new Active Rain blog theme: Jazz # 1, group news, geeks & gurus

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 Every once in awhile, stuff happens on Active Rain that makes me re-think why I'm here and what is the real purpose of The Art Of Marketing You group ???

 In the past week there was a mini flood of posts about what should or shouldn't be featured, how to comment, how to reply to comments, etc... Yes I know people are entitled to their opinions, complaints, etc... as well as voicing how they think things should be done. I have kind of a busy life so I try to stay out that kind of stuff.

 Right now I'm speaking for myself and The Art Of Marketing You group. I'm not speaking on behalf of Active Rain, the management or anyone else.

 I do hear my fair share of whining and complaining in comments/emails asking me why certain posts are featured in this group and why certain posts aren't featured. 99.9% of the time, the people who ask that haven't read the group guidelines

 If you haven't read our group guidelines  here is a very short, to the point version.

- our group is about marketing (duh!)

- off topic stuff like movie reviews, recipes, fitness tips, etc... do not belong in this group

- what counts is the quality of your posts, not the quantity

- if you're one of those people in the habit of adding 5 "posts" an hour, we no longer read you

 I'm really tired of all the whining, complaining and off topic posts so beginning this week we'll only be featuring posts directly related to marketing, branding, technology, etc... as well as Rain related news.

 A warning to those in the habit of posting junk, depending on how much of it we see and which direction the wind is blowing on any given day, if we ban you from posting in this group it will be permanent. If you don't think I'm being fair, feel free to whine/complain to AR management, I don't want to hear it!

 I'm trying to add value to the Rain, I don't have the time, interest or patience for the bullsh%t stupid stuff that seems to go around every few weeks. If you're here to waste our member's time or if you're just plain desperate for attention, go and join MySpace, they love junk!

 On the other hand, if you're here contributing insightful, well thought out, well explained, on topic content (i.e. see Bill Gassett's posts listed below as a great example), you're more than welcome to post as much and as often as you like!

 Continuing with my Rain blog theme series, between doing branded Real Estate blog themes like RE/MAX, Keller Williams, etc... just for fun I'm going to throw in some designs I'm doing for Wordpress but will adapt them to fit into the Active Rain blog format.

 My first theme along those lines was Think Green, this week I thought I'd give you guys something a little "jazzier" with...

theme preview

 The graphic above is a preview of the Jazz #1 Rain blog theme. The graphics for this theme include...

- the blog header

- the background image tile

- the post divider

- and the navigation menu colors

 If you'd like to use this theme on your Active Rain blog, all you have to do is download the graphics and then upload them into your blog customizer panel.

Here is a look at the graphics that come with this theme...

a preview of the blog header

 The blog header is 950 pixels wide X 115 pixels high so it fits perfectly into the header space, no need to re-size anything. just add your own text like I did in the theme preview image.

the background image tile

 This is the background image tile for the Jazz # 1 theme. Like all the other graphics it's optimized for size and speed, it loads fast and won't slow down your blog!

the post divider

 And since my post dividers seem to be a hot commodity, I've also included on of those as well to complete the Jazz # 1 look.

instructions/suggestions

 If you don't have the time or patience to fool around trying to get the navigation menu to match your blog header or background, here are the color settings I used for the theme preview...

- menu background  386455

- page background  386455

- header background  386455

- menu text  FFFFFF

 You can download all the images for the Jazz # 1 Rain blog theme here

 In addition to the blog themes I'm doing for the community to use here on Active Rain, I'm also working on similar ideas & graphics that you'll be able to use on blogs such as Wordpress.

 There's a lot more info and goodies in the works that I'll announce here in my Rain blog very soon!

 If you have ideas, suggestion or requests for blog themes you'd like to see, let me know either in your comments and/or by email and I'll seriously consider each and ever one of them.

 I realize that this isn't the same as having a totally customized, pimped out blog but hey, it's free! ;-)

 If you're time challenged like me and there aren't enough hours in a day to sort through the mountains of info being posted here in the Rain or out on the web, here are some of my favorite reads from the past few days...

- Drop Everything - Run To LinkedIn NOW  by Chris Brogan

- How To Ride the Recession the Steve Jobs Way  by Steve Rubel

- The Top 5 Mistakes Internet Marketers Make On Twitter  by Michael Martine

- How To Build a Successful Email Newsletter  by Darren Rowse

- How To Lose  by Seth Godin

- ActiveRain New Hire - Welcome Harlen 'The Copyright Crusader'  by Bob Stewart

- REBarCamp - "The FREE Social Media Conference that Comes to You!"  by Rich Jacobson

- The ActiveRain Listing Router  by Jeff Corbett

- Listing Router Two Week Free Trial, Reduced Click Cost By City  by Jeff Corbett

- Listing Router 'Whiteboard Explanation'  by Bob Stewart

- Listing Router - How To Setup & Save Your Own Traffic  by Brad Andersohn

- Listing Router - How To Set Up Your Own Click Campaign  by Brad Andersohn

- Listing Router - How To Opt Out  by Brad Andersohn

- A Lead vs a Hit... for Listing Router (how to make the most of it)  by Missy Caulk

- Listing Router....some IDX Solutions  by Missy Caulk

- Listing Router ~ Business Development Big Time!  by Jeanean Gendron

- Listing Router is a no brainer hook up to profit. JUST DO IT!!!  by Rebecca Levinson

- Until the stats can be obtained from the new listing router - try this!  by Kris Wales

- WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RE-BLOGGING  by Gail MacMillan

- Size Does Matter! The New Channels Features Explained...  by Shane O'Gorman

- New Active Rain Group on Feng Shui  by Gary Woltal

- Your Social Media User Name - Is It Too Late?  by Brad Andersohn

- Associated Content Article/Blog Submission for Backlinks & Readership  by Bill Gassett

- Puurple ~ Social Bookmarking site like Digg but just for Real Estate!  by Bill Gassett

- Warning-The Facebook worm-loves Google Reader and Picassa!  by Midori Miller

- Using Facebook For Business - From a BlitzTime Call W/ Jake Press  by Joshua Jarvis

- Cool Color Tool From HP- Interactive Color Zeitgeist  by Debi Boucher

- Do You Know How To Serph?  by Mana Tulberg

- copyright laws... publishing blogs with images that are not yours  by Castellum Realty