‘Resources + Tools’

We already highlighted the difference between vector graphics and raster graphics. Just to recap, vector graphics are ideal for those perfectionist designers who want high quality images and razor sharp precision. More importantly, it gives you the flexibility to resize images easily without sacrificing image quality.

However, the problem is you need to have illustration programs like Adobe Illustrator or Corel. Good thing there is VectorMagic, an online tool that converts bitmap images to vectors for FREE. This simple to use tool is the outcome of Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory research project by James Diebel and Jacob Norda.

You just need a decent browser like Mozilla Firefox, a Flash Player to see flash logo designs, and an image you want to vectorize. Just upload the image and this online tool will handle the rest. You can now resize the image without any pixelation whatsoever.

Source image can be in JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF format and you can download it in formats PS, SVG, PNG. See how this free service fares with Adobe Live Trace and Corel PowerTRACE.

Whether you’re using this for your personal or professional images, one thing is sure – it’s time to say goodbye to pixelated images.

Via freewaregenius

The new Mercury theme is the first of a series of WordPress themes that we’ll be releasing here – one every two weeks, including the occasional free premium theme. I’m biased, but I think Mercury is better than a lot of free WP themes. Here are some of the features.

1. A 3-column design.
   1. Left-side navigation bar.
   2. Content section
   3. A “recent posts” section on the right.
2. Space for below the main header for customizing with an image and your welcome text.
3. Bold blue-green color mix.
4. Bold, very visible RSS feed subscription button.
5. Calendar, which could be replaced with ads if you prefer.
6. Space for a “Featured” link and snapshot.
7. Landscape mode showing MyBlogLog users that have recently visited.
8. Space for two IAB standard 125×125 pixel sponsor ads.

Of course, you can customize the theme as you see fit. Just leave in the “design credit” link for LogoDesignWorks. Check out the Mercury theme demo page.

By Design links to various websites, blogs and resources related to blogging, design, analytics, and infographics. This round covers a domain name brainstormer, video search engine, video display widget, AJAX libraries, and a color tool.

1. Bust a (domain) name.
   

   Still considering a domain name for your website or blog? Not all the good ones are taken, despite what it might seem like. If you’re looking for the availability of the domains using a combination of words, try Bust A Name [via Randa Clay]. Just type in a few words in the “word combiner” and it’ll give you back a list of available domains using combinations of two words from your list. If a domain is available, you’ll get a drop down list that provides links to registrars.

2. Gujam Video Search Engine.
   

   Looking for video content for your website or blog? Gujam searches a number of video sites and returns the results collated for convenience.

3. WeShow video widgets.
   

   WeShow is a video sharing site that also offers a widget for displaying videos on a web page. The blog widget comes in one vertical and four horizontal formats, and each displays a snapshot of multiple videos that react when a mouse cursor hovers over them. You can customize the border color and select multiple content channel categories. Videos for selected channels for the widget appear to all come from YouTube, but I haven’t verified that.

4. MiniAjax.
   

   If you’ve been thinking about adding some Ajaxified dialogs, demo or info windows, draggable content, lightboxes, contact forms and much more, MiniAjax makes it easier. You can easily add a bit of “wow” to your site without having to code from scratch.

   MiniAjax is actually a portal to DHTML and JavaScript code available from several websites. There are snapshots of the use of each piece of code, along with an explanation. As far as I could tell, all of it is free.

5. Name That Color.
   

   Chir.ag offers a neat little color tool that can be used to learn color names. Drag the circle in the colorwheel or in the embedded color square, and the rectangular area to the right fills in with the selected color. Alternately, you can use the drop-down list of over 1500 colors. In addition to the RGB and Hex color values, the closest color name is show. There’s also a downloadable JavaScript library that you can use to embed the tool into your site.

By Design links to a variety of articles found online, with topics relating to design, blogging, information interfaces, analysis and more. This round summarizes articles about web surfing, color theory, and data charting.

1. Web surfing.
   

   Wisdump shows you how to surf like Tom Cruise. Surf the web that is. Read the article and you’ll understand the connection between the interesting web interfaces profiled there and the science fiction movie Minority Report, based on the Philip K. Dick short story. [For another wild information interface, watch Paycheck, another movie based on a PKD story, starring Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman.]

2. Home Page: Full Post or Excerpts?
   

   The more websites you surf, the more likely you are to prefer excerpts on each home page. Or will you? I personally don’t. I like full-text on home pages and in RSS feeds. It’s a necessity for me because of the amount of content I have to browse regularly. But some people prefer it.

   An alternative is to have full-text on the home page and excerpts on archive pages (page 2, page 3, etc.). If that’s something you like, Daniel and Daily Blog Tips has a free Homepage Excerpts plugin for WordPress blogs. Previously, David at Xfep  did the same thing manually and provided some WP PHP code.

3. Color harmonies and matching.
   

   EasyRGB offers a set of tools for those of  you that work with color:

   1. Color matching.
   2. Color harmonies.
   3. Color calculator.
   4. Monitor calibration.
   5. Tint searching.

   In addition to these web-based tools, they offer EasyRGB-PC, which runs on Windows computers.

4. Browser-safe colors.
   

   Website Tips provides an easy-reference grid of browser-safe colors, organized by hue. These are the colors that are supposedly consistent on any computer monitor, provided they’re calibrated. Also see Design Vitality, who offer the meanings of basic colors, in terms of moods set.

5. Charting tools.
   

   Need to create charts from data on the fly? PHP/SWF Charts [via WebAppers] is a tool for PHP scripts that generates Flash charts and graphs. There’s also an XML/SWF version that functions the same way with other scripting languages including ASP, Perl and more. Both have a full complement of standard charting and graphing features – including lines, columns, pie, candlestick, and more – so they can be used for a variety of data.

Not everyone agrees, but Technorati does have value to bloggers. If you agree, then you also probably feel that being on their  Technorati Top 100 at least gives your blog authority, and probably additional traffic as a side effect. It might also result in your blog accumulating more back links. So it behooves you to at least try aiming to get on their list – an activity which is essentially an exercise in link building.

Disclaimer

The fact that none of the blogs I write for are on the Technorati 100 (but a few of them are actually closing in) should tip you off to the fact that this article is speculation. However, it is speculation based on sound link building principles that I’ve learned after over a year of intense application of these principles. So, here are some tips for making your way towards the Technorati 100.

Premise

Being on the Technorati 100 list will bring you fame and fortune. Well, at least blog authority in your niche.

5 Rules

Here’s what you need to keep in mind, before you apply the 7 methods listed below.

1. Aim high.
   Build at least as many backlinks as the blog at position #100 in the Technorati 100. Then build more.
2. Plan ahead.
   Have a strategy to keep garnering backlinks from both new blogs and those already linking to you.
3. Factor in the momentum value.
   Technorati only counts blogs giving you a backlink for 180 days. That is, if Blog B links to Blog A today (as far as Technorati is concerned), blog B needs to link again before 180 days are up – counted from today. If that doesn’t happen, the backlink from B ceases to be considered in A’s Authority measure.
4. Could you repeat that?
   Repeat your link building strategy. If you gain, say, 10-20 new links every week of the next year, that’s about 500-1000 new links per year. Even with Technorati’s 180-day link value expiry, you’ll get noticed and gain links from elsewhere.
5. Set limits.
   Give yourself a time limit to reach #100. You can and should aim higher, though do it in stages. If you are aiming for #1, expect it take a while, even if you have a team of bloggers, link baiters, and SEOs.

7 Ways

These are only seven ways that might get you on the Technorati 100. They are neither the only ways nor are they guaranteed. It’s the sum of the parts, not any individual method, that will carry you up the list.

1. Target the Linkerati.
   The Linkerati are those people online that are most likely to link to you or get someone to do so. Suggestion: start by linking to all the blogs in your niche that are in the top 101-500 positions at Technorati.
2. Target the movers and shakers.
   Next, after success with Linkerati, target the blogs on the Technorati 100 list. These bloggers are much harder to get backlinks from, for several reasons:
   1. They get so many backlinks that they don’t “see” yours.
   2. They don’t know you.
   3. You are not in their niche.
   4. They know you and consider you a threat because you are following the suggestions in this article.

   At the least, linking to relevant authority blogs in a way that’s useful to your readers will build your authority, possibly amongst search engines. That will eventually pay off because other bloggers will take notice and link to you.

3. Be a profiler.
   Profile each and every blogger on the 100 list. Then email/ contact every one of them. Don’t expect 100% success in catching a backlink, but if you score even a handful of PR6-10 links, it’s worthwhile. You can also profile each blog on the 100 list. Indicate their method of monetization, posting frequency, age, etc.
4. Be an ass-kisser.
   This networking advice comes courtesy of Ryan Caldwell at Performancing. There are lots of top bloggers that will be happy to help you online. You have to find them, then give them something before expecting something back.
5. Be analytical.
   Analyze the Top 200 (authority, subscriptions, backlinks, or content-wise) and present it in an interesting fashion, with outbound links to select sites (at least 20).
6. Give credit.
   Come up with your own blog awards for various niches, and link to the Top 200. The Catch-22 is that your blog needs some authority (high subscriptions, medium PR) else the award may not be taken seriously. A quality, meaningful Awards scheme will still produce some backlinks, though it may require a year’s worth of work before that shows, so prepare in advance.

   If you can’t come up with blog awards try web award for resource sites or web applications. Be unique. Remember to contact each site about your Awards, and cross your fingers. If you’re really lucky, they’ll link back to you from their own official blog, which will count in Technorati.

7. Have a plan.
   Come up with other clever ways to get back links from blogs. Present info about a selection of sites. This could be some interesting way that you’ve clustered similar sites and made it easy for a reader to use. Or you could analyze trends [via ChrisG.com] in the Top 100 and publish that – making sure you link out to those sites. Keep in mind that you do not need to be on Digg to make the Technorati 100.

Return

The idea is that if you link to enough of these blogs regularly, and you have good content on your blog, at least some of them will link back eventually. At first, you’re more likely to succeed with bloggers in your niche in the 101-500 positions. That should increase your backlinks and thus your Technorati authority. Then, if you try again with blogs in #1-100 positions, you might just find that you get enough high authority backlinks that everything else falls into place.

Alternatives

There is another way to get on the Technorati 100 which I have not mentioned yet. That’s to be “favorited” by other Technorati members. Personally, I think that this is a lot harder to control or “calculate”, and it does not increase your Technorati authority. It also gets gamed due to “reciprocal favoriting”, which may get discounted in the future. I believe in organic link building, which means not targeting the favoriting method.

Caveats

On the other hand, now that I’ve revealed all this, it might be that much harder. Most bloggers will not want to lose their spot. Some will be climbing up the list themselves, and some might even not link to you out of spite. However, since the Top 100 bloggers are unlikely to be reading this article, you’re probably safe.

Conclusion

You’re probably asking why all this is any different than your current link building plan. In the worst-case scenario, attempting all this will garner you attention from other bloggers not in the Top 100.

The algorithm used to calculated the Top 100 is not necessarily perfect, it’s subject to change and being gamed. However, aiming to be on it gives you a mental focus. Simply by trying, you’ve put yourself in the mindset of producing a better quality blog, which in turn will result in an increase your blog’s authority and ranking. If you’re persistent with your goal, you might just get into the Top 100.