Days before launching ThemeJam in early February, I posted about my expectations for this new venture.
Today, nearly two months after it’s launch, I’d like to reflect on some of the early developments for my new WordPress themes business. I’ll start by addressing some of those expectations I had posted about prior to launch:
Increased client work? Not so much…
This comes as somewhat of a surprise to me. I had expected to draw at least a few inquiries for custom wordpress design/dev work from customers or followers of ThemeJam. Although it’s still early, it seems that hasn’t happened, at least not directly. I can only assume that the folks who shop for premium WordPress themes come from one of two camps:
- They are developers themselves, looking for a nice theme to base their own customizations on.
- They are end-users, looking to quality WP themes as an alternative to hiring a web designer.
I’m happy to serve both of these customer-types and interested to see things move forward on this front.
Customer Support, not a huge burden (at least not yet)
Granted, this is likely due to the fact that my customer base is still very small. However, definitely to my surprise is the fact that a pretty low percentage, around 5% of paying customers have required customer support.
I think a few things factor into this:
- I went above and beyond in writing documentation and providing detailed instructions built into the themes. I think (hope) it’s pretty hard to get confused with how the theme options work.
- Prior to purchase, I make it extremely clear what’s included. I provide full functioning theme demos, plus screenshots of the expanded theme options panel. A few themes even have video walk-throughs.
For those customers that did require support, I’ve been receiving positive feedback on my responsiveness and willingness to help (even for the free theme, which I don’t officially support). I take this as a good sign, which I hope will lead to referral business, the same way it did for my freelance work.
Marketing. Still much to learn.
The marketing effort has been pretty up and down since launch. I started off with somewhat of a push, and have since pulled back to focus more on expanding my catalog. There’s no doubt that more traffic leads to more sales. Though I’m still working to develop the best strategy for building a strong customer base.
Clearly, the field for premium WordPress themes is a super-competitive one. Even since the launch of ThemeJam, I’ve seen so many new guys pop up, some of which show a lot of promise. I plan to figure out ways to differentiate ThemeJam both in our product offering and the way it’s marketed. More to come on this front…
If I had to start from scratch?
I’d start with a much simpler approach. I should have scaled down the planning phase. I should have aimed to launch sooner than I did, with a simpler themejam.com website. I think I stressed too much on perfecting the site as well as the themes before pulling the trigger on launch.
I’m currently reading Rework, which advises:
“It’s better to launch with half a product than a half-assed product”
Not that ThemeJam is half-assed in any way (quite the contrary). It’s just that I probably spent way too many work hours prior to launch than I could have.
Having said that, I don’t regret any of it because the whole process really pushed me to sharpen my skills both as a designer and WordPress developer. I feel more confident than ever in these areas and I’m continuously driven to improve on upcoming theme releases.
Stay tuned for more developments…