Pressbit 008: Thinking out loud about WordPress business models

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Pressbit 008 is ready for your listening ears. In this Pressbit I talk about WordPress business models, giving a proof of concept that (I hope) helps get across the point that there are a lot of business models in our industry that are still untapped.

Listen here:

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There are lots of untapped ideas – here’s one

Oli Dale, of wplift, wrote a nice post a while back about existing WordPress business models. It was an interesting post, but I think there is still a lot of potential to do new things. So, in this Pressbit, I go over one idea.

Let’s say you know how to make WordPress themes – either for clients or for public distribution – then this idea could apply to you.

Instead making a theme and trying to sell it in your own shop or on a marketplace for $35, what if you developed a much more niche theme, and targeted a select type of customer.

Let’s think in numbers. I’ll assume your end goal is to make $10,000. Not a bad number, right? Well, instead of having to sell this theme more than 400 times (after the marketplace thakes their share) for $35 each, you’re going to sell this theme ten times for $1,000 each.

What!? I can’t sell a theme for $1,000 a pop!

Sure you can. Because you are only going to sell it ten times. After all, your goal is $10,000, right? So now you’re not selling a template that can be used all over the web – but a design you can be specific with and target just the right customer, but it’s guaranteed to only show up in the world ten times. All of a sudden, your customer has a well-developed, nearly entirely custom design for a grand. They just got a steal.

On top of your $1,000 price tag, you’ll also give each customer five development hours to help them get set up, do slight customizations, or whatever they choose. I’ll assume developing your theme will take a month (that’s a generous amount of time). So now you’ve invested one month of development and another week of customizations for this theme. And you made $10,000 in less than 40 days.

So, you’re still selling WordPress themes, but you’re also giving a custom experience to each of these buyers and helping their businesses stand out for a price previously not possible. Not bad!

So what are some of your ideas?

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