WordPress Launching Theme Marketplace
WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg was at WordCamp Argentina yesterday where he announced the forthcoming launch of a new product offering - the WordPress Theme Marketplace.
As liveblogged by Leo Prieto of the popular Spanish blog FayerWayer, Mullenweg told conference attendees: "The idea is that designers will be able to upload themes, we put a price (Automattic takes half), and users can navigate the directory and quickly select, pay and install a template, everything from the same place and without major expertise." (Thank you, Google Translate. And thanks to San Francisco based consultant Antonio Altamirano who Twittered about the announcement.)
The Theme Marketplace will provide an incentive for developers to build high quality WP themes and provide a frame work and distribution channel for those already interested in selling themes. No time frame was announced and the options for the WordPress.org community aren't clear yet.
For buyers this sounds like a great idea, as long as the price point is fair and the variety is wide enough that it's not obvious you bought one of the 20 themes for sale. I'll be curious to see how pricing is handled as there will be a wide range of types of customers interested.
For sellers a 50/50 revenue split is hard to look at at first, but will probably be acceptable in exchange for the prominent placement and automation involved.
The company behind WordPress, Automattic, now has a growing list of ways it makes money and is doing well enough that it reportedly turned down a $200 million acquisition offer recently. None the less, calls to the company for comment went to a voicemail box that said "You've reached Matt, leave me a message." That made me laugh.
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SquareSpace has some good options on these too.
A 50/50 revenue split seems a little steep, frankly, but if the market accepts it, I suppose it's all good. It will be interesting to watch the market for themes normalize over time.
This is great. I've always scoffed a little at places selling wordpress themes because the themes usually are worse quality than the freely available ones. But this will definitely incite some real progress in what's available, and if the prices are reasonable, could really make having a beautiful website, that is relatively unique, very inexpensive.
I think the real difference here is the fact that it'll be promoted/owned by Wordpress, so with that type of visibility, the quality will certainly be mixed. However, like anything, with planning the best will rise to the top.
I would also imagine that to those that create something worthwhile, this could be a fantastic source of recurring income. I wish I was a designer right now.
Other way around. WordPress predates Automattic.
Is "Argentina".
blah! this will KILL any and all free WP themes. great job wordpress.
Some bits of information seem to have gotten lost in the translation here. Most crucially, the theme marketplace will be launched for WordPress.com (not WordPress.org) users. We are enabling theme designers to offer paid themes to over 1.7MM WordPress.com users who currently can't upload custom themes. The marketplace is separate from the existing thriving world of open source WordPress.org themes. Also, theme designers will set the price for their themes, not Automattic.
This is a great idea, good work WP!
Wordpress is enjoying good times besides popularity, gravatar acquisition and a 200 million acquisition offer are very good examples.
Bout time...
There's already some designers in the community that has been releasing "Premium WordPress Themes", which basically follows the same potential model as this one that Automattic is planning...
Brian Gardner & Micheal Pollock from Solostream are two of the designers that's doing this and I too have been doing it for a few months now. I just released a brand-spanking new Premium News Theme as well, due to the increasing popularity of more exclusive quality themes.
I think this is a good move from Automattic - sure they need to sort out a few kinks in the plan, but overall it's a great idea and should serve the community well!
And yet, in his post, Matt says
So, either he didn't run this profit-scuppering plan by his CEO (bad move) or he's fibbing to keep the fanboys happy (possibly even worse move.) Which is it?
50/50 is too much. Why have 1 centralized place for the best premium themes and lose half of your time? Independent designers can still work together to make sufficient wp themes. Anyway I think its bullcrap, wordpress is supposed to be one of the best open source tools out there. Now their tryin to steal half our money.
You just inspired me to buy a new domain: www.buywpthemes.com. I tell you what, ill split profit 25/75 :)
I agree... 50/50 is far too much. They'll have to bring that down or find another arrangement.