ADVANTAGES

Why do people use WordPress? Mainly because it is user-friendly and open source. Most bloggers don’t want to have to pay for an expensive system and don’t want to have to deal with a steep learning curve. This means that the amount of time necessary to have the website designed, developed, and launched is as long as it takes for you to write content and pick a template. Speed and efficiency make WordPress the most popular CMS for blogs.

Popularity comes with a great deal of perks for its users. Since there are a variety of different people experiencing the same issues, there is a very helpful community that organizes around the CMS. It is easy to find high quality templates that have been created by other WordPress users, which makes installation easier. In addition, help forums of web developers and casual users have sprung up all over the place, making it easy to learn from others’ past mistakes and experiences. WordPress comes with a user-friendly interface and a helpful community making it very accessible software.

DOING MORE

WordPress is an ideal blogging platform. However, some people who are familiar with WordPress have found that it can do more (even though Joomla may be better as mentioned earlier). WordPress offers plugins that make it more dynamic, but before you bite off more than you can chew, there are a few things you may want to consider.

The most obvious consideration is whether or not the core functions of WordPress would allow you to fulfill the objectives of your website. Although there is not quite as much flexibility to WordPress as there may be with Joomla or Drupal, the number of options you have is greater than you think. If you were trying to make a classifieds site with listings that include texts, images, and dates there is a WordPress plugin that makes that possible. Image galleries, article repositories, and exclusive listings of almost any variety are possible, as long as you’re creative and find the right plugin.

An important consideration for many who appeal to an international audience is the language packs that are available. If you were to create a site in English for a German client, WordPress would be a great CMS because there is a translation that makes it accessible to them. However, if their dialect is not supported by WordPress then you may want to choose a system that gives your client a better experience.

GOOD IDEAS

By default a WordPress website will show you the latest blog entries in chronological order. However, some bloggers don’t want to throw content in their visitor’s face but would rather have a static page that allows their users to navigate to topics they are particularly interested in. This process is easy enough. In the admin area go to “Setting” and click on “Reading”. The resulting screen will ask what your front page will display. Here you can choose “A Static Page” which is subject to further customization.

Often times it is good to have a sitemap that allows users to navigate your site easily. One of the best plugins that has been created to this end is Google XML Sitemaps which will not only creates an XML Sitemap for you, but also notify major search engines whenever you update a post. We at A Small Orange have dealt with developers who like that it is compatible with WordPress created pages as well as custom ones. Look over this sentence.

One way to greatly enhance the flexibility of your WordPress site is to execute PHP code in your pages and posts. Originally this was done by creating a page entirely in PHP and then linking to it in your site. This method of adding content was fairly laborious since you have to create a template file for each page and editing them can be incredibly time consuming. However, using a useful PHP plugin you can add code to any posts or pages and then edit them with the rest of your content.

CHOOSING A CMS can be something of an art and the future of your site [can hang in the balance.] I don’t know what this means. If you are looking for more control over your coding kingdom then Drupal or Joomla may be right for you. However, that is not to say that WordPress doesn’t come with options.

WordPress is fantastic as a blogging platform but with some dedication you can find a plugin that will give you more flexibility than you knew you could have.

Either click the title or the image to follow the link to the template page where you can purchase it.

ProftHunt Landing Page | $8

Our multitasking landing page ProfitHunt is designed to advertise products or services and suits any goals. The theme is designed for maximum conversion rate. Simplicity and flexibility of modularity setting, operation of e-mail forms, integration with modern services and easy color changes make our Landing Page an indispensable tool for business owners, Web developers and members of affiliate programs. Just copy files to your server, write texts, add desired icons and images, select and adjust colors and make a profit. We are ready to answer any questions and help implementing your goals by email.

Evente Landing Page | $8

The perfect landing page for a conference or event page.

Landiva Landing Page | $9

Landiva is premium and modern landing page template suitable for corporate, application, software, marketing..etc available in 2 styles: Dark and Light with 2 layout options. This template has a modern and professional design with fully organized PSDs source and complete documentation.

Insure Landing Page | $12

3 different layouts for 3 different uses. A great template for launching a product, application or web business.

Landisimo – Landing Page with Facebook Template | $9

Landismo is a clean landing page suitable for any kind of product, service or iPhone application. It also contains a facebook fan page with 2 layouts variation and 5 color variation ,you can now start a marketing campaign on facebook. You can simply create your own layout because of the structure of the template, you can choose which elements you will show or not

DynaX – Landing Page | $8

Multicolor of Pricing Tabs&Text choice CSS /JS themes.

Prolead Landing Page | $11

The perfect page for lead generation and information spreading.

mfx – Hosting Landing Page | $8

This hosting landing page contains custom jQuery tooltips, a custom jQuery slider, and a dropdown contact modal box with a PHP script to handle emailing. There is also a pricing table and services list. In modern browsers, there are enhancements such as CSS3 gradients and CSS3 transitions rather than jQuery animations. In older browsers, jQuery animations are the fallback.

Borneo Landing Page | $8

Borneo is a fresh & clean landing page best suited for a wide use as business, ecommerce, portfolio site, photo site etc. Template comes with 4 color versions – blue, green, purple, bronze and included PSD source file allows for easily create your own color composition by modifying some adjustment layers.

Kozuka Landing Page | $11

Kozuka Landing Page is a corportate/business landing page with an eye-catching z-layout and a sleek CSS3 touch that’s designed to turn your hits into sales. Kozuka has an connoisseur look-and-feel yet pretty easy to customize, as a designer or newbie, which allows you to set your site up in minutes! This theme also comes with well commented code – for easier understanding, well structured and coded html – to optimize for search engines and a truck-load of typography shortcodes.

Airstream Landing Page | $9

Sell your products or services with the new Airstream landing page. All elements have been designed and positioned in a method to get your message across and tailored to client goals with ROI in mind. The template comes with one HTML and one PHP file (contact form).

Lista Landing Page | $8

Lista Landing Page is a premium landing page design for your newsletter or download, even just a service, your choice! Lista Landing Page takes good use of the Z Reading pattern to guide the eye around the design and ultimately convert your visitors in to subscribers or buyers.

Blaster Landing Page Package | $8

Put your landing pages on blast with the Blaster landing page package. Blaster combines beautiful font work with bold design to get your point across! It also comes with 3 page styles and awesome jQuery fade effects. Are you looking for a professional, clean landing page that will really grab your visitors attention and engage them in your product or service? Nothing will offer a better experience than the Blaster landing page package.

Health Point – Health Industry Landing Page | $8

Made for dentists, doctors, clinics, medical practitioners and all other health industry professionals

Sparkling – Landing page 32 variations | $10

Sparkling – Landing page 32 variations – is an HTML Landing Page/ onepage minsite Template, best suited for any website landing page requirements, for example Business, Portfolio, Ecommerce, Photo site.

Pomodoro iPhone Landing Page | $5

Pomodoro is a Landing Page optimized for iPhone (and Android).
Do you have a fast food or pizza shop? Do you want your customers can check the specials or book a table? Pomodoro is the right choice!

X-Tech Landing Page | $9

Included in this template package are 3 HTML pages. The landing pages are perfectly formatted using good practices for landing page design including strong, obvious CTA areas (Call To Action) to help convert visitors into clients / customers. You can choose between 3 page variants: Single big image, where the main focus is on a big image with a Call to action below. Second variant includes some more info in main top area, call to action button and the video embaded. Third variant insteed of a vide has a image slider. Each variant has 2-row features section and the testimonials section below. The footer contains some contact information, map with modal box effect after you click on it, additional text field and sodiel media icons.

Insignio – A MultiPurpose Landing Page | $8

Insignio is a MultiPurpose HTML /CSS landing page with its Main focus on Portfolio Based Websites. It has a Clean, professional design with Unlimited Color Options.

WIENER – classic style landing page | $8

WIENER is an elegant landing page, build in a perfect classic style. Inspired by the capital of elegance and lifestyle, this landing page style is completed with ultimate jQuery effects and typography.

Booster – Product Focused HTML5 Landing Page | $8

A landing page to boost your product sales and views.

App Showcase – iPhone and Mobile App | $9

Premium theme to promote an iPhone or Mobile App. App Showcase is a professionally designed theme including many features to help you to promote your app.

Qloud Landing Page | $8

Welcome to the Qloud – this premium landing page has been produced with the marketer in mind! With a “Z” pattern flow from the headings, to the call to action areas and the informative video or image area to the right your visitors will be compelled to click that buy now button!

The Johnny Landing Page | $10

Designed to give life to your product or company, the Johnny Landing Page comes in a variety of colors and is bursting with features. It’s slick, cool, interesting, and exciting! Never again make your audience bored with your ho-hum landing page. Kick it up a notch!

Landed! | $8

Landed is an attractive landing page with vibrant colors and can be used in various ways to promote your product or simply show off your photography. Its unique style and layout stands out among all other themes.

Unveiled – Ultimate Product Focused Landing Page | $10

Unveiled is the ultimate product-centered landing page. With an eye-catching design, the call-to-action high-up the page and an impactful splash intro – this theme is sure to convert your visitors into customers.

1. Solar Press

2. Obscorp

3. Magilas

4. Aggregator

5. 96 Degree

6. Folio Grid

7. Sky Light

8. Brown Mag

9. Foto Folio

10. Brave Zeenat

11. Lorem

12. Spectrum

13. Topz Glow

14. Masugid

15. Warpack

16. Pix Design

17. Aparatus

18. WP Avatar

19. Simplista

20. Bueno

21. Bright Sky

22. Clean Press

23. Channel

24. Type Press

25. Basic Press

26. Aquom

27. Koi

28. Masipag

29. Zenix

30. Traction

31. Ekologic

32. New Press

33. Rock Star

34. Matiyaga

35. Moi Magazine

36. Selecta

37. Structure

38. Delta Crea

39. News One

40. Skin Press

41. Epsilon

42. Mainam

43. Pinnacle

44. Azsands

45. Black Motion

46. Dimaggio

47. Mina Flow

48. Monkey PR

49. Berita

50. Fresh Mag

Conclusion

With thousands of WordPress themes available for third-party use — ranging from super-premium themes that cost hundreds to the absolutely free — and new professionally-designed themes coming out every day, it’s no surprise that there’s such a wide range of design styles in this community.

Got any favorite WordPress theme designs? It’s a rapidly changing space with great new ideas appearing all the time, so make sure you let us know in the comments!

Need a WordPress theme design?

Try using Harry Jay Clement, the author of this article and a freelance graphic designer from Malaysia.

Looking for freelance design work?

Find custom WordPress themes jobs for clients seeking to get a WordPress theme designed for their business or blog.

Fullscreen – Business & Portfolio Theme | $35

We were developing this theme probably the longes time ever :) It went through many many modifications and various versions were designed. The reason is that we wanted to create a corporate design that will focus on excellent product fotography. This theme will work well for any business type, doesn’t matter if you are creating a website for local restaurant, sport shop, or travel agency. Design is also suitable for your own personal, portfolio or photography website. Theme is SEO ready and will rank well in search engines as well.

Astute – Creative Business & Portfolio Theme | $35

Astute is a clean, modern & professional theme for creative business and portfolio with 11 custom widgets, 50+ shortcodes, custom post types and much more..

Blacker – WordPress Version | $35

Blacker is a clean, glamourous theme best suitable for company, personal or agency related websites.It’s clean and monochromatic style makes it suitable for every kind of website. It comes with 3 different slideshows, 8 custom widgets and 8 different template pages.

The Agency for WordPress | $35

The Agency for WordPress is a new theme dedicated for any agencies looking for a clean, simple and minimalist website that can be used to publish Projects, Updates, News/Press.

Continuum – Magazine Theme for WordPress | $35

Stop fussing with lengthy setups; Continuum immediately works perfectly. Of course, with almost 200 theme options, you can customize it to no end. Continuum was designed and built by a die-hard blogger who has used magazine-style WordPress templates for 5+ years. It is best used for newspaper and magazine blogs, but because of all of the custom widgets, shortcodes, page templates, unique sidebars, and custom menus, it can be molded into whatever kind of site you want, like a portfolio site for example. Continuum fully supports and was designed specifically for WordPress 3.0+. Continuum features an extensive Feed Framework which intuitively groups and displays your posts, and lets the user sort the posts several ways depending on which part of the site they are on.

Viewfinder – Photography WordPress Theme | $35

Viewfinder is a photography theme which provides the perfect showcase for your art. There are no gimmicks, nothing that will fall out out fashion, just a timeless design that focuses user’s attention on you and your talent – this is how it should be.

Rivo – Creative WordPress Theme | $30

Peano Creative – Portfolio Theme | $35

Echo – Clean and Simple WordPress Theme | $35

Echo is a clean and simple, but a very powerful and a highly customizable portfolio theme, aimed at anyone who needs a showcase. If you’re looking for a gorgeous portfolio theme, then you’ve just found it.

Media Store | $35

Media Store is a review and downloads theme that is ideal for people who want to review items and also allow users to download files from each of these reviews, similar to how iTunes work.

Vidstream – Film Streaming | $12

This template has 5 pages. It is very simple and easy to add your content. You can also change the default photo easily. New pages can also easily be added. You can easily customize this template to make it suitable according to your requirements.

PrePress Minimal | $35

PrePress is a minimal and modern WordPress theme for creatives. The homepage features a unique slider which pulls in your portfolio items, blog posts, testimonials, and a custom twitter widget. All areas are wigitized, so customization is a breeze.

Periodical WP | $35

Periodical comes with a great admin panel that lets you configure your site without headache. The biggest feature of the admin panel is the opportunity to style your website with a few clicks, without any coding skills needed.

Galactic Site Template | $15

In a galaxy not so far away the Galactic Site Template is a creative professional’s dream. With footer gallery thumbnails work can be featured on every page! Inspired by popular font, Vador, modern portfolio layouts and the best movie of all time, this theme is out of this world!

Avalon Style | $35

Vanilla | $35

Vanilla is a Corporate & Portfolio Professional WordPress theme. It comes with an amazing fully customizable jQuery homepage showcase with a lot of different effects.

Folioway | $35

Clean and elegant, incredibly powerful and flexible, it’s just the best wordpress theme for your or your company’s work presentation.

BreathTaking | $15

Breathtaking is an elegant yet simple template for business/portfolio purposes with infinite possibilites , ease of customization that guarantee you getting your unique portfolio website within minutes , Vincor designed and packed with all the features you may think about when creating your unique portfolio website and it’s best suited for creatives of all kinds …

Anolox | $35

Classica | $35

deShadow | $35

Sideways | $35

Kreatif Web Designer | $30

Paradigm | $35

SOON | $35

Gridnik | $30

Sofa Disordery | $35

Wall Street | $35

ExcelsiorWP | $30

Looseleaf | $35

WordPress Wave | $35

JAI | $35

Shine | $35

Sidewinder | $35

Through the Lens | $30

Photolist | $30

Sophis | $35

Style and Fashion | $35

FreshStart | $35

Factory | $35

Foundation | $35

Galleria | $35

Visual HTML5 | $35

Redux | $35

My Mobile Page WordPress Theme | $20

My Mobile Page WordPress Theme is a minimal mobile wordpress theme. With a modern look and a lot of cool features this can be the perfect pesonal mobile website for you. This theme can be used for personal mobile pages, web designers mobile pages, artists mobile pages and many other. The theme uses automatic resolution detection so you can use it for small screen resolutions and bigger resolutions.

Features:

• Automatic resolution detection, work on Ipad and other bigger resolutions
• 5 colors skins that can be changed from admin panel
• Editable main title and footer text
• Featured jQuery navigation on home page editable from admin
• SEO Friendly html code
• Gallery slideshow page using jQuery thumbs navigation
• Blog page with dropdown menu for subcategories
• Automated resized images
• Contact Page with contact form validation
• Possibility to enable or disable contact form and social icons block
• Custom post types for gallery photos
• Layered Psd Files
• Modern, clean look WEB 2.0 style layout
• HELP files included
• and many other cool features…

iWorld – Mobile WP Theme | $25

iWorld is a wp theme designed exlusive for iPod Touch and iPhone, Can be use for corporative site, portfolio, blog.

Features:

• 10 color schemes
• PSD included
• Jquery powered
• Slider plug-in
• Form validation plug-in
• Social Icons (with ability to add your own)
• Twitter widget
• Flickr widget
• WP Featured image feature for Thumbnails and Portfolio Images
• Built – in Working Contact Form
• xHtml Strict 1.0 and CSS 2 .1

Simple Mobile | $20

Simple Mobile is a WordPress theme designed for mobile devices, especially iPhone.

Features:

• 8 color schemes
• 43 social media icons
• nice Twitter implementation (with very important buffering system to avoid exceeding the requests limit and to speed up page loading)
• Flickr photostream
• collapsible mutli level menu
• 2 widget areas
• GoogleAnalytics (or different tracking code system) integration
• nice blog tweaking options
• WordPress 2.8 – 3.0 compliant (WP 3.0 custom menus support)
• easy further customization (PSD included)
• xhtml 1.0 strict & CSS3

SOFA iBloggr – WordPress iPhone theme | $15

Sofa iBloggr is the very first WordPress theme made exclusively for iPhone and iPod touch devices. It perfectly fits to 320px wide screen without the need for screen orientation switch. All other desktop computer Browsers are capable to run this theme with no issues as well!

Features:

• Fits perfectly to 320px screen width
• Still looks sexy on desktop comps
• Widget ready
• Extensible via Plugger system
• Built-in pagination
• Ready-made Contact form
• PSD included
• Settable via Options page (Admin panel)
• WordPress 2.9 compliant
• HTML 5 compliant

These themes can be installed with your ordinary wordpress theme simultaneously by using WordPress Mobile Pack Plugin. I hope you take the plunge and make your website mobile worthy.

inFocus | Sales: 4502 | $35

Display 3 in 1 | Sales: 3444 | $40

Big Feature | Sales: 2942 | $30

Unite | Sales: 2534 | $40

London Creative+ | Sales: 2374 | $40

Twicet | Sales: 2302 | $35

Photo Nexus| Sales: 2008 | $25

Awake | Sales: 1785 | $40

Newcast 4 in 1 | Sales: 1707 | $35

ShapeShifter | Sales: 1572 | $30

You can checkout other themes on Themeforest.net

This post will share some information regarding the usual threats that we bloggers receive and what we can use to prevent future attacks and hacks. Let’s not sit around for too much longer and get going.

Securing Your WordPress Blog

Their are numerous ways to approach a security situation but, working with wordpress their are usually a few threats that will come up first.

They used a Bruteforce Attack to gain access.

They gained access through phishing your info.

They register themselves and work up from there.

There are a few ways they can really gain access to your blog. Technology is getting so advanced that a lot of the hackers don’t have to do hacking themselves anymore they have programs doing it for them. Let’s look at the solutions to use to secure your wordpress blog.

1. WP Security Scan

This plugin scans your entire site for security issues and checks passwords, folder/file permissions, database security, WP version hiding and WP admin protection and security. Don’t use if you have a weak heart, you could get a fright.

Link - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-security-scan/

2. WordPress Database Backup

This is one of the plugins that you should almost have installed before you even think of installing your new theme. This plugin does exactly what the name says it does, it makes a entire backup of your wordpress content and can easily be managed. The content can either be backedup to a harddrive, server or even a email address. If its a hacker that crashes your WP installion or yourself, this plugin will restore it to its previous greatness.

Link - http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/ 

3. Replace WP-Version

We all know by showing our WP versions we are more likely to be attacked by hackers. This plugins resolves the issue though. If you’re running a older version of wordpress anyone can view the source and then contemplate on what attacks might work against the installed version of wordpress. This plugin replaces the Version cue with a generated string which resolves the issue of showcasing your version.

Link - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/replace-wp-version/#post-2859

4. WP Spam-Free

Some say this plugin is better than Akismet but, I think it all depends on users choice for which plugin they want to use. I just wish there was a way to stop spammers in general, then we wont have to clean out our spam boxes with so much wasted comments everyday.

Link - http://www.hybrid6.com/webgeek/plugins/wp-spamfree

5. AskApache Password Protect

This plugin secures your WP Admin panel with a very powerful htaccess password protection, preventing all unwanted guests and bots to gain access to your site.

Link - http://www.askapache.com/wordpress/htaccess-password-protect.html

6. Login Lockdown

Login Lockdown records the IP address and timestamp of every failed WordPress admin login attempt. After a certain number of attempts that are detected within a short period of time from the same IP range,  the login function is disabled for all requests from that range. You can find locked out IP ranges manually from the panel.

Link - http://www.bad-neighborhood.com/login-lockdown.html

7. Angsuman’s WordPress Guard Plugin

A must-have WordPress security plugin (compatible with all versions of WordPress) that protects the vulnerable areas of your blog from outside access with an additional layer of security.

Link - http://www.taragana.com/products/free-wordpress-plugins/wordpress-guard-plugin

8. Admin SSL

This plug-in will work with both the private and shared SSL connections and it will force a SSL connection in every page where password can or has to be entered. It is very helpful to protect the admin area, posts and all the pages of your WordPress installation and secure the login page.

Link - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/admin-ssl-secure-admin/

9. Stealth Login

Stealth Login obfuscates your login page by allowing you to define a custom login page rather than the default wp-login.php. In the event that your password is leaked, the hacker will also have a hard time finding the correct login URL. A good use of this is to prevent any malicious bots from accessing your wp-login.php file and attempting to break in.

Link - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stealth-login/

10. Tips To Stay Protected

• Always keep your plugins updated
• Make sure you backup your databases regulary
• Always have the latest version of WordPress Installed
• Protect your blog with a solid Password.

Link - http://www.blogherald.com/2007/05/08/protect-your-blog-with-a-solid-password/

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Be sure to protect your blog unless you want to be attacked at some stage, I highly doubt that anyone does.

We always see roundups and collections of top free wordpress themes but, where do all these themes actually come from. I have taken the liberty to write you a post that roundups up most of the sites where you can find premium like free wordpress themes. When you are in need of high quality wordpress themes all you are going to have to do is come back to this list and pick a site to browse through. All the sites listed below do have more than 2 premium like wordpress themes in there galleries that are absolutely free, be sure to bookmark this list for future references. Let’s not hold you up any longer and get on with the actual reason why all of you are here.

Woothemes

Web2Feel

Skinpress

Solostream

Themes2WP

Fresh01

Press75

Free Theme Layouts

Webrevolutionary

Smashing Magazine

ThemeLab

NattyWP

WpStart

Acosmin

Padd Solutions

Design Disease

With 642-975 web designing course , learn the useful tips and techniques in web designing. The PMI-002 tutorials and 642-062 guide will show you how to use design technique to create unique web designs.