There are many free WordPress themes available on the Internet. However not all the themes offer the level of quality and originality you may be after. Whether you are blogger or a business, including a WordPress blog on your website offers many advantages. In order to ensure the blog is in line with the branding of the company, one may need to commission a custom design from a Web Design Company or professional designer. In practice however it may not always be feasible to justify the higher costs involved in designing a bespoke skin. A professionally designed free theme may be the answer.

This is a list of 5 free clean-cut, magazine style WordPress themes that you can use on your blog. The themes listed here can be downloaded free of charge.

1) Arthemia

Arthemia WordPress Theme

Source |   Demo

Features:

• A Drop-down Menu
• Automatic Image Resizer
• 1 Sticky Headline displayed at the top
• Featured post category with automatic thumbnail resizing
• Custom field for post thumbnail
• Gravatar support included in comments
• No additional plug-ins required

2) Mimbo WordPress Theme

Demo |  Source

Features:

• Support for multiple languages included
• Automatic image resizing without the need for custom fields
• Sticky post from ‘Lead story’ category
• Featured Categories
• 125×125 Ad Support.
• Multi-Level Dropdown Menus
• Better Author Archives.
• Custom image styles for Gallery, Inline Image & Captions.

3) Premium News Theme

Source |   Demo

Features:

• jQuery based featured Posts on homepage with animation
• Support for all major Ad sizes e.g. 125×125, 468×60 and 300×250.
• Drop-down menu for categories
• 7 colour styles to choose from
• Fully documented

4) Freebiestock WordPress Theme

Source |    Demo

Features:

• Animated jQuery based menu
• Includes support for quick submission to web2.0 websites
• Includes support for flickrRSS plugin
• Threaded comments support
• Subscribe by email support using FeedBurner
• Support for multiple Ad Formats (125×125, 120×600, 300×250)
• 2 widget ready sidebars

5) Beauty Style WordPress Theme

Source |   Demo

Features:

• Fixed width two column lay-out
• Featured Content feature for homepage
• Ad support – 125×125 banners that can assigned from admin
• Support for Header Banner
• Gravatar included with Comments
• Includes Logo source file (.PSD)
• Tested for browser compatibility
• Twitter integration with admin

The author K.Singh is a London based Internet Consultant with over 10 years of experience working with established multi national businesses as well as SME’s.  He is an expert in  Web Design, Internet Marketing, E-Commerce, Joomla Development and Search engine Optimisation.