Update: This post refers to a WordPress theme I have since swapped out for a new theme, also by StudioPress. Note – these themes are now included free-of-charge with any hosting plan by WPEngine.
I spent the better part of the weekend before last making updates and revisions to my personal blog, preparing for the holiday rush. The biggest change that I made was to install a new WordPress theme by StudioPress, called Revolution News.
I've used Brian's themes on a couple of blogs now and I love them – primarily because his designs are fresh and fabulous and better yet, they encourage visitors to poke around the site longer. After I installed the theme, the average visitor duration increased from 302 seconds to 356 seconds. The number of newsletter and feed subscribers has also increased by result.
Unlike typical themes, Brian's themes come with uniquely-styled homepages, archive sections, and post pages. I particularly like the ‘newspaper' look and feel of the Revolution News homepage, on which you can display recent posts from categories of your choice, in any order you like, which is infinitely preferable to the endless 10-post homepage scroll on most blogs. The primary and secondary top navigation bars allow you to highlight pages and categories that you particularly want your visitors to see and visit.
A Feedburner subscription button and an email form are already built-in, you just have to supply your own code. Site search is prominently located above the top navigation bar.
Brian's themes are also perfectly functional out of the box — unlike some of the free themes I've found on the WordPress codex which I've installed and later uninstalled.
Tutorials include:
- How to Create an Archives Page
- Using a Full Width Header Image
- Creating a Dynamic Home Page
- How to Use the Blog Link
- Using a Background Image
- How to Use the Single Page 2 Layout
- Creating Multiple Featured Pages
- Adding a Padded Color Border to Images
- Customizing the News Page
- How to Remove the Double Border
I still have tweaking to do, not least of which is to make a header graphic for the site. Otherwise, I'll just dash madly to get travel gift links up there in time for the Christmas shopping rush. Then again, Ed could that… while I change this blog over to a new StudioPress theme.
Sssshhhhh… don't tell him. 🙂
Hi
I really like this theme – is it still available?
Tom
The theme fits perfectly.
I love it
I’ve been watching Brian Gardner’s work for some time now. There are so damned many really bad, tacky, derivative designs out there, that when someone (like Brian) comes up with something interesting and tasteful, it raises the bar just a little bit for the rest of us.
This is what’s called a good thing.
Cheers,
Karl A. Shalek
John, the theme is just a WP theme and does not come with any additional plugins, which is nice because then you can add your own and most WP plugins are free.
Robert, You can add Adsense where you wish if you are familiar with customizing php templates (not too hard to do) or you can use the Adsense plugin for WordPress, which will make it simpler.
It is a great theme. I bought two of his themes and love working with them. And he is a very sweet and helpful guy. So much you can do with the themes. They just fit! Good luck getting yours tweaked!
This theme is not genius, it just looks a bit more “professional” than others, anyway it’s worth 100 bucks
Love, love, love the theme. But how does AdSense fit in the picture?
Robert
That’s a nice looking theme. Does it include plugins and everything or is it purely a theme? I use the Semiologic Pro package on some of my sites and I’m wondering whether this would integrate with it.
Also, I was poking around on your Roamsters site a bit and it looks like the places you’ve visited and your travel wishlist links on the about us page are broken.
Thanks for the tip…
John
Rosalind
I really like this information about Revolution News. I checked out the Revolution News website and it is a fantastic theme.
I will be purchasing myself soon.
Cheers for pointing it out.
I love Brian’s Revolution theme. I discovered it a few weeks ago and installed it on my own blog and love it. It’s very clean and professional.