Posts Tagged ‘free buddypress themes’

BuddyPress Theme Contest Relaunched

// April 30th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Buddypress

Last week I decided to hold off on the BuddyPress Theme Contest until BuddyPress v1.0 was released just in case there were any last minute changes which might mean some themes would not work with BP.

Well today BP 1.0 was officially released so the Free BuddyPress Themes contest will resume.

Here is how the contest will be run:

  • There are 2 categories in which you can submit a theme for; Home theme and Member theme
  • Submissions will be open from April 30 – May 30, 2009
  • All submitted themes will be uploaded to FreeBPThemes.com on June 1, 2009 for public voting
  • Voting will commence June 1 – June 14, 2009
  • The winners will be announced June 15, 2009
  • 12 months FREE WPMU DEV Premium membership (valued at US$250) will be awarded to the theme with the most votes in each category.

How to Enter:

  • Design an original Home or Member BuddyPress theme
  • Submit your theme to FreeBPThemes.com using our online form by May 30, 2009

When Does a Project End?

// April 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Projects

I am currently running 3 websites, all are WordPress based and all of them require effort and a few hours a week of work. I just finished v2 of Explore With Me and am very happy with it, but now it is time to give Free BuddyPress Themes a makeover.

I was already thinking about Free BuddyPress Themes while I was working on Explore With Me, and now I am already looking towards Explore With Me v3. Once Free BuddyPress Themes v2 is ready and rolled out, I also want to find some time to give this blog a makeover. I have been using this same theme for about 9 months now and need something fresh.

Once I finshed all these updates, I will probably go through the process again and again. I am never happy with my sites, there is always something I know needs doing, and with technology changing so fast, especially with WordPress MU and BuddyPress, I need to stay on top of things.

Once I get the idea in my head that I am going to make an upgrade, I need to do it sooner rather than later. I just cannot let things go – once I tell myself it is going to be done then I have to do it or the exisiting site will just drive me crazy.

But with 3 projects at the moment and possible another coming on soon – when does it end? Long gone are the days of having a website setup and letting it sit for 3 years before you upgrade it.

Projects Update

// February 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Projects

Explore With Me

Project Explore With Mewas launched in October 2008. Since then we have been testing and adding features to the site such as WordPress MU, BuddyPress, forums, various plugins, new themes and a whole lot more. The site is about 95% complete and we want to launch as soon as possible.

I had originally set my launch date for early January but then decided to wait for the final release of BuddyPress and WordPress MU 2.7. I updated the site to WPMU 2.7 two weeks ago and now we are also running BuddyPress Beta 2.

BP v1.0 was due to be launched yesterday however they have decided to release it as a “Release Candidate” due to pending changes to WordPress MU.

The site is fairly bug free at the moment and everything is ready to go. We do get very good traffic and also are finding that users are joining which is a good sign.

I think we will hold off the “official” launch date until BP v1 and WPMU 2.7(.1?). That is when we will start pushing for advertising and concentrate on bringing the traffic in.

Free BuddyPress Themes

Project Free BuddyPress Themes went live in early January. It was an idea that turned into reality in about 2 hours so there wasn’t much planning involved. The good thing is that I have had time to work on small updates to the blog as BuddyPress is yet to be in final release so the uptake has been a bit slow.

I am happy with the blog in its present form, it is effective and gets the job done. Small updates here and then are always something I’ll do.

At the moment we have 6 themes available for users to download, with 2 of them being the default BP theme. We got three new ones this week so I am hoping that once the word spreads about BuddyPress designers will start designing custom themes and upload them to the site so other users can download them.

I am thinking of putting together a BuddyPress Theme contest to try to encourage users to start designing. I am just trying to put some prizes together. Once I get a few responses I will launch the contest. It is still in its very early planning stages but hopefully we can run the contest sometime in March if all works out well.

Wanted: BuddyPress Themes

// February 10th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Buddypress

I launched “Free BuddyPress Themes” about a month ago and so far the uptake has been fairly slow. While hits have been fantastic, there are still only 3 themes available for download and two of those are the default themes that are packaged with BuddyPress, the third is the member theme that I modified for Explore With Me.

With the imminent release of BuddyPress v1.0 I am hoping that theme designers start submitting their themes to the site. I have seen a few themes that users have created for their own sites, however they are not being made public. The majority of BuddyPress site I have seen are using the default themes however there needs to be some custom themes created otherwise every single BuddyPress based site is just going to look the same.

As far as I know Free BuddyPress Themes is the only site that is offering BuddyPress themes available for download, but there are a few other BuddyPress related domain names that have been registered lately that will most probably offer the same service. But for now we are in a  good position.

I am hoping that with the first official release of BP that theme designers will get started designing some themes that they want to share with the BP community. I might even have a crack at it myself!

So spread the word – we want your BuddyPress themes! I might even have to have a contest in order to encourage users to develop some themes to share with all of us. If you want to donate a prize to the content then let me know!

Introducing BuddyPress

// February 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Buddypress

BuddyPress 1.0 is due to be released on February 12…for those of you who have yet to see it and use it, then check out the below video.

Will you be using BuddyPress?

Projects Update

// January 15th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Projects, Wordpress

As many of you know I have a few projects that I am currently working on. Here is a quick update…

  • Explore With Me: The site has been completed, BuddyPress Beta 1 is up and running, and members are joining at a steady rate. I am still saying that the site is not yet officially launched as I am waiting for the new version of WordPress MU 2.7 and BuddyPress version 1. There is no word yet on WPMU as to when it will be released, however rumours suggest it might be at the end of the month. BuddyPress v1 is set be released February 9, so once testing is complete the site will be officially launched and I’ll start the task of promoting it.

    Hits are very steady and encouraging at this early stage. I am getting a lot of traffic from the BuddyPress website, but that also means I am getting a lot of people looking at the site to check out BuddyPress rather than interested in the site. Though at this early stage anything that spreads the word is a good thing.

    As for revenue, I am making a bit of money from Google Adsense. The affiliate links have not made any money yet, but people are clicking on them so it is just a matter of time.

  • Free BuddyPress Themes: This venture is very new and still pretty raw…oh and the blog is pretty empty. The site relies on users submitting their themes for others to download, but as BuddyPress is new, I don’t think many people have got past the point of installing and testing it. Once version 1 is released I think the site will begin to grow.

    Traffic is been fantastic in the past week. I have had more traffic to the site than this site got in the past two months. There is plenty of interest, but there are no themes to download as yet. I am getting the majority of traffic from the BuddyPress forums and Google searches.