One of my favorite things about the internet is the free stuff. I love that people share their creations with others. I love that people share their knowledge.

I learned to build web pages by looking at other people’s code. I’ve also tried very hard to learn about graphic design. For some reason, I just don’t get that. No talent, I guess. Not to worry, though. There are people who offer free graphics that are really good.

One of my favorite sites for free graphics is vecteezy. Vecteezy is a collection of free vector graphics for everything from web sites to Halloween invitations to school projects. Naturally, you’ll want to read the license information for anything you’d like to use since some of the free graphics are for personal use only. Still, free is good.

Go ahead and take a look around Vecteezy. And tell me what you think of it.

Everyone has to start somewhere when learning something new. I turned to HTML for Dummies when I first learned to code; it was perfect for someone with no formal education in computers in general or web design in particular.

That was back in 96, shortly after I got my first dial-up account. Even though I’ve built several websites and tweaked many others, I still need a kind of “cheat sheet” of HTML tags now and then. One of the best ones is the Bare Bones HTML Guide from Kevin Werbach.

I’ve used the Bare Bones guide for many years and while it hasn’t been updated for a while, it’s still a handy reference. Especially nice is that it has been formatted for download as a text file or html and also includes an introduction that can be downloaded separately. Kevin also makes a zip file available with both formats and intro included.

The older I get the more I need these kinds of little reminders. If you’re looking for something that gets right down to the Bare Bones, this may be just what you’re wanting!

Anyone who has a website is interested in driving traffic to their site. It’s one of the hottest topics, along with boosting PR and SEO tactics, on every webmaster forum. No matter how great your content is, you need to get people to your site first so that they can know you have great content. But how do you do that?

There are numerous methods for driving traffic and one new service looks to be one of the most successful. The program is Get Featured! from the web promotion specialists at fechr.com. (That’s pronounced Feature.)

If you have a blog, just post about the terrific service being offered at fechr.com then head on over and submit your site. If you’re chosen as one of the featured blogs, you’ll be right on the front page and the traffic will start to flow. But you have to hurry because this service won’t be free forever.

If you don’t have a website but are always on the lookout for great sites to visit – which is probably why you’re here reading this blog! – then be sure to check into fechr.com every day to discover another interesting blog. This is a win-win for everyone!

Well, not you, personally. But how much is your website worth? Do you ever wonder about that? If you’ve carefully chosen a domain name, designed your site with your reader in mind and spend time and effort writing good content and promoting your site, then you probably care about the value and worth of your site.

You probably also wonder how you can find out about the value of your site. Well, wonder no longer. Just click on over to LeapFish and enter your domain name. Click on the Get Domain Appraisal button and wait a few seconds. There you have it – instant domain appraisal!

I’m not planning to sell this or my other domains, at least not any time soon. If I would decide to sell, this is one of the first places I’d visit. It’s always good to get a ballpark figure when trying to determine a good selling price, not just for domains but for everything. LeapFish gives you a starting point.

Even if you’re not planning to sell your domain, this is still an interesting tool. It’s also quite useful when you’re picking a new domain. The LeapFish tool determines your domain’s value on a number of criteria including the length of the domain name, whether it’s a top lever domain, non-alphabet characters, etc. If you’re considering a new domain, run it through LeapFish first to see how it scores.

While you’re looking around the site, be sure to take a look at the Tutorials on Domains. Good stuff there as well as in their section on best places to register a domain or to host your website.

So, tell me. What is your domain worth?

Do you have a website or blog? Are you trying to get more exposure and increase traffic? Then you’ve probably submitted your site to a few directories, right? But have you submitted your site to the right directory?

If you haven’t heard of GeekySpeaky then you really owe it to yourself to check out the site. In less than a year Colleen, the webmaster and blogger extraordinaire has built GeekySpeaky into one of the top blogs on the internet. But it gets better.

The directory at GeekySpeaky has already reached a PR5! Being listed there brings all kinds of good PR to your own blog, you know. And the great thing about it is that you can get a free link in the directory by simply placing a reciprical link in your own sidebar. Not a bad deal at all, coming from a PR5 directory.

Of course, you can also pay for a link. Right now the price of a regular link is $25. That isn’t for a month or a year; that’s for as long as the directory is live. Your link will remain in the directory and you’ll never be charged another cent even as the directory PR climbs. And it will climb because Colleen won’t rest until it does.

The best deal at the GeekySpeaky Directory, though, is the “featured link” listing that includes a screenshot in a featured section at the top of your chosen category. The Featured Link costs just $40 which is a great deal because like the regular listing, this isn’t the price for one year but for the life of the directory. Featured Link listings are limited so if you’d like one of these, you probably want to head over quickly and submit your site while the offer is still open.

I know we all want to promote our blogs. The really cool thing about Colleen is that she’s not happy just promoting her own site. She’s added a directory and worked hard to build its PR so that she can help other bloggers promote their sites, too. This is such a great opportunity for the average blogger that I just had to share it with all of you. Get on over and add your site, read the blog and tell Colleen that Marisa sent you!

I can write a static HTML page or CSS. I can even manipulate some javascript and php a little bit. But a Firefox extension or WordPress plugin? Uh, no. Not me.

So, when I went looking for a specific WP plugin and came up empty, I turned my friend Owen. That was several weeks ago but today, Owen delivered. And he did it perfectly!

When someone would comment to one of my blog posts, I’d typically answer them on my blog. I like the feeling of a conversation on my blog. It was a pain, though, to copy my response from my blog and then paste it into and email to send it off to the commenter. And yet, if I don’t email my response to the comment, how do I know the commenter will see my response. Quite a dilemma, wouldn’t you say?

And that’s where Owen stepped in. Owen has created The Comment Email Responder v2 Plugin for WordPress. He based it on the work of Andrew Flusche.

The Comment Email Responder makes it easy to respond to comments on your blog. Not only will my response show up in the comments but the person to whom I respond will receive an email with my response as well. That’s one less step for any WP blogger trying to keep in touch with both new and regular visitors.

I’ve spent about 3 months or so searching for a plugin like this. I know one doesn’t exist. Or at least it didn’t before Owen came up with this one. So get on over to Owen’s site, download the plugin and tell him THANK YOU for this. Oh, and if you love this plugin as much as I do, please spread the word. Send Owen some linky love. He deserves it.

That’s right, I Do Follow! What’s that, you ask? Well, DoFollow is plugin that removes the nofollow tag from your comments. That means that if you DoFollow, then links in your comments are spidered by search engines. Cool, huh? Colleen from GeekySpeaky started the D-List so that we’ll all know who we are and can comment on each other’s blogs to get more traffic. My buddy, Jimi, added me to the list so now I’m going to add a few people, too.

If you see a blog that belongs to the D-List, comment! And be sure to get the DoFollow plugin and join the party!

***Begin to copy here***

1. Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and link back to the blog that put you on the list in the paragraph. This isn’t a suggestion. You need to break up the duplicate content. Someone took the time to add you so the least you can do is give them an extra link back.

2. Copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your blog. If you would like a different keyword for your blog then change it when you do your post and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword.

3. Take the adds from the blog that added you and place them in the “Originals” list.

4. Add at least 1 new blog that you KNOW us using the DO FOLLOW plugin to the list in the “My Adds” section. (Add no more than 5!) Let the people you’ve added know, so that they can keep the list going!

My Adds:

Go Get Global News & Views
gimme a break
bubbly ink
Natron

The Originals:
Karebear Central
Scribble on the Wall
Marisa Shreve
Jimi Morrison’s Head
Mr. Gary Lee
No Average Mom
My Single Mom Life
The Passionate Ailurophile
Thoughtprints
My thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings
CassKnits
Priori Incantatem
Just Julie
The Pond
Domestic Geek
GeekySpeaky
Simple Kind Of Life
3DayMom
BuyMeBlog
The Hockey Dad
Midlife Musings
Utterly Geek
Whatever I Feel Like
My Dandelion Patch
Surviving NJ
BizMark Tech
Two Dog Zoo
TDZ Travel
Body, Mind & Solar
Just Not Martha
Craftblog
Footprints On the Moon

***Quit Copying Here***

No, my page is not broken. It looks like this on purpose. I’m part of the 2nd annual CSS Naked Day, promoting Web Standards through the proper use of xhtml and css.

All of my usually witty, insightful content is here and still readable so please don’t go away. Just enjoy the pure simplicity of my site in all its nakedness.

My normally lovely, eye-appealing Scribble On The Wall will return on April 6, fully clothed.

And a special welcome to those who are stopping by here from the CSS Naked Day Host Website.

The point of using CSS is to separate design from content. It’s a simple theory and works well if you put the effort into understanding it. One of my greatest thrills was when I figured out how to do a page of thumbnails with no tables.

Those who are expert with CSS do more than simply separate design from content. They push CSS to do more. They play around with it until it does what no one would expect. It doesn’t matter that CSS isn’t the most efficient way to do something, when you’re pushing the envelope the point is to just do it because you can. And that’s exactly what Stu Nicholls does at CSS Play.

I first wandered into Stu Nicholls’ world when I was looking for a CSS photo gallery. I went through the entire site, amazed at what I was seeing. How could I choose one photo gallery when each one was so unique and interesting? And all were done with CSS.

But it wasn’t just the photo galleries. Stu Nicholls did things I never thought were possible with CSS. How about a CSS animation? Done! The first CSS generated font? Got it! How about some “through the looking glass” text that corrects itself when you hover on it? Oh, yes! And be sure to check that one out.

I love the CSS generated graphics that Nicholls has done. An American Flag with all 50 states or a CSS art gallery, Stu has done it. And check out his Lego house! Now, that is cool.

But you probably want to do more than just look at a few neat things that someone has done with Cascading Style Sheets. Well, how about some interactive fun? You can try finding your way from the top of the pyramid to the bottom. You could attempt to stay on the right path to find the middle. Or you could play my favorite, the traditional maze puzzle.

Whether you’re interested in design and like to see what others are doing or simply have an appreciation for the most unique applications of this technology, this site is one you ought to be prepared to visit for a few hours. There’s just that much to see. I don’t think I’ve ever had this much fun with CSS before or since finding this site.

I love this stuff! Anyone can use CSS to layout and style a web page. But to go the extra mile and do a little – or a lot – more, that’s genius.

So, how about a game of cards? That’s right, except for the back of the cards, everything is rendered with CSS. Go ahead, view the page source. See how it’s done.

Makes the little bit I do with CSS seem like child’s play, doesn’t it?