You will find thousands of free WordPress themes on the web. A simple search with the keyword – free WordPress themes – resulted in over 59,900,000 pages as of the date of this writing. It is difficult to select a theme which can satisfy all requirements. Moreover, a theme should be easy to customize and maintain.
Stuart Wider of StuartCindy Art, Australia has developed a classic and professional theme named HeatMap which has all the features to create a revenue generating website. The theme includes a built in menu for categories and numerous spots to insert Advertisements such as Google Adsense. You can make use of any ad service as long as you follow the terms and conditions laid out by the respective advertisers.
A core feature of the theme is that each ad spot is widgetized. This means that as soon as you create new ad spot a corresponding widget will be created. You can then place the widget in any location as per your preference. The location can be either extreme top, header, above, below content or in the wide top sidebar.
You can also place ads aligned to the left or right of the content but this ad spot will be useful only if you have enough content in the post. I feel that there should be an option to include the loop ads between first and second post, third and fourth post in the home page and between first and second paragraph in the post page.
The package consists of one main theme and numerous child themes with different variations. But you should modify adsense link colors each time you change the theme. I would suggest the developer to provide a facility to automatically insert ads upon only inputting the adsense publisher id. The theme also enables you to integrate google analytics without any third party WordPress plugin. However, there will be no clashes if you already make use of a plugin.
From my point of view, the developer has created the theme in such a way to enable users to experiment with the various features included with one of the hottest and professional WordPress theme. I would suggest the developer to include a guide which details the places where the ads get maximum number of impressions and revenue so that users can easily monetize the theme rather than doing lengthy experimentations. I would also prefer to see the integration of clickbank affiliate system into the theme.
The theme provides basic idea for you to setup ads but doesn’t provide any suggestion regarding placement of ads to attain high Click Through Rate (CTR) like other themes. Naturally, the CTR will be high if you place the ads above fold and it also depends upon the content.
You have to work with the theme for few days in order to find an accurate placement. However, Stuart provided tips and suggestions through e-mail. You can also openly ask questions in the secured dedicated forum and connect with fellow HeatMap users.
I highly recommend Stuart Wider’s HeatMap WordPress theme for all bloggers who want to create real professional quality monetized blog. I have seen that themes created for high CTR doesn’t look professional but Stuart has done an excellent job by mixing professionalism with money.
Do you maintain a WordPress blog? Then why not you buy a membership for $35 from http://heatmaptheme.com/store/ today. If you want you can test drive the free version and then migrate to paid. But I recommend paid theme straight away without any hestitation.
Resources
HeatMap Theme URL – http://heatmaptheme.com
Buy Membership – http://heatmaptheme.com/store/
