About the Flexibility theme

Flexibility was started as just another WordPresss theme and then it happened…

I was hung up on some aspect of the theme and was Googling around for information when I found a post about creating an options page in WordPress. I followed the instructions and in a few minutes I had a very basic options page with a couple of text fields and a select menu.

I started playing around with the CSS code and then I realized that I could control EVERY aspect of a theme simply by dynamically pulling the CSS parameters from the options table in the WordPress database. It was so simple, yet it had such possibilities!

It’s alive!

The options page slowly started to grow as I came up with ideas for customizing the theme. Along the way, I had to fight with myself to NOT include options that would confuse or complicate. I ended up using options that would give WordPress users the most flexibility, without being overkill. There are some aspects that are very nit-picky such as the letter spacing on the sidebar titles, but sometimes an all-capitalized, widely spaced title looks really sharp!

How much is too much?

There were many options that were left on the cutting-room floor just to keep the options page from being way too long. It’s probably too long the way it is, but that’s personal preference. Some users will find the level of detail is overkill, while others will wish I had added control over styling for many more items.

Before I decided on releasing Flexibility free, I had planned on releasing several versions of the theme depending on the level of control the user desired. One would have been geared more toward AdSense and included more options for ad placement, one would have been designed more for graphical customization and a third would have combined the two into an “ultimate” theme version.

It’s all that and more

With the free release, you essentially get the “ultimate” version scaled down just a tad to give very flexible theme customization. Flexibility is a work in progress, and I will be adding features and modifying existing features as I receive user feedback.

I am the lone tester of this theme so I’ll be relying on the first wave of downloaders to help me tweak it for various usability and code issues. I tested the theme on a Win XP machine in Firefox 2 & 3, IE 6 and 7, Opera 9 and some old crappy version of Netscape. I don’t have access to a Mac, so Safari input would be appreciated. Or feel free to make a small donation to feed my kids and I’ll just get a Mac and the kids can fend for themselves.

Plays nice with others

I tried to build the theme as cross-browser compliant as possible, but using transparent PNG images in IE6 is just a pain. There are some minor issues with repeating background images and the sidebar list icons in IE6. The list icons are an easy fix, just replace the liarrow.png and lidot.png files with GIF images and change the style.php file accordingly. I chose to use semi-transparent PNGs so any background color used in the top sidebar boxes would alter the color of the images to match the scheme.

What’s next for Flexibility?

Version 2.0 is under development and the highlights of the new theme are on the home page. I’m still deciding exactly what to add to it and remove, and all the feedback I’ve receive is very helpful. I’m not a big blogger, I just don’t have the time right now, so you guys are the one’s who can point me in the right direction.

What’s with the footer link?

Most WordPress themes have links to various other sites in the footer, whether it be back to WordPress.org or the theme designer’s sites. Many times these are simply paid links that the theme designer sells to make a little cash and the link buyer gets a few inlinks to their site. Recent versions of the theme have a link to QuoteClickInsure.com, which is a car insurance website I finally got around to developing (the link only appears on the home page, not posts or pages). I’m not actually a web designer/developer by trade, I’m a licensed insurance agent. I could bore you to death with car insurance lingo, coverage issues, and all the little secrets that I know as an agent for getting better car insurance rates. My new site is not anything great right now, as I’ve only had time to get the basic info on it. But over time I will be posting some of the things I’ve learned as an agent, and try to give some really good pointers and help guide people into a better car insurance policy. This is a major undertaking, as I will be monitoring all 50 states and trying to keep abreast of the legislation changes that could impact car insurance in each state. There are so many really bad car insurance sites out there, that I felt a need to put up a site that actually provides some useful information from an agent’s perspective. I would have liked a more accurate domain name since it’s more than just quotes, but we all know how hard it is to get a decent domain name.

I’m no expert at online marketing, but I do know a couple of things. First, good content brings organic traffic and I intend to have a lot of solid, unique content. Second, inbound links can help your search rankings, so that’s the purpose of the footer link (although it can be argued that sitewide footer links are devalued). Third, if I had to live off donations from my theme I would have starved about the second week of October ‘08.

There are hundreds and maybe even thousands of blogs out there using the theme by now, and I’ve received enough donations to basically buy a tank of gas or two (depending on the current gas prices) for my ‘02 Honda Accord. Believe me, I appreciate everyone who’s taken the time to donate and I didn’t create the theme to make money. But I’m changing the free usage terms a bit for the theme. So from this point on, all the footer links must remain in place in order to use the theme without making a donation.

Many people have e-mailed or posted in forums they think I’m crazy for giving this theme away, but I just don’t feel right about charging for something that is built on such a great free platform as WordPress. So all I’m asking for is a little link love if you like the theme.

Download and enjoy!

I can’t improve the theme without having user support, so download the theme and try it out. I require user registration in order to keep theme users informed on upgrades and added features, but your email is safe and won’t be shared with anyone else.