Cre8tive Burst for Genesis

Today’s WP Theme of the Day is the Cre8tive Burst Child theme built for the Genesis Theme Framework.

This stylish theme includes 4 color styles, 3 layout options, custom background, custom menus, featured images, fixed width, theme options and threaded comments.

The theme was created for the StudioPress Market Place which means it was created by a 3rd party, but carries all the best code and design and is approved by StudioPress for sale on their fast growing Market Place.

Cre8tive Burst is a child theme of the Genesis Theme Framework which is required to work properly.

Note: Cre8tive Burst Child theme is not part of the Pro-Plus All Themes pack, but does include top notch support.

Theme Details

• Cre8tive Burst Child Theme Price: $24.95
• Genesis Theme Framework Price: $59.95
• Current version: 1.0
• Last Updated: 2/6/2012
• License: GPL
• WP Requirements: WP 3.2
• WP Compatible up to: WP 3.3
• BuddyPress compatible: Unknown
• Features: 4 color styles, 3 layout options, custom background, custom menus, featured images, fixed width, theme options and threaded comments

Extra Savings

Are you a WordPress developer?
Get the StudioPress All Theme ProPlus Pack and get access to Genesis Theme Framework and over 45+ child themes along with any new themes in the future with support for only $349.95.

Need Hosting?
Check out our list of the best WordPress Web Hosting companies.

User Reviews

If you’ve purchased this theme, please let us and others know about your experience with it in the comments section below. Did you like it, was it hard to modify, how was the support, what types of options does it have and what overall grade would you give it?

Also, please rate Cre8tive Burst Theme if you’ve purchased it.
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

2012 Promo Coupon Code for StudioPress WordPress Themes

Hurry before prices go up. StudioPress which has over 44 Premium WordPress Themes is about to raise it’s Pro Plus Package prices, but for a limited 7 day period they are offering 10% off the Pro-Plus Pack which currently retails for $299.95.

StudioPress has over 40+ child themes which were developed to run on the Genesis Theme Framework. Each theme comes with multiple design layouts, enhanced security, easy updating and the ability to easily modify your theme.

With the purchase of a Pro-Plus Pack you get access to over 40 current child themes along with full support, plus any future themes released. StudioPress usually releases about 1-2 new themes per month.

Using the code TEN at checkout, you can save 10% off of the price of the StudioPress Pro Plus All-Theme Package.

Remember this only is available till the end of the month. Then the price is going up. So take advantage now.

Update 1-31-12: This is the last day to take advantage of the discounted pricing. Pro Plus pricing goes up as of tomorrow.

Today’s WP Theme of the Day is the Driskill Child theme built for the Genesis Theme Framework.

The theme is the first to be offered on the StudioPress Market Place that incorporates what’s called Responsive Design. This means that the theme is built to respond to whatever size of screen someone has. So for instance… The theme will look great if I look at it on my 21.5 inch iMac with a resolution of 1920×1080 or will also look great and auto respond and reconfigure itself to look great on an iPad or any mobile phone like the iPhone.

Click here to find out more about Responsive Design.

Responsive design for WordPress makes designing a site for mobile, desktop or laptop seamless and almost gets rid of the need for a dedicated app or mobile version.

Driskill is a child theme of the Genesis Theme Framework which is required to work properly.

Theme Details

• Driskill Child Theme Price: $24.95
• Genesis Theme Framework Price: $59.95
• Current version: 1.0
• Last Updated: 9/15/11
• License: GPL
• WP Requirements: WP 3.2
• WP Compatible up to: WP 3.3
• BuddyPress compatible: No
• Features: 2 color styles, 6 layout options, custom background, custom header, featured images, fixed width, responsive design, theme options, threaded comments

Extra Savings

Are you a WordPress developer?
Get the StudioPress All Theme ProPlus Pack and get access to Genesis Theme Framework and over 30+ child themes along with any new themes in the future with support for only $299.95.

Need Hosting?
Check out our list of the best WordPress Web Hosting companies.

User Reviews

If you’ve purchased this theme, please let us and others know about your experience with it in the comments section below. Did you like it, was it hard to modify, how was the support, what types of options does it have and what overall grade would you give it?

Also, please rate Driskill Theme if you’ve purchased it.
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

StudioPress Black Friday & Thanksgiving Promotion

Premium WordPress theme/plugin company StudioPress wants to say thanks, so starting Tuesday, November 22nd they will be offering 25% off all products for a limited time only. The sale will run through 7pm Pacific time on Monday, November 28. StudioPress rarely offers promo codes anymore so make sure to take advantage of this limited time sale.

Using the code THANKS at checkout, you can save 25% off of anything you’d like at StudioPress.

Take a look at these great holiday savings at StudioPress

1. Get the Genesis Framework for only $45.

2. Snag most Genesis / design combos for a song and save close to $20.

3. Wipe the entire shop clean and get the StudioPress Pro Plus All-Theme Package. Get Genesis plus every design they’ve made, plus every design they make in the future, and save more than $74 off the regular price and over $875 off the retail price — and that’s just the existing 43 designs! New themes are released monthly so if you’re a web designer this package is perfect for you.

All you need to do is use the code THANKS when you check out and you’ll save 25% on anything and everything.

This deal ends promptly at 7:00 pm Pacific time on Monday, November 28, 2011. Hurry up and claim your new WordPress theme before the code expires!

Video: 3 Reasons To Be Thankful For StudioPress

It wasn’t too long ago when we simply turned to our mobile phones to make a call, but now it is a multipurpose device that rarely leaves our hands. If you are hoping to use your iPhone for more than sending texts or updating your Facebook status, there’s an app for that.

Mobile platforms and web design are intertwining more and more every day. You can now create your own website right from your mobile device. We thought we would help you out with our list of the most beneficial tools of the trade. Here are the top three apps for different aspects of designing on the go, all at varying degrees of expense.

Photo/Graphic Design

• Zeptopad ($19.99) – With this app, you can sketch/design on your phone, using your finger as a pencil. You can upload the images you create to your site, as well as to other devices.
• Brushes ($4.99) – Brushes is a great tool for editing artwork on your mobile device, giving you the freedom to layer images and alter colors.
• Cliqcliq Colors (Free) – This app helps you find the exact color you need for photos as well as letting you lift colors from any image on your iPhone. You can also export the colors you create to use in other programs, such as Photoshop and Illustrator.

HTML

• HTML Writer ($2.99) – Creating and editing HTML on the go is now easier with this app. You are able to download all your files to a server to access on other devices as well.
• HTML Colors ($0.99) – This app is helpful for those who want to experiment with colors on their website. You can preview how color combinations will appear and find what works best, saving time with having to alter with coding on your site.
• WordPress (Free) – For those designers who run a blog on WordPress, you may now use this iPhone app to post and edit on your blog. It is also possible to use this app to moderate comments and upload videos or pictures.

Audio/Video

• iMovie ($4.99) – Mac users already know the ease of creating videos and slideshows with this app. Once complete, you are able to upload these videos straight from the app to sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and CNNiReport.
• Audio Tool ($1.99) – If you need to use your phone as a microphone, this app can help you with that. If your site needs audio, you can record it from your phone and upload to any other device.
• Animoto (Free) – This app is similar to iMovie, with the main difference being that you are limited to the number of images per slideshow. You can still upload or share the video though.

Project/Task Management

• OmniFocus ($19.99) – This calendar app helps you keep track of tasks so you’re never late on a project again. You are also able to create lists for different projects, keeping you organized and efficient.
• ezShare Pro ($15.99) – This program gives you access to everything you keep on your computer, whether it’s at home or at work. This even has the ability to encrypt data to keep it safe from prying eyes and is ideal for anyone who is running a lot of projects at once.
• Box.Net (Free) – You can save files through this system and share these with others, giving them the ability to view and edit the files, just like in Google Docs.

Other

• Analytics Pro ($5.99) – Now you can access Google Analytics via your mobile device, putting all your statistics in one place. With this app, you can track your website visitors, traffic sources, referrals, top content, top countries, operating system and search keywords.
• Files+ ($1.99) – The Files app turns your iPhone into a mobile storage device, allowing you to store and view your files and share them with your home/office Mac or PC.
• Dexigner (Free) – You can keep up on all the latest news in the design world and learn from the professionals with this app. The “around me” feature allows the app to find design events near your current location as well.

What are some other tools you use for mobile development? Let us know in the comments below.

Although Matt Mullenweg and WordPress have to my knowledge never officially given credit to the premium theme and plugin community I don’t think anyone can argue against the fact the reason the WordPress platform is where it is today is because of 3rd party theme and plugin developers.

So with all that in mind… Who’s your favorite premium WordPress theme company and why? Was it price, style of their themes, clean code or because they offered second to none support? Let us know by voting in the poll and then comments section below.

The Internet is a largely unregulated worldwide collection of data being exchanged in and through computers and because of its vast nature, it’s open to unlimited criminal activity. Hacking is one of the major problems experienced and many bloggers have been subjected to this unlawful encounter. Once a blog has been hacked into, the process of correcting the situation can be detailed and complex. It’s therefore best to take preventive measures when setting up a blog with the hope that hacking can be avoided.

How Hacking is Successfully Accomplished

Through passwords, blog owners have read/write access to their blogs so they’re able to edit their blogs. Everyone else has read access only. The security systems of the blog platforms used is supposed to protect this access. Unfortunately, career hackers spend every waking moment devising schemes to breach these security systems, causing significant damage that may even be irreparable.

Steps to Take that May Impede Hacking

When setting up a blog, consider the following:

• Keep up with any new software versions for the blogging platform used and upgrade accordingly
• Maintain robust virus protection and firewalls
• Avoid using unsecured WiFi networks and limit use in internet cafes
• Keep all of your internet related software up to date with the latest security patches

What to do After a Blog has been Invaded

Immediately after discovering the problem, bloggers should notify their web hosting company and give them the following details:

• When the problem was first noticed
• Compile and report the actual evidence that proves the site has been compromised
• If possible, find out precisely where the security breach occurred
• Run one to two antivirus and antispyware scans on the computer
• Change all passwords and continue to change them on a monthly basis

Once all of the above has been done, bloggers can begin to repair their blog sites with the help of the web hosting company and by researching instructions on how to perform the restoration process.

Web Hosting Companies

If people want to produce revenue and recognition with their websites, then it’s imperative that they create a lasting web presence on the internet. Finding a web hosting company to support a website is a crucial step in the process. Although the amount of money spent should be a serious consideration, people should avoid choosing between web hosting solutions simply because they’re cheap if the web hosting doesn’t support their needs. When choosing a web host, consider the following:

• The hosting platform should support the user’s operating system
• Choose a host that provides the features needed
• The level of customer support is critical because this support will be invaluable when it comes to correcting a hacking problem or any other problem that may occur. Customers must have access to a skillful and knowledgeable customer support team 24 hours per day all year long, with several means of contact (email, telephone, online chats)
• Choose a host that provides reliable service with functional platforms and minimal down time
• Choose a web host that offers a money-back guarantee in the event dissatisfaction is experienced after a trial run

The good thing is there are numerous web hosts out there that offer a cheap web hosting plan that’s inexpensive and totally reliable.

Reselling Web Hosting Services

Reseller hosting is one of the ways a website owner can acquire web hosting services. A web host reseller acts as an agent for web hosting companies who sells that company’s web hosting services to customers. The web host reseller does this by buying server space to use to market the web hosting company’s services for the purpose of selling those services to the their customers. Customers must be aware of the potential for scams, however, as the biggest problem they may encounter is not knowing precisely who they’re dealing with: the web hosting company or the reseller. Not knowing this leaves an opening for scam artists to enter and wreak major havoc on blog owners.

Conclusion

The biggest mistake bloggers make before and after a possible hack job is not remaining vigilant about protecting their sites. Therefore, owners must protect their interests by following the well-known published rules that are meant to keep hackers away.

Besides following the basic steps that are mentioned in this article, it’s evident that the web hosts chosen to use for blog hosting is detrimental to the success and maintenance of a blog. After all, blog hosting companies have their own security systems set up that acts as a second layer of defense in addition to the security systems that are set up on individual computers. Ultimately, bloggers are responsible for their own sites so they should take the initiative to learn as much as they can by conferring with other bloggers (one blogger may be able to recognize something that another blogger doesn’t) and researching these matters on their own.

Back in December of 2010 I was looking to switch hosting providers for my sites which currently all run using WordPress open source website platform. I was at the time hosting all of my sites using a Dedicated Virtual Server configuration on MediaTemple, but felt like I was paying a bit too much monthly and also found myself wishing I didn’t have to deal with the day to day aspect of managing multiple sites, worrying about security, performance and all the rest of the things that come with running multiple sites that generate a decent bit of traffic. Those were aspects that ate into my daily workflow and prevented me from spending more time on content creation, marketing and driving sales.

Around Chistmas 2010 I received an email from R. Anthony Solis who’s the founder of a family owned hosting company called Webshoo which specializes in WordPress hosting. He had some ideas on how we could possibly cross promote each others businesses. Although an official partnership was never formed we have helped promote each others businesses from time to time, but more importantly I have had the pleasure of having Webshoo manage my hosting needs across multiple sites and all I can say is WOW!

Over the last few months Webshoo has completely handled all the backend details regarding setting up new sites for me, handling security, updates and getting my sites performance to work at the optimal level using W3Total Cache and a CDN delivery network for all my images. Whenever a site has had an issue (which hasn’t been often) it’s been handled immediately and professionally.

Webshoo Premium WordPress Hosting is perfect for the individual or small business who doesn’t want to have to worry about the day to day managing of sites and let’s an industry expert handle the daily management so you can focus solely on the growth of your business while letting an expert worry about site performance, setup and security.

A little background on Webshoo…

Webshoo.com is a family-owned web company, based on the beautiful islands of Hawaii. Our company provides premium managed hosting and web app services to small business or individuals. We specialize in WordPress, Google Apps, Microsoft Online services and other business related web applications. If you are looking for quality hosting services and advanced technology to host your website, we can do that for you.

Webshoo is here to help. Your Webshoo team will give you personal service and provide a viable solution or point you in the right direction. If there isn’t one, we’ll let you know too! Our goal is to provide you with friendly, professional service & support. We usually respond within 24 hours but have been known to reply back within the same day.

Webshoo.com has a web hosting support team that never sleeps; 24/7, 365 days a year. So feel at peace that we’ll be taking care of your website and web applications as fast as we can. Since we offer managed services, a lot of the times, you won’t even know something happened. How’s that for service? You can find us at support@webshoo.com or call 4802-MYSHOO (697466).

So if you’re new to WordPress, just starting your small business or personal website or just don’t want to have to worry about the day to day hassles of setting up or managing your sites you should definitely check out Webshoo.com. You can also follow Webshoo on Twitter @Webshoo. Plans start at as little as $25/month.

*Note: This is a personal endorsement with no affiliate links or monetary benefit to me. I simply love the service R. Anthony Solis and Webshoo offers and feel it could help many other small businesses and startups.

With thousands of sites using the StudioPress Genesis Theme Framework I decided to give the readers here a small look at what I consider some of the best uses of Genesis. This isn’t a perfect list by any means as there are almost too many beautiful sites created using Genesis Child Themes, but it’s a small sample of some of the more unique designs.

I tended to lean more towards beautiful designs and less toward straight blogging sites although there are quite a few of those too like Chris Brogan’s site, CopyBlogger, ProBlogger, Brian Gardner’s personal site (founder of StudioPress) and even this site and my personal blog.

If anything I hope this gives you an idea of the versatility of the Genesis Theme Framework and allows you to expand your ideas of what can be accomplished with it. Some of the benefits of using Genesis are automatic theme updates, pro SEO settings, enhanced security, custom widgets, hooks and layout options, 24/hr support and dozens of stylish child themes.

Here’s my list… if you know of another one, please link to it in the comments section below. They’re not in any specific order outside of the fact these are 20 of the best I’ve come across, but my favorite would probably have to be Win With WordPress.

The Standard Theme is an extremely versatile WordPress theme with easy customization in mind. It comes with a huge amount of theme options which allow you to easily customize the entire front end of your site. It also comes with built in SEO options, advertising spots, numerous page templates and is load speed optimized for lightening quick load speeds.

If you’re looking for a theme that’s easy to customize and comes with tons of built in options… give Standard Theme a try.

Take a look at all the features…

Standard Theme Features

• Admin Panel Options
• SEO Optimized
• Community Forums
• Advanced Analytics
• Localization Support
• Page Templates
• Social Networking and Viral Sharing
• Widgetized Sidebars
• Post Thumbnails
• Load Speed Optimized
• Ad Spots
• Advanced Commenting Features
• Cross Browser Compatibility
• XHTML/CSS Compliant

Still not convinced?

Take a video walkthrough of the Standard Theme

User Reviews

If you’ve purchased this theme, please let us and others know about your experience with it in the comments section below. Did you like it, was it hard to modify, how was the support, what types of options does it have and what overall grade would you give it?

Also, please rate the Standard Theme if you’ve purchased it.
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.