When I add a fave while surfing to my browser, I always just dump it into the root of faves and forget about it until I need to look for it. Every once in awhile I like to go back to all these dumped links and either categorize them, or delete them. It’s a fun little ritual that usually lasts me me an hour… most of that time is spent scratching my head wondering why I had that site bookmarked in the first place! So, I thought why not share this particular clean up with the P2L gang and post it in my blog? Shall we dance?

Color Scheme Generator – www.wellstyled.com

This handy tool is a virtual color wheel that you can use to select appealing color combinations for websites, logos or whatever else you want to design that requires multiple colors that blend well together. You can even select the color methods… so pick a green color and it’ll show you green hues, or click contrast for clashing colors. Best of all, it’s totally free!

4Templates – www.4templates.com

Looking for kick ass website layouts in Flash or HTML? Check out 4templates, which has gorgeous templates at half the cost of templatemonster!

AvP Jewelry – www.jap-inc.com

Someone PLEASE buy me this! Nah… don’t worry about it. I had a guy visit the shop that makes these in person and they don’t offer the ring in my size. *sigh*

Break-dancing Transformers – students.washington.edu

Watch Soundwave and some other transformers get down with some classic break-dancing moves. Amazing 3D modeling by Charlie Bayliss and Dan Kohn. If you feel like getting into 3D artwork, here’s all the inspiration you’ll need!

Daniweb Forums – www.daniweb.com

The professional forum hosted over at the IT discussion community known as Daniweb! It’s not as huge as Sitepoint or Webhostingtalk, but you’ll definitely find some great tips for all things web design and webmaster management. I just started hanging out here and people seem really cool with some clever cookies hiding in the bushes!

Chitika Advertising – www.chitika.com

This new ad network has made quite a stir in the advertising world with their new minimalls ad format. We’re running them on P2L for our filler ads, but they don’t perform all that great. It seems some people have had tremendous results with their ad formats, whereas others have completely bombed. Personally I think this is gear towards sites with typical “online shopping” looks to them where it easier for the ads to blend in to the rest of the site. Give them a try and see how they perform vs Google or other ad vendors… you never know!

Doll Houses – www.dollproperties.com

I’m looking into designing and building a custom doll house for my daughter. This site had some beautiful models, so I stole some ideas from here although I may just end up buying a kit from these guys and build it myself to save some time. Anyhow, thought this would be funny to toss into this list… gotta keep you on your toes!

Design 2.0: Minimalism, Transparency, and You – www.emilychang.com

Part of my never ending quest to figure out what exactly they mean by Web 2.0. It turns out that even the people that invented the buzzword don’t even know what it means, but this was a great read on the subject!

Go Articles – www.goarticles.com

One of the best places to find free articles based on GNU licensing that I’ve ever found (Thanks Donna!) and you can even submit your own to their database! This is a great way to get your link around because other people that republish your article need to leave the “About the author” section intact, where you of course have posted a link to your site. TONS of information on here for a wide variety of subjects.

Google Ranking Factors – SEO Checklist – www.vaughns-1-pagers.com

This is just a MASSIVE checklist for those of you looking for the complete list of SEO factors and tweaks for your site. Bear in mind this list changes with every Google update, but most of this is still VERY accurate information and the checklist is huge! This should keep you busy for awhile!

Marketing in the post-Cluetrain era – www.horsepigcow.com

This is a great article on what it takes to be an effective marketer, and it not only applies to running a successful website, but it also covers your personal and professional life. A lot of this is common sense, but common sense is often missed, so make sure you read this 😉

Invisionize – www.invisionize.com

If you run an IPB (Invision Power Board) based forum, then this is a site your should DEFINITELY have bookmarked someplace! It has every mod created for IPB known to man! You can find anything from door game style mods, to ad systems like the one we run on the P2L forums. If you’re into forum customization, go put on a pot of coffee, because you’re about to waste some SERIOUS time snooping around on here!

Glossary of Digital Photography Terms – surgery.mc.duke.edu

New to digital photography or digital art and you’re not sure what some of the common buzz words and acronyms mean? Here’s a quick list of some of the most common terms in digital photography discussions.

Pastebin – www.pastebin.com

Pastebin is self described as a “collaborative debugging tool” and someone sent me this link in a recent hacking incident where believe you me, the good guys won. Anyhow, you ever want to paste a large amount of code to someone via MSN only to get it cut off a few lines into it? This handy site is exactly what you need, and it’s free!

Plogger – www.plogger.org

This AWESOME photo blog script is simply the easiest and most powerful photo gallery system I have ever used and I love it to bits! Auto thumb-nailing and a kick-butt admin system make this a must have for your photo cataloging. The best part is how easy it is to skin! It’s so easy, even I can do it, and most people know my coding skills are laughable at best.

Sam Spade – www.samspade.org

Some SERIOUSLY powerful tools when it comes to tracking down IPs, Website owner information, Whois queries and more! Handy tool for looking for folks that are doing things they shouldn’t 😉

WebHosting Talk – www.webhostingtalk.com

This is a huge online community forum for webmasters and hosting company folks for tips on anything from Dedicated hosting packaged to selling websites. This is a very professional website PACKED with extremely valuable information to anyone who owns a website!

Well, that’s about it for this clean up! The rest were dead links or completely pointless bookmarks. Next article will feature sites that are the ultimate in getting your creative juices flowing! When you’re looking for inspiration to get your next project under way, these links will be a sure hit to get you cooking!

Until next time!

Dan