Wordcamp 2012 riaan knoetze - how to hijack a themeshop

Background & History● No formal web dev/design training

● Brief educational background

● What I'm NOT:

○ Programming Ninja

○ Marketing Guru

○ Graphic Designer

● What I AM:○ Decent Front End Dev

○ Know what I like

○ Chaser of Passive Income

Premium Theme Market Issues● Crowded

● High Barrier to Entry

○ Skills

○ Support Infrastructure

○ Cost to get help

● Getting feet to your website

Possible Solution: Hijacking● No actual crime involved

● Build of childthemes / plugins

● Leveraging existing themeshop infrastructure

What is a Child Theme?● Wordpress hierarchy - how things fit together

● Opinion:

○ Childthemes = look & feel change

○ Plugins = adds / removes functionality

○ Affects support requirements

● Why I chose child theme product development? Skills

Examples - Classipress● Gumtree on Wordpress

http://demos.appthemes.com/classipress/

http://classipress-child.tinygiantstudios.co.uk/

http://classipress-child.tinygiantstudios.co.uk/

Examples - Jobroller● Wordpress Job Board

Prima Screenshots

http://demos.appthemes.com/jobroller/

Prima Screenshots

http://jrchild.tinygiantstudios.co.uk

http://eva.tinygiantstudios.co.uk

Hijack 101 - Tools / Skills / Knowledge● Skills

○ Basic PHP

○ WP theme file hierarchy

○ HTML / CSS / jQuery

● Tools

○ Text Editor

○ Graphic Design thingamabob

○ A website to showcase (and sell)

● Knowledge

○ What is happening in WP Market

○ Top tier themeshops

Resources

● lynda.com● teamtreehouse.com● Digging into Wordpress● Wordpress Tutsplus● Nettuts● Web Design Tuts● Themeforest● Code Canyon● WP Codex● PHP Novice to Ninja● jQuery Novice to Ninja● Sublime Text 2● Notepad++● Photoshop● Fireworks● pixlr.com

Hijack 101 - Pick a Target● How to select a themeshop to hijack

○ Poor theme design

○ Poor theme functions

○ Poor theme support

○ Unanswered User Requests

○ Active user base / showcase

○ Themeshops by Size

○ Themeshop support

Personal Experience

Research

Hijack 101 - Execute Your Plan● The Legwork

○ Handcoding HTML/CSS/jQuery

○ Use existing CSS files from parent

○ Use CSS3

○ Add spice to CORE theme features

○ Keeps things as modular as possible

○ Advanced: Learn Hooks / Filters

● Testing

○ Find trusted users with field experience

○ Bug logging system

○ Reward testers

Resources

● Designshack● CSSWizardry● Supportpress● Github● Google Docs● Bugherd

Hijack 101 - Get Cash for your Stash● Demo Setup (With Google Analytics)

● Product Screenshots / Box Cover

● Get a Marketplace

○ Own Website

○ Official Marketplace

○ 3rd Party Marketplace

● Start Marketing

○ Support forum / forum signature

○ Blog comments

○ Email Newsletters

○ Asking official recommendation

○ "Buy Now" links on demo's

○ Social Media stuff

○ Listen to / contact the experts

Remember

● Currency● Tax Laws● Privacy Policy● Terms & Conditions● Hosting & Bandwidth

Hijack 202 - Aftersales Support● Develop your own support system (e.g. forum /

ticket based / email)

● Why?

○ Key to future sales

○ Key to user driven marketing

Hijack 202 - Making it LegitHijackers (child theme developers)

● Getting themeshop backing

● Joining themeshop marketplace

○ Reduces infrastructure requirements

● Becoming certified partner

● Drawback: Revenue split

Hijackees (themeshops)

● Expanded product offering

● Passive income

● Employee screener

My Own Experience with AppThemes● 1st premium child theme early 2011

● Marketing = Forum signatures

● AppThemes Stalker

● Currently 8 Products total

● Joined AppTheme marketplace in Aug 2012

Making it Official - Joining AppThemes● Front End Developer

● Inside access to upcoming AppThemes products

● Still based in South Africa

● Still earning in USD = Passive Income

Questions

http://tinygiantstudios.co.uk/

Example - Vantage● Wordpress - Business Directory Listings

http://demos.appthemes.com/vantage/

http://vantage-child.tinygiantstudios.co.uk/