What’s Your Favourite Blog Theme or Design?
I’ve got a designer working on a custom WordPress theme for this site, who’s starting tomorrow. The TypoXP Reloaded theme I’ve been using for the last 6-9 months has been a good servant, but I decided over the weekend it’s time for something new. I very quickly cobbled together some wireframes based on features on sites that I admire.
I’m still looking for ideas to incorporate in my theme. So, if you have a theme you like or a particular feature on a theme you like, then please let me know and I’ll pass it on to my designer. Alternatively, what features does this current theme lack that you’d like to see or you think it would benefit from?
I’m looking for something that is ‘web 2.0′ - clean, fresh, professional and modern looking with a good use of colours and shading. It also needs to be SEO friendly and improve or maintain my traffic and MyBlogEarnings i.e. no funky or wacky themes that have headers that push all the content below the fold.
Below are some features that I told my designer I liked:
- http://themes.performancing
.com/themes/gangway-theme-for -wordpress/ - love the colour scheme and the white spaces - http://www.writerspace.net/ - I like the top nav and the way the search engine is tightly integrated.
- http://www.sablonmarket.com/ http://www.kaushalsheth.com
/fluid-solution-wordpress -theme-released/ -like the colour scheme - http://astereostudio.com/on
/articles/one-more-for-really -good-luck-titl & http://blog.oinam.com/2006 /oinams-kiss-templates-for -movabletype-typepad-livejourna l-wordpress/ - like the title colours and the background shading - http://www.kapikua.com/theme
-leia-en/ - gorgeous colour scheme, nice use of different coloured blocks to break up sections - http://www.bloggingpro.com
/archives/2007/03/21/blogging -pros-theme-released/- love the use of blues
Any more?
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Comment by john on 18 March 2008:
Great site. Get your self some banners from cj to make extra $:)
Pingback by New Eureka Site Theme!!! Please Leave Feedback | Connected Internet on 4 October 2007:
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Comment by Michelle on 4 September 2007:
Hi Everton,
Another site you should check in the future if you’re looking for a freelancer is oDesk (http://www.odesk.com). It’s free to post a job and unlike other sites, there are no membership fees. oDesk has made it very easy for both providers and buyers to keep track of work hours through oDesk Team, eliminating the need for time sheets (and miscommunication). One of the neat things about oDesk is also the ability to communicate easily with your offshore team members. It’s got a rating system, too, so you’ll find it easy to use!
~Michelle, oDesk
Comment by focsa on 4 September 2007:
this theme right now is simple and perfect . just improve this one
cheers
Comment by Everton on 4 September 2007:
True $350 is reasonable for a custom theme. I probably could have got it done for cheaper, but I liked the no payment offer. I also liked the fact that it was the designer’s first job on getafreelancer.com. I like to give jobs to the new guys as they are keen to get their ratings up so that they can get the bigger jobs, and thus tend to be hungrier and do better work.
Comment by Shashank on 4 September 2007:
Still you have got a best deal @350$ and unlimited iterations..so when we can expect a new theme.
Comment by Everton on 4 September 2007:
@Dave
Totally agree about hotspots and there’s no way I’m going to put a logo or something of low value in a hotspot. Blogs that have HUGE headers just don’t make sense to me - why make users scroll to see the important stuff?
John Chow’s new theme is interesting…his header is awful. On my laptop I only see one line of content above the fold. I think he’s gone too far trying to push his affiliate deals by packing them in at the top, but, the thing is, his readers are loyal and won’t leave, so it won’t affect his traffic and will probably push up his earnings. So is his theme successful from a revenue perspective? Yes. From a design perspective? No
Comment by Dave Starr on 3 September 2007:
John Chow and Darren Rowse both have inspired me to get my theme ducks in a row … but in a somewhat negative fasshion ,,, especially John’s new look. For an advertiser he gives up a hige number of pixels for that ugly montage of car and whatever. For a person whp need SERPs to stay in business his design and many, many otrhers with logos and sidebars around the top left corner miss the whole point.
Human eyes and search engine crawlers all start in the top left corner … it’s the hottest spot on the page. It’s the place to showcase contetn … not place a picture or logo that is around on every page, every day.
That’s a real strength of Typo XP, the most current article … and an advertising slot … are in the “hottest spot” on the page.
Comment by Everton on 3 September 2007:
@Shashank
I’m definitely not putting a logo on the left. It adds no value to the site, and will only create noise around my only adsense unit that still accounts for nearly 50% of my income.
@Nirmal
John Chow was actually one of the last people to roll out a new theme. The new problogger and gHacks themes are the ones that made me decide to change. They incorporated things I wanted to add, and I quickly decided it was easier to start from fresh and get a theme built. I also decided it was time to invest some of my blog earnings, and what better way than to get a new theme built?
@Mathew
thanks - will have a look