I have a lot of blogs and news sources in my reader. So many I can’t possibly read them all every day and stil get any work done. But there are relatively few I consider indispensable, and on the face of it, they don’t seem to have a lot in common. Subject-matter-wise, they’re all over the board. There is a common thread, however; or maybe a couple of threads. Each of the following does at least one of two things on a consistent basis:

1. challenges me to think about something in a new way
2. offers usable information that I can incorporate into what I’m doing

Now that I think of it, those [apparently] rare ingredients comprise a recipe for blogging success. I know my own posts can’t boast of either more than occasionally, and perhaps it’s the consistency that’s the real trick with the recipe. Each of these are very successful blogs with lots of readers, so they’re obviously doing something right.

My most valued feeds, in alphabetical order:

Chris Brogan – The guy is practically synonymous with social media in general, and blogging in particular. He preaches the word on social media as a marketing strategy to the faithful, the backsliders, and the non-believers. And he knows what he’s talking about. A must-read for people involved even peripherally with online or social media marketing.

CSS-Tricks – One of the few web dev blogs that consistently presents useful and interesting information. Chris Coyier puts out nuts-and-bolts stuff, like explanations of absolute and relative positioning, centering a navigation bar, etc. But he also offers code snippets, downloads, and a forum. Worth a daily visit.

Duct Tape Marketing – John Jantsch offers practical and pragmatic advice for small businesses. He’s packaged his approach in a book, webinars, and a 14-lesson training program. I have bought and read the book, and recommend it highly for small business owners. His blog posts prod and educate. His website is full of links and resources. If you own a small business, you should be reading this blog.

Fuel Your Creativity – For me, FYC is more about inspiration than anything else—a site that feeds the designer part of my soul.

Hubspot – Hubspot is working to bring measurability to social media marketing. Their blog is a major training resource for business people trying to figure out how to benefit from "attraction" marketing, as opposed to "interruption" marketing. They sell a service that helps measure the effectiveness of online marketing efforts, but they’re not pushy about it. And they offer free webinars and a lot of great how-to-market-online information.

Seth’s Blog – Seth Godin does blogging all wrong. He doesn’t allow comments on his posts, his blog is hosted on Typepad rather than on a webhosting platform he controls, and he apparently spent no more than a couple of minutes customizing his blog’s appearance. But Seth is a marketing guru’s guru and an iconoclast’s iconoclast. He can succeed by doing things differently because he’s Seth Godin. He delights in flipping concepts on their heads. He turns kvetching into a useful exercise in logic. And often, he asks some interesting questions. His posts and observations are usually short, often simple, and almost always thought-provoking (consider that a warning).

ThemeGrade – ThemeGrade fills an important need in the world of WordPress blogs: it reviews and rates WordPress themes on code and SEO compliance based on standardized testing. Before ThemeGrade, it was up to you to figure out if it was a good idea to install and spend time modifying that cool theme you loved the look of. TG ranks themes with gold (currently about 3% of submitted themes), silver (13%), bronze (31%), or no rating (currently 53% of submitted themes). We’re proud to say our Evo4 CMS WordPress theme was rated silver.

WNYC’s Radio Lab – Maybe the most interesting audio on the Internet. Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich have fun exploring interesting ideas and we get to go along for the ride. The audio programs get posted about every other week, so this isn’t a daily listen. The podcasts are 15-60 minutes each, and every one is more than worth the time.

WP Beginner – There are several "How-to" WordPress sites, and a lot of them are good, but WP Beginner is my favorite, because it usually serves up something I need or have wondered about. And though it’s suitable for beginners as its name suggests, there is plenty of advanced information there also, simply and straightforwardly presented.

Zen Habits – I’m a regular reader of Buddhist and zen materials. Being mindful and present, appreciating simplicity: these are things that are difficult to bring into our working lives. But that’s what Leo Babauta’s blog is about, and I appreciate its quiet, gentle, and practical advice about working, living, and balance.

So that’s my list of indispensable feeds. I hope there’s something on it that helps you. If not, well, we don’t have a complaint department, but feel free to tell me what should have been included on the list. And Merry Christmas.

Tags: Blogging, Communication, Education, RSS Feeds

Recently, I had a need for two background images on a page I was asked to create to display a client’s online Christmas card. The background required a blend, easily made with a vertical gradient image. On top of that, another background image was to appear partially hidden behind a horizontally centered div that held a Flash movie. Further, the second background image had to adjust position as the browser window was made narrower or wider.

First, I Googled "two background images CSS." The solutions I found were complicated, or the background images didn’t move, or making them work with all browsers (I’m looking at you, IE6 and IE7) required some hacks. I’m not completely above using hacks, but I’d rather avoid them if possible.

Then I remembered that absolute and relative positioning create some interesting effects in layering elements. By specifying the second "background" image with absolute position, and applying a percentage on the right, I was able to make the image slide across the screen as the browser window was made narrower or wider. Applying relative position to subsequent elements allows them to appear "on top" of the image. See the demo here.

For the demo, the original client info has been replaced with Evo info (to protect the innocent, and because this is my blog post, so there!). Also, the content div does not include a Flash movie, and the div is transparent so the partially hidden image can be seen in full.

Here is the basic page structure as rendered by the CSS, numbered in the order in which the elements appear on the page:

Following is the CSS (classes important for the faux background effect are bolded):

* { margin:0; padding:0; }

body { font-family:helvetica,arial,sans-serif; background:#ccc url(images/bkgrd.jpg) 0 0 repeat-x; text-align:center; color:#777; }

.background2 { position:absolute; top:0; right:65%; }

.logo { width:740px; text-align:left; margin:0 auto; position:relative; }

.content { width:740px; height:370px; margin:0 auto; position:relative; background:#555; filter:alpha(opacity=60); -moz-opacity:.6; opacity:.6; }

.content p { color:#fff; padding:80px 80px 0 80px; line-height:150%; }

.links { width:740px;  text-align:left; margin:0 auto; position:relative; }

.links p.left { float:left; display:inline; font-size:11px; letter-spacing:.1em; padding:18px 0; }

.links p.right { float:right; display:inline; font-size:11px; letter-spacing:.1em; padding:18px 0; }

a { text-decoration:none; border:none; }

a:link, a:visited { color:#777; }

a:hover { color:#000; }

.content a:link, .content a:visited { color:#ccc; }

.content a:hover { color:#000; }

Download the files»

Tags: CSS, Design/Development

More and more companies seem to be getting the message: social media (blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) presents great opportunities for making connections with their customers and would-be customers. And yet, many of them get it wrong, mostly because they fail to grasp that social media is not just another variation on broadcast media.

There is a scene in Cool Hand Luke, in which the warden (Strother Martin) says to Paul Newman’s character, Luke: "You ain’t gonna need no third set [of shackles], ’cause you’re gonna get your mind right. And I mean RIGHT." That’s what needs to happen with corporate marketing managers and small business owners before they venture into social media: they need to get their minds right.

Here’s an all-too-common scenario:

1. Marketing executive, experienced in managing marketing campaigns, ad campaigns, and PR campaigns, decides to "get into social media."
2. She has her ad agency create a blog and set up a Facebook fanpage. She gets her PR group to develop some social media-flavored promotional and marketing messages.
3. She assigns some junior staffers to create social media content using the messages: blog posts, Facebook updates, tweets, etc. All of this content has the hollow, promotional, not-fully-human, fingernails-on-chalkboard sound of corporate messages delivered out of context.
4. After several unfruitful months trying to make her messages "go viral," the marketing executive believes there is no ROI for social media. She tried it, and it doesn’t work. And she’s right. Her old-school, promotional, broadcast media approach to social media is guaranteed to fail. Every. Single. Time.

What marketing people and business owners need to understand is that creating an effective social media presence is like joining a conversation. Conversations happen between people who listen and respond to one another; they are not a series of carefully polished and self-interested messages. These kinds of conversations, based on listening and responding, generally lead to relationships, because we all value someone who listens to us.

Think of it this way:

How would you react if you were in a conversation with another person about how to barbecue spare ribs, and someone walked up to butt into the conversation with "I know you’re interested in spare ribs! This week only, I’m offering customers 20% off on all spare ribs, limit 5 lbs. per customer, offer void in combination with all other promotions." If you’re like most of us, you’d ignore that person in the hope that he would go away. If he persisted in pressing his own interests without making an honest attempt to form a relationship with you, eventually you’d probably excuse yourself. If you’re more direct, you might let him know that he’s interrupting a private conversation in which he is not welcome.

On the other hand, what if he walked up and hovered near you and the person you were talking with, listening intently for a few minutes before asking, "Excuse me, but how do you make sure your ribs stay juicy? Mine are often dry."? Most people would welcome him into the conversation, and within a relatively short period of time, would welcome any information of value that he brought to it (assuming he continued to listen and respond appropriately in your conversation).

You gotta get your mind right. And I mean RIGHT. Then start blogging and setting up Facebook fanpages.

Tags: Business, Communication, social media