ThemeShaper is hosting a contest for the next default theme for WordPress, since Ian thinks Kubrick’s gone old (I agree). He’s proposing The Sandbox since it’s easily modified, but it looks like crap so a new default design is still needed.
The upcoming WordPress 2.5 is delayed, which I saw coming, and that’s fine. I’d rather have a working release, than a buggy one, and I’m sure most of us agree.
One of the new features in 2.5 is a revamped admin look, something that won’t sit well with every user of course. Not that today’s theme is perfect in any way, but change always makes users react, which is why there are some admin themes available.
I’ve had some reflections on premium blog themes, and also stated that they’re in for a rough ride, with the open source community’s free offerings getting better and better. In a way, I think serious theme releases like Cutline and Plaintxt paved the way, and I’m sure we’ll see more supported free themes.
However, doing something for free usually means that it’s limited to your free time. And free time is always limited, right?
If you charge for something, that usually means you can afford spend more time on it. more
Just a quick one today, because I’m trying a new Wisdump design concept, and if it turns out OK (or promising at least), I’ll post it here and let you guys say what you think. Just like I did with the previous one.
So, premium themes are in for a rough ride. There’s a lot of money involved, and support is great for buyers needing that, of course. However, if there’s something the open source community is good at, is to offer alternatives. Blog Perfume features the BranfordMagazine theme for WordPress, a theme that’s bound to take a way some sales from newsy premium themes.
And here’s the problem for premium themes. There will always be theme designers who do similar ones, and release them for free!
The premium themes are indeed in for a rough ride.
I have nothing against premium blog themes, being custom designs that costs money to use, but not being unique. In other words, you buy a theme (and hopefully get support on it), and others can buy it as well. While you won’t get a custom design, you know that the theme in question won’t be as widespread as, say, Cutline, or any other popular WordPress theme. At the price of a license, ranging from $20 or so, up to a few hundred dollars sometimes.
People doing premium themes sometimes go to great lengths to defend themselves. Like Darren Hoyt did just recently, in a progress report on his upcoming Mimbo Pro premium theme. He said this, taking about the need for premium themes:
So there does seem to be a viable market since not everyone can afford a $10,000 custom design with a full-featured CMS.
Whoa there! $10,000 is a crazy number to wave around, when talking about blog designs! Darren probably knows that as well, since he’s throwing “full-featured CMS” in there, when he’s actually talking about premium themes in general, and WordPress ones in particular. more
