Blog Tipz

Last month, Brian Gardner and Jason Schuller, considered some of the top WordPress theme designers and developers announced that they would be joining forces, creating stunning visual and feature-rich themes under a new business model.  Although the transition was made early to the new site, called Revolution Two (or Revolution Squared), today (November 1) was the first official day of the launch, as all the themes previously available will no longer be sold.

Revolution Two Site, Original Site in Background

In this post, I’ll be reviewing the site (not sponsored), the themes, and what the team offers that differs from other “premium” WordPress themes currently available.

Revolution Themes (One)

The original Revolution Themes site offered many different themes, stemming from Brian Gardner’s submissions to the original WordPress.  Many of the themes were quite similar, with advanced features (sub-menus, media areas, static pages, etc.), but they differed mainly in style and orientation of content.

Users of the themes found them quite easy to use and implement into their site, although they did require some work to get them appearing the way the blogger intended them to.  The themes didn’t stop with the design and backend, but also included complementary support through forums and email if any problems arose while using the theme.

The average price of the themes ranged from $80 to $250+, depending on the license and purpose of the theme (business and media themes tend to be more expensive as they are more advanced.

Jason’s themes were extremely valuable, ranging from just $25 to $100+ for the basic license, with prices going up for developer and multiple-use licenses.  His themes tended to be for high quality media and video blogs and websites.

The New Model and Features

As the premium themes market continues to evolve (it isn’t going away anytime soon), the new site features nearly identical themes, although restyled and rebranded, all for FREE.

Rather than selling the themes at rather high-end prices (according to many people), the model has switched to a free themes/membership package.  By purchasing a package, you will get access to more themes, tutorials, support, and basic customization of any theme available on the website.  Typically, custom themes cost between $500-$1,000+, but you’ll be able to access themes that are professional-quality for way less – meaning more people will be able to have the professional-quality theme they were dreaming of.

Any further customization of the theme will cost extra, but there may be discounts with the connections the team of designers on the site has.  Typical customization and support ranges from $40 to $80 per hour.

Some other questions that have been answered on the Frequently Asked Questions page include:

• You can use the themes for any purpose – development, personal, and commercial use.  All aspects of the theme, ranging from fonts, colors, layouts, and more can be changed without any limitations.  You can also use them for content management purposes such as for clients that may be interested in a custom design.
• The themes will not work with a WordPress.com account – you need to have a hosting plan with a way to download/install the self-hosted, WordPress.org software.
• Each theme produced and made available for download will be licensed under the GPL License, in total compliance with standards set froth by the authors of that license as well as with the WordPress open source blog system.  You will not receive any support unless you purchase a package.

Pricing and Packages

Many people using premium themes don’t have the time to figure out how to code their design, but don’t have the cash on hand to hire someone to completely redesign their site.  With the packages offered by Revolution Two, you’ll be able to find an affordable plan within your budget.

An outline of what is included in the two packages is included below:

Package 1 (Pro) – $99.95 (per year)

Package 2 (Pro Plus) – $149.95 (a one-time, lifetime fee)

All packages include these benefits:

• Membership benefits include ALL themes
• Unlimited support answered by their experts
• Customization techniques with detailed theme tutorials
• Professional design services available by their list of recommended designers
• Discounted general consulting rates
• Increase your search rankings with a link from the Revolution site directory

In my opinion, both packages are an enormous value.  You can’t compare the time you will save using the professional services to the price – the time you spend will easily outweigh the total cost, even if you use it just a few times.

A high-quality plugin titled Featured Content Gallery has also been ported over to the new site, which makes the entire process of posting media (images, videos) on your site automated.  Instructions for usage have been provided.

The Team Behind Revolution Two

On the site, you’ll find a page titled Meet the Team, where you’ll be able to become acquainted with the people who design your blog’s theme.

• Brian Gardner is the CEO and Lead Developer of the Revolution Themes Project.
• Jason Schuller is the Theme Developer, working as a freelancer over the past two years.
• Craig Tuller is the Marketing Manager, who also works as a WordPress designer and general blog consultant.
• John Flynn is the Graphics Designer for Revolution Two.
• Finally, Kyle Eslick is the Content Contributor for their blog found here, running WordPress Hacks.

Onto the Themes

It’s now time to review the themes.  Eleven themes, including variations, were ready in time for the release of the site.  With a solid team of developers working on new themes, I’m sure that at least one to two new themes will be releaed each month or so.

Remember that all themes are completely free.  Clicking on any of the links below redirect through an E-Junkie link, so we’ll receive a percentage of the membership fee to help support the site.  To go diretly to the site, click here.  You can find the themes by browsing the site and visiting the individual theme pages.

At this time, the themes have been categorized into six different categories – Blog, Magazine, Media, Photo, Professional, and Video Themes.

Like the previous themes, each is (or should be) search engine optimized, ready for different advertising types (banners, buttons, or AdSense), with many of them having drop-down navigation menus and other features, which come in handy now matter what type of blog you run.

Blog Themes

Revolution Code Blue - A three column, fixed width, white and blue theme with widget-ready sidebars.

Revolution Code Gray – A three column, fixed width, white and gray theme with widget-ready sidebars.

Revolution Code Red – A three column, fixed width, white and red theme with widget-ready sidebars.

Magazine Themes

Revolution Church Theme – A three column, fixed width, white, gray, black, and red theme width widget-ready sidebars.  Ideal for church and general-purpose websites.

Revolution Lifestyle Theme – A three column, fixed width, widget-ready theme featuring a tan, white, teal, and purple color scheme.  Ideal for people who want to run a lifestyle or health blog.

Media Themes

Revolution Charred – A two column, fixed width, black, white, and gray theme with widget-ready sidebars.

Revolution Chrome – A two column, fixed width, black, white, and gray theme with widget-ready sidebars.

Photo Themes

Revolution Black Canvas – A two column, fixed width, black, gray, and white theme designed for photographers and people who want to showcase large images – also widget-ready.

Revolution White Canvas – A two column, fixed width, gray and white theme designed for people who want to place their photography online – also features widget-ready coding.

Professional Themes

Revolution Office – A two column, fixed width, white and black theme with widget-ready sidebars.  Ideal for people who want to showcase products online or feature images on the main page.

Video Themes

Revolution TV – A two column, fixed width, video theme featuring a black and white color scheme as well as widget-ready sidebars.  Ideal for people who want to place their videos (or showcase others) on their WordPress-powered blog.

Recap and Conclusion

The Open Source Model – While I don’t know the specifics of what Automattic (the parent company of WordPress) stated as being open source, the model that Revoltuion Two is being run under may not be the best in the long-term.  I belive that rather than have all themes listed as “free,” they should have built parent themes, then had child themes using frameworks as the main source of income – the two support packages would hae incldued them at no additional charge.  Whether or not they use this model in the end may depend on how successful the “pay for support” model turns out.  After all, they are doing this as their sole source of income.

The defintion of “open source” is: ‘A program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge.’  Their entire basis behind the support is that they are trying to limit the number of people who are able to correctly use the theme, limiting the backend features commonly avaialble in premium themes, having to resort to tutorials found on other websites and blogs.  Unless users know how to use the themes with little support, they will need to purchase the support package(s).

The Themes – For the most part, I like the themes that have been introduced, despite the fact that some of the features previously available are not documented as well as before, especially for people who have little experience uploading and editing WordPress themes.  I’d like to see the release rate on new themes (the previous rate was about average for new themes, especially with only one main developer).

The Plans – I like the plans available.  Even if I don’t need support to design a theme, I would be more than happy to pay the $150 lifetime fee to receive the advanced features and tutorials that will be offered, while supporting the team behind the themes.  Surely, other people will share a similar view, slating this as a “donation” to continue offering themes.  I believe that any support questions that have already been answered will be available on the forum, especially those from “Generation One” of the Revolution Themes.  However, you may need to sign up/purchase the support package should you want to access customization options for the new themes.

Check out the themes and the new site today, and tell me what you think of their new offerings.

Note: At different times throughout the day, the site was experiencing high load, due to the number of people trying to take a look at the new themes, so be patient while it loads.