Green Flamingobecause I said so: a blog of blogging tips, reviews, making money online, technology, and new things and ideas

I am in a sticky situation for blogging now, for I am in Dallas. I did warn a few days ago that I might go to Dallas, but I was not 100% sure.

I don’t really wan to go into how I am so sorry I am not blogging, though I am, but I think it is worse for me than my readers.

I do have computer access, but not 24/7 like usual! I could have brought my computer along, but I couldn’t find the “computer bag” to carry it, but that’s ok.

If you want the story, airport/and/or/Dallas experience I can relay it to you, I still have a “travel” category, though travel is not the niche of this blog.

Online I am doing well, at least I think, as long as readers do not completely disappear. I do have some updates for you, pretty exciting, things I am looking forward to and happenings.

-I won a free 125×125 ad on TUK, because I was in the first three comments, but I did not give the ad right away (I was flying) and so I may have lost it. That is a disappointment, and when I saw that he might have given them away again I was dismayed.

-Green Flamingo Designs has been hitting around 60 uniques a day, due to search on images. I am trying to take advantage of the traffic, hopefully I can fully set things up so that I will have great sales.

-Corey of Diligent Design is creating a custom wordpress theme for me, which will be used on Green Flamingo Designs. I am really loving how it is turning out, a really great job is being done! I could reveal some of the features, even the URL of the test site itself, but I have some other updates planned for it, and when you visit in maybe a week I want it to blow you away!

Those are the updates, and besides those, I am having a great time!

See you guys soon!

Well, as you have probably seen, heard, or experienced, the 2008 Beijing Olympics have begun!

I am very happy to see this years Olympic Games, and I hope they turn out a success.

The Olympics are a time where many countries meet, forgetting their troubles, and uniting to compete

War and disputes are forgotten.

Politics are forgotten.

Race is not a matter.

Nations unite to compete and enjoy!

I watched the opening ceremony tonight, China put on a spectacular show, displaying their creativity and the greatness of the nation, putting behind them their troubles and displaying who they really can be.

I was very proud to see all the countries walk in, very well done.

I hope that all of you will enjoy the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games!

Well guys, I am away from home now as I warned, and sadly the rest of the blogosphere does not stop for me. I am having a good time, and I am hoping I won’t be abandoned by my readers. I will give the details later, I don’t really have time now.

I have tons of emails, most are subscriptions I guess, but if there are any inquiries or comments I will be able to answer them soon.

Wish me fun!

I have some sad truth for you all, and it is that you will never find the perfect wordpress theme. There are many reasons to this, hopefully I will be able to make my point and explain why it’s true. Also, I would like to acknowledge Chelle for indirectly giving me this idea.

There are so many out there!

One, on actually finding the perfect wordpress theme, there are so many available that it is difficult to sift through what you have. I am not sure of the number that have been made, but I know it is higher than you can search through in 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, or maybe even 2 years.

Problems Arise

I have seen thumbnails of what I think will be a great theme, and when I take a closer look it turns out to be pretty crappy. Sometimes you have your hopes up high from a demo, thinking that it may look great on your site. That is only 1 of 3 problems that can arise. The second problem is that when you upload and use the theme, you are tired of it and don’t like the look. This has happened to me many times, and I mostly download them because they look interesting and not always because I think they are perfect for my site. The third problem that might strike is that of having technical difficulties, saying something doesn’t display right, things aren’t aligned as they were in the demo, words overlap, things like that. I hate these things that happen, and wish I could get rid of them with a click of a button. So, unless you are a professional theme designer or it is your theme then trash that theme, it has no use to you if it’s “broken.”

Interests Change

Because your interests in theme can change, and will change, then you may have the perfect theme but it will never be perfect forever. Even if you have a high-quality custom job done you will not always love the theme the same way, though you may keep it for months, years, however long. I am just saying that your theme interests will change just as your love interests do.

Those are my reasons, I could add a few more, but they are the most obvious and the ones that standout the most. I have a few small updates for you, and a little notice, so don’t hop off to another water pool yet.

Updates

I think I am going to re-brand this blog, though I will continue to dish out blogging tips. Mostly I would like to add a little niche, and there is no word for it really, because it is a new niche. Since it is new, I might be able to dominate it easily, who knows. It is just “about blogging,” just little things that happen, tendencies, news, and just a general about blogging blog. This is not considered a category in most options, so I will continue to officially brand this as blogging tips or young entrepreneur. If I have to, I might say it is MMO, but I have learned to stay away from that path.

I may be changing the theme soon, I am on the lookout, and Rajaie is coming out with one that I might be able to use. I advised him in the making, and added some things that I like, and I am going to be happy to promote it and use it.

I have started to think or branding “flamingo” a bit more, and trying to go with a green flamingo feel. This is why I mentioned the water pool, and in contest I might play on words with “flamingo” and “flaming.” If you have any ideas as to how to make this have a more “Green Flamingo” feel, they will be highly appreciated.

Note

Tomorrow I assume I will be heading off to an amusement park, and I will most likely  staying the night in the region. I may not be back for a day or two, so just look out for me, I won’t be gone long.

Over the weekend, I may go on another trip to Dallas Forth Worth, flight training does allow you I think to bring family along, so I might tag along there a few days. If there are any bloggers I know in Dallas, I would love to meet, though I am not sure it is possible. I will open this option in a few years, as I get older it will seem more professional. Going to Dallas I hope to bring my computer with me, maybe write an article on the flight and publish it at the hotel. I will have Internet access, so I will probably be blogging.

Not that things in the blogosphere are always “predictably irrational,” but things are predictable, and often irrational. I am just walking over to list some of the things people do in the blogosphere that may be predictable and irrational.

1. Around the end of one month and beginning of another, blogger’s have fluff posts, telling their stats, giving awards, thank yous, reselling ads, and other things that don’t really help you much.

Predictable: yes       Irrational: this one can be an opinion, but yes

2. Bloggers all over trade links, big and small, and usually will profit from them. It is not a bad thing, just common.

Predictable: yes      Irrational: no

3. On every blog, there will be spammers. There are the sex, airplane ticket, free shit spammers, and there are also the “I need traffic” spammers. The first ones are taken to jail if you have Askimet, but the second just sit there looking bad, maybe a two word comment saying “great post.” We are looking at the two word comment spam, that is what is really annoying.

Predictable: yes     Irrational: yes

4. Bloggers go for wacky prices, whether high or low, whether the buyer or seller.

Predictable: yes     Irrational: I won’t die if I say yes (as long as Mike Westen is near my house)

5. Pretty much all bloggers are geeks, because they blog! Though, celeb bloggers are not geeks, they are airheads like the people that read them.

Predictable: yes           Irrational: no

I can think of a million more predictable and irrational things that bloggers do, but I have not the time to mention them. Instead, I want you to think of your own, and then we will have more of a collection.

See you tomorrow!

Well, I thought I would bring you the update, monthly I am assuming. I’ll also give a little link love to my top commentators, and maybe another little prize. I am not sure, but depends how many there are. I think I’ll have a few special prizes from top down, you should pray you are in the top 5.

Updates

Technorati

Authority - 27

Rank - 268,611

That was of today, though the other day my authority was 29 and rank was better too.

Alexa - 584,744

PR - 2 (dam it was higher before the PR update, but I think I have gained back my PR3, sadly this post is going to kill some of it)

With a new RSS feed, a totally different than I have had for months (that was the default one, green-flamingo.com/feed, the one I can’t access the back end of) to 22 subscribers. I don’t think that is amazing, but it is a start.

If you don’t mind, would someone show me how to get traffic views, like the total unique pageviews? Also does anyone know how to get the images for things like technorati, feedburner, and so on? I need them for my advertise page.

Top Commentators

Now it is time to kill some pagerank with my top 10 commentators.

1. Rajaie AlKorani - Rajaie Talks
2. Tom - StandOutBlogger
3. Melvin - MelvinBlog
4. Narendra - TechTreak
5. Germz - TheGermz
6. Karen - LightSpringTransformations
7. Ryan Mclean - SmarterWealth
8. Agent 001 - GreatestReviews
9. Chelle - It Might Be Love
10. Chiq Montes - WPThemeDesigner

Well, those are our top commentators for the month.

Be happy please, I spent half an hour going through my comments and tallying them, I hope you enjoy.

I have a special surprise planned for my top commentators, I will be contacting them shortly. I thought of this just as writing this post, but it pretty spectacular. Look out for this month, I might plan something else on the way.

I have been wondering and rambling lately, thinking about what has become of Green Flamingo. I have tried at blogging tips, and for some of the time I have done well. My good post hav always been about something similar, there is not much diversity in them.

I have been pondering whether I am the blogger I am supposed to be, and if what I write really reflects who I am.

Due to this, I think I may change my writing a little, to something I really know more about. I don’t really know what I will go after, maybe just brand this as a “young entrepreneur” blog. I thinking about starting a few new sites, some just to sell and around two that I will keep. What I am afraid of, why I am afraid to change my niche, is because I am afraid readers will not come, or enjoy what I have to say. Now I have to learn to accept that, and no matter how small it is and how small it stays, I think Green Flamingo will be around for a long time.

You have to learn that you cannot always be the next Darren Rowse or John Chow. Your tech blog most likely won’t be the next Tech Crunch, your celeb blog won’t become the next Perez Hilton. No matter what you blog becomes, you must accept that. You could have one blog that is a top dominator, while another has 10 uniques a day. You can improve on your small one, but sometimes it is just the destiny that keeps it the way it is.

There were your blogging tips for today, hopefully something you can keep going, something that will prevent you from killing your site. Now I’ll go  back to the antics of Green Flamingo.

I am sort of looking for a new niche, maybe not a niche but new inspiration. I am just looking for some new ideas, something to guide me through August. Though I can start with a blank room, nothing done, I prefer to add on or change. Also, whoever provides the best inspiration will get a free 125×125 banner ad for the rest of August.

I am hoping to have a successful month, and I hope you do well too. Later today I will announce my services of Green Flamingo Designs, and 5 free consultations will be available. The other services will lauch soon, I just need a little time to write up the page.

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!