In my case I rejected Thesis because when I tried to use multiple custom templates I had to jump back into PHP coding and write IF statements for every custom template while checking the post ID – this means every time I need to post an article and use the custom template I need to revisit the PHP code and add yet another post ID into it. Rumors are that an updated Thesis for WP3 is about to arrive but I have no time to wait and risk to get stuck with proprietary solutions.

Second issue I have are with themes with huge options in the backend. While as a newbie in Wordpress I appreciated those, I found out that the SQL side is badly hurt by immense option blobs at every page load. I even got my sharing account suspended once because of slow SQL queries and I started to appreciate Justin’s preference for almost no options for a theme. I am not saying Thesis is lacking performance here, just trying to make a point.

I think there are 3 main types of buyers for „premium” themes. First are the ones completely non-technical that are unable to find other solution than buying such a theme to get a complete package. Those are more vulnerable since buying a premium theme can be disastruous to the point to abandon it and look for another one or living with stupid limitations after discovering them.

Second type is technically aware ones that know how to code but lack the artistic brain (such as myself). We are usually paying for a nice css and prebuilt custom templates. With little effort I made several times the exercise to put the nice css over Hybrid theme with good results for both aspect and performance.

Third type knows how to use css, they do not need premium themes since they can just take a free framework and play around it. Those and others that can build their own themes in all aspects but are lacking the time to do so can also buy premium themes from time to time.

I think the market is saturated, but this will not end the selling of those themes simply because the above people will continue buying. However as a theme developer, yes, screw this market, I would not try to monetize from it. My business model now is to buy a premium theme, change it to fit my purposes and sell my services to the end user. I think this approach is beneficial for the end user since for a $35 expense I cut may hours of labor that would be more expensive and the result can be delivered much faster. From my own point of view it is beneficial because the end-user gets a larger design base to choose from and I can work more websites every month, thus utilizing my own abilites more efficiently.

I also fall into this category and although their might be no real justification for this perception, I can’t shake it off and am sticking to my ‘premium’ theme despite the hassles I have with it. To me and to most people, I think, reverting to a free theme would be tantamount to downgrading your site, image, business prestige and more. Devoid of truth as it may be, this is human nature and the reason why we all buy many stuff we don’t need. Mainly we purchase for emotional reasons and nothing will change that.

themeforest is great, a lot of people on there spend months and months designing/developing themes for there marketplace, and they deserve to make good money from it, there is some amazing work on there, but on the other hand there a lot of themes on there too which have been thrown together and not designed well, i find better quality themes on the repository.

if your a wp designer/developer and are doing themes for clients, this is a totally different story, as your proving a business service, each of your projects will be custom made and therefor you charge accordingly for your time. (this is what i do for a business too)

i want to do some themes for the market place, and i was going to sell them on themeforest, but i have another idea, why not give them away for free! imagine the traffic this would bring to ones site, it would be inevitable that some people would ask for an extra customization service, or ever there own custom built themes, that’s good business…just a thought anyway

I make all my static sites using XSitePro and having to use WP after the ease of that was daunting. I’ve been reading so much about how everyone thinks WP is such an easy programme to use but after the simplicity of XSP2 it’s been a struggle.

I believe that if a WP theme offers numerous choices and there has been considerably more work put into the making and support of it, then to charge a fair price is reasonable. To ask someone to pay $300 is daylight-robbery.

Another thing I like about Socrates is the support service. I can’t fault it. The forum is helpful and supportive and the support services of Socrates themselves is fast, efficient and absolutely first-class.

Meanwhile, has Project M that you mentioned two years ago in this thread gotten off the ground? What is it? WHERE is it? I’d just like to see how you managed to come up with a way that made money without being inconsistent with your strong anti-premium-theme stance.