Since things have changed somewhat since I originally posted this and since I still get this question allot from prospective WordPress theme design clients I decided to revise and repost:

My custom WordPress themes are $500 per theme with $100 of that down as a deposit. I do offer discounts for clients that send me repeat business and have worked extensively with a handful clients to create multiple themes for them and their clients. In one case I have developed literally a hundred themes for a client whom I continue to work with from time to time.

This is how the development process usually goes:

I’ll get some general info from the client such as suggested color schemes, colors to avoid, styles or sites that the client likes, number of columns, etc. I’ll do a mock up and the client tells me what he likes, doesn’t like, wants changed, etc. I don’t mind making changes, going back to the drawing board, whatever is needed within reason.

Eventually we get to a design that gets approved. I then cut it up and build a template on a staging site. Once we agree that the test site looks good we’ll settle up and I’ll zip up the theme and send it to the client so that he can install it on his installation of WordPress. If a client needs assistance setting up the theme I am happy to help with that as well.

All the WordPress themes that I create are valid xhtml with css layout assuring that my clients sites are created with the latest web standards, are highly accessible, and render correctly on the vast majority of platforms and browsers.

Hey Now, I have tweaked a couple little things that folks have been asking for re: the free WasJTk WordPress theme. Nothing major, but I did fix a couple bugs and at least one quirk.

So if you are interested in getting a hold of the WasJTk WordPress theme, please get the new 1.1 version.

If you are waiting for a fix on one of the other free WP themes please remember that I have a real job and a life as well so please be patient, I plan on knocking out all of the reported bugs asap – besides, whattayawant for nothin?

Please Note: this theme is now hosted and supported over at Doc5.

As some of you guys know I do some WordPress contract / consulting work for The Blog Mill and in addition to my normal WP related duties over the last week I have been tasked to create some WordPress themes for them to offer freely to the general public.

For some reason we have decided to name these themes after things in the Beatles movie The Yellow Submarine. My two favorites so far are Blue Meanie and Pepperland. Both are different from what I normally do, so check them out and let the good folks at The Blog Mill know that JTk sent ya

My latest WordPress related issue came about because I mocked up what I thought was a good idea in photoshop, and then after I cut it up and tried to implement it I found out it was not so easy….

Okay, so what I wanted to do was have the latest post “featured” that is above the rest of the posts spanning the entire width of the area ( while the rest of the posts floated left of the sidebar ). And of course this would only happen on the homepage. Sounds simple right?

Well it turns out it in WordPress theming it is not so simple, but you can see how I hacked it up here:

http://themetest.com/test6/

What you have to do is first, the standard WordPress homepage trick:

  <?php if(is_home() ) { ?> 

//do this if it is the homepage

			<?php } else { ?>

// do this if it is not the home page

			<?php } ?>

and then what happens is that you need to have 2 WordPress loops, like so:

<?php $my_query = new WP_Query('showposts=1');
while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post();
$do_not_duplicate = $post->ID; ?>

// first loop stuff here

<?php endwhile; ?>

In that previous loop ( which goes inside the home page only code provided earlier ) you stick code that you want to run for the first post, so you need the entry, the title, date, etc.

Now, in the next WP loop you’ll have your normal loop stuff but it needs a little modification because you don’t want to repeat the first post.

<?php if ( have_posts() ) :
while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
if( $post->ID == $do_not_duplicate) continue;
update_post_caches($posts); ?>

// the regular loop stuff

	<?php endwhile; ?>

Whew! While WordPress is a dead simple CMS for end users, sometimes it makes developers jump through hoops. I am not sure if this will help anyone else understand what is going on, but I hope that it sheds some light on the issue – as this site: unintentionallyblank helped me.

Since I have become more successful designing WordPress themes then I could have ever guessed when I first looked into how it was done, I once again confront an issue that has haunted my professional existence – managing growth.

What I am trying to say is that I need to take on a partner that has some experience with WordPress themes and is an xhtml and css maven. If you are the right guy ( or girl ) I’ll split the total price of the project with you – I’ll do the Photoshop and client management and you’ll do cutting up and WordPressing.

Bounce over to the contact page if you are interested.

– Yep Another free, creative commons licensed WordPress theme that I am setting free: WasImJTk

This one is a little special because it was not designed to be a freely available creative commons theme but rather it was the previous theme of imjtk.com. This theme served me well and when it was time to re-boot the site, I thought, hey, why not give away the old WordPress theme…

So here you go, feel free to download this theme and do with it what you will – but if you do please respect the creative commons attribution license and give imjtk a link somewhere or another ( that’s the attribution in the attribution license ).

Note: This theme is now hosted and updated over at Doc5.com

Turns out I don’t have time to take on any new work for a while, so unless we have already spoken about a project I won’t be able to take on any new jobs. I hate to turn away work but I have some catching up to do as well as some interesting longer terms projects in the hopper that need my full attention.

The only other alternative I have to to hire some folks to work with me and I have had varying sucsess with that in the past…

So, when I am available for hire again I’ll post and let you know. And if you are a kick ass css / xhtml monkey that is looking for some work let me know and we can at least discuss it.

Recently I have been doing allot of clones jobs, that is, creating WordPress themes that try and visually emulate existing sites. In these cases I have been creating these new WordPress themes for the owners of the existing sites so there are no ethical issues…

Most of the time the original sites are done with old school tables so I don’t have the option of using the original html files. The existing css files vary greatly in their usefulness. So, what I generally do is recreate the most important parts of the site in Photoshop so that I have all uncompressed graphics for the main areas and cut that up for the headers, repeaters, footers, etc. and make a basic xhtml document form that.

My philosophy is that I am not trying to recreate the original site exactly, I am trying to make it 90% similar and bloggify it with the other 10%. Here’s an example:

Original Site   .   My Blogified, Cloned WordPress Theme

This WordPress Theme is about 90% done as I post this…

All right then, I have decided to try and raise a few bucks to help me create my next free WordPress theme. I see it as sort of like a number of folks all ponying up a few buck a piece to commission a new, cool, standards complaint WordPress theme.

I like releasing the free themes, but as my little family grows and life occurs it is harder and harder to spend time in front of the computer except for working on paying clients sites. So I decided to split the cost of the next freebie theme – I am trying to raise half the cost of what I charge for a custom theme for my clients.

I have created over 65 WordPress themes and as my experience increases so do the quality of my themes, so I am confident that I will be providing the WordPress community something of value with this new theme.

The chip in system makes it easy to use your PayPal account or a credit card to contribute as much or as little to this project as you would like and it has the added benefit of being vetted by a third party. Everyone that contributes over $5 and wants a thank you link will get one.

Just use the Chip In widget on the top of the left hand sidebar to get started.

Nicholas left me a comment the other day and pointed out that I had neglected to include a fairly important component from the Black Kryptonite WordPress theme.

This oversight has been corrected and now you can get Black Kryptonite 1.1