What’s the latest and greatest on SEO, WordPress plugins, web hosting, and—my personal favorite—the best food in Austin?

I’ll keep you up to speed with that and maybe even drop a hint about Thesis 2 in this 9-minute video interview from PubCon South 2011.

After you check out the video, be sure to take a look at the new DIYthemes Facebook page, where you can interact with other Thesis users and see hundreds of awesome Thesis customizations!

I like to solve problems. At this point in my life, I’m focused on solving the fundamental problems of Web design and development through my business, DIYthemes, and my software, Thesis.

One of the most compelling things I’ve learned in the past year, however, is that it’s not good enough to crank out “sufficient” solutions to problems. Truly sustainable answers require a style of thinking that involves patience, perspective, skill, testing, and unbiased criticism. Additionally, it’s crucial to realize that the best solutions we can generate should be reflective of our own human nature—in other words, we must strive to make them as adaptable as we are.

Through my work on Thesis, I’ve begun to see all sorts of new connections that reveal the direction the Web is heading, and I know that I can use these insights to figure out better solutions to the problems I’m already tackling.

Recently, I sat down with Nick Reese from Art of Blog to talk about some of these insights and to share my thoughts heading into 2010. You can check out the original interview on Nick’s site, or you can click here to watch the video in HD on Pearsonified :D

At the 2009 SXSW, I did a quick little interview with my buddy Loren Feldman of 1938media. Despite the fact that I was massively hungover (note the sexy, drooping eyelids), I still managed to make a few good points about Thesis, the philosophy behind solid WordPress themes, and “social media,” which is the hottest, most unnecessary buzz phrase of the moment.

Update: The Thesis Black Friday Sale has ended, and although it caused quite a frenzy, I have left this experience with a newfound distaste for sales. The last thing I want to do is mess with the psyche of potential customers, and sales have the ugly side effect of conditioning buyers into thinking that what you offer can always be had for less.

We’re having a Black Friday Sale over at DIYthemes, and from now until supplies run out, you can get Thesis at an unprecedented 20% discount. To cash in, simply enter the following coupon code when you purchase or upgrade:

edit: code removed because the sale has ended

When I say “until supplies run out,” I’m being completely serious. People who are great at promoting Thesis and explaining its benefits have already pimped this sale, and as I write this, there are literally only 94 out of 150 coupons remaining.

If you’ve been indecisive about getting Thesis and checking it out, right now is the absolute cheapest you’ll ever be able to get the theme.

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 DIYthemes 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.

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?