What do you want in a Wordpress theme?

Hi Garrett,

I like to be able to change the layout easily. Also plenty of widgetized areas.

Pete Moore

I like minimalistic design too. Also themes that are easy to change the design and layout. I am not a big fan of fancy designs.

Cool desing and easy to change the header and place adsense ads.

I was thinking of getting a standard affiliate theme designed, with

+ custom header
+ each page has call to action banner you can change easy

I personally prefer themes that don't have headers. I like the top of the page to be, well, the top of the page without having a header take up extra space. One of my favorite themes is redline by blogohblog - clean, easy to modify and easy to place affiliate links in sidebar text box.

Another thing I really like is when each post is contained in its own box. I think it's just a graphic, but it really looks nice to be able to separate each post with its own distinctive frame. There is a theme called redbreeze that uses this feature very nicely. I really really like the look of this theme (but not the header) - but it has a coded footer and I refuse to use themes with coded footers.

I also like a fixed width theme - wide enough to fill most, but not all of the screen. I also like sidebars on each side of the page rather than 2 on one side.

I totally dislike the current theme style with 4 or six ad boxes to the right or left of the text area. To me, it looks very cluttered and I never, ever click any of those blinking ads on any blog that I visit.

My, but I am opinionated today! But hey, you asked.

I spend a lot of time looking for good, minimalistic, clean wordpress themes - they are hard to find! It seems to me that a lot of themes are showcases for splashy graphics rather than designs that are easily adaptable by ordinary people.

Okay, end of rant.

Garrett, I can tell you what potential clients ask for all the time. They all want one of the following 2 things (I'm serious...it's the same request over and over).

Magazine-style layouts like Revolution2 Church (but with a lighter color scheme).
IM-style themes like StrategicProfits.

Most want a big, graphic, amazing upper right optin box with a customizable background that can be uploaded easily so they can rotate and test. Something that can integrate an eBook, their photo, etc.

Either above or below the optin box should sit a nice sized ad (250x250) that promotes their program.

Most want the "featured story" on the Church theme to actually be an image that promotes the optin box.

The header needs to be long and easily to update from the backend.

Hope this helps, Garrett. Feel free to PM me if you want to see examples of what I'm talking about.

Hi,

Thanks for asking.

I would like themes that don't look like blogs with all the built in links that you have to take out and the clocks and calendars etc etc. Just a theme that has nothing on it except what "I" want to put there.

George

I wish someone would develop a business theme that ACTUALLY is professional. Something clear, concise, and sharp, just like a business should be displayed.

Not any of this crap with banners everywhere or maximizing how much cow dung you can throw at people above the fold. It seems that people these days do not take into account a decent UI. If you give people too many choices, they leave.

Large B&M businesses that offer REAL value, are NOT interested in shoving ads or 30,000 menus down your throat.

Perhaps I'm the ignorant one, and haven't found something that is already out there. I think I have seen all the top themes (Ithemes, Revolution2, Woo, etc..) and the only thing that comes close is one of the real estate themes.

It would be so easy to set small business owners up with wordpress, and give them a turnkey solution on the back end. They would love it, as there wouldn't be any ftp'ing, no file management, etc...

Set them up with a static home page, complete with custom logo/banner/icons/navi and spend 15 minutes showing them how to log in and write posts and such that would contribute to other areas of the site.

So, that said, a theme, possibly with additional plugins (not always a one size fits all for scripting), that is sleek, to the point, professional, and easily customizable for multiple businesses is what I want in a wordpress theme.

Hope that helps!

a shopping cart that works!