January 6th, winter in Stowe, VT – captured by Yolanda M on her iPhone

Capture your life and share it on phone photo friday!

Unfortunately, even after listing 10 great topics that any blogger can use last week, I still didn’t feel motivated today (what? I’m not perfect!). So, I decided to ask for some help from my friends and posted the above status update to facebook and twitter. Thank goodness for great friends, because in just 10 minutes I had the following great ideas! And now, I have some awesome ideas for next week

Ideas from Twitter:

@ParagonMoon: Blog topic: I can get over having done something I shouldn’t have. But to pass by opportunities is deeply regrettable and soul-damaging.

@Hagre: do a how-to of something you’re good at, or go explore someplace new and write about it! Just a couple thoughts!

@Sn0wSurF3r gave me two: How about, “you don’t have to blog just for the sake of blogging?” OR I want 2 read about how people should use lawyers at the beginning of contracts so they don’t need them after things go south

@influxx: take a break and come back fresh tomorrow. Dont force it. It will show.

@healthOC: I want to read about how the market has positively or negatively affected your business and/or others in your field

Ideas from Facebook:

What ideas do you have to add to the mix? What would you like to see me write about?

Sometimes all it takes to achieve your goals and get what you want is writing it down. So I want you to finish this sentence, and then figure out how to make it a reality.

If I had an extra $5000 I would use it for…

Blogs. Most businesses and individuals have them, and yet very few of them spend the money or time to get the design customized just for them. They stick with generic themes, maybe add in some sidebar buttons and start writing. Whenever I work with a client, I tend to get the same question in the initial meeting: What should be in a blog design? My answer? Here are the 5 things every blog design needs, and why:

1. An easy way to subscribe to the blog: Just using the rss button in the navbar is not okay. You need a large button that people notice immediately. If you want readers to come back, you need to give them an easy way to have your content delivered to them. It is also important to have a call to action – tell them to subscribe! Examples of good subscription buttons:
   
2. A custom header: The first thing that anyone will see when they hit your site is the header, it should stand out, fit your business and be specifically designed for you. Generic headers with the blog title and tagline in a simple font are not only boring, but make your blog look less professional. Getting a custom header made is like having your hair and makeup done (or hair done and shaving for the men). You need to put your best face forward at all times. Examples of good headers:
   
3. Navigation bar: While this is a simple one, it is also very important. Your site navigation needs to be easy to find, easy to read and most importantly, exist. There are many sites I have visited that have no navigation, no about the site, no contact page, nothing other than the content. This makes it hard to move around and can confuse your reader. Of course, it should also be formatted beautifully and fit in the site.
4. Design of the background and content area: This is all based on personal preference, but the site needs to have pop, it needs to make people want to come back and read it again on the site, not just in rss. If you want both sections white, make sure there are dividing lines, something that gives it depth. If you use a dark background, with a light content area, give it flow by creating a border in a mid-line color. If you want dark for both areas, make sure that you use a font that is very easy to read in a light color. The point is to make something that fits your site, and your personality or business. You want people to feel welcome and understand your brand from your design.
5. Custom sidebar buttons: You have a facebook, a twitter account, a mailing list, a gallery for your photos, etc. Show them off with buttons that make people want to click on them. If it is just text, people will scan over it and pass it by. It is important to make sure that visitors know where to go, and that you direct them to the pages and posts that you want them to see first. Examples of good sidebar buttons:
   

Do you agree or disagree? What other pieces do you think a blog design must have?

Trying saying it and see what happens today…

This incredible shot was taken on March 7, 2009 by Michael Doan on his iphone, in Santa Ana, CA:

Want your phone photo featured too? Submit one now!

Unless you’ve been away from your computer and on a beach in Hawaii for the last week, you’ve probably seen a tweet or two showing how poorly Southern California handles “weather”. It’s true, us Southern Californian’s are pretty pathetic when it comes to wet and windy.  We are avoiding the roads, staying inside, and have been complaining about how awful all this wind/rain/etc is for days. While I agree that the rain does make driving a little precarious, and I would definitely prefer the sun, the rain does provide some interesting inspiration.

Normally, I reserve phone photos for Friday’s, but these two, sent to me by my husband were my motivation for this post. Each photo is of a grease spot on the ground of his shop (he’s a Volkswagen Tech), untouched by humans and manipulated only by the rain.

At first glance, while these are very cool images – they’re only that, just images. But, if you take some deeper analysis, you start to uncover some new opinions.

The first image is not just a “spot”, it s a flying meteor aiming towards earth, the edges slowly burning up as it enters the atmosphere. And the second picture – an young Phoenix, its head facing down, tail plumage beginning to show the colors of adulthood, and growing in strength.

Or, for those of us in the design world, we can can look at the images and pull out some colors.

(image 1 colors)

(image 2 colors)

What could you do with these colors? Website design? Email advertisement? Twitter background? New bedroom theme? A clothing line? Office decor? The usage of color is unlimited, and with unique palettes, you know it will turn out beautifully.

One of the most important things I try to remember when working on a new project is that we are only limited by our own creativity – if you looked at the photos and saw grease spots, that would be all they ever were. But, if you could separate yourself from what they are and instead, figure out what they could be, you have opened an entirely new world for you to play with.

What can you be inspired by today?

I read a lot of business blogs (right now, there are 53 in my rss feed that are business/design/social media related), but I get bored with business blogs. So, I mix it up with a small helping of fun blogs as well. My favorites?

• FailBlog
• CakeWrecks
• Not Always Right
• Photoshop Disaster
• Text’s from Last Night
• Awkward Family Photos
• The Oatmeal

And, since it’s mid-week, and usually the toughest day for all of us, I wanted to give you a break and share one of my favorite posts from the last week from each of my favorite funny sites:

• FailBlog – Golfing fail (me thinks you had one too many!)
• CakeWrecks – Something’s missing (or let’s play “fill in the blank!”)
• Not Always Right – One adapter to rule them all (ahhh technology, thy mythic beast!)
• Photoshop Disaster -Alien Shape-shifter (one word: yikes!)
• Text’s from Last Night – Every college kids dream first job (wonder which company it is…)
• Awkward Family Photos – Bedtime stories (no wonder the youth is in trouble!)
• The Oatmeal – How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you (…and why I don’t own cats!)

Do you have any favorite funnies to share?

Today, I saw @paulttran tweeting about elevator pitches and it got me thinking about mine.

On April 6th last year, one day before my life changed and Wright Creativity became more than just a blog, I was participating in the 31 days to a better blog challenge from problogger. He asked us to create an elevator pitch for our blog – tell our readers what they could expect from reading this. On that day, when I was still just using this site for a creative outlet, the Wright Creativity elevator pitch was: “I write about creativity in business and in life, hoping to inspire one person a day to be more creative. Sometimes, the ‘wright’ creativity is all you need.”

Unfortunately, that elevator pitch just doesn’t fit what I do any longer (and it was a little too short) – so I decided to re-write it and craft an elevator pitch that fit my business, not just my blog. The new-and-improved Wright Creativity elevator pitch is now: “Wright Creativity allows small to mid-size businesses the time to focus on their products and customers by managing their online marketing strategies. We offer blog management to start conversations, web design to create an online brand and copywriting that will entice new customers. The combination of our three services gives you better visibility, a more complete brand, and powerful tools to gain more customers. We make having an online presence simple and profitable“.

When is the last time you worked on your elevator pitch? If you have one, are working on one or want to practice one, share with us, you never know who will be reading it and need your services!

*image from BLMurch on Flickr*

Blogging takes time and discipline…but every once in awhile we all run out of ideas. When you do, here are 10 topics that will fit any genre and any person. Pick one and get writing:

1. Answer a frequently asked question with details and photos.
2. Create a list of links on a specific topic for research.
3. Ask a question of your readers – get them to get involved.
4. Simplify something many find difficult.
5. Give your personal opinion about something in your industry that exists.
6. Share an idea about fixing something in your industry.
7. Create a new product that your industry needs (broad spectrum thoughts).
8. Add your thoughts on another writers blog post
9. Interview someone about what they do/how they do it.
10. Ask a question on twitter and share the responses in a post.

What other ideas do you have for blog topics that span all industries?