2013 Is Here: Time To Update Your WordPress Theme!


New Year. New Look. Say goodbye to all the holiday trimmings and get ready to update the old. What better time to start the year with something new and something fresh! If you’ve been wanting to revamp your website and give it a makeover now is the time to do it. Design trends and the gazillion features have sort of settled, the fads have faded, while useful and relevant features have been embraced and integrated into the basic WordPress theme structure. It’s a great way to start 2013.

Take a look at all the gorgeous WordPress themes that have been released the past few months, read our reviews and see for yourself:

Fusion Theme from Elegant Themes

Specialty WordPress Theme

Harmony Theme by Elegant Themes

Origin WordPress Theme by Elegant Themes


You can also check out these articles on WordPress trends, plugins and other resources to beef up your site:

WordPress Theme Deconstructed

Last week we touched on the basic components of a typical WordPress theme. Below is a visual example of how the layout looks like.

The components are as follows:

The Header (header.php)

The header is the structure that traditionally sits at the top of a web page. It contains the title of the website. It may also be referred to as the masthead, head, title, and banner. In all WordPress Themes, the header is found within the header.php template file.

Most themes have a header image that displays at the top of the page. This image is generated by a graphic defined either in the CSS value for the property that represents the header area or through the use of a custom header feature in WordPress. In themes that don’t have the custom header image feature, you can easily define a background image for the header image using CSS. (source: CSS for Dummies)

Menu (navigation) – usually found within or above the header

There are two ways to display a nav menu. One is by calling wp_nav_menu() within a theme template file. The other is by using the Navigation Menu widget. Most themes will call a menu from their header.php template, but menus can be placed anywhere. (source: Justin Tadlock)

The Sidebar (sidebar.php)

In general, the WordPress sidebar features titles of the various sections within a list, with the section items in a nested list below the title.
According to the WordPress Codex and in terms of design,
a sidebar is:
“… a narrow vertical column often jam-packed with lots of information about a website. Found on most WordPress sites, the sidebar is usually placed on the right or left-hand side of the web page, though in some cases, a site will feature two sidebars, one on each side of the main content where your posts are found.”

(You can also check out our previous article “Adding Sidebars to WordPress” to read more about sidebars.)

The Content Column (index.php)

The content container in WordPress plays the most important role. It holds the WordPress Loop which dictates the generation of content on the page depending upon the request by the user.

Content consists of text, images, or other information shared in posts. This is separate from the structural design of a web site, which provides a framework into which the content is inserted, and the presentation of a site, which involves graphic design.

The Footer (footer.php)

The footer is found within the footer.php template file. Footers are more than just a place to put copyright information. The footer in a web design is the bottom of the page. It indicates the end of the page. The footer includes navigational links to move the reader into your blog’s content, but it does so much more. It’s the last thing some visitors see after they finish reading your blog post and comments and should encourage people to stay a little longer on your site. (Source: lorelle.wordpress.com).

More next week!

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

BuddyPress WordPress Themes 2013: Trends

BuddyPress has come a long way since its conceptualization in 2008. What is BuddyPress anyway?

According to WPMU.org:

“BuddyPress is a suite of plugins for WordPress that transforms into a fully functional social network platform.
When installed on WordPress Multisite it provides features that lets your members socially interact with each other within a multi-blogging platform environment. It provides all the features that allow you to build a community on your network. BuddyPress enables you to build passionate users around a specific niche.”

Buddypress.org puts it quite succinctly:

“BuddyPress is Social Networking, the WordPress way.”

The concept of turning a WordPress site into a social network is indeed radical and has not been lacking in challenges. What is amazing is that BuddyPress users of today find a plugin that fully integrates into ordinary WordPress as opposed to the few who were tinkering with WPMU a couple of years back. With its latest version, 1.6, BuddyPress is an easy to use plugin with good content management capability. You can enjoy the benefit of user generated content with the ability to moderate and control spam posts using existing infrastructure on WordPress. BuddyPress also gives you the functionality you expect from any social networking site. You can add and remove friends, create groups and much more.

With all that BuddyPress is offering now what more is store for this great plugin? The battle cry of the developers is theme integration. More and more people would like to turn their existing sites into social networking sites without discarding their existing theme capabilities. Come to think of it, if you have a great ecommerce theme, why would you want discard your eCommerce capabilities for social networking. The challenge for theme developers is to create or redesign themes that integrate the capabilities of buddypress. Social networking, in tandem with mobile devices, has made our world smaller, closer, and within reach. It is undeniable.On the other hand, BuddyPress developers also have to do their share to make the plugin more seamless. While the task doesn’t seem easy there is indeed a host of talented, highly motivated people working to reach the summit from both sides. We are looking forward with much eagerness to their success!

Portfolio WordPress Themes 2013: Trends

Portfolio themes have always been highly influenced by the technical platforms the content is viewed on. Among the different theme categories, portfolios are probably the quickest to reflect new technological capabilities available. It is just fitting to consider what’s up around the corner at the end of 2012 as far as the Internet is concerned and how this will affect portfolio themes.

The main internet trend for 2013 and 2014 is the main streaming of mobile as an internet access device. It is strongly believed that smartphones and tablets will overtake desktops as the access device of choice. A lot of the conversions are expected to happen in developing countries where 3g is still the norm. A simple observation is to check what devices internet users use to upload content. More often than not it is through a handheld device, an iPhone, Android, or smartphone. To the user, it is all about convenience and accessibility. Designers and developers need to take note of this and need to consider creating themes that can handle images and multimedia content under these constraints.

The mobile effort should be done without sacrificing an emerging and equally important 4g LTE market. Designers should be cognizant of a significant growth of mobile and desktop users subscribing to internet connections much faster than a couple of years ago. Thus the access of devices to websites must be smart enough to be able to meet the seemingly opposite needs of these market segments. In a way, it is an expansion of responsive design into the backend of the website.

The emergence of new display technology such as Retina would be something to consider. Designers must be able to take multimedia content generated from any device and exploit the full capabilities of these next generation displays. Again, this should also be done in tandem with expected rapid growth in low capability areas.

Social media integration can not take a back burner as people are finding more and more ways to use this technology. Developers should take notice of the capabilities of Instagram or Pinterest and figure out how to incorporate such features into their themes. Their popularity is an indicator of sorts as to what people are viewing and how they are viewing it. It would be a pity to have a very beautiful portfolio website with very little traffic and only a handful of people enjoying it. Lastly, there is still much room to develop seamless integration with different resources available on the cloud – more exploration on how this can be utilized, maximized, and integrated into the ultimate WordPress portfolio theme.

We can’t wait to see what will emerge in 2013. Exciting times up ahead!

30 Inspirational Non-Profit WordPress Themes 2013

Amongst all the civilized life of shopping malls and movie lexes we must not forget that there are parts in this world whose inhabitants don’t get even the basic necessities of life like food and water. Innocents get killed everyday in calamities like bomb blasts, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. Children are out of schools as their parents cannot pay for their education. People die even from minor curable diseases merely because they didn’t have the money to see a doctor. The situation is far more serious than what I can describe in a few sentences. The statement that I wish to make is that we should care about others and should donate generously to non-profit organizations that are trying to help those in need.

Perhaps the following collection of 30 WordPress themes, designed especially for the non-profits may make a small contribution in making the world a better place.

Of course different niches have different site design requirements. A social networking site should look and behave in a completely different way than what a gaming site should look like. Special care and attention was devoted to the following templates so that they craft out into a good and clean look, which is what is required for non-profit organizations.

Some of the templates below are without charge but due to certain restrictions we can’t just giveaway everything absolutely free, although we would have loved to. Hence we have charged a nominal amount in the remaining templates. Scroll down and take a look.

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Origin WordPress Theme by Elegant Themes

It is a constant challenge for artists, photographers and creative professionals to promote their work and gain new clientele. Thankfully, the Internet provides an avenue where people can connect to other people wherever they are in the world in a very efficient manner. In order to take advantage of this infrastructure, artists who want their portfolio to stand out from the crowd need to put up well designed websites to effectively exhibit works of art and other creative output.

Origin Premium WordPress Theme is the latest theme from Elegant themes targeted at creative professionals. It is designed to be a showcase solution for creative work and it does so in a stunning way. This premium WordPress theme’s take on the grid layout is not uncommon. What makes it stand out is the attention to design details and concern for the user experience. The theme can give visitors an overall view of the portfolio, or it can also serve as a one page catalogue for whatever images, products or projects that need to be showcased.

Origin is beautiful eye candy but catching a potential client’s eye is one thing, converting him or her into a loyal customer is another. This portfolio styled theme has what it takes to deliver both. This responsive theme serves as that portal where the the target clientele can go beyond admiring the work and actually connect with the creative professional and eventually work together.

If you haven’t seen Origin Premium WordPress Theme in action, head on over to Elegant Themes and take it for a spin. You’ll be glad you did.

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.

Origin Theme: $39 | Demo & Download

Magazine WordPress Themes 2013: Trends

One of the usual challenges of online newspapers or magazines is streamlining content in a more readable and user friendly format. Because of the verbose or content-heavy nature of these sites, careful thought needs to be made in creating a theme layout that employs clever typography skills and information management techniques to create content that is readable and easy on the eye. Visual cues need to deliberately designed and strategically placed to draw attention to the most important sections of the site despite being bombarded by tons of images and information all at the same time. Because we are living in the digital age, careful thought and consideration also needs to be given to the never ending technological race to release the latest device or gadget where these websites will be accessed.

In light of all that, we think that Magazine WordPress Themes will continue to see improvements and changes in the following areas:

Easy to Implement, Clean, and Streamlined Design with an Emphasis on Readability

A well organized layout eliminates clutter and confusion and creates a pleasant navigational experience for visitors. This creates the impression that the people behind the publication are professionals and consequently adds credibility to the magazine’s reputation. Carefully chosen fonts and font sizes also add to the overall readability of the site and will hopefully encourage casual readers to become loyal subscribers.

Drag and Drop Features

Every publication is different. Each one has specific requirements based on their own reader base. Some formats may work for a certain season but become dated in the next. Magazine WordPress themes should be flexible enough to handle different layout configurations without much ado. One viable solution is to integrate a Drag and Drop feature to give website owners flexibility to reconfigure their websites and switch design elements around easily.

Single Page Templates

One of the benefits and yet at the same time one of the disadvantages of a magazine styled theme is that more content is featured on the front page. The homepage is filled with images and content to gain maximum exposure and accessibility. Perhaps more and more Magazine WordPress Themes will be designed with alternative options to use infinite scrolling single page templates to ensure that all posts will be given equal amount of exposure. This also eliminates the need for more clicks from visitors.

Responsive Layouts

The mobile web revolution has forever changed the way people access the internet. Online publications hosted on WordPress should be responsive or have that option available to them. Devices and gadgets are constantly evolving therefore Magazine WordPress themes need to be in step or be able to adapt to these technological changes quickly.

Search Engine Optimized, Affiliate, and Ad Ready

The lifeblood of print publications is in advertising. The same holds true for online publications. As these websites increase in size and readership, more and more resources are required to maintain it like hosting space, multiple authors and contributors, maintenance costs, etc. Magazine WordPress Themes authors need to design with these considerations in mind and give WP theme users backend options to monetize the site. Provision for and management of ad blocks or affiliate links should be standard built-in features already.

Rating and Review System

People love to voice their opinions and having this feature built into a Magazine WordPress theme encourages interactivity. This helps increase site traffic and later on adds credibility and authority which is translates into higher ranking sites as well.

Translation Ready

The Internet is an international marketplace represented by people from all around the world. Magazine WordPress themes need to be translation ready to take advantage of the untapped global target market.

The digital revolution has already eaten up a great chunk of the print generation but there is still room for growth. Although there are some printed materials that digital can never replace, those that can, will definitely benefit from this paperless trend we are seeing.

Useful Resourcse to Help You Understand WordPress Theme Structure

Trying to understand how WordPress works can be overwhelming with the tons of resources available online. Below is a compilation of some great resources we’ve narrowed down to help you get your feet wet as you start practicing your WordPress coding skills: