Hi Ninja!
So this month signals another new direction for WooThemes; and this time it's in the form of our newsletter which gets a new design (finally), along with a brand-new strategy.
In the past we used the newsletter to retrospectively communicate "old news" to you and whilst there was value in that approach, we received a fair bit of constructive criticism on the matter. Our new strategy with the newsletter is thus to communicate unique content (i.e. content which is not available on the blog) in a way that takes a better look at WooThemes going forward. You'll still however note that we've included some highlights - from the past month - for you in the "sidebar" of the newsletter; so make sure you didn't miss anything special.
The whole approach is thus slightly more progressive and proactive; so we hope you'll enjoy & appreciate that. So here goes with the first "new" newsletter...
Showcases, Showdowns & Modifications
One of the questions that we've been asked on so many occassions is the one of why anyone would buy our themes, when there were relatively similar free alternatives available. And whilst the obvious answer would be the support resources associated with your membership / user account at WooThemes, we'd like to suggest another - more important - reason: Modifications.
Personally, I come from a strategic, business & marketing background, so web design for me means that we're designing templates which enable our users to achieve our goals. Now there are multiple goals that the default design achieves on its own (usability, readability etc.), but some other goals like converting clicks into actions and the branding of the project is not covered in the default design. And for that very reason, we try design templates which are open enough to allow you to hack them apart and then put them back together in an unique way suited to your project.
If you thus agree with us that conversions and branding is an important consideration for every, single website, then buy our themes right now. If you don't agree and you're not willing to make unique modifications to the default theme, then our themes may not be for you...Consider also, that you're not extracting all of the value from your $70+ payment to WooThemes (for a theme or a subscription), unless you're modifying the heck out of the theme.
Made by designers.
You might've noticed new WooThemes ads around the web, proclaiming our themes are made by designers. Well, if you take a look at this list, I'd be surprised if you were to challenge that statement.
We work with the best designers online, because they understand the requirements of creating an out-of-box template that is also easy to modify. Designing a template is not the same as designing a custom website; the latter being much easier in my opinion. So that's exactly why we pay top dollar to top designers; it gives you the best base.
Not convinced? See the Showcase...
Why take our word for the customizability of our themes? Instead you can just have a look at the Showcase and you'll see some amazing people doing amazing things with our themes.
Since we launched the Showdown (in it's fourth week now), our inbox has been flooded with submissions from users who have modified our themes. This in itself is a great feat for us and we'd challenge you to show me other premium themes that have been modified to this extent.
The power of our themes (and the proof in the pudding) lies in how easily and extensively hundreds of our users have customized our themes. So next time when you consider buying a WordPress theme, have a look at both our themes collection & the Showcase. We may not always have what you're looking for, but judging by the Showcase anything is really possible with our themes.
Further reading: About The Showcase
Catch you again next month.
The WooThemes Team
