How To Make Money By Creating Wordpress Themes: Part 1
How To Make Money By Creating Wordpress Themes: Part 1
Hey Creadivs,
Welcome back to my series on how to make money online by creating Wordpress Themes. This whole series is really focused on helping web designers and developers because it revolves around 1 concept; the idea that you have the ability to design and build a fully functional Wordpress theme.
As much as I would like to sit here and spell out the ins and outs of developing a Wordpress theme that is not what this blog is about. However if you opt in to download wptone – an Adsense ready Wordpress Theme you will be signing yourself up for my newsletter that will discuss topics about how to do just that.
How To Make Money Online By Creating Wordpress Themes.
- Part 1 - Develop & Sell A Premium Theme
- Part 2 - Develop & Sell Sponsorship On A Free Theme
- Part 3 - Develop An Adsense Ready Wordpress Theme
- Part 4 - Super Secret Method Yet To Be Revealed
Part 1 – Develop & Sell A Premium Theme
This sounds pretty easy doesn’t it? I mean after all you just write a couple of PHP scripts, throw down some HTML, and tidy it all up with some CSS. But you’re wrong. Making money selling premium themes has become the most difficult method discussed in our series for 2 reasons there are too many good free themes available & the current premium themes available are out of this world and continually getting better.
In today’s lesson we take a look at what makes a theme “premium”, how I think you could start out your process of developing a theme, the two methods of selling wordpress themes, and we make a check list of features you should think about adding to your theme to increase your chances of success.
What is a premium theme?
At one time not so long ago a premium theme by any other name was nothing more than a free theme with a price tag. But those times have come and gone with the likes of Woo Themes, Elegant Wordpress Themes and the Thesis Theme that are all making higher quality, more functional, and plug-in heavy themes that will knock your socks off.
Premium themes in today’s market are dressed to the nines with features. Most theme developers are creating their own plug-ins that allow you to change color scheme, add Adsense Publisher Id’s, and update your feed URL directly from the admin panel. Some are even going as far as making deals with other companies to provide you with some pretty cool paid plug-ins such as OIO Publisher for free or at a lower cost.
In any case in order to create a premium theme that users are going to want to buy you are going to have to step up your game and develop more than just a functional Wordpress theme, you are going to have to develop one that stands out.
Where Should You Start
Every day free themes get better, premium themes get cheaper and you are losing ground on the competition. So in order to gain your edge back you need to star by developing a theme, any theme just so you can your foot in the door.
We know that in order to create a premium theme we need to load it with features so that people will want to use it, but you also need to develop a following of loyal fans, and people that are going to be willing to spread the word about you and your work.
So my suggestion for you is to start out your process by developing a free theme that you will give away in an opt in fashion. Ask for a name and an email address in return for the theme. What this will do is allow you a way to keep in touch with the people that use the theme and it will give you an opportunity to listen to what they have to say about it in return.
One of the most difficult parts of theme development is deciding what features you need to add, because you can not add them all. Take this opportunity to meet and think with your users so that you can develop a theme that fits their needs and that is what you need to be successful in the premium theme industry.
How To Sell A Premium Wordpress Theme
When it comes time to sell your theme you have 2 options.
- Sell Your Theme By Itself
- Start A Theme Club
- HTML Valid
- CSS Valid
- 100% Wordpress Version Compatible
- 100% Browser Compatible
- A Above Average Design
- Widget Ready
- Layout Changing Options
- Color Changing Options
- Google Analytics Ready
- Feedburner Ready
- Easy Image Integration
- Adsense Ready
- Styled For Brian’s Threaded Comments
- SEO Friendly
- Sponsor Free
- Style with Comment Luv Installed
- Documentation
- Support
- OIO Publisher Ready
- Ajax Features Such as Tabbed Sidebars
- Rotating Content
Each method of sales is equally is good, but some offer more long term value than others and each have their own unique difficulties that you will be presented with.
Selling your theme by itself is a short term generally 1 time high success rate. On the initial launch of your theme you will see either feast or famine. Your theme will either be found, liked, and used by bloggers and it’s popularity and sales power will skyrocket or it won’t. The difficulty you will find with releasing a single theme for sales is that your revenues are very much for the short term as you will see significant sales shortly after the launch but as the theme retires from the spotlight use and revenues will diminish.
Starting a theme club is very popular at the moment because it allows publishers greater access to more themes for a cheaper price, and it is good for developers because it creates a more long term income plan. The difficulties you face here are that you have to have a few themes to start with and you will have to have a set schedule for theme release in order to gain the subscribers, and to get them to continuously renew their subscription.
Your Quick Start To Creating A Premium Theme.
I strongly suggest starting with a free theme to get the feel for Wordpress theme development and using the blogosphere and its users to test for what your theme needs to become premium, but if you already have some experience with theme development here is a list of features your theme ought to include.
I hope you all gained some perspective on the premium theme marketplace and at least have a starting point on what you need to do to optimize your chance of success.
Please let me know what you think.
11 Comments
MLRebecca on November 18th, 2008
This is a great beginning to a series. I can’t wait to read more! I know that there are people who have told me they would like to get started designing Wordpress themes, but they have no idea where to start. I’ll have to bookmark this series, so I can send people your way. Thanks for sharing your Wordpress theme knowledge!
Riyanne on November 19th, 2008
There are a lot of great free premium themes available, but still you won’t get the support you’ll get from purchasing one.
Can’t wait for the part 4! 
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Rendy Wong on November 19th, 2008
How we can find sponsor to sponsoring our new theme? do you have any resources or ads network who provide that? thank you.
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Adam on November 19th, 2008
@Freddie
Thanks for the support as always man I appreciate it. I will hopefully soon be starting my own theme club. I just need to build 3 or 4 themes. Then the goal will be to make one a month.
@MLRebecca
Welcome back. 
I hadn’t seen you in a while. I am glad that you enjoyed the article. Part 4 should be exciting as I don’t think anybody has done it before.
@Riyanne
Thanks for the comment and stopping by the site. You made me think of another method of making money via premium themes. Don’t sell the theme but sell the support. I believe many people do that as well.
@Rendy Wong
Thank for stopping and commenting. I do have some resources on how to sell sponsorship links and will be focusing my next article on them so make sure you subscribe so you can get that.
Dan on November 19th, 2008
Hey some great stuff there Adam, really made me think about getting into the wordpress design business! I’ve thought about doing my own wordpress designs for a while now, and hopefully will start with my own blog so I can get it just as I want it.
Have you changed your layout to this site? Is looking very nice I must admit!!
Dans last blog post..How CommentLuv Can Help Find Hackers
Normal Joe on November 19th, 2008
Great post Adam! You da man! Nice and well laid out. You know I won’t be creating any themes any time soon…but that don’t mean I won’t sponsor one in the future! To really make it happen, one has to make sure the theme is really user friendly, yet remains advanced in features.
Starting a free theme first is the best way to get your feet wet.
Good stuff buddy.
Normal Joes last blog post..Transform Your Thinking-If You Had THIS You’d Be Successful
Dennis Edell on November 20th, 2008
Excellent stuff. I won’t be creating any time soo either, but quite possibly in the future.
Elegant Themes is pretty cool. I recently won a free membership.
Dennis Edells last blog post..A Monkey Can Do Your Job!
Abhishek on November 21st, 2008
I have seen many peoples selling designer and sponsored link of themes in Digitalpoint at very great price !! do they really get that price ??
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Shanker Bakshi on November 22nd, 2008
I wish i could know how to create wordpress Premium Themes - now i think is a good chance to learn how to go about it.
Shanker Bakshis last blog post..Interview With Andy Bailey - The Man Behind Plugin CommentLuv
Elijah on November 25th, 2008
Dude - super awesome post!
It would not recommend anyone who has not already built some sort of custom design or “theme” to even think about getting into the business plan of selling premium themes…
The market is sooo fierce, with tons of world glass designers and developers entering the market weekly…
But.. if you really have some great dreams of designing your own themes - please start a theme club.. with a nice back-end business model. Follow this post!
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Freddie Taylor on November 18th, 2008
Strong Post, Adam! Looking forward to the rest of the series. It seems like you have really done your homework and this is going to be a strong series. All the best with it!
You are so right about the tightening theme market. Some of the free themes that out there are unbelievable. If someone has the chops to create something better or comparable to those, go for it.
The the idea of the Theme Club sounds like a good model. I like the idea of creating a residual income relationship with the members.
Had you ever considered partnering with another designer for the theme club? Or even outsourcing theme design to for the club? Both options would reduce the workload and increase promotion and exposure.
Just a thought.
Freddie Taylors last blog post..Blog Contest a Linkers Blog