Interview – Sadish Balasubramanian. Popular wordpress theme designer

We all love his themes, they are simplistic, elegant and classy. I love them for their versatility and user friendliness while some claim that they are easy to tweak and clean by code. Well, Sadish is a software professional in the US. He’s a very popular wordpress designer more so for his simple and clean wordpress themes that every blogger would love to pick up. I’ve been using his themes for a couple of websites, and I’d love to recommend them for young bloggers.

I managed to do an interview with the man. I must that him for finding time out for us, amidst his busy like crazy world. Here goes –

Sadish, I’ve read that you take up WP designing as a hobby. So, what are you professionally?

I am a software engineer by profession and I develop intranet web applications using Microsoft.NET technology for a corporate client in New Jersey.

OK, So since when did you start designing?

Actually I am not a designer by profession. I like coding and that is what I am good at. I jumped into designing when I had my site at Xanga.com in 2002. I started tweaking the site to suit my needs and that is when I got introduced into templates and CSS. I downloaded and played with many free templates on the web and I just started learning stuff by trial and error.
Then I helped one of my friends to find a free template for his website and I also helped him in tweaking it for his requirements. He reciprocated with an year of ASP hosting with the domain “sadish.net” registered for me. That was the starting point.

Interesting. Why do you like WP theme designing?

This is really hard to answer. The simple answer could be “because I feel so comfortable with it”. I have tried several other alternatives before settling on WordPress and I feel much comfortable with installing and customizing WordPress.
WordPress is developed with “the end user in mind”. If you look at the features on every new version, you would clearly know that the development team is listening to the people’s needs. The other thing is, testing of any changes you make to the theme, takes just two seconds. You don’t need to compile anything. You open up any theme file and edit and save it. That’s all you have to do.

Your WP designs are strikingly simple and quick loading. Is this deliberate?

Basically I love simple designs for use on my website. I never created a theme which I would not use for my own site. In fact, many of the themes that I share now are originally created for my own use. The other reason is that I want the user to be able to take the theme and tweak it for his needs. If the theme is more graphics oriented, then it is less customizable by the end user. Customizing the theme is a lot of fun, and I do not want to keep all of that within myself let other people also have the fun.

OK Now a question my readers would love to hear you answer.
Do you think bloggers can make money online?

Yes, definitely. But you should never start your blog with the motive of making the money. It really spoils the things you write on your blog. Just pick up a niche area that you are specialized with and start blogging for the fun of sharing it with the community. You might start with a small set of people, but once people know your passion for blogging, the community will get bigger and then you could be making money online without even realizing you are making it.

So, how much money do you make online by selling WP themes?
You think people can make money by selling WP Themes?

Yes they can. Actually there are people selling their WP Theme for $100 and such. While it is definitely possible to make good money, it also takes a lot of patience and commitment to keep things rolling.
Sometime back, Small potato wrote these tips http://www.wpdesigner.com/2007/11/27/premium-theme-buying-tips/ for people buying a premium theme. I suggest this list to anyone trying to sell WP themes.
You should also be on top of the future WP releases and make sure your theme is compatible with and supports the new features with each release.

Are you into any other money making ventures?

Not right now. I only make money by selling WP themes and by selling text-link-ads on my sites.
There is a potentially huge market for “theme customization projects”, and I get many of those offers through my contact form, even though I said “I am not available for such projects” right at the top of the contact page. If I am not working on the day job, I would have taken many of such offers, but unfortunately I can not.
If one of your visitors is capable of taking such projects, I can gladly forward the projects that I can not take.

Tel me something about your new e-book? What is it and who is it for?

Actually I wanted to make it a printed book, but the process of getting it into print is time consuming.
Also the problem with getting such a book printed is that the content will become out-dated in a few months as newer versions of WP are released.
It is basically a “Do it yourself” kind of book, where a fairly knowledgeable person can read the book and customize his website. It is not a tutorial for creating a new theme, but it will offer useful tips and tricks for an intermediate to advanced user. You can read the first few chapters at http://wpthemetips.com

And, what is your advice to young designers?

1. Get a local installation of WP on your machine. Installing XAMPP will help for Windows developers and MAMP if you are a Mac user. This will be a good playground for building and testing the themes.
2. Play with various WP themes, preferably themes that are done by different people.
3. Spend some time at the support forums like http://wordpress.org/support/ and if possible, help other people solve
their issues.

What is the future according to you in designing as a career?

As I mentioned earlier, there is a huge potential for theme customization projects and if you are ready to take up such challenges, you will grow a lot. Remember, “one happy customer” will lead to more happy clients.

So there you have it. I must confess for not asking him more design related issues out there but it’s in the bloggers interest that I asked more about online money making. Hope you all enjoyed it. Get Sadish’s WP themes here.