02
08
10

What I’ve Learned about Blogging

As some people know, the last 6 months, at work have been spent designing (and building) blogs for our trainers. The idea behind that was to give the trainers a voice outside of our events and further establish them as experts in their respective areas.

Last Spring, Darrel and I led a meeting to help the trainers understand social networking and kick start their blogging. It's been exciting to see how far they have come, particularly within the last couple of months.

As a result of those conversations, I started looking at my own blog. If I'm going to be talk the talk, I need to be able to walk the walk. It's led me down an interesting path. What do I want my blog to be about? What do I want to be known for? Who is my audience? What can I do for them? Last July, I wrote out My Elevator Pitch.

It's been an interesting journey. I continue to ask myself those questions every day, blog post or not blog post. Instead of being frustrated for not having everything figured out, I'm discovering how healthy it is to have those questions on the forefront. The day that I stop asking those questions, is the day that I need to stop blogging.


I've learned other things throughout this whole process:

Blogging is hard.


Like everyone else in the world, I only get 24 hours a day. Devoting some of that time to blogging has to be intentional. --for someone that has always hated English class and writing papers, it takes time for me to sit down and actually write.

I have to have a strategy (AND stick to it)

On Content
I have milestones in Basecamp with everything that I want to talk about for the next month. But, that "push milestones and all following back" button is so easy!

On the Big Picture
I have to have an overall branding message that I am trying to communicate. What do I want people to remember me for? When people mention Amy Haywood, I want them to think graphic designer, not a programmer. But the truth of the matter is, it's a lot easier to write about code, it's more logical, more objective. I struggle with trying to reconcile the two.

On Being Myself Jason Fried has talked about how he just writes whenever he has something that he wants to share. -- If I did that, I would never write anything.

Gary Vaynerchuk, on the other hand, creates posts all the time. He "crushes it". He answers every comment and every email himself. He puts in ridiculous hours to make it happen. Honestly, I don't know if I can make that kind of sacrifice.

John Gruber doesn't answer everyone's email. He's estimated that he would spend 8 - 10 hours a day just answering email if he did that.

All that's to say, if I'm trying to figure out how to break my blog (not to be confused with destroying my blog, but rather getting people to notice it), then I have to come up with my own tactics. I can look at their strategies, but I can't copy them. I am not Jason Fried, Gary Vaynerchuk, or John Gruber. In fact, in Merlin Mann's interview with Seth Godin, they talk about that. I have to be my own person.

A Lot of content out there is redundant

As ridiculous as it may sound, there are days when I look at the Internet and think, "I have seen all there is to see." A lot of blogs that I read, link to the same stuff. -- Or, even if people are writing their own content, they are a lot of people with similar opinions. Almost every "what I've learned from blogging" post I've read says "It's hard." (Problogger, Chris Brogan...and now mine. I guess I can't say I wasn't warned.) But, I think that's why there's so much worth to original content; it's hard to come by.


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TAGGED AS: blogging - social networking
POSTED IN Social Networking || 0 COMMENTS
01
23
10

My Thoughts on an Apple Tablet

Like all Apple fan kids, I’ve had my head to the ground, listening to the tablet rumblings.


First of all, Apple’s marketing / not marketing is brilliant

Apple has said nothing about a tablet. However, go to MacRumors, Engadget, Tech Crunch, they’re all talking about an Apple Tablet.

Seth Godin, calls it a tribe.

It adds to that the fact that what people really want is the ability to connect to each other, not to companies. So the permission is used to build a tribe, to build people who want to hear from the company because it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, it gives them a story to tell and something to talk about.
_Seth Godin, Tribe Management


What the tablet could mean

“This could change the printing industry forever.“
People are saying that the tablet could change the printing industry forever. In fact, a Sports Illustrated mock-up has been floating around on YouTube:

*SARCASTIC GASP* Interactive pictures and videos, mixed in with magazine articles? Revolutionary? *COUGH* Isn’t this exactly what a web page is? grin

I think we will always have print. Maybe I’m being old fashioned, but until there are standards developed and this type of technology is completely accepted, (I repeat) we will have print.


I’m a proud Kindle owner

Hopefully, I’m not trying to justify my Kindle purchase, but one of the things that I love about it is the digital ink. I’m gonna burn my eyes out on my laptop. The glow of the display doesn’t make reading easy. How is the tablet going to be any different than reading a book your computer or iPhone?


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TAGGED AS: apple - tablet - kindle - amazon - sports illustrated - youtube - rumors - marketing - seth godin
POSTED IN technology || 0 COMMENTS
12
24
09

Replacing the iPhone Camera with Apps

SHAKE IT PHOTO ($.99)

This app lets you take Polaroids. It will automatically color and add the frame to your photo. As soon as the photo takes, you have to shake your iPhone to develop it. I love the treatment, but after you take a few pictures, shaking your phone gets old. My other beef? When I take the photo, it's the iPhone rectangle size. When it resizes, colors, and frames, it changes my aspect ratio to square too. I can guess where it will clip, but it is frustrating that I can't frame up a shot the exact way I want it.



PANO ($1.99)

This app lets you create panoramas. You can have some fun with this app.


BEST CAMERA ($2.99)

So far, this is my favorite camera app. It allows you to add filters to your photos on the fly. One downside? It likes to resize your photos to 800 max width or height, due to the phone's memory. But, for sending them out via TwitPic, it's perfect!


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TAGGED AS: iphone - apple - photography - apps
POSTED IN photography || 0 COMMENTS
12
18
09

How I taught myself to program

I'm often asked, "How do you know all this stuff?" Usually, I just chuckle and say "Oh, I just I picked it up." This time, instead of laughing my geekiness off, I thought I would share. Most of the stuff I know, I taught myself.

Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign

I'm a huge fan of Lynda.com. You can subscribe for $25/month, which gets you access to her entire video library. I've learned so many tips and trips for using Adobe products that I've quickly become the go to person on my team for "How do you do __________?"

HTML

My very first job was with a web company. I came in, knowing close to nothing. They were very gracious and patient with me. Within the first couple of weeks, I was handed a basic introduction to HTML book. Read this. --So I don't remember exactly what the book was... but, I've written a basic crash course of my own that should at least give you a starting place.

CSS

NOTE: This book concentrates on the concepts of CSS 2. I know people are pushing for CSS 3, however, I've yet to really sink my teeth into it, because it's not supported across the board.

PHP and MySQL

Kevin Yank does a fantastic job of explaining code in a way that makes sense. This book will help you with all the essentials you need for understanding PHP and MySQL.

If you're looking for more advanced PHP (i.e. Object Oriented programming), I also read a good chunk of Harry Fuecks' The PHP Anthology. However, I'll warn you: he's a large contributor for PEAR. I was disappointed by how much he relied on the PEAR libraries instead of rolling up his sleeves and actually explaining PHP.



jQuery

jQuery is a JavaScript library. Other popular libraries that you may have heard of are MooTools or Prototype. I don't know what prompted me to pick jQuery, but I've been so pleased with the ease of use. It was far easier to learn than what I expected.

ActionScript

I watched the Lynda.com Flash Actionscript 3.0 videos and then use the Flash Quickstart and O'Reilly's Essential Actionscript 3.0 for reference.

CodeIgniter

If you're not familiar with CodeIgniter, it is a PHP framework. A lot of the functionality that would normally take a few hours to set up is already been built in. Recently, I've realized that I'm a control freak when it comes to writing code. I love the fact that I don't have to give up any of this control, but can move ten times faster in the building process.

The hardest part for me, in learning CodeIgniter, was wrapping my mind around the MVC model. Once you get that, it's pretty straight forward.

One of the reasons that I love CodeIgniter is Ellis Labs has done such a fantastic job in writing documentation. (thank you!) So between reading through their site, forums, and other people's tutorials, I got up to speed pretty quickly.


Expression Engine

Jason Irelan has done a fantastic video screencast on Expression Engine. -- Granted Ellis Lab just released EE2.0, but Jason's already written an ebook for that too! I haven't read it but, I've already bought it.

Wordpress

The other day, I shared my entire Wordpress collection. As I mentioned at the top of that post, Digging into Wordpress, has proved be the best resource I have found, to date, on Wordpress.

Movable Type

This one is a little bit harder. As I mentioned in my CMS comparison post, it's been hard for me to find ACCURATE resources. On their site, Movable Type has a Designer's guide that is so-so, at best. Even then, I've found some of the documentation to be wrong and definitely lacking. The best resource I've found has been co-workers that have run into the same issues I have. (helps you alot, I know.)

My next undertaking: Building an iPhone app

So, I guess it's pretty obviously, I LOVE to learn. Once I feel like I have a good grip on a subject, I look for another challenge. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to write an iPhone app. The syntax is a little different than what I'm used to, coming at it from a PHP background. But, I'm finding that my knowledge of Flash helps more than anything else.

One final shout out

A resource that is often overlooked is Google. I don't think I could code without it. You don't think about it, because it is the middle man, but it is an invaluable resource.
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TAGGED AS: jQuery - PHP - HTML - CSS - ActionScript - Flash - MySQL - CodeIgniter - Movable Type - Expression Engine - programming
POSTED IN web development || 0 COMMENTS
12
15
09

My Entire Wordpress Collection

I'm a digital pack rat! I love collecting links, images, and little nuggets of information. Today, I thought I'd dive into my Delicious account and share my Wordpress collection with you.


CLIF NOTES :: IF YOU ONLY CLICK ON 2 LINKS

A few weeks ago I wrote a post that compared multiple CMSes (Content Management Systems.) Wordpress was one of them. I talked about how the community was over saturated. There is so much information out there! I don't know who to trust. However, I recently found an ebook that Chris Coyier helped write:

Digging into Wordpress It is hands down, the best comprehensive resource that I have found to date on Wordpress. His ebook is more than worth it's weight in gold.

Elliot Jay Stocks has written some quality Wordpress blog posts. His Wordpress Theme, Starkers, can be downloaded for free. It is a fantastic starting point for creating your own custom themes.

THE COLLECTION

These by the date I found them, with the most recent at the top:

Advanced Power Tips for WordPress Template Developers: Reloaded - Smashing Magazine

22 Latest Exceptional WordPress Hacks | Tutorials | instantShift

The Business of Selling WordPress Themes: Part 1 | Design Shack

Creating a Static Front Page « WordPress Codex

WordPress News, Hacks, Tipps, Tutorials, Plugins and Themes - WP Engineer

Ask the Expert – Using Wordpress to Build Large Scale Websites with Derek Herman | Design Informer

Stupid WordPress Tricks • Perishable Press

10 Tutorials to Take Your WordPress Development Skills to the Next Level

Advanced Power Tips For WordPress Template Developers - Smashing Magazine

20+ Brand New and Incredibly Useful WordPress Plugins - Nettuts+

Excellent Tutorials to Utilize the Power of WordPress and Facebook

10 Wordpress Plugins To Boost Up Your Theme You Have Ever Known | AEXT.NET

My Wordpress Cheat Sheet

How To Change WordPress Permalink Structure with Permalink Redirect Plugin | SYP

10 Useful Text Enhancing Plugins for WordPress | Web Design Ledger

The Autopsy Of WordPress As CMS With 25 Great WP Plugins & Designs | Onextrapixel - Showcasing Web Treats Without Hitch

How to Create a Wordpress Theme from Scratch - Nettuts+

How to Write a Wordpress Plugin | Devlounge

13 Helpful Cheat Sheets for Building WordPress Themes | Web Design Ledger

9 WordPress Hacks to Encourage User Interactivity | Vandelay Design Blog

10 Useful WordPress Coding Techniques « Smashing Magazine

How to Set Up Custom Wordpress Category Templates in Four Easy Steps

#41: WordPress as a CMS

30 Incredibly Useful WordPress Hacks | Tutorial9

List of all WP action hooks and filters || Adam Brown, BYU Political Science

Dissection of a WordPress theme: Part 1 | Urban Giraffe

How To Create a WordPress Theme: The Ultimate WordPress Theme Tutorial

10+ WordPress plugins for developers

13 Great Wordpress Plugins To Power Up Your Admin Area | Pro Blog Design

300+ Resources to Help You Become a WordPress Expert | Webdesigner Depot

7 Very Simple Tips and Tricks for getting More out of WordPress - Inspect Element

15 Unconventional Uses of WordPress in Action

Create astonishing iCal-like calendars with jQuery | Stefano Verna

15 Resources for Setting Up an E-Commerce Site with WordPress

Create A Wordpress Theme: setting the working environment | Designer Daily

Big List of Ping Servers - Joe Levi

12 Essential Security Tips and Hacks for WordPress

30 WordPress Development Tutorials | Pro Blog Design

WordPress Configuration Tricks

20+ WordPress Recipes (Codes)

10 Social Media Plugins for your WordPress Blog | Social Media | Tutorial Blog

WPDesigner.com » So you want to create WordPress themes huh?

In the Woods - Create an Options Page For Your WordPress Theme

WordPress theming for beginners, an introduction | Design Reviver

22 Mixed Quality Wordpress Hacks | Tutorials | instantShift

10 Wordpress Plugins That Will Increase Your Search Engine Ranking

10 Things You Need To Know About WordPress 2.8 | Technosailor.com

10 Wordpress Hacks to Make Your Life Even Easier

10 Wordpress Plugins Guaranteed to Save You Time

The Ultimate Guide to Setting up WordPress after an Install | Pro Blog Design

40 Exceptional “CMS Enabling” WordPress Plugins | Noupe

Custom Fields Hacks For WordPress | How-To | Smashing Magazine

In the Woods - 9 Useful Snippets for Your WordPress Functions

In the Woods - WordPress for Designers: Day 14

110+ Massive Wordpress Video Tutorial Collection | 1stwebdesigner - Love In Design

101 Techniques for a Powerful CMS using WordPress | Noupe

Download "Gallery": A Free WordPress Theme | Freebies | Smashing Magazine

15 Impressive and Beautiful Uses of WordPress | Web Design Ledger

Developing a Wordpress Theme | Dezinerfolio

12 WordPress Plugins for Theme Development | Vandelay Design Blog

Shopp — plugin ecommerce for wordpress

WordPress › All in One SEO Pack « WordPress Plugins

Working with Custom Fields in WP | Self Conclusion

20 WordPress Tricks to Improve Your Blog

15 Useful Wordpress Tricks to Make Your Theme Even Better - ForTheLose.org

The TTFTitles WordPress Plugin @ WordPress Plugins

10 Steps To Protect The Admin Area In WordPress | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine

Flutter : WordPress CMS Plugin by Freshout

WordPress How-To: Styling Author Comments | Spoonfed Design

Info: 8 Useful SQL Hacks for WordPress | WordPress Blogging | Blog Perfume

Plugin: Organize Series Posts In WordPress | WordPress Blogging | Blog Perfume

10 Killer WordPress Hacks | How-To | Smashing Magazine

WordPress Tutorial: Category Trick for WP 2.7 | Vandelay Website Design

5 Amazing New WordPress 2.7 Features - NETTUTS

Interesting resources to add new features to WordPress

15 Useful Tools for WordPress Bloggers - Six Revisions

Function Web Design & Development [ Blog ] » How-To: Taking WordPress One Step Further

Building Custom WordPress Theme

10 Useful RSS-Tricks and Hacks For WordPress | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine

DISQUS | Turn Blog Comments into a Webwide Discussion with a Powerful Comment System

The Very First Steps After a Fresh WordPress Install

Most Wanted WordPress Hacks: 11 New Requests | Noupe

100+ Wordpress Video Tutorials, from Basic to Advanced : Speckyboy - Web Design, Web Development and Graphic Design Resources

10 Steps to a Client Friendly Wordpress CMS | StylizedWeb.com

How I Learned To Build Wordpress Themes | Design Reviver

40 Great Web/Graphic Design Resources | Think Design

WPCandy - WordPress Reference Guide

Color Paper: A Free WordPress Theme | Freebies | Smashing Magazine

Top 10 Tutorials for Developing WordPress Themes | Vandelay Website Design

Function Web Design & Development [ Blog ] » Tutorial: Creating Custom Write Panels in WordPress

5 Trends of Popular WordPress Blogs- Part1

Ultimate Plugins For WordPress | I'm Blogging That!

How to Disassemble a Free WordPress Theme Part 2 | Blog design Blog for Blog Designers

Automating My WordPress Workflow — WPCandy — WordPress Themes, Plugins, Tips, and Tricks

Wordpress Plugins To Use On A Design Blog

78 Unique Wordpress Themes - CssLeak | CSS Gallery, Showcase of beautiful Web Design

How to Create a Wordpress Theme from Scratch - NETTUTS

All In One SEO Pack WordPress Plugin | Semper Fi Web Design

10 Checks to the Perfect WordPress theme - Yoast - Tweaking Websites

How To Create WordPress Themes From Scratch Part 1 » Themetation

13 Wordpress Plugins You Probably Don’t Use But Should - Opensource, Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Developers

25+ Essential Articles For Every WordPress Beginner

8 WordPress Plugins for Page Management - Mashable

WordPress Archive that *works*: StepxStep Guide and Plugins

WordPress Developer’s Toolbox | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine

The Top 12 RSS Plugins for WordPress

45+ Must See WordPress themes

60+ Unusual WP Blog Designs

Powerfull List of WordPress Lifesavers Plugins

Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques

Most Desired WordPress Hacks: 11 Common Requests and Fixes

Build Your Own URL Shortening and Redirection Service in WordPress | WebDevLounge | design, development, SEO and wordpress | articles, discussion and community

WordPress › WP-CMS Post Control « WordPress Plugins

WordPress CMS modifications » Getting started

How to use WordPress as a Truly Customized CMS (Multiple Headers, Footers, Sidebars and more!) | Web Designer + Front-End Web Developer | Selene M. Bowlby

Five Wordpress "CMS Enabling" Plugins « Andy Peatling on WordPress

Things To Consider When Using WordPress as a CMS | Devlounge

WordPress Theme Hacks

User:Matt/WordPress as CMS « WordPress Codex

WordPress Lessons « WordPress Codex

Photopress Theme for WordPress

Top 10 Wordpress Plugins | Blog Oh Blog


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TAGGED AS: wordpress - programming
POSTED IN web development || 4 COMMENTS
 
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FROM THE PAST
 
February 2010
 
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RECENT PAST
  • What I’ve Learned about Blogging
  • My Thoughts on an Apple Tablet
  • Replacing the iPhone Camera with Apps
  • How I taught myself to program
  • My Entire Wordpress Collection
  • Even More Inspiration
  • Displaying a Vimeo Feed with jQuery
  • Displaying a Flickr Feed with jQuery
  • Importing a YouTube Feed using jQuery
  • Importing a Twitter feed using jQuery


CATEGORIES
  • A Day's Worth
  • animation
  • I've Been Thinking...
  • design
  • Chew On This
  • Finder's Keepers
  • God Things
  • Illustration
  • Life is Good
  • photography
  • productivity
  • Social Networking
  • technology
  • typography
  • uncategorized
  • video
  • web development


TAG YOU'RE IT
animation branding design expression engine gtd illustration iphone jQuery mac photography print productivity programming quote social networking technology Twitter video web development youtube


READING
Linchpin
The Design of Everyday Things
Content Strategy for the Web


WATCHING
Lost : Season 3
Chuck : Season 2
Love Happens


LISTENING
Hello Hurricane
Relient K : Forget and Not Slow Down
Paramore :: Brand New Eyes


WISHING
  • iTunes Gift Certificate
  • Nike Plus Watch
  • Nikon Macro Lens


CLICKING
  • 15 jQuery Plugins for Better Web Page Element Layouts - Speckyboy Design Magazine
  • 100+ Resources for WordPress Theme Developers – DesignM.ag
  • CSS3 Techniques You Should Know
  • Free High Resolution Textures - Lost and Taken
  • Free High Res Mixed Brushes Pack for Photoshop
  • Interviews – Shawn Blanc
  • Lost in Space Typography in Photoshop | Abduzeedo | Graphic Design Inspiration and Photoshop Tutorials
  • Create a Cool Wet Ink Typography Effect in Photoshop
  • A List Apart: Articles: Dynamic Text Replacement
  • Enabling WebDav
  • Wordtracker 7-Day Free Trial
  • CSS text-indent: An Excellent Trick To Style Your HTML Form | AEXT.NET
  • Notable | Easiest way for teams to provide feedback on websites.
  • Awesome Inline Form Labels - ZURB Playground - ZURB.com
  • Sproing! – Make An Elastic Thumbnail Menu | Build Internet!


BLOGGING
  • Web Design Ledger
  • Video Copilot
  • Vandelay Design
  • Trend Land
  • Unplugged
  • Spoonfed Design
  • Traffikd
  • Think Design
  • Ward-O-Matic
  • Darrel Girardier
  • Share Some Candy
  • Smashing Magazine
  • Six Rivisions
  • Neatorama
  • Seth Godin
  • Most Inspired.
  • Logo Design Love
  • Inspiration Resource
  • Grayscale Gorilla
  • Fuel Your Photography
  • Fuel Your Blogging
  • Fuel Your Creativity
  • Fudge Graphics
  • Fubiz
  • EEInsider
  • DVice
  • Design Work Life
  • Design Shack
  • Design Reviver
  • Design Daily News
  • Daring Fireball
  • Creattica
  • David Airey
  • Carsonified
  • blog.spoon graphics
  • Abduzeedo
  • Vector Tuts
  • A Beautiful Mess
  • Net Tuts
  • PSD Tuts
  • Lifehacker
  • Swiss Miss

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