I recently spoke with Brian Richards, the creator of the Startbox theme, a commercial WordPress framework that launched earlier this fall.
We talked about how Startbox came to be, how running a theme shop is different from working with clients, what it’s like selling a framework to developers, and—most exciting of all—found out where his Twitter handle came from.
Full interview after the jump.
Post Revisions:
- 18 November, 2010 @ 11:00 [Current Revision] by Ryan Imel
- 8 October, 2010 @ 11:50 by Ryan Imel
One amendment to what I said at the end of the video: Startbox is now $75(!!) and all child themes can be purchased independently at: http://www.themegarden.com/category/themes/framework-themes/startbox-child-themes/
I think you said it sometime during the video – the wordpress theme market is REALLY saturated. I think the fact that it is GPL and will include child themes will really help you out.
But without an affiliate program how do you intend to make any “real” sales.
Great Question, AJ. My ambition isn’t really to make sales, it’s to make a great product. I’ve been using Startbox myself for I’ve 2yrs and it wasn’t until I started operating with the mindset of “what is the best practice that is most practical for other users” that I really saw leaps in improvements to Startbox. Taking it slow now has definitely helped me build a better foundation to empower more users long-term.
That said, I am planning on launching an affiliate program very soon. It’s certainly the best way to get the word out and the simplest way to reward others for doing so.
[...] Startbox as an advanced theme on top of Sandbox, first released his framework in the fall of 2010. We interviewed him just before he launched. In an initial introduction post, Richards said of the theme: For two years [...]