Blog News Watch

Thanks to The Net Is Dead for a funny blast from the past! And the Bill Gates part doesn’t just apply to web design, of course.

So, this is pretty sweet. Last week, I’m browsing through the RSS feeds, catching up on stuff I’ve missed in the runup to the holidays. I come across this post from Penelope Trunk on Brazen Careerist, one of my absolute favorite blogs for her writing style and unique perspective on all matters related to work and life. Penelope says:

Cory [Miller] is offering to create a new blog design (and implement it) for someone for free. It’s gotta be in WordPress, (technically called a WordPress Theme) and he’s going to give you six hours of his time. …  If you’d like this chance to spruce up your blog, send an email to me … with three sentences about why you’d be a good candidate for the award.

So, me being - well, me - I wrote to Penelope:

Hey Penelope - only three? OK, here goes:

1. I am a solo lawyer hoping to branch out into coaching other solo lawyers (and other kinds of solo professional service providers) in developing their web presence and practices, and as such a really nifty web presence of my own is a key.
   
2. I already have such a site and it’s as developed as I can make it using my own (limited) Wordpress skills, and while I and many others like it, it’s not quite “right” for what I want to do with this site, on further reflection - not “inspired” enough, and the features are lacking (I could go on and on about what I don’t like about the theme).
   
3. Because I’m monetizing this blog there’s a bunch of stuff Cory can tinker with, such as text link ads, a sales page for affiliate programs, a bookstore (Amazon Associate program), and some other pages, plus the main page blog; or if he’d prefer he can ignore all that stuff and the theme will take care of the overall “look and feel” (and I can do the rest); either way, your readers can see how one blog theme can be implemented and stretched across multiple purposes - creativity in action!
   

Wordy McWord here, signing off, with a “pretty please”!

I think it was the “pretty please” that did it. Cory picked my blog, and so I’ll be getting a brand new design from him within the next few weeks or so!

Can I just say - apart from how awesome this is for me personally - how awesome a thing it is to do, period? For anyone? You want to build your blog traffic? Figure out something you can do like Penelope’s Coachology - find a way to give something valuable away for free. You’ll get people commenting, visiting, linking, and looking forward to the next post! Make it something like this, that people can check in on (i.e., a finished website, or an article, or a redesign of some feature) and it’s even better. It doesn’t even have to be something you can do yourself; if you know someone who’d like to get some more traffic for him or herself, you can partner up. You present the contest, your partner gives the reward, and you both (of course) get to blog about it.

Technorati Tags: cory miller, penelope trunk, brazen careerist, new blog design, the inspired solo

If you haven’t switched to Wordpress yet (why the heck not?! Seriously - it’s by far the best choice for pro bloggers and serious amateurs), this news might not mean much to you. But for the rest of us, it’s cause for a party. Cutline, one of the most popular Wordpress themes around, has a brand new three-column version available for download.

One of the reasons I love Cutline (and others do as well) is its versatility. It’s a true template, in the original sense of the word - a framework around which you can build your own ideal blog. It’s highly readable, very accessible, and the “newspaper” style aesthetic imbues it with a ready-made sense of trustworthiness that every niche blog craves.

Give it a try, and let us know in the comments how it’s working for you.

cutline, wordpress themes