[zcyclist]

first, i would like to comment on the "premium" factor.
it's my understanding of the posting rules that if you plan to charge anything, even 1 cent, for your theme, you have to put "premium" in the title of the thread. it doesn't really have anything to do with the quality of the theme.
as for what i think is reasonable to charge for a theme. as a theme maker myself, i can say that anybody charging $6-$7-$8 dollars for a theme is COMPLETELY JUSTIFIED in doing so! trust me, there is a lot of work that goes into making themes. as you learn and develop some habits, it becomes easier, but that doesn't change the fact that you spent several long nights, banging your head against the wall, google-ing, asking for advice from the cb forums, before finally figuring it out. i've learned a lot and vastly improved for my first themes to my most recent. infact, my most recent theme "ergo" i worked on for about a month, had it in testers hands for over a week, went over it again and again trying to make it perfect, after all of that work, i was finally absolutely satisfied with it, and released it to the public for a big ol' $1.00.(it's the only theme i've charged money for so far the money i've made off that theme wouldn't pay for a decent dinner for my GF and myself.
but it's not about the money. if it were, i'd find something else to do. it's a hobbie that i enjoy(mostly). so most of my themes are free.
long story short, my opinion is that theme devs are justified in charging what ever they feel like their theme is worth. it's up to YOU to decide if you want to pay that price, look for a free theme, or learn to make your own, like i did!

[shankeith]

alot of people thing they can just download Themebuilder and Composer and they can make the best themes ever. I understand the whole premium thing, and I feel the same, it should be about quality. Theres a lot of themes that have just wallpaper changes, which I dont think should be charged.

However like I do, i edit the svg files that they no longer look like the OEM theme.
Like elecite, or ECruz or ahazdesigns or even zcyclist over here, when i looked at his theme, you can tell he took his time on it.
Same thing with me. i take my time with my theme, i have ideas that take 2 weeks to make and 1 week to beta test and another week to finalize. Just like a real product.

And i support it like crazy whenever issues arise.

I'm running a business here from start to finish.

I'll admit, before theme making, i never payed for a theme tho. but thats because i didnt have a credit card. LOL. Overall, i think its about the quality. If its easy to make, forget it. If it feels premium then its worth the money.

So its more about the end consumer:
Do you feel the quality is there?
Buy it then....

[shankeith]

btw, Donations...pfft...

they never get you anything, Classique Lite, had just over 6000 download since it released.
how many donations did i get with it?
5 total...
maybe racking up about 20 dollars

When i put my Classique Docked(the premium version) i now have almost a thousand sales. do the math

and i havent had one disappointed customer yet!

[estrickle]

I paid for themes in the past. As much as $5. But I will never pay for one again because I end up deleting theme once I get bored with them or just ended up not liking it as much as I thought I would. Or just to free up space. The only one I always keep is Rocker Chic by Cocky Culture. It cost $3.99 and was worth every penny. I personally like the hunt for cool free themes to use for awhile and then ditch it for the next of the latest and greatest free themes. Some are good enough to be paid themes so every now and then I just donate. Live and learn...



Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[moviemogul]

I've paid out the *** for themes here. Easily $40 last year alone.

I found a few great ones, a few that have sucked.

I have my favorite three themes in the phone, and none I paid more than $5 bucks for.

[D_Town_Tony]

For my themes when it comes to the question of how much to charge, I tend to keep them all in the same range as the majority of other theme makers, but when it comes to how much SHOULD theme makers charge.......the answer is what ever they want, and if someone doesn't want to pay for it they shouldn't buy it. I've had an embarrassing amount of people email me telling me how much they like a theme, but I should give them it for free because they don't want to pay for it......wtf? I don't like paying for things either, that doesn't mean it should be free. I've even had a couple folks requesting free copies and then when I didn't give them it they went and gave me a bunch of crap reviews.

I don't understand that mentality of "I want it for free so it should be free, and here's a bunch of reasons why it should be free, and here are examples that I think are better and are free but I'm still gonna complain as to why yours isn't free" I spend a ridiculous amount of time developing complete custom icon sets, visuals, etc and keeping up with any and all tech support which yes, I do like being compensated for. Who wouldn't? I would never ever expect someone to buy something from me if they didn't want to, or if they found something free that they would rather have, but why come down on people who decide to charge for their products. Just don't buy it.

[pokerpro]

I always wondered that too with all the free themes that are on the market what make the 7 dollar ones better than those

[shankeith]

I've had an embarrassing amount of people email me telling me how much they like a theme, but I should give them it for free because they don't want to pay for it......wtf?

ive had this happened to me once. i would be too embarrassed to ask ANYONE that for ANYTHING. it just caught me by surprise.

[akronevan2]

Something else that I have thought about recently is: Fine if you want to charge for your themes then please put them somewhere where other things are sold, like Crackberry app store, or blackberry app world. It is difficult enough to navigate around here without having to go around your "my time is worth more than the other yours" themes. Thank you!

[parkerstorm]

Something else that I have thought about recently is: Fine if you want to charge for your themes then please put them somewhere where other things are sold, like Crackberry app store, or blackberry app world. It is difficult enough to navigate around here without having to go around your "my time is worth more than the other yours" themes. Thank you!

maybe you should just stop trolling around the themes forums and you wouldn't have the problem of having to "navigate around here"...maybe.... just my suggestion..... by the way you need to learn what the "rants and raves" forum is and stop making it harder for people to navigate a forum that's intended for them to get themes (free or premium) and follow your own advice and take your complaints to the correct sections yourself.