It almost 2 month since henbima.com goes online with this look. Some minor modification has been taken to improve the blog look and i still feel dissatisfied with the modification.
I made some effort to modify the sidebar and footer to something like nanyate or teddY’s blog, but lack of time and skill made it almost impossible for me to learn the “nip&tuck” by mylsef.
I think this css and php editing is not for me. So i will take the easiest way to instantly change the look of this blog by changing the theme with one that close to what i need.
What i need from a theme :
- look clean
- fast to load
- widgetized
- has footer that can easily be modify using widgets
- easy to monetized (i am thinking of 125×125)
- Most Important of all, it is FREE
Actually i have started trial and error with some themes on my old blog, since last week. I found these Themes as the nominee :
- “Vestique”
- “InBiz” as you can see at my old blog currently
Do you have themes or actually use one that look fit what i need above? I’d be grateful if you have one in your mind and drop the link down here as comment. Thanks!!
Hey Hendra thanks for the mention
anyway, the available Wordpress themes are actually appealing enough to warrant any major CSS or PHP changes. I can’t help much with PHP because I still suck at it (a lot, to be exact) but for the CSS part, feel free to contact me if you need any help. I’ll try my best. Both themes look fine to me… they’re widgetised, that’s the good thing. My blog theme isn’t widget-ready yet, since I’m still figuring out how it works.
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teddY reply on March 25, 2008:
Whoops! I mean, “the available Wordpress themes are actually appealing (and functional) enough so much so that they do not warrant any major CSS or PHP changes.”
My bad! Sorry!
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Henbima reply on March 26, 2008:
lol, no problem ted. I did read your comment twice if i missed something
Thanks!
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What about this: http://www.askgraphics.com/freetemplates/black-red-wp-theme/
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@ted
Not a problem at all ted. Like i said before, i really like your blog design
Thanks a lot ted, i will surely looking for your advice next time i am able to spare times and have “enough courage” to learn CSS. All this time, every time i look at CSS code i got my self sweating all over don’t know what to do
Yap, i think i will gonna grab one of those if i can’t find one that good enough till the end of this week.
@Ivy
thanks ivy, seems like a pretty good design. It just doesn’t have the footer like i intend to have.
Anyway, looking forward for more input guys!
Thanks
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Usually the footer that you like is found on one column layouts. From a design perspective, an extended footer is used to replace the lack of asidebar or the lack of space on a sidebar.
Having too much stuff on the side and the bottom clutters up the page too much, takes too long to load and takes away from your content. This is why people usually choose one or the other.
Not sure if any of these are widget ready but you can check it for yourself.
There’s this too:
http://www.elegantwpthemes.com/heliosgrin-dark-shade-free-wordpress-theme.html
http://www.ndesign-studio.com/resources/wp-themes/glossyblue
http://wprocks.com/free-themes/spotlight/
http://www.elegantwpthemes.com/33module-3-column-left-and-right-sidebar-with-center-content-wordpress-theme.html
http://www.elegantwpthemes.com/dailydiary-free-wp-theme-with-a-nice-textured-look.html
http://www.elegantwpthemes.com/soloss-free-wp-theme-with-clean-blue-and-white-combination.html
http://wpthemesplugin.com/lightbreaker-3-column-widgetize-footer-pullquote-125×125-and-adsense-ready-wordpress-theme/
http://wpthemesplugin.com/mezzo-3-column-wordpress-theme/
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Ivy reply on March 25, 2008:
Just to let you know I left a bunch of links and akismet moderated my comments. T__T
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Henbima reply on March 26, 2008:
hey, so sorry to hear that. Do you mean there suppose to be more links above?
Oh dear….
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Henbima reply on March 26, 2008:
Now that what i call lists..how did i miss those
Thanks a ton ivy! Those are great links! gonna check them all
>>Having too much stuff on the side and the bottom clutters up the page too much, takes too long to load and takes away from your content.
Oh, i didn’t think about that before…
Yeah, maybe i don’t have to show that much of information though…
ted, Ivy, do you have any recommendation or preference what are the most important things to have in a blog sidebar or footer?
Thanks a lot guys!
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Well if you have a sidebar and a footer, then the most important stuff to your visitor should be your sidebar. So stuff like ads, search bar, archives, rss feed and maybe a short about section if you like. The footer should be reserved for things that can help with SEO but not necessarily something your reader cares about.. like tags, your latest diggs, latest comments, top commenters, latest photos etc.
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Henbima reply on April 1, 2008:
Hi Ivy, hi Ted!
So sorry for not responding your comments for so long. There are several things off line i had to do that made me away from this blog.
Anyway, now i am back online. Hope i can manage my time better so i can concentrate on things i should concentrate on.
Okay, i have checked all the links to wordpress theme you mentioned here Ivy and guess what…. I haven’t made any decision which to pick. They are all beautiful, its hard for me to choose
Do you have any tips, how to try a themes with your blog without anybody notice? I mean, i’d like to put a theme on my blog and have a look and feel on it without my visitors got annoyed with the themes changes every time they browse arround.
About SEO, do you stricly use SEO tricks on your blog (or blogs?)?
Do you aim on particular keyword on your posts? or just using tags?
Thanks for your clear guidance Ivy!
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I agree with what Ivy has said. Usually for the sidebar I’ll insert things that will encourage my visitors to explore my site more, that’ll definitely make them feel a visit that is worth their time. It would be a big shame if a visitor comes and can’t find any more links to posts you’ve written (and linked).
For the footer part, dump in all the SEO junkies
that’s what I’ve done, except that I’ve added my Twitter updates there as well due to space contraints in the sidebar. Anyway not a lot of people actually venture into the footer part, so if you want them to, remember to direct them using a link (or a short instruction on the sidebar that goes like “there’s more down there, don’t forget to check it out!” or etc.)
Good luck! And if you need any help, feel free to contact me. I’ll try my best, promise
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Henbima reply on April 1, 2008:
And ted, thanks for pointing out that footer are less thing people going to see. I think i am one of those rare people who like to browse to the end of people’s blog
One thing i’d like to ask you for ted, what software do you actually use for editing html or php files that using CSS?
I have once try to make html page that use css (actually edit someone’s template). I use notepad (yeah, right…), and i spent two and half hour just to edit one page… It caused a traumatic experience
Look, i am totally blind in this area. Don’t worry if you describe things like you are talking to a newbie, because i am
I graduated on IT, but never really pay attention on those html family…
Thanks ted! Really appreciate your kindness
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teddY reply on April 2, 2008:
That’s what most of the profesisonal webpage designers say… footer is a place least ventured on a website, unless you’ve got a handy (and interesting) link that directs your readers there. Since it gets the least attention, people don’t really care what is inside the footer, so that’s the perfect place for the SEO dump
Well I feel very ashamed to say this but I actually handcone CSS and XHTML. Many people have moved on to Dreamweaver or etc, but I’m still stuck with Notepad. Nonetheless, the most primitive method of styling and coding gives you the greatest flexibility (however, when something screws up like a miss closing tag or inappropriate styling, you’ll feel like snapping your keyboard into half). Haha! I have almost zero experience when it comes to working with PHP, all the question marks in the syntax just doesn’t make any sense to me
so when I want to create Wordpress themes I usually restyle sandbox ones ground up (fyi, sandbox themes are those will minimal CSS styling and you can do whatever you want!).
You’re welcome, it’s always my pleasure to help. Knwoledge is for sharing – if you don’t share it, it’s not knowledge anymore
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Henbima reply on April 7, 2008:
I’ll take your’s and ivy’s suggestion ted. It’s logically true. I’ll put the least important things down in my footer from now on.
Phew, i could imagine what you say by this :
“however, when something screws up like a miss closing tag or inappropriate styling, you’ll feel like snapping your keyboard into half.”
I got two and half and hour working on a web page few days ago. I had to discard my edited html files two or three times because of the html error i couldn’t figure where. My pages just went blank for reasons i can’t figure out….
I suspect there are few html tag that was opened and i forgot to make a closing (is that what people call it?).
Its amazing to know you coded your blog with notepad….hmmmmm…. you really are a man with a great patient
Thanks ted!
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