One of the things I have planned for a long time that will be launched at the same time as the new design (tomorrow, always this tomorrow…) will be theme variations. Pre-created customized versions of the themes, based on common requests from users and other designers. For example, a lot of people have asked me for Swedish versions of my themes, so translations are ready to be released. And others have asked for wider versions of the WP-Andreas00 and WP-Andreas01 themes for WordPress, and I will provide that as well.
Each theme will get its own page, where all these custom versions (and other modifications) will be listed with direct download links. Want a light version of Daleri Dark? Or a 3-column version of 1024px? If the demand is big, I will create it and add it to the list.
What kind of variations would you like to see to the themes in the future? Let me know, your opinion matters! This will apply to the website templates as well so feel free to write in comments for those as well. But please keep in mind that the templates will take much longer time for me to create all those variations since I will have more than 20 templates to work with when the new ones are released…
To see one really beautiful example of what a modified theme can look like, you can visit the newly launched website of the Ãjtte Museum here in Jokkmokk. The site is based on a wider version of WP-Andreas00 with a number of small changes - and translated to Swedish. It is probably the prettiest site I have seen using that design, the enlarged header and the large amounts of beutiful photos add a lot of value to the design…
Tomorrow? Are you sure?
No, I am never sure. And I know that you know that by now. But I am happy to announce that I have now found the first andreasviklund.com site sponsor - so now I have only two sponsoring spots available:
The new "sponsored links #2" - A set of links in the sidebar of all pages except the frontpage. The frontpage links are managed by Text-link-ads.com, but I was not able to add a second set of links for other pages than the frontpage so I will do it manually. Currently 8 link slots free, sold for 3, 6 or 12 months at the time.
The "template sponsor" slots - Sponsorships for ALL my templates (and soon also WP-themes). Each template and theme page (which means the page on andreasviklund.com which includes screenshots, add-ons, additional images, template comments, tips and hints and the variations that I have described earlier in this post - NOT any page in the template itself!) will have space reserved for a sponsored link or a small image banner. Once paid for, the sponsorship lasts for as long as the template is available - probably for several years. Each new template release means a new sponsorship slot, and based on the big interest for this idea I think that it will be very popular. I don't know what this may be worth, but I welcome bids and offers to get a starting point. I guess that andreas01 will be the first one to go!
The whole idea with putting more ads on the site is to allow me to work with making templates and giving free support as a full-time job. If everything works out as I want to, I will soon be working in a team with my girlfriend Johanna - based on the lovely business model that makes it possible to make a living from giving away things for free. That will only work with the help of sponsors, generous donations from people who use the templates for commercial purposes and my percentage for sales from the commercial template store, but it looks perfectly possible now so we are going to give it a try!
But I am always careful about ads, and I can assure you that they will not become disturbing. They fit greatly into the new design (which I'm testing on my secret test site right now). There will be no flash, only small image banners (if any at all, currently there are no images) and no AdSense, minimalls, ebay auctions or anything like that. All links will be clearly marked as sponsored links, but they are still placed in visible places to make sure that the kind and helpful sponsors and advertisers get the attention that they deserve. If you like my work, I hope that you will accept this and support my sponsors. Their help will result in lots of new templates, many new themes, much better support (not only from me but also from Johanna!) and hopefully a real blog!
Yes, I'm planning to become a blogger as well. For real! One that actually writes interesting posts every now and then. It is a little fantasy of mine, it would be a fun thing to do. Especially since my site would be my full-time job. But we'll see… For now, the new design is priority #1. Let's hope for a good tomorrow!
