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development Domain Development: 5 Top WordPress Themes For Domainers

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Welcome to a Labor Day edition of Domain Development, a series in which I'll show you how to go about creating websites for your domain names. As parking revenue is virtually non existent for many domain names, developing your names into fully functioning websites is a viable alternative. Knowing how to create websites yourself will also save you plenty of money in development costs.

Today, I'll be discussing WordPress themes. In my two previous posts, I've discussed how to create a WordPress website, and shown you five plugins that you'll need for your new WordPress installation. Today, we move on to themes.

WordPress themes are a series of files made up of HTML, PHP, CSS and Image files which change the layout and design of a WordPress website. Fortunately, because WordPress is so popular, there are plenty of themes out there for virtually any website that you want to create.

There are both free and commercial (premium) themes available for the WordPress platform. The most reliable free WordPress themes are listed at WordPress.org, although I'm personally not a fan of using free themes to create a professional website. To me, the majority of free WordPress themes on offer are fairly limited in terms of the creativity of the design and the features available. Which is why I prefer to pay a little to get much more.

As a domainer looking to make money from my portfolio by developing websites, I want to make as much of the process as simple and as repeatable as possible; cutting down the amount of time that one spends on the development side. This is why I use just a few themes for all of my websites that I produce.

I have five recommended premium WordPress themes for you to take a look at. These are all themes that have worked well for me in the past when producing affiliate, lead generation and authority websites. The themes below also have licenses to ensure that you can legally use the themes on more than one website.

1. Genesis by StudioPress
Genesis by StudioPress is one of the most popular frameworks on which some of the best sites around have been created. The Genesis framework - whilst not technically a theme - is the perfect platform for beginners and intermediates. Genesis has been built using fast loading code and a solid SEO structure. The platform is also very easy to make small modifications to without having to know much about coding.

The design and layout of Genesis is controlled by Child Themes. These themes mean that it's extremely easy to create the website you need.

I've used a couple of the Genesis child themes:
Author Pro for an affiliate website. It has a very simple look, but it has the functionality to be a very good affiliate website template.

Altitude was used as a lead generation site for a web design company. The simple, professional design means that your content is always displayed prominently. The above-the-fold landing page design also helps to draw attention to important links.

2. Avada by Theme Fusion
This is a theme that I've had a lot of success with. I recently sold a dental industry domain name on which I had built a WordPress lead generation website using this theme. The company was so impressed with the website that they wanted to acquire that, too!

Avada is a very versatile theme, and one which can be used for a number of different sites, although I suspect the majority of you would use Avada for lead generation as I have done.

3. WPLMS

If you own an authority domain name which users will visit to find out information on a certain subject, you may consider creating a Udemy-esque website to sell the information that users are looking for. Instead of giving away the content for free, and relying on advertising for revenue, WPLMS theme gives you the opportunity to easily create a Learning Management System to sell your own courses.

If you're not an expert in the niche you're creating the website, then it may be worth your while finding a skilled writer or presenter to write/film content for you to sell.

4. OptimizePress
Another option for those looking to create lead generation sites is OptimizePress. It is a pricey option (currently $197 for a 10 site license), but you can create quick and effective lead generation sites using this theme.

Pre designed landing pages and squeeze pages make collecting information far easier and with OptimizePress child themes available, you can further customize your lead generation site to fit your needs - without having to know how to code.

5. Thesis
Like Genesis, Thesis is a WordPress theme framework. The Thesis platform - which also allows for child themes (skins) - enables you to completely customize your website to suit your needs. I've found Thesis to be a particularly good solution for an old-fashioned authority website or blog in which you create free content interspersed with adverts.



These are my five recommendations for WordPress themes if you're looking to build a repeatable system to create high quality websites to monetize your domain names. These aren't cheap themes, but they are all of a very high quality, and are capable of producing excellent results when teamed with the right domain names.



Domain Development is a blog series that teaches you how to create money making websites from your domain portfolio.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
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Also worth noting there are many WordPress Meetup groups in most areas.... I am going to one tomorrow
 
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Any wordpress meetup groups in the UK?
 
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What are your thoughts on hosting multiple Wordpress sites? I have deluxe hosting plan at GoDaddy. It's not great for organizing multiple sites, but it works. Do you think a VPS would be better or the same? or do you have any other suggestions?
 
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