I was just in a thread about someone saying they didn't see the reason why people obsess about getting themes on Themeforest, so I tried to find an article from Nettuts+ about how much money you can make.

 

Anyway while searching I came across this from Themeforest forum and thought you guys would find it pretty amusing.

 

I charge anywhere from 2-3 thousand for completed sites derived from TF themes. My portfolio is starting to look like Theme Forest’s Greatest Hits…and I don’t feel a bit bad about it.

I tell you what works for me and it’s very believable and quite frankly true…

If and when the buyer brings up the use of templates this is what I say – “Sir, your website is the same price if I design it from scratch or use a template. Why? Because if I use a template, I still have to get inside another programmer’s head…and that takes time. I have to quickly learn the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the programmer and his code. Reverse engineering takes time too. So, would you rather pick a template that you know you’ll be happy with or would you rather me mock up a few designs and take your chances? Furthermore Sir, the chances of you seeing another site in the same industry that looks just like yours are almost zilch. Why? Because half the people who buy these templates will never use them, go out of business, or usually just don’t know anything about SEO thus you will never run across their site no matter how hard you try to find it. Now, you can make that 2-3 thousand dollar check out to XYZ Web Design and point out which template you’d like.”

 

Another one

 

I take a theme or two and adapt the home page of the psd file with a clients graphics and logo and links an show them a jpeg online. Almost always they get lathered up and ready to go because the themes i pick are so much better than what they have or have seen. Easy sell.

I tell them it is Wordpress theme design (never use the word TEMPLATE ) that has been tested and is full of options and features that would normally add THOUSANDS to the job if it was hand coded into a custom design. Another easy sell.

Then I charge what I feel the market will bear. That includes customization, SEO , copywriting, photography, etc. I try to stay in the $5-10K range. And service them well.

I charge on the consulting, branding and benefit to the client and not on how much things cost me.

Too many new web designers charge to little because they are not comfortable at the higher price points and it drives the prices down for all.

$5000 is what most companies spent on ONE full page magazine ad a few years ago. And that was just for placement.

Go bold folks. Up your prices and don’t let clients bully you into giving your work away.

$5000 is what most companies spent on ONE full page magazine ad a few years ago.

 

An advert in a popular magazine is guaranteed exposure to a specific demographic.

 

A website is not, unless you invest $thousands in Adowrds/SEO.

 

lol.

You could do this but i don't and the reason is simple.

I enjoy my work, what these people are doing is re-selling (essentially art dealers). The actual web designers/developers are the guys who made these templates in the first place.

 

I have no intention of being a re-seller as i enjoy sitting down in front of a blank piece of paper with a pen and my imagination and trying to come up with something that will please the client. It's just lucky that i can make a fair few bob while doing it.

 

Often a client will approach me saying they've had a quote for £200 for a full Wordpress theme. If the client has got samples i'll ask to see them and then point them in the direction of the original files.

It happens on here occasionally when a new member will ask us to check out their portfolio and it'll be a template with the copyright text at the bottom changed.

 

The bit about the end user never seeing it on another site made me laugh though. If you take Themeforest as an example, the top selling themes their are mainly variations on the same old theme.

I know this new website themepool.net im selling there now and they pay mutch more! i started at 80%!

Nothing really odd about this.

 

I recently did a bit of freelance with a mate where we used a themeforest wordpress theme.

The client had a limited budget, was fully aware this is what we intended to do AND we re-designed the theme completely, based around the same functionality.

 

Effectively, what we did, was cut about 40 hours off the job by not having to configure that much.

 

You wouldn't recognise the theme as it stands after our modifications.

 

Themeforest serves a very valid purpose - for budget concious clients it's a viable solution as very few small businesses have £3000 to spend on a basic website.

 

I learned a ton during that process, the most important being we picked the wrong theme, as it was a total nightmare to reconfigure - heh. But it was an excellent starting point that saved us a LOT of time and saved the client LOTS of money. I also learned a great deal about wordpress and had good fun doing it, after an initial panic where I wanted to cry

 

Everyone came out a winner.

 

To be honest, as a commercial developer, working for a commercial company, we churn out cookie cutter sites anyway - at least, it feels that way.

 

Ironically, we design the same stuff Themeforest is starting to reject, the good old home page with Featured area (Hero shot), and three or four boxes of summary below (intro, news headlines, events or whatever)

 

There's no shame in any of this - it's commercial & serves a purpose.

 

If you want to get on your high horse about a website for a legal company, or a local landscaper, go for it - heh - beat yourself up about purity of design and sticking to your morals, the rest of us will earn a living.