Give Your Blog a Design Upgrade with Caulk Theme

There are lots of people who use WordPress to run their blogs. Many use free WordPress themes while others go with custom design ones. Custom design themes can be very expensive and outside of many bloggers’ price range. That’s where premium themes such as Caulk come into play. They may not give you an exclusive look and feel right out of the box, but they are attractive and can be customized to look unique on your website. Caulk theme is one of the sleek blogging themes on the market that is media friendly and lets you offer a more dynamic reading experience to your audience.

Caulk can be used for personal blogs and magazine type websites. It has a pretty dynamic featured section that presents your articles in a super attractive fashion. You also have a popular post section right under the jQuery slider, giving you even more ways to promote your top posts. Caulk has 8 color schemes that you can easily play with in the back-end.

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Thesis 1.7 vs. Thesis 1.6: What Has Changed

If you have been in the business of blogging and have not heard of Thesis theme so far, you have missed on a whole lot of awesomeness. There are plenty of pro blogging premium themes for WordPress that can help you start a new blog or give your blog a makeover for less. But Thesis is without a doubt at the very top when it comes to ease of use, potential, and customizability. Thesis 1.7 is the latest edition of Thesis WordPress theme and has gotten a huge boost of power to help pro bloggers focus more on what’s important for their business and worry less about issues with their theme.

The developers behind Thesis have focused on providing a set of powerful features to WordPress bloggers to help them customize the look and feel of their blogs easily and optimize their web sites for search engines in the process. So you don’t necessarily have to hard code any on-page optimization tactics to get your WordPress website ready for the search engines. Thesis 1.6 already covered a lot of these options under the options page in the back-end. But Thesis 1.7 has improved a lot in that area and does seem a bit more organized.

Thesis 1.6 Options Page

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Thesis 1.7 Site Options Page

Thesis 1.7 has some of these options broken down into various sections. So customization options for the home page have moved to a whole different page (to make the whole process less confusing). So these features have not disappeared if you are comparing the two images above. (more…)

Get Started with Social Blogging with MyStream Theme

Everyday that passes by, more people take time to contribute to the social communities that they are a part of. Whether it is uploading a video to YouTube, posting tweets to Twitter, or updating Facebook, people are doing it all. The idea of social blogging has been born due to that fact. People are not only sharing content on top social media sites, but they are also sharing what they are doing on those sites with their visitors on a daily basis. That way your visitors will know what communities you participate in and how they can reach out to you there.

MyStream is a cool personal blogging theme that lets those new to blogging to get a fast start. The theme is designed with your social media profiles in mind. It lets you integrate your videos, pictures, and tweets into your blog easily. You can also let your visitors connect with you on Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, and Flickr. That is accomplished through a widgetized zone with custom widgets to display your social media profiles in your sidebar. (more…)

Create Your Personal Blog with myweblog

Creating a personal blog couldn’t be easier these days. You don’t have to be a technical genius or have an Einstein-like IQ to set up a blog fast. WordPress makes it super easy to set up a website fast. Thanks to themes such as myweblog, you don’t have to spend thousands getting a custom design for your blog. You can get a well-designed, highly flexible design for an affordable price.

myweblog is highly attractive WordPress design that makes it easy to build a real community with your WordPress blog. Whatever topic you are into, you can use the integrated LifeStream info on your sidebar to let others know about your online activities. You can also change the look and feel of your design easily to make it look unique.

myweblog comes with an image re-sizer that makes it easy to add all kinds of images to your blog. You also get to create sticky posts on your featured section. You do get 5 color schemes to choose from, making it too easy to customize the look and feel of your website fast. The color coded categories at the top make the site more user-friendly. Flickr is integrated as well, enabling you to add your favorite photos to your blog quickly.

The categories at the top are all drop-downs, making it possible to add a whole lot of categories. The search function is in a prominent place to let your readers find content on your blog without too much trouble. myweblog by WooThemes is another good option to consider for everyone who’s looking to create or enhance her/his personal WP blog. It’s easy to use, user-friendly, and highly customizable. It’s not that expensive either.

51 Best Premium Themes For Pro Bloggers

WordPress is the most popular platform for bloggers. You name a decent blogger, and he/she has probably heard and used WordPress in the past. There is much to love about the platform. Not only there are thousands of plug-ins available to enhance your site’s functionality, there are lots of themes to choose from to get the design you love on your site. With that in mind. Here are 51 top pro blogging themes for WordPress.

1. Thesis: Thesis is made specifically for bloggers. It’s not only lightweight, but very easy to customize. Many super bloggers are already using Thesis, and sometimes even I wonder why I am not using it. So don’t be surprised to see me dump my current theme for Thesis soon (in the next few weeks).

2. Blog V3: Bob version 3 is one of the most good looking themes designed for bloggers. The design is superb, and it comes with everything you need to knock out your blog out of the park.

3. Streamline: Streamline is a highly flexible theme from StudioPress. It’s easy to customize and comes with a dynamic menus and ad ready.

4. Urban Elements: another great theme just for bloggers. Urban Elements is very simple and easy to change. You don’t have to be a programming expert to customize the look and feel.

5. Stylish Blog: a beautiful pro blogging design. Stylish Blog is not only stylish but comes social media and ad ready. (more…)

Duplicate ProBlogger with Money Blogger

A few of my blogging colleagues have asked me a few times about a WordPress theme that would allow them to create their own ProBlogger copycat. Problogger.com uses a very attractive, custom-designed theme, which means you are not going to find anything like it on the market. But there are a few themes that come close. Money Blogger by BlogOhBlog comes closest to anything I have seen on the market. It not only has an attractive design, it’s highly customizable as well.

Money Blogger is a theme created for super bloggers. It has everything you would expect in a pro-blogging theme. You get your RSS and subscription box right at the top of the page. You have your links lined up at the top of the page. The logo can be changed easily in the code. You also get an about me section that you should use to communicate with your readers on the reasons they should be reading your material.

Blog monetization is very easy with Money Blogger. You’ve got two options for your ads. You can use the left sidebar to display your 125*125 ads. Another way to go is by putting your vertical ads on your right sidebar. If you need more space for ads, you can put a 468 * 60 banner under your content tabs (which are CSS based and highly customizable as well).

The code is clean and easy to customize. The guys at BlogOhBlog have create a modular theme in Money Blogger that can be easily customized without too much effort. Overall, if you want to start your very own problogging theme, Money Blogger is an affordable way to get started right away.

Become a Pro WordPress Blogger with Bob v3 Theme

I have talked a lot about niche themes on WP Jedi. But one thing that I have probably not talked about is the mother of all niches – blogging. You have probably seen it by now. There are many folks around us who make decent living from teaching other how to blog or make money with blogging. I personally have no trouble with that as long as these guys actually make money from blogging before they started getting yours and my money.

But the truth is, many folks get into the blogging niche without actually making the millions first, and I don’t have a problem with that either. Pro blogging is a very hot niche these days, especially with the economy breaking down. Who wouldn’t want to be able to make a decent amount of money without the hassles of dressing up and going to work everyday?

Bob v3 is one theme that is just made for pro bloggers. As the name indicates, there are three version of this theme. The theme has evolved through the past couple of upgrades, and is now one SEO power house for pro bloggers. Bob v3 comes with the one feature that every pro blogger needs – “my favorite posts.” You get to promote posts that are the most popular on your blog. I also like the fact that you have an “about me” section to promote and sell your background.

The tabbed content is very useful. The content Ajaxified slider is “cool,” and you can use the tab feature to save real estate and show your readers more things. One thing I would change about this theme is the advertisement section. I believe it’s too low on the page, and I have not had success with my ads on that spot. It may work for you, but I am personally biased there.

Overall, Bob v3 is a very contemporary looking pro blogging theme. It’s very easy to navigate, and it’s easy on eyes. With a bit of modification, you can have your very own super blogging theme. One thing I would say is Bob v3 is a theme for serious bloggers. It is not a cheap theme as it comes with many premium features, so if you are not planning to have a serious blog, you should probably look at free theme. Good luck.