WordPress.com has just launched their premium theme store, bringing premium theme developers and the first two of hopefully many premium themes to over 17 million WordPress.com blogs.
Previously, WordPress.com users were limited to just over a hundred free themes with no ability to upload their own, thus cutting them off from the premium theme market. Now, premium theme developers have a chance to cash in on “the other WordPress” users.
WordPress.com is starting their premium theme offerings with Headlines for $45 (available to self-hosted WordPress users for $70 with two “bonus” themes) and Shelf for $68 (also available to self-hosted WordPress users for $68). WordPress.com plans to increase their free and premium theme offerings “in a big way” this year, so this is definitely shaping up to be a game-changer in the premium theme market.
(Disclosure: I also work at Automattic.)
Great to see for “normal” WordPress users. How will support work, though? Will this be offered by the developers, or WordPress?
Support is currently handled by the theme authors and the WordPress.com theme team via a private forum for premium theme purchasers only.
== theme developers have a chance to cash in on “the other WordPress” users ==
Just curious, will plugin developers also “have a chance to cash in on other WordPress users”?
Plugin developers haven’t really had a chance to cash in on any users yet; for a number of reasons, commercial plugins haven’t built up the same kind of clout as commercial themes. I can’t see wordpress.com users ever being allowed to choose and upload their own plugins; what is more likely is that regularly requested add-ons will either be offered to everyone, or available as a premium feature. Either way, the chances of plugin developers making money out of them seem slight. Rather than use a paid-for plugin, Automattic would choose a free alternative or roll their own.
So what’s the difference between this and the thousands of paid wordpress themes that exist on the internet? I guess it’s the same as the Apple App Store, you can find all of those on the internet if you look hard enough, but now it’s just easier to find it.
ehhh… I’ll stick with coding my own!