Make Money Building Custom WordPress Themes
Blogging is still very popular online, and no matter what you use your own blogging skills for, there are plenty of other people out there who are either starting up their own or wanting to revamp the one they have.
WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms there is, but for those people who want to personalize or monetize their blog by using the WordPress platform with their own domain name and hosting, they will be looking for a blog theme that is more in keeping with their topic of choice.
And that’s where you can start making some money.
If you look up ‘custom WordPress themes’ on the internet you will find several sites run by people who design themes and make a nice chunk of change from them too.
There are two ways you can profit from this, but both of them really need your own website set up and running to do it properly. The easiest way to get started is by offering a range of designs and styles that will appeal to different bloggers and charging a flat fee to everyone who wants to download and use it. Later on when you become more confident of your design skills you can offer to create custom designs – one offs – to people who require them for a higher fee.
So how do you design these themes in the first place?
Well it helps to have an eye for design, certainly – not to mention a familiarity with WordPress yourself. Knowledge of CSS and HTML will also help. If you have a WordPress blog then you are likely to be more familiar with how it all works, and that’s the best place to start. The WordPress site has plenty of information on how to build custom themes and there are also plenty of people online who have posted step by step tutorials covering all the design aspects you will need to know.
That’s all very well but how do you know which types of designs will sell? This is where some nifty research will set you apart from your competition and get you selling more themes in no time. Make sure you test each theme before you offer it for sale, to make sure that there are no bugs or errors in it.
By using keyword tools you will be able to find areas of interest that are likely to bring lots of positive results when you slant a WordPress theme or two towards them. Bear in mind the keywords themselves here too, since they will help you to pull in traffic once you are up and running.
It’s worth building at least eight or ten custom themes before you launch your site, and you should make sure they are slanted towards some diverse topics. As you add more and more themes you will bring in more traffic thanks to your keyworded descriptions of the themes themselves.
What about pricing? Many custom themes sell for around $30 to $40. Many sellers don’t advertize their rates for a one off theme, but if you are sneaky and request a quote from a few you can get an idea of a ballpark figure to charge.
The great thing about standard custom themes is that they can be paid for online and set up to be delivered automatically, so it truly is a business that can be run on autopilot if you desire. All of which leaves you a lot more time to keep designing new themes for sale.
Make sure you do some more basic themes as well, which you can always offer at a lower price. While custom themes angled towards a certain niche market will sell well, some people will want something a little less targeted.
Before you disappear to start doing your research online, leave us a comment in the box below. After that, it might just be time to see how good your design skills are
موضوع: Make Money Building Custom WordPress Themes 
8/5/2011, 18:58
