* This Thesis Skin has been updated. Scroll down for update details. *

Well folks, I’ve been at it again. I’ve created another free Thesis skin!

Now I know, this blog is about WordPress and there’s actually been a release (version 2.8.6) since my last post but frankly, the news in the WordPress world hasn’t really been all that exciting to me lately.

I mean, how many GPL and Update your Installs type of posts do you guys really want to read anyway?

So instead, I decided to spend my time creating something that I hope most of you will get some actual use out of.

Now of course, if you haven’t listened to my constant gushing about the Thesis theme and you’re still not using it, well I just don’t know what to do with you.

For the rest of you, I’m pleased to introduce the Affiliate Skin for Thesis!

Affiliate Skin

BUY THESIS | DEMO

As the name suggests, I designed the skin with affiliate marketers in mind. The excerpt and post image of your latest featured post, say one promoting your highest converting offer, is dropped into Thesis’ built in Feature Box and displayed front & center on the home page. The goal of the skin is to draw attention to the featured offer, provide a clear call to action & help increase your conversions. Other than that, it’s a fairly simplistic skin. And, thanks to Greg Boser & the team over at 3 Dog Media, installing it is a pretty simple process as well, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Requirements

The only requirements for using this skin are the actual theme, Thesis 1.6, and Greg’s Thesis Import/Export plugin (v 1.2). That’s it!

Installation

Enter your name and email address in the field above. Don’t worry, we’re not going to be spamming you. We simply want to be able to alert you when we’ve updated the skin or released new ones you might be interested in. Once you’ve registered your information you’ll receive an email with a link to the zip file. You’ll need to unzip the file and drop the custom.css and custom_functions.php files into your custom folder.

Tip: Always save copies of your current files before uploading the new versions. They’ll act as a safety net of sorts in case anything should go wrong or you make a mistake.

Drop the affskin-bg-vert.jpg file (in the images folder) into the images folder inside your custom folder (should be something along the lines of thesis/custom/images). Install and activate the Thesis Import/Export plugin. On the Thesis Import/Export page (as seen in the screen shot above), select browse under Thesis Options and select the affiliateskin-thesis-options.dat file and click Import Options. In similar fashion, under the Design Options section select the affiliateskin-thesis-design-options.dat file and click the Import Options button to the right.

Warning! Importing these options will overwrite any of your current options. However, it also saves me from having to explain every single option I’ve clicked as I did with previous skins.

Once the settings have been imported, I recommend deactivating the Thesis Import/Export plugin until you need it again. The last thing you want to do is get your site set up just the way you want it and then accidentally overwrite something. The final step is to create a category titled “featured” and add the post of your choice to the category. This will determine which post & image is pulled onto the home page in the featured section.

Using the Skin

As I mentioned earlier the featured post function is placed within Thesis’ Feature Box and as such, you can decide whether to display the section site-wide or just on the home page. I’ve opted to only display it on the home page but once again, the flexibility that Thesis offers makes it a simple option to change. Also, I’ve made use of the built in thumbnail function to automatically crop any image used as your featured post to 560 x 282. This prevents larger images from breaking the layout while not requiring you to do any of the cropping manually.

Disclaimer: Images smaller than the 560 x 282 dimensions, or long excerpts (for those of you who drop the excerpt in manually) will cause some display issues in the featured section. There might be a better method for handling these types of irregularities but to be perfectly honest, I couldn’t figure one out. If you’re a CSS & PHP guru and have suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comments or drop me a line via the contact form.

Customize to Taste

As with any of my Thesis skins, please feel free to make any changes or modifications that your little heart desires. But be sure to come back and share your adaptations here so we can all ooh and ahh over your fine work.

Of course, if you have any questions or run into any problems using this, or any of my other skins, please feel free to drop me a comment and I’ll do my best to help you sort it out. Although, I will admittedly be a bit more motivated to help if you haven’t removed my small attribution link in the footer

BUY THESIS | DEMO

Update 1.31.2010: If you’ve had a problem with the Featured Post section pulling your image automatically, you’ll probably want to redownload the skin. I’ve updated the zip file so if you have an old link to it, that’s fine. If you need to download it again, you’ll need to register using the form to the right. This is going to allow me to update you guys any time a problem like this crops up again.

If you want to make the change yourself, you’ll need to go to your custom_functions.php file and replace this code:

<?php
echo ‘<img id=”feat” src=”http://affiliateskin.wpblogger.com/wp-content/themes/thesis/lib/scripts/thumb.php?src=’.$image.’&w=560&h=282&zc=1&q=100″></a>’;
echo ‘<div>’;
?>

As WordPress design has evolved over time there’s been an emerging trend of cramming more and more information into designs.

With the advent of “magazine style” themes bloggers were able to give their readers glimpses into almost every facet of their site.

And, while there are several visually stunning magazine style themes out there, it’s easy as a blog reader to begin suffering from information overload.

If crisp, clean designs are more to your liking, I think you’ll enjoy my newest Thesis skin…

Simplicity

As you can see from the demo, Simplicity is designed to put the focus on one thing and one thing only… your content.

Using a vertical menu and a single sidebar, Simplicity blends the structural elements of the theme into the background allowing readers to instantly be drawn into the content you’re presenting.

While the skin can certainly handle a 3 column design it, in my opinion, loses a little something in the transition.

Similarly, child menus in the navigation are a possibility, but the design admittedly doesn’t handle them as gracefully as a single layer.

Requirements

The only requirements for using this skin are the Thesis theme (naturally), and Greg Boser’s Thesis Import/Export plugin. That’s it!

Installation

Installation of this skin is almost as simple as the design.

In order to download the skin, you’ll be required to enter your name and email in the field to the left.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to spam you. I just want to be able to alert you to future updates and any new skins I release.

Once you’ve confirmed your email address, you’ll be immediately sent an email with a link to the zip file.

Unzip the contents into a folder and drop the custom.css and custom_functions.php files into the Custom folder of your Thesis folder. (It should be something like yoursite.com/wp-content/themes/thesis/custom).

Next you’ll need to install the Thesis Import/Export plugin. You can do that quickly and easily by going to the Plugins/Add New link in your WordPress sidebar.

On the Thesis Import/Export page (as seen in the screen shot above), you should be sure to download your current settings and save them as a backup. That way you can always go back to the design you have now if you decide not to use the skin for some reason.

Once you have backups, select browse under Thesis Options and select the simplicity-thesis-options.dat file and click Import Options.

In similar fashion, under the Design Options section select the simplicity-design-options.dat file and click the Import Options button to the right.

Warning! Importing these options will overwrite any of your current options. However, it also saves me from having to explain every single option I’ve clicked as I did with previous skins.

Once the settings have been imported, I recommend deactivating the Thesis Import/Export plugin until you need it again. The last thing you want to do is get your site set up just the way you want it and then accidentally overwrite something.

Once you’ve imported both option files, you should be all set!

Note: I personally would recommend also changing the number of posts that display on your home page to a lower number (I picked 6) to further reduce the clutter on the home page, but that’s obviously up to you.

Customize to Taste

As with any of my Thesis skins, please feel free to make any changes or modifications that your little heart desires. But be sure to come back and share your adaptations here so we can all ooh and ahh over your fine work!

Of course, if you have any questions or run into any problems using this, or any of my other skins, please feel free to drop me a comment and I’ll do my best to help you sort it out. Although, I will admittedly be a bit more motivated to help if you haven’t removed my small attribution link in the footer

BUY THESIS | DEMO

Update 2.20.2010: If you have long list items in your sidebar that spill over onto a second line you may want to institute this fix.

In your custom.css file search for the line .sidebar li.widget li {
text-indent: 15px;

and replace the “text-indent” with “padding-left” so the new version reads:

.sidebar li.widget li {
padding-left: 15px;

That will ensure all lines of your list items are indented.

In my continuing effort to provide quality pre-coded designs for the Thesis community , and after the success of my first skin, Network News Skin, I’ve decided to release another free skin for all you Thesis theme users out there.

If you’re not yet using the Thesis theme, I really don’t know what more I can do to convince you to buy it. My endorsement has only grown stronger since my 4 out of 5 star review, and as evidenced by these skins, it has helped me learn CSS at a rate I never thought possible.

Besides, without Thesis you can’t make use of all these kickin’ Thesis skins I’ve been working so hard on lately

This time around I decided on a completely unique design that would cater to photographers, artists, and just about anyone else that would want to showcase their work. I present:

Exhibit

The image above should give you a pretty good idea of what the skin looks like but I’ve also set up a Demo Site so you can take a look around and see if you like it.

Once again, if you’re already comfortable using Thesis as well as the custom.css & custom_functions.php files using the Exhibit skin will be a breeze for you.

However, if you’re not quite to that level yet, that’s ok! I’ve documented the entire process, from installation to actual use of the theme, in as much detail as possible.

Note: Please don’t let the length of the instructions intimidate you, I just wanted to make it clear enough that even someone brand new to Thesis would be able to use the skin.

Requirements:

As I already mentioned, you obviously need to have the Thesis theme for this skin to work. Also, this skin was designed for Thesis 1.6 which is out of beta and has been released to all Thesis owners. While the Network News Skin was backwards compatible, I’ve not gone to that length with this skin.

Besides, you should upgrade anyway.

I’ve also once again made use of the fantastic Dynamic Content Gallery plugin that allows us to achieve the “slider” functionality without a ton of coding of our own. I’ve updated the skin to use version 3.1 so be sure you have the latest version.

And last but not least, you’ll need to install Greg Boser’s Thesis Import/Export plugin. This will save us a TON of time in configuring the skin.

Installation:

In order to download the files for the skin you’ll need to enter your name and email in the form to the left.

Don’t worry, we won’t be spamming you or anything like that. We simply want to be able to alert you when we update the skin or release a new one you might be interested in using.

Anyway, once you’ve confirmed your information you’ll receive an email with a link to download a zip file.

Unzip the files into a folder that will be easy to find later.

Upload the custom.css, custom_function.php and layout.css files to the Custom folder, over-writing your current versions. While I didn’t make any edits to the layout.css file, it would be best to upload the version I’ve provided just to make sure we’re all starting from the same place.

Tip: Always save copies of your current files before uploading the new versions. They’ll act as a safety net of sorts in case anything should go wrong or you make a mistake.

Next you’ll need to install the Thesis Import/Export plugin. You can do that quickly and easily by going to the Plugins/Add New link in your WordPress sidebar.

On the Thesis Import/Export page (as seen in the screen shot above), you should be sure to download your current settings and save them as a backup. That way you can always go back to the design you have now if you decide not to use the skin for some reason.

After creating your backups, select browse under Thesis Options and select the exhibit-thesis-options.dat file and click Import Options. Then do the same for the Design Options section by selecting the exhibit-design-options.dat file and clicking the Import Options button to the right.

Warning! Importing these options will overwrite any of your current options. However, it also saves me from having to explain every single option I’ve clicked as I did with previous skins.

Once the settings have been imported, I recommend deactivating the Thesis Import/Export plugin until you need it again. The last thing you want to do is get your site set up just the way you want it and then accidentally overwrite something.

Logo

Displaying your custom logo instead of the default Exhibit image requires just one simple edit to the custom.css file.

Simply replace http://exhibit.wpblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/exhibit-logo.png with the file path to your logo and save!

The default logo size is 955 pixels x 75 pixels and is a transparent png. You don’t have to use a logo this wide, and the theme can accommodate taller images as well, but you will need to edit your custom.css file if using an image that’s not 955 x 75.

Featured Content Slider

Last but certainly not least, we need to get the featured content slider working. Michael Gray has an amazing tutorial on how to create the slider and it’s actually his code that I’ve incorporated into the skin.

Note: The code on Michael’s site is slightly out of date. We’ve gone ahead and made this change to the code so be sure not to over-write it.

However, I do need to walk you through a few of the items that are specific to this Thesis skin.

Once you’ve installed and activated the Dynamic Content Gallery (DCG) plugin, you’ll need to go to the DCG settings page and skip down to step 3 to specify what content you want to feature.

DCG gives you 5 “slots” to feature in the slider and allows you to mix and match how you want those slots distributed. Rather than mixing and matching across several categories, I just created a Featured category, and inserted the category id (in my case 5) into each of the 5 category id spots.

Since I want to display the last 5 posts from that featured category, I simply numbered 1 through 5 in each of the post select boxes.

Steps 4 & 5 let DCG know where to find the images you want to use in the slider. I’ve input /wp-content/uploads/ in both fields since that’s where my images are stored.

Tip: WordPress defaults to managing your uploads into month and year based folders. Unless you want to be continually updating this setting in DCG, I recommend unchecking that box and forcing WordPress to store your images in one large folder.

Step 7 is where you’ll need to set the desired width, height, and colors for your slider. Since I want the slider to take up the full width of my site, I set the width to 955. The height is up to you but I used 500 as I think it provides the best ratio for most images. The rest of the settings are fairly self explanatory and I’ve included a screen shot of my settings for easy reference below.

Tip: Cropping your images to match the settings of your slider (in my case 955 x 500) will make sure the images aren’t stretched or distorted in any way. It will also avoid any cropping issues when Thesis generates the thumbnails to display in the Teasers on the home page.

Once you’ve entered the desired settings, click the update options button to lock them in.

Before the slider will work you’ll need to a) make sure to save a few posts into your featured category and b) create two custom fields on each post you  want to display in the slider.

The fields are as follows:

• Key = dfcg-image with a Value = Image filename including extension eg. myImage.jpg
• Key = dfcg-desc with a Value = Description text eg. Here’s our latest news!

After you enter each of the custom fields once, WordPress will automatically remember them for future use. When you want to put a new post into the featured slider, just make sure you add those two fields.

Also, make sure you only include the file name of the image in the dfcg-image field. The plugin is already set to look for the images in your uploads folder so you only need the myImage.jpg portion of the file name.

Customize to Taste

Since this skin aims to cater to the artistic community I fully expect you to want to make significant changes and customizations to the skin.

I’ll try to help you through the more common issues you may encounter but I simply don’t have the time to answer all of the questions and issues you may encounter when heavily changing a free skin. Although, leaving the attribution link in your footer will definitely help your chances of getting some support for the skin.

Fortunately, the Thesis support forums are absolutely top notch and I’ve never failed to get the help I needed. That’s one of the things that makes Thesis great so be sure to take advantage of it!

BUY THESIS | DEMO

When I declared that Premium Themes Are Dead, I received a LOT of feedback arguing that there will always be a market for premium themes since they give you a head start on the design process.

My response was that skins for framework themes such as Thesis provide that same “leg up” on the design and layout, without sacrificing any of the flexibility.

And, while I firmly believe that, there is one slight problem… there just aren’t many skins available yet.

So in an effort to help my prediction about premium themes come true, I decided to create a free Thesis Skin that heavily mimics one of my favorite premium theme designs.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce…

The Network News Thesis Skin!

Feel free to click around the demo site to check things out.

As those of you familiar with premium WordPress themes world will no doubt notice, the skin is based heavily on the Gazette theme by WooThemes, but offers even more flexibility.

Note: Let’s go ahead and get one thing out of the way right off the bat. I did not rip WooThemes off. Their themes are released under the GPL license and this is exactly the kind of thing the GPL is designed for. Besides they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

If you’re already comfortable using Thesis as well as the custom.css & custom_functions.php files using the skin will be a breeze for you.

If you’re not quite to that level yet, I’ve documented the process below in as much detail as possible. Please don’t let the length of the instructions intimidate you, I just wanted to make it clear enough that even someone new to Thesis can use the skin.

Requirements:

So what do you need for this skin to work?

Well obviously, you need to have the Thesis theme (and yes, that’s an affiliate link *waves to FTC*).

Also, this skin is also built for Thesis version 1.6.

I left comments within the custom.css file for those of you using older versions of Thesis, but you really should upgrade to the newest version.

You’ll also need to install the Dynamic Content Gallery plugin which will create the featured content slider on the home page for us.

Last but certainly not least, you’ll also need to install Greg Boser’s Thesis Import/Export plugin.

Installation:

In order to download the files for the skin you’ll need to enter your name and email in the form to the left.

Don’t worry, we won’t be spamming you or anything like that. We simply want to be able to alert you when we update the skin or release a new one you might be interested in using.

Anyway, once you’ve confirmed your information you’ll receive an email with a link to download a zip file.

Unzip the files into a folder that will be easy to find later.

Upload the custom.css, custom_function.php and layout.css files to the Custom folder, over-writing your current versions. While I didn’t make any edits to the layout.css file, it would be best to upload the version I’ve provided just to make sure we’re all starting from the same place.

Tip: Always save copies of your current files before uploading the new versions. They’ll act as a safety net of sorts in case anything should go wrong or you make a mistake.

Next you’ll need to install the Thesis Import/Export plugin. You can do that quickly and easily by going to the Plugins/Add New link in your WordPress sidebar.

On the Thesis Import/Export page (as seen in the screen shot above), you should be sure to download your current settings and save them as a backup. That way you can always go back to the design you have now if you decide not to use the skin for some reason.

After creating your backups, select browse under Thesis Options and select the netnews-thesis-options.dat file and click Import Options. Then do the same for the Design Options section by selecting the netnews-design-options.dat file and clicking the Import Options button to the right.

Warning! Importing these options will overwrite any of your current options. However, it also saves me from having to explain every single option I’ve clicked as I did with previous skins.

Once the settings have been imported, I recommend deactivating the Thesis Import/Export plugin until you need it again. The last thing you want to do is get your site set up just the way you want it and then accidentally overwrite something.

Logo

To display your logo instead of the big red block that’s there by default, you only need to make one simple edit to your custom.css file. Replace http://thesisdev.wpblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/logo-placeholder.jpg with the file path to your logo and save!

The default logo size is 384 x 100. The skin can easily accommodate a wider logo, however that will limit your use of the banner widget in the header .

If your logo is taller than 100 pixels, you’ll need to edit the height setting in the custom.css file one line above where you entered the image URL. You may also need to adjust the margin-top: value (currently set at -82px) for the sidebar_header in your custom.css file in order to keep it centered vertically.

Banner

The Network News was designed to incorporate a 468 x 60 banner advertisement into the header. To make use of the banner, add a text widget to the sidebar named Banner. Drop your banner code into the widget, click save, and you’re all set.

If you don’t want to use a banner, not a problem! Just don’t insert a widget into the Banner sidebar and the sidebar won’t be displayed.

Featured Content Slider

Last but certainly not least, we need to get the featured content slider working. Michael Gray has an amazing tutorial on how to create the slider and it’s actually his code that I’ve incorporated into the skin.

Note: The code on Michael’s site is slightly out of date. We’ve gone ahead and made this change to the code so be sure not to over-write it.

Setting the plugin up can be a bit tricky so I’ll try to walk you through a few of the items that are specific to this Thesis skin.

Once you’ve installed and activated the Dynamic Content Gallery (DCG) plugin (version 3.1), you’ll need to go to the DCG settings page and skip down to step 3 to specify what content you want to feature.

DCG gives you 5 “slots” to feature in the slider and allows you to mix and match how you want those slots distributed. Rather than mixing and matching across several categories, I just created a Featured category, and inserted the category id (in my case 5) into each of the 5 category id spots.

Since I want to display the last 5 posts from that featured category, I simply numbered 1 through 5 in each of the post select boxes.

Steps 4 & 5 let DCG know where to find the images you want to use in the slider. I’ve input /wp-content/uploads/ in both fields since that’s where my images are stored.

Tip: WordPress defaults to managing your uploads into month and year based folders. Unless you want to be continually updating this setting in DCG, I recommend unchecking that box and forcing WordPress to store your images in one large folder.

Step 7 is where you’ll need to set the desired width, height, and colors for your slider. Since I want the slider to take up the full width of my content section, I set the width to 595. The height is up to you but I used 270. The rest of the settings are fairly self explanatory and I’ve included a screen shot of my settings for easy reference below.

click for larger image

Tip: Make sure my post images are cropped to the 595 x 270 dimensions so the images aren’t stretched or distorted in any way.

Once you’ve entered the desired settings, click the update options button to lock them in.

Before the slider will work you’ll need to a) make sure to save a few posts into your featured category and b) create two custom fields on each post you  want to display in the slider.

The fields are as follows:

• Key = dfcg-image with a Value = Image filename including extension eg. myImage.jpg
• Key = dfcg-desc with a Value = Description text eg. Here’s our latest news!

After you enter each of the custom fields once, WordPress will automatically remember them for future use. When you want to put a new post into the featured slider, just make sure you add those two fields.

Also, make sure you only include the file name of the image in the dfcg-image field. The plugin is already set to look for the images in your uploads folder so you only need the myImage.jpg portion of the file name.

Customize to Taste!

I’ve said countless times that the best thing about the Thesis theme is the incredible flexibility it offers.

I’ve tried to capitalize on that as much as possible with this skin offering all sorts of widgetized areas that should make it easy for you to mix and match the different content you want to feature on your site.

I really enjoyed the process and plan on creating a few more skins so if you have any questions or suggestions please leave them in the comment section below!

With this being a a free skin I won’t be able to offer support for every question or problem you might encounter. However, leaving the attribution link in the footer definitely won’t hurt your chances

BUY THESIS | DEMO