wpdesigner Website Review

Posted on 19. Aug, 2009 by Sheli Sod in Blogging, reviews, Web Hosting

What is This Site About?

Whatever this site is doing, it is certainly doing something right. It has an awesome page rank of 7 and a great Alexa score.

However, figuring out what http://www.wpdesigner.com is about is not that easy.  It sometimes refers to itself as web host and if you do a site analysis using Adwords, the vast majority of the references relate to web hosting. On the other hand, the title is WPDesigner which indicates that it is about WordPress theme design and many of the links on the home page relate to theme design and development issues.

The about page provides some insight. Small potato, the fascinating and talented founder of the site writes:

“Wpdesigner.com is a blog focused on developing WordPress themes and improving your blog’s performance through code and design tweaks.”

He adds:

“I started Wpdesigner.com back in May 2006 because I was not happy with the quality of free WordPress themes at that time and decided to learn how to create one for myself and release it for free. Gradually, Wpdesigner turned from a simple place where I release free themes into a blog, which covered WordPress tips, tutorials, and general web development topics. Along with more than 50 free WordPress themes, I managed to put together a series of articles on how to create a WordPress theme scratch, which is the most popular series of this blog.”

He eventually turned the site into a membership site which is now defunct.

In summary, web host is a site which has a dual role. It provides guidance on developing WP themes, reviews many themes and provides overall WP advice. Currently, it has metamorphosed into a web hosting review site which is accompanied by a number of very enlightening articles defining web hosting and providing guidance about all sorts of web hosting and website development issues.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The site has some excellent articles and tutorials. The WP designer articles have very clear and well written tutorials describing how to do a number of things. One good example is the WordPress Date Button tutorial.

The WWMD (WordPress Weekend Must Do) section is chock full of great ideas and suggestions for improving your blog. His treatment of reducing bounce rate is especially noteworthy.

The hosting articles are very well written and informative. The Transferring Your Website to Another Hosting Provider removes the anxiety one migh

t have about doing this.  Choosing a web design firm is well thought out and covers all the bases and relevant issues.

A comprehensive review of the site’s top 10 web host picks is provided on the home page.

Small potato was a unique character and added a certain panache to the site. An example is his insistence that all guest bloggers for

Wpdesigner must upload a 100×100 pixels photo for him to draw a mustache on it.

Chris Cagle

guest blogger

small potato has basically retired and he recounts details of his current plans with Chris Wallace

The WordPress content is good but it is somewhat dated and is not getting updated. The theme club that is described no longer exists and some clear statement about this should be made up front The site could use a bit of reorganization to make it easier to navigate and discern the intent of the site.

I personally found the light brown text on a dark brown background somewhat difficult to read. It could just be my well used eyes but I think an enhancement would help.

Summary

Web host as it is currently known, has a lot of very insightful and interesting content. The WordPress stuff. although high quality,  is getting a bit long in tooth and the site is transitioning to a web hosting review site. The web hosting information is high quality. It can use a bit of an upgrade but many will find useful information here.

Review Date: 8/19/2009

Be Sociable, Share!

•