Last week I joined the ElegantThemes theme club.

It is a steal at $19.95 per year. You get immediate access to 14 WordPress themes. The theme you are seeing on this blog is one of these 14 themes. As Nick summarizes:

Each WordPress theme comes expertly coded in valid XHTML and CSS, and all are made compatible with the latest version of WordPress. I make sure that each template performs flawlessly in each of the most widely used browsers to insure maximum functionality. Furthermore, all sidebars are made widget ready for your convenience.

Elegant Themes also has a very reasonable licensing agreement. You are allowed to make modifications and remove credit links. As long as you don't claim to own the themes and/or try tell or distribute them and use them on the websites you own you won't be violating terms of use.

Why I did I decide to join the Elegant Themes?

There are hundreds maybe thousands of free WordPress themes available online. Some of them are great themes and supported and updated by the authors who should be praised for their contributions. During the past year and a half as I started using WordPress, I found great free themes I still use.

I also dabbled in modifying these themes and even making my own theme by reading "WordPress Theme Design: A complete guide to creating professional WordPress themes" by Tessa Blakeley Silver. I recommed the book to anyone who wants to create his/her own theme.

WordPress Theme Design

Tessa Blakeley Silver. Packt Publishing 2008, Paperback, 224 pages, $31.57

I found that it is a lot easier and faster to start with a theme and then modify it to my needs and desires. This is the number one reason I joined the Elegant Themes. I got an immediate access to 14 themes to do just that.

Even if you are not interested in doing any modifications, having 14 different themes to choose for your website / blog for only $19,95 is a steal. There are premium WordPress themes available for $79 plus. Yes that is $79 + for one theme. Most themes you get at Elegant Themes have options to change color scheme and look easily. This is great for newbies who still want to have a blog with a unique look.

Here is another tool I use and recommend:

Constant Contact for email marketing, newsletters and online surveys. It does not cost a bundle, it is easy to use and you can get started immediately. It is do-it-yourself email marketing at its best. I have been using constant contact for years now and I am impressed by their service. They have a variety of templates that are easy to use and customize. They also make it a snap to create subscription forms that you can integrate into your web site.

Constant Contact's leading email marketing and online survey tools supported by its expert personal coaching and support help all types of small businesses and organizations create professional-looking email newsletters and insightful online surveys and begin a dialogue with their customers.

The service is great to build and maintain an opt-in list for permission based email marketing. You can send eye-catching HTML email newsletters, email postcards, coupons to your clients, customers or web site visitors. There is a wealth of information available on their site.

You can try Constant Contact free.

Do-It-Yourself Email Marketing

 

Last week I had to put together a site in a few hours that would contain videos, mp3 files and a simple contact form.  Considering the lack of time I decided to use WordPress to put this site together.

Step One was to pick a theme that I can quickly make it look distinct without spending much time. I found the Options theme by Justin Tadlock was perfect for the job. I have not studied the documentation and not even using most of the options available but it was a good choice since it fit the project.

Step Two was to add some static pages. One was a location page where I wanted to use Google Maps Plugin for WordPress I mentioned here before. Unfortunately it only displayed the map as a gray rectangle. Figuring that it was due to style sheet issues and not having time to go through it, I opted to use the iframe embed of the Google Map which worked perfectly.

I also wanted to have some documents available on this site. I like scribd and the ipaper format so I went ahead and got the WP IPaper Plugin. It did not work at first. Since I really wanted to have the IPaper version of documents on this site, I decided to spend a little more time to troubleshoot which led me to discover that the plugin works only if you do not put the access key in quotes. Cool!

It is time for the videos and I realize what a hassle to embed videos in WordPress... Well, after a quick search online I came across FLV-Embed Plugin. Since I already had FLV copies of videos available this plugin was a perfect choice.

To have the mp3 files embedded, the clear choice was Audio Player WordPress Plugin.

When it came to deciding on the contact form, I quickly scanned and tried a few plugins promising to accomplish this task effortlessly. Finally I decided to use cforms II. It is easy to understand, install, use and customize. It does the job!

In less than three hours Swift299Gas.com was up and running thanks to WordPress and all these theme and plugin authors who make them available.

"Put your documents online. Scribd's mission is to create the world's largest open library of documents. Explore the thousands of docs already uploaded or contribute your own!"

Scribd

Thousands of documents are already online at scribd.com. You can literally spend thousands of hours exploring them or search and find the ones you want and download in a format you prefer.

"Start with a simple phrase you enter in one of the major search engines, skim through the results, click the first link that grabs your attention and on to the next site... Browse the page, click again on the first link you find interesting and so on. You do this until you find no other links interesting enough to click on and close your browser."

WebScotch

This is a new and fun site where you can webscotch along to see what certain search words/phrases take you.

"Are You Watching?
The bills before Congress affect our nation's budget - and yours.
Washingtonwatch.com tracks the bills in Congress, along with estimates about their costs or savings, when available."

WashingtonWatch.com

Interested in learning more about proposed legislation? Do you find bits and pieces of information the media providing insufficient? Washingtonwatch.com is one tool to help you investigate what Washington is doing that will impact your life.

"Listed below are 46 different freeware categories with my selection of the best products in each category. The list is ordered by program function rather than merit so you'll get the most out of it by browsing down this page at leisure. The pathologically impatient can consult the index below."

The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities

Before spending money on any commercial software check this list to see if there is a free alternative. You may find out that the free software is as good or even better than the commercial software.

Have you been

"looking for a "screw thingy that's got a thing that looks like a bear's ear sticking out of it" or something like that."

Lara Specialty Tools - tools with form and function - home and workshop tools for your everyday life

Lara Specialty Tools is the place to find those tools you don't even have a name for. They carry the highest quality tools to complement toolboxes at home and workplace, all-in one pocket tools, flashlights, and products to clean and maintain your tools. Worth checking out.

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Nonstopsites.us is hosted by 1&1 Internet. We here at the nonstopsites.us highly recommend 1&1 internet for all your hosting needs.

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