Enkay Blog

Designing A New Theme

You are correct, I am designing a new theme for the blog because as you know, I love renovating my blog every so often and as I am in this process I realized that I haven’t posted in a while. I thought, well why not write about some things to keep in mind while you are either designing a new theme yourself or having someone else design it for you.

The basic concept is that when you are designing a new theme, you should realize the amount of time it takes. Usually a theme that I design takes 2-3 weeks to come about mainly because I have other things to do but also because it requires a lot of testing. I need to make sure that the theme supports the current version of Wordpress, my plugins and even certain elements of my current design such as the MyBlogLog avatar box, Entrecard, etc. So, now that we have that out of the way, lets look at some things to keep in mind:

1) Can you read it? – Make sure that the font on your theme is a good size so that your posts can be easily read on any resolution. I suggest designing the theme on a 1024×768 resolution because that is the most common resolution. Also, make sure that you dont have background graphics or elements that distract your reader from the main content.

2) How many Ads is too many? – You have to look ahead into the future with this aspect of the design. You may only have 2 advertisers now, but you might have 6 in the future so be sure to think ahead and design your theme with the option of expanding your current ad space to include more 125×125 boxes or have them already included in your theme but leave them blank. The idea is that you never know how much ad space you will need. I went from 2 boxes, to 3 and now I have six. The next theme will have eight, so its all up to being progressive with the design.

3) Is It organized? – If your current theme is scattered then you need to get organized. If you look at my sidebar menu’s in this theme, you will see that the links are separated, the ads are separated, and so are the Alexa and Feedburner stats, which are collectively lumped in the blog statistics area. The idea is to avoid clutter and make sure that your theme flows and that the reader won’t have a hard time finding certain information.

4) Do you have a contact page? – If your current theme doesn’t have a contact page then booo to you. You need to have a contact page. What if someone likes your blog and wants to buy an ad but you do not have a contact page? Furthermore, if you DO have a contact page and dont have a form to fill out, you better believe that youre missing out on a lot of email. If you just write your email address in a “mailto:” hyperlink, then a lot of emails will not be sent out because of the convenience factor. Make sure you have a contact page, and that you include a php (or any other) contact form to make it easier for your readers to contact you.

5) Is your RSS button noticeable? – If your RSS button or subscription button is lost in the sidebar, then you need to make it visible. You need to make sure that your readers and visitors not only see it but are willing to click on it and subscribe if they like your content. The truth is that nobody will go looking for your RSS button if they can’t find it or if they can’t see it at first glance. Its just how it works…think about it. Would you go looking for a RSS button if you can’t find it? No matter how good your content is, readers won’t waste too much time to move onto other blogs or websites if your RSS button is hidden on your page.

So hopefully these tips are helpful to you and maybe some of you have more tips for people who are either currently re-designing their blog or are creating a new design for a brand new blog. Hope you guys are doing good and I hope to blog more, atleast 2-3 times a week. How are you guys doing in these economic times? Anyway, I’ll be writing more so I’ll see you guys around!

Online Training By KAlliance

I was recently requested by Kalliance.com to review their website and so I decided to browse over it a day or two ago and I was very impressed. Kalliance, if you have not seen them around the web already, provides online training courses for various difference topics. Topics such as IT Training, various certification tracks, desktop applications, software skills, mentoring, custom development, enterprise server library, just to name a few.

They even offer free demo videos and if you go to their website, you can see one of the videos showcased on their home page. They are not the run of the mill company. K alliance is a very popular and successful company with clients ranging from Bank of America to Wells Fargo to even Boeing. Their client list is only proof that they are not only here for your money but they can back up their programs with a strong client list as well as information that will help you succeed.

They have a huge catalog of online courses and training programs that allow the user to follow through with the programs at their own pace. They have an extensive and proven knowledge base and they create the best custom video training programs for you and your company. They use highly effective flash and video based training courses and their programs are custom designed to assist you with any areas that you made need assistance in.

I think this is a great program for anyone and if you are in need of training or your company is looking to train its employees in any of these areas then you should definitely give Kalliance a shot. They do know what they are doing and they have been in the business a long time and have a very strong and impressive client list to prove it. Have a good day!

March 17th Weekly Update

Market Leverage Rocks!
Dina, over at Market Leverage sent me my very own custom Market Leverage T-shirt that says “Enkay’s Blogging This” and I wanted to send her and all the guys over at Market Leverage a big Thank You note by way of this post. Here is a picture of me in the shirt so I’d like to hear your comments about the shirt and me ofcourse

Free Vacation Contest Extended
The contest by Direct Agents and Bidz were hosting a dream getaway contest that I had blogged about and I was just informed that the contest was extended till the 15th of April from its original end date of March 31st. If you would like to win these amazing prizes, then you should definitely enter by clicking here:

First Place: Trip for Two To the Caribbean
Second Place: 42? Flat Screen TV
Third Place: $300 Gift Card

Custom Mascot Designed
I was contacted about 2 months ago by Catherine Annie about a custom mascot based on a picture of myself. Well about 2 weeks ago I was sent a copy of the completed mascot and after finally doing a few fixer uppers myself, I have decided to post it on my blog. You can see the mascot below and if you’d like to have one designed for yourself, just send me an email and I’ll send you the email address for Catherine since I’m not really sure what her actual website is.

So theres the week in update and hopefully I’ll have more posts soon. I was actually sick a few days of spring break but I’m finally back on track and back to blogging. Hope everyone is having a great week so far and let me know how you guys are doing!

The Weekend Review – Monday Edition

So, this was actually supposed to post on Friday but for reasons beyond my explanation, it didnt. So here is the weekend review done on Monday instead. Hope you guys enjoy this nice little catch up post.

Twitter – TweetDeck
I’m not sure how many of you guys use Twitter, but I certainly do. I like Twitter and its really useful and fun. Its a good way to spend your time if you are a little bored. Well I read about this program called TweetDeck that you can run on your computer that allows you to keep track of new tweets, see responses and even direct messages. Its a really unique interface and it makes keeping up with new tweets really simple. I like having it on my computer and its just that convenient. You should definitely get it, if you haven’t already. Click here to download it.

Syed Balkhi Contest
Syed over at Balkhis.com is hosting a contest alongside Market Leveraget and is giving away an Asus EEE Pc as well as a brand new Blue iPod Nano. He requested me to mention the contest on my blog and why wouldnt I? Its really easy to enter. You get 15 entries for subscribing. You can earn entries by earning money with Market Leverage which is a good idea because you make money and you could win something too and you can use the power of social networking by using Twitter to gain some entries as well. Its very simple and the prizes are great so go check it out!

Feedburner Move
If you’ve logged into Feedburner lately you know that it has now been attached to your Google Account. This isn’t a bad move but its frustrating because now in order to log into feedburner I have to log out of my personal email account. Anyway, the point of this blurb is to let you know that you will have to update your feed url on your blog as well as in the Feedburner Wordpress Plug-in (if you use it). The URL used to be http://feeds.feedburner.com/yourblogname and has now changed to http://feeds2.feedburner.com/yourblogname . Notice the “2″, thats the difference so be sure to update your feeds.

Bloggers Slowing Down
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this but a lot of my fellow bloggers such as Balkhis and TheNetFool have seemed to slow down with the blogging just as I have. I mean, nobody is as drastic as mine and TheNetFool is probably the most active but I was just saying. I believe its because we’re all great college students and are hard at work with not enough time for blogging. Atleast, thats how it is for me. Have you guys seen a trend that bloggers are slowing down or is it just me?

Microsoft MyPhone Launched
Microsoft has launched the MyPhone service for all users of Windows Mobile Phones. I have a Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro Device and I was selected today to Beta Test this service and I have to say that its fantastic. This service gives Windows Mobile users access to the data on their phone – everything from contacts, calendar, tasks, text messages, pictures, video, documents – yes, basically everything on your phone from anywhere in the world. All I have to do now is login to my MyPhone account online and I can view all the data on my phone. Its an amazing piece of work and I love Microsoft for developing this. So far it works perfectly but I was wondering if any of you guys have heard about this service. If not, then you can sign up here for a beta and read more about it here.

Well, I hope you all have a great week ahead and Happy Monday. I’ll be blogging some more this week because my midterms get over tomorrow! Wish me luck!

WebHostingChoice Reviewed!

Hey everyone! I’m sure you must be wondering where I’ve been but I have a really big midterm today for one of my classes so I’ve been studying but I have a couple posts already scheduled for the next few days. For today however, I actually have a review that I was sponsored to do for WebHostingChoice.

As we all know, with blogs being started up on a daily basis and several blogs expanding into much bigger blogs with a large audience and seveal thousand subscribers, you’re going to need a web host that will be able to handle your expansion. You’re going to need a host thats not only reliable but also not too heavy on your wallet either.

Looking For A Web Host?
The problem is that, just like theres a lot of blogs out there, theres also a lot of hosting companies out there. It can get a bit confusing with all the features, pricing and varied reviews out there as to which host truly is good. Well WebHostingChoice is here to solve that for you. They actually have compiled a list of the 10 Best Web Hosting Websites rated by a score and set up in a nice comparison chart that you can see below.

In-Depth Reviews
They compare the hosts on things such as price, reliability, cost to set up, disk space, data transfer and any money back guarantee that they may have. If you actually click on one of the hosts, there is a much more detailed review and these are really helpful as these reviews rate the host in terms of price, reliability, customer service, technical support, features, storage space, bandwidth, tech support response as well as ease of use. here is what a detailed review page looks like.

Whats More?
Whats more you ask? Well, aside from the Top 10 hosts, there are a number of other web hosting companies in their database that you can pick from just in case you don’t like the pricing or are looking to do away with a bit of quality for a bit more features. They have set up a nice little host directory with a wide variety of choices that range from green hosting, to ecommorce, or even budget hosts. They’ve even set up a “Learning Center” that includes some of the most common terms and their definitions just in case you are completely new to the web hosting scene and you need a little help. They have an FAQ Section and a Quick Start Guide to help you get started. They even have a nice menu that allows you to search, look at a directory of all the hosts as well as submit a host of your own. You can see what these menu’s look like below.

Aside from that, they even let you search for what you’re looking for. This is something that I really like because you can actually search for a host based on your maximum monthly cost, the minimum amount of disk space and bandwidth you might need as well as look for features such as PHP, ASP, Python, Perl, etc. Heres what the advanced search looks like.

Conclusion
So, if you’re in the market looking to start up your blog and you’re not sure which host to pick, or you are not too happy with your current host then check out the cheap web site host options from WebHostingChoice. Have a good Thursday everyone! I’ll be back tomorrow with a week in review post!