Comments on: Interview with Jason Schuller on the ThemeGarden Marketplace

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 04:16:49 +0000

In response to: Leland: Can you tell us what separates the future ThemeGarden marketplace from other potentially competing theme marketplaces like ThemeForest or Mojo Themes? Why would a theme seller want to sell at ThemeGarden?

JS: It’s really not my intention to compete with sites like ThemeForest or Mojo. These sites focus on multiple platforms, quantity and maximizing their return on whoever has anything to sell. As a new seller on one of these sites, you stand to make only a 40% return on your work, and up to 70% if you end up being a top seller several months down the line.

ACTUALLY GUYS,

At TF you are correct here…but at http://mojo-themes.com you stand to make 50% on everything no matter what… No sliding scales, not incremental gains…just 50% flat out. I do really well there! I’m averaging a sale a day!

Just my input…

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:29:11 +0000

Press75.com will always be the home for my personal themes. There would be no point in me releasing my own themes on ThemeGarden.com since it is intended for the the rest of the community.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:27:50 +0000

All of the above will definitely be considerations when reviewing seller applications.

By: James

James — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:15:45 +0000

Hey, Sounds like a great idea. I’m looking forward to what this will grow into. But in all reality I’m mainly looking forward to what Jason will come up with next on Press75, I hope this doesn’t mean he’ll slow down on it. Anyways either way I’m sure it will be awesome.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:23:48 +0000

Hey Jason – looking forward to the re-launch of ThemeGarden.com.

I think it might be beneficial to set very high requirements for quality of theme submissions. Beyond just validation (and GPL), but also quality of design and code. Another requirement might be to reject a theme if it’s too similar to another one already on ThemeGarden… encourage variety. I think that would help set your marketplace apart.

One of the downsides of ThemeForest is that so many themes look exactly the same, and many are low quality.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:57:17 +0000

Each theme author will have their own dedicated support forums for which only verified customers will have access to. Of course, the entire author toolset will grow and evolve as the months go on.

As far as pricing goes, each author can set their own price for their themes. There will be no minimum price and I will allow free downloads as well within the marketplace.

By: Devin

Devin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:51:00 +0000

Hi Jason. I’m glad you’re getting this started. I’m sure there’s a lot of developers who don’t have the time to sell and market just a few themes, but are doing really quality work and want to get it out there.

It would be nice to have good forum and set of tools for theme developers to provide support. Perhaps even the option to purchase an hour or two of customization from the theme author.

I am curious how pricing it going to be set. Will there be a minimum price? Will theme authors get to set their own pricing?

Also, on that same note, I’m wondering if you’d allow free themes to be distributed on themegarden. Because the repository doesn’t allow child themes, there’s not really a good spot to find all those free GPL child themes for Thematic and Hybrid right now.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:44:30 +0000

Thanks… looking forward to the launch.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:43:53 +0000

I have absolutely no issues with Press75.com not being supported by WordPress.org because of my decision to split-license my themes. It was/is my choice to license my themes as I see fit, and I knew by doing so that I would be removed from the commercial theme directory.

However, if ThemeGarden.com were 100% GPL licensed, there is no reason it should not be allowed in WordPress.org directory since ThemeGrden.com would have absolutely no affiliation to Press75.com.

I really don’t think that ThemeGarden.com would be judged simply by the fact that the same person that runs it has a completely separate non-100% GPL venture. One has nothing to do with the other.

If that is the case… it would be pretty sad in my opinion.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:52:00 +0000

Hi Leland,

Matthew’s request to add a theme was rejected, because he supported ThemeForest, which, as you pointed it, is dual licensed just like Press75.

If Matthew is not supported by the community, why should Jason be?