The Article Writer

I guess I shouldn’t complain about my free, buggy WordPress themes. Although the current (now former as of April 2oth) design has a nice, snowy mountain scene featured in the header, I do not like how this design automatically chops off each of my articles by turning them into preview paragraphs. I plan on eventually switching over to a “new” design (Chameleon installed on April 24th — woohoo!), but only after I identify one that is relatively bug free and one that I can live with. Please bear with me as I sort through this process!

On the other hand, I have learned that shelling out $1500 for a unique blog design isn’t all that unusual. In fact, if you get one at that price then you are receiving a relative bargain as some designers are charging $3000 to $5000 per theme.

Yes, on the surface it does sound kind of nuts but Chris Pearson’s, “How Much Should A Design Cost?” on his Pearsonified blog is worth reading to get a better understanding about the blog theme pricing structure. As he mentions, individual blogs generally opt for the lowest costs possible while business blogs willingly shell out the big bucks. And why is that? For one simple reason: companies understand branding very well, therefore “visual appeal” holds a lot of value for them. Plus, all of the unique coding — something site visitors never see — must be added according to what the theme purchaser wants.

You didn’t think that a novice designer would take into consideration your specific needs now, did you?

Yes, I’ll be heading back over to the WordPress parts bin — I mean Codex — to scrounge around for my next theme. I like the various Andreas Viklund themes, but so do millions of other bloggers. Cutline looks cool, but maybe I’ll go the Andy Beard route and simply focus on improving my content.

There is a movement underfoot to encourage bloggers to hold off from blogging for one day in memory/honor of those who were slain by a gunman at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) this past Monday. Immediately, I began to read on several blogs that I regularly follow that people will be using April 30, 2007, for that day of observation. A web site called OneDayBlogSilence.Com was created in a bid to bolster that effort.

I’ve decided not to participate in this particular tribute, but I am not about to list endless excuses as to why I won’t join in (or, in this case refrain).

However, what I will ask is a question to anyone who cares to answer it: is this something that you want to do or are you going along with the masses and holding back from blogging because it is “the thing” to do?

Think about it. I could add more points to support my position, but this article isn’t about that. Rather, is your holding off from blogging something that comes from within or from without?

When you write a comment on a WordPress (WP) blog, did you know that WP automatically adds “no follow” to the link so that search engines can’t index it? Well, that was news to me until I came across Tricia’s Musings a personal blog by a woman in Toronto whose tag line is, “A nurse, a wife, living the fun fun social life.”

Yes, I had thought that since I made my WP blogs user friendly, i.e. I did away with registration and I added Akismet to whack spam, that all of you wonderful commentators have been been getting your just desserts — a link back to your site. Boy, was I ever wrong.

Anyway, it turns out that there is a WP plug-in to get rid of “no follow” by the name of “do follow.” Yes, I installed it on all three of my WP blogs which take comments, so if you haven’t been the beneficiary of a comment on The Article Writer to date, you are now.

The following are some of the other blogs now encouraging comments as they have the “do follow” plug in installed:

*Endangered Spaces
Texas RV Travel blog
On the Horizon
CoolAdzine for Marketers
skeets stuff
Advertising for Success
Tricia’s Musings
Guitar Licks
Breath of Life Photography
Odd Planet

WebStyle
Celebrity Scoop
As the Garden Grows
By the Sea
PBriscoe.com

PJMommy.Com | Slacker Parenting At Its Finest!
Table for Five
Dont Fear the Truth
krissy.nu - life through eyes of Krissy, uncensored and unscripted
Army Mom:New Jersey

Thumbs up to Tricia too. For everyone — comment away!

BTW, you can download a copy of the “do follow” plug-in right here.