I really enjoyed my past them – fracticles – but I started to run into issues with the theme and plugins The whole point to have a plugin on your site is so it can improve some aspect of the user experience… so, when I cannot use the plugins of my choosing, time to look elsewhere.

At the suggestion of Gianna, I needed to install a “subscription to this post” feature.  A feature that didn’t want to work in the last template. 

Now that we’ve moved on to the Bella theme, it looks as if my issuse are now resolved.  I you run into any problems, please let me know.

Just when I gave up hope on finding a Wordpress template that would meet my needs, one came along that was interesting. I tried it but it sitll doesn’t work for me  (not that it’s bad, it actually looks very clean.  

Anyway, developer Arcsin, release a new theme that is worth looking at if you like basic two-column designs.

Here you go – it’s called Emplode.

Much like the Wordpress templates and plugins sites there a large number of Wordpress News websites available.  Frankly, most of them are spam sites simply attempting to capitalize on the brand name.  People throw up a blog, include AdSense, and link to a bunch of other sites that simply mentioned the term Wordpress in the hopes of having search engine traffic blindly clicking on their ads.

Let’s cut through the junk – here are the Top 4 Wordpress News Sources I utilize.

Planet Wordpress

This is the defacto source of news for all things Wordpress, but it’s not a blog – it’s a blog aggregator.  It collects feeds from publishers around the web and centralize all the information into one giant feed of nothing but the highest quality information.

Weblog Tools Collection

Original content, dedicated writing staff, and additional blogging information makes Weblog Tools Collection a must see on a daily basis.  They usually have some of the freshest news available.   

Wordpress Publishers Blog

Another site run by the Automattic crew – their focus is on making sure publishers get the most out of the Wordpress experience.  One cool thing they do is highlight unique sites that utilize Wordpress.  

WordCast PodCast

Let’s face it, sometimes you are just lazy.  You don’t want to read.  There is nothing wrong if it, I get you, I get the same way.  A weekly podcast informs you of the latest plugins, themes and news related to Wordpress.

Add the sites to your reader, check them daily and enjoy.

If you are looking for wordpress themes, chances are, one of the first places you head off to is wordpress.org (that and you do a Google search).  While wordpress.org has a huge database of themes and templates, you really have to search through a bunch of junk in order to find the quality themes.

As I had mentioned previously, I am looking for a new theme to fit my needs as my current theme – while there is nothing wrong with it – do not seem to be fitting my needs. During my search I happened to find a number of sites that link to some amazing templates that you may not have seen before.

Here we go.

100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes

The 100 excellent themes cover a wide range of styles, a number of which you may have run across, however, there are a number of clean and highly appealing options to pick from.

10 Unique Wordpress Theme

There is only one on this list that I had previously seen, the rest are new to me.   Visually appealing and practical, nothing here is too “artistic”.

18 Minimalist Designs

We have touched on professional, clean and unique thus far – time for some minimal wordpress themes.   Nice stuff.

The above links will help you on your way, no doubt.  As the above provide you with a number of options, I just want to point out one specific theme.  While not my style, it will work for some.  Check out “Bus Full of Hippies” – a beautiful theme.

Here is my mission – I need a new Wordpress Theme (3 Col) that is clean and allows widgets.  I’ve checked a number of sources but can’t seem to find anything quality.

Please send me an email if you have favs or suggestions as to where I can look.

Thanks!

In no way is my blog popular.  I usually have roughly 1000 people a day dropping in to see what I am thinking, or what I have found on the net.  I mean, really, how interesting could my thoughts on life be? Regardless of how much traffic my site receives, I want to provide the best possible user experience.

Suddenly it seem as if my Wordpress theme is not fitting my needs in terms of flexibility.  Mind you, this is not a bad layout, it is actually one of the best I have seen, my needs have simply changed.

The ultimate desire is to have a site that provides a clean user experience but addresses all of the needs I have as a blogger.  I do not want to have a cluttered user interface, overwhelming the reader with information.  At the same time I want to provide all the information I see as useful to potential visitors.

So, a few things may be changing in the near future.  No user functionality will be lost, no data will be removed, just a simply change in appearance. I just hope I do not need to create my own theme.