Oct 04 2008

Information Sells Wins A Prize

Published by Dany under Blogging

Sadish Bala, the creator of the theme Palaam, which is used on this site, ran a contest last month, offering one of his beautiful Premium Themes for free if you were using one of his excellent free themes. The rules were a little more complicated than that, but basically Sadish looked at blogs using his themes and picked four winners.

I am tickled beyond words that Information Sells was one of the winners.

I love Sadish’s work, I admire the amount of effort he puts into supporting his users (and most of us never pay him a penny for either the theme or the help), and I respect the quality of the code he writes.

If you want your blog to look great and work great - use one of Sadish’s themes.

UPDATE: In my excitement, I forgot to acknowledge the other winners. My apologies. If you want to see some beautiful blogs, check out the other winners - and congratulations to all!

1. Wilson’s Words and Pictures
2. Information Sells
3. Virginia Breeze
4. Chocolate Fingerprints

One response so far. Please add yours.

Sep 08 2008

Win A Free Premium Theme From Sadish

Published by Dany under Blogging

Nigarila by Sadish Bala

Nigarila

When I wrote about what to look for when choosing free and premium themes for WordPress blogs last week, I mentioned that this blog is built around Paalam, a free theme by Sadish Bala. I recommend this theme to anyone looking for a clean, well thought out, attractive theme that has great support. I’ve installed it for several other bloggers. I’ve also recommended Sadish’s Misty Look for people with WordPress.com hosted blogs.

Aside from having written about three dozen free themes, Sadish has also produced four excellent premium themes. Today he announced a contest - and the winner can pick any one of four premium themes.

If you are using one of Sadish’s free themes, and you want a chance to upgrade, check out the contest rules and then post your entry to his blog:

What you should do?
1. You must be using one of my themes on your site.
2. You must write a post on your website, explaining why you chose to use that theme while there are thousands of other themes out there.
3. Ping this post from your site, or write a comment on this post with a link to your blog post.
That’s all.

What is the Last Date?
The contest will officially end on September 30th 2008 and the results will be announced no later than the birth day of Mahatma Gandhiji.

2 responses so far. What do you think?

Sep 04 2008

Should You Buy A Premium WordPress Theme?

Published by Dany under Blogging

Word Press

Word Press

There are many, many excellent free WordPress themes. In fact, some of the designers of the very best premium themes, like Chris Pearson and Brian Gardner, also offer free themes. Then there are the free themes from designers like Sadish Bala, who offer top-notch free themes and support as well as a few premium themes.

If you are a beginning blogger, without a technical background and no design to code rather than write, it is hard to see how you could go wrong with free themes from any of these designers. This blog currently uses Sadish Bala’s Paalam theme, which I’ve also installed for several other bloggers, including Cindy Shebley’s PhotoWalks Today. Sadish Bala’s Misty Look is also tremendously popular.

Chris Pearson’s Cutline is not only clean and well-coded, it is a great theme for anyone who likes to customize the look of their blog. Chris has precise, easy to follow directions right on the theme’s demo for those who can’t wait to start changing things around.

Why Pay If Free Is So Good?

With so much great stuff available for free, why would you pay for a theme?

One advantage to a premium theme is the look. Brian Gardner’s Revolution Magazine theme, used for Ghost Leg’s monthly magazine, delivers an extremely professional looking site with flexible content management. Pearson’s Thesis theme has beautiful typography, far beyond the run of the mill blog style.

Even more important than the look is the optimization. The best premium themes are designed with an eye to maximum SEO. multimedia presentations, and great support. If you want your blog to stand out from the crowd and you want to gain instant credibility, you can’t go wrong with a premium theme from designers like Gardner or Pearson.

(I’m most familiar with Gardner and Pearson. I love their work. But there are other terrific premium theme designers as well. Do some sleuthing before you decide on any one premium theme.)

Is It All Good?

Custom coding of WordPress themes has become a lucrative cottage industry. Like any other group, custom theme designers run the gamut from ace professionals to beginners with dollar signs in their eyes. I’ve encountered several themes from large template resellers that look good but behave badly. That’s annoying. But worse, they offer no support at all. If you buy a buggy theme from a template warehouse, well - tough - you’ve bought a buggy theme.

My advice?

Buy from the creator. Google the theme before you buy. Check the specs, check the designer’s reputation, look for sites that use the theme.

If you do your homework between the time you fall in love with a theme and the time you pull out your credit card, you can spend your time writing instead of pulling out your hair. And you’ll have a blog you can be proud of.

One response so far. Please add yours.