Create tiling backgrounds with bgpatterns
BGpatterns let’s you create seamlessly tiling backgrounds online with just a few simple clicks. Create a new background for your Twitter profile, web site or anywhere else that accepts custom backgrounds, without having to open an image editor.
As well as creating backgrounds for yourself, each day one generated background is chosen as the background of the day by users’ vote and there is also an overall champion, the background with the highest votes overall.
Go to bgpatterns.com
Create Flash animations
Animasher is a new service that allows anyone to create free Flash animations. It’s very simple to use, simply choose from a library of available images (or use your own if you want) apply movement, sound, text etc. It can then be saved and embedded in your web site or blog.
To get started it’s probably best to watch the demo movie on the front page and don’t forget to read their terms of use before using the animations.
Found via Mashable!
The best blog coaching program at a discount
I wrote about Yaro Starak’s blog coaching program a few days ago. Yaro just informed me that his Blog Mastermind coaching program currently charges in Australian dollars rather then US dollars.
Since the US dollar is anywhere from 5% to 10% stronger than the Aussie dollar as I write this, that’s a 5% to 10% price saving for you if you join Blog Mastermind now.
By now you probably know about Blog Mastermind. Read more
Free fonts at UrbanFonts
Typography plays a huge part in any design, whether you are simply creating a small personal web site or a professional design for a large corporation. Just like colour choices, a site’s readability adds to the user experience and mood of the design. There are many places on the web which list either paid or free fonts. One of the latest sites to join the party is Urbanfonts.
Urbanfonts lists about 8,000 fonts and dingbats in it’s database, organized into categories such as calligraphy fonts, handwritten, 3D, typewriter, etc.
I think the main feature that sets Urbanfonts apart is the organization of their site which is easy to scan through and find what you are looking for fast. The site is not overrun with popups and while they do have quiet a bit of advertising, they’re not quiet as obtrusive as some free font directories’ ads can be. The site uses some Ajax nicely to display previews when the mouse hovers over words giving you quick loading descriptions and previews of images without having to wait for another whole page to load.
The site also has a fonts blog and forum which adds some extra interest to the site and contains some fairly good reading.
Start blogging the right way
Many people dream of earning some extra income through the internet, whether as a side business or as a full time income. There is much to learn and the process can take years of trial and error. For this reason six figure blogger Yaro Starak has but together some free training videos that take you through the beginning stages of blogging, all the way from installing the software to creating RSS feeds. I find Yaro’s style of teaching very easy to follow and watching these videos is a great way to skip the learning curve of becoming a blogger.
For those of you who are already familiar with the process but would love to learn some methods to earn a better income, Yaro also has material that is worth seeing. The conversion blogging video is a good explanation of the steps needed to help your blog convert readers into buyers (with some videos which show how he makes his money here).
Lastly for those who are ready to really get things moving, Yaro has a coaching program, which has only just opened it’s doors again after many months of being full. Chances are no matter which internet related blog you visit this week someone will be raving about this mentoring program. If you watch any of Yaro’s videos you will probably see why, so head over to his site.
Colour palettes by topic
For this article I have decided to do a little research and find some popular colour palettes being used across web sites of various topics. Some of the sites I looked at are the most popular in their field while others are just personal favorites. Basically these are not exactly scientific findings, instead simply some colour combinations that I enjoyed and found effective for their topics. So without further ado, here’s my list.
| Subject | Palette |
|---|---|
| Art & Illustration |    |
| Education |    |
| Technology |    |
| Photography |    |
| Business |    |
| Interior/home design |    |
| News |    |
| Celebrity/gossip |    |
| Food |    |
| Travel |    |
| Web design |    |
Thanks to Colourlovers for the help with the palette generation. Hover your mouse over each colour palette strip to see which web site the palette comes from.
Web templates
Every day I get emails asking for help and explanations of terms and processes in web design. This is why I have decided to create a series of articles aimed at beginners. This article is the first in the series.
Web templates - why use them
Web templates are ideal to use when building a professional looking website in a small amount of time and on a lower budget then when hiring someone to do a custom design. With templates you simply need to do edit the ready made page rather then having to start from scratch. Web templates can be used to set up any type of website and are often used by a wide audience ranging from web designers to people building their first site. Web templates offer webmasters a great opportunity to minimize development time and get new sites on the web sooner rather than later. Read more
Free web template - Squick Design
This is a web template, featuring 3 separate pages: Home, contact and portfolio. There’s no need to link back to this site when using it but it is always appreciated should you choose to!
The top squigly arrow is removable without any problems. Simply remove the arrow.jpg reference from the html documents.
You can see a preview of the page here or you can download the template in a zip file squick.zip
Design Inspiration of the week - nemstudio
This week’s design inspiration comes from blog.nemstudio.com. As well as the beautiful header, the right hand side bar also has a fantastic design with careful attention to detail. I love the downlights!
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