One of the great things about WordPress is the community… the people are passionate and have a great attribute of sharing freely.

Jean from WP Mayor contacted me a while ago after I left a comment on one of his blog posts. It ended up in this interview… enjoy my WordPress super-expert-knowledge and self-promotion abilities!

Dean Wormald: Meet a Travelling WordPress Freelancer & Entprepreneur

With this site, having an EDM (Electronic Direct Marketing) system in place was crucial. After using MailChimp, I wanted to use something more independent, and found PHPlist a good option, as it was offered as an auto install on my web hosting using Installatron.

PHPlist was easy enough to work with, however integrating a PHPlist subscribe page into WordPress took a lot of trial and error to get right.

The two plugins which are talked about most (WP PHPList; yPHPlista) and a few others (WebJunk PHPList; etc), for integrating PHPlist subscribe functionality into WordPress just didn’t work for me. They were all buggy and had poor documentation or just no-one responding to issues that are being posted in forums.

So I thought about a better integration, and this is very friendly in terms of the user interface. It’s a pretty quick method of integration too… use a shadowbox plugin to display your PHPlist subscribe page, and then if you wish, customise your PHPlist subscribe page to match the design of your site.

Step 1 – setup PHPlist and create a working subscribe page

My server uses Installatron, so installation was really easy. PHPlist has good documentation on their site, so I just followed this to setup a simple subscribe form (i.e. add fields, and they go into the config.php file and turn off test mode).

So go ahead and create a PHPlist subscribe page first.

Step 2 – install Shadowbox JS WordPress plugin and customise settings

You can search for ‘Shadowbox JS’ in the WordPress plugin repository, accessible from the WordPress admin. Install and then activate the plugin.

If you want to use Shadowbox JS just for displaying a PHPlist subscribe page (i.e. an external website), then you can use the same settings that I have.

If you want to use Shadowbox JS to also display media (e.g. images, videos), then take a look at Shadowbox JS’s website for info.

Step 3 – add a link to your WordPress site that will launch in Shadowbox JS

I must thank the author of the article at http://sivel.net/wordpress/shadowbox-js/ for helping out with this one, it was a bit hard to find this spelled out clearly in the documentation on Shadowbox JS’s website. To launch a link in Shadowbox JS, simply add code into the re=”" of the <a> tag. This is the code I’m using (you’ll see in rel that you can set the height and width of the shadowbox pop-up).

<a href=”http://youmakethewebsite.com.au/EDM/?p=subscribe&amp;id=3″ rel=”shadowbox;height=416;width=584″ style=”color: #a1a1a1;”>INTERNATIONAL VERSION</a>

Pretty easy, and it works great. No need to add an extra dedicated subscribe page to your site.

Step 4 (optional) – style your PHPlist page to match your site

You can then go into your PHPlist admin and play with the code for the subscribe page. You can entirely rework the page and use CSS to change the display of the form elements.

Wish I thought about this earlier! I spent a whole night playing with WP PHPList and yPHPlista plugins, they didn’t work and couldn’t find anything to help me. After setting up the PHPlist subscribe page (which I was new to so it took about 30 minutes), it only took about 5 minutes to get Shadowbox JS installed and displaying the subscribe page on my site.

Styling the subscribe page took a bit longer, but I’m quite pedantic (i.e. pixel level perfect) about my designs. The one thing left that is bugging me is that there is an Unsubscribe link on the subscribe page. All I can manage to do is tone down the colour of the link and hide it below the fold.

For a more custom subscribe page, you could build your own PHP page.

WordBeach homepage: http://wordbeach.org/ (Japanese).

Yokoso News page, including details on the live video cast I was a guest on: http://yokosonews.com/matsuri/wordbeach2011/ (English).

Struggling with understanding the language, but it’s interesting to see the WordPress community in Japan.

It was a pleasure to meet a few key people involved with translation of WordPress releases and documentation. One of them was Odyssey, a.k.a Hisayoshi Hattori who managed the latest release of the Japanese version of WordPress.

odysseygate.com

Premium Pastel WordPress Themes

A collection of premium pastel WordPress themes. I never used to use premium WordPress themes, until recently when I purchased a $25 theme to use on a personal site. The admin options are so easy to use, you get a much better results in much less time, yet the themes are still very flexible. They often come with full PSDs for the themes and decent documentation.

One of the best things is, you get support directly from the person who built the theme. They will even help you with modifications.

Here is a collection of themes that offer pastel coloured skins. Some have pre-built colour schemes that just require selecting it from the admin. Others give you flexibility to choose among a few presets and make your own pastel colour theme. This list excludes WordPress themes that have “unlimited colours”.

Advanix

A corporate/business theme with a few pastel colour variations. Go to the Advanix WordPress theme info page and scroll down to Live Demo and Colour Preview to see the pastel options, which change mostly the header and main header/link contents.

Advanix - Corporate Business WordPress Theme

$35 (US)

Demo & Download of Advanix Business WordPress theme.

Boomerang Creative Portfolio

See the Boomerang Creative Portfolio information page for Live Preview, Download, documentation and more. This is a premium WordPress theme for $35 (US). Full support from the author is available, and there is 10 foreground and 10 background colour schemes that can be used in combination to create a pastel colour scheme.

Boomerang Creative Portfolio WordPress theme with custom combinations of foreground/background colour schemes.

See the live preview at the Boomerang Creative Portfolio theme information page to view it in action and see some example colour combinations.

Child Care Creative

See the Child Care Creative information page for Live Preview, Download, documentation and more. This is a premium WordPress theme for $40 (US). Full support from the author is available, a fixed style pastel colour theme with shopping cart, newsletter, blog and a few different page templates.

Child Care Creative WordPress theme comes with Shopping Cart and Newsletter functionality

$40 (US)

See the live preview at the Child Care Creative theme information page to view it in action. See the screenshots on the same page for a sneak peak at the admin.

Chromonium Business

For 3 subtlety pastel skins with a nice clean layout, check out the Chromonium Business template.

Chromonium Business Template WordPress with 3 pastel colour schemes

Price: $35 (US)

Demo & Download of Chromonium Business WordPress theme.

Collective

A few nice pastel colour skins which change the header and footer colours. See the screenshots at the Collective theme information, preview and download page.

Collective - Community WordPress Theme has a few pastel skin options.

$35 (US)

Demo & Download the Collective WordPress theme.

Corporate Works

Another business theme, out of the 6 skins this has a nice purple pastel version. Go to the Corporate Works WordPress theme page and view the live preview to see the skin.

Corporate Works WordPress theme has a nice purple pastel skin.

$35 (US)

Demo & Download the Corporate Works WordPress theme.

Doubtfire

A business theme that has 5 skins, 2 are pastel (a blue and a teal). See the screenshots at the Doubtfire Modern Business WordPress theme page for a closer look.

Doubtfire Modern Business WordPress Theme has two pastel coloured skins.

$35 (US)

Demo & Download of Doubtfire Modern Business WordPress theme.

Duotive

A predominantly dark theme that has skin options which are all pastel to change text/link colours, headers and backgrounds. Use the live preview on the Duotive One WordPress theme information and download page to see the colour variations.

Duotive ONE General Purpose WordPress Theme has a modern design with some nice pastel highlights.

$35 (US)

Demo & Download of the Duotive One WordPress theme.

Full Moon

See the Full Moon information page for Live Preview, Download, documentation and more. This is a very flexible theme.

Full Moon WordPress theme has 5 colour options, with nice green pastel option and blue pastel option

$35 (US)

See the screenshots at the Full Moon theme information page to view the other colour schemes.

Iconix

A theme packed with icons. See a detailed description at the Iconix WordPress theme download and info page.

Iconix - a Porfolio, Blog or Business WordPress theme full of icons.

$35 (US)

Demo & Download of Iconix WordPress theme.

Light of Peace

Don’t let the name of description fool you, phrased as a church theme, it is actually a nice theme with some good texture backgrounds. Have a look at the screenshots from the Light of Peace WordPress theme info page for the pastel skin options.

Light of Peace WordPress Theme - not just for churches.

$30 (US)

Demo & Download of Light of Peace WordPress theme.

Lucid

A business, blog and portfolio WordPress theme. Use the live preview from the Lucid WordPress theme information and download page to see the pastel skins, such as Sea Foam and Watermelon.

Lucid Business, Blog & Portfolio WordPress Theme

$35 (US)

Demo & Download of Lucid WordPress theme.

Olive

Olive WordPress theme is a modern, beautiful and easy customizable theme. It’s perfect for Corporate, business and portfolio websites. It comes with 15 skins and I am sure you can create your own skin easily. View the built-in skin options on the Olive WordPress theme download and info page.

Olive Business & Portfolio WP CMS Theme 15 - 1

$35 (US)

Demo & Download of Olive WordPress theme.

Overall

See the OverALL Premium WordPress Blog & Portfolio Theme information page for Live Preview, Download, documentation and more. This is a premium WordPress theme for $17 (US). Full support from the author is available, and there is 4 pastel coloured skins.

OverALL Premium WordPress Blog & Portfolio Theme with 5 skins, 4 are pastel.

See the live preview at the OverALL Premium WordPress Blog & Portfolio Theme information page to view it in action.

Pang

This business WordPress theme has a few nice pastel colour schemes. Take a look at the 24 skins on the Pang WordPress theme information page, along with screenshots, documentation and download.

Pang - Business and Corporate WordPress Theme with a few nice variations of pastel colour schemes.

$35 (US)

Demo & Download of Pang WordPress theme.

Paper Plane

A nice blog theme, see the Paper Plane WordPress blog theme information page for live preview and screenshots of the various pastel colour theme skins.

Paper Plane WordPress Theme with about 10 pastel colour skins.

$30 (US)

Demo & Download of Paper Plane WordPress theme.

RT-Theme 10 Business

Another business theme that has a light background, with a few colour skin options that have pastel highlights. Look at the screenshots from the RT-Theme 10 WordPress theme info page.

RT-Theme 10 / Business Theme 10 in 1 For WordPress

$35 (US)

Demo & Download of RT-Theme 10.

Simple Business

This is a business WordPress theme that comes with a special iPhone version. The colour options for the skins are mostly pastel, see the screenshots from the Simple Business WordPress theme info page.

Simple Business - Corporate WordPress Template

$35 (US)

Demo & Download of Simple Business WordPress theme.

Spektrum

A versatile premium theme for WordPress. Good for websites, blogs or portfolios, it has stacks of built in options that make creating and maintaining an attractive website simple. Launch the live preview from the Spektrum WordPress theme info and download page, then scroll down to ‘See colour variations’ on the theme preview homepage.

Spektrum Premium WordPress Theme with colour combinations to create a pastel skin.

$35 (US)

Demo & Download of Spektrum WordPress theme.

TechBlog

A professional tech blog theme with a few pastel skin options in Blue, Beige, Kiwi and Orange. View the live preview from the TechBlog WordPress theme download and info page.

TechBlog a Professional Tech Blog Theme for WordPress

$30 (US)

Demo & Download of TechBlog WordPress theme.

Ultra Web Studio

A theme built for a blog and portfolio, it is very flexible and could have many uses. Check out the the live preview from the Ultra Web Studio info page and see the pastel colour variations. Mostly the skins have a dark header and footer, with some pastel colours accenting the background and content in general.

Ultra Web Studio, a Blog & Portfolio WordPress Theme with pastel accents.

$30 (US)

Demo & Download of Ultra Web Studio WordPress theme.

Watercolor

A theme with a skin for each season of the year, all with subtle pastel colours. Launch the live preview from the Watercolor WordPress theme info page, when in the preview scroll down to the footer to access the skin previews.

Watercolor WordPress Theme, a skin for every season.

$30 (US)

Demo & Download of the Watercolor WordPress theme.

Mobile Pastel WordPress theme

My Mobile WordPress theme.

Free pastel WordPress themes

Stretch of Houses

Preview | Download

WordPress.org free pastel themes

• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/purple-pastels
• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/nanoplex
• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/emerald-stretch
• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/less-is-less
• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/under-the-influence
• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/belle
• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/stunning-silence
• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/mondo-zen-theme
• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/wp_edublog
• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/minimalistic
• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/retweet
• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/b-side
• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/cb-blog
• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/lavender-dream

Plugins

• GD Star Rating plugin to add easy one-click rating functionality for posts and pages.
• Built on the All in One plugin is the Platinum SEO plugin, which can overwrite any post or page meta data with optimised content and a heap of other essential SEO automation.
• SEO Friendly Images plugin makes image embed code accessible and compliant
• SEO Smart Links plugin adds automatic cross-promotional links to posts and pages.

Permarlinks

Settings > Permalinks in the WordPress admin, under Common Setting, click ‘Customer Structure’ and insert the code /%postname%/ into the text field. This gives posts and pages SEO and user friendly URLs, using the name of the post or page.