The Benefits of Designing Themes for Web Software

Want to design a theme, but can’t really be motivated to do so? You might think no one will buy it, or if you make it free, no one will download it.

Well, this article is for you. There’s some benefits to designing themes for web software such as forum scrips, blogs, and stuff like that.

One of those benefits is the backlinks. If you’re not looking into getting into web design full time, like becoming a freelance designer and dealing with people’s crap over the tiniest details and creating your own site just for that purpose, then putting a link in the footer of your theme pointing to a site you own will be very rewarding for two reasons:

One, if your theme is popular it will end up on a ton of sites and increase the amount of backlinks to your site, which, if the sites your theme is installed on are very good, your site’s Google rank will go up.

Two, it’s free advertising, and if the people who download your theme want support and don’t want to get a DMCA, then they’re forced to leave your link there for as long as they use the theme. Make your footer attractive and more people will see your link, click on it, and visit your site. It’s wonderful.

Another benefit is the cash, if you think your theme is good enough to go premium. I’d recommend starting your prices at $5, this will bring in a lot of money if your theme is really good, because most people are willing to pay $5 for one. So you get backlinks and some cash! Find a girl and take her out to McDonalds.

So how do you promote your theme so you can get these awesome benefits? Well, submitting your theme to the software’s addon/mod/theme directory is a start. Any web software worth its salt has one of those, and the good ones have it set up like a store, so people can easily find and buy your theme. If the software doesn’t have one of those awesome stores, then you’re forced to find another site to sell your theme on. There’s some good ones out there, you’ll have to ask around, but when you’ve got your theme on there post a thread about the theme and where to find it on the web software’s forum, if they have one. 

Another option to promote your theme is to consider making a free version and add all sorts of fun little additions to the full theme, such as social icons, social sharing buttons, better graphics and CSS, and almost whatever you can think of. Then put the free version on the web software’s mod site, and include a link in the description and the footer of the theme if you want, promoting the full theme. 

So there’s something to motivate you to try your skills at making themes for web software and blog sites. Let me know if this helped you and I look forward to hearing your stories on the forum.