Sound the Trumpets, Vantage is Here!
Here ye! Here ye! AppThemes is proud to announce our latest creation, Vantage!
Vantage is a powerful and robust business directory theme for WordPress that’s easy to use and even easier to setup. It’s fast, got lots of horsepower under the hood, and uses our new drag and drop form builder which will help transform your site into an interactive, money-making, community-building machine.
It’s on Sale!
As promised, Vantage will be on sale for 30% during the first week, after which it’ll jump back to its normal price of $99. It’s a little token of appreciation to everyone that has waited patiently (or not so patiently) for Vantage to become available. The sale lasts until next Tuesday, May 8th. Purchase Vantage here and use coupon code: GETVANTAGE
Learn More
- The Vantage overview page outlines all the features and functions, complete with screenshots
- Test drive the theme by visiting the live Vantage demo and admin demo
The Nitty Gritty
Business Listings
Once setup, Vantage makes it a breeze to add or sell business listings. Each listing contains contact info, website, social links, pictures, overview text, locator map and more. You can charge for listings and upsell featured listings prominently displayed on the home page and category pages.
Business Reviews
Since interactivity keeps visitors coming back to your site, Vantage includes a review and ratings system. Users can rate a business on a five-star scale and leave a detailed, text review about their experience with that business.
Monetize Your Site
Vantage allows you to charge for listings and upsell for featured listings. Or, you can use Vantage to build traffic to your site and charge for banner ads. Either way, Vantage give you a great start to creating an income-generating web site. If you can build the traffic, Vantage makes it easy to generate the revenue.
Not Just a Directory
Vantage includes pages, a blog, and all the other features you’d expect from a premium WordPress app. This means you can build a fully immersive experience and make the business directory just a part of that experience.
Much, Much More
These features just scratch the surface of what Vantage is capable of doing. We suggest reading the theme overview page or checking out the demo to learn more. It’s also just the first step in what Vantage will ultimately become.
Over the next few months, we’ll be adding more features like events, coupons and discounts, multiple pricing options, user favorites, owner responses to reviews, claim a business, more social integration, custom fields for users, additional payment options, and more. We’ll also have tutorials for developers on how you can easily extend Vantage (payment gateways, etc.).
Don’t Forget, It’s on Sale for Just this Week!
Seriously, it’s flying off the shelves and we’re running out of stock so you better get your copy now! Don’t forget to use the discount code GETVANTAGE for 30% off.
What’s Included in Vantage 1.0
All the basics of what you would expect from a business directory theme.
- Business listings with business address, contact, website, social links and description
- Pictures including a thumbnail / featured image – pictures open in a lightbox
- Reviews and ratings
- Editable user accounts
- User dashboard to manage reviews and listings
- Keyword and location-based search using Google Maps API
- Multi-tier categorization system
- Search engine optimized
- Multiple page templates
- Editable menus in header and footer
- Email notifications for new listings and reviews
- Localization support
- Theme color options
- Separate blog and page templates to promote your directory
Vantage Extras
- All new custom forms and custom fields with an even easier to use AppThemes form builder
- Refine search features like search radius, category and sorting filters
- Custom user admin bar that leverages the power of the WordPress admin bar
- Easy log in form on every page
- Integration with ShareThis social sharing plugin
Sidebars and Custom Widgets
- Four fully widgetized sidebars: main, single listing, search results and single page
- Four widgetized spots in the global footer
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One widgetized spot in the global header, perfect for a 468×60 ad banner
- Create listing button is widgetized so you control where it is placed on a page
- Sidebar map widget with exact location of business listing
- Recent reviews
- Recent listings
- Popular and related categories
- Sidebar and footer ad widget
- Vantage social connect widget for footer
Monetizing Vantage
- Charge a fee for business listings
- View all transactions via admin panel
- Additional fee for home page and category featured listings
- Standard ad widget can be used in four pre-installed sidebars and four slots in the global page footer
- Widgetized location in the header that is perfect for a 468×60 banner
Taking Payments
- All payment gateways created as plugins
- Comes prepackaged with PayPal
- Uses PayPal Payment Data Transfer for greater security
- Test gateway for testing transactions on your site (available version 1.1)
Comments (106)
I’m so glad to hear it! : ) at least You’ve done it!
Is it possible to replace the “business listing” (main page) to something else like a widget of box ads or blogs instead of “business listing”?
Admin > Left sidebar menu > Settings > Reading > Make changes to “Front page” and “Posts page”
You might also want to post this in the forums.
I am seriously considering a switch from the nightmarish templatic geoplaces theme to yours.
By features, u guys are surely behind. But i think you guys give cleaner and easier to use theme instead of making it bug infested and riddled features like ones i found in geoplaces.
But please, please make it easy to upgrade. My site totally broke down when i upgrade my theme from v3 to v4 in geoplaces. Months of work ends up in the dustbin.
Will talk to my partner about getting vantage. We waited for more than a year for it – we knew yours will be better than geoplaces but we needed one fast. Bought geoplaces, lost our money, time and may i say, hairs and a great deal of cofee.
Glad vantage is finally here.
There are a lot of things about Vantage that will make the theme more stable and easier to update. If you see our blog post on the beta release, you can see a little bit of our road map for Vantage. Events, which is not listed on that blog post, will be added as well. Thanks for the kind words and the consideration.
Great job! BTW, you promised the new release of Job roller will be out yesterday, 04/30/2011 but it still showing the old version. When is the new version of job roller coming out?
Thanks
Thanks sholiviks. Sorry about JobRoller. It will be delayed a week or two to address some issues with job alerts. We’ll have a separate blog post on it in a couple of days.
Will Vantage have ALL Yelp features? Can business owners edit/delete reviews and can they respond to reviews privately and publicly?
Can the theme be used for real estate sites?
Vantage should have a daily deal or coupon feature like clipper where businesses can display their special offers.
A coupon feature is planned.
All Yelp features? Probably not ALL of them. Vantage will allow business owners to respond to reviews. That is something that we already started for 1.1.
I want to use it as local business directory in my country with bank payment.
Does Vantage come with local bank payment other than paypal ?
Thanks ..
Bank transfer is a consideration for version 1.1.
Glad to hear that .. 😉
Will you fix the search facility soon? At present the directory doesn’t allow the user to find businesses.
Check your forum, perhaps respond?
Everything is search should be working correctly with one exception – currently, search is not including categories an tags. That problem is being resolved. If there are other search issues, please post to the forums.
Hi Shannon,
First of all congrats on the new Vantage, I’ve tested it while on beta and it has improved a lot since then.
I’m trying to create a map with all listings, but don’t know how to do this. Also the demo shows only the possibility to see the map as sidebar for the single listing.
I’m missing something or do we have to wait for version 1.1 to get a big map on homepage where we can show all our listings.
Thanks for getting back to me
Henry
Henry, currently we only have the map for single listings. I have to talk to the team about more map features. We’ll post on the blog our plans for maps.
Hi Shannon,
I’ve bought Vantage about an hour ago, but it does not show up for download in my account.
I did however get the confirmation mail from Paypal, that the amount has been charged.
Where can I report this?
Regards,
Edinho
Username: edinhobos
edinhobos, your purchase was made with PayPal eCheck. PayPal does not give us approval on an eCheck purchase for 7-10 days. Access is granted as soon as the purchase is approved by PayPal.
If you would like to download the theme sooner, we can cancel the eCheck payment. That would allow you to repurchase the theme with another, more instant method. If you would like to do this, please send an email to support@appthemes.com.
Hi,
Seems almost similar to what Classipress does . I have a question. Is the search feature accepting geo location or post code. It would be great to have a feature which would allow users to type what they want and then it would show them businesses providing those services based on geo distnaces naerest to furthest. That would one of the best features if it gets incorporated.Is there any intention to do that ?
Refine search allows you to sort by nearest.
OK, finally. I thought you will never release it.
I found it very easy to use and kind of impressive but there is still more to do here. As the other people said:
– businesses should be able to respond to reviews
– business post their specials, their jobs, or even have such ad part each business (this will convince any business to pay good money for the listing / year)
– more map features
BTW, anyone knows how the search is working. On your demo, it looks like is found nothing or the “Refine Search” is not working at all.
i have tried Restaurant near 63130 and found 2 listings. Refine search give me same 2 results.
Many thanks for your hard work. I will waiting for much mature version to make the switch. By the way, do you have a map road for this theme?
Thanks bluehat. We have a rough road map here. I’m sure the theme will mature quite nicely. We look forward to having you switch.
We’re looking into the search problems on the demo. Thanks.
That should read does Vantage handle recurring paypal payments
No, not at this time. We tried recurring payments with PayPal in JobRoller. We were surprised to find that PayPal required $20/month to accept recurring payments with a credit card. Whoa!
GeoTheme has recurring payments but has no Paypal minimum limitations – I know, I use it all day.
Is there a contact us form so visitpors can contact the listing owners. I can’t see one on any of the samples
No contact form now and a little low on the list of priorities. Too many good forms plugins to prioritize that over events, more map features, etc, etc. You might want to check out Gravity Forms. I also used Custom Contact Forms on a non-AppThemes site and liked it (pssst, it’s free).
So these contact form plugins will automatically send the form to the the correct email address to the listing owner if a visitor wants to enquire for example on the current price for a service? Or do we have to manually enter the email address in the back end for each listing surely not!
The form plugins would not be able to send to the owner of the listing unless they were set up to do so. We may consider a contact owner form for each listing.
I couldn’t find plugin possibility on your demo site. Can we add any plugin to the theme?
BTW, it’s a download, right? Though I read “we’re running out of stock” well …
We’re never going to run out of stock. We’ve just had a very positive response to the release.
You cannot add just any plugin to the theme. We have a list of plugins that we recommend here.
Very Nice Indeed! Have u guys thought about making some kinda connections trough all off your themes so it would be easy to have Classified Ads in Vantage. This will give a more flexible usage of your themes, and for alot of portals a combination off Coupons, Classipress, jobPress and Vantage would be, Legendary!
It would be nice, but I think we are a ways off from that. You could create a multisite and have a single log in for all. We do that with our demos.
How do you set up a single log in?
Would be best to post that question to the forums.
Hi,
What is the next step for Vantage now? Because the theme don’t look really finish.
There is a rough roadmap for Vantage in this blog post.
Is it possible to import classipress ad-listings to vantage?
I’m not sure how well that would work. I think it might be best to ask our support staff in the forum.
Great looking theme. Was wondering…is there an option for a magazine style home page?
Not at the moment, but You can use a different home page. See here.
Silly question…does Vantage support recurring monthly automatic payments thru PayPal and others? Thanks-
Nope but look for it in the future. We tried recurring payments with PayPal in JobRoller and were surprised to find that PayPal required $20/month to accept recurring payments with a credit card.
This is terrific!
I already have ClassiPRess and was trying to see if I could use that somehow to construct more of a business directory. And then you came out with this! A perfect solution. I will definitely buy this.
One question: Is it possible to charge for some listings and not for others? For example, I’d like to charge businesses (groomers, pet stores) a fee, but make listings free for non-profits (shelters, rescues, etc.)
I think that’s it! Thanks!
Glad to hear it, Mary. Right now, only one pricing model is possible. We are working on adding pricing packs, which will give you the options mentioned in your comment.
One other question:
Is use of the review feature (5-star) optional?
I do not think it is optional. We’ll have to look into that.
Is it possible to restrict the listing to a city instead of open for all.
At this time, you cannot restrict the geographic location to make a listing.
Fantastic! I’ve been waiting for over a year for this theme to come out. Really great job, guys! Can’t wait to get it set up this weekend (hopefully)!
Thanks, Melanie. Let us know how the weekend goes.
I would totally purchase this if the listings had a contact form featured. but sadly i can not with out this. It looks a little “bare” design wise as well.
fyi, i tried adding a listing and it wouldnt let me.
Please stick around and watch the theme mature Jim G. I’m sure we can turn you.
For security reasons, demo does not allow data to be posted. That’s why you were not able to post a listing.
How soon are you looking to release ver 1.1 ?
Thank you
No timetable yet but we have already started working on it. We will have a 1.0.1 release before that to address any reported issues with 1.0. Happily, there have been very few bugs.
Hi,
Why a Theme and not a Plugin?
Thanks,
Diego
I have a screenshot of vantage layout that you published some time ago. Then, that screenshot shows the home page of vantage with more features than de version 1.0 of Vantage has, like “Popular Events”, “Business in your town”, “Category Directory”, “New Members”, and more…
This features will be added to new versions of vantage?
Thanks
Yes they will, Marcelo. You can see a rough idea of the Vantage roadmap here.
Discussion is closed.