eFrog Digital Design |

Hi tadpoles… Allow me to editorialise for a moment, please?

You know that awkward moment when you have to look a customer in the face and say, “That’ll be $99″? And you know that there’s a value/price judgement war going on in their head? That. Our constant journey, to find that perfect (i.e. win-win) mental and commercial balance, between giving and taking, is what this post is about.

See, here’s the thing. We love what we do. We do it with enthusiasm, and we strive to be the best. We approach ideas and problems with a consistent mindset of quality, quality, quality. Internally, we double-check and cross-check each other’s work, constantly. We’ve committed to the highest standards. We don’t want to be good enough. We want to be the best. Take our Options Panel for example. We researched, we debated, we laid down rules, we applied the question, “Would your mom feel comfortable using it?”… We went back and forth, teasing the easy, and the good, out, until they were all over it. We’re proud of the result, and not in an arrogant way. Just in a happy-to-give-this-cool-device-to-our-friends way, because we know it’ll make their WP lives better and easier.

And then there’s this other thing. The “free” economy. The “race-to-the-bottom” effect. The bewildering array of free or cut-price … stuff. Software, photo’s, music… All supremely tempting, all within the consumer impulse-purchase threshold. Budget-safe. Up-front, at least. And often, it’s not *just* a case of buy cheap or buy quality. There are business models, alive an well and living in the modern global economy, that are forcing the price levels of real quality … stuff, to make the unhappy aquaintance, of the basement floor. Sub-dollar images on stock photography sites. You’d think you’d get some low-class, dreary, cellphone-camera happy-snap, right? No, my friends, not so. Pro-quality, superbly creative images. For under a dollar.

WordPress themes are in the same breed of price vortex…
To quote , writing on WPCandy.com,

“Your site has those fancy drop-down menus you always see around the web. Not just the one that drops down, but the one that drops down and then out, and down and out with the really slick fading transitions. It took you zero hours to code.

Your homepage features a really unique display of your portfolio items, sliding and zooming them in and out with a custom effect (designated in a custom theme options panel, of course). Adding your portfolio items was as easy as sending an email.

Your site also has 20+ custom page templates, 50+ layout and styling shortcodes, color options, video support, custom twitter widgets and working contact forms. Not to mention it is professionally designed, coded, validated and supported by some of the best talent on the web.

Your site is absolutely amazing and it cost you a total of $35.”

In a world where a can of Coke costs a dollar, we’d like to charge $100 or $200 for a theme, because we honestly feel that kind of price adequately describes the value of what we’re offering. But, and this is a HUGE but… NOT before we  know that you would be able to:

• afford that price, comfortably, without having to sell your children, 
• see, and be in love with, the win-win value proposition at that price point.

Honestly? We’d like to hear your thoughts. It seems to be an issue that won’t reconcile easily, but we’re ever-hopeful when it comes to our community, so sound off in the comments, please.