The Bottom Line
I've used three versions of the Mimbo theme, from the still-free version through two Premium versions. It creates a very professional and image-intensive magazine style site without the user having to do a lot of layout. I frequently get requests to steer people to it after they see my site.
Pros
- Highly graphic, with images and a magazine style
- SEO- friendly
- Very suitable for community and feature article blogging
- Clean look with little wasted space and not a lot of image at the top
- Choice of Categories or Pages for top navigation
Cons
- Learning curve a bit steep for beginners, but worth it
Description
- "Lead Story" box at the top for your latest and greatest post. Image is resized to fit the space.
- Moving carousel of featured posts/stories with an image for each. These images can be pulled easily resizing automatically.
- Top button navigation can be set to be pages or categories, removing the need to create pages if categories work for you.
- "Recent Articles" prominently featured top-right, next to the Lead Story, helping keep visitors engaged.
- Placing a new article as both a "Lead Story" and a "Feature Article" lets lead roll down to carousel when replaced.
- Timing of carousel movement, as well as the number of articles to display is user-controlled in settings.
- Footer is customizable to display categories and article links of choice. Another factor for site stickiness.
Guide Review - Mimbo Pro Premium Magazine Theme for Real Estate WordPress Blogs
When I decided to do more community blogging in my vacation/resort market, I wanted something a bit flashy for my WordPress-based site. Since Taos, NM is a very art-intensive community, there is a lot of visual material, as well as the beautiful scenery in the area.
I decided to search the web for "magazine style" themes. They tend to be designed for articles with images, and with a presentation that highlights the latest articles. The Mimbo Pro theme did just that. Here were my important considerations for a site that would help me to show off the local area as well as my real estate business:
- I write a lot, so I wanted speed and not a lot of time required with image placement or resizing.
- My content for real estate is all about everything related, including negotiations, transactions and statistics. I wanted a way to make it easy for site visitors to locate what they want.
- My local area content covers the gamut from outdoor activities to restaurants, day trips, businesses, chamber of commerce, town and government, art and culture. Navigation ease is again important.
I found that every version of Mimbo Pro was effective, but each gets better. The newest one added welcomed features. All considered, there are a great many excellent WordPress magazine style themes out there, but this one stands out. It is well worth the $79.99 price.
