Anytime anyone thinks of creating a website, WordPress comes to mind.

However, WordPress is not everything. No, I’m not talking about using any other CMS instead of WordPress. The point is, why use a CMS when one is not required?

Take a personal site having a few static pages, or a personal site of a freelancer offering many services. The site’s pages don’t change much, and WordPress is a total overkill.

This is where standard HTML/CSS proves a better solution. It’s simple, it’s easy and it’s elegant. The way we used to build websites a decade ago is still the best way in many cases.

Now, many complain about having to modify all the pages manually when they make a global change to the site, like adding something to the navigation, footer or header. Now, you can easily combat this by splitting your HTML page into different parts (header, footer, navigation and the actual pages), and gluing them together using PHP.

This drastically reduces your overhead.

Remember, the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle applies to websites too. Why not take advantage of it?

Unable to create directory /home/USERNAME/public_html/wp-content/uploads. Is its parent directory writable by the server?

To solve this:

1. Go to Miscellaneous Settings in your admin panel
2. The “Store uploads in this folder” will probably have the complete path to your upload folder. Change this to the default value of “wp-content/uploads”. The default value is also mentioned to the right of the same option’s box.
3. Hit save, and try uploading again. This solved the problem for me.

Also, it’s very pleasing on the eyes. The layout looks simple and the content looks inviting. I’ll be doing some custom modifications to the CSS to give it a more unique look.

Anyways, if you’re looking for a good minimalistic theme for your blog, Cutline is a great choice. Look at my blog’s footer for a link to it.

A Quick Note On Theme Clubs

In Theme Clubs, rather than buying individual themes, you buy a membership for the specified time. Mostly, you’ll get access to all the previous themes and any theme released during your membership period. This is better than sites selling single themes, since you get to keep up with trends, can post suggestions and the cost is reduced considerably. You also have more choice and flexibility. Elegant Themes is one of the clubs following this model.

Unique Benefits At Great Price

Here is a list of features Elegant Themes offers. I’ve assembled them for you. You’ll find almost everything one would need before opting for buying a theme or membership to a theme club.

Highly Affordable: Elegant Themes is a highly affordable club for wordpress themes. At $19.95/year, you’ll be getting a lot of themes, as well as future themes released during your membership. You’ll have a hard time finding even a single theme that offers all the features at this price.

Theme-Specific Features: Many themes have features that are unique, i.e. not all templates have it. Some themes might allow for a specific feature, that might not be suited for other themes. The author has taken care that all themes are as unique as possible.

Theme Control Panel: Themes have their own options page that allow for customization. No need to endlessly rip apart the CSS files for simple customizations. Themes also have variations you can choose from.

Advertisement Ready: Blogging has become a business. The themes are advertisement ready, so that you don’t get headaches trying to integrate them into your theme.

PSD Files: PSD files for the themes are also provided. This is for those designer folks who’d like to take the degree of customizations to the next level. All at no extra cost.

Widget Ready: This does not come as a surprise, since most of the paid themes are Widget Ready. It’s always an excellent thing to have.

Valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS, Tableless: This is now considered a must feature by many. If you’ve never heard of it, what it suggests is that the themes follow the standards for web design set by W3C. Themes have smooth tableless designs.

Excellent Browser Support: All wordpress themes support Firefox 3.0, IE 6/7, Opera, Netscape and Safari.

Rich Customer Experience: Many people don’t look at this aspect, but it’s very important. The author discusses any new theme he is creating, so that customers can give suggestions. It’s like having a friend design themes for you.

And If You’re Still Wondering

Elegant Themes does provide you with the previews of all themes. At $19.95, I don’t think it’s rocket science to take the right descision. Click here to visit Elegant Themes.

Have A Nice Day!Similar Posts:

• Finding Free Quality WordPress Themes Easily – A Difficult Task Simplified

Fantastico is very helpful in getting WordPress or any other software on your server installed within a few clicks. Everything is handled by it. Apart from some security optimizations, you will not need to touch your core WordPress install files anytime later.

But there was something very annoying about WordPress (<2.7) and Fantastico. In some mid minor releases of WordPress 2.6.x, the automatic plugin update feature of WordPress was being perfected, if I remember correctly. In the initial versions, I had to provide FTP information, and when I did, but it didn't work for me. Then started the era when WordPress would notify you about any plugin updates, and install it within a single click.

That was great. But WordPress did not support this for updating/upgrading itself, until 2.7. I realized this new feature only when 2.7.1 was released and I was greeted with a message allowing me to upgrade to 2.7.1 instantly. Whoa! That rocks!

At last, I can stay updated without the hassle of uploading the files manually, and stuffs like that.

So, whats wrong with Fantastico?

Well, its not Fantastico that has the problem. But relying on it for WordPress updates was pretty annoying. Hosts, especially mine, took about a week to make the updates available at Fantastico. It’s bad for security releases of WordPress.

I’m very happy with the new features WP 2.7.x boasts, and that’s the reason I wrote this quite stupid blog post. If you’re hearing, “Thanks!” to all contributors of WordPress, who strive to keep it simple yet powerful.

WordPress Theme Directories Suck For A Reason…

Technology is now in everyone’s hands. You too, might learn how to create a WordPress theme in a matter of days. People simply put every one of their experiments into these theme sites, and such theme sites happily accept them, for they need more content.

Theme directories also get spammed by people who simply want backlinks. And there are numerous other reasons why you’ll spend more time on a theme directory than on developing your own website. But we’re not discussing it here anyways.

Find The Perfect WordPress Theme NOW…

What I’m going to describe is only one of the many methods to get you started. I know you might have also used search engines fruitlessly to land on the perfect theme. This method makes use of search engines, a little differently.

A good theme is often downloaded more number of times. But the factor that separates the good from the bad is the amount of time it’s used, not just downloaded. So here are your steps…

1. Type it up!
   In your favorite search engine, type keyword “powered by wordpress”. Substitute keyword for the niche you want a theme for, i.e. technology etc. I won’t recommend using the word say, “technology”, but rather words that you’re sure a technology blog might contain, maybe a hardware name?
2. Follow the blogs!
   Search engines return results in descending order of relevancy and importantly authority to some extent. So you can make a fair assumption that the top blogs might be more “theme” conscious. Go to the footers of these blogs, and if they’re using a free theme, it’ll mostly contain the reference to it in the footer. Follow it and if you like the theme, download it.
3. One more tip
   If the footer doesn’t contain helpful information, maybe the blog is using a custom or paid theme, or a free theme allowing removal of copyright. Check out the blog’s source, you’ll find the name of the theme in the declaration of the css file used for the page, something like: <link rel=’stylesheet’ href=’DOMAIN-NAME.com/wp-content/themes/THEME-NAME/….whatever’ type=’text/css’/>. Search for this theme name on google, you’ll land up on some more info.

Now There Is A Problem….

Most of the good themes are just used “many times”. It might hardly make a difference to you, depending on your niche. But still, if you really want good and “not-overused” themes, you could have little luck with the free ones. If you care about getting a good theme and don’t mind investing, paid themes are a good choice. A lot of hardwork goes into designing and coding good themes, and thus developers expect at least something in return, which is normally a nominal fee.

Here are some of the so called “theme clubs” that might interest you. You don’t pay for individual theme, but a nominal fee to access the entire collection for a set period. Isn’t that great?

Elegant Themes: Elegant Themes is very affordable at $19.95 for a year’s access. The themes are, well, quite elegant as the name suggests. You get access to all themes currently released and the future themes released during your subscription period. This seems to be a real bargain.

Woo Themes: Is a bit costly at $150 per three months, but is surely worth it. You’ll get access to the already available themes and those released during your subscription.

Know of any others? Write a comment below and I’ll add it!Similar Posts:

• Highly Affordable Premium WordPress Themes At Elegant Themes