I'm planning to launch a free themes download site, which is expected to be my publishing platform of original designed themes. The site was built with wordpress. I've set up several categories by different contents, and many other tags sorted by topics, colors, layouts, plugins, etc. There are already 1 or 2 coded and tested themes in each category, and the number will surely increase in the future. From the SEO point of view I wrote meta information for every single category, and every single page such as "about us", "terms of use", "contact us", etc. Social bookmarking and rating plugins are activated so as to be friendly to the users other than nice screenshot preview images. A demo site is also under construction. For promoting this site, I'm going to do it in several webmaster and web design forums. Submitting my selected themes to other themes sites is also considerable, although most sites will have their links added to the footer. Since the whole site still needs to be modified and tested locally before uploaded, what else am I going to do now? Is there anything missed or misled? Thank you in advance!
Something like this can be massive with linkbaiting technique especially if you feel that your themes are relatively good enough quality compared to what is available out there. Therefore write up some 'killer' headlines and description and submit to stumbleupon, digg, etc. I would suggest that you have big digg, stumbleupon, etc buttons below each page for each theme to be downloaded. Look at the ones for http://socialmediatrader.com/ as examples.
Big buttons... sounds pretty good. It is true that good contents will probably bring backlinks, and there are already many sites with good PR and traffic. I still want more suggestions, especially on promotion.
Aren't you doing the right promotion now? DP has one of the largest webmasters member. Who wouldn't love from themes considering that blogging is so common nowadays. You are on the right train currently myst729. Set up your blog and promote it in the freebies section when you are ready. I am sure it can get you easily 1000 visitors if your theme are of good quality. ( Magazine style theme are in high demand at the moment. ) Word of mouth promotion is the best marketing tool you will ever need for a site like yours.
Thanks for your reply. I'm a bit worried about this. Because I've spent quite a lot of time and energy preparing for the site, selecting domain name, writing page contents, designing and coding various themes, blablabla... Well, maybe also a little unconfident about my designs, since there are already so many wonderful themes all over the web. I'm a little anxious but just don't want to make a themes site out of thousands of familiar ones, and end up fail again. Anyway, I feel encouraged now, thanks very much!
The contents and themes are the key to let vistor return to you site. You are doing good now. hard work will get paid.
Well you can create membership site-or free membership site. With membership site you absolutely will have closer relationship with your readers and they will visit your site more often. How do you intend to drive traffic to your site?
You're welcome. I am pretty sure if your themes are magazine style yet you are giving for free, it will succeed. Traffic will comes naturally after you start advertising. DP forums are a great avenue to get started like I said before. All the best with the site. I will gladly support it if you PM me on the day when you launched the site.
Well... this is why I'm getting anxious, 'cause I know it won't be easy. Advertising is considerable but I don't have much money to do that. So far I did following things to make it as good as possible before launched: 1. I did quite a lot on SEO, like said before, wrote different meta information (keywords, description, etc.) for every single page and every single category. 2. Checked many themes submission sites and made a list out of them. My themes will probably appear on these sites, maybe not every but selected. 3. Built a demo site so as to make the themes more impressive. Although this will cost more time and energy, even money, but I think it is worth doning. 4. The most important part I guess, doing all my best to bring out catching designs, make the coded themes compatible with the latest version of wordpress and compliant with the web standards, test again and again to avoid bugs. After the site is launched: 1. Selected content will also be submitted to social bookmarking sites. In my opinion this might be a good way to drive traffic. And if my designs are really good, the users will surely check back for more. 2. Maybe webmaster forums and design forums are also good places to go. 3. Force my friends to use them? Thanks again, you will definitely receive my PM when the site is launched. Maybe after the site is online, more problems will appear. I'm looking forward to launching it and recieving suggestions. Thanks all
I would suggest you start charging for cutom-made themes, and release a set number each month for free. You deserve to be paid because your themes look as good the ones that sell for $40+.