“Royal” Wordpress Theme

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“My latest theme; “Royal” is now available for download. It’s another bare-bones style theme along the same lines as “Humidor” and “Gotham Nights.”

Feel free to hack it anyway you see fit; all that I request is that you keep the logo (or link) at the bottom of the site.

To switch from logo to link, simply rename “footer-link.php” to “footer.php”

Also, there are a few different color versions of the shield up top for you to choose or manipulate. Just grab the one you want, tweak it and rename it “shield.gif.” Drop the new version into the images directory to change.” were Evanekard’s quote for this theme

“Gotham Nights” Wordpress Theme

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“I just got done wrapping up another theme called “Gotham Nights.” This theme/template is a bit more basic in layout compared to Humidor, but has a nice little tabbed section to organize site content. It uses some jquery effects, and is easy to modify and edit as you see fit (just make sure to keep the link-back in the footer).

I have one other theme I’m working on, but that one will be released through another site. I’ll keep you updated when it’s ready.

Enjoy!” were Evanekard’s quote for this theme

“Humidor” Wordpress Theme

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“One of the main reasons why I wanted to re-design this site, was to make the previous design available as a wordpress theme. That’s right, the design that was seen in Smashing Magazine’s “50 Beautiful CSS-Based Web-Designs in 2006? is now available as a theme for you to use. Feel free to edit it, add to, remove parts, whatever you see fit.

The theme has a lot of parts already built-in that can be edited pretty easily. For instance, one of the most popular elements of the design was the tabbed menu towards the top. By default, only the front page (home) tab is shown, but with some minor css and html tweaks, the image used for the tabs also has an “about,” “contact,” and “archives” tabs.

This is the first version of the theme, and there are bound to be some needed tweaks and edits. If you come across any issues during use, please email me or comment here so I can fine-tune the theme a bit more. The css used throughout is very basic, and shouldn’t have any browser conflicts, although I’ve only been able to test on i.e. 6+ and firefox on a windows machine.

If you find the theme pretty useful, feel free to drop some coins in the tip jar. Every little bit helps!

I’ll be working on some more themes for download, and will post them when ready.” were Evanekard’s quote for this theme

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DOWNLOAD NOW CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW

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3 THEMES By Dean Robinson

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01. Redoable 1.0 Theme for Wordpress

Redoable 1.2 has just been released. Head to the Redoable homepage to find out whats new and to make sure you download the latest copy. enjoy.

Three weeks of work and my first Wordpress theme is ready to be released. It is primarily based on the popular K2 for Wordpress, Unwakeable by Tyler Longren and inspired by many, many other Wordpress blogs out there. My goal was to produce a theme that had everything that I wanted in it, Unwakeable was close which is why I chose to use it as my starting point.

Redoable 1.0 Released

I have incorporated a host of changes/improvements, adding functionality, different structure and support for even more plugins without the need for further template modification. Some of the changes/improvements I have made include:

* All-new blog layout and styles.
* Two-column design with a sidebar that is Sidebar Module/Widget ready.
* Optional Sidenotes on the homepage.
* Optional sidebar modules to display favourite music, movies etc.
* Support for a dozen plugins without the need to modify any files.
* and more…

So what does this theme look like in action…well you are looking at it right now. Everything you see in the sidebar is included in the sidebar by default, all you need to do is install and activate the relevant plugins, and set a couple of options in the admin panel.

There is a complete list of tested and supported plugins on the Redoable homepage. There are also download links for each so that you can get them if you don’t already have them installed. I have also modified a couple of the plugins to suit Redoable, these modified plugins are also available.

Visit the Redoable homepage for more information.

Redoable 1.2 has just been released. Head to the Redoable homepage to find out whats new and to make sure you download the latest copy. enjoy.

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02.PipeDream Theme for Wordpress

PipeDream is based on the design that I used on this site in the latter part of 2007. It comes with 21 different color schemes built-in, which can be easily selected from the ‘pipeDream options’ page. Also included, and configurable from the options page, is the simple integration of twitter, flickr and delicious.

Features

• ‘Home page’ design, with single post, 10 recent posts and sidenotes.
• ‘Archives’ page template, no configuration necessary.
• Choice of 3 different ‘background’ colors: Dark Blue, Black/Grey and White.
• Choice of 7 different ‘accent’ colors: Orange, Yellow, Green, Pink, Red, Purple, Blue.
• Twitter integration, just enter your twitter username into the theme options to display your latest tweet on your homepage.
• Flickr integration, just enter your flickr id into the theme options to display thumbnails of your last 4 flickr images.
• del.icio.us integration, just enter your delicious username into the theme options to display your last 5 links on your homepage.
• Full support for Wordpress 2.3, including Tags

Installation

Installation is super simple, just download the pipedream zip file (link is at the top right of this page), un-zip it, and upload to your webserver using your favourite FTP client. Then in your WordPress admin, go to the ‘presentation’ tab and select ‘pipeDream’ to activate the theme.

You can then goto the ‘pipeDream options’ page and choose your color scheme, and setup any of the other options to suit your needs.

Support

You may leave comments here if you have any questions, and I will try to answer as many as I can. I hope to get my support forums back up and running in the next couple of weeks.

Donations

Themes don’t design and code themselves, they take precious time to build, test and support. So if you use and like pipeDream, or any of my other work, please consider a donation, the link it at the top left of this page just below the download link. All donations are greatly appreciated.

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03. Blueberry Wordpress Theme

As some of you might recall I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I was putting together an entry for the Sandbox Design Competition, well I finished mine off a couple of days ago, and now that entries have closed I can share it with the world. I present you my entry, Blueberry for Sandbox.

Blueberry for Sandbox

Blueberry is not a theme itself, but a skin for the Sandbox theme. The parameters of the competition were that it was a pure design thing, you couldn’t mess around with the php code of Sandbox. Only CSS and images, which sure makes things a whole lot simpler.

For the moment I have got a live preview online, this is the same preview that I’ve been using for the past couple of weeks while working on Blueberry. So if you would like to have a play around with Blueberry in the wild please do so, I’ll leave this up for a couple of weeks, or at least until the previews are online at the Sandbox competition site.

Live Preview

We’ve also been advised that we may now provide a download to the world so you can try it out for yourself. So here you go.

Download Blueberry for Sandbox 1.0 Now!
Downloaded 2229 times

Installing Blueberry is really simple. Note that you must have Sandbox installed to use Blueberry, if you don’t have it you can get it here.

1. Upload the sandbox-blueberry folder to your Sandbox folder in wp-content/themes/.
2. You will need to edit the default style.css file that comes with Sandbox, so that it loads the Blueberry skin. to do this replace everything after the header in the default style.css with:

@import url(‘sandbox-blueberry/style.css’);
3. In your Wordpress admin, go to the presentation tab and select the Sandbox theme.
4. Enjoy.

Thats about it, judging starts now, and runs for a week then the winners will be announced. Personally I’m looking forward to seeing what other participants entries are like. I think I probably could have done more with mine if I’d wanted, but I chose to keep it fairly minimalistic (or in other words…completely different to Redoable).

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TO DOWNLOAD THE THEMES CLICK DOWNLOAD BUTTON BELOW

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This plugin displays random pictures from a PhpWebGallery (www.phpwebgallery.net). Each photo is followed by a link on its category in the gallery. The PhpWebGallery installation has to be on the same server than your blog. It can be used as a widget or not. You will be able to choose the number of photos and the text displayed.

examples : http://chezju.318racing.com http://www.lewebdeseb.fr/blog/

Feature List

• Configurable via WordPress admin interface.
• Support for WordPress 1.5, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and 2.5.1
• Widget support
• Tested on PhpWebGallery 1.7 et 1.6

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Do you have a charity website and are looking to raise some funds? Are you saving for a new computer and would like some help from family and friends? If so, sponsor me can help you run your campaign directly from your blog. It allows you to show people what your target is, how much you have saved and how much is outstanding. And if they decide to contribute, sponsor me will collect details of their pledge and allow them to make a PayPal payment straight into your account.

The plugin includes an administration interface where you can see your pledges, verify them once you receive the funds or delete them if they prove to be void. It also allows you to change the colours of your graph as well as all the details about what you are looking for sponsorship for.

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QuickShop supports any Wordpress that has the Sidebar Widgets installed, really. It adds a SideBar widget that shows the user what they currently have in the cart and allows them to remove the items, not to mention a TinyMCE button to easily allow you to add products to your posts/pages.

I’ve integrated QuickShop with the Wordpress Contact Form but there are several other possible ways of doing it. Want me to do it for you? Contact me at Zack Design. I have also integrated it with the Dagon Design Form Mailer but this one’s a bit more difficult. The code isn’t saved but I can come up with it easily again.

Also, you will need to make your own CSS for this. I’ve included enough classes/ids for you.

Features:

* A TinyMCE button. This is practically a copy and changeover from the NextGen Gallery - I would like to thank the developers of NextGen Gallery for an excellent solution.
* Full range of formatting for widget layout in Admin -> Options -> Quickshop
* Two widgets - one is Paypal, the other is set for your custom solution

One of my clients required a quick and dirty shopping cart for Wordpress. The background:

1. They had more than one product per post
2. They only wanted orders to be sent via email
3. They only needed EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer - like Direct Debit or Internet Banking)

Thus, QuickShop was born thanks to the excellent way in which the Wordpress Plugin API is set up.

List of possible future features:

* AJAX implementation - currently being worked on. Was slated for 1.3 but will be pushed back further
* Moneybookers widget
* Inventory - this one is really hard at the moment.
* Better integration with the new WP-GBCF currently being developed - more to come.

Please be aware that I’ll only be updating this if I need to or if I’m paid to. Feel free to come on board and contribute!

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Lets readers share, save, and bookmark your posts and pages using any service, such as Delicious, Digg, Facebook, MySpace, and all the rest. The button comes with a drop-down menu that appears on rollover.

Within the menu, users are additionally given an e-mail option, and an option to bookmark in-browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc.), with directions on how to bookmark if their browser does not support auto-bookmarking from links/shortcuts.

• Works instantly on mouse-over
• Includes all services
• Searchable on key-down
• Services updated automatically
• Keyboard navigation
• Google Analytics integration

Demo: http://www.addtoany.com/ | Download: -CLICKME-

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Download a free copy of this Google Adsense optimized template. It includes special space allowances using the widgets in the heading area, the upper right sidebar and the lower left sidebar for three of the most popular and best paying Google ad formats. The widgets are useing the HTML/Javascript page elements for ease of use.

The ad space in the header is sized to 468 x 60 pixels, the upper right side is the 336 x 280 and the lower left sidebar is 160 x 600. You can use any combination of text - image ads, or all text. The lower sidebar widgets can be easily swapped into either the left column or the right column if you prefer the archives and RSS subscribe links closer to the post area by drag and drop on the page elements editor.

The header background image is easily replaced in the style sheet with any image of your choice, but it must be sized to 930 x 150 pixels, or you can use no header image and set just a background color for that section. The overall font styles and sizes are closely matched to the default ad text sizes.

!-DOWNLOAD-!

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Following are a few tips and tricks to drive huge traffic to your blog.

1. Use lists.
2. Be topical… write posts that need to be read right now.
3. Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
4. Break news.
5. Be timeless… write posts that will be readable in a year.
6. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
7. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
8. Announce news.
9. Write short, pithy posts.
10. Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
11. Don’t write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
12. Write long, definitive posts.
13. Write about your kids.
14. Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
15. Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.
16. Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
17. Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
18. Coin a term or two.
19. Do email interviews with the well-known.
20. Answer your email.
21. Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
22. Be anonymous.
23. Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit). Do it with every post.
24. Post your photos on flickr.
25. Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
26. Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
27. Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
28. Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
29. Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
30. Point to useful but little-known resources.
31. Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers–like gadgets and web 2.0.
32. Write about Google.
33. Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
34. Don’t include comments, people will cross post their responses.
35. Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
36. Run no ads.
37. Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
38. Write about blogging.
39. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
40. Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
41. Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
42. Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don’t bore your readers.
43. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
44. Don’t interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
45. Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
46. Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
47. Don’t promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader’s attention.
48. Be patient.
49. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
50. Ping technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
51. Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
52. Write in English.
53. Better, write in Chinese.
54. Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
55. Don’t be boring.
56. Write stuff that people want to read and share.

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Starting a new blog is difficult and this can put many people off, there are then other people who have blogs with no comments or visits. You want to stand out from this crowd of millions of bloggers, you want to be one of the few hundred thousand blogs that are actually visited. So here are some simple tips to help you on your way to blogging mastery:

1. Make post regularly but don’t post if you have nothing worth posting about.

2. Stick with only a few specific genres to talk about.

3. Don’t put ’subscribe’ and ‘vote me’ links all over the front page until you have people that like your blog enough to ignore them (they’re usually just in the way).

4. Use a clean and simple theme if at all possible.

5. Enjoy, blog for fun, comment on other peoples’ blogs (as they normally visit back).

6. Make unique posts.

7. Submit your articles to article directory. this may grab you some traffic.

8. Get into link exchange with some traffic rich sites (this one is hard to find).

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What is a “blog”?

“Blog” is an abbreviated version of “weblog,” which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog is a frequently updated, personal website featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles on other Web sites. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.

Many blogs focus on a particular topic, such as web design, home staging, sports, or mobile technology. Some are more eclectic, presenting links to all types of other sites. And others are more like personal journals, presenting the author’s daily life and thoughts.

Generally speaking (although there are exceptions), blogs tend to have a few things in common:

• A main content area with articles listed chronologically, newest on top. Often, the articles are organized into categories.
• An archive of older articles.
• A way for people to leave comments about the articles.
• A list of links to other related sites, sometimes called a “blogroll”.
• One or more “feeds” like RSS, Atom or RDF files.

Some blogs may have additional features beyond these.

The Blog Content

Content is the raison d’être for any web site. Retail sites feature a catalog of products. University sites contain information about their campuses, curriculum, and faculty. News sites show the latest news stories. For a personal blog, you might have a bunch of observations, or reviews. Without some sort of updated content, there is little reason to visit a web site more than once.

On a blog, the content consists of articles (also sometimes called “posts” or “entries”) that the author(s) writes. Yes, some blogs have multiple authors, each writing his/her own articles. Typically, blog authors compose their articles in a web-based interface, built into the blogging system itself. Some blogging systems also support the ability to use stand-alone “weblog client” software, which allows authors to write articles offline and upload them at a later time.

Comments

Want an interactive website? Wouldn’t it be nice if the readers of a website could leave comments, tips or impressions about the site or a specific article? With blogs, they can! Posting comments is one of the most exciting features of blogs.

Most blogs have a method to allow visitors to leave comments. There are also nifty ways for authors of other blogs to leave comments without even visiting the blog! Called “pingbacks” or “trackbacks”, they can inform other bloggers whenever they cite an article from another site in their own articles. All this ensures that online conversations can be maintained painlessly among various site users and websites.

Article by Wordpress.org

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