Comments on: On Selling Premium Themes, Plus an Interview with Ben Harper of Templamatic

By: 4design

4design — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:28:38 +0000

Very nice post Steven, thanks!

By: Hyderabad Web Development

Hyderabad Web Development — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:36:50 +0000

Ben Harper >> So do you have a dedicated support staff with you ?

Then is no where difficulty to handle each and every customer you get.

By: Ben Harper

Ben Harper — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:37:17 +0000

It’s not difficult to or impossible to keep up service on a large number of themes when you have a dedicated support staff working with you to support customers.

By: What Should Separate a Premium Theme from a Free Theme? | Vandelay Website Design

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:03:34 +0000

[...] the rise in popularity of premium themes and the increasing demand for them, the line between free theme and premium theme can be difficult [...]

By: Vandelay Design

Vandelay Design — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 12:35:30 +0000

Hey Darren,
Thanks for sharing your experiences from selling a theme. I agree that it would be difficult or impossible to provide good service on a large number of themes, especially if you’re also handling other things outside of that, such as other client work.

By: Darren Hoyt

Darren Hoyt — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:56:16 +0000

I would only put one up for sale if it was exceptional quality and if I was willing to market the theme and support it.

That’s something I’ve been learning from selling Mimbo Pro. It’s worked out nicely to just have a single product that gets ongoing attention, enhancements, fine-tuning, and most important, ongoing help in the forums. I could never give that much attention to ten different themes in good faith. I would always worry about quantity over quality.

Since WP is still in its infancy, I think there’s a ceiling on what can be done with it, which affects the innovation you can apply, which affects how much people will pay for it. In the end, it still needs to look and function like it was done with planning and professionalism, rather than tossed together to make a dollar.

By: Vandelay Design

Vandelay Design — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:14:17 +0000

Adam,
I have no experience selling commercial themes, but from my perspective, I would only put one up for sale if it was exceptional quality and if I was willing to market the theme and support it. Otherwise I would go the free rout. That’s an opinion though, not a fact.

Thanks Glen.

Simon,
I wholeheartedly agree with Adrian that price is a relatively minor issue. Most people looking for a premium theme want something that’s going to give them a great look and performance. In most cases, I think they would be willing to pay an extra $50 or so up front to get a superior product. I also agree with Adrian that too low of a price could hurt the perception of potential customers. If I were to buy a premium theme I would want to buy one that I believed in and that the developer believed. To me it’s not the type of product that lends itself to price competition. In my opinion, even the higher priced premium themes are a pretty good buy for what you are getting. That being said, the product has to be comparable with others in it’s price range, or people will just buy from the competition. Good luck with your sales!

By: Simon North

Simon North — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:44:16 +0000

Oh and Adrian, nice blog you have there, content and design, ive subscribed.

By: Simon North

Simon North — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:42:55 +0000

Yeah, you make a good point, the big boys have been established, so its harder to get noticed. I have started with the affiliate sites to try and get some exposure, however when templates such as this: http://wordpressisland.com/2008/06/08/free-arthemia-premium-wordpress-template/ are released for free, many people are going to use the free ones over paying a lot of money for a unique one hence my cheap price. Besides a lot of people purchase templates for the support nowadays.

By: Adrian | Rubiqube

Adrian | Rubiqube — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:57:38 +0000

Great article! I’m a WordPress designer myself and I will release a couple of cool themes very soon.

Simon, I’m sure many WordPress designers experience the same problems as you. I imagine it’s not easy to get noticed, especially when there are people like Brian Gardner or Adii, that have been doing this for a while now. Their themes are already famous in the community.

Still… positioning yourself much lower in terms of price won’t help too much. I think this will have the opposite effect: people will say “this is way too cheap to be premium” and move on. In my opinion, the way to go is match (better yet exceed) the level of quality of some of the popular themes and maybe offer a small discount.

In fact, I’m preparing a small experiment (website) to test a theory of mine. I’ll post more on my blog.