Hello folks. Well I'm not sure whether here is the right place for this topic, but I would like to share my experiences with others. Also I'd like to receive your reviews and critiques about my site. OK, here we go. Who am I? I'm Leo Mysor, a front-end web designer since 2002. Pretty newbie huh? I guess so... Anyway, you may call me Leo. The rise of idea I really like to design and share good things with others. In late August, I feel like to start a site to share my designs, also as a part of portfolio of my web design works. Because I'm pretty familiar with WordPress - one of the most popular blog system, and once had made some fair (boring, actually) free wp themes, I decided to launch a WordPress themes site. Choosing a domain This time I told myself not to make those "fair" themes like before. So I write down some domains with keywords like "unique", "special", "feature" and so on. Then I chose "uniquewp.com" as my site domain. However, what really gave me a bite is - somebody took that domain right in front of me. I mean, I'm late, 10 minutes, or less. Hurts, right? At last I picked wordpressbar.com, not a good one indeed, but also fine. It looks like a dropped domain. And it has the string "wordpress", this means I couldn't submit my themes to the free themes derectory of wordpress.org. Site architecture In one word, this is just to make a theme. However, before coding I must write down a sitemap, which is much more important and difficult. I know that there will be a site powered by WordPress to publish all the themes, and another live demo site for visitors to preview these themes. The main site will have some pages for static content, e.g. about me, feedback, trouble shooting, as well as regular posts and different categories and tags. For the demo site, I should prepare some content with various patterns so that visitors could easily preview how do the themes look like. SEO research Generally, I regard this step as a guide to set up categories. I use Google's keyword tool to find out what wp themes related keywords have the largest search volume, and how to group them. Then I set up my themes categories according to result of the SEO research. Making the WPB theme Finally, I started to build the theme for my site. The design is done by myself, with the help of some free resources. Some special functionalities are achieved by wp plugins, for example contact form, download management, ratings system and so on. This is not a hard work for one who is experienced. However, hard coding is also needed - the random showcase at the footer part, the connection between main site and demo site. Maybe I'll write tutorials for this some other day. Content - the King of internet For a themes site, themes are obviously necessary content. Wait a minute, is there a dead corner? Let's think about it - a contact page that has nothing other than some blank input area, or an about page says "This is Leo, roger!" only? That's not friendly, both for users and search engine. We need content, I mean, text. Anyway, themes are still the most important part. As a themes site, without good themes, all other content is just blah blah blah. The long run Promotion is a long way to go. This is not the first time I'm promoting a site. I have mental preparation for the hardship already. So let's see. To be continued... WPB has published the very first theme recently. I'm quite satisfied with it. My wife also likes it very much. I've started another post in DP forums to share with you all, enjoy it. I'll keep on making more good ones in the future. Yours, Leo
It's great that your making Wordpress themes what do you seem to gain from it or are you just doing it for the love of it?
Wordpress themes are great to put your anchor text in your footer. So make sure to do that so you are getting some links and more promotion.