The Best WordPress Themes for Churches

Published May 14th, 2013 in WordPress - 1 Comment

Many churches in need of a quality website at an affordable price are turning to WordPress. One of the main reasons for this is the number of themes that have been designed and created with the needs of churches in mind. Common features of church themes include things like support for sermon audio and/or video, and event calendar management, which are both important for almost every church website.

WordPress also makes it easy for church staff or volunteers to manage the content of the website, and with features like custom post types, customizable navigation menus, and widgets, WordPress is a practical option for most churches.

Of course, budget is always a factor with churches and other non-profit organizations. WordPress is free to use as a content management system, and some free church themes are also available. Most of the themes designed specifically for churches must be purchased, but with prices ranging from about $40 – $80, the cost is much lower than most other options for church websites.

In this post we’ll take a look at the best free and premium WordPress themes for churches, including some of our own free church themes.

Looking for hosting? WPEngine offers secure managed WordPress hosting. You’ll get expert WordPress support, automatic backups, and caching for fast page loads. Visit WPEngine.

Free WordPress Themes for Churches:

Zion Theme for Churches

Zion is a feature-rich theme for churches that can be downloaded and used for free. It features an adaptive layout, so your visitors will experience a usable site on smartphone and tablets, in addition to desktops. Zion comes with 4 different color schemes. It also includes features like a customizable homepage slider, support for sermon audio and video, an upcoming events list, and a homepage template that can be customized using WordPress widgets. Zion also includes a staff page template.

20 WordPress Travel Themes

Published May 7th, 2013 in WordPress - 0 Comments

Those who are traveling or working in the travel industry often need a website to share their experiences or to allow visitors to research information and options related to their own travel. There are a number of WordPress themes that have been designed and developed especially for the travel industry and for travel blogs. (You may also be interested in 17 of the Best WordPress Hotel Themes.)

If you’re looking for the right theme or template for your own travel website, this post is for you. Here we’ll showcase 20 different WordPress that could be just the right option for you.

Looking for hosting? WPEngine offers secure managed WordPress hosting. You’ll get expert WordPress support, automatic backups, and caching for fast page loads. Visit WPEngine.

Voyage - $99

Voyage, from ThemeFuse, is one of the best-looking travel themes available. It is an ideal choice for travel agencies. Voyage features powerful search and filter options that will allow visitors to find the perfect trip or vacation. It also uses a responsive design and layout so that it will look good on phones and tablets as well as desktops.

50+ New WordPress Themes from April, 2013

Published May 1st, 2013 in WordPress - 3 Comments

If you are looking for a WordPress theme for a new website or for a fresh look on an already existing website, there are always plenty of new themes being released. April was a busy month for new WordPress themes, just like any other month. In this post we’ll showcase some of the best new themes that were released during the month, and hopefully if you’re looking for a new theme you will find something that you like.

This post includes over 50 new WordPress themes, so there  is plenty of selection. Most of the themes are premium/commercial, but some high-quality free themes have been included as well.

Foxy
Price: $39 (price includes access to more than 80 themes)
Available at: Elegant Themes

17 of the Best WordPress Hotel Themes

Published April 16th, 2013 in WordPress - 8 Comments

If you’re looking for a solution for a quality hotel website the options can sometimes be underwhelming. Whether you are looking for a website for your own business or working on a client project for a hotel, inn, or bed and breakfast, WordPress presents some attractive options. There are an increasing number of quality WordPress themes that are created specifically for hotels. Most of these themes have attractive designs, custom features, and can be purchased at a reasonable price.

Looking for hosting? WPEngine offers secure managed WordPress hosting. You’ll get expert WordPress support, automatic backups, and caching for fast page loads. Visit WPEngine.

Majestic – $199

Majestic uses a full-screen slideshow to make a strong visual impact, and comes with both light and dark color schemes. Its features include optimization for mobile users, a photo gallery template, rooms and rates templates, attractions templates, and a powerful theme options panel.

Notification Bars for WordPress

Published April 10th, 2013 in WordPress - 7 Comments

One important part of blogging or running an online business involves getting visitors to notice your most important items or content. Using a notification bar at the top of the site is a great way to draw the visitors’ attention to something specific. It could be an announcement for a new product, an important customer service announcement, a link to a popular blog post, a call-to-action for subscriptions or opt-ins, or any number of things.

Notification bars are often used by bloggers as an alternative to using a popup, which can be more intrusive to visitors than a notification bar. For example, on this blog we’re currently using a notification bar to promote our free e-book that is a bonus for anyone who signs up for our email newsletter. Notification bars can be highly effective, and WordPress users have a number of different options for setting up their own notification bar.

Hello Bar

New WordPress Themes – March, 2013

Published April 2nd, 2013 in WordPress - 3 Comments

March was another big month in terms of new WordPress. There were a lot of great themes released during the month, both free and premium themes. Even if you are an avid WordPress user I’m it’s difficult to stay on top of all the latest theme releases, so this post will showcase 55 new themes. Hopefully it will help you to find the right theme for a current or upcoming project.

Interakt
Price: $49
Available at: ThemeFuse

50+ Business and Corporate WordPress Themes

Published March 25th, 2013 in WordPress - 2 Comments

As WordPress has improved and evolved over the past several years it has become a more viable option as a CMS for corporate websites. It’s no longer just an option for bloggers, as it is capable of doing everything that is needed by most business websites.

Part of the reason that WordPress has become a more popular option for powering corporate websites is the quantity and quality of available themes that have been created specifically for corporate websites. In this article we’ll showcase more than 50 themes that present great options for businesses that want to quickly have a professional-looking website at an affordable price.

Ultra Responsive Multipurpose Theme – $45

Comparison of WordPress Theme Clubs

Published March 11th, 2013 in WordPress - 13 Comments

In recent years the popularity of premium/commercial WordPress themes has steadily increased. With the huge number of websites using WordPress as a CMS and with the demand for quality themes constantly increasing, the market for quality themes includes a large selection for buyers. Many designers/developers have an interest in WordPress theme clubs that provide access to a selection of themes rather than paying for each individual theme that they need. Likewise, many people who own several websites also prefer theme clubs as a way to get quality themes for all of their websites.

While there are a number of good options, things can get a little confusing when you are trying to decide which theme club to join. This article takes a look at the specifics of 11 different theme clubs with the goal of helping you to compare the options. You’ll also find a table at the end that shows the details in a summarized manner for easy comparison.

Before we start looking at the different theme clubs, let’s talk about that factors you’ll want to consider, and what you should expect from any theme club. For starters, any theme club should provide customers with:

• Professional-quality themes
• Support
• Theme updates (specifically for compatibility with new versions of WordPress)

While things like pricing are important factors to consider, even a low price doesn’t make it a good deal if themes are of low quality, if they are not updated as needed, and if you can’t get support.

When comparing the specifics of each theme club we will look at the following factors:

• One-time fees to join the club
• Recurring fees to keep your membership active
• Length of membership
• Number of themes available
• Usage restrictions (can they be used on unlimited domains?)

All of the information about the specific themes clubs is up-to-date as of March 11, 2013. Details of the theme clubs can change frequently, so please be sure to verify the specifics with any theme club before joining. We’ve attempted to have the most accurate info here, but check it for yourself before signing up.

Elegant Themes

50 Responsive WordPress Portfolio Themes

Published March 4th, 2013 in WordPress - 7 Comments

If you’re looking for a portfolio template to showcase your art, photography, or design work, the wide selection of quality themes makes WordPress a great option. While there have been many high-quality portfolio themes available for WordPress for several years, recently there has been a significant increase in the number of responsive portfolio themes.

So if you would like to visitors to be able to easily view your portfolio site on a phone or tablet, in addition to a desktop, a responsive theme is a great choice. In this post we’ll showcase 50 responsive portfolio themes, so you’re sure to find one that will meet your needs.

Origin - $39

Origin is an impressive grid-based portfolio theme from Elegant Themes. With an Elegant Themes membership you’ll get access to more than 80 themes for the price of one. Origin fills the visitors screen with your photos or portfolio items. It’s features include unlimited color schemes, tons of shortcodes, many page templates to use, a custom theme options panel, and more.

40 New WordPress Themes – February, 2013

Published February 27th, 2013 in WordPress - 6 Comments

One of the great benefits of using WordPress as a CMS or blogging platform is the availability of high-quality themes. New themes are being released all the time, and it’s pretty difficult to stay up-to-date on the available themes because they come out so quickly and because there are so many different companies and websites releasing themes. We thought it would be helpful to showcase some of the best new themes that have been released during the past month.

StyleShop eCommerce WordPress Theme
Price: $39 (includes access to all themes by Elegant Themes)
Available at: ElegantThemes