I never have really been a fan of free themes as I felt that they lacked the customization and I was limited to what I was able to do with them. When I first started out online I had purchased many theme packages and tried out a variety of free themes as well.
Needless to say I wasn’t at all satisfied with the overall look of my website and I knew there had to be a theme out there that would make my website stand out and showcase my content. It wasn’t until I found Elegant Themes that I was able to feel proud of my website and have a theme that was easy to navigate as well as feeling confident in recommending them to other people.
What exactly is Elegant Themes?
This is a beautiful collection of 87 of the most professionally designed and customizable WordPress themes on the market today. In this review, I’m going to share with you 5 reasons why you will never go searching for another theme again. I got to admit that once I installed a few of these on my other websites I was sold on their professional design. Their 30 day no questions asked satisfaction guarantee also made me feel a whole lot more comfortable with my purchase as well.
I have just switched this website over to the divi theme since I have been blown away with the results I have got from my other websites.
5 things you need to know about ET before you invest in them
- No matter what your style of doing business online is they have got you covered. With a wide range of topics covering anything from blogging to e-commerce websites to membership sites.
- Responsive mobile friendly themes! Looking for a theme that’s responsive and looks great on mobile devices? Look no further!
- Integrates perfectly with Autoresponders like Mail Chimp and Aweber so you can grow your email list and focus on building your subscriber base
- They are translated into 32 languages so no matter what language you speak or what country you live in they got you covered! Do you know of any other designer that has included this into their theme?
- They have over 50 in-depth video tutorials that go into detail about how to use all of their features and explain how to achieve that perfect look
What all do you gain access to when you join their theme club?
I will go over some of the pricing here in a few minutes, but I want to show you guys what you will have access to before you join. Like I said earlier you will gain access to 87 themes that all comes with premium help and support from not only the designers themselves but you also have access to their entire customer base through their forum.
More than likely someone else has had the same question that you have and it has already been answered in the forum.
You also receive updates to all themes to make sure they remain compatible with all future WordPress updates.
Let’s go over a few of the categories below OK?
App- You will find a wide range of themes on anything from building location based websites (Local marketing), real estate, bands and musicians, question and answer websites to building a job search website where people can submit their resumes and apply for work in their area.
Blog- In this category you gain access to 32 themes based on blogging and keeping a daily journal. There’s a wide variety of styles to choose from ranging from simple and basic layouts to advanced magazine style layouts.
Business- You are presented with a variety of designs within this category which includes themes that adapt to the size of the screen you’re viewing and automatically adjust without the need to zoom in and scroll to read your content. They also include themes where you can sell your own products and services online in a store based setup plus so much more.
I’m not going to go into details about each one or I would be here forever. I just wanted to give you guys an inside look at what you will receive before you join. Here are a few other categories that are included in your membership package.
- E-commerce
- Magazine
- Multimedia
- Personal
- Portfolio
- Responsive(Mobile Friendly)
- Tumblog
As you can see above, it doesn’t matter what your online business needs are. I think you will find something that suits your needs as an online marketer.
How do you setup your theme after you install it?
Once you have downloaded the theme of your choice to your computer and have installed it to your WordPress website you need to set it up properly and customize it to your liking.
To get to your E-Panel simply go to appearance—->theme options
This is where you can upload your own logo, choose a favicon, and decide whether you want a blog style website or if you want to just show a preview of each post. You can also set your on site SEO and easily add code to your header plus so much more.
There’s also a place to add your own custom CSS code if you want to change the font to a certain size, but don’t want to go into the code and possibly screw up your website. This is really convenient and another thing I love about ET.
More on how to do that in a few minutes.
It would take me a week or more to explain everything that’s possible with these themes and I don’t want to confuse you guys or bore you with the technical details.
How much does it cost to become a member of the Elegant Themes community?
Instead of buying a standalone theme like other companies offer, (ET) offers you an entire library of themes for the price of 1. If you break this down to the cost per theme if you subscribed to the personal package you would only be paying .79 cents for each one.
They have 3 membership options which I will list below
Depending on your needs, you should choose the package that fits into your budget and one that will work out the best for you. If you like to save money and you build websites for clients, then you will find that the lifetime access package will suit you best and it comes with everything you need for a one time fee.
The developer package which is their most popular package includes everything you need including access to a wide variety of plugins to enhance your site and increase your visitors engagement. If you are a web designer then you will probably want to take advantage of their PSD files that are included in this package.
These are basically the core graphic photoshop files that you can use to edit your theme even further and customize it to your liking. Personally, I found no use for these files myself because I’m no web designer and I was satisfied with the way these themes looked from the start.
If you are like me and you aren’t interested in all the other fancy bells and whistles then the personal package will suit your needs and provide you with the most value for your money.
Many of you may be wondering what happens if you decide to cancel your membership after a year? If you would decide to cancel your membership after a year you can still access all the themes you have downloaded as well as use them on as many websites as you want.
You will lose access to their premium help and stellar support and you won’t receive updates to these themes which I think is a very important feature. Support and continuous updates are 2 features that are well worth the membership fee alone and something you need to keep your theme working properly and compatible with future WordPress updates.
How’s the support?
Like I mentioned earlier, having a dedicated team that will be there whenever you have questions or run into technical issues with your theme is one of the main reasons why I have been a member of their theme club for over a year now.
Whenever you have questions or you come across something that you don’t understand the ET staff is there to assist you and help you out. There are 3 ways you can find answers to your questions and I will list these below.
The Support Forum- This is where you can go to get answers to your questions, but before submitting your question you should check to see if it has already been answered. Like I said earlier, someone else could have had the same question as you and they have already answered it.
Send Them An Email- You can also send them an email and they will get address your issue or answer your question in a timely manner. You are likely to get a much quicker response by using their support forum.
FAQ Section- This is a list of the most common questions asked so be sure to check here before submitting a support ticket.
Remember a few minutes ago when I told you about adding your own custom CSS code? Well, here is where this really comes in handy! When you are building an online business you don’t have time to learn coding or how CSS, PHP, or HTML work, so why not have someone who specializes in this type of work help you out?
Let’s say for instance that you want to change the size of your headings and don’t want them to be so big. If you tell the support staff what you want to do they can provide you with a custom CSS code that you would simply need to copy and paste into your e-panel.
My closing thoughts and recommendation on ET
Like I said, I have been a member of their theme club for over a year now and I use their themes on all my other websites. Like I said earlier, I have just made the switch with this website due to the success I have had with my other websites. I also love the look and feel of their simplistic design and flexible customization options.
This is something that you just don’t find with a lot of themes out there. Trust me, I have gone through many themes and I just wasn’t satisfied with any of them. For the price of taking your family out to a nice restaurant you could be a part of ET’s growing customer base of over 260,000 satisfied customers and gain access to 87 of their professionally designed themes where the only limits to customization are your imagination.
Chances are if you can imagine it ET can design it for you. Another thing to keep in mind is that when I joined over a year ago I only paid $39. I’m now locked into this price and it will never go up on me even when they raise their prices.
Recently they just raised their prices to $69 so when you JOIN NOW you will also get locked into this low price and you can rest assured that you won’t have to worry about the price going up.
Don’t put this off till later and miss out on this incredible deal. I really hope this review has helped you out and has given you an inside look at what ET can do for your online business. If you have anything you would like to add or have any additional questions for me please leave it below.
I will get back to you A.S.A.P
Your Friend, Scott
Tom
Hi Scott- Like you, when I first started out I had purchased several theme packages, and tried out a variety of free themes as well. Not one stood the test of time and just going through one after another became very stressful.
Since I am building an online business I do need a professional site and support is critical.
Thank-you for a very thorough review of elegant themes with lots of pertinent information. Since I still have not found the magazine style theme I want, I will review what elegant themes has to offer.
All the best-Tom
Scott Newkirk
Hey Tom,
I know the feeling man and I hated wasting all that time on trying to find that perfect look for my website when I could have been writing content instead. This can be a very stressful time and very frustrating as well. I feel like time is money, and since we as online marketers don’t seem to ever have enough time. Not only does becoming a member of ET make sense, it’s also probably one of the smartest things you could do to help your website look more professional and it’s an awesome way to showcase your quality content to your visitors/potential customers.
I’m glad this review has helped you out and provided you with everything you need to make a sound decision as to whether you should invest in their premium themes and excellent support or not. Let me know if you have any questions about which theme would be a good fit for your website.
I would be more than happy to help you out with this man.
Cheers
Your Friend, Scott
Leo Emery
First off great article.
So many people struggle to find the right theme. In fact I know of many people that have not even got their business off the ground because they are overwhelmed with the choices.
And as for free themes I’ve never been a big fan simply because they are often not updated and rarely supported.
My BIGGEST thing is support – you need someone there when things either go wrong or you just need a hand.
And it certainly sounds like elegant themes has that in place. It also looks like these themes are very easy to work with.
Which is great for the beginner. You don’t want to be fighting with your theme just to do simple tasks.
If you’re serious about building an online business you have to have a professional theme – you have to make that investment.
And for the small cost of all the themes you get and the support, ET is definitely the smart choice.
Again great information!
Cheers
Leo
Scott Newkirk
Hi Leo,
Thanks so much!
This is so true because when I first started this very website, I struggled with trying to find that perfect theme. I spend way too much time trying to find a theme, when I should have been focusing on writing content and building my business instead. Like I said above I never have been a fan of free themes as well because they were too basic and came with no support. They also wasn’t ever updated so that they would stay compatible with WordPress.
I agree with you that if you don’t have the right amount of help and support in any area of building a business you are likely to fail. When something goes wrong with your theme this affects your entire business. If your website gets messed up, you are likely to lose traffic and No traffic=No sales.
This is why support is absolutely necessary and 1 of the main reasons why I love Premium themes. Why struggle with the technical details when you can have someone experienced in that dept deal with it.
It just makes sense to become a member of the ET community. You will be investing in your business which in turn will end up paying off for you in the long run.
Thanks so much for dropping by Leo and chiming in on this discussion. I really do appreciate it man.
Cheers,
Your Friend, Scott
John Cruz
I got my theme with another company and I spent $60 just for one theme! If only I had found this article a lot sooner, I could’ve got 100x more themes for that price. I used to rely on free themes, but for some reason, I couldn’t find one that had all the bells and whistles. If you really want to get the best, I think it’s worth it to invest in a nice theme (or themes) to give your site that extra boost. I think I might just have to get me a personal membership at least.
Scott Newkirk
Hi John,
If you would have found Elegant themes first then you could have gained access to a whole library of themes for only $9 more. Free themes are OK if you are just getting started and don’t have the money to invest in a premium theme yet. As you move forward in your business you are going to need a theme that evolves as your business grows.
I would definitely start out with the personal package and go from there. Thanks so much for stopping by and chiming in on this discussion man. It’s greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Your Friend, Scott