Before moving on to the main topic of the material, namely, selling website templates, it is necessary to define the term. This concept appeared back in the period when the first content management systems (CMS) appeared. Initially, the layout was carried out from scratch in the form of separate pages containing a large amount of texts and other information. For this, only HTML was used, in rare cases CSS. Website development at that time required highly specialized knowledge, so a simple user could not cope with this.

Gradually, webmasters decided to group individual pages that are present on many similar sites, creating a so-called "hang", which greatly facilitated the development process. This is just about the templates of the pages of the web resource. As a result, the template is a group of the same type of data from the database, responsible for the layout of the site pages and other features of its design and content. There are now a large number of templates for various resources, including paid and free options. However, practice shows that the paid template is the best solution. So it makes sense for developers to do selling ready-made website templates... Such earnings can bring a good income.

Benefits of paid templates

A paid template can always be customized based on personal requirements... This is the main difference between it and free website templates. In the process of working on a web resource, there is often a need for revision or changes. And this is much easier to do if you buy a suitable template.

It's easy to find a template that suits your appearance. Sale of website templates carried out quite widely, different options are offered, which allows you to find the ideal one without much difficulty.

Unique design... The best quality free templates are already widely available on the web. So, if you need a really unique template, it's better to purchase a paid one.

Rich functionality. Sale of ready-made website templates good in that it allows you to invest in a functional option, thanks to which the web resource will be convenient, which means it will attract Internet users.

How to sell a website template?

So, above we have named the main advantages of paid website templates. In this regard, it always makes sense to engage in their development as a main or additional income. You should know at least such programming languages \u200b\u200bas HTML, PHP and CSS, as well as carefully study the engine for which you plan to create templates. You should start by researching the work of existing templates, and then you can try to implement your own ideas. Once you have a really good template, publish it freely for download.

Sell \u200b\u200bWebsite Template can be done either in your own blog or with the help of a special service that offers this option. Be sure to take customer feedback into account when trying to offer unique and functional templates. Over time, you will understand exactly what potential customers are interested in, and then earnings will become more stable.

How much can you sell a website template?

In Russia sale of website templates does not bring such a high income as abroad, however, it makes sense to do this here too. On average, a template costs from one to five tens of dollars. There are also more expensive options, the price of which is about 4 thousand rubles per template. Therefore, when selling through special services, you will receive from 5 to 35 dollars for one sale of the template. Since any of the website templates can be sold many times, you will make good money in the long run. In some cases, the template is purchased with copyright and is used exclusively on a specific site. But for this, the creator receives a larger amount than for the usual sale site template.

The main task of any developer is to track trends, not stand still and try to do their job as competently as possible. After-sales customer support is also important. With the right approach, success will surely come, and incomes will grow every month.

The huge popularity of such CMS as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal leads to an ever-growing demand for quality themes and templates. Since there is demand, there must be supply! Just imagine, you create what you like, when you like it, from the comfort of your own home and receive passive income at the same time.

There are several fairly popular foreign services on the network, where freelancers successfully make money selling PSD templates, themes for WordPress, HTML, and recently another similar project for Runet has appeared. We tried to figure out what kind of conditions these sites offer to freelancers. Let's take a closer look.

ThemeForest

One of the most popular resources on the foreign market for themes and templates. Authors are free to register and put up for sale
WordPress themes, HTML templates, PSD, etc. It should be noted that due to the abundance of templates, the site has a fairly strict selection and quality requirements. Prices on the site are set by the moderators.

Percentage of sales of unique templates - from 50 to 70%

Percentage of sales of non-unique templates - 30%

Affiliate program to attract new users - 30%

Ability to set your own prices - No

сreativemarket.com

A relatively new, but quite popular platform for posting logos, illustrations, templates, fonts, etc. Designers can register to sell their work by asking for an invite in advance. The site also states that having received an invite, you can publish products for sale without additional verification.

Percentage of sales of unique templates - up to 70%

Percentage of sales of non-unique templates - up to 70%

Affiliate program to attract new users - No

Registration - By invite

Content Moderation - No

The only Russian marketplace of this kind. The site focuses on selling unique premium quality Russian-language themes, PSD templates, HTML, WordPress. Registration is open to everyone, authors can set their own prices and publish both unique and non-unique templates. The site is relatively new, but the sales statistics on the site are growing steadily. In addition, now there is a bonus of 150 rubles at registration.

Web-Stocker.RU

This is a new project on runet. Let's see what it offers to authors:

Percentage of sales of unique templates - up to 80%

Percentage of sales of non-unique templates - up to 30%

Affiliate program to attract new users - 15%

Ability to set your own prices - Yes

Registration - Open to everyone

Content Moderation - Strict Moderation

Additionally - 150 rubles bonus on the first deposit

There are a number of other resources where registration is available only upon request. We decided not to dwell in more detail on these sites, because after a detailed study it is not clear whether it is possible to sell there at all. We could not find information about specific users who sell, but suddenly you will succeed! Here is a list of these sites:

templatesold

flashmint

_______________________________________________________

buystockdesign

If you are engaged in design, development of sites, templates and themes - we advise you to try these resources to generate additional income. According to statistics, today, only selling English-language WordPress templates, the best authors earn, on average, from $ 10 thousand to $ 50 thousand. dollars monthly, and the total annual revenue from sales of templates is measured in millions.

In our time of such a vivid development of web creativity, Internet users have a great opportunity not only to buy a wide variety of content for their projects, but also to make money on popular exchanges selling templates for websites and other web elements, using their talent and skills.

Presumably, many "creatives" know about such a site as ThemeForest. However, they are not alone in the "creative crowd" of the modern virtual world. Having set ourselves the utopian goal of finding the perfect project, we decided to describe and compare in detail in our review the most interesting exchanges for the sale of templates for websites - of course, led by ThemeForest.

We hope this will help both future sellers and buyers choose "their" site. Let's see together what they are - modern portals with "creative" content, and what the valiant creators of templates and plugins should prepare for if they decide to set foot on this thorny but promising path to fame.

Introducing the participants

Beyond the competition in popularity on our list is certainly ThemeForest, which is part of the massive Australian online content store Envato.com, created back in 2006.

In addition to it, the project includes 8 more portals that offer a variety of design elements, ranging from flash videos to plugins for sites and training materials. Each user, if desired, will find here everything that his heart desires - good, about 18,000 templates for sites have this. And there is also a very friendly community!

Following the "theme forest" in terms of attendance is TemplateMonster, the brainchild of a New York-based company that has been trying to find its place in the sun on the "stock beach" since the very distant 2002. The site is not much inferior to its main competitor, ThemeForest, in terms of the number of "templates" for sites (15,000), but loses to the web giant Envato in terms of product range, so to speak, and the total number of submitted materials - 46 thousand different elements versus 4 , 5 million! It is difficult to find the same "Flash" here and the "clean" design files are very poorly represented, but, for example, there is a good selection of templates for Facebook. But the main difference from ThemeForest is the inability to sell your content here. All materials presented on the site are created by TemplateMonster team.

Another American company from Salt Lake City called Mojoness Inc owns the MOJO Themes website, which is part of the rather large online store MOJO Marketplace.

The project, despite its youth, diligently "puffs" and tries by all means to keep up with competitors. Many users note the service's exemplary support - apparently, the company is desperately fighting for each potential client (and rightly so!). The website template portal has about 2,000 elements, and the total amount of content in the online store exceeds 4,000.

It would be unfair to bypass another service from the USA - CreativeMarket, which, although it cannot boast of a large number of templates for websites (a little over 3,000), focuses on the quality of themes and freedom for sellers.

Judge for yourself, only here the topics are not moderated, and the creators of the templates themselves can set prices for their creations! In general, if you take all the content presented on the site, an impressive figure comes out - about 176,000 different elements! This is a good place for aspiring "template masters" who feel constrained on other template exchanges with their endless requirements and strict rules.

Finally, the Russian site Web-Stocker.ru closes our list. On its page, the portal proudly calls itself "the largest platform for buying and selling HTML templates and themes for various platforms", but with a "small" amendment - if we are talking about Runet. Suffice it to say that this portal has not yet been indexed by the well-known Amazonian service Alexa. However, it remains the most popular domestic content exchange (even taking into account the fact that the site contains only about 50 elements), therefore, you must agree, it will be interesting for us to compare the work of Web-Stocker.ru with foreign competitors.

Why this particular list, you say? We proceeded from the idea of \u200b\u200bshowing how sites that are at different stages of popularity are arranged. That is why we took the largest sites - ThemeForest and TemplateMonster (we will compare them and generally pay a lot of attention), a promising and relatively young exchange MOJO Themes, an interesting CreativeMarket resource with an unusual "creative" approach and one of the most famous Runet portals selling Web templates. stock.ru. Of course, there are many more different exchanges that, to one degree or another, try to copy Themeforest or even create their own blackjack: Templates.com, CMSmart.net, CSSTemplatesMarket.com, Dlance.ru and many others. Separately, we note sites with a completely different business model, according to which the client can use for a certain fee all the templates presented on the site (usually up to 100 elements). Among the most popular resources of this kind, we single out ElegantThemes.com and WooThemes.com.

A little about ratings and attendance

If we look at the popularity of sites under the prism of the proprietary Alexa tool, comparing all the participants in our review, the following picture emerges (as of February 28, 2015):

The graphics, first of all, show us how cool the ThemeForest portal is - 146th place in the global world ranking, and we also see how difficult it is to “butt” with our competitors, the main domestic exchange for the sale of Web-Stocker.ru content, which is not even assigned positions.

Interestingly (and, in general, predictable), on almost all foreign portals, the largest number of visitors are Indians (21 - 27% of the total number of users, depending on the resource). Only CreativeMarket stubbornly resists the invasion of nimble guys from the banks of the Ganges - almost half of the audience (43.5) visits the site from American IP. Yes, and only here (we do not count Web-Stocker.ru) in the list of countries with the largest number of users, there are no residents of Turkey who show enviable stability on other portals (about 5% of the total number of visitors). If we talk about domestic "users", then the maximum activity is observed on TemplateMonster - 5.7% and 800th place in the list of the most popular sites on the Runet.

However, there is an explanation for this - TemplateMonster remains the only foreign exchange for the sale of templates, which can boast of both the Russian-language version of the site and support with direct phone numbers in Russia and Ukraine. Note also that, according to Alexa statistics, a large number of users visit the ThemeForest and CreativeMarket portals while at school or university, and on the latter site, the female audience constitutes the majority of visitors - very unusual in light of other exchanges where males are confidently dominating.

Today in stock

On each portal, content for sites is divided into groups depending on the area of \u200b\u200bapplication - restaurant business, fashion, books, entertainment, etc. This list is approximately the same for all participants in our review. For example, this is how the categories on the TemplateMonster site are presented:

If we talk about the categories of templates by functionality, the most popular goods in general are templates with responsive layout, which have gained immense popularity due to the fact that they ensure the correct display of the site on any device. There are especially many responsive themes on ThemeForest and TemplateMonster.

As for templates for specific CMS, WordPress is out of competition here - on all sites, WP content is placed in a separate section. The leader in the number of virtual goods for the most popular CMS of our time is again (who would doubt it) ThemeForest - more than 5 thousand themes. This is followed by TemplateMonster (1,962) and CreativeMarket (1,671), followed by MOJO Themes (1,039). Interestingly, the CreativeMarket team has a lot of respect for PSD-based templates, which make up two-thirds of all content in the universal Website Templates category.

Templates for e-Commerce are also quite popular, especially at TemplateMonster, which boasts a solid amount of relevant content (5,379 items). For example, there are “only” 1,169 “commercial” templates in the ThemeForest database. The most popular on the stock exchange with a "monstrous" logo are modules for the osCommerce, PrestaShop and ZenCart platforms.

Side view: navigation and usability

Let's take a look at the heroes of our review from the point of view of an ordinary buyer. Let's go first to the most famous exchange and take a little look around. ThemeForest offers good search capabilities for themes, including sorting by "trendiness" of the template (I wonder how they define it?), Advanced filter by date added, handy tags, software compatibility, and other handy features.

Many users, however, complain about the lack of clear documentation on working with a specific template and mediocre installation instructions. But the Live Preview function is excellent (for the most part) to get acquainted with the demo version of the template, and many authors, taking care of their image, help customers solve problems that arose during the work with the purchased content.

If we talk about MOJO Themes, then there is a weak search filter for content (sorting only by the number of sales, price and date of addition), but the page for the product is very informative. In addition to the description and demo version of the theme, the user has access to the history of template changes and questions from other participants asked to the seller. By the way, MOJO Themes exchange obliges authors to provide after-sales support for themes and their regular updates - “dead” products can be removed from the site.

Along with purchasing a template, MOJO Themes and TemplateMonster offer additional options such as installing a theme, changing colors, adding a customer logo or even hosting. In the case of the latter, it looks a little intrusive. In addition, topics cannot be judged on the "monster exchange". It sounds a bit outlandish, but, of course, it provides the author and the company with protection from honest, but sometimes very harsh and unfavorable for business "public opinion".

Note also that the average cost of various themes on TemplateMonster is often 30-50% higher than similar ThemeForest, and the quality of the products in the latter is usually higher. It's fair to add that sometimes you can buy a template with a great design and very bad code on the Envato family portal. Prices for content on CreativeMarket and MOJO Themes are also generally closer to ThemeForest - a decent theme can be purchased for $ 50.

If we go back to usability and look at CreativeMarket, the eyes immediately notice a pleasant appearance without any frills. You can “love” a topic, add it to your collection or add to your favorite “Pins” on Pinterest directly from the general list without going to the template page. The search filter is very nicely and unobtrusively implemented. The product card with basic information and a gallery of screenshots also looks good.

Finally, navigating the domestic stock exchange Web-Stocker.ru leaves a depressing impression. We will not waste time on comments, especially inquisitive ones can personally appreciate the beauty and convenience of the resource at this link.

Content Seller - Sounds Proud!

The process of registering a new user for all portals is standard. It's even too standard for our time ... All sites accept any passwords without requiring you to come up with something tricky with capital letters and numbers (except that Web-Stocker.ru "kindly" gives advice), all require activation of the account using a unique a link that is sent to the e-mail of a new member. Of the more or less interesting moments, we note the combination of "Secret question-answer" at Templatemonster.com and a separate item for subscribing to the newsletter from MOJO Themes.

After standard registration, the user can choose the "path of the samurai author" - usually it is not difficult to find a "guiding" link on each site. Perhaps for many (and especially for those who did not read the presentation of the participants a little higher), this will come as a surprise, but TemplateMonster does not allow authors to sell their creations - the portal's own team is working on the products presented on the site. The situation is different with Web-Stocker.ru. The site even has a separate Wiki section, which describes in sufficient detail the terms of cooperation with authors, percentage of sales, instructions for downloading files, etc. But! You won't find a link to start working on the site "in the afternoon with fire"! A very frivolous approach, as for "the largest platform for buying and selling templates and themes."

However, let's return to the world's leading exchanges. So, in ThemeForest it is enough to select the item Become an Author in the main top menu, after which you will be redirected to a page describing all the "goodies" that will fall on you with the start of selling content.

Wait, first you need to decide whether you plan to sell your creations only on the Envato site, including ThemeForest and related project portals (Exclusive Agreement), or reserve the right to place copyright content on other exchanges (Non-Exlusive Agrement). This is a very important decision. The "exclusive" status of templates gives you more net income, but seriously limits your free income. The difference in commission is significant - for the right to sell elsewhere, you need to give 55% of the final price of the product, and the "exclusive" seller pays from 12.5 to 37.5%, depending on the total value of their creations posted on Envato.

MOJO Themes has a slightly different scheme - the creator of "free" content gets exactly half of the final price, and the commission for the "uniqueness" of the submitted templates is calculated based on the number of sales (for example, 70% for those authors who have sold more than 2,000 themes).

Easiest at CreativeMarket - 70% net income for sellers and no "exclusive" options!

Content upload and moderation

Portals Templatemonster and Web-stock.ru have nothing to say in this section for the reasons described just above, so let's go to ThemeForest. Previously, to access the download of your content, you had to pass a small test of knowledge of the general rules. Now it has been removed, so immediately after defining "exclusivity" you can proceed to downloading the author's elements. a list of categories is presented, after selecting the desired one, a page for uploading with various parameters opens.

Additionally, you need to confirm the legal origin of any content used to create your work - this way the site receives an "alibi" in case of claims from copyright holders.

After submitting content for moderation, a percentage scale appears in the author's profile, which reflects the review process. Usually, after 10-12 hours, the line displays 100%, and a corresponding notification is sent to the author's e-mail. Now you can check what the gentlemen moderators have written to us. The latter use three statuses - positive APPROVED FOR SALE (approved for sale), encouraging NEEDS IMPROVEMENT (some improvements to be corrected) and unpleasant REJECTED (rejected). Refusal to publish can mean both various problems with the content during testing and critical flaws, as well as excessive saturation of the catalog with such works.

Uploading templates to MOJO Themes is similar to the procedure on ThemeForest. In addition, you can download themes directly through the global online MOJO Marketplace, although in this case the procedure looks a little different. In any case, the author of "exclusive" content can legally post his work on these two resources. In the MOJO world, it's a little easier with statuses - either "accepted" or "rejected".

In addition, on the MOJO Marketplace portal, as well as on CreativeMarket, copyright content is also presented in the form of small separate catalog pages - the seller can customize the display of his storefront by coming up with a name, uploading attractive graphics, adding tags and links to his pages in other places ( Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc.).

On both sites, moderators must explain in detail the reason for the rejection. After fixing the defects, you can send the content again for review. Note also that ThemeForest and MOJO Themes themselves determine the price of your product, based on the adopted internal parameters. Although in some cases the most popular portal can give the author the opportunity to set the price himself.

As for CreativeMarket, here the prospective author needs to click the Open A Shop link in the top menu. However, in this case, everything is not so simple with the placement of content - the resource is selective in nature, so first you will need to provide links to your topics on other resources, show your portfolio and tell in a nutshell why you want to start selling your work on CreativeMarket. Such a small quest, which, however, will hardly be able to stop the true connoisseurs of free creativity, right?

Community and official support

The community organization at ThemeForest is commendable. There is everything an author can only dream of - from an extensive forum and the ability to send another member a private message, to various useful files that users kindly upload for each other. On the site you can see various ratings of the best selling themes and the most successful authors - the best of them receive various awards in the form of "stickers" to their profile.

The ThemeForest team itself actively maintains contact with the authors. In addition to the official blog, the portal staff regularly write to the forum, sharing useful information for work and encouraging all participants to discuss - I must say, this has a positive effect on the loyalty of all users. In addition, Themeforest actively supports offline meetings of participants (Envato MeetUps), and visitors can either help organize the event, or simply find a planned "get-together" near their city and take part in it.

The CreativeMarket platform also has good tools for community development. In addition to the traditional (although, admittedly, not very active) forum, the company maintains an official blog for communicating with users, and also allows participants to create their own collections of the best works. On the page of each user, you can find brief information, subscribe to his updates and even get a link to the RSS feed of the author you like! To be fair, Envato also supports “personalized” feeds.

Against the background of ThemeForest and CreativeMarket, all other members of our review pale when it comes to a friendly community. The MOJO Themes portal can only boast of a more or less "live" forum, which, even in this form, would clearly not interfere with the TemplateMonster site. However, the latter maintains a pretty official blog, where sometimes you can find interesting information. Finally, the Russian exchange Web-Stocker.ru also has a forum, but there is no community there and it is close - there are literally 11 topics that only make you bored.

What about the payment?

Usually, all payments are made on the 15th day of the next month, which is clearly demonstrated by the graphics from CreativeMarket:

An Envato Project can be requested to be paid when it reaches $ 50. The company offers popular payment methods such as PayPal, Skrill, Payoneer, and if there is a round number of $ 500 or more on the account, users can request a bank transfer. For creators especially profitable for the company, who can grow up to an account of $ 40,000, Envato has provided a special form of express payment since December. And it looks like a logical step - for that kind of money, you can strain, right?

The MOJO Themes portal also offers payouts from $ 50 via PayPal and MoneyBookers, and with an amount of $ 1,000 or more, it is ready to make an international bank transfer via SWIFT. CreativeMarket only supports PayPal, but the minimum threshold is lower - already 20 "Benjamin Franklins" on the account give the content seller every reason for a payment request. It continues to delight Russian-speaking users of TemplateMonster - here you can order a payment even to an electronic wallet in WebMoney! True, this is only relevant for the affiliate program, which we will discuss below. Finally, the domestic site Web-stock.ru sends remuneration to authors exclusively to the R-purse in WebMoney, and the minimum payment is 1,500 rubles.

Affiliate Program: Is It Worth It?

All participants in our review actively involve their clients in cooperation. The standard proven method works here: you get a certain percentage of the order or replenishment amount on the site if another user, having registered using your unique link, decides to spend money on a new resource one way or another.

The most generous partners here are ThemeForest and MOJO Themes - both sites give 30% of financial transactions made by new participants who followed the referral URL. True, there is one big "but" - a one-time percentage of the sale. Basically, you only get it from your first purchase or top-up. All subsequent transactions made by "your" users will not bring you a dime.

TemplateMonster offers a little less - 25%, but from each sale. And this figure can also be increased due to an interesting feature of the affiliate program: the company gives an additional 5% if other "affiliates" register on the site using your link.

Web-Stocker.ru gives its partner members 15% of the order or balance top-up, and all transactions are taken into account, and CreativeMarket gives 10% for all "financial" actions of the user during the first year after registration. Not fun compared to TemplateMonster terms, right?

From sites by thread

About the most popular site ThemeForest there are strange rumors about the interesting "promotion" that the authors allegedly make to themselves, buying ... their own themes and thus breaking out into the top sales. Unfortunately, this "cheating" theory has a right to life - the content creator gets back 60-80% of his "investment", and the rest that goes to the Envato project can be mistaken for advertising costs, right? For dishonest, to put it mildly, doing business, authors usually answer only to their own conscience, justifying a significant increase in sales, if the "twisted" topic lights up in the rating of the best products.

The TemplateMonster portal can boast not only of the Russian-language version of the site with telephone support at Moscow and Kiev phone numbers, but also a working chat with a live Russian-speaking operator, who, by the way, immediately got in touch. Even on weekends. Even at two in the morning. True, the company has room to grow - sometimes the resource comes across openly "crooked" and illiterate texts, and the section with the affiliate program does cause a strong association from the advertising spam series "How to make a million in two days."

It is noteworthy that CreativeMarket is used by authors not only as a platform for selling their templates, but also as a kind of portal for advertising their services - fortunately, a separate page for each seller has this. A template creator can easily place a link to his official page in his profile and communicate directly with his potential clients, discussing, for example, the possibility of customizing the selected theme on CreativeMarket.

MOJO Themes has long been a partner of a number of large hosting companies (BlueHost, HostGator, Domain.com and others), which allows customers buying a domain or site for a website to use the products of the American template exchange directly from the "admin panel" of the chosen hosting. In addition, a client can install for free in one click not only one of the popular CMS of his choice, but also, say, a forum, an e-Commerce module, and many other elements.

Web-Stocker.ru users receive a bonus of 150 rubles when replenishing their account. If the account is used to buy a product on the site, then the company generously gives the user a discount of 40 rubles. It looks a little funny, but, you see, this is far from the worst method of attracting a client.

Ideal site: what is it?

We are sincerely grateful to all readers who have mastered all our material. Unfortunately, we didn't find the perfect site. Where order and friendly community reign (ThemeForest), there are also strict requirements for poor authors and fierce competition. Where complete freedom of expression (CreativeMarket) is not easy to get to, and there are still not enough buyers, and the latter can rightly complain about poor content support. And where there is “the Russian spirit, where it smells of Russia” (TemplateMonster and Web-Stocker.ru), there is neither a community nor an opportunity to control your prices for products. Everything is predictable - there is no perfection in the world ...

On this note, one could finish our large-scale article, but one question haunts us in this mortal world. What should an ideal content site look like? How do you see it, dear members of the Habr community?
We express our gratitude to the glorious habrauser ascold for help in preparing the material.

Our time can rightfully be called the age of the Internet and Internet technologies. It is even difficult to imagine a modern person who does not use the capabilities of the network. Someone hangs on social networks and chats, someone communicates on thematic forums, someone makes purchases in online stores. But there are those (and we talk about them repeatedly on the pages of our resource) who use the capabilities of the network for their own benefit. We are talking about people who make money on the Internet. And many of them make very decent money. With a desire, some patience and a certain set of qualities, you can easily earn from several hundred dollars a month or more. You just need to find your niche and just gain a foothold in it. Today our material will be devoted to one of the ways to make money on the Internet. Namely - making money on the development and sale of WordPress templates (themes).

What is WordPress?

Considering that not everyone owns websites or blogs, this question is quite logical. Let's try to answer it simply, briefly and clearly.

WordPress is a website management system. In other words, it is the site engine. Its basis. A certain set of functions, commands, codes. It is thanks to this system that many sites and blogs on the Internet function. Both in our RuNet and in foreign segments of the Internet. And so that sites running the WordPress system somehow differ from each other, they install themes on them. Or templates. Or, in simple terms, designs.

During installation, the WordPress system itself contains several standard themes. You can immediately use them on your website or blog. But this set is the same for everyone. If all site owners were using standard templates, then all WordPress assets would look exactly the same. This is not only due to the use of numerous themes.

The WordPress engine is completely free. In addition, there are many additional plug-ins (plugins) for it that significantly expand the functionality of the engine. Probably, all this was the reason for such popularity of WordPress among the owners of Internet resources. And this should be used. After all, in fact, WordPress users are a multi-million dollar army of potential customers. You just need to create the product or service they need.

How to make money developing and selling WordPress templates?

Today on the web you can find thousands of the most diverse themes for the WordPress engine. And all of them are completely free to download and use. I must say that this is exactly what most users do. But there are some serious problems here.

First, free WordPress templates are not always customizable to suit your needs. That is, you have to modify them, change, add something. This requires some knowledge of programming languages \u200b\u200b(not available to everyone). Secondly, finding a really good template among the thousands of free options is not so easy. Thirdly, the most popular and high-quality templates can be found on many sites on the web. That is, the question of uniqueness arises again. And fourthly, the authors of free themes rarely make any corrections and improvements to their works.

Paid WordPress templates are another matter entirely. When buying a theme, the site owner decides several important issues at once. His site takes on a unique look (not always). It is possible to order a theme for your own needs. There is no need to finish something. These templates are usually very functional. They are easy to customize. In addition, if necessary, you can address your question to the author. Developers themselves often keep their own blogs, talk about their templates, publish demos, and make changes to ready-made themes. That is why paid WordPress templates are also very popular among owners of Internet resources.

To become a WordPress template developer and make decent money selling them is a challenge. First of all, you must be familiar with the programming languages \u200b\u200bHTML, PHP and CSS. Other programming languages \u200b\u200bwill also come in handy. In addition, you need to have a good understanding of the WordPress engine and understand how it works.

Download some simple templates, study them, understand how they are created and how they work. Try to create something similar. Test the created themes. Over time, move on to creating more complex themes. When you realize that you are making really good WordPress themes, publish a few templates for free. Look at the reaction of the audience. Your own blog will help you here (you can also decorate it with your own template). Continue until you can create really cool themes. Both in terms of design and functionality. Only then can you think about sales and first earnings.

You can sell ready-made WordPress templates using your website. This is ideal if you already have a large audience of followers. If there is no site and subscribers, you can use third-party resources. Now there are sites on the network where developers sell their WordPress templates. In this case, the author receives from 30 to 70 percent of the sale price. The nice thing is that in some cases templates can be sold multiple times.

How much can you make selling WordPress templates?

In the West, theme authors receive from several tens to several hundred dollars for each template. Our situation is not so rosy, but we will still be able to earn something. The average price of templates in Runet is from 10 to 50 dollars. Although you can find higher rates (3000-5000 rubles per template).

That is, even selling through third-party resources (the advantage is that there is no need to look for buyers), you can get from 5 to 35 dollars from each sale. Considering that each template can be sold multiple times, this is a good profit potential. Of course, there should always be the possibility of a complete redemption of the template. That is, if a person wants this theme to be only on his site. In this case, the template is sold with copyright. And a certain amount of money is added to the price.

The most important thing in this business is to follow trends, do your job efficiently, and provide after-sales support to customers. And then your business will develop, and your monthly profit will increase and increase. We wish you successful earnings!

Developed a great theme or plugin but still don't know how to sell it? Today we will show you effective marketing techniques that will help you make money.

Design is not always for sale!

The simple truth is that even if you create the best theme on the market, it may never sell! The sooner you understand this, the sooner you start making money.

Talent, creativity and design are important, but that's not all. To sell themes and plugins, you need to develop a marketing strategy, and you need to do this even before your product is completely ready.

Do it for free!

Yes, we know what you want to earn. Giving out your work for free is not part of your plans.

But in reality, everything is a little different. If you're just starting out, you don't have a strong online presence and people don't know you or your job. Trying to sell themes or plugins in such a scenario is completely impossible. Not many people will shell out money to someone they haven't heard of. However, they will use your themes or plugins for free. Then the required audience will be pulled up through word of mouth.

But what about money?

You don't have to do everything for free. However, download the basic version.

By adding a few premium features, you can sell themes and plugins without losing any profit. This can be done by finding the appropriate directory for selling themes and plugins, and then releasing a Lite version of your work. Chances are, people who love and use your Lite version can shell out a few bucks for the full version.

The advantages of this solution:

Popularity. Releasing basic versions of your themes and plugins gives you the web presence you need.

Reviews. This will help you get feedback from your potential customers so you can work with them until the full version is released.

Minuses:

Sufficient audience, but not enough money. At the same time, it is not a fact that the audience can become your client.

Where to sell themes

Like Amazon for merchandise, there are various online marketplaces where you can sell themes and plugins for WordPress or other CMS.

Some of the major players in this business are listed below:

WordPress Repository - Since WordPress powers 18.9% of all websites, more and more markets have emerged for selling themes and plugins for this engine. WordPress Repository is a platform that allows you to upload your WordPress themes and plugins and put them on the market. Your products will go through a review process, after which you can get statistics on how many times your theme / plugin has been downloaded, reviews that users have provided, and you even get ratings. This is the base where you can download the Lite version first, learn the basics of the business, understand what works and what doesn't, then download the full version, and sell WordPress themes / plugins for money!

ThemeForest is one of the most popular Envato themed markets on the Internet. More than 10,000 themes and templates from more than 2,500 authors have been published on the market. The site generates very high traffic that you can use if you want to sell themes in this market. The trick is that, as a new author, you have to get approval and give the market a percentage of your sales.

CodeCanyon is also an Envato marketplace, but only if you want to sell plugins. You just have to become part of the CodeCanyon community and use your audience to sell your work.

We talked about selling your work, but what about making money from it?

According to statistics, ThemeForest boasts 7,986 WordPress themes. The average price range for themes ranges from $ 13 to $ 350, and the average 5-year template income after commission is estimated at $ 52,992.50. Likewise, CodeCanyon boasts 4861 WordPress plugins. The median price range for plugins is $ 5 to $ 299, and the 5-year median revenue from a template after commission is estimated at $ 9,848.

While there are other markets like Mojo Themes, Mojo Code, WP Eden where you can sell products for WordPress and other CMSs, ThemeForest and CodeCanyon are the main players.

The only thing these marketplaces do is charge a commission but allow you to connect to a large audience.

Pros:

No marketing required. Once you become a major marketplace writer, you will find it difficult to attract audiences to your work and persuade them to buy your themes / plugins. All you have to do is download the product and you can start making money.

Minuses:

Commission. The essence of these markets is that they charge a commission for their services. The more you sell, the more they earn. However, the likelihood that you will sell more on these sites versus selling yourself is always higher.

Join fellow developers and designers

If you work in a team, marketing becomes less crazy.

You plan to sell themes, but don't know where to start. Don't worry, because you are not the only one facing the same problem. The Internet is a tricky place, and finding ways to make money from it can get difficult. However, you can make this process easier by partnering with other designers, developers and even bloggers to launch your product and make money in the process.

Pros:

Less stress. If you have three people working on three separate objects, you can focus more on development.

Minuses:

"Too many cooks spoil the broth." Teamwork is good on paper, but hard in reality. You may not agree with the characters, or the vision of the result will differ. The result is loss, not profit!

Work on your own

Let's say you're not a very team player and you don't want to give your commission to someone out there. The solution for you is to create a website and sell through it yourself. It will not be difficult for you to create your own website that will become a shining example of good work. People will trust your work and shell out money for your products.

How simple it sounds, but in reality everything is more complicated. Development, as mentioned above, is the easiest task in this scenario. But earnings are not. When designing a website to sell themes and plugins, you need to keep in mind that you need an audience that drives traffic in the first place. Along with promoting your products, you will also need to promote your site. However, this will give you more than just freedom - you can also save every penny you earn.

Think about it, it's not bad, right?

Pros:

Liberty. You don't need to get approval, and you don't need to discuss with anyone whether your topic will sell.

No commission. The income you receive from selling WordPress themes / plugins is entirely yours. No exchange.

Minuses:

Marketing. You will have to work on driving traffic to your site to convince your audience that your product is worth buying.

Alone or in a team - marketing is needed!

People just don't know, don't suspect about the existence of your product. You need to properly tell about it!

Use the below methods:

Social media:

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have large user bases and groups and communities with similar interests. You can find a dedicated WordPress group to promote your themes and plugins. This will not only lead to popularity, but it will also cost you nothing. Having a strong social media presence with a personalized page dedicated to your work will also help build the trust you need.

Search engine optimization is a necessity in the modern world. To gain recognition, your site must rank high on the Search Engine Ranking Page (SERP). If you are developing a website, you need to make it SEO friendly so that your rankings grow, as well as promote it competently.

Affiliate Marketing:

Launching an affiliate program will help you find clients. You can sell your product through other people's sites. You can run an affiliate program and target top marketers and bloggers to take your product and advertise it on their websites. For every sale they bring in, they'll charge a small commission. Affiliate marketing is good because it helps you gain recognition and also build trust from strangers as they learn about your product through a site they trust.

Create a form on the website for generating email addresses. If you have a working website with good traffic, building an exclusive mailing list will help you not only build a community that trusts your work, but also a market where people can come back to you from time to time to shop.

Influencer Marketing:

Some people become idols for many others. These are bloggers, and there are many who are close to you in spirit. Ask them to tell their audience about your product - it can create an amazing effect, and it will certainly build confidence in you.

Hire someone!

If all of the above sounds too clever for you, you will need a professional to develop a marketing strategy and promote your site so that you can concentrate on development in the meantime. Hiring someone to develop your website and advertise will cost money, but in the long run, it could be the best investment for your money.

Someone who knows everything there is to know about marketing is going to be a pro in not only SEO but social media marketing as well as affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, and many other marketing technologies. Therefore, you will sleep soundly at night knowing that your money is in good hands.

Try again

Marketing is not an easy task, but it is essential. You may not get everything perfect the first time, but no one forbids you to try to achieve what you want by trying again.

Having learned from your own mistakes, you will gradually become a pro not only in development, but also in selling your own products.