2009 saw the ascension of one of the greatest new websites available online.  Site Sketch 101 was launched just over six months ago and since that day some amazing content has come to life on it’s pages.

As I look back through this past year, I’m amazed at how far we’ve come and I’m excited at the plans and potential that we have in 2010.

As a tribute to 2009, I’ve decided to post 15 articles that have really stood out in my mind.  To those of you who’ve been on this journey with me, I thank you.  I hope that many more will join in throughout this coming year.

There are three fundamental principles that I believe are necessary to build a successful blog.  Those three principles are awesome content, brilliant design, and commanding influence.  I’ve selected five articles from each topic to share with you here today as we look back over that past year.

Awesome Content

A collection of articles that help you develop content that is fun, is compelling, is easy-to-read, meets your user’s needs, provides excellent information, is well-written, and uses proper grammar.

• 15 Incredible WordPress Plugins You Need: I’ve hand selected these plugins because they each perform a specific task that I need to achieve the success that I’m looking for.
• 10 Elements of Highly Effective Articles: Here’s the bottom line: If you want to keep a majority of your visitors then you have to be able to produce amazing articles.  Period.
• 5 Irrefutable Qualities of Successful Blogs: Those first bloggers were pilgrims in a sense paving a way for the rest of us. We now have the luxury of sitting and learning from those bloggers who have made it big.
• Friendly Competition Builds Blogs: Blogging is a blast so have fun and make friends whether they are competing with you or not.  Do your best and soon your enemies will become your blogging buddies.
• 10 Killer Ways to Boost Your Site’s Usability: Usability measures how easy it is for a new user to be able to navigate throughout its pages, to find information and to interact with its content.

Brilliant Design

These articles will guide you into producing a layout that is easy on the eyes, easy to navigate, looks professional, sets you apart from the crowd, is search engine optimized, and is warm and inviting to the readers.

• 11 Beautiful Free WordPress Themes: This post is a collection of 11 of the most beautiful themes for WordPress that also happen to be 100% free. I’m sure you’ll find something useful.
• 5 Free Amazing Hand-Sketched Icon Sets: It’s certainly no secret that I’m a huge fan of graphics and websites that look hand-sketched. I’ve designed this site to support that look and feel.
• 21 Mind-Buzzing Photo Manipulations: I love seeing the works of art that people are able to create in Photoshop. The photos that you see below are stunning works of absolute creativity.
• 50 Dazzling Examples of Creative 404 Pages: When most people hit a 404 page, they immediately leave your site not to return unless your 404 page is incredibly creative.
• 5 Great Tips to Spruce Up Your Blog’s Design: When a brand new visitor stumbles onto your website they’re going to decide within a matter of seconds whether or not they’re going to stick around.

Commanding Influence

These resources will empower and inspire you as the author to connect personally with your readers, to answer questions, to exhibit strong leadership, to demonstrate sacrifice by putting your readers needs before your own, and more.

• 5 Reasons to Pay Attention to the Little Guys: Some small-time blogger could end up being the next blogging super star so take the time to interact with every person you meet. You won’t regret it.
• 4 Useful Things You Could Do Tomorrow: Let’s face it, there are a lot of things that each of us could do to increase our productivity and maximize our effectiveness in life.
• 9 Tips For Using StumbleUpon With Your Blog: With over 8 million members, StumbleUpon is one of the most popular internet communities for sharing interesting web sites.
• What Does It Mean To Provide Real Value?: Value in it’s simplest form is the amount of money that someone would be willing to pay for something if they were to make the purchase all over again.
• Supercharged SEO: A Guide to HeadSpace 2: The purpose of this guide is to provide you with a walk through on the initial configuration of HeadSpace 2 for maximum SEO benefit.

Group Discussion

Today’s group discussion is going to be in two parts.  First, I want to know if there is a particular article on Site Sketch 101 that has really stood out to you.  What did you like about it? How was it helpful? Second, I want to know what you believe your best article was over the past twelve months. This is your chance to promote your site in the comments section.