How to Create a WordPress Theme of My Own, to Sell?

Do you want to create and sell your WordPress theme but not sure where to start? This post covers complete guidance on creating WordPress themes and selling them with good profit.

WordPress is a great market niche that offers passive income, lucrative business and amazing career opportunities for the determined candidates. Today, many popular theme developers and agencies earn millions of dollars every year, all from designing and developing themes.

Here are three different ways to create a WordPress theme:

Modify an Existing Theme

When it comes to the easiest option, modifying an existing theme is the best option. Here, you only need to make some minor changes, like colours, font sizes, and simple layout changes.

Here, the best way is to create a child theme. A child theme is referred to as an existing theme, just modifying the bits you want to change. The advantage of using a child theme is that if the parent theme is updated when you update WordPress, your changes will not be removed.

In order to create a child theme, you need to create a new folder inside your /theme/ folder. A handy tip is to use the name of the parent theme with –child appended, as it makes it clear what the child theme is.

In this child folder, there is a need for a minimum a style.css file and functions.php file. In these files, add some code to inform the WordPress which is the parent theme, where the style sheets are, and some other latest functionality you are looking for in your child theme.

To child theme up, the last step is to go to Appearance > Themes to activate your child theme.

Adapt an Existing Theme

If you want to go in deep in WordPress code, you can duplicate an existing theme and bend it to your will.

It covers various things like deleting all of the current styles and building your own. You can also dig into the other theme files and remove elements you do not need and add others.

Besides, you can also decide there are lots of features in the copied theme you do not need now like post comment and multiple sidebar elements like categories and bookmarks. You also find PHP snippets for these elements in different theme files, and you can just delete them or also move them to different places.

You will have to do some search work which feels to contain the elements you need to delete or move, but this is a good way to know WordPress and work on different files.

Another option, instead of duplicating an existing theme is to start with a starter theme.

Create a Theme from Scratch

Creating its theme from scratch is a daunting task but this is fun too. It is actually quite easier because at a minimum you only need two files- style.css and index.php.

Although, with it, you can have a pretty limited theme. At a minimum, you will probably want a functions.php file for custom functions, and some other template files for the different parts of the website at 4040.php template file for showing 404 pages.

How to Make a Successful WordPress Theme?

Make it Unique

There is a variety of themes already available in the market? Why do people choose one over the other? Here, the design is the major factor to attract customers. Even though customers know the concept of template design, they still look for unique and creative designs that make their brand stand out from the crowd.

Responsive Design

This time, the whole world is shifting toward the mobile phone and carry-on device. To be successful today, you need to make your theme fully optimized for all sizes. Keep in mind that not having a mobile-friendly template can affect your website's SEO ranking.

Customization Choices

Customization is another important selling point for WordPress themes. Users want a fully customizable theme with various other plugins included.

Excellent Demo

 A demo presents how the theme can be used in different ways. When creating a demo, the common fact is to show how the theme fits different businesses. This way, customers will associate them with the theme and will be more eager to purchase.

Documentation

For any doubt or question, users look for the documentation. If your theme does not have documentation, the users will be bombarding your support with huge requests. With proper documentation, you can make some minor tweaks and customer themes.

Bottom Line

Selling WordPress themes is an excellent business opportunity. As with every type of business, you will need tons of motivation, efforts, marketing skills, and willingness to invest time.

Today, WordPress business is saturated and the market is growing towards template solutions. There will be many other companies entering the market that means more competition and more customers. So get started designing and developing your theme, learn some marketing techniques and be creative. It has never been a better time.

If you have any questions on selling WordPress themes, let us know in the comment below.