My name is Beth. I couldn't cut it as a web designer so instead I decided to do something completely random and become a nurse. I'm 
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Design Resources for the Nurse Blogger
By Beth | January 7, 2008
A new look for a new year. I’ve been working on a redesign for this blog for the past few months and over the weekend I finally found the time to put it all together. I hope you enjoy it! For those of you who are interested, I’ve put together a list of the resources that I used to redesign this blog.
Web Hosting: BlueHost
Once upon a time my blog was located here. Since then I’ve taken control over the hosting of my blog and I’ve been using BlueHost as my web host. I’ve been very happy with them, mostly because they are so Wordpress-friendly. If you think you might want to try hosting your own blog through Bluehost and Wordpress, Caroline Middlebrook has written an excellent e-book on the subject and it is completely free for you to download.
Blog Platform: Wordpress
In a word, Wordpress is awesome. It has changed the way I look at web production and content management systems. It is sooo easy to use. One of the reasons I wanted to update the blog was to take advantage of a new feature they have called Widgets. It makes it very easy to customize your sidebar and even add cool features like RSS feeds, and Tag clouds (see where it says Guten Tag? Pretty clever, huh?) I’m hoping to use this tag cloud to entice some of my newer readers to check out some of my older posts. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Wordpress Theme: Rockin Minimal
I love this theme because I am a minimalist at heart. It is so simple, and extremely easy to customize. It also comes in a 2-column version. You might recognize it from the days that I was still updating OrientedX3.com.
Graphics: iStockphoto.com
This is a great site for inexpensive stock photography. It’s roughly a $1 per photo and they have some pretty decent stuff. They also have illustrations which are a bit more expensive, but it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than hiring a designer. Want even cheaper stock photography? How about free? Try Stock.xchng. They have tons of free stock photos that you can use on your blog. Photoshop Elements was used to create the logo. I also used this great article, found on Digg, to get that Web 2.0 look.
Special Mention: SEO by AskShane.org
Shane is kind of the web go-to guy in the nurse blogger community. He is the one who initially convinced me to get my rear in gear and start hosting PixelRN on my own domain, and for that I am grateful. Did you know that Shane is actually a great go-to guy for all things concerning SEO? (And if you are scratching your head saying “What the heck is SEO?” I urge you to visit his website immediately!) SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s all about getting more traffic to your website. Quite simply, if you follow his advice, you will get more hits.
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I hope you will find these links to be useful. Even though I left the world of web design to become a nurse, it is still a passion of mine, and I hope I can impart a little of that passion to some of my fellow bloggers. As always, if you have any questions about any of these resources please leave a comment and I will try to address it.
Topics: Blog |
January 7th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
looks fantastic!!!! Great post too. This is a great reference and am headed down the link paths…thank you!
January 8th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Beth, thanks so much for the very kind words. I really, really appreciate it. You’ve been on quite a roll here recently, and this is another great post (and I don’t say that just because you mentioned me
).
January 8th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Dude… it still looks too complicated for me. Maybe I’ll get the ambition to read up on all that someday. We all have our strengths
Web design is not mine!
(It IS a great post, btw!)
January 10th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Wow, that’s a lot of helpful resources!
We just started a nursing news blog, and we’d love to get your thoughts and comments. Thanks!
March 27th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Hi Beth,
Came across your site and was wondering if you would like to earn dollars per month through our affiliate program? We think your content attracts the type of web surfer we are looking for. We create custom programs for each affiliate. Our affiliate sign up is at www.jobs-2O.com/idevaffiliate. We have exciting programs that can pay far more then the default of $.05 per click. The program is free to join and we would welcome you as part of our team! Once you register, we will be in contact with you, regarding the type of affiliate links and revenue that would be of interest to you.
Looking forward to your response!
Audrey
P.S. Would you also be interested in moderating a forum on our Jobs-2O.com website?
May 4th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Hi Beth,
I was wondering if we can exchange link, my blog is http://NurseReview.Org (PR5), I have a nice websites that aims to help nurses with their board exams, etc.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks,
Myk