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iThemes at Dallas WordCamp 2008

March 24, 2008

WordCamp DallasThere will be a number of people associated with iThemes at the Dallas WordCamp this weekend. If you’re going, we’d love to know so we can meet you in person.

As far as I know it’s not too late to register (just $20 a person, so it’s a bargain). My wife and I will be there celebrating our 5-year wedding anniversary. It’s pretty special when your wife says it’s OK to go to a conference on a big date like that (Thanks, honey!).

Matt M. will be there to talk about WordPress 2.5 and beyond, something we’re excited to see released based on some screenshots we’ve seen showing what the new Dashboard will be like. It’ll be a great time! See you there.

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Our First Premium Theme Giveaway Contest

March 17, 2008

We’re sponsoring a contest by Ian Stewart of Theme Shaper to design the next default WordPress theme.

Ian’s idea is a great one …. try to encourage people to design the next WordPress theme that is installed with WordPress (there are two by default).

Although, as Ian says, the themes are great (particularly Kubrick), I hope this encourages some great participation in and enthusiasm for the WordPress community.

If you need some help with the development, check out our tutorial for WordPress developers!
See contest details here.

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Who is iThemes?

March 12, 2008

cory millerIt occurred to me that aside from our About page, we don’t have much information about who we are - iThemes — so I’d thought I’d take a moment and introduce you to the PEOPLE behind iThemes — the actual human beings that keep it all going … who are producing the premium WordPress themes for freelancers, small businesses and bloggers you see here!

I’ll introduce myself first … I’m Cory Miller.

I’m the main monkey pushing all the buttons and pulling all the levels at iThemes. I reside in Oklahoma City (yes, the international headquarters for iThemes), am married to my beautiful bride Jennifer, and have been using WordPress since November 2006 … and have been developing WordPress themes since March 2007.

I love WP because it’s so incredibly easy to use … it’s amazing for helping people find you on the search engines … and it just continues to get better.

I’ll be at the Dallas WordCamp March 29-30 …. would love to meet up with you if you’ll be there!

THE CODERS/DEVELOPERS

Right now, there are two main developers of the WordPress themes we have rolled out at iThemes: Brian Gardner and Nathan Rice.

I count Brian (Chicago) and Nathan (one of the Carolinas) as two of my very best friends online. They are outstanding WP developers and continue to amaze me as they produce more and more features that show the WordPress CMS muscle.

Brian is now more of a consultant to iThemes, but helped us launch our first series — Essence — for our Grand Opening in January 2008.

Nathan, who is getting married this summer, is now one of the primary iThemes developers here, helping us roll out Deep Order, Grunge, Business Card and there’s more on the way!

THE DESIGNERS

We have two primary designers at iThemes: Kyle Stauffer (Tulsa, Okla.) and Brian White (Lawrence, Kan.).

Both these guys are Photoshop gurus! I continue to be amazed when I get a new mockup for an upcoming theme series.

I’ve known Kyle (Tulsa, Okla.) for a couple of years, having droolled on his shoulder as we produced an interactive CD project together. And I’m getting to know Brian more and more each phone call and my respect continues to grow for his creative genius! (Thanks Von for the referral! Oh, by the way, Von designed the iThemes logo.)

THE FORUM MODERATOR

Jesse Petersen serves as our current user-to-user support forum moderator, helping out with theme questions. I’m so thankful to have Jesse swarming the boards to help out those with questions and encourage user to help users with their questions.

THE CUSTOM SERVICES PROVIDER

Because iThemes is really a one-man show (full-time, that is), we’ve established a great relationship with Terrell Sanders of Main Street Enterprises (Oklahoma City, with me). Terrell and Main Street provide all the Add-On Services we offer. The influx of custom requests and modifications was too much to handle. With Main Street, we’re able to help more people. They’ve been doing this for a number of years and I’m pumped to be able to offer our customers quality and professional WP custom services.

WHAT ELSE?

You might have questions about iThemes and the people who run it. If so, send us an email and we’d be glad to answer it!

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Custom WordPress Theme Services

March 7, 2008

In the WordPress development world, there’s really a wide void (read: opportunity) of quality and dependable WP designers.

Because we get inundated with custom design requests outside of our premium theme business, we have established a relationship with a preferred service vendor — Main Street Enterprises — who will now be handling all those custom requests.

Developing premium WP themes is a full-time business that we want to devote our primary focus on … and Main Street has the capacity to fill this important service void for us and more importantly our clients and customers.

I’ve known Terrell Sanders for over two years now. He and his group are great at what they do …. so if you haven’t checked out our Add-On Services page, go see some new rates and packages there.

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Three Keys to Effective Internet Marketing with Blogs

March 6, 2008

This is a guest post by Ryan Imel of Theme Playground.

Key #1: Be Original

Blogs are no long a brand new trend. Anymore they are expected. So, if you’re late to the boat, you better swim hard to catch up.

Since blogs aren’t new, the one thing readers don’t have much tolerance for anymore is repetition and un-originality. That time is past. Now you have to be bold, you have to be new, and most importantly you have to provide something useful to the reader. If you can do those things, then you can start to feed a brand to them and they won’t even begin to complain.

Read more

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Travel Site Using Blue Essence Theme

March 4, 2008

We received an email from a happy customer — New York-based web designer Kenneth Feldman — who said this about purchasing the Blue Essence Theme:

Just letting you know how much I enjoyed building a site for a client using your Blue Essence theme. No major modifications were made or needed; just a few css tweaks, and presto! This theme was perfect for this project; elegant, clean, tasteful. Thanks again, keep up the great work!

You can see the finished site here: Other Europe

Because I asked about the neat rotating home page slideshow, Kenneth was kind to offer the tools and plugins he used for the theme: “The slideshow is Mootools based Slideshow, using a simple cross fade setting.”

Plug-ins used:

Purchase Blue Esssence here … or check out all our other theme series offerings.
iTHEMES CUSTOMER SHOWCASE COMING SOON!

Want to get your client sites featured on the iThemes Blog? Or have a case study to share with us about using WordPress and iThemes? Let us know!

We’ll be opening up a client showcase soon, so be sure and send us a note about your WP-based sites developed using iThemes products.

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Going ‘Deep’ into Web 2.0 Theme Design

March 1, 2008

web 2.0 wordpress themeiThemes just recently released its third theme series — Deep Order — a Web 2.0 designed theme with a clean and glossy feel.

It was designed by Brian White of Solo Multimedia and coded by WP guru Nathan Rice and includes FamFamFam icons. Production for this theme took a couple of weeks, but we’re proud of the finished product.

One new feature in this theme is the Custom Header Option, which allows you to upload a new header graphic straight from the WordPress Dashboard area. The PSD files are included in each theme purchase so you can simply upload up Photoshop and pull in your new header image.

Along the way, we’ll be adding more of these features that showcase the power of WordPress as a content management system.

Also, let us know what you want in a theme by taking our Premium Themes Survey here. Your input is invaluable as we seek to deliver quality premium themes that fit your needs.

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