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[swemmel Friend swemmelJoin date: February 2006Posts: 794Downloads:34Uploads:53 Thanks: 36 Thanked: 64 times in 1 posts]

#313436

noibihappy2009;136767Forgot:
By myself. JA template quality is not too much good like the cost paid.
YOOtheme is better.

Then go and buy YOOtheme. :p I will see you around here back later.

Peter

1 user says Thank You to swemmel for this useful post

1. TomC

[scotty Friend scottyJoin date: March 2008Posts: 2339Downloads:0Uploads:13 Thanks: 76 Thanked: 827 times in 595 posts]

#313460

amejat;138228@bennitos and Scotty

I never put the addresses of my sites at the end of my posts, but I personally find that absolutely normal. Do not you find shocking that we pay to do free advertisement for JoomlArt (As even if we bought the templates, we are supposed to let the link to their site and the mention “designed by JoomlArt”.)

I am glad that people on this forum actually provide links to their sites so that we can see real use of JoomlArt templates. It is a good source of inspiration.

Let me remove all JoomlArt links on the templates I paid for, and I may agree with you that putting a link on a forum is “free advertisement”.

For me, links on a forum are just more examples of sites and templates
And link on a paid template… forced and free advertisement for JoomlArt.

Lets remove ALL free advertisement, starting by JoomlArt :p

Amejat you have completely missed the point!

We are not complaining about members displaying links to their own web sites. What we are complaining about is SPAM, new members filling the forum with absolutely pointless posts with the sole purpose of getting their signature link seen by others. The post on the previous page is a prime example. The user didn’t even make a sig, they just put the link at the end of the post…

Hung,
Great decision, I am looking forward to the new templates! I like what jbrett said about announcing “retirement of updates”…and possibly updating past templates.

Cheers,
Jennifer
http://practicebcenter.com

This is SPAM plain and simple. I do not want to see it stopped because it’s ‘free advertising’ as you point out but rather because it is a waste of my time when I get an email notification about a new post on a thread I am subscribed to and when I come to read it it’s rubbish like the post above.

[prakash Friend prakashJoin date: October 2008Posts: 439Downloads:0Uploads:1 Thanks: 2 Thanked: 146 times in 115 posts]

#313579

<em>@cgc0202 139654 wrote:</em><blockquote>

Cos of subscription among Joomla Template Companies

By the way, to those who complain too much about the membership fee of Joomlart. GavickPRO has a more costly regular membership. I paid 40 pounds (after the exchange charges about US$75 at the time) for four (4) months — for one template per month. 75 pounds for one year (approximately US$110-120). At the time, RocketTheme charges about the same as Joomlart but RT only had one template per month.

Learning my lesson from Joomlart, I decided to buy only a short subscription from GavickPRO, to get the template I wanted.

I looked at the other companies, at the time. Not just my type.

Cornelio</blockquote>

Hi…I would strongly disagree regarding the point that JA is cheaper than other template providers. 1 Year Gavic Developer membership is appx 215 USD and Rockettheme charges USD300 for a developer membership….way off the USD499 charged by JA. Earlier it made sense because JA was releasing 2 templates a month while these companies were releasing just 1 template a month. But starting August this scenario changes. Now its 1 to 1 comparison. Hence say for USD 499 you could almost join 2 template clubs! What users here believe is that with the change in terms and condition and the new 1 template a month release, they should reconsider their pricing which would justify the 1 template a month from August.

[cgc0202 Friend cgc0202Join date: August 2007Posts: 2244Downloads:0Uploads:3 Thanks: 206 Thanked: 262 times in 1 posts]

#313634

<em>@prbalge 139826 wrote:</em><blockquote>Hi…I would strongly disagree regarding the point that JA is cheaper than other template providers. 1 Year Gavic Developer membership is appx 215 USD and Rockettheme charges USD300 for a developer membership….way off the USD499 charged by JA. Earlier it made sense because JA was releasing 2 templates a month while these companies were releasing just 1 template a month. But starting August this scenario changes. Now its 1 to 1 comparison. Hence say for USD 499 you could almost join 2 template clubs! What users here believe is that with the change in terms and condition and the new 1 template a month release, they should reconsider their pricing which would justify the 1 template a month from August.</blockquote>

Hi prbalge,

On Regular Membership

Most of the Joomlart members have regular membership license, so what I stated applies to all of them. I cannot find the stats now but more than 70% of the members have either less than one year or one year membership cost.

If you challenge this, can you please provide the information from RocketTheme and GavickPRO that will prove your point? Otherwise, Joomlart expects an apology.:)

I already research the information last night. So you have no choice but agree with my assertion that in terms of price alone (as you argued above) — Joomlart is cheaper than RocketTheme or GavickPRO for the cost of regular membership.

If you claim otherwise, to borrow from that Governor of California:

“Go ahead. Make my day!”

(or something like that).

On Developer License Membership

I can attest to you personally that in my case, and quite a number of members here, have the cheapest deal with Joomlart compared with any other company. And, I do not have to suck up to Hung or Joomlart to achieve that.*grins* In fact, there are a number of times when I might have caused Hung a lot of headaches in 2008,

If you need proofs, let me know.

I would hazard to guess that there are some members with regular license who have gotten a better deal from Joomlart than they could ever get from other template companies.

But, let’s forget the special cases of a number of regular and developer members, and focus on the majority of Developer Members (as a group still comprise a minority of Joomlart membership).

I expect Developer members to be more discriminating because if they do not have the correct templates, then they have to work harder to prepare the sites for their clients.

I will not debate the nuance of the above statement though, if you are one of those who believe in the “Laura — I am not cool” ads of Microsoft”.

But, if you do not believe in the “Laura ads”, and believe in quality, as well as believe in what Tom kept on reminding people here — that the template is just a beginning — you do not need a gazillion templates to get value.

I (and a number of developers here) have a developer license mainly to circumvent the restrictions of Joomlart and use the templates mainly for sites that I have full control of.

However, if I ever attempt to develop websites for others — something that I have not considered at the moment, except to help non-profit groups I believe in — I would rather start with a Joomlart template and perhaps a few extensions from third party sites. This is based from my thorough examination of the templates offered by Joomlart, RocketTheme and GavickPRO.

Quantity

Now if you are into cost per template, because as a developer you value quantify, do you know how many templates you have if you chose:

Joomlart
RocketTheme
GavickPRO

But, if you are a high caliber, website developer or designer, charging your clients more in an hour or few hours for what you would pay Joomlart for a year, you might make more money and spend less time by mastering just a few templates and focus on a modular approach.

In theory for example, I can create any website just from Teline II, and make it very unique, no one who would see my actual sites would think that it ever was a Teline II template, except the users of Teline II.

While I have no experience or background in programming and scripting, I have enough familiarity with the Teline II template to innovate much faster. I save quite a bit of time also by not having to worry about bugs of other templates, especially the new ones.

If you are a true website creator, you will understand that it is the content that matters. And if you are a developer, this must be what you inculcate to your clients. In the end, you may develop a set of more loyal clients that way.

A change of strategy

Instead of complaining too much, maybe you may consider a different track. Select a few templates of Joomlart you like. Together with other members, and Joomlart staff, you might want to help develop and improve the template further.

And take the time to understand the issues encountered by new users of the template. Help solve them. More than likely, you will have a better understanding of the issues that you will encounter from your paying clients.

If you do the above, you may become a part of the members here who got a better deal from Joomlart than they could from other template companies. You may have a sense of satisfaction also if you are able to help others.

Cornelio

[prakash Friend prakashJoin date: October 2008Posts: 439Downloads:0Uploads:1 Thanks: 2 Thanked: 146 times in 115 posts]

#313640

<em>@cgc0202 139914 wrote:</em><blockquote>Hi prbalge,

On Regular Membership

If you challenge this, can you please provide the information from RocketTheme and GavickPRO that will prove your point? Otherwise, Joomlart expects an apology.:)

I already research the information last night. So you have no choice but agree with my assertion that in terms of price alone (as you argued above) — Joomlart is cheaper than RocketTheme or GavickPRO for the cost of regular membership.

If you claim otherwise, to borrow from that Governor of California:

“Go ahead. Make my day!”

(or something like that).

</blockquote>

Hi as you have asked for an apology from me and told that what I am saying is completely wrong..my sincere apologies.
Now this is the information I get when I see REGULAR 1 Year Membership valid for 2 domains.
When I see JA website – I see – USD70(2 domains) & USD 59 (for 1 domain 3 months)
When I see Gavick – I see EURO40 (appx USD57) – 2 domains & EURO 65 (appx USD92 – 5 domains)
When I see Rockettheme – I see 3 rates – USD 50 – 75 – 90 which gives me option of 1, 2 or 3 domains.

When I see Developer Membership
for JA – I see USD 499
for Gavick I see – EURO 150 (appx USD 212.5)
for Rockettheme – I see – USD 300

In my earlier post I had clearly mentioned that I am comparing the developer edition. My apologies that my point is wrong when I say JA prices are more for Regular Membership (which I never mentioned in my earlier post). Even if you compare the Regular Membership you find that Gavick is cheaper than JA and Rockettheme is cheaper on one instance – and at par on another.

I do not have any idea if “special deals” have been given to other users including developers like you mentioned in the post, then I agree, my prices would not be correct, because I have just analyzed from the website data available with me.

Now regarding helping out JA by helping other members, I do so on a regular basis and you can see my posts where in others have been benefited from my replies. Also I do give constructive suggestions to JA and as a whole most members do so by giving their point of view on topics.

What I suggested when I said that JA needs to bring prices into sync with what other template providers offer for Developer Members – and if you see my comparison above, don’t you think that they need to bring prices to levels prevalent in the market? Earlier JA used to release 2 templates a month and hence the price of USD 499 (twice what most template sites have) was a realistic price, but now with the reduction in template to just 1 template a month, dont you feel that they need to bring prices to what competition offers. And you would also agree that here we are comparing apples to apples and that JA, RT & Gavick are all equally good template providers in their respective focus areas within Joomla templates.

This is just a constructive suggestion that I had given to JA – to bring prices in sync with whats offered elsewhere…and I am extremely sorry that users found it offending to JA and will be careful in making such comments in future…

I would end by my sincere apologies to JA and cgc0202 who found that I was giving wrong comments on prices (which was not the case)

[ukfraternite Friend ukfraterniteJoin date: May 2008Posts: 294Downloads:0Uploads:44 Thanks: 61 Thanked: 10 times in 1 posts]

#313641

Good Plan and Good luck to all the team.

[cgc0202 Friend cgc0202Join date: August 2007Posts: 2244Downloads:0Uploads:3 Thanks: 206 Thanked: 262 times in 1 posts]

#313665

Hi prbalge,

My native tongue is not English, so sometimes when I make light of things, it might not come out well, as I want it.

I am sorry that I did not make myself clear enough.

The “Go ahead. Make my day” can be standing joke here in the US. And I attributed it to the incorrect actor. It was from a movie with Clint Eastwood as the cop/detective, not the current Governor of Calfiornia. And apologize to both actors for the mistake, it was well past midnight when I posted this.:)

Difficult times

We are experiencing a world economic meltdown. Everyone is affected, including small businesses like Joomlart. When we fought for one template per month, we were not fighting for it so that Joomlart will reduce their prices. We fought for it because what we hoped was for Joomlart to improve their services — better templates, less bugs upon release, better manuals and tutorials, better technical support, etc. — at the same price.

To reduce price now, may force Joomlart to layoff some of its staff. they might have already. I do not see some names here anymore. And that will defeat the very purpose why many of us who advocated for the one template per month. With less staff, there will be less to do the stuff I pointed above.

More than Reasonable Price

The trouble with us sometimes is that we want everything free. And yet, when it is our services, we expect to get paid, and paid the highest.

Just last month, I paid someone, $65 for a work he did in less than 30 minutes. A plumber charged me more than $100 to fix a leaky faucet. I can give more examples.

Compared with the above, we are raising hell paying template companies $70-100 a year? As far as I am concerned, I would pay more than that for a single high quality template, that comes with good manual and good technical support.

I would have paid $150-200 for a template as complex as Teline II, if it had no bugs, and came with a good manual, plus technical support.

I use Joomart template as examples here, but I believe the above prices I would readily pay RocketTheme or GavickPRO. It so happened that among the three, it was Joomlart that had the template I wanted.

How many templates we you need?

I do not need 6 or 12 templates each year. Just one (1) good template for my personal sites, or a few really good templates if I am a developer offering my services to other people.

Personally, I find it despicable for some here who use their personal license to get templates that they then use for clients. And then posting here to criticize Joomlart that the company is charging them to much. First they violated the licensing agreement. Second, they likely passed along the cost to the client with a padded profit.

There are some posters here who claim they do not like Joomlart templates, but if you look at their download history, they have near a hundred, and for so short a period of time. Talk about lying to your face.

It is just my own opinion but I am baffled by Developers wanting a gazillion templates. With more templates, you have to learn more, and ensure that each would be bug free. If you do not do this, it will not be Joomlart that will be blamed by your clients. It would be the Developer.

So, where is the compelling logic to begin with, to want more templates?

If I would be less understanding, I would say that are Developers who are taking the easy way out passing the work of Joomlart to theirr client with not much additional development work, and perhaps a hefty price padding for lipstick services. I am not saying you do this or that is what other Developers do. But, it boggles my mind for wanting so many templates.

Already, Joomlart has a stock of 65(?) template plus 12 more to come this year. The largest template pool among the three, with RocketTheme (48?) and GavickPRO (29?), as the other two.

Are you telling me that you have mastered or used all those templates already, those offered by Joomlart for example? One might argue that some templates are crap. You will not find me objecting to such a comment.

As far as I am concerned, a Joomla website have three basic components:

Joomla
a basic template layout
the extensions

Quite often, each template company has a distinctive style and sometimes come up with innovative extensions that goes with specific templates. These extensions, like others created by other third parties, may be placed in other templates.

I consider the above, as a modular way of looking at a website layout. In theory therefore, a good Developer who has some basic webdesign and scripting skills — can captialize on the basic layout template scripts and the CSS of a template company, and make almost infinite variations — perhaps even better than what Joomlart,or what the other template companies could offer.

If a Developer takes the above attitude, there really is no need to have so many templates — just well developed basic template scripts, CSS and good extensions. If I could create unique template variations with no basic webdesign and scripting skills, then I expect a Developer to be able to do more. Otherwise, no individual has any business masquerading as a Developer.

I am willing to bet that if template companies have all had a business plan where they charge per template, the focus of Developers would be different. They would be clamoring instead for improvements of each template — which should be the focus.

Quality not Quantity

I view things differently perhaps than most members here.

I am not a programmer nor a webdesigner so I need a lot of help.

From my perspective, as a website creator, and I have a gazillion sites, I really need only one template, or perhaps another or two. Right now, I am using only one — Teline II for all my sites. I customize them though, so my sites do not look at all like the Demo Teline II.

Joomlart should be more transparent

I don’t get special deals with Joomlart. During your second year, if you renew, the price paid by Developers is $350 per year. Returning regular members also pay less. This is true, for all members. It used to be advertised that way. And that is how it appears in my membership page.

More than one year ago, after the one template per month prevailed, I suggested to Hung, in a post, that they should make it very prominent that come Augus 2009, it will be only one template per month. I anticipated that there will be complaints like yours — the same one raised by those who were proponents of the retention of two templates per month — way back in late 2007 during the first round, and in the Summer of 2008 when this same debate happened.

Your post and quite a few post is a testament to this. More than likely Joomlart will lose a number of customers because they thought they had been had.

It could have been avoided.

I will respond to the other part of your post separately because this is a bit long already. Also, I think it deserves a more prominent presentation because it is one of the many advantages of Joomlart with respect to other template companies.

Cornelio
******

<em>@prbalge 139926 wrote:</em><blockquote>Hi as you have asked for an apology from me and told that what I am saying is completely wrong..my sincere apologies.
Now this is the information I get when I see REGULAR 1 Year Membership valid for 2 domains.
When I see JA website – I see – USD70(2 domains) & USD 59 (for 1 domain 3 months)
When I see Gavick – I see EURO40 (appx USD57) – 2 domains & EURO 65 (appx USD92 – 5 domains)
When I see Rockettheme – I see 3 rates – USD 50 – 75 – 90 which gives me option of 1, 2 or 3 domains.

When I see Developer Membership
for JA – I see USD 499
for Gavick I see – EURO 150 (appx USD 212.5)
for Rockettheme – I see – USD 300

In my earlier post I had clearly mentioned that I am comparing the developer edition. My apologies that my point is wrong when I say JA prices are more for Regular Membership (which I never mentioned in my earlier post). Even if you compare the Regular Membership you find that Gavick is cheaper than JA and Rockettheme is cheaper on one instance – and at par on another.

I do not have any idea if “special deals” have been given to other users including developers like you mentioned in the post, then I agree, my prices would not be correct, because I have just analyzed from the website data available with me.

Now regarding helping out JA by helping other members, I do so on a regular basis and you can see my posts where in others have been benefited from my replies. Also I do give constructive suggestions to JA and as a whole most members do so by giving their point of view on topics.

What I suggested when I said that JA needs to bring prices into sync with what other template providers offer for Developer Members – and if you see my comparison above, don’t you think that they need to bring prices to levels prevalent in the market? Earlier JA used to release 2 templates a month and hence the price of USD 499 (twice what most template sites have) was a realistic price, but now with the reduction in template to just 1 template a month, dont you feel that they need to bring prices to what competition offers. And you would also agree that here we are comparing apples to apples and that JA, RT & Gavick are all equally good template providers in their respective focus areas within Joomla templates.

This is just a constructive suggestion that I had given to JA – to bring prices in sync with whats offered elsewhere…and I am extremely sorry that users found it offending to JA and will be careful in making such comments in future…

I would end by my sincere apologies to JA and cgc0202 who found that I was giving wrong comments on prices (which was not the case)</blockquote>

[palavahut Friend palavahutJoin date: February 2009Posts: 4Downloads:0Uploads:0]

#315676

<em>@Hung Dinh 72517 wrote:</em><blockquote>Discussion thread for “Important changes to the JA Templates Club” announcement</blockquote>
I am a great fan of the templates that you guys have put out but recently I have not been able to download becuase it states that I have exceeded my daily download limits. I have sent a couple of messages but noone has responded to resolve my issue. This is another attempt to get some resolution.

I am planning on upgrading to the Magento club but if this is not answered I would be force to find somewere else.

username is palavahut.

[angelae8654 Friend angelae8654Join date: January 2009Posts: 3Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanked: 1 times in 2 posts]

#315701

<em>@attilio_sal 138230 wrote:</em><blockquote>Ok, I’m agree with you.
Magento templates are too expensive for an open source platform and I prefer to adapt their old virtuemart templates to new templates by now.</blockquote>

Yeah, I agree with this, although I really like the Magento templates.

[ridwanblue Friend ridwanblueJoin date: March 2009Posts: 19Downloads:0Uploads:2 Thanks: 8 Thanked: 2 times in 1 posts]

#316291

Please add your template gallery with Shopping template (with virtuemart). It’s long waiting …:((

[jtruelson Friend jtruelsonJoin date: March 2006Posts: 30Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 2 Thanked: 5 times in 1 posts]

#317041

I have paid you over one thousand US dollars over the last three years. I renewed on the basis of 24 templates per year, now I hear you are doing funny business under the hood to achieve license compliance. I don’t like it and I will be very upset if any one of my “unlimited” domains goes dark! Your credibility with me has been seriously impaired!

When the conditions change after one has signed up, it leaves me to feel I have been deceived.

I will not renew unless I see some consideration given to long standing developer members that is equal to what you have taken away from our agreement.

<em>@markb1439 72814 wrote:</em><blockquote>Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think you are making a big mistake by reducing the number of templates. By doing that, you are eliminating your biggest competitive advantage.

Based on what I’ve seen in various forums around the web, many people view your service as inferior to RocketTheme and YOOtheme. The perception seems to be that those services offer great templates and service (although I have my own opinions about RT support).

The perception about JA seems to be that some of the templates are great, while others are not-so-great, or are simply rehashes of previous designs. In addition, JA support doesn’t have a particularly good reputation. The only saving grace is that JA currently gives twice the quantity of other services. That is your main competitive advantage.

Since people view you as inferior to other services in terms of quality and support, eliminating the extra value will eliminate any advantage you have over the other services. You will be viewed as the third-place choice in every respect.

Eliminating this value could easily cost you hundreds of subcribers (existing members and potential new customers), If you lose 500 customers at an average of $15 a month (estimated), that’s $90,000 a year. I actually think the loss could be much more.

If I were you, I’d invest some of that potential lost revenue into hiring additional staff and making sure I offered two of the best possible templates each month, along with the best possible support. That is the only way you can possibly gain a lead over your competition. If you’re content with third place, cut the number of templates in half and keep your support the way it is. But if you really want to advance your position, your current plans are absolutely the wrong way to do it.

By cutting the number of templates in half, you are giving people only have as much incentive as they now have to subscribe to your service. And by adding automated licensing, you are giving people another huge reason to go elsewhere.

Instead of saying, “We can’t offer two high-quality templates a month,” I would suggest saying, “We will become the best value in Joomla templates by offering twice as much as our competitors: two ultra-high-quality templates per month, backed by the best support available.”

Sure, that will cost you money. But it probably won’t cost you nearly as much money as you’re going to lose if you move forward with your new strategies.

Getting two templates per month was the number one reason I subscribed to your service. Why take away your best selling point?</blockquote>

[shadoe Friend shadoeJoin date: January 2006Posts: 16Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 2 Thanked: 1 times in 1 posts]

#317337

I don’t care if I get one or two templates a month.. make it one really good one and I’ll be fine with that. But I will not ever accept any “phone-home” thingy in the templates. Then I wont be renewing my subscription.

Like previous people has been saying – what if joomlart-server fails and all of a sudden clients site is down.. nope.. wont happen.

If you implement it I’m out of here..

1 user says Thank You to shadoe for this useful post

1. antoniu1

[beadit Friend beaditJoin date: December 2006Posts: 58Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 6 Thanked: 2 times in 1 posts]

#318846

I just renewed for another year and to clarify I have 3 domains I can use this year and it is ticked for support.

I got a bit tired of reading this thread – 32 pages is quite a bit! These may well have been answered so I apologise for my laziness.

1. I have 3 domains I have used up last year – what happens with the new licensing if I upgrade a site to a new template? Is it still counted as a domain for last year or does it become a domain for this year? If it uses one for this year I would consider it very unfair because the only way to get more domains is to renew a subscription, unless you want a developer license.

2. Like many people I install a template either on the site or as a subdomain to test ideas. It will count as a domain that I have used – that’s fair. Often I will scrap the site and download a different template and start again with a different look until I get it right. I assume that as I am overwriting the current template with the new template it will only be counted once because it is a single domain?

3. If I remove a domain from last year can I add back a domain from this year into last years allocation? I was under the impression you could do that but with the new licensing, now I’m not so sure?

4. Why can’t you use a personal membership to make websites for other people? I thought that was the point? You only get 2 or 3 it’s not like you’re making your living from web design at 3 a year. If that’s sufficient for your needs and the needs of your few clients (or friends, or clubs you belong to) then what’s wrong with that? If you are a developer 2 or 3 licenses simply wouldn’t be enough as as you make a living from design you would need the Developer license.

5. Before renewing I had a look around at other companies and most offer 5 – unlimited domains. I’ve always thought 2 or 3 is very restricted. I have a non-profit club website to do, there was a time that you could have non-profits for free, is there any thought of bringing this back? Even a limited number would be fantastic – how about another 3 for non-profit organisations?

Thanks
Oh I haven’t seen too many comments from the JA team on here? Is there a reason for that?

[lennoxmarlowe Friend lennoxmarloweJoin date: October 2009Posts: 1Downloads:0Uploads:0]

#319461

yes I really think that is a good decision, we can enjoy new templaes. I support you.

[phiber0ptik Friend phiber0ptikJoin date: May 2007Posts: 9Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 2 Thanked: 1 times in 1 posts]

#320177

i cant believe what you are doing here – you cut off half of the templates but still to the old price.
thats very uncool. i maybe could lieved with that when the new templates would be very very cool but they dont. they look like they have looked before and also full with bugs on the first release.

its for me like i pay the milkboy to deliver 7 bottles of milk a week. after i pay him he told me that he will deliver just 3 bottles a week but the milk tastes ways better than before. you know what ? its the same milk. from the same cow.

some of you will say – hey i just need 3 bottles of milk but it is not what you have paid for.

i will not renew the next time.

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