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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(20 votes, average: 3.8 out of 5)
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Very nice review and I too like the News theme. I don’t think that I have a blog to use it on though
DO note that after checking out the site that the $200 package includes removing the credits and 1 Hour of consulting.
taken from the purchase page
Advanced Package - $199.95
This package is for the individual blogger who intends on using the theme as a CMS on their own website(s). With the purchase of this package, you can use the theme as many times as you want for personal use, and the credits in the footer may be removed. (This package also includes one hour of free consulting which can be used for customization, site development or blog strategy.)
More than a nice theme, i would say this is more like a nice idea.
nice looking theme thou.. layout are well set and placed. Headline image and news are hit. Man… i’m loving it.
I’ve been thinking about a new blog design for a while now, but paying that kind of money for a pre-designed theme isn’t really what I am looking for… that, and neither of those themes are what I’m looking for, design-wise.
Nate will be a good choice if you want a unique design. I can confess that checking his designs it really impressed me.
I’ve used another one of his themes on my blog. I like them for the clean layout, being easy to read, and versatility.
Cool name.
I looked at them closer. I have to admit, the top one is … attractive. I just don’t have any cash. :-/
It looks very attractive, but I don’t think I would pay the $200 for the version without credit links. That just seems like too much cash for a theme that other sites can use too. The $60 price tag is a pretty good deal though, especially since it seems very polished, unlike a lot of the free themes which seem rushed.
Derek, please note that Michelle forgot to mention this, taken from the purchase page:
(This package also includes one hour of free consulting which can be used for customization, site development or blog strategy.)
Extremely thorough review! Both of these themes are quite attractive. Not sure about the pricetag w/o the credits. $200 seems kinda steep.
The $200 pricing includes an hour of consulting, so the removal of credits isn’t the only difference between packages.
Yeah, I’ve been looking at a new theme too but as a new blogger, these themes scare me. It’s like they are too corporate.
Still, very professional and probably not for the masses.
I could see an affiliate program working very well here.
Or maybe a special on DealDotCom?
I think in every blog will work affiliate programs
Why do you think an affiliate program would work well here?
Well these are both certainly beautiful themes, very professional. And I agree with you about the News theme, it’s much nicer (blue does it)
They look cool, I like them.
They are very nice themes though If I wanted one of them Id just give my own coder 100 to code me a clone.
The problem will be if some of us don’t have any coder. But nowadays, if you have time to spend on forums digital point will be a good option, just take care for the scammers.
If you dont have a coder invest the time to learn it yourself or host like a 50 design contest on sitepoint and you’ll have tons of coders to choose from.
I think they look nice & clean & are spot on for their intended use.
A good, clean design takes 10 times the amount of dev work too, any ‘ol hack can throw together some cluttered mess.
@KingJacob: Better get your “coder” to fix your server!
Words of Wisdom…
Perfection is not achieved when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away!
Learn it. Know it. Live it!
Brain is a great guy, however his designs tend to be a bit bland.
I prefer to call them conservative and simple.
Lol, I actually appreciate the conservative/simple approach more than the complex/busy style. Keep it up.
Nice wordpress theme …
I like it very much ….
If it’s free i will use it
I find those the themes a bit on the drab side…for 60 bucks !!!
I personally find monochrome color scheme very comfortable for the eye but there are problems arise when it comes to ads placing because of their diversity of colours… it’s gonna distort the main design idea and it will be probably difficult keeping all ads on the website in black and white combination.
Good design. The only drawback, that it has a monochrome color scheme.
[...] 今天在John Chow上看到介绍两款很漂亮的WordPress模板。看上去很大气，似乎已经脱离了个人博客的概念，而是资讯门户型的样式。想要一个，但是都不免费，上百美元一个。具体介绍可以看John Chow的 Are These Wordpress Themes Really Revolutionary?或者去模板原创网站。 [...]
Great themes for a very specialised market. I’m sure the sort of people who’d want these could afford that price no problem.
Nothing interesting … I would not pay for such a theme, I would design my own
Another Nice Review John
Try having a look at the “Written by” line.
I wonder when comments like this are finally going to stop (if ever).
Your credibility has been stolen!
Do you really think so. I’ll say just a review. The theme is too costly
I like the theme very much and used it on my blog. The flexibility of the page layouts with the theme is great, within wordpress you can easily access the templates. Works easy. IMO US60 is a great start, I agree with removing the links for an additional US140 is a bit much.
I just purchased the Revolution theme and I like it. If you want to ad color you can. See http://www.revolutiontheme/showcase.com for a color example. You also get a 2 for 1 deal here with the addition of the blog and the website included for just under $60.00. That is not a bad deal. The owner (Brian) is easy to do business with and very helpful.
I think this look is classy, clean and professional. I don’t see how the lack of color (if you choose to leave it that way) could do anything but enhance your colored ads. I should think it would make them stand out more. In fact, I have a feeling that this format, to one degree or another will proove to be a popular direction to go in. Blogs are meant to be non-static, flexible and dare we say creative?
it says:
Not Found, Error 404
The page you are looking for no longer exists.
Remove the .com it’s http://www.revolutiontheme.com/showcase
lol, thank you
it was stupid to miss this simple thing from my side.
Sorry. My fault.
Try http://www.revolutiontheme.com/showcase or http://www.revolutiontheme.com and select (click on) “Showcase” in the top navigation bar.
Something just occured to me. I would assume that the majority of the people who read and comment on John’s blog do so with the intent of making money. Why then is anyone else who attempts to make a living, judged so quickly and harshley? (example-BlogRush.com). Good things take time and money.
Buying the Revolution theme saved me a lot of time. I don’t care if I paid a few bucks more for it. I’ve been looking at blog themes for months and his was one of the very,very few that was truly unique, flexible, affordable and time-saving.
I don’t know about you guys but I’m in it for the money!
Im not knocking the the themes or those who bought them because they are very high quality and essentially you are buying a full featured web site not just a blog theme, I just personally would have my coder do it, but I understand not everyone has a coder and thus buying this theme is a great investment.
The themes are really looking great. But the price is way too high. If you check other “premium templates” that are being sold online you will see that they are around $50 each.
Yes that’s true but this theme is unique and is really a good idea. In the past I had some new projects that this can work but right now are on hold. May be if I came back with those projects will buy the $60 package, I don’t care about the footer
Very nice theme very clean but looks more like a regular website and not a blog.
Very nice theme review. But I think my theme is better
My new theme of web 2.0 has been launched !!
–blog for dream–
thanks for sharing. this is really a great template. i’m going to buy it for one of my other sites …
Hey everyone, thanks for all the feedback regarding my themes! The primary reason for the “boringness” of the Revolution theme, and it’s “dreary” black and white appearance was to keep things simple - the theme was design to be customized, so I thought that using neutral colors on in would inspire people to make it their own design, by changing the CSS to suit their needs.
One important thing about the $199 package, it’s NOT just the removal of credits - in bold print on the purchase page, I offer a