Respect Requires Altruism

Nathan Rice on December 13, 2007

I’ve been noticing a trend as of late with some of my fellow WordPress developers. Many of them have all but abandoned the idea of releasing free WordPress themes to the community.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, sometimes money can make you forget about innovation. I think it also makes you forget that WordPress is, at its core, a community program … driven by the community … supported by the community … and sustained by the community.

So how is it that we sometimes forget to give back to the community? Read More

Talking WordPress: Not Bad At All!

Nathan Rice on December 10, 2007

As I’ve expressed before, I’m disappointed with the quantity of good podcasts out there that talk about WordPress. Obviously, with only one podcast out there, it’s hard to get good quality content in podcast format on the topic of WordPress.

But I recently discovered a podcast that looks like it has some serious potential to be a hit.

TalkingWordPress.com is host to a great little podcast! I listened to all 3 episodes so far in a single sitting, and I REALLY liked what I heard. Read More

Do You Value a Good Designer?

Nathan Rice on December 4, 2007

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to participate in a group chat with Darren Rowse of Problogger.net. I got to watch as bloggers from all over the place asked him questions about blogging and making money online with their blogs.

Although I asked him a few questions, I asked him a question that particularly interested me … did he think it was worth it to pay for his recent redesign???

His answer really made me happy … not just because I’m a WordPress designer, but because I have seen way too many people devalue the work people like me actually do. He raved on Ben, and made it clear that he did not overpay for his design, but he didn’t get a steal either. But overwhelmingly, his redesign was worth the money.

But this is not the case with a small percentage of the potential clients who contact me. Read More

Make Money, Get Busy, and Forget to Innovate

Nathan Rice on November 15, 2007

I just got an email from Brian telling me that he just got listed on Automattic’s WordPress Consultant’s list. Congratulations to him for this, for sure!

But one of the things that disappointed me about this list was the fact that most of these sites, individuals, and companies, despite being on Automattic’s approved list, rarely, if ever truly innovate in the field of WordPress development.

For most of us who started out in the theming business, it was a hobby … something we did in our down time to get some traffic, and offer something back to the community that helped us start our own blogs. Innocent enough. Read More

Premium WordPress Themes?

Nathan Rice on November 6, 2007

If you are looking for a good PREMIUM WordPress theme, why not check out my newest project, Proximity News Theme. Check out all the cool features. It won’t disappoint!

Although there has been quite a bit of “hoopla” over the recent announcement from Matt Mullenweg indicating that we could see a premium theme marketplace for WordPress.com users in the near future, I’m going to save the commentary on that front for another day.

Today, I want to focus on the now … the immediate … the present. What’s hot right now seems to be the business of selling “premium WordPress themes” for a small fee (usually around $60-$100 USD). This is a lucrative business because it opens the possibility of making many times what you could have made doing a single custom theme, for about the same amount of work. Read More

Any Good WordPress Podcasts?

Nathan Rice on October 10, 2007

Over the last week or so, since buying my new iPod Nano, I’ve been resubscribing to all my old favorite podcasts … for research of course 🙂

But I’ve been severely disappointed in the underwhelming number of WordPress podcasts … that is … podcasts that discuss WordPress topics, WordPress themes, etc.

Yes, I have subscribed to the Official WordPress podcast … that’s a given (is it actually “official”?).  But, with all due respect, it’s not very entertaining … unless of course Lorelle is on 🙂

I did a search in iTunes for WordPress and it returned quite a few results, but other than the official podcast, none have been updated in a VERY long time.

Could it be that there’s a market for an entertaining WordPress podcast?