HTML Template Sales Trends

A few authors, including myself, have noticed a drop in HTML template sales over the past couple months. This is strange considering that the caliber of the recent designs has gone through the roof compared with this same month last year. Anyone have any theories as to the trend? Are we starting to see the end of raw HTML as more people move to full CMS solutions?

I’ll post my own ideas down below.

Oh – It’s almost comical that I even have to say this, but here it goes: this is meant to be a market/industry discussion thread, not an invitation for criticism of staff or anything like that – I’ll say up front that this trend started before the Magento launch, so let’s just call that conspiracy theory off-limits for now. The trend doesn’t seem to be affecting Wordpress sales either, as far as I can see, which would further debunk that theory.

It’s because everyone is buying my Unite HTML theme But seriously, I’ve noticed there seems to be something strange happening with the traffic. I don’t know what it is. One odd thing for me is that my HTML sales for Unite are still beating the WP version. I can’t explain that.

Are we starting to see the end of raw HTML as more people move to full CMS solutions?

I’m thinking the same more people are moving to CMS solutions, I’ve actually decided to stop releasing HTML templates and just focus on WP. The time wasted on creating all the static pages and content for an HTML template I can have the basic version in WP already.

I’ve been sitting on the sidelines trying to find trends and see what’s happening over the last few months. I obviously haven’t been doing this nearly as long as a lot of people on here, but I’ve noticed there are definitely HTML templates that are blowing up in sales. And I’ve been trying to make sense of it. One thing I’ve noticed is that it seems HTML templates (in the last several months) with a main focus on a “blog-like” section (especially on the homepage) don’t seem to sell as well.

I think a lot of people on TF want to buy a theme and turn it around into a site very quickly without a lot of hassle or changes. So, a lot of people like a cut-and-dry fill in each of the boxes that the author has in the template. Having that main blog focus on the homepage I think disrupts that. And I only bring that up because I know that’s been apart of your content design with a few themes, epicera.

So, I think if you look at some of epicera’s themes that do this it makes sense that the Wordpress ones will sell alot more…. but with Parralulus’s unite HTML theme, it caters to a lot more people by setting up these “fill-in the box areas.”

It might have something to do with buyers expecting a WordPress version of the same HTML template. Almost all the comment threads of recent HTML items have someone asking if a WordPress version is going to be available soon.

It might have something to do with buyers expecting a WordPress version of the same HTML template. Almost all the comment threads of recent HTML items have someone asking if a WordPress version is going to be available soon.

Good point.

Not sure really – I haven’t released one in a while but will continue to – my old ones are still selling steady – also I see from html list that Envidia HTML sold over 200 since April 23 – so that’s pretty fast selling and nice numbers

As a side note I think TF is really pushing only magento and wordpress right now so this will definitely effect sales to some degree – sorry for mentioning the “magento” word

But in all honesty if a site becomes “known” for wordpress then that will always be it’s strongest seller etc – it’s just a matter of marketing to raise figures for different categories.

I definitely think the trend is moving more towards a CMS so that users won’t have to actually edit any HTML . There will always be the exception of certain HTML templates that out perform most Wordpress themes but this will probably be less common as people move over to a CMS .

I just submitted my first HTML theme (in the que at number 2. Yay!) so I get to see first hand the difference in sales from the HTML to WordPress as I will be building it in that later on. My past themes have all been Wordpress but I have actually had people ask if there was an HTML version.

As far as trends go I believe there will always be a need for both types with one simply overtaking the other as time passes.

Good observation Brandon, i have been watching TF to and i have seen a drop in the sales.

Maybe the sales have been dropped due the rising number of pirat files.

Here’s my theories (most of them have been hit on already :)):

1. Buyers are beginning to get more comfortable with Wordpress as a format, meaning they don’t want to bother with raw HTML anymore if they don’t have to.

2. Competition has gotten fierce, so sales of new templates are getting more spread out now.

3. Buyers are anticipating Wordpress releases now… so they don’t bother with the HTML because what they really want is a full CMS . (which is insane that a fully loaded CMS theme is going for $30-$40 nowadays)

4. Piracy.

5. Old templates are still selling… which means less sales for new products. As Parallelus mentioned – this trend mostly is affecting newer templates – older top templates are still selling a relatively steady volume (sometimes outshining my new releases, which are admittedly better and more stable).

That’s just my two cents though. You guys have hit on a lot of good points so far.

I’ll also agree with contempoinc that releasing WP versions is ultimately the end goal for most authors – the HTML versions seem to do little more than drum up attention for the WP versions which always come out in due time.