mind.

Stay professional - You want to keep your job by writing a good advertising article write? Then stay professional. For blogging you should be as you are at work – having ok clothes and keeping fresh. Unless you are writing about the “adult jammy party extravaganza” I suggest you stay out of sleep wear and other unprofessional clothing while you write (unless you are known as “the nude blogger” of course). We want to keep the articles professional with the air of knowledge around.

Use willpower - sometimes you have to be strong enough inside to stop yourself from wondering off on the internet, but it can be very difficult. Try it out for a bit and see if you are any good. If you want to make it more fun reward yourself from keeping away from your inbox or facebook. Choose either small or big rewards!

Deprive yourself - when willpower isn’t enough to keep you away from your gmail inbox or myspace, you will have to start depriving yourself of these dreaded time vacuums. I do not usually do this, but I suffer the consequences from not disconnecting. A lot say to disconnect from the internet all together, which I guess if the best plan. You also have to worry about offline games, things off the computer and so on. Just deprive yourself of the right amount so you can post what you need.

I hope these tips have helped you concentrate on your writing! Happy blogging!