Outlaw Design Blog

Discussion: Theme Forest Business Model?

Posted on 21. Oct, 2008 by Danny Outlaw in Uncategorized

I pay a lot of attention to the premium Wordpress Theme market and one of the most recent sites in this market is Theme Forest.

Theme Forest is a child of the Evato network which is responsible for sites such as Audio Jungle, Flash Den, Freelance Switch, and more. For those of you that don’t know what Theme Forest is, let me explain briefly.

Theme Forest is a market place where designers can sell their website themes, shopping cart themes, cms themes, and just about any other type of theme. Theme Forest of course takes a small percentage of each sale made off their site.

What gets me about this business model is that it seems to lower the value of a well made theme. One of the better and most expensive themes I found on the site was only about $45. Check out any of the major template sites that offer the same type of product and you will find prices starting at $50.

Is it just me or does it seem strange that the higher quality product is priced lower than its subordinate? Now, obviously I don’t hold Theme Forest 100% responsible for this, as they aren’t the ones who set the price. But maybe they should have a minimum price and some sort of quality control that weeds out less than exceptional sites.

What do you think?

Tags: discussion, Wordpress