WordPress is great and all, but leaving it with the default installation and the default theme can leave something to be desired.

The great thing is that WordPress can be used to power a myriad of websites and not just blogs. If there’s a website that you want to build, there’s a good chance that you can customize WordPress to be the framework for that kind of website.

While they may be billed as a premium WordPress app, what AppThemes really offers is a series of purpose-built WordPress themes.

As we make our way through today’s review, we’ll have a look at these different themes and what they have to offer.

Premium WordPress “Application” Themes

There are a total of five themes being offered by AppThemes and each of these can be purchased separately or as part of a package.

You might already be familiar with ClassiPress, for example, which converts your WordPress installation into a fully functional classifieds ad site. Remember that AppThemes refers to each of these products as an “app,” but they are better described as comprehensive themes. They want to provide turn-key solutions, giving you a unified, easy-to-setup package.

This is why they didn’t decide to go with WordPress plug-ins. They say that a plugin “would likely require more setup time, more pieces ot manage and themes that were made specifically to handle the features and functions that we create. In short, creating themes instead of plugins makes it easier for the site-owner ot start and manage their site.”

Clipper for Coupon Management

Let’s start with one app theme as an example. Clipper is a coupon WordPress theme. You can use this to power a daily deal aggregation site, for example, capitalizing on the affiliate programs of those daily deal websites.

You could also use it to post the various coupon codes that are published around the Internet, once again sending visitors through an affiliate link so that you can earn a commission. Clipper includes advertising support, the ability to setup coupon stores, support for personalized customer coupon management, social media integration, and more. It also integrates with the Coupilia plugin, which offers an automated XML feed for coupon management from retailers.

If you check out some of the live customer sites using the AppThemes themes, you can get a sense of how you can customize the framework to create your own unique site.

Vantage for Business Directories

The newest addition to the AppThemes catalog is Vantage.

This business directory WordPress theme is meant to be easy to use, while at the same time offering a robust feature set. Each listing gets its own details page where you can include location and contact info, as well as pictures, tags, and so on. There’s support for user generated ratings and reviews, as well as advanced search and Google Maps integration.

If you’ve ever used a site like Yelp or Urbanspoon, you see how much power can come from a well-designed and informative business directory. For each of the five themes offered by AppThemes, you have the opportunity to view a demo of both the site in action, as well as the a demo of the admininstration panel. With the theme manager, you can easily access the widgets, menus, background and header.

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