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Wordpress themes

by laurenceh
29 replies
I've been looking at alot of wordpress themes free and premium and have noticed most of them look and have blog style options.

As i am not an htlm'er i need a theme i can "leave as is" and not have to edit but where do i find the themes that do not look like blogs?

Alot of the cms style ones still look bloggy. I've seen alot of really good sites that are wordpress but you'd never know it!

Am i looking at a "hiring a warrior" job to custom build one?
#themes #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author Susan Hope
    Have you looked at Studio Press or iThemes? I don't think they look "bloggy" but then again, it depends on what your definition of bloggy is I guess.

    Cheers
    Sue
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    • Profile picture of the author gerardS
      Originally Posted by SusanneUK View Post

      Have you looked at Studio Press or iThemes? I don't think they look "bloggy" but then again, it depends on what your definition of bloggy is I guess.

      Cheers
      Sue
      I agree with Sue, these are not bad at all.
      But indeed you may find very fancy ones, I think you should check them up and decide upon the one that serves better your purpose.
      There is a money issue too, some are way too expensive for what you get.
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  • Profile picture of the author Abledragon
    There are lots of WordPress theme sites at the bottom of this article, both free and paid:

    http://www.wealthydragon.com/blog/20...dpress-themes/

    There may be some there that meet what you're looking for,

    Cheers,

    Martin.
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    • Profile picture of the author MissEvonne
      That was a great list and just what I was looking for today!
      Thank You
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  • Profile picture of the author Diana Lane
    Any WordPress theme can be set to have a single 'Page' set as the home page, and this usually does a lot to rid it of the 'blog' look. If you find a theme you like the look of, but it's too bloggish for you, take a look at one of the pages rather than the home page and you'll get some idea of what the front page would look like if you changed that setting in the WordPress admin.

    Far more important than looks (in my view anyway) is where the H1 tag is used in the theme. For some weird reason, the default WordPress themes use the H1 tag for the blog title rather than the page and post titles - consequently, the vast majority of themes created since have done the same thing. Whenever I've considered a WordPress theme, the first thing I do is look at a post, 'view source' in my browser and look to see which words the H1 tags are wrapped around. If it's the blog title and not the post title, I write off the theme there and then, however appealing it looks. They might be in the minority, but there are still plenty of other themes out there that know how to use H1 properly.
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  • Profile picture of the author captainDyl
    Search google for "free magazine worpress themes". Most of them look nothing like blogs
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  • Profile picture of the author ClayFranklin
    I also have been looking at a lot of themes. One of the best sources to see a lot of previews is over at smashingmagazine with 100 free themes

    For non blog looking themes check out zen gardens with hundreds of examples at cssgarden. click on the side bar to see the different ways your blog can look, when you find one you like just download it.

    Also the Studio press themes have quite a few themes that do not look like a blog.
    blackcanvas is pretty nice
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  • Profile picture of the author Tom Dean
    ithemes.com iCompany is nice so is Architect.

    My favorites are the original Revolution & Revoultion2 by Brian Gardner and the frugaltheme.com premium or pro.

    This site I am still for working on uses the frugal theme jaxfinehomes.com although it is setup as a real estate (house showing) site you should be able to envision other ways to use it

    Tom
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  • Profile picture of the author Kael41
    Yep, love the Revolution themes myself. Very flexible
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  • Profile picture of the author InternetM39482
    Hmm, The Revolution themes would be one option. They don't look 'bloggy'.

    The themes at WooThemes are also good, especially with some code tweaks.

    If you want to have some functions of a blog off (like the Date display, comments, sidebar etc) you can tweak the theme yourself.
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  • Profile picture of the author cheesy
    I can reccommend iThemes, some great options there for you to ook at, sure you'll find one you like.
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  • Profile picture of the author AdInventive
    I recommend the stuff at woothemes. Great base designs, great support, etc.

    If you want to check out other premium themes that might suit your interest, I like staying up to date with new stuff at premiumwp.com (some other dudes affiliate site but it's constantly updated)

    If you are a novice at the wordpress thing, you may also want to check out the new headway theme. I've been playing around with it on a site I'm building and it's pretty powerful for novices and developers alike. It allows you to create a 'drag and drop' layout and adjust things like color, typography, and a lot more from the wordpress dashboard without having to mess with css or html.
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  • Profile picture of the author TeddyP
    WooThemes - Vibrant CMS is a very non bloggy theme.
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  • Profile picture of the author Newseo903
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    • Profile picture of the author JNFerree
      I've spent the past 5 days doing recon on which WP theme I intend to migrate to. My short list includes: #1 Thesis #2 Headway

      Since I don't have time nor desire to learn a bunch of code to bring up a new site with a strong SEO underbelly to get a decent PR. I want an WP theme that is flexible, easy to use, fast to deploy and SEO enriched.

      I found a couple of pretty useful reviews of Headway that anyone on the hunt for a strong WP theme should see.


      I've been using a pretty decent (FREE) theme called Amazing Grace and I've only managed to get a PR of 3 with Google and Alexa score of 317k so I am hoping this new (fee based) theme will help me up the ante.

      It will take a few days to get the hang of it, but I think Headway is the clear winner. I plan to do a bunch of these 3-4 YT vignettes for guys like me (before) I leaned how to use Word Press.

      Would be interested to hear what you other guys think of Headway theme?
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      • Profile picture of the author maveric
        I am in the same boat as JNFerree. Need a theme that is flexible without learning code, but also STRONG in SEO. Thesis boasts the "strongest SEO on the market" with "rock solid code." Headway seems to be more user friendly (for regular people). Can anyone speak to the importance of SEO in the theme and which of these two might be better... ie- are Thesis' claims justified?

        I guess the bottom line is, I just want to learn one wordpress system and have it be flexible... what about the option of a theme maker who has multiple themes. Would that be better/worse than having a "theme system" like Thesis/Headway? :confused:

        Thanks in advance,
        Eric
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        • Profile picture of the author bgmacaw
          Originally Posted by maveric View Post

          Can anyone speak to the importance of SEO in the theme and which of these two might be better... ie- are Thesis' claims justified?
          You can get the same basic functionality with any theme using either Platinum SEO or All-in-One SEO plugins. I prefer Platinum slightly more since it has a redirect option and more nofollow/noindex options.

          The theme layout also makes a difference, primarily in the use of H1/H2/H3 tags and sidebar placement. Someone could design a really bad theme where everything was an H1 tag. Most themes don't have this problem though. As for the sidebar, it's generally accepted that the less stuff you have between the header and the content, the better.
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  • Profile picture of the author Abledragon
    Eric, hi,

    I've used Thesis for a while now and I've been very pleased with it. I'm afraid I can't offer a comparison with Headway, though, since I've not used it.

    In case it's of any help I wrote a review of Thesis here:

    http://www.wealthydragon.com/blog/20...-of-thesis-15/

    If you have any specific questions I'd be happy to try to answer them,

    Cheers,

    Martin.
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    • Profile picture of the author maveric
      Originally Posted by Abledragon View Post

      Eric, hi,

      I've used Thesis for a while now and I've been very pleased with it. I'm afraid I can't offer a comparison with Headway, though, since I've not used it.
      Hi Martin. Thanks for the reply. I wonder if you could speak to anything special about the SEO capabilities of Thesis, and more specifically, if this REALLY effects the bottom line PR of your site.

      Thanks again,
      Eric
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      • Profile picture of the author Sean A McAlister
        The best that I have found...Hands down is............

        ThemeForest

        WordPress Themes, HTML Templates - ThemeForest


        They have some slick templates, Web 2.0, Direct Response...basically
        any style you can think of and are reasonably priced...

        Hope this helps
        Sean
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      • Profile picture of the author maveric
        Originally Posted by maveric View Post

        Hi Martin. Thanks for the reply. I wonder if you could speak to anything special about the SEO capabilities of Thesis, and more specifically, if this REALLY effects the bottom line PR of your site.

        Thanks again,
        Eric
        Anyone??? :confused:
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  • Profile picture of the author mywebwork
    I've posted this link before, there are a lot of "non bloggy" themes here.

    100 Amazing Free Wordpress Themes for 2009 | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine

    BTW, Smashing Magazine is an excellent site for anyone who is putting together a web site - one of my favorite resources on the Internet!

    Bill
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  • Profile picture of the author Deek3870
    Ithemes is great...flextheme in particular. It's really flexible and easy to use.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kezz
    You know, I'm about to get a new themes site up and running, and this gives me an idea.

    I think I'll create a category of themes called "Unblog Themes". You really can do some slick looking sites with Wordpress and no-one would have any idea.

    Hmmm....mental gears working....
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    • Profile picture of the author mywebwork
      Originally Posted by Kezz View Post

      I think I'll create a category of themes called "Unblog Themes". You really can do some slick looking sites with Wordpress and no-one would have any idea.

      Hmmm....mental gears working....
      Let us know when you have it up and running - I'm using WordPress for every type of site imaginable and I spend a lot of time "unblogifying" themes.

      Bill
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  • Profile picture of the author Kezz
    Will definitely shoot you a message when it's good to go.

    I actually like this idea so much that I just registered a new domain specifically for it. I won't say what it is just yet as I'm not trying to do the whole "presell" dance, but I'll definitely report back via the appropriate channels when I'm up and running. Zillions of ideas to make!
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  • Profile picture of the author Abledragon
    Eric, hi,

    Sorry - missed your earlier question...

    Thesis offers you many of the same functions as the All-in-one SEO pack. For example, it offers you the ability to Noindex 6 different archive types (category, tag, author, daily, monthly, yearly) and add canonical urls to your site.

    You can also define your META description and META title for your Home page, and append your site name to post and page META titles.

    On a post-by-post and page-by-page basis it also enables you to define META Title, META description and META Keywords as well as NoIndexing that particular page or post, thereby over-riding your site wide settings if you need to.

    As a result you're able to drop the All-in-one - and I'm always in favour of using as few plugins as possible, so that's a good thing

    That's the stuff I know about first hand.

    The Thesis guys also will tell you that their code is the most efficient and rock solid around - which helps the SE's as the spiders can find their way around more easily.

    That bit I cannot personally confirm or dispute because I'm not a coder.

    I hope that helps, and apologies for missing your earlier question .

    Cheers,

    Martin.
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    • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
      Athualpa theme has the same SEO functions as Thesis and is totally customisable. This site uses it. It's a very simple site and I don't think you'd know it was Wordpress.

      I'm writing an Atahualpa tutorial. It's only part written - but if anyone would like what I've done so far as an evaluation copy, shoot me a PM
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    • Profile picture of the author maveric
      Originally Posted by Abledragon View Post

      Eric, hi,

      ...
      As a result you're able to drop the All-in-one - and I'm always in favour of using as few plugins as possible, so that's a good thing
      ...

      Cheers,

      Martin.
      Thanks Martin

      So, basically the SEO features are nothing you don't get in the standard plugins, just helps you slim down a bit. That's good I guess.

      Can anyone speak for the "rock solid code" they tout? Especially in comparison to Headway if possible.
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  • Profile picture of the author maveric
    Is it just me, or did the developer option in Thesis change? On their site it now says you have to pay $40 for every client site you use the theme on. I didn't notice this before... was it always there?
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