Brief introduction to the Market Theme:
The market theme is a premium Wordpress theme that was launched in late February 2008. As my first premium theme it has become very successful and has brought in revenue of approx. in 4 full months (revenue breakdown below). The idea for the theme originally came about after I had down two back to back projects for clients who were both looking for ways to turn Wordpress into an ecommerce engine. Since its launch in the end of February, Market has been redesigned three times and now includes a product manager plugin as well as its own ajax shopping cart.

Why Sell?
First and foremost the number one question that is going to be on everyone’s mind is, “why sell in the first place?” Market has yet to reach its full potential, and this is a theme which with very little work and effort could bring in thousands of dollars in extra revenue a month. Because of how much work has been put into Market since its launch, there is really nothing a new owner would need to do besides reap the benefits of the revenue coming from the theme. With its own ajax cart, its own plugin, and three different designed versions of the theme, this is truly a "set it and forget it" project - a great way to make revenue without much effort. The theme will continue to work with future versions of Wordpress and as I said, because it has been updated so much in the four short months it has been around, there is very little that needs to be done over the next few months. It is a very attractive package and it will remain that way for a while without you needing to do a single thing.

I am selling this because it was an experimental project which ended up turning out very well, but it is time I personally move on. I have no had a chance to do client work since December because I have been busy perfecting this theme and trying to get the word out about it. I also want to be able to start a few new products and enjoy my summer, I believe fully that this theme is only going to continue to grow and get bigger and bigger, but I am selling it so I can move on with other things, not because I have lost any faith in the project.

What you get:
With the purchase of the Market theme you will have full ownership to:

• The domain http://www.markettheme.com (expires: 3/5/2009, registered on Namecheap)
• Full rights to the theme and all 3 variations of its design (only thing I ask is that I can keep the theme / site design in my portfolio)
• Full rights to Market Product Manager plugin, Paypal (market lite) plugin, and custom Ajax Cart Script.

The value of this package itself would be around $3-4,000. You are getting two (2) site designs / themes specifically for Markettheme.com, three (3) different designs / layouts of the Market Theme (versions 1-3), a custom built Ajax Cart and a backend plugin, all custom build specifically for use with the Market Theme.

*Market Product Manager by John Kolbert (admin@simply-basic.com)
*Ajax Cart developed by Devon Parris (thecreative.d@gmail.com)

Revenue, License, and Traffic Breakdown:

Included in this sale packet are breakdowns of each month through generated sales reports directly from Paypal. The month breakdown of revenue looks like this:

* February (3 days) – $100.25
* March – $2,034.67
* April – $3,065.93
* May – $1,836.16
* June – will be updated on months end
* Total Revenue to Date: $7,037.01 (not including June figures yet)

* A monthly average of: $2,000/month (in 4 full months including June figures at time of post)

There are two types of licenses: A standard license for $55 and a developer’s license for $150.00.

The license breakdown per month is as follows. You’ll notice that while it may appear profits have been on a significant decline, the large spike in profits for April 2008 was caused by the price increase when standard and developer’s licenses increased in cost. In fact, the same amount of licenses were sold in March 2008 as in April 2008, so profits have been holding steady around $2,000 per month on average.

* February (3 days) – 3 licenses
* March – 48 Licenses
* April – 48 Licenses
* May - 32 Licenses
* June – updated when month ends

* Total licenses purchased to date: updated at months end

The only ongoing cost is a $5/month fee to E-Junkie, which I use to help process payments and make download notification instantly.

I myself invested a little more than $1,500 into advertising for the Market Theme, including a $900 ad on Smashingmagazine during late March – Mid April, a $150 month long ad on Logopond, a $60 ad on Blogperfume (twice), a $99 ad on Weblogtoolscollection and most recently a $350 one month ad on CSSRemix. Smashing perfomed the best, as indicated by the huge month of April that I had, but as I said this was an experimental project and I wanted to spread out the advertising to see what worked the best.

Additional ways to make income:
Beyond the traditional selling of the licenses, an affiliate program would be another option that would be able to bring in increased revenues for any new owner. When the theme first launched I had an affiliate program but I discontinued it before it got too large because I knew in the back of my head that I would be selling this sometime this summer and not all new owners would like the idea of having to participate in an affiliate program if they did not want to. It is however obviously an option, and I know there are plenty of premium Wordpress theme sites, other Wordpress resources, and individuals who would gladly sell copies of the Market theme for a small piece of the profits.

If you are interested or have any questions:
I will most likely not be checking this thread, so please refer your questions and / or bids to the Sitepoint Marketplace Listing or directly to me at hi@astereostudio.com. I have no BIN in mind, but I was told by a few Sitepoint members I could look for anyone between $30-50k. I will hear all reasonable offers, but I do have my own reserve in mind.