Sometimes blogging can be very tedious, and sometimes your mind can wander. One of my ways to keep my groove going is by playing some of my favorite tunes, or a relevant tune to my mood. For example, I just got back online after days of being out of the blogging world so right now I am playing Backstreets Back by the Backstreet Boys.

So, what music gets your blogging juices pumping and keeps you from drooling onto your keyboard?  Are there any particular sites that you visit?

I personally visit blip.fm and play whatever I feel like. Its basically Twitter for music lovers. You can also integrate your account with your twitter account and when you “blip” a song it will also be posted on your twitter account. You can also cancel this out by simply putting an exclamation mark followed by a space before your blip comment.

I have been offline so long, that I have a million things to catch up on. Luckily, I woke up early (6:30AM!) on a Saturday so I have a lot of time to get things done without rushing! Now, I’m going to play some music and update my websites, check my email, go through my Google Reader, as well as checking the forums that I am a member of!

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In todays Internet world, there are a lot of ad networks out there and it can be hard to choose which ones to use.

There are some ways to filter them such as making a list of benefits that you are looking for. There are many that are free, and some that are very affordable.

Some of the benefits that I look for include:

• Affordability
• Social Aspects (I.E, is there a way to connect with the other users of the network)
• Number of visitors the network brings
• value of those visitors
• amount of loyal subscribers and readers that the network brings.

There are many sites that offer these benefits, such as CMF Ads. Entrecard used to be pretty decent as well but the recent changes have caused me to stop using it. Do you still use Entrecard and why? Have you tried CMF Ads yet? If not, then how come? I am currently trying out some other networks but their widgets tend to be bulky which I personally don’t like as it slows down loadtime.

Feel free to let me know which ad networks that you use in the comments section. Feel free to use your affiliate link if you have one.

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Just when I thought that all WordPress CMS business themes were either too expensive or just too ugly, Nick of Elegant Themes comes along and corrects me!

E-business comes with plenty of color, and style options so it is a theme that is suitable for practically any niche.

I will personally be using it for my business website, Emma Quequish Media which is still in it’s baby stages.

I just love the different ways that you can present your website with this theme!

The front page is awesome, with a slider, and a rss feed box which displays your latest blog posts.

E-Business Front Page

The control panel is sweet! It controls a lot of aspects of your site making it easier for you to set up!

EBusiness Control Panel

Why not see what other great options and features this blog has by downloading it? Membership costs 19.95 USD, and with it you get access to all the other themes already released as well as any future themes for a year. Pretty sweet deal, if you ask me.

View the Demo, and tell my what you think. If you don’t have an Elegant Themes membership then please consider buying it through my affiliate link, it would help me out a LOT!

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I run several blogs and the plugin needs for each vary depending on niche and audience. However, there are five plugins that I find myself ALWAYS using.

1. Akismet-This plugin is always part of the default WordPress install. It is great at weeding out most of the spam. You will need an API key from wordpress.com but don’t worry it’s free and totally worth it!
2. Feedburner Feedsmith- I use this to redirect all my default feeds to my Feedburner feed. Feedburner is great for keeping tabs on your subscriber numbers for free.
3. Woopra & Google Analytics-quite a few of my blogs are approved to use Woopra whch is a very comprehensive analytics program. For the sites that are not approved to use Woopra, I use Google Analytics. Both programs are free, and very good for looking over your statistics.
4. Subscribe to Comments-I like to give readers the ability to interact with others, and one of those ways is for them to know when more comments have been made.
5. OioPublisher Direct- I use this plugin to utilize OioPublisher. I use it for my advertisement sales, as well as my affiliate ads. It allows you the option to provide more then one payment option.
6. All-in-one SEO Pack-I use this plugin to optimize my blogs for search engines and to easily resolve duplicate content issues.
7. CommentLuv-At the moment, this plugin isn’t activated on this blog because of technical issues but as soon as things are resolved it will be right back up. I use it to allow commentators to show their blogs last post. It is nice for me to because if the commentators post headline grabs me then I go and visit it.

So, that is a list of the plugins that i ALWAYS use! What plugins do you depend on?

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Finding ideas for a website design can be difficult, but galleries are great places to reap some ideas. The following post will list five places to get inspiration for any type of design.

1. Design Bombs- This gallery allows comments, and rating so that you can see how people react to the designs. This would give you a better outlook on which designs to think up. They also have a Twitter account so that you can connect with them as well as resources for designers.
2. CSS Heroes- Pretty much the same as the above site but they don’t have twitter or resources but they do have a great categorization system!
3. CSS-Website- This gallery doesn’t appear to have any kind of search function but designs are browseable by color, date, and category.
4. CSS Impress-This gallery is pretty much the same as CSS Heroes-they allow ratings and comments by users. I have come across some great design concepts via this gallery.
5. CSS Drive-This gallery is one of my personal favorites because not only do they have a great collection, but they also have resources, and other nifty tools.

Know of other great web galleries? Let me know in the comments below

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I have joined ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge and one of the first things that I was asked to do was to do a SWOT Analysis for our blogs. I followed Darren’s SWOT Analysis outline and this is what I came up with:

1. Define Your Mission and Goals-I have talked about my mission before in my post, “Whats Your Blogs Mission?.” To summarize that post my mission is to help people, to have done something meaningful in my life, and to share what I know and learn. However, now that I look back on it, that mission is better suited to my overall life, not for this blog. My blog’s mission is to help people learn what they want to know about the Internet, and other aspects of the “online world.”

My goals for this blog include such things as:

• Reaching 1000 Subscribers
• Reaching 500 comments
• •    Writing at least one tutorial-type post per week.
• •    Creating at least one video post per month.

2. List Your Blog’s Strengths- While I was in school, I had no time for my blog which caused it to fail. Now that I am out of school, I have more time for my blog which is a strength. Some assets could also include the fact that I have reliable hosting (so far), a domain name, and am using the WordPress platform. :p Another strength that I have as a blogger is the fact that I LOVE reading other people’s blogs, and leaving comments which allows me to network with other bloggers. I also love connecting with readers by visiting their social media profiles, like Twitter.

3. List Your Blog’s Weaknesses- One my blog’s major weaknesses is the fact that I constantly forget what I said I would do for my blog, or worse I simply forget. Another weakness that my blog has is the appearance. The appearance is sloppy, the sidebars are a mess and the theme it is using at the time of this post, is everywhere.

4. List Your Blog’s Opportunities- Like I said before, I now have more time for my blog now that I am finished with college. I also have my hosting paid automatically from my most reliable source of income-my bank. This is an opportunity for me because it automates the payment of my hosting account each month from a source where there is always at least enough cash to pay the hosting. Another opportunity is that my domain is taken care of until at least next year!

5. List Your Blog’s Threats- If my job hours increase, then that means sacrificing either family/friends time or blog time. I am not willing to give up the first, so I better hope that my employers don’t run me ragged! Another threat is my income-I am able to pay off my hosting, and domains without a hitch but buying a custom, or even just a premium theme isn’t feasible for me. ? Another threat for my blog are all the other great blogs within my niche! Some such blogs, (which I urge you to check out) include Thou Shall Blog, ProBlogger, and The Net Fool.

6. Analyze Your Reflections and Generate Strategies-To handle the problems with time, I could simply reach a compromise. If I find myself being stretched thin, I could request for less hours at work but that wouldn’t be good because I need whatever income I can get. So, instead I could plan out posts, and maybe even write some up during my breaks, and on slow days. I could also divide my days off with the morning being for blog related stuff (since my family would still be sleeping) and the rest of the day for my family. To deal with the income issue, I could take some online jobs, freelance, and sell advertising space. I could also create a custom design myself using online tutorials and resources, or to make things easier I could customize an existing FREE theme. The “threat” regarding other blogs in my niche can also be considered an opportunity if I play my cards right. I already have a friendly rapport with Yan of Thou Shall Blog (I was among the first to discover his awesome blog, at least I like to think so :p!). I could also use the momentum of other such blogs for connecting with fellow readers and commentators.
7. Plan to Do Something and Do It- My action plan would be to:

• Regularly comment on at least 10 popular blogs in my niche.
• Begin advertising my blog on various websites.
• Write at least 3 posts per week.
• Customize a free theme and clean up the sidebar widgets.
• Interact with fellow bloggers on at least 5 different blogging forums.
• Wake up at least one hour earlier then usual to complete blogging tasks.

If you have or are planning to do the same, then please drop a comment using the form below! I would love to read about your SWOT analysis!

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Last weekend, Montreal police arrested 12 people with counts of debit card fraud. And, I don’t know if this is a coincidence but my stepmom-in-law had money stolen from her bank account because of credit card fraud.

These people were busted for performing transactions for debit card information that was scraped in Thunder Bay (My City-woo!).

How can I prevent people getting skimmed in my store, you ask? Simple, just check the serial numbers on your POS system equipment. The supplier of the equipment will be able to verify if the serial number is valid. Criminals switch out these systems with replicas that skim the card and pin numbers of the cards that are swiped through.

If you aren’t sure if your Point of Sale sytem is okay, then don’t use it until your local police check it out.

If you think your bank account has been compromised, talk to your local branch about it and inform them of your worries.

Most important tip of all, ALWAYS cover up the keypad when entering your pin.

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Finding a good color combination can be frustrating as there are so many beautiful colors to choose from!

As you can probably tell, I skipped the outline step in my design process as it just wouldn’t work.  I am simply not artistic enough to be able to do it offline. Besides, I soon realized that Step 4 could easily replace step 2.

How did I decide on my colors? I went to Color Lovers and searched through the palettes until I found something that I liked. This palette is called “A Careworn Heart,” and was created by SkyBlue2u.

A Careworn Heart by Skyblue2u

What do you think of my choice? What do you use to find a color scheme that you would like?

I also created a rough outline in PhotoShop. It doesn’t have any graphical work done yet and is just a rough prototype of where I went things to be placed.

Rough Outline

So what do you think so far? I know the colors are pretty feminine but I’m a girly-girl at heart so I like it.

Popularity: 43% [?]

Popular blogger Benjamin Patton has returned from his hiatus with a bang! He is offering free text links to people who put his advertising banners on their websites!

He is also hosting a HostGator Hosting Giveaway contest. So why not rush over there and welcome him back into the loving arms of the blogging community?

Now for a little review:

Benjamin Patton’s blog focuses on Internet Marketing and Blogging Tips. His blog was doing very well before his hiatus and it starting to look like it is gaining back its momentum.

His content is very easy to read and understand. All the tips that he has on his website can benefit both beginner and experienced bloggers. The layout of his blog is kept sweet and simple and he injects his personality into it.

I have nothing but good things to say about this blog so go check out BenjaminPatton.com for yourself!

Popularity: 43% [?]

I have just finished my first step as mentioned in my “What’s Your Design Process?” post.

In my opinion a theme is only as good as the features that it provides. So without further ado, here is my list of desired features.

1. Tabbed sidebars

2. featured posts slider

3. prominent content

4. sidebar ads

5. 468×60 banner ad in header

6. Subscription by email form in sidebar, RSS options on prominent display

7. 2.7 compatible comments

8. Integrated subscribe to comments, recent comments

9. DropDown categories in horizontal menu style

10. Page menu in horizontal menu style

11. integrated breadcrumb navigation

12. Post thumbnails. and featured post thumbnails

13. automatic image resizer

14. Custom Archive and Sitemap templates

15. Little Image indicating what categories the post is in.

16. single2double sidebar

Of course, some of them will be removed if there is no place for them to fit in with the design, but this is a list of things that would attract me to a theme. I just hope that I will be able to do each and every one of them without cluttering up the design.

What are some features that you look for in a theme? (Hint: If I’m successful in creating my theme, I may begin creating themes based on the features and suggestions that YOU-the reader has!)

Unfortunately I won’t be able to show you my second step results because I don’t have a scanner so my next post will be about my results from the third step.

Popularity: 41% [?]