Below are some common questions asked by Designers and Buyers about the Themes.com Marketplace. You may also find more answers over within our Community Support site.

Have a question, that is not answered? Click here to Contact Us or use the ‘FEEDBACK’ button found on the left side of every page.

FAQs

Q. Can anyone become a member of Themes.com

A. Yes... Unless your name is David Jones. We don't like David. Of course, as a member you agree to only sell things that belong to you, so if you think you might sell something that doesn't belong to you... we don't want you either.

Q. How much does it cost?

A. It is free to join the Themes.com community. You only pay for the Themes that you buy. The prices for the Themes or template are set by the designer

Q. How can I make money with Themes.com?

A. You can sell themes that you upload or create. You can refer other people to Themes.com as part of our Affiliate Program.  You can get a Marketing Name and build a referral business, review site, or even your own niche-specific themes site.

Q. How much money can I make with Themes.com?

A. Enough to buy silk sheets, laced with gold thread, topped with a harem of fine gold, silver, precious jewels, and as many FireFly doodads you can find. Seriously, this is up to you. But we pay out a range of 60 to 70% based on your performance and how much we appreciate you.

Q. What does Themes.com do to earn their share of my sale?

A. We provide the awareness, the marketplace, the brand, the RedBull for the approvals team, the payment processing fees, the payouts to the affiliates, and the environment to resell your themes.

Q.  How is payment made to me for revenue earned?

A. All earned revenue is deposited into your account. You can use these funds to purchase designs or themes yourself, or once your balance has reached $50, you can request a payout from Bill (our head finance guy). Bill will pay you your requested funds into a PayPal account that you specify in your Account Profile page. Payouts are made on the 15th of every month (or next business day following weekends of holidays) for the month prior.

Q. What is needed to upload a theme to the marketplace?

A. You will need to assemble a bundle of files, including a thumbnail, a screenshot or preview file (zipped), and a download file (zipped) along with download instructions. You will also need to write a description for your file, assign it to categories, give it search-friendly attributes, and pick a price. Please make sure your titles and descriptions have been proof-read for spelling and are grammatically correct and written in English, or at a minimum the American-ized version of English. This will make our Reviewing process faster.

Q: Regarding IP, do I retain the rights to my own theme and designs?

A. Of course. We are just the open marketplace. You do transfer license rights to purchasers based on terms you set, however. When you sell an item on the Themes.com marketplace you are granting purchasers a license to use the item. There is a regular license that ALL items must be sold with. This regular license allows the use of your item in a purchasers projects for either personal or commercial use without the payment of any further fees or charges after the initial download cost. If you do not want to or cannot grant these rights, they cannot be sold on Themes.com. Please do not upload them.

From time to time we may add other license types which you as the Designer can opt-in to sell. These extended licenses are more expensive than the regular license but grant extra rights. For example they may allow the purchaser to incorporate the item into something which they then sell. 

Q: Do I have to be exclusive to Themes.com?

A: Not here. Your themes are your designs. Sell them whereever you want.

Q: Will you accept any design into your marketplace?

A: While we try not to be the arbiters of taste, our review makes sure that your themes match Rule #1 set forth in our Manifesto (i.e., "Don't suck"). The community will vote your design up or down and voice their pleasure or disgust accordingly. If there is a poorly coded theme, we do reserve the rights to remove it from the marketplace. We will reject a theme if we beleive it to be very similar (read plagiarized) from a theme already in the marketplace; if the file appears to be corrupted, or we suspect it carries a virus; if it is nonsensical or difficult to implement; or if it scores highly on the S.F.T. (suck factor test).

Q: Is it true, I can charge whatever I want?

A: Yes. Absolutely... let the free market reign. If you have a good design with good support, then you should be paid what you deem is fair.

Q: Do I have to support the themes or templated that I've uploaded?

A:  Providing Support is optional, but it may be foolish not to provide it. Support can be provided several ways, via the Comments, FAQs, or directly via email. We ask that you tell purchasers upfront what type of Support is provided. You will be scored in the Peer Review based on the Support that you provide, so poor support can result in the score for your theme dropping significantly. If the theme you submitted is non-functioning, then you will be asked by Themes.com to fix it, or we may remove it from the marketplace.

Q: What is a Peer Reviewed theme?

A: As most purchasers are also Designers, we ask them to provide feedback on the designs and themes they purchase. We score based on 5 categories: Design, Features, Support, Documentation, Value for Money. These reviews are visible on every theme profile page. 

Q: Do you limit themes by category. That is, can there only be 100 WordPress themes?

A: Absolutely not. This is contrary to our mantra of letting "Good designs reign supreme". In a free market, the good designs backed by good support and sales history will rise to the top. If you want to stand out... compete on price, service, and quality. You can also consider categories with less competition, or promote your theme externally using your Affiliate ID. This is both good for awareness, but it will attract more search engines to your listing directly.