I have recently acquired a domain name and am going to get a custom script made. Basically, it will be a free wordpress theme site along the lines of themes.wordpress.net I expect that I'll have to get some kind of awesome server after a while to keep up with the traffic (all those demo wordpress sites running at once etc.) How could I monetize the site? I don't want to have pop-ups or any annoying obtrusive ads. Getting a high PR and selling links is 1 way I've thought of, aswell as selling sponsorships on templates I make. Would it be better to say charge $5 to make an account and upload your themes (keep out the spammers) rather than let people create free accounts? Or would that piss off too many people and it wouldn't be used? Opinions?
Do you have another complementary product that you can sell to bloggers? If you take this route, I would say target the people wanting the theme, rather than creators of the theme - the end users. Perhaps a video tutorial on the basics of tweaking a blog? What about an inexpensive header design service for the themes?
Well you could sort of put adsense ads on it.. in a very descrete manner..just Text links maybe?..or use TLA if you dont want to go with adsense...
I think the best would be the following: Everyone who would like to start submitting themes to your sites will have to send you an application with some samples of his templates (you could do this here on DP, too) and you would then choose who to approve and who not. That way you wouldn't get spammers and you would have on your site quality templates only. I think it wouldn't be good to charge users for registration. If you would, I personally wouldn't register. BTW, I'm planning to create a similar site like you for longer time already. Good luck!
I don't agree with the 5 bucks thingy. You won't make it to the top if you'd do that. Well, first... my tip is popularize yourself first i.e. get backlinks, top of search results for wordpress themes. like themes.wordpress.net does Maybe after you beat wordpress.net (I hope you do ) you can ask for 5 bucks payment for uploads
Don't monetize the site just yet. Focus on building popularity through advertising & link building first - only stick up ads once you get an established visitor base and are achieving around 100 uniques/day.
What about aiming to get some PR and then selling partner links? I know that after a while the server load will be huge and I imagine the cost of the hosting will be quite high per month. I don't want to do anything which makes it look spammy, trashy, out just to make money (because its not just about the money), or cheap tightasses. So google ads are out, and I think so is paying to register. Maybe you can pay $5 to get some special benefits (such as multi upload, author profiles ... um, can't think of anything else at the moment)