The demand for high quality WordPress themes is INCREDIBLE. There are TONS of people looking for both free and commercial themes every day and people like me make a living selling them. Due to this high demand, people are constantly opening new theme stores and / or creating new items to sell in existing markets, such as Themeforest or Mojo Themes.
As a WordPress theme buyer, developer, and developer, I have a lot of experience with many of the popular theme stores and their work. At the same time I have a good eye for choosing quality articles over the not so good ones.
I wanted to share some of my tips to help you make "smarter" and more informed purchases when looking for "commercial" WordPress themes. Please note that I use the term "commercial" because ...
"Not all commercial themes are premium themes and not all premium themes are commercial themes!"
Usually, people refer to all commercial issues as premium, despite everything, the term premium refers to something that is exceptional and superior to others of this type. But as we all know, some business themes suck and can be worse than some of the free themes available.
These are my tips ...
Can you trust the seller?
Theme Store: One of the first things to ask yourself is whether the seller can be trusted. Not only because it's feasible that you are giving them your credit card information, but at the same time because you want to make sure that you actually receive your product and that it will perform as described. Doing a simple Google search About the seller, you should have a good idea if this person / company is legitimate. Usually if not, you will find a ton of horrible reviews or angry blog posts about them.
Individual seller: If you are buying from an individual seller at a Market Place, you can usually tell from reviews and ratings if people like the seller. As an example, if you read some of my comments on trade topics and look at my reviews, you will find that everything is positive 😉
If they are not in a market and they sell directly from your website / blog, such as Devin Price is doing on his blog selling his Option frame kitYou can read some of his posts, check out his github and / or twitter and you will immediately see that he is a cool guy. The same goes for my friend Pippin Williamson to Pippins Plugins (everyone knows Pippin). If you just search for either of these two people, you will see that they are very involved in the WordPress community and are people you trust.
At the same time, if payments are made through PayPal, you have an additional layer of security, so it is something to note to look for if you are still concerned.
Check out a free theme: If the vendor offers some kind of free theme, you should consider downloading it and taking a look at the code. Obviously, don't worry if you see some bugs because the topic may be old or not received as much attention as a business topic. What you are looking for is cipher code and incomplete links. If a seller is giving away free themes with all kinds of fraudulent links or encrypted code, I personally would not trust their commercial articles.
Topic last updated on ...
One of the first things you would personally see is when the theme was released or when it was last updated. WordPress is constantly evolving and you want to make sure not only that your theme makes use of some of the newer features available, but at the same time make sure that the theme is safe to use. As an example, any theme that uses Timthumb that hasn't been updated in the last two years is a very bad idea - everyone is aware of the huge vulnerability in Timthumb that was recently discovered and updated.
It doesn't matter if it's an old theme, if it's been updated recently, it can still be a great option! If there is a public changelog, you may want to review it. Of course, you can always ask the seller if the theme is up to date to work with the latest version of WordPress.
Some people asked me in the past if my themes would work with a lower version of WordPress because they didn't want to update their installation for some reason or another. Honestly, I don't care what the reason is ... you should always keep your WP installation up to date!
Never, EVER, let a theme prevent you from using the latest version of WordPress.
Check the code with W3C
One thing that only takes a few seconds is to run a W3C check on the home page of an item you are thinking of purchasing. You can test all pages, but usually if the home page is well coded, the rest of the site will be at the same time. The same is true if the home page has hundreds of errors, you can probably expect the same for the rest of the site.
Check Ratings and Reviews
I usually see people complaining on ThemeForest, where I sell my commercial themes (ATM), because they bought a theme that had a problem and the author does not help them. Just looking at the author, I usually see that they have low ratings, people commenting on issues with the topic ... etc.
Themes are pretty cheap and if you don't mind losing a bit of money here and there, go ahead and buy a theme and if it doesn't work out, claim it as a loss on your taxes. Otherwise, reading a few comments and making sure the author gets good marks wouldn't hurt. And if you really want to make sure you're making the right decision, do an online market search and read some reviews (note that most reviews are created by affiliates, so be careful, not all of them are honest) Maybe send a few tweets and ask people for their opinions.
Looking at the features and options
Of course, when you are looking for a new theme, there are many things you may be looking for, usually you want specific design items or features. Here are some tips for things that I think are always essential and things that are not.
Necessary:
- Well coded HTML, PHP and JS
- A design that meets your needs - There are hundreds of thousands of themes, stop hacking them and get something that works for you or your client (for the most part)
- Author Support: If there is something wrong with the theme, it is great for the author to help you
- Regular updates - If you intend to use the theme for an extended period of time, updates are a must
There's no need:
- SEO options - these should not be built in, you must use Yoast SEO
- Color options for each element - If you are unfamiliar with CSS, hire a web developer!
- All Possible Page Templates - Did you know that you can create new templates in your child theme?
- Shortcodes - These don't have to be included in the theme, there are a lot of great plugins for this
Unfortunately, it seems that the market for stores like Themeforest is leaning towards cluttered and bloated themes. I don't know if buyers don't want to spend money to buy a theme for each client, they don't know how to code or they are just lazy… So in some of my themes I have added certain options that I would not normally add, despite everything, there are things that simply they don't belong to a theme, like SEO options or 100+ shortcodes (what? Yeah, I've seen it on a theme feature list before).
Price and licenses
Obviously, these are two very important aspects when buying a theme. Sometimes you have a client who has given you a budget to go out and buy a theme, or you personally have a budget to deal with financial difficulties, or maybe you have all the money in the world to spend. And when it comes to buying a trade item, there is no 100% correlation between price and quality. As an example, there are some high quality themes on Theme Trust that sell for 2 themes for $ 25 and then you go to Themeforest and find themes that sell for $ 50 each (that's twice the cost) that are comparable to those of Theme Trust.
Higher price does NOT mean higher quality
Personally I wouldn't even look at the price about the topic. If the WordPress theme has exactly what you need, the seller is very trustworthy and has positive ratings / reviews, and the theme has been well developed anyway, who cares how much it costs? Even at $ 100, some themes would still be worth it. I've seen people end up spending twice as much because they bought themes that they later found weren't exactly what they were looking for.
Remember, if you were to hire a freelance developer, it could cost you thousands of dollars for a website. Buying a theme is still an affordable option even if you buy a high-quality niche theme at the higher end of your budget, like the ones found on AppThemes.
License? They should all be GPL, right?
Your thoughts?
Ultimately, I would like to hear from you guys / girls. What is your process when looking for a new item to buy? What are some of your experiences with different markets and theme shops? I'm sure if you've had a good or bad experience, anyone reading this post will find it helpful, so please share!
How do you buy themes? Any good or bad experiences? Comment below!
