More on the Revolution Open Source Project
There are still a number of questions relating to the open source project that have been asked by people, so I wanted to write another pre-launch post to help clear things up. Hopefully this will make some more things clear.
I wanted to explain the business plan a bit, since this is something that most people are confused about. All of the themes on the new site will be made available under the open source/GPL license. However, we are going to offer a yearly and lifetime membership plan, that will include benefits to all themes. (meaning you won’t have to purchase a plan for each theme.)
Here are some of those benefits:
- 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
The affiliate program
Another aspect of the current business model that has been questioned is the affiliate program. Since we are still planning on offering paid packages on the new site, the affiliate program will still remain. Your same E-Junkie login will apply, there will just be new affiliate links in your account when the new site goes live.
Current theme and open source theme support
There will be a section on the new support forum that will be dedicated to current Revolution themes. This will be made available to anyone who has purchased a current theme. There will also be a section on the support forum that will include open source theme tutorials, as well as a section for open source theme support. This will be made available to those who have purchased the current theme All Inclusive package or purchased either the yearly or lifetime membership plans. Contact me if you are interested in upgrading to the All Inclusive package.
Membership price plans
There will be two options for the open source project theme membership - a yearly Pro plan, and a lifetime Pro Plus plan. The yearly Pro plan will cost $99.95/year and the lifetime Pro Plus plan will be $149.95/lifetime. Please keep in mind that these will include the aforementioned benefits for all themes that will be made available on the new site, which in my opinion is money well spent to those who purchase them.
A bit on the open source themes
I’ve been asked by a number of people about the themes that we are going to release on the new site. These themes will be the same quality, if not better as the ones Jason and I have previously released. It appears that we will have about 10 themes ready for our launch, and hope to release at least one theme a month, if not more. Categories of themes that will be released will include blog themes, magazine themes, media themes, photo themes, professional themes and video themes.
In closing…
I have appreciated all of the comments, suggestions and criticisms that have been made since I announced that Revolution was going open source. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a blog post that had close to 350 comments on it. I understand that there really isn’t a good way to make an enormous change like this without having a smooth transition that appeals to all people.
Please understand that I’ve really tried my best to make this change and have it be as fair as possible to all people involved.
Is it November 1 yet? Speaking of the launch date, are you guys ready for the traffic blitz of a lifetime? I’m not sure if you use Google Analytics or some other program, but I’d love to see the traffic rate from 10/30 to 11/2. Hold on to your hats,
Donald, yes I have Google Analytics, so I’ll be curious myself to see the traffic trends over the next week. Hate to break it to you, but it’s not 11/1 yet, just hold tight!
I’m also really excited to see how the launch goes. I would just like to wish you all of the best and I’m sure that this new direction is going to be an amazing success!
John, many thanks for the kind wishes - both Jason and I appreciate it!
Hello Brian,
Thanks for the affiliate program explanation
I am earning my living from your themes now.. so it is something big for me
cheers
Anton
Anton, glad I could clear things up - full speed ahead!
Guess it’s a good move that you already have a dedicated server don’t you think. Cause as with Donald and yourself, I expect there is going to be some serious traffic heading towards the new site!
(I wish I had those kind of days!)
The new site, along with the forum and themes, is what I’m looking forward to. Plus I believe I’ll have access to the forum from the start, so it’s a nice little bonus for the All-Inclusive members.
I can’t wait, and there ain’t many days left until November!
If you need a hand with anything Brian, testing or whatever, then I’d be happy to give you a hand if you like! Just send us an email, or if I’m around on MSN, just message us!
Thanks
Mark
Mark, thanks for all of the support and your offer to help. I think right now Jason and I have things under control, but I’m sure there are some little things along the way we might need.
Brian,
Everything about this idea sounds great.
P.S. I’m new to Wordpress and web design. I am sure that you hear this all the time, but of all the searching I have done for premium themes you, josh and cory miller seem to have the best things going. And I am glad to see that you don’t mind giving credit where credit is due: Christ! Awesome story. Keep up the great work.
Thanks Kerry - appreciate all that you said!
Brian,
I’ve said it before and will still say it - I’m with you and Jason on this one. Me and the guys in the office are ecstatic about this change and I personally cant wait. October never seemed like such a long month!
PS - I’d like to see the google analytical results also!!
Oh, and thanks so much for helping me while you were on vacation. Much appreciated. Hope you had a great time.
Best regards,
Jon
PPS: Don’t mind my type-o’s
I’m typing on an old keyboard that barley works (don’t ask).
Jon, no worries, mate - I already edited your comment! And glad to hear that you’re onboard with our plans and business model.
I paid for your All-Inclusive Developer Package and I have yet to release a single blog or other site using one of those themes, but I wouldn’t mind if you were to open-source any or all of them. I don’t seem to recall any guarantee that every subsequent user would have have to pay the same price or anything at all and it just isn’t reasonable to expect deployments of pre-made themes to remain unique or even rare (unless you pay the so-called unique fees some sites charge to get them to stop offering a theme or template), so the fact that I happened to give you a few hundred dollars for those themes at some point doesn’t bother me and it doesn’t seem like an impediment to open-sourcing. I say go for it if you want.
I hope you will be accepting contributions for your open source themes. In customizing one of your previous themes that I do intend to deploy for a friend soon, I have identified various ways in which I think it could be improved aside from site-specific customization—making it more flexible outside of its intended industry, etc.—but I have had to keep in mind that any source code changes may have to be reimplemented if you release an update. However, with a theme being a rather small project, it seems more likely than with a large project (e.g., WordPress) that I might be able to contribute meaningful updates, so I hope you will be open to considering them.
Oh no, a “have have” and a mixed plurality! Please forgive these most egregious errors of text. Clearly, I was distracted by some Gravatar wonkiness.
Brian,
Your Revolution word press themes look really impressive so I am sure the new ones will be excellent!
I have a quick question about the current developers package for Revolution? Does it make sense to buy a developers package now or will they be included in your soon to be released new open source theme project?
Thanks
Mike
Count me among those who can’t wait until the new site is released!
*bangs head against wall while waiting for November 1st*
“Change”, it seems for the most part some look at it from the negative aspect of things, instead of the positive aspect of things. Change builds character and brings good things. Thank you again, for explaining and I agree and feel you have been fair to all concerned and hope my recent email with “questions”, that you know had nothing to do with this current subject at hand. Just make sure you have that Starbucks in hand come November 1st!! You may need it!!
Brian, thanks so much for the detailed comment. I respect that you wouldn’t mind me distributing them freely, but I have a pretty good feeling there are a number who would. And even though I’d like to, I need to respect those who’ve purchased under the assumption that they would never be freely available.
Mike, it makes sense now, because if you don’t, you won’t get access to all of the current themes!
Kyle & Susan, thanks for the encouragement!
Brian, man, I’m with you. I think you’ve made some good decisions and my excitement just continues to build. Great work!
If I buy the developer package today for $299 will that automatically give me the lifetime Pro Plus plan?
I got that impressions from another post.
Please let me know!
Thanks,
Saro
Also….
… are the new themes going to be different from the current themes?
Just wanted to wish you the best with the new Open Source project. I can’t wait for November 1st to start checking it all out! Wayne
Brandon, thanks so much!
Saro, yes, if you purchase the current All Inclusive package you will inherit the lifetime membership for the new site. Yes, there might be some layout similarities, but the intent to do offer up new designs.
Wayne, thanks for your comment. We’re eager too!
Can’t Wait!
Frankly I think your screwing your existing customers. First of all as customer I EXPECT the themes I bought to be supported and maintained at least until wordpress 3.0. Secondly why not keep the themes available, really why? I couldn’t buy them all at once even though I wanted to, now I can’t ever buy the rest of them.
Lastly, you could have done this from the beginning and had paid support and/or paid customization.
This seems like its becomming a trend with premium theme developers which makes me very leary of purchasing a premium theme ever again.
Peedy, not sure how I am screwing my existing customers. Taking themes they paid for and offering them to thousands of people for free would be screwing them IMO. The themes that are available right now will be updated for 12 months, and supported for life, so I really don’t know how I’m not being considerate to my existing customers.
Developer Pack:
You say we get access to additional themes as they come out. Ok well not anymore….sure I can get the GPL themes but maybe I wanted a more exclusive theme that only could be purchased and not downloaded by the whole internet for free.
General:
Updating: It says lifetime updates….now your saying 12 months? What happens when I have a major site running on WP and your theme and then WP changes majorly to where your theme no longer works, thus breaking my site. Maybe you update it but what if you don’t….im screwed.
Usage: I can modify them, use them in client work however I can’t resell my changes? If its client work its being “sold” Even worse if your not updating them there is no license that allows a community to provide the updated files under a GPL license.
I have spoken with others that feel the same as I do, so I know im not the only one. Maybe im being a picky bastard but its just how I feel.
If you don’t want to sell themes anymore thats fine, but I think there are better ways to handle the revolution themes future.
Also can I put in a voice for cross platform themes? Surely WP is not the only platform…and frankly if you haven’t looked at the latest Movable Type (which is free and open source) your missing out on a great platform. Obviously I know you can’t support them all but I would like to see WP, MovableType, and Drupal supported. I feel like we are sometimes going backwards in terms of cross platform compatability.
@Peedy
I think you’re implying that Brian has 10 hands and 72 hour days. I prefer theme authors who concentrate on one platform as they’re committed soley to that effort and not trying to make extra money by extending themselves to platforms they don’t want to.
As a WordPress user I’m glad we have Brian on our side, I bet MovebleType and Drupal could do with their own Brian Gardner’s but this is one of the main reasons I chose to focus on WordPress - the community.
your theme is amazing. I’m thinking of getting one. Keep up the good work.
Okay, I’ll be a ‘lifer’…bring it on… (foot tapping, checking her watch… more foot tapping… grin… is it 11/1 yet?)
Hi Brian,
Two questions:
1. When you launch the new themes on Nov 1 will the Revolution Church theme be among the first? I really would like to have access to that theme A.S.A.P
2. Will the other Revolution themes that you have have continue to be available or are you going to just have support for themes only?
Really need to know as soon as possible.
Thanks,
Ace.
Brian, Just wanted to add my thoughts to the chorus: great job. And…Thanks for all the immense support you and the forums have provided over the months. The integrity, commitment to excellence–the entire Revolution community has been astounding. While I’m somewhat new to forums, etc., from what I have seen on other forums, no one has provided the kind of community you have. Good luck with the next wave…T-Minus 3 days and 11 hours, 10 minutes…
Andy
@ peedy - are you out of your mind? your talking like brian is a scientific robot or something. get a life dude.
@everyone
NO im not out of my mind and Im entitled to have my opinion, you may not agree and thats fine. Secondly regarding platform support, Brian has partnered with another WP theme developer, there is nothing to say he couldn’t partner with other developers from the “other” platforms to support those platforms. Im not retarded I know the guy couldn’t do it all himself.
John do you know where I can find a life for cheap, economy is a little tough right now.
Ok, settle down everyone - this is a happy blog.
Peedy - I will do my best to address the issues you brought forward. If it seems like extending the theme updates will keep everyone happy, then I’ll look into how feasible it is.
Brian, I hope you take vitamins regularly, exercise every day, watch your cholesterol levels and don’t smoke, drink to excess or engage in dangerous activities like scuba diving or sky diving. Because I expect you to be around for a long long time to support the themes I bought from your almost a year ago for as long as I live, and I’ve very healthy and very young.
I expect that you will support these themes, every single one of them for years to come no matter what mutations WordPress goes through. And if the Internet morphs into some other kind of Internet that we can’t even envision, then I would fully expect you support that too.
I paid my couple hundred dollars and have made many more thousands of dollars from my clients using your themes, but by golly, I want what I paid for and nothing less. Free themes for life, free support for life and free whatever else you got. And by life, I mean -my- life. If you meet our maker before I do, then I sure hope you have someone else who will keep up the free support and stuff.
Geeez.
I’m interested to see how your new business model goes. I’m optimistic. I, for one, will be lining up on Nov 1.
I have been trawling the web for ages and nothing comes close the the themes you guys have created. I only plan to build 1 site (mine) so far but I’m more than willing to pay for something I don’t have the talent to create and maintain on my lonesome.
Bring it on!
I had a couple paragraphs written, was about to post when Safari decided to crash on me (hmmm…comment draft auto-save plugin…). Anyhow, when I came back to post it again, I read Michael’s comment, and it was too good - so I’ll just second it.
You’re availability and prompt responses to your customers is what has made you money. We love the themes, but it’s the whole customer experience that makes paying you a great value.
“if you purchase the current All Inclusive package you will inherit the lifetime membership for the new site”
Very nice, very fair. Thank you.
I purchased the All Inclusive package without hesitation and have made my money back many times over. The fact that All Inclusive members will automatically receive the new theme package benefits at no additional cost is icing on the cake.
Brian and his team have always been very fast to answer any of my questions. Seems to me he always goes the distance in trying please as many people as he possibly can which is really rare these days.
Brian, don’t forget to have a “Donations” button on your new site for those of us who want to support your coffee habit!
Your themes are very good so $150 is nothing.
Most of the people here are making thousands from your themes and would probably pay 10x this.