70 Free Website Design Resources

September 12th, 2007

Obviously, if you’re in the market for a small business website, I’d love for you to contact me. But for anybody who is designing your own sites, I was going through several of my different social bookmarking accounts and thought I’d go ahead and put together some of the resources that I’ve run across.

Some I’ve used, others I haven’t…I’m not recommending you use any of them or advising you not to!

Color Tools

Text HTML Editors

What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) HTML Editors

CSS Layouts

Menus and Navigation

Backgrounds - Textures

Obviously, this is by no means a complete list of the great free resources that are out there. If you have other free resources that you think belong on the list, feel free to let me know in comments and I will add them in.

Please note that I do have comments that include links set to go into moderation…but I assure you, I’ll get to them ASAP and approve the comments and add your suggestions to the list!

I didn’t use anything other than my bookmarks to compile this list today…but I know there are probably tons of these type of resource lists around…so let me know if you have one of those too, and I’d be happy to add those to this list as well!

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Web Design Resources, Web Design Tools, Colors, Web Design

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Want To Be A Top Stumbler?

September 11th, 2007

I DO!

Somewhere after 2AM this morning, I officially surpassed 1,000 likes on my StumbleUpon!

Now, I’m definitely hooked.  I have a naturally competitive nature and am a sucker for  “top” anything titles!

I’ve learned a lot about StumbleUpon and what it can do!  I posted a list of some of my favorite posts on SU.   I also saw a huge surge in traffic to my blogs thanks to SU.

I am so pleased with the traffic benefits I’ve seen from SU, but more importantly I have stumbled upon some amazing blogs and run across some great people.So here is my mission…I want to hit the top stumblers page by October 31st.  Why Halloween?  I have no idea, just seemed like a decent amount of time.  Is it possible?  I have no idea.  But I know it’s impossible without a little help.

By the way, I’m not deluded…I am aware that the title is fleeting and most likely meaningless in the long term, but my ego never likes to let a challenge go untried!

What can you do?

  • Add me as a StumbleUpon friend (dwweb)
  • Review my SU profile by visiting my profile and clicking “Review her blog”
  • Once you’re my friend, send me stumbles!  I’m always up for checking out new stuff that people send my way and assuming it keeps in line with any of my interests and I like it…I will “Like It” and review it.
  • Excuse any nonsensical or less than stellar posts made to my blogs during this Stumblethon as sleep will definitely be minimal :)

What’s in it for you?

  • A better StumbleUpon profile…Anyone who reviews my profile will in turn receive a profile review from me!
  • Get your pages in front of an up and coming stumbler who is gaining more and more Stumble power…as I said, I welcome any of my friends or fans sending me sites to check out and stumble.  If you are my friend, you can use the “Send to” feature…if you’re not my friend, feel free to message me pages you’d like me to check out or leave them in comments on this post.  I am not guaranteeing stumbles…I not going to Stumble anything that I think is not Stumble worthy…I’m not looking to become Stumble’s “Top Spammer”  But I think I am very fair and generous in my stumbles and reviews :)
  • That happy, warm and fuzzy feeling of knowing that you helped someone!

Not a Stumbler?  Go sign up today…the benefits are amazing!

So come on everyone, let’s do this!  Help me, help you, by helping me!

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Social Networking, Dana Wallert, Social Bookmarking, StumbleUpon

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8 Tools I Can’t Blog Without

September 10th, 2007

As I was sitting down to start working on a few new posts this afternoon, it occurred to me that my blogging routine is a little insane! I like to make things as simple as possible, so as I sit down to begin writing, I open everything I might need in Firefox tabs. As of right now, I have the following 8:

  1. Bloglines - it’s always helpful to have a little inspiration from your favorite blogs!
  2. My StumbleUpon Page - I am an extremely active Stumbler, so I always have things I want to blog saved on my SU blog!
  3. LastFM - I don’t know if it’s just me and possibly my fellow Gen Y’ers, but I cannot write in silence!
  4. IStockPhoto -although I don’t always include images, I like to when possible. I use IStock mainly because I like their search functions, their prices and the fact that for $1 I can avoid copyright and attribution hassles.
  5. Thesaurus.com - I have a bit of a pet peeve about repetitive word use!
  6. Google - when I’m working on a post or an article and coming up with titles, I like to make sure they are unique. A lot of times I find that what I thought was so brilliantly original has been written 10 times over!
  7. Technorati - same reasoning as # 6
  8. Digg - same as 6 & 7!

What can’t you blog without? Do you have a set routine for writing?

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blogs, Writing Resources, Blogging

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The Number One Pitfall in Small Business Website Design

September 10th, 2007

So you’re ready to take your small business online.  Like any good consumer, you begin your research and all of a sudden find yourself in an entirely new world of acronyms, theories and strategies.  There are so many distractions that anyone can easily get off track and start to feel a bit like a deer in the headlights!

Far too often, this can either discourage small business owners from getting a website or can distract them so much that they are almost terrified to put up a site that isn’t good enough, so the website is either put on indefinite hold or the idea is buried completely.

Sure, there are basic rules that should be followed.  However, online business is an ever-growing ocean of theories and case studies and waiting to jump in because you’re afraid to miss something, is just not feasible for anyone!

While I think it’s important to learn as much as you can and if appropriate, hire a web designer who’s on top of the latest online trends as well as the time tested website design methods, the most important thing is to not lose focus of the ultimate goal.

Most small businesses first and foremost, want to make sure they have a basic website for their current customers and prospects can visit to learn more about their products or services and make contact.

All other considerations should be both secondary and ongoing!

-Keep an eye out, I’m working on a Web to Human glossary of all of those terms and acronyms! 

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Marketing and Website Promotion, Small Business, Web Design

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Give your readers a HUG and a KISS!

September 9th, 2007

 We’ve all heard the advice K.I.S.S- Keep It Simple Stupid…and I’m a firm believer in that acronym.  I thought I’d take it a bit further.  So in addition to KISSing your readers, why not give them a HUG too?

Helpful to reader - whether you’re writing for the sheer joy of it, for link building and SEO or for marketing and brand building purposes, always provide something for the reader: knowledge, tips and info. or even a laugh or a smile!

Unique voice - you may be talking about the same concepts as everyone else but find a way to own it!

Give them something to talk/blog about!

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Blog Resources, blogs, Writing Resources, Blogging

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How to Explode Your Blog’s Traffic in One Week

September 8th, 2007

Month Unique visitors Number of visits Pages Hits Bandwidth
May 2007 296 613 1075 4897 94.02 MB
Jun 2007 771 1667 2702 10090 258.44 MB
Jul 2007 734 1705 3223 11747 267.12 MB
Aug 2007 806 2224 7407 30894 356.60 MB
Sep 2007 2895 3612 19484 91633 642.24 MB

Traffic Rank for Dwwebsolutions.com:

Alexa traffic rank based on a combined measure of page views and users (reach)

Yesterday 1 wk. Avg. 3 mos. Avg. 3 mos. Change
N/A* 153,455 991,631 up 6,940,2544

Those numbers are kind of unbelievable to me as this is truly the fruits of about 7 or 8 days of dedicated blogging!  Note the traffic numbers for September which are substantially larger than the previous four months and we’re only at Sept. 8th! 

I have had this blog going for over a year. Unfortunately, I had kind of let is slide over the first 6 months or so of this year. At the end of August, I decided to rededicate myself to blogging in general.

I have never had a lot of traffic coming into this site. Which was overall not that unexpected or problematic, as a very specific service business who was not focusing much on the traffic aspect, I was pretty happy when I could land 50 new visitors a week. I never even bothered to check the Alexa rank or many other stats programs for it because as I said, that really wasn’t my focus.

But as I’ve been significantly increasing my efficiency in actually designing my client’s websites, I’ve had a lot more time on my hands for other marketing methods. I’ve always enjoyed writing, and I’ve seen what blogging has done to help my client’s sites in terms of the search engines too.

What Did I Do?

  • Write!  I consistently wrote at least one post a day, sometimes two.  By far the most popular post was 60+ Resources for New Bloggers   And let me tell you, that took some time to find all the resources, but it took exactly zero creativity…I’m not necessarily proud of that, but that seems to be the way blogging works.  And even if no one else had looked at that post, I learned a lot gathering the information and continue to reference it on an almost daily basis.
  • Don’t Be Scared, Get Out There  Everybody talks about it, but I really believe it now…the key to blogging is to connect with other bloggers.  Not only does it help in the cold world of getting incoming links (yes, it’s questionable based on whether people do-follow or no-follows).  But more importantly, the blogosphere is full of amazingly talented and helpful people…not to mention, really fun people too!  So get out there and read as much as you can and interact!  See below for those who have helped me in my one week transformation.
  • Social Networking, Social Networking, Social Networking  Again, this is nothing new.  But I have to put my two cents in that this is a huge, huge factor in what’s been happening around here.  I feel compelled to say it mainly because I read a lot about StumbleUpon, Digg, MyBlogLog, Technorati and all the others before and thought that’s nice, but it would never apply or work for me.  WRONG!  StumbleUpon specifically has been amazing for me.  I know different sites have different results with the different social sites.  But in my case, SU has become a really great marketing tool, fun addiction and great place to connect with some really wonderful bloggers!  I’m such a huge fan that I actually wrote a post earlier this week just pointing to a few great posts about SU from the week.   Definitely check out the articles mentioned in that post for all the information you could possibly want about StumbleUpon.  Or you can always add me as an SU friend and I’d be happy to help anyway I can!

So you can see, I really didn’t do any earth shattering…just implemented what all of the best have been recommending forever.  But what amazes me is that you don’t have to be a professional blogger or blogging expert to be able to get the results from any of these techniques.  All you have to be is determined and sleep deprived!

Only time will tell whether this new endeavor will have any real ROI in terms of my website design business, but I’ve already had several referrals from it…so my prediction would be definitely!

As I mentioned above, I have discovered a lot of great blogs and bloggers and online friends in general in the last two weeks or so.  Here are a few…check out their stuff and subscribe to their feeds.  They’re brilliant and even better eager to help!

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Dana Wallert, Social Networking, blogs, Blog Resources, Marketing and Website Promotion, Social Bookmarking, DW Web Solutions News, Blogging, StumbleUpon, Other Stuff

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Have thoughts, will comment!

September 6th, 2007

One of the first things anyone will tell you when you venture into the world of blogging is to get traffic and build readership you have to be active in the blogosphere. No successful blog is an island. The key to blogging is community.

But as I sit here this morning I’m at a loss. After reading through my feeds and commenting where I could, stumbling around my friends and my favorite keywords for a few hours and doing the same, I’m left with a bit of an “all dressed up and nowhere to go” feeling!

I run into this from time to time. In my experience, active blogging can be a lot like summer in Kansas…8 inches of rain and massive, overwhelming flooding one week followed by a month long drought soon after!

So I thought I’d put it out here…this is what I’ve been using discover new blogs and new blog friends…

  • My BlogLog -dwoffice
  • StumbleUpon - dwweb
  • Technorati -dwoffice
  • Exploring the blogrolls and commenters on my current favorite blogs
  • Digg…although, I have to admit it’s not my favorite or maybe I just don’t get how to use it efficiently!
  • Bloglines…I use this as my feed reader and have also used it to search for new feeds.

How do you discover new blogs? How did you get here? Any suggestions or even criticisms of what I’m already doing are welcome…I’m even open to gratuitous comment requests and self promoting namedropping and befriending on any networks!

Help me help you help me…or something like that :)

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Comments, Blog Resources, blogs, Blogging, Other Stuff

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63 Great Blog Comment Alternatives

September 6th, 2007

Here’s the thing…

You want to comment on blog posts that you think are great. You feel like it is appropriate to start out by acknowledging the greatness of the post. You have officially said “Great post!” 1,000 times this week.

Why not try something a little (or a lot) different? Come on, stand out from the crowd!

All of the following have at one time or another been used as synonyms for “Great.”  So pick one and fill in the blank “_____ post!”

  • Admirable
  • Amazing
  • Awe-inspiring
  • Awesome…Totally Awesome
  • Bad
  • Bodacious
  • Brilliant
  • Choice
  • Cool
  • Divine
  • Dope
  • Dynamite
  • Enjoyable
  • Excellent
  • Exquisite
  • Fab
  • Fabulous
  • Fantastic
  • Far out
  • Fetch … thank you Mean Girls
  • Fierce
  • Fine
  • First-rate
  • Fly…also including Super Fly
  • Fresh
  • Glorious
  • Gnarly
  • Groovy
  • Ill
  • Impressive
  • Jiggy
  • Killer
  • Major- thank you Posh
  • Marvelous
  • Mega
  • Off the hook…this includes all other forms including off the chain, off the hizzy…you know, all those.
  • Outstanding
  • Peachy
  • Phat
  • Phenomenal
  • Primo
  • Rad
  • Radical
  • Remarkable
  • Sick
  • Slammin
  • Spiffy
  • Splendid
  • Standout
  • Stellar
  • Stupendous
  • Sublime
  • Super
  • Super duper
  • Superb
  • Superior
  • Sweet
  • Swell
  • Terrific
  • Tremendous
  • Tubular
  • Wicked
  • Wonderful

Feel free to use any of the above or add your own in comments…

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Comments, blogs, Fun, Blogging, Other Stuff

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The Worst Web Design Mistake You Can Make

September 5th, 2007

You put so much effort into designing your business’ website whether you do it yourself or hire a design firm to do the job. There’s picking color schemes, images, writing and rewriting copy, choosing domain names and web hosts and a thousand other things that go into creating the perfect website.

With so many things to consider, all too often the simplest things can be overlooked. So what is the worst mistake you can possibly make when designing your site? Drumroll please…

Not designing for your target audience!

What do I mean?

Your website is not your business, it is a representation of your business. All the pretty pictures and flashy menus and bells and whistles in the world don’t mean a darn thing if your visitors don’t feel comfortable enough to make the transition from visitor to customer.

What is all too often overlooked in the website design process is a website visitor’s visceral reaction when arriving at your homepage. I know I’ve been guilty of this in the past. You can get so caught up in having a professional looking, slick site that make people say ‘Wow, they’re big time!’ that you can forget that your website is your voice online. If your website is too “big time” with an overly upscale feel, that online voice can sound pretty patronizing to your small business clients.

The problem is people are human, and when we are going to trust people and work with them, we need to identify with them and feel a connection on some level. We want to feel that our potential business partner understands us and our business.

Let me give you an example…

When I was a kid, my father was the president of a wholesale hardware company. Basically, his company supplied the inventory for a large number of the hardware stores on Main Streets of tiny towns across Kansas and the Midwest.

Now, part of my Dad’s contract was always having a company car. The car allowances that he and the salesmen had would have been more than enough to have provided for a nice, big Cadillacs or Lincolns for him and the rest of the team. So what did my Dad and the sales team drive?

They all rolled in Ford Crown Victoria’s. Those cars were fully loaded, but on the outside, they were the same cars that most of the state government employees around KS drove. With all the options, pricewise they were definitely comparable to the Caddies and the Towncars. So why didn’t they spring for those?

IMAGE!

John and Mary at Joe’s Hardware in Smalltown, KS don’t feel comfortable dealing with the slick looking guy with a fancy suit rolling up to their store in an easily recognizable luxury vehicle. On the other hand, they welcome with open arms their friend Frank who shows up in his Ford to check up on them and the store.

It was hard for me as a preppy, valley girl wannabe girl of the 80’s to understand why we couldn’t have the “cool” car, but in retrospect, it taught me a lesson that I’ve applied to my business life ever since.

Know your audience.

You don’t have to compromise the quality of your website, just modify the packaging to best fit the people you’re trying to reach!

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Marketing and Website Promotion, Small Business, Web Design

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Everybody’s Stumblin’

September 5th, 2007

After spending a good part of the day stumbling myself, I’ve come to the conclusion that today must in fact be the official (or possibly unofficial) blog about StumbleUpon Day!

It makes sense to me that those of us in the US might be stumbling a bit the day after a long holiday weekend, but the trend seems to be international.

But I digress…I don’t claim to be an expert on my newest addiction (seriously, over 5 hours today), but I will testify to the power of the Stumble as my traffic has definitely been skyrocketing these last few days. I thought for the benefit of anyone who stumbles by my blog I would just share with you a collection of the great posts I stumbled into today that gave me a much better understanding of how the whole thing works…

Note: not all of these were posted today…but they are all from within the last week!

Anyway, sorry for the lack of original thought, but I want to make sure everyone possible is hooked up with my latest habit.  To be sure, I will be advising all of my clients to start Stumbling right away too.   Now if I could only master Blackberry-stumbling…that would be Stumbleriffic!

 Want to Stumble together?  Be my Stumble friend!

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blogs, Social Networking, Social Bookmarking, StumbleUpon, Blogging

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