This discussion will focus more on the advantages of having a mobile app for your blog. Later, I will introduce you to few online services that help you generate a mobile app for your blog. Remember, an app for your blog is important because you cannot afford to scare away your blog’s visitor just by pushing a crappy looking mobile design of your blog.

Keeps the readers engrossed

I agree that most readers use RSS feeds, but your updates tend to get lost in between the multiple feed updates. This is when a dedicated app for your blog will keep the readers engaged with your blog only. One can design an app which pushes updates to a reader’s mobile after every new blog update which multiplies the user engagement level with that app.

Increase blog’s visibility

All that you have to do is generate engaging content and then let your app do the rest for you. Options like recommend the app to a friend increases the visibility of your blog if current users start recommending the app to others. This will increase your blog’s visibility among those readers who will stick with you for long.

Another added feature of having an app comes in when your app is listed in various app worlds (like that of Apple, Android and BlackBerry). Users usually tend to search for new apps in such app worlds and if your app is listed then be rest assured that it will be downloaded by many. Remember, after the download it is good content that will prevent the users from uninstalling the app. So, make sure you generate great content.

Give readers the “special” feeling

There are zillions of blogs and soon there will be an equivalent number of apps. This is when you get to do something different in order to keep the readers engaged. How about you give away special content only for those who use your app? Push content which will be visible only to readers who use your app. This will keep your readers engrossed and make them feel special. Remember to make that special content actually special.

Recognize readers for special suggestions

Request reader feedback to improve your blog’s app and, if possible, implement those suggestions. After successful implementation push a message to all the users of the app which will recognize the special contribution of one user. It will surely make the user feel important and increase your credibility in the community.

It is wonderful to see what we can do if we have an app for our mobile readers. It is just a matter of time before having an app for a blog will become as normal as having a custom theme designed for a blog. Just a matter of time. You can choose to flow with the tide or get ahead of it.

Now, let me list a few services that will help you generate an app for your blog. We haven’t tested them all but we can (hopefully) rely on their words. Let us know your view in comments below.

App Maker for Android

I thought that I should start with something android specific as it is the best known mobile platform (or not?) at present. Also, I don’t want to start the Apple vs Android (and if possible add “vs BlackBerry”) war here so please keep such comments away from this article. Coming back to what we were discussing. App Maker for Android creates an Android App for free within minutes. Try them and have fun.

Mippin

Mippin takes your app to the next level and creates one for Android as well as Apple iPhone. Mippin is smart enough to keep your app in sync on both the platforms and uses HTML5 in order to produce an app that fits with almost all platforms.

Conduit

Conduit happens to be one of the most famous services to create mobile apps for various platforms. Conduit creates an app which is compatible with almost every mobile platform and the reviews backing them seem to be very satisfactory.

AppsGeyser

AppsGeyser seems to take the mobile app creation business to a whole new level. After you are done creating your app, AppsGeyser will help you get traffic to your app, help you engage your audience and monetize your blog’s app for the best possible returns. Money well spent.

Shout Em

Shout Em seems to be the big dog in the market. With strong reviews from the likes of Mashable and The Next Web, Shout Em is rolling high on confidence. Their app creation process helps you create apps for iPhone and Android platforms. Also, they will help you push the apps into the respective market places which is surely a plus.

GENWI

GENWI is another big player in the market with reviews from the likes of Forbes. GENWI might charge you for specific services but the value is amazing. GENWI gives you apps for iPad, iPhone and Android. The HTML5 based apps are compatible with almost all platforms and will surely attract the mobile user.

Zubibu

Another famous (and well respected) app developer is Zubibu. They too support the iPhone and Android platforms. Zubibu smartly provides services that not just help you create an app but also analyze the results and improve on them. Zubibu is one of the very few services out their that provide mobile e-commerce solutions which will be an advantage for bloggers who tend create an e-commerce platform.

TapLynx

TapLynx follows a different approach towards the app development market. TapLynx gives away an SDK which can be used by bloggers to create apps in no time. The SDK comes loaded with multiple features that can be used by bloggers to enhance their TapLynx app which will be compatible with iPhone and Android based phones. Later on TapLynx will help you monetize your apps for better returns.

Mother App

Mother App is one of the few in this list that provide a custom app development which helps them focus on clients and their minute needs. Mother App has been in business for over 5 years and they have some really satisfied clients. You will have to get in touch with them in order to get a quote and understand how they will satisfy your requirements.

Phone Gap:Build

Phone Gap is another sleek service that keeps aside SDKs to create apps. They provide the blogger with the liberty to create apps using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Design your own simple looking app and upload it to Phone Gap. The service will return you with a working app that will work with iPhone, Android, BlackBerry (finally!) and lot of the other platforms. Upload them to the respective app worlds and you are ready to roll.

1. Pulse ($35)

Pulse is a robust and capable News/Magazine type WordPress theme. Use this theme to setup an industry news site, a tutorial site, freebies site with downloads and give-a-ways, or even just for use as a blog theme. Pulse comes equipped with 8 custom widgets, 8 unique page templates, 10 color schemes, 5 different post layouts, and oodles of theme options.

2. Avenue ($35)

Avenue is a feature rich WordPress magazine theme and is suitable for almost any niche. The theme comes with an inbuilt review system and three post formats (videos, audio & galleries). The homepage layout is very flexible, you can build your own layout using the three homepage widgets. You can also easily change the skin so it fits your needs.

3. The Network ($35)

The Network is designed to generate page views and encourage discussion and contribution while also incorporating social network sharing. The Network features self hosted MP4 video support and a customized Nivo Slider. Perhaps the crowning jewel is the easy to use clickable background advertising that allows you to blend eye catching advertising into your websites design.

4. Blogitty ($35)

This new modern, creative and elegant WordPress theme is suitable for any blog, magazine, business or personal site and comes with many feature like multiple skins, homepage manager, solid back end, 100+ shortcodes, custom widgets and much more.

5. mag.Press ($30)

mag.Press is ‘Magazine’ theme from Obox, joining the likes of their two best sellers InkDrop and Press.

6. Vetee Magazine ($35)

Vetee Magazine is a clean and professional WordPress magazine theme. This theme is also good for business and corporate sites. Packed with some awesome features such as different color schemes and multiple sidebars. Plus a built-in Unbranded Theme Options Panel.

7. Continuum ($35)

Stop fussing with lengthy setups; Continuum immediately works perfectly. Of course, with almost 200 theme options, you can customize it to no end. Continuum was designed and built by a die-hard blogger who has used magazine-style WordPress templates for 5+ years. It is best used for newspaper and magazine blogs, but because of all of the custom widgets, shortcodes, page templates, unique sidebars, and custom menus, it can be molded into whatever kind of site you want, like a portfolio site for example.

8. Brink ($35)

Brink is ideal for a website that publishes a lot of articles across multiple categories. The theme uses dropdown menus, featured carousels and post thumbnails in a cohesive and intuitive layout, making your content shine.

9. Premium Pixels ($35)

The Premium Pixels theme is perfect for the blogger who takes pride in their appearance. This theme has appeared in numerous design galleries while serving PremiumPixels.com and has gained countless ‘nods of approval’ from those in the know. Now it’s all yours.

10. Widezine ($35)

Widezine is a wide (liquid / fluid layout), clean, minimalistic, modern, premium WordPress magazine, which also doubles as a community blog, news, editorial or whatever you’d like to use it for.

11. Editorial ($70)

Editorial is a magazine theme which gives you complete control over your post layouts. Each post can be styled uniquely with 1,2 or 3 column layouts. A featured slider, customizable header space, and AJAX powered category posts module allows for your content to be the core focus of your website.

12. Canvas ($70)

Canvas is WooThemes most ambitious theme to date. Every element of Canvas is highly customizable through the options panel, so you can make the design, layout and typography exactly like you want. If you are after a highly customizable blog design or just a starter theme for your next client project, then Canvas will most definitely work for you.

13. Aggregate ($39 per subscription)

Aggregates comes packed with tons of content and widget-ready areas, and manages to display everything in a clear and readable manner. We have also added some handy new widgets, as well as many new advertisement areas. If you have been searching for a feature-rich Magazine-style theme for your blog, then look no further.

14. TheStyle ($39 per subscription)

Now you can share your content with style. Featuring a crisp, modern design, TheStyle will give your blog that unique visual impact you have been looking for. With its unique jQuery-enhanced fluid width design, your posts always get displayed in a way that is best suited for your visitor’s resolution.

15. DailyNotes ($39 per subscription)

DailyNotes is the simplest and most elegant medium possible through which you can share your daily life. The theme is very minimal in its design, and has been trimmed down to the bare essentials. For anyone looking to create a fun and inviting personal blog, the DailyNotes will serve you well.

16. DelicateNews ($39 per subscription)

DelicateNews is a content-heavy magazine theme wrapped in an elegant and “delicate” shell. Featuring a 3-column grid and many homepage content outlets, this theme gives you the opportunity to feature tons of content without making your website feel cramped or messy.

17. Telegraph ($69)

Telegraph is a professional WordPress magazine theme with a compact layout great for content-rich web-sites. Can be easily customized via Theme Options page.

18. Magazinum ($69)

Magazinum is a stylish theme with an innovative design which is perfect for magazine websites of any topics, like: fashion, celebrities, movies and entertainment.

19. Technologic ($69)

Flexible theme that allows you to promote featured contents and featured categories. Even though it was designed with tech, gaming, and gadgets blogs in mind, its powerful layout has no limits.

20. Newstock ($35)

Newstock is a Premium WordPress News or Magazine theme. It is ready to start working out of the box with a multitude of theme options and custom widgets to help you personalize your environment.

21. Comsenz ($35)

Comsenz is an advanced WordPress magazine theme with a ton of features. The theme has a brandable theme option panel, yes that’s right. An option panel in which your able to add your own brand, no third party logos and text anymore.

22. MediaFlux ($35)

MediaFlux is a great magazine WordPress theme for news, community or personal blogger with clean designed and neat coded. The rich theme admin panel and widgets enable you to control over your content, manage your advertisement, show your latest tweet, video, photos and much more.

23. Bulldog ($35)

Bulldog is a Premium Professional WordPress Newspaper Theme. If you or your company provide any form of news service, a local newspaper, newsletter, or even a blog and you’re seeking a truly professional way to present your content, then Bulldog is the solution for you.

24. Modest (free)

Modest is the perfect crisp, clean & minimal WordPress Theme. It was designed with a focus on well blended typography to bring out the real content within your site.

25. Typozine ($49)

WordPress Premium theme with minimalist design and typography-rich. Best suits for magazine sites that focus on contents and advertisements more than others.

26. Sleek ($49)

27. MiniMagazine ($65)

Create a magazine website for News, entertainment or any other purpose in WordPress. This theme with a minimalist design and great typography focuses on content, and will give your site that unique look

28. Advanced Newspaper ($59)

Online Newspaper is just a step ahead now. With Advance Newspaper you can set up and run your very own e-newspaper site just in matter of minutes only.

29. BlogNews ($59)

BlogNews is a multi-purpose and stylish magazine theme with a unique homepage that is aimed to those who want a more professional feel to their site.

30. Linepress ($59)

Built on the latest Gabfire framework, with LinePress, we wanted to harness the look and feel of an online newspaper, but maintain the ease of a standard blog.

31. TheNews ($29)

TheNews is an elegant and clean news/magazine theme. Fully customizable with our options page framework FlexiPanel.

32. Massive Press ($75)

Massive Press is a brand new Magazine/News theme including a very clean grid-based layout. The entire home page is 100% customizable via custom WordPress widgets which allows you to configure your website just the way you like it.

33. Debut ($75)

Debut 2.0 is the rebirth of the initial Debut theme by Luke McDonald. This theme is carefully crafted with a multitude of usage options as well as all the theme customization options you need to do the job. Built with the latest web technologies (jQuery, CSS3, and HTML5), you can expect your site to rock all major browsers for years to come.

34. Linen ($68)

A clean and flexible magazine style theme. Features custom typography options, custom background support, and a featured post slider.

35. The Bernard ($50)

A newspaper theme designed by the legendary Brian Hoff. Clear typography and a solid grid structure define this feature rich theme.

36. Press Two ($50)

Press Two is a complete re-write of Obox Designs most successful theme, Press. Advanced features such as Custom Post types and our Typography Manager give you more control over this minimalist magazine theme than you could dream of.

37. Magazine Theme ($69)

The Magazine Theme is well suited for online magazines and professional blogs. The theme is easily customizable to match your particular brand.

38. Suburbia (free)

Suburbia is a clean and flexible WordPress grid-based magazine theme designed in a modern and minimalist style. This theme is also suitable for blogs and misc. projects. Suburbia supports all WordPress 3.0 features and gives you an extra flexibility in every single step you make.

39. Verbage ($69)

The Verbage Theme boasts a clean, modern design with a heavy focus on typography. It’s the perfect theme for blogger’s, author’s and editor’s.

40. Newsy ($39)

A 3 column news/editorial themes that allows for various advertising display options. Newsy comes with 11 different layout options which include the setting to display a column or list layout with 2 sidebars, 1 sidebar, or no sidebar at all.

Squidoo is a fast growing website that allows ordinary people to build their own pages with unique themes. The page is called “lens”, and each user is called a “lensmaster.” Squidoo is also a community where you can post your ads and can even share your profit to other ads like google ads and amazon ads by posting their ads to your page for related sources. You can custom your post the way you want it to appear on the page by just basic clicks and simple text typing. Squidoo is also known for building link wheels which is a good method of driving traffic to a site.
Today we will focus on Squidoo and learn the basic steps in building Squidoo lenses. Here are the basic steps in building a Squidoo lens:

1. Sign up For an Account

The first thing you will do just like other websites is to create your Squidoo account. The process is very simple. You only need to follow simple instructions and supply the basic info about yourself. Then just click the button continue.
Congratulations! You already have completed the first step and it was pretty simple.

2. Create a lens

After the registration process, the next thing you will do is to create a lens. Just click on create a lens button.Now you can be called a “lensmaster.”

In creating a lens, there are a lot of things to do. We will take the process step by step.

3. Lens subject

You must think of a subject which is related to your products or its up to you to decide for a better subject. You can also use the brand of the product or you product keyword.

Just supply the information and proceed to  the next step.

4. Lens Title and URL

Think of a better an interesting title and pick your URL, the link where your lens can be located.Then pick a category for your lens and choose for the choices of the contents of your lens.

5. Lens Keyword

Pick for the best keyword for your lens to help people find your lens.
You can add 3 more keywords for your lens and then you will be ask to type captcha code and click done button.

Now you already have created your lens.

6. Organize your lens

This will be the most interesting step in creating your lens. This is where you will custom your own page on how it will appear publicly.

You can organize you modules and add it to your lens.

Create and set up your module by simply supplying the needed information.

Click save and you can also edit it if you want to change it.

Your module has been saved already.

You can add images, videos, news,RSS, comment box and other ads from Amazon and Google.

7. Publish your lens

If you have done organizing and designing your lens, you can view the preview of your lens. If you think it looks good, then you can publish it.

Congratulations! You just have completed your Squidoo lens.

Squidoo Tips

1. After publishing you may have to wait for 48 hours. If after this time your Lens is still showing as a grayed out symbol, try the following.
2. Change the Title of all modules so that it represents the contents better. If you still have something called “New…” change it.
3. Remember to Edit the “Introduction and Contents Tool” and select “Table of Contents” and tick the “On” button.
4. Link to as many other webpages and Lens as possible.
5. After you get the Green approval Symbol, you can add your Lens to other suitable Lens, which provide a module for you to add your information. The old Groups on Squidoo have been converted into Lenses, so you will have to carefully select other Lens as your partner.

If you have any tips, please send details and I will added them here.

Don’t forget to update your Profile page, this gives you a lot of opportunity to add links to Blogs, Lenses and web url’s, that is where you add your photo.

In this post you’ll find out which are those goals, you’ll see different examples of sidebar usage and I’ll also share some thoughts with you. Note that I’m using AdBlock Plus for Firefox to remove those annoying ads, so you won’t see the screenshots with actual sidebars like they’re supposed to look. But that’s not a big deal since advertisements is only one function of sidebar.

Location

Unlike thumbnails, sidebar has only two main locations. And the word side already tells them to you. That would be rightward or leftward the content. The most popular, of course, is the right side placing, because people are reading from left to right. In that way sidebar doesn’t distract you from the content. But there are few (really few) blogs with sidebar in their left. I’m conservative and I can’t accustom to that. It’s harder for me to read the content, because you just can’t ignore that large box every time you jump a row. That’s just my subjective opinion, but I assume that it’s really not a great placing and that’s why people are using right-sided sidebar way more.

Soh Tanaka is using pretty default, nice looking right-sided sidebar, which isn’t bothering when reading content.

Plain Green, blog about Plain Green Conference, is using light, grungy sidebar in left side. It’s neat and not very distracting, but for me it’s still not comfortable to read text.

Cookie Sounds sidebar is actually kinda connected with footer. This is a photography blog and they’re adding picture descriptions in default sidebar spot. I think that’s excellent solution for this kind of blog, because sidebar doesn’t distract you from the pictures at all.

Background

Sidebar can have it’s own fixed width background or it can lie on default page background. Usually we see the second option, but they’re definitely both equally good. Sometimes, when sidebar lies on page background, there’s a thin separator line between content and sidebar. It makes nice effect, that sidebar actually has its own independent space.

Marked Lines sidebar is laying down on simple white page background. It’s well aligned the feeling that sidebar is independent is achieved.

Designer Informer has that thin separator line. Again independent sidebar effect is achieved.

Aljan Scholtens blogs sidebar has it’s own background and it’s also splitted into three parts.

Size

Sidebars size is usually common in all blogs. Their width is about 1/3 – 1/4 of the active area. When sidebar doesn’t have it’s own background, it can be wider. Some blogs has double sidebar where sidebars content goes in two columns. Sidebar is also rarely as long as the content in blog. Usually it’s about 1/2 of the blogs length.

Web Design Ledger is using the double sidebar. They have a lot of content to show, so this is a great solution.

PSD Tuts+ sidebar is pretty wide and it’s about 1/3 of all blogs length.

Objectives

Sidebars has some important functions they’re supposed to do. These functions varies from blog promotion to tag listing. If designed well, sidebar will do these functions very efficient. Here I’ve listed some of the most important ones.

Social Networks & RSS

Most of todays blogs (again especially design related ones) are looking for huge traffic and recognizability. You can sometimes see plenty of social media icons in different locations. The most popular ones are in the header or in sidebar. In sidebar you’ll often find these icons at the top. Why? Simply because it’s the most visible spot. Some blogs also have included Twitter updates in their sidebars.

Mark Shingleton’s blog has subscription and Twitter buttons in the header, but he’s also included some important details in the sidebar. You’ll find Twitter updates there too.

Eco Simply is decorated with 3 great looking icons at the top of sidebar. These icons aren’t annoying and complement blog design nifty.

Search

Another feature which is used mainly in header or sidebar. Search field has to be visible, but at the same time solid and quiet.

Miasto Fantastyki’s blog has nice dark search box which makes good contrast with the rest of the sidebar. His search box also has a suggestion feature.

Categories

This is simple and self-evident function. Again some blogs has categories menu in header, some in sidebar. That doesn’t change the case though.

Codare has very simple, yet great looking categories menu in sidebar. It’s vivid colors that are customized to match design perfectly.

Specky Boy, blog with sidebar in it’s left, has a solid list of categories in the middle of sidebar.

Needs/Wants sidebar is fixed and it isn’t scrolling. That way you can access your wanted category without going back to top of the page.

Archive

People rarely use this function, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include it in your sidebar. Don’t make miles long list with all of the months you’ve been posting since. Include about 5–7 and use View More function if necessary.

In Brand New you can choose the time you’re looking for very rapidly. The same system applies to tags and categories.

Lateral Code has simple list with months and years. You also get a peek how much posts are in that month.

Tags

More used function than archive, but still not quite popular since many blogs tag all their articles almost the same. But this, indeed, can be very usable function which every sidebar should have.

Designrfix has a huge list of tags. I don’t like this solution, because you have to scroll and scroll trough those similar tags to find one you needed. They kinda fix this list with another huge community news list next to this one.

This is what I prefer. Simple tag cloud like in Design Chair.

Content

Content is the king. You have to promote your posts and sidebar is a great place to do it. Recent ones, most commented, random – you can include them all. That’s a great way to encourage people to read something else. Don’t overforce and include all posts you ever had in sidebar. Including your most commented or shared posts is a great choice. Promoting not so popular articles ain’t bad either.

Larissa Meek’s blog sidebar contains 4 most popular posts with small thumbnails and comment count. It’s handy, that visitors can also see those details.

Fringe Focus has put 10 most popular posts in their sidebar. There’s also 5 recent posts just below. Those yellow lines beneath text makes nice composition with the rest of design.

Another option is to promote comments. Some people find them more interesting than post titles.

Fuzeo gives visitors the chance to view 5 latest comments. We can also see the commenter names and avatars.

Deziner Folio also offers 5 latest comments. But unlike Fuzeo, there aren’t author names and avatars displayed. If you are seeing just nice or thanks, that looks quite incomplete.

Friends & Partners

Many blogs have their friends – other blogs or sites with similar topics. They’re often included in sidebar or footer. That way your blog visitors can navigate trough sites with similar content. Link exchange with other blogs would increase your traffic.

Fuel Your Creativity has a nice list with their recommended tools. They’re also using good-looking hover technique.

Instead of using text list, Web Junkie XL is using great looking grid of small thumbnails.

Advertisements

Everyone wants to get paid for their work. The best way to earn money with blog, of course, is advertisements. They’re almost unalienable design blog ingredient. Frequently ads fill out almost half of the sidebar. That’s not what visitors want to see, but I don’t dispraise bloggers, because everyone is trying to earn the way he is able to. So I’m turning off AdBlock Plus and presenting you some screenshots.

Ten 125×125 ads together with some larger ones makes Web Designer Depot’s sidebar as long as the content itself. It’s good they compensate it with other good stuff in sidebar.

Other things

Sidebar can contain much more than I listed above. It’s your free choise what to put there. You’ll definitely find some creative solutions browsing trough different blogs. Here are some of them.

Tut Toaster is looking for guest writers and they’ve put announcement in sidebar.

Creative Fan has community news in their sidebar. Actually this feature is used by many blogs.

PS Awesome has it’s Flickr group and they’re showing submitted works in their sidebar.

Naldz Graphics offers you to subscribe to their newsletter on the top of sidebar.

Summary

You’ve seen some great, some not so great examples of blog sidebars, so now you can consider – how good is yours. I hope you found something useful in this article and now you’ll be paying more attention to your sidebars. In conclusion I’ve added a screenshot of, what I think, some really awesome sidebars.

Logo From Dreams

Logo From Dreams sidebars starts with a small info about author. You’ll one (just one) advert then. There’s neat recent comment section with author names and avatars. This is a blog about logos, so there’s a section for popular logos with small thumbnails. They’re also running logo awards, so there is small section for best logos. Sidebar ends with archive and partners sections. It’s simple, neat and great looking sidebar.

Codare

Since this blog is Portuguese most of you won’t find anything useful there, but it has a brilliant and sidebar. Sidebar is customized to match the design and CSS hover effects really add the feeling. Sidebar starts with noticeable search box. Then there’s categories, Twitter updates, archive and tag cloud. Finally photos from Flickr add  the missing graphic sense.

Blue Pixel

Simplicity has won it today. My third pick, Blue Pixel blog, also has quite simple, yet attractive sidebar. It starts with a quote, then you can see date and time (definitely not even close to GMT though), then there’s two modest links to Twitter and Facebook. Between them you can see the search box. Further sections are very simple, but they have a great contrast within the bold, black title and blue content.

SketchPad is released under the GPL V2 license specifically for 1stwebdesigner, so you’re free from restrictions on how you use it!  Feel free to use it for any personal or commercial websites.  Just remember to share, tweet, link, and comment on this article to help support this free WordPress theme!

Features of SketchPad

• 10 Awesome Color Schemes
• WordPress 3.0 Custom Menu Implementation
• 4 Widgetized Footer Areas
• Custom Ad Management Widget
• ThemeSheep Admin Options
• Custom Home Page Post Layout Options
• “Latest Tweet” Header Option (can disable from admin options)
• Integrated Page Navigation
• Automatic Thumbnail Integration, set it and forget it!
• Set your own custom logo easily
• Input your Analytics or other tracking code through admin options
• Bread crumb navigation
• “Related Posts” custom feature

DEMO

DOWNLOAD

DETAILS PAGE

10 Awesome Color Schemes to Choose From

Easily change the look of your website through the ThemeSheep admin options page.  Just select the color that you like, hit “save options” and you’re blog is instantly changed to the color of your choice.

Custom Post Layout Options

Through our admin options, you can easily select whether to display all large full width posts (as you see in the demo) or small half page width posts.  You can even mix these layouts up and do “X” amount of large, and “X” amount of small posts!  You’re in control of how your posts are displayed to your readers.

Custom Author Box and Post Excerpt Captions

Out of the box, SketchPad will create an “Author Box” in every one of your blog posts.  This author box will use the authors email Gravatar as the image, use the author’s name as a link to their posts, and use the “BIO” information that an author can fill out in their WordPress profile page.  Another neat feature is the custom excerpt caption.  This area is directly beside the main posts thumbnail and will first display the “excerpt” field ( you have to fill the excerpt field out whilst creating a new post ), if no excerpt variable exists, it takes the first 150 characters from your content to display.  This is a great way to give visitors a quick summary on the article and the author, capturing their interest and increasing reader loyalty.

Details Page

SketchPad is available for free download, or if you’d like to work from the PSD’s, the developer package is available for $22 USD.  Both are available on our details page

Demo Page

A full featured demo is up for your viewing pleasure.  You can preview every color options as well as check out all the features of the theme on the demo page

Download SketchPad

SketchPad.zip (ZIP file 245kb)

1.TextPattern

Textpattern is a robust CMS. It’s most useful for blogs, although full sites can and have been created with Textpattern as well. It happens to be quite flexible – you can create almost anything with plugins and a custom sections and styling. Personally, I would only recommend this to people who have dealt with PHP and other CMS’s before; although using Textpattern is fairly easy to learn.

Cool Features:

• Easy to focus on content
• Browser-Based Media Control
• Freedom to control all elements
• Browser-based template and CSS editing
• Light Weight and Secure
• The many available plugins give you extra functions and capabilities

2. Habari

Habari is a free blogging system that, although is still new – proves to be a safe, firm, and well-rounded solution for many. Called the ‘future of blogging’, this flexible system is well on its way to being a huge force in the CMS market.

Cool Features:

• Multiple Users and Sites with one install
• Plugins, Tagging and a WordPress Importer
• Static Pages
• Supports multiple types of databases (MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL)
• Supporting Developer Community
• Fast and Simple Installation
• Full featured dashboard

3. Movable Type

Movable Type is a powerful all-in-one tool that lets you create blogs and entire websites with one platform. Being flexible with themes and plugins, you can really do anything with Movable Type! Movable Type is free, but for those who need a larger amount of support (like a business), Movable Type Pro comes with more features – and is not free.

Cool Features:

• Open Source for Developers
• Simple to create all kinds of websites
• Revision history – you’ll never loose anything!
• Dashboard and Custom Fields
• All-in-one solution that cam power anybody

4. Tumblr

Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform. Although you can’t host it on your own server, you can customize your Tumblr blog as much as you would like with super cool themes! With an awesome community, Tumblr is the easiest solution for micro-blogging. You’ll also have the ability to use custom domains!

Cool Features:

• Don’t have to host on your own server
• Free and Easy to Use
• Community Interaction
• Easy to post with mobile devices (call, text, mobile web, apps)
• Powerful Well Designed Themes by Professional Designers
• Completely Free!

5. Drupal

Drupal is an open source Content Management System that can create anything to a small blog to a large community website. You can even create discussion websites, corporate pages, personal blogs, directories and even social networking sites – all in a breeze.

Cool Features:

• You can contribute to it’s development
• Admin side tracking and statistics
• Easy Forum and Polls
• Built in news aggregator
• Easy to personalize and community gives online help

6. ExpressionEngine

ExpressionEngine is a flexible CMS that helps you fulfill your site’s full purpose. There are modules, plugins and extension hooks to help you customize your website to the upmost extent.

Cool Features:

• Flexible – can power organizations and companies
• Will adapt to your needs
• Easy to add more features
• Analytical tracking
• Built in spam prevention
• Totally secure and manageable

7. FlatPress

Last, but not least – FlatPress is an open source blogging system that does not need a database to work. This means that those without access to MySQL databases finally have a blogging system to fit their needs!With FlatPress, there are widgets and plugins to make your site as unique as you want it to be.

Cool Features:

• Open Source
• Does not require a database to function
• Looks like WP
• Plugins and widgets
• Theme Support
• Static Page support

Now that you have seen some of the great options available, what will be your pick? Are you going to stick with WordPress? Are you going to try any of the solutions here? Let us know below!

I didn’t add any comments this time – compare these designs yourself and try to understand why ones really stand out, well others seem a little bit classical. Notice small things, how designer puts a little bit unique style in its design to make emphasis like folding, comment,date boxes which stand out from layout, icons, background textures and nice shadings.

What  I noticed though – for blog designs light colors always look better and are more user-friendly since visitors need to read information – light background and dark text always seem to work great!

1. WordPress Two by sinthux

WPmonk by sinthux

WordPress by sinthux

WordPress Beta by DouglasEltz

Hypowired by sinthux

WordPress Theme by sALuUm

Webbo WordPress Thema by Servetinci

Simple WordPress theme by yehsper

Edge v.1.1 by AlxDesign

WordPress Blog by Pinpoint-Designs

FreshPress by AlxDesign

Plush by AlxDesign

Sveriges Finest by AlxDesign

Design MS v.5 by AlxDesign

Condo Bandit by AlxDesign

Disambler WordPress by deadlinesdesign

s

Osae by osec

GrungePress by AlxDesign

PlanetF1 by AlxDesign

Springbloggers by SneakyOne1990

by

VintMint WordPress Theme by STRIF3wind

Jocoo by SencerBugrahan

Naruja Portfolio by JuliusX

Creative Bloggers by SneakyOne1990

Coffee Cup by Pilej

Delicate: WordPress Theme by itsmattadams

The General Blog by BboyWicked

IamSuthan by BboyWicked

Video BLOG – Template by askdzigner

Smooth Portfolio Layout by JuliusX

Webee by zee7

GoldPress by SencerBugrahan

Quacero by SencerBugrahan

Blog layout by shuffl3

Honcerate WordPress theme by snaz

Black2 WordPress theme-Blog by ehlikeyif

Blog Magazine Theme by dellustrations

Boutique Theme by dellustrations

Magazine Theme by dellustrations

Royal Mag by AlxDesign

Web-Kreation Redesign – Mockup by jeeremie

Gamma Design by easydisplayname

Beta Design by easydisplayname

Delta Design by easydisplayname

Authentic WP by gdnz

Coloured Solutions V1 Blog by moDesignz

Pixogen by gdnz

Simplicity by AlxDesign

AVG-HHBlog by AntoniaVG

CloudBlack WP by gdnz

DesignersLust Website Design by TheDrake92

Rainbow Blog by PanthereNoire92

Coffee blog by Pilej

Textured Blog Layout by voodoosimon

WordPress – Fairy Theme by detrans

Dalton Hurd by sinthux

Personal Portfolio 2.0 by jonaska

Blog Theme update by coWebdesign

WordPress – IcePress Theme by detrans

TV Shows by waterdesign

eacose by osec

osea by osec

AudioTech by DouglasEltz

Cube Productions by vanmall

Matias Blog by Pilej

KO by trunglq

CreativeTalk by kodcor3y

Big Blue by detruk

Green Palacy Theme by DouglasEltz

Waterfall blog by coloformia

Let’s check some really well done error pages to get inspiration for our own creative 404 page?

1. Gog.com

2. Css-tricks.com

3. Blizzard.com

4. Bluedaniel.com

5. Chelmsfordlibrary.org

6. Henrikhedegaard.com

7. Livadaru.net

8. Southparkstudios.com

9. Mailchimp.com

10. Propeller.com

11. Mixx.com

12. Surfingonstatic.com

13. Wulffmorgenthaler.com

14. Spongebob.nick.com

15. Tinsanity.net

16. Douh.com

17. Orangecoat.com

18. Apartmenthomeliving.com

19. Slonky.com

20. Patterntap.com

21. Acromediainc.com

22. Carsonified.com

23. Huwshimi.com

24. Jhuskisson.com

25. Sinisterbunny.com

26. Deviantart.com

27. Eternalmoon.com

28. Cssremix.com

29. Agens.no

30. Abduzeedo.com

31. Hootsuite.com

32. Chrisjennings.com

33. Robo.to

34. Shelfworthy.com

35. Thewebmotel.com

36. Youcastr.com

37. Clubpenguin.com

38. Fryewiles.com

39. Twurn.com

40. Unitinteractive.com

41. Gnolia.com

42. Leapanywhere.com

43. Project-euh.com

44. Beta.Mnet.co.za

45. Dawdle.com

46. Cubeecraft.com

47. 24-7media.de

48. Habrahabr.ru

49. Twingly.com

50. Mutacao.com.br

51. Kidmondo.com

52. Springload.co.nz

53. Getdropbox.com

54. Dazeofourlives.com

55. Redtag.com

56. Wufoo.com

57. Dundeeliving.co.uk

58. Berganblue.com.au

59. Lookitsme.co.uk

60. Kochatelier-berlin.de

61. Craigslist.org – ASCII

62. Limpfish.com

63. Homestarrunner.com

64. Beanstalkapp.com

65. Bol.com

66. D20srd.org

67. Odopod.com

68. Trubru.co.uk

69. Rareview.com

70. Jayelgibson.com

Most Internet Marketers suggest you to put up adverts on your site to make money, but such solution needs a good blog traffic, and frankly in my experience there are many better ways to make money. So in this article I will be talking about the best ways a blog can make money.

1. Selling eBooks:

This is something that has been increasingly more popular over the last couple years. The main reason is generating a respectable source of income for those with relevant and useful content to share.

How Can I Sell My Ebooks ?

There is several ways to sell your ebooks online :

• You can make a section on your blog where you can sell your ebooks.
• You can create a little website where buyers can have a look at your ebook.
• Have an affiliate program like E-junkie.
• Offer a sample page or chapter so potential buyers can get a good feel for who you are and what you have to offer.

2. Premium Membership:

Recently, I have seen a lot of bloggers adding membership areas to their blogs. To do this you can add a new membership area where you can publish content for members only. And this is a good source for money but the content you offer must be original to your readers.In such sections you can also offer some freebies. You can take a look at the links above showing some famous blogs with membership areas:

• tutsplus
• webdesignledger

3. Web Directories :

Web Directories are places where job seekers can pay monthly to have themselves listed in a directory so people who are looking for them, can browse such place and pick their favorite.

4. Job Boards :

All the popular blogs are trying to leverage job boards to make some extra income.Needless to say that in order to create an active and profitable job board you need first to have a blog focused on a specific niche, and a decent amount traffic.The advantage of this method is that it is passive. Once you have the structure in place, the job listings will come naturally, and you can charge anywhere from $10 up to $100 for each.

There is a lot of job board softwares such as Webjobs, SimplyHired Job-o-matic … But there are two main WordPress plugins that I recommend : WPJobBoard and JobPress. These plugins will allow you to add a Job Board to your blog.

5. Advertising :

Advertising is a famous technique every blogger use to make money with his blog. And there is many ways to advertise on your blog, but the famous one for bloggers is direct banner advertising. Selling your own advertising space is one of the most lucrative monetization methods. First and foremost because it enables you to cut out the middleman commissions and to determine your own rates. The most popular banner formats on the web are the 728×90 leaderboard, the 120×600 skyscraper, the 300×250 rectangle and the 125×125 button.

The downside of direct banner advertising is that you need to have a big audience to get qualified advertisers, and you will need to spend time managing the sales process, the banners and the payments. But there is websites that manage these functionalities and buy sell ads is one of the best.

1. Web Is Love

You will find just a few colors used in this layout, effectively used whitespace, cool hand-drawn illustrations and little icons. Unique concept.

2. 15 June

Very clean landing page without any images, but visit his individual posts as well, you’ll see unique styling and change of navigation color!

3. NuWomb

What I enjoyed the most was a little touch with textured background and featured slideshow putting all main content above the fold. Only I think since middle section is so long, designer should have 2 column layout not 3 to give more space to actual article. It’s good to have the most important information on “above the fold” section though (RSS subscribe, newsletter, shop).

4. Cult-F

This blog has excellent header to show immediate creativity, not sure though if it’s not too big. Navigation is very interesting – when you scroll down, navigation cloud moves with you – idea is great, I felt a little bit disturbed since I am sitting on my laptop with little resolution, but this is a great way how to increase pageviews I think.

5. SkyLab Blog

Here I enjoy the most little, silent Twitter,Facebook, Delicious and RSS buttons – every designer will notice and evaluate this approach!

6. Creative Depart

Interesting approach – you can switch between grid/normal modes and choose which layout works better for you. At least for me – I feel appreciated, like I have some kind of modification possibilities and personal touch.

7. Veerle’s Blog

Great example showing how it’s possible to consume a lot of different information in good way. All those little icons, header and light typography just creates right accents and makes layout interesting.

8. Freelance Switch

Every site in Envato network is designed in smart and very effective way.  Watch out how they put the most important information in above the fold section, but in the meantime they emphasize effect with big typo, self describing icons and cool mascot!

9. Twirk Ethic

Beautiful simplicity – can retro style be any cooler? Excellent 3 column layout consuming a lot of information in visually appealing way.

10. Ecoki

Is it possible to be any more cleaner and grid based? Such eye-candy and so effective design!

11. Best Blog Box

Visually and content rich magazine type website – on index page you will find a lot of different articles to grab your attention in 3 column layout, but when you are in article, you’ll get even more space for article and just 2 column layout! Handy!

12. All For Design

Very clean and textured French blog design – I enjoy social networking mouseover buttons and style throughout whole design keeping it clean, grungy – yet  trendy. Visual beauty is emphasized with colourful “above the fold” header.

13. CSS Tricks

Close to perfection, Chris has many projects already and he advertised almost all of them in single landing page! Very functional website, only I think it needs more detailed sections, so people could find information more easier besides search and sidebar featured articles.

14. Mike Precious

One more great dark design!

15. The Designed

Very often it’s good idea to just keep layout clean to be effective.

16. SquareSpace Blog

Little rulers and transparent header creates an effective impression, I am not sure about sidebar but other than that – unique approach!

17. Elliot Jay Stocks

Besides colors, I enjoyed original footer and even more notice Search, which is only there! Good way of thinking – people scroll through site, don’t find what they want, but then notice footer and fat search button inviting to search for desired topic!

18. Good.Is

You can learn from this website, how to consume huge amounts of information and sections in good way.

19. Mashable

Mashable’s great design is huge case of study more from functional point of view (I would give a little bit more artistic look to it, but it’s social news site, not design blog).

I include whole index screenshot, because I wanted to show how many ads and information is consumed here, how mashable promotes their all social networks and really dominate there!

20. Web Design Ledger

Henry Jones has given this 3 column site some great functional and visual features – beautiful featured images and a lot of small thumbnails in sidebar to grab reader (designer) attention and it works!

21. Coda

One of rare exceptions where I really like dark design! Design could be more functional, but it always depends from specific project – for them, I think, suits perfectly!

22. Think Vitamin

Beautiful light and functional design which works using just monochrome, orange and green colors in the right sections!

23. Simple Bits

Handcrafted pixels done effectively!

24. Freelenz

Little things matters and a lot of little things used in good way, create amazing website like this!

25. 45 Royale

At first design seemed to be chaotic, but just after a moment I got a very good impression about its appearance and functions!

26. N-Design Studio

Amazing designer blog – extremely creative and surprisingly functional in the same time!!

27. PSD.Tutplus

Not a long time ago Envato changed their network site designs – big case study, interesting choice of navigation, sidebar organization and great icons to make good accents!