In that case let me present to you the The Non-Designer’s Design Book
This has to be one of the most recommended design book of all times.
Why?
It is a very simple read. It is great for beginners and acts as a good reference for designers who have been at it a bit.
It offers design guidelines with great examples on how to properly utilize them. While, at the same time there are examples of designs that do not follow the guidelines and still look great!
Bottom line: Design guidelines are just that – guidelines. They are not rules that have to be followed at all costs. The book does however, warn you against common design mistakes that amateur designer’s usually make.
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Topics: Design
High Quality Professional Minisite Templates For Only $7
This is a complete solution! We're Talking Full Blown Graphics--From Top To Bottom--At A FRACTION Of What You Would Pay A Designer! Find out more.
If you have tried using the NextGen Gallery Plugin (and mind you it is one of the best image gallery plugins out there for Wordpress) then chances are you might have run into the php memory limit problem.
What this means is that unless you increase the memory limit, you might have problems with automatic thumbnail creation.
There are a few options here:
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Topics: All Things Wordpress
Amazing Breakthrough In 3-D ECover Actions
If You're An Information Marketer Who Yearns To Transform Your Ecover Graphics From Ho-Hum To HOLY SMOKES, Then You've Got To Read This Story...
While I was busy designing his blog, my friend Rob beat me to this announcement (as soon as I had given him the update on WP). Now I can either re-do the whole thing again or point you to his post so you can read about all the great new features. Oh and he has a video up as well.
See Rob’s Post
And I just upgraded two of my websites to WP 2.5.1
Although some of the features (word count, post revisions, turbo blog) in 2.6 are tempting me to upgrade, I think I will wait a bit and make sure the plugin authors update their plugins to ensure compatibility with 2.6. I’m betting by the time that happens and I get on the 2.6 bandwagon, it will be time for 2.7 … not that I’m complaining 
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95% Of Your
Minisite Design Done For You--INSTANTLY?
This is a complete solution! We're Talking Full Blown Graphics--From Top To Bottom--At A FRACTION Of What You Would Pay A Designer! Find out more.
I seem to be in a redesign everything I see mode lol.
Not only have I recently redesigned this blog, I have also gone ahead and done a complete overhaul of DotsnDashes Website Designs.
I have made both designs wider as I needed the extra space and it gives the site the much needed white space.
DotsnDashes looks so different from what it used to now.
See the old design below:
Click here to see the new design.
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Topics: Design
This has to be the most useful and time saving plugin ever. What are the steps you follow when you install a plugin? Here’s how I do it:
- Look for a plugin which performs the needed function.
- Download the plugin
- Unzip it and place it in the plugins directory locally
- FTP the plugin to my website
- Login to Worpress, go to the plugins page and activate the plugin
Here’s how you do it with Plugin Central:
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Topics: All Things Wordpress
This is not the must-have top of the list plugin. Nor is it one you can’t live without. It is just one of those fun, I want this option, kind of thing.
The plugin I am talking about is the Stray Random Quotes plugin. It let’s you add an unlimited number of quotes, be they famous ones or your own rants, to the database. These posts are then displayed in your sidebar randomly and one at a time.
You can also click next to view the next random quote.
Just a bit of harmless fun!
This can also be used to add a random tip. I can imagine a yellow post-it or a piece of torn paper with some random wisdom posted at the top of your website.
Time to go take a look!
Edit: See how I have used this plugin in the header. It can also be added to your sidebar as a widget if your theme is widget enabled.
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Topics: All Things Wordpress
95% Of Your
Minisite Design Done For You--INSTANTLY?
This is a complete solution! We're Talking Full Blown Graphics--From Top To Bottom--At A FRACTION Of What You Would Pay A Designer! Find out more.
Trying to add code to your wordpress post can be one of the most frustrating experiences. That is if you want the code to appear as code in your post.
Say, something like this:
<ul><li>This would have been a bullet</li></ul>
Had this been added to Wordpress normally, it would have appeared as a bullet. But since I’ve used a really cool plugin called ‘Code Auto Escape’, I can add code as code as long as I add pre and code tags around it.
Now you may never need to show html, xhtml, javacript, php, etc code in yuor posts but just in case you do, this is the plugin to get.
Get the Code Auto Escape Plugin
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Topics: All Things Wordpress Code
Turn Ordinary Sales Letters Into The Extraordinary!
You'll Save A Ton Of Time And Money, Plus Explode Your Sales With The Sales Letter Graphics Pack! Find Out More
I have been installing and trying out new plugins at this blog. Some have worked out very well while others have not been anything to talk about.
So over the next few days I am going to go over the gems that I have found. Some you can’t live without and some are just a luxury.
However, the best out of the lot is the Accordion plugin. See the tabbed navigation in the sidebar for Categories/Archives/Tabs? Yes, that is accordion. It can display up to 6 tabs for plugins which use li tags. This is necessary as it encloses everything in ul list tags.
However, I have a tweak around that.
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Topics: All Things Wordpress
High Quality Professional Minisite Templates For Only $7
This is a complete solution! We're Talking Full Blown Graphics--From Top To Bottom--At A FRACTION Of What You Would Pay A Designer! Find out more.
The one downside of being a web designer is that you are bound to get tired of your own designs and keep changing them way too many times.
As far as this website goes, it is the first change.
Quite different from the first design as well. The colors are muted and it has an overall calming and soothing effect (very important for a blog that will be visited again and again – I hope). If I were to choose an element to represents this design – that’ll be Earth 
Now that gives me an idea. May be I will create 3 more designs and get over with the rest of the elements, too
Well one thing’s for sure. I can work straight for 12 – 14 hours and come up with a complete new blog design. No, it won’t work as fast for you as I need to discuss your blog, get the design approved and consult you every step of the way. Consulting myself doesn’t take very long so that takes care of it.
The most important change for this blog is a wider design. Since it is a personal blog, and just an outlet for me as a designer and a writer, I said what the heck.
So what do you think of this design?
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Topics: Design
Amazing Breakthrough In 3-D ECover Actions
If You're An Information Marketer Who Yearns To Transform Your Ecover Graphics From Ho-Hum To HOLY SMOKES, Then You've Got To Read This Story...
Better late than never!
I admit the blog has been up for over 6 months but I just got a bit lazy (ummm read busy).
Finally added my portfolio –> go check it out
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Topics: Design
Turn Ordinary Sales Letters Into The Extraordinary!
You'll Save A Ton Of Time And Money, Plus Explode Your Sales With The Sales Letter Graphics Pack! Find Out More
