Let us face it, web developers can be under-appreciated. Most offer their work for free and ask for nothing. The problem is, some of these developers come up with great things. What spurred this topic on… well, the topic came up in the WordPress group in LinkedIn. It was apparent that I was not the only person experiencing a bit of under-appreciation.

Did you know PHPads has had over 2700 downloads since January 2009, and PHPurl has been downloaded over 700 times. This is not a rant. Believe me, if I felt like it, I would, but that is not the point. All of these people go through and download. Each download takes a little bandwidth and people are making money off of at least PHPads. A free tool that makes you money.

Think about all the scripts and plugins you have used, even those WordPress plugins. There are plenty of people who make plugins… many of which are very handy. I have helped test quite a few plugins and tweaked many more for my own use as well as use for clients. Have I donated – yes I have. How many plugins do you use? How many of them have a little link to donate? Have you ever donated?

I know that not everyone has a lot of money, especially with the tough economy, but we should help each other out in some way. It is the generally better to spread the word about the resource than to donate, but that little bit always makes a developers day. Here is how you can appreciate your developers, whether they are a developer of an entire script or even WordPress plugin:

• Blog about the script or plugin if you liked it. You never know… one of the people who read your blog and then visited that developer might spread the word or even donate.
• Tell people in your social media networks like on Facebook and Twitter about it.
• If a developer does not have a way for you to donate, contact them and urge them to put one up. Whether you do donate or not once they do put a donation button up, at least it is up and visible.
• Put up credit somewhere on your site on what script or plugin you are using, even if you are using it to develop a client’s website.
• Donate at least $5. It is not much, but every little bit is appreciated.

Simple, right? What others ways do you think might help developers become more appreciated?

Perhaps when you read the top, you wonder what I mean by ‘how to blog better lists.’ People love to read the top 5 of something to see if it is relevant – to them if they might be on that list, for information that could be provided, or if their friends might be listed. These type of blog entries are indentified with phrases like ‘top 10′ or even ‘5 best.’

There are a lot of lists with wonderful buzzwords attached to them. However, I have noticed when viewing these lists that they are quite long! It gets a bit boring looking through 20 or more things. It is great that you took the time to make such a list, but was it really necessary to include that many? What ever happened to the KISS method (Keep It Simple, Stupid)? It is not about the quantity, but the quality of the post. That is not the first time I have said that, but it does very much pertain to making lists.

Here are ways to improve your blog lists.

• Aim to blog between 200 to 400 words.
• Shorten your lists and break it up. Use the KISS method. For example, you do not have to list (example) ‘50 Designers on Twitter to follow. You can break those posts up. A lot of designers specialize in certain areas. Instead of sliding all of them in the same general genre, make several lists. If you have WordPress, your entry might call up those related lists if you have the proper plugins installed (like Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.)
• Make sure your list is honest and thurough. If your friend really is not all that awesome, do not include them. You are providing a list of people you recommend to people. This is important if your blog also ties in with your professional life. If you recommend someone who is not up to your own standards, you are not providing your best list.

These are just a few to consider and they are very basic. What other things do you recommend to bloggers to consider when making their top 10 or similar type lists?

I have finished another basic tutorial. It is on how to vector a guitar. The tutorial can be done in most graphic editors, but I have used it in Paint Shop Pro only because I happened to have it open and just went with it at the time.

As you can already see, I use a variation of this in the head image of this site. I have already been asked many times since I unveiled the layout late Sunday evening on how I do this. There are some images, but the original image is actually well over 1200 pixels tall, so the images for the tutorial I have only linked them and you will have to open them in a new window.

I hope it helps for some who want to create new types of images. I will be sure to have a vector tutorial of a bottle, a similar one to the bottle in my previous layout. With that one, I did it on my own without a base, but I went around and found something as similar to my image.

I do not have too many tutorials on my site, so what kind of tutorials would you like me to post on the site?