Freebie Friday – Manage Your Fonts

If you are a fontaholic like I am, or just need a pretty good variety of fonts because you work in graphic and print design, then chances are you’ve been frustrated trying to find just the right font for a project. Choosing, comparing, and analyzing fonts is serious business. You could just keep selecting a different font in your document and see how it looks, only to do that about 50 more times, OR you can manage your fonts and save yourself a lot of headaches.

Font management you ask? Yes, of course! There is a really good – and free – font manager out there called AMP Font Viewer. Besides allowing you to get a quick overview of both installed and non-installed fonts, this program can also install and uninstall fonts on the fly as well as organize them into categories. I can feel your excitement already!

fonts1So why would you want a font manager you ask? Well for one thing, the more fonts you install on your computer, the better the chance of your computer programs slowing down, errors happening, or possibly even crashing. They use up a considerable amount of resources on your system that reduces efficiency and productivity. With AMP Font Viewer, because you can get an overview of non-installed fonts, you can keep all your extra, non essential, everyday fonts in a separate folder and install them only when needed, thus keeping your computer happy. And we all know that a happy computer makes a happy user!

AMP Font Viewer supports TrueType, OpenType and Type1 fonts, so you get the maximum use out this great little manager. Want to test the look of any font with your own text? No problem. Want to print a list of all or just some of your installed fonts with sample text for each one? Yep, you can do that, too.

It’s so easy to use you might even have a little fun while choosing the perfect font for your next project. So stop letting your font fetish take on a life of its own and start managing your fonts with ease.

Freebie Friday – Free Premium WordPress Themes

One of my favorite things in the world is WordPress. I absolutely love it! Maybe that’s a little lame, but somewhere down the line over the last year I have morphed my skills and pushed WordPress to its limits by using it as a CMS to build great websites for my clients…that they can actually update themselves…rather than using WordPress as just a blogging platform. Just take a look at my latest Creative Spotlight on Mann Made Copy that was launched this last week…the entire site was designed and built using WordPress.

wooOver time, many people have asked me where I got a theme or where they can get one like it. Well, you can’t really as 99% of my design work and WordPress themes are all custom designed for each client. Of course there have been times where someone just wants me to install a premade or free theme for them to use as is, so I have a list of reliable sites that offer free WordPress themes. At the top of that list is WooThemes.

WooThemes offer premium WordPress themes at club prices, but what some don’t realize is they also have a nice little collection of free themes. At the time of this post, WooThemes offer 5 premium WordPress themes for free, each with its own personality. You’ve got the latest, Irresistible, with a bit of multimedia focus. A personal blogging theme in BlogTheme. Snapshot offering a photo showcase, portfolio, or design gallery. Another personal blog design in Typebased with custom widgets and integrated banner ad management. And of course a news theme in The Original Premium News Theme. And the best part is you get a premium theme at no cost so your blog or website looks professional and clean.

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So next time you’re in the market for a great, premade, premium WordPress Theme, check out the free ones from WooThemes. If none of their free ones do it for ya, don’t overlook their premium themes for purchase. They are quite inexpensive and worth every penny!

Google Feeds Gone Wild?

I’ve probably mentioned several times how much I love Aweber. Nothing has changed, but this last week I was shocked to see my blog broadcast, that is released to my subscribers every Tuesday through Aweber, was…well a little off. One of my good friends, and subscribers, forwarded the broadcast to me asking, “What the heck?”

Well it didn’t take me long to see exactly what she was referring to. Seems instead of sending only the last week’s new posts, it included a slew of older posts from December…ten of them to be exact. I’m sure my other subscribers were just as confused and wondered why on earth I would send these old posts from last year.

Racking my brain, I couldn’t figure out why this would happen all of a sudden. I hadn’t changed any of those blog posts, I hadn’t changed my blog broadcast in Aweber, so what happened?

I immediately put in a support ticket to Aweber to see if they could help figure this problem it out. After investigating my problem, their reply alluded that it looked as though my RSS feed had changed. Well it only took me a few seconds to realize they may actually be right. Just the week before I had logged into my FeedBurner account, only to be met with the following message:

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Now, this was a little weird. First of all I have never received any communication via email or otherwise that Google had acquired FeedBurner. Second, there was absolutely no information on this page, just an ultimatum basically, to move my feeds to a Google account.

This is not exactly the right way to go about doing things, Google. I mean I’m a pretty big fan of Google, and use many of their applications, but the least they could have done is give someone a head’s up on what is going on and about to happen, especially on something that is this sensitive to my business and can potentially affect my subscribers.

So I go through the seemingly quick process of moving my feeds – I mean I have no choice in the matter after all. There is no work around here, no way to view my feed information, no way to access my actual FeedBurner account, until I go through the process of moving them to my Google account…and all seems well.

Until of course my blog broadcast goes out the following Tuesday with ten old blog posts from December, most of which were a series from my 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway promotion. How could Google be so careless to allow this to happen? I mean Google isn’t exactly a Mickey Mouse setup…they are Google for heaven’s sake.

So to my subscribers, I do apologize for the hiccup of last Tuesday and hope that you didn’t miss the actual new posts that included Freebie Friday – Douglas Vitkauskas Fonts and Creative Spotlight: Wee Walk for Clyde’s Hope. As for Google, well, I hope they have fixed the problem for others by now instead of letting everyone fend for themselves in a situation that we had no say so over.

Creative Spotlight: Mann Made Copy

My good friend, client, and business associate, Jaime Lee Mann, has done it again. For those of you who run a business at home, with children, and wonder how the heck you’re going to balance everything and get it all done, I swear Jaime makes it look so effortless. Of course she will probably disagree and say she is as clueless as the rest of us, but once again, she has totally amazed me.

Jaime first started her virtual assistant business, Mann Made Time, back in the summer of 2006. This is how Jaime and I first met because I had also just started my virtual assistant business earlier that same year and we found ourselves in the same virtual circles. Jaime first contacted me to design a logo for Mann Made Time, which then led to designing her business cards, brochure, and ultimately her website. Since that time, Mann Made Time has gone through a complete rebranding, which Signature Worx had the pleasure of designing again – everything from the logo down to the website. This is how caricature Jaime was born.

Late last year, Jaime once again contacted me about designing and branding her new copywriting business, Mann Made Copy, and so the creative juices began flowing once more. One of the wonderful things about working with Jaime is that I know her so well – her likes and her dislikes – that she doesn’t even feel the need to steer me in any particular direction. In fact, I think she thoroughly enjoys just sitting back and seeing what I come up with on my own – as if she doesn’t want to taint my creativity.

After many hours of collaboration, today, Mann Made Copy was launched. Although Jaime has been writing forever, today she is officially a copywriter, not a virtual assistant. She has been heading down this road for close to three years now and has finally arrived. I know she is so proud! Oh, and on a side note, the entire site was custom designed and built using the WordPress platform as a CMS.

Check out her snazzy new Mann Made Copy logo and website, and if you’re in need of a fabulous copywriter, then Jaime is your gal. I get nothing in return for saying that or for recommending her, other than the sheer pleasure that I know you will be completely satisfied. After all, Jaime is my first choice for all of my copywriting needs – I don’t leave this stuff to just anyone you know?

By the way, you should really check out and subscribe to Jaime’s Mann Made Blog, too. I can never get enough of how Jaime can pound out a story from a regular, everyday event and turn it into a business or life lesson.

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Freebie Friday – Ornate Swirls Vector Pack

I recently ran across Room122 during one of my late night surfings and found quite a few offerings that are totally worth taking a look. Since I know most of my readers are not designers – this is why they hire me – I know you love it when I point you to great vector art and designs that you can use on your own for those smaller projects that does not require my knowledge and skills.

Today’s freebie is a pack of vector ornate swirls, great for use in backgrounds, as borders, or just a decorative element in your design. The designer, Nathan Brown, offers these very detailed swirl vectors for free from his website.

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