If you are a programmer or planning to learn a programming language to develop WordPress Themes and Plugins to set up a business, then you must read the complete post to know as to how and where to sell your premium WordPress themes and plugins. Getting into this skill might prove fruitful for your programming skills.

In this post

• What to keep in mind before developing and selling WordPress Themes or Plugins.
• Where to sell your themes and plugins.

Are you a WordPress developer and ever been told that you can make 6 figure income by selling your custom WordPress themes and plugins? Is it!

While this looks promising in the beginning and a good kick-starter for a newbie but as you gain experience you come to know that you are not alone who has been promised the same.

Still, this is not the end of the road, but you must start to figure out how to get started in the premium WordPress theme and plugin business and make the most of it. There are uncertainties but isn’t that too with life also?

The good news is that there exist several good marketplaces for themes and plugins for starting up an entrepreneurial journey as for yourself. Designing for WordPress can be very rewarding and setting up a business of your own can be very rewarding.

Why Sell WordPress Themes & Plugins?

If you are an experienced programmer and have worked with WordPress for a considerable amount of time, then you would appreciate and understand the need for beautiful custom themes and plugins for much-needed support. A site built in WordPress can use most or all of the tools and can be used to build a brand on the web.

Here come the theme and plugin developers, for whom there is a huge potential market awaiting to consume their work. WordPress is truly global and is used by companies and organizations no matter their size.

No wonder the marketplace for themes and plugins is competitive. However, the hurdles to entry are not as difficult as it may seem and there are plenty of places to showcase your skills.

How to Sell WordPress Themes & Plugins

If you are good at developing both themes and plugins but have to choose as to what to focus on, then the choice is simple. The research on the existing market places suggests that the market for themes is larger. So the choice should be pretty simple if you prefer to make your business pickup fast and smooth. With this choice in mind, we will discuss the points you must ensure to get ready for the market.

Point 1: Select a Niche and Design Your Theme accordingly

Selling one thing is better than selling all. To be recognized and identified easily in a marketplace is to focus on a particular niche. When the term niche is used, it means, that the themes are designed to serve a very specific segment or need. A food blogging requirement will be different from a clothing e-commerce site.

There are plenty of means to find a niche and the best way is to use a tool like Google Trends that may throw upmarket that have room for new themes and also to understand what people are searching for. Another way is to refer to Google Question Hub or Google Q&A which is pretty new but with huge potential that remains untapped.

Google Trends

Once you can tap into your niche, you can now frame a blueprint for your design based on the needs of the audience. Remember, people pay to those who help them solve their woes.

Point 2: Develop a Theme that is Fully Responsive

With Google’s new algorithm update, all the websites, including e-commerce websites, now have to have a responsive website as the page indexing is ‘mobile-first’. Anyway, the design of your theme must work on multiple platforms, and hence keeping in mind the responsive design principles, the work will be only on one version of the design.  

While working on a responsive design principle, elements such as fonts, image size, menu, headers, and more are to be designed with effectiveness on mobile-first. Getting the help of some dedicated plugin can prove handy.

Point 3: Always Adhere to the WordPress Coding Best Practices

If you crave success as a theme developer then, you can achieve it, if, you know and understand WordPress’ Coding Best Practices.

WordPress Coding Best Practices

WordPress developers do a commendable job to keep everyone on the same page. The WordPress framework consists of CSS, PHP, JavaScript (now the assertion is low on JS), and HTML which all is covered by the code handbook.

Adhering and following the best practices will go a long way in ensuring your development success and your theme is well-documented and functional for a great deal of time. WordPress is pretty dynamic and keeps pace with current trends hence, future updates will not be a hurdle if the first steps of following the WordPress Best Practices are taken care of. This will help build loyalty and trust as a developer who is trying to sell themes.

Point 4: Include Appropriate Theme Templates

WordPress has a theme template hierarchy and accordingly the templates are named and applied to post and pages. You must also ensure to include the appropriate template in your theme, that will allow the users to have a level of customization and control.

The user will be able to choose what theme template to apply to different posts or pages. If the theme developed by you has some special feature, then make sure to include and highlight them in your template but ensure to avoid theme bloat.   

Point 5: Develop a User-Friendly Theme Options Page

The Theme options page should be a user-friendly one as the user will use this page to customize the theme as per his use. If not so, the user will need to go into CSS and PHP coding himself, and that any user would avoid if he is paying for your theme. Ensure that the theme options page is visibly clean, well-organized, and easy to use.

Click and select is what users pay for and getting into coding is that last thing one would do after paying for a premium theme. To build strong goodwill ensure the Theme options page is one of the best parts of your work.

Point 6: Make precise Theme Documentation

Adhering to WordPress best practices will also involve having to prepare theme documentation as per the prescribed recommendation. Updating oneself with these recommendations will come in handy once you submit them to WordPress. Having your theme available through the WordPress theme finder can give you a significant edge.

The documentation part shall point out any limitation or any specific installation and shall also include the theme code in case a fellow developer wants to make some customizations.

Point 7: Choose a Theme Marketplace

Once you are done with the process of all the basic requirements, then comes the marketplace where you would like to list your theme. For you, as a starter and many other, WordPress.org is still the best free market place choice to begin and continue with.

If you have other options in mind, then keep your goals in sight for your theme and what sort of marketing will benefit you, and how much you will be shelling out in fees. What are the available marketplaces, is discussed below.

Point 8: Price Your Theme and Start Selling

The last and the most important piece is the price tag that you would put on your work and watch the purse swelling. The market average suggests a price tag of $55-$59 for premium themes. However, since you had begun with a niche at the very beginning, so claiming a higher price is in the stores.

You can also go a step forward with a subscription service or theme club with your theme and plugin creation. It is more important to understand the customer and focus on solving their problems and fulfilling their needs, sale will materialize, no matter where you sell it.  

Marketplaces to Sell WordPress Themes

You are set up to sell your themes, ley’s have a look at the available options that will offer the best return for your work. Here we have shortlisted the top seven WordPress theme marketplace and a summary of what they will offer you if you go with them. You can have a look at each of these and make up your mind based on your immediate requirement.

1. Creative Market

Creative Market is a wide platform for selling not only themes but also photos, graphic design, fonts, and more. Hence this market is suited for people of varied skills to sell their work. It is one of the leading marketplaces with over 6 million members and a great starting platform to sell your themes with huge potential.  

This platform sets itself apart from other platforms in terms of flexibility. It allows you to sell your work at other market places as well as your site and hence retain the right of your hard work.

Commission offered: Creative Market offers 70% of your themes’ profit and the option to price your product at your price is always available.

2. Theme Forest

ThemeForest market place is also a good option if the choice of exclusivity and profit is evaluated. This marketplace has huge traffic and that can prove useful in getting your first sale. This marketplace has an option to handover your exclusive sale rights to ThemeForest for a smaller fee, but it’s optional.     

Commission offered: Varies

For non-exclusive sales, fees can be up to 55% and this fee goes down if you choose to become an exclusive member. More the sale, the lesser the fees.

3. Codester

The most simplistic and straightforward market place for themes and plugins is Codester. It also offers the sale of some digital products in addition to themes and plugins. There is no exclusivity limitation and you need not be a very experienced seller to chip in the rewards of this marketplace. It does follow a review process for the theme submissions but still a simplistic marketplace than any other.

Commission offered: It offers a flat 70% margin across all the categories, be it a theme, plugin, or other digital product.

4. TemplateMonster

Template Monster marketplace sets itself apart by providing great support to its designers as well as customers. The option to choose their pricing is offered to programmers. Other than that, it is also similar to other marketplaces with exclusive sellers being given more preference over non-exclusive.

Commission offered: Exclusive seller takes away 70% while a non-exclusive will take only 40%.

5. MOJO Marketplace

Each marketplace needs a product which programmers like you make and to entice you to be their exclusive seller they offer good commission and also some extra benefits. In the case of MOJO marketplace, you get access to its partners. The marketplace is connected to multiple hosting services and provides the customer with immediate to their themes while setting up the host.  

MOJO marketplace claims to have over 5.8 billion users which are a mindboggling figure. MOJO marketplace sets its pricing so you lose the option to price your niche theme too.

Commission offered: Exclusive seller – more commission with more sales and non-exclusive takes away flat 50%.  

6. CSSIgniter

CSSIgniter is a versatile marketplace with varied options for customers. One of the options is of theme clubs which turns out into great payouts for the developers. Some other quirky perks like a renewed subscription by a user referred by you will fetch you a commission. You will anyway need to have a minimum of $100 in a month to get paid via PayPal.

Commission offered: For each sale 50% commission is offered.

7. WordPress Theme Directory

No developer can ignore the WordPress Theme Directory. Any new user will always begin his search with WordPress Directory hence this marketplace provides a huge audience as well as more chances of conversions.

WordPress directory is a free directory, and you must include a ‘lite’ version of your theme here. From here you can direct customers to the full premium version, which of course will have to be hosted elsewhere. This is a complex process but gives freedom to potential customers to try new themes without risk.

Which Marketplace Should You Sell Your Themes On?

With a plethora of options, confusion is but natural. So, choosing the best marketplace for your themes will call for your guts and intuition, there is no one right answer to that. You wish to be an exclusive seller or want to retain rights of your work and sell them elsewhere is a matter of your calling and not a matter of suggestion.

Something that can be suggested is that you can offer a free version of your theme on certain marketplaces and let the customers use your theme to gain their trust and they get to know you as well as your product. This bet can really pay off and the only investment needed is your programming skills which you have already invested yourself into.