I am always on the lookout for great themes for use on my different WordPress sites. Now these themes need to fulfill a couple of criteria, because firstly I want the sites to look aesthetically pleasing and secondly as I am not very technical (ok slight understatement there) they have to be easy to install and use.

One that I came across and really liked the layout on was the Simple Site from PremiumThemes.net. I decided to take the plunge and make the purchase and with my limited technical expertise (ahem) I pushed ahead.

Firstly, the theme was easy to install and upload to WordPress and it also came with a theme guide, which proved very helpful. The website also has a forum where you can ask other questions if they are not covered by the guide. The theme itself has a visual editor where you can change certain information at the pointand click of a mouse. It also come pre-packed with a Home Page, Blog Page and Gallery if that is your thing. For example you can feature certain products here and link directly to where they can be purchased.

The only thing I had problems with was getting the thumbnails to appear on the top of the homepage. The guide does explain how to do this, but as I say I am technically challenged. However, I posted in the forum and very quickly I was in touch with the owner of the site who put it right for me – a definite plus point was how helpful he was.

Anyway if you would like to see the fruits of my labours you can check out my pet blog, which is based on the SimpleSite01theme PetHooligans.com

Another big plus point that I discovered after I had bought the theme was that on the 1st Oct 2009 Premium Themes switched over to GPL (General Public License) so that the theme I bought, which I thought could only be used on one site, can now be used on as many sites as I wish, hurrah! In consequence an overhaul to this very website is coming soon.

If you want a professional, easy to use theme, with helpful customer support if you need it, I would say that you can’t go very far wrong with ==>> Premium Themes.

Update: 1st November. This site has now been updated using the Premium Theme, but the blog part only – I love the clean look. Any thoughts let me know!

We are all aware that WordPress is a great blogging platform, and nearly all of my own sites are now hosted WordPress blogs.

Much as I love the flexibility of a blog, however, there are times when a traditional website layout would suit me better. The answer I believed lay in using a low cost CMS theme for WordPress, which would let me turn a blog into a website.

Finding one of these proved elusive though and much as I searched, there just didn’t seem to be hardly any CMS themes around, or if there were they were way out of my price league. Well at last I have found one and over the next few weeks I will bring you an example of just how snazzy it looks.

If you need a CMS theme yourself head over to WP Remix and take a look.