Time to Grow

Expanding Press75 into a huge “mass production” theme company has never been a goal of mine, but in order to maintain and continue to deliver quality products and services, the business must expand beyond just me. With that in mind, you will be seeing a few additions to the Press75.com team in 2012. The goal will be to keep that personal touch that has always separated Press75.com from the rest, but add a few key people (such as Luke McDonald) to the mix who will help grow and maintain what has been built over the last few years.

Time for a Refresh

The current version of Press75.com has been active for a little over a year and now it’s time for a bit of a refresh. I’ve been working on several new ideas, concepts as well as a brand new design that in my opinion will make Press75.com more efficient than it ever has been. These changes will not be limited to a new design… you can expect the entire process of purchasing themes, getting support, maintenance and updates to change as well with this new refresh currently slated for February of 2012.

Time for a New Theme Framework

Maintaining all (currently 27) themes under the Press75.com brand has been a bit of challenge for me which is one of the reasons we (the new Press75.com team) are hard at work developing a new theme framework that will make the process of developing new themes and maintaining old themes much more efficient in the future. This new framework will also make it much easier to customize and update any theme under the Press75.com brand.

Time for Press75.com on WordPress.com

If you are a WordPress.com user, you will be happy to know that we (the new Press75.com team) are working hard at getting several themes updated in preparation for their release on WordPress.com. This means that you will soon be able to purchase and use several Press75.com themes on WordPress.com which has never been an option before now. Currently, On Demand and Debut have been slated for review to be released on WordPress.com.

Time for More Collaborations

Active collaboration with key individuals and businesses has been a goal of mine for a long time now. This will be a priority for Press75.com in 2012 including collaborations with companies not limited to HeadwayThemes.com, iThemes.com, OrganicThemes.com, KahunaHost.com and several more.

WordCamp is just around the corner (August 12th – 15th) and I was able to solidify a design and have a small batch of brand new “75″ tees produced just in time before I head down on Friday.

So, if you are heading down to WordCamp in San Francisco this weekend, I will be pretty easy to find sporting the official Press75.com tee shirt.

I am happy to announce that customization services are now available on Press75.com. I have partnered with WerkPress, a new WordPress customization shop that offers full design and development services for changes requested to any Press75.com WordPress themes beyond the scope of our support terms. via WerkPress.com:

We facilitate WordPress customizations on behalf of theme and plugin shops and work directly with them to fulfill all of their requests, providing top-level theme and plugin customizations. We don’t just give you advice for your customization — we roll up our sleeves and help make stuff happen. Let us be your resource and partner.

So, if you are looking to have your Press75.com theme customized beyond the options provided, just head over to the new “Customizations” page (linked below) and fill out the information required to submit a new customization request:

Submit a Customization Request Here

The focus for this release was making WordPress faster and lighter. The first thing you’ll notice when you log in to 3.2 is a refreshed dashboard design that tightens the typography, design, and code behind the admin. Start writing your first post in our redesigned post editor and venture to the full-screen button in the editing toolbar to enter the new distraction-free writing or zen mode, my personal favorite feature of the release. All of the widgets, menus, buttons, and interface elements fade away to allow you to compose and edit your thoughts in a completely clean environment conducive to writing, but when your mouse strays to the top of the screen your most-used shortcuts are right there where you need them. (I like to press F11 to take my browser full-screen, getting rid of even the OS chrome.)

Of course, all of you must be wondering if your Press75.com WordPress theme is compatible with the new 3.2 release. As always, every Press75.com theme has been thoroughly tested with WordPress 3.2 with no issues what-so-ever. So… upgrade away and enjoy the new WordPress.

The Start of Press75.com

WPelements.com grew substantially during the next few months as I released 2 more video-centric themes. By May of 2008, I decided that I wanted to put all my effort into commercial WordPress theme development. With that in mind I wanted to create a store front and a brand that was unique, which is how Press75.com was born. Why “Press75″? The answer is simple… “Press” obviously stands for WordPress and “1975″ was the year that I was born, hence “Press75″. The new Press75.com launched in June of 2008 with only 3 themes (Video Flick, TV Elements and Video Elements).

Happy Birthday and Thanks

Three years, 25 themes and several thousand customers later, I am very happy to say that Press75.com is still going strong. So, short and sweet, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Press75.com and a huge thank you to every single customer that has purchased or downloaded a Press75.com WordPress theme within the last 3 years. Major thanks to WordPress and the WordPress community as well without which I would not even have this business. Here’s to the next 3 years.

Perfect for Photos & Video

The Folio Elements theme is the perfect solution for publishing a portfolio of photos and videos. Each post can contain either 1 video or up to 6 images within a photo set. Adding photos and videos couldn’t be much easier than using the Folio Elements theme. For photos, all you need to do is upload and paste the URL for each image you want to add within the fields provided while editing any post. For videos, if you are using a service like YouTube.com or Vimeo.com, all you need to do is paste the URL to your video within the field provided when editing any post.

Simplicity on a Theme and WordPress Level

The Folio Elements theme was designed with simplicity in mind, so if that is not something you are looking for, I would recommend searching for something different. When you activate the Folio Elements theme, you will notice that quite a bit of the clutter within your WordPress admin disappears (this is very much intentional). For instance… Pages, Comments, Widgets, the Rich Text Editor, etc. are not used for this theme. The only thing you need to worry about are posts and the theme options page.

Check out the new Folio Elements 2.0 theme here…

A Feature Packed Commerce Theme

Acquisto incorporates an efficient 3 column layout including two widgetized sidebars (left and right) and then the center column dedicated to your products, post and page content. Acquisto provides all the functionality you need to sell products of virtually any kind (including physical and digital products). Single product pages allow you to add up to 6 product images in a very smooth product gallery, followed by a very clean product description. Several custom widgets provide featured product content and social media integration as well. In short, Acquisto is perfect for those looking for an out-of-the-box solution to manage and sell their products.

Powered by Cart66

The Acquisto theme is proudly powered by the Cart66 commerce plugin. Cart66 forms is a leading commerce plugin for WordPress that goes above and beyond your average commerce solution. To read more about Cart66, head over to Cart66.com.

Available Now on Press75.com

You can purchase the Acquisto theme now on Press75.com. Of couse if you are a theme package owner, you can download the Acquisto theme completely free of charge within the members area.

20% Goes Directly to Charity

With this new package, you get access to every theme currently on Press75.com plus theme updates and any new theme released as long as Press75.com exists. At the end of each month, 20% of all “Lifetime Unlimited Package” proceeds will be donated to charity. Giving back as much as I can is an ongoing goal for me as long as Press75.com is a viable business and this is just another step forward in achieving that goal. I will be choosing a new suitable foundation each month to receive 20% of all lifetime unlimited package sales.

Growing a Tighter Community

I think with any business there is always room for improvement and experimentation is sometimes the best way to achieve that ongoing goal of improving your business. I launched Press75.com in June of 2008 and it has been a constant experiment ever since. My decision to move away from single theme purchases to theme packs was based on several factors. First, I never liked how my customers were divided based on the single theme they had purchased. With this new pricing, Press75.com becomes one single WordPress resource/product where all of my customers have equal play. I think this concept will build the Press75.com community in several regards. Plus… as a new customer, it takes the hassle out trying to decide which theme would be suitable for your specific needs. If one theme doesn’t work out as you had planned, you can simply try another. Second, I realize there there are several types of customers/users and I want to accommodate that diversity as best I can without affecting my bottom line.

What About Past Customers?

I was very conscious of all my current customers when putting together these new pricing packages and they are structured in a way that makes it very fair for everyone (old and new). For instance, the mid-level package is the same exact price as each single theme used to be on Press75.com. Any current customer that would like to take advantage of that package can do so (from the date of their initial purchase) with a simple inquiry, or you can maintain your single theme purchase under the terms they had purchased under prior to the change. In other words, my standing customers are not losing out on anything even if they decide to maintain their purchase as it was prior to the change.

A New Options Framework

I have been evaluating several alternatives in regards to the development of new themes, and I have decided to go with a solid new options framework (pictured to your right) that is going to make the development, customization and maintenance of new themes much cleaner and easier than ever before. This new framework will also provide quite a bit more functionality within future themes as well.

Developing With HTML5

Along with a new options framework, I will be developing all my new themes with HTML5 markup where it makes sense. It has always been my goal to provide clean and efficient code, and the use of HTML5 is going to take that concept to the next level. I realize that most of my customers are specifically interested in HTML5 video embed options for mobile platforms such as the iPhone and iPad which is definitely on the list of things to include.

Post Formats and Niche Specific Themes

WordPress introduced “Post Formats” functionality in 3.1 beta which is something I am very excited about. The use of post formats within themes allows you to easily customize the presentation of any post on the fly. You could do this previously with category and post templates, but post formats make the entire process much easier. With post formats, you can expect to see a few Tumblog style themes from me in 2011 as well as some unique presentations in niche specific themes.

Alternative Purchase Options

I have been thinking quite a bit lately about how to provide the best pricing and purchase options for every type of user. With this in mind, I am working on bundles, and alternative purchase options that might better suite the various types of customers I have. I don’t have anything set in stone at this time, so if you have any ideas in regards to how I can improve purchase options, please do provide your thoughts below. Cheers to 2011 and thanks as always for supporting Press75.com.