Evo4 CMS Earns Silver Rating by ThemeGrade
Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Oct 14, 2009; Category: 4-Column Grid, WordPress Theme; Tags: Graded Theme, WordPress; 2 Comments
ThemeGrade is a website that tests and grades WordPress themes for general code compliance and for on-page SEO. Our recently launched theme for professional designers using WordPress as a CMS (Evo4 CMS) scored 6 of 7 points on the SEO portion, and 12 of 16 points on the general portion of the test (2 points were deducted because we don’t offer support: It’s a free theme! Who in their right mind would offer support for a giveaway?) At any rate, a silver rating puts Evo4 CMS in good company, in the top 30 of more than 175 themes currently, and we’re really pleased that our first theme did so well.
Other than offering support (maybe on the next release, we’ll make it paid and offer support), we’re looking at the areas where we lost points to see how we can fix them, or if fixing them is even desireable. For instance, we lost a point by not having nested or threaded comments. I’m not sure we want to "fix" that. First, few people use or want nested or threaded comments, and second, if they do, there are some pretty good plugins available to make that happen.
We lost another point having to do with sidebar link heirarchy. I’m not sure what that is, but I will find out. And I’ll also do some research on what the SEO issue is with "home page heading."
But frankly, the silver rating is much more in line with our color scheme; gold is so "gauche", don’t you think? 
Evo4 CMS WordPress Theme Available for Free Download
Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Oct 1, 2009; Category: 4-Column Grid, WordPress Theme, WordPress as CMS; Tags: Evo4 CMS, WordPress as CMS; No Comments
One of the things I’ve noticed about free WordPress themes: most of them seem to be exercises in design, that is, creating a "look" for a new blog. There is nothing wrong with that, but since I’ve never used an existing theme without major hacking, often until it would be unrecognizable to the theme designer, it seems like all that attention to how the theme looked was largely wasted.
Evo4 CMS will never be accused of being pretty and having a "cool look" as it unzips from the download file. It is not for casual bloggers who are looking for a "plug-and-play" theme. Instead, it is meant for professional-level designers who want to use WordPress as a CMS platform on which to build business websites with integrated blogs. Successfully turning the theme from the gray, blank canvas you see in front of you into a beautiful website will require a firm grasp of design skills, Photoshop skills, and maybe a bit of understanding of PHP; but it does not require major hacking. Designers can focus on design. And I hope to God their design looks nothing like what you see on this page, but is suitable for whatever business or organization the website represents (instead of looking like a site for a depressed undertaker).
Evo4 CMS is built to offer the most preferred webpage structure (subnav on left/main content right) and the most preferred blog structure (posts on left/sidebars on right), tied together by compatible footer widgets and header item placements in a 4-column grid.