Making money from Theme Hybrid

1. 

   ryanhellyer (Member)
   Posted 8 months ago | Permalink

   @Justin - I think you will find that the WordPress.org repository rules state that you can't link to/promote themes which violate the GPL license in the eyes of those who run WordPress.org. So linking to themes which contain non-GPL CSS, images or scripts should be fine. I suspect you could get away with those which include non-GPL PHP libraries too, although I wouldn't risk ticking them off like that.

   Having said that, I think it makes complete sense to keep all non-GPL stuff out of here anyway.

2. 

   Justin Tadlock (Administrator)
   Posted 8 months ago | Permalink

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3. 

   scottopolis (Member)
   Posted 7 months ago | Permalink

   Justin, I am very interested in what you said here:

   What I kind of have in mind is child theme authors could sell their themes. Once a sale is made, that user then gets support here at Theme Hybrid without additional cost. A percentage of that sale goes back to ThemeHybrid. But, the child theme author would still need to support that theme on its specific forum here. And, that child theme author would be able to post tutorials and such here on the site if they wanted.

   I just started a design business offering full-service web design based on custom Hybrid child themes. I am going to offer support for a monthly fee, and I was wondering if there was a way to integrate that with you here.

   Please let me know how we can work this out. I realize I would need to earn your trust for something like this to work, please let me know how we can proceed with this idea.

   Feel free to email me if you need to: designbyscott@gmail.com

   Thanks

4. 

   Patrick Daly (Member)
   Posted 7 months ago | Permalink

   Justin, any thoughts on moving forward with any of these ideas?

5. 

   Justin Tadlock (Administrator)
   Posted 7 months ago | Permalink

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6. 

   Justin Tadlock (Administrator)
   Posted 7 months ago | Permalink

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7. 

   fb (Member)
   Posted 7 months ago | Permalink

   How is that framework only version coming along?

   No pressure at all, just wondering?

8. 

   Justin Tadlock (Administrator)
   Posted 7 months ago | Permalink

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9. 

   fb (Member)
   Posted 7 months ago | Permalink

   Great!! I still wonder how you manage to get so much done....

10. 

    Brad Potter (Member)
    Posted 6 months ago | Permalink

    Just joined the club and this thread happened to be the first I read. It's great timing because I've recently created a few designs that I hope to make WordPress child themes. I look forward to digging in and learning about Hybrid and I'm especially interested in the framework version.

    Justin - I am thoroughly impressed with everything you have done with your club. Smacking myself for not joining sooner.

11. 

    Justin Tadlock (Administrator)
    Posted 6 months ago | Permalink

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12. 

    Brad Potter (Member)
    Posted 6 months ago | Permalink

    Thanks Justin. I am curious about your thoughts on people like myself selling GPL child themes for Hybrid or selling a theme that might include your upcoming framework. In order for you to be supportive of those efforts, what criteria is expected besides being GPL.

    Just thinking out loud here but what if the profit of a theme was split (lets say $50 theme - 25 for dev/ 25 for Hybrid) and that included a 1 year membership to your club where buyers could turn for support. Would that overwhelm you with support issues? Would it be fair? I think there might be a lot of people who want to design and develop child themes but don't have the ability or knowledge to provide in-depth support. Look forward to your feedback and if there are any other threads discussing these things please point me in the right direction.

13. 

    Justin Tadlock (Administrator)
    Posted 6 months ago | Permalink

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14. 

    Justin Tadlock (Administrator)
    Posted 6 months ago | Permalink

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15. 

    whobody (Member)
    Posted 6 months ago | Permalink

    Making Money from Theme Hybrid - Three thoughts:

    1. Whatever your making money plan is, it has to be painfully simple for it to work properly.

    2. There needs to be little or no backwards accountability.

    3. The clients need to be able to read in one or two sentences exactly what is happening.

    Example:

    For the clients:
    Get a free theme at themehybrid.com/themes or have one custom made by Hybrid Designers at themehybrid.com/custom. Support for these themes is available at themehybrid.com/support or through your designer.

    For the designers:
    Become a Hybrid Designer by applying at themehybrid.com/designers. Once approved, you may pay $250 a year to present yourself to clients at themehybrid.com/custom.

    For Justin:
    If a designer decides to make a quality child theme, add it to your free theme directory.

    This way, Justin gets paid, the designers get paid for custom work (not themes, but time), more free child themes are added, and the clients can get free support through the forum, or paid support from the designers. Everybody wins!

16. 

    paul de wouters (Member)
    Posted 6 months ago | Permalink

    you should get someone to design a really nice logo, and then set up a store that would sell Hybrid Tshirts, and mugs and stuff.

17. 

    edskellington (Member)
    Posted 4 months ago | Permalink

    This is my first post here since I just joined the Hybrid community but I'm looking to build a business based on a theme framework. I am going to build themes for niche markets.

    I have gotten this far because I've been familiar with Justin's work for a long while in the Wordpress community and know he is dedicated to all his products, plugins etc.

    I checked out all the other frameworks (thematic etc) and am right back here at Hybrid.

    I wanted to know if there were any more thoughts on selling child themes for Hybrid? I'm sorry if any of this is repetitive, but from my understanding it sounds like as long as it stays GPL everything would be A-OK? Meaning, everything in the Zip file the client would purchase would be open for free use, modification and distribution (code, css, images, etc)?

    Thanks again, love where this framework is going and evolving.

18. 

    edskellington (Member)
    Posted 4 months ago | Permalink

    Does anyone think building on top of Hybrid is a good business model? I'm really very interested in everything discussed in this thread and would love to talk some more, get the conversation up and moving again. Thanks for all your hard work Justin!

19. 

    SupplementUpdates (Member)
    Posted 3 months ago | Permalink

    As a consumer, I would love to see additional child themes available from Theme Hybrid. I would be willing to pay for a theme that had the features/appearance that I wanted.

    From the standpoint of designers, this creates two issues.

    1. There has to be a large enough market to justify selling their theme as a Hybrid Child theme as opposed to just making a free-standing theme.
    2. This creates issues with support for the child theme--clearly Justin can't provide all of the support for these themes.

    I don't necessarily have the answers to these questions, but the obvious solution would be to look at other successful models. Clearly from a business standpoint, Thesis seems to probably have the most successful model in terms of marketing a Wordpress Theme Framework.

    I personally haven't purchased a Thesis theme before, but they have similar issues to address in terms of selling Child themes and support for these themes. How does DIY address these issues?

    I would image that the best way for this to work would be for all of the child themes be showcased at Theme Hybrid at a central location. Designers could promote their child themes at their own respective sites which would link to the main location for checkout.

    Approved designers could have their own forum section for unique support issues. Sale of the Child theme would include a revenue split with Justin and a purchasers of the child theme would get membership in the Hybrid Theme Club included in their purchase.

    Overall, there seems to be a trend towards affiliate programs for Themes such as Thesis or Headway. These premium child themes could collectively be marketed in a Hybrid Premium Affiliate program.

    Quality Child themes could certainly be priced around $87 for this package. This would actually be less expensive than Headway or Thesis since that's the price of their basic package with skins costing an additional $50 or so.

    Before any of the regular users get mad, Theme Hybrid could maintain the current membership fee and regular child themes availability for current use of the theme.

    Well, that's what I would do if I were in this business... :)

20. 

    SupplementUpdates (Member)
    Posted 3 months ago | Permalink

    Oops forgot,

    One company that I would love see offer premium Hybrid Child Themes would be LER09: http://lero9.co.nz/

    From the showcase, they certainly offer the best Hybrid Theme designs that I've personally seen though I don't know if it would fit with their existing business model.

21. 

    John Myrstad (Member)
    Posted 3 months ago | Permalink

    Build a killer "CMS" theme ( yeah I know some of you hate the terminology ) with great documentation, css templates, psd templates, supported plugins and a closed marketplace for buying and offering services within a community. Some are great with php, some with css, some with javascript and some with design, and when time is money why not help each other by offering our services to each others.

22. 

    PegasusTeam (Member)
    Posted 1 month ago | Permalink

    @ Justin

    I'd definitely be willing to do some profit-splitting though, especially for support. I think a good way to go about it would be for you to sell the theme, but part of that package is a Theme Hybrid support membership. Then, there'd be a support forum specifically for that theme here.

    Any ideas on how we could implement this?
    I was thinking maybe something like setup e-junkie to collect payments and then use your affiliate link for all sales? That way you wold get your % and I'd get my share for each sale.

    Trying to come up with a way to automate this somewhat...

    Any thoughts from others?

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