Required Items:

You can download the Nature Care Template and it’s tidy clip-on note navigation, with full PSD source files and sliced table free HTML pages for this template in BoxedArt’s members section, as well as thousands of other website templates and web design products. Get a membership here.

Step 1: Start With a Basic Rectangle

As usual, create a new document in any size. Next, let’s start drawing the size of the clip on note. Get the Rectangle Tool, and then draw a rectangular shape on your document.

Step 2: Make a Cut for the Fold

Next, cut off the top left corner of the rectangle, as we need to make a curve in paper corner. Select the Scissor Tool, and cut off the corner, and you will get a result like the below diagram.

Step 3: Create a Shadow for the Paper Bend

Now, grab the gradient tool and set the color setting to light grey (Cyan 8%, Magenta 6%, Yellow 6%, and Black 0%) and white. Pull the direction from the top left corner to the bottom, just like the below diagram.

Step 4: Drawing the Curl

It’s time to draw the curled up paper corner, so grab your pen tool and draw a curved triangle at the top left corner.

Then, fill it with the same gradient setting as above, and again pull it from the top left to right bottom, just like the below example.

Step 5: Add a Shadow Under the Curl

Now, add a little small shadow below the page curl. Grab your pen tool again and draw a semi-circle and fill it with black to white gradient.

Next, Gaussian Blur the semi circle with the setting of 2.5 pixels and set the transparency to 20%.

Step 6: Give the Note a Background Shadow

So now we add in the background shadow for the clip on note. Select your note and hold on to ALT, and then drag and you will have another similar note. Then, fill it with black and set the transparency to 30%. Now, go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set 4 pixels.

Step 7: Move the Shadow Behind the Paper

Move the shadow 3 pixels down and to the right. Then hold on to Ctrl + Shift and press the character ‘[‘, this will move the shadow to behind the paper.

Step 8: Outline the Paperclip

Now, we have our piece of paper, but it won’t stay up on your website without some form of a clip. So, let’s start with drawing the clip for it by using the rounded rectangle. Next, we need to grab the mesh tool to make a 3D gradient look. To do this, click on the top center of the rounded rectangle tool, and click the second mark on the bottom, just like the below.

Step 9: Color the Clip

Now that the basic shape of the clip is created, we need to fill it in. Therefore, get the Direct Selection Tool and click on the center path, and move it towards from top to bottom. Then, fill it with darker gray for the top selection and the lighter gray for the bottom selection.

Step 10: Give Dimension to the Clip

Now, you will see some tones in top of the clip, but it is still flat and one dimensional looking. To fix this, we’re going to need to give the clip a side surface, so select the clip, duplicate it, fill it with plain gray, and move towards the back.

Step 11: Add the Back Clip

We’ve gotten the front of the clip made, however clips have two pieces that press against each other, so there’s still only one half of the clip. Therefore, we need to make the back half of the clip; select everything and duplicate again for the other clip handle. Move it behind the first handle and rotate it to -30%. Then, move it towards the paper and rotate it again -10% and finally add a dot at the center bottom of the clip.

Step 12: Add a Frame/Border Inside the Note

Ok, so, the paper is now hung up on the clip, and we have a navigation that will hold up to anything nature can throw at it, except for a mild breeze, a little rain, or high humidity. Now we’re just going to dress it up a little bit by adding a little picture frame looking inner area to contain our nav text. Thereafter, draw another rectangle and fill it with light green (7C9A3D) and set the transparency to 10% at the center of the note.

Step 13: Add the Outer Frame to Create a Thick Border

Next, draw another bigger rectangle behind the light green for the frame’s border, and duplicate another one for the shadow behind it. Finally, select all 3 rectangles and rotate 2%.

And we are DONE… Now you can copy and paste it as vector in your Photoshop document and create your navigation bar just like below.

Here’s how it appears in the final Nature Care Web Template

You can download the Nature Care Template and it’s tidy clip-on note navigation, with full PSD source files and sliced table free HTML pages for this template in BoxedArt’s members section, as well as thousands of other website templates and web design products. Get a membership here.

You can download the St Pat Promo Flyer Template with full PSD source BoxedArt’s members section, as well as thousands of other website templates and web design products. Get a membership here.

Step 1: Create a New Document Filled with an Irish Green Gradient

Let’s start with creating a new document with the size of 9 inches x 13 inches. Fill it with a radial gradient by using #587700 as the foreground color, and #2e3e00 as the background color.

Step 2: Texturize the Background

Next, press D to reset the foreground and background color to its original mode, which is black and white. Then, create a new layer on top of the green background and render a Cloud effect on it. Go to Filter > Render > Clouds, and then press ok. Next let’s choose ‘Overlay’ mode and capacity 20% for the cloud’s layer.

Step 3: Frame-in the Flyer

Now, let’s create a black border around the document. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to create a selection with a little space around document like the below, and press Shift F6 to create a Feather of 100pixels.

Next, create a new layer and select Shift + Control + I to inverse the selection and fill it with black. Here are the results:

Step 4: Modify the Border with a Wave

Now, we’re going to modify the design of the border by adding a wave. We do this for two reasons, the first is to add a more dramatic edge, and the second is to distract the leprechauns in an attempt to recover the vodka they’ve taken. Remember, never underestimate a thirsty leprechaun. Go to Filter > Distort > Waves and use 400 for the wave length:

This is how your image should look now:

Step 5: Back lighting the Logo Area

Next, let’s create a light glow to the background; this will help the logo pop when we finally add it in the next steps below. Start by using the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and use 30 pixels for the feather. The circle should be centered and fill about 2/3 of the page width.

Then, fill it with a white transparency gradient:

Now, select ‘Overlay’ mode for the light glow layer you just created. Here are the results:

Step 6: Carve Your Text in Wood

This step portion contains 7 little mini steps to apply a variety of effects to your flyer logo.

Step 6A

Now, lets type out the text for the logo. For our logo, we used the steelfish font:

Then, right click on the text layer and apply the following effects to it:

Step 6B

Inner Glow:

Step 6C

Bevel and Emboss:

Step 6D

Texture:

Step 6E

Satin:

Step 6F

Gradient Overlay:

Step 6G

Stroke:

The result!

Step 7: Add a Trail of Glowing Lights

Time to make the logo area a little more festive by adding a trail of glowing lights in front of the text. Use the path tool (P) and create a trail similar to the below:

Then, open the Brush Window by clicking Window > Brushes and select the 100pixels wide Brush:

After that, click on the shape dynamics box and enter 578% in the scatter box:

Next, create a new layer, and with the Path tool still selected, right click on the path you created just now, and select stroke path. Once completed, select brush and tick stimulate pressure in the pop up window:

This is how your image should look now:

Next let’s select ‘overlay’ mode and capacity in the glowing layer you just created:

Step 8: Add Some Festive Graphics

We are almost done, and you can add some elements to it to spice it up a little, we downloaded some from bigstockphoto and sprinkled them around the logo area like green jimmies on a festive doughnut:

There we have it. We then used our textured canvas and logo to complete our St. Pat Promo Flyer Template:

Thanks for reading, and be sure to celebrate until the leprechauns come!

You can download the St Pat Promo Flyer Template with full PSD source BoxedArt’s members section, as well as thousands of other website templates and web design products. Get a membership here.

You can download the Fantasy Village Template with full PSD source files and sliced table free HTML pages for this template in BoxedArt’s members section, as well as thousands of other website templates and web design products. Get a membership here.

Step 1: Let There Be Sky

First, create a new document with the size of 1200 x 950 pixels. Next, we fill it with a sky color -a soft blue gradient. Set the foreground color to# 60c2d6 and the background color to #d7f0f5. Here are the results:

Step 2: Let There Be Land

Now, let’s create the ground. Start with creating a simple curve with a pen tool and fill it with color #99c83e. Here are the results of this template design:

Next, let’s give a little depth to the ground by giving it some gradient. Right click on the ground layer and use the below settings for the gradient:

The results should be like so:

Step 3: Let There Be Shrooms

Ok, the basic scene is set with the sky and earth, now it’s time to start filling in the landscape, so let’s create a fun mushroom village. This part will take some drawing technique to draw the shape, and you can take any mushroom as a reference. Use the pen tool as shown below and draw a few wavy lines similar to the shape of a mushroom. To draw the lines, just click and drag a line across the image using the pen tool that you selected. This is how our mushroom looks:

To complete the mushroom shape, let’s create a black stroke around it with the settings below:

Step 4: Let The Shrooms Be Decorated and Ornate

Next, let’s create some circles on top of the mushroom for a spotted look, after all, the Smurfs had spots on top of their mushrooms in Smurf Village. Use the eclipse tool (U) and draw a few oval shapes above the mushroom, fill it with any color you prefer, and then paste it with the stroke we create above. Right click on the eclipse layers and choose create clipping mask so that it all appears inside the top mushroom section.

Here is how the mushroom should look now. You can place the white spots anywhere you like:

Next, the mushroom hut needs an entrance, so let’s create a door. You pick brown you prefer, or you can use the color we used: #cd8652. Use the rectangle shape create the door, and place in above the mushroom stand layer, and create a mask to it just like the above step. Here’s how it’s going to look:

Step 5: Let There Be a Village

We are done with one mushroom house, you can duplicate them and place them all around the ground and lay them out the way you like. Here’s how ours were placed:

Step 6: Let There Be a Road and Trees

Then let’s add a road path and some trees to it. Using the pen tool, just draw the path freely in the middle of the ground just like the below, and then apply the gradient effect you have on the ground layer onto it.

Now let’s add some trees, and some walk paths to it using the pen tool to draw a tree, and duplicate it and place it all over.

Step 7: Let There Be a Template

Now let’s use the rectangle tool (U) to draw a white shape for the content area, and place it below the ground layer so it is behind all the elements:

To add some final touches to it, you can select the custom shape tool (U), go to the nature section and pick some clouds, and other elements to the design:

Here’s is the final look of it. You can place your content in the content area.

Here is how we finished off our design:

Thanks for reading!

You can download the Fantasy Village Template with full PSD source files and sliced table free HTML pages for this template in BoxedArt’s members section, as well as thousands of other website templates and web design products. Get a membership here.

You can download the Interstellar Sports Template with full PSD source files and sliced table free HTML pages for this template in BoxedArt’s members section, as well as thousands of other website templates and web design products. Get a membership here.

Step 1: Setting the Header Size

Let’s start by creating the header size of the design. Click Control N to create a new document and set it to 910pixels x 400pixels. Next, we grab the get an Alien Base photo, we got ours from bigstockphoto. This is the one used in the Interstellar Sports template:

Step 2: Applying the Image to the Header

Next, let’s drag the Alien Base photo to the header you just created.

Step 3: Placing the Sports Photos

Now, we have to get a few sports photos. Below are the ones used in this web template:

Now, let’s get them in the header, just press Control V on the photos, and drag them in to the header. You can place them anywhere you prefer. These are how the above were placed:

Step 4: Adjusting the Blending Mode of the Photos:

Next, we have to adjust the blending mode for each photo. We are going to be using “Hard Light” mode for each of the photos. Just click on each of the photo layers respectively and change the mode to “Hard Light”.

Step 5: Adding Motion to the Photos

Now, let’s create some motion to the photos. First, let’s duplicate the photo by right clicking on the layer, and selecting ‘Duplicate Layer’.

Then go to Filters > Blur > Motion Blur and use distance:30pixels and angle: 30.

Now let’s change the blending mode on the motions layer to ‘Lighter Color’ as shown below:

This is how the photo going to look:

Next, let’s repeat Step 5 for the rest of the two photos. These are the results when you have completed Step 5 for all the photos:

Step 6: Creating a New Planet in the Sky

Now, we’ll learn to create a new planets from scratch and add them to the header. Let’s create a new layer underneath all the sports layer, and select Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) from the tool bar. Create the circle anywhere you like and be sure to hold down the Shift Key for a proportional circle. And fill it with #4fe5ff.

Step 7: Render Difference Cloud Effects on the Planet

Next, let’s create some effects on the planet, go to Filter > Render > Difference Clouds

We need to apply this filter for a few more times to get the desire effect, just press Control F for another 5times for the planet to look like the below:

Step 8: Make the New Planet 3D

Now we have to make the planet stand out, with the planet layer selected, hold down the Control key to make the selection, then go to Filter > Distort > Spherize.

And use 100% for the amount, and normal for mode.

Step 9: Give the Planet an Eerie Glow

Now we need to add some inner and outer glow effects to the planet to make it look like a true nighttime celestial object. Go to the planet layer, right click on it, and select Blending Options, and use the below settings:

Step 10: Name Your New Planet

Every planet has to have a name – even Pluto has a name, and it’s not even considered a planet anymore. We named our planet Baconia, where bacon grows in abundance and is never in short supply.

(Note: This bacon is actually from earth, and not from Baconia. It is an artist’s conception of how bacon from Baconia may appear.)

This is how our final header looks now:

Here’s how the header was used in the final template:

You can download the Interstellar Sports Template with full PSD source files and sliced table free HTML pages for this template in BoxedArt’s members section, as well as thousands of other website templates and web design products. Get a membership here.

If someone is able to find the information for her, she might want to read this tutorial before applying.

Anyway, regardless of your level of experience in using social media to promote a website, you’ve probably seen some examples of successful integration. Some sites even make it seem easy with their 2000 diggs, 100,000 RSS subscribers or their 200k twitter followers, but what kind of expectations should you have when first promoting your own website? Below is a breakdown of several common social media sites and what you should expect if you intend to use them as part of your website promotion strategy.

1. Twitter

Tweet tweet! Twitter is a site that has created a concept known as microblogging.  It lets you send out a tiny 140 character message to everyone that follows you (your followers). You may also get luck and have your message retweeted by your followers to their followers.

The Twitter Misconception:

Twitter can make my site popular!

The Twitter Truth:

The sad fact is that Twitter does not typically create popularity, it can simply help to maintain popularity. If nobody cares about your website yet, then nobody will be reading or retweeting your tweets. Twitter can be compared to an email list, in the fact that users must first visit your website and then sign up if they want to hear from you again.

Twitter Tactics:

The above being said, there are a few methods in which to build up to a certain level of success using twitter including:

A. #FollowFriday – Think of this as a sort of social promotion exchange. Find sites with a similar audience as yours, and offer to give them a #FollowFriday hash in exchange for the same. By tweeting #FollowFriday, of #FF, @username, you encourage your users to follow someone else’s twitter, and they in kind, may do the same for you. If you are able to secure a #FF from a big popular tweeter, then you can count on a big twitter bump.

B. Follower Following – Another tactic that has the potential to increase your follower count is to follow users that are already following another website that has a similar audience as your site. Often twitter users are kind enough to return a follow if you start following them. However, unless you have a grandfathered account, you can only follow 2001 users. Note, this tactic can also have the ability to annoy some twitters, so follow wisely.

C. TwitThis – TwitThis is a service that lets you put a link on your website that allows other users to directly post a link to your site in their twitter. You can find out how to add TwitThis to your site here.

D. Retweet Exchange – In the same vein as exchanging #FollowFridays, you can ask your peers and colleagues for a retweet of your tweets in exchange for the same, or just suggest that their followers may enjoy a retweet of a tweet you’ve made. If you can get a popular tweeter to retweet you, expect a lot of retweets from their followers as well.

E. Twitter Tools – You can also increase the exposure you give your twitter on your website by installing a twitter tool.

Twitter Score:

Owner Interaction with Users: 8/10
(Owners tweets are sent directly to all followers)

Requires Existing Site Popularity: 8/10
(Most followers follow because they like your site)

Viral Potential: 7/10
(TwitThis and a good Retweet can send an avalanche of traffic)

Ongoing Effort Required by Site Owner: 9/10
(If you stop actively tweeting, the only passive benefit is the TwitThis link)

2. Facebook

Facebook connects people in a very personal way, and allows two way communication between yourself, your visitors (Fans), and between your visitors.

The Facebook Misconception:

I can grow out my site quickly using Facebook and find a new base of users.

The Facebook Truth:

Um, sorry, no, not really. Like twitter, Facebook is a medium that has a prerequisite of popularity in order to have a strong start. I’m not saying that there aren’t ways to find new users on Facebook, in fact there are many, but it is a gradual process that takes some time, and if you do it wrong, you’ll look like an ass.

However, once you do start building a decent fan base, you keep in touch with users by providing updates about your site, and encouraging interaction with the information you provide.

Facebook Tactics:

Yes, I said there were many ways to gradually gain popularity on Facebook. I’m not contradicting myself, if you have a big website to start with, then it’s still easier to quickly grow your Fan list.

A. Link to Your Fan Page – Obviously adding a link to your page is something that will quickly build a Fans list for already popular websites.

B. Facebook Profile – Taking the time to fill out a detailed profile can increase your chances of collecting a few Fans that specifically searched for what you put in there. However, this alone won’t bus in the Fans, and a profile’s main goal is to give further information to people that already found your Facebook page and want to know more.

C. Facebook Groups – Groups are sort of like forums on Facebook. You can find those that relate to your site, join, and post, but don’t become a spammy toolbag in the process. 

D. Facebook Applications – Apps provide additional ways to mix your content with Facebook, for example the Networked Blogs app.

E. Become a Fan – Find as many Facebook pages that have a similar target interest as your site, and become a Fan. Your Facebook page will be added to the Fan list and increase your exposure to other Fans that have a shared interest.

F. Post on Other’s Facebook Pages – The more you post around, the more exposure your own account will receive by Fans of the pages you post on, but Once again, I stress, participate appropriately for the content of the Facebook page, and do not blatantly self promote.

Facebook Score:

Owner Interaction with Users: 10
(The back and forth comments and messages create a true interactive experience.)

Requires Existing Site Popularity: 7
(There are a lot of opportunities to grow your Fan base on Facebook, but most popular Facebook pages have referred their existing website users.)

Viral Potential: 6
(There is the potential for a 6 degrees thing to happen, especially with all of the exposure you can receive by networking around, but having a healthy traffic base if a big help too.)

Ongoing Effort Required by Site Owner: 8
(Once you stop posting and updating on Facebook, there’s nothing left there for your Fans, however they will still be able to post to your wall.)

3. MySpace

MySpace is a lot like Facebook, but for users that don’t have the attention span for a back and forth conversation of several words at a time.  Kidding aside, MySpace has always been a service that is more media intensive, meaning that it is often used to promote music, videos, and to play zynga games http://www.zynga.com/  (yes, they do this on Facebook too).  This being said, it’s not an entirely useless tool for other industries.

The MySpace Misconception:

I’m going to start a social media blitz using MySpace and collect a ton of Friends!

The MySpace Truth:

Unless you’re a large television network, movie studio, or record label that promotes your MySpace page through expensive and frequent advertising, you’re not going to blow up your MySpace page quickly, and if you try to get the word out very fast, most likely you’re just using the tactics of a spammer and will be disregarded as one.

MySpace Tactics:

A. Upload Media – As I was saying a moment ago, MySpace’s strong points are more for the media industries, and many MySpace users just like listening to local music and watching trailers and home made web cam clips and such. It’s a little YouTube-esque in this way. I therefore believe that if you want to grow and retain your MySpace following, you’re going to have to produce and upload some photos, videos, and/or recordings. If you’re really ugly and have nothing much to say about yourself or products/services, then I recommend you pay some pretty girls to give you a brief interview about your productsor wear a t-shirt with your logo, or something along these lines. If you have some talent – ability to sing, play an instrument, are funny, or whatever else, then you can probably think of a slightly more sincere way to entertain your MySpace friends and build an audience.

B. Play The Social Game – No, the social game isn’t a Mafia Wars style app, what I’m talking about is some of those same tactics I mentioned in the Facebook section. This includes:

• Friending others that seem to have an interest in what you’re promoting.
• Posting Comments on others pages (do I need to say don’t be spammy again? With attention spans these days maybe I should. Don’t be spammy.)
• Join a “Group” and post in the groups “Topics” (MySpace’s word for forums). Again, remember this.
• Find an Add Me Group – Some groups exist only for friend exchanges. The level of interest these people will have in your site will be low though, because like you, they just want friends added to their list.
• Ride the “Friend Train”
• – If your first thought when you read this was something dirty, then the sites you’ve been visiting won’t help you to build your business. A Friend Train is “train” of people that all “friend” each other – ok, now it sounds dirty to me too – maybe I shouldn’t have put “friend” in quotes, but what’s done is done. To find our more detailed information on Friend Trains, visit this tutorial on Google.

C. Blog – I don’t care if you already blog on your own website. You’ve read through this gigantic article on using social networking sites to promote your business because you will want learn what works, so even if you already blog on your site, you will need to also blog on your MySpace site – and make it as personal as possible. The last thing that anyone wants to read is a dry dull post on the benefits of your product or a generic and homogenized news article that’s already been written a few thousand sites on other sites. Yes the ipad is something new that people are talking about, but it’s covered by Techcrunch, Slashdot, Sitepoint, and everyone else – so make sure you have something new to say if you’re going to write about a common topic. You will also need to update at least twice a week if you’re going to keep anyone coming back.

D. Classifieds – It looks like MySpace has just revamped their classifieds section, and now use a third party service called Oodle – pay day for them. Anyway, you now need to add an app, and you are allowed to post classifieds. Think of it a little like Ebay without the bidding, or even Craigslist. Browsing through I see a number of users that just posted their site, the items they sell, and their starting price. It looks like this sort of thing flies there, so you can make a few similar tasteful posts.

E. Make Your Page Real Ugly – I don’t know why, but there seem to be a lot of ugly popular pages out there with lots of blinking, glittery, rotating things. A lot of MySpace pages sort of remind of old Geocities pages. – See this spoof by xkcd. Maybe it has something to do with the attention span thing that I was talking about.

Anyway, I digress, I was (mostly) kidding about the making your page ugly thing, but you do need to do something other than using the default design – even if it means using a premade template. BoxedArt has some pretty nice MySpace templates (PLUG) that help distinguish a page without making you vomit. You don’t need to buy a template from us though (unless you want to), and you can design your own layout to spruce things up.

F. Post a Bulletin – Once you’ve gotten enough friends to not feel like the last kid picked for kickball, start sending MySpace bulletins to annoy, I mean notify, your friends to coming back and looking at what you posted. Just make sure what you posted is worth telling people they should come back to see it.

MySpace Score:

Owner Interaction with Users: 9
(Not the same frequent conversational interactions with users as with Facebook, but you can create a lot of content for comments.)

Requires Existing Site Popularity: 6
(The growth opportunities on MySpace are similar to Facebook, but there is more of an opportunity for viral promotion through media uploads.)

Viral Potential: 7
(It’s not quite youtube, but cool videos and other media may still get passed around.)

Ongoing Effort Required by Site Owner: 8
(Things will pretty much die without frequent updates.)

4. Feedburner

I don’t know if Feedburner is technically considered social media or not, but it’s included here because all the cool, hip, and trendy sites constantly brag about how many RSS subscribers that have almost all use Feedburner to keep this count. Therefore, since it appears everywhere that you see the social media sites, I’m including it, so I don’t want to see any comments about how Feedburner is a method to syndicate content to your users, and not a social media outlet.

The Feedburner Misconception:

I need to use Feedburner to help me to promote my RSS feed.

The Feedburner Truth:

When you use Feedburner to syndicate your RSS feed as an alternative to just listing your naked RSS feed, you automatically give your users a chance to use a variety of news readers, but you can still do the same thing without Feedburner. Another big reason to use it is for your own vanity – to show how many people that you’ve convinced that you have cool content.

Feedburner Tactics:

There are some ways to increase your subscriber count, which will work as well even if you don’t use Feedburner, but then you don’t get to post a chicklet with a big number that says “look at me, look at me, people like me”, so what’s the point really?

A. Add a Chicklet or a Link – This one was so obvious I wasn’t going to post it, but then I did it anyway for reasons unexplained. The point of having RSS is so people stay in touch with your updates, if there’s no link from your site, then how do you expect them to subscribe?

B. Add Your Blog to Technorati – When users find your blog on Technorati, they will be very targeted to your site, and you have a good opportunity to convert them as subscribers. Technorati also assigns an authority weight, which a lot of webmasters consider to be important.

C. Make a Signature with a Rotating Headline – This is a trick that’s unique to Feedburner – you can make a signature image to use wherever that rotates headlines from Feedburner. I only just learned about this one myself from Macrofolio. Here is their tutorial on how to do it.

D. Implement a Feedflare – In short, a Feedflare is a whole suite of tools that help you to spread the word about your posts. Rather that rewriting an article I’ve found on this, I’m linking to the source.

Let this be a lesson too. I always keep my content original, and if I learn about something on another site, I link to it rather than trying to rehash their content. Maybe a webmaster there will see I’m being friendly and return the favor. Besides, there’s already enough plagiarism out there.

Feedburner Score:

Owner Interaction with Users: 4
(It’s a one way street – you post, and your subscribers read, but you get to keep them updates as often as you post.)

Requires Existing Site Popularity: 10
(Most of your subscribers will come regular visitors that already your website.)

Viral Potential: 4
(RSS/Feedburner subscribers don’t really go viral, unless a post on your site has.)

Ongoing Effort Required by Site Owner: 3
(You don’t really have to do anything beyond keeping your site updated, as Feedburner just syndicates your site’s content.)

5. Digg

Digg lets you, or others, submit your content to be Dugg or Burried – the goal is to have a piece of content become popular enough to be seen my as many visitors as possible, but I assume everyone with enough savvy to come across this post is already aware of this.

The Digg Misconception:

It is possible for a guy off the street to submit a link to Digg that will be Dugg by others.

The Digg Truth:

The Digg submission process reminds me of an old Yogi Berra Sound Bite “Nobody goes there anymore; it’s too crowded”. What I mean by this, is if you just submit a link to Digg, nobody will ever see it. If you checkout the upcoming links, there’s just a sea of great pages with 1-2 Diggs because there’s just too many to look through, and that’s just not how people Digg anymore.

Digg Tactics:

A. Get a Popular Digger to Submit Your Link – Why? Because many Digg users simply Digg the links submitted by their friends, inner circles, or networks. This is how most links make /popular or the front page of Digg.

The chances of doing this are pretty low unless you know a popular user. If you don’t know one, it’s probably a good idea to start networking with other Digg users. The other tactics below explain how you might accomplish this.

B. Add a Digg Button to your Site or Blog – This lets others submit a link for you, and you might get lucky enough to have a popular submitter Digg your link. If your site is popular, there might be enough organic Diggs from your site to get the attention of Digg visitors.

C. Digg and Comment on Other Submitters Links – This is the best way to start getting noticed on Digg and network with others. It may take a few weeks or months, but if you help Digg other people’s links and make comments on them, then they are more likely to return the favor and Digg yours. They may even become familiar with your site and be the first to submit one of your links for you.

D. Submit Links to Sites that AREN’T Yours – If you look like a self serving little ass and only submit your own links, people are less inclined to want to help you out. Make sure you submit plenty links that you find interesting and timely.

Digg Score

Owner Interaction with Users: 2
(You don’t really interact with Digg users, but there are comments on the topic.)

Requires Existing Site Popularity: 6
(It often requires Diggs from your sites visitors to make /popular, but many small sites have gotten an avalanche of Diggs just the same.)

Viral Potential: 8
(If you make the front page of Digg, you’ll get a potentially regrettable volume of traffic depending on your server capacity.)

Ongoing Effort Required by Site Owner: 5
(You gotta keep actively networking for your submitted links to get attention.)

Up Next…

Check back shortly for Part II where I discuss Delicious, YouTube, Flickr, StumbleUpon, and a mystery 10th site. The 10th site wont be redddit, because I don’t use that site, and it won’t be Google Buzz, because I don’t know anything about it yet. Maybe I’ll test it out and it will be Google Buzz. I don’t know yet.

You can download the Delicious Smile Template with full PSD source files and sliced table free HTML pages for this template in BoxedArt’s members section, as well as thousands of other website templates and web design products. Get a membership here.

Step 1: Selecting the Teeth Area

If we’re going to make gorgeous teeth gross, we’re going to need to select them first. To select the teeth area, use the Lasso Tool (L) and set the feather settings to 3pixels, and carefully draw a circle around the teeth.

Step 2 – Adjusting the Color of the Teeth – We’re Going Dark

Next, copy the selection by pressing Control C and Control V to paste it on top of the existing teeth layer. Then, click Control M to adjust the curves with the below settings, which will make the teeth a few shades darker:

Step 3 – I Wanna Paint it Black!

Now let’s add some awful black to the edges of teeth to make them look a little less cared for. Select the Brush Tool (B) and use the following settings:

Then make a new layer and choose Overlay:

With brush tool, select black color and start painting the edge of the teeth until you achieve the desire effects.

Now, let’s go back to the teeth duplicate layer:

Next, press Control U to adjust the color with the below settings:

Step 4 – Merge Teeth and Black layer

Now, let’s merge the teeth duplicate layer and the black layer by selecting both layers, right click on them and select merge layers.

Step 5: Am I Missing a Tooth? Chipped and Missing Teeth

Next, let’s make a chipped tooth. Start by creating a new layer, select the Lasso tool (L), and slowly draw a shape of the chipped tooth you prefer:

Next, fill in the selection with black, and change the blending mode of the layer to ‘Overlay’.

Next, let’s create a new layer, change the blending mode to overlay, and paint the black tooth area to your desire effect:

You can repeat step 5 for all the areas you would like to darken. This is how we made ours:

Step 6: The Gum Disease Gingivitis

Here, we’re going to add some bleeding to the gums, because a mouth isn’t going to get this bad without developing a little gingivitis. Start with creating a new layer, select a brush with 5px diameter, use color #a91010, and draw the desire bleeding gum on the teeth.

Now, select the smudge tool on the tool bar and give the gum a slight smudge:

Next, let’s select the Burn Tool and burn the red gum area to your desire effect:

Now, let’s apply a texture to the gum area. Go to Filter > Texture > Texturizer and use the settings below:

Here are the results of our reverse mouth makeover:

Eww.

And finally, the obligatory before and after shot (where our after is the before, and our before is the after):

Still want to kiss her? Sicko.

Here’s how the photo was used in the final template:

You can download the Delicious Smile Template with full PSD source files and sliced table free HTML pages for this template in BoxedArt’s members section, as well as thousands of other website templates and web design products. Get a membership here.

However, looking at it from another perspective, it could be a very big win for the website owners.

You can download the Bikini Contest Template with full PSD source files and sliced table free HTML pages for this template in BoxedArt’s members section, as well as thousands of other website templates and web design products. Get a membership here.

Step 1: Create a New Document

Lets begin enhancing the natural beauty of these photogenic females. We start by using a photo of some sexy models in bikinis from bigstockphoto. Let’s create a new document with the size of 1000pixels x 900pixels, Fill it with white, and place your photo in.

Step 2: Adjust the Color Settings of the Photo

Next, let’s enhance the photo’s colors. You can usually find some good stock photos on microstock stock photo sites, but there is always room for improvement. Go to Image > Adjustments > Shadows and Highlights:

Use the following settings:

The photo will have changed as shown below:

Step 3: Adjust the Hue/Saturation of the Photo

Next, let’s make the colors a little bit richer by adjusting the hue/saturation. Go to Image > Adjustment > Hue/Saturation:

And use the settings below:

The picture now is richer in color and the girls are really popping. Next, let’s add a final touch to the color improvements of the picture. For this touch, duplicate another layer of the existing photo, right click on the image layer, and select Duplicate layer:

Next, with the duplicate layer placed on top of the existing photo, change the settings of the layer to the settings shown below:

Step 4: Fill the Background Layer

Now, for the background. The original photo used a plain white background which is pretty dull. Since a bikini contest might be your version of heaven, lets place the contestants on a bed of clouds. The first part of this is to fill the photo with a soft gradient blue #6ebbfb from top to bottom. This gradient background color will later act as a surreal sky for the clouds that will be placed on the web design.

Step 5: Add Some Clouds to the Background

Next, we are going to add the clouds to the background. You will need to find a photo of a sky with some good clean looking clouds to complete this step. Drag the cloud photo underneath the bikini girl layers, and change the mode to overlay, and set the capacity at 100%. Below is how it’s going to look:

The clouds have been dropped into the photo, but it is still a little rough, so let’s clean up the cloud edges. Add a layer mask on the cloud layer, then click on the Add layer mask vector button at the layers (3rd one from the left)

Next, let’s click on the Brush Tool (B) and use the following brush:

With the mask layer selected, use the brush tool to clean up the cloud edges:

Step 6: Create a Glow on the Models Bodies

The models now have a nice color and saturation, they’ve been sent to heaven, but they don’t quite stand out from the sky enough. To correct this, let’s add a glow to the bikini models. Start by selecting the original bikini image layer, right click on it and select the blending options, and use the following settings:

Step 7: Add a Final Touch to the Background Layer

Things are looking hot! Lets complete the fantasy add some more bling to the background. We’ll create some light brush effects using a special brush named Fractal Brushes, which can be downloaded from http://dezignus.com. Click on a new layer and select the Brush tool (B), with the capacity and flow set to 100%. Next, pick your desired brush effect and change the layer to “overlay” as shown below:

We’re done! Here’s how the completed website template header’s going to look:

You can place the content in the middle section. Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Thank you.

You can download the Bikini Contest Template with full PSD source files and sliced table free HTML pages for this template in BoxedArt’s members section, as well as thousands of other website templates and web design products. Get a membership here.