Recently I wrote a post requesting a “parked” theme be created that received a pretty good response. Many of the comments actually pointed me to an existing WordPress theme known as LaunchPad, which the author advertises as a parked theme.

While this isn’t exactly what I meant by a parked theme, I think that it is a great free WordPress theme that I figured I would share with everyone. The basic idea of this theme is to be a placeholder before your launch your blog.  When you buy a domain and plan on launching a website, you put this theme up while you work on building your blog. Once ready, just replace this theme with your blog.

As you can see, it is a very clean and simple design that includes a button so people can subscribe via RSS or e-mail  so that they can start getting updates once the website is launched. 

About a month ago, I sent a call out to the WordPress community requesting that more themes be released that by default include slots for 125×125 banners. They are all the rage, yet it seems that few designers took the time to optimize their themes for these banners. Common sense says that if there is very little supply but a lot of demand, the people that fill the demand will find success.

In looking at the recent trends with newly released themes over this past month, it seems that bloggers have really responded and there is now a wide variety of WordPress themes available for download. I decided there are finally enough of them now that I can throw together a gallery of WordPress themes that allow for 125×125 banners. Enjoy!

2-Column Themes

Slick Blue Theme

Source | Download | Demo

PassionDuo Theme (3 Colors)

Green: Demo | Download, Red: Demo | Download, Blue: Demo | Download

WP Freemium Theme

Source | Download

Dark Zen Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Maggo Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Green Tech Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Blue Sensation Theme

Source | Download | Demo

3-Column Themes

iPhOne Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Padangan Theme

Source | Download | Demo

SimpleWP Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Black and White Theme

Source | Download | Demo

WP-Polaroid Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Firebug Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Simple Red Theme

Source | Download (Requires free registration) | Demo

True Blue Theme

Source | Download (Requires free registration) | Demo

Blue Block Theme

Source | Download | Demo

WP Premiere Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Magazine-Style Themes

Structure Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Forte Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Mag on Wood Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Studio WordPress Theme (Available in Blue, Green, & Red)

Source | Download | Demo

Know of a good quality one we missed? Contact us or let us know in the comments below!

I know we’ve been focusing a lot on premium WordPress themes this week, but that is because they have been getting released in a flurry lately. Based on the rate that these themes are being released, it appears that these authors are finding a lot of success selling them.   This means, in my mind, that premium themes are here to stay, so I will be placing some focus on them when they are released.

The newest premium themes that I’ve run across are the Flash News/Magazine Theme and the Premium News theme: Gazette Edition, both of which are now available for purchase at Premium News Themes.

In staying true to the previous themes put out by Adii and crew, these themes have a similar look and follow the same trend as previously released versions.  Here are the new looks:

Flash News/Magazine Theme 

Premium News theme: Gazette Edition

Both themes are available for $99.95, or $249.95 for a developer’s license.  To read more about these themes or to purchase a copy, check out Premium News Themes.

Looking for a premium WordPress theme to give your small business or blog a professional look and feel? There are a ton of great premium WordPress themes out there these days, but most seem to cater to a small community of businesses and bloggers that are looking for a affordable content management system. What about regular WordPress bloggers?

If you own a small business, but aren’t looking to report the news or create an online magazine, I recommend you check out the recently released Industrial Business WordPress theme. It was designed for with professional business websites in mind such as technology, construction, consulting, accounting and even medical firms, however it great for just about any type of small business website/blog.

For only $49.95 (or $99.95 for multiple-use), you get this professional looking small business theme that has a great front-page display to give information about your business. It is also a fully functional WordPress blog, so you get the best of both worlds without worrying about setting up a subdomain or directory.

Here is a screenshot of the blue version of the theme:

In addition to the choice of 6 different color schemes (you get all 6 with your purchase), you will also get the following features:

• Drop-down menus
• Front page feature section (Tabber)
• Bread-crumb interior navigation
• Archive Page Template
• Two sidebars
• Website look and feel 

Want more information? I recommend you check out the iThemes website.

Do you ever have trouble finding a theme that you like for your website? People tend to like all sorts of different features and looks with their themes, which is what makes WordPress so incredible. There are theme authors out there looking to accommodate your requests.

Moses of WPThemesPlugin.com is looking for your WordPress theme input. According to Moses:

So, what do you actually look for in a theme? is it purely based on the design & colors, or is it based on functionality or are you looking for a balance of both?

I need your help, in my mind i envision on creating my next theme to look similar to this site but than again i had a friend of mind that said a design like that would look “too busy” and too many parts/columns.

So please help me out, give me some hint or even point me to some URL of sites that attracts you, let me know your prefrences such as:

- 2,3 or 4 columns?

- Dark or Light colors?

- Header or no Header?

- CMS options or just normal blog layout?

- Ads ready?

- Big or small footer?

Now is your chance to provide some input and help see that theme you always wanted to get created.

In doing some research around the internet, I disappointed to see that no one has yet created a “Parked” WordPress theme. With the increase in the popularity of domain names and parking domains, a few companies have been offering “domain name parking” services for awhile now. Popular examples of this would be Parked.com and Sedo. Unfortunately, when using one of these services, you have limited control over what is displayed, how it is displayed, and limited control over important SEO factors such as keywords/descriptions, etc (which are used to determine which advertisements are displayed).   I’ve always felt that using Google AdSense would be a better option as well.

Because WordPress is free, I’ve noticed that it has become fairly popular for domainers/bloggers to setup a WordPress site on the domain and just place PPC advertisements all over it. This gives them full control over the meta tags and display of the site, as well as helping with search engines because they will sometimes penalized traditional parked pages.

Something I would like to see is a theme designer put together a theme that is designed specifically for parking a domain, instead of for hosting a blog. You could then create some advertisement blocks for users to plug PPC code into and also include room for a picture or two.   If setup like this it would be easily interchangeable and used across a lot of domains.  Whoever takes the time to do this would have this niche all to themselves and would probably even be able to charge for it as long as it comes with a multiple-use license.

Anyone have an interest in making something like this?

For anyone who still isn’t sure what I’m talking about, here is an example of a parked page:

As you can see from the picture above, this page includes a title and a place to contact the owner, a picture on the right, and a number of advertisements where the owner of the domain gets paid when they are clicked.