Hello everybody! Finally that day has come! Which day you may ask?

Well…where should I start? –  today 1WD is celebrating 2 years anniversary and fourth (4^th) version of design.

We were working really hard all summer, and if one year ago I was working all alone, now I am honored to have a beautiful team together with me including several full time writers Rean, Sheena, Jane, Michael,Charina with our main chief editor Saad Bassi and social media ninja Ligita Kluga.

Huh, also what I need to add, our actual 2 years anniversary was on August 30, but we didn’t announce it because our new design wasn’t finished. Now it’s here and we are finally ready to move on!

I was planning this new design for almost half a year,  I changed its look a lot of times and even thought of hiring a web designer – because as a designer myself I was never satisfied with  final outcome.

Finally I thought it would be really a shame for a designer, to get his own page designed by someone else and put everything aside and seriously got to work. The site you are seeing right now is final outcome, and this is how 1WD site should look from the very beginning 2 years ago!  I really hope you love it the same way as I do and you are very much welcomed to reveal your first impressions in our comment section, which is much prettier now too by the way!

Before we announce our huge giveaway to celebrate this big event and launch, I think now is the best time to look back again and show off all achievements, show what really made 1WD grow so much and how do we intent to keep it growing even further! Last year we actually did the same process, and today we will compare both years to make this even more interesting. Are you excited and cannot wait for the results? Let’s start!

Personally I think the main turning point was the moment, when 1WD got a great team –  Saad Bassi, who is our main editor and Ligita Kluga, who does all the hard work into backlink building and social promoting. I just went more in background and finally got more time to work on new ideas, try new social media promotion ways, went deeper in marketing research and of course, worked on new redesign a lot.

Besides our team, we also got huge team of regular and not so regular guest writers, who altogether allowed us to go from 2–3 articles per week to 12 articles per week! We are still working on increasing both quality and quantity, but since our readership is increasing –  I consider that article count increase is appreciated by people and we are doing the right thing.d

As you can see from our Archive section from Year 2010 article count started to increase and it happened because of other changes –  I finally got an office – 1WD headquarters and good workplace increased work efficiency greatly. Before that for almost 1.5 years I was working from home, it was not an easy task.

I am sure you cannot wait to see some public stats to measure 1WD growth, enough words..let’s see real numbers.

I must say once site is established, all you have to do is to keep providing constant quality and content –  1WD kept very similar mode all the time and proved to be a regular source where to look for web design related articles and readership continued to grow. Of course, article count also increased traffic from Google, more articles – more chances to be noticed.

Public Stats:

• Now – 1,811 / Last Year – 10,780 Alexa Rank
• Now –  5,792 / Last Year – 18,538 Compete Rank
• Now –  2,013 / Last Year – 950 Del.icio.us Bookmarks
• Now –  180,142 / Last Year –  25,382 Inbound Yahoo Links
• Now – 64,095 / Last Year –  14,666 RSS Subscribers
• Now –  23,463 / Last Year –  5,174 Twitter Followers
• Stayed the same –  5/10 GooglePage Rank
• Now –  more than 1,5 million / Last year –  more than 400,000 unique visits in August 2009
• New – we created Facebook page, better later than never, which has 1,559 fans for now. Need to work more on Facebook, I know.

To put last year stats more in perspective, check out this graph, where I compare this and previous year:

Interesting to analyze now, while unique visits increased –  people also tend to spend less time on page and bounce rate is actually bigger, maybe that’s because of massive social media promotion, where people are used to process huge amounts of information in short time.

What’s your opinion here? Do you have suggestions for us?

• How do you like current article frequency?
• Do we deliver quality?
• Where we should grow now?
• What kind of content we should deliver more?
• What would you like to see change in this year?

Would love to hear your feedback if possible, with such big readership we really feel responsible for delivering only the best information to you!

How do we explain constant growth and how do you start your own one?

If there is such question, I think actually the main reason was article count increase, with bigger team we are able to do a lot more than before, where one person just physically isn’t able to write that much articles, do marketing, social media, promotion even working 24/7. I must say if you are really serious about your business, hire people to help you out once you get such chance –  they will help you to grow site to the phase you never imagined, site could reach!

Google traffic increased like 7 times, thanks to the list posts 1WD continue to have big success through Social Media sites like –  StumbleUpon, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Facebook. Don’t underestimate the power of social networks, it’s really worth spending time to build trusted networks and readership with it.

I am investing a lot of site income in our growth, I am keeping myself just like 1/4 and 3/4 goes into development, payments, hosting expenses because I know 1WD can grow a lot bigger, I really want it to become number 1 source for each web designer. If you have a passion – you can achieve the same as I did here, just believe yourself and don’t leave your dreams too fast, give them actual chance.

If you want to go to past and see how and why 1WD began its success, read last year’s report post –  1st Year Of Blogging: Success And Achievements.

About New Site Design

At first I wanted to mix giveaway, 1WD redesign process and stats in the one post, but after some thinking I decided that redesign process description need to have separate post so I would be able to explain you whole thinking behind it and show a lot of detail and power in our new design. Keep updated, new article will be out in few days!

The Most Massive Giveaway At 1stwebdesigner Ever – Prizes Worth 6000$ !!!

Well , now we are getting to the best part for you – our huge giveaway and great prizes – everybody loves free stuff right? Christmas came early this time!

We have contacted and collaborated with 15 different companies, which were kind enough to offer really great prizes! Okay, but how can you get them? Actually I will pick winners based on 2 different aspects ( the first one is the most powerful):

1. Loyal Reader Option - You need to add a comment here or in our Facebook group (join it too if you like it)  in this article status update and tell there what you would like to win in this giveaway together with valuable suggestion, what do you think we would need to do to improve in design, content, functionality - criticize us, we really want to become better!
2. Quick Visitor Option – You must join our Facebook group and simply share this article on Twitter adding hashtag #1wd2years and follow us on Twitter @1stwebdesigner for further updates!
   When you have done it, just leave a comment on this post what you would like to win.

As you can see number 1 option is for more loyal readers, who have opinion about what’s happening here and actually wants to help us improve.

Well and number 2 option is for all of us, who just are quickly browsing through and just wants to get nice Christmas gift for this special giveaway occasion!

And now – get you keyboards hot and start commenting and checking out our actual giveaway prizes right now:

1000$ Worth Giftcards From CodeMyConcept PSD To HTML Service Company

CodeMyConcept is the best PSD to HTML service on the planet. Their company not just don’t specialize in providing superb PSD to HTML and CMS implementations, every piece of code we write is done with love and passion, and they feel that their job is not only to provide a service to web designers and freelancers, they build relationships and they really love it!

Company’s expertise and services:

• They do pixel perfect PSD to HTML;
• Awesome CMS implementations in WordPress, Drupal and Joomla;
• E-Commerce Implementations in Magento and Shopify;
• PSD to Email and much more!!!!

When you work with CodeMyConcept you are definitely working with your best friends and they even agreed to join to our huge giveaway with some great prizes!

2 lucky winners will get $250 giftcards and 1 winner will get $500 worth giftcard to be used in CodeMyConcept services, pretty cool right?

5 Premium HTML Licenses Worth 500$ From SlideshowBox

Slideshow box is an easy to use application that enables you to create amazing Flash and HTML (JavaScript) photo slideshow galleries.

SlideshowBox comprises 24 high-quality slideshow templates that allow you to create custom photo slideshows without the pains of coding. Many new templates will be added in the near future, including more pure JavaScript slideshows.

500 Die Cut Business Cards for 3 Lucky Winners ( Worth 250$)

UPrinting is a professional online printing company that provides commercial and small business print services. Their online printing services help you print everything –  business cards, fashionable clothing hang tags, attractive door hangers, customizable folded cards, appealing greeting cards, and promotional calendars.

Die cutting options available (more about printing options you will know after winning on this contest):

Rounded Corners

Leaf

Rounded One-Corner

Half-Circle Side

Free UPS Shipping, Limited to US Residents only, must be 18 and above to enter.

5 Yearly Subscriptions from Azigos (Worth 100$)

Azigos is a shop that provide high quality Photoshop Brushes. With our unique royalty free brushes, we help you to enhance your personal and commercial creations. You can purchase each brushes set individually or Join the Premium Members Program and get them all with unlimited download.

Win 100$ Off Custom Stickers : 5 Winners ( Worth 500$)

Sticker Mule prints custom stickers starting at $69 for 100.  Send them your artwork and they do the rest.  They aspire to be every artist and designer's favorite sticker printing service.

3 Single User Licenses From MagicMembers (Worth 300$)

Magic Members is a premium WordPress Membership Plugin that turn your WordPress blog into a powerful, fully automated membership site.

You may expect to pay $2,000 – $3,000 for such an easy to use, full-featured membership application that does not require you to switch to a different system. Magic Members is a fully integrated WordPress membership and subscription plug-in that quickly takes your blog from an ordinary blog to a powerful membership site.

Don’t miss a chance to aim for one of 3 single user licenses!

Eleven 2 GiveAway 1 Year of Free hosting To 5 People (Worth 500$)

Eleven2 is a cutting edge web hosting companies with server locations in the US, Europe and Asia. With its speedy 24×7 live technical support, Eleven2 has grown to become a major player in the web hosting market. Starting at just $10 a month, you cannot go wrong with Eleven2.

3 Individual Theme/Support Packages of Winner’s Choice From StudioPress (Worth 240$)

StudioPress Themes take WordPress to places you never thought it would go. These Themes are a perfect solution for small businesses or individuals establishing their online presence and today we’ve got giveaway from them –   3 individual Theme/Support packages of winner’s choice each worth 79.95$.

KreativeThemes 5 Themes Giveaway of Winner’s Choice ( Worth 350$)

KreativeThemes is a theme shop that sells beautiful, creative and high quality premium CMS themes.

They have kindly joined to this big giveaway and offered to our readers great prizes:

• 3 Premium WordPress Theme Single License (can choose any theme)
• 2 Premium WordPress Theme Webmaster License (can choose any theme)

Flashmint Special Christmas Sale : Up To 70% Off + 3 Free Flash Christmas E-Cards

FlashMint is a leading Flash Templates provider known to produce innovative high quality flash templates, flash XML templates and Flash CMS templates as well as such amazing products as Facebook templates and PrestaShop templates.

On the holiday occasion Flashmint has 70% Christmas discount offer on all the templates from their collection. In addition to the discounts specially for 1stwebdesigner readers there will be also three amazing free flash greeting e-cards to be given away to every dear fan and customer of 1stWebDesigner and FlashMint. You may checkout the greeting cards from here: Free Flash Christmas e-cards for everyone!.

Iconshocks Giveaway: 3 Bundle Licenses of Your Choice (Worth 700$)

Iconshock is the largest stock icon provider around the web, with more than 800.000 stock icons in 250 icon sets.  Feel free to check its tutorials blog: TutorialShock and its recently launched website with lot of wordpress themes and design sets: WordPressThemeShock.

And today they are giving 3 bundle licenses of your choice –  how cool is that?

3 ProThemeDesign Themes Giveaway of Winner’s Choice (Worth 240$)

Pro Theme was established in 2007 by two experienced web developers, programmer Ben Gillbanks in London and designer Darren Hoyt in New York City.Emphasizing quality over quantity, Pro Theme has specialized in WordPress and enjoyed enduring popularity in the themes community.

In order to contribute in our giveaway they are offering 3 premium and beautiful themes of choice for 3 Winners!

5 Templatic Premium Theme Single Use Licenses Giveaway of Winner’s Choice (Worth 450$)

Templatic, Officially launched on 10th of December 2009 is a place to get Out of the Box, Premium and Awesome WordPress Themes to fulfill your needs in different areas of Blogging and Webdesign. From a simple Blogging theme, to a complete e-commerce integrated WordPress Theme, they are releasing themes in diverse range so you can use WordPress as a CMS.

5 GabFire Themes Premium WordPress Themes Giveaway of Winner’s Choice (Worth 300$)

Gabfire Themes was founded in 2008 by Mehmet Özekinci a 30-year old independent web designer and web project consultant based in Estonia.

Gabfire Themes is a distinguished design and development studio providing a wide range of organized and well-presented creative WordPress themes. All Gabfire Themes features an easy-to-manage and powerful theme control panel & focus on providing an unparalleled user experience.

ElegantBanners Giveaway: 3 Custom Banner Ad Packages (Worth $336)

Ever wanted some high quality custom banner ads for your marketing needs? Well, ElegantBanners is for you then. They offer high quality web banner ads created to your specification, at a very affordable price, with lightning fast turnarounds! You can also check out their blog: ElegantBanners Blog, where they write about business, design, and entrepreneurship in general. Be sure to also follow them on Twitter.

I am looking forward to your kind comments – just to remind read the rules how to join this contest&giveaway at the top of this article.

This contest will be closed officially after a week on December 27, when I will announce all the winners!

Using CSS for coding a web page is standard these days but still many people on web think that CSS has some restrictions and you can’t convert a web page from Design to xHtml perfectly. There are tons of benefits of using CSS while coding a web page, a very important one is higher rankings in Search engine because If you really want your website to stand out, its essential that you have higher SERP.

In line with this, I have gathered these 45 Awesome and Creative CSS based Layouts for you to be inspired.

1. Fruit Ninja

2. Kirk Whalum Website

3. Radiant WebSoft

4. Jan Kovacs Website

5. LiveResto

6. Kelt

7. Gosco Valves

8. Mascara Design

9. Florida Flourish

10. Sean Haplin Website

11. Baney Design

12. Istyle

13. Rekkiabilly

14. Electric Pulp

15. Heather Robinson Website

16. OPG Pintar

17. William Flagello Website

18. Chocomize

19. Ready Made Designs

20. 2d-arts

21. Morphix Blog

22. Imagineplus

23. Kadom

24. Sansae Export

25. Siringa

26. Pralinenschachtel

27. There: The Floating Studio

28. AdFlavor

29. David Quinlan Website

30. People82

31. New Media Artist

32. Toffeenut Design

33. Mammut Medien

34. Fall in Tennessee

35. Spring Pixels

36. Zuls Design Studio

37. James Childers Website

38. Druck Deine Diplomarbeit

39. Themefunktion

40. Cafe in Bangalore

41. Graphics Plot

42. Sixpoint

43. Steven McGuinness Website

44. Supermono

45. AIRWALK

How to make your website designs creative?

1. Attract your viewers with colors.

Colors are a great way to attract your viewers, they can be turned on or off on the choice of colors in a design. Your choice of colors could reflect your personality, business, or even what your company is about. Research shows that people are more attracted on bright color. With this, I suggest that you use bright colors for your design, or as according to the theme. And if you will use dull ones, combine them with lively colors to balance the design.

Websites are best attractive when they are designed using colors that can really catch a viewer’s attention while being able to present the image of your company that you want your viewers to remember.

2. Use words that are attractive and make them readable.

Use words that attract viewers. Avoid putting words in a paragraph form, for it makes your viewers get bored on reading them. Make your sentences in a bulleted form and construct them briefly.

Regarding font sizes, most designers use 12px for the body text and H1 or H2 for the headers. The important thing you must consider is to make sure the text is readable. In selecting a font, make sure you choose a clean look of font style that fits the look of the whole website.

3. Use images, graphical buttons or signposts and Flash.

Texts make a website look informative and professional, but if it is only pure texts, it will bore your viewers. To help your website look more informative and enticing, use visuals such images and graphics that would compliment your content. Your visitors might not read your content, but if you attract with images then you can convey your message to them clearly.

Flash is known as the most ubiquitous graphic tool we have now. It is used to enhance images, text, and other elements on a website. But do not overuse this one for it will make your website look less professional. Creating graphical signposts is also a way to attract your viewers. Same with using Flash, do not put too much graphics unless it is a children's educational website or cartoon-themed.

4. Use banners to attract.

Banners are also a great way to catch your viewers' attention, and it is also being used to advertise something. If you are going to put a banner on your website, make sure to follow the standard size of banners. Sizes vary depending on what type of banner you would like to put on your website. You can use GIF or Flash banners to put eye-catching effects, just don't overdo when putting effects.

5. Be appropriate, simple but stylish.

With several websites that are already online, you must stand out in order to achieve your goal for your website. Be appropriate based on what you are trying to represent. Make your web design clean and simple while having that creative touch. Make navigation user-friendly. It is okay to be creative, just do not overdo it.

I hope that these awesome DIV/CSS websites inspired you to create your own. Create and inspire others too!