This is generally a one-time fee and the backlink(s) will be active as long as the theme is being used on the internet. This is a great way to gain traffic through backlinks; it’s relatively inexpensive and can be a very effective way of getting your brand across the internet.

This however is not the case most of the times. Many problems can arise from theme sponsoring and will leave you holding your bill with nothing to show for it. Here are a couple things that make this idea a bad one.

Choosing the right theme

Not every theme will even break the 1000 download mark; instead they sit idly by at a theme vendors’ site gathering digital dust. They may not be what most people are looking for or they are way too expensive to buy in the first place.

Downloads vs. usage a Theme

Developers may claim they can guarantee anywhere from 500-1000 downloads, but that doesn’t matter. In order for the backlink on the theme to work for you, the theme needs to be an active theme that is in use on a website. A user may download a theme but that does not guarantee that the theme is being used. As a result you link once again is sitting around in someone’s WordPress backend gathering digital dust.

Are the links still there in the theme

Half the time after a theme is bought and downloaded the owner will begin to rip out all the excess stuff they don’t need including links. A developer cannot guarantee that a buyer will leave your link intact nor can they tell them to.

How prominent is the link

Unless the link is in bright red and on the top of the page chances are your link will not be used and many developer links are found nested somewhere safely and out of the way. This place is generally the footer and theme users generally head to there first to clean out anything they don’t like.

Don’t lose all hope though, if you choose the right theme and the right developer, your site may go viral along with the theme. If a theme is made very well and is promoted to match, the theme could be downloaded thousands of times. The more the theme is downloaded the greater the chance that your link will be effective.

Make sure you check and double check the theme. Ensure that is has aesthetic appeal, functionality, cross browser compatibility and has a developer with a good track record. If a theme meets this checklist then go ahead and sponsor it as it could prove to be a good investment.

Is it worth it to spend all that money on a premium wordpress theme

More expensive, more troubles

Premium Themes are labeled as such because they claim to provide additional features and support that a free version does not. To me, the same problems you are likely to run into with a supported free version are the same problems you are bound run into with premium themes.

• You get it for some features that you want, and hate it for the features it doesn’t have.
• Most of the time they never work the way you want them to right out of the box.
• You have to get it calibrated just the way you want it to before it’s of any use to you.
• The one problem you thought you could fix isn’t fixable because the programmer has his own coding language making it hard for you to decipher.
• The support half the time is just a forum where people like yourself stumble into each other trying to make heads or tails of the situation.
• There are sooo many features that you can’t decide on what you want or what you need.

With that said, being built for a system that is supposed to be open source, the exorbitant amount of money some vendors are charging for premium themes is ridiculous. You would think that you are buying a machine that could spin your words into gold.

Not all premium WordPress themes are bad

Premium Themes do have their positive attributes however. They generally do have more support and documentation than many free WordPress themes and they may have quality designs that are worth buying. Some are flexible enough to change every detail at the click of a button; this can include background and header images, fonts, sidebars and other various aesthetic modifications.

Coders for premium themes will also pay special attention to browser compatibility and source files (for example psd files for images used in the design) and will have well written ordered code.

At the end of the day, it’s all up to the consumer whether or not he/she would like to pay for a WordPress theme. Maybe the aesthetic appeal is just too great or there is functionality present in a premium theme that they could not find in the free version.

Some may argue that the best option is to hire your own programmer to design and code a WordPress theme for you. This is not a bad idea as you will get exactly what you pay for. From start to finish you are included in the design and you can choose what functionality you require.

Basic WordPress theme simplicity

WordPress is set up in such a way that a theme can be modified and built upon in so many ways that it’s quite possible to overdo it. The original WordPress theme Kubric, was a testament to the benefits of simplicity. In the initial stages of the blogging movement all people wanted to do was to write their thoughts down and present it to the world, Kubric offered that feature.

Now the world has changed and there is a plethora of uses for a blog and as the uses go up so does the complexity of a theme. But does it have to be that way?

Your site makes the theme

You need to be clear about what the purpose of your website is. What are you are trying to accomplish and what message are you trying to bring across to your visitors. Most of the time the clutter causes the purpose of your website to get lost and neither you nor your visitor know what the purpose is. To do this you have to know what is most important.

Find out what is absolutely necessary to delivery your message and find a theme that provides that; anything else is excess baggage. After you find out what’s important, cut a little more baggage. Chances are you had padded the original list and you still don’t need that much.

Once you get the all the baggage reduced, stick with it. Keep yourself within that box you have set for yourself and try not to add anything you don’t need. When you think about cluttering your theme with junk, ask yourself, how is it benefiting your website and is it making a positive impact.

Most expensive themes are a big mess

Many people see a theme with a lot of buttons, images, flash and a host of other non-essential items and instantly want it all. Ask yourself, if you were visiting your site what would you want to see, where would you want to go and how would you get there. Would you get lost trying to find your way around?

Many premium WordPress themes come with a theme feature link in the admin section; this allows for easier management of theme functions. The problem is many times there are so many features you don’t know what to use and what to disregard.

This is the main problem with complex themes; they come with a lot of features you just don’t want.

You will be surprised at how much more your site achieves by only providing the goal you had set out for the site. Anything else is nothing but distractions for your visitors and they leave without grasping the whole purpose of the site.

Try to keep your theme simple, get to the meat of the matter and stick with it. Have a clean minimal design that puts emphasis on the content and not the theme itself and only provides the necessary functionality.

CSS is more than just a stylesheet

CSS enables the separation of style information such as layouts, fonts and colors from the presentation the web page content. This allows for more accessibility, flexibility and a much easier way to make specific changes to the structure of a page.

CSS3 overnight

The last css upgrade was back in 1998, dubbed css 2 which is a superset of css 1. It employed many of the features we enjoy today but now requires an update to fix many innate faults and to streamline its compatibility with the many web browsers that are available. With development beginning in 2005, css 3 aims to revamp the way we look and enjoy cascading style sheets.

With new and improved functionality and cross browser compatibility, css 3 hopes to redefine the way we look at the web. Although css 3 is not fully supported as yet, many developers are beginning to use the many new features it will introduce.

Some of the great new CSS3 features include:

Border Images

This function allows images to be used as borders for an object. The same general css styling for borders apply such as border width. The function can be implemented by the following code:

#element id {
/* url, top image, right image, bottom image, left image */
border-image:  url(border.png) 20 20 20 20 round round;
}

Border Radius

Currently to make borders rounded an image or JavaScript has to be applied to create the effect. Now with a few simple lines of code importing images for each corner will be a thing of the past.

#element id {
height: 85px;
width: 85px;
border:  1px solid #000;
/* For Mozilla: */
-moz-border-radius: 10px;
/* For WebKit: */
-webkit-border-radius: 10px;
}

Box Shadow

Prior to CSS3 Box shadows, as with Border radius, had to implemented with JavaScript or images. Now it will be natively supported through CSS.

#my_id {
background: #FFF;
border: 1px solid #000;
/* For Mozilla: */
-moz-box-shadow: 5px #999;
/* For WebKit: */
-webkit-box-shadow: 5px #999;
}

Other new functions will include;

• multiple background images
• text shadow, multiple columns
• enhanced css opacity
• css selectors.

But at the moment css 3 is a double edge sword.

Some drawbacks will include half of Internet Explorer users not having support for css 3 resulting in invalidated stylesheets and web page errors. Also, at present css 3 functions can only be implemented through the use of special tags that target only certain browsers, this can also invalidate your stylesheet.

And lastly, with everybody dying to try out these new features, new design implementations may have some terrible results. People may overuse these new gifts, and make a total mess of their web page.

But hopefully once the CSS 3 craze has died down the true potential of the language with create a new way in which we view the World Wide Web.

The granddaddy of them all, Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) has been used in some way or the other to generate a webpage. It has allowed objects and images to be embedded into a page and also provides a way to create structured documents. It however has been lacking a lot of features that many have looked to other markup languages to provide.

HTML 5 hopes to satisfy all those needs by implementing new standards, and integrating features once available only through secondary applications.

HTML development never stops

Since its conceptualization in 2004 one draft has been released in 2008 and it is still created new buzz and injecting new life into HTML. Developers speculate that we may have to wait until 2022 for the final draft to be complete. This however has not stopped the implementation of many of the HTML 5 concept features.

The Video Element

One of the favorite features of HTML 5 this function allows you to embed a video into a webpage without having to rely on third party application to do it for you. Videos will be able to be embedded with as much ease as it is to embed an image today.

The Canvas Element

Graphics and images will be able to be rendered when needed. In other words, the canvas element can be used to draw graphs and make photo compositions. Again, no plugins or applications necessary, just pure sweet HTML fun.

For a quick example, visit: Create a Drawing App with HTML5

Making content editable

This handy new feature adds an attribute called contenteditable to an existing element giving the ability to edit any text in the element on the fly. This is great for creating a little app such as a To-Do list without much coding.

For a nice little example visit: Content HTML5 editing

Audio Element

No more third party apps/plugins to handle audio support. Natively associated with HTML 5, audio playback has never been simpler.

And much more you can do with HTML5

These are only a handful of the features that HTML 5 will bring to the table. So this next question is do we have to wait until 2022 to see all these wonderful features become web standard?

Well most web browser already offer a few of these features but to get the entire set, we will have to wait until HTML 5 is globally implemented and is fully developed as the next major improvement on the older markup.

Later this week I give you all the new HTML5 features.

WordPress 3.0 better?
In any case – more opportunities!

WordPress Multisite: WordPress and WordPress MU Merge

WordPress MU was a fork or WordPress that allowed a user to install multiple blogs on one installation of wordpress. Now when we use the term multiple we mean anything ranging from two blogs to the hundreds of thousands that are hosted on wordpress.com. Now both versions of wordpress have been merged into one and no distinction between the two has to be made.

To enable WordPress Multisite just add the following code to your wp-config.php file:

define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);

WordPress Default them has changed from Kubrick to Twenty Ten

Since inception wordpress has shipped with a minimalistic theme called Kubrick. The theme has now changed and takes advantage of all the features of wordpress 3.0

New Custom Menu Management System

Prior to WordPress 3.0 in order to add a menu to your site’s navigation, custom themes had to be created that allows the feature or you had to dive into code to add the function to existing themes. Now wordpress natively manages a drag and drop style to display menus on your webpage.

The site navigation can now be linked through custom menu combining of posts, pages, categories, tags, and links.

To add activate this feature add the following code to your functions.php file:

add_theme_support( 'nav-menus');

Then add to your theme files:

wp_nav_menu();

Custom Header and Custom Backgrounds

WordPress now allows you to change the background and header much easier than before. With a few minor one time code changes, backgrounds and headers can be changed with the push of a button. This if great as now your website can instantly reflect a mood or look that appeals to you or your visitors taste.

To enable custom backgrounds add the line below to your functions.php file in your theme folder:

add_custom_background();

For Custom Headers follow the link below for full details:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_custom_image_header

Set Username and Password During Installation

Before, the username and password word generated automatically. Now at install the Admin Username and password can be user defined and easily remembered.

Bulk updates of themes , plugins and basic maintenance

Prior to WordPress 3.o updates were a chore. Users had to manually download the updates and re-upload the files back to the server. Now updates are automatically processed by wordpress automatic maintenance mode and can be done in bulk without any interference with the system files.

Shortlink support

Shortlinks are URL redirects that are much shorter than the original link. So if you want to share a link to one of your pages, you don’t have to send a long url that may be mistyped or forgotten. Shortlinks can now be generated from the ‘edit post’ page and be sent to anyone you choose.

Custom Post Types (code needs to be explained with a bit of detail for a reader to understand)

Post types are essentially, posts that are assigned differentvalues in the wordpress database. Now users can add custom post types to reflect a subject or topic they wish to bring to the forefront of their website. Prior to 3.0 users had to modify custom fields for each and every post to make the change global.

Above are just a few of the features newly available in wordpress 3.0 for a full list and detailed explanation of other features and function, please visit the link below.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_3.0

A blog is a great way to give a business exposure and to connect with your customers

With a few simple clicks your business can have a blog up and running as a standalone site or integrated into an existing one. From the small business owner to CEOs of mega companies, blogging will change the way you and your customer interact with each other.

Interact with your customers! A business blog is the way to do it.

Blogs enable you to engage customers in meaningful dialogue. Gone are the days when businesses are hidden behind a big black door and customers cannot get a word out and share their views about a business. Customers, through blogging can interact with businesses and give them a medium to criticize your business practices. Criticism is good as it enables a business to become more customer centric buy taking their ideas into consideration.

Not only do you get to interact with existing customers, but you get to connect with potential ones as well. Blogs are targeted search engine optimized giants and a potential customer is just a search away from meeting you face to face (so to speak).

Blogs create an interactive community.

They allow customers to communicate with the business as well as with each other. And nothing is more powerful than a community of consumers who know that you as a business care. By listening to them and allow them to voice their opinions you will not only have customers who want to buy your product but you will gain loyalty in the process.

Blogs allow a business to give itself a personal touch. Blogs add a personality and a face to any business and removes the lack of trust that a customer will feel when dealing with a faceless sales pitch.

With very little efforts you can create an maintain a space that your customers can come to appreciate. Many blogging platforms are available that are 100% free and are optimized for businesses and individuals alike.

A business cannot afford NOT to have a blog in this day and age as not only do other business have blogs but so do your competitors.

Give your customers a chance to leave feedback.

Allow them to make comments, share their views and join in a constructive discussion that relates to your business. Create awareness about your brand that was never possible, give your customers a chance to know you and not only know your products the payoff will be huge. Update your blog regularly and keep it filled with targeted information.

Existing customers will come back wanting to know what’s going on and they will want to share what they found out with others and bring more prospective customers to your front door.

WordPress Themes, Styles and Layouts?

WordPress themes are a group of files that work together to give a visually appealing layout of the information created through WordPress. These files are uploaded to the WordPress folders via the websites backend or through file transfer protocol (FTP). The files are then activated and the change to the frontend becomes active.

Administrators’ have full access to these files and can modify in a multitude of ways to add enhance the functionality of the theme. These files are called template files and can manipulate WordPress data in a variety of ways.

WordPress themes can be obtained through many ways but are generally obtained by first dividing them into two groups, Free and Premium WordPress themes.

Free WordPress Themes

Free themes can be obtained by using the plugins area from your websites backend to search for themes in the WordPress themes directory. Themes can then be chosen based on specific features such as color, number of columns, width, extra features and subject matter.

By narrowing your search you can significantly reduce the number of themes you have to go through before finding the one that is right for you. Other theme directories also exist outside of WordPress and all offer free theme options. The creators will also make their theme freely available and can be downloaded via a location of their choice.

Most themes are packaged in zip formats for easier handling an upload to your WordPress installation.

Premium WordPress Themes

These are themes that are generally marketed as better quality than free themes or  that they offer a more complex layout such as magazine, grid or showcase themes. They generally do however, add more in terms of feature customization by including a special theme options page that extra functions can me maintained though.

Sites that offer this service generally have an ecommerce aspect in that they have a shopping cart where you can add one or more themes to the final checkout. These themes are also generally single or multisite licensed depending on the buyers preference. Free themes can also be included as an incentive to shop around and test their system.

Many free themes offer as much features and complexity to their design as a premium theme would but they are a bit harder to find. So it is best to have a design in mind and start first with the WordPress theme directory before you go and buy a premium theme.

These days free themes are nothing less than premium themes, some of them are even better.

Not every theme is a business theme

Searching for the right WordPress theme can be an overwhelming experience, but with the right checklist you can narrow down the search to a manageable number.

The theme you choose must be rock solid. It must have a professional look and feel and provides the customer with knowledge that you are serious about your business.  The theme must be search engine optimized to bring you to the top of the search listing.

The typography and spacing must be stylish yet sophisticated, very clean and modern and not an eyesore to the reader. Anyone must be able to use the site, you don’t want too much bells and whistles that have the customer jumping through hoops to figure out what you are trying to say.

It was also manage media such as images, video and audio in a clear cut fashion. Comments, pingback and trackbacks must also be working flawlessly, nothing worse than a customer who cannot say what they want because of a bad comment form. Maintenance of the thing must be easy enough for even the most inept lackey could manage. This gives the business the freedom it needs to hand out specific blogging tasks for employees to handle.

And finally, the theme must have some form of social networking in place; Twitter, Facebook and Stumbleupon are just a few that can be added to the site through the theme. You are trying to build a community and there is no better way than to go through the social networks.

With this checklist in mind here are a few themes to get you started on your way to owning your own business blog.

My favorite free business blog themes

• Acosmin5 from Acosmin.com

Acosmin5 is a beautiful simple wordpress theme with nice  typography and a clean look, which can be used on a business or any type of blog. Read the theme page for the features that comes with this theme.

Acosmin5 info and download page

• Satoshi from Voosh Themes

Satoshi is a clean and simple theme that’s ideal for business showcasing projects

It comes with a lot of professional page templates including a custom front page, a great looking blog design, a portfolio page, and a contact form is included. But there is more; drop-down menus, Google Analytics integration, upload your own logo and much more.

Satoshi info and download page

• Friendly Fast from WordPress Theme NL

This theme is super lightweight and optimized for the serach engines. Its stripped from all the unnecessary stuff so its really fast loading. Freindly Fast is the ideal theme for writers and small Internet businesses .

Friendly Fast info and download page

• Simple Paper from Blog Oh Blog

A minimalistic theme with a simple black and white design. But don’t be fooled. This theme packs quite a punch and is sure to have your customers coming back.

Simple Paper info and download page

• Notepad CMS theme from Ithemes.com

Notepad is a simple, clean and sharp theme designed for small business blogs or personal branding. Ideal for personal coaches, consultants and independent professionals. It comes in 13 colors or pre-built color styles like black, blue, g, yellow and white.

Notepad CMS info and download page

• SimpleFolio from Slimmity.com

SimpleFolio is a business & portfolio theme that includes a blog and a very extensive theme option page that allows you to exclude all your portfolio items from the blog page. A front page slider is included

This theme has 2 different widget areas, the use of threaded comments, and also supports paged comments and has 2 different page templates for advanced usage. The control of images is done from the post page.

SimpleFolio info and download page

These days you can find hunderds of business themes and most of them are pretty good. Just keep in mind they should be simple and easy to read.

Backup and keep trying editing your themes

Any chances you make that you are not sure about can possibly break the site. It’s best to keep a backup of all the files prior to any modifications. If anything goes wrong you can easily install from the backup and restore your theme files to an earlier date.

WordPress 3.0 allows the upload and install of all themes from the admin section. Once the files are in zip format, it’s as easy as clicking the upload button and wait while WordPress does its thing. You can then activate the theme through the themes section.

You  also can upload your theme in de wp-content/themes folder by the use of a a ftp client and activate the theme in your admin panel.

If you use the WordPress Template directory (wp-content/themes) the same thing applies except the theme files are on the WordPress server and only requires you to install and activate. Should installation vary the theme developer will provide any additional information within the WordPress theme directory on the themes page.

Edit your theme files

In the theme editor section of the Admin screen the theme files are listed in alphabetical order for easier handling.

Each file is a php file with the exception of the stylesheet. If any other files exist for the theme they will be located in the themes folder and accessible via ftp, for example, images, audio etc.

Before you start edit a file make sure you make this file writable before you can save your changes. See the Codex for more information.

WordPress Theme Basic Files

The main files you will see are the index.php, header.php, footer.php, sidebar.php and of course the stylesheet. These are the main theme files that are needed in order for the theme to word properly. Other files include the archive, catergory, 404 Template and the single post/page template.

To manipulate the data inside, you need to click on any one of the names listed above and find the section that requires editing. As long as you know what you are looking for and what needs to be done, you can have changes made to your site in no time.

It’s a good idea to have some form of visual editor that can show you how the site looks while allowing you to view the code at the same time before you make any changes to the files. Some browser come with plugins/add-ons that allows you to do this one example is firebug which is an add-on for the popular web browser Firefox.