UPDATED April 12, 2021: 2021 is sure to be another great year for WordPress Theme development. Like the millions and millions of people using WordPress, we eagerly await the Themes and Plugins to be released this year, and you can …
It’s been an exciting journey for WordPress in the last decade. Who would have known that its scope and reach would expand to its current proportions? And it is unstoppable. Currently powering over 21% of the Internet with big brands running WordPress under the hood, this powerful open source software continues to improve and become more relevant to the demands of this digital generation.
Taking over the helm of the WordPress ship from former WP CEO Toni Schneider is its 30 year old founder, Matt Mullenweg. Matt and Toni have actually been working side by side in running Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and the open source project, WordPress.org. Together, they have steered the company to where it is today. They are currently switching jobs with Toni heading up product development and Matt taking over the executive position.
Today we’re announcing publicly that Toni and I are switching jobs — he’s going to focus on some of Automattic’s new products, and I’m going to take on the role of CEO. Internally this isn’t a big change as our roles have always been quite fluid, and I’ve had some recent practice filling in for him for a few months last year when he was on sabbatical. I’ve learned a tremendous amount from Toni over the years and I’m looking forward to putting that into practice.
(source:ma.tt)
““The power of the web is not in centralization, it’s not in closed systems or anything like that,” he said. “It’s in its open nature and that’s what allowed it to flourish for the first 10 or 15 years.” He added that Automattic has always been “sort of like a Proctor & Gamble” with multiple brands working under one, and suggested that new products will fit under that model while adhering to those principles about the open web.”
(source:techcrunch.com)
Congratulations, Matt and Toni! Here’s to more exciting things up ahead for WordPress!
Searching for a WordPress theme that fits you or your client’s specific needs can often be satisfied by multi purpose WordPress themes. The seed design can often be tweaked and twiddled with to create the whatever the desired website outcome intended. However, if you find a theme that already matches the type of website you need then a lot of design time can be saved and spent on optimizing other features of the website. Here are some of the latest niche WordPress themes that you might find useful for your website needs.
Organic Market Premium WordPress Theme is a fun and fresh eCommerce theme ideal for online stores and shops. The delightful and eye-catching colorful design has been tailored to an organic food store, but is highly customizable and can be used for anything else. This simple and no nonsense theme features the basic website necessities but is also equipped with WooCommerce integration and includes support for all WooCommerce product management, widgets, and shortcodes so you can add all your products and set up your storefront. It also includes Royal Slider and Layer Slider Support and support for custom shortcodes for product sliders, featured product sections.
Campus Premium Multipurpose WordPress Theme is one of the newest WordPress themes for education and business. Based on the new Super Skeleton 2 Framework with the leanest and yet the most highly functional features maximizing all that WordPress has to offer. Significant features include: a brand new streamlined and simple to use theme options panel with simple visual cues, nested inline documentation, with the option to preload built in or user uploaded (Skin Builder) skins, the entire Google Fonts library, Drag & Drop Layout Builder, rock solid, compliant SEO friendly code, and the new WordPress 3.6 Post Formats UI, a ThemeForest first.
Medico Premium WordPress Theme is a feature-packed medical and health styled theme that is both stylish and functional. It features several important elements such as: a working appointment form, responsive HTML5 and CSS3 design, foundation grid using predefined HTML classes, Magellan – a style agnostic plugin, Clearing – a plugin that makes it easy to create responsive lightboxes with any size image, Joyride – an extremely flexible plugin that gives users a tour of your site or app when they visit, Visual Shortcode Generator, Styles manager – 1 click style change for many major elements, Portfolio with 2/3/4 columns support, pagination support with non-animated filtering, drag&drop item sorting, and so many other great features to get create a one of a kind medical/health website.
Metric Premium WordPress Theme is a retro modern theme for all who love music, such as music bands, musicians, DJs, producers, labels or organizers of events and festivals. This bold and dynamic theme features a great way to present all the necessary information relevant to those in the music business such as Events, Albums, Galleries and Videos and even a Blog. This responsive and fluid theme can be displayed on all devices from mobile phones to desktop computers (smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops). The theme is also SEO optimized because of its highly semantic and well structured source code.
Agriculture Premium WordPress Theme makes going organic look easy. This WooCommerce ready theme boasts of a simple to use custom user interface that can turn website management into a task even a child can handle. You can easily add products, arrange them into categories, schedule automatic sales periods, manage delivery and other options with ease. This premium theme is based on an extended WordPress admin panel, with many custom shortcodes and widgets that are so easy in use and customize that even WordPress beginners can handle. It includes: Layer Slider and Revolution Slider plugins, Woocommerce, Super Extended Shortcodes pack for easy content formatting and improved presentation, a powerful Form Builder Tool, customly developed by CMSMasters, lets you create an unlimited amount of forms of different types and complexity, from simple contact forms to complex questionnaires with numerous fields, radio-buttons, checkboxes and dropdowns, text areas, as well as set validation for these fields.
Booklet Premium WordPress Theme is a fresh take on the way blog themes have always been done. The portfolio like homepage is fully responsive and images and layout will automatically fit the screen no matter which device you are using. Inspired by popular e-readers, Booklet is a sleek version of your online diary. Some of the best features into this personal WordPress theme include the ability to change the background color and font color from black to white, change the size of the font and even read in fullscreen mode. Overall, a great way to add that personal touch to stories you want to share to the digital world.
The Wedding Day Premium WordPress Theme is an elegant and lovely responsive wedding theme couples are sure to fall in love with. It is suitable for users with zero programming skills as well as advanced developers. The theme is the perfect match for your wedding with predefined styles and features its very own VamTam drag & drop builder. This drag and drop tool will save you lots of time on building your pages or posts with the use of a simple interface with simple drag & drop actions. The VamTam drag & drop page builder is tightly integrated with tinymce editor and you can switch to visual or text editor at any time without losing any changes. Buyers will also receive a bonus print invitation template for free.
Atlas Directory & Listings WordPress Theme is a front-end online directory portal where you allow members to register, login, edit profile, submit and manage (delete/update) listings, change membership settings, and so much more from the front-end without having to log into the WordPress dashboard.
Set up an online directory portal of any type – companies, shops, restaurants, real estate, websites and so on. One of the core features of Atlas is its email notifications where every action taken on your website is notified to the site admin allowing you to have full control over what goes on in your website. This feature can be easily disabled through the theme options panel.
For a successful business an outstanding site plays a major role, Today a lot of creative professionals have realized this and use Word Press as the engine for building an online site. The ease of use of WordPress, the high number of portfolio styled themes and plugins available for building a professional portfolio web site makes the decision easy. (more…)
Design trends come & go. Some rise to the top like a shooting star and stay there with the rest of the stars while others burst like comets and fade into the night sky. One so called design “trend” that has actually been around for the longest time has been getting much attention only recently. In fact, even Apple has finally embraced it and has incorporated it in their latest iteration of the iOs. Say hello to the flat design. And it has found its way in many of the newest WordPress themes being released. Here are some examples of WordPress themes that have gone “flat”. Check these out.
If you are looking for a WordPress theme that can be used for multipurpose applications and for diverse types of websites, check out Nova Premium WordPress Theme, a clean, flat design multipurpose premium theme that will surely amaze you. It’s got a sample content importer, 14 homepage options, 9 premium sliders, unlimited header options, a page builder, fluid layout, a skin manager, and a short code editor just to name a few. The flat graphics are integrated nicely and they add to the overall professional look of the theme.
Impress your clients with this ultra minimalist, boldly simple, flat design WordPress portfolio theme, Showy. Design agencies, creative professionals, and freelance artists will love the simple, uncluttered look of this premium theme that will surely put their creative work in the spotlight. Less is more, indeed. And if it’s a portfolio showcase you want, you have everything you actually really need in this excellent theme.
If your’re looking for a fresh new way to present your portfolio in step with the latest flat design trend, Flat Premium WordPress Theme is worth a peek. The horizontal scrolling action gives visitors the feeling that they are going through a glossy high end design magazine. You get a choice of 2 homepage options, flat design interactive social media buttons, AJAX pagination for quicker load time, collapsible side menu, tons of other features, plus it is retina ready (great for images) with an optional retina logo upload field feature.
Revusion Premium WordPress Theme is a flat responsive, modern and very professional looking corporate theme packed with features for today’s modern business. Revusion integrates Pixeden flat icons into its design as inspired by the current flat design UI trend. This premium theme gives you several different layout options via its page templates. You can choose to add a testimonial page, a team page, a services page, an FAQ page, a gallery page, aside from the usual blog, portfolio, and contact pages to ensure you can pick exactly what you want to add to your site. This retina display ready theme also comes with the Slider Revolution Responsive WordPress Plugin.
Sistina Premium WordPress Theme is a clean and modern WooCommerce theme, designed with a fresh flat style and with a great responsive and retina-ready design. The cool flat graphic elements, modern typography, and streamlined layout give this theme that modern flair that will appeal to today’s modern shopper. This WordPress theme includes several premium features like the Wishlist and the Compare Products features, the Product Enquiry form (for catalog use sans the shopping cart), the Ajax layered filter, and also a Popup plugin to show offers and news.
When looking at websites, slideshows and carousels are the best way to present images and this is usually achieved using jQuery. To have jQuery slider galleries or other image presentation on your web page you have to code or download a jQuery slider plug-in and integrate it. Those sliders give effective looks and are very attractive to users.
Here you can see 30 Different content slider plug-in for WordPress. Hope these plug-ins help you…Enjoy!!!
Want something new to add to your WordPress theme collection? Here are some of the most popular and top grossing WordPress themes to consider. Check out why these themes are doing so well in the marketplace:
Kallyas Premium WordPress Theme is an ultra-premium, modern, and highly-responsive WordPress Theme built for today’s websites. It’s super flexible, clean design clean code, and touts itself as one of the most complete theme ever created. This theme integrates most if not all of the major features you will ever need or want in a theme: customizable Page Builder, responsive layout, smart loader, SEO ready, WPML ready, WooCommerce ready, multiple modern sliders, MailChimp newsletter integration and adaptation, and so much more. You also get bonus headers (Christmas and Easter) as part of the theme package.
Enfold Premium WordPress Theme is a clean, super flexible and fully responsive multipurpose WordPress Theme ideal for business websites, shop websites, and creative agencies or freelance designers portfolio website. The Theme is built using the Avia Framework. From layout modification, styling, color choices, font choices, predefined theme skins, support for the WPML MULTI LANGUAGE plugin – Enfold has everything you need and more. The theme also includes a dynamic template builder to help you create the website you need in no time.
Create your dream design studio website with Kutcher Studio Premium WordPress Theme. What’s great about the theme is that the developers can install it for you as seen in the demo that way all you need to do is customize. The theme comes with more than 60+ useful and flexible shortcodes including a shortcode generator, optimized code, responsive and retina display ready shortcodes to build professional and complete layouts easily. Other features include a Layout Builder is fully compatible with plugins and is translation-ready with WPML (WordPress Multi Language Plugin) to build complex layouts easily with support translation of your content, a portfolio system that supports multiple stylesMasonry style, Grid Style, Videos, Images, among so many other features that will blow you away.
Tisson is a fresh and modern multipurpose WordPress theme that can be used for any type of website. This premium theme allows you to build your website based on blocks and standard pages using the theme’s Page Builder. This theme is 100% retina ready and responsive, SEO ready (compatible with Yoast and AIO SEO), and it is WPML and translation ready. It includes a Drag and Drop content builder, the Revolution slider, and XML file with demo content – all to get your site up and running in no time.
Glider Premium WordPress Theme is a stylish, multi-functional, responsive, ultra-modern theme with a flat UI that will fit all types of websites. From professional corporate to personal blog, this theme’s features can meet any website’s requirements. Easy to use options and features allow you to build and organize your content the way you want it: 7 splendid layouts, easy to use admin panel, 7 useful plugins (Visual Composer, Page Builder, 3 sliders, Mega Menu and Pricing tables), among the plethora of theme options.
CENTRAL is a dynamic and highly versatile multi-purpose WordPress theme that gives you the ability to create stunning animated pages that will make your website stand out. You have the option to: Choose between 4 fluid AJAX animations, create unlimited Parallax pages, take advantage of awesome Revolution Slider. Build your website: using a highly intuitive and friendly-to-use framework, mix full width and standard grid customizable headers, or get creative with modular shortcodes. Choose from two different animated types of infographics, and so many other features and functions to create the stunning website of your dreams.
Tumblr is a popular micro blogging platform where people can make small posts, share links and images with others, reblog the posts of others, etc. It is a platform that sort of combines the features of a blog with social networking.
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The unstoppable invasion of mobile computing and how it has woven itself into our daily routines is undeniable. A life without the Internet, free WiFi, and our handheld devices is almost unimaginable and web designers have heard and heeded this lifestyle change, hence, the birth of responsive, fluid, and liquid design trends. Mashable has even named 2013 “The Year of Responsive Design”. However, we are still in the early stages of understanding this mobile demographic to yet see tangible and consistent conversion results from the marriage of Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce) and Web Design for handheld and mobile devices. Responsive design does not necessarily equate to actual conversion, whether in sales, subscriptions, or networking.
“More email is read Mobile than on a desktop email client or via webmail. Stats say 36% of email is now opened on a mobile device, with 33% for desktop and 31% for webmail.” – Litmus –”Has your audience gone Mobile” (June 2012)
As of September 2012:
We’ve seen some major changes in mobile email opens in the past year and a half. As of September 2012, 38% of all opens were on a mobile device, compared to only 17% eighteen months ago—that’s a 123% increase in mobile opens!
Diving deeper into specific mobile operating systems, the majority of these opens are being made on iOS (iPhone and iPad – 80.34%) and Android (18. 93%) devices:
The next question is, Does Mobile Traffic Convert into Leads?
Not necessarily so. There are several factors that lead to actual traffic conversion and there is no hard and fast rule on it but website owners can make educated guesses based on actual data and stat results gathered from their own website traffic trends.
Run a native mobile app
A mobile website or M-Dot (a dedicated scaled down mobile version of the main website)
Responsive web design
Among all three, responsive web design appears to be the most feasible way of reaching your target market. But is responsive web design enough to address the problem of conversion?
Here are some strategies to consider to maximize your web design and marketing optimization efforts to improve your conversion rates on your website:
Create several versions of your landing pages and order forms and test which ones convert the most. Improving User Experience and establishing a User Friendly Interface all contribute to an enjoyable browsing experience for your mobile visitors which will eventually boost your conversion results.