Asides

What do you do before you launch a new business? Why, throw a silly little pre-launch sale party, of course!

Check out the new DIY Themes marketplace, and you might just find yourself a new WordPress theme.

The NFL season is only two weeks away, and the action at Pro Pigskin Pick’em is really heating up! With over 580 users, the application is poised to “go platinum” this week, so I figure now is the perfect time to raise the stakes.

And what better way to do that than by giving away a wheelbarrow full of money, right?

This season’s grand prize is $5,000 in cold, hard cash, and if you want to win, you’ve gotta out-pick everyone else on Facebook. Think you’ve got what it takes? Somebody does, and they’re gonna go home with the booty.

Oh, and lest I forget, there are weekly prizes, too! If you’re the top scorer on Facebook for a particular week (there are 17 of ‘em!), then you’ll get a nice prize for that as well.

I am currently in talks with third parties about weekly and seasonal sponsorship. The grand prize for the season will only increase if I reach a solid sponsorship deal, and the weekly prizes will be determined by the sponsor. At this time, I’m aiming for prizes with an approximate value of at least $100 (or more if the sponsor allows it).

Early last month, I redesigned Copyblogger.com, which was previously the home of my most popular design to date. The old layout was simple, featuring copious amounts of whitespace coupled with understated details. Problem was, Brian started receiving advertising requests, and the old template simply wasn’t able to accommodate the necessary ad positions in addition to keeping the blog’s subscription options at the forefront.

Oh, and based on all the things I’d learned since the last Copyblogger update, I knew there was an opportunity to improve Brian’s in-site SEO, too.

Enter the new design, which I think features a highly-effective organization of key pieces of information. For instance:

• Primary navigation resides in the upper left, which is some of the most premium real estate on the page.
• Subscriptions fuel the site, and the subscription options are placed above the fold on the left along with custom icon embellishments that serve to draw the user’s attention to that area.
• Advertisers receive prominent placement on the right—this wasn’t going to be possible on the old design without sacrificing the subscription options.

Although I don’t think Brian really wanted to change his design, he certainly saw plenty of reasons why he ought to go ahead and do it. With 18,000+ subscribers, he had reached a point where the site had outgrown its current confines, and by making the switch to a newer, smarter layout, he has already expanded the site and positioned it for future growth.

What would you do for a free video iPod, a free digital camera, or other free gadgety goodness? Would you write an article? Would you create a wicked Photoshop mock-up for a competition? Would you… you get the idea.

What if all you had to do was make people laugh?

It’s no joke; each week on CelebrityHack.com, we’ll be giving away a free tech toy to the funniest commenter, as determined by you, the user, and our panel of snarky judges. On top of that, you’ll have lots of chances to win because you can enter one bit of comedic genius per post — and we’re posting as fast as I can add embarrassing thought/speech bubbles to celebrity pics.

Now go! Register (it’s free), drop punchlines like it’s your job (it’s way more fun than your job, actually), and win a killer gadget on me — this week, it’s a Video iPod!

Completely out of the blue, I learned on Friday that Pearsonified was nominated for a 2007 Bloggy Award. Specifically, I’m a finalist in the “Best Designed Weblog” category, which is pretty cool considering my name is out there alongside Veerle Pieters and Khoi Vinh, two people whose work I’ve referenced and linked up in the past. I don’t know how I got nominated or who was responsible, but to whoever had a hand in things — thank you!

Now, head on over to the Bloggy Awards site and give me a vote, eh? And while you’re there, vote for my dawg Brian of Copyblogger, who was nominated for the “Best Web Development Weblog.” Heck, Copyblogger’s tips have helped to make this site successful over the past year, and if it weren’t for his development ideas, I probably wouldn’t have gotten nominated at all. Now how’s that for a circuitous bit of back scratching?

Well, I’ve gone and done it this time. After nearly a month of operating with three different feeds (asides, articles, and both), I’ve decided to switch everything back to one feed for the following reasons:

• I can generate an accurate unique subscriber count if I only use one feed.
• I thought I would handle my asides irresponsibly and potentially upset some folks with a stream of meaningless content, but I think I really sold myself short here.
• People seem to be enjoying the asides (especially the pictures), and since my implementation is somewhat unique, I’ve decided to simply make it a hallmark of this site and say the hell with it

Subscribe now and tune in as I dish out crucial, do-it-yourself info on how to build a dynamite Web site.