Talk about trying to get the most bang for you buck. When most folks order a ReviewMe on John Chow dot Com, they have a single product or a single website that they would like to promote. But not this guy. When he forked up a hefty $400 to get some backlinks and feedback in this space, he wanted to get his money’s worth. That’s why this ReviewMe is for two products (but they’re pretty related): the Revolution WordPress Theme and the Revolution News Theme. I told you they were related.
Revolution Premium WordPress Theme
Let’s start with the Revolution premium WordPress theme. Upon first inspection, you’ll immediately recognize that this WordPress theme was not created with individuals and personal journals in mind. Instead, it’s a theme that is catered to online magazines, newspapers, and other professional websites. Check out the live demo to see what I mean.
The theme is designed to have a relatively static-looking homepage. There’s a welcome message, followed by links to three featured pages. This provides a good level of consistency for visitors, because they’ll know what to expect when they visit your site.
Looking at the Revolution Theme, it very much feels like an online magazine and I feel this is its best application. These magazines need not necessarily have “featured articles” on a daily basis, so this system works quite well.
I should also note, however, that there is a somewhat separate blog layout contained within this theme and this has a more conventional WordPress feel to it.
Overall, I’d say that the Revolution premium WordPress theme is quite attractive and definitely looks professional. On the downside, it’s terribly boring with its monochrome color scheme. The main page looks like it could be challenging to monetize as well. The blog might look nice with a more creative header image.
Start Spreading the News
Related to the theme described above is the Revolution News Theme. It too is being targeted at mostly professional blogs, online magazines, and online newspapers. I personally find this layout to be much more attractive for several reasons, but before I get to them, you might want to take a gander yourself through the live demo.
No, it’s not a blog in the traditional sense. Instead, the Revolution News Theme would be a great fit for sites like the New York Times and other online news outlets. The posts are broken down into sections, much like a newspaper, and the latest news story is highlighted with a picture and a link. In the demo, the breaking news has something to do with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.
Unlike the Revolution Theme with its drab grays, the Revolution News Theme brings some color and it’s the Internet’s most popular color: blue. You’ll also notice in the demo that there is a premium advertising spot (standard 300 box) above the fold, in the far right column. Use this for Adsense or a private ad sale. The RSS subscribe button also features quite prominently near the top, just underneath the search tool.
At first glance, the Revolution News Theme looks like a three-column layout, but when you scroll a little further down the page, you’ll discover that it’s really a four-column layout.
The far right column splits in two to provide extra link space. This is well suited for short blurbs of text, like the sections and related sites. I’d personally ditch the admin links if you want to maintain a professional appearance though. All in all, the Revolution News Theme is quite the looker and all it really needs is a better header image. But you’re going to do that anyways.
How Much Does It Cost?
Ah, there’s the rub. You knew that with all this professionalism, the Revolution Premium WordPress Theme and the Revolution News WordPress Theme couldn’t possibly be free.
The main Revolution theme is available in three packages. The cheapest ($60) forces you to keep the credits in the footer intact. To remove the credits, you’ll have to move up to the $200 advanced package. The developer package, for $250, lets you use the theme as a basis for other clients, but you need to pony up an extra $50 (“licensing fee”) each time you do it. Ouch.
The Revolution News Theme comes in two packages: $100 and $250 for single- and multi-use, respectively. If you purchased the Revolution Theme, you can receive a 25% discount on the News theme by contacting the owner. Payment, in any case, is done through Paypal. (Even though the links on the site point toward payloadz.com, they redirect to a Paypal purchase page. It is a little disconcerting that the payment is being sent to a Hotmail address though.)
Now where’s the affiliate program?
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