Social media, online marketing hints, tips and advice – Liz Hover's Diary of a Web Gal (Winnipeg)

I don’t usually write this kind of post about WordPress but I’m doing it for two reasons:

1. Matt Forsythe asked me to.
2. I’m on a mission for the best theme for my dog’s blog. And it pains me greatly that I can’t settle on a theme I truly love. She’s nominated for a Canadian Weblog Award and I want her blog to be the best.

You need to know some stuff about me before you read the rest of this.

I am obsessive. I am tenacious. I will not settle until I find the solution to my problem. For these reasons I can tell you with confidence that I have scoured the web for the best minimal WordPress themes. Premium and free.

I LOVE going to a post like this and seeing a screen grab of the theme. It turns me off when folks don’t offer one.

There are many reasons for my listing below. If a theme is too complicated to use everyday then it didn’t make this list. I’m not stupid when it comes to HTML and CSS but I want an easy life. And so does my dog.

In no particular order:

Cutline theme – Sadie Shih Tzu is currently using this theme. Very versatile. Custom header (which matters to me) and great layout. Neoclassical by Chris Pearson is very similar and worth checking out.

Intonasi Mono – very new theme. Beautifully put together.

Early Morning – a child theme for Thematic.

Minimalista – by Bird Themes – these guys have three cute WordPress themes but this is my favourite.

Pristine – there are two versions of this theme. The other one comes with a header.

Pure II – from a brilliant theme developer who has many more themes worth looking at. This is the newest.

BASE – from another amazingly talented theme developer whose full time job is with Woo Themes. I really like this one.

WhitePress – a new theme that I found on Weblog Tools Collection.

Seven Five – I’ve been in love with this theme for a long time. An ultra minimal theme with a focus on social networks and life streams.

Koi and Vigilance tie for a place in my top 10 so I have to include them both.

There are other themes that deserve a mention:

Clean Home from MidMo which comes in two versions – free and pro.

Keep it Simple – I was using this theme on Sadie’s site until recently.

Grid Focus – another beautiful theme. It doesn’t make my top ten because it isn’t easy to use.

Modern Clix – this one didn’t make the top ten because I see it referenced constantly and it’s super popular. I wanted to offer something new with this post rather than giving you the same list of minimal themes you’ll see if you Google that search term.  However this is a great theme and is easy to use.

There are many places to look for good themes – too many to mention – but I recommend:

- Theme Lab

- Simple Themes

- tripwire Magazine – this post lists over 90 delicious WordPress themes

- GraphPaperPress has many beautiful themes which I’ve played around with. My problem is that they aren’t intuitive to use. I’m sure if you become a pro member you get more support. I feel obliged to mention them because they produce some beautiful work but it’s not for WordPress newbies.

- Of course you can also check out the long list of minimal themes on WordPress.org which includes some of the themes mentioned in this post.

- I know folks rave about Thesis. Again, I feel obliged to mention this theme because so many people love it. I’ve never used it and have heard mixed things about it. But it might be just the thing you’re after.

I warmly welcome your own suggestions about themes I haven’t mentioned here. Have you unearthed a WordPress gem? Please leave a comment below with a link to that theme.

Today I mastered the art of Facebook markup language.

What on earth is Facebook markup language? It’s the web coding used by Facebook that allows fan page administrators to add fun stuff to their pages such as images, additional tabs and more.

I’ve battled with it for several years. It’s only after getting a better grasp of HTML that I was able to do this.

I think it’s fair to say that there isn’t a week that goes by when I don’t achieve some kind of personal goal like this.

I read all the time.

I wake up most mornings excited to go to work.

I don’t have a degree.

At school my favourite subjects were history and communications studies. I excelled at them.

I did go to university but I was a little older than most in my year because I had to re-take courses and exams.

I left after six months. I was bored rigid. My major was women’s studies with communications and sociology.

I’m 35 and until three years ago I regretted not completing my degree.

At that time I got very lucky. I found my passion – a passion that I was able to experience in my day job at the National Screen Institute – Canada (NSI) where I’m the digital media manager.

I manage the NSI Online Short Film Festival. I commission content for the NSI Online Industry Centre. I also produce content myself.

I manage NSI’s online spaces – I’m the voice of Twitter, Facebook and all the other online places you’ll find NSI. I deliver social media workshops in Winnipeg.

Why does this excite me more than getting a degree or propell me into the office every day?

Because I live my life on an ‘acclerated learning curve’ to coin the phrase from Adam Singer’s recent post on Future Buzz.

I’m entirely self-taught.

I’m hungry for information like you wouldn’t believe.

I spend a large part of my spare time learning. Learning about the internet. Learning about anything I can get my hands on that interests me.

Nobody made me do this. And nobody told me to do this. It’s just the way I choose to live.

In his post, Adam says, ‘You know nothing.’

I think that’s my motivator. I have a perpetual appetite for knowing as much as I can. And as soon as I do, more comes along.

If you aren’t happy in your job or feeling unfufiled I urge you to read Adam’s post – one of the most important posts I’ve read in a very long time.

Yes, it’s true, most people don’t live like this. But they should.

I feel extremely lucky to be one of them.

With that self-recognition I’ve been able to pay it forward.

My learning doesn’t start and stop with me. I’ve travelled to Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary to deliver workshops on social media. For me, that is the ultimate fulfilment.

Not only am I learning like crazy but I’m trying my hardest to teach others.

What purpose does knowledge serve if it sits inside one person’s head?

So if you’re scratching your own head wondering why your life seems incomplete, please remember that a passion for learning can be vital to your success.

Photo courtesy of ittybittiesforyou via a Creative Commons Licence

First, I’ll admit that this is pretty much a duplicate of a post I made today over on the National Screen Institute’s website.

But not entirely.

I don’t think much of Google Buzz, ok?

I love Google, for the record.

The basic premise: Google wants in on the social media thang. Google Buzz is their trump card.

Or something.

This is my comment on the proposition, not the product.

According to Google’s official blog:

Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting. It’s built right into Gmail, so you don’t have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch.

If you think about it, there’s always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. We focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don’t have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you’re sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time.

So far I’m not that impressed with it – largely because I only use my Gmail accounts to log in to Feedburner, YouTube and a bunch of other Google-operated sites.

I’m also a prolific Twitter and Facebook user and don’t see the sense in adding yet another network to the list.

Sure, I can add my Twitter account so my tweets appear on Buzz but I’d rather folks just follow me on Twitter.

I can see the benefit for regular users of Gmail. Send mail and chat with your pals all in one place. Which makes sense.

Are you using Google Buzz? Let me know what you think.

Thanks to my friend, the wonderful Erica Glasier, for the illustration at the top of this page available under a Creative Commons License.

In the Land of the Website Manager we hear an oft-quoted mantra that we are taught always to adhere to.

Content is king.

This is the biggest beast in the website jungle and not one to be fooled with.

But then along came ‘context’ roaring like a lion demanding to be anyplace, anywhere, anytime.

In the past few days I was lucky enough to read two posts about these topics.

Check out Boagworld writer Colin James Firth who looks at the designer’s approach to a website and how important the content and a professional copywriter are in informing the design.

Then check out this post on TechCrunch about how video is consumed online.

It’s not enough to just have good content.

How do your users find it? And how are they consuming it?

Your content king needs context too.