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NiceStylesheet is Online!

Not to long ago, I shared a teaser for a new design showcase by Deron Sizemore of RandomJabber.com - NiceStylesheet.com. At that time, all we had to go off of was a screenshot. Er… supposedly. I actually did a little investigating and entered in the URL http://nicestylesheet.com/about/ and got a 404 page. With that, I had the navigation in front of me - so I poked around.
I liked what I saw.

But, as of today, Deron has launced NiceStylesheet!

I must say, the web site has turned out better than I thought it would!
Bravo Deron!

If you’re a designer, blogger, or web enthusiest, I would highly reccomend checking out this site and possibly even subscribing to its RSS Feed. Deron does good design work and appears to have a good taste for design. Everything there is great!

NiceStylesheet is a well done design showcase and well worth following.

DesignSnack and NiceStylesheet - Two up-and-coming Design Showcases

Practically everyone in web design (especially CSS based web design) knows what design showcases are (like CSS Mania) - and can even name a few. If not, then that’s ok - I’ll explain.

Design showcases are web sites that feature other websites for their design. Often, the showcases are powered by it’s viewers. Meaning, visitors vote on the web sites featured on the showcase. If the web site does well on the voting, then it wins an award.
Obviously, designers want to win these awards to prove they’re good at design work.
(if you want to get a feel for what design showcases are like: here’s a good list. Thx RandomJabber)

If you have done anything with design showcases, then you’ve probably heard of DesignSnack (a part of the Open Source Design Network). I personally have been involved with DesignSnack since July 8, 2007 and am currently (as of 10.13.07) ranked fifth (Check out my profile).

As you can tell from my involvement, I really like design snack and get a lot out of it. Through DesignSnack I have stumbled upon two great blogs: RandomJabber and Pingable. Furthermore, I have grown in my design knowledge. If that’s not enough, then just wait - the rewards of DesignSnack are getting even sweeter.

This winter DesignSnack shall be adding many new exciting features.

When I do have the time in the near future, probably this winter, I will be adding a lot more functionality to the points system. Namely a monthly point competition for prizes, point trade-ins for free advertising, username changes, etc. and other fun stuff to make the Design Snack experience more fun.
-Justin Scheetz, DesignSnack.com

I don’t know about you, but as a long time member of DesignSnack, I am very excited to see these improvements come to fruition.

While we’re talking about design showcases, I want to mention another design showcase: NiceStylesheet

NiceStylesheet is a CSS design showcase initiated by Deron Sizemore (RandomJabber.com). Deron will be officially launching NiceStylesheet in about one week.

As of now, we don’t know too much about it - except this screenshot:

In the past, Deron has put out some great work, teaming up with Blogtrepreneur and even getting featured on Smashing Magazine’s Best of September 2007 List.

Based on his past work, his blog, and what little info we have, NiceStylesheet looks very promising and I am very excited to see where it is going.

What Blogs I am Subscribed To

On September 9th, I posted about cutting back on my RSS subscriptions. It is something that I would highly reccomend doing - it sure saved me a lot of time.

But after posting about what blogs I’m not reading, I would thing that some of my readers would wonder what I do read. Thus - this post was born.

What Blogs I am Subscribed To:
ProBlogger: Practically everyone who is a blogger reads Darren Rowse’s ever so popular blog - why? Because it’s great! Darren is a full time blogger and is making a six figure sum doing so. In short, ProBlogger is a blog about blogging - and how to make money doing so.

RandomJabber: Random Jabber very well might be my favorite blog that I subscribe to. Why? I am not exactly sure. It is simply a great blog about the web world, blogging, and anything else.

Financial Freedom Ideas: This is yet one more blog about blogging and making money do so. Like Random Jabber, it updates about once a week. Tomaz Mencinger has some good perspectives on the ever so popular topics of blogging and making money doing so.

The Rebelution: The Rebelution is a highly popular blog for Christian Teens - and rightly so. The authors, Alex and Brett Harris are two amazing young men who encourage teens to “rebel agains the low standards of our culture” and “do hard things.” I would highly reccomend The Rebelution - though they haven’t been writing any true blog posts in a while. But their Forum is pretty good!

Photoshop Lovr: This is another small potato blog I’m subscribed to, and I would reccomend that you subscribe to it as well - if you’re interested in image design. Photoshop Lovr updates about every week with very good and detailed tutorials.

Pingable: In my post about cutting back on RSS subscriptions, I actually dropped Pingable. But, Simon commented on that post - doing so gave me a ’small blog mentality’ (which I like) to Pingable. I am now subscribed to Simon’s blog again and I am glad I am. Pingable is another blog about blogging, but branches out into web-apps and other aspects of the web.

Blogtrepreneur: Blogtrepreneur is yet one more blog about blogging (I read a lot of those, don’t I?). The author, Adnan, is 18 and making upwards of $500 a month. He is my inspiration - and that is the main reason I’m subscribed to him. He doesn’t update as much as Random Jabber - but it is still a good blog.

Wow - making that list made me realize how many blogs I read about blogging. I might knock one or two of those off…
Yes, that does seem like a short list - and it is. There are a few other blogs I’m following, but they don’t update much, are personal blogs of friends, or aren’t among my favorites (which are the ones listed above).

But now it is your turn.
What blogs do you follow - and why?

Cutting Back on My RSS Subscriptions

Recently on ProBlogger, Darren asked his readers for productivity tips. He got a pretty good response. On his post, 10 Rhythms for Productive Blogging, Simmons (tip #3) suggested to cut-back on blogs about blogging. I like that idea - so I’m taking his advice.

I was subscribed to a rather large number of blogs - thus I did not have much time to blog myself. I now have a lot more time to blog myself and I would highly reccomend doing so. But I must say, all the blogs I followed were good blogs - it was just too much for me to read with my cramped schedule. Since they’re good blogs, I’ll give them some link love since they’ve lost an RSS Subscriber.

Susan Suarez: Susan has a great blog and focuses on blogging, the web world, random stuff, and making money through blogging. She is a great resource - although her site isn’t completely cross-browser compatable…

Brian Heys Writes: I took an instant liking to Brian - especially since he spells the name ‘Brian’ the right way - with an ‘i’. His blog I was very reluctant to trash his RSS feed. I would highly reccomend him - even though I’m no-longer subscribed to him…

Shaun Low: Saun Low’s tagline is “Blogging to Success” - and that is exactly what his blog is about. It is a great blog about blogging, but Daren Rowse of ProBlogger.net is a full time blogger and updates upwards of three times a day - it’s hard to compete to that. Sorry Shaun.

Pingable.org: Pingable is a small blog I stumbled upon through DesignSnack.com. Pingable is a fairly nice blog dealing with (like so many other blogs) blogging. However, Pingable will often feature various web apps that are quite useful.

Thanks y’all for improving my blogging knowledge! I sincerely apologize for un-subscribing to y’all… but I do need to sleep from time to time.

Web-Geared Prizes by David Airey

David Airey, a graphic designer specialising in logo design, is holding an anniversary prize giveaway. There’s more than $4,000 worth in free prizes! Anywhere from Logo design, a custom wordpress template, a personal marketing/advertising plan, one year’s hosting and blog setup, a signed book of blogging tips written by Lorelle VanFossen, a free podcasting kit, a full blog review, free advertising (here, here, here, here, or here!), phone/skype blog consultation (by Instigator Blog, Wishful Thinking, Rebecca Caroe, Tammy Lenski, Design Sojourn, or Buisiness Blogwire), some classic cash, and much much more!

Yes… I know that is a lot of links, but there are so many prizes that it is easy to get carried away in linking to them. Even with that many links, there are still many more that I did not link to!

This is not an opprotunity you should miss, so go check it out!