Why I don’t release WordPress themes
As a web developer who is gradually focussing more and more on WordPress as my preferred technology platform, I release plugins from time to time, if I believe they might be suitable for general use. I’ve only released two so far, but I am sure there will be more in the near future.
In fact, almost every WordPress client project I undertake involves writing a plugin or two, but these often have quite specialised functionality, so I don’t put them into the public domain.
Many designers and developers who are active in the WordPress community also create and publish WordPress themes, and there are probably hundreds of websites that do nothing except make themes available for download, whether free or for a fee.
However, this is one thing I don’t do. There’s a very simple reason, which other developers may find familiar, and it’s nothing to do with the difficulties inherent in monetising such work…
Blood, Sweat and Tears
I offer a complete service to my clients, including design, development, support and consultancy. However, my strongest skill is development (i.e. coding, whether in HTML, CSS, JavaScript or PHP). If you told me to summarise my professional activities in one word, I’d immediately say developer, not designer. I like to make things work, and I’m good at it.
Over the last few years I have produced too many website designs to count, and I believe that they are high quality (otherwise I wouldn’t have offered them to clients), but each one takes gallons of blood, sweat and tears out of me. It usually takes me several evenings of agonizing over multiple pencil sketches to get to the point where I can approach the keyboard, then I have to duke it out with Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro to get the main images ready, before the actual coding can start.
It’s a labour of love, of course. Perhaps because I have to put such a huge effort into each design, the amount of satisfaction that comes with completing a design and then coding it into a site or WordPress theme is immeasurable, but it uses a lot of energy, especially when compared with the development work that follows.
And if I think about going through all that even more frequently, just to release a general-use WordPress theme into the wild with no client or project in mind, well, I tend to stop thinking about it fairly quickly. I’d rather volunteer for root canal work or stick pins in my eyes!
I’d be interested to hear from other designer/developers (freelance or otherwise) who feel that they are much stronger in development than design, and how you get along with doing both. Feel free to share/brag/vent below 
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I see what you mean. I am more of a designer but working for clients I still have to do development work although I’ve warned them I wouldn’t do it
It is much better to work in a team that consists of a designer, developer and SEO expert thus people can do what they do best.
Regarding Wordpress themes, I think you still should release at least a couple or get somebody else to do it for you. Imagine how many backlinks that would generate.
You raise a good point about backlinks. Perhaps I could turn a couple of abandoned designs into free themes when I have time. Mind you, with 4 new clients about to sign, that could still be some way into the future…
I also do lots of thing myself but when it comes to big clients I tend to share the responsibilities. I´m a designer (and perhaps SEO) and I do some coding but I loke to hire a freelancer to do that. It saves me more time and money since if I pay for 10 hours I might spend 50 hours by doing it myself… And all the things I can do in that time.
You’re right of course – in my situation, sharing a project with a designer can sometimes be the logical way to go. But it also depends on finding someone with the right skills and the right empathy with the project, and of course enough time available. Finding such a person in Malta (I like to discuss projects face-to-face) can be tricky.
From the standpoint of us “mere mortals” who aren’t super techie by nature, any quality plug ins are immensely appreciated. This also holds true for templates or themes. Fact is, I would pay money for good work and continue visiting any site providing quality templates and plug-ins…much of the free stuff is just plain junk!
nanoman is right,the number of backlinks would be tremandous.
Andy, since you aren’t much into the design side of things, how much would you charge to create a foundation blog for me?
By that I mean I choose a template and you just put certain things in it hardcoded and zip it back to me. I would want 3 adsense positions and one adsense menu type link unit. I would also want a few links in the blogroll and about 5 plugins.
I think it would be 1 -2 hours work tops. To explain better all I want to make is a base blog from which to install many blogs with different content but the same basic layout.
You can reach me at – sales@propertynow.com.au . If you can’t do it do you suggest rentacoder or probably better yet a wordpress forum?
Many thanks
Andrew
Australia
I´m a designer (and perhaps SEO) and I do some coding but I loke to hire a freelancer to do that. It saves me more time and money since if I pay for 10 hours I might spend 50 hours by doing it myself
Actually I’m more of a designer by nature and find my time is better spent handing over the functionality aspects of the site to developers like yourself who are more apt to get it done right.
Well it is quite interesting to learn what is going through the mind of a developer or designer. I find value in some of the free wordpress themes, I have used some of them on my blogs. There are some really talented developers and designers out there and I would use both the free and paid versions of their work.