When you launch a new website, you want something that looks great, is easy to set up, and doesn’t cost too much. While some free WordPress themes fit the bill, I usually recommend finding a reputable, supported premium theme. Caution: You should think twice before choosing some of the most alluring, beautiful, feature-packed themes out there. Let me show you what I mean.
Beautiful demos
Rich, lush, and beautiful describe the “Ammon” theme I’m showing here. Plenty of other beautiful themes exist, but this is one of the most striking. Keep in mind, a lot of time was put into making these demo sites look as wonderful as possible. Do not expect to install such themes, configure a few simple options, and have a site of your own rivaling their beauty.
Photos not included
What would that beautiful theme you’re about to buy look like without the photos shown in the demo?
You do know the photos don’t come with it, right?
The allure of theme demos often comes down to photos painstakingly chosen for proper orientation, composition, cropping, and colors. Do you have the time and money to get photos like that for your own website? Are you prepared to put up more time and money to keep photos fresh and new?
Take away the artful photography from beautiful theme demos and, most of the time, the themes lose their luster.
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The missing “Easy” button
Beautiful themes strive to provide eye-candy features like different fancy content sliders, attractive table styles, interactive tabs / accordions, and custom-designed looks like the Ammon store item page. Most of these features, however, require expertise beyond a standard WordPress installation.
While WordPress has a short and easy learning curve, understanding the ins-and-outs required to get the most from hand-crafted themes is another story. Remember that jaw-dropping, beautiful demo you saw? It took a complete grasp of all the theme’s non-standard content creation tools to make it look so luscious.
Locking yourself in
Train them all
Still in love with that temptress of a theme? Perhaps you don’t mind the challenge of learning the theme’s idiosyncratic methods of building fancy tables? If you drink the Kool-Aid for a sultry theme, I hope you have time to bring all of your site’s content creators into the fold, as well. Everyone creating content for your site will need to climb the same learning curve you did.
50 ways to leave your… theme
What happens when you’re ready to divorce this theme and move to a fresh look? Sure, right now you say that will never happen–you’re making a commitment, because this one theme has everything you could ever possibly want. Rest assured, that 7-month itch will come along, and you’ll see a different theme you think might be a better fit for you. Maybe you’ll rationalize it by saying you’ve “evolved” in ways you didn’t anticipate. Whatever the reason, breaking up with a custom “trophy” theme is hard to do.
Any theme that uses custom shortcodes, meta fields, JavaScript and CSS libraries to put on a pretty face will not just let another theme move in to your site without a fight. Unless the new theme you want uses the same custom content-creation methods and settings, you’ll be spending time and money re-creating all that content you thought would last forever. Usually, the only time custom content methods transfer over is if you choose a new theme built on the same framework–from the same theme developer.
Smells like a trap, my friend.
To build or buy? Sleep on it.
Before you jump at the latest sweet-smelling, lace-adorned theme, think ahead to how it really fits in to your website plans.
- What will you have to do to make your site look even half as good as the demo?
- Can you maintain that look over time?
- How much will you spend, beyond the relatively small price of the theme license, to finish your site?
Junk in the closets
Your new website is like a house. You can buy something that seems ready to move in to, but you’ll undoubtedly find junk in the closets and undesirable surprises hiding behind the wallpaper. Sometimes hiring a developer to build your site from scratch–to your exacting specifications–is a better route. There is more involvement up front, but in the end you get what you really wanted, with no surprises.
Thankful and thoughtful
Finally, be thankful we have so many themes–from minimal to monumental–to choose from for our WordPress-based sites. I chose Ammon for this article because it is beautiful and versatile, yet carries all the negative baggage I’m warning you about. I’ve also licensed the theme and used it on a client’s site.
What a beautiful yet bitter pill.
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Credits
- Seductive woman photo: roberthuffstutter
- Most screenshots came from the Ammon demo.
- Backend screenshots came from my own test site.
This is an issue that needs to be discussed more. Users happily use shortcodes, built-in SEO and social settings and are totally bitten in the a$$ when switching to a new theme!
I agree, David. I should point out theme developers could make it all better by packaging up all the custom functionality into a plugin they ship with their theme in good faith. That way, if I decide to stop using such a beautiful theme, I can still (potentially) use the custom content functionality by leaving the plugin enabled.
I’ve got an urge to rant for days on this one in MANY different directions. It may be a bit of a tangent but I’ll try to keep it near the topic.
For as much help as Themeforest brings to the market of WordPress themes I feel they do an equal amount of damage. Sites like Themeforest take their healthy cut and leave a huge burden on the shoulders of developers. They have this enticing marketplace where some serious theme designers can thrive and others can be discovered. The best ones somehow, beyond my comprehension, manage to stumble through their daily lives keeping people satisfied as Buyers ask routinely ignorant questions since the comment threads aren’t searchable. The developers who fall behind get slandered to death. Themeforest could play a much better role here. Buyers should be informed (not that this will happen because it would hurt sales)… “Hey, if you aren’t already successfully running several WordPress sites you should not be purchasing here. In fact, chances are you’re not very creative either so you should hire a web designer to come here and buy the theme for you so that you have the knowledge and help you’ll need to succeed”. Too many Wantrapreneurs among others jump in and just buy something for less than $50 and think that should be all they need for success. It excites me to see Buyers get angry as though it’s somehow the developers fault when they can’t figure out how to crop a photo or layout a slide in html. The entire misconception marketplaces like this create for the general public about how easy design is makes me sad at the same time though. In a marketplace they never really learn that it’s their lack of knowledge they’re frustrated with, so many continuously leapfrog to other themes in search of that short-cut that doesn’t exist. I suppose it’s genius for the marketplace to rake cash from suckers, but it’s just as damaging to the field of design and marketing as it is helpful for the few that find a way to make some money selling there.
*sigh*
Regarding Themeforest, et al., I know what you mean, Todd.
1. It looks attractive to developers, who think they can just put their work out there and instantly have buyers. Turns out, you still have to do a lot of legwork promoting your wares — legwork you were hoping to avoid.
2. Developers load up their themes with all these fancy tools so they can try to stand out in the “forest,” leading to (3)
3. Customers see demos that look fantastic, and figure buying the theme will make it easy to reproduce the same look.
My client paid more than $1,000 for me to “set up” the Ammon theme to their expectations! So much for a $45 theme purchase, eh?
Heya,
I love the term “Wantrapreneur”! OMG, could not stop cracking up on that one, Tood! Just like in the Internet Marketing niche, I think what you and Paul are describing is S.O.S.–Shiny Object Syndrome!
The marketplaces make them Oh So Easy to get. Reality makes them Oh So Hard to get RIGHT!
I’ve been at WordPress since v. 1.2. A long, long time and I’ve seen a lot of changes to all aspects, especially plugins and themes. Without bragging (too much :| ) I’m pretty good at making stuff handle under the covers.
And yet, I just purchased a subscription to Elegant Themes for a client. Not to negatively call them out, but Paul could have EASILY used their themes as the case study here :(
You practically have to be a WordPress Guru to get the little fixes and tweaks to make many of their themes work “as advertised.” And they have what appears to be a full knowledge base and support staff, yet still…
With you both on the fact that even when going with some of these pretty pretties, having a savvy WordPress developer-type do the heavy lifting might be the way to go for many small business owners looking to increase their online presence.
Thanks for the quality write-up, Paul. Much appreciated!
Todd, Todd, Todd (WTF? how did Tood get in there? I can’t even blame auto correct for that one!) Sincere apologies Tood, er, Todd. Todd. TODD! ;)
Right on, BG.
I do wish now I’d aimed the article at a theme marketplace rather than singling out a developer. That said, I think Marius/Hogash is talented, and the package just needs to change / expectations / support.
Elegant Themes has been around for awhile, and I do remember their code being yucky a few years ago. Was hoping that had changed as they grew.
In my opinion, from experience, if you’re going to buy a theme instead of hire a designer / developer, WooThemes is a good choice. Excellent support staff, and they don’t overextend themselves with too many themes (in fact, they retire older themes when it seems prudent, so they can provide best support for their newer ones.)
Anyway, there will probably always be big-box stores selling throwaway merchandise…
PK
I’ve written about this before.
Always choose a rock solid framework that doesn’t lock you in with theme specific shortcodes and the like.
A good shortcodes plugin is the way to go or create your own which aren’t hooked into the theme or framework you use so you can always move.
Same goes with SEO. Install a good plugin for that or you could pay the price when changing themes even though SEO data transporter does the job you can get penalized by the big G when changing themes.
Brad, do you have a favorite framework? I like a lot of WooThemes stuff, but I do realize their framework is behind some stuff and still carries some of the negative weight this article is about.
Hi Paul & everybody,
This is Hogash (Marius), this theme’s author. First thank you for resuming at the theme and not the author making a personal attack or something like this. I myself designed this theme and Radu (also a themeforest author) coded the theme, that’s because i’m a Joomla developer (i also code my html templates). Also i’d like to point out that 90% of my templates are rated 5 stars, due to hard work, good looking products and good support.
I’d like to say some things in defense to this, although i’m not the coder, i still have some points of view.
1) Good looks – well, how would anybody present their product? The idea of a nice, good looking demo is for people to know what this theme can achieve.
2) Photos – yes, they are very well put there to cover some niches that the template can be used. There are lots of stock photography websites with tons of images that can be touched and retouched to fit into the design. This is too subjective to think that other photos don’t fit, i’m sorry but i disagree. The fact that they’re not included, well, an extended license for an image of this size it’s about 50$. I have to use extended license because there’s no other way to include licensed images into the download package.
3) The missing easy button. Nobody said it’s easy. You want to achieve a nice, powerful website, but with only 1 click. It;s not like that. The whole idea of a template (which is only 45$) is to provide the client, built-in stuff that they have to remodel/reshape and fill with content etc. I;m sorry that you had to struggle with it, but some work must be done and i suggest you to lower your expectations when you purchase a template, and think you will do 1-2 clicks and you have your website. It’s not like that.
4)Locking yourself in – With this i will agree with you. That’s because there are thousands developers and authors out there who each use a different framework and solutions to provide a UX for their themes. Of couse it would be easier if everybody would just use a single framework for their themes. You said you love Woothemes stuff, perhaps you have that idea that this is right and that is wrong, just saying. The “idiosyncratic methods” i think it’s also a subjective opinion. Of course everybody has it’s own methods, it’s a fact that every craftsman will argue with other craftsman because they have different work-style. Every developer has it’s own logic of doing things, not that my colleague Zoomit done a great job, however i’m sure that he did a better job than other authors out there.
I never liked the idea of own-framwork with too much shortcodes or features included in the theme. These should be plugins, because as you say, that 7-month itch will come along, and you want to use a fresh theme, and guess what you have to rebuilt the articles again. Yes, it’s true. I totally agree with this. On my Joomla side i separate the template with shortcodes etc. and this type of thinking brought me only 5 stars and hundreds of loyal customers which i also became friends with them.
I’m sure you have a bad experience and choosed this theme as a subject. I can’t stop you expressing your opinion (i actually encourage you, some things just have to start changing), but i only want to say it’s a subjective opionion, others will agree others won’t.
Regards,
Marius
Also, ThemeForest is not to blame at all, it’s not ok to take the discussion to them. They centralize a number of authors who provide themes/templates. The term of theme is misunderstood. A theme should provide a design who needs to be personalised by everyone’s need. Lots of people just install it and expect to have a great website in just a few minutes while other companies spend thousands of $ on their websites.
EDIT:
*I’m – sorry – you have a bad experience….
:)))))) I think you should thank the programmer man, now you are 1000$ richer because of him! What do you expect ? It is a 45$ theme!!! that worth’s each penny. You have a nice starting point for a website that usually costs more than 2000$!
You guys are miss informed about how much a good website really costs! So please take a moment and read this article http://www.websearchsocial.com/how-much-should-a-website-cost and stop crying like little babies!
You amateur guys are destroying the market with your cheap prices now anyone thinks that you can have a website for 30 bucks 300 or 1000$. When they hear a price as small as 1000$ for a website they don`t know what they hit them…”1000$ for a website?” an you never hear from them.
You want something good? then you have to PAY!
A website reflects your business, your goals, your brand…a website adds value and is a strong tool in your marketing arsenal.. is optimized for search.. and works across browsers and operating systems.
This implies months of work! for what ? for 50$ ? an than you guys complaining? :))
Ok so you have no pictures. But why don`t you buy it your self ? it costs just 1$. The developer who initial made it must pay up to 100 times more for the right to use that picture. Also i see that at the bottom its stipulated that
“Images are not redistributable and they are used in this theme only serving as demo content.”
or maybe your client is blind?
If you have a problem mate then your problem is with your client that is stupid as hell. And if the theme implies more work tean you are stupid to because you didn`t asked for more money.
I despise people like you PaulKaiser that benefit from others people work and then they have the nerve to complain.
Hi Marius,
Foremost: I chose Ammon because it is beautiful and you have been quite successful with it. I did not have a bad experience with it–my client did, due to the expectations they had.
The main theme page says documentation will
“get you started with your site in no time.”
It also states
“preview data is included in order to help you get your site look exactly like in the preview and start your customisations from there in under 5 minutes.”
Your comments here on my article, though, are quite candid about the additional work customers need to do after licensing your theme. My article serves as a “wake up” to those people who, as Marius says “…just install it and expect to have a great website in just a few minutes.”
I admire your design talent. I think you would be one of the most upstanding and professional theme developers if only you could:
1. Change your sales page to give customers a more realistic idea of what they must do after purchase.
2. Pull custom functionality out into a plugin.
Thank you for bringing your design talents to the WordPress ecosystem.
Paul
I think the entire themes market needs to be re-examined.
There has to be a better way. What’s going on now doesn’t work very well for anyone IMO. That said, I’m not sure what the answer is. Such is the fickle ways of the Internet.
Corey, I agree. I think the free-for-all “themes market” is about as upstanding as a civic-center flea market. I look at theme devs like WooThemes and Elegant Themes, though, and see what they have done in the last 3 to 4 years. While there is still the issue of buying into a framework, support is excellent.
I don’t expect to see a lot of change. I just like to complain :-)
Lowes and Home Depot still sell power tools to people who don’t know how to use them, but at least they don’t hint that you’ll be able to build your own award winning house when they do it.
For the theme market it seems the only way to do business in the highest volume is to prey on those searching for a quick-fix with low talent. It’s a big niche. It’s also a vicious cycle of failure for most not knowing the real amount of work that creates success.
Thanks for this post Paul. I don’t take it (like some other folks) as so much a slam on theme developers or premium theme providers, but just as a cautionary example for WP newbies who get stars in their eyes when they see fancy “plug and play” themes. I give my clients all the same cautions you mention here. There isn’t really an easy path to a great-looking functional site…no matter which way you go there is going to be some cost in terms of effort or resources. Any theme which is truly out-of-the-box ready to go is going to look like it came out of a box, and would thus look like all the other sites launched using the same theme, and thus won’t really be a great-looking site by definition. (Since a great-looking site should be one that reflects your unique brand and personality, and doesn’t look quite like any other site out there.)
Again, thanks for the cautionary explanation; I’ll be sharing this with my clients on my FB page. :-)
Lance, yes, really it is to be a cautionary tale. There will always be people who see something that looks beautiful in the $25 – $50 range, throw money at it after seeing the demo, and then just say to hell with it when there’s no magic easy button and they can’t make their own site like the demo.
Marius/Hogash has an opportunity to close the loop, and say right upfront, that $45 gets you the tools but you’re in for some work. They could then offer a subscription or higher-rate license that includes more hand-holding to get client sites where they want to be. Just an idea.
I have first hand experience with AMMON for WP theme since I’m customizing it for a client who needed a fancy/beautiful web for his company.
First thing I would like to say here is that the theme is literally a pain in the a** to work with. I have to admit that I got attracted by its beauty and fell into the trap (well said, Paul) and didn’t took a close look at the comments, critics, etc. Believe me. I’ve learned the lesson (I’m a self taught “web developer” who has been working in this field for less than a year)
Second thing that I would say is that Marius is “almost” free of sin here, since he can’t put his sign to this WordPress theme and when things turns ugly, say: “Hey, it’s not my fault… I’m a Joomla developer”… well buddy, it’s your name and reputation on the item page so, deal with it.
(I have to say that he and Daniel at his support boards are trying their best to help us, not enough though, but their best)
Next: I would like to put the blame, fully, on a guy named Radu (Zoomitflash) that seems to be the coder here. He ignores us big time (at least me) since I’ve been tweeting, mailing and so for the past two months with no response. Absolutely nothing. This theme is amazingly buggy and things like turning on/off its crappy responsive feature simply doesn’t work (try telling your client that the ugly look on his tablet / smartphone is not your fault but theme’s developer…)
Finally, a word on Themeforest. As a newbie, this marketplace provides great themes but they NEED to implement a truly, reliable rating system that reflected the quality of a developer in terms of support and capacity to solve problems, keep themes up to date, etc.
Sorry for writing the bible here but I’ve been struggling with this theme for the past 4 months and… well, let’s say that “I’m not a satisfied buyer”
PD.- Congratulations and thanks to the other Rockstars there that makes my work easy and help me to develop a career here :)
One more thing, this is the link to the website (not production site)
http://cjb.rebelmarketingalliance.com
(I don’t mean to show off, I know I have everything to learn here, just wanted to show the site to prove my previous post true)