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Jeff Chandler

PremiumThemes.net Club Membership Giveaway

premiumthemesnetlogoIn the market for some new themes? If so, you can easily put yourself in the running to obtain a PremiumThemes.net club membership. PremiumThemes.net is a commercial GPL theme club which provides great support and designs all under one up front package price. I’ve worked with Bhavesh to obtain five theme club memberships to give away (Thanks Bhavesh!). That’s a total giveaway price of around $2,000.00. So what’s the catch?

Here is what I’m looking for. If you were in control of WPTavern.com, what would you do with it? Your answers can be serious or they can be playful. I’m more interested in the serious ones though. Each person who leaves a comment will be assigned a number that will be put into a random number picker. The numbers that are chosen will receive the theme club membership. Comments will be open until next Friday so get cracking! Oh, and if you could, please spread the word.

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38 responses to “PremiumThemes.net Club Membership Giveaway”

  2. As the word tavern implies I would make WP-Tavern into a place where people involved with wordpress can get together and hangout. Developers would work together to solve problems and people would help write documentation for WordPress. And theme desginers could get feedback on their themes before releasing them to the general public. ETC

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  3. I would ready it for 2010 by adding a big header and maybe put the readers inside a tavern.

    In all seriousness, I second the magazine part of it. When I attended SxSW 2007, the one person I wanted to meet was Matt Mullenweg. I think more WordPress interviews would be awesome!

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  4. I’d give it a break for a while and keep plugging away until you get the break you are looking for or sell the site.

    It’s obvious that you really love and want to run a successful WP news site, it’s also becoming obvious that you are frustrated with the lack of revenue from the site. The news items have slowed to a crawl and the podcasts lack your previous enthusiasm and attention to detail.

    I really love the podcast and look forward to it every week, I hope you get it figured out and can make a go of it. Maybe your site sale could bring you a profit and you could rebrand yourself once you figure out what you want to become?

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  5. I think you should try something out of the ordinary with the blog. Find a super unique niche or angle and rock it.

    There are a lot of wp news/theme reviewish type sites. You should offer something more. What’s that more? Hard to say. I think I’d try something like a voting type site (maybe powered by pligg) or maybe even start a forum offering free wp help. Maybe the free help offered could turn in wp consulting work.

    That’s my 2 bits :)

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  6. I like the idea of this website becoming the smashing mag of wordpress. In your absence getting other people to write posts could be your best course of action with having to work full time. I used to wonder how you devote so much time to it. The downside is I think they spend serious $ for posts which you will not have.

    The forum will not take as much to keep going, there is a regular crowd there, and I suspect very different demographics as well.

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  8. I would make it a theme-theme portfolio site.

    eg Show themes from multiple designers (with links to buy) and then REAL WORLD examples of each theme used (not the stock demo)

    Site owners get more traffic, potential theme buyers can better evaluate a themes capabilities, etc

    WIN-WIN

    Grant

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  9. A lot of people have said it already, and it is something I have been considering doing for a while, but I would look to put together a dream team of ‘faces’ for regular columns and reviews.

    I would leave tutorials out of it.

    I would give these dream teamers 90% of the advertising revenue that came from their content, the theory being that together they can achieve more than individually, reserve 5% for additional project funding and take 5% myself, plus the revenue from the non-author specific pages.

    Finally, I would try to get together enough revenue to fund a small web service to try and provide some connectivity solutions to developers to more easily link blogs together for whatever purpose they required. A mini opt-in network.

    (You can leave me out of the draw to give others more of a chance, I just liked the question :-))

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  13. You have built up a great base already with the site, it just needs a rebrand and reboot to keep growing and really become a serious WordPress resource website.

    Firstly get rid of the Tavern! A tavern is a place to drink beer, get drunk and pick up chic’s, not to discuss WordPress. Get rid of tavern from the website name and change it to something more professional, family friendly, and related to WordPress. Maybe think of name that is more magazine style.

    Get rid of the ugly brown, western cowboy color scheme, and update the design to something more appealing and professional.

    Focus on writing posts that help solve problems, add value or inspire people. Not many people really care about what happened in latest WordPress developers chat or that the theme repository now as x number of WordPress themes etc. I’m sure the site would grow more if you focus on creating posts that help people solve WordPress issues and problems, or inspire people with posts such as inspirational design, features, modifications, creative uses of WordPress etc. Or even posts that interview prominent WordPress people, interviews or articles how people or companies have used WordPress to solve their web design needs etc.

    Rather than just being a WordPress news site – be a WordPress inspiration and resource site. That really adds value.

    You have the community aspect covered in the forum, maybe consider a job boards section for people looking for and offering WordPress related services.

    I think you have really done well to built the site up to this point – but with a rebrand and re-focus you can really take it too the next level.

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  14. If I had my way with the direction of WPTavern, I would do the following:

    1. Promote Jeffro to Supreme Commander of all things WP with a massive salary that would make a Walmart greeter fall to their knees in adoration. (Except for those greeters who have trouble with their knees and use a walker to get around… then they can just sit before the Supreme Commander’s presence.)

    2. I would require Jeffro to interview different wp developers. Specifically developers who actually build sites, and not just plugin or theme developers. It would be cool to see post-mortems about the process of building sites (case-study). Which plugins they use? Where did they have to use a custom hack? Stuff like that. Drupal.org has a great example of showcasing developers who write up an overview of what they did to build a site. Would be super cool and very informative if we had that for wordpress. It would not only showcase practical developers but could highlight some of the power of wordpress.

    Examples from drupal: http://drupal.org/node/614014
    http://drupal.org/node/604206
    http://drupal.org/node/585950
    http://drupal.org/node/429448

    3. I’d have Jeffro build a custom list of the top plugins being used. And maybe this could be built from a voting angle. Currently the top (popular) list on wordpress.org has many plugins that full-time WP developers would never use. This way WPTavern could be built around developers getting together and sharing their “tools of the trade”.

    Finally, I would require that Jeffro show up at every Wordcamp event riding in his custom hovercar (powered by WordPress) that dispenses free beer to all in need.

    This is all achievable in my mind.

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  15. I think the tavern brand has been established already, whether or not we like the aesthetics of it. But maybe it could be exploited. Are there microbreweries using WP? Would they like to advertise? Would they like to sponsor WP events like WordCamps? Lots of WP users seem to like beer.

    I’d probably start by breaking down all the jobs involved in running the site into an org chart and then finding ways to delegate, and creative ways to reward people for taking on that responsibility. In fact, invite people to come up with what they’d want as a reward, and how they could get it, like having a membership theme club donate a membership to the volunteer in exchange for advertising space.

    Some people will help just because they passionately want to see a certain thing on the site. Others will need some kind of compensation for their time–but that might just be advertising for their *own* services as WP consultants. You’ve got lots of ad space built in here already.

    Finally, I tend to agree with the people who say you should look for a niche that’s not being covered on other WP sites, or at least eliminate anything that feels too much like duplicated effort to you. If there’s something that someone else is doing better, let them. But if there’s something that no one is doing at all, and you and your readers are both interested in it–that’s worth pursuing.

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  16. If I was in control of WPTavern.com I would focus more on creating content that appeals to the wider WordPress community and users, rather than just the hardcore WordPress fans and developers.

    I’m thinking a mixture of Problogger.net and smashingmagazine.com style, ie tips & tricks and how to build a better WordPress site combined with inspiration and tutorials.

    I would always be thinking to try and create the type of content that people want to share with others, stumble, bookmark, digg… you get the idea…

    While reporting and aggregating WordPress news is fine, I would make it the core focus of the site.

    I think WPTavern would really take off then.

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  17. IMO, you need more confidence.

    I would focus on making an income indirectly from the huge base of viewers you have here and on other sites. You are not a developer, but that makes no difference whatsoever, most of the time people are looking for someone to help them with the most rudimentary basics of developing WP powered sites and to do that they need someone with (a) connections with developers who CAN do the work and (b) someone they can talk to who knows what they want and how to achieve it … ie: you are exactly the sort of person they are looking for. If someone pays you US$100/hour to do something and part of it involves doing a bunch of code work you can’t understand, then just outsource it for US$50/hour. You are still making US$50/hour but you aren’t putting any effort into it whatsoever. The coder is happy because they don’t need to do deal with the client, the client is happy because they know that when they go to you they will have an absolute ninja expert working behind the scenes on their site and you should be happy as you making a butt-load more money than you presumably are working in a supermarket – plus it all ties in with what you are doing here on the Tavern.

    There are many different ways in which you could set something like this up, including creating a paid support forum, paid support ticketing system or simple consultancy fees. At worst you would make lots of money rarely, at best you would make a ton of cash which would free you from the supermarket and allow you to work full-time on the Tavern.

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  19. clean magazine style front page with a quick look at whats new. separate the content a little differently (resource/news/articles) for each section. try to get some of the leading guys to write and also feature up and coming (designers/companies/etc.) maybe even some comparisons or ratings on whats out there. just some thoughts either way great job.

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  24. There are already plenty of wp sites with the ‘top 20 xxx’ lists available, and frankly at least to me they get old.

    What is really hard to find is sites that focus on the codebase itself. It could be something simple like little code snippets that do certain things, or preferably more advanced topics. I know for me at least, I would love to see articles that pick a particular topic within wordpress, like adding taxonomies, (Justin’s movie database article is great at this). Where everyone that I have found falls short, is they do a basic article, and never expand on it. I for one would really love to see some very advanced cms concept code articles.

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  25. Don’t change what has made this place such a great hangout for the WP community.

    Keep doing what you’ve been doing, but do more of it & enhance it.

    How about introducing a video show? That could help bring things to the next level…

    I’m personally a fan of interviews… with anyone. Always cool to peer into fellow WP dev’s views on development, business, and things.

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  26. How about starting an open collaborative WP project? You could have a “white board” that project participants would draw on or brainstorm on. New members could be interested enough to come back and check on the progress. Lurkers would be more likely to participate.

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  27. I think a forum optimized for professionals to ask other professionals questions to get feedback on code and designs, in addition to allow more experienced professionals to share their experience and tips via the blog.

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  28. I would change the design of the site, maybe go for a cleaner magazine style design.

    I would also write more WordPress how-to articles, particularly the technical side of using WordPress code, can be simple up to advanced. Screen cast tutorials would also be a popular and very useful thing to do. I would also create article series on how WordPress can be in different niches. For example how WordPress can be used for business sites, CMS etc.

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  29. If I was in control of WPTavern I would put it up for sale as quick I can, make some quick money, buy a real Tavern and sell beer. Then I start selling premium themes – thats were the money is. No, not really.

    But seriously I would create more “how to” articles, tutorials, and case studies about how WordPress is being used in various industries, showcasing examples and the processes of how people use WordPress to create a website. The plugins used, custom hacks etc.

    You have already put in a lot of work to built a great PR5 site which can easily be taken to the next level.

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  30. If I was running the WPTavern the first thing I would do is look at the SEO of the site. A homepage title like “WordPress Tavern: Where Every Drink Is On The House” is probably not too useful from a keyword and SEO point of view.

    I would also crank out more how-to and tutorial articles and maybe even consider leveraging the site by writing and selling a WordPress book.

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  31. I’d love to see transcripts of your weekly episodes archived somewhere… I’d do it just for the textual content and SEO advantages. It would also be awesome if your guests would contribute an article that’s exclusive to WPTavern to be featured with the episode they’re in (again providing more textual content, but also providing an additional branding opportunity for them). Something like that would establish WPTavern as ‘the place’ to be featured… off the top of my head and all. Great contest! :)

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  33. Just keep up with your excellent work. If I would really have to change a thing, I would probably think about the categories and the main topics on WP Tavern. Is it really about side projects such as Buddypress, or should I dig deeper into Plugins or Themes or should I focus on the general WordPress community, which I think is one of your strongest points. Which is why I would add some social media spice such as tweetme, tweetback, friends connect etc.

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  34. I think you’re doing a great job building an independent WordPress community here. If I were in charge, I’d try to put more emphasis on the independent aspect of it. With few exceptions, there’s an awful lot of rah-rah in the WordPress world. Which is good, it’s a good product and the praise is usually deserved. But it’s not a perfect product, and it would be nice to see more constructive criticism. Give WordPress folks (developers, users, whatever) a couple of (virtual) beers, and find out what they might say. It could be very useful to have an ongoing, open discussion of pain points and possible solutions.

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  36. Hope this gets through in time. The postal service in the UK has been suffering industrial action recently and most emails have been delayed as a result…

    I think a great addition to the WPTavern community would be a section where people could post WordPress projects for tender. Depending on your preference, Jeffro, the result would either be closed bids (a la elance.com) or simply a list of people who would like to offer their services against the project with ideas on how to make the project a success.

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