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Username:
astereo (60%)
Location:
east coast
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Premium Wordpress E-Commerce Theme ~2K/mo Revenue

Market for Wordpress

  • URL: http://www.markettheme.com/
  • Established: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:00:00 GMT
  • Uniques/Month: 3,000
  • Page views/month: 26,000
  • Monthly Revenue (USD): 2,000
  • Google Pagerank: 2
  • Listed: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:29:37 GMT

Description:

Brief introduction to the Market Theme

The market theme is a premium Wordpress theme that was launched in late February 2008. As my first premium theme it has become very successful and has brought in revenue of $8,654.50 in 4 full months (revenue breakdown below, final revenue total will be updated below on July 1st). The idea for the theme originally came about after I had down two back to back projects for clients who were both looking for ways to turn Wordpress into an ecommerce engine. Since its launch in the end of February, Market has been redesigned three times and now includes a product manager plugin as well as its own ajax shopping cart.

Why Sell?

First and foremost the number one question that is going to be on everyone’s mind is, “why sell in the first place?” Market has yet to reach its full potential, and this is a theme which with very little work and effort could bring in thousands of dollars in extra revenue a month. Because of how much work has been put into Market since its launch, there is really nothing a new owner would need to do besides reap the benefits of the revenue coming from the theme. With its own ajax cart, its own plugin, and three different designed versions of the theme, this is truly a "set it and forget it" project - a great way to make revenue without much effort. The theme will continue to work with future versions of Wordpress and as I said, because it has been updated so much in the four short months it has been around, there is very little that needs to be done over the next few months. It is a very attractive package and it will remain that way for a while without you needing to do a single thing.

I am selling this because it was an experimental project which ended up turning out very well, but it is time I personally move on. I have no had a chance to do client work since December because I have been busy perfecting this theme and trying to get the word out about it. I also want to be able to start a few new products and enjoy my summer, I believe fully that this theme is only going to continue to grow and get bigger and bigger, but I am selling it so I can move on with other things, not because I have lost any faith in the project.

 

What you get:

With the purchase of the Market theme you will have full ownership to:

  • Full rights to the theme and all 3 variations of its design (only thing I ask is that I can keep the theme / site design in my portfolio)
  • Full rights to Market Product Manager plugin, Paypal (market lite) plugin, and custom Ajax Cart Script.

The value of this package itself would be around $3-4,000. You are getting two (2) site designs / themes specifically for Markettheme.com, three (3) different designs / layouts of the Market Theme (versions 1-3), a custom built Ajax Cart and a backend plugin, all custom build specifically for use with the Market Theme.

*Market Product Manager by John Kolbert (admin@simply-basic.com)

*Ajax Cart developed by Devon Parris (thecreative.d@gmail.com)

 

Revenue, License, and Traffic Breakdown:

Included in this sale packet are breakdowns of each month through generated sales reports directly from Paypal. The month breakdown of revenue looks like this:

  • February (3 days) – $100.25
  • March – $2,034.67
  • April – $3,065.93
  • May – $1,836.16
  • June – $1,617.49
  • Total Revenue to Date: $8,654.50
  • A monthly average of: $2,163.63/month (in 4 full months)

There are two types of licenses: A standard license for $55 and a developer’s license for $150.00.

The license breakdown per month is as follows. You’ll notice that while it may appear profits have been on a significant decline, the large spike in profits for April 2008 was caused by the price increase when standard and developer’s licenses increased in cost. In fact, the same amount of licenses were sold in March 2008 as in April 2008, so profits have been holding steady around $2,000 per month on average.

  • February (3 days) – 3 licenses
  • March – 48 Licenses
  • April – 48 Licenses
  • May - 32 Licenses
  • June – 29 Licenses
  • Total licenses purchased to date: 160 Licenses

The only ongoing cost is a $5/month fee to E-Junkie, which I use to help process payments and make download notification instantly.

I myself invested a little more than $1,500 into advertising for the Market Theme, including a $900 ad on Smashingmagazine during late March – Mid April, a $150 month long ad on Logopond, a $60 ad on Blogperfume (twice), a $99 ad on Weblogtoolscollection and most recently a $350 one month ad on CSSRemix. Smashing perfomed the best, as indicated by the huge month of April that I had, but as I said this was an experimental project and I wanted to spread out the advertising to see what worked the best.

 

Additional ways to make income:

Beyond the traditional selling of the licenses, an affiliate program would be another option that would be able to bring in increased revenues for any new owner. When the theme first launched I had an affiliate program but I discontinued it before it got too large because I knew in the back of my head that I would be selling this sometime this summer and not all new owners would like the idea of having to participate in an affiliate program if they did not want to. It is however obviously an option, and I know there are plenty of premium Wordpress theme sites, other Wordpress resources, and individuals who would gladly sell copies of the Market theme for a small piece of the profits.

Revenue Details:

Selling of theme licenses. See full auction description for entire revenue rundown. Proof of revenue is in attachment which is a PDF of an exported Paypal report from Feb-June 24 (will add final sales at end of this month). For privacy reasons for my customers I've removed individual names / addresses.

Traffic Details:

  • Organic and Direct
  • Advertisements and theme reviews
  • Those interested in selling their own items without needing to learn a whole new ecommerce platform.

Questions to the Seller

  1. financing available?

    Posted by:
    jrod014 (0%)
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  2. @jrod014 - It's a possibility, I'll see how things go over the first few days and go from there, but don't rule anything out.

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
    Location:
    east coast
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  3. not very familiar with wordpress, but I know its extremely popular due to its ease of use, so i imagine adding a shopping cart to it would be very popular.
    What is the competition at this stage ?

    Thanks !

    Posted by:
    stanto (0%)
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  4. @stanto - Yes, one of the biggest reason's I went with this is because the Wordpress community is so large, and everyone is always trying to take what you can do with it a step further. The biggest competition is the WP-Ecommerce plugin by Instinct (http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/). That particular plugin is free, but many of the additional modules they try to get you to buy do require payment, and some of them are even basic things like being able to search products. They have a few more checkout / payment options offered with the plugin then my theme currently has, but where I really think the Market Theme excels is in the design. Not everyone out there using Wordpress is going to a design or coding wise, and the E-Commerce plugin really just gives you the ability to add products, but leaves all the styling up to you. That's extra work that not everyone would be able to do themselves. Market combines both that easy buy now / add to cart functionality along with a functional and clean looking design, allowing it to be used by just about anyone with or without design and coding skills.

    Another recent competition site I just noticed a few days ago on a css site is http://www.getshopped.com/. I think this might even be built by the the same people who created the E-Commerce plugin because it is now advertising on instinct's site. It's a little cheaper than the theme (at $5/week) and is a hosted solution.

    There is also a theme which happens to be called the e-commerce theme (http://ecommercethemes.com/) which came after Market was launched I believe, but it does not have any buy now / add to cart functionality, it's mainly just a theme that looks like a storefront, but the actual integrating is up to the user.

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
    Location:
    east coast
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  5. I knew about this website before seeing it here. The website looks amazing and the script should sell good. I have been looking for a good investment and I'm getting a good feeling here. I would like to make a BID but there is just one thing. The money I have to invest is on epassporte and I will lose money if I first transfer the ammount to my localbank.

    Let me know if you are interested in a epassporte payment.

    Posted by:
    koahost (60%)
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  6. astereo, your site looks nice. be careful, most epassport'e buyers have money stolen from credit cards.

    Posted by:
    rightinpoint.com (60%)
    Location:
    Ukraine
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  7. koahost - Thank you for your kind words. I'm going to take a few days to try to familiarize myself with epassporte, as I don't have any experience with it at the moment.

    Also, to answer a few questions that have popped up recently:

    Q: How long does it take to manage the site each day?
    A: There is zero managing involved in the Market Theme. You sit back and enjoy as you earn the revenue. There is a support forum, but I have been answering questions for months and there is a ton on information already there, which has virtually stopped any requests for "how do I do this" because solutions have already been posted. I'm also most likely going to stick around the forums for at least a few weeks after the sale to continue providing support for customers.

    Q: What are the ongoing costs?
    A: As mentioned in the post, the only ongoing cost is a $5 fee to E-Junkie. If you want to use your own Paypal IPN script to instantly deliver the registration invite code to buyers you won't even have to use E-Junkie. I chose to use it because it made things simpler for myself.

    Q: I noticed you advertised. Am I required to do the same if I wish to keep up profits and make sales?
    A: No! I made my own personal decision to do some advertising, and I also spent a fair amount on it as well. I did this with my own funds I already ready to go, because I wanted to jumpstart the theme exposure. Advertising can never hurt, but it is not required. There are plenty of theme owners who now praise the theme, and other people who are anxiously awaiting an affiliate program. Market will continue to grow with or without advertising. You have to remember that Market has only been around for a few short months (4), and the Wordpress community is extremely vast and the possibilities of people who could use this product are endless.

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
    Location:
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  8. rightinpoint.com - Thanks a lot for the tip. I took a look at koahost's selling record, it appears he tried to sell a hacker/warez resource not too long ago. That doesn't help too much with the confidence.

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
    Location:
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  9. This is actually an off-topic question. I just purchased Markettheme but while visiting your site, I noticed you had a really nice but simple forum. Did you create the forum or is it a plugin? I'd love to know if it's a plugin as I might want to use it as well. Buy the way, thank you so much for creating exactly what I need. I've been looking for something that could replace the Affiliate software I'm using on my site and this Markettheme is perfect.

    Posted by:
    ttnorris (0%)
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  10. Oh nevermind, I think you might be using the Simple Forum Plugin.

    Posted by:
    ttnorris (0%)
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  11. Yes, it is the Simple Forum Plugin, I just did some a little bit of styling. Thanks for the kind words as well :)

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
    Location:
    east coast
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  12. If the markettheme wouldn't work on the latest version of wordpress anymore where would the buyer find a coder? Or is any good coder able to make changes on the script?

    And what is the back end of the main site?

    Thankyou

    Posted by:
    koahost (60%)
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  13. The backend of the main site is Wordpress as well.

    Market will continue to work on any future version of Wordpress. Theme's only stop working when they use non-standard or rare tags that end up getting deprecated in future versions because they are used so sparingly. I've been developing on Wordpress since the days of 1.5 - the base code never changes. The Market Product Manager plugin may need updating, but the original developer John Kolbert could very easily make updates.

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
    Location:
    east coast
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  14. Figures have been updated with final June totals. Still no bids...anyone have any questions?

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
    Location:
    east coast
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  15. It could be that you don't accept escrow. I can't buy your site but with sites I'm interested in the first thing I look for is if they accept escrow. I'm guessing that might be why.

    Posted by:
    ttnorris (0%)
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  16. Or maybe I'm wrong? Who knows. :)

    Posted by:
    ttnorris (0%)
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  17. Alright we'll see if that changes anything :)

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
    Location:
    east coast
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  18. I took this text from one of your replies:

    "Q: How long does it take to manage the site each day?
    A: There is zero managing involved in the Market Theme. You sit back and enjoy as you earn the revenue. There is a support forum, but I have been answering questions for months and there is a ton on information already there, which has virtually stopped any requests for "how do I do this" because solutions have already been posted. I'm also most likely going to stick around the forums for at least a few weeks after the sale to continue providing support for customers."

    The entire site idea is great. Wordpress is indeed growing everyday and this site is able to make a good ammount of money. Your saying there is zero managing involved in the market theme. Do some nice seo, invest some of the income in advertisements and earn a nice ammount of money every month. It should bring more money then what it's selling for.

    Could you give me a few good reasons for selling, better explained then you already did. Isn't it a web developers dream to finally hit big with a project.

    Thankyou

    Posted by:
    koahost (60%)
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  19. Of course it is a web developers dream to hit it big with a project. I've had the experience of hitting it big with two of them, one simply from a traffic and readership standpoint (Devlounge.net) and now Market Theme from a revenue standpoint. But, as any good web developer, as I hold onto, I make more work for myself. Essentially nothing major has to be done to this theme for at least 6 months because of all the time I have invested into it. For someone else, it could quietly be a money maker without needing to do much more than you stated above. For me, I look at it every day and want to improve things that don't really need improving, because I'm always trying to make my work better. I'm also entering college, need a new car, and have other things that I would rather have money now for as opposed to waiting and enjoying a steady monthly cash flow - I have plenty of other avenues for that.

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
    Location:
    east coast
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  20. Now that this holiday weekend is winding down, I expect interest to raise a little bit. Once again if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
    Location:
    east coast
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  21. Are you able to provide the income for the time since the start of this sale.
    Thanks

    Posted by:
    koahost (60%)
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  22. The figures in the post itself where updated when June ended. So far this month I've earned $452.32 (10 licenses at promotional fourth of July week pricing for most of them)

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
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    east coast
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  23. Is there an affiliate program with the theme and if so how much is commission?

    Posted by:
    sweetjane (40%)
    Location:
    Australia
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  24. @sweetjane - The last section in the post explains that I had an affiliate program for the first month when the theme was still very fresh. I offered 50% commission, but I decided to remove the program after the first month because I had envisioned listing the item for sale this summer and didn't want to force a new owner to come into a situation with an affiliate program already running. There are plenty of people waiting for me to re-open the program, but I wanted to let that be a decision of the new owner (if there is one).

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
    Location:
    east coast
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  25. For those wondering, I will hang around the theme support forums for a few weeks still assisting theme owners, but once college starts in September I will be around in a very limited capacity.

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
    Location:
    east coast
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  26. Update on this months figures so far (as of July 12th at 9:30 AM EST): 19 license sold with revenue of 1,149.06.

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
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    east coast
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  27. Hi, your site looks interesting. I have a few questions tough.

    1. who programmed the script?

    2. how many hours a week/month do you spend on support and presale questions?

    oh and btw, your About pages gets an 404.

    Posted by:
    2ndsky (60%)
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  28. Market was designed and developed by myself, with the exception of the product manager backend plugin and the ajax cart as shown in the post. Support time is down to less than an hour a day as the support forums have become pretty robust and filled with answers and tutorials on how to do just about anything. I'm also not getting a 404 on the about page (http://www.markettheme.com/about) and I haven't heard of anyone else experiencing that either...is it still occurring for you?

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
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  29. What are your predictions on future development of the script?
    I imagine the script will need some updates in the future, along with the development of new features to continue the sales.

    And ya the 404 is still occuring. I'm using Firefox.

    404 Error
    Uhh, you are lost. Can I help you?

    It appears that you are lost. The best bet would be to start over. There are a couple options for that, depending on what exactly you were looking for. It always works to go back to start. Or maybe you are interested in learning what exactly the Market Theme is? Well, the best place to do that would be right here. Perhaps you want to take a tour? Still you may want to speak your mind, and the best place to do that is in the support forums.

    Posted by:
    2ndsky (60%)
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  30. Opps, here we go. Sorry about that. Good thing you caught it, I didn't ever notice wordpress never published the page, I always saw it because I was always logged in.

    Anyways, Market itself should be good for quite some time. I would say with its current state, you could go at least 6 months without needing an update on the theme. The backend plugin may need to be updated, but right now it's working fine with the latest wordpress 2.6 beta, so even that should be good for quite some time.

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
    Location:
    east coast
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  31. Hello Astereo,

    Wanted to let you know I appreciate to work you putt in this theme. I bought it a while ago, used it to build a friend's website. It really works as a charm.

    Unfortunately I'm not able to buy you theme / domain at this moment. Timing isn't good for me, but I think it really is a interesting deal.

    But if the eventual buyer would be interested in an extra set of brains to keep the concept innovative and doing some additional CSS optimalization I'm more then interested to help doing so.

    Good luck with the sell.

    Posted by:
    cubus (0%)
    Location:
    Antwerp
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  32. Thanks for the kind words cubus.

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
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    east coast
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  33. This post will be relisted on Monday with updated information. The sale will continue.

    Posted by:
    astereo (60%) (seller)
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