Some of the most creative people in the world prefer BlueFur for their web hosting needs. These include a range of graphic artists, handicraft artisans, and professional web designers. Tatam Reeves is another example of this bustling community of creativity.

Tatam is a musical artist based out of the Edmonton area in Canada. According to his bio, his music offers a “unique sound consisting of acoustic and vocal melodies that paint a rich portrait of life’s light and shadow.” Musical influences include Tori Amos and Kelly Joe Phelps.

To get the best sense of the kind of sound Tatam brings to the table (and to your speakers), be sure to check out the music samples he has posted on his site. There are also sections with videos, photos and press, as well as information about the dates and times of live performances.

Do you use BlueFur to host your websites? Let us know and we can feature you in a future blog post. Send an email message to blogfeature@bluefur.com with your name, website URL, and a brief description of what you’d like to see highlighted.

When it comes to WordPress, you have many different options for many different looks. Whether you want a more casual-looking theme for a personal blog or a more corporate-looking site for an online store, there is a WordPress theme out there to suit your needs.

One theme that recently hit the web is Blocks. It carries a very simple, but functional layout that can work for a range of niches and site types. As its name implies, the theme features several squared off edges and clear definition between the sections.

There is a single sidebar on the left where you can add your widgets, like the search bar, list of recent comments, archive listing, and ad code. The footer is also widget enabled with four separate areas. The primary color scheme is black, blue, and orange, but you can easily change that by slightly altering the code.

Check out the live preview and then go to Empty Nest Themes to access the free download link.

Let’s see what the bloggers around the web are talking about this week.

Vance Sova is a regular attendee at Dot Com Pho and he is sharing a few videos that she shot at the most recent meetup. In the videos, the Internet gurus talk about Android and beer, though not necessarily the relationship between the two. The iPhone 5 slots into the conversation too.

Buzz Bishop recently went for a trip through the Rocky Mountains and learned what what tourists do in Canada: they do goofy things for funny photos. This is no different than when people pose in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, pretending to prop it up. Memories may change, but photos are forever?

Patti Stafford has an article up on Blogging Tips, reminding readers of a hard fact of life: There is no easy button. Despite what the Staples ads may lead you to believe, you can’t fix life’s problems by tapping on a big red button. Be ready to work and put in the effort if you want to achieve any kind of real success.

Bob Buskirk has reached another milestone in his life. He just turned 27 years old. This officially makes him a member of the “late 20s” crowd, whatever that means. He’s happy with the progress he has made in his web career and he looks forward to the many challenges that lay before him in the future.

Raul Pacheco continues with the birthday theme, but on a completely different spin. Rather than soliciting gifts, he plans on celebrating his birthday by doing charity work. That’s a fantastic attitude to have, because there are so many people, causes, and organizations that need our help!

Twitter has largely been embraced by the mainstream. News forecasters and other television personalities sometimes have their Twitter usernames flashed on the screen. Companies tell you to follow them on Twitter, prominently displaying the bird logo on their websites.

But that’s just for the usernames. As another way to spark the conversation, many television shows have also started to display a hashtag somewhere on the screen. On Top Gear USA, you may notice #TopGear shown in the corner. The same happens with shows like #Fringe. By doing this, they are encouraging interaction on Twitter among users other than their own Twitter accounts.

This costs virtually nothing for the producers to add, but it can result in huge rewards for the companies and television shows. I’ve even seen some TV commercials and print ads that not only show the company’s Twitter username, but also a preferred hashtag. This is about brand presence and consistency. In the case of Top Gear, it encourages people tweet with #TopGear rather than #TopGearUSA, for example.

The irony is that hashtags aren’t even required in Twitter and they haven’t been needed for some time now. Putting “Fringe” and “#Fringe” in a tweet is read the same way and can be searched the same way. Hashtags still have value, though, and this creative marketing is one way to capitalize on that.

Blogs are a great way to showcase your latest work as the default configuration uses a reverse chronological order for your content. At the same time, this means older content can easily be lost and forgotten. How can you fix that?

A great WordPress plugin called Top 10 helps draw attention to some of your most popular posts. It keeps track of the page views on your blog, both on a daily basis and with all-time page views. The page view count can be shown on the individual posts themselves, but that’s not where the real value lies.

Instead, it’s much better to output this top 10 list as a widget to be shown in your sidebar or footer. This way, if someone arrives on your site reading one post, he or she will quickly and easily see what other posts are popular on your site. There are many features and options in this plugin too, allowing you to tweak it to suit your needs.

Head over to the developer’s site to get more information about how this plugin works. You can access the free download link on that page or via the WordPress.org Plugin Directory.

By its very nature, running a business on the Internet may attract the attention of customers outside of your home country. So, you are left with the decision of whether you should be quoting your prices only in your local currency or if you should be providing alternatives for customers who reside outside of your country.

Offering your prices in several different currencies can really complicate your accounting process, as these exchange rates can fluctuate greatly day to day. Are you going to provide prices based on today’s exchange rates or are you going to set a certain price in these other currencies for an extended period of time?

For this reason, it may be simpler to stick to a generally accepted international currency, like the United States Dollar. The dollar has hit a fair bit of turbulence lately, but it has historically been reasonably stable. Alternatively, you may consider the British Pound (GBP) or the Euro, depending on where your company is based.

When it comes to reporting the revenue generated over the course of the year, you again have two options. You could convert the incoming funds as you receive them or you could convert them as a lump sum at the end of your reporting period. If you go with the latter, the “average” exchange rate — as reported by an institution like the Bank of Canada — is reasonably accepted for all moneys received for that period.