Awhile back, I reviewed a premium (paid) WordPress theme which sold for $99-$250 per download. Premium themes have continued taking root — I’ve spotted five other similar themes since then, all in that price range, all in the news and magazine layout style.
Mimbo was the first magazine-style theme of its kind, but I’ve always declined selling it for certain reasons:
- Mimbo contains far fewer features than the premium themes available.
- Mimbo contains very little aesthetic design, which is deliberate. Selling an image-less theme would not only be a challenge, but I don’t know how I’d feel about charging money for what seems like an “unfinished” product.
- My full-time work commitments prevent me from developing Mimbo beyond irregular late-night and weekend sprints. I wouldn’t feel right selling something I didn’t think was truly professional and fleshed out.
- Introducing money to the equation can spoil a good thing, as it has over the years with various music and writing projects. Yep, that old cliché.
- WordPress and the open source community have given so much to the world of web development, so I want to give something back. (A cliché classic!)
Regardless of these things, I’ve spent five months developing and thinking about this theme. There are already 6500+ copies of Mimbo already out there, all with my name in the footer. As distribution continues, I want to ensure the theme lives up to the highest standard. Christmas break is coming up and I’m going to have some free time…
Mimbo Pro
As you’ve guessed by now, I’m weighing the idea of releasing my own premium theme, tentatively called Mimbo Pro. There would be a more expansive layout, extra features, and possibly control panel options. I’d continue offering the original for free.
But the main selling point of Mimbo Pro would be the the design itself. Imagine something much more polished and eye-catching, on par with larger paid projects from my portfolio. The goal is for it to look BIG, like another Time or Newsweek, but with more elegant design touches. I’ll post screenshots as things progress.
Regarding price, it would be significantly less than the going rate of $99-$250. This is mostly because I have less free time set aside to evolve the project, offer ongoing support, and so on. And because this is a side project, not a full-time job, I’m not looking to support myself with the proceeds.
If you’d consider buying Mimbo Pro, what features would you like to see that aren’t currently available in other paid themes?
3:36 am
Darren, this is exciting to hear! Mimbo is nice, but as you stated, missing a more graphical look. That’s what I’d like to see. Combine the news/magazine style with some elegant graphical design and I’m sold.
7:26 am
Integration of a configurable Google Adsense module
8:35 am
Sounds great.
Flexibility without having to play with php.
Good Luck
12:09 pm
I think fluid layout would be wordpress theme’s next big thing. It fits all screen resolution, particularly when you view your site on notebook.
1:12 pm
Darren – I think Mimbo is fantastic and a terrific starting point for someone who wants to be hands on with the look of their site. However, I think a Pro version would be great for a lot of folks. I’ve been working with regular mimbo to try and customize it, but i’m not always 100% happy with some of the colors & images I’VE selected. I think a professional designer of course would do much better!
Some things I would really like are easy media integration: video, audio and image gallery.
My magazine uses pages in addition to posts, so it would be great if there were various page layout templates already built in.
Good luck going pro and thanks!
2:01 pm
I think you deserve to be paid for your fine work ! That said, mimbo currently meets the needs of a lot of people in terms of scale. Not many people want to start running their own equivalent of ‘time’ magazine or newsweek.
To me mimbo’s ‘lack’ of graphic design is its inherent design feature. Images that are included in the lead story and features really sing because of mimbo’s minimalism. This is how, without changing the layout, mimbo manages to look so different across peoples customisations.
Imagining a premium mimbo, as mentioned on the forum, the ability to build feeds from related content, which may not be in the same category, would be essential. Sometimes if things are too automated they appear unintelligent. And to customise the sidebar more according to what level it appears in the info heirarchy. Also, the ability to add multiple or no authors to an article. Currently to have an author-box detail requires having access to the wordpress. This wouldn’t generally work for most news paper websites. I’m thinking of knocking out that author box and just bunging in my own div at the end of an article with the details of the author, because I can’t assign a new user to wordpress every time theres a new contributor to lila.
I think there needs to be more control over the body id, some ability to choose the id so it acts as a modifier in the cascade, allowing for much more customisation of pages.
7:45 pm
Guys, I’m brand new here, and a traditional ink and paper publisher looking to establish a Web presence. I LOVE Mimbo, and applaud the decision to go with a Pro version. Though, from a pure design standpoint, the minimal look has excellent appeal.
Second — and because of my inexperience I don’t know if it’s possible — I would make sure that the pro version resembles Mimbo “free� and make all changes optional, allowing us to trick out the site as much or as little as desired.
Ads
• Google Adsense module
• and integration with other forms of advertising (Amazon, link text, affiliate deals, etc.)
• Rotating banner at top right, allowing for either fade or slide effects.
Media
• Video. This would be calling in video from YouTube, or something I’ll be using, Instantvideogenerator.
• A slick audio player. Also, if possible, one where the titles of the clips are displayed. I think this is called a “jukebox.� effect.
• Image gallery
• Author box
• Ability to place sidebar pieces or “nugget� boxes in articles.
• Surveys and polls
• Under the Browse Archives dropdown, it seems to send you to the month you request, but only for the category you’re currently looking at. In other words, if you’re looking at the music category in November and want to check out October, it will take you to the October music archive. In one respect that’s fine, but if I’m looking for the general contents page of the October issue, I don’t want to have to first navigate back to the home page and then go to the Browse Archives dropdown. Hope that was clear.
• Under Ads and Sponsors, can clickabe sponsor logos or ads go there?
• Can a logo image (masthead) be placed in the header, rather than just a text title for the magazine?
• Maybe a few differently styled interior magazine pages, to give us an option of which to use to vary the aesthetics.
• How about offering “skins,� if those are available in WordPress?
• Ability to download PDFs and other files from the site.
I’m coming at this from the perspective of the print world, so maybe some of this isn’t possible.
Again, I’m a newbie and don’t know PHP from PHD (and I haven’t got one ot those, either). I’m just a lowly print guy who would love to use a juiced up versioin of Mimbo for our site. Credit card is ready.
Thanks.
Jerry
8:30 pm
Back for round two…but wait…
I just found the section with what people are already doing with Mimbo. WOW! Much of what I asked for in the last post has already been done.
• The rotating banner…Zuitt and Silom Journal are both doing it.
• An image with masthead is in use. Good.
• There can be two columns of categories. I like that.
• Clickable ad boxes…no sweat.
• Dollar Bin has a great, collapsible audio player. I love that it stops and collapses when another audio is clicked. Some just play on top of each other.
• Author box is also in Dollar Bin, as is Flickr gallery and sideshow.
• two or three are using video.
• Silom Journal also has an RSS feed and a forum.
Hey Darren, just about everything I’m looking for is already in play with Mimbo. Maybe you can integrate all those plug-ins into Pro, and tell me where to send the money!
Jerry
5:47 pm
video, audio and image gallery.
Sounds like more people are expecting this with higher-end themes. I’ll keep that in mind.
Not many people want to start running their own equivalent of ‘time’ magazine or newsweek.
Agreed. I need to determine who the optimal audience might be, but I’ll make sure it’s easy to “downsize” the theme if there are excess features. It’s hard to predict who needs what.
. Also, the ability to add multiple or no authors to an article.
Yeah, maybe the whole author bit should be a conditional.
I think there needs to be more control over the body id, some ability to choose the id so it acts as a modifier in the cascade,
With version 2.1, I added a body ID of “home” if users were on the homepage. In the future, I’ll have a dynamic body class for other pages, too, as that can be useful.
Under the Browse Archives dropdown, it seems to send you to the month you request, but only for the category you’re currently looking at.
Hmm. If I’m on the “News” archive and select October from the dropdown, it takes me to a mixed results page. Are you using v2.2?
Re: adding logos and ads, I could include some sample stuff in the template, but it’s hard to predict who wants ads, who doesn’t, who has a graphical logo already, who doesn’t.
-
Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I’m looking forward to creating something that really has impact, design-wise. As I mentioned recently, higher profile news and magazine sites like MSNBC demonstrate that tons of information can still be organized effectively and designed beautifully.
10:02 pm
“Hmm. If I’m on the “Newsâ€? archive and select October from the dropdown, it takes me to a mixed results page. Are you using v2.2?”
Hi Darren,
I’m not using it at all yet, but I’d love to.
Please remember that I produce an ink & paper magazine. I’d like to be able to create a familiar experience for the reader who tends to look at the cover and then goes to the table of contents (TOC) to scan what’s available.
If I select a particular month in the dropdown menu, I would want the search to take me to that month’s “TOC” — the landing page for that’s month’s issue. Said landing page will be replaced every month as the new issue is released.
So, rather than mess with the search mechanism, there’s an easy alternative.
I figure that I can just present the archives in the top menu bar and let this be handled by the hierarchical feature. Level one in the dropdown would be the year, 2007 for example, and in level 2 would be the 12 individual months of those landing pages, with links already in to navigate to the listed articles. Done deal.
No need to mess with anything under the hood.
Jerry
10:09 pm
Darren,
Please advise when in December you think the Pro version might be released. I’ve asked for bids to install the following on version 2.2:
– Podpress
– Flickr
– Tabber
– Banner rotator
– Contact form (cforms)
– to be video ready
– Adsense (and other ad systems) “ready”
– Poll
If you’ll be including much or all of that, and it’s going to be out this month, then I can wait.
Thanks.
Jerry
11:13 pm
Before finding Mimbo, I used Copyblogger’s theme and really liked the custom css option. It makes updates much less intimidating.
7:04 pm
Hey Darren,
You there?
Coupla days ago, I wrote:
“Please advise when in December you think the Pro version might be released. I’ve asked for bids to install the following on version 2.2:
– Podpress
– Flickr
– Tabber
– Banner rotator
– Contact form (cforms)
– to be video ready
– Adsense (and other ad systems) “ready�
– Poll
If you’ll be including much or all of that, and it’s going to be out this month, then I can wait.
Thanks.”
————————-
It would be great to get an answer on this.
Jerry
7:13 pm
@Jerry: sorry for the delay. I’m pretty swamped with full-time work and not always available for replies. I haven’t yet plotted out all the features for Mimbo Pro, and I don’t have a launch date in mind. This is something I do in my (often rare) spare time, so it’s hard to establish milestones the same way I would with ordinary projects. I’d love to have something available by the end of the year. Tabber and video will probably be included, but not likely the other stuff you mentioned — poll, podpress, etc, are plugins, not part of the theme.
10:15 pm
Thanks, Darren.
I guess I’ll go ahead and have someone on Rent-A-Coder wire it up with those features included. Then, if your Pro theme has some things not yet achieved, and it’s easy to upgrade to, we’ll use it. Looking forward to it.
Jerry
7:50 pm
Darren I cant wait to see some screen shots. I’m really curious… Is going to be kind of hard to sell a pro version of Mimbo specially now that you open a forum dedicated to the free version. I mean, everyone has been improving Mimbo all by themselves with all the tips in there.
Anyway.. good luck with your premium theme and thanks for the free Mimbo.
Almost forgot… one of the customization I did for my Mimbo that you might consider for the Pro version is a wider side bar that can hold 300X250 ads. After all, it is a magazine theme…
6:54 am
Hi Darren
Thanks for Mimbo. I’m also in need of a full featured theme and was seriously thinking about moving to Joomla (because of the look and options). I’m going to launch a news website and have researched hundreds of wordpress, Joomla themes. I need to see these in Mimbo Pro
1. In place of Featured, there may be a rotating flash.
2. A Video Section with a Gallery in upper sidebar.
3. A photogallery
4. Categories from sidebaar need to move to Toolbar(and sub cat will come as dropdown) for front page, may be included for a post viewing.
5. A Tabber.
Will add more things soon..
9:13 am
Jerry,
The thing is that unless it’s GPL.. he can’t add all the plugins directly in Mimbo and even under GPL there are restrictions to how these plugins can be distributed. You can’t just take someone else’s work and include it for distribution in yours. Or at least you’re not supposed to.. and there is a debate going on about the premium designers who do that.
Things like Tabber CAN be included and the best Darren can ethically do is provide a way for the other plugins to be easily installed.
2:59 pm
Hi there
I would love a build-in picture caption feature. And a graphical header that could be easily changed.
Thanks
5:38 pm
I would like to see an infinite scrolling feature like in the Humanized Reader at http://www.humanized.com/reader/ which would make for an fluid experience browsing articles in some order, reverse chronological, or in terms of relevance for search results, etc. The page should be a thing of the past. We’re dealing with the web, not newspapers or magazines, after all. This would take Mimbo to the next level in a serious way.
12:20 pm
Hi Darren, what a nice theme!
It would be cool if all the featured, lead article & category blurbs would be customizable through widgets, so that 1) setting required categories in the code is not necessary, and 2) updates can be done faster, without having to edit each post separately.
Regards
Abhilash
10:52 pm
Dear Darren,
It would be great if I were able to build the magazine pages with Mimbo Pro and be able to send it to the hard copy printing press. Without reformatting everything.
Also make sure it has a “Tell A Friend” script.
Thank you for your time, dedication and consideration.
Best regards,
Clifford Chentnik
1:00 pm
To be able of change permissions for each kind of admin in wp (editor, admin, etc is not enought when i want to give access to a pluggin-admin to one editor for example) Anyway the most importart thing is the price, 99$ is too much for me and i´d rather to have less for 40-50$
12:10 am
I’d be interested in purchasing! Please email me (via this comment email) when the time comes :)
2:09 am
I’d be interested in purchasing! Please email me (via this comment email) when the time comes :) but…
But if we use the current Mimbo and custom edit and what now if we buy the pro it’ll ruin our hard work? I think you should offer this for free, as you have time and build upon it from user suggestions, trying to make this a big paid project will actually downsize the user contributions.
People like this mimbo theme, because ITS FANTASTIC and you’re providing great support, but if you start offering a paid version, its more than likely that people will not even download the free normal mimbo
I think you should offer the current mimbo as “Original” for those who want to custom built-upon it
And then you release “Mimbo Extended” with all features built in, in which users can turn off and on. This allows for further colloboration and growth and fun of this mimbo theme! Don’t ruin it by making it a paid theme :(
8:55 am
Updates on mimba pro, please.
thanks
And a question:
What I need is a template that will allow users with no experience to publish articles with text that appear on the front page.
If the process to do this gets more complicated than regular posting it will be too complicated for them.
Finally, I’ve checked all the other templates and yours is the most interesting.l
ric
2:58 am
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