Hi Hogash,
I’d like to let you know that the reason you use Envato to sell your products is because you either don’t want to sell them yourself or you don’t know how to. Envato exists not because of Authors but because of buyers. No buyers, no Envato.
I’ve closely followed this thread since first being informed it existed. It seems to me (as a buyer) that many authors with relative low ratings (less than 5 star) seem to feel they have some right to give scant or misleading information to buyers seeking support.
Recently I purchased a product that had little or totally misleading documentation. After asking the Author 4 times for help for one item and each time getting incomplete information, I gave up when he/she told me to change the name of a folder in an .xml file that had 137 instances of the false folders name.
I didn’t mess around with star ratings, I went straight back to Envato and got a refund. I won’t mention either the Author or his/her product but what this means is that if you don’t provide genuine support and complete documentation for your product, you might as well not have written it. I don’t know or care what level of support you offer but there must be a reason why some Authors sell thousands of their products and others with a near identical product (visually speaking) only sell a hundred or so and the reason is not time on Envato.
Its not the star rating that make wise buyers decide on a product, its the number of support issues and time taken to answer them correctly that really shows the difference between an Author that (like me) values repeat business and one that sees support as a pain in the butt. As far back as when I changed from being a BBS service to an Internet provider, I have seen people try to avoid supporting products they created long after ‘legal’ support time had expired. Ask yourself this: How much time to you allow for support for every hour you spent creating your product?
Hmmm, I suspect you don’t know. Support is part of the cost of being in business. Any Author who thinks all they need to make money is a $1000 notebook and acceptance by an on-line marketplace like Envato is fooling themselves. Truth be told, selling on Envato relies on how much of what you get from them that you actually keep. One of the reasons you sell on Envato is the volume of sales you might get. That will depend on how you treat your buyers (downloaders) after the legal support period is over. zero support — zero return buyers.
Someone remarked on another forum that Authors can’t be expected to provide help to change a font in a WP theme. This carried the presumption that you buy a theme created by someone with their own idea of functionality and any buyer was expected to use it the way it was in the demo. I guess from a buyer’s point of view, this is ‘easy’ to build website but how many identical websites can (for example) restaurant guides have before the 'net falls into the ho-hum, just another one state?
Writers note:
I have avoided mentioning any specific Authors, other forum names or products being marketed by Envato that I don’t believe would be constructive to this thread.
Both sides deserve respect, and no side deserves power over the other. There has to be ballance!