Blog Tipz

Most people have a negative opinion on premium themes due to their price. However, as blogging has involved and become more complex, there have been challenges to this statement as more themes include additional features, previously unseen on free themes. More changes occurred today, with the release of the free, “premium-quality” theme The Stars, the first release by PremiumWP.com.

First Impressions

Now, the look that you see above may not be the most ideal for general-purpose blogs, but it sure does provide a clear foundation for expanding on your own. Additional color schemes and variations could be added, especially if you create additional stylesheets or some variation of the parent/child theme format. For the most part, the only element that would have to be immediately changed to get the “general” look would be the color scheme and pattern design at the top of the theme. It is currently ideal for celebrity sites/blogs.

Out of the box, the theme is ideal for celebrity, gossip, entertainment, and/or lifestyle websites.

The Features

• Unique homepage layout to maximize home page real estate.
• Drop-down navigation menu for categories.
• Automatic Image Resizer, which is used to dynamically create the thumbnails and featured images for posts.
• Specific design for celebrity/entertainment/lifestyle blogs/websites.
• Featured content section on the homepage.
• Custom page template for archives, categories, and search results.
• Asides category section in sidebar for displaying small tidbits of information.
• Widget-ready sidebars.
• Integrated social bookmarking, email, and print buttons in posts.
• Author biography section in posts.
• Integrated Flickr RSS photo feed section.
• Built-in Gravatar support for comments.
• Integrated banner advertising positions (468×60, 300×250, etc.).
• Compatible with WordPress 2.7 and higher.

The Design

At the top of the theme, you’ll find a basic structure, with some added touches that give the theme the unique look and design. For example, you will have to place your own custom logo at the top (no text option, as far as I am aware). Above this, aligned to the right, there is a search link, in which the search box drops down from the defined bar, a subscription link that directs you to the feed, and a bookmark link which provides the reader(s) with directions on how to bookmark the website/page in a pop-up dialog box.

Within the navigation bar (below the header and advertisement), you can place links to your categories and main pages. To the right, embedded in the bar is a link/image to your RSS feed (from FeedBurner).

Three featured posts can be displayed immediately on the main page, with images and animated features to complement them. However, you could always remove this box/area and place an additional, traditional look here if you don’t have the time to create or search for images for each post. This is a good feature, though, as it attracts new readers to read through this content, rather than simply traveling down the page and looking for something that might interest them.

Below this area, there is an area for photos (a fairly standard feature on many blogs now with Flickr photostreams). Finally, there are links and images to posts, listed within the categories that you have specified – likely through a manual, code-edit view. 

Now, over to the sidebar. At the top, you can display a large square ad, which also can make a good place to promote one of your prominent, pillar posts. Beneath this, a tabbed area (again, a popular feature of premium/advanced themes) is shown, preset with the following: Most Rated, Most Viewed, and Most Commented. Links to the archives is displayed next. Finally, the asides feature is utilized, displaying an image and a short excerpt for the post. The rest of the sidebar consists of fairly standard features, like tags, a blogroll, etc. Remember the sidebar is widget-ready, so the order and options displayed on the demo or on the release page and simply suggested advice, not what must be included.

Additional Screenshots

Here are a few more screenshots which give you an idea of the quality found in the theme and what to look for if you decide to use it on your site. The live demo can be found here.

Support, Etc.

Little support will be provided for the theme, due to the fact that the release is free. You must use the theme “as is” based on the instruction set provided and general support for using WordPress themes found freely on the web. You are free to ask or address specific concerns within the comments area of their blog.

You are free to download the theme and place it on as many sites as you’d like at no charge. It is suggested that you keep the link in the footer to “reward” the designer for the release.

You can download the theme by visiting the release post at PremiumWP.com.