WooThemes » recession http://www.woothemes.com Premium WordPress Themes Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:41:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 How WooThemes beats custom design & development http://www.woothemes.com/2009/01/how-woothemes-beats-custom-design-development/ http://www.woothemes.com/2009/01/how-woothemes-beats-custom-design-development/#comments Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:56:39 +0000 Adii Rockstar http://www.woothemes.com/?p=677 In times when the financial going gets a little tough (I think the media has recently been referring to this as an economic recession of sorts), it’s wise to cut costs without compromising your business goals & objectives. So in an industry (web design & development), where there’s an ample amount of top-notch skills available (at differing prices to suit different budget constraints), why would you consider going with one of our themes vs getting a custom design?

I think that everyone would agree that a custom WordPress-built site will cost you lots more than any of our individual themes or subscriptions, right? The reason in this is purely in the time that a designer / developer needs to spend servicing one client, whilst we can spend that same time but then give multiple clients access to the same development. That’s just the way the two different business models work and both will bring their own pros & cons to the table.

Now, I’m not suggesting that custom design / development beats getting a template (since I also own a thriving custom design / development agency), but a template – when used correctly – can offer you great value-for-money; especially in times like these… When I browse around our showcase of WooThemes modifications, I see more and more great examples of how our themes were used as a framework and not an out-of-box solution. Looking at examples like Brad Ruggles, Anne Jackson, GoMediaZine & Resume Bear – it is hard not to see the value in customizing one of our themes. So why doesn’t everyone do it?

Another great example (to prove my point) is the recently redesigned ThinkVitamin website from the Carsonified crew. Even though I’d have loved for them to customize the theme more, it’s still great to see such a respect company using one of our themes; instead of having to develop one from scratch. So why would Carsonified (an established and hugely succesful company) use a WooTheme, when they could’ve done this on their own? Here’s why I think they did (and why others are doing this too):

  • At $70 a pop, our Single License themes are a steal and a fraction of the cost of a custom WP theme;
  • Our themes already have a bunch of non-standard WP functions built-in;
  • Maybe they didn’t feel as comfortable with WordPress as they do with other platforms;
  • Their design + CSS skills are top-notch, which is all they’d need to deploy to customize one of our themes.
  • They wanted to launch the redesign ASAP and didn’t have the time to develop a custom theme; and
  • They knew that we’d provide them with fast and efficient support on any queries they might’ve had whilst installing / tweaking the theme.

I know that for designers / developers using a template as a basis of their projects seems like “cheating”, but even Magnus is using one of our themes (modified though) on his own blog. So why when our themes offer you a fast, efficient and value-for-money solution, would you decide to go custom? For me the bottomline is a “horses for courses” approach in terms of going the custom route only when you need to; if you can however service all your needs with a modified WooTheme, why look elsewhere huh?

]]> http://www.woothemes.com/2009/01/how-woothemes-beats-custom-design-development/feed/ 16 The Value of The Club – Part 1 http://www.woothemes.com/2008/10/the-value-of-the-club-part-1/ http://www.woothemes.com/2008/10/the-value-of-the-club-part-1/#comments Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:09:16 +0000 Adii Rockstar http://www.woothemes.com/?p=274 The WooThemes ClubI think many of the potential members of our WooThemes Club kinda baulk at the price of a subscription vs buying an individual theme, which we can totally understand, since the gap is kinda big. If you just consider the price differences between buying an individual theme or a subscription (I’ll use the cheaper, 3 month option as an example), you’ll come to this comparison:

  • Single License ($70) vs 3 Month Single User Subscription ($150): Difference of $80 USD
  • Developer License ($150) vs 3 Month Developer Subscription ($225): Difference of $75 USD

And then it goes without saying that the 6 Month Subscriptions just further increase these gaps. But I’d like for you to consider the following figures, based on the club members that subscribed in the first 2 weeks after we launched the club in July this year (since those subscriptions came up for renewal now; with the majority being renewed for another 3 months):

  • We launched the new WooThemes Club with 8 themes (all with multiple styles and colour options);
  • Since then, we have released another 5 new themes;
  • Consider that another new theme – Over Easy – will be released on Thursday, which makes it 6 new releases in about 3 months;
  • So that means that the 3 Month Subscribers would’ve gotten 13 / 14 themes for their subscription; and
  • This then translates to about $11 / theme on a 3 Month Single User Subscription and about $16 / theme on a 3 Month Developer Subscription.

Now in my mind (even if I could be totally neutral, unbiased and objective for a minute here) that is incredible value right there; especially considering that stuff that is going on in global economic markets.

What do you think? Does this “increase” the value of our club subscriptions in these turbulent times? Let us know your thoughts…

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