Hark Ye Theme Authors!

A few months ago I wrote a post and made some suggestions on listing themes for public distribution on WeblogToolsCollection. While some do follow these guidelines (thanks!), most theme listings are annoyingly apathetic. Instead of a rant, I figure that I will write another post on getting your plugins and themes listed here on Weblog Tools Collection and on providing your best face to your audience.

If you would like to submit a theme or a plugin for listing in our daily release posts, then do read the Submit News page for basic guidelines. The best method is to post your news in our News Forum. The news forum is heavily visited and that is the first place we check when looking for new plugins and theme releases. Infact, we list almost all the themes and plugins that are publihed in the News Forums.

I say almost because some of the posts are just too weak hearted and incomplete. Your effort in advertising and marketing your theme/plugin also exhibits your enthusiasm and pride in your work and your eagerness to get attention; both of which are important ingredients in attracting users and visitors. An effective post is one which includes the two most essential ingredients, a link and a good description. A good description gives the visitor a clear idea of what they might expect from your theme. It also helps influence their decision on whether to download or keep looking.

I have noticed that plugin authors are very effective in crafting their descriptions. This might be because code is easier to describe than aesthetics. But plugin pages in general have really good information. However, when it comes to theme listings, many of them are disappointing. I usually make up descriptions by visiting the theme page and the preview page. Some theme pages do have detailed descriptions, but others just have a preview and download link.

The preview is definitely nice, but it doesn’t tell us everything about your theme or the interactive features that it might have. Mention a timeline, suggested improvements, wishlists, bugfixes, possible problems a user might encounter etc. Please tell us if your theme is a fixed or fluid width, mention the number of columns, mention if it support widgets as well as the customizable header image. Does it have an options page? Is it adsense ready?

Again, please do mention if your theme is sponsored.

To summarize my pseudo rant:

• Please read this post
• Write a good description and provide a link to your theme / plugin when posting
• Mention if your theme is sponsored or not
• Provide as much information as needed in the description
• If you are excited about your theme or plugin, your visitors will be excited as well