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Roughly 2.2 million total free downloads across 9 themes and monthly revenue upwards of $35k a month.

Meet Trent Lapinski, CEO of CyberChimps themes.

I invited Trent on to the show to tell us all about what it’s like to earn a living selling premium themes and supporting such a large install base. Aside from the massive responsibility of sites powered by their product, it’s also looking like a business with plenty of room to grow.

On to the episode!

Interview with Trent Lapinski CEO of CyberChimps

Listen to the audio version or subscribe on iTunes

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The cost of free

We’ve talked about the freemium model in past interviews, but this is the first time I’ve heard someone refer to it as a great responsibility.

And when you have one theme that powers more than a million websites — yea, I guess he’s right.

Trent doesn’t seem to mind the freemium model he’s been able to capitalize from either. In a world of seeking a sustainable WordPress theme business, he seems to strongly believe that a pay once for the download can work.

At the time of this interview, he was exploring paid support models and other upgrades to add to the revenue. What do you think? Can freemium + pay once for download work?

It should be interesting to see what he and the team comes up with.

Mergers and acquisitions

One of the strongest moves Trent has made in the market so far was acquiring the Responsive theme from