Have you ever needed to make some stripes for a background – either for your website or some banners etc? You might want to check out Stripe Generator 2.0 it’s got to be the simplest way to design stripes that I’ve ever seen.

Everything is web based, using responsive AJAX controls and let’s you customize your stripes in virtually every way imaginable. Choose the colors you want for each stripe and the background, set the width, spacing and amount of shadow, whether you want any gradients, the orientation of the stripes… it really couldn’t be easier.

Any stripes that don’t use a gradient will tile across any size background – if you use a gradient, you’ll get some really funky designs, but depending on the height you make them, you’ll only be able to tile seamlessly horizontally.

One of those handy websites to put in the back of your mind for when you need it…

You’ve probably noticed the EntreCard ad in the sidebar of this site – it actually serves a couple of purposes and in my opinion is a great option to include on a new blog.

EntreCard is basically a banner exchange program for bloggers, anyone in the EntreCard system can purchase an ad on another participating blog using EntreCard Credits (EC’s). You earn EC’s by visiting other blogs and ‘dropping’ your card, or by having other people drop their cards on your blog.

It’s not going to get you a flood of targeted visitors, but it does create a few opportunities – here’s my take on the benefits of EntreCard:

1. You get instant visitors. Depending on how much time you have to put into dropping EntreCards, you could easily get 30+ new visitors per day (more if you devote a lot of time to EntreCard). A word of caution though, I said visitors and not readers for a reason – many just drop their card and move on, but you will get a few that read your posts and comment… which brings me to my next point,
2. You get to network with other bloggers. As you visit other blogs with the EntreCard widget, take the time to comment on any post that interests you. If you regularly drop your cards on that blog, or even just bring EntreCard up in the comments, you’ve got an immediate connection with that blogger that you can later develop further.
3. You can use the EntreCard system to get links back to your blog. This can be done either directly – offering free EntreCard credits for bloggers who link to you, or indirectly from bloggers who highlight the most active droppers on their site.

Overall, EntreCard is an excellent way for new blogs to get active… you’ll get extra comments, incoming links and start some excellent conversations with other bloggers – all key elements of successful blogging in any market.

So what are you waiting for? Go join up, drop your card on the widget in my sidebar and leave a comment here introducing yourself… EntreCard is a great way to get social, make the most of it, don’t just drop and run.

I spruced up the affiliate networking website yesterday, using the Evolution theme from Blogging Tips – what do you think?

So far it seems to be working pretty well, I plan on moving it onto Gamblz.com in the next couple of days – if you see any bugs that I need to fix, let me know, I have tweaked it a little.

Wordpress bloggers are blessed by having so many quality free theme templates to choose from, getting a nice look for your blog that looks professional and portrays the look you want are an important decision that you need to make… what sort of theme do you use on your blog?

If you’ve got the urge to start blogging then there are several great ways for you to get up and running that are absolutely free and require no (or very little) technical knowledge. By the time you finish reading this article you can have your very own blog up and running in less than 10 minutes, without spending a cent.

Here are four ways that you can start blogging for free right now:

Wordpress.com

Wordpress is probably the most full-featured blogging software available and is the #1 choice for most serious bloggers.

You have a couple of different options for using Wordpress – the best way is to register your own domain and setup Wordpress independently on your site, and although the costs involved aren’t exactly high (it’ll cost you about $8 for a domain and about $5/m to host your blog) this article is about blogging for free, so I’m not going to go into that further. Your other option is to create a free account and host your blog at Wordpress.com

All you need to get started is an email address and a name… got those? right – you can post as much as you want, as often as you want and generally have a great time doing it. You get to choose what theme you want (there are heaps available) and can even make it a private ‘members only’ blog if you wish.

Wordpress has a great community to help you get started if there’s anything you don’t understand… as far as free blogging options go, you can’t go too far wrong with Wordpress.

Blogger.com

Blogger is probably the biggest of the free hosts – they were one of the first mainstream blogging platforms and are owned by Google, so you know their reach is going to be huge.

Similar to the free options you have at Wordpress.com, Blogger offers you a quick and easy way to get started for free, no technical know-how required… create an account -> select a name -> choose a theme -> start blogging.

Gamblz

You can blog right here at Gamblz!

Do you have something to say that would fit in nicely on either Gamblz.com or Affiliate.Gamblz.com? It could be anything from game/book/movie/gadget reviews to blogging tips, affiliate marketing help, social networking tips… just about anything on those subjects are fair game.

You get full credit for your post, can add your own affiliate tracking tags (so you can make money from your post) and get the opportunity to build up your status within the Gamblz community.

Go to our submissions site for more details on how to submit your content to Gamblz.

MicroBlogging

Does running a full-scale blog sound like too much hard work? Maybe Microblogging is for you?

Microblogging is basically what it sounds like… blogging on a micro level – that can mean just about whatever you want it to. Twitter, Tumblr, Plurk are all great options for you to get started… keep those updates short and frequent – and don’t forget to interact with your followers… blogging is all about creating and participating in conversations, microblogging helps make it that much more immediate – make the most of it.

what are you waiting for – start blogging!

What’s your favorite free blogging tool? Share them with us in the comments.

(Photo by antigone78)

One of our aims here at Gamblz is to get each and every one of you reading this to start a blog – why? Apart from being lots of fun (no really, it is!), blogging is a great way to focus your social networking activities, can help friends and family keep up with what you’re doing, and if you’re so inclined… can even make you some decent money.

Up to a few years ago, blogging was seen as more of a personal journal than anything really substantial, but as blogging software has improved, so to has the scope of sites that are built on its foundations. Most blogging software today act as fully functioned Content Management Systems, which means you have a lot more flexibility in the type of product that you can produce – even with little or no technical ability, blogging makes it easy for you to stake out your own little corner of the web and share your interests with the world.

Reasons for Blogging

Everyone will have different goals for their blog, but that’s ok, because of a blogs simplicity (and flexibility), it’s appropriate for many different situations. Here’s a quick look at some of the reasons why you might start a blog.

• Keeping a Personal JournalIt may be the oldest use for a blog, but it’s still a valid reason to start one. Do you want to share your life with the world? or maybe just an important event? Blogging is a great medium for you to express your thoughts, share photos and videos and maintain a permanent record.

  You might also be interested in the recent trend of ‘microblogging’ using tools such as Twitter to send short status updates (twitter restricts you to 140 characters max per update). Twitter allows two-way conversations (a bit like comments on a blog), but is a lot more immediate. You can follow Gamblz on Twitter to communicate with me and stay up to date on what’s happening here.

• Online Reputation ManagementAnother key goal for some bloggers is to help manage either their personal, or companies online reputation. When you search for your name (or your companies name), what do you see? Having your own blog lets you add content that you would like people to read about you and promote it to the point where it shows above other results on Google. You can also use similar techniques to ‘bury’ information on the search engines that you don’t want people to see.
• Make Money from BloggingBlogging is an excellent way for you to make money online. You’ll need to build your blog to a point where you have a decent amount of traffic, but once you’ve achieved that, you’ve got plenty of options available for you to make money, such as direct advertising, affiliate programs and developing your own products to sell.

  Online Gambling affiliate programs are an excellent choice and one any gambling related blog should seriously investigate.

• Build Name/Brand RecognitionBlogging is an excellent way to build recognition for you name or brand. You might want to build yourself as an expert in a field, or build association or recognition for your brand, blogging gives you a great medium to put regularly changing content in front of your target audience and slowly build a professional relationship with them.
• Share Knowledge / ConnectYou might just have a love for sharing information and connecting with others that share your interests. Blogging is a great way to disperse information and connect with interested people.

No matter what your goals are, blogging has something for everyone – I’ve only just scratched the surface here, you might have a completely different goal in mind for your blogging… and there’s nothing wrong with that, it really is a flexible medium.

If you’re already a blogger – what goals are you focused on? Has this changed since you first started blogging? Let us know in the comments