The premium themes market has had an overwhelming focus on CMS Themes since its inception back in late 2007, but I’ve always felt that there should also be a variety of blog designs available for all of the WordPress users which actually *gasp* want a nice blog design to use with their blogging software.  After all, despite being an extremely flexible piece of software, the core function of WordPress is blogging, right?

That leads me to believe that there is a large market of buyers looking for a nice blog design which includes a flexible feature set and is also available at a lower price point than the more advanced CMS themes currently available.  The new WellBlog theme by ColorLabs Project is one of those blogging templates which does a pretty good job of achieving the goals I have for a solid premium blog theme.

To start, here is an example of the design and control panel which is included with the WellBlog theme.

WellBlog Theme Homepage

WellBlog Theme Internal Pages

WellBlog Theme Control Panel

If you’d like to test it out, you can check out the live demo of the black version of the WellBlog theme here.

The WellBlog theme also includes a number of features in addition to the 3 built-in skins to choose from.  Probably my favorite unique feature is the scrolling “Most Commented” section at the top of the sidebar.  Here are a few of the other more notable features:

• Supports WordPress Threaded Comments
• Built-in Gravatar Support
• After-Sales Support and Upgrade
• Cross-Browser Compatible
• Advertisement Banner Management
• Theme Administration Control Panel

If you are interested in learning more about the WellBlog theme, or are interested in purchasing a license for your WordPress blog, it is currently available for $50.00 (single-website license), or $200.00 (developer’s license for unlimited websites).  WPHacks.com readers can use coupon code 94F4D as well to get an additional 30% off your purchase!

If WellBlog isn’t for you, you can also view all of the themes available from ColorLabs Project here.

One design that recently caught my eye is the new TypeMagz theme by ColorLabs Project.   This website has been around for years now thanks to the extremely popular Arthemia theme, but rather than going with a magazine format, this new design instead places a focus on gathering and presenting news on the homepage.   Here is a sample of how one configuration of the homepage may look:

TypeMagz Homepage Design

For internal pages the website converts to a blog format which includes many of the standard blogging features you’ve come to expect from WordPress:

TypeMagz Blog Design

Although this theme isn’t for every type of website/blog, if you run a website which manages a ton of content, the TypeMagz theme may be just what you are looking for.  Like any good news-styled template, this theme really excels by taking a bunch of information and displaying it in one easy and convenient page where you can point readers to.

As you’d expect in today’s market all these features aren’t free, but the template is definitely affordable when compared to the competition.  The TypeMagz theme is available for $50.00 for a single-use license, or a developer’s license is also available for $200.00.   If TypeMagz isn’t for you, you can view all of the themes available from ColorLabs Project here, including their other new design, the Wellblog theme.

In the past I’ve gotten to work with Unique Blog Designs and have always enjoyed their work, so I have to admit I was excited when I saw that they have released some new affiliate landing pages for WordPress.   This new theme package, known as the Affiliate Theme, is an affiliate marketers dream!

With the purchase of this premium WordPress theme you get 6 different landing pages, 30 different header graphics built into the affiliate landing pages, and lifetime theme support.

Here are the features listed by the creators of the Affiliate Theme:

• Choose From 6 Layouts to Improve Conversion – If you are an experienced affiliate marketer, you are probably familiar with manually updating multiple layouts in order to split test your affiliate landing pages. With WordPress, it is easy for you to input all of your affiliate offers and tracking URL’s and then easily change the layout for the purpose of split testing. We have built six (6) effective multi-post layouts. Say goodbye to the days of wasting time re-creating variations of the same landing page, review site, or blog. Save time (and money).  This theme would also work brilliantly with the LP Jumper plugin.
• Optimized for your PPC and SEO Campaigns – Once you have set up Affiliate Theme, driving targeted traffic is, of course, the next step. That is why we coded Affiliate Theme to improve the SEO (search engine optimization) over the standard WordPress theme. You write the headlines and page copy, Affiliate Theme takes care of the rest! Proper use of header, alt, title and META tags can go a long way in improving your search engine ranking and quality score. Also, save time by integrating tracking scripts from the Theme Options panel.
• Built-in Color Picker (Perfect for every niche) – Our advanced “Photoshop-like” color picker makes it easy for you to change Affiliate Theme to any color scheme you want! Red for dating? Blue for web hosting? You will be amazed at how effortlessly you can rebrand your Affiliate Theme. You can change the color of everything from post headlines to button rollovers and site background.
• Lifetime Access to Resource Center and Support – Need help using Affiliate Theme? Excellent! Watch over a dozen video tutorials, browse and search through our extensive knowledge base, and even post your questions to the Affiliate Theme support forum. Watch tutorials and read articles on everything from how to use Affiliate Theme to creating specific types of affiliate websites.
• Need to test more? Change everything you need – Want to try a larger call-to-action button? How about changing the size of the product image? Button color? Font-size? Keywords in the title? Don’t worry about going back to Photoshop or hacking code to change any of that – Affiliate Theme allows you to change all of this and more! We wanted to make it as easy as possible for you to build dynamic sites that require no skill to modify.
• Hate coding? No problem. Love it? Great – Coding newbies, rejoice! You will be able to take full advantage of the powerful Affiliate Theme Options Panel, allowing you to change the layout, logo, colors, fonts, background, header graphic, even rollover button color – all without touching a single line of code. If you are a code-head, you will Dig the clean XHTML + CSS + PHP, fully commented source code. We even have put together an advanced customization guide for people who want to get extra friendly with Affiliate Theme.

Pretty much everything is done for you, allowing you to avoid touching code and giving you the ability to create an affiliate landing page using WordPress in under 5 minutes!    Here is the control panel so you can see what I’m talking about:

And here are a few of the templates which are included with the Affiliate Theme:

Affiliate Theme (Dating Version)

Affiliate Theme (Ringtone Version)

Affiliate Theme (Make Money Version)

Affiliate Theme (Acai Berry Version)

You can view the live demos of each of these landing page themes here.

My favorite part when I learned of this new affiliate theme was the price.   You have the following three purchase options: Single-Use ($97.00), Multiple-Use ($147.00), or the Developer’s Pack ($197.00).

If you’d like to learn more about the Affiliate theme, or are interested in purchasing a copy for your affiliate landing pages, you can get additional information here.

How can I participate in the contest?

To participate in the contest, you must submit a theme concept to ColorLabs Project. It’s not a theme, it’s just a concept. Here are some technical requirements of the concept:

• The theme concept is intended for WordPress. That’s rule number one. But the great news is: there is a broad possibility of amazing stuffs we can create with WordPress.
• We believe that there are numerous ways to present a theme concept, but to participate in the contest, your theme concept must be created in Photoshop format.
• The theme concept must cater the 1024 X 768 user’s screen. Therefore, considering the margin and borders, the maximum width of the design is 980 pixels.
• To participate in the contest, you need to publish a blog post and tell a bit of your story about the contest. You should also give a linkback to this post.
• Designs must be submitted in JPG or PNG format to contest [at] colorlabsproject [dot] com. You also have to tell us the background story of the concept: what inspired you, how you designed, what the design is all about. Designs are not only about shapes, colors, or patterns. They should have insightful story that complete the whole as one. In the story, please also mention your full name and any URL you would like to be linked to if you win.
• If you use any stock/source images in the designs, please submit them as well and mention the URLs in the story above. Please make sure that those images have extended usage licenses that allow the distribution of the design.
• Designs must be submitted before 14th February 2009, midnight (GMT+7).

The competition is divided into two phases:

1. Qualification Round: ending February 14, 2009.
   In this round, participants are only required to submit the front-page of the theme concept in PNG/JPG format. In the end, there will be 12 theme concepts that will be selected to compete in the final round.
2. Final Round: February 14, 2009 – February 21, 2009.
   In this round, finalists are required to submit the inner pages of the theme concept along with the source files (PSD files). Source files will be assessed to determine the core quality of the design.

The contest is divided into 3 (three) categories:

1. Category A: General Blog/Lifestream and Photo/Videoblog
   Theme concepts participating in this category should include general elements for standard personal/lifestream blogs or photo/videoblogs.
2. Category B: Business Blog/Portfolio
   Designs competing in this category should include several basic elements of business/portfolio blogs. They should be able to market products/services or function as a showcase site.
3. Category C: Newspaper/Magazine
   Theme concepts participating in this category should include main elements of an online newspaper/magazine, particularly: headline, featured posts, multiple post listings, and ad spots.

The winner from each category will receive US$ 1000 and additional US$ 500 will be awarded to the best of the three. So it’ll be US$ 1500 for the best of the best and US$ 1000 each for the rest two winners. All winners will be interviewed and featured in ColorLabsProject. One contestant may submit more than one design and he/she may win more than one category as well.

Designs are assessed by a special team from ColorLabs Project. Three main factors that we will put into considerations are (1) the background story of the concept, (2) how well the theme concept presents the site’s content to the viewer, and (3) how far it transforms WordPress into something stunning yet well-functioning as a website.

We will then make the winning theme concepts available as official ColorLabs Project themes and we will credit the contestant for the design.

Click here to find additional information and the Terms and Conditions.

The latest example of this is the eGamer theme by my friend Nick Roach over at Elegant Themes.  Whether you play video games or MMORPG’s (such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest 2, etc.), the eGamer theme was created with gamers in mind, and the feature set matches what video game bloggers would most likely be looking for.

Features included with the eGamer theme include:

• Custom Author Review System.
• Video Embedding (from video sites such as YouTube).
• Thumbnail Resizing.
• Ability to Display Recent Reviews, Banner Ads, Popular Posts, and Recent Videos section.
• Choice of Magazine or Blog-style Layout.
• Option for post-page thumbnails

You can read more about the features included with eGamer here.

Here is how the eGamer WordPress theme looks by default:

Here is what the eGamer post page looks like:

In order to get a true appreciation of eGamer’s appearance and feature set, you’ll want to view the full demo here.   I love how the sidebar is on the left and the comment section is really well done.

For a theme of this quality, there has to be a price, right?  Well sort of.   In order to download the eGamer WordPress theme, you simply need to be a member of the Elegant Themes club, which only costs $19.99 for a years membership!

With that $19.99 you also get access to every other theme released by Elegant Themes during that year.  After a year passes, you have the option of renewing your membership to continue to receive future themes.   I’ve been following Nick for quite awhile now and he seems to maintain a pretty nice release schedule, making this investment a no-brainer!

Since that time no one else has really attacked the widget angle the way Shifter did…..at least until now.   After over 2 months of production and quite a few beta testers (myself included), I am excited to share with our readers that iThemes has released what is probably their best theme yet, the Flexx Theme.

This theme comes with over 1,000 possible layout combinations!   Other Flexx features include:

• Rotating Header Images – Easily upload your new header images and set the Flash-like transition effects
• Contact Form Page Template – The custom image uploader feature allows you to personalize your site with your own logo
• Plug and Play Graphic Changes – Easily change the look of your site by uploading new background images (setting every different combo with it) and setting the color through a Photoshop-like color picker.
• Menu Builder – Pick and choose what Pages you want in the menu navigation, including subpages.
• Search Engine Optimization – As with all our themes, we’ve built it to get you the best exposure in the search engines, and include a SEO panel to tweak some basic settings.
• Multiple Color Styles – This first series comes in two pre-built color styles (Bold and Canvas), but it has a rockin’ feature that lets you easily upload new background images (setting every different combo with it) and setting the color through a Photoshop-like color picker.
• Drop down navigation menu

To get an idea of one of the 1,000+ possibilities available, you can check out the Flexx demo.   Here are a couple screen shots:

Flexx Homepage

Flexx Post Page

The best part about the new Flexx theme is the price!  It falls under the iThemes standard pricing model of $79.95 for a single-use license and $249.95 for the developer’s license.  iThemes 2008 theme club members of course get this theme for free.

What do you think of this incredible theme?   Anyone else think that widget-based themes might be the future or the premium WordPress themes market?

If you are someone that enjoys a very flexible WordPress theme, you’ll want to check out the latest release from the team over at Woo Themes called Thick theme.  The first thing that will jump out at you is the color combinations available and the lifestream feature.  Want to display your latest “tweet”?  You can easily do that with your theme.

Here are the other impressive features you’ll get with this theme:

• 20 different styles & color schemes available – including grunge & clean, and light & dark designs (all included with purchase)
• 3 different widgetized spaces with oodles of custom widgets to allow you to move content around as your heart desires
• An integrated lifestream to publish all of your online activities elsewhere
• Two alternative header layouts for  you to play around with
• Integrated Theme Options (for WordPress) to tweak the layout, color scheme etc. for the theme;
• Automatic Image Resizer, which is used to dynamically create the thumbnails and featured images;
• Built-in Gravatar Support for Authors & Comments;
• Integrated Banner Management script to display randomized banner ads of your choice site-wide; and
• Asides / side blog functionality.

As great as that feature list is, in order to get a true appreciation for everything this theme offers, you’ll want to check out the Thick Theme demo.   Here is a screen shot of the homepage:

Despite all the extras this theme offers, Woo Themes has stayed true to their price, offering this premium WordPress theme for the same price as all of their other themes.   You can get a single-use license for $70.00, a developer’s license for this theme for $150.00, or if you have a large blog portfolio, you can get all of the themes from Woo Themes if you invest in their Theme Club.

For your reference, here are the three themes that will also be disappearing at midnight on October 31st, 2008:

Video Elements Theme

Single-Use ($25.00), Multi-Use ($75.00), Developer ($125.00)

Source/Demo | Purchase

TV Elements Theme

Single-Use ($50.00), Multi-Use ($125.00), Developer ($225.00)

Source/Demo | Purchase

On Demand Video Theme

Single-Use ($75.00), Multi-Use ($150.00), Developer ($250.00)

Source/Demo | Purchase

Michael of Colorlabs Project has just released his Platformate theme, which provides many of the features you’d expect from a magazine theme but it also has a personal blog feel to it.   At the top of each page (including the homepage), you’ll find a featured section for Hot Discussions and Most Popular Posts, making it more ideal for a personal blog.

Some other features that come with Platformate:

• 5+ Theme Colors Included – 5+ color schemes, included in one single product. Moreover, you can customize colors to anything you like, based on your taste. Stand out with your own styling. No need to edit the stylesheet template.
  
• Theme Administration Panel – You’ve got no idea about PHP, (X)HTML, and CSS? No need to worry about all the complicated commands and manage everything from the theme administration panel.
• Auto-Thumbnail your Old Posts – Forget the time-consuming manual thumbnail generation, even the old-fashioned Post Custom Fields. Thumbnails across the theme will be assigned and generated automatically. Simply upload an image and add it to your post.
• Navigation Drop-down Menu – Show links to your blog pages and sub-pages in a fancy drop-down navigation menu, located at the top of your blog.
• Sidebar Widget – Easily drag-and-drop widgets and place any widgets on sidebar and footer section. Download WP available sidebar widgets and have it right away at your blog.
• Cross-Browser Compatible – Designed to meet the latest W3C standard compliant, renders perfectly in Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer. W3C CSS and XHTML valid.
  
• Analytics and Feedburner – Burn your feeds with Feedburner and manage your blog statistics using Google Analytics. Simply enter you Feedburner URL and Google Analytics ID in the theme administration panel.
• After-Sales Support and Upgrade – Don’t worry if you experience any problems during the installation process. Purchase packages include a free after-sales support. Contact us and we’ll get to help you. Updates and fixes will be sent regularly for free.

Here is a sample of how the homepage looks (you can choose one of 5 colors):

And here is a screen shot of a post page:

You can also check out the Platformate demo for a live demo of the theme.

If you’d like to pick up a copy of Platformate to use, you can currently purchase a single-use license for $50.00 or a developer’s license for $175.00.

Here is some more information that will hopefully clarify a few things:

How Will This Change Affect Existing Revolution Theme Owners?

Brian will be updating his current Revolution themes for a full calendar year, meaning if any break in a future version of WordPress released in the next 12 months, he will provide a fixed copy via email to all buyers.  After that you will have to consult the forums for now to update your theme.   Brian will also be transferring all tutorials and support posts/material over to the new site, which will be made available to existing Revolution community members.  In other words, nothing really should change for the next year and now your Revolution themes will be more exclusive because they will go “out of print” by the end of the month.

How Long Until the Existing Revolution Themes Disappear?

The current Revolution themes will be taken down at the end of the day on October 31st, 2008, never to be seen again.   That means if you have been eyeing one of these themes, you’ll want to start budgeting now and make your purchase before the end of the month.   After that date, the current Revolution themes will NOT be available for sale on the new website and they will not be made available for free.  The new open source site will only contain new themes which have not yet been seen.

What Does This Change Mean for Revolution All-Inclusive Package Owners?

For people that have paid a little extra to buy or upgrade to the All-Inclusive Package, they will get all the purchased features on the new website for free AND will get future premium Revolution themes that will never be made available for sale (they will only be sent to All-Inclusive Package owners).   If you plan to buy support on the new website or want these exclusive WordPress themes, you’ll need to buy/upgrade to the All-Inclusive Package before the end of the month.

Special Revolution Clearout Bonus!

There are a lot of people that have been saving for a Revolution theme, but may have trouble getting enough money together by the October 31st, 2008 deadline.   Brian has been proactive and lowered the price of all of his themes by 25% through the end of the month and no discount code is needed.   This means that you can now get single themes for $59.95 or the All-Inclusive Package for $299.95 (or cheaper if you’ve previously purchased a single/developer’s license of a Revolution theme).