Hi.
I’ve resubmitted my theme 2 days ago, and now i got a message from envato staff that i quote:
Previous review decision still stands, a theme is not prime-ready at all:
And there is also an screenshot of my theme attached to it.
The explanation is not really understandable for me. The submit gets rejected without a clear reason. It’s not that i can’t fix it, it’s that i don’t know what to fix!
I hope someone can help me understand where is the problem, so i can fix.
Best regards,
Jack
What did the original decision say?
My guess is that they mean it does not yet feel premium enough
There is quite a bit of room for improvement in some of the basics with typography, spacing etc.
The design could do with a bit of modernisation
Do you the right permissions to use all of those images?
Thank you for your reply charlie.
This is the original decision (which i’m sure you know it since it’s a common rejection reason):
Unfortunately ‘WordPress’ has higher standards in terms of aesthetics. An approved design in other categories does not guarantee an approval under ThemeForest’s WordPress category. Your design needs significant improvements in terms of aesthetics and attention to details.
As higher quality items become available in the marketplace, approval requirements will increase to maintain appropriate marketplace quality.
While I’d be able to provide feedback as to how to get this approved, I can only do after it has crossed a certain threshold, quality wise. I’m sorry to say this isn’t there yet.
I can understand this message (partially) but i can’t understand prime-ready at all.
about your 2nd question, I bought a DVD from a stock image website a few years back which is the main source of my images, also some of them are from devian art which i tried to pay attention to the copyright before uploading them to blog.
By the way none of these images are included in the theme though. Just in the demo website, but if even having a screenshot of them might violate the copyright in any way, i can make sure they are free to use again, however this doesn’t seem to be the reason for rejection.
To be honest I don’t think the images would be the issue (although reviewers may wonder).
I think it’s the basics that need work
- Attention to detail (especially spacing in such a crowded format)
I get as a concept it is what it is but to sell here there has to be somehting premium about the features and design
I actually have no clue about the 2nd rejection reason since it mentions ‘A’ theme, not ‘The’ theme or ‘Your’ theme.
I can prettify it like other fancy themes, but i wanted to focus on functionalities while having a decent look, not to solely focus on beautiful animations and jumpy-jump search 
But honestly just telling the author “It’s not good enough” is not fair. A bit of guidance like what you did could be nice!
I appreciate your reply.
See here about why feedback is only given in some cases - of course this doesn’t apply to everyone but it puts it in context.
As far as yours goes - I get the functional approach and definitely don’t think you need singing/dancing animations etc. but there has to be a balance between functional and premium in terms of refined design and uniqueness that sets any item apart from basic or free alternatives.
Developing for a stock marketplace requires greater versatility to add appeal and distinction and it’s quite different from building in the traditional environment.
Thank you. I’ll try to improve.
Still open to suggestions from any dear visitor who reads this post.
Criticism > Compliment