How to Design

Check out this great CSS advanced menu tutorial by Nick La, showing us how to slice up the menu design step by step and putting them together with CSS.
Note: there is an IE6 bug where the hover effect doesn’t display properly. To fix that, you can use Javascript to specify the to display block on mouseover.

A new concept by altering the non navigation items on hover state which will focus the user’s attention on the item they have hovered on, and create a new look and feel for the site overall. Works perfectly in any modern browser, yet still be fully functional in your older version of IE as well.


The Famous Suckerfish Dropdowns is now back and they’re more accessible, even lighter in weight (just 12 lines of JavaScript), have greater compatibility (they now work in Opera and Safari without a hack in sight) and can have multiple-levels.


This menu has a vertical sliding first sub level then two flyout levels and demonstrates how it is possible to change positional styling from ‘absolute’ and off screen to ’static’ and expanding the menu vertically.


A useful CSS technique for providing pop-up descriptive content by extending nav menus with tool-tips, alerts, notifications, or additional info.


8 Great CSS based Menus, you just can’t miss.


Drop Down Tabs comes with 5 sleek examples to let you quickly pick your favourite to use on your site. Customize each example’s CSS to modify the look as desired. We got you covered alright!

Most bloggers like to change their blog theme from time-to-time to maintain a fresh look for visitors. Ideally, you’ll probably want to make major changes to your theme every 1 or 2 years and not constantly, but that is a topic for another discussion.
If you use the most popular blogging platform, WordPress, you have basically 4 options from which to choose. Each of the 4 offers its own unique pros and cons, and hopefully one of the options will be a good fit for you and your situation.

Free Themes
One of the reasons so many bloggers use, and love, WordPress is because there are literally thousands of quality themes available for free, and more are being released every day. There is a great variety of free themes, and you can find one for just about anything you can imagine. However, the downside of using a free theme is that it will not be exclusive to your blog and it may not give your blog the optimal look and functionality. The most popular free themes are easily recognizable because they are used by so many blogs. What this means to you is that you will have a bit of a harder time standing out from the crowd with a free theme.

Who Should Use a Free Theme?
Free themes are ideal for personal blogs that are intended to be a hobby rather than a business. In this case, you’re not attempting to make money with a blog or to brand a business, so a theme that is used by other bloggers is almost a non-issue. Also, new bloggers who are just getting started or “testing the waters” may want to use a free theme temporarily until they know for sure what direction they want to go with their blog.

Premium Themes
In the last year or two there has been a huge growth in the number of premium themes that are available. A premium theme is sold be a designer/developer for a set price. For example, you may pay $100 to buy the rights to use a premium theme. Other bloggers will also be paying to use the same theme, so it will not be exclusive to your blog, but it will also not be as common as many free themes.

Who Should Use a Premium Theme?
Premium themes typically feature a very high quality design for an affordable price. They’re the middle ground between free themes and a custom design, and so they’re a great fit for anyone who is serious about their blog but unable or unwilling to pay for a custom design. Additionally, most premium themes will come with some type of support or assistance from the developer.

A Customization of an Existing Theme
Both free themes and premium themes can be customized by anyone to create a more unique look for a blog. If you have a little bit of experience and knowledge of WordPress and CSS, making some customizations to a theme is not that difficult. For example, changing color schemes will only involve making some simple changes to the stylesheet. Adding a custom logo or header image can be done by making some changes to the header.php file.

Who Should Use a Customized Theme?
Anyone that isn’t afraid to do some experimentation with their theme can benefit from added customization (of course you’ll want to save a backup of the existing theme in case you make any changes that you want to undo). A basic free theme can quickly turn into a much more effective theme with a few customizations.

Custom/Professional Designs
Rather than making some changes to an existing theme, you have the option to hire a designer to create a completely unique theme for your blog. This is of course the most expensive option, but if it’s done well it will also have the best results for your blog. There are plenty of designers out there who are willing to do the work, and there is a pretty big variety in terms of price and quality.

Who Should Use a Custom/Professional Design?
Any individual who is making a good income with their blog should consider having a professional design. In many cases it will be money well spent. Most of the top blogs have unique themes, and poor quality design could keep you from reaching your blog’s potential. Additionally, business that have blogs should also consider professional designs, as the theme will be a reflection on the business.

What type of theme do you use?

I said “Wow!” when saw this flash template. It was recently released by FlashMint. Though I do not really back up tendency to use website templates instead of custom design, but this photo studio flash CMS template pleasantly surprised me. It costs only $109 but looks like $1000s. Why? Bright colors, graphic motion, clean images – all it make the design look trendy and artistic. The navigation is precise and sharp. Have just noticed – you can drag the images up and down with a mouse. Good job, FlashMint team!

Photo studio flash template - Live Demo

Dependable. Innovative. Trustworthy. Creative … any one of these words (and many others) could describe your personality as a freelancer. But are you making sure that potential clients know exactly why you stand out from the competition?

If you’re not wrapping your personal brand around everything you present to the world online, you’re going to lose customers to those who are. Here are three simple steps that can help you strengthen your brand in the next seven days.
Step One: Define What It Is You Want To Be Known For

When you’re running your own show, the temptation is there to want to be all things to all people (because you want a a crazy big pile of customers). But a Jack (or Jill) of all trades is one confusing thing to customers. While you may offer multiple services, what you’re really after is being known as “The ______ expert.” In other words, whatever your ____ is, you want people to have conversations that end like this, “Oh, you need ____? Email (you), s/he’s the ____ master.”

Since the drop-dead easiest way to get extra business without extra work is by word of mouth, it’s up to you to give all of those mouths the word(s) they need to say.

So give it up: What’s your ______?

Step Two: Define Why You Rock At ______

First impressions are driven by immediate experiences. People have been trained further by media to respond to sound bites and short, catchy slogans that lock in an experience. You have to accommodate that by creating an experience around your _____. Maybe it’s years of experience. Maybe it’s dependability. Maybe it’s luxury, or quality, or youth, or speed, or service … it could be anything, but you’ve got to be able to communicate it in a way that resonates with what your target customers want.

* Are you the writing expert who delivers quality rather than the disposable content of competitors?
* Are you the SEO expert who stays ahead of the competition through creative strategies?
* Are you the marketing expert who delivers big to the small players of the world?

Strong brands can be described in just a handful of words. An emotion. An experience. What’s yours?

Answer me: You’re the ______ who (rocks because …)?

Step Three: Communicate This Every-which-where

Now you’ve got your boiled-down, highly distilled 180-proof branding message. Now you have to make sure you’re telling people about it. Is it the first impression on your website? Do you communicate it in your emails? Do you encourage your customers to share it? Everywhere you turn, you want both potential and current clients to be immersed in the experience they’ll get when they hand over their cash to you.

And that’ll leave you saying, “Holy _____, my phone’s ringing off the hook!” And that’s some good stuff.
Bonus Step Four: Now ‘Fess Up: What’s Your _______?