Changes & Additions on Premium News
Posted on February 12th, 2008
Categorized as Blog
After a few hectic days of development and bug fixing, we’re proud to announce two new theme releases, as well as an exclusive plugin addition… We’ve just released Flash News and The Gazette Edition, which are collaborations with Magnus Jepson and Mark Forrester respectively.
I’ve also teamed up with WordPress plugin guru, Joost de Valk, to release a top-notch little SEO add-on for the Premium News themes, which should increase your SEO capabilities significantly. The plugin is exclusive to Premium News themes and slots in effortlessly to our integrated theme options backend.
On another note, we’ve decided to remove the “Get More Themes” option for now, as we feel we weren’t maximizing value from future themes. Current subscribers will still receive the future themes as previously described, but we will not accept any new subscribers.
Anyway, after a long, long weekend of early hours and IE browser incompatibilities, I’m off to a bit of rest… Check out the new themes and us know what you think!
February 12th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Phew… New Theme Releases
We’ve finally released two new Premium News themes, as well as an exclusive Premium News plugin… I’ve spent the last few days developing and debugging like mad (with my collaborative partners - Magnus & Mark - on the two themes) t…
February 12th, 2008 at 2:44 am
[…] finally released two new Premium News themes, as well as an exclusive Premium News plugin… I’ve spent […]
February 12th, 2008 at 4:22 am
[…] finally released two new Premium News themes, as well as an exclusive Premium News plugin… I’ve spent […]
February 12th, 2008 at 6:06 am
I really like these new themes Adii. I might even have to use one of them on my site. http://crenk.com
February 12th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
The “Get More Themes” option was one of the chief selling points of your themes, as I could have gotten something I was content with, and know that if a theme really appealed to me, I could “upgrade”. Now I’m not tempted to make a purchase until much later - a shame.
February 12th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
@ Steven - Thanks!
And yeah… Maybe you should support the brand and get a copy hehe! 
@ WyldKard - That’s good feedback and I appreciate you taking the time to comment. I agree that the subscription option was of great value to subscribers, but we didn’t maximize value from future themes. As I eluded to in my message, we are simply reconsidering it and we’ll probably re-launch it in a bit of a different form towards the end of the month.
February 12th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Liking the option of the SEO plugin!!!
Will look at it now
February 12th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Oh just relised that the plugin costs!!
Whys that??
Did not we just pay $200 odd for the theme? Surely an important Plugin like this could be cheaper than that (or even free)..
Sorry if I sound like a grouch, just a little disappointed!
February 12th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
@admin
I understand that for many customers, having the Get More Themes subscription negates the need to purchase a new theme, but also consider that for customers like myself who are “on the fence” about buying a premium theme, the subscription will earn you a customer where there otherwise wouldn’t be one.
A lot of us who run smaller sites are still weighing the benefits of premium themes versus “premium-like” free themes, and the ability to “upgrade” to a layout based on a similar foundation is a major draw. While you can argue that for larger blogs, you’re potentially losing a purchase by offering the subscription, note that those of us who run smaller sites are finding it difficult to justify a $100 theme purchase in the first place, and wouldn’t dream of dropping another $100 in one year for a second premium theme to replace the first. However, we can far more easily justify adding the subscription cost to the initial theme purchase.
Perhaps your target market is larger blogs who don’t mind spending $200+ dollars a year on their layout, but I don’t think most of us fall into that category. If the subscription license specifies that the “new” themes received can only be used on the site the first purchased theme was intended for, is the subscription plan really minimizing future theme revenue?
February 12th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
@ Jermayn - Yes the plugin is an optional extra and the reason for it’s cost is simply due to the developer that needs to be paid as well!
Since it’s not “necessary” to have the plugin, we won’t be releasing it free of charge.
@ WyldKard - You make a good point (again). How about this… If we reinstate the themes club at a nominal annual cost and then everytime we release a new theme, the subscriber has the option of buying that theme at a good discount (exclusive rates to subscribers obviously)? That way I can still pay my collaborative partners, whilst not cheapening the brand and still be able to build a loyal user / fan base. What do you think? We’ll also consider any suggestions with regards to bundled packages that you might have.
February 13th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
hey Adii,
I really want to buy but I need clarification on the auto thumbnail creation subject i’ve brought up before. Is it really that difficult or impractible? As I’ve mentioned, custom themers have done this for me before it worked out brilliantly - I wrote posts and images were automatically shrunk for the main page with width/height limitations. Now if this isn’t possible, i’ll buy your latest updated news theme, i really like it, but if it is is there an upgrade or new theme coming with that in mind? Trust me, it would be much appreciated once people see how much time it saves them, and it would also give you an edge with other themers who also haven’t bothered. My previous coder, the excellent Andrew Sutherland who did this for me before says its quite simple and that there are at least two ways to go about it.
February 13th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
@ Steven… We’re definitely working on this and we will release am upgrade implementing auto thumbnail generation in future. I believe that this is a truly premium function and therefor becomes integral to our overall offering. Unfortunately thus we don’t support this at the moment, but will release an update to existing users when we release the new functions.
February 14th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
@Adii
That sounds like a fair option, as long as the price after discount plus the cost of the subscription is an appealing number. It may even be worth considering a non-static subscription offer. In other words, (and I’m making up some numbers here), consider a subscription price of $30. If a subscriber wants a new theme in the one-year period, assume she gets 75% off. If she wants a third theme in that one year period, the discount drops to 50%, and so forth.
Obviously, these numbers can be tweaked such that you, your partners, and smaller blog owners all receive appropriate benefits. You could limit the number of themes the subscription is eligible for per year, or charge a new subscription cost to previous subscribers based on how many times they’ve made use of their subscription.
Just some thought for you to mull over regarding the various subscription options available.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Adii,
I must say I would also like to see the auto thumbnail be added. It would save time and hassle.
February 16th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I have to agree with Wyldkard. The subscription was definitely a draw and in fact the reason I bought your premium theme (developer’s version) over the many others that are now appearing.
I was going to buy the subscription on Feb 12th, but was miffed at the exchange rate the shopping cart was giving for the Canadian dollar. I was contacting them to see what was up - and you canceled this offer in the meantime.
I think you should still honour your agreement with those who bought a theme earlier. It was part of your sales pitch. It was part of the package.
Yes of course, you can change your offer if you find it isn’t working out for you, and some of these suggestions above are very interesting.
But it’s not fair for the people to whom bought your initial offering. It was a nice carrot. We bought it. On your word.
Please reconsider this.
Thank you.
February 16th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Adii, I see people are having problems with the dropped subscription option. Just do what some of the premi makers do, just offer a 25% discount to all repeat buyers in the future. That seems to be the industry standard. I understand that some people are worried about buying something and liking the new version better, but that is the risk you run as a purchaser. If he didn’t grow and develop in his design skills, then there would be something wrong.
February 16th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Why are people complaining? Adi said he WILL continue to honor anyone who bought the subscription option. For those who did not act in time, times up, too bad, its NO longer exist. It was an amazing deal for those who chose to take it up. He has chosen to offer discounts to those who have bought previous premium news versions in the past which is very nice of him.
February 17th, 2008 at 1:28 am
@ Irene - I’m still honoring the rights of the current subscribers - as mentioned! But unfortunately all the other Premium News Theme buyers who didn’t subscribe to the option, has thus missed the opportunity. As I said - we might reinstate it in a bit of a different form in the future, but just haven’t decided what to do just yet.
@ Nick - With technology there’ll always be something better in the future…
So even though I understand the considerations for the buyer - if you’re going to wait to see what the new theme looks like everytime, you’ll end up never buying a theme. And BTW - I am offering the 25% off to existing owners.
@ scott - Thanks for the support and thanks for squashing the complaints!
February 17th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Adii, great themes! I’ll likely be a customer some time in the next few months (and would be interested in the next version of the subscription option).
One bug note…I like the Gazette Edition theme a lot. In Firefox, though, the drop-downs under “Main Category 1 - 3″ disappear because of the video underneath, making it impossible to actually click a sub-category. Are you aware/experiencing this?
Dan
February 24th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I have been looking at your site for about a month. My interest is on the developer’s license. My friend bought it and then hired and paid a professional show us all the steps of uploading and how to best utilize your themes. As a newcomer to this end of the industry and having several domains that need to be developed I figured the first year or so would really be a learning experience, and therefore thought that what the heck, by the time we get the hang of it we will also have more themes to choose from. How about a package for the developers license that includes x amount of themes with x cost in the future for new themes. Maybe that would help get you more clients who buy the developers version up front? Just a thought!
February 28th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
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March 3rd, 2008 at 9:26 am
Thanks for the updates and heads up!
It’s my first time here on your blog and i enjoyed reading this post. It taught me a lot.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:01 am
thanks. where is the download link.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:56 am
I really like the Gazette with its transitions and clean look, but there’s no place on the front where I can see a place for readers to subscribe. Is this an oversight or are my eyeballs failing me?