As my occasional guest posting continues, this week I was asked by Char Polanosky to participate in a regular series over at Essential Keystrokes, featuring web professionals and the Essential Tools that they use on a regular basis to run their business.

This is a long time series – first started in 2006 – and features the likes of Randa Clay, Chris Garrett, Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Deb Ng, Wendy Piersall, Liz Strauss and more. I’m definitely honored to be in such great company!

Essential Tools of Web Design Pro Selene Bowlby

Within the last few months, I have written several guest posts on Freelance Folder that focus on topics relating to web site design and development. As I spread my wings in the blogging world, I’ve recently been approached by Mashable about contributing a WordPress related post to their blog.

Mashable is the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news. With more than 6 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific blog reviewing new Web sites and services, publishing breaking news on what’s new on the web and offering social media resources and guides.

Given Mashable’s popularity, you can imagine my surprise at the invitation – one that I could not turn down!

Top 10 WordPress Plugins to Promote Your Social Media Profiles

As I focus more and more on designing and developing custom WordPress themes for clients, I’ve realized that there is a core set of plugins that I regularly setup with every new site.

My latest guest post on Freelance Folder details some of the basic and essential first steps…

10 Essential Plugins Every Modern WordPress Site Should Have

As I work on achieving my small business goals for the month, I’ve just finished my latest guest post on Freelance Folder…

15 Incredible WordPress Theme Customizations

Continuing on the theme of guest blogging, my second article on Freelance Folder has just been published…

10 SEO Techniques All Top Web Sites Should Use

There’s a current trend in the blogging world of guest posting and contributing articles to other blogs. As of today, I am very happy to announce that I’ve just dipped my toe into this trend!

I was recently approached by Freelance Folder about contributing design related articles to their blog. I’ve been a big fan of the site, especially in reaching my goal of taking the freelance plunge a few months ago – so it was an honor to say the least.

As Freelance Folder debuts it’s new design today, I am making my debut as a guest writer, too! If all goes well, this could become a regular thing, with a second post already in the works.

When getting ready to design and develop any web site – whether for a client or for myself – there are a few sets of resources that I find myself going back to EVERY single time.

Of course I save all the great resources I come across on Delicious, however only a select handful get an “essential” tag for quick reference.

I’m here to share with you a few of the sites that I consider to be “must have’s” in any web developer’s toolbox – and find out which resources you find absolutely necessary, as well!

I wanted to follow up on my recent post highlighting the Save the Developers campaign, which is focusing it’s efforts on getting everyone to upgrade their outdated web browsers – specifically Internet Explorer 6.

Internet Explorer 6 Woes

I’ve been making several design updates to this blog, which is still in the Soft Launch phase while I tweak a few design elements, etc.

I have access to an older computer with IE6 for testing purposes – of course, even though this blog utilizes valid XHTML / CSS, it looks terrible on IE6!

On a personal note, this post marks the launch of version 1.2 of this WordPress theme. I’ve still got several tweaks in the works. Next stop? v 1.3

Thanks to @womanchild on Twitter for posting this link. I love the concept!

Save The Developers is promoting a campaign for everyone to…

Say NO to IE6!

Our current campaign focuses on assisting users in upgrading their Internet Explorer 6 web browser. This campaign will result in former IE 6 users having a more enjoyable experience on the web while (hopefully) creating a less stressful and complicated environment for web developers by hastening the retirement of an outdated browser.

About a year ago, I wrote an article for the main site that outlines The 6 Phases of the Web Site Design & Development Process. As part of my business web site, the article is slanted to how I personally help clients through the process of creating a web site.

Here, however, I wanted to create a more generalized post. Same basic idea, however this version can be utilized by anyone, regardless of who they hire to design their web site.

I hope this helps when considering building your own site!

The Web Site Design and Development Process

There are numerous steps in the web site design and development process. From gathering initial information, to the creation of your web site, and finally to maintenance to keep your web site up to date and current.

The exact process will vary slightly from designer to designer, but the basics are generally the same.