Not everyone was born with the color selection gene. But that doesn’t have to be a barrier to developing something with great visual appeal.

Color selection can be made much easier with kuler, a web-based tool for creating harmonious color palettes from Adobe Labs. Users can experiment with a rainbow of colors, perfect the combinations, and share them with the kuler community for feedback. And you don’t have to be a digital Picasso to use this application.

To create a theme, access the main marker on the color wheel and rotate like clock hands to set the base of your color scheme. The application will adjust the secondary arms to to harmonize with your color selection based on the governing palette rules (you can set to monochromatic, complementary, shades, etc). To customize your palette, move the secondary arms to a desired location on the wheel or manipulate the actual color values (RGB, CMYK), the hue saturation (HSV), or html code value (HEX). You can import images using the Flickr feature and grab values directly from the picture.

Once your palette is complete, title and tag it, so that palette is searchable, and save. If you choose, kuler will publish your palette; community members can browse the library, rank individual palettes, or draw inspiration from each other’s offerings. To use your palette (or any other public palette) in a design application, open it in an Adobe CS3 software or just the grab the HEX codes.

With minimal effort (and expertise) you can design a one-of-kind color theme. Inspiration is endless and the application is free, so give it a whirl.

While there’s a great deal of data to be gathered from any website, there’s often a distinct shortage of real insight. In other words, sure you can see that people are leaving the site, but you usually have to just guess at the reason why. That’s why it can be important to give you customers different opportunities to provide their opinion or interact on your site.

One way to create just such an opportunity for interaction is to install a plug-in like Firef.ly. It’s a simple chat program that operates on the surface of your website. Visitors can communicate with each other through tiny chat bubbles that can be placed at points of interest. As an administrator, you can be an active participant in the conversation or a fly on the wall, just there to observe.

The firef.ly plugin is easy to install and appears as a simple toolbar at the bottom of your page. From here, chatters can access the site’s chat log or customize their chat persona with an avatar. Chatting is completely opt in and users don’t have to download anything to start talking. You never know what you might learn.

While blogging is no art form, it has evolved into something that can be a bit formal, requiring a title or sometimes both a title and a description. Sometimes, you don’t want to make everything feel like an article. You just want a little corner of the web over which your consciousness can stream.

That’s where “tumblelogs” come into play, like Tumblr. The icon-based interface makes posting text, photos, audio files, and videos a breeze. And unlike traditional blogs, Tumblr features community elements like the ability to follow other Tumblrs (similar to friending on a social network) and receive their updates from your dashboard or via RSS feed.

Tumblr is a free platform, providing audio and video hosting at no additional cost. Users are given a unique name.tumblr.com url upon signup and access to advanced features like custom themes, custom CSS, and custom domains (i.e. you can have a Tumblr log on your own domain). If you’re just looking to hang the answer out there, or just express yourself, this is a great option.

Customers like to stay abreast of the latest developments, whether it’s a new product, feature updates, or general shop talk. Keeping pace can be difficult; updating your website and email blasts don’t offer the real-time connection your customers may be looking for.

Consider using Plurk as a customer communication tool. Similar to Twitter, a service we discussed in Stay close to mother hen, Plurk is a text messaging service that lets you chronicle and share whatever you are thinking or feeling with your network of friends. The daily time line of activity acts as your homepage, pinpointing all your “plurks” and plurks you have received from friends. By creating “cliques”, you can organize and group your friends into networks. So, if your looking to plurk to different customer sets or offer promotions to only a select clientèle, this is a handy feature.

Plurk is a free service and easily integrates with most instant messengers (AIM or MSN), providing more than just a mobile outlet. So, if you’re looking for an easy way to stay connected with your customer base, go ahead and give plurking a try.

Need to boost site traffic? The idea of handing over hundreds, often thousands, of dollars for premium ad space or trading (begging for) links may be keeping you up at night.

Here’s an option. Adgridwork is an open (free) advertising network that lets bloggers and publishers barter their own real estate for advertising space on any of the thousands of sites in the Adgridwork network. You can choose what types of sites your ads appear on, and even monitor campaign progress, like impressions and conversions, through Adgridwork’s free metrics and tracking tools.

To get started, register your website or blog with the network, defining your site by category and any relevant keywords. This helps Adgridwork target advertisements to specific audiences. Once approved, your site is added to the mix and open for serving ads. In exchange, you ads will start running on other sites in the network. Adgridwork uses a simple merit system to reward its supporters- the more ad click-through’s your site generates, the more sites your ads appears on.

If you’re looking for a simple way to generate traffic or just tired of paying for ad services, consider using Adgridwork to promote your site.