Here are the way neato links I checked out this week.

Design

Ten Things I Have Learned by Milton Glaser

Ten logo design tips from the field

How to (and not to) work with a designer

Your Logo Makes Me Barf

Web Design and Development

10 Web Typography Rules Every Designer Should Know

Funny

The Bloggess

Tremendous News

Technology

Google Wave redefines Email

Freelancing

7 Ways To Research Your Freelancing Target Markets

Here are the coolest, most interesting links I checked out this week.

Design

50 Best Sites To Get Design Inspiration

25 Sites to Download Royalty-Free Stock Photos and Textures

55 Extremely Useful Online Generators for Designers

Top 37 Design Blogs to Follow

Web Design and Development

How to Spot Quality within Web Design: Examples & Tips

25 Important Web Design Tools

8 Layout Solutions To Improve Your Designs

30 HTML Best Practices for Beginners

9 Signs You Shouldn’t Hire THAT Web Guy

Blogging

5 Ways To Stop Your Blog From Going Viral

How To Write Headlines For Google Vs Twitter Vs Digg

13 blogging lessons learned from Stephen King’s On Writing

How to Write Magnetic Headlines

Internet Marketing

5 Effective Linkbait And Link Generation Strategies

Freelancing

101 Ideas to Get More Freelance Work and Generate New Client Leads

This is my second installment of “Saturday Round-Up”, where I showcase all the cool stuff I have found throughout the week that relates to Web and graphic design. Enjoy!

Freelancing

“40 resources to become a freelance Graphic/Web Designer”
from HeinMaas, February 18 2009

Hey, today i will try to help those who wants to make it as an successful Freelance Graphic/Web Designer. I’m 90% convinced that when you’ll visit these 40 resources carefully then you will be successful, these resources are covering all types of tips, tricks and sites where you can get some passive income and the most important where you’ll learn from the best of the best. Read more »

“25 lies told by freelancers and clients”
from Flying Solo, May 13 2009

Liars are everywhere, but they’re hard to spot, even if their pants are on fire. Never fear, I’ve researched the top 25 business lies told by freelancers and clients. Actually, there are only 14, but 25 will attract more RSS and Twitter readers. Read more »

Video Humor

“Your business card is CRAP!”
from YouTube

Words of advice from the greatest pitchman alive today. Watch the video »

Marketing

“50 Simple Marketing Ideas All Freelancers Can Use”
from Freelance Switch, May 1 2009

As a freelancer, you have a wide variety of marketing options available to you. Just which ones will bring you the clients you prefer to work with depends — it’s important to make sure that the methods you use allow you to reach the places prospective clients will be. Read more »

Networking

“Why I’ll Only Follow 500 People On Twitter.”
from Gordie Rogers, May 11 2009

I know I’m going against the trend by limiting myself to only following 500 people on Twitter, but there is a method to my madness. Hear me out. Read more »

“85+ of the Best Twitterers Designers Should Follow”
from Mashable, May 4 2009

There are thousands of designers on Twitter (Twitter reviews) tweeting about everything from ongoing projects to their personal lives. But only a small percentage of those tweet about design topics of interest to other designers and design addicts. These people cover everything from their design process to their own projects, and design resources from all over the web. Below is a list of more than 85 of those Twitterers. Read more »

Web Design

“Small web design elements tutorials collection”
from Design Notes

Web design is about details. Details that audience do not pay attention to tells how well or how bad your design is. Today we are looking into some tutorials and techniques on the smallest elements in web layout design. Read more »

“10 Great CSS Selectors you must know”
from TutorialFeed, April 30 2009

Selectors define which part(s) of your (X)HTML document will be affected by the declarations you’ve specified. Several types of selectors are available in CSS. Note that some of them are not supported in all browsers. Read more »

Animation

“This one time…”
from Vimeo

A gorgeous animation with a fun story and fluid movements. By nelson boles
Watch the video »

Workspaces

“Advantages and Disadvantages: Working with Multiple Screens”
from Web Designer Depot, May 11 2009

Two characteristics that represent most web designers are a need for productivity and a love for technology.

This desire for increased efficiency and productivity leads many designers to look to technology for methods that will improve their work flow.

One common approach for designers (and others who want to improve productivity) is to use multiple monitors. Using two or more monitors can bring a number of significant advantages to designers. Read more »

Blogging

“How Not to Promote Your Blog: Top 10 Broken Blog Promotion Strategies”
from Problogger, May 13 2009

For every great blog promotion strategy, there are five that suck. Really suck. They suck so bad that using them can get you blacklisted by real bloggers, ignored by annoyed readers, unfollowed on Twitter, and possibly placed on the terrorist watch list. Read more »

“How Not to Promote Your Blog: Top 10 Broken Blog Promotion Strategies”
from 1st Web Designer

Since I use social bookmarking/voting sites to promote my articles a lot, I thought I might share these sites with You too – I know if You submit every article in each of these sites regularly, You’ll get many new and regular readers in short time period. I, for example, got 4,000-5,000 unique readers everyday using this method. Read more »

Did I miss anything cool and groovy? Tell me in the comments below!

I’m starting a new feature today called Saturday Round-Up. On Saturdays, I will showcase all the cool stuff I have found throughout the week that relates to Web and graphic design. Enjoy!

Networking

“How Social Networks Are Changing Everything”
from Business Week, May 7 2009

Facebook and its ilk offer platforms to explore all the Web with one’s relevant data in tow, and they’re set to overtake the big portals Read more »

“Twitter Search to Become Real Search”
from Mashable.com, May 7 2009

The fact that Twitter (Twitter reviews)’s search is now often faster and more relevant than any other search engine out there is not a secret anymore. It is, however, a very limited search engine: it merely indexes a bunch of tweets. In its current state, it’s great for tracking conversations, but it will never be a competitor to Google (Google reviews). This is about to change. Read more »

BackTweets

Search links in Twitter Try this tool »

Scoopler

Real-time search. Try this tool »

Web Design

“101 Techniques for a Powerful CMS using WordPress”
from Noupe.com, May 5 2009

Throughout this article, we’ll be focus on many WordPress Theme hacks, ideas, tips and useful tutorials you need to have ready in hand when developing WordPress websites. Let’s take a look at useful, yet rather unknown techniques for a powerful CMS using WordPress. Each section of the article presents a suggestion and provides you with an explanation of the solution for each suggestion. Read more »

Website Grader

Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective. Try this tool »

“Worldwide Conferences for Web Designers”
from Web Designer Depot, May 8 2009

We’ve arranged a massive list of events of interest to graphic design professionals. Read more »

“73 Best Free Design Resource Website Help You To Use In Your Designs ”
from VisionWidget, May 9 2009

As a designer its always handy to have a collection of Photoshop brushes & vector & Free Quality PSD objects to use in your designs, but finding a best/perfect piece is not an easy task, even though there are quite a few resources around the web, some of the websites are best and others are not worth checking, here I’ve collected best 73 websites of them where you can download free files, all these sites are worth bookmarking. Read more »

“Flash vs. Silverlight: What Suits Your Needs Best?”
from Smashing Magazine, May 9 2009

With the release of Silverlight 1.0 and its subsequent versions, a debate started among designers and developers regarding choosing between Flash and Silverlight. Silverlight faces difficulties in capturing the market because of the maturity of Flash. However, Silverlight has managed to keep up by including certain features that designers and developers have always wanted to see in Flash, such as search engine optimization. In this article, we will discuss some of the technical differences between Flash and Silverlight to help you choose the technology that best suits your needs. Read more »

“The ‘Semantic Video Web’ is Essential, Pluggd’s Alex Castro”
from Beet.TV, May 20 2008

Video search is key to discovery and consumption of video. Also essential is the organization of metadata. Pluggd, a Seattle-based start up, does both. The company provides its enterprise solution to CNET Networks and others. View video »

Blogging

“How to Create a Highly Viral Blog”
from Write to Done, May 6 2009

Despite all the buzz about creating “viral content” and a “viral blog,” not many people really understand how this is done. I’ll be honest, I’m not quite sure I’ve got it all figured out. There aren’t really any secrets. But, there are a lot of little tactics that can add up to creating something contagious. Read more »

Did I miss anything cool and groovy? Tell me in the comments below!

I have taken a great deal of interest in Web 3.0, or rather, the next generation of search and Web interaction. Last month, I wrote about How Web 3.0 Will Work.

This week comes news about a new search system called Wolfram Alpha by British inventor, Dr Stephen Wolfram. Details can be found in the article below.

An invention that could change the internet for ever

It’s a search application that answers questions, rather than resulting in a list of pages. Check this out:

The real innovation, however, is in its ability to work things out “on the fly”, according to its British inventor, Dr Stephen Wolfram. If you ask it to compare the height of Mount Everest to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, it will tell you. Or ask what the weather was like in London on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated, it will cross-check and provide the answer. Ask it about D sharp major, it will play the scale. Type in “10 flips for four heads” and it will guess that you need to know the probability of coin-tossing. If you want to know when the next solar eclipse over Chicago is, or the exact current location of the International Space Station, it can work it out. Read more »

It’s still in its infancy, however:

Wolfram Alpha has been designed with professionals and academics in mind, so its grasp of popular culture is, at the moment, comparatively poor. The term “50 Cent” caused “absolute horror” in tests, for example, because it confused a discussion on currency with the American rap artist. For this reason alone it is unlikely to provide an immediate threat to Google, which is working on a similar type of search engine, a version of which it launched last week.

I am unable to find further news of a Google launch of “a similar type of search engine”. However, Google is rumored to be working on a more advanced news feature to be launched around October this year.

Coming soon: A new, smarter Google News?

Finally, here’s a fascinating Google blog post by Marissa Mayer on how search might become more accessible and usable in our daily lives:

The future of search

This article is fantastic.

Eliminating spam is good SEO from Askimet.com

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, the process of building and tweaking your Web site so it gets high rankings in search engines like Google.

If you are unfamiliar with Askimet, it is a software add-on for WordPress (the blogging software) that catches spam comments for you. Without Askimet, this blog would be inundated with spam comments. Askimet caught 88 spam comments on this blog since its inception in February 2009. It caught 267,375 spam comments on my other blog since February 2007.

This list of ten tips from designer Daniel Thomas Cassaro is funny and true.

10 TIPS : YoungJerks (Dan Cassaro)
1 – STAY HUNGRY LIKE BIGGIE ON HIS FIRST ALBUM – Success can satiate hunger and blur the line between confidence and laziness. It’s best to remain critical and be open to the criticism of others. You’ll not only continue to grow as a designer, but you’ll keep things fresh and exciting for yourself. What kind of man would Bob Dylan be if he just continued to do the same thing album after album? MORE…

I’m in Las Vegas through Wednesday. As a complete non-sequitor, you can see how to do the following YouTube tricks in the link below.

10 YouTube URL Tricks You Should Know

1. View high quality videos
2. Embed Higher Quality Videos
3. Cut the chase and link to the interesting part
4. Hide the search box
5. Embed only a part of Video
6. Autoplay an embedded video
7. Loop an embedded video
8. Disable Related Videos
9. Bypass Youtube Regional Filtering
10. Download Video

Yesterday, my husband and I were on our last day of vacation in Los Angeles. We were wandering around on Melrose Avenue, and we checked out a gallery called G1988. They had a fascinating show based on TV icons. We worked our way down the right wall, up the left and then to the center divider. Well, whose art did I spy there, but my friend Ben Walker, paying homage to Bonanza! That was quite a coincidence, since I did not know he was showing there. Good job, Ben!

Ben Walker at MySpace

Bonanza by Ben Walker