Recently, I’ve been asked when I’m planning to bring Mayer to self-hosted WordPress installations.

The short answer is that I don’t have a definitive answer, but I am working on the Pressware shop. The longer answer has more to do with my current backlog of work and the things that I’m trying to accomplish before doing so – that is, it has a lot to do with what’s happening within the Pressware pipeline.

To that end, I thought it might be worth sharing the current plans I have for Mayer, the eCommerce gateway I’m working to setup for Pressware as well as my current theme backlog.

The Current State of Mayer

Mayer Theme Homepage

As it stands right now, Mayer is still only for sale on WordPress.com. I’ve enjoyed having the theme for sale in the WordPress.com marketplace, but I am wanting to expand to the self-hosted brand of WordPress installations.

Before doing that, there are a few things I’m working on with respect to the core theme that I want to roll out to WordPress.com before I’m ready to roll it out for self-hosted installations.

In short, I’m looking to do the following:

  • Improve the core code documentation so that the self-hosted version of the theme can ship with documentation ready for developers.
  • Prepare an in-depth manual for users so that they know how to use the theme inside and out.
  • Introduce a couple of new features that are based on feedback that I’ve received.

There are a few other technical aspects that I’d like to take care of prior to releasing it, as well but that falls more inline with the Pressware eCommerce gateway.

The Pressware eCommerce Gateway

The Pressware Homepage

It should be no secret that the majority of the work that I do out of Pressware is contract work such that I’m providing solutions for other. This is something that I really enjoy doing and don’t foresee myself stopping anytime soon.

However, that’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the product side of things, as well. That is to say that Mayer is but one of the things I’m hoping to begin selling over the next year or so.

But in order to do that, I need to setup all of the necessary items for an online shop. Specifically, this includes:

  • Setting up the eCommerce gateway to support purchases
  • Finding a support system that best fits my needs
  • Integrating the inventory for both the plugins and themes I’m looking to begin selling.

So those are the high-level things that I need to take care of in order to get Pressware’s shop up and running, but that is still predicated on the idea that I have more than a single product to sale.

My Theme Pipeline

In addition to Mayer, I’m currently working on developing the next version of Live Theme, as well as two other themes are in whatever stage you call pre-alpha stage.

Live Theme For WordPressThough this particular theme will not be sold under the Pressware shop, it is currently my active theme development project and will likely be so for the next few months.

But after that, I have two other themes planned for which I’ve already put together all of the necessary ideas, color schemes, fonts, etc., that will go into the them. Additionally, I have the target audience for the them in mind as well as a names (that I’ll share later).

Perhaps it’d be cool to blog about the journey of creating a theme from scratch and all of the various things that it entails. I don’t know. Thoughts?

Anyway, I know that’s not a lot to go off of, but suffice it to say that if you’re a blogger who uses third-party networks such as Twitter, Instagram, Path, and/or are more of a casual blogger than anything else, then at least one of these themes is designed especially for you.

That Is All (For Now)

Aside from the usual demands of the daily grind, that’s my long term plans as it relates to Mayer, Pressware, Live, and my upcoming, unnamed theme.

This doesn’t take into account other ongoing projects such as the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate, but it should help to give a clear example as to what I’m looking to achieve over the next months (or even into early 2015).