Free Designer Resources for your WordPress Theme: Icon Sets

Sometimes all it takes to add the finishing touch to a drab design is choosing the right design element. There are numerous resources available online but sometimes it gets too overwhelming to search for them. We’ve found a few design resources that you might be able to incorporate into your WordPress theme design:

Free Outline Icons from Vandelay

these minimalist, outline style icons designed by Grandiz for Vandelay Designs will go well with Swiss-style, white spaced WordPress themes.

Free Brands Icons from Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine is giving away Simple Icons by Dan Leech. This set contains 100 white icons that have transparent backgrounds and can be used for popular websites, apps and organisations.

Free WordPress Post Type Icons from Fribly

Add some style to your custom posts with these sticker type icons. Icons are transparent and in png format. They include: status, link, quote, video, audio, image, gallery and aside. May be used for both personal and commercial projects.

Social Media Icons from Harkable

These sharp and sleek social media icons will add polish to any WordPress theme. Add that extra wow to your website using these icons. (PSD and PNG format)

Clean and Colorful Social Media Icons for 2013 from Mascot Agency

These simple yet vibrantly colored icons have that Windows 8 graphic quality about them. More icons are included in the actual download.

Icons are a great way to add a signature look to your website when done the right way. Enjoy these free resources to add that signature look to your site.

Finding and Establishing your own Niche WordPress “Channel”

The recently held digital marketing conference Traffic and Conversion Summit 2013 was an eye opener to many. Many of the topics discussed were cutting edge and one of the main buzz words that came out of the conference was “channelization”.

The Channelization of Everything

What do we mean when we say “channelization”? Here’s an interesting way to look at it.

Rivers come in lots of different shapes and sizes, but they all have some things in common. All rivers and streams start at some high point. The high point can be a mountain, hill or other elevated area. Water from some source like a spring, snowmelt or a lake starts at this high point and begins to flow down to lower points. As the water flows down, it may pick up more water from other small streams, springs or or from rain or snow melt. These streams may slowly join together to form a larger stream or river. Small rivers and streams may join together to become larger rivers. Eventually all this water from rivers and streams will run into the ocean or an inland body of water like a lake.

River engineering is the process of planned human intervention in the course, characteristics or flow of a river with the intention of producing some defined benefit. People have intervened in the natural course and behaviour of rivers since before recorded history – to manage the water resources, to protect against flooding or to make passage along or across rivers easier.

Channelization of a stream may be undertaken for several reasons. One is to make a stream more suitable for navigation or for navigation by larger vessels with deep draughts. Another is to restrict water to a certain area of a stream’s natural bottom lands so that the bulk of such lands can be made available for agriculture. A third reason is flood control, with the idea of giving a stream a sufficiently large and deep channel so that flooding beyond those limits will be minimal or nonexistent, at least on a routine basis.
(source: Wikipedia)

In today’s digital market, how then, does this concept apply to finding or even creating your own niche WordPress stream or channel?

Let’s take a look:

Product distribution (or place) is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. Distribution is the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user, using direct means, or using indirect means with intermediaries. The other three parts of the marketing mix are product, pricing, and promotion. Distribution of products takes place by means of channels. Channels are sets of interdependent organisations (called intermediaries) involved in making the product available for consumption.

Today’s digital economy is shifting towards “channelization” – the way products are made available for public consumption. Because of the way business is evolving, what worked years ago may no longer work today. What was effective yesterday may already be obsolete today. Interestingly enough, starting your own business and distributing your own products has never been easier. However, the challenge of independent business owners or new players in the eCommerce arena is being discovered and being able to establish their own loyal market base. Creating your own stream or river from scratch is like pushing a boulder uphill everyday. This is where the shifting or the channelization occurs.

Today, the traditional trader can start off his business by taking advantage of these established “high starting points of distribution” like Amazon or Ebay, plug in to their channel, utilize their structure and distribution network to launch or introduce a new product or project.These powerful distribution channels have significant traffic and extensive networking connections to give your business a boost in the right direction. Once the channel is strong enough and the customer base is established, the business owner can spin off and establish his own business base according to his own terms. On the other hand, DIY-ers and boutique type businesses can create their own online stores in niche channels like Etsy. Other types of businesses can use other distribution channels such as KickStarter, AngelList, CafePress or Barkbox. How to get started? All it takes is to register.

What about digital goods such as WordPress Themes, Plugins and other types of digital products? New players in the WordPress themes business have found opportunities to introduce themselves and pool their work portfolio through established WordPress marketplaces or “channels” like ThemeForest with very little startup capital. The key, really, is to draw a loyal crowd or “traffic”, establish connections, and service them so that their conversion as long-term customers or customers for life will be cemented.

Bottomline, in today’s digital economy, having a good product is great, knowing your distribution channels is better, but having a good product + distributing thru the right channels + creating the media (email lists of customers) = the best starting point for you to build your own niche business and your brand.

Cool WordPress Themes for Churches: 2013 Edition

Churches and other religious or advocacy centered organizations have very specific website needs. Most of them require a combination of magazine, events, multimedia, and community features rolled into one theme. Here are some great WordPress themes that have great features and functionalities that can address those needs:

The Good News

The Good News Premium WordPress Theme is a theme specifically designed for churches but it is flexible enough to fit other uses. This premium theme includes: custom posts (Events, Sermons, Media), custom templates (Events, Sermons, Media), custom widgets, a contact form, 11 PSD files, and a complete HTML version, everything you need to set up your church’s website. The Good News is also responsive.

Evolution

Evolution Premium WordPress Theme from Elegant Themes is a simple, clean, responsive multi purpose theme that can be used for any type of website but it can also work well for advocacy groups or church and religious blog sites. Pastors or church leaders can use this theme to publish regular preachings or inspirational articles to inspire their readers beyond the Sunday sermon. This theme includes several useful page templates such as an image gallery, portfolio, a blog feed, and a member login template, among others.

Peacemaker – The WordPress Theme for Churches

Peacemaker Premium WordPress Theme is an excellent church theme that incorporates all the elements of church related activities into one theme. A notable feature is its events countdown feature which is a helpful events management tool to inform people about upcoming events. This responsive premium theme also includes: four custom post types (Events, Videos, Audio & Galleries), custom widgets, a unique homepage slider builder with the Slider custom post type, layered PSDs for detailed customization, and extensive documentation for easy setup.

Genesis

Reaching your audience has never been simpler with Genesis Premium WordPress theme, a church theme that’s designed to help you create a dynamic and responsive church website easily. This premium WordPress theme includes a simple custom solution for events that other events plugins complicate. This responsive theme also includes an unbranded theme options panel, unlimited photo galleries (masonry style), video, MP3 streaming, PDF download capabilities, and other useful features to enhance your website.

Spurgeon

Sunday preaching time too short to say all you have to say? Not a preacher but inspired to write all your thoughts and insights from your personal devotionals? Write about it and take all the time you need in your very own website. Spurgeon Premium WordPress Theme is a great way to compile all your thoughts and share them to as many as you can on your website. This responsive premium theme is equipped with features to help you easily publish your messages to inspire people and encourage them in their faith.

Saving Grace

Saving Grace Premium WordPress Theme is a theme geared towards charities and non-profit organizations. What’s unique about this theme aside from its outstanding layout and typography is the built in donation facility, via PayPal, using its donation page template and donation button and progress bar. This functionality takes advantage of impulse donation and gives visitors the option to donate straight away. This theme also includes 5 alternative color styles for you to choose from.

Malachi

Today’s church generation is so much different from before. Technology has changed a lot of the traditional methods of reaching people and replaced it with multimedia and audio-visual systems. Malachi Premium WordPress Theme integrates these modern tools and gives you a theme that is in step with today’s demands giving you technical functionalities that include podcasts, streaming music, and music videos. These modern communication tools are seamlessly integrated within the theme so you can create a website that can effectively reach today’s tech savvy generation.

Check out the WordPress themes above to see which ones will match your needs.

Fusion Theme from Elegant Themes is HERE!

Elegant Themes’ recently released Fusion Premium WordPress Theme is a theme designed to bring pizzazz into business websites by fusing fun and professionalism together in one awesome theme. Who says business themes have to boring and sterile when you can jazz it up and make it more interesting? This theme is intended for startups, tech companies, and design firms but it can easily be tweaked and adapted to whatever website you have in mind.

What’s hot? Fusion’s generous homepage slider dominates the theme’s layout even beyond the fold giving you maximum room to showcase your very best products or services with a bang. You have a choice of 5 gorgeous backgrounds to wow your audience with and the animated slideshow is smooth and sleek. The font choices used add that overall subtle elegance to the whole theme while still maintaining readability.

This premium WordPress theme also includes several page templates like: a contact form with built in Captcha, a portfolio section with 5 layout options, a sitemap, an image gallery, an advanced search page, and a not your usual WordPress login page. You can also assign content like quotes, article excerpts, client logos or icons to specific widgetized sections for that professional feel.

Overall, Fusion’s theme layout, color styling, font choices, and built-in features and functionalities are great as is but if you want to customize certain features to make it more custom you can do so via its powerful Theme Options Panel. You can also enhance other functionalities with the use of the theme’s shortcodes. This premium WordPress theme is responsive so you can be assured that you the same pizazz is there no matter what screen size you view it in.

Features:

  • Perpetual Updates
  • Secure and Valid Code
  • Browser Compatibility
  • Complete Localization
  • Unlimited Colors
  • Unparalleled Support

Fusion Premium WordPress Theme includes top-notch tech support provided by Elegant themes’ support staff to help you setup your site and get it running in no time.

Get Fusion from Elegant Themes Now!

Top 5 Themes for Non-Profit Organizations

It’s now that time of the year when most of the world celebrates Christmas. It is the season when the Christian world reflects on the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ which ultimately leads to his sacrifice on the cross so people may live a much better life in Him. It is also during this time when people are reminded to think beyond themselves and work towards causes to make the world a better place to live in. In the spirit of Christmas, we are featuring top 5 best selling and well rated themes for non-profit organizations:

1. Churchope

Churchope is a WordPress theme designed for churches. The homepage features a great slider perfect for giving visitors a brief presentation on what the church mission and beliefs are. The theme has capabilities for embedding videos as well as playing audio tracks. It also has a great calendar system to keep church members updated on the next church event. Overall, whether it’s viewing or listening to the latest sermon online or catching up with the next church activities, Churchope meets those needs and so much more.

2. WP Church

This is another theme that’s perfect for churches. It has an amazing slider set on a wood finish background. WP Church also gives visitors the chance to watch videos and audio tracks, listen to preaching or testimonies, and keep track of event countdowns on a dedicated event page. It also has a special scripture tool that automatically adds scripture text when the scripture reference (e.g. Ps. 121:1) is typed.

3. Campaign

This is a special theme for individuals running for public office. Candidate updates and news may be posted as well as a schedule for campaign events & sorties. There’s also a special tool for capturing names & email addresses of constituents and supporters and even a special, easy to set-up donation button. This theme can also be used for fund raising, charity events and the like.

4. Earth

This premium WordPress theme is designed for today’s eco-warriors. The environmental movement relies heavily on images to tell the stories of how the planet’s resources are being depleted because of human and industrial factors. Earth has great multimedia presentation capabilities that can help tell that story. This theme has an amazing slider that capable of embedding powerful video presentations to stir up conservation. It also has great sortable portfolio pages perfect for documenting various conservation projects of any environmental organization.

5. Animal Care

Animal care is a theme designed for cause oriented groups or movements who want to establish an online presence. This theme’s home page has a beautiful slider that can be used to effectively communicate the organization’s mission. The theme has allotted ample space for images, blog pages, and there is also a special box for special news posts regarding the organizations activities. Interested parties are given an opportunity to donate via a special donation button on the homepage.

There are more themes out there designed for non-profits. Hat tip to all the designers and developers who have created these themes to help the advancement of great causes.

Specialty: Clean Business WordPress Theme

The main purpose of a business theme is to create awareness, generate interest, and convert casual visitors to engaged followers/clients/customers. For a business theme to be effective, it has to have the following elements:

  • Great SEO capabilities.
  • Great design recall.
  • Readable, well organized text and multimedia content.
  • Effective interactive feedback system.

WP Business Bundle just released Specialty, a responsive premium WordPress theme designed to present your business or your company in a clear and concise manner. Overall, the theme is clean, modern and generous with whitespace. It has a great, sizeable slider that can really grab attention of casual visitors. Visitors are given control over slider transitions which gives each slide the appropriate airtime based on visitor preference.

Content is definitely readable on this theme. Font size and spacing between text boxes are great, giving visitors an uncluttered, relaxed reading experience. Images are displayed in a clean, well organized portfolio grid style which can also be sorted according to category. There’s also the option to use a jQuery masonry layout for those who want that Pinterest look. Thumbnails are slightly bigger that typical portfolio pages giving visitors a better overview of the work. Pages containing detailed narratives include large images of the work. This theme can also handle video and it includes a large section where you can showcase a special video or image right on the homepage.

Specialty does have a responsive design giving visitors the chance to appreciate the site’s content on smartphones and tablets. Specialty includes a basic contact form, custom post types, an easy to use custom panel, and just the right amount of widgets and features to get your site up and running without much fuss.

More Features:

  • Import/Export Functionality for Theme Options
  • Seven Pre-Defined Color Schemes
  • Breadcrumb Navigation
  • Adjustable Footer Widget Area (1-4 Columns)
  • Custom Post Types: Slider | Portfolio |Testimonial
  • Engaging Portfolio Layout with jQuery Masonry
  • HTML5 Markup | CSS3 Effects

Specialty Premium WordPress Theme is part of a bundle of themes and business-tailored plugins at WP Business Bundle available starting from $79. This theme includes documentation, future updates. For an additional $9 per month, you also get the PSD files, XML files, and access to the theme’s support forum.

Join WP Business Bundle Now

Responsive Web Design (RWD) vs Adaptive Web Design (AWD)

We’ve heard the terms Fluid, Adaptive, and Responsive used interchangeably when describing a theme’s ability to resize according to browser specs or device (mobile or not) size. Are they really different from one another or are they referring to the same characteristics found in themes described as such?

What is Responsive Web Design (RWD)? Responsive Layout?

Let’s take a closer look.

Responsive web design (often abbreviated to RWD) is an approach to web design in which a site is crafted to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones) – Wikipedia

Responsive design is the methodology behind making a website respond to whatever platform you are viewing it on regardless of resolution and orientation. It may change how certain elements display but it will not remove elements or change the core functionality of their behaviours. Responsive design uses a fluid grid and it is usually possible entirely through HTML and CSS, without the need for DOM (Document Object Model) manipulation. – Matthew Freeman

According to Ethan Marcotte, The 3 Elements of Responsive Web Design are:

A flexible, grid-based layout – A layout based on proportions rather than absolutes; uses a flexible grid, which in turn ensures that a website can scale to a browser’s full width.

Flexible images and media – Layouts based on percentages resize gracefully according to the size of the browser window rendering them. However, it is problematic to ensure that the content within a site resizes.
Images and media should scale with the flexible grid; images that work in a flexible context, whether fluid themselves or perhaps controlled through overflow mechanisms. CSS addresses this problem with its max-width property

Media queries – Content based breakpoints; optimize the design for different viewing contexts and spot-fix bugs that occur at different resolution ranges. CSS3’s media queries directly address these usability problems by allowing browsers to serve different styles for different viewing contexts. CSS3 greatly expands support for media queries, adding the ability to target media features such as screen and device width and orientation.

These 3 elements of Responsive Web Design find their way into 3 different types of Responsive (RWD) Layouts:

The Basic Fluid Lay­out
Con­tent con­tin­u­ally flows or adjusts in a word-wrap fash­ion as screen width is increased or reduced. There are no “dis­tinct” dif­fer­ences in con­tent pre­sen­ta­tion. Fluid layouts are dynamic and user sensitive – adapting to the available real estate on the user interface and providing increased content accessibility.

The Adap­tive Lay­out
There are pre­de­fined sizes were dif­fer­ent lay­outs are trig­gered. These are called breakpoints. Typ­i­cally there are three or four break­points to accom­mo­date desk­top, tablet and mobile screen sizes.

The Respon­sive Lay­out
This is a hybrid of Basic Fluid Lay­out and Adap­tive Lay­out. There are pre­de­fined break points, how­ever in between these breakpoints con­tent will flow to expand or con­tract.

According to his article for the Adobe Blog, Carl Sandquist states that:

“Cur­rently, most RWD web sites use Respon­sive Lay­out since it offers a best-of-both-world expe­ri­ence. Con­tent snaps into the appro­pri­ate approx­i­mate posi­tion for a device type (e.g. Tablet) and then fine-tuned adjust­ments are made for the exact screen size on a par­tic­u­lar device.”

What is Adaptive Design (AWD)? Adaptive Layout?

“Adaptive design is the manipulation of layouts to best perform on certain screen resolutions inclusive of elemental removal or behaviour changing techniques. Adaptive design usually requires Javascript to efficiently manipulate the DOM. Javascript can be avoided if you plan on having duplicate on-page elements and then show or hide them based on screen sizes, this might be appropriate for smaller elements but not whole columns or navigation elements.” – Matthew Freeman

“This technique adapts what is displayed depending on the capabilities of the device being used, as well as the screen size. It centres on the context of the user, so even when the same content is used, it is adapted (with some or even all of the design elements changing), depending on whether the user is using a mouse and keyboard or touch screen. AWD also uses different layouts for tablets and mobiles with certain. ‘Responsive’ elements built in to reduce the number of different templates required. AWD can be taken to further extremes with content being completely repackaged and reworded, while images and video are either reworked or completely removed.” – Danny Bluestone

According to Aaron Gustafson, author of Adaptive Web Design, Crafting Rich Experiences with Progressive Enhancement:

“Progressive enhancement isn’t about browsers. It’s about crafting experiences that serve your users by giving them access to content without technological restrictions. Progressive enhancement doesn’t require that you provide the same experience in different browsers, nor does it preclude you from using the latest and greatest technologies; it simply asks that you honor your content (and your users) by applying technologies in an intelligent way, layer-upon-layer, to craft an amazing experience.

He encourages designers to: Think of the user, not the browser.”

Which one is better?

A better understanding of the differences between Responsive Web Design and Adaptive Web Design is a starting point to deciding which solution will work well for you, or your clients, if you are a WordPress professional. Knowing what solutions are available and having the ability to distinguish and implement whichever design approach best meets the specifications of the end user is an important element. Of course, nothing is carved in stone. Future designs may be a combination or a hybrid of both – employing the best features of each one. The goal is to ensure that the user experience at the point of searching and eventually finding your website is the best experience they get at that particular moment – fully hoping that it will be the first of many more visits and not their last.

Coming Soon: Origin Theme by Elegant Themes

Nick Roach has done it again! Origin Premium WordPress Theme is the latest WordPress theme released by Elegant Themes and it is indeed stunning. This grid-based theme is quite impressive both visually and function-wise. You can tell that every design element has been carefully thought of and meticulously designed details have been scattered all throughout the theme if you care to spot them.

Origin is a gorgeous portfolio-styled theme but it is also engaging and fun to navigate around. It’s like going on a treasure hunt where you expect to find some hidden treasure as you explore every item on every page. The overall experience is one of delight and surprise. Customization is quick and easy. This theme comes with 5 deliciously combined preset color schemes that immediately engage your eye. These pre made color schemes are good to go right out of the box but you can also create your own color palette based on your own branding preferences.

This premium WordPress theme comes with several built in page templates like an image gallery page, an advanced search page, a portfolio page with several display options, a blog feed page, a contact page, a secure member login page, and a sitemap for those concerned about content showing up in bot crawls and searches. There are also tons of shortcodes giving you more customization and functionality options.

Origin Premium WordPress Theme uses CSS media queries and AJAX infinite scrolling features to ensure that your website will display and function beautifully and intuitively no matter the screen size and device. If you are considering an upgrade to your own site or doing a project for a client, Origin has infinite possibilities and potential for turning your site from good to great.

More Features:

  • Responsive design
  • ePanel Theme Options
  • Large collection of shortcodes
  • Premade Page Templates
  • Perpetual Updates
  • Secure and Valid Code
  • Browser Compatibility
  • Complete Localization
  • Five Unique Colors
  • Unparalleled Support

Origin Premium WordPress Theme includes top-notch tech support provided by Elegant themes’ support staff to help you setup your site and get it running in no time.

Preview the Origin Theme

Get Your Free Themes from WPBusinessBundle.com

Have you seen the the all new and improved WP Business Bundle? If you haven’t then you need to check it out. If you have been bombarded with numerous WordPress themes in the marketplace and you are suffering from “choice overload” head on out to WP Business Bundle for select WordPress Themes specifically targeted to meet the needs of businesses, corporate portfolios, professionals and other types of business-related websites.

WP Business Bundle has gone through a makeover and the generous folks over there are giving away two great Premium themes for free. That’s right – FREE! By simply signing up with them you can download a stunning Business Theme (Prospect) and a creative Portfolio Theme (Digifoto) for zero dollars! You don’t even have to choose because you can download one or even both.

Prospect Free WordPress Theme is a vibrant and dynamic business theme with features like 10 pre-made skins, an attractive slider, clean and easy to use breadcrumbs navigation, high-end aesthetics and many more excellent features that will appeal to the elite business crowd you move in.

Digifoto Free WordPress Theme is a Portfolio theme with 2 built-in design options (dark and light), numerous custom widgets, unique sliders, drag and drop forms, and other essential features for you to create an impressive online portfolio at zero cost to you.

Once you register to create your free account, simply confirm your email and WP Business Bundle will email the themes to you right away. Unlike most free themes out there, what’s cool about WP Business Bundle free themes is that you can expect:

  • Theme Updates
  • Cool Resources
  • New Free Themes
  • No Cost – No Obligation
  • Cancel Anytime Policy

You can also find useful plugins at WP Business Bundle. Since these plugins are designed to complement all WP Business Bundle Themes. Together, WP Business Bundle Themes and Plugins make a truly winning combination.

Check out WP Business Bundle.com and Download your Free Themes Today!