Well it’s been a whole week since we launched FrogsThemes.com, and we’ve been blown away with the popularity, both through direct feedback and the levels of traffic. We celebrated the launch by giving away FolioGrid, WordPress portfolio theme, and have been amazed to find that the theme has already been downloaded over 500 times.
The snowball effect
CSSMania.com started the hype by featuring FrogsThemes.com in their showcase. What followed that was a snowball effect where dozens of sites in different niches blogged about us. Giving away FolioGrid for free really has excited people. Many WordPress theme directories have also added FolioGrid and generated dozens of downloads each.
A few stats
Just to emphasise the impact for giving something of quality away for free, here are some quick stats.
FolioGrid Portfolios
We’ve already seen a few portfolios popup using FolioGrid. Creatives have demonstrated FolioGrid is a versatile portfolio template by molding it around their work. We’ve seen portfolios showcasing logo design, photography, digital art and even pottery, with the artist adding Paypal options and turning FolioGrid into an online shop.
A summary of gains
It’s amazing to think that a new site could become so immediately popular so quickly. Without doubt the catalyst for success has originated from the giveaway of FolioGrid. Besides from the traffic and download levels, FrogsThemes has benefited from over 200 confirmed newsletter subscriptions in the first week, more than the total gained in the entire first year of this blog. By going viral through social media, blogs and even word of mouth, FrogsThemes.com now has an awareness that far outreaches our initial estimates. The life blood of any site is the links it gains. By choosing to give FolioGrid away we inadvertently created a linkbait campaign that has helped us gain much needed authority from much bigger and established domains. Over time we also expect to see benefit in having a link back from every FolioGrid portfolio, which was part of the CC licence. Now if there was ever an argument against giving away things then this is surely a case study for!
In summary
An amazing first week for FrogsThemes.com, fingers crossed the success continues…
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Thats great news mate, really pleased for you, will be a great showcase for all your hard work. Keep the new ideas coming as I think I smell the gold train (ask Zoe!)