Posts Tagged ‘creative websites’

Photo by Ori Bengal

Yesterday, I talked about the fact that I need to get into a more set routine. Today, I’m telling you to shake things up.

Maybe I should make up my mind.

Nah, I’d rather share some ways that I shake things up and get my creativity flowing:

1. Blast music and dance around my living room. yes, I actually do this. My hubby has come home many evenings to find me singing and dancing (and then he’s laughing).
2. Shut off all technology and hit the beach (one of the definite perks of being in So Cal)
3. People watch. Pretty much any Starbucks or corner bakery will suffice for great people watching.
4. Call a friend. Catch up on life and get your mind focused on anything but work.
5. Design something/write something just for fun. I get tired of writing and designing things I am supposed to. Sometimes I just want to play with photoshop and see what my crazy ideas create. (I’m considering creating a page on my blog dedicated to my random creations…what do you think?)
6. Spend an hour or so laughing at a few of my favorite nsfw sites (textsfromlastnight, fmylife, awkwardfamilyphotos, notalwaysright, passiveaggressivenotes and failblog
7. Stumbleupon. Keep clicking, you’ll find something awesome.

How do you shake it up?

I am a firm believer in having a knowledge channel that you can go to for ideas and inspiration – for me, that channel is my Outlook RSS feed. I have over 40 blogs that I subscribe to and read on a daily basis. They range from business marketing and social media writers to sites good for a morning laugh. A few of my favorites are on my recommended reading list. There are many more that I read, but I only add them to the sidebar once I have been reading them for more than a month and feel that they are worth something to my readers. Obviously that list is always growing…

Anyway, while browsing the current posts from the blogs I subscribe to, I noticed one from Ari Herzog. He shared how he adds one new blog to his collection every day. I do the same thing, just never thought about telling people how I did it. But, I liked reading about how he did, so I figured I would share how I add to my knowledge base.

1. Use StumbleUpon. The tool bar for firefox is fabulous (don’t know about the one for IE), all I have to do is click the ’stumble’ button, and a new website pops up in whichever category I have selected at the moment. More often than not it is a blog, since most of my categories are writing, blogging, photography or creativity related. You can then vote whether you like the page or not and it learns what you like and therefore the results get better the more you use it.

2. Twitter. I have twitter searches running for many different terms, plus all of my great followers…which leads me to finding a lot of great articles. Once I have clicked on an article, if I like it, I will browse the rest of the blog. If I find at least 4 or 5 interesting articles right away, I will subscribe to it. There is no harm in testing a blog for a few weeks, if it stops being interesting, I can just remove it.

3. Searching Technorati. Simply enter a key term or phrase that you want, and presto…a bunch of great new blogs to check out!

4. Blogroll’s of blogs I already read. I have found some of the most interesting blogs through the blogrolls on sites that I already love. Although I do get all my articles via a feedreader, I try to visit each actual site once a week…see if there are updates/changes to the site, etc. Most of the people I read have a list of other writers they like. I usually find at least 1 new blog to read each week this way.

How do you find new blogs to read? Do you constantly add new ones or read the same group?

Oh, and just in case you missed it on Monday, make sure you’re subscribed here too!

If you couldn’t tell, I love to write. Absolutely passionate about writing. And it’s something that I do very well (not to sound conceited…). But, great writing isn’t born overnight. It takes practice, effort, training and did I mention practice? All writers have resources that we use when we need to improve our writing, but some writers would prefer not to admit that. I have no problem admitting I use other websites for advice, and even more, I like sharing those websites with other writers. I Have shared some of my best writing posts that I have written on my writing tips page, but those are just a tiny piece of the world of writing tips out there. So, here are a few tips from other writers (some from published authors, some from others like me, who write for fun and work).

1. The Economists style guide – this is the guide that they give to each columnist for the economist. My favorite section is the common misspellings. Although almost everything has spell check, it is still good to learn to spell better.

2. 3 killer words – Copyblogger is not one of my favorite bloggers, however this post was well written and definitely one i look back at often

3. Writer’s Prompts – The writer’s digest put together a great list of writing prompts that allow you to just start writing which is one of the easiest ways to improve your writing.

4. Misused words & phrases – As often as I use some of these words/phrases, I often forget which means which. This is a great resource to make sure you are choosing the right one

5. Jack Kerouac – strange, eclectic, incredible. His 30 tips for writing.

6. Thinkexist.com – ever wanted to find the perfect quote for a post or a story, this is where to find it.

7.  Futureisfiction – One of my side projects is a novel that I am working on. This site really helps when I am struggling with ‘punishing’ a character that I love

8. Descriptive words - whenever I am at a loss for the right word, I can just turn to this list. It has words for all types of categories, and really helps break word block. Sometimes just one of these words can help me create an entire post.

Let me know what you think of the articles – or if there are any that you use to help improve your writing.

Today’s challenge from problogger is to write a ‘review’ post. He includes some great suggestions for what to review and how to make the reviews relevant to your readers. At the end of the day, the point of a review is to share something with your readers that can help them. Don’t review a product that only a limited group could ever own (like a Lamborghini), and make sure the price point is appropriate for your readers as well (again, no reviewing a Lamborghini unless you run a car site, or your readers are all celebrities).

I decided to review one product that has changed the way that I use the web and a pre-review of the newest book I am going to read. It covers both bases of my readers – creative and web savvy!

The product that changed my life? Roboform Password Manager. It saves me from having to remember a million passwords, and stores them all securely on my computer, with just a plugin that makes them accessible online. It can also store multiple users credit card, address, and personal details so you never have to fill forms in again. Obviously, the one down side is that it stores it on one computer, so if you need the same information multiple places you have to update them both separately. But honestly, for just under $30, it is a huge time and I couldn’t imagine not having it!

The pre-review of a book? Okay, first; what is a pre-review? It is a review of why you’ve chosen to read a certain book and what you hope to learn from it. Then when you finish, you can go back and review it and comment on your pre-review. The book in question is Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. It was suggested to me by Peter Quill, the owner at Motor Creative. He and I have known each other for a few years, and have recently started working together on some social media projects. He knows how much I love to read and immediately suggested this as a must read. Hopefully, I can gain a little more insight into the world of social media marketing, as well as refresh the ideas that I already know. If any of you haven’t read it, and would like to, lets read it together! Send me updates as you get into it of your favorite parts and I will be sure to include it when I write a post reviewing it later. If you have read it, let me know what you thought too!

Oh, just in case your keeping track, yesterday’s challenge was an internal blog fixing thing, not a post. He suggests to check through all your pages and old posts for dead links. Takes a lot of time, but definitely worth it!

Hello to all the readers of Wright Creativity! I would like to introduce you to Kyle Reddoch, the new weekly web/code guru. He will be writing weekly post to help my readers on the more technical side. He is not only a great resource, but a good friend who I rely on for all my coding work. Enjoy (and check out his bio at the end of the post)!

The first step in getting your website up and running is picking your domain name. You want to pick the right one that best portrays your business, industry, or relevat to what your website is.

Company Website

You first will want to try seeing if your company’s name is available as a domain name. If so, great then you are on the way. If not, you will have to do a little more research. What does your business provide? What is your industry? For example, my company does web design, hosting, maintenance, domain registration, etc. everything a person will need to get a website up and running. Now, luckily my business name was available as a domain name! I currently have registered; www.theeverydaywebexpert.com and www.kylereddoch.com, both of which goes to my company’s website.

Let’s say that my company’s name wasn’t available. What would I do? Well I would have to look to what my company does. Maybe even the region where my company is located, or town. I would then put all those together and find the right domain. Here are some possible domains that I could use for my industry:

• www.yourtexaswebexpert.com
• www.texaswebexpert.com
• www.mywebsiteexpert.com

Just take some time to search available domains and find the right one that fits your company.

Personal Website / Blog

If you are creating a website for personal use or a blog, you might want to go a different route to decide your domain name. For personal websites or blogs, you can have your name as the domain name. For instance, www.kylereddoch.com is a great one for me . You can also have a domain name that suits what the purpose of the website or blog is about.

You want to make the domain name easy to remember though. You don’t ever want a person trying to remember your domain name…because in all reality, they won’t.

There are thousands of possibilities for domain names out there, you just have to find the RIGHT one!

Kyle Reddoch is the Owner of The Everyday Web Expert, a full service web design firm located in Amarillo, TX. He is also a featured writer on many blogs. He loves every minute of his life with his wonderful wife and two kids at their home in Amarillo.

Last week, I asked everyone on twitter what their favorite websites were. But, I only talked about one that I liked (my own). Many people later asked me what other sites I liked. The problem was, I couldn’t define a category to stick with. There are so many posts out there about the 10 sites you must go to if…

…you’re into social media

…you like sports

…you’re a freelance writer

…you like wine

…you’re on twitter

…you play with photoshop

But what about the list for someone who is all of the above? Or, none of the above? I am personally all of the above and much more, and find that these type of lists rarely cover what I need. So, here are the 10 sites that I have found that (for the most part) no matter what you are into, will benefit you:

1. Twitter – This is a given, and almost everyone knows about the site, but it has so drastically changed my blog and my life that I have to talk about it.

2. Overstock.com – It doesn’t quite have the reach of Amazon or ebay yet, but it is a gem that I love and use every Christmas for my shopping. I can’t help but love it.

3,4&5. Google, Yahoo & Citysearch – There are a million search engines, but I am still a fan of the basics. Google for information, Yahoo Maps for directions and Citysearch for reviews on restaurants or place to go. Everyone has their own that they love, but often the ‘new and clever’ come out and we forget why we loved the old standards. I’ve tried the new ones – and gone back to these three. All 3 sites have had facelifts, and the usability couldn’t be better. If you haven’t looked at them in awhile, it may be worth checking back.

6. Roboform - Okay, so it isn’t a site you can ‘use’ but the auto-password tool that is roboform is totally worth the visit. At $30, there is no better way to handle your passwords. I am truly passionate about my roboform (and they don’t even reward me for soliciting them!).

7. Craigslist – Find anything from really ugly sheets to a great job. Honestly, the creators of this site were absolutely brilliant. The UI is simple and easy to navigate and the amount of listings are amazing. Yes, they have some issues with spammers trying to steal your money, but what site doesn’t? Next time you are trying to find a great something, check there first.

8. Stumbleupon – This is how I have found many of the random sites that I love, in addition to some great ideas for my blog!

9. Facebook – If you aren’t on it, you should be. It took me a while to finally join, but I am so glad that I did. It is a thousand times better than Myspace in every way.

10. Wikipedia – One can argue that although the site has good information, because it is peer edited, it can’t be trusted. I completely disagree. I think the fact that it is peer edited makes it easier to trust – everyone monitors everyone else! It is one of the best ways to get a quick answer to a burning question.

Agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts on these sites or others…

I love to read, listen to music and be out with my friends. All of the above help me to maintain my creative ideas as life stems creativity. But, I spend most of my time during the day in front of a computer and must find creativity there as well. In order to do so, I participate in social sites (twitter, facebook, friendfeed, linkedin, etc), I read blogs (on average, 15-20 a day), and I love stumbleupon for finding new sites. But, one person can only do so much, so I often rely on my contacts to recommend new sites to visit and new blogs to read. This has not only introduced me to some amazing new sites but has given me almost a limitless supply of creative ideas.

So, today I polled all of my contacts on twitter to have them answer the question: What is your favorite blog to read (funny, serious, business, whatever) and why? The results were tallied and here is a great list to get you started on some new creativity:

@ CraigKessler Here is different type of blog I read of a NYC cabbie: King of New York Hacks

@ aquarius12385 Serious Eats . Top Chef recaps, food porn, seriously frequent updates & good mix foodie/not-so-foodie content, what’s not to like?

@ MarshaHudnall Cranky Fitness . title says it all

@AboutLisa favorite blog….hmmm….love @BawldGuy’s blog right now, it’s business and funny and economics.

@ dalwolf_now design blogs, design and the ideas behind it effects everything. It often pulls from multiple disciplines, like @SwissMiss .

@mayhemstudios  Designers Toolbox : Handy print/web templates and resources.

@MatchesMalone Ok, the rest of you, mine is well, mine!!!

@mcritz NOTCOT.org

@marinemajor sorry, i don’t read blogs…. but I use twitter . I find challenging people here.

@ mschmulen Dataopedia , which is a great and very useful mashup for researching any website.

@barchbo Elements of Style : smart, stylish, comprehensive on the topic, thoughtful, good writing.

And of course, my recommendation? WrightCreativity.com (teasing…) Honestly, I recommend reading any of the above, or find your own to love.

Feeling like there is a site missing or disagree with any of the ones listed? Leave it in the comments!