Blog Themes

**OSWebMaster** · 01-20-2008, 03:55 PM

Hello All -

Hey... there are some great theme designers here, and I enjoy seeing your good work. I write about WordPress (at WebHelperMagazine.com), and also build WP CMS websites (at WebFadds.com), so I though I'd survey you all on what some essential elements of a great theme are.

There's a poll (select more than one item), and I look forward to your comments on this thread. Here are some things I like seeing in a good WordPress theme:

Flexibility - Different page and section layouts
Custom Admin Menu - Ozh has a utility to help theme authors make enable a custom menu for their themes
Styled for widgets
Designed to incorporate different types of ads
Designed for specific plugins (like Flicker, Recent posts, etc.)
Designed for a specific CMS application (Publishing, eCommerce, etc.)

Finally, I wonder at what point fulfilling all of those features would cause a theme cross-over into a commercial theme to support the designer. I'm for both free and commercial themes (with extended feature sets).

Yours -
Scott

**jamestl2** · 04:38 PM

All those features reflect a good theme.

The theme I use for my blog (Royale) is an example of a great theme, IMO, because it goes above and beyond what normal themes offer, such as:

Four Widget sections (incl. header and footer)
The option to have two or three columns (and where those sidebars go)
A version checker (if the theme is up-to-date)
Built in SEO options (and title tag customization)
Different background options to choose from
Automatically include HTML insert option
And what pages to include in the header
(among a variety of other features)

I think the more customization the theme offers the better it is. Along with the fact that it's user-friendly, so people can edit it without having to know as much code.

But personally, I'm not a big fan of "commercial" themes. Mainly because it tends to run against the "Open Source" spirit. And maybe because I've never actually used a commercial theme, as there are plenty of free themes for someone running a personal blog, such as myself.

**OSWebMaster** · 01-21-2008, 03:10 PM

Hi James -

Thanks for your post and telling us about the Royale theme. You mentioned a number of features including Four Widget Sections, and the Option to have 2 or 3 Columns. Those are good ones. Are they available via a Custom Admin. Menu, or do you have to go deeper into the templates themselves?

- Scott

**jamestl2** · 01-21-2008, 03:32 PM

Yep,
They're available to me in my site's WP Dashboard

Dashboard > Presentation, then there are two new tabs in addition to Themes, Widgets, etc.

As soon as I activate the theme, tabs called "Theme Options" and "HTML inserts" appear, which offer all the advanced features.

Also, two new sections appear in the widgets tab "Royale Top" and "Royale Bottom".

**OSWebMaster** · 01-27-2008, 12:10 PM

Hello All -

Would enjoy hearing from some active theme designers on this thread. What makes a good theme? Do you offer "premium" themes for pay?

- Scott