I'm so glad I read this article....I sold a very successful theme site back in October so that I can move to designing strictly for wordpress.com and to write tutorials. However, after doing so, I find out they suddenly suspended submissions (talk about bad timing). I later found out they are suspending new authors signups, but existing authors continue to submit new themes. I contacted Automattic to find out how long things were shutdown, where the answer was not comforting by what they said...perhaps by June (if that, as well not really spilling the beans as to a more accurate timeline and to what changes they are doing). The theme wrangler said to that my idea I was working towards was a bad business plan to depend on.

I've tried Mojo before, but it was really lack luster results after a year. ThemeForest I got in with Joomla templates, but wasn't able to do WordPress there because of the licensing at the time were in conflict for me to have themes at wp.org as well...obviously this has changed since then with the option to go 100% GPL.

In the end, I had to create a new theme site quickly due to the events of wp.com suspending new author submissions, but also after reading Mike's observations and experiences, I better start getting more themes out soon on my site being as I am starting from 0 again :) Perhaps I will consider adding Theme Forest as a resource as well. I'm just now getting back in the .org theme repository...which I don't mind because it gives me a chance to continue giving back to the WordPress community with free themes.

It's true that no market is a sure thing, but as Mike said "there is never going to be a single solution or model to running a successful theme shop, especially these days.", I believe that.