Professional Themes / style

Hello every body,

This is my first post on the site, so please pardon me if I break any rules 

Would any user in this forum be considering paying for OCPortal themes?

and what are the Prices that you see fit for such job?

Very excited to read your replys ! thank you 

It is a good question and one I am sure a few of us would be interested in knowing the answer to.

I am in the process of adding a page to my site and working out pricing for custom themes right now.

Based on past feedback, it would be very popular, but it's of course it's difficult to measure scientifically what people would pay. One big issue in measuring general demand is that the people who need them most I think are those least likely to engage on the forum here – busy people who want a site up in minimum time.

Possibly we could put a link to a survey on our newsletter. If you've done commercial themeing before and have something to show, that might make it feasible for me to then put that out because I know someone could imminently supply the demand that we'd be implying would soon be supplied .

Hi again !

Thank you for both your replies.

I have done website design as a whole (code + design) and enjoy doing small/medium projects such as theming.

and for themes prices, I only asked about the price because no one currently develops themes for OCPortal so there is no PRICE tag or margins. But I would only ask for sane regular prices, as am currently studying and can only work on my spare time (thats spread all over the day) and money is to support me ;-P .

even though I am asking about prices, I still would like to help the OCPortal community understand the basics of theming and design, as I have been a big fan of yours.


Thank you .
 

angrymo said

Would any user in this forum be considering paying for OCPortal themes?

Short answer - NO!

Brian Hay said

I am in the process of adding a page to my site and working out pricing for custom themes right now.

Same answer, Brian.

My thinking on this is that themes, and variations on themes, is a very personal choice that a user of ocPortal can, and should, try to achieve for themselves.

If, as Chris says, a themeing service would appeal to "… busy people who want a site up in minimum time.", then I sit corrected. But sure as hell I wouldn't want to share any ocPortal themeing 'secrets' here in the forum - just in case a 'professional' themer decides to use my ideas for his or her own personal gain.

Chris,

I have had a play with the new release and think its great, (good Job ).

I also played with the styling and tried to clone a random website/forum and see how flexible that would be. I struggled at first but , I understand the system ( most of it ).
although the coding is not yet clean (because am still learning how OCPortal connects multiply styles full site/ mobile site, but I can learn it through time. 

I am kinda surprised at your answer Fletch….there will of course be many professional designers and developers in the near future I am sure that will be selling themes for ocPortal and using it to develop sites for clients…there is already a handful of us who do.

I for one am in the process of building a business around what I can do for people with ocPortal and am aiming at making my living at it.

If you have a look around the internet there are many thousands of themes for sale for every major piece of software out there and I am sure ocPortal is not going to be an exception to that.

I still plan on freely sharing my knowledge here, contributing free themes and tutorials.  But I also need to make a living to support my family. And I can not think of any other way I would rather do that.

Thinking some more about this. A prime example of someone who would want to buy a theme rather than create one themselves.

I just did a site for a contractor. He had an old site that he had done himself with a template and drag and drop type site builder. It was really doing nothing for him and he wanted something that would look more professional and actually do well in searches.

He really wants to still be able to edit the pages on the site like he could with the site builder but has no time to learn how to design it. So he had me design it.

It is absolutely still his design as he picked all the colors for it and shared his vision for how it should look…colors and little things like having his company name highlighted in a unique way everywhere it is mentioned on his site. The design I did but the pages themselves are all him.

Now he has a great site that offers far more than any site builder could, he can still edit it himself and when he has time dig in deeper and learn more.

I admire your work Fletch and have the utmost respect for you, I certainly hope this realization does not slow down your activity here.

I plan to make my living with ocPortal Websites but I see no reason to keep it secret any of the methods I use. In fact my business is mostly aimed towards people like the above mentioned. I want to host and help the do it yourselfer with their ocPortal Websites. I started a youtube channel that I am going load up with tutorials and I will also add those to the community docs. I tried to add one the other day actually but it was to big to upload. If someone on the ocPortal staff wants to scoop it up and add it, go for it. Any of my content actually. I will also be writing lots of tutorials that will be on my site as well as the community docs.

 am not sure if I was misunderstood but my intensions is to help the OCPortal community and members with my work, but i was also wondering about grabbing some cash if possible for professional designs.

thank you 

I too have considered doing website creation with ocPortal as a revenue stream. I'm fairly proficient at putting a decent OCP site together from the backend perspective and have a very good friend who is talented from the look and feel angle, however, we both suck at sales so the effort is prolly a non-starter.

IMHO there is nothing wrong with making some bux designing and/or implementing  websites based on opensource software. What I do have a problem with, and have seen it in action in other communities, is folks doing just this but taking from the community without giving back. This is patently wrong. Without the original software, these folks would have nothing to offer a customer and therefore it's a must that some contributions must be given back to the originating community. In most cases it's simply a matter of helping out in forums writing a tutorial, testing beta releases or offering a free theme or two, those kinds of things.

Anyway, just my $0.02 worth….

I see two different scenarios here (which could just be me):

1. A site offering commercial themes that anyone would be able to purchase. For example: A 'car racing' theme… anyone can purchase this theme, so there could be a few who have this theme on their ocportal site.
2. A site offering commercial themes designed for an individual or company. For example: A 'car racing' theme for a driver who wants to showcase their talents. The theme is designed at a price for this person, but the theme is only for this person. It is not offered on the theme designer's site.

I could be totally off, but I am picturing angrymo thinking about option 1 and Brian offering option 2. For my personal preference and having seen designs cloned and ripped off, I would (again, just personally to me) say no to option 1 and yes to option 2. I would not want to pay for a theme I know anyone could have. If I didn't have the time or energy to design a theme and needed something professionally done, I would consider going to a site that offers to design a theme for a purchase price as long as I know the theme then belongs to me alone.

There's my $0.02!

I suppose we also need to consider the customer side. If you, as an ocPortal dev, are upfront and honest in your dealings and the customer wants to pay, whether it be theme, deployment or both, then that is just free enterprise at work.

I plan to offer both 1 and 2.

I will have many themes available for download for a price. You can pay to download one theme only or developers will be able to subscribe to access them all.

You will also be able to be the last person to download a theme or get a custom theme designed for a very small price if you are willing to let it be added to the downloads to be purchased by others too.

I would personally welcome both paid and free themes being created. It's good for the community and good for ocPortal (more developers, more choice).

I have to agree that both paid and free themes are needed to help promote ocPortal. When I was evaluating which software to use, it was impressive to see the number of themes available for Joomla, Drupal and Zikula. For someone just wanting to get his site off to a quick start, having access to ready-made themes is important and may well lead to later custom work.

In regards to the pre-made themes, I've seen some sites that claim that they will only offer a specific number of implementations of a theme. The lower the number, the higher the price. I think this is a good trade-off although it is based solely on trust,  I suspect.

Bob

Hi every one,

 firstly, thanks to everyone for sharing their views on the matter.

 I do support all the listed options above ( free themes, pre-made paid themes and custom themes)

My main question was, are there any current OCPortal forum users who will consider (buying any type of theme, or donating to developers that will put the effert into making free themes for the community?

Thank you again !

angrymo said

My main question was, are there any current OCPortal forum users who will consider (buying any type of theme, or donating to developers that will put the effert into making free themes for the community?:

From me thanks but no, thank you!

 

As for me, would I consider “buying any type of theme, or donating to developers that will put the effort into making free themes for the community”?

My answer is not direct:

I agree with Robbie and “welcome both paid and free themes being created. It's good for the community and good for ocPortal”

I applaud the hard work of Eric and Brian to develop Themes and Websites as Professionals and will continue to support their efforts in the way most of the hard core users of this forum are actively doing, freely and without ulterior motives other than to help fellow contributors. I would have no reservation recommending their work when available, to any interested party willing to pay for an ocPortal-ready design.

I believe that in the end, people decide if they are willing to pay for something if it really meets their need of the moment. I have seen many commercial themes for Joomla, Dupral, and others that I would never have paid anything for. However I have purchased a few HTML and Flash designs that I did not really need, but couldn’t let the opportunity to own them pass me by, as they really meant something to me at the time.

Thanks Jean! That comment is very much appreciated and means a lot coming from you.