So I've decided I'm going to make my first for sale theme, probably WordPress. I'm not sure what sort of theme to do just yet. So I'm taking suggestions. I may later put up a poll with the replies I like the most, so people can vote on what sort of theme they want me to create. For example should I do a theme for a specific blog topic? Something more diverse? A theme with a particular feel? I'm curious about what you guys would be interested in seeing, but also what there's a demand for. Also I'm debating between whether I should sell multiple copies of the theme for a lower price, or just one copy so that only one person gets to use it for a higher price. What do you think? I'm also thinking once I get this going, of maybe making one theme every month, or maybe a few a month and putting it up for sale.
Go check out http://www.themeforest.net/category/wordpress there are lots of templates being sold here, I would look at the ones that have higher sales, and learn from them, as they are obviously the ones that are more popular.
Check here for a list of sites that can inspire you... http://xhtml-valid-websites.com/forum/Thread-inspiration-for-your-new-layout But think about it... your portfolio/gallery/art is not really decent, sorry to say. Design in Web and "Offline" are 2 different things. "Pimping" a picture does not make you a webdesigner. If you want to make some money with WP themes then you must check the "market" for this section. There are tons of themes for WP.
I have to disagree with you There are lots of different valid approaches to web-design. I personally love a lot of portfolios I've seen that you might criticize as falling into the "pimping a picture" category. It's a perfectly valid approach to design. I know some people consider as artsy as possible as the only "good" way to design and others can't stand that sort of thing and think more minimalist, or something else is the way to go (which probably is the case when it comes to selling on theme forest, at least that's what I gather as I browse the designs). But that doesn't mean that web-design that draws a lot of influence from various other mediums (yes including printed art) or even mimics it isn't good, or that it makes you not a valid web-designer. I've had both people whom really loved my portfolio and those whom don't, and that's fine, to each their own. However I'm really not looking for a portfolio review in this thread, I all ready had a whole thread dedicated to that. Anyhow I think I've helped to divert my own thread off-topic enough. Thanks for the link though.
Just another question: do you have any experience with doing templates (WordPress or even static html)? Are you good at (X)HTML/CSS? That's needed if you design templates ...
Yes I do have experience with creating templates. WordPress, Joomla, and DreamWeaver templates as well. I'm also planning on learning Drupal. But I'm trying to build up my portfolio, so I need to do some really good ones, and that's part of why I've asked this question. Plus I've not sold a theme before, so I want to try that out. Yes I'm good with CSS and XHTML, I code sites from scratch, not the WYSIWYG way, and generally use W3C valid code.