I’ll try briefly. I’m a web developer from Ukraine.
I’ve been doing MODX development for about 8 years. About a year ago, I became interested in developing a MODX themes for sale at themeforest.
I now have two topics that were accepted for sale (everything was not smooth, the previous two topics were not moderated):
But again I ran into a problem. Themes are hardly bought, I already reduced the price to $ 20, no result. Although versions html and wordpress are selling quite well.
There are two reasons for this:
The latest MODX theme at themeforest (not counting updates) was created back in 2014. Accordingly, potential buyers are unaware of the possibility of purchasing a new MODX theme.
MODX not as widespread as for example WordPress. In particular, There are almost no themes for MODX and this is another reason why people don’t choose it but rely on other CMS. Since many better buy a template site for $30-50 and configure it yourself, than it will pay the programmer $200-300 to develop a similar site on MODX.
Therefore, I request your support and assistance in disseminating information on new themes being created.
I think that together we will be able to improve this situation and get people interested not only to buy MODX themes, but also to develop new ones. And most importantly, together we will do MODX even better and more popular.
p.Sorry for my imperfect English. I plan further to continue making themes for MODX. Also waiting for your feedback and suggestions.
However, my thoughts on why your themes aren’t selling is because Modx is a skeleton CMS system built to give designers (like you) and developers a flexible framework to work with. Most businesses using Modx have either an agency or developer who supports setting up the site, implementing designs etc.
Nevertheless, I think you might have more luck converting these themes to work with FRED or creating Blocks for Content Blocks extra. Then marketing the themes to Modx developers/ designers who can use these designs for their clients.
As a developer that should not be trusted with design decisions, I’ve picked up one or two MODX themes in the past, but they’re typically more work to adapt to what I need than what they’re worth. Everyone has their own way of building and structuring things, and themes that offer a bazillion TVs for individual blocks, plus settings for each color in ClientConfig… that’s just not my thing. The earliest themes were built that way.
For me as someone who’s used MODX for a loooong time, it’s quicker to grab a “site” template (i.e. static html files) and convert those into MODX myself rather than having to tear out everything from a MODX theme. Add that there are thousands more site templates than MODX templates, and that explains my own reasoning for usually skipping past MODX themes.
I’ve not yet seen your themes, looks like they’re pretty new.
Wether or not there’s enough of a market for MODX themes… I don’t know.
I can earn a living selling plugins, but those are specifically for the people who know what they’re doing and actually build their sites, heavily used by agencies and developers that @inside-creative mentions. Many themes seem focused on the less technical users to build a site without a developer - and that’s not a group of people that MODX historically has tried to appease.
What I’d personally love to see more of, and probably use once or twice a year, is developer-focused themes. Prepare some template types with the minimal required TVs for your standard sites and functionality. Make it pretty enough to pitch to a client. Then give me well structured Sass with variables and a ready-to-go build workflow to immediately start customising it. Now there’s a dream…
Thanks! I’ll definitely try Fred. I agree with you, but interestingly, the themes of 2014 were bought (and are now bought). Not as possible as other CMS themes, but all the same.
Building on what Mark said, with Modx a theme is not all that simple to implement. For instance the wayfinder call of a simple site will need to be configured when installing. That’s not hard but there should be detailed instructions on setup and some support…most users will be lost otherwise given we are talking about new adopters, who cannot be expected to have much previous knowledge.
I also think there are many potential users who are not developers, and need a helping hand in getting up and running. I have repeatedly mentioned that we need easy on-ramps for new users. Active, experienced users see a very different world. Not everyone can or wants to start from scratch, and I learned a lot from installing a theme and then setting it up and modifying it to my liking.
Also, this group of potential new users with more limited skills (like I was when I first started to use Evo) is far, far bigger than the pool of experienced devs. We have to expect new users to not know what is going on at first.
If there are clear instructions on setup then it could be great, the new user can poke around and complete some tasks as they get used to the system. If the theme was packaged as an extra, which is of course a lot of work, it would be able to create files and set system settings, so that’s one way to avoid this setup need.
I really like the idea of having MODX themes and you did a great job on them from what it looks like!
Although I agree with @markh that my usual approach is to use general HTML themes and include them into MODX which is pretty straight forward and simple to do. I really want to have full control over all extras, settings, etc. so I personally would not go for a MODX template. I often find it even difficult to remember the way I setup things on older sites, so I guess as well, that the amount of work to adapt is probably similar to the work of creating a new setup.
In regards to the aspect of bringing more users to MODX by having ready-to-go themes, I think this might actually be counter productive. I learned everything about MODX by doing it, or trying to do it, failing, searching for solutions and finally getting it right. This process is for sure hindering on a quick website build, but it’s great to learn, to advance our own skillset and to know this CMS truly from all angles. This learning process will be taken away and people will get thrown into the “advanced” stage immediately which will most likely just cause more frustration and a negative image on this system.
Well, with this great forum at least people can get advice quickly, that can bridge the gap.
Its true that users who don’t know their own setups lose something, but isn’t the goal of a system more users? Every user will have their arc of understanding…there is definitely a cost if the user base reaches a very high level, but there is also a benefit, a rather big one.
It also occurs to me that a template designer could offer multiple tools for quick development. Blocks I suppose…
I will definitely use Fred (especially since my themes MODX have several variants of different components).
However, I don’t quite understand how to developer focused themes (starter-kits)… I’ll need your help.
Also I want to try to create an ecommerce theme for MODX based on Shopkeeper 3.x. or another. What do you think?
The themes that I have developed are built using blocks, chunks can be placed in any order and so that templates can be edited and create new + themes have already several variants of the same template with different chunks (different design).
The main thing for me would be having Sass variables that can easily be changed instead of putting the options in TVs.
I like to be able to choose which TVs and Extras I use in a project without having them predefined.
Agree that SASS is great for allowing customization, and info could be provided on creating additional customization through SASS and the code, without needing to re-invent the wheel, stuff like add a custom class or whatever
Finally, I made a MODX theme based on Fred and posted it on Themeforest. In fact, in the process of development i have there were many comments for further improvement of Fred.
p.s. I will have a little rest and I will definitely write here my remarks and wishes concerning the development of MODX themes based on Fred.