Testing

If you see strange screen clutter, misplaced elements, strange/wrong category/tag names, strange format, PLEASE DON'T PANIC. Check back a day later, if the problems still occur please kindly send me an email, or simply leave a comment here.

My Real Theme

Everyone should know that Brian has promised to design a free custom WordPress theme. It's a big job and I agreed to let him do it carefully and slowly. However, I've been waiting passively for too long. over 2 months have passed and my blog was still having an old seasonal layout. I am too eager for the new design, and I couldn't wait for it.

I haven't received a screenshot of what I am going to get from Brian. However, I did receive a hand drawn sketch a month ago. So I know what the theme may look like. I wanted to show that earlier on but due to request from Brian the information won't be leaked till it's formally drawn.

The Next Stage

My blog is, at this very moment still has the most crappy look you can ever found on the blogosphere. That's why I am too desperate for a new theme, and couldn't wait for Brian to release his Beta version.

Did you read my bragging about it? If not, you may try here:

• New Look for My WordPress Blog for 2008
• How I Won a Custom Premium WordPress Theme

From the beginning, I honestly complain about my current theme and tell the world that I need a new theme. After that I decide to really look at the new year themes and made a list of 5 Free New Year WordPress Themes 2008.

Brian, the owner of PlainBeta is very interesting young man. He immediately visit my blog after receiving a ping back and straightaway gave me some advices on lacking of professional information on the blog. Thanks to Brian I revised my About page to concentrate on explaining about Binh dot Name. So now you should go and look at that About page again to learn why you should stick to this great blog.

Brian kept on visiting my blog often for a few days till his contest close. I really like Brian for having very similar attitudes and interests. Brian's very good at understanding my requirements. The best thing about him is that he is young and knowledgeable.

The requirements I set, I myself feel scared if I need to do all of it by myself. As expected from a potential designer, Brian is not hesitated to take the challenge. He spent his valuable time to learn about the blogs that participate, unlike in other contests. I really don't like the idea of randomly pick the winner for a contest, because each person's effort is totally different.

Finally on 2nd Jan 2008 he personally emailed me to notify me that I won his contest. Here is part of the email:

Binh!

Congratulations!

You've won the custom blog contest!

Now, before I can start designing, I need to get some specifics. Yes, I have the information from your post, but I have a few questions

Yes, I already gave a lot of information on my post New Look for My WordPress Blog for 2008. However that's not enough for a complete design. The "but I have a few questions" resulted in few more email back and forth between me and Brian. Brian's questions made me feel I will need to write a post later on, about the future of Binh dot Name. So stay tune for my announcements.

Later on, Simon announced the Custom WordPress Theme Winner on his blog. I hope he won't take back the offer because he estimate that the theme worth more than US $1000. Well, I would say if he really complete

The fact is that, if Brian can design my blog he will be getting hell lot of freelance work because you will expect the new theme to be somewhat comparable to ProBlogger.com. Well said, it should beat the crap out of JohnChow.com's design.

Enough for the bragging, I'm eagerly looking toward to acquire the new theme. I hope it can be done by the end of this month. It will give me wings to fly high in the blogosphere sky. At this time I'm holding back a lot because my theme look too ugly and I don't dare to promote my blog.

1. New Year 2008 WordPress Theme

Live Demo |Download

Celebrate new year 2008 with “New Year 2008 WordPress Theme”. Fireworks catchy header, will impress your readers.

Features:

• 3 columns
• 2008 new year theme
• valid XHTML and CSS
• widget ready
• premium design
• support WordPress 2.3.1
• also support WordPress 2.2

2. Get a Free Custom Theme for 2008

Contest Page

This is a contest. The participation need to write a post and link to that contest page, then leave a comment on that page to let the author know about the entry. Good-luck for people who decided to participate.

3. New Years Eve WordPress Theme

Live Demo | Download

New Years Eve Features:

• 3-column wordpress theme
• new year wordpress theme
• valid XHTML and CSS
• widget ready
• premium quality
• Works on the latest WordPress 2.3.1
• Backward compatible with WordPress 2.2

4. Free Custom WordPress Theme by Plainbeta

Contest page

No bull, it's another chance for you to get a free custom WordPress layout. It's another contest. This time its Plainbeta who want to gain so popularity in the blogosphere by giving away his time to design a beautiful theme for the blog that he likes.

5. Your own theme

Well, I tried my best in limited time to find 7 themes to match with the earlier post. Unfortunately there aren't as many out there, so... here end up only 4. Do you have one to share? Please leave some comment here to advertise it and I will include into my article.

So far I've been holding back writing and promoting my blog and asked myself Should I Migrate to WordPress MU?. Since then I made the decision to Migrate to WordPress MU and then finally Successfully Migrated to WordPress MU.

I've been showing this Christmas Days theme since 21 Nov 2007 and believe me I really got itchy when looking at it now. Perhaps it is a good choice for a start up blog for a simple look and feel while giving people a clue that Christmas is coming. However, theme become obsolete now. The themes from 7 Free Christmas WordPress Themes 2007 are much better than this.

The New Design

New Year is coming! I need some theme that can meet some very strict requirements. Before continue reading, please open Copy Blogger and Daily Blog Tips in new windows so that you can understand what I mean without having a headache. I want to make my blog look similar to those.

Header

Header should include

1. the logo/site name,
2. site slogan,
3. search box (wordpress or Google)
4. RSS feeds (nofollow links)
5. A horizontal menu that show pages by slug, not full title.
6. Sub-pages should go in drop down, or not shown at all.
7. And other must-have features that the designer thinks fit.

The header should have at least the following characteristics:

1. be lower to save space and possibly allow some 728 banner ad under it. Perhaps 100px height?
2. uniquely identify my blog from others.
3. encourage people to subscribe to my feeds.

The Body/Main content

The body should contain:

1. The Page title
2. Whatever content a blog should have

The body should have the following attributes

1. be at least 468px to fit that size of banner ad and photos.
2. preferably 480px or 500px.
3. Blockqoute should be blockquote.
4. Minimal modification to default styles.

The Side Bars:

1. One sidebar on the left to display most relevant stuff like pages and categories.
2. Two side bars on the right to display relevant links or advertisements. Possibly 150px wide to display 150x150 buttons.
3. A side bar below those 2 sidebars, which is as wide as both of them, to display longer links.
4. Should look professional while saving as much space as possible.

Widgets

Who dare to take a big challenge with widgets? If I will definitely break my way out to design some extra widget place holders such as:

1. the sidebars,
2. the whole pane right below the header,
3. above the post title, OR below it but above the fold
4. below the post content, but before the comments
5. below the comments, before the footer
6. the footer, so that I can change footer

Why? I hate modifying the themes to insert additional content. Do you? Drupal, DotNetNuke and most other Content Management System (CMS) have those, why the most famous one WordPress don't? Too much limitation cause lots of suffering for bloggers.

Every day I waste time on searching for plugins to do very simple job for my blog, still couldn't get satisfied. Then, I need to modify the themes. Then, I need to modify the plugins. They say WordPress require little tech knowledge, my use of it prove the opposite.

Additionally if possible, the theme should have options in the WordPress back-end Options page.

SEO Features

I'm not yet an expert in SEO, yet. However I do have some basic requirements to meet elementary level of SEO:

1. The site name must not be H1 for any pages other than home page.
2. Every page must have a H1 title, including archives, tags, pages, posts, categories, search etc.
3. All styles should be in external CSS file.
4. The lighter the better, so no unnecessary class attributes, use the ID attribute and nested HTML default classes to format elements instead. Example: Don't define a class "PostContent" when in fact the Content is under <div id="content"> already.
5. The main content goes first, then the side bars. No excuses for putting right sidebar in front of the main content.
6. JavaScript for menu? Good idea, but the menu must be written in HTML and dynamic by JavaScript, not use document.write.
7. Ajax? yes another good idea, but please make sure only for sidebars.

The Styles

Technically knowledgable about CSS in advanced level, I would like to have to following styles:

1. The less classes, the better
2. Use ID and HTML element ID thoroughly
3. Smartly format image and objects depend on alignment (barely seen).
4. The less images the better, but must have enough to make the site look neat and nice.
5. The images need to be optimized over 10KB is not a good file size. Consider the dial-up users and the 10s effect.

Am I too tough? The list above is only half of my requirements. If you think you are good enough, go ahead and take the credit. If you up for the challenge?

Free Custom Blog Design

Thanks to Quan Quach from BlinkDagger for writing Win a Free Custom WordPress Design! I come to realise that Brian Purkiss from plainBETA Design and Blogging is giving out a Free Custom WordPress Theme

Do I meet the requirements?

Contest Requirements

1. Must be a WordPress powered blog: OK
2. The desired layout must be a minimalist, web 2.0, like design: OK
3. The blog must be something that I like: OK, but does that mean your friend is reserved?
4. No logo design can be involved: OK, but does that mean you can't do graphic?
5. ‘Designed by’ link must remain in the footer: OK, if it is good then credit is reserved. After all that's the contest all about.
6. The blog already needs to be in existence: OK, you are reading it.

How to Enter

1: Write a post on your blog linking to this post ’selling’ your blog to me: Done

-Why should I pick your blog?

Answer:

1.1 Would you like to design some blog that set its goal to 10,000 subscribers? I'm thinking of expanding my blog to pagerank 6+. Wouldn't you like to get a link back from so high PR site? Then my blog is for you.

1.2 Would you like to design a blog of a fellow web developer and take some nice credit from doing so? Then this blog is for you.

1.3 Would you like to give a hand to someone who help other bloggers and web master live on his blog? Then this blog is foryou.

1.4 Would you like to take some high-requirements challenge and get well-known, instead of designing some simple blog just to throw your business card? Then this blog is for you.

1.5 Would you like to be recognized as a top WordPress designer and get known by the WordPress community? Then this blog is for you.

-What do you want the design to look like?

Answer:

As mentioned above. But I'd love to hear your expert advices if they work better.

-Remember, I have to like your blog in order to pick it. So what’s so special about it?

Answer:

At this stage it is not so special. I only help other bloggers to become better bloggers. I love to help others. So if you help me you are giving a hand to other bloggers, too.

I'm sure my requirements are higher than other bloggers, so will you take the challenge?

2: Contact me with a link to your entry.

Answer: OK, I will contact you after this.

What's Next

If Brian decide not to design my blog, I will end up spending some time choosing some free theme and customize it for my own use. Of course I will make it meet the requirements I set above. If I do, I will distribute it. If Brian does, I might ask him to let me distribute, too. So stay tune for the result.

Update 28/12/2007: I realize some requirements maybe too high for a standard designer, so I don't expect to find or get those immediately.

Meanwhile, Happy New Year and Holidays to anyone who have. If you don't celebrate New Year in your country, why not celebrate it online?

Recently, I got many hits from Google search for Christmas theme, so in this post I list all the Christmas themes for WordPress that you can download and use for free.

Christmas Themes for WordPress

This is my collection of WordPress themes, click on the link to open the download page.

1. Christmas Days

This theme is what I'm using right now. I wrote earlier: WordPress Theme for Christmas

From the author:

This theme is a season theme for WordPress created by Design Disease. The theme was created because most of us celebrate Christmas, and I wanted to make a gift to all bloggers around the world. The theme has been tested on WordPress 2.3.1 with Firefox , Opera, Safari and IE6/7. It validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional.

Source: http://wp-themes.designdisease.com/2007/11/12/christmas-days-wordpress-theme-release/

2.Christmas Gifts (2 colums)

From the author:

Christmas Gifts is a widget-ready theme designed for WordPress 2.0.

This simple yet attractive holiday theme is designed to be versatile, easy to customize and SE-friendly. It's an ideal template for niche Christmas sites built with WordPress, affiliate bloggers or anyone that just wants to celebrate the Season of Giving.

Christmas Gifts uses valid XHTML & CSS and has been tested in multiple browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.

Source: http://wpthemes.amazing-christmas-ideas.com/cg/

3. Vermilion Christmas Theme

From the author:

Vermilion Christmas is a widget-ready theme designed for WordPress 2.0.

With it's attractive Christmas design and SE-friendly structure, it's an excellent solution for bloggers and webmasters in need of a Christmas WordPress theme.

Vermilion Christmas uses valid XHTML & CSS and has been tested in multiple browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.

Source: http://wpthemes.amazing-christmas-ideas.com/vc/

4. Merry Christmas WordPress Theme

From the author:

Please welcome the all new WordPress theme designed specially for the eve of Christmas! I am launching this theme at this time so that all you bloggers can tweak it according to your blog by the time Christmas arrives… It has some nifty cool effects for you to check out .. and don’t forget to check the upcoming New Year Theme!!

Source: http://www.blogohblog.com/wordpress-theme-merry-christmas/

5. Cosmin's WordPress Theme for Christmas

From the author: This wp theme has 3 columns, based on three colors red, green and white and of course, AdSense blends well in those two ad spaces." Source: http://www.acosmin.com/new-wordpress-theme-for-christmas/

6. Christmas Bells

Nice 2 columns Christmas bells WordPress theme which will warm your heart in this time of year.

7. Christmas Gift (3-Column)

Give Christmas look on your website, well designed unique yet elegant Christmas WordPress theme. Impress your readers with Christmas celebration on your weblog.

Why did I write this post?

Note: Skip this section if you are not a blogger.

To date, my blog post WordPress Theme for Christmas got from Google:

Unfortunately the bounce rate was somewhere near 100%, so I guess the post was not relevant. I should have included a download links.

Update 23 Dec 2007:

This page continuously have very stable stream of incoming traffic from Google, and here are the latest keyword counts:

What's next?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Please spare sometimes to give me feedback via the Comment form.
Update 23 Dec 2007:

Do you have a Christmas theme to share? You can link to this article to get a trackback link, or leave a comment here with a link to your theme and I will add it.