We’re kicking off a new post series here on the BlueFur blog, finding one more way to give back to the invaluable BlueFur community. Without you guys, there would be no such thing as BlueFur in the first place and we wish to extend our continuing gratitude your way.

Every week, we will feature the website of one select BlueFur customer or client. There are many different kinds of people and businesses who host their website through BlueFur, so we thought it would be interesting to see what they’re all doing.

Some run technology blogs, others may be freelance writers, and others still may manage different kinds of online forums. We want to get to know you and we want the rest of the community to know about you too!

Want to get featured in this space? Send an email to blogfeature@bluefur.com with a brief bio and a description of your website. Thanks! We anxiously await your submissions.

While it is almost always ideal to get a completely unique theme or template for the WordPress blog wherever possible, this may not always be financially feasible. Thankfully, there are many different free themes out there for you to consider and most of these can be customized to suit your particular needs.

One of the newer themes to enter the Free Themes Directory on WordPress.org is simply called Pixel. This super-stylish template features a hybrid two/three-column design with drop-down category menus, multiple widget-ready placements, and pre-integration with the Feedburner email form.

It does take on a darker appearance, so this may or may not appropriate to the particular niche for your blog. It is undeniable that designer sam07 focused much of his energy and making this theme look good. It’s super slick and easy-to-use.

Go to WordPress.org to download the free Pixel theme.

We’ve gathered a rather eclectic collection of blog posts to share this week. We hope that your year has been off to a good start, so here’s looking forward to a happy and prosperous 2010!

Stephen Fung starts us off with a rather monumental announcement, at least in his personal life. While he’s the one that normally looks like he’s eating for two, he has a special bundle of joy on the way too. The doctors didn’t say it was possible, but it happened. There must have been something in that Eureka water! All of our well wishes go their way for a healthy baby this July.

Jeff Cutler is apparently undergoing some sort of identity confusion, because there is another Jeffrey Cutler out there on the Internet who also happens to be involved in social media, public relations, and other online ventures. What’s in a name? That’s why it’s so important to have good branding both online and offline. People should know who you are, what you do, and why you’re not that other guy.

The Teen Geek is going a little against the grain in one of his recent posts. As much as he likes the functionality and usability of web apps, he also hates them. Or at least certain aspects of them. Many of us make use of web-based apps like Hootsuite, Google Docs, and Facebook, but they just don’t have the same kind of personality as the individual desktop applications once had.

Paddling Geek, who some of you may know better simply as Kimm, has a bone to pick with Patrice Cormie. He may be seen as one of Canada’s biggest young hockey stars, but he does have a very unsportsmanlike edge to the way he approaches the game. He’s been throwing elbows left and right, purposely aiming to hurt those around him. Kimm calls for much stiffer penalties for such behavior.

Meg Fowler finishes off this speedlink with a list of six things that will always annoy her. Everyone has their pet peeves and these are very difficult to overcome. She can’t stand fake “nature” reality shows, perverted birthday cards, and people who suddenly stop while walking through the mall. Can’t they just step aside instead?!

While traditional methods may have worked several years ago, many Internet users are far too frustrated with the “spam” that fills their e-mail inboxes on a daily basis. Everyone is proclaiming what they are giving away for 50% off or even for free. These buzz words just don’t have the same power as they once did.

How, then, can you ensure that your e-mail messages to potential customers are effective? You have to put yourself in the position of someone going through their e-mails and ask yourself whether you would be interested in the messages you send out.

There are three major steps that you have to consider. First, you need to have an e-mail subject line that is captivating enough that the person will want to open the message in the first place. It can’t look like outright spam, but it has to be interesting enough to warrant being opened.

Second, the first couple of sentences have to draw the potential customer deeper into your message. Don’t beat around the bush, because users have shorter attention spans that ever. Get to the point quickly and effectively. If they are well-written, these first couple of sentences can encourage the recipient to read further.

Third, you want the potential customer to accept the call to action. At the end of your e-mail, ensure that you have adequate information for the reader to go further. This can be a website link, a phone number, an e-mail link, or whatever else you want them to do from there.

Without all three components, your email marketing campaign will prove ineffective. It doesn’t matter if you have a great call to action if the person doesn’t open the e-mail message in the first place, right?

Comments mean a lot to the success of any kind of blog, whether it be a political blog, technology blog, or even a personal blog. We have to remember that this platform is meant to provide for a two-way conversation and not as a one-way soapbox. Discussion and interaction are inherently important.

What can you do if someone leaves a particularly good comment on one of your posts? What if someone leaves a bad comment that isn’t necessarily worthy of being marked as spam or being deleted? The aptly named Feature Comments is a WordPress plug-in that was coded with this exact functionality in mind.

From the Edit Comments area in the WordPress administration panel, you can choose to do one of two things to each and every comment left on your blog. You can choose to “feature” a comment if you think that it is particularly apt or informative, or you can choose to “bury” a comment that isn’t quite as worthy of that kind of attention.

This is quite different from the voting-based system that you may see from other solutions, since the choice to feature or bury a comment is solely at the discretion of the blog owner. Go to WPprogrammer.com for more information, screenshots, and to download the Feature Comments plug-in.

Some analysts are saying that the economy is really starting to recover and the outlook is positive, but that may not be the impression that you get walking through the streets in your town. Unemployment is still at record levels and businesses are closing left, right, and center. How can you protect yourself from such a fate?

Regardless of the type of industry you’re in, it is important to diversify your interests in every sense of the word. If you are a niche company selling a niche set of products or services, this does not necessarily mean that you should branch out into other areas, but it does mean that you should keep diversity in mind.

Coming from the perspective of a freelance writer, this means that I still focus largely on the same types of articles I write, but it means that I try not to rely on a single client as my primary source of income. You never know what tomorrow may bring and you could lose that most lucrative client in the bat of an eye. Don’t overload yourself with too many clients, bearing the 80/20 rule in mind, but don’t focus completely on one or two clients either.

In like manner, your advertising efforts should take on a number of different strategies. If you run a brick-and-mortar store, flyer mailouts may be effective, but don’t forget about online campaigns too. If you diversify, you can effectively hedge your bets in case any single strategy starts to fail. Don’t rely on a single source of anything, because that single source can crumble at any time.