Many online entrepreneurs, myself and John Chow included, firmly believe that WordPress is one of the best content management systems for bloggers. Even though it may be a free platform, it is also remarkably robust and reasonably easy to use. Unfortunately, the default WordPress theme leaves a lot to be desired.
If you’re savvy enough, you can probably go through the trouble of coding a new theme yourself, but that can be quite time-consuming. Alternatively, you can look at some of the free themes that are available on the Internet, but these may be filled with bugs and other problems. For reasons like these, you may want to take a good look at this review of Premium Themes for WordPress. A nice theme can be a small investment that goes a long way.
Is This Truly Perfection?
If you hit up the main page of the Premium Themes website, you’ll notice that they have several WordPress themes for sale. The one currently being featured has a rather boastful name: Perfection.
Taking on a very subdued color palette, the Perfection Theme is meant to be clean and simple. The overall appearance is heavy with gray and beige, so if you’re looking for something that is little bolder, you may need to look elsewhere. The clean lines certainly make this theme easy on the eyes though.
Is it really the “perfect” WordPress theme? Probably not, but this is largely because different bloggers have different needs. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone. On a side note, I can already notice one imperfection: the header text reads “prefection” rather than “perfection.” If you’re going to call yourself perfect, you should at least get your own name right!
As you can see through the first screenshot above, this WordPress theme has a “featured article” at the top of the homepage. This can be quite valuable in highlighting one of your most important blog posts, but I’m thinking that you’ll want to provide an excerpt rather than the full post. The rest of your content is displayed under that. It will depend on the number of categories you run, but the category links near the header (Doming virtute, Nostrum, etc.) could be good for keeping traffic on your blog if you keep the number of categories to a minimum.
Overall, the Perfection WordPress theme is pretty nice for people who want something simple and clean, but if you need something that’s more robust and optimized for, say, private advertising, you may need to look elsewhere.
Other Premium WordPress Themes
In addition to the Perfection Theme, the Premium Themes family also includes a few other offerings. After browsing through the themes, one that caught my eye was the stylish Industry theme.
I dig the whole blue and black color scheme, but it is a little strange to see the sidebars fade into the background. Aside from that, you’ll still find key features like Flickr photostream integration, a prominent search bar, top posts, and a right sidebar that splits into two. I would have preferred a more eye-catching RSS icon, but that can be easily changed.
Pricing and the Purchase Process
Unlike some other websites, the WordPress themes offered by Premium Themes all ring in at the same price (for now). They are $99 each and include licensing for installation on up to five websites. There is a footer link leading back to the Premium Themes website in each of these themes, but that link can be removed.
Payment is handled via PayPal, but you do need to register an account with Premium Themes first before you can buy anything. There are two main advantages to this registration model. First, the user account gives you an easy way to re-download any purchased themes if you need to do so. Second, registration automatically enrolls you in the affiliate program.
The Affiliate Program
The affiliate program with Premium Themes is pretty straightforward. Send potential customers their way via your referral link and you get 40% from every sale generated. They use 24-hour cookies and payment, via PayPal with no minimum threshold, is sent 30 days after the end of the month. Unfortunately, there do not appear to be any referral links that would direct visitors to any page other than the homepage. At least you get some handy 125×125 buttons to use.
Charitable Donations and Free Themes
The guys behind Premium Themes have a couple of special promotions to coincide with their launch. Since this review on John Chow dot Com is their only real publicity for the time being, 10% of all sales generated through the site for the rest of the year will be given to charity. John has selected Union Gospel Mission as the recipient. In this way, if you buy a theme, part of the proceeds go to feed Vancouver’s homeless population.
Still not sure if you want to buy one? What if I told you that you could get a theme for free? Premium Themes will be giving away themes to three lucky John Chow dot Com readers. All you have to do is leave a comment below saying why you like any one (or all) of the Premium Themes. John will personally pick the winners.
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One of the most common complaint (or excuse) I hear from potential new bloggers is they don’t know how to install WordPress. Terms like FTP and CPanel are like a foreign language and setting up a database might as well be setting up the space shuttle for a launch. Because of the technology barrier, many would-be bloggers never start their blogs...