1. Your Humble Beginnings

One day it just hits you: I NEED A WEBSITE. The feeling gnaws at you, you can't sleep, can't eat, can't even keep up with your RSS feeds. Everyone else is having fun and making money with their websites--why shouldn't you! Absolutely. This exact line of thinking has lead to the creation of Amazon, Google, and more!

The first thing you're going to need is a name. This is the only important part, really, so pick something totally awesome. Does it matter what you put on your website? Not really. People will be just as impressed when you simply tell them that you are one of the few, the proud, who has their own domain. 99% of new domains are some unnecessary web aggregate, and odds are this is what your site will be too!

2. Keep It Brief

Fumbler is just wayyy too long for a domain name. That's seven letters! I don't have time for that, I have phone calls to make! And I usually look at the internet on my cell phone anyway, which means that's like thirty key taps! No way. You've got to trim some of that letter fat!

3. Protip: Be Foreign

Fmblr on the other hand is too short, no one will take you seriously, or even be able to read it. If I may make a suggestion--why not move to Liberia? They have excellent swimming pools and a library. Then, as a citizen, you could register this tasty domain!

4. Zazz Zazz Zazz

Any day that you can cut out some vowels and end a word with an r is a pretty good day. So Fumblr. It's settled. Looks nice! The problem with that color scheme is that the black text on white background is going to make people think they accidentally picked up a newspaper and started to read it. And do you know what's in the newspaper? Disease and war! People hate newspapers. So zazz up your logo with some bold, striking colors. Maybe pink?

5. Okay A Little Less Zazz

Too...flamboyant for you? How about a nice green? Just like the rest of the 90's, those awful, eye-sore blues, greens and pinks that were all over our monitors a decade ago are coming back! Don't be afraid to use them! There are literally no louder or more attention commanding colors.

6. Now You're Chillaxin'

Do you see those pointy things on the ends of all those letters? Those are called serifs, and they are for squares only. A short list of who uses serifs on their websites: doctors, law offices, banks, cosplayers. You don't want to be confused for any of these people! So choose a nice sans-serif font :D

7. WOAH

What is that, Arial? That is Arial! You are making the logo for your website here! It needs to be unique, it needs to say "be my friend because I am smarter, hipper and more attractive than people who use common fonts like Arial". A nice, stand-out font like this is sure to catch some eyes! Don't bother about using your nice new font on your slogan, no one is ever going to read it.

8. Sunglasses? Check!

In order to get away with using such raucous colors in your logo you are going to want to compensate by using a dark background. Not only does it balance out the brightness, it is in fact so soothing to the eye that your readers are more likely to rest upon it, and perhaps even meditate briefly. The dark colors will also remind them of things such as leather jackets, cooling lava, and monster truck tires--all of which are awesome. This, in turn, will cause them to think of you and your internet thing as awesome too!

9. Go Deeper. Deeper!

Web 2.0 is all about presenting a depth of content, and accordingly there should also be a visual depth. When in doubt, add some diagonal stripes or a gradient! It is of course possible to create a design so busy that it's even worse than having it feel flat, so do use some restraint. See how many patterns and gradients you can add before your design becomes unbearable--and then try to beat your score!

10. the Logo D:

Of course your logo is going to depend on a variety of things--your site's name, its purpose, its tone. There is only one hard and fast rule for logo making, and that is that whatever you decide on, it has to be recognizable and legible when shrunk down to 16x16 pixels for your favorite icon and/or link banner.

11. the Pickle on Top

What Web 2.0 logo would be complete without that cute little visual cue that the site is forever a work in progress, as long as the readers and users are dedicated to providing, accessing and evaluating content. You can slap your beta sticker anywhere you want, you've earned it!

Brought to you by agillian