A Trend in WordPress Themes
It’s a growing trend right now to buy/sell premium WordPress themes. Whether or not, that trend is here to stay is up for debate. ThemeShaper has an interesting article entitled, The Future of WordPress Themes, where they ask 11 prominent wordpress designers just this question.
Free vs. Premium WordPress Themes
The cost of wordpress themes can range from free to hundreds of dollars; so what’s the difference? Well… it depends. There are many quality free themes available, but in general premium themes are higher quality. You are usually paying for extra functionality, valid XHTML and CSS, updates, and in most cases support.
Check Out Elegant Themes
Elegant Themes provides an interesting alternative to most premium theme sites. For the very reasonable cost of $19.95 per year you get access to all of their premium themes as well as the new ones they create in the future. As of this post, that entails a total of 18 high quality themes, with number 19 right around the corner. Cold Stone is the theme in development right now. And judging by what I’ve seen thus far, it looks like it’s gonna be awesome!
A Closer Look
Many of the themes available at Elegant Themes offer color variations within the theme’s custom options page. This means you are getting even more than the 18 themes available. Their newest theme is called LightSource. This theme boasts three cool variations, shown below.
Other cool features include a three-tier dropdown menu and automatic image resizing. The whole theme is quite slick and I especially love the slider for the three most recent posts.
Conclusion
Premium themes can be awfully useful to develop a fantastic WordPress site in a short amount of time. Elegant Themes provides a marketplace of many quality themes for you to choose from, all for one affordable price. They are a great option when searching for the best premium themes.
If this post was helpful to you, please consider sharing it with others, it's a great way of saying thanks.
Contribute
Deca
December 9, 2008
Nice themes but I don’t like press/magazine style
Deca´s last post was… HostDime.com
parsifal
December 9, 2008
@ Deca – you don’t need to like press/magazine style, but can still become a member because they offer various themes, and for example Bluesky theme is not magazine styled.
At first point designers touch is visible in all (older) themes, but then it suddenly changes, and even though it feels like there are some elements present, each theme is somehow different, special and unique. They are all pretty well designed, and if you buy membership and use them you should expect your blog readers to be happier you finally gave up lousy design and embraced STYLE.
Mixedbrains
December 10, 2008
I am a big fan of Elegant themes. You can’t beat the deal and like you said, he is really coming along in style. He releases new themes all the time too.
I likw your blog, I found it via
zabox dot net
Andrew Houle
December 10, 2008
@Mixedbrains Yeah, Elegant Themes just seems like a better bang for your buck. Glad you found and like the blog, thanks for reading!
Tom Ross
December 11, 2008
Wow, some really professional themes there.
Tom Ross´s last post was… Daily Image Inspiration #37
valerie
December 19, 2008
I’ve bought access to the Elegant Themes and they are great, but there are also some things in the implementation that required more technical knowledge to figure out. For example, one had a typo in the php file that made it so it wasn’t hooking into the css. So it didn’t look out of the box like the live demo, which had no typo. I could find this issue and correct it, but an average user without coding knowledge would’ve had some issues. I don’t know how typical this is and how Elegant Themes compare to other premium theme offerings, but I was hoping this reviewer would have actually installed the themes and used them and then compared them to other mainstream premium themes.
valerie´s last post was… Envato Sites Style Guide
akper
December 27, 2008
nice blog
Internet Marketing IQ
January 23, 2009
They are nice looking themes. I don’t like club membership sites in general because having access to 100 themes is useless most of the time. Find the right template for each project then buy it or use it if it is free. Brian Gardner has some nice themes. You buy the support and they “give” you the theme. This is very useful because as WordPress Verisons Upgrade the designer needs to upgrade the templates so you can keep up to speed with the new features. This is very true with WP 2.7. So I’m not knocking the Themes and at 20 bucks if you use only one it’s a great value. I believe the furture of WordPress Themes will be in Brian Gardners pay for support model. Why? Because if you are a business you need to keep up to date. IF you are just a hobby blogger then go with the free stuff.
Maria
August 12, 2009
It’s a wonderful resource for somebody looking for a professional layout! On top of that, the creator of this website allows his templates to be modified – a very valuable addition, allowing me to craft my website exactly to my desires.
.-= Maria´s last blog ..Zebra =-.