It will look like this

Think about the 1st page, where every competitor of yours all look the same, with only title and description. These stars will catch the reader’s attention immediately, so they are more likely to click on your link.

This results in more visitors and higher click through rate, even when you are not in #1 of Google. It also builds more trust for your website since people believe in those stars. I don’t know why, but after a few tests, I realize that this is a good way to boost your conversion rate with star rating review plugins.

In this article, we’ll discuss about 5 popular and working WordPress review plugins that you should give them a try if you want to integrate review system into your website.

My Review Plugin

My Review Plugin is designed to help affiliate sites to make better comparisons with comparing tables. It will add star ratings, review, embed or with one-click install to your website.

My Review Plugin can format your review in 2 different microformats – hReview and RDFa which makes your content more readable by Search Engines, and allow search engines to list your website with star ratings on top.

There are two licences for this plugin: Single Site and Unlimited Sites.

Demo & Download

Author hReview

Author hReview is made by Hesham of FamousBloggers.net. I think this plugin is the lightest and it works better with search engines. Although there are not so much options to choose from, Author hReview is my top choice in terms of getting a review on WordPress. There are two versions for this plugin, free and pro. I am satisfied with free version, but if you want to upgrade your plugin, here is something pro version can help you:

• Half rating (for example 3.5 stars, it looks more accurate than even number like 4 or 5)
• Change the button text from More info to Get this plugin, this encourages more actions.
• Add extra image to your review.
• Several templates to change your rating layout.
• Related reviews with shortcode.
• Full control over review box and settings.

Demo and Download

GD Star Ratings

GD Star Ratings is one of the most popular WordPress plugins thanks to a tons of features that the creators have included in this plugin. It serves from simple reviews to most complicated ones with an extensive theme options. Some great features of this WordPress review plugin are: shortcode integration, several ways to vote, import via CSV, caching to speed up process, rating widgets.

Since this plugin is free, you can’t get support from the authors unless you purchase a support subscription. However, there are many articles guiding you how to configure this plugin correctly, so you don’t have to worry much about supporting.

Demo and Download

ReviewAzon

ReviewAzon focuses on a more specific niche: Amazon, where millions of products are being sold every day. It has several functions and easy to use, so you can get your Amazon review site up and run in less than 30 minutes.

Features include:

• Add hundreds of Amazon products in minutes or drip feed, so the post will be scheduled for regular updates.
• Easy to setup.
• Exclusive dashboard for ReviewAzon.
• Change the look and feels of reviews took from Amazon.
• Spin title and description automatically.
• Custom widgets ready for the store.

These 4 WordPress review plugins will help you build your review website or integrate a review system to your existing content with ease. My top choice is Author hReview thanks to its simplicity and sleek design. However, if you are aiming at Amazon, ReviewAZON is a good choice for you.

Crave doesn’t have too much graphic making this theme light and fast while keep it as simple as possible. I am a huge fan of minimalist design, so Crave would be a great choice for me. It has 3 default modern color schemes (default blue, citrus and berry), 6 homepage layout options and widgetized homepage where you can choose to put content to the main page.

In total, you will have 18 different colors and layout options, even though you know nothing about coding and css styling. It’s a pretty good foundation to start with and build your website.

Crave is a Genesis child theme, so it is inherited a good foundation and structure from Genesis Framework. It also means that you must have Genesis to use this child theme. If you haven’t get the framework yet, learn more about how to get your discount buying Genesis right here.

Features

• 3 color schemes (default blue, citrus and berry)
• 6 website layout (magazine, magazine with slider, full posts, full posts with slider, post excerpts, and post excerpts with slider).
• Widgetized homepage.
• This theme isn’t responsive yet, but the designer promised to bring this feature in the near future.
• Modern magazine layout with photos, color and fonts.
• 40+ hooks from Genesis Framework.
• Since this child theme is based on Genesis Framework, it obtains everything from this framework, from an optimized structure and codes to solid website foundation. As you may aware, a good site structure and code will result in better user experience, less problems and easier for search engines to crawl your website which means higher ranks.
• 6 page templates.
• Support from a responsive community. Genesis community is one of the most active and responsive community.

Price: $24.95 | Demo & Download

Of course I don’t want to load my Dashboard with tons of flashy icons with special effects. No, I don’t want to make it more complicated. I always want to keep it as simple as possible.

After a long time searching for tutorials to make WordPress Dashboard more attractive, I have found DevPress Dashboard. I have used this plugin for a few days and it gives positive improvements to both user experience and productivity. I can’t say it sky rocket my productivity, but it makes me feel more comfortable working with WordPress.

DevPress Dashboard – What Makes It Different

First, take a look at the new dashboard after DevPress installation.

This theme, Hunter, is made default after your installation. It makes WordPress Dashboard look more attractive with big and bold typography along with minimalist design.

However, you will be amazed with the Base theme of DevPress. This is how your WordPress Dashboard look like with Base theme. When I visit the new Dashboard, I feel more like to write and publish a new post. It’s cleaner with more white spaces and a modern, flat design. It gives WordPress Dashboard a cleaner and more freeing experience.

How about making a new post?

The functions are the same, but it looks ways better. Floating admin bar on top of your website is also bigger and cleaner, so you can browse your website, add new posts and customize easier.

DevPress Dashboard allows CSS configurations, so you can change the code to make the look you want for you website. If you are not familiar with coding, I think Hunter and Base theme is enough for you. The Base theme is more modern while Hunter theme focuses on minimalist design, which will keep your concentration and enhance productivity.

DevPress Dashboard – Get 60% Disconunt

At present, DevPress Dashboard is currently on sale with 60% discount. It means that you can get DevPress for $16 only. Moreover, you can use this plugin on unlimited sites of yours, which will bring a fresh look for all of your site.

Click Here To Get DevPress With 60% Discount

Although you can always use a magazine WordPress theme to make your gaming site, it’s hard to custom and tailor the look of your website into a professional website for gamers. Selecting a unique theme dedicated to games will make your website ways better than competitors, especially when you are not good at customizing websites.

What a gaming website need? The first common feature is support for different media formats. You need to provide reviews, video reviews, images and other media where games come in, so people can get everything they need, from a picture of their favorite game to a trailer of upcoming games. The second feature I found in these themes are high contrast design, like white photos on black background which creates a strong impression for visitors. For a review website, themes always get a review system where both bloggers and visitors can rate their favorite games.

These two features are the most common ones for a gaming site. However, I suggest you should look for professional and solid themes which come from trusted and reputed theme providers.

There are some free themes for this niche, however I recommend you not to use these free themes if you are serious about your works. The problem is that you need to get updates and supports as time goes by and your community growing bigger and bigger. Buying a premium theme will guarantee that you’ll always get support when your website gets in trouble. That’s why in this collection, I will discuss about premium WordPress gaming themes only.

GamingZone

GamingZone is a new WordPress gaming theme, but it strikes into the market with premium design and multi functions that every gaming site is in need of. This theme comes from Magazine3, a theme provider dedicated to make magazine WordPress themes. It can be used for gaming portals, news about games and game review websites. Just take a look at the demo, you’ll feel a whole world of games coming to real life.

Features include: 100% responsive design, HTML5 & CSS3 support, 10 different advertising areas, innovative thumbnail option, stars rating system, drag and drop menu builder, tagging section so visitors can follow trending topics.

Demo | Download

eGamer

eGamer is an attractive gaming theme specializing in video blogging. The sidebar is located on the left making it easier to navigate through your website. With rating star review system, you can give points to each game from 0 to 5 stars catching the attention of users right away. There are two styles to choose: standard blog style and gaming site homepage. You also have 4 different color schemes including red, blue, green or purple, this can be found on theme options page.

Like other themes from Elegant Themes, eGamer has ePanel theme options allowing you to control fonts, colors, design and how you customize your website.

Demo | Download

Gamebox

GameNow makes use of a fullscreen background image with black color schemes and some special part to showcase latest games available. With strong impression and solid foundation, Gamebox makes your gaming review site looks really cool.

Demo & Download

Codilight

I must say that I am a huge fan of Codilight since this theme is released. With a metro style and flat design, Codilight brings a fresh view to every magazine website. It’s big, bold and resposive with floating sidebar which keeps your visitors’ attention and show them exactly how to go through your website. The theme also integrates rating systems, you can give reviews, rating and opinions on different games.

Codilight is extremely suitable for review gaming sites which have different categories with its tagging feature and different color scheme for each category. Currently, you can get $5 purchasing this theme since the provider is running a promotional campaign. The best thing is that you can use this theme on unlimited sites of yours.

Other features include: responsive design, 14 premade color schemes, custom shortcodes, different page templates, rating system, built-in related posts, social media sharing options.

Demo & Download

GamingMag

GamingMag is an elegant WordPress theme with full features homepage for gaming news websites and blogs. With an extensive theme options and fresh look, GamingMag bring a new experience and full control for your website.

Features include: big and bold featured slideshow, drag and drop menu, full documentations and tutorials, sharing options, automatic thumbnails, ad management system.

Demo | Download

Gonzo

Gonzo is clean, elegant and profession WordPress theme built upon HTML5 and CSS3, which is the modern standard for websites, making this theme fast, solid and provide great user experience. Like many other themes nowadays, Gonzo is 100% responsive, it looks good on any devices from PCs to smartphones. Gonzo has many typography to ultilize fonts, sizes and colors to create a beautiful design, these typographies are modified to look great on mobile devices too. That will enhance mobile user experience which is growing more and more every day.

Gonzo has review system supporting stars and percentage ratings, it also allows you to choose to place the review on top or bottom of the post. This is extremely useful for gaming review sites, when you need to provide different ratings for each game or category. You can mix between these categories to create a more balanced website.

Other features include: flexible layouts with 5 modules on homepage, 4 post formats, Clear typographic hierarchy and cross-device compatibility, professional support, social media integration, Facebook & WordPress comment system.

Demo | Download

SwagMag

Swagger provides an unique approach to Gaming review site by allowing you to create unlimited “mini-sites” within your main website. It means that you can write then upload all of your articles in an organized way as many mini-sites. The homepage is made to include all content from these “sites” and display them together.

Features include: unlimited review sites, 60+ review options, 5 unique layouts and more extensive theme options.

Demo | Download

There are plenty other choices for you, but I think at the present, these 7 themes are most suitable for your gaming sites. Grab your favorite and start a gaming portal right now.

Foxy theme is designed for widescreen users. It fits 1280px layout perfectly making the website looks great on widescreen. For other resolutions, Foxy has responsive design, so you don’t have to worry about the look of this theme on other devices.

Beside the basic features that every business WordPress theme has, Foxy also supports WooCommerece, so you can sell products or services directly on your website. I think it’s a nice integration since you know that many businesses nowadays want to create a website for not only setting online presence but also selling their serivces.

Foxy has 2 great thing on homepage, a big and sleek slider plus strong call to action part. It encourages people to take a look at your business and tell them exactly what to do rather than bombarding visitors with lots of useless features.

Features

• High Resolution – 1280 wide design.
• Fully responsive – compatible with any screensizes.
• WooCommerce support, so you can sell your services.
• Color picker and 4 premade color schemes.
• Homepage slider – demonstrate the core value and main business of your website.
• Comprehensive theme options.
• Custom shortcode – making configuration easier.
• 5 Different page template.
• Compatible with most modern browsers.

Price: $0.5 (Learn More Why) | Demo | Download

Lately, it has made a refreshment on design and introduced new membership packages for their WordPress theme shop. It represents for the culture of Press75 – fresh, black and white and minimalist.

Click here to check out new design of Press75

As you can see on the official website or the screenshot above, Press75 has a totally brand new design with simple and minimal concept. They keep everything clean and efficient, so there is no clutter elements or bad things affect user experience, just what your really need for your website and a truly amazing speed which has become a ranking factor in Google algorithm.

For the new redesign, they also change their pricing structure. In the past, you can purchase individual themes or get lifetime membership from Press75. Now, they have eliminate single theme purchase and add new membership package where you can get all themes made by them.

There are two membership packages:

• Essentials ($75): Access to all themes for 1 year.
• Unlimited ($175): Get lifetime access to all Press75 themes.

Both packages allow you to get access to detailed documentations, video tutorials and updates from these themes.

This new pricing strategy makes Press75 more affordable and they will have more room to design new, awesome themes while maintain their existing customers.

If you want to see the new design, you can click here to access Press75, take a look and browse through their themes collection and choose your favorite one. If you decide to buy, now just one time payment and you’ll get full access and use for all of these themes.

Click Here To Visit Press75 New Design And Browse The Gallery

This theme makes use of full integration of Google Maps API where you can pin a location on the map, so people will know about that place with geographical location. At the end of this theme, there is an advanced filterable search settings making searching for information easier.

Since Explorable is fully responsive, it works great on any devices including PC, mobiles, tablets as well as other devices.

Like other themes from Elegant Themes, Explorable comes with ePanel theme options. This theme options allows you to change font colors, background, page templates and other layouts.

Features

• Google Map integration: Pin your location directly on Google Map.
• Filterable Search listings: Filter with listing types, location and star rating.
• Rating system: When you finish a post, you can give it a rating. After that, visitors can also give their recommendations.
• Responsive design: One of the most popular design trends in 2013.
• Unlimited color schemes: Choose your favorite colors or from pre-made templates.
• Shortcodes: Create, use and share your shortcode.
• Page Templates
• Cross browsers compatibility.
• Complete Localisation.
• Extensive ePanel theme options (SEO settings, Ad management, Social media integration)

Price: $0.4 (Learn more why) | Demo | Download

The debate leads to an obvious decision, to stay with ThemeForest or WordPress.com. This is not good for both users and theme authors.

Some authors want to support the community, but they have to stick with ThemeForest due to a large number of potential customers and many authors in ThemeForest are working individually with just a few themes. They can’t risk their lives by staying away and set up a new theme shop. It’s very risky and challenging. Although not all ThemeForest’s themes are good, they are diversified and when it comes to choose a premium theme for my new website, I always look up at ThemeForest first.

Thank God, ThemeForest has worked to provide a new option for their authors. Now, authors can choose to add 100% GPL Option to their themes which means these themes are 100% compatible with WordPress.com’s aims and targets.

How To Set Up ThemeForest 100% GPL

If you are an author, login to your account and visit author settings page. You’ll notice a checkbox next to upload and edit forms. Checking this box means accept 100% GPL and the item (theme or plugin) will be switched to 100% GPL forever. There is no turn back. These themes or plugins marked with 100% GPL License won’t have an extended license options.

In the new update, authors now aren’t required to add Readme and License files since these files will be added to your package automatically.

A Great News For ThemeForest And GPL Lovers

After Themeforest added new GPL option to their marketplace, Woothemes – one of the most popular independent theme shop – has joined this marketplace. In the coming days, we’ll see Woothemes’ works listed on ThemeForest and I am quite sure that more theme shops will come to this premium marketplace in the future.

It also ends the war between ThemeForest and WordPress.com since now theme shops can choose to add 100% GPL License to their websites. It would be great to see some big names like Obox or Studiopress coming back to ThemeForest.

This also shorten your time of choosing a good WordPress themes because many themes are now included in ThemeForest. Visit one site and browse many different themes in various categories. However, I prefer to buy themes on the theme shop’s official website. First it’s cheaper because authors don’t have to pay ThemeForest for advertising fee. Second, there will be membership option with more affordable price.

It’s time to speak your voice. Do you love 100% GPL option? Will you buy a theme with or without 100% GPL Option?

I think the easiest way to make your website suitable for retina display is to use Retina ready WordPress themes. Designers and web developers have made these themes ready for high pixel density, so people browsing your websites on these devices will enjoy a crisper and higher-quality appearance. It also creates a strong impression for visitors, so I think you should be ready now for this trend. Maybe those devices coming in the future aren’t called retina-ready devices, but they still have high DPI or resolutions. If you can’t catch the trend, you’ll fail while your competitors enjoy a huge amount of new visitors to their website.

If you don’t want to change the theme and just want to make it ready for retina resolution, here are some great tutorials for you:

• How to make your WordPress Theme Retina Ready by Presscoder
• How To: Make Your WordPress Themes Retina Display Ready by WPLift
• Make Sure Your Site Looks Good on the New Retina MacBook Pro by WebMonkey

However, if you just want to choose a brand new theme which supports retina display, here is my hand-picked collection of Retina ready WordPress themes which will provide more choices for you.

Codilight

Codilight is a brand new theme from UXDE (read my review of UXDE here) with professional and flat design in mind. I must say this is my most favorite magazine WordPress themes recently. Codilight has a nice blend of white spaces and typography making every single element attractive to visitors. This theme is highly recommended for tech/blogging websites, however, with a little tweaks you can turn it into any styles you want.

Demo & Download

Structure

Structure focuses 100% on content and makes it the spotlight in your website. With a big featured image for each post and one column layout, Structure lets visitors browse through your site with 100% concentration. It doesn’t distract readers with banners or other heavy widgets, just pure content and photos.

Demo | Download

Ravage

Ravage is a great choice for writers and creative agencies who want to share articles, photographs, videos and their works online. Features include: attractive typography, clean and responsive design, retina ready, 3 custom widgets (flickrs, twitter, video).

Demo | Download

Business Maker

Business Maker has many “wow” factors including multiple custom post types and extensive theme options panel. It can be used on different purpose like blogs, review sites, agencies or corporations. With 10 color sets, responsive design and over 150 shortcodes, Business Maker creates multiple options for your choices.

Features include: Fully responsive, 20.000+ icons, 150+ shortcodes, parallax layers, slider and homepage highlights.

Demo | Download

Gentle

Gentle touches visitors’ eyes with a pleasant appearance. Beside that, this theme is easy to set up with simple but powerful theme options panel and custom shortcode wizard. According to the creator, this theme was made with passion and desire, so it pours emotions right in people’s mind. You can feel the love within each element’s appearance.

Demo | Download

Gridz

Gridz is a premium WordPress theme designed specially for freelancer and agencies to show off their websites. It helps creating and managing websites easier with drag & drop builder. It also makes use of WordPress Theme customizer, so you will get easier to configure website. Since Gridz is a retina ready WordPress theme, it makes your site super sharp on iDevices.

Features include: 600+ Google fonts, Ajax transition, translation included, SEO optimized, 13 custom widgets, 4 Custom Post Types ( Slides, Pricing Tables, Portfolio, Testimonials ).

Demo | Download

Showroom

Showroom is another example of how creative a portfolio WordPress theme can be. It shows off your best designs, illustrations and other creative works. Powered with retina ready, Showroom looks great on even iPads and iPhones. It also creates a stunning experience, especially for touch screen.

Demo | Download

Atlantis

Atlantis makes use of minimal and responsive layout to make an ultra professional WordPress themes. Since the theme options are really easy to get used to, anyone can use it with little skills. Atlantis also includes some premium plugins, 600 google fonts, a lot of shortcodes and HD Video tutorials showing you how to configure this theme correctly.

Features include: Fully responsive, 2 layout styles (box/wide), 6 sliders, 30+ videos tutorials, color picker for customization, filterable portfolio, 6 footer widgets layout.

Demo | Download

theGrid

theGrid implements grid-style layout to a business WordPress theme to make a unique and standout experience. Although this theme doesn’t have a lot of colors, it strikes directly into users’ mind with a bold look, strong typography and attractive boxes.

Demo | Download

One Touch

One Touch is inspired by Metro 8 UI design. Despite the professional and modern look, this theme is fast, easy and light. It can be used for different purposes from a personal blog to a business website. You can also add WooCommerce for One Touch since it has a special template for this plugin.

Features include: 1 click turn on responsive layout, drag and drop page builder, metro titles, unlimited sidebars, 40+ social media icon and of course, retina ready.

Demo | Download

Alyoum

Alyoum is a perfect responsive and retina ready WordPress theme for magazine, blog and news site. Unlike other magazine WordPress themes which make use of widgets on homepage, Alyoum creates a drag and drop builder, so you can create and play around with your design. If you want to include a category on homepage, simply drag it to the builder.

Demo | Download

Inovado

Inovado is a intuitive and out of the box business WordPress theme equipped with responsive layout and retina-ready features. This theme includes one click installer making installing it easier for customers. It also provides extensive documentations and video tutorials, so you can learn how to customize and make it your own.

Features include: slider revolution plugin, 500 google fonts, turn on/off any elements, premium icons, built-in SEO settings but also compatible with popular SEO plugins like Yoast or AIO, 10 custom widgets and much more.

Demo | Download

Fluxus

Fluxus is inspired by creative layout with magazine feelings. It uses horizontal portfolio to showcase your works side by side. I really love this theme since it focuses on big images, minimalist design with big, bold and beautiful typography.

Demo | Download

Typegrid

Typregrid provides high resolution websites for magazines or news corporation. Since the main focus of this theme is to provide great support for reading experience on any devices, it’s 100% responsive with retina display support.

Features include: 10 post formats, 6 page layouts, 3 single post templates, Air framework, high density pixel social media icons and much more. 

Demo | Download

FlyingNews

FlyingNews is ready for retina display. In the 2.0 version, this theme has added support for eCommerce websites. With a rich feature theme options, you can choose to make your website friendly or attractive with grid style layout and full of information.

Demo | Download

Foodlover

Foodlover comes with full of useful features for restaurant or cafe. This theme has 2 different color sets: Light and Dark. It has 7 widgetized areas and 5 custom post with a big featured slider to showcase your foods. With minimal distraction, clear call-to-action Foodlover brings a fresh experience and guide customers to your restaurant directly.

Demo | Download

It’s the end of the post here, but not the end of retina ready WordPress themes. I believe that we’ll expect to see a lot more themes in the future. How about you? Do you have any favorite retina ready WordPress themes? Feel free to share in the comment section.

In the coming months, Toan told me that he’ll add more themes into this nice collection. I am looking forward to seeing more designs from this promising theme shop since the design speaks for the designers.

I think it’s enough for my part, let’s look at awesome works from UXDE

Codilight

Codilight is extremely suitable for magazine and news website with an extensive responsive layout as well as big and bold design. It makes use of colors, fonts and size rather than focuses heavily on images making the theme clean and light. Codilight has a floating navigation bar with sharing options, I think it’s a nice way to encourage sharing, increase social signals and don’t annoy people like other methods.

Other features: HTML5 & CSS3, review bar for each review post, ads management, support rich snippets by Google and social media integration.

Demo & Download

LightBlog

LightBlog is a nice gem for bloggers and writers with simple, but elegant design. It brings both arts and professional feelings to your blogs. This theme is also responsive making it suitable for every device including pc, tablets, smartphones and much more.

Features include: sticky bar, comprehensive theme options, review system for affiliate marketing (support google snippets), custom widgets and short codes, built-in related posts section.

Demo & Download

Laverde

Laverde is a simple magazine WordPress theme designed for news and magazine websites with clean, professional layout.

Features: sidebar manager, ad management settings, built-in SEO options, built-in widgets.

Demo & Download

Pricing

Each theme costs $29 and you can use on unlimited sites of yours. If you feel that you can’t make a decision, you can choose VIP or Developer version where you can get access to all themes made during a year. I think annual plans are better choices since you can first get 3 awesome themes above then get all themes made in the future.

if you are interested in these themes, there is a great news for you. Currently, UXDE is celebrating their launch by offering a $5 discount on all package. Save your money now and get all themes by UXDE

Click Here To Get $5 Discount Of UXDE