My New Solostream Theme

I’d like to welcome you to my new Solostream premium WordPress theme. I hope you like the update. I figured I’d give you a little background on my recent theme changes for JayGaulard.com.

Alright – When I first relaunched this website a few months ago, I believe I began using the theme, Twenty Twelve. This is a default WordPress theme that comes with the package when you download it. As with many standard themes, I wasn’t thrilled with Twenty Twelve and began searching for something with more punch. I wanted a theme that allowed for my creativity to shine through. I wanted more gadgets and customization than what Twenty Twelve offered and above all else, I wanted to show thumbnail images for each post on the homepage. With what I was using, I would’ve had to change a bunch of code to get that done. What a hassle.

After a bit of searching around, I found a theme designer called StudioPress.

I fell in love with their “Genesis Framework” and purchased and guts of their theme package. I think I spent around $50. I can’t remember, but what I do recall is that I bought the bare minimum to make the theme work. I couldn’t decide on an individual theme from that many they offered, so I decided to simply purchase what I could and then make up my mind later. Unfortunately, some time went by and every time I re-visited StudioPress’ website to decide on a theme “skin,” I got more and more bored with their offerings. Hey, it happens. But I’ll tell you this – their system is very smooth running and their themes are great. Many big name bloggers, such as ProBlogger and Yoast, use their stuff. Actually, it was after I discovered that these guys use the Genesis Framework that I hopped on board.

But like so many other themes that fall by the wayside, StudioPress did as well. I’m not sure if it was my boredom with what I had been looking at every day or if it was the fact that under every picture in a post, there was a space missing, cramping the bottom of the picture with the paragraph below, but whatever it was, I decided to go back to Twenty Twelve once again and wait things out. I’d wait until I found a new theme. One that just crossed my path at the right time.

Well, well, well. Just a few days ago, I was checking out a fairly decent looking blog, when I noticed a small, “Powered by SoloStream” link at the bottom. I thought this was interesting, so I clicked the link and visited their site to see what they offered. As it turns out, they offer a lot.

The theme you are currently looking at is called, “WP-Responsive” and was purchased because of its responsiveness to the size of the device the site is being viewed on. Whether it be a cell phone, a tablet or a laptop, the blog will still keep its readability and form. In this day and age, I’d say that’s important.

It’s also got tons of goodies under the hood. As you may have noticed, I now have a huge “Featured Posts” section across the top of the homepage. I also now have a bunch of neat widgets, such as tabbed links, featured posts and pages, all sorts of homepage layouts and a whole lot more. The theme cost $59 and I can use it on as many websites as I see fit. I already installed it on my Jiu-Jitsu blog and plan to do the same with the new photography blog I mentioned in my last post.

Anyway, let me know what you think of the new look. I like it and every time I look at the sites, I build more and more pride in what I write. Interesting how that somehow matters.