When Is The Best Time To Sell WordPress Themes?

Like any other product, the demand for WordPress themes does have seasonality. In our observation, theme sales do well from January to March then slows down from April to May. Summer months are usually slow while sales pick up in the fall with a dip around Christmas time.

Seasonality in any product or service is determined mainly by socio-cultural factors in the marketplace. In most markets around the world, economic activity is dependent on holidays or the absence or presence of school. There is also the aspect of climate, where people tend to stay indoors more during the cold months.

In the case of theme sales, it can be said that this phenomenon is mainly driven by the level of activity a person has during a season. Great sales during the first quarter of the year may be attributed to more free time for buyers to stay online as the kids are still in school and most folks prefer to stay indoors during winter. This means people have more time to tinker with their websites during this time and spotting opportunities for improvement or change could mean upgrading to a newer WordPress theme or buying and installing a new plugin. The spring slowdown correlates to the physical activities associated with this season: spring cleaning, gardening, putting away winter stuff, etc. Sometimes the lure of the outdoors is greater than staying inside the house, what with the weather becoming more pleasant and warmer. When summer kicks in and as the kids are out of school, that’s when all the vacations, trips and out of town activities happen. People tend to relax a bit more and work on websites take a back burner during this time. As kids go back to school in the fall, sales gradually picks up as people find more time to focus on work before the next big holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, roll in. Spending patterns during Thanksgiving and Christmas usually turn towards gifts, gadgets, and other stuff to buy online unless WordPress authors take their cue from the season and create enticing special prices for WordPress theme packages or bundles.

Knowing these patterns, how do you align development and marketing activities for your themes? It would be wise to have your development activities lie heavily during the spring and summer months. That way, your resources do not have to compete with the demands of development and marketing at the same time. The best time to strengthen core technology, respond to emerging design trends, is during these lean months. As fall comes, resources can be shifted to marketing and after sales support as sales starts picking up. This is the right time to introduce new products and manage customer satisfaction as they adapt to your new themes.

Recognizing these consumer patterns may help you plan your annual business cycle as you make those critical decisions to save time, effort and money in your WordPress business.

What Should WordPress Themes Sell For (Individually)?

Product Pricing

Product pricing is one of the trickiest things to determine as far as market positioning goes. Why? There are several market forces that need to be carefully considered, on top of the actual cost of producing or creating the product to be sold, before you can actually arrive at a Selling Price that is equitable to both buyer and seller. Intellectual/intangible/Service products or Works of Art are even harder to price because their value is greatly hinged not only on the actual skills and experience of the creator but on his perceived market persona as well. Premium or Custom WordPress themes are intangible products whose pricing has often been debated and discussed. One recent hot topic on this was ThemeForest’s price increase on WordPress themes sold in their marketplace.

WordPress Themes – Commodity or Work of Art?

There has been a long-standing debate on how much a WordPress Theme should actually sell for. The WordPress Themes market has evolved greatly in a span of two to three years and a lot of discussions about fair pricing, competitiveness, costs, man hours, economies of scale, quality, fair market value, after-sales support etc. have gone on and on because this market has yet to reach its full maturity. The deluge of new premium themes flooding the market regularly from new but not necessarily seasoned web authors taking their designs to the marketplace has its pros and cons. D more themes equal more choices for buyers, which makes more income for authors? Maybe or maybe not.

The influx of these new premium WordPress themes in the market place definitely has a major impact on every theme’s individual pricing. Premium themes are slowly becoming “commoditized,” with very little differentiation from one theme to the next, turning into “common” products with common features and common functionalities. The market recognizes this “common-ness” and, without getting into too much detail about the law of supply and demand, this characteristic influences and eventually dictates their fair market value and eventually, the success of these themes. Often, the not-so “common” ones stand out and do better sales-wise.

It boils down to how much a buyer is willing to pay and how much the seller is willing to sell. This is not to devalue or diminish the efforts and man hours invested to create such themes but if the author decides to place his product in a marketplace where there are other similar products offering the same features and benefits then he is virtually agreeing to subject his product to the conditions (price control included) existing in that marketplace. It makes no difference how much time and effort he’s invested in creating the theme. It’s like a choice between selling in your own stand-alone boutique or selling in the mall. Different market forces. Different pricing strategies.

As a seller, you have to decide not only which distribution channel works best for your products, your business and your brand. You also need to come up with a marketing strategy that will help you achieve your business goals. Taking your products to a marketplace has its pros and cons and opening up your own store has its own benefits too. Some authors do both to ensure that their products get maximum exposure in the marketplace and in their own storefront.

How Much is Your Time Worth?

Cheap is relative. The Internet has made the global economy a tangible reality and prices do matter depending which side of the globe you are. Placing a dollar sign, a euro symbol, a peso sign, or whatever currency symbol in front of a number will have different values depending on where you are in the world. A cup of coffee in the USA is probably worth a week’s wages in Bangladesh. Because the currency scales are not equal what is cheap in one country may be exorbitant in another.

That’s why pricing is really tricky. It creates the market you want or eliminates the market you don’t want. But regardless whether your target market can afford you or not, your pricing strategy will attract the market you want to service. Those who can afford to buy will simply buy regardless of the price while those who can’t will scrimp and save just to afford what you have to offer especially if you are selling what they are looking for. These customers might not necessarily buy in bulk but definitely they will turn into loyal customers as long as they keep getting the kind of quality product they need. The question now is how much is your time worth and at what price are you willing to sell your product.

From the WordPress author’s perspective, there are many elements involved in computing how much a WordPress theme is worth. No it’s not about the selling price but the worth of each theme according to what was invested in it. Every author’s investment in each theme he creates includes actual man-hours worked on the theme, software bought and used, training, demo files, documentation files, psd files, support system setup, and so much more. Quite a lot actually.

How the author intends to get back a return on his investment (ROI) depends now on his pricing strategy, how much he is willing to sell his theme for (the actual selling price) to get an ROI and earn a decent profit as well. Low Price + High Volume? or High Price + Low Volume? Whatever he/she decides on will determine the distribution channels he chooses.

To Support or Not to Support?

People buy stuff expecting things to work. Whether they follow the instruction manual or not, they expect the product to function the way it was advertised. And if it doesn’t, they expect and demand some sort of support to help fix it or else they simply return the product, if they can. Major businesses and companies always include some type of support or warranty on items sold. They recognize that this is still part of the company’s marketing efforts for these specific products. WordPress authors need to think the same. Support is part of the marketing strategy of any successful business. Even if the customer is wrong. Of course, that doesn’t mean that abusive customers can just have their way. One sure fire way of decreasing the probability of customer complaints and the need for extensive support is to make sure that every theme released is as much as possible thoroughly tested and meets standard WordPress requirements.

In the end, the power of choice belongs to the consumer and it is he who determines whether a product is worth buying or not, affordable or not. No matter what the cost – if they need it, they will buy it. And they will keep on buying if they feel that they get the support from these WordPress authors about the product issues and questions no matter how trivial they are.

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StudioPress Review: The Good, Bad, & Ugly About StudioPress.com

StudioPress, the brain-child of CoppyBlogger’s own Brian Gardner, is quickly becoming one of the most popular Theme Clubs, and we want to show you why (and how you can save over $600 by joining their all-access wordpress theme club).

If you are interested in learning more about Studio Press and the Genesis Framework, be sure to read this entire review. From theme by theme reviews to tips and trick to maximize your StudioPress Theme’s impact, we’re excited to take you behind the scenes at StudioPress.com.

What Is A WordPress Framework?

Each and every wordpress theme in the StudioPress Club is running the Geneis Framework with version 1.6 currently in beta. Now for those not familiar with a framework, the best way to think of this is like a dashboard for your dashboard.

In a nutshell, frameworks allow for fast and quick development by creating a “framework” that people can use to quickly build in the features they desire.

To be certain, the true definition of framework is about as varied as the sites you visit trying to explain it, but if you take WordPress’ definition, they conclude, “A Theme framework is a Theme designed to be a flexible foundation for quicker WordPress development, usually serving as a robust Parent Theme for Child Themes. Some Theme frameworks can also make theme development more accessible, removing the need for programming or design knowledge with options pages.” Cool, right?

Well…kind of. The problem with frameworks is often the same problem with WordPress Themes. In theory, they are simple enough and serve a purpose. In reality, their usefulness is only as good as the coding that goes into them.

What Makes The Genesis Framework Different?

Automatic Updates – So much goes into creating your site, blog (or client’s site or blog). The last thing you want is for a new WordPress core update to completely crash the jumbled mash of code and plugins you’ve rigged together to call a site. Genesis helps take the guessing game out by using automatic updates so your code is always state of the art and fully optimized for search engines.

Turnkey Designs – When you purchase the full StudioPress membership, you get access to all of the dozens and dozens of Premium WordPress Themes ever created (both now and in the future) for a reasonable one-time price.

Unlimited – You can use the StudioPress WordPress Themes on an unlimited number of sites (no “developer” price to pay), you get access to unlimited support (for any questions or help), and you get unlimited updates for any and all code changes, future releases, new themes, all of it. When StudioPress says Unlimited, they mean it!

Security – StudioPress brought in one of WordPress’ leading developers to make sure each and every StudioPress Theme has the best security possible.

Easy Customization (Really) – It seems that every developer these days says that customizing there themes are easy. That is most certainly not the case. If you are looking for themes that are both HIGHLY customizable without getting into the code while still allowing you to build in extremely high-end and custom functions, StudioPress is not just a good choice, they are probably the best.

StudioPress Themes

While we could go on forever about even more reasons why StudioPress creates some of the absolute best WordPress Themes in 2011 (through features like: My Tweets, User Profiles, eNews/Updates and more), we now want to show you all the themes you’ll receive when you join StudioPress today.

Fabric Theme: If you are looking for a modern and pastel colored theme then Fabric is the perfect fit for your personal or business site. Coming with all the functions you know from the StudioPress framework you can’t go wrong with this template.

Demo Fabric

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Generate Theme: This theme is targeted towards marketing people who would like to get their message across. Bright colors make this theme stand out of the crowd which gives you the option for easy call to action texts.

Demo Generate

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Eleven40 Theme: When looking at this theme you instantly notice the focus on content which makes this template perfect for all bloggers out there. Write and share your content with your audience anytime, anywhere!

Demo Eleven40

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Balance Theme: Balance is a minimalistic theme which is the perfect solution for people who like to put the attention on their content rather than having fancy distracting graphic elements on their site.

Demo Balance

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Blissfull Theme: Need a homepage for your wedding? No problem! Blissfull makes it easy to setup a dedicated site for your wedding or other celebrations.

Demo Blissfull

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Decor Theme: This theme is fully responsive and looks samazing on your tablets or smartphone. If you are looking for an elegant solution for your website you can’t go wrong with this beauty.

Demo Decor

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Associate Theme: This business orientated template is the perfect theme for your company. If you want to have a professional looking website which is easy to edit and add new content then WordPress and this oustanding design from StudioPress will satisfy you.

Demo Associate

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Apparition Theme: Is a very basic template which is perfect to showcase your recent pictures or stories that you want to share with friends or your followers. A simple front page layout gives the viewers all the information they need.

Demo Apparition

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Backcountry Theme: Backcountry is a multi-purpose theme which you can use for any genre of site that you want. The dakr color scheme of Backcountry makes it perfect for nearly any website.

Demo Backcountry

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Luscious Theme: Colorful and bright that’s what makes this theme stand out. If you want to go against the minimalistic theme trend and want to shock your viewers with colors that make them never forget your site this template is perfect for you.

Demo Luscious

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Metro Theme: Wether you use this theme for your magazine website or personal blog it always gives your visitors the impression of a professional and quality site. With minimalstic approach but still some contrast in the header this is one of the best StudioPress themes.

Demo Metro

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Mindstream Theme: Share your thoughts and stories with your audience. Simple, stylistish and modern. Enough said.

Demo Mindstream

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Minimum Theme: When you love white then you’ll love this theme. While some people might call this template boring others believe in simple is more. It is up to you if you like or hate this design but the trend is going towards minimalistic themes like this one.

Demo Minimum

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Modern Theme: Modern and easy to use. StudioPress created a clean and modern design which is useable on a broad variety of sites.

Demo Modern

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Pretty Pictures Theme: If you have pretty pictures that you want to showcase then Pretty Pictures is as the name states the perfect solution for you. Showcasing photos and videos within seconds make this theme even for beginners a good choice.

Demo Pretty Pictures

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Scribble Theme: Scribble focuses on content and typography. People who rather write than post pictures will love this template. It is all about your content and what you want to share with the world.

Demo Scribble

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Quattro Theme: Quattro is a basic blog theme. Nothing special but has it to be always special? Sometimes something solid can be the perfect choice. If you share this opinion check out this template.

Demo Quattro

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Stretch Theme: This theme is very creative and due the fact that you can set a full-width background it is very customizeable. Besides those options you have a wide range of page templates which will help you to publish your content faster.

Demo Stretch

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Bee Crafty Theme: Bee Crafty will display your wonders to the world. Snap in your own handmade header, stitch together a beautiful photo showcase home page, or draw up a unique and wonderful blog.

Demo Bee Crafty

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Agency Theme: When you’ve got lots of content and you need a professional way to show it off, Agency is the theme for you. Use it to showcase your company, services and what you can offer.

Demo Agency

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AgentPress Theme: The AgentPress theme is an ideal solution for real estate agents looking to market themselves and rise above competition. AgentPress includes multiple page templates that can be used to create a complete real estate website. From single property templates to a custom homepage, AgentPress is right for you.

Demo AgentPress

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Amped Theme: You’re busy touring, writing, and signing autographs on everything put in front of you. You shouldn’t have to worry about the nuts and bolts of your website. Amped was built to spotlight your latest video, showcase your music and the show dates you need to promote… all at your fingertips and built on the rock-solid Genesis Framework for WordPress.

Demo Amped

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Church Theme: Got lots of magazine-style content and need a stylish frame? The Church theme is a great choice for sites that have a lot to say. Choose from StudioPress’ content-friendly soft color schemes and widgets that support everything from video to in-depth articles to great photography.

Demo Church

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Corporate Theme: The Corporate WordPress theme for the Genesis Framework is a corporate-style theme that will provide a professional look for your business website. When you’ve got lots of content and you need a professional way to show it off, Corporate is the theme for you. Use it to showcase your company, services, and what you can offer.

Demo Corporate

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Crystal Theme: Got lots of portfolio-style content and need a stylish frame? Crystal’s a great choice for sites that want to showcase work. When you have a lot of content and you need a professional way to show it off, Crystal is the theme for you. Use it to showcase your company, services, and what you can offer.

Demo Crystal

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Delicious Theme: Easily create a dynamic portrait of your company or project for your customers. You’ll bring them inside, before they step in the door. Delicious effortlessly projects the exact image you desire, and allows you to focus on other content as well.

Demo Delicious

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Education Theme: Your institution has a great deal of information to convey in a short period of time. Text, audio, video, curricula, and more. Help students, faculty and press find what they need fast, without the homework.

Demo Education

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Enterprise Theme: The Enterprise child theme for the Genesis Framework is a corporate-style theme that will provide a professional look for your business website.

Demo Enterprise

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Executive Theme: Looking for a high-end corporate look? The Executive WordPress Theme is a corporate-style theme that will provide a professional look for your business’ internet address.

Demo Executive

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Expose Theme: When you come in from the field, you want to effortlessly create a stunning display of your photographic work. With a few clicks, Expose will give you the perfect WordPress Theme to exhibit your passion worldwide.

Demo Expose

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Family Tree Theme: Your full life never stops making priceless memories… where do you put all those stories? Family Tree is a safe and imaginative home for your family’s unforgettable moments.

Demo Family Tree

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Freelance Theme: You’ve got enough to do with building and marketing your business. You shouldn’t have to worry about your website. Freelance places a strong, professional face on your business, so you can get back to work.

Demo Freelance

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Focus Theme: We’re living in the Age of Distraction, with unlimited options pulling your readers in countless directions. It’s time to focus. The Focus Theme was built to bring your words, pictures and videos into sharp relief. It’s a clean and powerful theme with one critical objective: concentrating your priceless reader’s attention.

Demo Focus

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Going Green Theme: Maybe you want to save the earth. Maybe you want to save your neighborhood. Going Green is the clean and stable platform you can tell the world from. Make a difference with your website, and get the Going Green Theme.

Demo Going Green

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Landscape Theme: It’s a great big world out there, and you want to shoot it all. Shouldn’t your work have an exceptional home? The Landscape WordPress Theme is sophisticated and invisible enough to reveal the beauty in your pictures.

Demo Landscape

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Lexicon Theme: You might be a journalist striking out on your own. Maybe you’re going to create the next big celeb blog. Whatever the story you want to cover, do it in style, cover it in Lexicon.

Demo Lexicon

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Lifestyle Theme: Got lots of magazine-style content and need a stylish frame? Lifestyle’s a great choice for sites that have a lot to say. Choose from five content-friendly soft color schemes and widgets that support everything from video to in-depth articles to great photography.

Demo Lifestyle

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Magazine Theme: When you’ve got lots of content and you need a magazine-style format to show it off, Magazine is the theme for you. Magazine is sleek, up-to-date, and always cutting-edge… just like your content.

Demo Magazine

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Manhattan Theme: When you’ve got lots of content and you need a professional way to show it off, Manhattan is the theme for you.

Demo Manhattan

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Metric Theme: Thankfully, the days of the starched, buttoned-down corporate website are over. You’ve got a way to build exactly what you need. Metric delivers a warm new media professionalism to your online customers.

Demo Metric

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Mocha Theme: Mocha is the perfect theme for fashion, music, and style blogs… or anyone who craves stylish design. Mocha’s sophisticated design, upscale color scheme, and uncluttered layout always deliver a delicious experience for your audience.

Demo Mocha

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News Theme: Got lots of news-style content and need a stylish frame? The News theme is a great choice for sites that have a lot to say. Enjoy using the featured areas and custom widgets that support everything from video to in-depth articles to great photography.

Demo News

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Outreach Theme: A church is one of the most information intensive organizations on earth. Don’t let your message get lost. Outreach gives you the framework you want, so you can give your people the message they need.

Demo Outreach

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Pixel Happy Theme: Looking for a bright, modern-looking theme that showcases great images? Pixel Happy is the perfect choice. Pixel Happy’s sophisticated color scheme, generous white space, and slideshow and gallery functionality make the perfect framework for photography and other image-heavy sites.

Demo Pixel Happy

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Platinum Theme: Have a great story to tell? An incredible show to put on and to let people know about it? How about showcasing your vocal skills? Let the modern Platinum theme take the back seat while you take the stage. It’s your time to shine.

Demo Platinum

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Pretty Young Thing Theme: There’s a fresh, vibrant generation out there, and you’re a part of it. Pretty Young Thing can capture the essence of your experience and reflect it back to a world that badly needs a dose of youthful exuberance!

Demo Pretty Young Thing

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Prose Theme: Prose is an elegant theme with point-and-click design controls. With Prose, you can easily change things about the appearance of your site (like colors and fonts) without knowing anything about code. Maybe your readers prefer a larger font. You probably have certain colors you’ve chosen to reflect your individual brand. If you can point-and-click, you can customize Prose.

Demo Prose

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Serenity Theme: Got lots of magazine-style content and need a stylish frame? Serenity’s a great choice for sites that have a lot to say. Choose from an amazing selection of widgets that support everything from video to in-depth articles.

Demo Serenity

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Sleek Theme: There was a time when the gadget-inclined were relegated to the basement. Those days are long gone and now you can show that. Get your geek on with Sleek, bring your brilliance to the world.

Demo Sleek

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Social Eyes Theme: One of the great benefits of Social Media is the ability to meet people where they are. On Facebook? Over at Twitter? No problem. Social Eyes is an elegant and easy way to assemble a stunning home for all of your Social Media work, and to expand it with your own unique take on what’s going on.

Demo Social Eyes

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Streamline Theme: Your website shouldn’t get in the way of your stories. Here’s your chance to tell it like it is. Streamline throws light on your work, letting you get back to what’s important. Focus on the things that really matter.

Demo Streamline

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Tapestry Theme: You take pictures, you write stories and opinions, you make videos, you link to cool stuff all the time. Tapestry takes everything you make online, and makes perfect, beautiful sense of it.

Demo Tapestry

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Venture Theme: You’re not playing a game. You’re in business, and you’ve got the numbers to prove it. Venture is as stylish and bold as you are, ready to show the world what you’re made of.

Demo Venture

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If you’ve been counting, that’s nearly 40 Premium WordPress Themes plus all the bonuses, support, and lifetime updates you simply won’t find elsewhere. Join StudioPress Today.