A possible alternative to writing your own unique post is to use one of the free articles at Article Alley. You can search through the 1/2 million articles written by over 60,000 authors for one that fits your blog. It’s not just for blogs, you can add any of this information to your website. It’s helpful for those who want to post about something, but don’t really have all the facts. I found a site where someone teaches you how to use a certain site, but because she used all the wrong termanology, it made no sense. A quick look over to Article Alley could’ve helped her.

Personally, I wouldn’t just take articles from this site and post them on my own site. I like to take inspiration from others’ posts, then post my own unique content  based on this. I would go through and pick a topic like How To Create Helpful Error Pages, read it through, make notes on points I feel are important, then make a few notes on points I think they missed. After that I would construct my own article based on this, then cite that article as a source. I think that is the best way to use this service.

Of course, another good idea is to submit articles. Many times I’ll want to write about something that doesn’t really go along with my blog. Sometimes I just put it into my personal blog (because I can do whatever I want there) but to help me build up my own site I could post an article on Article Alley and get a link back for it. Then, those who use my article would also need to link me. It’s just another great way to keep your blog interesting and to get noticed better.

Since the last update, I’ve put up some new Jojo PSDs. They’re cute, I think. I tried to make a set of it, but I only ended up being able to do two of them. They match, though, so they should be pretty good for layouts or blends.

Today I put up some new stock photos, too. We went to the park for a while and I was going to take photos but the D60 was full and dead, so all these were taken with my p-o-s camera. They’re still pretty nice, though. I hope you can find a use for them. If nothing else, they’d make decent brushes or even textures.

I was playing around and made some new 88×31 buttons, too. So use’em and link me. Let me know if you do so I can link you back.

1. First update is an addition to the brushes family, a 2nd set of grunge brushes.

Download Grunge Set 2 For Photoshop

2. I’ve put up some buttons for you to link to me with. It seemed kind of self defeating to ask people to link back to me for using my stuff, but not offer a button to link me with. I followed a tutorial (poorly) to make these buttons and I like the way they turned out.

3. I also added a Facebook for Lala Land, which I’ll be working on. The button to view it is on the sidebar and I got it from here (more than just facebook, they have many web 2.0 icons). There’s currently nothing on the page, but you can view it here and go ahead and become a fan. I plan to put all my freebies up there, too. Maybe even a few extras.

4. I put up some stock images from my own photography. These images are only to be used with credit back. Don’t even look at them if you’re not willing to credit me if they’re used. This includes any sort of textures, brushes, or any other way the image may no longer be identifiable.

5. I added some new fonts to the fonts page. I found these online and I loved them, so I thought I’d share them with everyone.

Download Cash Font / Credit Owner

Download Skirules / Credit Owner

6. I also added a ‘Mentoring’ section that I plan to turn into a service matching advanced users to beginners to help them grow. Before I spend the time getting into all of this, I’d like to know if this is something that would interest anyone. Would you like to help others achieve their potential? Would you like help from someone who already does what you want to do? Let me know if you think this is something I should move forward on. This is taking the place of the old “sponsoring” section Lala Land used to have. I took that word down for fear that Google would misinenterpret it send me to my doom.

Lastly, I’m trying to get a better reach and more readers, so I’m ready to link exchange with those who might be interested. I have standards (it can’t be a link farm) but I’m not going to turn down any sites just because I don’t think they’re “elite”. Let me know if you’re interested. Also looking for suggestions on how to make my site more popular.

Download Grunge Set 1 for Photoshop

I also uploaded all the old brushes I could find. I don’t know what they look like anymore or what they’ll work in, but I listed the date next to them so you can see how old they are. I tried the Photoshop Blinkie Blocks and they really suck. But they work. And the PSP brushes should work in the older versions. I’m not sure how PSP brushes work anymore, but I’ll be working on how to make them so I can offer them, too. Enjoy!

• Akismet Along with the Wordpress API Key will allow you to block spam comments. Does a great job blocking, but also blocks one of my friends. Wonder why..
• Bubs Button Board A plugboard for your site. Everyone loves leaving their button on someone else’s site.
• Clean Archives The only archive script I use. I don’t like having archives in the sidebar, I prefer to have them on a page of their own.
• DoFollow Google is the only search that follows “nofollow” but if you use this plugin, it will remove that tag from all the links in your blog. I’ve also heard that it might lower your Page Rank, too.
• FlickrRSS Show your latest Flickr photos on your site. I love this.
• Reinvigorate The best website stats program ever. I highly suggest it.
• Theme Switcher I used to use this on my site, but I’m going to be disabling it now because my theme is way different from the others.
• WP-Contact Form Everyone needs a good contact form. Very simple.
• WP-UserOnline Tell everyone how many people are on your site. Also includes a dashboard page telling you who’s online and everything about them.
• WP Grins Adds smilies to your posts and comments.

I’m looking for more great plugins, too, so if you have some you use on your personal site that you’d like to recommend, comment and let me know.

convergence

One of my favorite themes, and the one that inspired me to reopen Lala Land, is convergence. I was actually looking into using it before I showed Anna and she directed me to another site where I fell in love with another design that was very similar.

Convergence has great placement for pages and category navigation, along with a great ad placement above the fold. Each entry is limited in size on the front page with a thumbnail, while the entry page shows the full entry and some information about the author. Under the entry it lists related posts and popular posts to keep interest on your site.
Only $25

clean portfolio

A great HTML Template I found that I really liked was Clean Portfolio. It reminds me of someone sophisticated, like a teacher or a even freelancer. I’ve noticed that many coders create great codes, but because designing doesn’t come so easy to them, their applications and scripts are left looking bland and boring. This is a great template for you if you want to show your work, but can’t muster up the creativity for a design.

This template has room for up to 4 pages and includes a working Contact Form. It also uses jQuery Lightbox to give your gallery images some life. The coding is valid XHTML and uses no tables (faster load time with less coding). At the bottom it has links for popular social networking sites to help you keep your visitors interested and coming back. Only $12

I could spend all day on this site telling you what I think looks nice and where I think you should use it, but you’ll have to go take a look for yourself. I’m sure you’ll find something there that works for you. Theme Forest has a standard of quality that will keep you coming back. Please use my links so I can gain referral credit.