WordPress bloggers have the chance to get a customized WordPress theme for a very cool price. I recently got contacted by Mike from Blog Theme Machine.
Blog Theme Machine offers affordable premium and custom designed WordPress themes.
Mike and his team are passionate about bringing customer service and quality of work to the table and their customers can be assured that they get a top notch WordPress theme designed for them if they decide to go for a custom designed one.
I know perfectly well how important it is to brand yourself in business and with the gazillion of free themes available we simply cannot do this unless we are a designer or coder ourselves.
To stand out from the crowd, bloggers need a unique theme which helps their branding efforts. Naturally most bloggers can never afford to fork out $900 and upwards for a theme designed by one of the well know designers in the blogosphere.
You will be delighted to engage the services of upcoming superstar blog designers of Blog Theme Machine, as it will not only save you tons of money, but also give you peace of mind and the knowledge that your new theme will look just like you always imagined.
Below are some of Blog Theme Machine’s custom designed themes for former clients.
Cost of the premium themes are only $79.95 and the beauty of this is, that the guys of Blog Theme Machine only sell 10 each before they take it off the site. What this means is that you won’t end up with dozens of competitors flashing the same design as yours even though you paid for it.
I have never before seen this kind of offer so this is definitely a bonus.
If however you want to take advantage of their set price for a custom designed theme for $375, I don’t think you will regret this at all.
The service is relatively new and the site got launched back in mid October 2007. I can tell from the honest effort these guys are putting into their work that they will go a long way and I wish them the best of success.
To get a better idea of what I’m talking about, head over to Blog Theme Machine and see for yourself.
Editors Update 4th March 2008: After hearing increasing issues about the services of Mike from Blog Theme Machine, I feel it justly to update this post with a warning attached to it. Now personally I’m not sure whether this guy is what he claims to be or not, but due to some comments below I feel it necessary to at least advise you to execute caution, unless Mike does take a public stand on the issues raised.
I can’t be the voice for another person since I haven’t used his services myself. I wrote this post because I came across the site, it looked decent and the price was fair. That’s it. Nothing more – nothing less.
So if you have something to say, good or bad, please feel free to do so, but keep the conversation human and not defamatory please.
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Thanks Monika for the kind review.
Just so the readers here know, if you contact me and let me know that you’ve found out about Blog Theme Machine through this website (easywordpress.com) I will give you a 10% discount as well.
Mike Smith
Hey Mike,
That was fast!
Glad you like the review. And your offer to our readers here is very generous indeed.
Too bad I only just changed my own theme last month. Otherwise I would be your woman.
Take care and all the best.
Your portfolio of themes looks…delicious
Your price is very competitive for designs like that, I’ve previously engaged freelancers and the cost is definitely $500 and up. Thanks for the discount, I’ll probably get the theme for my personal blog designed with you guys..
Hello Gobala,
Thank you so much for the kind words. I’d love to design your personal site and look forward to hearing from you.
Mike
These custom themes are definitely very delicious and beautiful. Love those ones with the header broken up into 3 parts.
Good stuff Mike and keep it up!
Thanks Kelvin.
Hey Monika – Gobala – and everyone else reading
I just wanted to stop by and let everyone know we’ve got TONS of new designs up in our portfolio.
We also removed the premium theme feature. We want to focus solely on creating custom themes for clients so they get the best attention to detail possible.
Also, as of April 1st 2008, our pricing will raise to $500+ due to higher demands and added features in our coding.
Any questions, feel free to contact me any time
Mike
I don’t know, but I would like to know if everyone who ordered themes from Blog Theme Machine were satisfied.. I wasn’t really that impressed, so I just asked Mike to send me the PSDs (I sent $150 down payment). He never sent me the PSDs (I ordered last Dec. 8, 2007) I’ve been sending him e-mails and IMs via MSN and he never replied… just thought I’d give everyone here a heads up.
@ Jug: this is a shock to me as Mike always struck me as a decent person. I went to check on their blog and the contact form is currently not functioning which I find strange, since they are handled by Plugins with ease?? Then I Google’d them and found the following thread on digital point forum.
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=6418427
Thanks for the heads up and if Mike is reading this, it would be great to get an answer from him on the subject.
I hope that he can reply ASAP (and I hope I can get at least the PSDs). It seems that many people on DP were “scammed” by Mike. Here’s another thread from DP, it’s longer than the one you found…
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=6783131
Monika, I just read at Jug’s blog about Blog theme machine.. Ohh – the comments are already here too. Mike had contacted me too for blog design but I just thought it would be too high price of $200-300 to pay when I can get it done much cheaper elsewhere and even my free theme right now looks enough professional. It’s just that I am concerned to see his post here if there are so many issues raised against him. You can drill down a little and update the post may be with your opinion.
@ everyone: I have been contacted by Mike and for reasons up to him he doesn’t involve himself with public discussions since he has nothing to hide. He has assured me that he has many happy customers and with the prompt way he contacted me I fully believe him.
Mike has always struck me as a decent business person and I’m still convinced that he is.
$200-$300 for a custom designed theme is nothing! Get a quote from some of the more established designers and see what they charge!
If you want a design for $50 or $60 you will have to take what you get and can’t expect to have a top class design since designers need time and need to get paid for their work.
People, it’s time you move away from the cheap is always good mentality. If you want quality, then be prepared to pay for it.
Mike also doesn’t use digital point anymore and hasn’t for a long while and that’s why Jug hasn’t gotten a reply. I suggest to Jug that you try to sort this out by contacting Mike directly at his email address (found on his blog).
Anyway, just wanted to give you all a heads up.
Got the PSDs already, however there are still other people who haven’t received the designs that they ordered from Mike. Jason from theuniversitykid.com is one (check his comment here). I sent Mike an e-mail about this; I don’t know if Jason was able to communicate with him already.
Kojakfilth from Digital Point never got what he wanted too.
Mike seems to be online on MSN but apparently he doesn’t reply to the IMs that his clients (I presume) are sending him.
Mike has scammed me and several other people on DP forums. There is ongoing threads of him doing the same exact thing to me as he’s done to others in just the last few days alone. I still at the moment have a dispute with him thru paypal. I have 162 itraders on digitalpoint- beautyinmd so I’m not just calling him a scammer just because.
This guy I had working on themes for me- At first they were good- He was just coding from psd to wordpress. Then he started disappearing- 2 weeks I paid for 3 themes- he only delivered one.
I request he refund- he said if he didnt deliver in 12hrs- he would refund.12hrs pass and nothing from him-24hrs later he sent one file- theme not completed. One theme not delivered at all- I try to contact him for a week, in this time I have to pay a new guy to code both themes as I cant wait any longer. I again continue to contact him no response- So now fraustrated I file a paypal dispute- he contacts immediately- tells me that if I close the dispute he will code two diffrent themes to make up- I said I only have one but fine, I’ll give you another chance. I send him psd, I close dispute- Mike refuses to contact me now, I am mad and if you notice everyone is reporting he does the same thing- they file a dispute he say close he will do work and doesn’t
BE WARNED THAT THIS GUY WILL RIP YOU OFF.
I opened a new dispute with him with an old payment hoping he would either do the work or refund my money- still nothing- now he tells paypal he’s delivered both coded designs which he didn’t.
He is banned from dp but what he does is he contact people thru msn or yahoo- whatever contact is on thier profile.
This guys is a truly scammer. I didnt paid him $50 or $60 but i paid him 120$ and i got nothing from him. No PSD design and code it as a joomla template.
Now monika defend your friend mike smith (aka The Scammer) And tell him also if he wants to clean his name give the service he promised to me before i paid him!
The sickest thing that this guy mike scammer smith give to me is wasting my time waiting for the design that im anticipating for a project and my client get upset to me!
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=724696
@ Kojak: I actually don’t defend Mike at all. I’m just saying that you can’t expect the same quality of theme if you pay $50 for it than if you paid $300 and more.
Mike isn’t my friend, but he did struck me as a decent person while dealing with him through email. If he was a scammer, why would he take the time to reply to my email at all? Wouldn’t he simply laugh his head off about the people he scammed so far and then keep doing what he does?
I’m not sure, but that is what I’m thinking.
I see that you guys are entitled to your own opinion and also voice it. In the end readers can make up their own opinion about Mike and whether he is or is not a scammer as some of you say he is.
In the end, it is up to Mike to take a stand on his behalf or not.
You are all welcome to convey your experiences here which is only fair. But what I won’t accept is if this turns into some public slogging match!
I will delete comments that are abusive, taken out of content and simply intended to slag each other.
So guys and ladies, if you have anything to say in regards to Mike and his services, please do so in a civilized matter.
I’m sure you all understand that we need to run a blog here and not some forms of personalized vendetta’s. Up until now this has been fine, so please keep it that way.
Thank you.
I simply cannot take the higher road here can I? I feel forced into stooping to a level I didn’t want to bring it to as I did not want to have to publicly sit here and air everything out. This will be the one and only time I say anything here or anywhere else for that matter.
I made the mistake of working with a few people. Yes, I admit that. I was suckered into believing that Digitalpoint was a good place of business and that since I did work with a few people from there that everyone there were stand up clients. Not the case.
Kojak, In the beginning I took on your job and waived the final payment correct? I told you the down payment was all that I would charge because I wanted to do your website right? I’ve designed you two websites. the first was a bit too simple and plain for you, which I understood. I was told by you to make it more web 2.0 and add more rounded corners and things of that nature. I went back, designed a new layout and did just that. This still was not good enough. I am sorry we couldn’t work anything out, but I’ve tried to design everything I could for you. I also ask that the messages of “f***ing as***le” and “I’m going to sue your ass” stop. If you’re going to do it, please don’t contact me until papers are drawn up and you can actually find a lawyer who will give you the time of day for your claims.
Ophelia, you were a good client. You had a steady flow of smaller jobs for me to do and I was grateful for those. I thought you were professional, unlike HPA who still owes me $35.00 for a theme I coded for him. However, when the hold was placed on my account, I told you within 12 hours, you can download the two themes from “link a” and “link b”. I uploaded the themes and didn’t hear back from you for almost a week, so I assumed everything went through well. This was not the case either. You wrote me complaining that I scammed you, I was an asshole, you’ve called me a ‘f***ing a**hole’ numerous times through IM and email and basically told me “you will follow me for the rest of your god given life”. Professional? I guess not.
Jug, you asked for a web 2.0 style website design for your blog with specific details (world in the header, blue color scheme, top box with the DOM tabs, ect). I created a theme for you, and you wanted the colors to be lighter so I lightened up the blues. You were apparently happy with the work but then changed your mind and wanted something with a different color scheme all together. I obliged and went ahead and did your second layout. You weren’t happy again with the work. It was not like I did nothing for you or never tried working with you (or anyone else for that matter). It’s funny you mentioned that my designs weren’t worth anything but now you’re selling them off for $70.00 and $80.00 on digitalpoint and you’ve got people who don’t know anyones opinions here who are saying that they wished they had the money for them because they are good, ect.
In the end, I’ve done my job and continue to do my job every day. I have numerous people who I’ve recently worked with who are excited about the work I’ve done and are completely happy with me. The difference is, in my opinion, they understand the value of a dollar and the work and time that goes into web design. They aren’t expecting top notch work on a $50.00 budget. You all were aware that the deposit is non-refundable. It’s clearly stated on my website and has been there since I put the website up. Nothing has changed with that. In my opinion, the internet jumps on bandwagons too many times as soon as ONE person said something and now everyone wants to throw the word “scammer” around like it’s no big deal.
I never once left the business deals I’ve had and went and badmouthed you and told other designers “don’t work with ____ they’re no good, they’ll try to rip you off, ect”. I am not on that level and never will be.
I run blogs on a constant basis and am building a brand. Why would I deliberately ruin that by scamming you out of X amount of dollars? I guess I just need to air out bad business deals in the future before someone tries to flip it around on me.
Point being now, for anyone reading this, stay away from Digitalpoint.com Forums. These are the types of clients you have to deal with. I learned my lesson and will never step foot there again.
Mike Smith
Kojak, In the beginning I took on your job and waived the final payment correct? I told you the down payment was all that I would charge because I wanted to do your website right? I’ve designed you two websites. the first was a bit too simple and plain for you, which I understood. I was told by you to make it more web 2.0 and add more rounded corners and things of that nature. I went back, designed a new layout and did just that. This still was not good enough. I am sorry we couldn’t work anything out, but I’ve tried to design everything I could for you. I also ask that the messages of “f***ing as***le” and “I’m going to sue your ass” stop. If you’re going to do it, please don’t contact me until papers are drawn up and you can actually find a lawyer who will give you the time of day for your claims.
I cant understand your point there mike. You said before i pay you that you will show me first the graphic design after a day then let me think if theres a revision needed. So i take a look at the first design and completely disagree with the outcome so i told you to make it more professional coz i can design that kind by myself. And after 5 days! You give me another design which is this one http://7wd.org/50dmv_design2.jpg and which is the a very simple design again and the design is not related to the site im building and the features i told you what to do before we made a deal. And you just gave me that f***ing (edited by admin) jpeg file and not a psd and coded template for joomla.
Do you think i deserve that jpeg design for my 120$?? No!
We’re not suing you anymore coz we dont want to waste our time for a kind of people like you. Reputation is more important than money so we are just spreading the word that you Mike Smith is a big time scammer!
And if you are not really a scammer. Why all your account at digitalpoint forums are banned?
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/member.php?u=106723
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/member.php?u=126754
And you are starting to scam more people using this account??
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/member.php?u=124627
And see these threads complaing that you scammed them!
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=722547
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=724696&highlight=blogthememachine
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=722547&highlight=blogthememachine
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=690239&highlight=blogthememachine
Now explained again why you didnt gave me what we just talked about before paying you. Which is a good design and code it as a joomla template! And just give me this s***id jpeg file!
I do not also want this to be a screaming match and I don’t believe disputes should be held here as this is a blog and this is not the proper forum however this seems to be the only forum that mike will respond.. Yes I did curse at him but what he fails to mention is before I did that, one of his links had not theme in it and even when I spoke to mike he agreed he never delivered one and the other had significant problems and could not be used. Now after I filed the dispute, he asked that I close it and he would code two DIFFRENT psd, I said I only had ONE he told me to forward it to him. I did- I have not heard back from mike at all about completeing the work at which time I filed another paypal dispute, he then in his complaint to paypal told them he had delivered all the work and he doesn’t understand why I’m filing a dispute- THIS IS ONE DAY AFTER AGREEING TO CODE A NEW PSD.
So yes at this point- I did start calling him a scammer, a liar and started acting childish because at this point it was very apparent he had no intentions of delivering on his promise and simply wanted a dispute ended so he could walk away…
As I even explained to the paypal rep- its not about the money, its about the principal of the thing..I’d rather get the job done than the money but because it was a service- then paypal will side with him and I will get neither and that to me is very unfair if he himself in his very first line called me a good client so therefore I deserved to be treated as such
Mike,
What I’m simply pointing out is that you have wasted my TIME (almost 3 months man…) and for that, I felt that I was scammed. I’m not complaining about the quality of your work here or whatever. Never really said that “Your work sucks so much and it’s not worth even $10.” or something like that — it was just I wasn’t satisfied and in my opinion, what I saw wasn’t worth MY money. So I decided to just get the PSDs from you and not get them coded. But did I get them AFTER I closed the PayPal dispute? No. You said you would send them once I remove the hold on your PayPal account. What happened? I waited for months (and even had to blog about it, post it on DP, comment here) just to get the PSDs. My issue with you is over though. I got the files, and that’s it. My mistake was hiring you, I guess.
From what I see, quite a number of your clients aren’t happy. And no, you can’t put us in a group (the DP people) and stereotype us as “this kind of clients”. People have different opinions and all, but can’t you see that we were not satisfied with your service? Maybe the “wrong thing” is with your service, not with the DP members who hired you.
So much of my time was wasted because of this, Mike. I e-mailed you about this BTW. Hope you got it. I do, however, wish your business to be prosperous — as long as you do your job properly (no scamming and other bad stuff). Don’t make commitments if you can’t actually do them.
- Jug
Mike has scammed me too. I have started a project with him and have gotten nothing but excuses from him since he got my money.
Heres just some of them:
1) He “lost” connection to his IM clients (how often does that happen to you???)
2) All his sites went down (effectively losing all email communications)
3) Computer now has a virus and he can’t work
4) Sends me an email of the work he has done, THEN conveniently “forgets” to actually attach the files.
5) Tells me he will be around all weekend, then decides to go out of town for the weekend.
Mike Smith is completely unprofessional, and I would never recommend anyone works with FreeFall Creative, or any of his “companies”.
BEWARE of this guy.
Hello Jimm,
I’d LOVE to see what site I am doing for you? I find it nice to see how you simply left that out, and since I actually have ZERO clients by the name of “Jimm” I’m assuming this is just another attempt from someone to try and put salt on my name.
Put salt in your name? Then try to clean it by giving us a refund for a service we really didnt get anything. You only wasted our Time Mike (The Scammer) Smith
Kojak, this will be my last reply here and I honestly don’t really even want to write this out but I feel I need to.
Each of you paid for a service. Each of you hired me while on my website it clearly states the deposit is NOT refundable after the initial design sample is sent. You personally got two designs from me and I was working on a third when you proceeded to write me, screaming I was scamming you and how you wanted a refund. How I was not doing everything in my power to give you what you paid for is beyond me. I will not be giving you a refund after the hours put in on the work. I am sorry if you cannot understand that, but it just will not happen.
So, it’s safe to say you are “Jimm” too? nice timing being able to write a response here as soon as I comment on it. Again, this will be my last reply. If anyone has issues with anything I’ve said, or have questions for me, my email has not changed (staff) (at) (blogthememachine)
Mike if you give me that design then you wouldnt be hearing words like this from me! You didnt gave me anything i paid for 120$. You just gave me a jpeg file and not a psd! You put hours on a that simple jpeg file that i can even create better than that?
Nah im not jimm im just subscribe and i just seen that theres another unhappy customer of blogthememachine.
Im will not wasting my time anymore on you Scammer. I hope you just make good service and not scam any hardworking individual again
Guys, if you don’t mind, I’m closing this thread on future comments. If you have some misunderstanding please resolve it between yourselves. Whatever comments to this point will be retained.
Comments on this entry are closed.