Responsive WordPress Themes 2013: Trends

For decades web design has always been centered around the desktop. We’ve always created our themes with the assumption of a user sitting in front of a desktop with high speed internet connection and using the most powerful web browsers available. The advent of mobile platforms have forced us to rethink this paradigm and we have had remarkable progress in creating themes that work on both desktop and mobile platforms. A few years ago, it was predicted that mobile devices will overtake desktops as the dominant Internet access device. With this continued trend to towards mobile computing, are we really prepared to respond to this technology inflection point?

The necessity for asking this question comes with the realization that a lot of design practitioners still follow a graceful degradation doctrine of design. We develop a top of the line theme version designed for the most powerful infrastructure users may have and allow the theme’s functionalities to disable when weaker systems are encountered. We have done this effectively with the use of fluid grids, flexible images/elements and media queries. However, if iOS and Android devices become the new mainstream, shouldn’t our themes be designed primarily for these devices and allowed to progressively enhance when more generous systems are encountered?

The point we are putting forth is this: 2013 will likely be the year mobile devices take over. The challenge for us is to create our themes for this new environment. The next question: “Among mobile devices what should our base platform be?” Based on the latest mobile internet trend numbers, tablets, particularly the iPad, are now coming to the forefront. Smart phones are still on the early stages of growth with a lot of mobile subscribers anticipated to convert in the next couple of years. The growth of the mobile internet is driven by emerging markets led by China, India, Indonesia, Philippines and Nigeria. As such, upcoming themes should be optimized with iPad sized tablets in mind, comprehending how the site will load in light of 3G infrastructure still being mainstreamed in global markets. These designs should be light on cache on these memory limited devices. Features for high performance desktop systems should not in anyway be downloaded to mobile devices but should remain in the cloud to be activated only when the appropriate device is detected.

So what comes next? What do we look forward to beyond 2013? We still have about 5B mobile phone users anticipated to convert to smartphones. By then, our designs will have to be for the small screen. For now, our general trend is “miniaturization” of the desktop. Quite appropriate for a world that is becoming smaller and smaller everyday.

25 Helpful Twitter Plugins for WordPress 2013

Twitter is one of the most visited social networking platforms on the planet. WordPress is one of the most widely used blogging platforms. When the two meet, you can expect beautiful things to happen.

Below we present you with 25 helpful Twitter plugins for WordPress – Plugins can make your WordPress site do virtually anything.

Here’s an example of what you can achieve with one of these Twitter Plugins for WordPress.

It is a common habit nowadays that people sign into their Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail accounts when they start their computer, and after checking their accounts they typically close all these web pages but do not sign out of their accounts. Instead they go on to work on new web pages and they occasionally return to their accounts to check any latest updates. Now there is a plugin named “Simple Twitter Connect”, no. 5 below in this list, which enables you to log into your WordPress dashboard through your Twitter profile. Once you install the plugin and sync everything then you can login to your WordPress dashboard with your Twitter account. If you have the habit of being logged into your Twitter account all the time then you can log into WordPress by just a click of the button – you will just have to hit the “Sign in with Twitter” button and you will be in.

This is just one example of the power of the Twitter Plugins presented below. Scroll down for more info on these wonderful Plugins for 2012 – 2013.

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Business WordPress Themes 2013: Trends

Business websites have always been put up for one purpose: to bring about more conversions/sales that will impact the company’s bottomline. The advent of the Internet has redefined the markets our companies and enterprises have operated in. Thomas Friedman has considered it one of the forces that “flattened” the world. What is amazing is that the Internet continues to evolve. Analysts have predicted that there will be a shift to mobile devices between 2013 to 2015, a forecast that is now turning into a reality. With this change in platform, businesses have to rethink how they do business on the web.

With a transition on the way businesses use the Internet, the question that needs to be asked is: “How do we develop business themes that will address this emerging trend towards mobility?” We need to consider how people use the mobile web. Business WordPress themes are no longer confined to corporate portfolios alone. More than ever, these themes should be designed to be multifunctional with eCommerce capabilities integrated in its core and these business WordPress themes must be flexible enough to adapt to the rapid changing face of the marketplace.

A good business WordPress theme built with this mobile trend in mind should focus on responding to these basic online activities that people do – people use the mobile web primarily to search, share, and shop. These are, in a nutshell, what people really do online – search for information, share what they find, and shop for stuff they need or want. WordPress themes for businesses should be designed in such a way as to enable people to Search, Share, and Shop without taxing memory, network, and computing resources especially if the user is using a mobile device. Product and price information should also be easy to share and be compared to competitors. Purchases should be safe, secure and robust over 3G infrastructure dominant in emerging markets of the developing world.

Aesthetically, the business theme should be responsive with the base design optimized for tablets which is now becoming the new mainstream. As a website owner, providing your clientele with the most pleasant online experience on your website will have a direct impact on your conversions. Addressing what they need in the simplest and fastest way possible will always yield good results.

Design trends and WordPress theme bells and whistles will come and go. These are all nice and fun to have but one day they are in, the next day they are out. Nice, flashy websites don’t make a business successful. It still boils down to good old-fashioned business practices like courtesy and excellent customer service, whether online or offline, that will win the day. These business ingredients transcend technological trends anytime.

Photography WordPress Themes 2013: Trends

Photokina 2012 just wrapped up recently and major camera manufacturers have just announced and released new camera models and camera products for all sorts of buyers. One of the major innovations to the professional digital camera line is the Wifi or GPRS feature that enables one to transmit and post images over a wireless network or the Internet – functioning in a way almost like a mobile phone.

The mobile market has also seen its own latest tech upgrades. The recent release of new and more powerful camera phone features and software updates for both iPhone and Android users boasts of more sophisticated camera features like panorama capabilities and multiple photo filters. The continued popularity of Instagram and Pinterest has flooded the Internet with images of food, places, and random stuff. Legitimate and professional photographers are also opting for lighter versions of their heavy gear allowing Lomography and iPhoneography to flourish.

Given the rate that this technology is gaining momentum and even its own following, we can anticipate that photographers who manage their own websites will want to incorporate quick and easy posting of their images straight from their cameras – no matter what type of camera or device they use – to the Internet.

In view of all that, what do we expect to see in 2013 as far as WordPress photography themes go? Here are some of the few things we think will become part or if not staple features in WordPress photography themes:

  • Eye-fi/Wifi/GPRS ready with Custom Image Resize Function – Mobile posting capabilities with built-in image resize function to resize large images to web friendly proportions.
  • Retina display ready – Crisper and clearer rendering of images without the added bulk or load time.
  • Social sharing function – Ability to post across multiple sites (Instagram or Pinterest integrated functions).
  • Infinite or vertical scrolling features (lite version) – Infinite scrolling is a great feature but sometimes it can cause frequent browser crashes. WordPress authors or developers can create a plugin that allows this feature while minimizing the bulk buildup that could result to slower loading sites.
  • Quick and easy bulk upload features (for mobiles) – Ability to manage multiple image uploads.
  • More eCommerce options – Some photographers prefer to use their website as an online gallery while others do that while also maintaining a store front. eCommerce should be a standard built in theme option which may be enabled or disabled if preferred.

As the world becomes increasingly mobile, WordPress theme users needs will continue to evolve. In line with that, theme authors and developers need to anticipate these developments and be two steps ahead of all these changes.

7 Stunningly Creative WordPress Themes for 2012

1. Creative Skeleton Responsive WordPress Theme

Attention Creatives! Looking for a colorful and creative theme to match your sense of creativity? If you are, then take a look at Creative Skeleton, a responsive portfolio style theme that will satisfy your colorful and artistic side. Creative Skeleton gives you several portfolio layout styles and two unique single portfolio layouts (Pile and HoverScroll) to choose from. Pile stacks your images on top of each other and brings each one to the forefront once you click on it while HoverScroll works like a carousel of images that scroll left or right when you hover on the directional arrows. All these layout configurations give you maximum flexibility to create the look and style of your online portfolio just the way you want.

Creative Skeleton Theme: $35 | Demo & Download

2. Melrose Responsive Portfolio WordPress Theme

Dramatic in white and even more dramatic in black – with a myriad of accent colors to choose from – that’s Melrose Premium WordPress Theme for you. Melrose is an impressive and professional looking WordPress theme for the serious creative agency. It’s the perfect backdrop to house an equally impressive portfolio. The design elements are amazingly well-thought out and the features included will surely make you feel like you’ve bought everything in a candy store. This easy to work with, beautiful and flexible theme will definitely create a lasting impact on your visitors and eventually on your site’s conversion statistics.

Melrose Theme: $50 | Demo & Download

3. Vitrux Responsive Fullscreen Portfolio WP Theme

Creative Agencies and Multimedia Professionals will love Vitrux Premium WordPress Theme. Many portfolio themes include full screen portfolios on the homepage but not all of them offer full screen sliders with audio and full-screen videos as alternatives. This is what sets this portfolio style theme apart from the rest. Not only that, you also have a variety of Gallery presentation options to choose from. If you’ve amassed a large body of creative work in different multimedia formats and you want to give each project the exposure that each portfolio item deserves, check out Vitrux Premium WordPress Theme. It just might be the portfolio theme you need.

Vitrux Theme: $45 | Demo & Download

4. Fashionista Responsive WordPress Blog Theme

Tired of your boring blog layout and want something fresh? Why not check out Fashionista Premium WordPress Theme, a blog style WordPress theme that’s meant for bloggers but can also be used for other purposes. Pinterest-styled themes are the latest trends today and their popularity is still on the rise. Fashionista is not strictly Pinterest but uses an Isotope Masonry plugin that mimics the Pinterest look. What is interesting about this layout style is that every post is accessible and available to the visitor. This means that posts and articles are not buried in the archives where they may be forgotten – out of sight, out of mind. For bloggers, this ensures that every post gets equal exposure and importance on the homepage. Check out Fashionista Premium WordPress Theme and bring your blog style up to date today.

Fashionista Theme: $40 | Demo & Download

5. Point Break Responsive Agency Theme

Point Break Premium WordPress Theme is a responsive portfolio theme and the sixth of the Super Skeleton Themes released by Epicera. This theme is more than just a WordPress theme because it also functions as a comprehensive HTML5 framework and a templating system as well. It’s an innovative way to creating and customizing themes and it’s primarily designed “for users, not geeks.” It’s innovative and definitely worth looking at especially if you want something that will be flexible enough to withstand the next WordPress update.

Point Break Theme: $45 | Demo & Download

6. Unique: Customizable WordPress Magazine Theme

What’s so unique about Unique? We included Unique Premium WordPress Theme in our list because of the guy behind it – Justin Tadlock. This premium magazine-style WordPress theme is Justin’s first foray into ThemeForest and is part of his experiment to “improve” ThemeForest from within, with the goal of getting as many authors to adhere to WordPress coding standards and practices. Unique may not stand out as far as “looks” are concerned but its creativity lies under the hood. It’s back to good old code and just enough cool features without going overboard with the bells and whistles. Check out Unique today.

Unique Theme: $40 | Demo & Download

7. Creative Portfolio Business WordPress Theme by Gavick

You have to see Creative Portfolio Premium WordPress Theme by Gavick in action to see what it does. This uniquely creative premium WordPress theme with parallax scrolling effect is surely going to catch the attention of your visitors and create a lasting impression. If you want to start your website with a bang or re-launch an old site with an ultra new look, then you need to check out Creative Premium WordPress Theme by Gavick. The experience will definitely be unforgettable.

Creative Theme: $99 | Demo & Download

3 Top Photography Templates for WordPress

Check out some of the latest photography templates in the WordPress market today:

The Folio Elements WordPress Theme by Press75

Folio Elements Premium WordPress Theme is a video/photography theme that would be great for photographers who simply want to create an online gallery of their photos and videos using WordPress. Folio Elements is a fun and fresh theme. This is not a cookie cutter theme and it is a departure from the typical photo/video theme but its design and code quality cannot be dismissed. This responsive WordPress theme is translation ready and is also a fully responsive theme which means that your site & photos will look amazing on any device. It is always refreshing to see something different in the WP themes market. Jason Schuller’s avant garde approach to design is evident in all his themes (this one included) and is always a welcome intermission to the regular programming.

Folio Elements Theme: $75 | Demo & Download

MediaBook Multimedia WordPress Theme from ThemeForest

MediaBook Premium WordPress Theme is a wonderful and unique theme that can be used by photographers and creative professionals. If you need a theme that combines Minimalism and Focus/Simplicity and Function into one, then MediaBook is an excellent solution for you. If you’ve had big, flashy, slider overload, MediaBook is a sight for sore eyes. This easy to setup premium WordPress theme delivers the goods straight to the point. Some of the key features of this theme are: Dynamic Content Loading, Global Loop Showcase System, accepts Multimedia Content, can be configured as a Blog or as a Single Page site, and the Gallery can be color customized if you prefer to. If you want to try something different and fresh, check out MediaBook today.

MediaBook Theme: $40 | Demo & Download

Photographer Theme by Organic Themes

Are you a professional photographer looking for a complete online solution for your photography business? Would you like to be able to do more than just showcase your photographic skills and portfolio on your website and be able to sell your prints as well? If that is you, then take a look at this fully responsive WordPress theme from Organic themes simply named Photographer Theme. Not only can you showcase your images and multiple portfolios in a professional manner, you also can take advantage of the built-in WooCommerce functionalities to sell turning your simple online gallery into a full-blown money making site as well. Most photography templates are simply online galleries to display images. With Photographer Theme, not only do you have full control of your images, you also have full control over your earnings as well. Check out Photographer Theme by Organic Themes today.

Photographer Theme: $69 | Demo & Download

5 Best Ecommerce Themes for October 2012

The holidays are almost here and what better way to spruce up your website than with some great eCommerce themes to improve the look and function of your e-store. Here’s a rundown of some of the best eCommerce themes to get you ready for holiday shoppers:

1. Sold! Responsive/E-Commerce Theme

Sold! Premium WordPress Theme is an excellent mix of style and function. The clean, white space design does not distract and serves as the perfect backdrop to highlight choice merchandise. Sold has a beautiful slider where you can put your most interesting items on sale. You can even define points on the slide where you can add comments or even zoom images ala Flickr. This is perfect for highlighting detail on specific points of the product. Sold! uses two of the most powerful plugins – WooCommerce and Jigoshop – making it an effective eCommerce solution. Its multi-lingual capability, responsive features and easy customizability enables your store to service both local and global market.

Sold! Theme: $55 | Demo & Download

2. Mercor Responsive WooCommerce WordPress Theme

Another interesting theme worth mentioning is Mercor. Mercor Premium WordPress Theme gives you the look and feel of a department store or supermarket weekly catalogue. This responsive theme’s clean, fresh layout and white space styling creates an uncluttered look that’s easy on the eye even if there are numerous images and texts on the page. Mercor has a dynamic Nivo homepage slider to highlight store specials or to announce store events and sales. Mercor is fully responsive and uses WooCommerce to power e-commerce transactions. This powerful feature combination makes your site current, competitive and able to address the emerging mobile shoppers market.

Mercor Theme: $55 | Demo & Download

3. Intrigue Premium WordPress Theme

This latest eCommerce theme from CSSIgniter is bold and eye-catching. Intrigue Premium WordPress Theme is a responsive eCommerce theme that combines the power of WooCommerce and CSSIgniter’s straightforward theme design. This means that setting up a powerful eCommerce site need not be a complicated and tedious task to accomplish. With Intrigue, you can use a plethora of widgets to create the functionality you require. This theme comes out of the box in a hot red and black color scheme but you can also choose from the available 7 color schemes to create the look most appropriate to your market. Intrigue Premium WordPress Theme is not over the top and includes just the right amount of features and functionalities for whatever you need.

Intrigue Theme: $39 | Demo & Download

4. Mearishop – Clean Responsive E-Commerce Theme

Mearishop Premium WordPress Theme is a great eCommerce solution that’s edgy and modern. The Lookbook-ish appeal makes it a perfect match for a fashion and accessories store. Customers can check out the portfolio or lookbook pages to determine the style that best suits them. Mearishop uses the powerful Hana panel combined with WooCommerce functionality to give you the power to control almost every aspect of the theme. With tons of options available, this features makes this responsive theme perfect for both WP noobs and experienced developers to use. Choose from unlimited color options, 7 backgrounds and 34 patterns to define your custom look. You can even upload your background image. With 7 sliders to choose from, Mearishop gives you the options you to reach your target market in style.

Mearishop Theme: $55 | Demo & Download

5. Xing Business/eCommerce WordPress Theme

Xing Premium WordPress Theme is a modern and clean theme designed to meet the eCommerce needs of both small and large scale business alike. Xing is primarily an eCommerce theme but it is also flexible enough to be used for creative portfolios or for magazine/editorial blog type websites. Xing uses several jQuery powered features like the Flexslider and the jQuery Product Carousels(for WooCommerce recent/featured products). This highly customizable and responsive theme gives you tons of options to create the look you want. Xing is not wanting in anything – from shortcodes, to custom post formats, to custom widgets, to 8 portfolio layouts, to social sharing features and other features and functionalities to help you to create and customize your eCommerce site. Check out Xing today.

Xing Theme: $55 | Demo & Download

Keep your eyes peeled for more WordPress holiday roundups in the next few weeks!

Nimble Theme: Coming Soon from Elegant Themes

Elegant Themes recently gave a sneak peak of their upcoming Nimble Theme. Nimble is a business theme described to be simple, flexible, and balanced. It will be interesting to see how Nick Roach pulls this one off – balancing bold and colorful design without going over the top. Nimble will also be responsive and will definitely be generously packed with features and functionality, as is characteristic of each and every Elegant Theme.

A quick look at the theme’s snapshot shows that this theme has a carousel style slider prominently placed on the homepage. Elegant themes has stated that this is to give business websites a platform to present a call to action. The slider can be enabled or disabled if so desired. The slider is followed by 3 sections and a footer. The first section is a place to put product and service summaries which lead to pages that describe business offerings in detail. The second section is for news and update summaries to give your visitors a good idea of how things are going in the business. The third section is a place to put projects that can be linked to portfolio or gallery pages.

The theme has been well received by most of those who left comments. There have be a handful who feel that Elegant Themes should veer away from themes that spend a significant chunk of the homepage on sliders or big images. Elegant Themes has responded that this design approach has been what business clients have been looking for and leads to greater conversion rates for the clients.

According to Nick Roach:

Most corporate sites do indeed need to convey a message, and it is important for that message to be big, bold and in front of the users right when he/she lands on the page. Giving a clear call to action with a single image, large header and a button is what I have found converts the best and results in the lowest bounce rates. It works because it is easy to understand. In almost every occasion, simplicity is what wins out over clutter. Having too much “stuff” in view when you land on the page can confuse the user. It’s better to lead them on a clear path.

Coming from someone who has been doing this for so many years, and who by now, knows and understands this market pretty well, it’s safe to assume that this new theme, considering all other factors, has been well-thought out and designed.

For now, we all just have to be content with twiddling our thumbs and waiting for Nimble to be fully released and then make our conclusions thereafter.

Check Out the Nimble Theme

25 Very Useful WordPress Calendar Plugins for 2013

Time management is one of the biggest problems faced by business owners be they digital business or brick and mortar. There are too many things to do and when you do one thing you obviously can’t do something else (MBA programs call this the “opportunity cost”). Therefore, to manage your time properly and make the most out of the few working hours that exist each day, you must find the best tools to help you manage your time properly. Enter digital calendars.

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