Ice Breaker Theme Released
Some of you might remember the landing page we had up before our site launched. This pre-launch page served a few purposes:
- To allow users to input their email address and subscribe to our FeedBurner feed
- To promote our Twitter account with the little Twitter bird icon link
- To not have an unresolved page, or worse, an ugly ad-plastered domain parking page
We decided that all you people out there with unused domains might be interested in a domain parking theme like this, so we created a generic version of the theme for free download called Ice Breaker. Click here for a live demo of the Ice Breaker theme
Instructions
Follow the steps below to have your WordPress-powered domain parking page online in no time.
- Get the theme – Download the theme here, and install it.
- Choose a color scheme – Pick either blue (default), red, green, or gray via the theme options page accessible through Appearance → Themes.
- Sign up to FeedBurner – My tutorial has some good instructions on how to burn your feed with FeedBurner. Make sure to activate email subscriptions as well.
- Arrange the widgets – Only text widgets, the custom subscription box widget, and the custom social icons widget are available. All others have been disabled.
- Edit the logo – Open up the logo.psd file in Photoshop and select the layer of the corresponding color you chose above. Edit the text and save as a transparent PNG.
There are more in-depth tutorials located on the Ice Breaker theme page.
Conclusion
The idea behind this theme is very inspired by Ian Stewart’s LaunchPad theme, which is another free “domain parking” theme. I’d like to thank him for paving the way for what I believe is the first theme of its kind.
We hope this theme will provide an attractive and usable parking page to use as an alternative to tired “under construction” pages and default parking pages served by your domain registrar.
Maybe while you’re in the planning stages of your blog, you could consider us for our custom theme design services.
Please let us know what you think of this theme in the comments, we’d love to hear your feedback! If you have any ideas for new color schemes, features, or suggestions, do let us know.
Ice Breaker (269.1 KiB, 2,920 hits)
Adam said:
Just an idea. . . Maybe incorporating a little bit of adsense code across the bottom or top would help earn a little pocket change, while the site is being built ?
On September 20th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Leland said:
Hey Adam, thanks for the feedback. I suppose someone who wanted to place an advertisement in the theme could just put a text widget with the appropriate Adsense (or whatever kind of ad) code in it.
On September 20th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Pete said:
Great looking ‘theme’ I’m gonna use this on one of my domains
On September 20th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Leland said:
Pete, thanks! Let me know how you like it once you’ve tried it out.
On September 22nd, 2009 at 9:23 am
Andrew said:
Thanks for sharing such a great theme, I really do appreciate it
On October 6th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Olman said:
Thanks for this theme, came handy just at the right time.
On October 26th, 2009 at 5:39 am
Elizabeth Richardson said:
This is a fabulous idea.
Just had one question.
Is there a way to have the email address details people enter to be sent to my email address instead of via feedburner?
On November 19th, 2009 at 4:57 am
Leland said:
Elizabeth, when people sign up to your FeedBurner e-mail subscription form, you can manage their details inside your FeedBurner account. If you wanted to see a list of the active/inactive e-mail addresses subscribed, it’s all in there.
On November 24th, 2009 at 9:58 am