Introducing BestDynamikSkins.com

[ianamy34]

hey ben!

I didn't think so many feathers would be ruffled so quickly! I was wrong, but I think some of the 'ruffling' has to do with some of what I said other people believe but are too afraid to say it. Com on, buying more credits than you need to buy themes sucks! Buying a child theme that removed functionality from Dynamik sucks! Selling a theme and getting half of the sale sucks! Everyone was thinking it, I just said it outloud (well typed it i guess!).

Thanks for the feedback on the site, it definitely is different. It works for Craigslist so why not try it for Dynamik skins! Maybe in the future I'll add some graphics, but for now i'm going to see how it goes. Actually this morning it was all white (no grey stripe at all)!

I was definitely serious about providing support through this forum - why force people to register for another site is they don't have to. But I guess it's against the rules, so I need to find another way to make it simple and easy to get support.

Thanks for the kind words, the splash has definetely been a big one - and thanks for not tearing my head off like the others!

[surfjam]

Thanks for taking my concerns seriously and for making the changes you have. I hope you will continue to make improvements based on everyone's critiques because it will probably help you in the long run.

I've submitted to Mojo in the past and they have taken WEEKS to respond to a single comment of mine - in regards to Catalyst child themes there is a reason that "cobaltapps" is the only seller of child themes on MOJO (see it here).

I don't know what reasons you are assuming, but I can tell you that one reason is because I haven't finished testing any my three child themes that I will be sending to the Mojo store. But I have created the account, (actually two in my case) with no issues. Who knows what the response times will be like from the guys at Mojo in the end, but so far they have been very inviting and eager to see the success of child themes being sold for Catalyst.

How would you steal someone else's Dynamik skin?

Hmmmm... good point! But really it was just my intention to emphasize the impression your site makes, not seriously accuse you of stealing anything.

I guess for the way you've taken everyone's criticism seriously and responded to it I can go ahead and join the other's who have said it... good luck!

[junioratoms]

@ianamy34

Who cares about Mojo or Themeforest? At this point they aren't even competition for you. What they do is irrelevant. All you have to do is be cool.

[guvner]

@ianamy34 - I saw this thread (and the others) shortly after you posted them and I had a somewhat surprised and puzzled reaction - then I felt quite irritated.

My first impulse was to suggest that not only was the selling style "way off" - it just felt like the whole process was a little suspect. However being unsure if there was any arrangement or understanding between Eric and yourself (and also because I had to head off to work) I bit my tongue.

During the day what I read earlier has permeated a little more - but nothing's changed, my reaction is still the same - not good.

For the life of me I can't understand why you'd try and set this up by...

• Actually bragging that you don't eat your own dogfood,
• Trashing a long standing and credentialled member of the WP theme community (I see you've edited that bit out now) - a company which made the final 8 out of 64 entrants in the 2011 WPcandy competition.
• Not having any way of making contact with you via the website that you've specifically set up to take my money,
• Representing yourself as being an trusted member of a community which provides help and support to each other without thought of reward.
• Making no attempt to demonstrate that you own or even know how to use Catalyst or that you have a clue about how to create the end product you're selling/promoting and hopefully providing after-sales support for.
• Breaking most of the golden rules of online business - transparency, giving back, over delivering, social proof - to name just a few...

Based on the way you've gone about this, people can be forgiven for thinking that your membership site will take profit from promoting the Catalyst framework whilst other people not involved in your business will finish up handling your support responsibilities.

Now that you've toned down your original launch verbiage and started to interact, it will be interesting to see how it goes. Everything else aside I can't see how you'll convince the masses to trust you unless you're willing to provide at least basic contact and theme support via your own website - after all, those companies you were so quick to criticise at least provide a support/contact function with the developer via the site that sells the themes, and many of the developers/vendors extend that further with links to their own site's support area.

Mike

[costafong]

Bad Mouthing Your Competition Is The Worse Marketing Strategy Of All

~ Anonymous.

[bambo]

Why? What do you mean by 'such a site'?

What guvner said.

If you were selling washing powder anyone here would scream SCAM based on how you go about things. The way you present your self is not much different than any other fool trying to take advantage of others. Send me money is what you are also saying! Worries me you regard your site as obviously legit and healthy and can't see a problem with anything other than policy of Mojo.

Besides that I believe eric have hinted a skin-shop might be considered, don't quote me but I am 90% sure. Then we have the child theme devs. Unless you have an agreement that alone make your posts seem weird. Your idea of using this forum as support is just double weird then. eric don't seem to see a problem in that but as I said if I had worked on a child theme I would be annoyed seeing your promotion.

Btw, I think you are mistaken about Mojo and others in that business. Why do you think anyone like them or have not discovered they are far from optimal? Mojo is business choice of Catalyst so deal with it. How can you expect to do business from Catalyst via this place while pissing all over Catalyst? Without asking as well! But I can only wonder, not my problem. Just silly.

[justme]

@ianamy34,

I won’t rehash all that has already been said but will say my initial impression was in line with the others. I am genuinely confused and curious about this statement:

in regards to Catalyst child themes there is a reason that "cobaltapps" is the only seller of child themes on MOJO (see it here).

You do know the Child Theme store on MojoThemes was JUST LAUNCHED right? Yes the initial five in the store were created by the developer of Catalyst Theme but the whole idea of that store, especially being on a third party site like this, is so that others can sell their Child Themes as well. And I know for a fact others are in the works as we speak. I followed your link and re-read that page and still can find no statement, or even hint, that only Cobalt Apps will be selling there. If you would care to expand on your statement I would be interested in what you meant.

Catalyst Theme is still quite new but has a bright future and has already shown tremendous promise. I think by the comments in this thread it should also be obvious that a big part of our success is, and will continue to be, due to this fantastic community.

We certainly welcome anyone who wants to contribute in like manner.

[eric]

@ianamy34

First, I do appreciate you taking the initiative and making some of the requested changes. As I said before I truly hope you do well and look forward to more 3rd party Catalyst offerings.

Now, having said that there are still a few issues here.

First of all, I'd appreciate it if you would remove any parts of your post that tries to put down other marketplaces and/or products. It's one thing to say, "This is how we do things and why it's great!", but something totally different to say, "Other people do it this way and their way is crap, so we do things differently which is awesome!" Does that make sense? In other words, don't put down others to lift up your own ideas. That's fine if you're in a discussion and want to voice your opinion, but it's not OK when you're trying to sell your own stuff on someone else's site.

My second point is related to this type of comment:

Send us a message through this forum if you want to sell your skin!

This is definitely not OK. You're using our forum as a Contact Forum for your own products. You need to provide your own contact page/form if you want to invite others to contact you regarding your own products/services.

Once again, I have no problem with someone inviting other members to PM them or whatever, for general discussions, but not for direct promotion of a 3rd party product.

Just know that I'm being specific here not to pick apart your post or ideas, but instead to help you make the necessary changes so you can still share your ideas and products with us in this forum. We want to keep this kind of communication alive, it's just that the way you've gone about it broke way too many core community/forum rules.

Eric

[tnavres]

It doesn't take long reading through the forums to understand Eric supports Catalyst members (more like family than a member imho). I could make a hideous website and Eric would still applaud my efforts (all my sites resemble that comment).

FORUMS?
"Simple Press" is a free forum plugin; even offers support.

TARGET MARKET?
What is your target market? Developers? Wordpress users? Semi knowledgeable business owners?

I try never to downplay another person's life experience. I have done sales & customer service for almost 30 years, starting with two tours in the U.S. Navy. I've read countless books dealing with improvement. So you can take what I say with a grain of salt knowing I want you to do well and that I do not want to discount your own life experience, especially if it deals with online sales.

Because we see so much HYPE online with flashy sales pages, I see why you chose a different course. Though you are still shooting for reoccurring monthly income from the end user.

At this point, does your non-graphics landing page trigger the consumer to a) trust you and b) make a purchase c) not return it?

I have a membership with another major theme player, which I keep active, although rarely used. But I have to ask myself, "Would I have paid for Catalyst if Eric's site used an approach like yours (i.e. the minimal landing page approach)?" Take a poll of the almost 3,000 Catalyst users asking them the same question.

All the feedback you have received to date points to your landing page site appearance & trust. If you take the time to look over the other commentators profiles and their posts, you'll quickly see: They are extremely helpful and knowledgeable. And protective of Catalyst too (grin).

Both of your themes look great!

Your landing page does not do your talent any justice.

[junioratoms]

Now that looks like a real marketplace.