In this episode, Marcus Couch and I sat down with Chris Wallace, co-founder of UpThemes and discussed in detail the reasons behind the open letter published by the company. We learned how Chris got involved with WordPress theme development and the circumstances leading to the creation of UpThemes.

Chris explained how hard it was to make a profit on commercial themes and how early development decisions played a large role in revenue disappearing nearly causing the company to fail. Last but not least, we talked about the trend of theme shops simplifying their products while relying on plugins to provide specific functionality.

Near the end of the interview, Chris gave us a heads up on a new product they are working on called IssuePress. It enables developers to use the Github repository issue tracker to provide support.

Stories Discussed:

Duo Security Plugin Vulnerability Affecting A Subset Of WordPress Multisite Networks

Aesop Story Engine Now Available On WordPress.org

Tips For Promoting Newly Released WordPress Plugins

“Adopt-Me” Plugin Tag Is Now in Use in the WordPress Plugin Directory

Plugins Picked By Marcus:

WP Pipes makes a similar WordPress based “service” just like Yahoo Pipes!

Here are things you can do with WP Pipes (just like Yahoo Pipes):

Get Posts from WordPress Posts > Export as RSS Feed

Get Posts from WordPress Posts > Export as iTunes Podcast

Get Posts from WordPress Posts > Export as Google XML Sitemap

Get Documents from WordPress > Export to Google Drive

Get WooCommerce Products > Export as RSS Feed or Google XML Sitemap

WP Construction Mode can set the entire website or specific pages under construction or maintenance. Admin can still view the site, perfect for developing new websites or pages

Link Images to None – Automatically Link images to none in selecting and uploading images in WordPress.

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Next Episode: Friday, February 28th 3 P.M. Eastern – Dre Armeda and Tony Perez Of Sucuri Security

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Listen To Episode #139:

