Selling Website Templates

[claudiathompson]

Hello,

 

I have been creating website templates for quite a few years now, just started out as a hobby.

 

I have a website on which I sell the templates now, individually or for a membership fee.

 

But recently I have a need of some quick money and so I came up with an idea to offer my templates as a 'package' and also to have an already pre-made website that is a 'Template Store' complete with all the already-set up templates categories and their thumbnails and even the PayPal codes. All people have to do is just change the code to reflect their own PayPal email, and change the prices if they want to.

 

Anyway, I have two questions about this.

 

I always tend to put a really low price on things, reasoning that this will make people want to buy it. But over the years a few people have written to me and told me that they think I charge too low a price. Someone told me that if you charge too low it makes people wonder if there is something wrong with the product. And they think if you charge a lot, that it must be very valuable.

 

Thats my first question, how do people out there actually feel about this? Is it really actually better to charge a higher price? I ask because I have kept on changing my prices back and forth and want to make a solid decision on what to charge and leave it that price.

 

Secondly, I was just reading an article online that told several places which you could actually sell your templates. One of the suggestions was selling them to Web Designers. Over the years a lot of Web Designers have bought my templates to use them to create sites for their customers.

 

But my question is, How do you find out how to sell them to Web Designers? Do you just go to Google and start looking up Web Designer websites and get their email? Or is that considered to be 'Spam' to do that? On the article it seemed to have been written years ago and so I couldnt really ask anyone there about this. It was saying something about an email campaign.

[falkencreative]

I must have missed this post when it first appeared...

 

If you have customers telling you to raise your prices, you are probably charging too little. I think a lot of people would agree that pricing a product too low makes them question the quality of the product. I would much prefer to pay a little more for a product that I know will last a while, rather than paying less and potentially not having the product fit my needs, or having the product wear out and it ultimately costing me more in the long run. You'll just need to find a good price point that is high enough that people think they are getting a quality product, but not too high so that it discourages them from buying. That said, you also need to do your research and figure out what other people are selling similar products for. You don't want to charge significantly more or less than your competition without good reason.

 

Yes, there are template sites online that you can sell your templates. As I was saying in one of your other topics, however, if you intend to sell them to web designers you need to update your knowledge of modern web design/coding techniques.

 

Manually searching for web designers and contacting them individually is probably fine, but I wouldn't put them on an email list without their knowledge and approval. Just make sure the product you are offering fits something that a web designer needs and would find useful.

 

Here are a couple resources that you might glance at, though not all of these will apply 100% to your situation:

http://mashable.com/2009/02/28/sell-designs-online/

http://www.outlawdesignblog.com/uncategorized/how-to-make-money-selling-website-templates/

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2008/12/10-places-to-sell-templates/

http://www.csstemplatesweb.com/

[claudiathompson]

I must have missed this post when it first appeared...

 

If you have customers telling you to raise your prices, you are probably charging too little. I think a lot of people would agree that pricing a product too low makes them question the quality of the product. I would much prefer to pay a little more for a product that I know will last a while, rather than paying less and potentially not having the product fit my needs, or having the product wear out and it ultimately costing me more in the long run. You'll just need to find a good price point that is high enough that people think they are getting a quality product, but not too high so that it discourages them from buying. That said, you also need to do your research and figure out what other people are selling similar products for. You don't want to charge significantly more or less than your competition without good reason.

 

Yes, there are template sites online that you can sell your templates. As I was saying in one of your other topics, however, if you intend to sell them to web designers you need to update your knowledge of modern web design/coding techniques.

 

Manually searching for web designers and contacting them individually is probably fine, but I wouldn't put them on an email list without their knowledge and approval. Just make sure the product you are offering fits something that a web designer needs and would find useful.

 

Here are a couple resources that you might glance at, though not all of these will apply 100% to your situation:

http://mashable.com/2009/02/28/sell-designs-online/

http://www.outlawdesignblog.com/uncategorized/how-to-make-money-selling-website-templates/

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2008/12/10-places-to-sell-templates/

http://www.csstemplatesweb.com/

 

 

 

Thanks Ben, I was thinking yesterday about way back when I started doing this, I tried to use the Bravenet Newsletter feature but didnt know what I was doing back then. I looked yesterday and they still have that available, so I think that when I re-do my website I might add that feature, then that would allow people to choose if they want to receive updates of what new templates I add, etc.

 

So far, for a few days now, Ive been going to Google and typing in things like 'web designers' and sending them an email offering my templates package. But I decided not to offer that anymore. I am just making a new email add just telling people about my templates. Also removing the membership feature where people can get all the templates for just $7.95. I think it had its place in the past, it did get my templates all around on the internet at least, and each one has a link back to my site. But I think the time has come for me now to actually get into web design, and re-do all my templates with the proper .css code (once I learn how to do it) and re-do all my templates having 8 pages, like Products page, Photos page etc... contact page, to make less work for me when it comes time to design someones site. When I had created those hundreds of templates, it gave me carpal tunnel syndrome on my wrists, But eventually it went away. But I know it can come back, so I want to design templates that will make less work for me. Plus the 8 page feature will be a 'selling point' for my templates. (actually Im desperately trying to make up for what I lack in knowledge by having alot of pages LOL)

 

with the places to sell templates, I had come across a place that gave the top 10 places to sell them and this one called 'Template Forest' I signed up for that but they make you take a 10 question quiz and they allow you to take it over and over till you get it right. I kept getting 8 out of 10 questions right, but you have to get them all right. I cant for the life of me figure out which ones Im getting wrong. I even went back and re-read the whole tutorial thing too. But anyway I certainly will look into that some more. I think that I need to first get this .css files thing all straightened out first on all my templates, and I really now appreciate you telling me that.

[claudiathompson]

I still dont know how much to charge for each individual template though, because honestly, they are different than anyone elses I have seen. They are sort of a cross between a background set and a template. Because most all background sets just have a picture, divider, home, back, next and email button. But mine (at least alot of them) have the several different pages. Plus they look different than alot of the background sets out there. (at least alot of people have told me that), because I was trying to come up with the idea of having several differnt layouts of the same theme set, to give people's website a variety, yet still have a uniformity.

 

So I dont know what to charge because most all the background sets out there on the web are free. Then you have the modern templates where people charge up to like $60 for them.

 

I have only been charging $2.95 each. I was thinking of re-doing them all, like I said then charging $4.95 each and see how it goes and if I still get lots of orders, try $6.95 or something like that till I find just the right price. But whatever I do Ive got to make a decision and stick with it.

 

I will still have to keep my undisclosed except to members... membership page I guess. for those who already had paid for a membership. I hope it will be ok though that Im changing all the templates. geesh what a mess Ive gotten myself into. Maybe I should keep both the old zip files with the old templates on my computer, just in case someone likes the old versions better. That way I wont get myself into trouble.