What do fancy sports cars and make money bloggers have in common?

Well, ever since John Chow put up his blog with a photo of a fancy car in the header, there have been numerous copycats. Surprising? No. After all, people like to copy those that have found success.

Here’s John Chow’s blog header…

and a few admirers copycats…

Now let’s have a bit of fun and go down memory lane.

Here’s the evolution of the cars on John Chow’s blog.

circa November 2006

we like blue better than red!

maybe TWO blue cars are better than one.

Seen a make money online blog with a car in the header lately? Let me know….

Technorati Tags: john chow, make money blogs, headers with cars

Popularity: 81% [?]

Does your blog have useful content that humans want to read?

Or is it chock full of ads?

I think this is a good followup on my previous post about beautiful blogs. Here’s the counter example of what not to do. Like the show “What Not To Wear”, this post could be titled “How Not To Blog”.

Take a look at this one.

Scroll down the page and you’ll see even MORE ads.

Seriously, where is the content?

Mistake #1 for most newbies - trying too hard to make money.

I can’t say this enough.

Want to see more ugly blogs? Check these out…

This one should be called “How NOT to earn money on the internet”

And what in the world is a BlackMaster??

Dreams come true? Try a brighter, more positive WP Theme.

By the way, these were picked randomly from Entrecard. What’s the deal with the dark backgrounds?

Technorati Tags: ugly blogs, blogs nobody will read

Popularity: 33% [?]

I’m no CSS pro, but I can understand enough of it to experiment and tweak any free WP themes that I find. I just did a complete overhaul of this site’s theme a few days ago.

To see what CSS can do for you, visit ZenGarden.

Here are a few beautiful blogs in terms of having an attractive banner, color harmony, etc.

ScrapbookingMomma - nice use of a header but the AdSense block right on top is just plain ugly. Otherwise, the rest of the blog is very pleasing to the eyes.

Elitist Snob - love that sidebar!

Rob Goodlatte - do you think he drinks espresso?

Eleven 3 - creative use of the background

Carsonified - something different

This one is not a blog but it’s got stunning colors.

If you want to learn CSS, the one book I found helpful is CSS: The Missing Manual by David McFarland.

If you are into web and graphic design, check out also Smashing Magazine.

Technorati Tags: beautiful blogs, blog design, learn CSS, Smashing Magazine

Popularity: 53% [?]

It’s about time to give this blog an extreme makeover. I’ve decided to go with a 3-column modified Illacrimo design originally by Design Disease. If you need a theme that looks cool, check out some of their free ones.

I’ve had to make some changes to the column widths to get things just the way I like it. It’s now about 95% done. There are a few more small tweaks that I need to make. When you are modifying a WP theme, it helps to have some graphics skills too. Here’s where Photoshop comes in handy.

Let me know how you like the new look.

Technorati Tags: WP themes, blog design

Popularity: 16% [?]