Blogs, Wordpress Themes |

Most Comprehensive Listing Of Wordpress Themes And Some Helpful Tips

By MAJOR TOM | June 5, 2007

Bloggers with exclusively hosted domains mostly use Wordpress as the platform for its designs as well as content management. Rarely other modules—like Serepindity or Movable Type—get utilized. Aside from being an open source package, Wordpress secures to its users a wide array of design choices, far more varied and numerous than the others.

And often, bloggers resort almost automatically to Wordpress whenever they find the need to change their look and feel. I have observe that most bloggers modify or revise their themes every now and then, fascinating their viewers with fresh new sights and views, sometime coming to us like a radiant and full blooming of a beauteous flower, suddenly opening up before our eyes and then be awed by it. This is perhaps why I get excited whenever I see new designs being exhibited by some bloggers I often visit. It’s pure entertainment, I must say. Even I---despite that my website is not hosted exclusively---often resorts to Wordpress for my design needs, tweaking original codes to fit into the Blogsome module I am now using.

On the one hand, I feel that somehow, remodeling or redesigning weblogs---especially too often for comfort, like I do somehow---could unnecessarily turn-off readers away as the site’s look and feel get revised all the time, and somehow this would negatively affect frequent readers, for being taken out of sort---having been used so much to older designs and then to be suddenly be staring at a new set of structures and figures on the screen and quip silently in mind, “This seems to be not anymore the blog that I had become fond of yesterday..” and then decide not to visit it as often as possible. This is what I think the downside of redesigning.

But other than that, experimenting with other looks and theme becomes a positive activity to me, like creating is such an addictive activity---just like power as that famous adage states.

Now I have gone over to Blogosquare and read about this very informative and helpful post that offers tips in choosing or selecting the kind of Wordpress designs for you. Hans over there discusses quite effectively on the factors that one must consider when deciding to change themes. I know that most of us are already aware of the common issues like IE and Mozilla compatibility, fast or slow loading designs, easy-to-decipher codings but I feel that it is still necessary to be reminded by these elements of web designs. And for newbies, these tips would absolutely come in handy.

And besides, Hans had enumerated there a list of sites where some of the best Wordpress themes could be found---those that are not even in the theme viewer---and I found most especially robust is the list from Writerspace, where the gallery includes designs by local bloggers Derek Punzalan and Bryan Veloso, both having gained sharp reputation for their web designs not only here in our country, but also elsewhere. Also included in that list is a modified Simpla design by Jorge Cosgayon whose blog Far From Neutral Notions has just won the Best Blog Design award in the recently concluded Philippine Blog Award.

If you are browsing for that new Wordpress look you have in mind, this Blogsquare post is the opne for you---ultimately helpful and very comprehensive list of very good designs.

Get the comprehensive Wordpress Themes listing HERE

12 Comments »

1. curacha says; June 5, 2007 @ 1:35 am

   i always open your site with lots of curiousity and anticipation of finding new design again...nope, that was never a turn off for me, on the contrary i envy you of your skills in redesigning. i wonder when i can learn that..sigh

2. Major Tom says; June 5, 2007 @ 2:17 am

   To curacha: I have no professional or scholarly training in web design whatsoever but thru constant tweaking and experimenting---sort of trial and error method--I learned how to do it in time. There was no shortcut for me, but for a period of at least two years. In time, I am sure you will be able to do it. Trust me on that.

   Why don't you open up a test blog in Blogsome and do some tinkering over there...That was how I learn it.

3. bokbok says; June 5, 2007 @ 12:55 pm

   hanga ako sa layout ng blog mo, sana matutunan ko rin lahat ng ginagawa mo.

4. eric says; June 5, 2007 @ 3:10 pm

   One of these days I have to learn more about Wordpress. My site is looking kinda old with the same template going for a year now. I admire your technical knowledge on these things, Major Tom

5. Hans says; June 5, 2007 @ 3:11 pm

   THanks indeed for enjoying and posting about the article.

   @ curacha

   I would also encourage you giving a look at this article for some ready-made code and styles.

   The one thing that can help you learn faster is looking and dissecting good themes, which have been coded with expertise and laid with great mastery, things like the sandbox theme from plaintxtorg, cutline and pressrow from Chris Pearson, k2 if you want,etc

   to make things faster and easier, I would encourage you creating an offline blog so that you could do all your playing and tweaking without bothering whether that gets on the face of your visitors. That's how I do things

6. verns says; June 5, 2007 @ 4:21 pm

   me I am just waiting for a good samaritan who will offer to tweak or change my theme for me...eherms hehehe

7. Major Tom says; June 5, 2007 @ 8:49 pm

   To Bokbok: Oh thanks for the good note. You would surely learn it in time.

   To eric: That's a good idea. I wonder what fresh new look you'd try on. Your present design is a classic by the way.

   To Hans: Thanks for passing by and I've really learned a lot from your advices. And thanks for creating this new design for it is just awesome.

   To verns: I hope there'd be one. I could have done that for you but not very familiar with the new Wordpress.com platform and I think you still need to avail of the CSS customizer. If you have that, then I can try that for you.

8. rhodora says; June 6, 2007 @ 7:56 am

   Ang galing, Major Tom! Okay lang ang new look every now and then sa blog - basta ba maganda!

   Thanks for the tips! Soon, I hope to redesign mine too.

9. Major Tom says; June 6, 2007 @ 11:33 am

   To rhodora: Hope you have a fun time redesigning your site; there'd be just too many wonderful themes out there---it's like an ocean of beauty.

10. verns says; June 6, 2007 @ 1:17 pm

    hahaha that's alright Major Tom thanks. I don't know what a CSS customizer is to start with. Baka mabuang ka lang sa akin hehe

11. Major Tom says; June 6, 2007 @ 1:36 pm

    To verns: The CSS customizer is one that the Wordpress.com offers its clients for about 10 dollars purchase and they would offer you that somewhere in the Presentation or Themes section of your Dashboard.

    I had a temporary Wordpress.Com blog and I did like the offer for full custumization, kaya lang wala akong credit card and it's only available thru that..You should try it if you have the time.

12. tutubi says; June 7, 2007 @ 6:57 pm

    i almost abandoned my blogger for wordpress until i searched for a nice template plus how to add the "read more"feature that i was able to do

    a blog post of mine about that
    here

    :)

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