Free WordPress Themes Against Premium WordPress Themes

                           With the increasing popularity of WordPress, a great amount of amazing websites have been designed and developed by WordPress theme designers/developers.

Fundamentally, there are two type of themes available in the market - the free WordPress themes against premium WordPress themes.

Whenever I start recommending people to use premium WordPress themes, they often ask me this question, "why use premium WordPress themes when I can use free WordPress themes?"

In fact, there has been much debate over free WordPress themes against premium WordPress themes

Well, all I can say is both are great to work with, depending on what type of website you are intending to create.

In here, I will discuss about the advantages and disadvantages of using free WordPress themes against premium WordPress themes pros and cons

Advantages of free themes:

- It is free! There is totally no financial risk involved in using free themes. If you don't like theme A, you can just abandon it and try out theme B!

- A large library to select from. Do a simple search on "free themes", and you will find yourselves overwhelmed with the thousands of choices you get to choose from! With so many to choose from, there will bind to be one which you will like!

Disadvantages of free themes:

Virtually all free themes do not have the option for you to customize your website the way you wanted. You need to be a coding expert to be able to understand the WordPress coding and change the coding yourself.

- No updates at all. Do not expect your free theme to be compatible with the latest WordPress version. You will most likely face compatibility issues.

- Practically no help is available. The biggest problem with free themes is that if you will to face any issues, you will not be able to get any help from the developer.

- Quality varies. Although there are some high quality free themes available in the market, there are also a couple of low quality free themes. Numerous free themes are developed very quickly with no quality control, and therefore, don't have the features found in numerous premium WordPress themes.

- A couple of free themes make it mandatory for you to keep the developer's name in the footer. There are some other developers who encrypt the footer and promoting links which you just can't remove from your website. There have been numerous reports of some developers installing detrimental coding in free themes to spread viruses without you realizing it.

- Furthermore, a great deal of the free themes is designed for personal blogging purposes only. If you are a small online business owner and is looking to create a professional business website, then a premium theme will clearly be a better option for you.

Premium WordPress Themes

Typically, the pricing of premium themes is in the range of $25 - $180, and these are developed by a very skilled team of website developers. More than often, designing premium themes is their full fledged business. Keeping this in mind, no developers will jeopardize their reputation by creating a substandard product, putting their business at risk. Their goal is to establish a pool of happy and loyal customers and they do this by developing great looking premium themes and helping people with any problems they have.

Now, lets take a look at some of the

Advantages of using a premium WordPresstheme:

- Great looking themes. It is without a doubt that premium themes are usually more elegant, stylish and professional compared to free themes, not forgetting that premium WordPress themes are abundant with great features as well.

- Consistent Theme Updates. Virtually all theme designer themes will release frequent updates to most of their themes. Updates will mean that you get to enjoy using the brand new features added to your website without you having to do any extra work. Most importantly, you can rest assured that your theme will always be compatible with the latest version of WordPress.

- Technical help is always available whenever you need it. Encountered some major problems with your newly installed premium themes? Well, not to worry. Top notch premium theme developer team will always be there to help you solve any pressing problems/issues you have with their premium themes. Most premium theme developers are able to respond to any of your enquires within 24 hours!

- Customization is as easy as ABC. As mentioned above, if you want to perform some basic customization (such as change your website font or colours, background images etc ) on your free themes, you will need to try to understand the WordPress coding and then try to edit it (a very tedious chore to go through). With premium themes, you do not need to go through the great length in editing the WordPress coding. In fact, you do not need to know anything about coding at all! Virtually all premium themes come with a custom theme option, allowing you to make any changes with just a simple click.

Disadvantages of premium WordPress themes

- The only complain I had about premium theme is that you have to pay for it. However, considering the flexibility and features you get with premium WordPress themes, I have to say that premium WordPress theme is a worthy investment.

If you are a business owner and is serious about setting up an impressive website to attract more visitors/buyers to your website, keep in mind that the cost of engaging a website designer to develop your website can easily rack up to thousands of dollars. Premium themes on the other hand, only cost a tiny portion of that amount, and still able to deliver outstanding results.

Read More

About Woo Themes - A Premium WordPress Themes Developer

             Woo Themes is a premium WordPress theme developer offering dozens of themes that function on self-hosted WordPress websites (not wordpress.com sites). All themes are guaranteed to function correctly with WordPress 2.8 and all versions that came out after that. Earlier versions of WP may not work properly with all Woo Themes.

There are currently 77 themes offered by the site and all of them are professional quality and well designed. Of course, you get what you pay for, so this is one of the best but also one of the most expensive premium WordPress theme developer services in operation today. They are probably more suited to professionals rather than hobbyists or personal bloggers.
Most Popular Themes

The top 3 all-time downloaded Woo Theme themes are (at the time this article was published):

Fresh News: offers a variety of color schemes and can be used as a blog page or a homepage. 3 homepage layouts come with the package.
Gazette: professional, upscale theme with some unique features, layout options, and color choices.
Busy Bee: supports ad space and tons of multimedia features right out of the box and offers a super stylish, sleek appearance.

Woo Themes are easy to customize and offer great features:

Custom Sidebars: You can create new custom sidebars for placement throughout your website using an easy-to-use panel.
Shortcodes for creating buttons and columns within a page or post (this is very cool):
Create custom navigation menus with a very easy-to-use panel (no coding knowledge required).
Built-in SEO panel: You can configure the search engine optimization for your site easily in themes developed by Woo Themes (without knowing any coding).

Pricing & License Model for Woo Themes (at time this article was published)

This is one of the more complicated things about Woo Themes as a premium WordPress theme developer. You can opt to purchase a single theme or a club membership which gives access to all themes. There are several options no matter which way you go.

The options for purchasing a single theme include:

Standard Package: your chosen theme plus 2 bonus themes. The license permits you to use the theme on as many websites as you want and you receive lifetime access to updates for all three themes. One-time fee is $70.
Developer Package: your chosen theme plus 3 bonus themes and PSD file. The license permits you to use the theme on as many websites as you want and you receive lifetime access to updates for all four themes. You can make any changes you like using the PSD file. One-time fee is $150.
Enterprise Package: select themes are Enterprise themes which include advanced features not found on other themes. No bonus themes are given but you do receive everything else that comes with the Developer Package, including the PSD files. One-time fee is $200.
The options for joining the club include:
Standard Subscription: unlimited access to all the themes plus at least 2 new theme releases every month. Access to support services and all theme updates is included. No PSD files for themes used. One-time start-up fee is $125, then the monthly club fee is $15.
Developer Club: the same terms as the Standard option, but you have access to PSD files for all themes. One-time start-up fee is $200 and monthly club fee is $20.

Woo Themes uses a private service for payment processing which accepts all major credit cards plus Paypal as long as you are paying in U.S. dollars. If you are signing up for a subscription service you will not be able to cancel the subscription on your own. You have to contact the company before the subscription is set to renew in order to have it cancelled.

PSD Files with Woo Themes Purchase

PSD files are included with select membership packages. See the information under Pricing & Licensing Model above to see what packages include these files.

All image logos are intended to be samples and there is a simple process on the site where you can replace this with your own logo. You don't need Photoshop or any other program to do this!

Technical Support with Woo Themes

All support is handled through an open support forum where Woo staff answers questions and help resolve problems with installation or functioning of all themes. Like most other premium WordPress theme developer services, Woo Themes will not answer questions or resolve problems through email or telephone.

Access to the support forum and basic technical support continues even if you cancel your subscription. You also receive updated versions and corrections to your purchased themes, even if you are not a current club member.

History of Woo Themes

Learning about Woo Themes as a premium WordPress theme developer service is a study in how technology has changed the modern world. This is a true international company that started up with three passionate web designers all living in different countries. Today, their service has expanded some and many of their themes are designed by some of the top professionals in the industry.

Read More

Some WordPress Themes Are Better Than Others

                There are some very good free WordPress themes out there. However, in my experience, the support and ease-of-use that comes with premium WordPress themes is very much worth the cost.

Why did I start looking into, and finally buying premium WordPress themes? Because in the end I favored the uncomplicated modification, polished style, and the support forums.

The following are guidelines for purchasing a premium WordPress theme.

1. What license are you buying?

I will not purchase a theme that restricts the quantity of websites and blogs I can create - whether for my use or for client use for the one time purchase cost. I require no restrictions to the use of a theme I purchase. What I need then is fundamentally a developer license.

2. Critical question: how difficult is it to modify the WordPress theme?

Find out whether you need to know HTML, CSS, and/or php to tailor the theme? For many WordPress themes, the answer is no. Tread carefully before buying because some themes require that you know CSS and/or php in order to set it and build your website.

3. Is the theme code W3 compliant

Lots of free WordPress themes are badly coded. Chances are you can't distinguish good from bad code unless you know coding yourself. That's an additional reason to purchase a premium theme from a decent WordPress theme seller.

Ensure you request proof that the theme(s) you're purchasing is W3 code conforming. W3 is the World Wide Web Consortium that develops web standards.

4. The following are some details you should decide whether you need in your site design:

Does the theme offer drop-down menus?
Does the theme give you the option to list categories in a top navigation bar?
How many columns are there? How many columns do you want?
Do you like the typography (font, font size, font color(s), etc.)?
Typically images, videos, and slide shows you see in example themes aren't included. Therefore, if you want a comparable look and feel, you'll have to add your own images, videos, and slide show. Evaluate the theme details to find out how simple it is to add images, video, and/or slide shows.
Automated thumbnail sizing is a very nice feature if you like lots of images in your blog. Many premium themes offer auto-size thumbnail management. I recommend getting this feature because you'll likely want to use it. That said, if you find the perfect theme in all other respects, don't make automated thumbnail sizing a deal-breaker.

5. Is the theme widget ready?

Widgets significantly enhance a WordPress website's functionality and customization options. This means you definitely require a theme that is "widget ready." "Widget ready" means the theme is developed to instantly accommodate widgets. I wouldn't buy a theme that isn't widget ready.

6. What's involved to modify the header and/or logo?

Using your own header and logo is a paramount way of customizing your website and blog. Therefore, the ease with which you can change the header and/or logo is important.

Some themes permit you to basically upload your own header from the options panel. Other themes require you upload your header through your hosting service. It's simpler and quicker through an options panel; however, it by no means hurts to get familiar with uploading files through your domain host.

7. Can you change the color scheme in the options panel?

When shopping for a theme, if color is important to you, do a demo and see if you like the color options available. Note, some premium themes offer numerous color varieties while other themes are "what you see is what you get."

8. Be sure to look into the type and quality of support provided with a theme purchase

I prefer theme developers that come with forum support and the option to hire an experienced developer to help me if I need specialized help.

To date, all the assistance I've required I obtained from forum support. A well moderated forum, which is critical, is an excellent support feature. Just be sure the theme developer has senior moderators answering questions.

9. Will the theme "as is" serve your needs?

Buying a WordPress theme is all about saving you time - time from building your own theme and time from revising freebie themes. This means it makes the most sense to buy a theme that requires the least amount of modification.

That said, if you find a theme that meets most of your needs, don't spend two more days trying to find the perfect theme. Often "good enough" is good enough.

10. The cost for premium WordPress themes

First, no matter which theme you buy, it will be far less expensive than engaging a website developer. Right out of the gates you are ahead. That said, expect to pay anywhere from $10 to $130, and perhaps more for a theme.

There are three pricing models: single purchase, an all theme purchase, and club membership (i.e. subscription model).

The single purchase gives you license for a single theme. Keep in mind that you may use it only once OR you may use it as much as you like on as many websites as you like. I always want the limitless-use license.

The all-theme purchase gives you full access to all the themes developed by that particular theme developer.

The club membership is a form of the all-theme access model, but requires you pay a recurring cost in order to retain access to new themes and forum support.

I commonly buy a single theme and if I like it, upgrade to an all-theme purchase. I avoid the ongoing (subscription) purchase model because I don't care for locking into an ongoing expense.

Building websites and blogs with premium themes is a very cost-effective way to get great looking and high-functioning sites.

Read More

theme blogspot

Read More