A BIG Thanks To Our Catalyst Community For All Their Support!!

[eric]

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to say that I'm so very humbled to be a part of such an amazing group of people! Your incredibly positive support with this WPCandy Theme Madness competition has totally blown me away, along with many others in the WordPress community.

The results are in and we just BARELY lost to StudioPress 753 to 721 :
http://wpcandy.com/announces/theme-m...ound-4-winners

I'd be lying if I said this close loss doesn't sting a bit. I keep thinking of all the little things I could have done to stir up a few more votes and bring home the W, but that's just a hindsight hurdle I'll have to get over.

The bottom line is that StudioPress won and I congratulate them for that!

But there's just no doubt that our young, small community showed that they have more heart than any other community taking part in this contest. That's just a FACT!!

So congrats to you guys for all your hard work in supporting each other, our team and the Catalyst Theme!

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One final note that I think it very important to point out:

It really occurred to me that even though Catalyst is a great WordPress Theme, it's the community behind that makes it exceptional! Our team can do our part to make Catalyst the best WP Theme out there, but it's going to be you guys that really spread the word.

So just keep this in mind and remember all that we've done with hundreds of blog post comments, hundreds of votes and tweets and just going that extra mile to let the WordPress World know how awesome our theme and our community are.

Because it will be the continuation of this kind of Catalyst evangelism that will win more users over to Catalyst and in effect give us an even stronger community!

And I can't stress this enough! Anyone who thinks this is just some kind of "popularity contest" that's just not the case at all. The plain truth is that the overall health and positive outlook for any product is the health and positive growth of its community.

So if you want Catalyst to get better and better just keep doing your part to get the word out and win WordPress users over to Catalyst.

You do that and I promise that me and my team will continue to do all we can to make sure Catalyst is the best of the best...period!!

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So once again, thanks for all your support and keep it up! This was just one opportunity to show the World of WordPress who we are and there will be many other opportunities to shine.

You guys are amazing!!

Eric

[David]

damn that was close....
awesome response though bearing in mind they're about 10zillion times bigger....
We'd have won it on a %age of user base for sure!!!

[dfos]

damn that was close....
awesome response though bearing in mind they're about 10zillion times bigger....
We'd have won it on a %age of user base for sure!!!

You're right David. However, my feeling is that every one of us in the Catalyst-family are already overall winners. I mean, who else out there gets to play/work with the world's most awesome WP theme every day and be part of this brilliant community? We do! We all know there really is No Competition. That's a simple fact we can celebrate every day.

[soonw]

Hi Eric,

A bit disappointed that we loss in this round. After all, we had the second highest votes...!!! Could have easily be in the top 2 position if we are up against the other themes.

Catalyst is the BEST!

[deepsouth]

It was a good battle and we knocked down some big competition. Interesting also that Studiopress had to pull out all stops to win and then just barely scraped in. In any case, an early defeat in any career is good to keep the spirit humble :-)

[justme]

I can honestly say I am not completely surprised that Catalyst did not “win” this round but I can also honestly say I am not surprised at how close it was.

For this new kid on the block to stand up the way it did to that behemoth that is the behind StudioPress is nothing less than amazing.

Look at those numbers! Catalyst Theme is but a few months old and yet we posted numbers off the charts and nearly knocked off one of the largest and most successful theme providers today.

Behind our competitor is a juggernaut of power and expertise with years of experience and resources to build a formidable enterprise encompassing numerous companies and markets.

Their marketing machine works day and night to grab more customers, more money, more of the internet. They have partnerships and other relationships with countless big names in blogging, copywriting, internet marketing, social media and on and on.

And yet we came this close to putting them in their place. Trust me, Catalyst did in fact win and win big. Thanks everyone for being part of this winning community and for your spirited support. Hang on for an exciting ride. We’re just getting started!

[dfos]

I can honestly say I am not completely surprised that Catalyst did not “win” this round but I can also honestly say I am not surprised at how close it was.

For this new kid on the block to stand up the way it did to that behemoth that is the behind StudioPress is nothing less than amazing.

Look at those numbers! Catalyst Theme is but a few months old and yet we posted numbers off the charts and nearly knocked off one of the largest and most successful theme providers today.

Behind our competitor is a juggernaut of power and expertise with years of experience and resources to build a formidable enterprise encompassing numerous companies and markets.

Their marketing machine works day and night to grab more customers, more money, more of the internet. They have partnerships and other relationships with countless big names in blogging, copywriting, internet marketing, social media and on and on.

And yet we came this close to putting them in their place. Trust me, Catalyst did in fact win and win big. Thanks everyone for being part of this winning community and for your spirited support. Hang on for an exciting ride. We’re just getting started!

You nailed it right there justme...

[junioratoms]

I just woke up, and the nightmare I had wasn't last night. It was reading this thread. What makes a theme successful in the first place? Is it a bunch of pretty Child Themes, a high paying affiliate program, paid endorsements? Also, what do the highest earning Catalyst affiliates do? Are they just Gurus, and the mere mention of Catalyst leads to sales? Or, do they give away skins, tutorials etc?

So many questions, but I am fired up.

[ben_pyman]

WELL DONE for the awesome effort everyone! Still digesting such a close result, and yea I'm disappointed and have that silly "If only I tried harder this round we would have won". But to step back and look at this, WOW we really did great to get this far and give StudioPress such a run for it's money especially considering the tweet power they had. Catalyst and the Catalyst community absolutely ROCK.

I LOVE this Catalyst thing we've got going here, the Theme itself, the forum, Eric, Justme, the community, the members I collaborate with, the whole deal.


Next year will be VERRRRY interesting!!


Ben

[surfjam]

I LOVE this Catalyst thing we've got going here, the Theme itself, the forum, Eric, Justme, the community, the members I collaborate with, the whole deal.


Next year will be VERRRRY interesting!!


Ben

Dittos Ben!

I wonder if it was their strategy to wait until it counted to rally their community/resources out of fear that people would get tired of voting after the early rounds?

It just continues to speak so highly of the Catalyst Crowd that we not only didn't tire... we got stronger and improved round after round!

My goal between now and next year, get to 10,000 twitter followers... Only 9,995 to go! @surfjam