It was less than a year ago when a friend of mine introduced me to WooThemes while recommending one of their themes for a new site I had just launched.
Now, as I’m writing this, 10 of the 11 WordPress sites that I manage are running with a beautiful WooTheme, and I couldn’t be happier.
As a professional software engineer by trade, and a long-time web enthusiast, I’ve never been much of a graphic designer. Mind you, much of the code I write has been referred to as “gorgeous”, but you’re not visiting my sites to look at code, now are you?
So that fact that I can pay for a single subscription with a group of talented designers like WooThemes and have so many options to choose from for nearly all of my projects, it’s a no-brainer.
Add to that a common framework for theme options and configuration, and a consistent strategy for custom post types and other components, and you take an otherwise daunting task of managing nearly a dozen WordPress installations and make it about as pleasant as possible.
Get To The Websites
Okay, so you don’t want to hear me talk about all of this, you likely just want to see the actually websites themselves.
Especially when I say there’s 10 different sites with 10 different themes.
Well, here they are…
WooTheme: Biznizz – webnelly.com
Website: http://www.webnelly.com
WooTheme: Biznizz
webnelly.com is my primary web development portfolio site, and features just about everything I’ve done on the web and with technology in the last few years.
At least the stuff worth mentioning, anyway.
WooTheme: Fresh News – Ka’anapali Dreamin’
Website: http://www.kaanapalidreamin.com
WooTheme: Fresh News
Ka’anapali Dreamin’ was my first Maui website, and based on content, is still my largest.
It chronicles my families annual trips to Maui, and was the multi-purpose Maui blog I was running before the Maui projects really branching out into lives of their own.
WooTheme: Beveled – Kris & Cindy
Website: http://www.krisandcindy.com
WooTheme: Beveled
This started as the personal site and blog of my wife Cindy and I. That is until our son was born at the end of 2010, and he’s been center stage ever since.
Using the Portfolio system in this theme to feature photo galleries of our family over the last 2.5 years has been great, and something I see us using for many more years to come.
WooTheme: Function – Kris Nelson Photography
Website: http://www.krisnelsonphoto.com
WooTheme: Function
One of my other, often times neglected passions when not at a keyboard is photography. Taking away the same Portfolio system found in the Beveled theme for the Kris & Cindy site, my collection of images from individual photo sessions are treated well and easy to manage here, too.
WooTheme: Object – Maui by Photo
Website: http://www.mauibyphoto.com
WooTheme: Object
The Maui by Photo concept was to feature individual photo sets from different parts on the island, and invite readers to share their own stories.
While this site is next on the list as far as a full content revamp (copy and photos), the Object theme fit in nicely, and is probably the biggest layout deviation from the rest of the sites you see on this page.
WooTheme: Simplicity – Maui by Poster
Website: http://www.mauibyposter.com
WooTheme: Simplicity
The Maui by Poster site started as just a home to host support and download pages for my free Maui eBook series, but quickly turned into a full site and blog.
WooTheme: Postcard – Maui by Postcard
Website: http://www.mauibypostcard.com
WooTheme: Postcard
This was the first site to get the WooThemes treatment after friend Erik Blair recommended it after I launched the first version of my Maui Postcards App.
Thanks again, Erik, someone at WooThemes owes you a beer!
WooTheme: Statua – Maui Wall Candy
Website: http://www.mauiwallcandy.com
WooTheme: Statua
Maui Wall Candy is the home for ordering prints of my best Maui imagery for your home or office.
After being on hiatus for a number of years, it was thanks to WooThemes that I was able to get this site launched again so quickly. Otherwise, it would have been another cumbersome effort with trying to hack and customize the SmugMug Pro interface again to make it look and feel like a full site.
WooTheme: Kaboodle – Maui by Kris
Website: http://mauiby.me
WooTheme: Kaboodle
The Maui by Kris site is essentially a Maui-centered portfolio of all my projects involving our favorite island.
The Kaboodle theme worked out well as a way to organize all of my different projects and also put together a News feed using the Blog template to share excerpts and links to updates from all my other Maui sites.
WooTheme: Sealight – Food Trucks on Maui
Website: http://www.foodtrucksonmaui.com
WooTheme: Sealight
The Food Trucks on Maui site is hosted for a friend and fellow Maui blogger, Liza from A Maui Blog.
She invited me to work with her on creating the Maui Food Trucks App, and in the process, I offered to convert her then Blogger version of this site to a hosted WordPress install, and give it the WooTheme treatment as well.
There You Have It
10 sites with 10 WooThemes as promised.
I can take great pride in sharing this list of my websites with you because of how well designed and elegant they are (full design credit to WooThemes, of course).
If I think of the alternative of trying to design this many custom themes myself, or having to hunt for different themes across other designers, paying each separately and having to learn different theme customization menus and custom post types, well, you can imagine how much of a hassle that would be.
Thanks again for stopping by and thanks to WooThemes for putting out such great themes!
– Kris
