Selling Wordpress Themes As 'Website Design'?

[hist0ry]

Hello All,
Like most of you guys I am fairly advanced with SEO in regards to knowing what im talking about, having a decent portfolio and having success with a few clients here and there along with my own sites. Basically I just work and do this stuff in my own time and have had maybe 5 clients over the last year for websites etc.

I now want to go at it more full on and milk it slightly more. Im confident with my SEO and can resell it as im focusing on local seo anyway so its like taking candy from a baby in terms of ease.

What I am wanting to do though is sell more websites. Currently Ive made maybe 4 in the last 6 months and I just use wordpress. Im not a wordpress script kiddy and I can modify themes and know a bit of php etc and customise it quite a lot but I do use themes and just modify them to the clients requirements.

What im wanting to do though is resell themeforest themes. Im thinking maybe using the previews of some different themeforest themes in a portfolio for clients when proposing websites to them as I intend to do this. Im not to woried about clients knowing they are themes as they will not be literate to that extent and would probably not even know what wordpress is never mind what a wordpress theme is or theme forest.

Would you guys feel confident in doing this? and do you think its a fool proof way of gaining business? simply approaching businesses with my ipad and showing them a presentation and samples of theme forest themes etc?. As if they like a themeforest theme its a simple pay $40 and profit by a few hundred...

Any thoughts on this would be great and experience would be even better as like I said I use wordpress themes anyway and modify them but doing it like I said would be even easier as it saves the whole spending ages finding something suitable modifying and then having to redo it when the client 'nahhh's it.

Cheers.

 

[joeyzaza]

Thats exactly what I do, then get em on a monthly SEO plan ; ) I just have them pic a color, and I go find a few "examples" I use print screen, then paste in photoshop, throw up a a "your site" text block over the theme name, and then save as jpeg. Works like a charm. I then tell them it will take me 30 days to create, and will cost $500.

 

[hist0ry]

Im looking at irl cold calling them and doing an iPad presentation with theme forest samples and selling for 160gbp and then upsellling on seo. Theme names will be hidden etc but do you think they would click what I'm doing?

Cheers


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[joeyzaza]

Just use a screen shot of it. No need to demo, I always just get a good screen shot of the homepage. They cant click on anything then.

 

[hist0ry]

exactly what I intend to do . I was going to get a screenshot of the templates main page and do this for about ten of them and then put them in a slide show and when trying to sell potential clients offline in person show them these as 'samples' on my ipad.

 

[joeyzaza]

Perfect, I always ask bunch of questions about the site they "in vision" Then come back a few days later with some options to show them. Then it doesn't seem like you do the same type for all your clients.

 

[Web_Coders]

That's a pretty sound idea, I do 100% custom design but I charge my clients a premium price. They get the logo and everything custom as per their specs. I think the way you are wanting to do its good but not great if you want a real deal company. Some people want original work but if they don't mind themefrost the I guess its not a problem.

 

[hist0ry]

at this point in time 100% custom isnt really on the cards. I mean I do modify the themes quite a bit and they do look rather unique once completed. I could use the same theme on two different sites and they would look similar but not the same and could pass as different themes.

I dont want the customer to know they are from theme forest or whatever and would want to pass them off as the customer thinking its mine e.g. I would need the customer not to ask if they are templates which is what im asking and if they did ask how would I explain? any idea on this?

 

[WebOracle]

I would just tell them the site will be a semi-custom site.

 

[hist0ry]

what about simply showing them the screenshots as samples and not mentioning it unless asked and if asked explaining in a simpleton way that the website will be based on a foundation and customised to their requirements.

 

[WebOracle]

Sounds good to me. That is what I usually do. I don't even give examples in my meetings, they see my site and are impressed and tell them that I will do three mock ups for them to chose from and if they do not like those then I will do three more and once they choose one then we will go from there. Using the templates I have found clients to be really happy with the results, the templates look great (better than a lot of custom sites), and 100% of my clients do not know we used a template and would not care if they did. The client just cares if the site looks nice and clean and seeing traffic to their site and a ROI.

 

[jrlar]

That's a pretty sound idea, I do 100% custom design but I charge my clients a premium price. They get the logo and everything custom as per their specs. I think the way you are wanting to do its good but not great if you want a real deal company. Some people want original work but if they don't mind themefrost the I guess its not a problem.

There are niches for every web developer. Some do 100% custom ... others do themes/templates modified ... find what works for you and just do it. Personally, I do what Joeyzaza does.

The steps I go through (some will say its too much but I do it this way intentionally and I'll explain later on.)

1. Discuss what they're looking for (get a copy of their logo and list of services ... if they have no logo I charge them for one and get it outsourced for $5 on fiverr)
2. Go through my inventory of wp themes/plugins
3. Create a sub-domain with their company name or product/service as the subdomain url (democompany.mysite.com or demoproductservice.mysite.com)
4. Install Wordpress Multisite on that subdomain
5. Do a basic wpmu setup with 3 or 4 themes using their logo and a basic list of their services (just 2 or 3 services ... I export pages and import them into each setup to save time)
6. Contact them back the next day saying I have 3 or 4 design demos and either meet with them or skype conference with them (gotta love screen share) and show them live demos of what could be their site and let them select the one they want.

Now as I mentioned some will say that process takes too much time but...

1. It takes 30 minutes to an hour to do this process (if you have everything organized and ready to go like an assembly line)
2. I recoup that time on the back end of every sale by including it (doubling it in some cases) into my final price for the work (so my time is never wasted)
3. I always talk to them either face to face or over skype to display my in depth knowledge on marketing and web development which makes them see me as an expert and trust me more
4. Potential clients are always impressed by the fast turnaround and the quality of the demos so it results in closing about 8 out of 10 potential clients

Why does my way work? Simply put... I have everything setup like an assembly line and keep things organized so that I can turnaround leads fast and close deals. Plus add in the shock value from the quality of work using Wordpress Premium Themes gives you ... that I get free on BHW or other places ... and potential clients have no choice but to say yes. Oh btw I worked in sales for 5 years at one of the top banks in the world so that training comes in handy too lol

I charge from $600 to $3000 and above depending on the client. One last thing ... I started all of this without a website myself just purely word of mouth and social networking. When clients wanted a portfolio I'd give them 3 to 5 sites I've done for myself or others with references to contact. Some call and some don't. I gave all my references a 10% discount to secure them as such (I have 7 ready references at any given time). Starting out I just used my own sites which all are Wordpress based slightly modified themes and that was enough to close deals so you don't need previous clients starting out ... just buy 2 or 3 domains or use domains you currently own and do wordpress setups on them and use as samples of your work (I host those on 000webhost which I hate but its free and doesn't cost me a dime for sites that just sit and do nothing).

 

[hist0ry]

Awesome advice. How do you go about getting clients? IRL Cold calling? visiting businesses etc?.

 

[hist0ry]

also forgot to mention but 'free' premium themes as in pirated I would do for demos but then I would buy the appropriate licensing for the client as it seems a risk for the sake of like $30 form a 500+ sale.

 

[jefferymavers]

Hist0ry,

My jaw dropped when I read this post. I'm trying the EXACT same thing right now! Exact. I used to just make static pages as a hobby, but they would take me months. By the time I got 80% done, I'd be so bored with the design that I'd start it all over. I just recently saw the theme forest templates (bc the wp templates I always saw were always really bad) for the first time and thought, "I'll just sell that!" of course, I'm still on my website, 80% done, two weeks later. I like it perfect! Better than months...

Im not scared about the reselling/"getting caught." Good for premiumpixels' sales/good for me. And it's still a bunch of work setting up.

What I am scared about is getting clients to pay for anything on a monthly basis. Without it, I don't think we're gonna eat. I mean, I don't feel like being hunched over a computer desk 14 hours a day cranking out templates as fast as I can for $500 a week and constantly looking for new clients. I think my prices are relatively cheap for seo ($200 a month), but I'm scared no one will pay it. In fact, i know they wont pay it. Local business doesn't understand the marketing power of the web. Also, most business owners and people for that matter don't really understand what grueling work this all can be. They all think you can create any type of work as easy as creating a Facebook account. They all have a "buddy" that's gonna do that for them, therefore it must be super easy.

Real worried. Got $500 in the bank and two weeks to make this work...

PM me and maybe we can help each other with marketing ideas, templates, local seo, etc.

 

[petewww]

So do any of you guys say these are templates or lead them to believe they are custom websites? How do you state it in the contract/proposal?

With thousands of really great quality templates out there, it almost seems like a waste of time to do 100% custom designs for low paying clients (under $3k).

 

[WebOracle]

Hist0ry,

My jaw dropped when I read this post. I'm trying the EXACT same thing right now! Exact. I used to just make static pages as a hobby, but they would take me months. By the time I got 80% done, I'd be so bored with the design that I'd start it all over. I just recently saw the theme forest templates (bc the wp templates I always saw were always really bad) for the first time and thought, "I'll just sell that!" of course, I'm still on my website, 80% done, two weeks later. I like it perfect! Better than months...

Im not scared about the reselling/"getting caught." Good for premiumpixels' sales/good for me. And it's still a bunch of work setting up.

What I am scared about is getting clients to pay for anything on a monthly basis. Without it, I don't think we're gonna eat. I mean, I don't feel like being hunched over a computer desk 14 hours a day cranking out templates as fast as I can for $500 a week and constantly looking for new clients. I think my prices are relatively cheap for seo ($200 a month), but I'm scared no one will pay it. In fact, i know they wont pay it. Local business doesn't understand the marketing power of the web. Also, most business owners and people for that matter don't really understand what grueling work this all can be. They all think you can create any type of work as easy as creating a Facebook account. They all have a "buddy" that's gonna do that for them, therefore it must be super easy.

Real worried. Got $500 in the bank and two weeks to make this work...

PM me and maybe we can help each other with marketing ideas, templates, local seo, etc.

You need to stop thinking this way, you are being too negative towards making money and having your clients pay you for it. They will pay you THOUSANDS not Hundreds per month with 1 and 2 year contracts. I have about 35 clients now paying me big bucks monthly with contracts and you know what.... They are happy to do so and send me referrals all the time. You need to be more confident in yourself and in the services you are selling and you will make the money don't worry. Just tell yourself every morning when you get up the exact opposite of what you said.

I am not scared to get clients to pay monthly!
They will pay me and they are going to buy my services!
I am the best fit for them, and no one else can do a better job then me!

You need to let your clients know that you will provide the highest ROI for them and you need to build value in your services. Sure they may think that they can do SEO themselves or they may have someone that said they can do it for them but you just need to ask them this...... Client, you work on cars right? That is the service you provide and that is your profession. Well my profession is SEO, and I do it all day everyday and sure you can go and try and teach SEO to yourself but you are going to find out it is a lot harder then you think and you are going to have to devote at least 8 hours a day doing it and be left with no time to run your business. That's where I come in, I will do all of this for you, I am awesome at it and love doing it, I will bring you customers so you can run your business and enjoy the extra clients that I send you.
How does that sound?

You can do it man just stay positive and never sell yourself short. My cheapest SEO package is $500 monthly and I would not sell my service for cheaper than that. And my clients have no problem paying that or more because I build value in my service. Feel free to PM me anytime with any questions.

 

[hist0ry]

Part of my problem is like jeff. I don't know how to price my self and feel 'bad' pricing high. In my area it's mostly small shops we would be talking 200 GBp as an absolute max.

I bought up about 20 intownnamehere urls for the main ones in my county of 500k.

I'm going to sub them sub them as e.g. Plumber.intownname and sell the ads

I know local seo for my areas isn't a huge work bringer but my pc biz gets about 3 calls a month from ranking one for my town.

I wish I knew someone irl to help with sales but that's life I guess. I could pull 100gbp easily enough I think per client.


How do you guys find the rentasite game? I'm thinking this for each client template site is the best way to go.

Re contract what they don't ask and you dont tell is not a lie. Your charging for your config and customising time.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[joeyzaza]

Just word your whole sales pitch as an investment in their business, and explain how they will get a return. I mean really, if a business has a site, and they rank locally, that's new customers which equal more sales. Sell them on how they are going to get more sales, and make more money. I always say, if you ARE NOT looking to grow your business then this is wrong for you, because your customers are going to increase. That gets em right there usually.

Practice what you are going to say, ALWAYS ASK FOR THE SALE AND THEN SHUT UP UNTIL THEY ANSWER my favorite part of sales right there! SEO is a great business, but it has to be a monthly service, you can also throw in a monthly hosting charge.. Make a bundle LOL.

Anyone if you have any questions about this stuff or how to get leads, feel free to PM me : ) I have a really good way to get leads for webdesign and SEO service sales.

 

[hist0ry]

pmd you joey. Anyone else with experience would be highly appreciated if they shared.