About
This is the Beach Party theme for WordPress, customized for AdSense, cleaned up, and made compatible by PRMoney. (The original version by Andrej can be found at: http://www.wpmix.com/)
This theme has been fixed and tested to be compatible with WordPress versions 1.5, 2.0, 2.3.3, 2.5, and MU v1.3.3 (2.3.3) in FireFox 2.0, and Internet Explorer 6 & 7.
WordPress v1.5, 2.0, 2.3.3 & 2.5 users:
You’ll need the Simple Adsense plugin (based on the AdSense Share plugin)
You’ll also want to read this post regarding the new “unimproved” widgets in WP 2.5. It explains how to easily revert to the old 2.3.3 way of dragging-and-dropping widgets. The new interface is a nightmare, and ruins this theme’s widget capabilities.
WordPress MU v1.3.3 users:
You’ll need the AdSense Share plugin, which allows you to set site-wide AdSense Sharing options.
Details:
The Beach Party theme offers an elegant design with AdSense carefully incorporated for maximum click-through and minimum “Ad Annoyance” for your blog viewers.
It starts off with a fantastic header image of several people frolicking on the beach at sunset. Near the top of the header image lies the name & description of the blog. On the bottom of the header image, you will find links to your WordPress pages on the left, and an integrated search form on the right. Just under the header are four Google AdSense Text Links.
The main body is a two-column layout that contains a special widgetized side bar (WordPress v2.3.3 & MU only) on the left, and the blog entries on the right.
A square AdSense unit will always appear at the top of the sidebar. It’s colors will randomize between 7 different color schemes that are embedded in the theme (sidebar_ad.php). Each of these color schemes was hand-picked to either blend smoothly with the theme, or stand out aggressively. (This was done because some viewers are known to click more on blended ads, while others are more likely to click on ads that really stand out.)
The default widgets on the sidebar are Meta, Categories, Recent Posts, Archives, Links (Blog Roll), and an AdSense Links Unit on the bottom. If you’re using WordPress v2.3.3 or newer, you can arrange those sidebar widgets however you like, and there are a few more choices available for you - Recent Comments, Calendar, Tag Cloud, Text 1, and RSS 1.
NOTE: If you’re using WordPress v2.5, please read the note above about the ruined widget functionality, and how to easily fix it.
The blog entries are to the right of the sidebar in a decently wide div (470px). A horizontal banner AdSense unit will randomly appear after pages with multiple blog entries - archives, search, categories, post lists. It will appear once after posts 1 through 4, and again after posts 5 through 8. Which post it appears after is random and changes every time the page is loaded. If your viewer is looking at a page with a single post or page, the banner ad will always appear after the entry.
Either way, each ad randomly uses one of 8 color schemes embedded in the theme (post_ad.php). Just like the square ad in the sidebar, the color scheme will either blend or stand out aggressively.
Theme Preview:
Feel free to check out this theme in action:
A Post With Images
A Post With a Video
A Post With Text Formatting
A Post With Comments
A Post With a Password
A Small Post
Download:
Download the latest version here:
Beach Party WordPress Theme v1.0
NOTE: For the AdSense units to display properly, you’ll also need to download, install, and activate either the Simple AdSense plugin, or AdSense Share plugin.
WordPress MU admins - download the AdSense Share plugin
All other WordPress admins - download the Simple Adsense plugin
Feedback:
G2Y has gone to great lengths to ensure all of our AdSense-ready WordPress themes work in the latest versions of WordPress, as well as the three major browsers.
The hardest part of modifying an existing theme for use with AdSense is dealing with the messy code found in almost every theme out there. It takes us anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours to fix all the CSS bugs and them implement the AdSense ads in the most profitable locations of the theme.
We’ve also found that theme authors don’t usually bother to actually test their theme to ensure it displays properly in FireFox & Internet Explorer (6 & 7!), or other versions of WordPress. Most theme authors also fail to test various other aspects of their themes, like the widgets, tag cloud, calendar, etc.
Every template on G2Y has been thoroughly tested in FireFox v2.0, Internet Exploder v6 & 7, and WordPress versions 1.5, 2.0, 2.3.3, 2.5, & MU v1.3.3 (2.3.3), but there’s no doubt we’ve missed something, Don’t hesitate to email support@g2y.net with bug reports, or simply leave a comment below.