Ready to join thousands of other WordPress businesses?
The trouble with getting started is that you don’t have a platform yet.
If you just launched your site, you’ll end up announcing your new theme or plugin to a tiny audience. That will translate into disappointing sales.
So what do you do?
You release your awesome new product in an established marketplace with thousands of hungry buyers.
The best WordPress marketplaces
There are eight different marketplaces you can utilize to expand your reach and get your products into more buyers hands.
I’ll provide my opinion on the best course of action at the end of this article, so make sure to keep reading if you want a little insight beyond the marketplace recommendations.
Here are 8 places to sell your WordPress themes and plugins right now.
1. Themeforest
Themeforest is the biggest WordPress theme marketplace on the web. It’s run by Envato which has a number of other marketplaces for digital goods too.
Themeforest boasts over 40,000 themes & templates that have been published on the site by over 3,00 authors.
Themeforest
The huge traffic this website gets will help you get your first few sales and then it’s off to the races. That said, you aren’t guaranteed to earn a lot by simply getting listed here. Furthermore, you need to make a really high-quality theme to get included these days, so make sure to bring your best work.
If you sell your products exclusively on Themeforest, you’ll earn 62.5% of each sale. Your commissions increase consistently as your total sales increase. Once you reach $75,000 in total sales on their platform, you’ll keep 87.50% of each sale. Non-exclusive authors get only 45%.
Update: Check out this in-depth analysis of ThemeForest by Freemius to see if selling on TF might be right for you.
2. CodeCanyon
CodeCanyon is another popular marketplace by Envato. If you’re looking to sell WordPress plugins, CodeCanyon is a good candidate for your products.
Codecanyon
As a plugin developer looking to make money, your options are basically to release freemium plugins into the WordPress plugin repository, or try to sell plugins on your site. With CodeCanyon, you can skip the hassle of building a freemium model, and you’ll immediately reach a wide audience which is perhaps the hardest part of selling your own plugins online.
The CodeCanyon commissions scale the same way as Themeforest.
Update: Here’s another research post from Freemius on the numbers behind CodeCanyon.
3. TemplateMonster Marketplace
TemplateMonster has been a popular theme marketplace for years now, and we frequently recommend their products in our theme collections.
As of 2017, TemplateMonster now lets outside WordPress developers and designers submit their products for listing on their marketplace.
TemplateMonster
Exclusive authors earn 50% to start with and up to 70% once reaching $100,000 in total sales. New authors get the full 70% for their first 3 months which is a nice bonus for getting started with their platform. Non-exclusive authors earn 40% which is similar to most other options listed here.
4. Mojo Marketplace
The Mojo Themes and Mojo Code marketplaces combined a few years ago to create the new Mojo Marketplace platform.
Mojo Marketplace
While not as popular as Themeforest, one draw of Mojo Marketplace is that they integrate directly with hosting platforms like HostGator. This means a lot of brand new WordPress users will find your themes and plugins right when they create their site.
Mojo Marketplace commissions for exclusive authors range from 50-70%. Non-exclusive authors keep 50% of all sales.
5. ThemeSnap
ThemeSnap is a marketplace for WordPress and Drupal themes as well as HTML templates.
ThemeSnap
While not as popular as the other marketplaces, ThemeSnap does have very competitive commission rates. You start at 55% and can earn up to 75%. Furthermore, this is true for both exclusive and non-exclusive authors.
If you want to sell Drupal or Joomla themes in addition to WordPress themes and be a non-exclusive author, this would be an excellent marketplace to consider.
6. Creative Market
Creative Market allows designers to sell WP themes, templates, and all manner of graphic design goods on their site. Creative Market is different from the other marketplaces in that there is no review process.
Creative Market
Authors get a flat rate of 70% of every sale whether they are exclusive or not. As a creative marketplace, you can list any other design assets you’ve made including fonts, photographs, and icons. If you make any of these elements while creating your theme, you could package them up for sale separately on Creative Market too.
7. Codester
Codester is another great option to sell your WordPress themes and plugins.
Codester
Not just for WordPress products, they also list scripts, apps, and graphics for sale as well. Codester emphasizes code and scripts over themes, so it could be an awesome website to list your WordPress plugins.
Commissions are set at 70% for veterans and newbies alike. No minimums or exclusivity required.
8. WordPress.org
WordPress.org has a separate theme repository and plugin repository where you can list your WordPress products.
WordPress Website
While you don’t actually sell your themes and plugins on wordpress.org, you can submit them for review and get them published as long as they are free. The distribution you get from their site is massive, so you’ll get lots of downloads.
When launching Compete Themes, I opted to utilize the WordPress theme repository and sell premium upgrades to monetize my work. This is a popular strategy for both plugin and theme authors these days.
Which marketplace should you use?
There’s no right or wrong approach, but here are a few ways you could approach building your WordPress business.
Exclusive authorship
If you want to start making sales right away from a premium theme, your best bet is probably Themeforest. For plugins, try CodeCanyon. These marketplaces are extremely popular and have exclusive authors making millions.
As an exclusive author, you can actually earn a higher commission than any other platform once you reach the $75,000 sales threshold and hit the 87.50% commissions.
The main downside of this approach is that you resign a lot of control over your business to Envato, so you’ll still want to try and build a popular website of your own if you pick this strategy.
Freemium
Another way to quickly get lots of downloads is to use the theme or plugin repository on wordpress.org. In addition to getting tons of traffic, the other benefit is that you can sell your premium version from your site. So instead of keeping let’s say 70% of each sale, you’ll keep about 97% after paying for payment processing to PayPal or Stripe.
The challenge here is that it is harder to create, manage, and market a separate premium upgrade, and you will have lots of free users to support if you want to manage a positive reputation.
Non-exclusive author
The last viable option is to create premium themes and/or plugins and list them on your site for sale. Then signup as a non-exclusive author on all of the marketplaces listed here. If you focus on growing your site and simply view them as a way to get more sales, the 45-70% commissions won’t seem so low.
The downside is that it may get complex managing your products on your site and multiple different platforms at once. It could be challenging to release new updates and create a simple onboarding flow after customers make a purchase.
Which marketplace will you use?
Will you use a marketplace or sell on your own site? Freemium or premium?
There’s no right or wrong way, so let us know in the comments. How do you sell your WordPress products?
Over the last few years, the premium WordPress product market has gone from strength to strength.
These days, it really is possible for top developers to earn six- or even seven-figures a year by selling their premium themes and plugins. This has led to a surge of new products hitting the market, with lots of new developers looking for their piece of the pie. Unfortunately, many of them are left disappointed, with sales falling well short of their expectations.
What gives? Why are some developers super-successful while others struggle to earn a basic living? (Hint: it’s not just an issue of quality.)
The problem is that many developers have no idea how to sell their products — if the community is unaware of your products, how do you expect to make any money?
If this describes you, you’re in luck: today, I’ll be sharing four tips to help commercial WordPress developers sell their first 100 products.
1. FREEMIUM BUSINESS MODEL
If you’re launching your very first product, people have probably never heard of you. As you can imagine, this makes building momentum ten times more difficult!
People are unlikely to drop big money on a product they’ve never heard of, built by an unknown developer — not unless the product is truly groundbreaking and exceptional.
They are, however, likely to test out a product if it won’t cost them anything.
Whether you’re selling themes or plugins, try to release a basic version of your product. Just remove one or two premium features, then submit it to the relevant WordPress directory — this one for themes, this one for plugins.
Impress people with the ‘Lite’ version of your product, and they’re far more likely to shell out for the full version.
2. SELL ON THE BIG MARKETPLACES
If you sell your themes/plugins exclusively on your website, you have two obstacles to overcome:
Attracting people to your website, and
Convincing them to make the purchase.
You can make your life much easier by going to a place where you know big groups of buyers congregate — namely, ThemeForest (themes) and CodeCanyon (plugins). It’s the same reason big manufacturers all sell their products on Amazon — there’s a ready-made customer base in place.
Sure, you’ll still have to work hard to stand out from the competition, but it’s far easier to get noticed. After that, you can focus on perfecting your product page to generate conversions.
This might not be the most popular point, as Envato take between 30% and 50% of an exclusive author’s earnings, depending on total sales. With such a large customer base, however, selling your products on the biggest WordPress marketplaces can still be very lucrative.
In fact, CodeCanyon’s best-selling plugin, Visual Composer, has been bought nearly 80,000 times at $33 a pop — that’s around $2.6 million in revenue. On ThemeForest, the figures are even more impressive, with the best-selling theme, Avada, shipping over 145,000 themes at $58 — that’s nearly $8.5 million in revenue.
Truly eye-watering statistics, right? But could these developers have earnt anything like those figures by going alone? Not a chance.
Would you rather earn 100% of a smaller number (or zero), or 50%-70% of a much bigger number? That’s a decision that only you can make, but the Envato marketplaces certainly deserve consideration.
3. START AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM
You might not be the best marketer in the world, so why not attract marketing talent to do the hard work for you?
By launching a generous affiliate scheme, top marketers and blogs might pick up your products and advertise them for you — in return, they’ll receive a commission for each sale they drive.
You’ll still have to put yourself out there to attract your first affiliates, but if you’ve got a product that’s proven to sell, this strategy can snowball.
If you want to manage an affiliate program from within the WordPress dashboard, consider using a plugin like AffiliateWP — part of the Pippin’s Plugins family, which also includes Easy Digital Downloads.
4. REACH OUT TO WORDPRESS BLOGS AND BLOGGERS
Where do the people most likely to buy your themes/plugins already hang out? That’s right: the existing WordPress blogs.
If you offer a review copy of your product, many top blogs will be happy to put you in the shop window by publishing an in-depth review. This is a great way to show potential buyers your product’s main features, as well as providing a demonstration of how to use the product.
My advice is to contact every top WordPress blog you can think of, including the writers that regularly contribute to them. If you cast your net wide enough, you’re bound to get some interest, and this is often all it takes to start building some momentum.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The famous line from Field of Dreams — “if you build it, they will come” — just doesn’t apply to business in the real world. I’m sure there are many WordPress developers building exceptional themes and plugins that are earning nowhere near what their talent deserves.
Remember: When it comes to business, a great product on its own isn’t enough. You also need an effective promotional strategy.
Every developer will promote his/her products differently, but the four tips in today’s post are easy to implement and general enough to be a solid starting point for any developers looking to launch a commercial WordPress business.
Now it’s over to you. Do you have any more tips you’d like to add? Then share your expertise in the comments section below!
When I took my first steps into the WordPress theme arena, I didn’t know much about it. I wandered blindly into the business, not knowing whether I was doing things correctly. Over time, through trial and error and making rookie mistakes, I learned some valuable lessons and gained important insights. To save you from going down the same winding path, I’ll share some of the important takeaways that I’ve learned so far, like how to gain a solid user base, what to include in your themes and, most importantly, what to leave out. sawyer_teaser You could build the best WordPress theme in the world, but it won’t matter unless people know about it and use it. One of the smartest things I did when starting my theme business was to release a free theme. It took a while for it to gain traction, but things took off once it got some attention from being featured on other websites. Consumers are willing to download a free theme from the new kid on the block and try it out because hardly any financial risk is involved.
When I took my first steps into the WordPress theme arena, I didn’t know much about it. I wandered blindly into the business, not knowing whether I was doing things correctly. Over time, through trial and error and making rookie mistakes, I learned some valuable lessons and gained important insights.
sawyer_teaser
To save you from going down the same winding path, I’ll share some of the important takeaways that I’ve learned so far, like how to gain a solid user base, what to include in your themes and, most importantly, what to leave out.
Further Reading On SmashingMag:
A Guide To The Options For WordPress Theme Development
How To Improve Your Theme Development Process
Create A Responsive, Mobile-First WordPress Theme
Are You Getting Cheated When Buying A WordPress Theme?
Meet Inclusive Components, our new practical book for building accessible and robust interfaces. From accessible accordions, tables and tabs to buttons, notifications and modals — all in one book. Written by Heydon Pickering. Shipping now.
Jump to table of contents ↬
Feature Panel
Gaining A Solid User Base
You could build the best WordPress theme in the world, but it won’t matter unless people know about it and use it. One of the smartest things I did when starting my theme business was to release a free theme. It took a while for it to gain traction, but things took off once it got some attention from being featured on other websites. Consumers are willing to download a free theme from the new kid on the block and try it out because hardly any financial risk is involved.
The free theme was unique and easy to use, and people liked it so much that they began requesting a premium (i.e. commercial) version, with more features (the free version had the bare essentials). To this day, the premium version is still one of my best sellers. Consumers like to download the free version to try it out, and then they typically purchase the commercial version. Value is added to the commercial version with support, updates, easier customization and a bundle of exclusive features. Releasing a free theme enabled me to gain momentum and build on a solid user base as I began creating commercial themes, and I’ll return to that strategy in the future to increase sales.
MY FIRST MISTAKE
The first mistake I made when getting started, and one that I still kick myself over, is that I didn’t implement a newsletter opt-in method for users who downloaded my themes. This would have given me a long list of consumers to whom I could market my premium themes, and it would have been extremely valuable when I launched the commercial version of my theme a year later. I’ve now gotten my act together and have a booming mailing list that I email every time I release a new theme, thus generating sales that would otherwise have been lost.
YOU’VE GOT ’EM, NOW KEEP ’EM
Once I had a solid user base, I found that in order to keep them as returning customers, I had to add value not only to my themes but to my services. When you start a theme business, you’re not just selling themes; you’re also providing support and updates. Some of the top brands make great products and provide excellent support. Think of Apple, MediaTemple and Zappos. Say what you want about these companies, but there’s no denying that their user base is loyal because of both their products and their support and services.
One way to provide great support is simply to be timely with your responses. A customer loves nothing more than being responded to the same day. If you don’t know the answer to their question, at least let them know that you received it and are looking into it. You would think this is common practice, but you’d be amazed at how long some companies take to respond. If you can provide killer support, you’re already one step ahead of a lot of the competition.
Another way to add value is to provide educational resources that teach customers how to get the most out of your products. Some users will be more advanced than others, and they are usually the ones who purchase themes regularly. If you can provide a resource that enables those users to derive extra value from your products, then they will be more likely to stay with you and purchase more of your themes.
Streamline Your Process
Streamline and standardize your development process as much as possible. One way to do this is to use a theme framework, whether your own or a third party’s. Using a framework to quickly develop a theme is important when an eager audience is waiting on you. Most importantly, when you use the same framework, updating all of your themes after they’ve been released is easier. For example, all of my themes display a notification in the administration panel when an update becomes available.
The code that enables this notification is in a file named framework-init.php. In this file is a bunch of other important blocks of code that add features, such as the theme options panel and custom post fields, as well as common functions used throughout all of my themes. When I need to update that code, I simply make the change to my framework’s file and then that file gets replaced in all of my themes. By knowing that the file is the same throughout all of my themes, I don’t have to bother going through each theme to find that block of code to update. You can see how this becomes valuable when your inventory starts to accumulate.
The Hybrid theme framework
Hybrid is one of the more popular theme frameworks, thanks to its extensive list of features, including translations into 20+ languages and theme hooks.
CUSTOM VS. THIRD-PARTY FRAMEWORKS
From the beginning, I decided to build my own framework, mainly because I would know it back to front, making it easier to maintain and build on (being a control freak might have contributed to the decision as well). A custom framework also meant that I wouldn’t have to rely on someone else, and the framework would have exactly what I needed and nothing else.
This is, of course, just personal preference, and many people prefer to use a third-party framework. By using a third party’s, you save the time it takes to develop a solid framework. It also means that you’re not solely responsible for maintaining the framework, and you will usually have a support system to turn to if you run into development issues. A lot of impressive frameworks offer useful functionality, such as theme hooks, extensible layout options, styling for popular plugins and much more. Lastly, there is a growing market for child themes of such frameworks as Genesis, StartBox and Hybrid.
Other popular frameworks are:
iThemes Builder
Carrington
Starkers
WP Framework
Elemental
Sandbox
Thematic
Thesis
What To Include In Your Theme
Depending on the type of theme you’re creating, the expectations of consumers will vary. But you should consider certain features and functionality for the majority of your themes. You needn’t implement all of these, but at least consider whether they would add value to your theme.
INTERNATIONALIZE THE THEME FOR OTHER LANGUAGES
Internationalizing your theme enables users to translate the text displayed by your theme, and implementing it is fairly straightforward. This one is a must-have. I was amazed at how many non-English-speaking users downloaded my themes. Looking back, I should have internationalized my themes from the beginning, knowing that millions of people all over the world use WordPress. You would be silly not to internationalize your theme. Look at the “Translating WordPress” section of the Codex and this helpful tutorial by AppThemes for more information.
SUPPORT WORDPRESS’ CODING STANDARDS AND PRACTICES
Develop your themes in a way that supports WordPress’ latest coding standards and practices. In doing so, you ensure that the theme is compatible with future versions of WordPress, and you’ll avoid a flood of emails from customers who have run into conflicts. Also, avoid deprecated functions, which are functions that are “no longer supported and may be removed in future versions of WordPress.”
An easy way to check all of this is to install the Theme-Check plugin. This great little plugin runs the same tests as those that WordPress.org runs on submitted themes.
Theme-Check plugin
The Theme-Check plugin has saved me many times from leaving out important details and using deprecated functions.
DOCUMENTATION AND READABLE CODE
Write thorough and helpful documentation for your themes. This will not only help users, but also cut down on the number of support requests you get from aggravated users. And trust me: the less support requests you get, the happier you will be. Document everything that’s unique about your theme that WordPress users might be unfamiliar with, as well as any built-in features such as custom backgrounds and headers, menus, and post formats. Also provide instructions on how to update the theme and on the proper way to customize the code (in case a user wants to create a child theme).
A well-documented block of code in Twenty Eleven
The Twenty Eleven theme is a good example of a theme with well-documented code.
Another important aspect of documentation is to make the code easy to read and understand. Some advanced users will want to customize the code, so it should be commented in a way that helps them understand what you’ve done under the hood. For a good example of well-documented code, check out the functions.php file in the default Twenty Eleven theme.
CHILD THEMEABLE
As noted, many users will want to customize the code. The trick is that, when you release an update, the developer has to avoid overwriting the files that they’ve customized. The solution is for them to make their customizations in a child theme. So, make sure to support this functionality by allowing child themes to be easily created.
If you don’t want users to have to worry about including a particular script when creating a child theme, then use the get_template_directory_uri(); function to reference the parent theme’s folder. To allow the developer to overwrite this file, use get_stylesheet_directory_uri(); instead, which references the folder in the child theme, if one is being used.
PAGE TEMPLATES
Your theme should support the various page templates that a WordPress website can have. Because you don’t know how each developer will use the theme, you have to prepare for all possibilities. This is where testing comes in. For a typical WordPress theme, you should at the very least support these templates: page.php, archive.php, 404.php, search.php, single.php, attachment.php and, of course, index.php, which is the ultimate fallback. For a full list of templates, check out the “Template Hierarchy” section of the WordPress Codex.
WordPress Template Hierarchy
WordPress’ “Template Hierarchy“ is a great reference to have on hand.
You can also provide users with custom page templates. The two most common that I include with my themes is one with a widgetized sidebar (the default page.php) and one with a full-width page. You’ll likely be able to come up with other templates that users would benefit from once you’ve designed the theme.
Some theme developers use custom fields for this functionality, instead of page templates. This seems counterintuitive because the functionality is built into WordPress and is so simple to use. Creating your own page template is as easy as creating a new PHP file in the theme’s folder and adding the following PHP comment at the top (replacing “Full Width” with the template name of your choice):
<?php
/*
Template Name: Full Width
*/
?>
Copy
Of course, the code that follows the line above is up to you and will determine what the template does.
A NOTE ON THEME OPTIONS
There seems to be a misunderstanding about what users of premium themes expect. The common belief is that they expect an options panel that looks like the control panel of a Boeing 747, where they can tweak the smallest detail of the theme. Sure, users want to be able to control certain aspects of their website, but simplicity and ease of use trump bloat and complexity.
Airplane Control Panel
Your options panel shouldn’t be this complicated. (Image: Fly For Fun)
When deciding whether to include an option in your theme, consider whether it’s really necessary and whether that functionality is already built into WordPress. The more options you add, the more complicated the code becomes and the steeper the learning curve for users. I keep the options for my themes to the bare essentials, and a goal of mine is to create a theme for which an options panel isn’t even necessary. I challenge you to do the same.
You can build your theme’s options on top of any one of the several great options frameworks. These are the ones I’ve come across:
Options Framework
UpThemes-Framework
OptionTree
APPEARANCE OPTIONS
One reason to include an options panel is to enable the user to tweak the appearance of the theme without having to mess with the code. The option demanded by most users is surely to be able to upload a logo. Adding a logo is the easiest way for a user to personalize their theme. I enable it in all of my themes.
Preview of a simple theme options page
A snapshot of the options page in my latest commercial theme (based on the Options Framework).
Most theme buyers aren’t designers. They might not have an eye for color or be able to make informed design decisions. So, in addition to providing options to customize the theme’s main elements (like the color of text, the color of the call-to-action button, etc.), I include a selection of “skins,” which are basically just pre-defined palettes that a user can select from. This way, if the user doesn’t have an eye for color, they at least have options and aren’t restricted to one scheme. I usually provide several styles that cater to a variety of audiences.
SOCIAL NETWORK OPTIONS
Most individuals and businesses have some type of presence on social networks, whether on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or whatever the next big thing is. Because the design and placement of these social-network links vary from theme to theme, you can provide an option that allows users to customize the links.
Aside (and a little plug): I used to recommend including social-network options in the theme’s panel, but having given it more thought, I now feel it’s better suited to a plugin. New social networks pop up every day, and anticipating which ones your theme’s users will be on is hard. You will never be able to cover all bases, which is why I recently built a plugin that I’ll soon be supporting in all of my themes, and I suggest you do the same if you plan on including this feature. The plugin adds a new settings page where the user can create a list of social-network links. Users can select from the range of icons built into the plugin or built into the theme (if present) or upload their own. If this interests you, the plugin is called Social Bartender and is in the WordPress repository.
ADVERTISING OPTIONS
You could also enable users to add advertisements, either through a widget or through an option that positions the ads in certain spots (like following the top blog post). Many people want to monetize their website and so advertising options would be important to them. Being able to select the locations of ads to suit the design is a selling point.
What To Leave Out
Almost as important as what to include in the theme is what to leave out. Many themes have options and functionality that are better done as plugins or that are already built into WordPress. Use the functionality that WordPress already supports, such as custom backgrounds, headers, post thumbnails and post formats. This is easier to implement because WordPress does all of the heavy lifting, and many users are already familiar with it. That being said, if your theme doesn’t need this functionality, then don’t include it in the first place!
Example of bad shortcode usage
Shortcodes should not replace standard HTML tags. Many of the shortcodes shown above are unnecessary.
SHORTCODES
Shortcodes are great for executing a set of functions, but they’re unnecessary simply to embed a link or add a class to an element. Use standard HTML tags for this. For example, don’t create a [quote] shortcode when the HTML <blockquote> tag does a perfectly good job. I’ve seen themes that have shortcodes for quotes, citations and headers but no support for the same styling with HTML tags. This is a big no-no. Many users will switch from theme to theme and will already have content on their website when they activate yours. HTML tags will stay the same, but shortcodes vary from theme to theme. Don’t force the user to go back through all of their content just to add your custom shortcodes. Use shortcodes only to execute functions, not to apply styling. There may be a few exceptions, such as to wrap a message in complicated HTML, but if you’re simply adding a class, then adding it to the “Format” menu in the post editor’s kitchen sink makes more sense.
A great tutorial was recently published by Luke McDonald that details how to add your own styles to the drop-down menu in the visual editor, giving you one more reason not to use shortcodes to style elements.
PLUGIN TERRITORY
Don’t include options for things that should really be added with existing plugins; for example, Google Analytics and favicons. I hear someone in the back asking, “Why not include such things?” Well, person in the back, what if the user decides to switch themes, even to another of yours? They would lose all of that information and have to figure out how to get it back. The option is unnecessary, would make the code overly complicated, and would cause trouble when the user switches themes. Include only options that alter functionality that is unique to your theme; otherwise it’s better suited to a plugin.
Further Resources
“Theming for the Masses,” Michael Fields Michael’s talk from WordCamp Seattle 2011.
“Right To Left Language Support,” WordPress Codex
Options Framework Plugin, Devin Price A great framework for quickly putting together an options page for your theme.
“An Alternative to the Shortcode Madness, Part 1,” Luke McDonald Learn how to add your own styles to the drop-down menu in the visual editor.
“Translating WordPress,” WordPress Codex
“WordPress 3.0 Theme Tip: Custom Backgrounds,” Otto on WordPress
“Custom Headers,” WordPress Codex
Update 2/18/19: We continued our research and added 8 new WordPress marketplaces where you can sell your own themes. As usual, we have included information about commissions and exclusivity whenever that information was readily available. Please let us know in the comments below if you a) know of another WordPress directory we could add to this list, or b) want to write a review about any of these 15 directories in order to help your fellow developers. For example, what do you think about Mojo Themes vs Themeforest? Share your experiences!
There is no doubt in the fact that WordPress is the most popular platform for blogging websites. But in the past decade, it has become so much more than that. Every developer that you come across today would love to dive into WordPress for all the right reasons. The unprecedented popularity of this crafty CMS is quite apparent, as WordPress accounts for more than 18.9% of all websites on the Internet.
It’s no secret that developing and designing themes for WordPress has been a booming sector for a long time. But do you know how to sell WordPress themes once you develop them? Many marketplaces have emerged that give you the opportunity to get your themes noticed and sold to millions of people all over the world. While the 30% – 50% commission that these websites ask for may be off-putting, you can make some solid dough with your themes and plugins in no time.
Here are 15 places to sell your WordPress themes online right away. Be sure to scroll down for a comparison chart!
1. Themeforest
Themeforest is probably the one WordPress theme marketplace that you already know about. Nonetheless, it’s unprecedented popularity demands that it should be at the top of the list. Developed by Evanto Marketplace, Themeforest is the marketplace to buy and sell themes for all CMS products such as WordPress, Drupal and Joomla with prices that fall between $5 to $63.
themeforest 1024x588
This is an extremely high traffic marketplace, which increases your odds of selling your WP themes, if you can get your theme approved (they set a high bar of standards). You can keep 50% of your sales as a new author, and can increase your commission up to 70% as you sell more, which means your Themeforest revenue will grow even more as you sell more themes.
2. Mojo Themes
Mojo Themes may not be as elaborate as the bigger WordPress marketplaces, but it definitely is on its way. With almost 2,000 marketplace items for customers to browse through, Mojo Themes is a serious platform for contenders to display their top notch WordPress themes.
mojo marketplace 1024x562
Although some buyers may browse Mojo Themes for free products, and you can certainly offer them for free, the marketplace offers a sophisticated method to help you sell your themes. You can sell them as soon as you are verified and approved. Similar to ThemeForest, Mojo Themes provides you with 50% commission on the sales as an exclusive author, and as you sell more, you are allowed to keep 70% of the sales commission.
3. WP Eden
WP Eden is more than just one of the best places to get WordPress themes. It has been developed to help professional webmasters as well as WordPress beginners. WP Eden is a resource collection website which provides an array of WordPress themes, plugins, tutorials and tips. This helps newcomers learn how to make and sell WordPress themes all at the same time. *As of February 2019, it is unclear if WP Eden still offers a third party seller platform. We’re investigating!
Wp eden 1024x584
Along with the resource collection capabilities of WP Eden, it performs as a decent marketplace for developers to sell their work. While WP Eden may not be as scaled as other WP marketplaces, it can provide you a good opportunity to create a revenue stream by uploading your themes, plugins and even WordPress tutorials. You get a commission of 50% on the sales of your themes.
4. Creative Market
Creative Market is yet another WordPress marketplace and theme mecca where you can sell your developed themes, templates and various forms of graphic designs. What makes Creative Market stand out is that there is no review process involved to have your themes approved for upload.
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If you’re not sure how or what to sell on Creative Market, you just need to upload your WP themes as the website guarantees that your theme will appear on their portal. You can set your own prices and earn 70% commission on each of the sales.
5. ThemeSnap
ThemeSnap is a marketplace to buy and sell WordPress themes, Drupal themes and HTML templates. Since three development worlds collide in this marketplace, there is much more traffic, which increasing your chances of selling.
themesnap
Even if you are looking for a WordPress exclusive marketplace, publishing your theme on ThemeSnap will pay off. Moreover, this marketplace offers the highest commissions of 75%, which is always an enticing factor.
Staying exclusive and keeping your exquisite WordPress theme out of these frequented WordPress marketplaces is no longer a working strategy. These marketplaces have helped many WordPress designers and developers go from zero to thousands in just a few days. So if you have been having trouble getting your exclusive WordPress templates out in the world, these WordPress marketplaces are just what you need.
6. Popular FX
PopularFX.com is a bit different than the rest. They have made inroads with several hosting companies so that customers can pick themes from their marketplace when first installing their WP instances from cPanel. Therefore, having your theme in PopularFX can hugely help your theme business. Our own theme, Pixel Linear has been downloaded nearly 250,000 times through popularFX so we know first hand just how powerful this marketplace is.
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7. PressCastle
PressCastle.com is a lesser known marketplace, though interestingly enough, it is arguably the biggest. Having pulled together themes from all around the web, PressCastle boasts 15,000+ themes in its directory from over 300 websites and over 1400 authors. You can add your theme to their directory for sale as well. Just create an account, and once it is approved, you can start selling.
PressCastle Screenshot
8. Template Monster
Template Monster has a large marketplace where you can sell 31 different types of digital products. At the time of publication, they have about about 2,100 WordPress templates for sale in their directory. As a vendor, you can earn up to 70% from each sale if you sell exclusively through Template Monster. If you offer your theme for sale elsewhere, you can only earn up to 40% if it ends up selling on Template Monster.
Template Monster
Wondering how to sell WordPress sites in full? Some marketplaces, like Template Monster, also let you sell WordPress sites as turnkey offerings.
9. Codester
Codester offers a marketplace with no exclusivity requirement and no minimum number of sales. You’ll receive 70% of what you sell on Codester and can be paid through PayPal. All you have to do is sign up and upload your WordPress themes. It takes about 1-2 business days for the Codester team to review your themes and list them on the site.
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10. Etsy
Etsy may bring to mind vintage jewelry and clothing, but you can sell much more on this unique marketplace. Etsy’s guidelines stipulate that anything sold must be either vintage, handmade, or craft supplies, and WordPress themes certainly fall under the category of handmade. You can sell themes here with a $0.20 listing fee and an approximately 8% commission for payment processing and transactions. However, because your target audience might not think to look on Etsy in the first place, be sure to have a robust marketing plan to advertise your store.
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11. Dev Items
Dev Items offers a 75% commission for anything you sell, and it’s free to upload your themes. However, you need to make at least $50 before you’ll be paid through your choice of PayPal, Skrill, Payoneer or direct deposit. WordPress themes are listed by category, which makes it easy to see where the competition is low on Dev Items.
devitems
12. Code Grape
Code Grape has a relatively low commission at 60%, but unlike some other WordPress theme markets, you get to set your own price. A review team does not make that decision for you, which means you can adjust the price according to that commission. Code Grape has no exclusivity policy and offers useful selling tools on their platform.
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13. Template Toaster
Template Toaster offers a growing marketplace for WordPress themes. They do have an exclusivity policy, and you can only sell themes made by the Template Toaster software.
Template Toaster
14. Gridgum
Gridgum offers a place for you to sell your WordPress themes with a fixed commission, regardless of how many sales you make. For exclusive themes, you earn 65%. For non-exclusive themes, the commission lowers to 45%. They also offer an affiliate referral program and let you add an installation service to your theme so that you can earn a little more. Gridgum only has responsive themes for sale, but they aren’t picky about the responsive framework used to develop the theme.
Grid Gum
15. Purchase Theme
Purchase Theme starts sellers out with a 70% commission, but you can earn up to an 80% commission if you help to promote the site. You retain full control over the price of your products. In addition to selling WordPress themes, you can also sell plugins and extensions on Purchase Theme.
Purchase Theme
And that concludes our list of marketplaces where you can sell your WordPress themes.
Of course, you could also go the route of getting your theme listed on plenty of other sites in mash-ups or in free directories, and then offer upsells inside of your theme for the paid version, but these marketplaces represent just that: marketplaces.
Which WordPress Theme Marketplace Is Right for You?
Now that you know you have 15 options to choose from in order to sell your WordPress themes … which one should you pick? The good news is that, in some cases, you don’t have to pick just one.
Exclusivity Versus Traffic
Some of the WordPress theme marketplaces that have exclusivity policies also have a high volume of buyers searching the site every day. Although you can only sell your WordPress theme on their site, the chances of it selling at all may be higher due to the increased traffic.
On the other hand, you could also make sure your theme gets in front of a large number of people by selling it on more than one directory, as long as each of those directories has non-exclusive policies.
Perhaps the best way to figure out which selling platform is right for you is to try several. If you have more than one WordPress theme ready to go, put one on a high-traffic but exclusive site, and put another on several smaller but non-exclusive sites. See which one sells faster and gives you a better profit.
Commissions and Price Control
The other important factor to consider is how much money you’ll make when your theme does sell. As you can see in the list above, all of the marketplaces take a percentage of each sale in order to keep the platform up and running. Some also set the price for you, whereas others give you complete control over the price of your theme. Are you willing to sacrifice some profit in order to get your theme in front of a lot of potential buyers?
Only you can decide how much money you need to make off of your theme. You know how many hours you spent on it and how much your time is worth. Carefully incorporate the commissions into your calculations so that you don’t end up disappointed when your theme sells.
Here’s a nifty chart we made to help you quickly compare and contrast the exclusive rates, non-exclusive rates, price control and traffic data. Remember to take the traffic data with a grain of salt, because many of these sites have more than just WordPress themes for sale.
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Buyer and Seller Support
You also need to think about what makes certain marketplaces attractive to buyers. Do they offer buyer support and installation services? If you sell on a platform that does not have great customer support, you might make your themes more attractive by offering installation and support services … as long as the marketplace allows that.
On the other hand, can you as a seller get plenty of support if something goes wrong during the selling process? What happens if your buyer is unhappy? A good marketplace will have your back and help mediate disputes, but remember that you end up paying for this service when the platform takes a higher percentage of your earnings, versus a lower percentage taken by more hands-off platforms.
If you found this article helpful, please link to it! If we’re missing a resource that you think would be helpful, please let us know in the comments below!
Developed an amazing WordPress theme/plugin but still have no clue how you might sell it? Then read on, as listed below are some killer actionable marketing techniques that will have money pouring in almost instantly!
A design doesn’t always sell!
The simple truth is that even if you may have created the best WordPress theme/plugin in the market, it may never sell! The sooner you accept this truth, the sooner you will make money. Get best WordPress themes.
Talent, Creativity, and Design are important, but if you don’t market them right, your work may as well be non-existent on the World Wide Web. In order to sell WordPress themes/plugins, you need marketing strategies, and you need them even before your WordPress theme/plugin is completely ready.
Here at Templatetoaster WordPress website builder and WordPress theme builder, i have listed below are some actionable methods that will help you sell WordPress themes/plugins such that you can start making money almost instantly!
Don’t believe us? Read on.
Make it free!
Sell WordPress Themes Free
Yes, we know what you’re wondering. Giving it away for free WON’T bring in any money. Well, truth is, you’re wrong. If you have just about taken baby steps into the world of marketing, you probably don’t have a strong online presence, and neither do people know you or your work. Trying to sell WordPress themes/plugins in such a scenario is quite frankly impossible. Not many people will shell out money for someone they haven’t heard about. However, they are more likely to use your WordPress themes/plugins if they are free. Giving you a much-needed audience, and word of mouth marketing.
But what about the money?
Since this post is about how to make money selling WordPress themes/plugins, selling them for free won’t cut it. Uploading a basic version, however, will.
By removing a few premium features, you can sell WordPress themes/plugins without losing out on the returns. This can be done by finding the relevant WordPress directory to sell WordPress themes/plugins and then releasing the Lite version of your work. Chances are, people who like and use your Lite version might shell out a few bucks for the full version.
Pros
Exposure. Releasing basic versions of your WordPress themes/plugins gives you the online presence that you require.
Reviews. The basic version release will help you get feedback from your prospective customers, such that you can work on them before you release the full version.
Cons
Enough audience but not enough money. Releasing a basic version for free will bring in the audience, but it is no promise that the audience might all become your customers.
Throw your work in the Amazon! – Sell WordPress Themes/Plugins
Okay, not really. We’re talking about the big marketplaces. Like you have Amazon for goods, you have different marketplaces online, where you can sell WordPress themes/plugins.
Since WordPress powers 18.9% of all websites, more and more marketplaces for selling WordPress themes/plugins have started cropping up. Some of the major players in the business are listed below:
WordPress Repository is a platform that lets you upload your WordPress themes/plugins, and host it on their marketplace. Your theme and plugin will go through a screening process, after which you can get the statistics of how many times your WordPress theme/plugin was downloaded, the feedback that users have provided and you will even get ratings. This is the marketplace where you can first upload the Lite version of your WordPress theme/plugin, learn the basics of the business, understand what works and what doesn’t and then upload the full version and then sell WordPress themes/plugins for money!
ThemeForest is one of the most popular theme marketplaces by Envato on the web. The marketplace has published more than 10,000 themes and templates by over 2500 authors. The website generates a very high traffic, which you can tap into if you wish to sell WordPress themes on this marketplace. The catch, however, is that, as a new author, you must get your theme approved and give up 50% of all sales, which increases to 70% if you sell more.
CodeCanyon is also a marketplace by Envato but only if you wish to sell WordPress plugins. The good part about CodeCanyon is that it lets you skip the process of uploading your plugin for free on the WordPress repository. You just have to become part of the CodeCanyon community and tap into their audience to sell your work.
TemplateToaster is essentially a web design software which allows people to design beautiful themes from scratch. However, it also has a marketplace where users can sell themes designed with TemplateToaster. TemplateToaster sweeps in to save the day and lets users design templates and themes from scratch without any technical skills. Its marketplace provides you with a large audience which you can tap into to sell themes/plugins.
We talked about selling your work but what about making money from it?
According to statistics, Themeforest boasts of having 7,986 WordPress themes, out of 26, 644 available themes on the inventory. The average price range for WordPress themes ranges from $13 to $ 350, and an average 5-year earnings from a template after the commission is estimated at $52,992.50. Similarly, CodeCanyon boasts of having 4,861 WordPress plugins, out of 19,006 available scripts. The average price range for WordPress plugins ranges from $5 to $299, and an average 5-year earnings from a template after the commission is estimated at $9,848.
Although there are other marketplaces like Mojo Themes, Mojo Code, WP Eden where you can sell WordPress themes/plugins, ThemeForest and CodeCanyon are the major players. TemplateToaster, on the other hand, gives you an edge even if you do not know coding.
The only thing these marketplaces do is take a commission, but let you tap into a large audience base.
Pros
Major marketing not required. Once you become an author for major marketplaces, the hassle of attracting an audience to your work and convincing them to buy your WordPress themes/plugins ends. All you have to do is upload a WordPress theme/plugin and you can start making money.
Cons
Commission. The catch of these marketplaces is that they take a cut, for their services. The more you sell, the more they earn. However, the chances that you sell more on these websites as compared to selling them by yourself, is always higher.
Join hands with fellow developers and designers
Sell your WordPress Themes/Plugins Join hand
With teamwork, marketing gets less maddening. So you’re out there planning to sell WordPress themes/plugins but don’t know what you can do next. Worry not, because you aren’t the only one facing the same issue. The web is a daunting place and finding ways to earn money on it can get difficult. You, however, can make the process easier by collaborating with fellow designers, developers and even bloggers and marketers to launch your product and make money while doing it.
There are freelancers available for everything. And people never say no if they can make a few extra bucks. All you have to do is find the right people that have a similar niche. You can find people through WordPress blogs, social media communities and through websites like Freelancer. Once you have the necessary people, that have the same goal in mind, you can start selling. As you develop WordPress themes/plugins, one person can work on writing the content for it, another can take care of marketing it, all three of you can share the profit and if in case there are any, the losses.
Pros
Less Workload. If you have three people working on three separate entities, you can concentrate more on developing WordPress themes and plugins.
Cons
‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’. Working as a team is a good on paper, but difficult in reality. There may be a problem where your vision may change, or one entity, say marketing might not take off. Resulting in losses rather than profits!
Go, Solo!
Sell your WordPress Themes/Plugins Go solo
Say you’re not much of a team player, and not a big believer in capitalism and commissions either. The answer then is to make your own website and sell WordPress themes/plugins all by yourself. Considering you know how to develop a theme and plugin, and even if you don’t – you still have a software like TemplateToaster, then it won’t be difficult for you to make your own website that speaks for your work. If the website is brilliant, chances are people will trust your work and shell out money for your products.
As simple as that sounds, it is not. Developing, as mentioned above, is the easy task in this scenario. Making money isn’t. With developing a website to sell WordPress themes/plugins, you need to keep in mind that you would first and foremost require an audience that brings in traffic. Along with promoting your WordPress themes/plugins, you will also have to promote your website. However, this will give you not just the freedom to showcase your talent, you will also get to keep every single penny that you make.
Come to think of it, that’s not bad, right?
Pros
Freedom. You don’t need to get approved by any marketplace, nor do you have to discuss it with anyone whether or not your WordPress theme/plugin will sell.
Zero Commission. The returns you get on selling WordPress themes/plugins are all yours. No sharing, whatsoever.
Cons
Marketing. And a lot of it. You will have to work on bringing traffic to your website, to convincing audiences that your product is worth buying.
Solo or not, marketing is necessary!
Sell your WordPress Themes/Plugins Marketing
Having harped on about marketplaces, working with a team or going solo, the end result is, unless people don’t know that your product exists, they won’t be able to buy it. Making marketing techniques listed below your best friend will help you sell WordPress themes/plugins easily.
Social Media
Pages like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, have a large user base, along with groups and communities, with similar interests. You can find a dedicated WordPress group to promote your WordPress themes/plugins. This will not just bring about exposure, but will also cost you almost nothing. Having a strong social media presence, with a personal page dedicated to your work, will also help you build the trust that you may require.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization is a necessity in today’s world. To get recognition, your work needs to rank high in the Search Engine Ranking Page (SERP), which you can get if you regularly comment on forums, that one have a good ranking themselves, and second that your comments use keywords that will get your work recognized. Similarly, if you develop a website, you have to make it SEO friendly, such that your rankings shoot up. Making your WordPress themes/plugins SEO friendly will also help you get the edge that you require.
Affiliate Marketing
Launching an affiliate scheme will help you in your marketing requirements. You can sell your product through other people’s websites. You can launch a scheme and target top marketers and bloggers to pick up your product and advertise it for you on their websites. For every sale they bring about, they will only charge a small commission. Affiliate marketing is good because it helps you get recognition, along with gaining trust from strangers, as they reach your product through a website they trust.
AdWords
Advertisement never gets old. They more you grow, they more advertisement you require. One such example is Google AdWords which helps you bring in recurring traffic, which can then help you generate sales, while you target the audience that you want as per your preferences. It’s about reaching the right people at the right time. Launching an ad campaign isn’t all that easy. You need to have a long term and short term plan in hand to actually enter the market so that you don’t end up losing more money than you make. But if you do end up understanding the market of advertising, you’re in!
Email Marketing
Make Opt-In forms your go-to-guy for generating email leads. Once you have a running website, with a good amount of traffic, building an exclusive email list will help you to not just build a community that trusts your work but also a marketplace where people may actually keep returning with their requirements. You can also send out emails to some of the major email newsletters, such that you can get your product listed in their circular. The good thing about this is that email newsletters have a large audience base that would get to know about your latest work, through them. One such email newsletter is wpMail, a WordPress newsletter that goes out weekly with the latest WordPress news.
Influencer Marketing
Getting recognised when you wish to sell WordPress themes/plugins is important. Some people, however, have already cracked that market. Getting a review from those people will go a very long way. The review may be critical, but it will help you work on your product, however, it may also be positive, and drive in customers that already listen to the said influence. It’s like getting a thumbs up from someone who knows what they are doing. You can even showcase the review on your website, or social media pages so that people know that your work is actually worth giving a try!
Hire someone!
Sell your WordPress Themes/Plugins Hire professinal
If everything written above sounds a little too mind-numbing for you, you would require a professional for your website development and marketing such that you can concentrate on developing WordPress themes/plugins. This may sound daunting, as hiring someone who will develop your website and promote will cost you money but in the long run, it may be a better investment for your money.
Someone who knows everything there is to know about website development and marketing will be a pro in not just SEO, but social media marketing, as well as affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, and email marketing among many other marketing techniques. Therefore, you will sleep peacefully at night knowing that your money is in safe hands. To help you get started, we at TemplateToaster provide dedicated support both paid and free (for TemplateToaster customers only). Interested people can reach us to get their custom website project done. Also, we provide marketing services as well. We can set up a full-fledged marketing campaign for your theme/plugin to market! Reach us by following below mentioned methods:
24×7 Live Chat Support System
Contact Us with your project
Create. Market. Re-Create.
Sell your WordPress Themes/Plugins Create
Marketing is no easy task, but it is a necessary requirement. There is still out there a huge market that wants the perfect WordPress theme/plugin for their niche. The question is are you ready to reach them?
With the techniques listed above, you cannot just reach them, but also make money in the process. It is not easy, but it can be done. Follow the techniques, and you will start making money in no time.
However, if you fail, you can create again. And since you would know all the marketing techniques, re-creating a WordPress theme/plugin shall remain your only task!
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