One of the first things most people notice when they visit Blog Perfume is the great blog design they have. I know it is something that got my attention. That is why when I noticed yesterday that they have released a premium WordPress theme, it immediately got my attention.

This theme is called Blubs, and it stays true to the Blog Perfume brand with a unique look to go with the unique name. Here are the features that they list with the theme:

• Clean and Elegant Design
• 2 columns flexible layout
• Navigation Dropdown Menu
• Widgets ready on sidebar
• Serach bar at the top
• Ready for125px and 250px ads integration
• Separated comments/trackbacks
• Built-in gravatars in comment section
• Print.css stylesheet
• Author Profiles & Archives
• Clean & valid codes - XHTML 1.0 Strict + CSS 2.1
• Cross browser compatible - tested on IE/Win, Opera, Firefox, Safari/Win.

A lot of this stuff has become standard with todays premium themes, but I really like the idea of a separate print.css stylesheet and archive/author profiles. You won’t find that on most of these themes. Separated trackbacks and comments is also another great feature.

So how does Blubs look? Here are a couple screenshots (though you really need to view the demo to fully appreciate it):

Homepage

Homepage Footer

Archives Page

Comments Section

So, looks great, but how much for Blubs? It is listed at a very competitive price of $49.95 for a single-use license. You can also get the multiple-use license for $99.00.

Check out the Blubs premium WordPress theme.

Did that title get your attention? While most of the Revolution themes still require payment, it looks like Brian Gardner has made another contribution to the WordPress community, this time with a free 3-column and widget-ready version of Revolution.

Because this theme is designed more for an end-user than to serve as a template for a web designer, the first thing you’ll notice about the free Revolution theme is the large amount of color Brian used.   Brian has also talked about adding additional stylesheets to the theme, given you an easy way to pick your own color for the theme.

Here is a screen shot of the free Revolution theme:

As you can see above, Brian stays true to the Revolution series with this theme.

If you’d like to get a copy for yourself, you can now demo the theme or download the free Revolution theme.

As a side note, it looks like iThemes has also released their own set of 8 new free WordPress themes.

A few days ago, I ran across another great free WordPress theme over at Daily Blog Tips.   If you don’t want to purchase a theme, I would definitely pick out some of the themes they’ve been releasing recently.  This particular theme is called PassionDuo, and it has a lot of the quality that I look for in a free WordPress theme.

Here are the features the author lists that are associated with PassionDuo:

• Advertising ready: The theme comes with a 468×60 banner spot on the header, and 6 125×125 spots on top of the sidebar. It should also be easy to integrate ad units of other sizes throughout the theme.
• Feedburner Integration: The theme has an options page where you can simply paste your Feedburner feed URL. It also comes with a styled email subscription form, where you just need to put your Feedburner email id.
• Comments Styling: The author comments already come with a different style so that readers can easily identify them.
• Search Engine Optimization: As usual the title and meta tags have already been optimized. The categories and archive pages are also structured to display only post excerpts.

In addition to these great features, you will also get the choice of either green, red, or blue.   Here is a screen shot of the green version:

If you’re interested, here is the demo and download information:

Green: Demo | Download

Red: Demo | Download

Blue: Demo | Download

I will be adding this theme to the appropriate WordPress theme galleries.

The premium WordPress themes market has become a little crowded lately, but I think that the market can probably support a few more web designers, as long as the quality is on par or above what the existing authors are releasing.  That is the great thing about competition.  It forces innovation and buyers of these themes win by getting much better products.

One newcomer to the premium WordPress themes market is the Omni WordPress theme.  Though I think this theme would appeal to just about any blogger, it was designed with social network addicts in mind.   This theme provides a place to feature your videos, your pictures, and your various social networking profiles, without creating a content management feel.

Here is a sample of the Omni homepage:

Here is a sample of a single Omni post page:

If you are looking for a theme that can turn your blog into a content management system, this theme probably isn’t for you.   However, for pure bloggers, this theme could be the perfect fit.  For now, you can purchase a single-use license for $79.95 or get the multiple-use license for $199.95.

If you’re interested and what to learn more about this theme, I recommend you check out the Omni WordPress theme.

It seems as though the WordPress 2.5 back end redesign was so nice, it inspired at least one person to develop a front end theme that looked the same. Welcome to FreshPress, a WordPress theme that mimics the look and feel of the 2.5 administration panel.

FreshPress is a three column theme with the left most column dedicated to post content and the other two columns dedicated to widget sidebars. Above the content is a large rectangle which reminds me of the RIGHT NOW section of the 2.5 administration area. This box showcases featured articles with a small area on the right with links to more featured articles. Also worthy of noting is that the number of comments for an article displays the same as you would see it in the 2.5 back end.

The color scheme looks exactly like the one you would find in the back end of WordPress 2.5. Although 2.5 comes with two color schemes labeled classic and fresh, it’s obvious as to which one is represented in this theme.

The footer is somewhat customizable as you can add as many boxes as you want by simply editing the footer.php file, copying and then pasting the div container that makes up the box. Even the footer uses the color scheme found within the footer of the 2.5 backend.

Overall, this design seems simple but also Fresh, as the name implies. Perhaps it’s because I’ve gotten use to the way the new administration design in WordPress 2.5 looks but I have to admit, the redesign makes for a nice front end design as well. For all the negative things that were said of the look and feel of the redesign, I find it amazingly ironic that someone would create a theme using the new look as inspiration.

What do you think? Do you like this design or do you get enough of these colors in the back end?

It looks like the crew over at Premium News has been busy, releasing their eighth theme in the last five months. This premium WordPress theme is called Fresh News, and it was based upon the extremely popular Flash edition news theme.

Here are some of the features included with the Fresh News theme:

• Automatic Image Resizer (requires PHP GD Library to work)
• Custom Page Templates for Archives, Sitemap & Image Gallery
• Built-in Gravatar Support for Authors & Comments
• Author Profiles & Archives
• Featured news section
• Video Panel (for use with Flash videos)
• Traditional Blog Layout (for homepage)
• Integrated aside / sideblog section within the sidebar of the theme (optional)
• Navigation Dropdown Menu’s
• Sidebar Tabbed Box
• 2 different homepage layouts (featured section)
• Widgetized sidebars
• Integrated Banner Ad Management
• Integrated Flickr & Feedburner

Upon first glance, there are two things that jump out at me about this theme. I don’t believe previous versions of Premium News themes have had multiple colors (I could be wrong), but Fresh News comes with 6 different colors to choose from.

The other really neat thing you get is something that I’ve been suggesting premium theme designers do for months now, and that is to provide a blogging template with the theme. It looks like if you purchase the Fresh News theme, you will get a blogging template that you can use. This opens up a lot more options for a potential buyer and creates more appeal to bloggers that don’t want a content management homepage.

Here are some screenshots of Fresh News:

Homepage

Post Page

This theme comes with everything you’ve come to expect from the News theme crew, and it is available at the same price. You can purchase a single-use license for $99.95 or a multiple-use license for $249.95.

Check out the Fresh News WordPress theme!