Cool Stuff for Your Blog

Looking for add-ons and plug-ins for your blog? Want to spruce it up a bit with custom templates and images? Well, read on!

Blogflux offers a number of really cool tools for your blog, including MapStats, which tracks all your visitors and then plots them nicely on a Google Map. Click the "BF MapStats" button to the right to check out my Map Stats. I just installed it today, so some of the numbers aren't there yet, but it'll give you a good idea. The information the map gives you is pretty cool as well, and you can select from a number of different views.

Blogflux also offers, a cool button maker to make buttons like the "BF MapStats" one. You choose the colors, text, and it does all the work for you. Just right click the final product and save! Other Blogflux services include: Blog Directory, LinkLog, PageRank Checker, Pinger, Polls, Scramble, a subscription service, themes, and Suggest which suggests some good blogs for you to read.

I just came across this site today, which has TONS of links to various blog related services, tools, etc. - Weblogs Compendium. And for the librarians out there, the main page of the site has some great links to library related blog stuff like Libdex's directory to library weblogs and the open directory library weblog directory. Speaking of directories, I have to add my Google Librarian Blog to those!


If you're a newbie blogger or blog reader, check out the Blog Glossary to get a handle on all the jargon and terms thrown about in the blogosphere.

Blogthings has a lot of interesting quizzes you can put in your blog. Here's one to test your knowledge of blogging. How much do you know? Here's what I got:

You Know a Lot About Blogging

You got 5/8 correct! Your not a total blogging geek yet... give it time.

Now... on to themes. Default themes are okay, but customized ones are better. You can change up default themes by modifying the CSS code, or you can apply entirely new ones that you design from scratch or find on the net.

Colleen, a regular at v7n, is the blog theme queen. Her site, Mystical Twilight, has some awesome free themes to download for Wordpress. Additionally, she can create custom themes to suit your needs or match your existing website for a pretty good price.

In addition to Colleen's site, there are several other good resources for blog themes:

• BloggingPro has a good selection of Wordpress themes.
• Here are more great Wordpress themes from Alex King.
• A Blogger blog about Blogger templates.
• Blogskins has a HUGE selection of themes for many different blog platforms.

And finally, learn a little something about graphic design at JuggoPop's Worthless Blog (that's not my name for it, it's his!). Check out the "Bling Bling" Text Tutorial, and learn how to pimp out your site. ;)

So, that's all for today. That should be enough to keep you busy with your blog for awhile. I know it'll keep me busy, that's for sure.