Get free access to nearly two dozen HD video tutorials about WordPress including: Video 1: The Dashboard Video 2: Creating New Posts Video 3: Editing An Existing Post Video 4: Using Categories & Tags Video 5: Inserting Images & Photos …
Creative ownership has always been a controversial issue. Demarcation lines have been difficult to draw with the coming of the information or digital age. As far as WordPress themes go, a piece of work that emanates from the WordPress author, known as the creator or artist, and transferred to the recipient often identified as client, becomes an arduous task because the artist is oftentimes unable to remove or distance himself from the work of “art” even if it has long left his hands.
For example, a WordPress developer or professional, commissioned to work on a project and whose work has been accepted by the client has intrinsically turned over all rights to his design and has received remuneration for it. In essence, the client now owns the work. However, the designer is still credited to the public eye and both are at the mercy of the terms and stipulations of the legal contract between them.
The coming of the internet/digital age has birthed governing rules such as Creative Commons or GPL where artists openly share the rights to their work to the public under specific licenses or terms of use thus complicating further the very delineations that are supposed to protect the interest of the artist. But where do you draw the line? In the eyes of the WordPress author, the output can be treated as artistic and creative output while to the client, the full rights to the use of the output, specifically, the WordPress theme created, belong to the latter once money is exchanged.
Discussions continue to be controversial. Schools train and teach multi media students how to treat their work and how to avoid exploitation or unjust use of their artistic output. But this is not so in the “real world” marketplace where copying is a “generally accepted” practice. It is not uncommon for a best-selling WordPress theme to birth clones and spin-offs of some sort in a matter of days. How do we address the idealism of upcoming authors and developers who are scared that their designs might get ripped off? The exposure and professional experience of seasoned web developers have given them the wisdom and resilience to cope with these real world ripoff concerns. But this should not discourage those who are can add to the pool of creativity because of fear.
Thankfully, there are many mentors within the WordPress community who are willing to give back to the community and pay it forward to those who are just starting. The dialog is also always ongoing. This is perhaps what makes the whole WordPress community strong and what makes its members continue to thrive.
Greater things are yet to come and they are exciting. There’s always something magical whenever the New Year comes. Technically, if you really strip this day down to what it really is and take away all the fireworks and celebration, it’s actually another normal sunrise and sunset in the calendar. Fortunately, this is not how majority of us see it. Many of us look forward to it with a lot of hope and expectations, a chance to start again, an opportunity to embrace new challenges, a time to let go of the old and wipe the slate clean, a new beginning for many.
For those of us in the WordPress community and the greater Internet population, things have never been more exciting. Imagine a single video garnering more than a billion views and still counting. Why is this significant? This simply gives us the information that there are a billion or more active Internet users out there that we can reach out to. As global interconnection continually increases, social behavior continues to adapt and our world seems closer and more reachable everyday. By force majeure the older generation are being pulled in by the tech savvy younger generation into the digital age as this has now become the common tool for communication. Social networking continues to expand and so has its demographic base.
For those who are in the WordPress marketplace and are serious about it, the hard questions need to be asked. Is it enough to simply ask what the ideal WordPress theme really is or what the perfect theme looks like? Are the current themes in the market today meeting the needs of the consumers, real and perceived? What about creativity and originality? Or innovation? Are we willing to think out of the box and be experimental as far as theme features and designs are concerned or are we just going to play it safe and blend with the crowd? Are we ready to meet the demands of the unstoppable rise of mobile computing and the multilingual global marketplace?
As we look into the future, those in the Internet and web development industry, (WordPress included) need to take a wholistic approach in planning for the next 12 months and beyond. Maybe some are just dabbling in WordPress theme development for fun while others are seriously considering it as a viable business opportunity worth investing in. Perhaps as we plan future steps maybe we can take a step or two back and view the WordPress themes market from a different angle or with a fresh perspective – to work backwards and use the future to strategically determine today’s activities. Somebody once said, “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” Who would have ever thought that an Asian guy would teach the world (1 billion+) how to do a horse dance? Mind-blowing but undeniably real and possible. Maybe he did what wasn’t normally done and got the results nobody expected. Guess what? So can all of us.
The Internet is such a great resource for learning almost anything. You can practically start a whole new career based on all the free available information that can be downloaded online. Thanks to very generous people who don’t mind sharing their talent and resources for others to learn from. For those who want to try their hand at designing web templates, one of the best ways to learn is to mimic the good ones that are out there. Thankfully, there are excellent resources out there if you know where to look. Here are some of the best that’s out there today and the great thing about it is that these resources are absolutely free. Check them out:
Blaz Robar is a graphic designer from Melbourne, Australia and is part of a web design studio, Eleven Media that specialises in creating unique WordPress themes. Below is one of the many PSD templates available on his site Blazrobar.com and you can also find his work on www.thelayoutlab.com.
Luis Zuno is a full time web designer & developer spends his time creating themes and templates. Below is a sample of one of the free PSD files on this site were created by him. According to him, you are free to download, and use them in both your commercial and personal projects. Luis Zuno’s work can also be found at ThemeForest.
Martin Fabricius is a young and talented web designer from Vejle Denmark and has won several awards in his homeland. According to him:
My big passion is usability and web and app design. I make web and app design on a freelance basis apart from my job as CTO to Ungarbejde.dk
Below is a sample of the kind of work that is available on his website:
Cemile and Volkan are two graduate students at VCD in Istanbul and work as freelance web designer/developers. Currently they are working on creating user-friendly and clean website templates on Themeforest.
Below is a sample of their work which can be downloaded for free on their website:
Premium Coding is an interactive multimedia design website that provides tons of resources for web developers, designers, and the web community. Below is a sample of one of the many free resources you can download from their site.
With all the free tutorials, templates, and design resources available out there, you can jump start your web design skills in no time. So bring out your text editor, your editing software and get started. All you need to add to the equation is your time.
#1) Elegant Themes – The BEST Deal In WordPress (MUST JOIN) Elegant Themes continues to be our absolute top pick in all of WordPress. To learn more about how you can get 70+ Premium Themes (plus all future themes) for …
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StudioPress, the brain-child of CoppyBlogger’s own Brian Gardner, is quickly becoming one of the most popular Theme Clubs, and we want to show you why (and how you can save over $600 by joining their all-access wordpress theme club).
If you are interested in learning more about Studio Press and the Genesis Framework, be sure to read this entire review. From theme by theme reviews to tips and trick to maximize your StudioPress Theme’s impact, we’re excited to take you behind the scenes at StudioPress.com.
Each and every wordpress theme in the StudioPress Club is running the Geneis Framework with version 1.6 currently in beta. Now for those not familiar with a framework, the best way to think of this is like a dashboard for your dashboard.
In a nutshell, frameworks allow for fast and quick development by creating a “framework” that people can use to quickly build in the features they desire.
To be certain, the true definition of framework is about as varied as the sites you visit trying to explain it, but if you take WordPress’ definition, they conclude, “A Theme framework is a Theme designed to be a flexible foundation for quicker WordPress development, usually serving as a robust Parent Theme for Child Themes. Some Theme frameworks can also make theme development more accessible, removing the need for programming or design knowledge with options pages.” Cool, right?
Well…kind of. The problem with frameworks is often the same problem with WordPress Themes. In theory, they are simple enough and serve a purpose. In reality, their usefulness is only as good as the coding that goes into them.
Automatic Updates – So much goes into creating your site, blog (or client’s site or blog). The last thing you want is for a new WordPress core update to completely crash the jumbled mash of code and plugins you’ve rigged together to call a site. Genesis helps take the guessing game out by using automatic updates so your code is always state of the art and fully optimized for search engines.
Turnkey Designs – When you purchase the full StudioPress membership, you get access to all of the dozens and dozens of Premium WordPress Themes ever created (both now and in the future) for a reasonable one-time price.
Unlimited – You can use the StudioPress WordPress Themes on an unlimited number of sites (no “developer” price to pay), you get access to unlimited support (for any questions or help), and you get unlimited updates for any and all code changes, future releases, new themes, all of it. When StudioPress says Unlimited, they mean it!
Security – StudioPress brought in one of WordPress’ leading developers to make sure each and every StudioPress Theme has the best security possible.
Easy Customization (Really) – It seems that every developer these days says that customizing there themes are easy. That is most certainly not the case. If you are looking for themes that are both HIGHLY customizable without getting into the code while still allowing you to build in extremely high-end and custom functions, StudioPress is not just a good choice, they are probably the best.
While we could go on forever about even more reasons why StudioPress creates some of the absolute best WordPress Themes in 2011 (through features like: My Tweets, User Profiles, eNews/Updates and more), we now want to show you all the themes you’ll receive when you join StudioPress today.
Fabric Theme: If you are looking for a modern and pastel colored theme then Fabric is the perfect fit for your personal or business site. Coming with all the functions you know from the StudioPress framework you can’t go wrong with this template.
Generate Theme: This theme is targeted towards marketing people who would like to get their message across. Bright colors make this theme stand out of the crowd which gives you the option for easy call to action texts.
Eleven40 Theme: When looking at this theme you instantly notice the focus on content which makes this template perfect for all bloggers out there. Write and share your content with your audience anytime, anywhere!
Balance Theme: Balance is a minimalistic theme which is the perfect solution for people who like to put the attention on their content rather than having fancy distracting graphic elements on their site.
Blissfull Theme: Need a homepage for your wedding? No problem! Blissfull makes it easy to setup a dedicated site for your wedding or other celebrations.
Decor Theme: This theme is fully responsive and looks samazing on your tablets or smartphone. If you are looking for an elegant solution for your website you can’t go wrong with this beauty.
Associate Theme: This business orientated template is the perfect theme for your company. If you want to have a professional looking website which is easy to edit and add new content then WordPress and this oustanding design from StudioPress will satisfy you.
Apparition Theme: Is a very basic template which is perfect to showcase your recent pictures or stories that you want to share with friends or your followers. A simple front page layout gives the viewers all the information they need.
Backcountry Theme: Backcountry is a multi-purpose theme which you can use for any genre of site that you want. The dakr color scheme of Backcountry makes it perfect for nearly any website.
Luscious Theme: Colorful and bright that’s what makes this theme stand out. If you want to go against the minimalistic theme trend and want to shock your viewers with colors that make them never forget your site this template is perfect for you.
Metro Theme: Wether you use this theme for your magazine website or personal blog it always gives your visitors the impression of a professional and quality site. With minimalstic approach but still some contrast in the header this is one of the best StudioPress themes.
Mindstream Theme: Share your thoughts and stories with your audience. Simple, stylistish and modern. Enough said.
Minimum Theme: When you love white then you’ll love this theme. While some people might call this template boring others believe in simple is more. It is up to you if you like or hate this design but the trend is going towards minimalistic themes like this one.
Modern Theme: Modern and easy to use. StudioPress created a clean and modern design which is useable on a broad variety of sites.
Pretty Pictures Theme: If you have pretty pictures that you want to showcase then Pretty Pictures is as the name states the perfect solution for you. Showcasing photos and videos within seconds make this theme even for beginners a good choice.
Scribble Theme: Scribble focuses on content and typography. People who rather write than post pictures will love this template. It is all about your content and what you want to share with the world.
Quattro Theme: Quattro is a basic blog theme. Nothing special but has it to be always special? Sometimes something solid can be the perfect choice. If you share this opinion check out this template.
Stretch Theme: This theme is very creative and due the fact that you can set a full-width background it is very customizeable. Besides those options you have a wide range of page templates which will help you to publish your content faster.
Bee Crafty Theme: Bee Crafty will display your wonders to the world. Snap in your own handmade header, stitch together a beautiful photo showcase home page, or draw up a unique and wonderful blog.
Agency Theme: When you’ve got lots of content and you need a professional way to show it off, Agency is the theme for you. Use it to showcase your company, services and what you can offer.
AgentPress Theme: The AgentPress theme is an ideal solution for real estate agents looking to market themselves and rise above competition. AgentPress includes multiple page templates that can be used to create a complete real estate website. From single property templates to a custom homepage, AgentPress is right for you.
Amped Theme: You’re busy touring, writing, and signing autographs on everything put in front of you. You shouldn’t have to worry about the nuts and bolts of your website. Amped was built to spotlight your latest video, showcase your music and the show dates you need to promote… all at your fingertips and built on the rock-solid Genesis Framework for WordPress.
Church Theme: Got lots of magazine-style content and need a stylish frame? The Church theme is a great choice for sites that have a lot to say. Choose from StudioPress’ content-friendly soft color schemes and widgets that support everything from video to in-depth articles to great photography.
Corporate Theme: The Corporate WordPress theme for the Genesis Framework is a corporate-style theme that will provide a professional look for your business website. When you’ve got lots of content and you need a professional way to show it off, Corporate is the theme for you. Use it to showcase your company, services, and what you can offer.
Crystal Theme: Got lots of portfolio-style content and need a stylish frame? Crystal’s a great choice for sites that want to showcase work. When you have a lot of content and you need a professional way to show it off, Crystal is the theme for you. Use it to showcase your company, services, and what you can offer.
Delicious Theme: Easily create a dynamic portrait of your company or project for your customers. You’ll bring them inside, before they step in the door. Delicious effortlessly projects the exact image you desire, and allows you to focus on other content as well.
Education Theme: Your institution has a great deal of information to convey in a short period of time. Text, audio, video, curricula, and more. Help students, faculty and press find what they need fast, without the homework.
Enterprise Theme: The Enterprise child theme for the Genesis Framework is a corporate-style theme that will provide a professional look for your business website.
Executive Theme: Looking for a high-end corporate look? The Executive WordPress Theme is a corporate-style theme that will provide a professional look for your business’ internet address.
Expose Theme: When you come in from the field, you want to effortlessly create a stunning display of your photographic work. With a few clicks, Expose will give you the perfect WordPress Theme to exhibit your passion worldwide.
Family Tree Theme: Your full life never stops making priceless memories… where do you put all those stories? Family Tree is a safe and imaginative home for your family’s unforgettable moments.
Freelance Theme: You’ve got enough to do with building and marketing your business. You shouldn’t have to worry about your website. Freelance places a strong, professional face on your business, so you can get back to work.
Focus Theme: We’re living in the Age of Distraction, with unlimited options pulling your readers in countless directions. It’s time to focus. The Focus Theme was built to bring your words, pictures and videos into sharp relief. It’s a clean and powerful theme with one critical objective: concentrating your priceless reader’s attention.
Going Green Theme: Maybe you want to save the earth. Maybe you want to save your neighborhood. Going Green is the clean and stable platform you can tell the world from. Make a difference with your website, and get the Going Green Theme.
Landscape Theme: It’s a great big world out there, and you want to shoot it all. Shouldn’t your work have an exceptional home? The Landscape WordPress Theme is sophisticated and invisible enough to reveal the beauty in your pictures.
Lexicon Theme: You might be a journalist striking out on your own. Maybe you’re going to create the next big celeb blog. Whatever the story you want to cover, do it in style, cover it in Lexicon.
Lifestyle Theme: Got lots of magazine-style content and need a stylish frame? Lifestyle’s a great choice for sites that have a lot to say. Choose from five content-friendly soft color schemes and widgets that support everything from video to in-depth articles to great photography.
Magazine Theme: When you’ve got lots of content and you need a magazine-style format to show it off, Magazine is the theme for you. Magazine is sleek, up-to-date, and always cutting-edge… just like your content.
Manhattan Theme: When you’ve got lots of content and you need a professional way to show it off, Manhattan is the theme for you.
Metric Theme: Thankfully, the days of the starched, buttoned-down corporate website are over. You’ve got a way to build exactly what you need. Metric delivers a warm new media professionalism to your online customers.
Mocha Theme: Mocha is the perfect theme for fashion, music, and style blogs… or anyone who craves stylish design. Mocha’s sophisticated design, upscale color scheme, and uncluttered layout always deliver a delicious experience for your audience.
News Theme: Got lots of news-style content and need a stylish frame? The News theme is a great choice for sites that have a lot to say. Enjoy using the featured areas and custom widgets that support everything from video to in-depth articles to great photography.
Outreach Theme: A church is one of the most information intensive organizations on earth. Don’t let your message get lost. Outreach gives you the framework you want, so you can give your people the message they need.
Pixel Happy Theme: Looking for a bright, modern-looking theme that showcases great images? Pixel Happy is the perfect choice. Pixel Happy’s sophisticated color scheme, generous white space, and slideshow and gallery functionality make the perfect framework for photography and other image-heavy sites.
Platinum Theme: Have a great story to tell? An incredible show to put on and to let people know about it? How about showcasing your vocal skills? Let the modern Platinum theme take the back seat while you take the stage. It’s your time to shine.
Pretty Young Thing Theme: There’s a fresh, vibrant generation out there, and you’re a part of it. Pretty Young Thing can capture the essence of your experience and reflect it back to a world that badly needs a dose of youthful exuberance!
Prose Theme: Prose is an elegant theme with point-and-click design controls. With Prose, you can easily change things about the appearance of your site (like colors and fonts) without knowing anything about code. Maybe your readers prefer a larger font. You probably have certain colors you’ve chosen to reflect your individual brand. If you can point-and-click, you can customize Prose.
Serenity Theme: Got lots of magazine-style content and need a stylish frame? Serenity’s a great choice for sites that have a lot to say. Choose from an amazing selection of widgets that support everything from video to in-depth articles.
Sleek Theme: There was a time when the gadget-inclined were relegated to the basement. Those days are long gone and now you can show that. Get your geek on with Sleek, bring your brilliance to the world.
Social Eyes Theme: One of the great benefits of Social Media is the ability to meet people where they are. On Facebook? Over at Twitter? No problem. Social Eyes is an elegant and easy way to assemble a stunning home for all of your Social Media work, and to expand it with your own unique take on what’s going on.
Streamline Theme: Your website shouldn’t get in the way of your stories. Here’s your chance to tell it like it is. Streamline throws light on your work, letting you get back to what’s important. Focus on the things that really matter.
Tapestry Theme: You take pictures, you write stories and opinions, you make videos, you link to cool stuff all the time. Tapestry takes everything you make online, and makes perfect, beautiful sense of it.
Venture Theme: You’re not playing a game. You’re in business, and you’ve got the numbers to prove it. Venture is as stylish and bold as you are, ready to show the world what you’re made of.
If you’ve been counting, that’s nearly 40 Premium WordPress Themes plus all the bonuses, support, and lifetime updates you simply won’t find elsewhere. Join StudioPress Today.
Drag and drop customizations via Page Builder plugins are quite popular because of the ease it provides in creating multiple layout configurations without messing with code. There are several page builders available in the WordPress market today. Here are some of the most popular ones:
Visual Composer is #1 Best Selling drag and drop frontend and backend page builder with 70k+ websites already powered. This plugin offers drag and drop page building with an intuitive user interface. What makes Visual Composer convenient is its front end page building capabilities. Visual Composer allows you to choose from 40+ different page elements or use custom shortcodes. The plugin also allows you to design your pages in a responsive way. The developers offer lifetime updates free of charge and has lots of tutorials available to help you use the plugin. The capabilities of Visual Composer may also be extended with premium add ons like Templatera or Easy Tables. You will be able to take full control over your WordPress site, build any layout you can imagine with no programming knowledge required.
Live Composer is a front-end WordPress page builder plugin with 28+ modules packed with functionality and styling options that allow countless variations to be made easily and without any coding. Live Composer offers front end drag and drop page building capabilities to your themes. It is designed to turn any theme into a feature packed beast. Live Composer comes with 28+ modules with easy customize options for each. Each module can be adjusted for device specific options making sure your pages look great on tablets, smartphones and desktops/laptops. You also have the option to create your own modules for specific functionality. Live Composer comes with special post types like Projects, Galleries, Downloads, Testimonials, Staff and Partners and transferring what you do on one page to another is easy with Live Composer’s Templates system.
Awesome Builder is a WordPress Drag & Drop Page Builder and shortcodes generator that offers the best solution you need to build a modern web page in the easiest way ever. This plugin widgetizes your pages allowing you to drag and drop your widgets into any section of the page. No need to create new modules. You can use existing widgets on your website. You can also use 25+ widgets included with the plugin but it will work with any widget you have. The plugin also enables a responsive layout for your pages. Awesome builder supports animation for each widget you add. Awesome Builder supports full width, background color image and video support.
Parallax One Page Builder enables you to create your own one page website in just a few minutes. With this plugin you can create unlimited landing page with more features options and unlimited sections each with parallax effects as you enable. The plugin also comes with gallery and portfolio capabilities included. The first section gives you 7 slide gallery you can use with images, color or YouTube video. Each section there after can have an image, color or YouTube video as background. Plugin employs custom SEO for improving your sites web search results.
Drag and Drop Shortcodes is a great WP plugin with intuitive drag&drop interface and lot of elements to choose from, like: Accordions, Stats Counter, Knobs, Alert Boxes, Animation Box, Price Boxes, Progress Bar, QR Code, Service Boxes, Tabs, Team Member, Map, PayPal Buttons, Member Only Content, Tooltip, YouTube, Vimeo and self hosted HTML5 video. Drag and Drop shortcodes offer convenient page building capabilities using a highly intuitive backend interface. The plugin comes with a lot of page elements including Video, Stats Counters, Progress Charts, etc. Draggable sections and column allows you to present content as you see fit. Animation options, parallax and video backgrounds help you enliven your content even on the most boring default themes. What makes this plugin even more special is that it allows you to create your own modules with shortcodes.
If you are a Genesis fan and you’ve been waiting for something fresh from StudioPress to be released then we’ve got good news! StudioPress has recently released Genesis 2.0 Beta version ready for you to play with. Genesis members can download beta version but will require the Genesis beta tester plugin for it to work. StudioPress strongly urges that it is for testing purposes and should not be used on production sites.
Brand New Design
HTML5 markup
Microdata
Lightweight features
Visit StudioPress.com to learn more.
