Repair, reboot and release!
After a long, long time without visible updates but with a lot of things happening behind the scenes, it is now time to bring andreasviklund.com back to life. There are lots of stories to tell, lots of templates to release and lots of plans ahead. As you may possibly have heard during the spring, andreasviklund.com has been sold and is now running under new ownership. Instead of handling everything myself, I am now a part of a team of people who share my interest for functional and standards-compliant web design and whom I will work together with to make the site and the templates even more useful to you. I will continue to run the site and release my work here, free for everyone to download as always, but from now on I will do it as an employee for the new owner. In other words, running this website is now my full-time job and I will be able to put a whole lot more time and energy into the site than I have for the last few years.
I will write more about this in a future post, as well as sharing some of the ideas and plans that the team has for the future. Feedback will be very welcome, and so will any ideas and suggestions you may have. The whole idea with the free templates is that they should be as useful as possible for as many people as possible, so all kinds of input from template users is good. The main plan is to make it easier to learn about XHTML/CSS and how to edit and build websites from the templates. Among other things, I will start writing guides and tutorials and share a lot of tips and tricks. I will also write about more advanced topics, such as how to use website templates as starting points for making themes for different content management systems and blog engines, and how to get your information out to the world. I have done a lot of work with WordPress, so WP-themes will probably be a common topic as well. It will also become easier to get help from me if you run into problems with the templates, and to find answers for common questions about my templates. Again, I will write more about plans and ideas in the next couple of posts!
For now, I just wanted to let you know that I am alive and well, and that you can expect new material soon. For real, this time. You will of course also get the full story about the site affair, the new owner and the team which I am now a part of.
Finally, I’d like to send a bunch of big “thank you!”-greetings to those of you who have sticked around despite the long silence, and of course also to all of you who have sent encouraging messages. Now it is time for me to make it worth the wait, and I honestly think that many of you will want to stick around in the future as well!
This article was written by Andreas Viklund
Web designer, writer and the creative engine behind this website. Author of most of the free website templates, along with some of the WordPress themes.
45 comments:
Great news! I’ve been a fan of your templates since literally years, and am absolutely looking forward to what’s coming up. It’s always a pleasure to see something turn out well for people with extraordinary talents.
Hi, I have ordered your template (http://p7d6.arixmedia.com/4367383672546450/preview/AX0532GR) and payed Jun 9th by PayPal and still don´t have link to download! I have sent email to arixmedia.com but no answer. Can you help me please? If you write me your email, I will send you copy of invoice from PayPal. Jiri Kutal from Czech Republic
Hi Andraes,
I hope, things will work out well with new owner and wish you best of luck!
As I have seen, you plan to update the free wordpress themes? Definitely a good thing and I am looking forward for this. BTW: Ever thought of creating a Theme / Template for Drupal?
I’m very happy to read you again after such a long time!
I hope you will release new wordpress themes and/or update and re-publish some of the old ones which are not more available.
Very good news, I’m planning to write about the development of your site (job) in future. Your templates are still very popular between wordpress users.
Great.Waiting new wordpress themes :)
It is good to hear that you are back adreas, although now doing the site in team now. I am also exited waiting for some new wp templates and fresh ideas. Do you introduce your/the team?
Hi Andreas! Thank you for the post. Good to know you are alive and well. It does seem strange that you would sell your domain, especially since it’s your name but it’s nice to know you’ll still be apart of the site. Keep up the great work.
Hi Andraes, does not work “old-posts” , and “about” . http://andreasviklund.com/about/ http://andreasviklund.com/old-posts/daleri-structur-as-a-wordpress-theme/
Thanks for your comments!
Matthias: I have no specific plans regarding Drupal today. It is one of the content management systems that I would really like to learn more about, but I have found myself returning to using WordPress for most sites I build so I have never really given myself the chance to experiment with Drupal. It on the “to do”-list, definitely, but not a priority right now. But there are several ports of my free templates on Drupal.org that may be worth taking a look at.
Alberto: There will be both updates and new themes for WordPress, that’s for sure. It will take some time though, first priority is to refresh the existing XHTML/CSS templates, release new free templates and expand this site with helpful features and articles.
Chris: Yes, of course I will. :)
Sean: It may seem strange for anyone who is not familiar with my life and my situation during the last couple of years. But for me it was the best thing I could do. Or really the only thing I could do. Selling the site removed a lot of energy-consuming worries, and provided access to talented programmers which is great since I lack programming skills myself. I was also lucky to find a buyer who also wanted to have me on board in the future as well, so I am now able to turn many of the ideas I have had for the site into reality.
Drupal themes (with 7.x compatibility, which indicates that they are more actively maintained):
http://drupal.org/project/Andreas1024px
http://drupal.org/project/daleri-structure
There will indeed be new wordpress themes, such as the one on my site (click my name). It is a wide (and slightly updated for newer versions of WP) version of the andreas01 wordpress theme, with extras, like more header backgrounds. It has not been thoroughly tested, but I will fix any bugs sent to me.
How can I get my payed template? :-( Is it some fake?! I dont have email in junk, nowhere and it is allready 2 days since I payed :-(
Thanks for the updates. I love your post already. Looking forward to the tutorials! Can’t wait! Thanks and enjoy your week!
I feel sad, because header was changed from “Website template dessingner, musican, writer” to “website template designer”. As you know, there are still many people who love your music, but that is another matter. I wish you luck in all your projects. That all you meet in life!
Special thanks for recommending the “Antares Autotune :-)”
Jiri: No, the commercial templates have worked well for years. I removed them from the site today in order to focus on my own work, but it should not be any problem with orders that have been placed two days ago. Whenever a template buyer has had problems with an order, the one place to turn to is the 4templates.com customer support. They are usually quick to reply if you post a support ticket, and all problems I have got reports of during the last couple of years have been resolved that way. If this doesn’t help, send me the order ID and I’ll post a support ticket through my affiliate login. So far, it has never been needed, but you should of course get the template you have ordered so I will be happy to help if your own support ticket goes unanswered!
Facundo: The music will still be out there on purevolume.com and other sites. I will probably launch a new artist site some time in the future, but that is also not a priority right now. Good luck with the autotuner! :)
Andreas, I share your sentiment regarding Drupal. It looks immensly useful from a distance, but I shy away from starting to explore it any deeper as long as my current tools satisfy my needs.
From a gut feeling, though, Drupal is getting more interesting every new release, and with Drupal 7 I will probably bite the bullet and invest some serious time in it.
On topic: Best wishes for your new endeavours!
To celebrate your return! Let’s expect more and better you work.
Good pointer to your page at purevolume.com! I didn’t know about this.
Hi Andreas,
Chris told me about your fine WP templates. I think we have a similar style in designing. Take a look under http://blog.formideen.de/. Simple and function orientated.
Good luck in your job and future works.
Greetz Matth
Finally an update from you, I am really happy to read it. Keep making new templates.
Keep up the good work man.
Good to know you’re back.
hey, welcome back. As Sean already said, selling your name domain sounds kind of weird at first. Otherwise you’re still here, you’re happy with it and your have a lot of plans – so who cares. Best wishes and I’m curious about your upcoming work!
It is very nice to see you’re going to write again. I used to stay up-to-date with your blog, from which I stole many design ideas, during past years. PS: do you have any plans to make blogger/blogspot themes?
Glad to see a happy outcome. I followed the story both on domain flipper blogs and also read a few stories in Swedish.
welcome back and looking forward for your next post and for more templates….
-jon
Its great to have you back. Can’t wait to see the new stuff.
Hello, pleased that you are back.
I was completely surprised when I read the post now.
And I am glad to read it you feel great!
I have read many things that you have before and will now look again more often in here.
The site was far more information empire for me.
Nice to see you back, Andreas. Looking forward to what you come up with.
Shame you deleted all your old posts though.
welcome back :)
i`ll subscribe your site .
May be hire some ghost writers to post on your behalf. As they say, a forum may become a blog if not active. Wonder, what a blog will turn into if not active. “A static website may be”?
Great to see you back Andreas! Congratulations on the SALE!
I hope you are in best of health now and this money will give you much needed liquidity to fight with problems!
welcome back friend. i am subscribing to your site. i think everything will be fine now.
Andreas, great to see you “back in the game”. As noted above I also find it “weird” that you sold your own domain name but it does have lots of value and its sounds like you’ll now be able to work towards some bigger goals. Best wishes for the future.
Personally I don’t think I could sell my own name on the Internet but as you got yourself a job that you like I can understand the decision.
Does this mean we will see more public domain themes for WP soon?
Hello Andreas, It’s good to know you’re back, welcome!
Hi Andreas, i am glade you are back, and hope to see some new templates from you.
Glad to see you back!
congrats for your release andreas, waiting for your great job result of excellence theme.
Good to see your back Andreas. We hope to see more of you and your work through your blog posts!
Great!
This proves true the sentence “Do Your Best And Leave The Rest”.
Regards,
A.
welcome back i`ll subscribe your site .
thank you hope you always do your best and always keep the spirit sucses
Glad to hear you decided to keep the site around, I really like it as someone who needs to design a site soon, but has never done it before.
Wow your tutorials here are amazing, I want to subscribe andreasviklund.com!
I like the information on this blog. in Germany there are not many of them. many greetings from Germany