Not so long ago, I worked for a large interactive agency serving fortune 500 companies. The agency specialized in creating content management systems (CMS) for custom websites — which brought a particular amount of value to their services. So much value in fact — they charged millions of dollars for their web design and development services. Most the money was placed on the value of the client having the ability to easily change the content of their site.

The internet has evolved over the past 3 years. WordPress has brought content management to the masses. What used to take a large agency with a team of employees to create, can now be achieved by a single designer and developer with enough talent, time and ambition. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Far from it. However, it’s now attainable for a couple guys in a garage to compete with the big boys. That’s exciting for a lot of people, including me.

Now the WordPress theme market is becoming increasingly saturated. It seems a new theme shop opens every day. With that kind of saturation comes competition — and unfortunately fraud. As a result, customers are becoming more demanding, and you can’t please everybody.

While WordPress themes may not be an entirely custom website solution, the option is available with some fairly minor changes. So I have to say, paying less than $100 for the functionality of a million dollar site still seems like good deal to me. No website is going to build itself, but a WordPress theme comes damn close. That’s more than a good value — it’s practically a miracle, man. So, enjoy what WordPress and themes have to offer. A couple years ago most website owners paid $100 every time they wanted a sentence changed on their site.