The Web Developer

Becoming a Web Developer is like fighting in a Great Battle.

If you make a wrong move, you will lose, but gain wisdom for it, with
each failure you gain more wisdom, with each rebuild, you build faster.

Things can get toxic all too quickly, you will have to be ready to quit,
and retry. Like a Samurai, without thought, you release your Katana, cut
the job, move on.

Below is the text from Love building themes? Join the Theme Store
community at Shopify, where website themes sell for $180.

(If you think you can handle this, go for it! Though, please note that they
are gently asking that you have a team, which could mean outsourcing, and a
budget for bug fixing. The platform for managing your outsourced team would
be github and slack, this is doable you could even experiment
paying your developers via liberapay)

Personally, I see that the posting below has too many restrictions. And if
your theme won't average 10 sales per month, they'll throw it out.

I don't know what their relationship is with leading web design
frameworks. I don't think they have a rational streamlined pipeline.
Because, what they call bug fixing is a massive undertaking requiring
dozens of developers.

The most widely developed foundation for themes, after many years of
development had 60 issues last month alone (November 2019).

Shopify is the world’s fastest growing commerce platform and we have no
plans to slow down! The Shopify Theme Partnerships team is on a mission to
make sure our merchants have access to the highest quality themes
available. Every month, thousands of merchants look for new themes for
their online stores. Our team is on the lookout for skilled, passionate
designers and developers we can work with to create amazing themes for the
Theme Store.

Important information to know before you apply

Here are a few things to consider before you send us your Theme Partner
application:

• Shopify themes need constant care and attention. We expect Theme
  Partners who work with us to be engaged, passionate about their theme(s),
  and apply any theme updates we request in a timely manner.
• Being a Theme Partner is a full-time job. You will need to dedicate a
  lot of time updating your theme(s) as well as supporting the merchants who
  are using your theme. If you become a Theme Partner, you’ll need to
  consider how you’ll balance Theme Partner work with other jobs you are
  currently doing, or are planning to be engaged in.
• Our current Theme Partners are a tight-knit group of people. We expect
  potential Theme Partners to be approachable and collaborative with the
  Shopify Theme Partnerships team, as well as merchants using your theme(s).
• We want Theme Partners to actively contribute to the Shopify themes
  ecosystem, and work with us to help merchants succeed. The Theme
  Partnerships team will be working closely with you every step of the way
  during the theme submission process, and will continue to work closely with
  you once your theme is published. We have dedicated email and Slack
  channels set up to provide feedback, advice and support for all your
  theme-related questions and issues.
• The revenue share for Theme Partners is 70/30. The Theme Partner
  receives 70% of each theme sale.

What to submit when you apply

Please email themes@shopify.com and include all of the following:

1. A link to an active Shopify website you built for a client. This must
   be a live, fully functioning shop that you built for a client.
2. A case study for the above Shopify website that details your
   experiences on the project. You will need to provide an overview of the
   project and the client.
3. A cover letter.
4. A link to your design portfolio.

How we review your application

For the active Shopify website our review will cover:

• Problem solving ability (the solution outlined in the case study is
  visible).
• Originality (the shop is using a custom theme, not a free or paid theme
  from the Shopify Theme Store).
• Art direction (choice of photography, images, icons, color, and overall
  originality).
• Layout (flow of content, hierarchy, balance, contrast, white space,
  responsiveness, grid, and alignment).
• Typography (font pairings, font sizes, line spacing, hierarchy of text,
  number of fonts used, and legibility of text).
• Consistency in design patterns (between pages and on a single page).
• Accessibility (hover states, colour ratios, and touch targets).
• Customer UX (purchase flow through the collection, product, and cart
  pages).
• Technical ability (up-to-date with Shopify platform, website
  functionality, code consistency, and lack of errors).

For the case study we will be looking for you to provide this
information:

• What brought the client to you?
• What were the client’s needs?
• How did you go about solving their problem?
• We would like to see your research, your workflow (prototyping and
  refining), and what you learned.

For the cover letter we would like to see the following information:

• An outline of who you (and your team) are.
• Why you want to join the Shopify Theme Partner community?
• Why you think you’d do well as a Theme Partner?

Feel free to put your own personal touch or spin on the cover letter. We
highly value originality, enthusiasm, and motivation when considering
applications.

For the design portfolio we will be reviewing the same design related
points as mentioned above for the active Shopify website:

• Art direction.
• Layout.
• Typography.
• Consistency.

The Shopify Theme Partnerships team is not able to provide detailed
feedback on why an application does not pass our review process. If we do
reach out to you about becoming a potential Theme Partner, we will work
with you on the next steps of the approval process.

Your theme in the Shopify Theme Store

Once a theme has been built and approved, it may only be distributed via
the Theme Store. Please do not distribute your theme on other marketplaces
or third-party channels, or try to take customers away from the Theme Store.

Theme support

If there is a technical issue with your theme (for example: broken layout,
dead link, logic error) you will be responsible for fixing the issue in a
timely fashion. Critical bugs must be fixed immediately or your theme may
be temporarily removed from the Theme Store.

Theme Partners are responsible for supporting merchants who use their
theme(s). You will need to provide a public support email address, theme
documentation, and assist merchants with their theme-related questions.

Themes will be removed from the Theme Store if they have made less than 25
sales in a 3 month time period. Theme Partners are responsible for keeping
their themes up-to-date with core Shopify features and any improved
standards Shopify implements in the future. These can include improvements
to the overall user experience, the user interface, accessibility, and more.

Now, a job making themes for Shopify is great for a Web Design start-up
struggling to get customers, as 160 sales would get them $20K, after the
30% cut (of $8,640). But for an outsider looking in, it is just a look into
the world of professional web development, and never-ending bug fixing.
Aside from regular bugs, both code-bases (bootstrap and shopify) are under
active development, that is a lot of code updates.

There is a smaller but streamlined theme sales platform, with more
reasonable restrictions. Take a look at the sales stats that they
parade right at their front page. At 48,623 sales priced at $44 USD,
the INSPINIA - Responsive Admin Theme would have made 2.2 million USD.
Even if WrapBootstrap took 50% of that, the developer took a million home.

Now remember INSPINIA is sitting right on top of Bootstrap so
all this development is going on in the back at no charge to INSPINIA
Developers. All they do is add more components, and keep up with the
latest updates to the Bootstrap code base.

The Web Developer, that you need to become creates the streamlined,
low-liability versions of wrapbootstrap.com, themes.shopify.com,
or even shopify.com it self, and others that tickle your fancy in
similar ways.

Now when I went to the website of INSPINIA developers, I got redirected to
wrapbootstrap.com. This may mean - and in deed it would make perfect sense

• that WrapBootstrap made INSPINIA. This would also mean that they made 2.2
  Million Dollars, they pocketed 100% of those sales (3rd party sellers earn
  80%).

Your story may be even more elaborate than this. You maybe taking a step
above the platforms, and sell a service where a person can rent a platform
like wrapbootstrap.com or themes.shopify.com for a monthly
membership fee and a reasonable percentage of sales.

Web Developer, is a huge step. But making themes is not it. It is not even
about learning programming, though you should definitely know about it;
because you need a team of programmers to develop your sales platform(s).

It is about becoming a Businessperson with a plan. In other words, a
Founder, a CEO.

You shouldn't think of a web developer as a person that merely develops for
the web, think of one as a developer of the web. That is a difference
between $180 and $2,200,000, a resume and an outstanding portfolio, an
employee and an employer, bugfixes and excitement.