As it turns out, Wordpress theming is not all that difficult. Wordpress comes with a great built-in theme editor, and creating a new theme is (mostly) as easy as changing the CSS file. The only difficulty is determining what all the classes and ids in the CSS file are referring to, considering the names are obscure and confusing. So to stop any potential kvetching (just learned this weird word today...), here are some tools and resources for the lazy designer to get started. A Wordpress Theme Generator, the Theme Development Codex, and the 5 Minute Wordpress Theme Guide.

And also, an interesting post from the Google Blog.

"Three of our most useful products for website owners are Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, and Google Website Optimizer. On July 8, we're joining forces to bring you a free webinar about all of them so you can learn more about how they can boost your website when used together."

I had heard about the webmaster tools and Analytics, but the website optimizer is entirely new to me, and I'll be looking through that.

Bill Gates' last full day at Microsoft. The end of an era. I wonder what's next?

PressPass

The Last Day

Unbelievable. Remember my post about Cafepress and online businesses? No I can't go a day (okay, maybe two days), without seeing a referral from somebody Googling "web business" or "online business," and these keywords are only going to make it worse . So I will probably continue blogging about online money making, seeing that I'm going into affiliate marketing. My ever so lofty goal is earn $1000 by the end of two months. So maybe if I get a steady stream of commenters, they'll have it easy and I might end up detailing step by step affiliate marketing techniques. But I'll see how that goes first.

Also, I won a T-Shirt from one of my favorite (Favorites listed in my Live Favorites Gadget) websites - Inhabitat! Inhabitat is a fantastic site dedicated to sustainable design. The designs showcased are just plain amazing, and will really inspire you and change the way you look at everyday items. The site also receives a steady flow of updates, If you haven't already, I highly encourage you to take a look at this fantastic website.

Today I stumbled upon a great web application that creates custom word art. No, not Word Art. (I couldn't find a sample of what I'm talking about). The site is wordle.net. While Wordle won't shape the words into custom forms to create the hip wordart I'm talking about, it does create a great framework, and is much faster than create endless text layers in Photoshop.

On a side note, the K'nex fansite K'nex Innovation is finally up and running! You can see it along with all of my other websites in my Live Favorites widget or click here. At the moment it is hosted on HostMonster (same as BlueHost), but I may end up switching to Host Gator very soon since the Host Monster servers are constantly timing out. Also, this seems to be a pretty common problem, so I'm going to wait another few weeks and see how it goes.

The purpose of the internet is to interact, and the purpose of a blog is to express. So logically, a weblog would probably be a journal where thoughts and interaction occur through commenters. However, commenters frequently seem to leave comments anonymously, preventing the blogger from talking with the commenter and fully understanding his or her views.

The anonymous comment usually only causes the blogger to consider a new idea without fully understanding it. Also comes the question is why they post anonymously. It may be appropriate if the two people are acquaintances, but for simple strangers, it seems to be fear of disagreement. Well, if adam from the last post comes back and answers my questions, that'd be great.

As it turns out, Adam discovered this blog after Googling "cafepress revenue million," and my dismissive blog post seemed to have dashed his hopes, and so he pounded out a random message to convince himself that I was wrong.

I've been thinking about online businesses recently, but as of now most of my plans have been imitations of existing business models. But numerous real-world business models have not been "ported" to the net yet, and doing so would probably create a very successful business.

Business online is different from the "real world" business in that there is a lack of inherent limitations such as distance, location, and time. Physical businesses need to hire workers, can only be open certain times of day to maintain profits, and must pay money for the store and countless other things. Online stores are free from all of these limitations and are thus much easier to maintain.

A great business model is the franchise. Wikipedia says that "Franchising refers to the method of practicing and using another person's philosophy of business." Of course, Wikipedia is right (Non sarcastic). But basically it lets you set up shop under someone else's shop name, while a large portion of royalties are paid to the franchiser. This is probably one of these best business models because people essentially ask you to make you money and it is probably also easier for the franchisee to set up shop due to the establishment of the brand name. Not only that, but expansion and brand recognition is much faster than with non-franchises. Plus, it gives the added benefit of making your business look like an evil empire because of the numerous locations (Starbucks, McDonald's, College Prep type businesses).

Some real-world examples are McDonald's, Subway, and Quiznos (which happen to be my favorite fast food joints). Some online stores are in fact online franchises of sorts. Cafepress is similar in that sellers set up shop under the Cafepress name, and create their own products, while a (massive) portion of profits is paid to Cafepress (making it impossible to sell thus making it useless). In fact, it is probably easier to hand print shirts and set up your own store. So basically, don't use Cafepress  (First emoticon ever on this blog!), and open your own store. Just as franchises in the real world have begun sprouting left and right like shrooms after a summer rain, numerous internet "franchises" have also appeared. But to make some money, forget setting up a Cafepress shop. Set up your own net franchise!

A basic pattern seems to be create some template product (Cafepress uses mugs, shirts, underwear, etc.), allow franchisee (user) customization, reap your (the franchiser's) profits. A key is also to establish your store brand to improve potential sales.

Wikipedia notes numerous disadvantages to franchises, but these are all real-world limitations that exist due to distance. With the internet, everything is under control because distance simply does not exist, making this the perfect online model. However this is one of the most common models, and a new business model would definitely mean a different level of success. Here's a list of some business models. Be sure to read about its legality first, before you go off creating pyramid schemes and such . Now if only some of these could be modified for the net... If you think of any ones that would be viable online, drop a comment!

Now that it is summer, I finally have time to redesign Efex Studios, my web design studio's homepage. The current one is horrendous, considering that it was whipped up from scrap code in only 2 hours. This new design will hopefully be modern enough so that a redesign will not be necessary for quite a while. You can take a look at the new design at my deviantArt.

As stated, "I was aiming for a lightweight theme that would not seem confined to a 2D page, so I used transparency to "decrease visual tension" as the Vista UX Guidelines would put it. The final product will also employ use of fade transitions to create a more dynamic and polished user experience." Basically I didn't want the website to look flat like every other page, but something that had depth. I'm also aiming for dynamic transitions such as fades without resorting to Flash.

I thought it was quite difficult to create a professional looking design, but in reality it is as simple as mastering the pen tool and appropriate use of brushes and gradients. Mastering gradients is key to good design, because gradients gives websites mood, defining the content. My first few designs were quite bland, but eventually I magically conjured up this fancy spacey blue green theme, and I'm quite satisfied with it.

I'm mostly done with the layout, but to achieve transparency, I had to use CSS as transparent PNGs would have slowed the page down horribly because of the large area needed to be transparent. However, because I chose to use some fancy CSS transparency effects, making a layout was a complete pain, because I had to write up conditional statements to compensate for IE7's inadequacy. But finally, I've got the layout settled. The site will probably be completed sometime late next week.

And remember, Firefox Download Day 2008 is tomorrow! Click the link down left for details!

I'm calling it. After seeing the new products and services revealed today at WWDC, this is the beginning of the end for Windows Mobile. Aside from a slew of fancy applications and developer features, the most notable new development was (the decidedly egotistical (hey, it's Mac)) mobileme. Mobileme is a service that actively updates your personal content throughout your PCs, iPhones, and Macs in real time, synchronizing all your content as it is updated. It offers the user-oriented features Windows Live combined with the synchronization of Windows Live Mesh, creating an incredibly useful service.

In addition, Apple has developed a method of squeezing money out of mobileme because they are charging users for mobileme, while Windows Live continues to flounder and hasn't shown any signs of even attempting to capitalize. What is amazing is that Apple is essentially charging users to synchronize their data for them, and people will actually pay. Meanwhile, Windows Live Mesh was released into the world with little fanfare and remains a free service.

The best feature aside from the much needed 3G is the incredible price drop to only $199! For those of you that see not the phone, but essentially an UMPC, this price makes every other small MP3 player obsolete, since it has capabilities far exceeding any MP3 player. Sansa View, Zune 4/8, and iPod Nano to name a few. Unfortunately, the phenomenal price is limited by a required AT&T data plan of some sort, negating its benefits. Recognizing this, the iPod Touch retains its high price of $299.