10 underserved niches for wordpress theme developers to make money

When it comes to developing wordpress themes for selling, it is common knowledge that focusing on a niche will always yield better results, especially if you are not a big brand like woothemes etc.  However, finding niches that have a sizeable buyer market without too much competition is a challenge. We can use tools such as Google keyword planner to let us estimate potential market size but even then, nothing is certain. The best way to brainstorm for niche ideas is to look at offline businesses and see which ones don’t have an active wordpress developer community serving them.

In case you need some inspirations, here are 10 niches for wordpress theme developers that might be profitable. I used Google Suggest + Themeforest sales data to estimate the likely market size for each of these niches.

#1:  WordPress theme for museum

Museum wordpress themes is not a big niche but it still can be a nice cash flow generator year after year since the competition is not that many. There is one themeforest listing on google for the theme called curator. Below is its sales numbers.

Estimated average themeforest sales= 312*USD50=USD15,600 sales in 15 months (before themeforest’s cut)

#2: WordPress themes for speakers

Most wordpress themes are for events or conferences. There is very few that is focus on serving the speakers by giving them an easy way to: (i) showcase their past speaking engagement videos, (ii) sell their books, (iii) book their time, (iv) collect emails etc. Currently no themeforest listing is found in google’s first page result. The top result for the search tag “speakers’ on themeforest for the evento events theme.

#3:  WordPress themes for ice cream shops

Again, there is currently no specific theme on themeforest that caters to this niche. The search result I got from themeforest was for general wordpress themes for bakery.  The top selling theme was JustShop and below is its sales data. Beware though that not all the sales can be attributed to the ice cream shops niche.

Estimated average themeforest sales= 509*USD55=USD27,995 sales in 4 months (before themeforest’s cut)

#4: WordPress themes for kindergarden

There are plenty of wordpress themes for mommy bloggers and kids. However, themes focusing on serving the child care or kindergarden businesses are few and far in between. There is one wp theme in themeforest that is relevant to this niche and it is pulling a nice revenue number with very few competition.

Estimated average themeforest sales= 1210*USD40=USD48,400 sales in 16 months (before themeforest’s cut)

#5: WordPress theme for video production company

Video wordpress themes are common but when it comes to themes that support a video production company, it is sorely lacking. One of the top search result in google is for this themeforest listing called The Producer. You can see its revenue numbers below:

Estimated average themeforest sales= 676*USD45=USD35,420 sales in 11 months (before themeforest’s cut)

#6: WordPress themes for lead generation

This seems to be a niche that should be filled with competition. Surprising it is not. In themeforest, there is only 5 listing for lead generation wordpress themes. Among these 5, one is listing in the first page of Google for this search term: permatex. It is fairly new theme but the sales numbers already look impressive.

Estimated average themeforest sales= 124*USD35=USD4340 sales in 1.5 months (before themeforest’s cut)

 #7: WordPress themes for landscapinging businesses

The top result for this niche is from templatemonsters. I am not sure how historical is their download data but you can see there is at least some form of purchases. With no listing from themeforest, you can probably be the first of such theme to be listed in themeforest if you are quick.

#8:  WordPress themes for moving company

Believe it or not, people do search for wordpress themes for moving company. Currently, there isn’t much competition in Google search as well as in Themeforest.  The only result in Google from Themeforest is the listing for a theme called rounder, which is not that relevant for a moving company. However, there are many results in google search showing that people are asking for this kind of theme.

#9: WordPress themes for dance studios

There is literally no wp themes on themeforest that serve this niche. All I got was a google result that point to me to a discussion thread on themeforest. That is how open this niche is. The challenge here is not knowing how much demand there is for such a theme.

#10: Genealogy wordpress themes

Currently, very few premium wp theme for genealogy can be found in Google. The top results included one from wordpress.org, which are mainly free wp plugins. However, from the number of downloads, you can see there is definitely interest. Whether that interest is strong enough to motivate a purchase is something you need to test it out.

If you have more niche ideas for wordpress theme development, please feel free to list them in the comments.