Last week I wrote about making money by selling themes and templates for open source programs. If you have missed that article, here is the idea: There are hundreds of excellent open source programs that are used by millions of people. Even though these programs are rich in features and efficient in execution, they don't have good user interface. These user interfaces are known as skins, templates or themes. If you have good color sense and an eye for design, you can learn how to create themes in a matter of a few weeks, create designs and sell them online.
Many readers have asked me what programs need templates. It would be nice if each reader finds his own niche. However I will tell you about a few programs so that some of you overcome the beginners' block.
Drupal: From May 2006 to April 2007, Drupal was downloaded from the Drupal.org website more than 600,000 times. The number of templates available is 100 and there are just a dozen good templates. Creating templates for Drupal - a flexible content management system - is a bit difficult. But if you can design a good one, you will find it easy to sell even at a premium price.
Joomla: Number of users surpass Drupal users by three times as this content management system is easy to use. Because of its popularity you will have to compete with many highly skilled designers such as Joomlart.com, Rockethemes.com, Yootheme.com and Joomlashack.com. Visit these websites, download the free templates, study the source code and then decide whether it is your cup of tea.
Website Baker: It is a very easy to use content management system. It is slowly gaining popularity.
PostNuke: PostNuke is themeable using several theme engines such as Xanthia and AutoTheme (also known as AT, or AT-Lite), as well as PostNuke's native theming system.
PhpNuke: Even though it was a free open source program, now it has become a commercial open source program. Dragonfly CMS, Nuke-Evolution, OpenPhpNuke, PhpWebsite, PostNuke, Xoops and Xaraya are the forks of PhpNuke. You can think of creating themes for phpnuke and recycle them for the forks.
There are many other content management systems such as Plone and Mambo on which you can work. Please use your favorite search engine to find the websites of these products.
Simple Machines Forum: A very popular forum software - also known as discussion board software. Despite its popularity, it does not have many usable bewitching templates.
PhpBB: Another popular forum software. Even though many templates are available for it, you will find many customers for its templates.
Please visit these websites, get the free templates and study. Then apply your mind and creativity on themes, create some unique designs and you will be a winner. Most of the popular sellers target western buyers and their designs are created for them. If you create themes that will be useful to other overlooked markets, you will be the prosperous pioneer in that market.
If you are adventurous, you can even think of creating templates for commercial products, not just free open source programs. ExpressionEngine and Subdreamer are popular commercial products in CMS category.
Vbulletin and Invision Power Board are popular commercial products in forum category and you can easily find customers for templates for these products. Hundreds of developers create add-on products for Vbulletin and Invision Power Board. Creating templates for these add-ons is also a good idea.
Even though any serious minded person that is willing to work hard can acquire all the necessary skills in a matter of a few weeks, it is very difficult to be a jack of all trades. So, if you are good in colors, find someone who is good in CSS and HTML and another one in PHP and scripting. Co-operation and joint-ventures may make things easier in developing a new business.
By creating templates for Open Source Programs, you may not become a millionaire but certainly you can make a living working online from home.
In the worst case of not being able to sell any of your creation, you can place them online as free downloads and insert online ads. When people go to your website for free goodies, they may like the ads, use the links and you will certainly make some money. There is no waste in the world of creativity.
If you visit forums related to these products you will find that many of the users are desperately searching for themes, if you show them a demo of your template, they will scream, "Please sell it to me!"