You don’t have to go through a long, difficult process to get to the top. You just need to spend a few days, or maybe a few hours, reading this book to learn the ins and outs of the WordPress theme business and become an Envato best seller.

How I Made $1Million Selling WordPress Themes

One in five sites on the web today are powered by WordPress. It’s a huge ecosystem with themes, plugins, and a helpful and dedicated community.

WordPress

Themes

Preface

I don’t believe in messing around, and neither should you. When you bought this book, your first question was probably “how did Igor make a million dollars selling WordPress Themes?”. That’s the crux of the book. There are so many web development and business books out there which may have some good things to say, but the reader is left asking: But did these techniques really work for the writer? Or is he/she just regurgitating other personal development books to make a quick buck?

Starting Off

We’re nearly finished with the history of my company. By the end of this chapter, you’ll have a broad understanding of how I moved from budding entrepreneur to reaching the top of my field.

ThemeForest and Dedication

I’ve watched many developers fail and succeed. Paying attention to the theme developers around me has helped me understand where that thin line is between failure and success. Have you ever wondered why some people pour their heart and soul into ThemeForest and fail, while others reach their goals?

Company Culture

At Stylemix, we’ve worked hard to create a personal brand that customers can trust; but it hasn’t been easy. It takes time to develop a personal brand which will work for you and your themes.

A Personal Brand and Why You Need One

You might already have a good idea about which type of themes you want to sell - but in my experience too many developers jump straight into creating without thinking about niches . In my time building StylemixThemes from a small business to one of the most successful on ThemeForest, I’ve discovered that choosing a theme niche or category is just as important as the features, functionality, and style of your end product. There’s no point in investing countless hours of development time on a beautiful, effective theme if no one wants to buy it!

How to Select Your Niche

In my time as a successful developer, I’ve realised that designing themes shouldn’t be done in a haphazard way. There needs to be an idea or vision at the heart of everything you do, otherwise you’ll end up with themes which serve no purpose, are unfocused, and contain redundant features your potential customers don’t need. We’ve talked about choosing niches and how those niches inform your design choices, and in this chapter I want to take that one step further with you. I want to show you the process I and StylemixThemes have taken when designing themes. These are themes which have been successful, sold thousands of units, and have put StylemixThemes where it is today as one of the top ranked developers on ThemeForest.

The Theme From Scratch - How We Do It

When we first submitted a theme to ThemeForest, we were shocked when it was initially hard-rejected. I’d already been working for some time as a developer, and to good success, so how could a StylemixThemes’ WordPress theme be rejected so quickly? Not letting this initial setback get me down, I worked tirelessly with my team to amend the theme and submit again.

14 Secret Ingredients of Good Theme Design

Many of the developers I’ve encountered in my time using ThemeForest have made the same critical mistake: They believe that once a theme is designed and sold, that’s their job done. This is too simple an approach. It focuses on designing and marketing a theme, but says nothing for support and future updates. Tech support and the continual updating of your themes is a cornerstone of success on ThemeForest. This is true for any tech business. A staggering 78% of customers purchase a brand or service because of their support experiences, and a whopping 93% of people are only satisfied with their support experience when they feel trusted and valued by a business. You can see then just how important good support techniques are.

Technical Support & Updating Themes

As a developer and entrepreneur, I’ve learned that it’s problematic if you don’t take advantage of available revenue streams. The developer who generates a more expansive and stable income will outlast competitors and continue to grow healthily. Without this, you’re not maximizing your potential. It’s that important. So many developers on ThemeForest are unaware of the serious income you can generate from tech support alone. Though it’s not a passive income and requires work, by monetizing part of the tech support you offer, you can significantly boost your revenue. This is especially critical if your sales vary in the beginning and you need to rely on other sources of income. It can be a lifesaver. However, if you try to monetize all of your tech support, you’ll not only violate Envato’s terms of service, but you’ll also turn buying customers into irate ones.

How to Make a Profit on Tech Support

When you start out as a developer, unless you are lucky to have a great group around you and the resources to fund them, you’ll be on your own. Working on your own has its merits - building something from the ground up is rewarding itself - but the time will come, and hopefully quickly, when you will need to hire people to meet the growing demand for your themes. Support staff, marketers, designers, admin etc. are an essential part of any successful Wordpress developer, so the sooner you know how to get the most out of your staff, creating a good team dynamic, the better for you and your business.

Working with Staff and a Team

Envato is a wonderful market for developers. It provides access to a huge buying audience and is easily one of the best places to get started. Despite this, however, there are some issues that you should be aware of which are largely out of your control - issues which you will need to think about and respond to strategically. Primary among these is Envato’s price policy. The price at which you sell your themes will determine in part your sales numbers, and your growth as a developer. Pricing is also inherently connected to quality. But Envato has altered its price policy recently, and it has brought a number of advantages and disadvantages for developers.

Updating Price Point for Envato Market

One of the most important features of the WordPress CMS, is that it allows you as a developer to use third party plugins. By using these, you can quickly add a large number of features to your theme, instantly increasing its scope and value. While this plugin system is incredibly useful, there are so many plugins available to you as a developer that choosing the right one can be a bit overwhelming. At StylemixThemes, we’ve found the correct use of plugins to be instrumental in our success. In this chapter, we’re going to explore my approach for researching and selecting plugins in order to make your themes as effective as possible.

Recommended Plugins and Builders

Like any creator, it’s important that you do a final check through before you release your product into the wild. The last thing you want is for your theme to receive a large number of negative reviews because you didn’t check that it was up to a high standard before uploading. Likewise, Envato also has certain stipulations which each theme must meet before being listed on their services. In this chapter, I’m going to share with you my checklist process which ensures I’m uploading as good a theme as possible while also meeting Envato’s guidelines. Bear in mind, this chapter is merely an overview to help you get started - I’ve included links to resources which go into each section in far more depth.

Things You Need to Check Before Uploading

There are a number of ways to market your theme successfully, but too many developers overlook the simplest forms of theme marketing. Just because something is simple, doesn’t mean it’s not powerful! One of the best ways to attract customers to your theme is through the promotional images, screenshots, and icons which represent your theme on ThemeForest and the rest of Envato’s market.

Preparation of Graphics

It would be great if all a developer had to do was make a fantastic theme and then watch it climb to the top of ThemeForest’s rankings. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. With so many great developers out there, it’s difficult to stand out from the crowd. That’s where marketing and promotion come in. At StylemixThemes, we’ve learned a lot through the years, figuring out how best to sell our themes and make ourselves known to the world. Marketing is a difficult task, but if you follow our model, and bring your own individuality to your marketing strategies as well, then your themes should sell well.

Wordpress Theme Marketing and Promotion

I’ve noticed that a lot of developers focus on marketing their themes through social media.

The Key to Success - Email Marketing

There are several ways to build your business as a developer, and one of the most powerful is to use referrals. In my time building StylemixThemes from a small outfit to one of ThemeForest’s biggest sellers, referrals have proven to be extremely helpful in creating, not just a quality brand reputation, but sustainable and growing sales.

Referrals

Measuring performance isn’t easy. How do you know which themes you should invest more time in? How can you tell if one of your themes is performing the way that it should? What sort of information can you use to maximize your chances of growing your sales in the future?

How I Made $1Million Selling WordPress Themes

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Igor Ligay

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How I Made $1Million Selling WordPress Themes