5ThirtyOne is very pink and created a special WordPress theme for the occasion.

WordPress Theme master, Brian Gardner, is sporting a very sophisticated shade of mauve.

I just love the combination of the black and pink on the Calla Mae site (and check out the beautiful bracelet, too)

I created a custom header and changed up the CSS at my Casual Keystrokes site to make it really pink.

Conserving Made Chic is one of my new favorites for so many reasons!

Charity at Design Adaptations gave me the final push I needed to get my pink site live when I saw that she had released her Pink Adaptations theme.

Geek with Style created this gift-like Pink for October theme.

Kiss My Code’s very creative theme at I’m Blogging That just might be my favorite.

Not only did Randa Clay give her own site a beautiful pink makeover, she also release one of her themes in a pink version, Pink Bird.

Scribblescratch also contributed two themes – I really like this snappy plaid one.

Natalie Jost contributed some beautiful themes and color schemes to help inspire us to go pink. This one is her personal design.

This is another one of Natalie Jost’s Pink for October themes – just gorgeous.

How can you resist pink sunglasses? Surrounded by Girls did a great job going pink – something tells me they have had a bit of practice with the pink palette.

If you have a favorite Pink for October design, please take a minute and share it with us. Or let us know which of these designs you happen to love. Thanks to all the designers for taking time to support a great cause by sharing your creativity and voice with all of us.

PS – This is a Thursday Thirteen post.

Patterned backgrounds are a very popular finishing touch for many websites. While it seems that diagonal stripes are in this season (especially for Web 2.0 sites), there are so many other options from elegant to whimsy, preppy to proper. The following sites have some really fabulous patterns to choose from:

1. Squidfingers – 158 absolutely stunning background patterns by Travis Beckham.

2. DinPattern – about 50 patterns (and it looks like more will be added) that are beautiful eye candy. There is even a live preview option to test out the backgrounds as you browse.

3. Kaliber10000 – currently there are 927 pixellated patterns on their site, many of which are user submitted.

4. 44Suburbia – 61 very sophisticated patterns

5. Pattern4u – another site jam packed with unique backgrounds and patterns – there are well over 100 different patterns to choose from.

6. Pootato – many of these patterns are more simplistic and can be used in Photoshop and other graphics programs. Looking for some cool Photoshop brushes? Pootato has them too.

7. iStockPhoto – clearly one of the best resources for fresh, new backgrounds of every kind.

8. One Pattern – while their patterns are not free, you purchase them in collections for less than $20 a set.

9. 3Quarks – very subtle paper like backgrounds

10. CitrusMoon – the CitrusMoon site hasn’t been updated in years, but the backgrounds are free and many of them are still beautiful

11. TartanMaker – want to have fun and design your own tartan plaid background? Tartan Maker is an interactive tartan plaid maker.

12. StripeGenerator – craving the current Web 2.0 trend? Make your own stripes background with Stripe Generator.

13. Background Maker – this was addictively FUN – click on pixels and watch your background come to life before you very eyes

Just a tip – you might want to set aside a nice block of time to browse these sites – there is so much to look at that it becomes a giant time vacuum. Have fun!!

This post is part of Thursday Thirteen. You can find more TT entries at the TT hub.

Related posts:

• 13 Sites for Unique Textures
• 13 Steps to a Blog Redesign
  
• My 13 Favorite WordPress Resources
• 13 Things Every Website Needs

Over the past six months I have discovered so many great resources for WordPress support. As part of Thursday Thirteen this week, I am sharing them with you.

1. Lorelle on WordPress -  If I need anything related to WP, I go to Lorelle’s site first. It is such a comprehensive resource. (Bookmark it NOW)
2. WordPress Codex – The second place I go when I need a question answered.
3. Problogger’s WordPress Resources
4. Alex King – I’m loving the Most Popular plugin (I have it running at CasualKeystrokes and it will be here soon)
5. cre8d design
6. Lisa Sabin-Wilson – her upcoming book WordPress for Dummies is sure to be a must have resource
7. WASABI WP Plugins
8. Themes.wordpress.net – the huge sortable database of free WP themes
9. WP Designer – themes and support forums
10. Brian Gardner – more beautiful themes
11. Kaushel Sheth – and more great themes
12. ThemesBase – more themes and support forum
13. WordPress Station – a WP blog about WP

I know there are more. Many more. Please share some of your favorites by leaving a comment!

It’s my first Thursday Thirteen and I figured I would return to my roots on this one. Let’s give our sites a mini-audit using this checklist of 13 things every website needs!

1. Title – Do you see that blue bar at the top of your screen? What does it say? At a minimum, it should have the title of your site plus a few key words or phrases that will help your users find you in their bookmarks. 50-80 characters is optimum.
2. Description – You need an “elevator speech” for your site – a concise, descriptive summary of your site – up to 250 characters including spaces. You need this in your meta tags, but also keep it handy for when you register your site with directories and/or social marketing sites. It is also what appears under your site title (see #1) when being listed in the search engines.
3. Keywords – Not just any old words, but approximately 1024 solid characters of descriptive words used in your site. Don’t list keywords you think might be popular but don’t appear in or apply to your site.
4. Navigation – Is the navigation on your site intuitive? Is it laid out in a logical manner? Keep it simple and specific. You don’t want to lose your readers because they have to click through 8 layers of navigation to get to the info they need.
5. White Space – Make your site easy on your readers’ eyes by giving all the elements room to breathe. Ample white space around images and margins will give these elements more impact. See this article at A List Apart for more explanation.
6. Content - But not just any old copy. Your main page needs a minimum of 250 meaningful, content rich words. Remember, your visitors are in a hurry – give them the content they need in small, easy to read chunks, set off by subheads, bulleted lists and short paragraphs.
7. Fresh Information – When was the last time you updated your site? Create a news section or at a minimum, change out the content or images on your home page regularly.
8. Spell Check – Don’t tell me you forgot this one! Take the time to tend to the details like spell and grammar check – it will save you future embarrassment.
9. Images – A picture is worth a thousand words and a well-placed picture or graphical element will save your web site from eternal loneliness. There are plenty of places to get images for free or at a small cost. And don’t forget to tag those images, too!!!
10. Quality Links – Provide your readers with quality outbound links and seek out quality inbound links. Your PageRank will thank you.
11. Call to Action – What is the purpose of your site? To sell a product? A service? To get more readers? Make it easy for your readers to figure out what your purpose is and to act on it. And don’t forget to put your ads above the fold.
12. Copyright – Your content is yours and while the average, rule following individual can understand the Creative Commons License, others can’t. Protect your information.
13. Contact – How can anyone do business with you if they can’t contact you?

There you have it! I’m sure there is more to the list – feel free to share!

Having reliable web hosting can make or break a business nowadays and there are many options for quality hosting solutions including options for Linux web hosting or Windows hosting.