The Abundance Premium WordPress Magazine Theme

Demo 15 – Lorem Ipsum Gonna Terrifyum

This site was created to show Abundance in conjunction with WordPress 3.0, as well as showing the flash header feature to those with flash-enabled browsers - you'll see flying bats in the header if your browser supports the feature. http://demo15.abundancetheme.com/

Demo 14 – Lorem Ipsum We Grafittium

Here, the sidebars have been configured to show on either side of the content rather than a pair on the left or the right, and I've been playing around with theme images again. The top of the 'wall' is part of the header, and an image repeated both across and down the central sheet forms the rest of it. Grass grows along the bottom of the wall in the footer image. http://demo14.abundancetheme.com/

Demo 13 – Lorem Ipsum Picka Bunchovvum

This one demonstrates how a y-repeat tiled central sheet image can be used to give the sidebar a different color to the content area. The image of a flower similar to those in the header and footer replaces the default sidebar list bullet image. http://demo13.abundancetheme.com/

Demo 12 – Lorem Ipsum Make A Note-o-vem

Again the result of messing around with the theme's image and tiling options with reckless abandon, the idea behind this one would probably work much better if implemented in cleaner colors. Although it does demonstrate that you can have a lot of fun with the theme due to it's flexibility, it's worth noting that in the majority of situations, quirky designs can lead eyeballs away from your content as well as your advertising. If you're tempted to go wild because the theme will let you, weigh up your situation carefully and remember that the theme will let you be conventional ...

Demo 11 – Lorem Ipsum Letsgo Potsum

This one's very loud around the edges, but it does give some idea of what can be achieved with a bit of image manipulation. Someone with actual graphical skill could probably pull off a similar idea without being quite so dazzling. However, the abilty to use an image in the central sheet is new to the theme and so I couldn't resist the chance to play with it. The cues - a 'norepeat' background image - sit between the top of the browser window and the top of the central sheet, the header and footer form both ends of the ...

Demo 10 – Lorem Ipsum Jusfer Showinem

The gap between the top of the central sheet and the top of the browser has been closed and the central sheet border and padding removed. There's also been some adjustment to the border width of the menus. http://demo10.abundancetheme.com/

Demo 9 – Lorem Ipsum Gonna Catchum

In the theme's options page, I closed the gap between the top of the central sheet and the top of the browser on this one, removed the central sheet border and padding and set the sheet color and background color to be the same. I uploaded the header as usual, then removed the cat and his thought bubble from it and uploaded it again to tile across the page behind the header (having already established that the image would tile seamlessly). Paw prints replace the standard sidebar bullet image. http://demo9.abundancetheme.com/

Demo 8 – Lorem Ipsum How I Ratedum

Created to demonstrate the ratings facility at the same time as I was actually coding it, and whilst simultaneously being distracted by some of the videos I chose to illustrate it, this site was brought to you by a violent heavy metal purple and the design skills typical of the average coder. It's not neon orange though, so things could have been much worse. The header was made to appear as if floating above the rest of the site by removing the padding and border from the central sheet and coloring the navbar the same color as the page background. ...

Demo 7 – Lorem Ipsum Kinda Boredovum

The top offset gap has been closed here and the the sheet padding removed, but I've left the sheet border. There's a narrow footer at the bottom of the page created from the same image as the header, both of which match the tiled background and the sidebar bullet image. Title bars have an upper and lower border in a darker color, and the navigation menu items have been given the same color as the navbar and so lose the tabbed look. The search box and date are beneath the header, and the category bar is above it for a ...

Abundance On Video

The Abundance Theme For WordPress – New In Version Six

As if it wasn’t already feature-packed enough, the latest version of The Abundance Theme offers a facility for uploading theme images straight from the WordPress admin instead of via FTP. In addition, you can now use an image in the central sheet area, tiled across, down, both or not at all.

It’s no longer necessary to edit theme files in order to configure excerpts if the default configuration isn’t appropriate for your needs. Now you can define excerpt length as well as image or video … read more

The Abundance Theme For WordPress – Showing Off On Video

With a growing base of satisfied users, it’s not unusual to randomly encounter the Abundance theme strutting it’s stuff and posing in a variety of configurations on those WordPress websites lucky enough to have found it.

Now that it’s discovered video there’ll be no stopping it – watch as it demonstrates it’s widgetized areas, video thumbnails, page templates and more. It even goes as far as to expose something that most WordPress themes will keep under wraps until they’ve got to know the casual surfer … read more

Design Features

Breaking Out Of The Box

Most of us who’ve been using WordPress for any length of time have seen easily recognizable themes which have taken off in popularity to the point where they’re devalued to some degree because they’ve become common rather than desirable. This can pose a problem for site flippers once potential buyers start thinking ‘Oh no, not that theme again’ before sighing and moving on, and even those who regularly use an uncommon theme for their own sites sometimes wish that the appearance could be a bit less ‘samey’.

The Abundance theme has several options which … read more

A Picture Says A Thousand Words – But A Video Thumbnail Can Say So Much More

Abundance does not limit you to the image thumbnails that are the mark of a magazine type theme, but lets you go beyond that by showing video thumbnails too, drawn from the embedded video content you choose to display in your posts (from Youtube, for example). However big the embedded video in your post is, it will automatically be reduced to thumbnail size for the front page.

You can fill all your thumbnail slots with video instead of images, or have a mix of video and image thumbnails. Don’t forget to take page loading … read more

Test And Experiment With Different Layouts

The Abundance theme’s many widgetized areas allow ample scope for experimentation, as does the ability to choose whether to display the content to the left or right of the sidebar. My own testing has so far demonstrated that moving the navigation to the footer and leaving the sidebars almost exclusively for monetization does have a positive effect on revenue. If your home page is a lengthy one then it may seem a lot to expect your visitors to scroll to the bottom to navigate – it’s seldom a good idea to include everything, just because … read more

Productivity

Get More Done With Quick And Easy Image Management

Most magazine-style themes draw their homepage and archive images from custom fields added to each post by the user as they’re written. This can be a time-consuming process, particularly if you’re using a plugin (Amazon Autoposter, for example) to create many posts automatically. It’s also a step that a lot of newcomers find confusing, and if you’re building websites to sell them you can find that even more of your time is eaten up in answering queries on the procedure.

In contrast, the Abundance theme uses a simple script to draw the first image … read more

The Abundance Theme And The Minimal Look

Magazine themes are very popular, both with conventional users and with website flippers, who need to make their sites as attractive to potential buyers as they aim to be to surfers. However, there are times when you don’t want to use a magazine theme immediately – perhaps if you’re more concerned about putting content online first and then prettying it up later once it’s got sufficient traffic coming to it (a better option than simply hoarding inactive domains because you’ve no time to do anything with them). Perhaps you’ve some sites you don’t want to … read more

Color Picker Convenience To Boost Productivity

If you’re a conventional WordPress user with few sites to think of, then the chances are that a color picker in a theme’s Admin options panel is just a welcome time-saver that makes life a little simpler. However, for a website flipper or someone growing a large website empire of their own, a color picker can make quite a difference to productivity.

Gone is the need to repeatedly edit and upload CSS sheets until you’re either happy with the result or just prepared to settle for it – the color picker makes changes possible in seconds. … read more