Blink Landing Page uses Flexslider in both the main slider as well as the testimonials. The jQuery Gallery Plugin "Touchtouch" is a fullwidth responsive gallery plugin from Tutorialzine.

Features

1. Clean & Simple Design.

2. Easy to Customize

3. Video Supporting Slider

4. Pricing Table

5. FullScreen Gallery

6. Rolling Testimonials

7. Working Subscription Form

8. Font based icons

Blink Demo
Free Template | Fixed Layout

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However, WP Theme customizer comes with some redundancies which many theme developers like me don't like. WordPress recommends that you can add the custom CSS generated from the Theme customizer directly into the html. This would mean that all the CSS generated would directly go into the HTML. I have found a lot of theme authors are doing this, below are few screenshots form a top selling theme on Themeforest:

The Issue

The disadvantage of this method is that the CSS generated by this method can not be cached, neither by server nor by browser. So if a theme is using this functionality heavily, it will generate a lot of CSS which can not be cached. Therefore it will impact the page speed majorly. {refer to this reading..}

A Possible Solution

We also encountered this issue while creating VibeCom. A simple solution we've given is as follows:

1. Enable WP Theme Customizer from a settings in Vibe Options Panel.
2. Copy all the generated CSS from view source.
3. Add a hook in your WP Theme after wp_head()
4. Attach a custom CSS file to that hook.
5. Paste the generated CSS code in the custom CSS file.
6. Disable WP Theme customizer.

Though I am optimistic future updates in WP would  overcome this hurdle as well, but for the time being the above suggested solution works fine without impacting the Page load times of the site.

For this theme we've built an extensive Documentation comprising of 40+ video tutorials. Which is available at the following link:
VibeCom Documentation

Multi Purpose WordPress SEO theme

Drag Drop Page Builder with 25+ Page Layouts

15+ HomePage Layouts, 2 About Layouts, 2 Services Layouts, 2 Contact Layouts, 2 Portfolio Project Layouts, FAQ,404 & ComingSoon Layouts

So, we'll start off our topic on what all features you should look for while purchasing a WordPress theme.

I'll categorize these features in three variations: Must Haves <> Good to Have <> Glad to have

Must Have Features in WordPress Themes.

1. Auto  Upgrade : If author found & solved a few bugs, you would never know that a newer version exists untill it has this feature; auto -upgrade. You'll get a notification on upgrading the theme and it should be a single click like wordpress upgrades.
2. Error Handling: I find it strage that not many premium themes use error handling in their code. But it is an absolute must have as it avoids the unnecessary complications wherein the user herself can solve issues but has to look for makers support.
3. Demo data Setup: When you buy a premium theme you look the demo and fall in love with the theme. But suddenly when you install the theme you realize that your setup ins't actually same as demo. Whereas if theme provides demo data then you can install demo data and then customize your installation to your require WordPress theme.
4. Live Theme Customizer: With WP 3.4 + Live theme customizer is a must have feature which allows users to make changes in theme easily. You can change colors/typography of various elements with live effect and can save so much time.
5. Standard Compliant code: Its hard to say but many premium WordPress themes do not follow the best practices while coding WP themes. I have seen many premium themes wherein jQuery is simply included in header.php file. Always remember all files css or js should always be included via WordPress hooks from functions.php file.

Good to Have Have Features in WordPress Themes.

1. Responsive Layout: Responsive themes are performing good as they're adjust their layout according to the viewport.
2. Page Builder: Page Builder helps a user to customize pages according to their needs. Rather than depending on the author to make changes and provide support page builder allows users to  make changes on their own.
3. ShortCode Generator: A premium theme often comes with tons of shortcodes. If you don't have  a shortcode generator you'll never be able to use most of the shortcodes.
4. Custom Widgets: Almost all themes come with custom widgets. These widgets are necessary so that they gel with the theme easily. Moreover if I am buying a WP theme I dont want to install 100 plugins to get twitter and facebook widgets...
5. Sliders: Necessary feature with so many plugins around slider theming is critical to a theme's appearance. Therefore themes should have inbuilt slider plugins with theme that get with their WordPress theme.

Glad to Have Have Features in WordPress Themes.

this list can be huge... but here are few suggestions.

1. Multiple Custom Post types.
2. Multiple Taxonomies.
3. Carousels/Filterable & sortable.
4. Self hosted Audio & Video support
5. Contact Form
6. Pricing tables
7. Mega Menu
8. Lightbox
9. User Poll
10. Social sharing...etc etc..

Now if you're thinking where are SEO features and speed related features. For SEO we have a clear winner, Yoast's WordPress SEO plugin has been declared as best plugin in SEO. WooThemes have finally migrated to Yoast SEO plugin admitting that its the best in business. Same goes for speed related we have W3Total Cache plugin, an ultimate plugin which has tons of features and its a clear winner.

This is not an exhaustive list and I might have missed some features here. If you've recommendations or suggestions then please share below.

Now, not all CSS frameworks are popular and not all jQuery plugins are attractive. Below is a list of CSS frameworks, jQuery plugins and  their combinations which people have been tried and achieved some amazing success:

Popular CSS Frameworks: USP

1. Twitter Bootstrap : Lots of inbuilt features Carousel, Popups, tabs , accordions...
2. LessFramework 4 : Multiple layout Options
3. Skeleton : Based on Less Framework
4. Foundation : Multiple inbuilt layouts, built with SASS, Anything slider, many features forms, navigation, slider....
5. 320 and Up: Responsive framework using bottom up approach

Popular jQuery plugins

1. Masonry : Pinterest like block allignment.
2. QuickSand: Elegant filtering of blocks with animation.
3. Isotope: Responsive and elegant filtering with animation.
4. Imageloaded/waitforimages: Waits for image load and execute custom javascript on call back.
5. FancyBox 2 responsive: Responsive Shadowbox
6. Supersized slider: Full screen background slider
7. FlexSlider: Easy to use responsive slider
8. Lazyload Images: Load image on demand

In case I have missed some more interesting frameworks and plugins, please share it with us using comments.

Amongst all these frameworks and plugins, the combinations which are observed in my upcoming WordPress themes include  the new trend in WordPress themes : Skeleton/Less/BootStrap + Isotope. This combination is really interesting as it gives the Pinterest like layout with the filtering elegance of jQuery Quicksand. For my latest theme "WPPinterestTheme" I used  Bootstrap + Masonry + WaitforImages combination and it was really easier to achieve Pinterest like look and feel for the WordPress theme. These plugins combined with CSS frameworks is now becoming a design trend as it is easier to build templates using them and they help designer to build a "WoW" feature which makes their design interesting.

1. Its not scalable.
2. It can not handle so much traffic.
3. Doesn't have a good e-commerce platform, WP is only for blogs!
4. A lot of  e-commerce features have to be built in to the WP CMS.
5. Doesn't have a good back end support for inventory management, sales reports ...
6. Vulnerable to security threats.
7. Doesn't support ERP integration

Apart form the last one "ERP integration" which is currently being developed (see more on this here), I am glad to say WordPress has a strong answer for all the arguments. Most of this has particularly changed in last 6 months, with the coming of some awesome WordPress plugins such as WooCommerce, which has revived the e-commerce in WordPress.

One of the biggest reason why I am asking you to consider WordPress, is because of its Huge community.

WordPress is the most popular website platform ever, of all the sites hosted on CMS's WordPress hosts about 63% which means a huge community and since it is open source you can get answers almost for everything.

Now, if you're asking me how many of e-Commerce sites are on WP, well thats what this article is about...:)

Scalable? Cannot handle much traffic?

WordPress is one of the best CMS ever built for scalability, popular websites like Techcrunch, Gizmodo, SmashingMagazine..which are handling millions of visitors per day there is no doubt that WordPress is a scalable platform

Scalable as e-Commerce Platform?

Well.. this is one point which yet remains to be proven, I haven't found any example yet, but I am a firm believer that it is scalable as an e-commerce platform.

WP is only for blogs?

Now, here's a wakeup call for all those who still think that WP is only for blogs. WP as a CMS has now been a proved fact for about 2-3 years. You can build directories, classified sites and you can also built a social network over WordPress using popular Buddypress and WPMU plugins.

Ecommerce Features?

Well, you need to take a serious look at WooCommerce and its features. You get a plethora of features and rest can be attained by installing some paid and some free plugins. With all this you can get :

• 1. Review system and ratings
• 2. Sales and inventory chart
• 3. Custom Recommendations : You may also like
• 4. Multi images support
• 5. Multi image and Zoom feature
• 6. Social integration
• 7. Multiple Payment gateways integration {from Paypal, 2CO to CCAvenue}
• 8. Credit/Debit/Net Banking Direct integration {read more about stripe.js & this plugin}
• 9. Multi currency handling for payments
• 10. Affiliate system
• 11. Save Cart/Publish Cart/Share Cart on social platforms

Vulnerable to security threats..

While one may say that since WordPress is an open source platform, it could be hacked easily. But on the other hand WordPress has the largest community, who contribute to WordPress trac, submit bugs and the WordPress core get frequently updated. Updating the core is as simple as a click of a button. Now, every e-commerce system has been built on an open source platform, so is it different from the others.

Now, its not just the above mentioned features which make WP a contender, every ecommerce site wants to include some social aspect, like

1. Users create an account on their site
2. Users participate in reviews.
3. Users share their carts.
4. Users make groups and friends.
5. Users start discussions and forums on products and campaigns.

WordPress combined with BuddyPress combined with WooCommerce gives you one of the most powerful platform to host your large to small scale e-commerce website.

Think of how many possibilities you get with WP+Buddypress+WooCommerce+BBpress. I haven't seen any WordPress theme on Themeforest or MojoThemes or WooThemes or Elegant themes  which is utilizing even half the potential that WordPress provides currently. Though the potential is huge, I see very few takers for this, so at the end this leaves us with a huge opportunity .

Ultimately it impacts the load speed of the website, since browser now has to do a lot more to show the images. This impact increases in case of sliders when browsers have multiple images to handle.

Ideally an image of appropriate size should be available for every resolution.

So, for how many resolutions should a website have images prepared for?
/* Smartphones (portrait and landscape) ----------- */
 320px & 480px

/* iPads (portrait and landscape) ----------- */

768px & 1024px

/* Desktops and laptops ----------- */

800px, 1024px, 1140px, 1280px, 1336px, 1440px, 1600px

/* Large screens ----------- */

1824px

......

there are many other resolution but unless your website is a 100% fluid website, you would have a maximum supported resolution, usually 960px or 1140px. So all one needs to do is support lower resolutions and have lower resolution images which replace the original image.

Once you have all these images,

the next challenge appears how to show the appropriate image at the right resolution.

The challenge appears bigger because:

1. The right image source has to be loaded at the time of  image display. 

That means that if I have an iPhone then the <img src= should include the iphone resolution image when the page is loaded up.

2. The screen resolution can only be calculated once the viewer/user has opened the site.

Where here we can only find the user (client viewport) resolution when the javascript identifies user screen resolution. So, you can not replace the images via javascript because this would lead to simultaneous download of two images.

Here are some solutions to this issue:

1. ResponsiveImages.js by Filament : Here you give image source as <img src="small.jpg?full=large.jpg" > and a javascript responsiveimages.js in the head and some changes in .htaccess file. So when the javascript loads up it redirects all images via .htaccess  of you site which determines which image to show.

2. Loading images via Ajax call: Here you load up the website without any images, then identify the users viewport using javascript and then make ajax calls to load up images and sliders on that page. We also set a cookie on that browser for the resolution it can support and next time use only the javascript to identify and render images, so we save ajax calls next time the user loads the website.

3. Another one is Called Picture fill: Here we give markup as

<div data-picture data-alt="A giant stone face at The Bayon temple in Angkor Thom, Cambodia"> 

<div data-src="small.jpg"></div> 

<div data-src="medium.jpg" data-media="(min-width: 400px)"></div> 

<div data-src="large.jpg" data-media="(min-width: 800px)"></div> 

<div data-src="extralarge.jpg" data-media="(min-width: 1000px)"></div> 

<!-- Fallback content for non-JS browsers. Same img src as the initial, unqualified source element. --> 

<noscript> 

<img src="external/imgs/small.jpg" alt="A giant stone face at The Bayon temple in Angkor Thom, Cambodia">

</noscript> 

</div>

The javascript identifies the resolution and loads up the correct image based on the resolution, this is cool....

4. HTML5 History API : history.pushstate(): This is an interesting feature of HTML5 where in you can call the image form the users cache, the only disadvantage that it is not supported by all browsers and IE, so it goes out of the options...damn you IE !!

Out of the remaining options, I am much more comfortable with the (2.)  or (3.) option than the first one, because the former (1.) makes things more complicated and I am not sure how much speed benefit will I get using that. Whereas for the (2.) loading images via ajax, will give an SEO benefit because all your images would not be loaded up when the Google bot crawls your site (because bots can't run javascript), plus the content would be rendered faster which is all that matters to the bot. I am applying (2.) and (3.) above technique in my next theme, and will test the theme on an existing site and see what benefit do I get out of it on my existing blog .

Share your thoughts on this....

Responsive Layout

vFlex is Built on responsive layout based on Bones skeleton CSS3 framework. The theme looks amazing on iPad ,iPhones and other tablets and mobiles.

vFlex : Free Responsive WordPress theme

1. Responsive theme, supports tabs/ipads and mobiles
2. HomePage slider
3. Light, Minimalist Theme
4. Page templates
5. Intuitive Themes options panel
6. Upload/Import/Export functionality
7. Optimized code
8. Custom Featured section

The theme would work amazingly with some recommended plugins:

1. WordPress SEO by Yoast Or AIO {as per your preference}
2. Yoast Breadcrumbs.
3. VibeSEOPack
4. W3 Total Cache

Above plugins would help you in leveraging the advantage of this theme.
License: Well, as of now this theme is for personal use only, that is you can use it for yourself, your blog and your company site. In case you want to use this theme for a client project, please send me an email or help me promoting VibeThemes , we have a promote us section in the theme also.
vFlex Demo
Free Theme | Responsive Layout

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