I finally grabbed a few hours to give the CoachNotes Blog a new look, really a complete makeover. Previously I was using the Guangzhou Theme by John Godley of Urban Giraffe. I switched to Traction Theme by The Theme Foundry. It reminds me a bit of the Hybrid News Theme (by JustinTadlock) in use on this blog.
CoachNotes is the blog I created to help entrepreneurs and local business owners put their business online. It features video tutorials, how-to guides, and articles that answer today’s questions about e-commerce, content management systems, web tools, smart business systems. It also features in-depth series like Power Up Your Online Business. CoachNotes is housed on LocalBusinessCoachOnline.com.
The Traction Theme for WordPress is very sharp, with clean lines and thoughtful features built in. There is a free version and a commercial version. I’ve installed the free version and it works well for the site’s current needs.
3 Things I Like About The Traction Theme
Categories and Sub-Categories
See the blue horizontal bar there?
Because the Traction theme uses that bar for categories, I had to do a better job of organizing my categories into broad areas, then refining them using sub-categories. Sub-categories are neatly displayed on the drop-down menu.
Now it’s easier for visitors and clients to quickly navigate to the areas they find interesting. There is also a handy “search this site” space in the top right corner. You just click within it and type your search term.
Nice area for Social icons
The theme provides icons for FaceBook, Twitter, and RSS. They’re a bit smaller than what I wanted so I substituted them for larger ones found in the Social Network Icon Pack by Rogie King.
Traction Theme has a few customizeable areas within the WP Admin panel. I used one of theme to add extra icons for Skype, GoogleVoice, YouTube videos, and StumbleUpon.
The icons come in several sizes and include all the popular social media sites. I’m using the 32 x 32 pixels (32x32px) size. You can get your free copy from Komodo Media.
Post Thumbnail
I’m glad this theme takes advantage of the built-in thumbnailing feature of the WordPress software. The developer did a nice job of spacing the thumbnail image from the intro text and the layout of the front page is quite aesthetically pleasing. Even the date is unobtrusively placed (see it along the left side of the image and teaser?).
These features complement my blog content nicely and make the CoachNotes blog look much more professional. There are also a number of other customization options that contribute to the cohesiveness of the total look.
One thing I don’t care for is how a border is placed around every image. Thankfully, that can be remedied by changing the CSS governing the appearance of images in the stylesheet. As soon as I figure out which CSS code controls this feature, I’ll fix it.
Overall, I like CoachNotes’ new look and I highly recommend the Traction theme. It’s clean, elegant, professional, and thoughtfully coded.
Don’t you just love the way internet technologies even the playing field for small business? Having a great looking theme is just one more method that lets your customers know you care about their experience when they visit you.
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I think it looks great too. I was about to call you and ask you if you can do this and that but I have decided to go to your coach notes website 1st . . . then call you LOL! One of the benefits of being your daughter!
Twitter: VernessaTaylor
Aug. 5, 2010 at 1:20 pm #
Hey! Glad to see you stopped by. If you’re thinking about learning WordPress, I’ve got a great selection of videos to walk you through the basics … and there are so many talented WP gurus, I can point you towards. And, in case you don’t find what you need over on the CoachNotes site, you can hit me up for some freebie services (LOL).