design reverb

I have a general daily ritual I go through each weekday morning. I say weekday only because on the weekends my schedule does not usually include me spending time on the computer and I try not to think too much on things that are computer or design related. While I do make notes on thoughts I have whether it be design ideas or ideas for a post, I don’t actually write them up until Monday.

My mornings start off around 6 am. I go for a run, shower, feed the dogs, eat breakfast, make coffee, and turn on my computer. I work from home so once my computer is on in my home office, I am essentially at work.

I never Technorati. I don’t Digg and del.icio.us leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I do twitter when I have a lot of caffeine, and have been pownc’d. I flickr when a camera is around and have even been known to virb when the mood strikes.

I check email and then visit several sites that I check on a daily basis. They vary on content, some are blog related, some design related, while others don’t quite fit in any category.

Problogger.net and JohnChow.com are on my list of blogs I read to help me to increase and retain readership of this and my clients blogs.

I then read some other developers and designers blogs. These include Matt Brett, Jeff Croft, Cameron Moll, Jason Santa Maria and Mark Boulton. These are the main ones I keep track of either in Google Reader or by visiting. Matt Brett touches on some design, but also on PS3 and Xbox 360 news and reviews. Jeff Croft focus is on web design and standards. Cameron Moll comments on all things web, and his new iPhone. Jason Santa Maria tells you whats on his mind, wether it be design, working for Happy Cog Studios or living in New York. Mark Boulton is the goto guy when it comes to grids and typography.

I use Bloglines still for some reason, which, since I use Google Reader, doesn’t make much sense, yet I do. The feeds I get there are mostly computer related. Simplebits, Joel on Software, Codebetter.com, Dave Shea’s Mezzoblue to name a few. Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development Blog, About Web Design and Engadget are others.

I then check out CNN.com and another good blog, in my opinion anyway, forgetfoo.com. He’s a fellow developer/designer, and while I don’t know him personally, he does post some pretty good stuff. I am not really sure how I found his site, I’ve just been going there for some time now.

I do visit other sites, whether it be for information and/or inspiration, but these are the main ones I check out on a daily basis. Which sites do you find helpful? Which do you visit for information? I’m curious to see the other design related sites out there that others use for inspiration and design help.

With WordPress being the most used blog publishing platform, chances are you use it. I know alot of sites I’ve built use WordPress, whether it be for a blog, newsletter, or someone wanting a simple to use cms (content management system).

I wrote recently of some Free WordPress Themes I made for Lunarpages Web Hosting, and while building some other WordPress based sites, realized there were a few core plugins I use on a regular basis. These are all plugins that help to make my life and the life of my clients a much easier one.

I therefore give you my Great Eight:

Askimet – Spam is the bane of many a webmaster. I have test blogs that aren’t even listed that receive comment spam. Akismet is a collaborative effort to make comment and trackback spam a non-issue and restore innocence to blogging, so you never have to worry about spam again. Akismet is free for personal use, and it ships by default with WordPress 2.0 and later. I always keep this plugin activated.

Google Sitemap Generator – This plugin generates a XML-Sitemap compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog. This format is supported by Google, YAHOO and MSN Search. Make your site more google friendly. If you use Google Webmaster Tools, then this plugin is for you!

Related Posts – Now called Related Entries – This plugin will output a series of “related” entries based on keyword matching. I use this on most of the blogs I create for myself and clients.

Add Meta Tags – This plugin adds XHTML META tags to your WordPress blog. Its design is based on the assumption that the WordPress categories are used as tags, so it requires no user configuration in order to work. On the other hand, the latest versions include all those features a SEO-concerned publisher would need in order to have total control over those meta tags.

All-in-One SEO – If I’m not using Add Meta Tags, then I’m using this plugin. Automatic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) out of the box for your wordpress blog. I was turned on to this plugin by John Chow. Works like a charm.

Gravatar – This plugin allows you to generate a gravatar URL complete with rating, size, default, and border options. The plugin makes available a tag called gravatar that, when used inside the Comment Loop, outputs the correct gravatar URL based on the commenter’s email address.

WP Contact Form – WP Contact Form is a drop in form for users to contact you. It can be implemented on a page or a post. It currently works with WordPress 2.0+

Democracy – This plugin makes it easy to use, install, and manage a poll for your WordPress blog.