Michael Janzen

Note: I’ve setup a new blog just for my theme, Basic Simplicity. I’ll also be blogging about blogging over there.

After trying dozens of minimalist themes over the years I finally decided to code one myself. It’s open source and called Basic Simplicity. It’s super simple, loads fast, ad ready, widget enabled, validates, and has an administration control panel that makes quick color edits easy.

Download Basic Simplicity

I built Basic Simplicity because I always found myself editing other people’s code to get the look & feel I wanted. I also wanted more sidebar regions for easy inclusion of widgets. There are actually 10 widget enabled regions in this theme and all of them are optional. Scroll down for a description of all 10 regions.

Cluttered designs might be good for ad clicks but I really wanted my content, especially on Tiny House Design, to take the lead. If it’s all about the content shouldn’t the website’s design be all about the content?

The main column is also wider than most blogs allowing for much wider images (600px) than most blogs. The font size and color in the main column is also more visually dominant making it easier to read. The right sidebar is 300-pixels wide which is ideal for the ubiquitous 300×250 ads.

Administration Control Panel

In this version I’ve added a control panel for making easy edits to the colors: Appearance > Edit Basic Simplicity. Just edit the hex color codes (like #0000ff) in the admin form. You can also add your Google Analytics code, Google site verification code, and custom css on the admin page.

Note for advanced users: If you want to edit the main stylesheet you’ll need to comment out the dynamic CSS code in the header just above the BODY tag or the default settings may override your CSS edits.

You’ll also notice that I’ve used visibility: hidden for the header and description. I left it in for search engine optimization reasons but if you want to make them visible just delete that attribute and color as you see fit.

Configuration Tips

Images

Set your large image default to 600-pixels so when you upload images they span the main column. Do this on the page at Settings > Media.

Use The More Link

Use the more link in every long post. I like to start with text and then have a 600-pixel wide image followed by a little more text and a more link. I’ve styled the more link to stand out nicely.

A more link is a way to cut long posts on the home, search, and archives pages. You can add it by using the little icon in the WYSIWYG editor or by typing <!–more–> in the text view.

Widget Regions

I’ve built it with 10

widget regions that should make it easy to add supporting content, navigation, and advertising. Below are some tips for each of the areas.

Sidebar-Main: This is the normal right side sidebar. I made the sidebar 300 pixels wide. If you want to place standard 300×250 ads there just use the Text Widget.

Bottom-Left, Bottom-Middle, Bottom-Right: At the bottom of the page you’ll see a grey bar. This is in fact a region called #bottom just above the normal footer region. It’s 3-columns about 300 pixels wide each. Each column is also a separate widget region perfect for things you don’t want cluttering the right sidebar.

Column-Top, Home-Top: This is a region just above the main content column perfect for a 468×60 ad or the built-in Tags Didget. Home-Top is the same as Column-Top except it only appears on the home page.

Post-Top-Right-Single, Post-Top-Right-Home: This is a widget area 300-pixels wide at the top right of the content on pages and posts. Add a text widget and paste in your 300×250 ad code. Post-Top-Right-Home is the same as Post-Top-Right-Single except it only appears on the home page.

Post-Bottom-Single, Post-Bottom-Home: This is a widget area below the content on pages and posts. Add a text widget and paste in your 468×60 ad code. Anything up to 600-pixels wide can be added to this widget region. Post-Bottom-Home is the same as Post-Bottom-Single except it only appears on the home page.

Strategy

Instead of trying to squeeze every penny out of my blogs with Adsense I’m focusing on increasing readership and the number of impressions. By focusing on the content and leaving the home page easy to scan I’m encouraging people to click for more content. I think I’m also building my readership faster because the blog looks less about ads and more about the content. I think people like that and the ultimate goal for sucessful monetization is increasing readership and impressions. See Tiny House Design or CARazed for the best examples of this strategy in action.

About The Banner Photo

Just in case you’re curious about the header image; I lifted it from a photo of the tiny house I’m slowly building. The house is called the Tiny Free House and I’m building it from mostly reclaimed material like old pallets. Any money I spend building it will be reclaimed by selling free stuff I find.

In the theme download file above included an editable header.psd file in case you want to keep the blue sky but change the name. Feel free to use the header image on your blog or replace it with a photo of your own.