One of my favorite parts about the WordPress blogging software is the WordPress themes that are contributed by the WordPress community.  There are literally thousands of themes available for anyone to download, and most are free and contributed by individuals who believe in WordPress and want to make the product better. 

Unfortunately, when theme users are trying to find a theme that provides the right look and uses the correct colors, I’ve found that users often forget to look for good functionality.  In my experience, good functionality goes a lot further than a good appearance.  It is also easier for someone without coding knowledge to take a theme and adjust the colors than it is to manually add better functionality. 

Here are 5 things I look for when shopping for a new WordPress theme:

1. Plugin Compatibility - Many themes come already setup for certain plugins by using the same method I’ve previously discussed. If you have your mind set on using certain plugins with your blog, you’ll want to look for what plugins are already compatible with the theme before selecting it.   It still amazes me more theme authors don’t take the time to add out-of-the-box functionality with many popular plugins. 
2. AJAX Comments - Maybe Web 2.0 has just spoiled us, but it is extremely discouraging to comment on a site that requires the full page to completely reload. Many WordPress themes now come with AJAX comments, which allows a comment to be left without the entire page reloading.
3. Page Menu - Some WordPress themes come with the page menu in the sidebar.  Not only does this look tacky, but it also uses up a lot of valuable sidebar room that could be used for other information information, such as sponsors, advertisements, or displaying your most popular posts. A good theme will have the pages displayed in a menu somewhere above the blog’s content (usually either immediately above or below the logo).
4. Widget Ready - Does the theme come widget ready? If you aren’t comfortable manually adding code to your sidebar, this is extremely important feature.
5. Logo Space - What is a blog without a logo?  It doesn’t have to be something fancy, but it does need to be something that readers have affiliate with your blog.   For whatever reason, many WordPress themes don’t seem to leave room for a custom logo to be added, but instead will provide a text title.

If I was going to release a theme, I would make sure the above 5 things were included.  What do you look for when picking out a WordPress theme?

In case it has been awhile since you’ve visited my WordPress Themes page, I just wanted to write a quick post and let you know that they have received a very significant update in the past two weeks. I’ve been scouring the blogosphere looking for the best free WordPress themes and found a lot of incredible ones that I didn’t know existed!  As always, I have managed to get a screen shot of them added, along with the the download and demo links whenever possible.

The posts that have seen the most significant upgrades are the following:

• Best 2-Column WordPress Themes
• Best 3-Column WordPress Themes
• Best Google AdSense Optimized WordPress Themes

If you think you may be in need of a WordPress theme in the next few months, you may want to bookmark these pages for future reference.  They will continue to be updated as I run across themes that I feel are worthy of a spot on the list.

If you have any questions or want to recommend something, please leave a comment below or let me know!

One of the best and most appealing parts of using WordPress is the various WordPress themes and WordPress plugins available. The plugins are easy to add, and the themes allow users to switch their blog’s theme with the click of a button.

If you have made a habit of regularly switching WordPress themes, you’ve probably noticed that there is a lot of stuff that needs to be done each time you make the switch. Here is a list of 8 reminders for you to follow each time you switch your WordPress theme:

1. Transfer your metrics code - The most common thing people forget to do is transfer over their metrics scripts. These are usually found in the footer of your theme and can easily be transfered with a simple copy and paste.
2. Transfer plugin calls - Remember all those plugins you installed that required calls to be placed in the theme? Those will each need to be transfered over to your new theme for your plugins to continue to function properly.
3. Transfer sidebar stuff - If you are using widgets, this stuff will transfer over to new your widget-ready theme automatically. If you aren’t, you will need to transfer this stuff over manually.
4. Verify your feeds work properly - Offering a valid feed to subscribers is crucial to a blogs success. You’ll want to make sure your feed is working properly, and if you use Feedburner, you will want to make sure your redirect is working properly.
5. Update your advertising code - When you switch themes, you first need to transfer over your advertising code, then update the colors in the code to match your new theme.
6. Test your theme for errors - Verify your menu is working properly, your tags, categories, and archives pages all work. You’ll also want to do a test search using the blog’s search engine.
7. Test in all web browsers - You can either manually download and open your site in multiple web browsers (IE7, IE6, Firefox, and Opera), or try a service like Browsershots.
8. Announce your theme change - Make a post that explains the change and ask readers to let you know if they encounter any problems. This way you can get feedback from people using a variety of browsers and resolutions.

That covers everything I typically do when setting up or switching WordPress themes. Miss any? Sound off in the comments below!

The internet is a dynamic place where things are always changing and adapting. And just like the internet, the blogosphere is also changing rapidly and seems to be particularly susceptible to trends. One prominent blogger will create a theme and the whole blogosphere will rush to follow.

One of the most recent trends in the blogosphere is the rise in popularity of many magazine-style WordPress themes. Many of them are paid themes, but there are also several free magazine style WordPress themes as well for people to download.

Here are a few of my favorites:

OpenBook Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Options Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Hamasaki Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Structure Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Rebel Magazine Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Massive News Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Arthemia Free Theme (Premium Version Also Available)

Source | Download | Demo

Guzel Magazine Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Newsweek Theme

Source | Download | Demo

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

Source | Download | Demo

Jello Wala Mello Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Visionary Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Mimbo Theme

Source | Download | Demo

WP Gold Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Morning After Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Zeke 1.0 Theme

Source | Download | Demo

Forte Theme

Source | Download | Demo

The Studio Theme

Source | Download | Demo

If you know of a good one that you’d like to see added to the list, please let me know in the comments below!

If you are looking for a way to generate more traffic and inbound links for your blog, and you have some web design talent, one of the best things you can do is contribute a few free WordPress themes to the WordPress community.

In order to focus on making your theme unique, I recommend starting out with a blank theme template. Jonathan Wold has created an excellent tutorial called How to Create Your Own WordPress Theme, in which he walks you through the basic setup of a generic WordPress theme. From there, you are then on your own to express your creativity and add some plugin integration for potential users of the theme.

Have you ever switching to using a new WordPress theme for your blog and then suddenly notice it all over the blogosphere?   It can often be tough to find a quality free theme that isn’t already being heavily used by other WordPress bloggers.  

As a result, many serious bloggers make the decision to instead go the route of purchasing a premium theme.   These are usually some of the best quality themes and you won’t find to many of them scattered around the blogosphere due to the cost.   Some examples of affordable premium themes include the Revolution theme by Brian Gardner or some of the exclusive themes by Unique Blog Designs.

Now it looks like WordPress will make it a little easier for serious bloggers to find a quality theme.   Once purchased, it looks like half of the sales price goes to the theme author, while the other half goes to Automattic to help maintain the site. 

Its a little early and we don’t have enough information yet to comfortably form an opinion on this, but it is something that if done right, could be useful.   It will be interesting to see how many theme authors are willing to give up 50% of their sale price for a little extra exposure, and also to see if this is something available to WordPress.org users, rather than just being for WordPress.com users.