Yesterday, Erik Karey released phpBayAds, his eBay ads script, for free to the public. Think of phpBayAds as a self-hosted version of the old AuctionAds program. Erik was kind enough to answer some questions I had about his new release.

With the wild popularity of BANS and phpBay Pro these days it seems like you’ve hit a gap in the marketplace for eBay affiliates. Can you take a minute to describe what phpBayAds does for those that haven’t heard yet and who is most likely to benefit from using it?

I’ve noticed the increase in the popularity of the eBay affiliate program for awhile now and I’ve even started using phpBayPro on a few websites of mine and found great success with it. I also noticed a lot of press on AuctionAds (now ShoppingAds) and it’s shortcomings.

All of these things got me thinking about what type of products I could develop to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the eBay affiliate program which eventually led me to creating phpBayAds.

phpBayAds lets you create adsense-styled ads that feature images and links to eBay auction products using your own eBay Affiliate ID. So when a user clicks on the ad and either makes a purchase or signs up for eBay you get the commissions.

Although results will vary from site to site, I think phpBayAds can benefit every webmaster who tries it as it adds an additional source of income to your websites. phpBayAds are fully customizable from the color of the links to the color of the border to the size of the ads and can be made to blend well with any and all websites.

What was some of your reasoning behind releasing phpBayAds for free?

When I initially set out to release phpBayAds I planned to sell it for somewhere around $20. However when I got to thinking about it I realized that at least at the start of my development that releasing it for free and getting the largest amount of users using the script is to my benefit.

I truly want this script to succeed and to do that I need people to use it and I need people to provide me with feedback. I’m hoping that as the script gets more exposure and as I add features that I may release a low cost Pro version which would include more features and functionality.

What are some of the benefits/disadvantages to you as a developer in making people run the script on their own server?

I think the main advantage of being able to run this script on your own server is that you are in full control. Your ads will always be running as long as your own web host is running. You don’t have to rely on any 3rd party website.

In the future as phpBayAds grows in popularity I would like to offer a hosted version for a low monthly cost which would let those less technical users also use the script.

What’s in store for future releases?

I have a number of features that I’d love to add as long as phpBayAds grows in popularity.

One major feature that I plan to add in the near future is reporting. I want to be able to track all of the clicks going through the ads, show what keywords are performing, what ad sizes are working best and present it all in one useful control panel.

As I mentioned above I’d also like to offer a hosted version of the script and perhaps additional ad sizes.

Lastly I’d like to make the ads more configurable by allowing you to set whether or not the ads should have images, price range of the items, geotargetting and more!

The future is bright for phpBayAds as long as people find it useful.

I want to thank Erik for taking the time to answer my questions. You can learn more about phpBayAds and download it for free over at his blog.

Since I’ve been doing more and more guest posts as of late I’ve been formulating questions in my mind about freelance writing. I thought it would be good to interview a well-established freelance writer to get some of answers to those questions. Chris Bibey was kind enough to take some time out of his day to lend me a hand and tell us a bit about his freelance writing career.

You had a pretty successful freelance writing career before you launched your blog, correct? Do you feel like your blog has helped your career? If so, in what way?

Yes, that is correct. Before I started my blog, I was already working as a freelance writer for a couple of years. With that being said, my blog helped me in two ways:

1. It allowed me to share my knowledge with others; which I take a lot of pride in.
2. My blog has brought in a few new clients which is always a good thing. While I do not actively pursue clients via my blog, I do receive inquiries from time to time.

What have been the downsides to maintaining the blog?

The main downside of maintaining my blog is the time that it takes. Although I only post once per day, I spend a lot of time making sure that the information is accurate and useful.

Would you recommend other writers that are starting their freelance careers, or even those who are firmly established, start their own blogs?

Yes, I would. I think that a blog is a great way to connect with other writers, as well as bring in some extra work if they so desire. It is not easy to update a freelance writing blog everyday of the week, but it is a lot of fun nonetheless.

What niches do you think are the hottest for freelance writers to get into
at the moment?

This is a tough question becausethere is work to be had across hundreds of niches. Personally, I focus on the topics that are of the most interest to me; not what is hot at the moment. My best advice for an aspiring freelance writer would be to focus on three topics that excite them; even if the markets are saturated. When you are passionate about your writing, you have a much better chance of success!

Are you seeing an increase in the number of job requests from web developers, affiliate marketers or other blog owners as of late?

As each month goes by, it seems as if I receive more requests for my writing services, partnerships, etc. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that my name is making its way around the blogosphere a bit more.

What are your thoughts on pay rates for those types of jobs? It seems that any rate you can offer can be beaten soundly by non-English speaking workers offering their services on job boards online. Does that increase in competition and, presumably, quality bother you?

You are 100 percent correct. There are a lot of non-English writers who will work for less than one cent per word. Obviously, it can be difficult to compete with them because of the descrepancy in price. By offering higher quality work, I can attract high level clients that are willing to pay the industry standard or more.

I do find it bothersome that so many poor quality writers are taking money from clients. The only way to put an end to it is for clients to stop shopping for content based on price, and instead focus on quality.

I know you’ve mentioned branching out your focus to other things besides freelance writing. How are those efforts coming along?

They are coming along quite nicely. At this time, I am working on several other projects including a freelance writing course, as well as a blog network that is growing by the month. For me, expanding my focus allows for increased income as well as a break from the freelance writing world.

Since I’m all about web development and WordPress lately let’s end on that. You’ve had a bad experience with a WordPress designer… Do you have any brief advice for anyone looking to hire a designer to rework their blog theme?

Sure do! When I hired a designer a few months back for a new theme, I made one major mistake: I did not ask for enough samples. I received maybe one, and figured that would be enough. Anybody who is going to hire a designer should get a solid feel for what they have accomplished in the past. One quality sample is not enough!

I want to thank Chris again for taking the time to answer my questions. His blog on freelance writing can be found at chrisblogging.com.

Small Potato, the man behind the extremely popular WPDesigner site, was nice enough to answer my questions about premium WordPress themes.

The premium theme Small Potato currently sells is very different from the rest on the market. The theme, called Showcase, is built specifically for portfolio or design gallery sites and not your typical blog. It comes with a variety of color schemes and layout variations as well.

In addition to Showcase, Small Potato has released a large number of free WordPress themes and theme tutorials on his site.

What prompted you to begin selling your premium WordPress theme?

I wanted to try something new.

How do the number and type of support requests a premium theme is generating compare to the requests you receive for one of your free themes?

Initially, I expected to be bombarded with questions since my own premium theme was far from anything in the market, but so far I’ve been getting only one to two questions, every two weeks.

For premium theme authors out there or those wanting to get into paid/premium themes, a few support questions here and there every two weeks isn’t realistic. You have to keep in mind that I’m currently selling only one product with a very detailed ReadMe file.

Detailed ReadMe files or guides tend to help filter out the newbie questions.

I assume there’s a larger sense of responsibility when dealing with premium theme support. Do you sometimes feel like you’ve signed on with dozens of clients all at once?

Fortunately, no. Although, it’ll be like that in the future for every premium theme author if we don’t create detailed guides for the clients and encourage community support.

Premium theme support is not something you can easily outsource so the best help you can get will be from the users. Take the WordPress.org forums for example, the administrators and moderators don’t have to sit around all day to answer every questions. The users help each other troubleshoot.

Would a new level of commitment alter your plans for future themes in regards to features, release schedules, etc.?

Although my one and only paid theme is a success, I have no plans to continue selling individual themes that focus on function — themes that push WordPress blogs beyond their current limits.

What are your thoughts on the notion of an official theme marketplace that was mentioned by Matt Mullenweg at the beginning of November?

Actually, I wrote about it on my site.

With the crackdown on sponsored themes and sponsored links, do you fear the premium theme market will be flooded with WordPress designers looking to make back lost revenue?

I don’t think so. Selling sponsored links for a free theme is much easier than creating your own product for sale. You can quickly whip something up, but are people going to buy it?

Without giving away any personal trade secrets, what have you found to be the best methods of promoting your premium theme?

I haven’t promoted my theme at all, not even a dollar spent on it. I guess the secret is to build yourself from the ground up by releasing free themes and writing WordPress tutorials. Those two things are useful toward establishing trust. Your readers get to know who you are, what you do, and your level of standards. Eventually, those readers become customers.

Do you have any tips or words of advice for WordPress designers thinking about entering into the premium theme market?

• Do some research. Find out what will separate you from the rest of the premium theme authors.
• Create something that you can be proud of. “Be so good that they can’t ignore you.”
• Worry about how you license your products.
• Don’t pay someone else or an external website to manage your transactions and deliveries. There are lots of scripts out there that can handle digital products for you. For example, WHMCS (typically used for web hosting, but it works the same way.)
• Write detailed and thorough guides, installation instructions, and usage instructions.

As usual, I want to offer my thanks to Small Potato for answering my questions. Be sure to check out his site, WPDesigner, for excellent themes and WordPress tutorials as well as his premium theme Showcase. This was the fourth in a series of interviews with designers of Premium WordPress Themes. If you’re interesting in keeping up with them all I suggest you subscribe to this site’s RSS feed.

Magnus Jepson creates free and premium WordPress themes under the PremiumPress name. His premium themes, PortfolioPress and GrungePress, differ from most in that they focus on offering exceptional and unique looks with standard WordPress features. In addition to his premium works, Magnus has several free themes available as well.

What prompted you to begin selling premium WordPress themes?

I had been doing freelance web designs locally in Norway, which doesn’t get you that many jobs, especially since I didn’t market myself. I really wanted to increase my skills as a web designer, but grew tired of redesigning my portfolio X number of times. So I started designing a couple of free themes and made a site to showcase them. I saw how popular they were and thought I would try to put out a paid theme and hopefully sell one copy in the first month. I sold one the first day and immediately started designing my second premium theme.

How do the number and type of support requests a premium theme is generating compare to the requests you receive for one of your free themes?

I haven’t sold that many themes to generate much support yet, but there has been a few emails. Most support has gone to my free themes via comments and emails.

I assume there’s a larger sense of responsibility when dealing with premium theme support. Do you sometimes feel like you’ve signed on with dozens of clients all at once? If so, has that new level of commitment altered your plans for future themes in regards to features, release schedules, etc.?

My premium themes are more focused on the design rather than having extra features. They are therefore easy to setup and don’t require much from the customer. My commitment to release more themes has been altered, but only because I have received numerous custom design jobs that have taken up my time so far.

What are your thoughts on the notion of an official theme marketplace that was mentioned by Matt Mullenweg at the beginning of November?

One of the hard parts of being a custom theme designer is getting noticed. This would obviously be a great chance to get some traffic. Taking 50% of the sale price sounds quite much, but that is the price you have to pay to get noticed. I think Adii’s idea of a hybrid marketplace is good, where you design some themes for Matt’s marketplace and some for your own site. I want my themes to be available to people who aren’t on WordPress.com as well.

With the crackdown on sponsored themes and sponsored links, do you fear the premium theme market will be flooded with WordPress designers looking to make back lost revenue?

I do think we will see more and more designers trying to sell their themes, and I think there is a big market for it. But spitting out themes that look like all the rest will not get any revenue. Good designers will make it in the premium themes market. Bad designers trying to get rich quick will not.

Without giving away any personal trade secrets, what have you found to be the best methods of promoting your premium themes?

I would say the best method is by designing free themes as well as premium themes. They get lots of traffic if they are posted on Weblog Tools Collection. I have also started putting some money back into advertising on sites about Wordpress.

Do you have any tips or words of advice for WordPress designers thinking about entering into the premium theme market?

Start out with making some free themes, and see what feedback you get. Just because you can make a Wordpress theme doesn’t always mean it is worth more than a free theme. If you are already a good web designer then I would jump on the bandwagon immediately.

I’d like to thank Magnus for taking the time to answer my questions. His premium and free themes are all available at PremiumPress. This was the third in a series of interviews with designers of Premium WordPress Themes. If you’re interesting in keeping up with them all I suggest you subscribe to this site’s RSS feed.

Charity Ondriezek, of Design Adaptations, is the subject of my latest interview about premium WordPress themes. Her premium theme is called Cornerstone and is on sale now. She also has a variety of free themes available on her site as well.

What prompted you to begin selling premium WordPress themes?

Creating a premium theme was something I had in the back of my mind for quite a while, after having seen a few others try. I wasn’t convinced there was much of a demand however, until I saw how successful Brian Gardner’s Revolution theme was. Then I knew there was a predominantly untapped market. I figured the timing was right.

How do the number and type of support requests a premium theme is generating compare to the requests you receive for one of your free themes?

Surprisingly, there hasn’t been a significant difference. That means one of two things… either I’ve done something quite right in the building of the theme, or something very wrong! The jury is still out on that one.

I assume there’s a larger sense of responsibility when dealing with premium theme support. Do you sometimes feel like you’ve signed on with dozens of clients all at once?

I definitely feel a stronger sense of responsibility. For the most part, releasing a free theme affords the luxury of doing so on an “as is” basis. Some fixes and updates are necessary for the theme to stay on par with Wordpress itself of course, but there’s very little to do once a free theme has been released. With a premium theme on the other hand, I feel obligated to provide detailed email support when requested, because I consider it part of the theme purchase.

If so, has that new level of commitment altered your plans for future themes in regards to features, release schedules, etc.?

I’m really excited about the potential in themes right now and I absolutely plan to release more, both premium and free. Cornerstone has been a great learning experience… it has given me a basis for comparison for future projects. Hopefully I can refine my process (and my product) with each theme I release, and gather some happy customers along the way.

What are your thoughts on the notion of an official theme marketplace that was mentioned by Matt Mullenweg at the beginning of November?

I think there’s too little information right now to go on. I think a 50/50 split (if it’s true) is inappropriate, but Matt has a tendency to be shadowed by rumors wherever he goes. So until he sheds more light on the subject I’ll refrain from further comment.

With the crackdown on sponsored themes and sponsored links, do you fear the premium theme market will be flooded with WordPress designers looking to make back lost revenue?

There’s always the possibility of saturation, but I don’t see that scenario being too troublesome for serious themers. The people who were involved in sponsored links are typically looking to make the largest ROI for the least amount of work… creating (and supporting) a premium theme does not fall into that category based on my experience. It’s not a get-rich-quick enterprise.

Without giving away any personal trade secrets, what have you found to be the best methods of promoting your premium themes?

I’m still experimenting with ideas for promotion. So far, reviews and mentions on others’ blogs has brought in much of the traffic Cornerstone has received. Stumble gave it a boost as well.

Do you have any tips or words of advice for WordPress designers thinking about entering into the premium theme market?

Sure, start from the beginning. Be proactive in learning as much as you can about theming, then release a few high quality free themes to use as a launch pad. Spend some time aligning yourself (in a sincere way) with prominent individuals in the WP community. There’s a lot to be said for building relationships in this arena.

I’d like to thank Charity for setting aside some time to answer my questions. Her Cornerstone theme is available for purchase now. This was the second in a series of interviews with designers of Premium WordPress Themes. If you’re interesting in keeping up with them all I suggest you subscribe to this site’s RSS feed.