Yesterday we took a look at some of the best news and magazine premium WordPress themes.   Today I wanted to take a look at another area of the premium WordPress themes market, this time focusing on the themes being designed specifically for small businesses in mind. 

Some small business premium WordPress themes are created with very specific businesses in mind, while most can easily be adapted to just about any small business that needs a content management system or business blog setup.    I’ve attempted to feature all types of small business themes below.

Revolution Pro Business Theme

• Featured homepage with section for recent company news
• Featured section page with area to focus on latest blog posts
• Blog sidebar to accommodate 125×125 advertising banners
• eNews & Updates section configurable with Feedburner
• Google AdSense integration in between posts and comments
• Section, Archive, Blog page templates

Single-Use ($79.95), Multiple-Use ($199.95)

Source/Demo | Purchase

Essence Theme (6 Color Combinations to Choose From)

• 7 inside page layouts
• Elegant look and feel of traditional website
• Static home page
• Integrated blog templates
• Two header options: Text or graphic

Single-Use ($79.95), Multiple-Use ($249.95)

Source/Demo | Purchase

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As I mentioned in a previous post, one of the things Hack WordPress is most known for is our WordPress theme galleries.   Because of this, we have worked really hard to maintain them by both adding new themes as they are released, as well as removing older themes that are either outdated, are no longer available, or are no longer supported by their authors.  

One of the most common requests I get via our contact form is to break apart our galleries into more of a niche focused display of WordPress themes.  Because we aim to serve, this post will be the first of a three part series breaking down the premium WordPress themes available.    Next we will be going through our free galleries and looking for more helpful ways to display those as well.

This first WordPress gallery was designed to feature some of the best News and Magazine Premium WordPress themes currently available for purchase.  I included both styles because the lines are kind of blurred between the two and I didn’t want any debate over which category each one falls under.  Themes are not listed in any particular order and I have included any listed features with the theme whenever it was possible. 

Future galleries will include premium blog themes and premium business themes.   Enjoy!

Revolution Pro Media Theme

• Featured homepage tabber area
• Featured photos from Flickr
• Featured YouTube video
• Other featured areas using custom fields
• Google AdSense integration in between posts and comments
• Section, Archive, Blog page templates

Single-Use ($79.95), Multiple-Use ($199.95)

Source/Demo | Purchase

Mimbo Pro Theme

• Control panel options for Google Analytics and Feedburner, logo and header image management, homepage categories, optional color schemes, and advertisement management
• Custom templates for categories, archives, authors, sitemap, search results
• Auto-resizing for images
• Built-in contact form
• HTML controls for comments (bold, italics, blockquote, link)
• Print-friendly options on single-post pages
• Two widgetized sidebars with optional advertising
• Tabbed and separated comments/trackbacks
• Built-in gravatars and author highlighting
• Cookie crumbs on single-post pages
• Print.css stylesheet
• Optional microformats in the footer

Single-use ($88.95), Multiple-use ($199.95)

Source/Demo | Purchase

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If you run a small company and are still shopping for the right premium WordPress theme for your webpage, the iThemes team has just released a new themes for companies called iCompany. As with their other themes designed for businesses, this one comes with a lot of the features that a small business often looks for:

• Easily customizable
• Integrated blog
• Home page template
• Wide layout for content heavy sites
• Widget ready sidebars and feature areas
• Drop-down navigation
• Search engine optimized

Here is an idea of how the theme looks:

As with most of the themes available at iThemes, the iCompany theme is available at the very competitive price of $29.95.   Not a bad price for an pre-built website/blog!

Have you ever wanted to create a premium WordPress theme? I’m sure we’ve all noticed an explosion in this market over the past few months due to the income potential, but I’ve also noticed a bad trend that I’d like to talk a little bit about. That trend is the very un-premium quality of many of these new themes being released, as well as a extreme lack of innovation put into creating these themes.

Many of the top designers in this market launched their sites back in late 2007 and quickly established their own niche. Since then, they have continued to release new themes, but they tend to shift their focus to a different type of end-user with each new theme. Newcomers seem to build very similar news/magazine themes that really aren’t all that different than what is already available. I don’t think to many people looking for a news or magazine theme are going to have any trouble filling their needs with what is already available, so place your focus somewhere else, or provide something in your theme that the competition doesn’t have.

In addition to picking out a niche to build your business around, there are also some things you should consider before releasing a premium WordPress theme. Long time readers know that I’ve been following the premium WordPress themes market pretty closely since last November when it really started to pick up steam, and I’ve noticed several (easily fixable) mistakes web designers are making when trying to compete in this very competitive market. Below I’ve collected a few of these things that you should have in place before you launch your theme:

1. Theme Support - This is by far the most important way to find success. When you charge for your theme, it raises the stakes, and buyers need to know that you will be there for them if they run into problems with your theme. You need to setup Forums for buyers to use and you need to be very active on them.
2. Offer Theme Updates - As time goes by the internet evolves and WordPress evolves with it. You’ll want to re-evaluate your premium themes every few months and make updates, add features, etc. Then offer a free upgrade to all previous buyers.
3. Browser Compatibility - A new designer recently tried to enter this market with a theme that did not display properly in Internet Explorer 6. It is fairly unprofessional to release a free theme that doesn’t display properly in all browsers (in my opinion), but its free so you can sometimes get away with it. The second you start charging for your services, you’ll have to provide a fully compatible theem.
4. Valid Code - Just like browser compatibility, it is unprofessional to release code that isn’t valid and shows a lot about you as a web designer.
5. Advertising - As I said above, this is a very competitive market now, and the PPC rates have gone up considerably in the last couple months. How much will you pay-per-click? Sometimes you have to spend money to make money.
6. Affiliate Program - With the cost of PPC advertising being so high, what better way to market your product than to offer an affiliate program? This helps encourage bloggers to promote your product and you only have to make a payment if a sale is made. If you decide to go this route, make sure to create some banners for affiliates to use (125×125, 300×250 at least) and I recommend using E-Junkie to manage your affiliate program for you. It only costs a few dollars a month and they handle all the work, including billing and providing download links to the buyer.
7. Give Away Theme Copies - Contact some large blogs with a big following and offer a few copies of your theme to give away to readers via a contest, etc, in exchange for a review. You could also offer the author a copy in exchange for a review. If you go this route, think about your target audience and find blogs in that niche. A good place to start is with blogs about blogging or WordPress.
8. Innovation - Do something different. Target a specific niche. Don’t just add another news/magazine theme to the list that is growing larger each day.

As you can see, there is a lot more to being successful in this market than simply offering a free theme. I think if you look at the three most successful premium theme authors, you’ll see a lot of the above.

So, anything you would add? I know most of the premium theme designers read this blog and I would love to get their input. What about buyers of these themes? What do you look for when purchasing one a premium WordPress theme?

Edit: PJ has provided a bunch of other responsibilities in the comments that were so good that I felt they warranted being added to the original post:

1. Control Panel Options - Adding the ability to customize your theme from the control panel is a great option. At a minimum, buyers should be able to plug in their Feedburner feed information from the control panel.
2. Provide Tutorials - Providing tutorials to buyers is a great way to show you support your theme.
3. Multiple Color Schemes - Offering several different stylesheets to choose from as a great way to widen the appeal of your theme. This helps buyers use their favorite colors and make their sites/blogs look more original.

It looks like the crew over at Premium News has been busy, releasing their eighth theme in the last five months. This premium WordPress theme is called Fresh News, and it was based upon the extremely popular Flash edition news theme.

Here are some of the features included with the Fresh News theme:

• Automatic Image Resizer (requires PHP GD Library to work)
• Custom Page Templates for Archives, Sitemap & Image Gallery
• Built-in Gravatar Support for Authors & Comments
• Author Profiles & Archives
• Featured news section
• Video Panel (for use with Flash videos)
• Traditional Blog Layout (for homepage)
• Integrated aside / sideblog section within the sidebar of the theme (optional)
• Navigation Dropdown Menu’s
• Sidebar Tabbed Box
• 2 different homepage layouts (featured section)
• Widgetized sidebars
• Integrated Banner Ad Management
• Integrated Flickr & Feedburner

Upon first glance, there are two things that jump out at me about this theme. I don’t believe previous versions of Premium News themes have had multiple colors (I could be wrong), but Fresh News comes with 6 different colors to choose from.

The other really neat thing you get is something that I’ve been suggesting premium theme designers do for months now, and that is to provide a blogging template with the theme. It looks like if you purchase the Fresh News theme, you will get a blogging template that you can use. This opens up a lot more options for a potential buyer and creates more appeal to bloggers that don’t want a content management homepage.

Here are some screenshots of Fresh News:

Homepage

Post Page

This theme comes with everything you’ve come to expect from the News theme crew, and it is available at the same price. You can purchase a single-use license for $99.95 or a multiple-use license for $249.95.

Check out the Fresh News WordPress theme!

Over the past 4 months since Premium News was launched, Adii and friends have been developing a strong presence in the premium WordPress themes niche.

It all started with the Premium News theme where bloggers were given their first taste of what a news CMS using WordPress can look like. In the time since then, many themes have followed, with the most recent additions (Flash News and Gazette Editions) quickly rising in popularity. Now today it looks like the newest Premium News theme is available, this time being released as a series.

This series is called the Live Wire series, and here are some of the features you can expect in this addition:

• Auto Image Resizer - No more do you need to upload various sizes of images to make the featured posts and thumbnails look great - instead you now only upload one image of any size and our back-end does the rest.
• Author Profiles - We focused a lot of attention and making the author profiles and archives in this theme, really, really pop. This feature makes the Live Wire theme perfectly suited to multi-author blogs. We also included our built-in Gravatar support to display author thumb images.
• Built-in Gravatars - As mentioned above, we’ve included Gravatar functionality into the theme and it works without you having to install a plugin. The use of Gravatars can also be easily switched on and off.
• Custom Page Templates - The theme now includes custom page templates for General Archives, a Sitemap and Image Galleries.
• Color Schemes - Every theme also includes 4 different color schemes to cater for everyone’s taste!
• The Rest - Featured panel, video panel, drop-down menu’s, a tabbed box in the sidebar, integrated banner ad management and lastly easily integrated Flickr & Feedburner.

Here are some screen shots of the new series:

Live Wire 2.0

Live Wire Edition

Live Wire Style

What is the price? True to the previous pricing structure, these themes are $99.95 each for a single-use license. If you would rather purchase a developer’s license, you can get that for $249.95. All three themes are interchangeable, and purchasers of the developers license will get all 12 styles!

Check out the Live Wire Premium News Themes