When you answer that question, one thing to remember is how much work you would normally spend customizing a basic theme that can be found over at Theme Viewer or on other websites. If you think it might be a few hours, then give yourself some credit and value how much time you would save by not having to modify it so much.
Here’s what I can tell you far about the Project X theme. The theme’s main site will have a tutorial blog, which will be updated regularly to show you how to modify and enhance the theme even further. One thing to know is that it will be extremely easy to modify, and will be pretty much ready to use “out of the box”.
The theme will have a single page file, a static page file, a featured page file, a news page file, an archive page file and possibly a few more. This means that with the help of a tutorial, you can take your blog to a higher level and have multiple page layouts within your blog.
So back to the original question – how much would you pay for a premium theme?
I’d have to see it, and have some idea of how well the code is structured. Sorry! I know that’s not what you wanted to hear.
Mary-Ann – understood. That’s why I said it might be a hard question to answer. The code will pretty much be structured the same way my other themes are, just have a number of extra css and page files. I really pride myself on clean, easy to work with code, so hopefully people will find the same about this theme.
It is really hard to figure this one. You already give good themes away for free – though people can contribute if they want to. To ask for payment sets up a different relationship between you and the buyer. It has to be good and come with support – it also has to be easy to change. I wouldn’t want to pay then see the theme appearing everywhere like the old MS Frontpage themes of yore. Inevitably there will be a lot of them around – it won’t be scarce or unique. I would jump in at $50 – $75 (to distinguish theme from the load of rubbish premium themes that are out there. Maybe that’s crazy – hey do you want ot make a living from this or what?
Like Mary Ann said I’d have to see it before I could decide on a number. Actually how much a theme should cost is something I’ve been trying to figure out for awhile.
You want to compensate the designer for all the hard work that they’ve done. But at the same time you don’t want to overpay. Plus the fact that there are no set prices and you have to deal with the designers individually, it makes it hard to figure out how much you should pay.
Sorry I guess I didn’t really answer your question. You should charge what you think is a fair price for the time and effort that you have put into making your new theme.
Willie, the hope with this theme is that the basic structure of it will allow for a lot of various uses – and furthermore, the intention is to code it so that with the help of some css changes, it can be completely unrecognizable to other sites using it. Having said that, there is a lot of time that I have (and will be) putting into it, to make sure it is a theme worthy of charging.
The primary reason I am building this, is due to the increasing amount of requests I get from people that want a custom theme, one that doesn’t look like a blog. So I thought it would be beneficial to the WP community to have a theme that can accomplish what many of the themes out there cannot.
The key here is premium.
If it’s a kickass theme I’m willing to pay for that goodness.
I’d pay depending on the site. For a personal site, I might only want to pay a couple of hundred, maybe top-end $500. If it was for a commercial site or anything that is making me money (directly or indirectly), I’d pay $1000+.
I’ve already bought some templates in HTML. It was about 50 €. I think it’s the price i’m ready to pay for it. Even if your theme is different, i can’t avoid spending time personnalizing it for my client.
But for me, the way “rockettheme” is providing his Templates is great (for Joomla). You pay 50 $ for joining the club for 3 months…
By the way, i will be very interested in your premium themes!!! keep on working!
Olivier
Lyndon, thanks for your comments. I feel that the number I have in my head for the theme is quite fair, considering the time I have spent developing it thus far, the time I will contribute to the tutorials and extras that it will have and lastly all of the time I spend helping people who are using my themes that don’t make a donation.
Believe it or not, I used to get between 5-10 emails a day from people asking for help with issues they are having. And most of those issues didn’t have to do with my theme, but I still lent a hand. So yes, a little compensation for my time!
Monique, well this should be in your price range, because I certainly won’t be charging $500 for this. More than likely, it won’t even cost more than $100, which in my opinion is a steal.
Olivier, thanks for your comments, and you won’t have to wait long. The theme will more than likely be released next week, as I am ahead of schedule a bit.
Brian – yes that sounds fine to me and I look forward to seeing it. $100 would still be a good deal. Best wishes and hope it all goes well.
Willie, thanks. We’ll see how the WordPress community responds to it.
Brian and all wordpress theme designers;
I manage a lot of blogs for clients. Right now, we install a free wordpress theme for them. It takes me a lot of time to find a theme that allows me to do proper seo for the client and one that works properly, allowing categories, link categories, etc.
I’m thinking of offering the client custom themes instead of the free themes. Maybe I would resell those.
Another option is to have several themes built myself that I know work properly, then use those whenever I take on a new client.
I’d like to discuss options with you and hear some ideas from you. We have been very successful for these companies from an seo standpoint with the blogs and that end of our business is growing, but the time it takes me to find a good free theme and edit it can be better used on other things.
You’re asking a difficult question for a product no one has seen and barely has an idea what it’s capabilities are or the limitations allowed by a “premium” theme. I think you, as the designer/developer, must bear the responsibility for determining it’s value. Only you know how much time and effort went into the final product, that must be balanced with finding a price point that is relatively easy to swallow for your users.
If the price is set too high, you’ll deter its broad use, however, if the price is too low, it undermines your time value and waters down the product. Couple that with how “exclusive” you want this theme to be and I’d say you have a difficult challenge ahead.
One of the chief concerns I would have, is the fact that you’ve put out a number of excellent themes already, how much better will this theme be so that others can’t simply modify the free theme to behave as the premium theme?
Just some initial thoughts, Brian. I’m certain you’ll find the balance necessary.
It sounds like an awesome theme. If I were to buy it, I’d want to know that it wouldn’t be in the hands of thousands of other bloggers/site owners…
I’d say start testing @ $47-97.
dK
Chris, as always I appreciate your in-depth comments. Thanks for always looking out for me. I do want to balance it being used, so I don’t want to underprice it and have it be widely used. Although customizing it will help the “look” from being all over the net. In all honesty, since it’s a premium theme, I’m doubting it will be purchases and downloaded that much, and won’t be used ad much as my Blue Zinfandel and Vertigo themes. Guess time will tell… (p.s. love the Photoblog theme by the way!!)
Dan, the fact that it is in the hands of thousands of bloggers is highly doubtful. Most people looking for a theme want a free one – the reason this is being built is to provide serious bloggers and possible CMS clients a theme that is affordable, yet more appealing to the eye.
By the way, a big shout out to those of you who haven’t commented before on my site, and have decided to chime in here! Definitely appreciate the feedback!!
Brian: I’m newly hooked on blogging and don’t know a thing about html, css, or any other abbreviation. I put my first-ever blog up on a go-daddy quick blog, last month. I want to make the leap to WordPress and have paid a local site designer 200USD, thus far, for absolutely nothing. I’m back to trying to figure it out myself. Your Blue Zinfandel is in the top five list of beginning choices…for several reasons. Problem is, I don’t even know enough to make an intelligent decision about what to start with. If you provided a way to get onboard fairly quickly, and a support forum to help me learn to drive, I’d gladly have given my USD 200 for the package. It would have been a bargain.
If you were making it for one person? Probably $1,000-$3,000+.
If your selling many copies, then around $60? Sell 100 copies and your at 6K.
Templatemonster has sold many hundreds of wordpress themes, all of which aren’t that great. So if yours allows not only fast and easy customization but also the ability to really make each version unique, I don’t see why you wouldn’t sell at least 100.
Thought I would add…
Depending on the support services being offered later, I would pay more. Or even pay extra for add ons, theme mods, etc, at a later time…
I would love to have just one theme that I can buy add-ons and support for. If I could spend my time learning your theme inside and out, and buy add-ons, mods, whatever for the theme, I would be one happy guy.
Think “online game”. Game costs $60 bucks, add-ons cost between $10-$40 depending on what the booster pack does
Thats what I’m looking for anyways. A theme that gives me a great start, and lets me buy what I want, or don’t feel like spending time dealing with.
Brian -
When do you anticipate releasing this theme?
From the looks of the comments on recent posts, i think you have succeeded in creating quite a buzz as everyone eagerly awaits this project X theme….
thanks
Hi Brian – Assuming it’s a great theme – as I’m sure it will be coming from you – I’d pay $50-$100, depending on whether you allow people who pay that sum and download it to use it only once, or as many times as they wish. On the latter aspect, you might want to distinguish here between multiple use for personal or non-profit activities (e.g., the blogger with multiple sites) on the one hand, and multiple use for mixed personal/business use or solely business use (e.g., web designers who want to offer modified versions to clients)). All depends on your license terms I guess. If I were modifying the theme for onward sale to a client (assuming that would be permitted), it seems only fair that you get your due. Cheers.
Brian: sight unseen, ~$100 for a fully customizable theme ready to run “out of the box” (even for those among us who are design-challenged) would be totally fair.
I hope more quality designers adopt your ways and start selling high-end WordPress themes at affordable prices. Until now, we’ve had either knock-out commercial-quality themes for outrageous prices or slap-it-together freebies that required much editing and alteration.
Ed
$50 – $100
Don, sorry to hear what happened to you – don’t give up. Blogging is the real deal and a very fun thing!
Josh, appreciate the comments you left. I probably won’t end up doing a subscription or add-on based thing, rather offer that type of thing as part of the initial purchase.
Eugene, that was the intent!
Richard, thanks for the comments regarding licensing. I have come up with two packages that I will offer – one for personal use, and the other for unlimited use.
Ed, I’m really trying to make this a theme that will be a huge addition to the WordPress community. I agree with your comments regarding the quality (or lack thereof ) themes out there!
Brian,
Because I know it was created by you…I can say with ease that I would be willing to pay as much as $250.00
That is not a kiss up. It is an honest answer.
Kenn, I like your honesty.
If I were purchasing just for my personal site, I probably couldn’t justify any more than $100-$150. If I were purchasing for a client project, I would go up to around $250-$300+ based on features/flexibility/ease-of-modification. I’m looking forward to this!!
Well it looks like I’m a little late to the party here.
IMO one fear being expressed here is that it will be like CutLine – 1000’s of the same thing all over the net. Charging even $25 probably would have reduced those downloads by overt 90%, so I think the problem of the design being diluted is slim.
I see the greatest market for this would be for something like what Chris McElroy outlined above.
The issue here is that you cater to the digiteri. As your audience is largely sophisticated and skilled, you’ll price downward to the perceived value in that market. People like Monique and me, to whom the product is worth more, will be beneficiaries of your largess.
I also have trouble pricing intellectual products so I know what you’re going through. If I find I’ve underpriced it, I come up with add ons or perks. You always have the option of pricing low, you can always raise the price. I once published a quarterly newsletter and raised the price every issue until circulation hit the maximum I could manage. I only lost one subscriber who failed to renew (she died). If too many people sign on too quickly, it’s priced too low. It pains me when innovators don’t derive full benefit. If they’re making a fair return, they have the time to finesse the product and develop other ones.
I’m with Monique. I have some skills and know enough to know I don’t want to mess with it. It’s not how I make a living but I do need the platform to do it. I could not be happier than to hire it out and pay a professional. (I have a project I want to farm out, how I found this site, if anyone is interested).
@Mary-Ann Horley, Lyndon
I’m agree
I’d have to see it before I could decide on a number
Brian, check this. Scroll bottom.
I think to sell software, themes or anything along that line, the sharp marketers offer it for free, with limitations. I don’t know if you can do that with your theme.
If a user wants more features, users pay for those “add-on” features. You could also offer basic help on a forum, charge for premium help.
How about a subscription or low priced lease option similar to what vBulletin does.
Once you put that number you have in your head on paper and make it public, it’s harder to raise or lower. Give folks options and I think your theme will find it’s own value.
I just bought an option for Adobe Illistrator for $149 bucks because I needed and it was available as an add on. Hope this makes sense.
Good luck
I looked at loads of premium themes before going with one of the Vertigo ones for my wedding photography blog.
While I love the theme I have, I would love to be able to go with something a bit blog-like in appearance.
If the new theme was priced at $100 or less, I’d make the investment right away, assuming I thought I could make the customisations to get it looking how I’d want.
I’m really looking forward to seeing your work.
Cheers!
David
If I were purchasing a theme from you, here would be but I would _expect_ to pay:
A finished theme that I loved: $400 easy.
Here something you might want to reconsider since blog theme’s change often too — have an extra $100-200 option for the customer to come back to you for another theme later or maybe just a future renovation at some point or another. That’s almost like providing your own job security! But no really, this will make customers feel like they didn’t lose that $400 when they may have out grown that theme 1 month – 2 years down the road.
So all in all, I would happily pay $600 for one of your custom themes, and then maybe a possible renovation down the road.
Some food for though.
I am so so looking forward to seeing how this theme looks. I don’t anticipate that I would buy a theme though. I sort of enjoy my customization process and changing themes too much. I also don’t make enough from my blog site to justify the expense at almost any cost. A broke blogger…aaaahhhhh!
I have paid for coding help before though and with that up to say $50 with little pain in the butt issues and the education to learn what to do in those situations for the next time.
I am new to blogging and don’t have an attention span with enough bandwidth to program or install widgets.
However, I do know what I want, and I am willing to pay for it.
I think you are on to something with your regular theme tutorial with a paid subscription. I would pay 29-99 per month for this.
I would also like to be able to buy programming time on a regular basis to implement some of the design features unique to my area.
I didn’t attach my URL since it is an embarassment, but that can change very quickly with some help. I plan to implement your new theme and look forward to the ability to access your expertise.
I’m a late starter to blogging but I’m almost ready to install a WP theme for my site. I love your themes and Chris Pearson’s themes best (I think they are the best on the web). Unfortunately, I am not tech/computer savvy enough to be able to jazz my theme up – if/when necessary.
This is not a case of my not having the patience or discipline to read and learn, it’s just that techy computer stuff is overwhelming to me sometimes. I work a full time job and go to school part time and, newbie that I am, I just can’t squeeze enough hours in the day to process it all or to troubleshoot without guidance.
I would pay you $100 plus per month for tutorials on how to tweak/install/customize my blog(s), as it cuts down on the stress that comes with trying to make things right.
The market has changed in the last year, it used to be the designers who controlled the price of WordPress themes but it has now become a commodity, not to mention that most of the code seems to be pieces from here and there. Around $100 sounds about right but if you want to drive the price of your theme up then make its availability “limited.”
Speaking as a customer of Brian and an interested onlooker, I don’t think high price always equates with high quality. What Brian’s done is made the much-needed break from the pack offering just another free theme of dubious worth and, along the way, proven there is a market for premium themes that don’t cost an arm-and-a-leg in the WordPress community.
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