- Under: Web Development,
Revolution Two - Thoughts And Opinions
Today Brian Gardner, creator of the extremely successful Revolution WordPress Themes, has officially launched his new venture into the WordPress marketplace. Its name is Revolution Two. Working with Jason Schuller, Brian Gardner and Revolution Two look to change the way the premium WordPress marketplace works by enacting a fee for lifetime theme support and customization, rather than charging for the theme itself.
I would recommend checking out Gardner’s announcment to get more information on this project so you are able to form your own opinions about the project.
Ok, I’m all about transparency, so here are just a couple of my initial thoughts and opinions on Gardner and Schuller’s WordPress project:
First, I am very keen to see how this new idea unfolds in the coming months. Until today, the premium WordPress marketplace has been selling individual themes (aside from the WooThemes Theme Club). Revolution Two is no longer following this business model. Instead they are selling the support for their themes, which, as they list on their site, includes the following:
- Membership benefits include ALL themes
- Unlimited support answered by our experts
- Learn customization techniques with our detailed theme tutorials
- Professional design services available by our list of recommended designers
- Discounted general consulting rates
- Increase your search rankings with a link from the Revolution site directory
In a way, I feel like this is a pseudo-theme-club in the sense that users get access to every theme available. However, it is different in the extent to which customers get help not only setting up their WordPress blog, but also customizing and maintaining the themes.
Second, Revolution Two is going to open source/GPL licensing. I did a quick bit of research to find out what exactly this means. I found Open Source’s explanation of GPL. I would recommend skimming through this to get a more detailed explanation, but I gathered the following points:
- We want to make certain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software.
- Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
- If you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have.
- General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software–to make sure the software is free for all its users.
For me, this gives a much more open community feel to Revolution Two. There’s something about going “open source” that signifies that the creators of this software aren’t trying to keep any secrets or hide anything from their customers. It implies a business transparency that reinforces a strong brand as well as builds a core community.
Finally, in regards to the themes themselves, I feel that all of the new themes are great. My favorites so far are Revolution Office and Revolution TV. I am very glad to see Brian and Jason really working hard to make this launch worthwhile with over ten initial themes available for download.
I don’t want to get carried away with my thoughts and opinions because I want to hear what you all think. Are you going to be joining Revolution Two? If so, what has convinced you to do so?
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- Website: http://elitebydesign.com
- About: Brian is a blogger and web designer at Elite By Design. He has been blogging for over a year providing quality design-related articles for the community.
I chatted briefly with Brian and he came to the conclusion to go open source after seriously re-thinking his own position on the GPL. I like the fact that he is erring on the side of caution in his ethics without judging others who feel differently. It will be interesting to see if the new business model works or not - I’m not so sure. With the power of Google and the WP boards, I’m not sure the Rev 2 support will compel people to pay for it. Brian’s a talented entrepreneur however - his contribution to the whole WP community is pretty hard to calculate.
I’ve been highly anticipating the unveiling of the new Revolution series. It’s still not clear to me: do you have to sign up and pay for membership to get access to the ‘free’ themes?
So far I like Charred and the Church themes.
No, you don’t need to sign up or pay to get access to the themes. You can download the themes at the bottom of the page for each theme. But you do pay if you need support for the themes, which I think is a great business model.
Your statement
“There’s something about going “open source” that signifies that the creators of this software aren’t trying to keep any secrets or hide anything from their customers. It implies a business transparency that reinforces a strong brand as well as builds a core community.”
is so true. Though using RevolutionTwo themes is finally quite hard ; there are no documentation available about how to use the feature carousel for instance. There is no transparency here. And no community too!
Really great idea!!
As for the themes.. lovely, I too am a fan of the “Revolution TV” theme