I’m Not Completely Selfless
- Filed under: Wpdesigner.com
Nathan Rice recently published a post titled, Respect Requires Altruism, in which he points to me as an example of a selfless theme author.
To that, I have to say, “Thank you, but I’m not completely selfless.” Although I did start Wpdesigner because I simply enjoyed creating themes and giving them away, right now, I continue to release free themes to attempt to dominate the free WordPress themes niche, which is where I believe the biggest potential lies.
If you meet me in real life, I probably come off as a jerk with a mild case of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
- I say what’s on my mind and I don’t care about burning bridges.
- Sometimes, I make idiotic assumptions and later on would have to swallow my words.
Overall, I’m not that nice of a person and I make lots of mistakes. For example, if you sound lazy in your email asking for WordPress help, I’ll ignore and delete it.
(How can I tell if you’re lazy? There’s a huge message on my contact page that says you shouldn’t email me WordPress themes questions because I give support through the forums. Duh.)
For another example, a while ago, I stepped out of the premium themes race and decided to release free premium themes, but now I’m bored. Why am I bored? Although I believe the biggest money-making potential actually lies in free WordPress themes, working alone with no short-term gains is really discouraging.
Right now, I’m thinking about going with my second choice, which is running a themes club:
- to make some short term money
- to make myself happy with the extra money for the holidays (some new tech toys from Think Geek would be nice) and not to mention my family and girlfriend would appreciate better gifts
- to compete with everyone currently selling WordPress themes.
(That’s not to say I won’t be releasing more free WordPress themes. I will.)
The one thing you should remember from this post is that I’m a competitive jerk with a mild case of OCD, who often contradicts himself. That’s all I have to rant about. Have a nice weekend… Oops, today’s only Thursday.
Yippee for OCD…You go SP. Love the freebies and the premiums. Always looking forward to both.
Oh yes you are a big meanie, nice guy most of the time. Especially when you make us think and figure out things for our selfs
Geese man, that post could either be a boom or bust post…
Oh darn so your a little bit of an ass at times. Thats life. Personally everyone has there moments and you might have them more than others but from what I’ve see you no worse than anyone else. All your trying to do is make a dollar which is fine by me. Keep up the good work and keep doing whatever it is you want.
Your free themes are still the best so I don’t really care if you have OCD or not
Keep up the good work! 
I am just curious, how is releasing free themes have more of a potential to making money then releasing for pay themes? are you think from making income from support or if people are contacting you to do custom work from seeing your free themes?
I am just curious on how you are basing that assumption on.
SP,
There’s no doubt you’re a blunt guy. And you’ve made it clear that you want to get rich with the least amount of work possible
But you’ve released 40+ themes and they’re all of high quality.
And that’s why you’re a star. Not because you’ve made lots of money from WordPress (though I’m sure you have) and not because you simply prance around the blogosphere declaring it to be true. Regardless of the motivation, your gifts to the community makes you popular. People like that about you.
Glad you read the post
@Paul - I was typing a page long comment to answer your question, but lost it after clicking submit. When I have time, I can email you my response. (edit: message sent)
@Nathan - I believe in hard work, but try hard to avoid unnecessary responsibilities
Had to smile as I read this post. Blunt? Yes sir.
OCD? I don’t know you well enough. One thing is for sure - you are ambitious and that’s a great quality. As you age you’ll learn how to power forward with your good qualities, and reduce the strain your not-so-good qualities put on your image.
“working alone with no short-term gains is really discouraging”
I hear ya.
“If you meet me in real life, I probably come off as a jerk with a mild case of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
* I say what’s on my mind and I don’t care about burning bridges.
* Sometimes, I make idiotic assumptions and later on would have to swallow my words.”
sounds like me!
I thought all web developers had a slight case of OCD.
@Nate:
We do
I 2nd that all us web developers have OCD
I’m a web developer too. So I too, have OCD? :p
I thought all cool hip people have OCD.
Then I’m not alone.
Nor are you SP!
I used your flickr theme a long time ago for a blog about my personal life.
You posted some very human comments. It touched me.
It’s obvious you aren’t a perfect person (who is?), but the reason people are attracted to you and your work is because of your passion.
Passion is a rare thing in this world.
Embrace it.
Thanks Tim. And fortunately, I managed to get just a bit above rock bottom.
If you start a theme club, I will be the first one signing up
I love the free themes you are giving away.
Actually, I thought you were selfless too, and looked down on you for it. Check out Objectivism. It’s a philosophy of selfishness and productivity. We’re not nearly as miserable as it might sound.
I was pointed to your site - because mines a mess - and what I found was someone who’s almost as irritated as I am. Do you ever find yourself wanting to punch people in the face for absolutely no reason? I do. Like when you’re park in a parking garage that’s by the half hour and you time it just right so you get back to your car - get to the check out gate and realize that the woman in front of you didn’t “know” (despite the blaring overhead announcement every 5 minutes and the giant signs posted EVERYWHERE) that she had to prepay before leaving the garage - and so you go to go out the gate after she’s done with her shenanigans - and you get charged the extra three bucks because you’re one minute over - despite that you gave yourself an extra 5 minutes - assuming noone is THAT stupid.
Not that this has EVER happened to me or anything. Long story short - be angry at stupid emails - I’m not even going to bother you with mine (yet) because there’s a plethora of information out there (and in your forum) and every time some moron can’t figure out their issue - and they want extra-super-quick-gratification they say - hey I’ll just e-mail the expert. And hey, it’s good to be the expert but shit - really - figure it out. Read. Research. If you don’t you’ll never learn.
So - in essence - your OCD ass - plus your inability to deal with morons is just falling right in line with the Darwinistic scheme of things. Thank you for not responding to people that need to do a little (not-so) hard work or reasearch - it might be good for their teeny weeny impatient minds.
Man - now IVE wasted your time. Nah. Your shit rocks. Just wanted to say thanks and that you have every right to - well, whatever.
Happy Holidays
Hi SP,
Hi had the same question as Paul … Would you mind posting your response here or maybe emailing me too? Thanks : ) Happy New Year btw!
Sky - I’m lazy. Happy new year
You have great themes and I thank you for the time you spend on this blog. I think you’re near selfless.
Thanks to share your all themes and knowledge about the wp themes.