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26 Mar 2014

Gerald Waters – Online Business with Themify

Customer Stories / 18 Comments

Welcome to our first post of Themify 'Customer Stories' series. In this story, Gerald Waters, a UK based graphic designer shares how he created an online business with WordPress and Themify.

Hello, I’m Gerald Waters. For the past four years I've been working as a freelance graphic designer. I provide a variety of graphic design services such as logo, flyer and stationary design as well as general artwork services such as redrawing fuzzy or pixelated logos into vector images. I also sell my stock logos online.

I'm based in the United Kingdom but I have customers all over the world, especially from the United States and Canada. My working day can vary due to the wide variety of work I do, which I enjoy.

No more Dreamweaver

My online presence is very important to my business. In the beginning I used to create my websites using Dreamweaver, which I found to be quite difficult and time consuming to use. Then I discovered WordPress which made things a lot easier for me and it saved me a lot of time which I can spend promoting my websites rather than just maintaining them.

I had created a large volume of logos that I never use and so I thought it would be a great idea if I could sell them online by using an eCommerce solution. The free WordPress themes that were available weren't up to the job and the few managed solutions that were available, I had to pay a monthly fee, which turned out to be quite expensive.

I discovered a system called Shopperpress which I used for a while as it had the features I needed. But the problem for me was it was too complex and confusing to use and it was taking me forever to complete even the simplest of tasks. So, eventually I gave up on the eCommerce website.

Then one day, I purchased a ready made website because I liked the design. As it was a WordPress website, I logged in to the backend and found out it was using a Themify theme. I was really impressed with how easy it was to change the look and feel of the website, without much trouble or the need to code. It was then I became hooked on Themify themes!

Selling my logos online

After looking through the Themify collection, I found the Pinshop theme was using the free WooCommerce plugin, so I thought it would be perfect combination for my stock logo website, Logo Knight.

The website has been running for a couple of years now without any problems and I have nearly 800 unique logos available so I needed something which is stable and easy to manage, which this solution is.

Currently I run 15 different websites, all using Themify themes. For example, two of my websites are designed using the Themify Agency theme:

• Gerald Waters.com
• Design Me A Mat

Themify has it covered

A great advantage of using Themify is their fantastic support. Usually, you can find the answer to an issue in the Forums, but on some occasions when I couldn't find an answer, I submitted a support ticket and it was answered within a few hours giving me the solution I needed. You won’t receive that kind of support using any of the free themes, at least I never did!

As time went by, I’ve received more and more regular customers which has provide me with a reasonable income. In fact, if I worked for somebody else I wouldn't be able to earn as much as I do now from freelancing. All of my work has come through my four main websites and I believe that using Themify has been a great advantage to me, making things simpler and allowing me to concentrate on other aspects of my business.

From now on instead of buying individual themes like I have done in the past I'm going to be joining the Themify Club Membership. This will allow me to access any theme including new ones that are released, which to me seems great value for money!

Gerald Waters