2006 November | Thord Daniel Hedengren

Archive for November, 2006

Updates due over at Bloggertalks 0

I’m planning to do some random work today, before finally leaving the old office. It will be a ceremony with keys and stuff, followed by whisky and pool most likely.

So what’ll happen? Well, I was going to add some social media icons/links to Bloggertalks, as well as an e-mail this to a friend plugin of some sort, but then Alex King’s update to Share This pinged in the RSS reader, so I think I’ll give it a go.

The recent comments block is a bit clunky. I’ll consider shorten it, haven’t decided yet, but will definitely fix the color bug there. Looks awful and I’m ashamed that I haven’t taken care of it earlier.

~~I’m also considering putting trackbacks in a separate space, and not in the comments as they are now. They can be quite unclear and annoying, but still, they have a purpose.~~ Nah, I skipped that.

No networky things. That’ll have to wait until there’s an actual network…

Now, to see how much of this I’ll actually manage before lunch!

Update: Lunch is late but stuff sure is working. Let me know if you have any problems.

Right now on Bloggertalks 0

Phew, it’s been so much with the Syntagma Network Magazines lately, I haven’t had time to do a Bloggertalks write-up. And I don’t now either, just carried a 400 kg (that’s lots of pounds) piano into the house, and just feel like hitting the sack.

So let’s do a recap on what’s hot on Bloggertalks instead!

Darren “ProBlogger” Rowse, on the blogosphere, paid posts and b5media is the most recent interview, published today. Lots of good stuff for bloggers, from Mr. ProBlogger himself.
An interview with famous Mets blogger Matthew Cerrone gives an interesting insight to the world of sports blogging. Matthew has been on ESPN and appeared in newspaper, and he shares his experiences.
Chris Pearson, a high profile designer on inspiration, Cutline, and the future tells the tale (well) of Chris Pearson, web guru and entrepreneur. Lots of good thoughts and ideas on design, of course, and a little dirt thrown at the newspaper’s way.

I still plan to do a more in-depth post on Bloggertalks, but for now, let’s just say the site is doing well, and that Tony and me are looking to recruit another interviewer, as well as gearing up for a new weekly feature.

But now it’s off to bed. That is, if the Mrs. will stop playing the piano. Usually I wouldn’t mind, but it’s not in tune yet… You get the picture.

Third and final Syntagma Network Magazine: LifeTimes 4

LifeTimes screenshot I’m pleased to announce the launch of the third and final (for now) network magazine that I’ve made for Syntagma Media: LifeTimes.

A brownish red is the color theme for LifeTimes. I wanted to do it in green first, but couldn’t quite get it to work the way I wanted. Actually, I could, but I’ve used that particular color scheme for one of the upcoming blogs in my own network, and I felt both these project deserved their own identities, so we went with this one. Or rather, it could have been a bit greenish, but John lost his lunch from my first go at it so I refrained from pushing it…

As usual, John has a launch post up over at the Syntagma Media blog.

So what’s next? Well, we’ve made a few additions to all three magazines already, an editor’s note feature. A few more tidbits and all three magazines are done. Sweet.

I’ll have to poll you guys to see which of the three you like best.

The state of my own blog network 0

You thought I had forgotten all about that now, did you?

True, the Syntagma Media design gig, which involves launched Allusionz and 21st-century Phi, as well as LifeTimes network magazines, have put stuff on hold for a while. Or, not on hold, rather pushed the next launch forward a week or two.

It was the original plan all along to get Bloggertalks, first site in the network, on its feet first. Which is well on the way, I must say. Me and Tony are aiming to increase the staff by one, and when that’s done I can focus a bit more on the next launch. I have no plans to stop doing interviews though; I enjoy it immensely, and learn a lot by doing them. Something I think goes for the Bloggertalks readerships as well, the stats sure speaks in favor of that. We have a good shot on passing a total of 50,000 visitors (not hits, mind you) before November is over, which I think is pretty good for such a young venture. My first personal goal for the site isn’t due until February 1st 2007, and we’re well on our way reaching it premature, which is nice.

Anyway, I’m still pretty much on track with the blog network. The next launch will be late November or early December, with the one after that not lagging behind more than a week or two. If all goes well, you’ll even see a third launch this year, but I’m focusing on the portal page so I might not make that.

No promises though, who knows what’ll land in my inbox tomorrow morning?

Oh. And I’d love to cram in a re-design for myself as well, now that I’m officially for hire and all. Sleep, what’s it good for anyway?

The second Syntagma Network Magazine: 21st-century Phi 6

21st-Century Phi screenshot Yeah, I know, that name is a bit weird, but hey, the domain is easy enough to remember: phimagazine.com

This is the second network magazine design for Syntagma Media from yours truly, based on the same template as recently launched Allusionz.

I prefer Allusionz’ red, John Evans likes 21st-Century Phi’s blue. Both looks good if I may say so myself.

Hopefully network magazine #3 will go online this week, that’s my goal at least and it’s shared with the bloggers in the Syntagma network, I’m sure.

Check out John’s launch post over at the Syntagma Media blog. I’ll post more on these sites when all is online. There are still some features and tweaks I want to get done, so I’m not quite done yet, even when magazine #3 goes online.

What do you think?

My secret design gig: Allusionz Network Magazine for Syntagma Media 5

Allusionz If you’re interested in the blogosphere, you have no doubt heard about Syntagma Media. The owner John Evans has spoken extensively about his upcoming magazine concept.

Well, it’s here, and I did it for him.

Introducing the first version of Allusionz, the network magazine within the Syntagma Network. Take a look, and read John’s launch post over at the Syntagma blog.

I first spoke to John about the Allusionz project after the interview over at Bloggertalks. He liked the design of the site, and after a few mails back and forth he hired me for Allusionz. I’ll also do the upcoming magazines, which of course build upon the same platform.

I can’t wait to see the reactions in the blogosphere. If all else, it’s a huge step from what I guess people would expect from Syntagma, knowing their design history.

Speaking of design, I just published a new interview over at Bloggertalks, with überdesigner Chris Pearson. Interesting read if you ask me.

Now I’m off for a full 24 hours or so, heading for a Slayer concert and intake of beer. I can’t wait to check the inbox as well as the feed reader.

Oh, by the way. I am for hire, and have dedicated a page about it. Don’t be a stranger.

Tired but happy, with a purpose 2

You know it’s time to shut down Photoshop when you’ve started to fill stuff with the same color thrice. I don’t really want to; I’ve had a great time today with drafting up my cluttered paper sketches (I always sketch first, almost always at least) for this new design gig that’ll be official soon enough. These thing flows nicely at the moment, I think I’m getting what I want to out of my design work. Bloggertalks turned out fine, the gig comes along nicely, and Pale Portal blog #2 (or #3, we’ll see) has that clean look I just love.

I’m tired; it’s been a hectic week to say the least. It was certainly a lot more taxing to launch internationally – yeah, I mean Bloggertalks – than I had anticipated. Most things worked from the start, there are some Safari issues left that I’ll address when I can test the site live on a Mac (soon), and I have some features that will be added as soon as I’m done with the testing, including a subscribe function for comments. I’ll add that here as well, just for HART…

Bloggertalks is online! 6

Yeah baby, it’s here! Check it out!

Bloggertalks screenshot So I guess I should write some stuff about this project now, thoughts behind the design and such. Unfortunately I neither have the time, nor the energy for that at the moment. There are a hundreds (well) e-mails to send, people to contact for interviews - something I’ve been trying to keep to a minimum before the actual site launch - and a dozen or so things I want to add.

The upcoming weeks will be full of Bloggertalks brushing up, as well as getting network blog #2 and 3 ready for launch. Oh, and the actual network will have to have a site as well. As you can see all networky things are missing at Bloggertalks at the moment. It felt kind of ridiculous to have network stuff in a one site network, so you’ll just have to wait a bit longer if you’re curious about those parts.

I’d like to holler out to John Evans and Liz Strauss for being good sports and doing interviews with a site not yet launched, as well as giving Tony Hung a big pat on the back for his excellent work so far.

Now check it out, and tell me what you think!

What is Bloggertalks and why should I care? 0

That’s you asking the question, in case you didn’t get that…

Seriously, it’s time to spill the beans on Bloggertalks (yeah, I lost the dot com there), with the upcoming launch and all.

Bloggertalks is done 4

Just a quickie. I’m officially done with coding and design for Bloggertalks 1.0 (no, I won’t strap a beta on there), so now it’s just the content stock that needs to be made ready for launch.

I’ll sit on the launch date for another day or so, but it sure feels nice almost being there.

Oh, and you won’t see anything blog networky on the first version av Bloggertalks. One site isn’t a network you know, it’ll be added when #2 and 3 join in. I’ll be getting started with the layout for those two next week, with launch in November for both of them. So far I’m only planning one blog for launch in December, although I’ll probably want to crank out the network portal page then so it’ll be almost two anyway.

Stay tuned.