Creating A Life-Stream & Social Media Hub

I recently redesigned my personal website, www.jonathan-phillips.com, and I thought it’d be nice to write a little something about it. I’m really used to designing blogs using WordPress and sometimes other CMS, but this time I wanted something really different. Something that would be easy to update and not be too time-consuming.

What I did was to create sorta like a personal social media hub and life-streaming site. I’m very active on sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, Del.Icio.Us and Twitter, so I thought I’d turn my personal site (which was once a frequently updated blog) into something interesting. It is, of course, an experiment. :)

The Idea Behind The Site + The Design

It took me a little less than a day to come up with the design (mock-up in Fireworks), slice it, code it and validate everything. My goal was to create a minimalist 1 page design that would display my latest social media activity and tweets.

Here it is:

Click here to read more…

7 Ways To Get Traffic To A New Blog

I strongly believe that engaging in conversations and networking with other bloggers is very important. I find it’s much more important to build a sense of community than monetize your blog or try to get a nice Page Rank. The fun stuff usually happens in the comment section.

But, in order to get new readers you need traffic! You certainly want people to talk about your brand new blog, don’t you? So here are 7 ways to get traffic to your new blog! By now you probably figured out that this post is more for people that are just getting started than the experienced bloggers. :) Click here to read more…

25 Kick-Ass Blog Designs (My Favorites)

There are a lot of really slick blog designs from very talented designers out there. So I thought I’d make a list of my all time favorite ones, hopefully you’ll find some you’ve never seen on this list. Here we go:

A List Apart is probably one of my favorite blogs because of the quality of the content but also because of the clean and (still) fresh design.

---

Armen Thomassian put this new design online not so long ago and I must say I totally love it! It’s dark, it’s fresh and I love the wooden background.

---

Blogsessive has this cool mascot/character in the header. Really catchy!
Click here to read more…

Creating New Blog Content - A Simple Guide

It’s a known fact, at some point we all experience the blogger’s block. We sit infront of the computer and brainstorm for hours. Write a couple of paragraphs real fast and delete them just as quickly.

Nothing seems to work. Blogging seems to come to an end because we just can’t find the inspiration or motive to come up with a new post that provides value to the readers.

In this post we’ll analyze some of the ways most bloggers have been creating fresh content regularly. Although it might seem like it is the biggest productivity secret or some kind of blogging potion that makes them update so often, the fact is they have mastered the art of recycling information. Now let’s see how we can create fresh content regularly while still capturing the readers attention.

Rinse And Repeat

I like to call it the Rinse and Repeat approach because some of your best posts require time and a little sharpening, both in terms of writing and providing value.

You might have hundreds of feeds on your feedreader that you read on a regular basis. Make use of this information. See what others have to say and provide your point of view.

The Rinse and Repeat Approach allows you to read someone’s content and write your own view or add a new perspective or twist to the story. For instance, you might read a post on how social media is booming and has become critical for gaining quick exposure. With the rinse and repeat approach you can analzye the importance of social media and also give the down fall of it. Click here to read more…

Hello World - Spyre Studios Is Now Live (finally!)

“Hello world! Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!“

Yep, so this site is now up and running! I finally managed to find some time to do it between 2 blog designs for clients. :)

I guess I should start by telling you what this site is about and introduce myself, right? (hey, if you already know me, just jump to the comment section and say hi!):

Ok, so my name’s Jon, I’m a blogger, writer, designer and musician. I’m from Montreal, Canada. I started drinking because of… wait! what? Click here to read more…