Blog Designer News

If you haven’t heard the announcement yet, Wordpress now has a new Free Theme Directory where you can submit your free themes for all the Wordpress world to see and hopefully use!

According to the post above the theme directory is very easy to use, simply log into your Wordpress.org account, upload your free theme zip file, and they will notify you as to whether or not it meets their requirements to be listed in their new free Wordpress Theme Directory!

If your theme does not fit within the Wordpress requirements then they will send you an error and let you know what you need to change. Honestly I think their requirements are quite reasonable and not too hard to follow.

Submitting free themes for bloggers to use is one of the best ways to get your design business noticed, because Wordpress does allow for you to keep a link to the designer within your free theme! Think of all those back links PLUS some of those people might love your designs so much they will want to buy a custom blog design.

If you currently do not have a free blog design to distribute, then here a few things to remember when creating your free theme:

• Royalty Free Image Terms of Use: If you plan to use Royalty free images to use within your free theme you will want to make sure you follow ALL terms of use according to the distributor. A lot of designers don’t realize that places like www.istockphoto.com and www.dreamstime.com do not allow use of their image on free themes or even premade themes without purchasing an extended use license. So be careful and make sure you follow the rules.
• Compatibility: Make sure to test your free theme out on the latest version of your blogging platform. If you are creating a free theme for Wordpress be sure to test out your free themes on each new version, and if their are some glitches be sure to fix them and re-issue the free theme.
• Check in Multiple Browsers: I know this may seem like a duh step to some, but seriously we all forget to check our themes in multiple browsers at times. It is even a good idea to check your theme in previous versions also.
• Automatic Blog Title and Slogan: We need to remember that most people using free themes don’t know how to edit a header to reflect their blog name and slogan. It is definitely more user friendly to code the blog title and slogan to show up automatically in the header instead of creating a header that requires customization via photoshop.

Creating a free blog theme is one of the best ways to get your blog noticed. If you haven’t created a free theme yet then your homework for this week – MAKE ONE!

P.S. Be sure to enter our 1st contest, click here to learn more!

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