Ever since the launch of WordPress 2.5, everyone is excited about new ideas for themes, as well as the new ownership of WPDesigner.com!

These are some exciting developments, and I am getting excited about the future of my blogging life - including getting a new theme for this site. I have tried to keep my content and appearance fresh, but I am ready for some changes that will help me feel like I’m getting a good return on my blogging investment.

There have been some serious setbacks with this site, including loosing my archives to a twitchy finger, gaining a Google PageRank of 4 and watching it drop to ZERO.

But, it is almost the middle of 2008 and it is time to claim my destiny!

I’m looking for an affordable theme designer who is willing to work with me to create a new identity for this site as I work toward improving my site’s brand.

Of course, a new theme should have plugin compatibility and have a fresh, timeless look that is appealing to my core audience. Even if we tweak an existing theme, I want it to feel personalized and more unique than the average theme.

Leave your suggestions for designers and themers in the comments or send me an email.

UPDATE: I kept looking and looking and found this theme, the Mandigo theme by tom, which has enough pink to make me happy as well as widget support - no more hand coding for me (I hope!) . Okay, that theme was really bothering me and I just had to switch back to old faithful. However, keep the comments and suggestions coming, and I will do a roundup in a few weeks. ~ Ellie

No matter if you are a certified geek or a computer newbie, you still need to take some time out to do some computer spring cleaning. The basic steps listed below will give you a fresh start to the summer and fall and hopefully increase your productivity - giving you more time to enjoy sitting in the park or attending baseball games!

1. Clean out your email inboxes. This is a chore that can seem endless, but how many of you keep emails way past their expiration date? Honestly, are you going to send that forward that Aunt Sue sent you 5 years ago to anyone else? Or do you really need to keep the shipping notification from Amazon.com about a book you purchased six months ago? If not, delete these emails and free up some space in your inbox. Just because you have a ton of space doesn’t mean you have to use it.

2. After cleaning out your email inboxes, sort your emails into folders or labels. Sorting emails can help you get control of your inbox - and your life. Setting up filters for incoming mail can sort work from personal email, mailing list emails and more. It is up to you as to how many or how few filters to utilize.

3. Backup your data - if you use Gmail, consider installing Thunderbird and backing up your emails to your computer. You should also back up your important files to an external hard drive or one of the many free online solutions - or go old school and save them on CD-RWs or DVDs.

4. Slim down your email, system - and your life! Unsubscribe from mailing lists that you do not participate in or do not find useful, unsubscribe from RSS feeds that you never get to read and uninstall programs you never use or duplicate functions. Ask yourself - have I used this in the past week, month, three months? If not, you might consider cutting it out. As my grandmother used to say, “Time saved is money earned.” Believe it!

5. Evaluate your browser’s bookmarks for duplicates, broken links, and sites you wanted to visit again but never got around to it. There’s no need in lugging around extra baggage - when you can take an afternoon, organize your bookmarks and have your browser looking (if not also feeling) much more organized and ready for “work.”

It is important to remember that for most of us, an organized workspace leads to a more productive experience - and greater feelings of well-being. Now, finish cleaning up your computer and browser, so you can head out and enjoy the sunshine!

Becoming a better blogger takes some patience and a bit of elbow grease - but it is worth it when you start seeing the results you have been looking for. It doesn’t matter if your goals are more traffic, making money online or interacting with others.

You can become a successful blogger! It doesn’t matter if you are young, old, educated or not. Patience, a little bit of work and experimenting with various products, programs and advice will have you accomplishing your blogging goals in no time at all!

When it comes to blogging, the most important thing is to write about things you love. If you do not have a passion for your blog’s topics, it will show in your writing and approach to blogging. Do not hesitate to ask other bloggers and even a blog consultant for help on topics, themes, posting frequency, etc.

One of the first things you should do as a new blogger is to claim your blog on Technorati, like I did. Now, I can track what other bloggers are writing about as well as what others say about my blog! I have been able to target my writing a lot more because of Technorati’s tools and free services. You can also claim your blog at Feedster.

Think about using Google Analytics to get feedback on how your blog is performing. Visitor stats are useful, but more detailed information can be even more helpful when it comes to developing your “Better Blogger” strategy.

Validate your feeds. Do not ignore RSS! More and more people are picking up on RSS functionality because it helps them read more websites than if they had to manually visit them daily or weekly. Like email, new posts appear in their RSS “inbox” for immediate viewing.

An offshoot of feeds is trackback and ping functionality. You want to edit your WordPress settings to enable automatic trackback and ping functionality. This will help you interact with other bloggers. How?

If someone mentions your website on their blog, you will get a notification and be able to thank that blogger in the comments of the post and communicate with commenters on their blog. You can monitor any mentions of your blog using Google Alerts or Technorati.

You also want to make sure that you are replying to your commenters and providing them with an opportunity to provide you feedback via comments after posts and an email webform. My favorite bloggers and the ones I look up to often ask for reader feedback and reply to emails personally.

Usually the blogger who will link back to your site is a blogger writing about similar topics, so it is good to continue to cultivate relationships with them online and offline, which will build up your readership in the long term. Think about attending blog conferences, so you can learn more about blogging and meet other bloggers in a more formal environment.

Some will suggest that you purchase advertising, such as through other blogs or a service like StumbleUpon Ads. It is really up to you on how to approach generating buzz for your blog, but remember, becoming a better blogger is about more than just pageviews and a nice WordPress theme!

You must edit yourself ruthlessly. I cannot stress this enough. During my early days as a blogger, I spent a lot of time writing, but very little time editing. Balance the two - and you will generate even better content for your readers. It isn’t even a bad idea to go back and edit your old posts - or even rewrite them for greater clarity. Don’t forget that your blog is YOUR voice - so your personality should shine through in every post!

As you continue to generate more and more great content, you may be approached to be a guest blogger on another blog - this is an honor that shouldn’t be taken lightly. However, think about the impact to your own blog - do you have posts stored for a rainy day? Will you have time to contribute to another blog?

On the other hand, consider asking readers to submit their own articles to your site for submission. Provide the opportunity for a free link back to their blog or website as well as feedback as to how successful the article was on your site.

As Dale Carnegie once said, “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”

Don’t forget that while blogging can be a “job”, you should still try to enjoy yourself! Happy Blogging!

This post covers steps 54-70 of 101 Steps to Becoming a Better Blogger.