Hate to say this but....

Cheers for that link, i'll take a look

 

I have a solution.

I'm one of those designers that would never even think of offering a design in this section normally but I am willing to do an experiment.

If what you and others say is true ( I do have my strong doubts) about there being a decent market here then the real problem is sludging through all the garbage. So here is my proposal subject to modifications and not needing DP to change anything.

All designers that wish to sell TRULY PREMIUM designs Should include the words "OVER $100" in their TITLE LINE.

Anyone selling their designs for beer money will not want to put that in their listing. Buyers that want garbage or aren't willing to pay for good designs will not even bother clicking. Its an instant turn off to anyone who isn't in that market - buyer or seller.

If there is a real market here as you say then you won't have to sludge through all the garbage. You merely do a search in this section for "over $100" and say "wordpress" (in your case) and you are done. All the designs that the designer expects to get that kind of money for.

If some troll comes into the thread saying the opening bid is too high you merely point out he read that coming in and can read that going out. If some one tries to pass of a poor design for that money they won't succeed - natural deterrent.

I'm wiling to try this (or some modification). I am not promising I am going to put my best work up(like you said even you are trying to avoid the $500 price tags) but It will be worth the $100 or more. Other will have to join in for it to work and we will all have to popularize adding those titles as a way of finding the best on DP but in time if the market is really there as you say then we will see .

Worthy Idea or a bust?

 

Go for it

 

@ nontemplates - i don't think it would have a great success, there are few serious buyers that check out premium template auctions, they mostly hire a designer to do it and avoid auctions

the whole thing is that people nowadays would want everything for free, i post themes up for auction VERY rarely and i mostly interact with clients and do custom work

a few days ago i got a job offer for a wordpress design and coding, he showed me examples of similar blogs that he likes, we set the details

when i told him the price(currently i charge 200$/wordpress design) he started saying that its overpriced and this and that he can buy for 30$

i just told him: "then go and buy"

 

I know what you mean. I get them all the time people thinking that because they can get a template for $30 that I should code to that price. I even got one client trying to get me to do a template for free all because it was for a linux site and linux is open source, that annoyed me especially seens as I had already done the work and he was trying to change it at the end of the contract.

The problem is now that Sitepoint has become overcrowded with shite designs now as well because crappy designers know that they will sell the template so the $5 investment a time is worth it, the only way this is going to be solved is if forums are split into section which the DP mods will not do no matter how much we ask because it might make the forums look empty, i think its about time they listened to threads like this because for a lot of people DP is their main source of income and 12 year olds are starting to make too much money whilst proper designers are losing out, it is ridiculous. The other option is to get some more template marketplaces up.

 

$200 is definitely NOT overpriced! I charge clients $300 for coded wordpress designs and most of them expect to pay more... but i'll be lucky if i find someone here who is willing to pay half that price for the quality of the theme.

I do custom work here for people when I have the free time but its rare. I've also been burned here about 3 times.

 

I agree that Sitepoint gets run over with crap every now and then but it's always been like that- it's still the best place to find quality but you might only find something really great once or twice a week. And they are still superior to almost anything here.

By the way, i just had to laugh when i read that someone tried to convince you to do a free theme because its for an open source platform.

 

Indeed, I was offered £360 by a non-profit company here in the UK to make them a CMS around WP.

 

I suspect you are right but it seems to me that there are a whole lot of people who are out there that don't know a designer - in particular one that codes for Wordpress. I suspect it may very well be possible that quite a few come through here just by the sheer amount of traffic on DP but how would they find the good stuff?

Case in point. Not exactly the "good stuff" but I have a design I brought here to do some theme sponsorship. Now I know its not my best work and has quite a few shortcomings but what the hey. I've seen far worse than it get sponsored BY FAR. The thing left the front page in minutes and not a nibble.

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=652654 in case you think its a design from hell (not a design from heaven either. If it is then let me know).

Now I have seen some HIDEOUS themes get sponsored. I'm actually pretty convinced It would be sponsored based on what I have seen pass around here but its gone so quick from the front page.

Could this be happening to people who come here who WOULD pay more. they come. they see, they throwup and they leave. I got to think that DP has enough traffic to have at least some premium buyers but they aren't going to dig for quality. So I think you are right but I still might run a few through here with those title add ons - just to quench my curiosity.

 

THats hilarious. I take it there was no ad space in this design?