WordPress News

The state of the WordPress theme industry

David Perel

May 27, 2014

Editor's Note: This story is republished from Medium, with author David Perel's permission. David has a unique take on the industry and has some very poignant thoughts that I wanted to share with this audience. The times, they are changing.…

Pantheon has raised $21.5 million in Series B financing

Brian Krogsgard

May 15, 2014

BusinessHosting

Pantheon CEO Zach Rosen announced this morning that they've raised $21.5 million in financing.I covered Pantheon, including an interview, just recently when they launched their WordPress product. As I said then, Pantheon is a very compelling product.Seeing this raise another…

Tips on providing efficient product support

Brian Krogsgard

May 12, 2014

Business

Steven Gliebe did a considerable amount of research when he realized he may be ready to hire support help for his theme shop, Church Themes. So, he asked others in the industry for advice. One of his primary takeaways was…

WooThemes is investigating alleged website vulnerabilities

Brian Krogsgard

May 9, 2014

BusinessHosting

Some WooThemes customers are alleging that their credit cards suffered from fraudulent charges after purchasing items from WooThemes’ website. The point of vulnerability is unknown at this time. The number of affected customers is unknown. The following is what we know:…

Why unlimited or lifetime product plans are sometimes good

Brian Krogsgard

May 6, 2014

Business

Syed Balkhi talks about product life cycles, churn, and marketing in his post about the psychology of unlimited or lifetime product pricing. At one point or another, you’ve probably wondered should I implement unlimited in my business? Is unlimited really…

The dangers of pricing in WordPress business models

Brian Krogsgard

April 30, 2014

Business

Tom McFarlin warns against the unsustainable practice of WordPress theme and plugin providers selling lifetime support. But although the amount of money that the business is making increases over a short time, there’s not a solid amount of cash flow.…

BackupBuddy Gold and unlimited updates

Travis Northcutt

April 30, 2014

Business

This week, the iThemes launched "BackupBuddy Gold" - a new pricing tier for their BackupBuddy plugin. They already had a $150 tier, which included a license to use the plugin on unlimited sites, as well as support and updates for one year.…

The Stream plugin lets you track all WordPress user activity

Brian Krogsgard

April 29, 2014

BusinessWordPress News

Stream is a WordPress plugin by X-Team that allows site owners to track all activity on their website. The free version of the plugin was released in December of 2013, and this last weekend they announced their first commercial extensions.…

Demo WP Pro helps you create demo sites for WordPress products

Brian Krogsgard

April 24, 2014

BusinessHosting

The folks behind Ninja Forms are working on a new plugin, called Demo WP Pro. Demo WP Pro is pretty meta, as it's intended for people that sell WordPress related products. The plugin allows you to create demo sites available for users…

Syed Balkhi, of WP Beginner, enters the commercial theme market with ThemeLab

Brian Krogsgard

April 23, 2014

BusinessWordPress Community

ThemeLab has been around since 2007, started by Leland Fiegel. Leland released dozens of themes on ThemeLab, most of which were free. He also wrote a consistent blog and was generally an active member of the WordPress community. Over time…

The power of WordPress.org on freemium products

Brian Krogsgard

April 23, 2014

BusinessWordPress News

There's a ton of discussion going on around the WordPress.org theme review incentive program right now. The incentive program was structured around a concept of rewarding reviewers for their work by allowing them to choose which themes get featured on the WordPress…

From ThemeForest to Array, the story of a theme business

Brian Krogsgard

April 22, 2014

BusinessDesign

Mike McAlister has been an active member of the commercial WordPress theme space since 2009. He started by selling themes on ThemeForest. He transitioned to the Okay Themes brand in December of 2011. And at the end of March of this year, Mike…

Tips for a better eCommerce website

Brian Krogsgard

April 21, 2014

Business

I've seen it many times. A business owner goes to a consultant, and they want an eCommerce offering for their products. They may even have some functionality in mind that they'll need. But have they considered the things that will…

Lessons learned from the Obox affiliate program

Brian Krogsgard

April 21, 2014

Business

Obox has run their affiliate program since 2009, but made it invite-only last week. It was not an easy decision for them, since there were some months that their affiliates accounted for more than 30% of all revenue. That said, after investigating…

Press75, one of the oldest WordPress theme shops, is for sale

Brian Krogsgard

April 15, 2014

BusinessWordPress Community

Started in 2008, Press75 is one of the oldest WordPress theme shops. Jason Schuller has run the site for years, and according to the listing, it was once a half a million dollar per year business. Now it's for sale. Jason…

Keys to building a successful remote workforce

Brian Krogsgard

April 14, 2014

BusinessSecurity

Stack Overflow co-founder Jeff Atwood writes why companies are not hiring the best and the brightest employees. While the title says the article is about hiring, it's really about working. His points boil down to a promotion for distributed workforces.…