Our latest find is the Ugly Sweaters site.

You’ve heard of the new wonky tradition that some have where every Christmas they buy and put on the ugliest sweaters they can get their hands on. Yes, it’s true and many hold this tradition near and dear, going all out.

There’s even an ugly sweater contest and ugly sweater Christmas parties all over the US.

If your family wants in on the fun this year, give the site above a visit and browse the many atrocities that the sweater fashion world has ever seen. Whether you want to go hokey, tacky or just plain Grandma style – the Ugly Sweaters site will have something for you.

Cheers, Missy

image via (Kodomut on Flickr)

I’ve been blogging since April 2007 and in that time have amassed quite a library of articles on the web, both on sites I own, sites I’ve sold and sites for paid work. Some time ago, I decided to compile a list of tips and tricks that I’ve learned along my blog and freelance web writing journey – which are now in a book I’ve published entitled Super Blogga.

The book is filled with over 70 plus tips aimed at new blog owners and really anyone with a blog site. But after having written the book, I then had to navigate through the online digital book publishing world to get it out to the public.

Below are the places I have decided to publish the book, and how you can too.

1. Your Blog – this is one place you might not want to overlook in your book publishing arsenal. Let me tell you why. You control everything on your blog, including what and when to write an article, this is HUGE and potentially a venue like no other on the web. If your blog has been around for some time, then you might already have readers and or email subscribers that might be quite interested in your book. One thing many blog owners are doing is sending a survey via their email list and asking their readers what they think of so and so topic for a book. This is great for getting feedback on your idea.

Regardless of the topic you choose and when you get it going, the key point is to make sure you use your blog to get the book out.

2. Amazon – no stranger to the online publishing dynamic, the Kindle from Amazon has truly brought digital publishing to the masses. But more importantly, it will allow you the FAITHFUL, HARD WORKING BLOG OWNER to publish a book many will read via their trusty and dedicated Kindle ebook reader. The Kindle is a gift to authors and publishers around the globe, because it has made it more accessible (and even cool) to read again. Yay!

3. Smashwords – this is a gem of website and tool, because it allows you to submit your book manuscript once and it formats it for use on several platforms, including two biggies – the Nook from Barnes and Noble and the almighty iPhone from Apple. With millions of iPhone users, this one is a must. Just ask any iPhone or iPad user if they use the ebook app and you will get a resounding – YES!

There you have it, three must submit places to publish your blog related book. Or any book for that matter.

Write it, publish it and submit to the above.

Have you had any difficulties in submitting to the above three places? Let us know below in the comment area, we wanna hear it.

They’re great for when you need an extra eye on the screen, and as stickers you simply adhere each one to the various letters and numbers on your keyboard. Easy as one two three.

Whether you need glow in the dark keyboard stickers for late night blogging or simply think they would a a degree of fun to your routine, give these a try.

This is the offical WordPress t-shirt from the smart peeps over at WordPress.org and comes in green for men or bright red for women. These are pretty cool and I plan to give one away here soon, so be sure to follow on Twitter or via RSS to get notice of the giveaway.

As for the t-shirt itself? It’s made from cotton and manufactured by American Apparel which designs cool tee’s, plus it’s available in sizes small through XXX-large, so quite the gamut for men or women.

Profess your love (and devotion) to the Matt Mullenweg community, by getting and wearing one of these super cool WordPress t-shirts.

Speak your peace below:
Do you have one?
Want one?
Like the fresh clean design or think it’s stale?

This free plugin allows you to (leave notes in your admin dashboard) and it’s super duper easy to use, see a screenshot above which shows how it looks and how simple it is.

Great for keeping track of various blog metrics such as subscribers, keywords, traffic, goals or to set up reminders. I use it to keep track of keywords i’m trying to rank for including the search volume, my ranking in Google and the date of each of these.

No more scraps of paper for me, now I just use Admin Notepad and all is stored easily right there in plain view.

This free WordPress plugin is available via the WordPress repository.

Your turn to speak:
Do you use it? If so, what for.
How do you keep track of blog metrics or reminders?
Know of a better solution?

Looking for a restaurant theme for your new outdoor cafe? They got several to choose from. How about a real estate theme for that fledging realtor business of yours? Check. Maybe a CMS for your portfolio or an eCommerce theme for that cool new web-based shop of yours? Check and check again.

And these aren’t boring, stale HTML looking themes either. These are great looking, fully featured and multi-faceted WordPress themes. Many of them come with admin options that rival the likes of Thesis, Headway or Studio Press.

• Looking for a front page content slider?
• Maybe built-in social media buttons?
• Or the coveted SEO functions that older less robust WordPress themes simply do not have

Theme Forest is your guy.

They carry themes and templates for other platforms as well, such as Drupal, eCommerce, Joomla, Magento, etc. But the ones we peruse often and recommend are the WordPress themes on offer.

You’ll be hard pressed to visit the site, and not walk away with a theme, or two (or three). These could serve your personal portfolio or can serve as the foundation for a client’s website or blog.Aside from the high quality, the sheer variety, the niches available etc, the BEST THING about Theme Forest has to be the price. Most themes and templates on the site retail for less than $30, an absolute steal.

The themes come in blog style, CMS style and every flavor in between. You can search by category or by keyword and you can also save themes in a bookmarks folder, sort of like a playlist for themes.

Know someone who might be interested?

Should you want to make a few bucks referring friends or family members to Theme Forest, you can make up to 30% in referral commissions for each person you refer. Pretty generous offer, if you ask me. Just register a free account and then refer away.

So for all the reasons above and more or whether you recently created a site or blog and now seek a WordPress theme to dress up your web property or need a theme for a client (or friends) site, give Theme Forest a try.

In a blog what are the roles of the contributor, author and editor?

I assume you’re talking about a WordPress blog…if so, here’s what I found.

Administrators – have access to all the administration features.
Editors – can publish posts, manage posts as well as manage other people’s posts, etc.
Authors – can publish and manage their own posts.
Contributors – can write and manage their posts but not publish posts or upload media files.
Subscribers – can read comments/comment/receive newsletters, etc.

*found by clicking HELP in the users section of WordPress administrator panel

via LockerGnome

Want more? For a good explanation of the differences between Author vs Contributor, see this WordPress Site Builder page.

The search box!

If your particular WordPress theme doesn’t have one built into the navigation or sidebar, add it at once. This is a vital piece of web design that musn’t be overlooked.

Say you have categories and tags prominently displayed throughout your blog site, and or in each article but your visitor and reader isn’t finding what he seeks. What is he (or she) to do?

I can’t tell you how many sites and blogs I’ve been that do not have a search box somewhere clearly earmarked on their site, and I then can’t find what I seek. What a missed opportunity to either capture a reader, a buyer, a subscriber or whatever else you aim to do with your blog, not too mention a horrible way to serve your reader.

Check your blog and see if SEARCH is plainly and clearly found on it? If not, go ahead and add it via the widgets section. WordPress has a search widget you you can easily drag and drop to your sidebar. It’s that simple.

Don’t underestimate the search element on your blog.

Cheers,
Missy

p.s. Want to share a quick and dirty blog tip of your own? Use our submit a tip form and send that baby in.

What is a netbook?

It’s a smaller laptop usually with a 7 to 10 inch screen and all the major PC makers have one or two models available. Dell has one called the Dell Mini 10 which I own, (use alot) and love. It costs me $225 last year in 2010 via Walmart.com and you can still snag a high quality netbook for about the same price.

They’re fully featured with plenty of RAM, good hard drives, web cams, decent sized processors and of course built-in WIFI.

I highly recommend one to all bloggers. They’re great for cafe blogging, park blogging, and other mobile blogging or IM activities. I tend to take mine while I travel, sure the iPad is lighter and smaller but with no keyboard – it’s a no go for me.

I plan to do a round up of a few good high quality inexpensive netbook models in the next few days, so stay tuned.

Cheers,
Missy

p.s. Do you have a netbook? If so, which model and do you agree or disagree with my sentiment above.

1. Phone and Chat Support – one thing you will come across when you set up a website or blog is that things will inevitably break. It just happens and of course when you least expect it to. This is why tech support is incredibly important a factor to consider when you sign up with a hosting provider. Some only offer email support, while others have a full blown call center you can reach 24/7 which is the case with Host Gator.

2. Price – if you’re setting up a full fledged website or blog even one with shopping cart functionality or other such features, all you need is shared hosting. Don’t let anyone tell you different. A shared hosting account is plenty sufficient to handle your handful of sites, a dedicated server or VPS is absolutely not necessary. Should you in the future balloon to stardom or get a mention on Oprah all you would have to do is upgrade your account to a more robust one that can handle a million or billion page views. But for starting out, shared hosting is all you need which should run you no more than $15 a month tops.

3. Unlimited Domains – as most site owners and bloggers will tell you, when you set your first site up another will eventually follow. It’s highly addictive and after some success under your belt, you will surely want to follow up and create another web property. Which is why it’s good to also take this into consideration when you sign up for a host account. How many domains and sites does your host allow in one account? Host Gator allows unlimited under their plans.

4. Great Affiliate Program – should you want to refer Uncle Ned or Aunt Betty to a good web host, you will get credit for the referral via the Host Gator affiliate program. Simply send your relative (or friend) to the site via a special link given to you and get a nice big fat referral commission for doing so, as much as $50 per referral. They have one of the best affiliate programs in the industry.

5. Free Stuff – are you wanting to switch from another host? No problem as they offer FREE site transfers, which can be a blessing in disguise. Moving an entire site to a different host can be a time consuming and or complicated process, let them do it for you at no cost. This is a major perk for current site owners unhappy with their present host company.

6. History – around since 2002, they no hosting inside and out. As for the company itself? They’re based in Houston, Texas and employ over 400 people.

7. Insane Black Friday Discount Offers – another reason to sign up with Host Gator is their good prices. However on Black Friday is when things really get wacky and special offers are thrown around that no one should pass up. For 2010 it is no different. You can take advantage of their Black Friday promotion this year which offers up 50% off everything and during (special early morning) hours offers up 80% off everything. Now if you know anything about hosting, you know this is a deal like no other. You can sign up for one, two or three years and pay all up front, no need to worry about monthly payments. This one is a no brainer!

Sign up through one of my affiliate links above and take advantage of this blow out annual event as it only comes along once a year. Host Gator is not perfect by any means, but they are a good choice for high quality, reliable, flexible  and affordable hosting.