The demand for top of the range WordPress themes is INSANE. There are TONS of individuals looking for each free and business themes on a regular basis and folks equivalent to myself make a dwelling from promoting them. As a result of such excessive demand individuals are continually opening new theme shops and/or creating new objects to promote on current market locations equivalent to Themeforest or Mojo Themes.
As purchaser, promoter and WordPress theme developer I’ve various expertise with most of the widespread theme shops on the market and their work. I even have a eager eye for choosing out high quality objects over not so nice ones.
I wished to share a few of my suggestions that can assist you make “smarter” extra educated purchases when you’re out on the hunt for “business” WordPress Themes – word, I exploit the time period “business” as a result of…
“Not all business themes are premium themes and never all premium themes are business themes!”
Typically occasions folks discuss with all business themes as being premium, nevertheless, the time period premium refers to one thing that’s distinctive and superior to others of its variety. However as everyone knows some business themes suck, and could be worse than a few of the free themes which are out there.
Listed here are my suggestions…
Can You Belief The Vendor?
Theme Retailer: One of many first issues you must ask your self is that if the vendor could be trusted. Not solely since you may be giving them your bank card info but additionally since you need to ensure you will truly obtain your product and it’ll work as described. By doing a easy Google Search on the vendor, you must get a good suggestion if this particular person/firm is legit. Normally, if in any other case, you’ll discover a bunch of horrible evaluations or weblog posts raging about them.
Particular person Vendor: If you’re shopping for from a person vendor on a Market Place you possibly can usually inform by the feedback and rankings if folks like the vendor. For instance in case you learn by way of a few of my business theme feedback and take a look at my evaluations you’ll discover its largely all constructive ?
If they don’t seem to be on a market place and are promoting straight from their web site/weblog equivalent to Devin Value is doing over on his weblog promoting his Choices Framework Package, you possibly can learn although a few of his posts, take a look at his github and/or twitter and instantly you’ll see his is a cool man. Identical goes for my buddy Pippin Williamson at Pippins Plugins (everybody is aware of Pippin). When you simply lookup any of those two folks, you’ll see they’re extremely concerned within the WordPress group and properly trusted people.
Additionally, if funds are finished by way of PayPal you might have an additional layer of safety so it’s one thing price on the lookout for in case you’re nonetheless involved.
Checkout A Free Theme: If the vendor affords some form of free theme, you must contemplate downloading it and taking a look on the code. Clearly don’t fear in case you see some bugs as a result of the theme could possibly be outdated or not as a lot care was put into it as a business theme. What you’re on the lookout for is encrypted code and sketchy hyperlinks. If a vendor is gifting away free themes with all types of spammy hyperlinks or encrypted code, I personally wouldn’t belief their business objects.
Theme Final Up to date On…
One of many first issues I’d personally take a look at is when the theme was launched or final up to date. WordPress is consistently evolving and also you need to make certain not solely that you just’re theme will make use of a few of the latest capabilities out there but additionally make certain the theme is secure to make use of. For instance any theme utilizing Timthumb that hasn’t been up to date within the final couple years is a extremely unhealthy concept – you all know in regards to the big Timthumb vulnerability that was found and not too long ago patched.
It doesn’t matter if it’s an outdated theme, if it’s been up to date not too long ago it might nonetheless be an important selection! If there’s a public changelog you may want to take a look by way of it. In fact you possibly can all the time ask the vendor whether or not the theme is up to date to work with the most recent model of WordPress.
I’ve had folks ask me prior to now if my themes would work with a decrease model of WordPress as a result of they didn’t need to replace their set up for some purpose or one other. Truthfully, I don’t care what the reason being…you must all the time maintain your WP set up updated!
By no means, EVER, let a theme stop you from utilizing the most recent model of WordPress.
Verify The Code With W3C
One factor that solely takes just a few seconds is to run a W3C test on the homepage of a theme you’re considering of shopping for. You possibly can take a look at each web page, however sometimes if the homepage is properly coded, normally the remainder of the location can be as properly. The identical goes if the homepage comes up with lots of of errors then you possibly can most likely count on the identical for the remainder of the location.
Notice: Some errors that come up on W3C could be associated to embedded movies, experimental code…and so on. So don’t shut down a theme in case you get just a few errors, learn them and see what they’re about, typically it’s actually nothing.
I usually see folks complaining on ThemeForest, the place I promote my business themes (atm), as a result of they bought a theme had a difficulty and the creator gained’t assist them out. Simply going over an trying on the creator I usually see they’ve poor rankings, folks commenting about points with the theme…and so on.
Theme’s are fairly low-cost and in case you don’t care about shedding a couple of dollars right here and there, go forward and purchase a theme and if it doesn’t work declare it as a loss in your taxes. In any other case, studying by way of just a few feedback and ensuring the creator has good rankings would can’t damage. And in case you actually need to ensure you are making the fitting selection do a search on-line for the market place and browse up on some evaluations (word, most evaluations on the market are created by associates so be-careful, they aren’t all sincere) possibly ship out some tweets and ask folks for his or her opinions.
Trying At Options & Choices
In fact when you’re out on the hunt for a brand new theme there are a lot of belongings you may be on the lookout for, normally you need particular options or design components. Under are just some suggestions of issues I feel to be needed all the time and issues that aren’t so needed.
Essential:
- Nicely coded HTML, PHP & JS
- A format that meets your wants – there are lots of of 1000’s of themes on the market, cease hacking the crap out of them and get one thing that works for you or your consumer (for essentially the most half)
- Creator assist – if there are any points with the theme it’s nice if the creator will assist you out
- Common Updates – in case you’re intending to make use of the theme for an prolonged time period updates are a should have
Not Essential:
- web optimization Choices – these shouldn’t be built-in, you must use Yoast web optimization
- Colour Choices for each fuck*ing component – in case you don’t know CSS, rent an online developer!
- Each web page template doable – you recognize you possibly can create new templates in your youngster theme?
- Shortcodes – these don’t should be included within the theme, there are a lot of nice plugins on the market for this
Sadly, it appears the market on shops like Themeforest leans in direction of themes which are jam-packed and bloated. I don’t know if patrons don’t need to spend the cash to purchase a theme for every consumer, they don’t know easy methods to code or are merely lazy…Because of this in a few of my themes I’ve added sure choices I usually wouldn’t add, nevertheless, there are issues that simply don’t belong in a theme equivalent to web optimization choices or 100+ shortcodes (what? sure I’ve seen that on a listing of theme options earlier than).
Value & Licensing
These are clearly two essential elements in terms of shopping for a theme. Generally you might have a consumer that has given you a price range to exit and purchase a theme, otherwise you personally have a price range do to financial hardships, or possibly you might have all the cash on the earth to spend. And in terms of shopping for a business theme there isn’t a 100% correlation between worth and high quality. For instance there are some top quality themes over at Theme Belief promoting at 2 themes for $25 and then you definately go over to Themeforest and discover themes promoting for $50 every (that’s double the fee) which are corresponding to those on Theme Belief.
Increased worth does NOT imply increased high quality
Personally I wouldn’t even take a look at the worth of the theme. If the WordPress theme has precisely what you want, the vendor is properly trusted and has constructive rankings/evaluations, and naturally the theme has been properly developed, who cares how a lot it prices? Even at $100 some themes would nonetheless be price it. I’ve seen folks find yourself spending twice that a lot as a result of they bought themes that they later discovered weren’t precisely what they had been on the lookout for.
Keep in mind, in case you had been to rent a contract developer it may value you 1000’s for a web site. Shopping for a theme remains to be an inexpensive possibility even if you buy a top quality area of interest theme on the upper finish of your price range, equivalent to these discovered at AppThemes.
Licensing? We’ll they need to all be GPL, no?
