Even though the holidays are over, it seems that life is still rushing ahead at full speed! There is so much going on right now. Here’s a peek of what I’ve been up to:
2008 Bloggy Awards
Do you have a favorite blog? Perhaps Creative Curio! (hint, hint!) Nominate your favorite blogs to receive a bloggy award! You can nominate any blog for a number of different categories and while you have to be selective, they do let you put down your top three choices. In order to submit a nomination, you must recommend at least three different blogs total, in any of the categories (you don’t have to put a blog in each category). Need some ideas?
- I Love Typography (Johno), for the categories of Best Asian blog (it didn’t say he had to be Asian!), Best Topical, Best New and why not Weblog of the Year award, too!
- David Airey, for the categories of Best European, Best Art
- InspirationBit (Vivien), for the categories of Best Canadian, Best-Kept Secret
- Graphic Design Blog (Tara), for the categories of Best European, Best Art and Best New (I didn’t realize she only started this blog in March 2007!)
- This and That (Kristarella), for the categories of Best Australian, Best-Kept Secret
- Just Creative Design (Jacob Cass), for the categories of Best Australian, Best New, Best-Kept Secret, Best Art
- Copyblogger (Brian Clark), for Best Written
- Chris Garrett, for Best Written
- Epic Edits (Brian Auer), for Best Photography
- Successful Blog (Liz Strauss), for the Weblog of the Year
You only have until this Sunday, January 11, to submit your nominations so head over right now! And make sure to check back on that website on January 22 to vote for the final winners!
Creative Curio on Squidoo
Ever heard of Squidoo? Before last week I had heard the name, but not thought much of it. Then Mr. Typography sent me an invite to join and create my own lens. I was a little confused at what this site does, but here’s the gist:
You create a single web page with information you want to share. It can about anything. You can promote your website, blog or company, write a Top 10 list of your favorite local restaurants or a how-to guide about getting started in your favorite hobby. It’s a great outlet for sharing on the Web without the commitment to maintaining a whole site.
Take a look at my lenses on Squidoo for ideas: Curious About Graphic Design? (be sure to vote on my What is Your Job Title? poll!) and InDesign 101: A Beginner’s Guide. You can check out my lensmaster profile, too. Come on, you know you want to be able to call yourself a lensmaster!
Why not create your own lens? It’s easy and fun to share what you know with the world, no blog, doctorate or website required. You can do everything from just talk about what you know, to build a link list or create Amazon recommendations. And as if that wasn’t cool enough, you can even earn money from it for you and/or a charity! Awesome! Just be careful, it’s almost as addicting as blogging!
So why not start your own lens and become a lensmaster today? Use this link so that when you make your first $15, you and me both get $5, too, as Squidoo’s way of saying thanks for sharing. Want some help with that first lens? A comprehensive guide to your first lens. And come back here when you’re done to share a link to your lens!
Redesign
Ok, so nothing is done yet, but I’m working hard on developing my redesign (see? Sketches! Proof!). I just wanted you all to know that. You’ve been asking and I heard you! Plus, this will keep me on track. I’ve already announced something, so now I have to do it!
Thanks for the reminder re the awards, Lauren.
Some interesting ideas in that sketch detail.
When I think of the phrase “Creative Curio” I’m reminded of the circus—not the circus of today, but those that travelled around the States in the first half of the 20th century; so the typeface Madame comes to mind, plus wood block prints and collage. Not sure why I mentioned that, but I like the hand-drawn concept…
John,
Perhaps you are reminded of the circus because many of them had curios, or oddity shows/attractions. You reminded me of the HBO show Carnivale. Sadly short-lived, but it did get pretty weird in the second season… eek. I like your idea, though. It’s similar to another concept I had. I’ll explore it a little more! And I always value your typography advice, so thank you!
Squidoo.. I have a problem figuring out the licens of the content.
They say that they (Squidoo) doesn’t own the content, but then again it doesn’t say what kind of licenses they give. So far I only seen copyright.. someone how have a “lens” that can clearify the different licenses in which to choose from?
Hi LaurenMarie
I followed you here from Dawud Miracle’s site (and fascinating conversation), I just wanted to say hello, because yes, comments do add fuel to our blogging and writing fire
All best wishes Joanna
Yes, that’s it, the curios. I enjoyed Carnivale, though you’re right it did take some strange turns.
More sketches, please
It would be interesting to read about the process in real time, from sketches through to the finished product, perhaps with an additional installation of WP on your domain, so that readers could comment on the progress thus far?
Esben,
You know, I thought the concept was so cool that I just created a couple of lenses and didn’t look at the licensing. In retrospect, that may not have been a good idea! I’ll have to look into it a little more. Thanks, Esben.
Joanna,
Hi! Thanks for stopping by! We can see that fuel in the many, rather loooong comments (mine included!) over on Dawud’s site. He sure knows how to start a good conversation!
John,
That is a really interesting idea! I like the part about receiving comments (and critiques, too!) on the progress. Do you mean I could create kind of a mini blog of the process? Hmm, intriguing! I think maybe instead I’ll dedicate Friday posts to what I’ve done over the week. I’m lazy and I don’t want to hassle with a new database! Heh
Thanks again for the listing and nominations, as emailed, I have voted for all of the above blogs that you listed and best of luck. I had a go at using Squidoo once but I really didn’t grasp onto the concept that well. Let me know how it goes - both traffic wise and social wise
Also I just wanted to ask, do you use any special plugin to monitor where you leave comments? I want to try to find something that does this because I am sick of the emails about places I have left comments. Or does anyone else have a suggestion?
Can’t wait to see the redesign.
Jacob,
You are most welcome. I’m glad you were able to vote, too. I’m excited to see if any of my blogging friends make it to the final round! I’ll be sure to share what I learn from Squidoo.
The only thing I do to monitor where I’ve left comments is check the box for the Subscribe to Comments. I generally delete all the mail except for one and just click on the link to visit the comments again and read them on the site instead. You could always try the old fashioned way of copying the link to a text file and visiting in a day or two to see what others have said, but then you might be a bit behind in the conversation if it’s a popular blog, like iLT for example.
I like John’s idea. A kind of reality tv approach. Just make sure to take all the comments with a grain of salt because if you tried to make everyone happy your new template would never get finished.
Thanks again for the vote, Lauren and for the heads up - so glad there’s still time to vote. I was also planning on publishing my choice for nominations on IBit to give some extra promotion for the nominees. I just have to make sure I do it soon.
Re: Squido - thanks for the invite, I did check your lense, and hope I’ll find time in a near future to create one, then I’ll share it with you here. You should consider submitting your post on Squido to my group writing project on social media at the end of the month.
That’s an interesting thing what Johno said about posting the design process online. I’ve been thinking about it, and considering posting my design process as it goes along, but then wouldn’t it spoil the surprise of seeing the final result - the new finished design? What do you think? Although personally, I do love seeing the sketches and the thinking process of your design, Lauren…
Also it’s true that comments and critique at the beginning of the process would help to make the final result much closer to being perfect.
Lauren,
I do the same with my comments, but surely there must be an easier method. Some sort of tracker. I’ll have to have a better look.
Dylan,
Oh yes, sound advice. Thanks! I’m going to post my first Redesigning the Blog (sounds kinda reality TVish doesn’t it?) on Friday.
Vivien (ib),
And I checked the rules just to make sure that shameless self promotion is allowed. Hehe!
Yes, I wanted to have readers vote for you guys too! I sure hope they do
OOOOOO!!! Vivien I LOVE IT! I will SO submit my Squidoo stuff! Can I send you the article directly, or is someone else running a similar topic that I can contact?
Yeah, it’ll spoil the big surprise, but it’ll be a cool process, too. I would rather have the comments, critiques and most of all the discussion generated by showing a design in semi-real time. I’m looking forward to it and I think this will keep up my energy level for the redesign (I tend to let personal projects fall by the wayside and never finish). I know some readers will have ideas that I never would’ve thought of too, and I’m excited to see what those will be!
Lauren, I’ve posted all hosting participants in my mega writing project on my blog, along with the social media sites they chose to host. Squido will be hosted by Pearl from Fresh Perspectives, so if you could submit your posts to her that would be great! She’ll feature your post on her blog. Afterwards I’ll publish all participated articles on social media in one final post on my blog as well.
I really look forward to seeing the behind the scenes process of your new design. All the best. I should do the same - it will give me a boost and keep me going.
Thanks again for the vote, Lauren.
I first heard of Squidoo a few months before I started blogging, and it was something that appealed. I reckon Seth’s doing very well from it, although I don’t have time to really learn of the benefits. I’m interested to see those updates you’ll share.
Nice to see your sketches. You’re really building up your whole redesign. Haha, just kidding. No pressure.
Vivien (ib),
Ok, I’ll stop by Pearl’s blog and submit my post. I’d love to see your process of redesigning your blog as you do it! That would be cool!
David,
You’re so welcome for the vote. You totally deserve it! I didn’t realize Squidoo had been around that long. They don’t have many users (about 150,000 last time I checked).
I checked my Google Analytics this morning and I have a grand total of 3 visits coming from my InDesign 101 lens. I average about 1,400 visitors a month, to give you some perspective. So not much so far from Squidoo. But I’ve only had my lens there for less than a week and according to Squidoo tracking it’s been seen by 12 people (of which 25% have come over to my blog! That’s pretty good! And it looks as though 2 of them probably actually read the articles because they were here about 2 minutes). In my opinion, the ID 101 lens is the most comprehensive introductory resource on ID on Squidoo, so hopefully it’ll get more traffic as time goes by and it ranks higher in the searches.
Thanks again for the votes! I voted for you in a few categories as well.
I don’t think you need to fill all three nomination slots - mine went through ok, I don’t think I had three for all the categories I used.
Umm, where has Jacob Cass’s site gone? It’s turned into Cheap Domain Registrations!
oh, no…:-( don’t say someone is playing the same cruel trick with Jacob’s domain…., but it’s not redirecting to another domain… it almost looks like they canceled his account… :-(
Kristarella,
You are welcome for the vote. Vivien’s in on the initial round of nominations, but she only has a few of the categories. She may write a post about the process after it’s over; I hope she does, it’ll be interesting to get a behind the scenes peek!
Oh no! Not another one! But it does look like they canceled Jacob’s account, as Vivien noted (I know that jackcass.com site is his too). He seemed to be going strong with his blog, though, so it’s probably just a credit card mix up or something. I’m sure he’ll be back.
I just sent him a message via facebook. We’ll see what he says…
I also sent him an email. Hope he gets his site back soon.
Lauren, you know, I’m itching to write about the sites nominated in the Best Design category… just waiting for Bloggies to post the official results first… I’m still in shock at what I saw, so no worries, I’ll be definitely writing about it.
Vivien (ib),
Good! I’m looking forward to it. I still can’t believe I totally passed over the Best Design category! I mean, that’s my specialty! I should’ve noticed! And maybe I could’ve had some good input, from what you tell me…
Sorry to read about Jacob’s site.
I was going to send him an email, but the address I have uses his jcd domain, which is probably void at present.
David,
Jacob said he left a comment on your blog about the issues with his site. He also left one here, if you didn’t see yet. Even after reading what his host said, I have no idea what’s wrong with his website… unless he was Dugg.
I’ve been in touch with him. Sounds pretty strange, and my only guess is that there are some query heavy plugins causing an issue.
Here’s hoping he gets things sorted quickly. The ‘abuse department’ he’s dealing with aren’t too speedy at responding.
David,
I’m sure he’ll share with us if it was a plugin issue (right Jacob??) so that we don’t make the same mistakes. I know we all appreciate when other bloggers make mistakes and share what they learned so we can avoid them. Unfortunately it’s happened at least twice with you that I can remember, David! No more catastrophes allowed for your blog, ok? ;)
Oh okay then.
Ahh I finally got to check my emails this week after 6 days of no email access! I totally forgot about this post as I couldn’t keep track of it.
I will be putting a post up about the reasons behind my misadventure soon, its just taking to write it.
It was such a shame to have it happen when I was getting so many incoming links from other sites at that time…thats life though.
Anyway, the post should be up soon, thanks for all of your support.
I have finally finished the post (man it was long)…
Click on my name for the link.
Jacob,
Just read your post and commented. Again, very happy that you are up and running! I hope you never have to go through that again.
What the heck? I’m getting a not found on the post page. Happens clicking on Jacob’s name on this page, the title on his homepage and the read more link. Obviously his homepage is visible though.
Ugh, maybe it’s one of those temporary crazy things that will go away in a minute.
no, you’re right, Kristarella - Jacob’s site is out of control again - only homepage is live, all other pages show 404. :-(
Oh no
and I just read his post and commented on it this morning (saw you did, too, Vivien). Poor guy! He’s just having no luck this week. I can access the home page but not individual pages, too. If you want to read the story, Kristarella, you may be able to get it via his feed—um, perhaps if you have something other than Google Reader because it only shows up as partial posts there, though I’ve asked him and he says he has full feeds checked with Feedburner and I know Vivien has said that it shows up ok (even with CSS formatting!) in Thunderbird. He has done a lot of very helpful research, so do make sure to go back and check it out when it’s back up.
This must be a plague going across the Web… I realized I forgot to link some things in my post for today so I hopped over to BittBox… same thing is going on with his site as with Jacob’s! Only the home page shows up! What’s going on?!
this is really weird… very weird…
btw, Jacob’s feeds don’t show up even in my Thunderbird - show the same 404 error :-(
ok, looks like those problems are due to .htaccess misconfiguration and wrong permissions.
I found a thread on WP describing exactly the same issue Jacob has.
Nearly a good idea on the feed LaurenMarie, but it’s only partial in my reader (Vienna) as well.
BittBox is messed up too… not all pages, it looks like mainly the category ones.
My site is working *wipes forehead in relief*.
Man, why do all these problems always happen when I go to bed! I can get into my admin panel and front page but man this is not my week. Thanks for the link, I will see if that clears it up.
Vivien,
Thanks for doing a little research to help Jacob out. You’re so handy to have around
Kristarella,
Thankful my blog hasn’t caught the infection, too! *knock on wood*
Jacob,
I sure hope this gets put behind you quickly.