In looking for a theme for a client’s project, I found the Ultra Web Studio Premium Theme. Mano — does this theme have the goods! Regardless of your business, small or large — Ultra Web Studio has the flexibility and the contemporary look to allow your business to impress.

The developer also includes the layered PSD files and very extensive documentation on how to install and use this theme! I particularly like the Blog template which has detailed date and comment accents that will add a splash of clean professionalism to your Blog.

The feature list is too long to list here, so I do recommend you go check out the demo and the variety of page templates and skins so that you get a good feel as to all the possibilities this theme has to offer.

Ultra Web Studio Premium WordPress Theme has 14 Pre-Made Skins!

Check out this crazy list of Premium Features:

• 2 Slide show options: Next previous and fade-in fade-out slider
• Dynamic sidebar and footer widget
• Google analytics tracking
• Automatic display of two latest posts in footer
• Custom Page Templates
• Blog Page
• 404 Error Page
• Two Portfolio Gallery options: Sortable and Post list Gallery (supporting unlimited items)
• Lightbox (Colorbox) Effect for Pop-up Images
• Pre-installed TimThumb PHP script for dynamic image resizing

Powerful Easy-to-Use Admin Panel:

• Set your color scheme
• Add your logo
• Add welcome title and text in home page
• Home page slide show
• Home page white three boxes
• Home page recent projects
• Contact Us page right sidebar
• Custom footer copyright text

The detail and the color accents of this theme are what really caught my eye and made me take notice. As you probably can tell by now, I collect themes like some collect shoes or purses — Ultra Web Studio has been added to my “theme closet” for future consideration!

At your service,
Judith

Ultra Web Studio 14 Skin Premium WordPress Theme is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

Yep, it’s September 1st. That means you had better be seriously thinking about the Holidays and stratgegically planning what needs to be done on your WordPress site — now. Not next week or next month; now.

If you are like me, you hate the fact that there is already Halloween candy being pushed in the local Walmart — heck that’s almost two months ahead! But the fact remains, when it comes to business, planning is imperative to being able to take every advantage the Holiday season can offer your business to better server your customers.

So, while I, like you, don’t like the idea of having to think about this stuff now — I am — and so shall you!

Regardless of whether you are eCom enabled or not, there are things every WordPress site owner needs to take into consideration from this day forward.

WordPress Holiday Site Planning Tips

Here is a list of things to think about, to add to your calendar and to keep front and center as the Holidays approach:

• Editorial Calendar: Stop right now and think about the stories and topics that you can write and Blog about and that your site can address that are Holiday related. By planning ahead and writing now when you have some free time here or there, you can avoid some of that hectic stress thing that takes over our lives around the Holidays. Use the WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugin to help you plan what to write when.
• Holiday Specials, Bonuses, Promos, Clubs, Discounts: Every Holiday gives you the ability to tailor a promotion that fits the Holiday theme du jour. Get creative, use themey graphics, offer special discounts. Be sure to integrate a way to gather opt-in e-mail addresses for your mailing list. Use your imagination!
• Newsletter and E-mail Blasts: Plan these mailings to announce your Holiday activities. Always offer useful and valuable information peppered with your specials and Holiday promos. Be sure these announcements are relevant and valuable. We never send out hypey-sales-pitchy mailings of no value now, do we?
• Relevant and Valuable Information? Create tips sheets or “How To” PDFs or articles that help your target market in some way during the Holidays while accentuating your expertise and ability to make their life easier. That’s what sells!
• eCommerce Sites: If you do eCom, have your drop dead shipping dates and schedules prominently displayed on every page of your site. Do what ever you can to help visitors plan their orders to ensure they are received on time for the Holiday at hand.
• “Holidize” your site! While a total theme over-haul is not necessary, a creative Holiday accent here or there can reflect your attention to detail and that you are actively involved in your site. As an example, look at how Google creates themey unique logos for special days — simple, memorable and effective in furthering their brand.
• Holiday Hours and Schedules: Be sure to note clearly, well in advance, on your WordPress site in the most apropos and obvious location(s) what your Holiday hours and schedule are. Are they extended? Are you closing early and on what dates? Ensure your visitors are informed!

Keeping the above issues in mind — and by starting to think about them now — will help in offering smooth operations during the Holiday Seasons ahead (and a few less gray hairs for you). Smooth operations = brand loyalty.

Do you have other things you put on your Web site “To Do List” at this time of the year for the Holdiays ahead? Feel like sharing?

At your service,
Judith

WordPress How To: Prepare for the Holidays is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

This post is one that I’ve wanted to put together for some time. In searching for softer, feminine, girlie themes for either my own projects or those of clients, I found there wasn’t much to choose from.

Unfortunately, themes geared toward feminine brands, products or female owned businesses do not seem to be created all that much. Not a biggie — the great thing about WordPress themes are they are pretty easy to customize.

But… there’s clearly opportunity in them ‘thar hills for theme developers willing to cater to this market! Hmmm…

I will share with you today some of the softer, prettier WordPress Premium themes that encountered in a recent search effort for one of my new projects that I feel deserve a shout out:

Pretty, Elegant, Feminine WordPress Premium Themes

	All I can say is “Wow”! You have to check out Stylize’s circular front page option that will give your Blog or Portfolio that “Wow” factor. This theme is truly unique and I bet artsy ladies will have to give it a whirl!
	This 5-in-One Theme offers several subtle pastel versions to choose from that will give your site a delicate ambiance.
	Paper Made’s blue sky with puffy white clouds background, combined with the gently crumpled paper accents, lends to a delicate and fun look.
	While this theme was created for a Spa related business, keep in mind that WordPress makes it easy to make a premium theme your own. Regardless of the nature of your business, Rejuvenate is great for any site that wants a softer touch.
	This WordPress eCommerce Theme has several color options, the most feminine being the retro blue/green/orange combo. This theme’s scalloped header and sidebar headers lend to a playful appeal for any girlie themed WordPress eStore!
	The Royalle Premium WordPress Theme has a rich tapestry background and crown embellishments that add to a more classical elegant appearance.
	Abstract comes in 4 colors and clearly has am edgy but still feminine appearance. More of a Blog styled theme the Abstract could easily be a great look for writers, photographers or artists.
	The PaperCut Premium WordPress Theme makes the list due the soft and artistic background choices offered. Shown is Floral, but you can easily switch out to 4 other decidedly soft and feminine backgrounds.
	Clean and Classy = Feminine! The Jewelry Shop has a classic look with a rich brocade background to tie it all together. This theme will surely help you get top dollar for your items!

A little graphic work, attention to details and a few embellishments, combined with a CSS that offers subtler color schemes and you can have a theme that is not so boxy or “corporatey”.

Did you notice I’ve only listed 9 themes? I’m holding out on you! After doing my research, there is one theme that I am saving for myself that I haven’t mentioned here. Why? Well, it was “the” theme I wanted to use for a new site I’ll be launching to compliment my service offering here — but with a different twist!

Being I keep footer links in place from the developers of the themes I use, once I launch the site, you’ll know where you can go grab the theme for yourself and make it yours. Until then… sign up for my “Muse Alerts” in the right sidebar over there to be one of the first to find out when I let the cat out of the bag!

At your service,
Judith

Top 10 Feminine Premium WordPress Themes is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

Feel like you don’t have enough time to get all your online activities accomplished? Well, if it makes you feel any better, you are not alone!

I struggle to get two posts a week in place here @ The IStudio. My other sites now have one post a week schedules. Like you, I simply cannot find any more time. And this includes working on my laptop in my great room every night until 10p. Makes me feel like I’m not “in the office” and able to watch T.V. a bit — but who am I really kidding?

Today I’ll share with you how you can prioritize your social media activities to try to make the best use of the time you do have.

Let Your WordPress Site do the Upfront Work!

What most folks don’t realize is you can take allot of the up front work out of the picture by having your WordPress site do all that work.

• Use Plugins and site imports to auto-post your site update feed:
• Twitter: Read my article on how to Auto Tweet to Twitter
• LinkedIn: Once logged in, click on More > Application Directory. Look for the WordPress application and follow the instructions to have your site’s feed be displayed on your LinkedIn page.
• FaceBook:
  “Facebook allows you to quickly and easily import an external blog from another website.
  1. Go to the main Notes application page by typing “Notes” into the search box at the top of the screen.
  2. Click the Import a blog link on the right side of the page.
  3. Enter the URL (web address) of your blog into the text box, and check the box underneath that states that you agree to our Terms of Use.
  4. To complete the process, click on “Save Settings.” Once you do this, your previous posts will appear as notes and any new posts you make will automatically display.”
• Look for “import” your site or feed from within your profile options pages at the social media sites your frequent.

O.K., we’ve saved time having to post our updates all over the place — but that doesn’t mean your job is done. If you want to get the best bang for your buck with “social” media — you have to be social! And, that my friends, is the largest time-drain of all.

Social Media Benefits Require Spending Time Being Social

Here are a few more tips on using your time wisely:

• Determine where your market is most likely “hanging out”. Concentrate the bulk of your time there engaging others, joining in and starting conversations.
• For Twitter, I use a program called TweetDeck. This allows me to look for Tweets and conversations by keyword to cut through all the noise and dribble that I’m not interested in (and there is a ton of that!). This application can save you a huge amount of time searching for those to engage.
• Use Google Alerts. Google alerts allows you to get notified about what’s happening online based on your keyword phrases of interest. Not only are Google Alerts great for reputation management purposes, you’ll most definitely find new sites to participate on and opportunities by virtue of tracking your primary market activities. Read my article: Keeping Tabs on Your Market.
• For FaceBook, read this great article from SEO Examiner, one of my fav SM Blogs for the FaceBook 101 Business Guide. Once you understand how to best use FaceBook, you then can more accurately budget your time.
• Mark your calendar every Friday, to bop around your top five social medias sites of priority and look for new contacts, comment on conversations (in a helpful non-sales-pitchy-hypey way), and assist others by volunteering information in your area of expertise.

That’s about as much as we can pair it down. While it will still take some bandwidth out of your schedule, it is important to understand that being social is about participating and “being there”.

Whenever I find the time, make the time, to be social — I meet great people, make new contacts and actually am reminded how opportunities abound.

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

At your service,
Judith

WordPress How To: Minimize Social Media Time Drain is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

Just got an e-mail from Roy over at ThemeJunkie about their latest creation! CubeLight is a sharp professional business portfolio Premium WordPress Theme that can help your enterprise stand out.

Business staples like top right corner navigation, 3 areas above-the-fold for your top focuses and a widgetized footer where you can have a lower right-hand contact area, all add up to creating a site that is user-friendly and gives your business that polished presentation.

“We are very happy to announce that the CubeLight theme is now released. CubeLight is our first business/portfolio theme which was designed and developed by our talented developer Paran – the guy who developed the high-popularity Weekly magazine theme. This theme comes with lots of new & functional features which helps to make your business/portfolio site beautiful, professional and easy to customize, all you can manage from the powerful Theme Options.”

CubeLight Premium WordPress Theme

Check out this Premium Theme’s Features:

• Advanced Theme Control Panel
• Auto-sized Thumbnail Management
• Text/Image Logo Switcher
• Fully Widgeted Sidebars
• Advertisement Management
• Localization Ready
• Analytics/Stat Management
• Built-in FeedBurner Support
• Threaded Comments
• Gravatar Ready
• Custom Page Templates
• Custom Widgets
• Dropdown Menu Navigation
• WordPress 3.0+ Compatible
• Cross-Browsers Compatibility
• Forum Support
• Lifetime Upgrade

What I think is also very cool is CubeLigth comes with 8 different colors schemes to choose from. One of which will surely meet your needs and minimize additional color customization.

Is it time for you to “think outside the cube”?

At your service,
Judith

Premium WordPress Theme “Think Outside the Cube” is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...