Comments on: Themeforest Or Are You Better Off Selling Template Designs Yourself?

By: Daniel Riefstahl

Daniel Riefstahl — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:35:11 +0000

I agree with this post. I recently posted one of my templates to Theme forest to gain exposure. Sites like Best of Joomla have really helped me get more, but the more the merrier. I would gladly do more business with Theme Forest if they didn’t take so much. If you sell a template non exclusive for $25, you only make $5. That is ridiculous considering all they gave you was exposure.

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:57:53 +0000

I guess its a little bit like eBay in that you pay a premium for the exposure they provide.

By: Corey

Corey — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:24:46 +0000

If you were to sell your theme – themeforest.net will absolutely get you the exposure you need to one day sell your themes on your own. IMHO.

Follow me on twitter: @coreyeulas

By: Grand

Grand — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:40:54 +0000

It seems like a simple matter of economics, would you rather have 40% of $10000 or 100% of $5000, I regularly but templates from themeforest, but rarely buy from a single seller (unless the template is amazing)

By: James Hayes

James Hayes — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:45:57 +0000

I would say it’s a very good article most especially to those people who are very much devoted and using CMS to create websites.

By: Rickt

Rickt — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:12:14 +0000

Good article for pointing out the commission rate. This is an ripped off for the creators of the creative works.

By: Raph Séducteur

Raph Séducteur — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:46:46 +0000

lol christian, that’s weird…

By: Christian Taylor

Christian Taylor — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:47:08 +0000

All you sales links form your themes are going to your own site… are you collecting paypal logins or have you been hacked?

By: Fila Brasileiro

Fila Brasileiro — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:17:46 +0000

The most expensive customer is the first one..I agree totally with Jarel…once your name is out there and people like your themes, the “aftermarket” sales more than make up for the lowball cut you get from Themeforest.

By: Alan

Alan — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:23:45 +0000

Good article with some pertinent points being made by both the author and commentators to date.

I agree with Lincoln that commission rates are way too high at ThemeForest for what they actually provide.

I also agree with Jarel that it might gain you a little more exposure as a designer. The downside to this though is the fact ThemeForest have devalued you work so much perspective clients may want you to re-design the world for as little as $15 due to the price of you work on ThemeForest.

Personally however i feel that ThemeForest ultimately devaluates a designers work by setting their prices for them, which themeforest choose coincidentally without any input from the original theme’s designer and set far too low in 99% of cases. ThemefForest is doing the same damage to theme design as many a $5 logo has to logo design over the past few years.

ThemeForest want far too much control over my work legally and financially for them to be an appealing proposition and whilst the world is inovating with business and media on the web, Themeforest seem to have adopted more of a outdated Record Company, Movie Company mindset to their business approach. You do the hard work, we take the cash, we tell you what to do and what it is worth, very draconian and not a great business model especially for designers although i am sure ThemeForest are delighted at the revenue they make from others hard work.