Searching for a place to find free web site designs you can use?  OpenWebDesign.org has plenty to choose from, and they are all free to use.

If writing CSS code isn’t your favorite thing to do – and you would much rather tweak up a design that has already been done for you – finding a great free online design is the way to go.  So to help you jumpstart your next web site design project, head over to the stockpile of web designs found over at OpenWebDesign.org.

There are over 3,000 designs to choose from (and most are XHTML/CSS-based), so should be enough variation and choice for any web site designer out there.

The service really does a great job a breaking down the parts of your web site down into bricks.  You kind shift and move the bricks around, make make your web site look the way you want.  The designs to choose from are great too, and you can customize them to suit your needs.

Along with hosting, and design – they also provide you with real time visitor analytics and stats about all of your pages.  That way you can work on marketing yourself better too.

Squarespace Tour Video from Squarespace on Vimeo.

At $8 a month, the service really has a lot going for it, if you are looking for a mix of hosting, plus a quality content management system.  Try them out for free, at Squarespace.com.

How to Turn WordPress into a Multiple Blog Network

Want to launch your own blogging network?  WordPress MU (the MU stands for multiple users) is what you want to look into using.  If you have ever wanted to run multiple blogs off a single install of WordPress, this is definitely what you need.

• Install WordPress MU for yourself!

WordPress MU and WordPress also share 99% of their codebase, so what you can do with one, you can probably do with the other.  So if you are afraid of learning an entirely new CMS – no need! WordPress MU is pretty similar as far as the exterior and the interior goes with WordPress.

How to Turn WordPress into a Micro Blogging Service

Did you know, you could take your normal WordPress install, and quickly turn it into a micro blogging service of your very own?  That is where the Prologue theme for WordPress comes into the picture.  It was inspired by services such as Twitter, however has a unique enough look and feel to it that you don’t feel like you are ripping them off.

• Download the Prologue theme files!

Best example of this theme in use was to password protect the WordPress install it was skinning, and using it as an internal short memo system inside of a small business.

How to Turn WordPress into a Social Network

BuddyPress is an add-on to WordPress MU that will give you the ability to turn it into a social network platform, like MySpace or Facebook.  Playing with the demo, I see a lot of promise here.  You have groups, blogs, member pages, news and more.  The possibilities are endless.

• Find out more about BuddyPress!

Everything is still in beta, and in the demo phases – however, in the big picture, I think that BuddyPress will be one of the WordPress tools we will be talking a lot about.  With it, anybody can launch a social network for their friends or for the area of expertise they share.  I always wanted a web hosting social network.

As you can see, WordPress can be taken into a number of different direction, when it the right hands of the right developers and designers.  We didn’t even get into their forum script, bbPress.  By far, WordPress might be one of the easiest platforms to use these days.  What do you think?

You fill in the basics that you need, and this web site will take care of the rest for you.  Based on web standards, accessible and easy to use, this is the best online layout creator I have used in some time.

So what does YAML stand for?  With this builder, you can create Yet Another Multi-column Layout.  To try it out for yourself, go visit:  http://builder.yaml.de/

Take a look at the CSS file for your web site.  Is it a little on the messy side?  If so, I have the perfect web site for you to add to your bookmark collection.  CleanCSS.com is an online tool that will optimize and format your CSS.  Why would you need to do this?  Well, a clean CSS is a happy CSS!

To use it, just visit the web site and then copy and paste your code into the CSS box.  If needed, you can also just post the URL to your CSS file too.  Then, under code layout, you can select how clean you want it to be (based on readability and size).  Here you can see all the options you will have at your fingertips:

One thing that CleanCSS doesn’t do is validate your CSS code.  For that, I would still recommend visiting the W3C CSS Validation Service.

“I am looking to setup another web site but I want to stay away from WordPress.  Do you have any suggestions for other content management system or blogging scripts to try?  Thanks!”

Just in case WordPress rubs you the wrong way or your just not happy with it – here are some of my favorite content management systems that are not WordPress.

• Drupal – found at Drupal.org, this is like WordPress on steroids. Lots of goodies and better membership system in place too.
• b2evolution – found at B2evolution.net is an old one, but still a good one – with tons of options.
• Joomla – found at Joomla.org might be too feature rich for the casual blogging fan – but a good engine for in depth web sites or basic blogs.

I used to suggest MovableType to people but over the past few years it just hasn’t been able to keep up with WordPress.  Plus it is a ‘bit resource hungry and their license agreements are way too confusing for normal users.

To check and more and to get some demos of both the output and admin interfaces be sure to check out OpenSourceCMS.com.  They have tons of examples from every corner of the blogging, CMS and forum world.  One of the best database out there if you are looking for a better alternative to WordPress.

1. Revolution from RevolutionTheme.com

It will cost you around $80 for a single use license, but oh man – is it ever awe inspiring. One of the first to really make a name for magazine style WordPress theming, Revolution continues to be the top dog.

2. Grid Focus from 5thirtyone.com

This theme is a three column WordPress work of art. It also is distributed for free and is not dependent on having any certain WordPress plugins to work.

3. WordPress Magazine Theme from solostream.com

The name is simple enough, and this theme also delivers (as long as you wish to pay the almost $80 price tag). I do believe though this would be a good investment if you wanted a theme that made you look more professional and a little different than all the rest. Loads of banner ad space on this one too for advertising bliss.

As you can see there are loads of quality WordPress magazine themes out there if you know where to look. For more, the crew at Theme Playground has a nice roundup of some of the best of the best magazine themes available.

That is where many of the Web’s generators come into play. Here are three of my favorites for three different occasions.

Need a Favicon? If your searching for how to create a favicon or you want to find a cool one to use, look no further than favicon.cc. This web site not only lets you create your own pixel by pixel. It also allows you to upload and convert a photo too. If that wasn’t enough you can browse through some of the previously create ones to get inspiration or get one to use.

Need a Background? When it comes to backgrounds, with the Web 2.0 revolution, stripes seem to be a good way to go. I mean, you want to be hip and cool – don’t you? If your looking for a “Grade A” stripe generator give StripeGenerator.com a shot. Here you can setup colors, width, gradients and more. Here too you can browse through previously created background as well. When your done, download it and it is yours to upload and use.

Need a Logo? If you have been following the trends, there seems to be a certain way to do your logos these days. Now no matter if you want to trail the Web 2.0 leaders or you want to make fun of them – Creatr.cc has you covered. Point your browser at that URL and click on the “Creatr” link. Here you can make your own logo without the need to open up your favorite graphics editor.

When it comes to bringing in new folks into your web site you would be willing to try just about anything and everything, right? One thing that you might have not of considered is the idea of developing something for the public and then giving it away for free. A perfect example of this would be making a free layout for your users to use.

If there is one thing that gets attention it is free MySpace or free WordPress layouts. Those two seem to be the hot search items these days, and you should cash in on the benefits as well. First thing you need to do is find a designer or learn some basic design skills yourself.

The next thing you should do is decide on what audience you want to target. I mentioned both WordPress and MySpace themes earlier, but you could just as easily develop a basic template and design for anybody to use for a standard static web site.

Lastly you need to find a way to release this theme out to the public. Put it on your web site, and then ask some of your blogging buddies if they will mention something about it. Going down the chain there, hopefully you will get the friend tells a friend effect. Before you know it, you might have the Web’s hottest new design.

One good place you can see this type of marking in action is Lunarpages. They have just released three free WordPress themes for anybody to use. Notice the use of ads on the theme preview pages. Your watching a Lunarpages commercial and you didn’t even know it.

Now where to you reap the rewards? Well with all of these people coming back to you to check out the theme, you get page views and hits. For folks inside of the web hosting business (web host or not) this makes a perfect combination of supply meets demand.

This is a new one I just found out about – and I am more than happy to share it with all of you.

DavidAirey.com is the blog of – you guessed it – David Airey, an Edinburgh graphic designer. He caught my eye after linking back to my story about taboo topics in hosting from last week’s episode.

Here are a few of his past articles that I think you’ll find more than interesting:

• How I Improved my Alexa Rank
• 6 Tips to Improve Your Blog Articles
• What’s Your Logo Worth?
• 5 Important Design Aspects of Any Web Site or Blog

Have another Web site, blog or resource that I should be keeping my eye on? Let me know about it.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 110!

Just make sure if you do decide to use one of those, you pay attention to the author’s notes. Some require that you keep certain links on your Web page back to them – and others have “sponsor links”. I would suggest to stay away from the “sponsor links” ones because that is just a little slimy in my opinion.

Now for plugins – there are a lot of good ones for WordPress. A good resource for WordPress plugins would be wp-plugins.net. You can also find a good plugin directory on WordPress.org as well under /extend/plugins/.

Here are a few good plugins I use to get you started right:

• Google Sitemap Generator
• Comment Timeout
• Ultimate Tag Warrior

Now for most themes and plugins getting them installed it a pretty easy process. You will need to startup your FTP client and get yourself into the “wp-content” folder. From there you will see a folder for themes and a folder for plugins.

The rest of this pretty much explains itself.

Put themes in the themes folder and plugins in the plugins folder.

Plugins are often just one .php file so getting them in there should not be a problem. When uploading a theme, make sure you grab the entire folder for the theme and upload it. Themes have multiple files inside them so if you don’t grab them all – often they won’t work. Each theme and plugin should have a “Read Me” file with it to give you more specific instructions if needed.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 108!

If you need hosting for your WordPress blog just try our WordPress Hosting Guide! Recommended hosts for WordPress and other great info!

1. Color Scheme Generator 2 – When it comes to selecting colors for your Web site, you want to work with things that look well together. WellStyled.com gives you a generator that will help you match your colors and come up with a basic color theme for your Web site or project.

2. 2 Column Tableless Layout – A lot of folks might say this is the best layout on the Web today to try to create, and this second link from WellStyled.com walks you through, step by step, on getting it created.

3. Great Fonts for Web 2.0 – This list (found at ModernLifeIsRubbish.co.uk) gives you some of the most popular Web 2.0 Web sites out there today and lets you know what font they are using for the Web site’s header images. Might be an interesting place to get some inspiration.

4. AnyBrowser.com – This link gives you your Web site of choice in any resolution you can pretty much think of. Just type your URL into the box, and see how it looks in different sizes.

5. Free Icon Resources (for your site) – MaxPower.ca has put together a great list of icons that are free to use on any Web site out there today. You get links, artists, previews and the type of license it was released under as well.

For more Web development help and talk through the week, be sure to check out Lockergnome’s Web Developers newsletter. It is another side project of mine, and I guess since it is away from my major network of Web sites you could refer to it as my home away from home.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 105!

The folks over at ResellerGuide.com have got you covered if you are looking for a free design to get your hosting business off the ground. Just this past week they lanunched 12 free layouts for Web hosting companies. Some of them have multiple pages included and PSD files so that you can edit it and make it your own.

This could be a great helping hand for any small hosting company trying to get off the ground.

What is the only thing that they are asking for in return?

All that we ask is that you leave a review of the hosting company you are using and help the community with advice. Plus maybe you can link to us or email me with an article or idea for an article from time to time.

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Check out all 12 designs and when they ask you who sent you to them, make sure that you let them know that the Web Hosting Show sent you there.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 102!

Some people can get really fanatical when it comes to this topic but I am going to call it right down the middle and let you know why both can be good for you.

Why Should You Design With Tables and Classic Code in Mind?

Many people that got started coding Web pages when the Web was still young learned to do it with tables. For that reason alone, some people don’t want to change because designing with tables is what they know. Once you know the table basics, it is pretty easy to jot down some HTML and make a pretty basic layout.

The problem is that can be very limiting when you want to do certain things that tables just can not do. When you want things in an exact spot or you want to change around some font sizes or colors. Then we get in a little ‘bit of trouble.

Why Should You Design With CSS in Mind?

There is no secret that CSS does have its advantages. For one, it makes changing between layouts a breeze. All you need to do is edit one external CSS file, and you can go from having a blue background to a red one without touching any other file on your server.

You have much more control as well over the layout. Just change a few lines here or there and you have your navigation bar move from the left to the right.

Who Wins This Battle of Designing Ways?

I might make a few people mad, but in my mind CSS wins hands down. It allows you to write much cleaner looking code for your Web sites and is just more efficient in the long run. For those of you scared to make the transition over you can mix some old school elements with CSS as well.

I have several Web sites that have a basic table backbone and then everything else is designed with CSS. Which side of the fence are you on? If you have an argument for or against either side – leave it in the comments because I’d love to hear it.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 101!