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  • Tabor, a theme for growing your audience

    Over the last few weeks I have had quite a lot of requests to release the WordPress theme that runs this website. I’m happy to announce that my WordPress theme, appropriately named “Tabor“, is available.

    I built the Tabor WordPress theme out of a need for a lightening-fast and highly-optimized theme to share my words and grow my audience. Unfortunately, these type of hyper-purposeful WordPress themes are becoming few and far between. So I did what any sensible WordPress theme developer would do—I made one.

    rich.blog

    41 replies

  • Improving the WordPress Customizer Logo

    I’m currently in the process of migrating the older WordPress themes in my catalog to utilize the core custom logo functionality, instead of a theme-specific WordPress Customizer option.

    Along the way I ran into a bit of a snag, so here’s a quick tip on how I improved the custom logo WordPress Customizer shortcut.

    rich.blog

  • Designing highly functional WordPress Themes

    Designing beautiful and highly functional WordPress themes is not as simple as opening your design editor of choice and going to town. There’s a lot more to think about when it comes to developing beautiful WordPress themes that intentionally focus on both form and function.

    rich.blog

    2 replies

  • What’s on my Desk, 2017

    Inspired by Matt Mullenweg’s annual “What’s in my Bag” post, I thought it’d be fun to share the gear that gets me through the day-to-day grind at my home-office workstation.

    What’s on my Desk, 2017 rich.blog

    4 replies

  • Merlin WP, now on GitHub

    Good news! After a couple weeks of nailing down some issues and cleaning up the code base, I’m pleased to announce that the public beta of Merlin WP is now open to all.

    rich.blog

    2 replies

  • Better WordPress onboarding with Merlin WP

    You get one chance to make a fantastic first impression. Just one. WordPress itself isn’t particularly known for its first impressions, and WordPress themes in general are notoriously difficult to get rolling.

    Sure, it’s easy to install WordPress and upload a theme. But what happens next? Why not make this first impression blow the user away, offering a simple, intuitive, and clever interface to help them get started?

    rich.blog

    49 replies

  • My experience at PressNomics

    PressNomics 5 was an incredible experience – one that I’ll remember for sure. I put faces to names of folks I’ve chatted with for months – even years, and made strategic (and more importantly) personal connections with the people who basically power the WordPress business economy.

    I had the idea to sum up my thoughts, ideas, and takeaways from my experience at PressNomics 5 into bite-size chunks.

    rich.blog

  • Maximizing the profitability of freemium themes

    Over the past couple of years, the freemium pricing strategy has become more and more popular among WordPress theme and plugin shops. Having a bit of experience with selling freemium WordPress themes, it only seems right that I take the time to share what I have learned so far. So here we are!

    rich.blog

    7 replies

  • 3 top WordPress podcasts for entrepreneurs

    Looking for great WordPress podcasts to digest on your morning commute? Or while you’re pumping iron? The good news is that there are plenty of WordPress podcasts out there.

    This is a short list of my favorite WordPress podcasts that I look forward to listening to nearly every week. They are each fun, engaging and super insightful in all sorts of ways.

    rich.blog

    2 replies

  • 11 tips to getting approved on ThemeForest

    Over the last three months, I have been consistently asked what are the most common ThemeForest rejections that I have uncovered while reviewing WordPress themes on ThemeForest —so naturally, I wrote about them.

    Let’s jump in.

    rich.blog

    24 replies

  • Using inline SVG sprites in WordPress themes

    I have been integrating inline SVGs into some of my latest WordPress themes. This is just a quick tutorial on the techniques that I have experimented with. Feel free to leave feedback and suggestions in the comments below.

    rich.blog

    4 replies

  • I’m a ThemeForest theme reviewer

    I’m ecstatic to announce that I am one of Envato’s newest WordPress theme reviewers over at ThemeForest!

    WordPress has been a wonderful catalyst for my career and I’m honored for the opportunity to help shape the future of the premium WordPress theme industry in this capacity. As a reviewer I’ll get to work with some of the theme industry’s most knowledgable folks and help tackle those seemingly infinite review queues that have too long plagued ThemeForest.

    I plan to write about the latest things we’re checking for and common reasons for soft-rejections that come up often.

    Let’s go!

    14 replies

  • Hello, world!

    I’m Rich, a designer & WordPress developer. Over the years I’ve dabbled around with freelancing, running a small design agency, selling beautiful WordPress themes and giving away Photoshop freebies.

    Throughout all of this, I’ve maintained a few blogs here and there, but this post here marks the start of a new and super exciting adventure, my very own personal blog.

    I plan on writing about the quintessentials of WordPress theme development, the latest design trends all the cool kids are toying with, and marketing techniques that I’ve personally explored throughout my experience as an entrepreneur.

    I’d seriously love to hear any feedback, comments and stuff you’d like me to write about.