Selling WordPress Themes – Pros and Cons
WordPress was launched ten years ago and if we were to take into account its age as far as the online environments is concerned, this CMS represents a true veteran. Very few web related entities resisted for so many years. It’s the supreme prove that WordPress, despite having many major flaws, is a great CMS.
It has a major influence over the Internet development. There is no doubt that without WordPress we wouldn’t have had so many online websites. Also, people felt in love with this amazing resource and they created themes and plugins to enhance WordPress based websites.
Nowadays, we have a complete industry of themes and plugins and tons of designers and developers made good incomes from mastering and tailoring WordPress websites.
In this post we will present you the pros and cons about selling WordPress themes. The idea behind this concept is simple and effective: the designer creates a theme, usually that is facile to customise and sells it to clients.
They use the theme mostly as a complex framework that ulterior is tailored according to their needs. Under these circumstances is quite normal to ask yourself if selling WordPress themes is indeed an activity that is profitable. No doubt, it depends on the quality of the final products, but a good WordPress theme may bring a considerable profit.
Yeah, there are many talented theme creators that gained impressive amount of money! On the other hand, many designers failed to amortise the money and resources invested into a theme, so they won’t consider selling themes a good affair.
Therefore, let’s dig deeper and see what is good and what is bad in selling WordPress themes:
I. Pros for selling WordPress themes:
#1. The huge demand of good WordPress themes
In spite of the huge number of free and premium themes available, people still need new quality WordPress themes. The Internet is changing, the web evolves and it means that trends come and disappear; in conclusion, every website must be actual. This state obligated the designers to merely create new themes, so it will never be enough quality themes.
I purposely bolded “good” and “quality” because modest WordPress themes are available for free or for a small charge everywhere. Altogether, the truly good themes are very few and these are sold thousands of times! The conclusion is simple: you have to design only quality themes, if you want to be successful!
#2. The Internet is full of resources about how to create WordPress themes
The huge number of existing themes doesn’t imply that it’s very easy to create one. A good theme is very difficult to create; if you want to become a theme creator it is better to think twice about it. The positive aspect of this situation is that everyone may find everything they need on the Internet. There are tons of tutorials, blog posts and e-books treating this domain that it is impossible not to find what you need.
#3. There are famous markets for WordPress themes
Unfortunately, creating a good theme isn’t the final step- the respective theme must be bought by as many clients as possible. As it was mentioned, the Internet is full of themes and it’s a huge work to market a fresh one. Yeah, it’s sad, but true, a good theme that is not marketed won’t be noticed by the potential buyers.
There are two solutions. The first would be selling the theme via portfolio, but it should be frequented by many visitors that may be converted into clients. The second possibility is to sell it by uploading it on a marketplace. There are some that have a great number of visitors which means that your theme will benefit from high exposure.
#4. At least in the near future, WordPress will be the king of CMS
All the forecasts assure the WordPress theme creators that at least in the near future this CMS will be the first option of the users. Of course, there are many good alternatives and the “fight” for the users is harsh, but WordPress seems to have no problem in maintaining its supremacy.
II. Cons for selling WordPress themes:
#1. The market is oversaturated with themes and theme creators
It’s almost impossible for a novice theme creator to have a stable and satisfying income only from selling WordPress themes. A designer that really wants to make money from this activity should be patient and hard-working. Therefore, if you want a rapid profit, selling themes may not be the idea job for you!
The market is full of designers and developers that create cool WordPress themes, and a good theme creator is welcomed into this community! To conclude, a selling theme supposes a colossal effort and not everyone is able to resist to this rhythm.
#2. It’s extremely difficult to market a theme and the marketplaces aren’t profitable
It shouldn’t disappoint you, but surely this is bad news for you: even if you worked hard to create a stunning theme it isn’t enough! People won’t know about your fabulous product if it’s not marketed! If you want to make money from the theme, then firstly you should invest into it.
Guest posts, reviews or offering promotional discounts are just some solutions to have a change for your theme to receive the attention of the potential buyers. These require time and financial resources. So, it is not an easy task, is it?
Another solution is to sell the themes via marketplaces. The majority of these are highly visited, but selling here means that a percentage from the total amount of the money should be given to the market owner.
#3. No one can guarantee that it may bring profit
Selling WordPress themes supposes a high degree of risk comparing with working into an agency or as a freelancer. A theme is a complex project and taking into account the competition, any mistake is equivalent to a disaster.
In the end, I don’t want you to be pessimistic about this business opportunity. There are many theme creators that managed to gain much money and also a good reputation. Also, the pros and cons from this post in fact present two different perspectives… if you are optimistic it’s an advantage, if you are pessimistic, it’s a disadvantage.
10 Amazing WordPress Theme
In order to make a better idea about the quality of the WordPress themes, I have showcased here 10 amazing ones.
#1. Enfold – Responsive Multi-Purpose Theme
#2. Valenti – WordPress HD Review Magazine News Theme
#3. Angle Flat Responsive Bootstrap MultiPurpose Theme
#4. Sentinel – Responsive Multi-Purpose Theme
#5. Whisper – Responsive Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme
#6. Haven – Elegant One Page WordPress Theme
#7. Soho Hotel – Responsive Hotel Booking WP Theme
#8. ePix – Fullscreen Photography WordPress Theme
#9. Portal – Multipurpose WordPress Portfolio Template
#10. Nayma – Responsive Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme
Final Words
I hope that these examples convinced you about the quality of a selling WordPress theme. The world of creators is very competitive, but in the same time it is very rewarding. What do you think? Will you try to create a cool WordPress theme to sell it multiple times?
– Written by Daniel –