How WordPress Themes Changed the World

How WordPress Themes Changed The World byMichael Kimb Jones for WordCamp UK 2010 http://mkjones.co.uk @mkjones http://base6design.com

How WordPress Themes Changed The World WordPress Themes haven’t rea!y changed the world. But over the past 3 years the WordPress theme landscape has changed dramatically. What started as a few key community members pumping out cool and interesting theme designs has turned into big business with huge turnovers and a truly worldwide scope.

About me • Work in the NHS Spoke last year about the use of WP in the health sector and how I’ve used it • Design studio ‘base6’ Providing web solutions based mainly around WP http://base6design.com • I love WordPress Started using in 2005 after a long search for a solid CMS platform (Joomla, Drupal, PHP Nuke.. etc) • I love WordPress Themes For me, its always been about the themes. My personal site http://mkjones.co.uk

WonderThemes / Wonderﬂux Project WordPress theme framework and marketplace community project currently in development WonderThemes.com

About this talk • WordPress Themes Why WordPress? Why themes? • History Lesson A look back over the past 3 years before premium themes and how we got to where we are today. • Commercial Theme Models A look at how people/businesses started to sell is WordPress themes. • Case Studies/Success Stories How people/businesses have grown theme marketplaces and created businesses My personal site http://mkjones.co.uk

Why WordPress, why themes? • I personally spent years searching for a good CMS platform to build sites with • Instantly fell in love with the WordPress’s intuitive theme system - template tags, the loop, headers, sidebars, custom page templates ..... etc .... • When you develop a site with WordPress, you’re really just making a theme - themes are the most important part of the WP platform

The eureka moment.... If you can design, if you know HTML/CSS and a little PHP, then chances are you can make a WordPress Theme

MY FIRST THEME! Circa 2005 - personal blog theme - embarrassing!

...and, my 2nd theme... A few months later - project for a local training company website

Why Designers/Developers love WordPress Themes • Provides a usable easy to learn platform • Well supported, lots of documentation, open- source and FREE • Anyone with intermediate CSS/HTML skills can pick up the basics and get theming • Improving all the time; (ameworks, parent themes, TwentyTen etc...

The evolution of WordPress themes • Over the past 3 years the WordPress theme landscape has changed dramatically • Thousands of WP users are now developing beautiful and elegant themes either for themselves, for clients or as products/services which they can sell • This movement is signiﬁcant because IMO it has helped drive the growth and acceptance of WordPress more anything else (i.e. plugins, CMS imporvements, core upgrades...)

The History Lesson 3 years ago (ish)....... if you wanted a theme, chances are, you would go here

Today... there are a lot places to get themes from

WordPress Commercial Themes How did we get here? the early days

3 years ago (ish) • No theme clubs, • Most of the themes were marketplaces or stores simple blog themes, no theme options or cool • WordPress was still features growing as a platform and was still seen as • A few individuals purely a ‘blog’ platform creating ‘premium’ WordPress themes • 1000’s of FREE themes in the directory of • One of the ﬁrst varying quality to see potential was a site called WPDesigner.com

WP Designer The wpdesigner.com website by Small Potato (Yung D0)

“So you want to create WordPress themes huh?” The seminal WordPress theming tutorial (at the time)

Example WPDesigner Theme - WPDesigner8 One of the sites ﬁrst ‘premium’ themes

The WPDesigner Themes Club $5 per-year, 12 themes, support, tutorials, community

6 months in, WP Designer was SOLD Less than 6 months after launching the theme club, Small Potato sold the site and moved on. Although the site went on to be a failure (http://blogohblog.com/wpdesignercom-going-down-the-drain/) its legacy is everlasting.

What did this prove? There was now serious money to be made selling premium WordPress themes And since then, the entire WordPress theme marketplace has evolved dramatically

Meanwhile.... Other people were becoming well known in the WP theme arena and putting their own spin on the premium theme model

What happened next? The WordPress Commercial Theme Explosion TM 2008 - present

WordPress Commercial Theme Vendors €ase $tudies

StudioPress (aka Revolution, Revolution2) Founded by Brian Gardner. Evolved from the ‘Revolution’ theme. Revenue Model Yearly subscription - $249 Access to Genesis (amework Access to a! child themes (and legacy themes) Access to support forums Access to future upgrades for 12 months Individual Purchase Genesis (amework - $59.95 Child themes - $80/$100 Access to related support forums Access to theme upgrades http://studiopress.com

StudioPress (aka Revolution, Revolution2) Other Notes Brian has changed his business model a number of times before settling on StudioPress First theme store to truly embrace the GPL model preferred byWordPress.org Revolution2 themes were FREE to download with optional purchase of support Genesis framework is a relatively new feature of the business Allows for user-submitted child-theme development via a ‘Featured Designers’ programme http://studiopress.com

DIYThemes/Thesis Founded by Chris Pearson. Centres around a single, customisable, user friendly theme. Revenue Model One-oﬀ payment - $164 or $87 Developer or Personal option Access to support forums Access to a! future upgrades Skins/Child/Sub-Themes Developed using built in custom CSS features Available though the DIY Themes community Theme sites such as http://thesisthemes.com also exist http://diythemes.com

DIYThemes/Thesis Other Notes One of the first truly popular premium themes Thesis is a closed-source project and does not embrace the GPL - This has caused friction between DIYThemes/WordPress in the past Thesis is one of the most popular and affiliated WordPress-related products online Major selling point is the Thesis advanced options panel which allows the most novice of users to create different layouts and quick designs easily using the product http://diythemes.com

WooThemes Co-founded by Adii Pienaar (AKA Adii Rockstar). A WordPress blogger and online personality known for the ‘Premium News Theme’. Revenue Model ‘Theme Club’ - $125/$200 joining fee + $15/$20 per-month Access to ALL themes/upgrades Access to support forums Individual Purchase Single/Standard/Developer - $40 $70 $150 Access to related support forums Access to theme upgrades Permanent 3-for-1 on a! single purchases http://woothemes.com

WooThemes Other Notes Recently moved into development for other platforms namely Drupal and Expression Engine Uses the ﬁrst real ‘theme club’ model since the demise of WPDesigner Initially non-GPL, this was swiftly changed once the site became more established In a recent interview with Mixergy.com Adii announced that the site had taken in over $2million dollars over the past 2 years http://woothemes.com

ThemeForest Part of the ‘Envato Marketplaces’ founded by Collis Ta'eed (Tuts+, Freelance Switch). Revenue Model Digital Marketplace - no ﬁxed price structure User submitted themes Revenue sharing on single sales Oﬀers ‘regular’ or ‘extended’ licences on themes but a! themes are licensed under the GPL Theme Seller Options Se!ing Exclusively - 40% to 70% of every sale Se! Items Elsewhere - 25% of every sale http://themeforest.net

ThemeForest Other Notes Also sells Joomla, Magento, Drupal and basic HTML/PSD products Uses GPL for PHP but not strictly for images, CSS, HTML - most themes have a mixed licensing system Can be highly proﬁtable - Current top user has 2784 sales of theme worth $42 = $116,928 Themes must be of a certain quality standard before being allowed into the marketplace The entire marketplace has over 330,000 registered users http://themeforest.net

ThemeForest, a ﬁnal note Success stories... Top sellers can earn up to $25k per-month. Some high earning examples include: Display Theme Makes an Average of $28,000 a Month LondonCreative+ Theme Makes an Average of $7,000 a Month Twicet Theme Makes an Average of $7,000 a Month ShareShifter Theme Makes an Average of $7,000 a Month BigFeature Theme Makes an Average of $5,500 a Month Find out more: http://themeforest.net/winter-wordpress/ http://themeforest.net

Recap... StudioPress DIYThemes Mixed yearly subscription One-oﬀ fee revenue model. or individual item revenue model. Based around a single, strong product. Based around a WordPress Theme Framework. Relies on theme support and future upgrades. Relies on theme support and future upgrades. Non-GPL. Uses GPL licence. WooThemes ThemeForest Mixed monthly subscription One-oﬀ individual sales. fees or individual item revenue model. Community driven products. Now developing themes for Revenue share. other platforms. GPL/Mixed-licence model. Relies on theme support and future upgrades. Part of a more elaborate network of sites. Uses GPL licence.

Recap... StudioPress DIYThemes Mixed yearly subscription One-oﬀ fee revenue model. or individual item revenue model. Based around a single, strong product. Based around a WordPress Theme Framework. Relies on theme support and future upgrades. Over just a fewtheme support Relies on short years these 4 sites alone have and future upgrades. Non-GPL. managed to generate millions of dollars in revenue Uses GPL licence. all thanks to WordPress themes WooThemes ThemeForest Mixed monthly subscription One-oﬀ individual sales. fees or individual item revenue model. Community driven products. Now developing themes for Revenue share. other platforms. Mixed-licence model. Relies on theme support and future upgrades. Part of a more elaborate network of sites. Uses GPL licence.

Recap... StudioPress DIYThemes Mixed yearly subscription One-off fee revenue model. or individual item revenue model. Based around a single, strong product. Based around a WordPress Theme Framework. Relies on theme support and future upgrades. Each site uses on theme support different business model and Relies slightly a and future upgrades. Non-GPL. each site licence. helped to expand the use Uses GPL has of the WordPress platform WooThemes ThemeForest Mixed monthly subscription One-off individual sales. fees or individual item revenue model. Community driven products. Now developing themes for Revenue share. other platforms. Mixed-licence model. Relies on theme support and future upgrades. Part of a more elaborate network of sites. Uses GPL licence.

So, did WordPress Themes Change the World? What do you think? questions, discussion....

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How WordPress Themes Changed the World

by Michael Kimb Jones on Jul 17, 2010

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How WordPress Themes Changed the World — Presentation Transcript