Number 1 – Kuler

We recently published an article called “5 Colour Tips for Web Design ” which talks about the importance or colour when it comes to web design. This tool helps you choose the right colour combinations, which is notoriously tricky. Make sure you bookmark it now for when you next want to create a website!

Number 2 – What The Font

So you want to design a website and you’ve found that perfect font while browsing the internet, but even with your extensive knowledge of Typefaces you’re still not sure which one it is! What do you do? Well ‘What The Font” is your saviour! Simply submit an image you’ll soon have your answer!

Number 3 – webdesign tuts+

“Never stop learning” – a great attitude to have, as you can never know everything – especially when it comes to design. As long as you’re always learning you’re always going to be getting better. Webdesign tuts+ is a great resource to help make sure you’re always broadening your horizons.

Number 4 – Smashing Magazine

The beauty of the web is that there are thousands of excellent blogs (like BaseKit’s!) that are packed full of hints and tips to help you up your game.Smashing Magazine is one of the best. Here’s a great article from  them which explains all the web design industry jargon.

Related articles

• Smashing Magazine – Designing for the Future Web (jamesgardneruk.wordpress.com)
• What is the Future of Web Design? – BaseKit, of course! (plus 40% off tickets to FOWD!) (basekit.com)
• 9 Outstanding Websites for Design Inspiration (fakeiitian.com)

BaseKit’s embed widget lets you use features from pretty much anywhere else on the web, so be it a video gallery, photo slideshow, SoundCloud mix or even tools to help you make money from your site, BaseKit has it covered.

Here’s the top 11 most popular third party widgets that our users embed in their sites.

Social Media widgets

These widgets are perfect ways to engage with your target audience when you create a website. They can also help you to optimise your site for search engines, so you might want to consider including the following widgets on your pages:

1. ‘Tweet Button’ Widget

2. Facebook ‘Badges’ Widget

3. Facebook ‘Like’ Button Widget

4. Tumblr Widget

Ideal for bands, DJs & musicians

5. AudioPlay widget

6. SoundCloud Widget

Let your audience interact with each other

7. Forum Widget

8. Slideshow Widget

Add advertising to your site and watch the money roll in!

9. AdSense Widget

What date is it today?

10. Calendar Widget

Organising your videos

11. Video Gallery

These are reliable third party sites where you can get your embed-able widgets from (please note that you should only use the BaseKit embed widget with Javascript that begins and end with <script></script> tags) :

Google Gadgets: http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open&cat=all

Widgetbox:  http://www.widgetbox.com/

Netvibes:  http://eco.netvibes.com/widgets

Please make sure you never copy/paste incorrect or broken code into the embed widget because it could damage your site. Always check the result in ‘preview mode’ first.

Related articles

• How To Use The BaseKit Background Widget (basekit.com)
• The possibilities of Embed Widget (basekit.com)
• That ‘Like’ Button Is Tracking You (newser.com)
• ‘Like’ Button Follows Web Users (online.wsj.com)

We’re often asked ‘which are the most popular BaseKit templates?’. And in fact in the office there’s hot competition between the designers as to whose designs get the best reception. So… the results are in! What follows is BaseKit’s top 10 most popular templates in no particular order.

‘Photo Album’
In general, photographers don’t need fancy visuals on their sites – their photos do the talking for them. This BaseKit site offers enough space to promote them. (and also syncs with Flickr via our widget!)

More photography website templates

‘Art Look Book’
The portfolio character of this template is simple but very effective. People can click on the art visuals and a bigger image will pop up on the right.

More artist website templates

‘Beauty’
This three-page beauty template gets used by beauty salons, nail studios and other beauty-related small businesses to great effect.

More beauty website templates

‘Business Solutions’
This template has got a pretty unusual vertical navigation bar on the top right. Standing out from the crowd can make all the difference in business!

More company website templates

‘Jazz Festival’
This template is excellent for both events and musicians. Every musician or band should have a slick website. MySpace is not what it used to be, so using this template has been perfect for loads of BaseKit fans.

More musician and band website templates or event website templates

‘My Portfolio’
A clean portfolio site – that’s what you need to show off and get recognised by potential clients and companies. This template is a great start.

More portfolio website templates

‘Network Business’
Professional-looking images & colours, some custom CSS; you just have to change the content and logo and you’re done. P.S. Don’t forget to change the Twitter feed!

More financial website templates

‘Painting and Decorating‘
Who says painting & decorating sites have to be corporate and boring? Many handymen used this colourful template to attract new business.

More handyman website templates

‘Sparkles’
This is one of our new jewellery templates and already massively popular among the BaseKit community. There’s clearly a lot of jewellers out there that need an effective site to promote their products!

More jewelry website templates

‘Style Me’
Hair and beauty salons love this template – for obvious reasons. If you have a salon, make sure you have a site!

All BaseKit website templates

Related articles

• 4 NEW Fantastic Looking Website Templates – Edit Yours Today! (basekit.com)
• Exclusive templates from BaseKit (basekit.com)
• 3D templates from BaseKit (basekit.com)
• Fresh Free PSD Website Templates (webdesignish.com)

What is the Future of Web Design? – We are!

We believe our website design software is the most flexible and powerful tool out there, so what better place to showcase it than at the Future of Web Design!

As we are sponsoring the event it means we’ve managed to secure a very special deal for all BaseKit users. Right now if you go to FOWD website and buy a ticket you can use the code “BASEKIT40” to get 40% off the 2 day ticket price.  That’s a massive saving of over  £280! So once you have got you ticket be sure to come on down and say hello. We will also be doing a presentation on how anyone can now create a website thanks to BaseKit.

Oh and there will be cupcakes!

Related articles

• Getting Connected at FOWD (thinkvitamin.com)