Free Blog Skin Review and Blogskin Download – Thematic
Note: That in this review the term Blog Skin, BlogSkins Themes and WordPress Theme are all used interchangeably as they mean the same thing.
I spent the 5 days changing the look and feel of one of my exisiting websites – www.AffiliateSoftwareGuide.com and I decided to give one of the Free WP BlogSkins from the wordpress Themes library that I have had my eye on for a while, Thematic, a try. It is hyped as being an open source Theme Framework with a whole community behind it. The flexibility and support is incredible yada yada yada.
Click on this link for the Thematic Free WordPress Blog Skin Download!
Free Blog Skin Review and Blogskin Download – Thematic
See the write up on this Free WP BlogSkin below for more info on the features and what people are saying about Thematic.
But I am about to switch to another Free WP Blog SKin (or purchase one form WPZOOM or Woo Themes if I can’t find a free one with the out of the box features I want) if I can’t get the Header and Sidebar the way I want it quickly. Like in the next hour. (The great thing about Free WP BlogSkins that you get from the wordpress library is that switching is as simple as logging into your admin panel, searching for a new Theme from within the appearance tab, and clicking on install) .
The problem is not really Thematic, I think that it does what they claim “in that it is a “Theme Framework”. After using it for 5 days that means to me that if you want a custom Blog Skin and have tons of time to devote to it, this is the Blog skin for you. And from a flexibility standpoint this is one of the best free WP Blog Skins out there – it is just that the flexibility is designed to be a customization, not enabled out of a pre-configured settings panel.
And if you need help then they have a huge user community and Forum – But I don’t want to have to go to a forum. I expect to have self explanatory admin panels in my WP BlogSkins that let me set up the Blogskin and get going.
Maybe I have been spoiled by some of the Professional Themes that I have purchased from Woo Themes and WPZOOM. They have great admin panels and Settings that let me place the content that I want where I want with a few mouse clicks. Thematic requires you to invest time in learning the framework.
Well I don’t want to spend time doing that went setting up WordPress Blog Skins. To me the Blog Skin is the framework for the blog, for the information I want to put on the web. It should be inviting for the readers, easy to navigate for readers AND search engines and EASY FOR ME TO GET THE LOOK AND FEEL I WANT! Including placing a simple standard side ad in the side panel or banner in the header.
But Thematic is more meant for somebody who wants to design the Website itself as much as they want to create the blog .
To be fair I have copied a lot of the text that gives a good picture of the Thematic Blog skins strengths from the Thematic Site below so you can see what they feel the strong points of Thematic is.
In conclusion, Thematic is fine if you want to develop your blog the way Thematic was designed to be used. Its just not what I wanted. The Thematic Free wordpress Blog Skin Download link is right below the theme picture if you want to give it a try.
Free Blog Skin Review and Blogskin Download – Thematic, Thematic, A WordPress BlogSkin Framework
Thematic is a free, open-source, highly extensible, search-engine optimized WordPress Blog SkinFramework featuring 13 widget-ready areas, grid-based layout samples, styling for popular plugins, and a whole community behind it. It’s perfect for beginner bloggers and WordPress development professionals.
· Thematic Features
- Perfect to use as-is or as a blank WordPress theme for development
- Fully Search-Engine Optimized
- Extra widget-ready areas (13 in total) and more possible in your Child Theme
- Free and commercially supported Child Themes are available for upgrading the theme
- Includes a sample WordPress Child Theme for rapid development
- A wiki-editable guide to Thematic Customization
- Ready for WordPress plugins like Subscribe to Comments, WP-PageNavi, and Comment-license
- Fully compatible with All-In-One SEO and Platinum SEO plugins
- Multiple, easy to implement, bulletproof layout options for 2, or 3 column designs
- Modular CSS with pre-packaged resets and basic typography
- Dynamic post and body classes make it a hyper-canvas for CSS artists
- Editable footer text—remove the theme credit without harming the theme
- Options for multi-author blogs
Praise for Thematic
- “A theme framework that I highly recommend to anyone working with WordPress. Dig under the surface and you’ll see just how much power it’s got. Built on The Sandbox and then modified to add yet more functionality, I really can’t say enough good things about it.”
Elliot Jay Stocks, web designer, author, & speaker
- “An amazing theme, back-end and design wise. I fell in love at first sight. Even among all those “premium news and magazine style WordPress themes, I’ve never seen such a complex and also organized back-end.”
WPCandy
- “An open-source theme designed as a starting point for simple customization, which also happens to look pretty darn good out of the box.”
Best WordPress Themes
- “The most impressive thing about [the ThemeShaper site design] is actually that it’s still Thematic at the core, which speaks volumes about using it as a potential framework. I can obviously “waste time on custom coding WP stuff for myself, but I can definitely see the value in a very flexible WordPress framework.”
Adii, founder of Woo Themes & Radiiate
We hope you enjoyed this Free Blog Skin Review and Blogskin Download – Thematic
