Points of Interest for the 31st of May, 2008

Points of Interest directs you to useful, insightful information from around the web. Check these links out:

Coaxing Creativity by Marelisa:

Creativity has often been attributed to divine intervention. Some well-known authors have claimed that while writing their novels they felt as if the words they were typing were being dictated to them. As mythology illustrates, the ancient Greeks believed that the muses were the source of all inspiration. Perhaps every creative endeavor does have a divine spark in it, but it’s unnecessary and counterproductive to delay creativity until ideas magically appear in our heads as if descended from up above. There are many ways to actively coax forth the creativity that lies dormant within each of us.

How To Protect Your WordPress Theme Against Upgrades by Ian Stewart:

Problem: You’ve finally found a theme you like but you want to modify it. The modifications are pretty simple but what happens when you want to upgrade the theme? Do you really want to go through all those files again hunting down the changes? Don’t you wish you could just upgrade and be done with it?

Attn Freelance Writers: How to Get More Work from Existing Clients at FreelanceSwitch:

One of the best ways to increase your income as a freelance writer is not to market for more work (ie, new clients), but to get it from existing clients. This is an often overlooked marketing method and missing it is like throwing money out the window.

The Pocket-sized Guide to Blogging by Skellie:

If you’re like me, you’ve probably read the equivalent of a few books worth of material on how to run a successful blog. You’ve read about getting more traffic, getting more subscribers, getting more links, more comments, social media votes and so on. If triggered, you can probably remember (broadly at least) most of what you’ve read. But it’s easy to forget the steps involved, particularly when we consume so much new information every day..

Don’t Greenwash Your Holiday by David DeFranza:

As consumer concern over environmental problems has increased, we have witnessed a push to make almost every industry “greener.” The travel industry, as we all know, has not ignored this trend. From hybrid car rentals to carbon offsets, green hotels to conservation oriented vacation packages, the number of options now available to the environmentally conscious traveler are numerous.

While I appreciate these efforts, the reality is that, at this point, much of it is greenwashing.

The Sleazy Ads of Google Adsense by Vered:

I knew there were some pretty bad Google Adsense ads on my site, but I didn’t do anything about it.

The wake-up call came when Dawn made fun of my Buy Organic post, which made her reader Jessica check out my blog and comment that the “Asian Girls” ads are offensive. When I read Jessica’s comment, I finally came to my senses and decided to use the Adsense filter tool to block out the worst offenders.

8 Frugal Tips for Legal Matters at Zen Habits:

I recently was asked some questions from readers about legal matters, especially when it comes to trying to deal with legal matters while living on a budget. As these things are a bit beyond my level of expertise, I turned to a friend, Andrew Flusche, a lawyer in Virginia who has done some excellent work for me in some of my online ventures. In addition to being a good lawyer, he’s a great guy, and someone I trust, and intelligent to boot.

I asked him for some frugal tips for people dealing with legal matters, and what follows are some of his suggestions and thoughts, in his words.

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