Today I decided to do some basic math to figure out what the potential for selling script or apps on CodeCanyon is. My findings were surprising to say the least.
I basically calculated what the number one #1 guy on CodeCanyon did in the last 17 months, how much he had to work, what he walk away with and this is what I have found:
Grand Total Before CodeCanyon:
GRAND TOTAL: $42,499.00
Time Interval: 17 months
Salary / month: $2499.00
Salary / day: $80.00
Salary / Hour: $10.00
Grand Total After CodeCanyon with 50% Comission and Before Taxes:
GRAND TOTAL: $21,249.50
Time Interval: 17 months
Salary / month: $1249.50
Salary / day: $40.00
Salary / Hour: $5.00
Approximate Work Hours for last 17 months: Around the clock! plus support time and answering random question for potential customers.
I assume that he probably makes 70% vs 50% but in the end it really makes very little difference for me. He also lives in Belgium and probably pays hire taxes then we do in the U.S.
I also have to assume that to do the amount of work he put into it, if working alone, he does this around the clock and if he does get any freelance work, he must be subcontracting it out because I simply don’t believe that a 24 hour day is enough for both.
I know you can make all kinds of arguments pro and con but for me this just makes me feel a bit wierd.
How do you feel about this? Is it worth the effort? On what level and in what way?
Also, I am wondering if selling someone’s hard earned knowledge and time for such incredibly low prices is doing a gigantic disservice to the industry as a whole - making it worse than digging ditches (not that there is anything wrong with that) because they at least earn minimum wage.
If you see this differently, please explain without starting a nasty name calling war. Help me understand how you mull this over in your head…
There are various types of coders, and freelancers.
Release items for profit.
Releases items as opensource.
Personally I have only released one item, and basically uploaded it and forgot. Earnings allow me to buy the odd script here and there without digging into my piggy bank.
I would guess, that the main top earners on here, don;t rely on Envato to earn a living, far from it.
So it’s added bunce money, which accrues organically.
At the moment, it’s a hobby (side) income for me. I make enough to pay a bill or two each month, but that’s not where the real benefit comes from, at least for me.
Over the las four months, I’d attribute about 30% of my freelance work to work that I got from Code Canyon and users who bought one of my plugins and then decided they wanted customizations, or just liked my work enough to ask for more.
Also, if you’re starting out as a freelancer, publishing items here on Code Canyon, or the other marketplaces, is a great way to gain exposure. By placing demos of your items on your own site, you can hugely increase your traffic flow per month.
More traffic = more work = more money.
Residual income, even just a little, is always a bonus.
The the author listed at #1 means that this author has made the most sales in a month. This does not mean this author has the highest income.
You can make more money at CodeCanyon.
Take a look at the #1 selling WP Plugin Events Calendar Pro, it has been sold over a 1000 times in 5 months. So that’s $30240 - %30 = $21168. So that basically is $4233 a month with just one file!
CodeCanyon is growing allot, so I’m sure sales will only increase more.
i believe that things are very slow here at codecanyon, not just sales wise but also in every other way … in the beginning this community was doing quite well (and that’s when the top earning authors made most of their money) … now it’s just slowed down …
No, this isn’t good working for these two reasons:
Bad math. You said that you assume the author makes 70% commission, yet your example shows 50%. 50% is the starting commission rate, and it goes up with every $3,750 of sales. Your math doesn't take that into consideration. Also, a 20% difference may make very little difference to you, but that's a gain of $8,500 using your math--bringing the grand total to just a hair under $30,000. That's significant in my book.
You assume alot, especially about the amount of time required to write code. You can churn out items quickly if you know what you're doing with your chosen language/platform, have planned your app/component, and work efficiently.
As for my thoughts, 50% starting is reasonable (especially considering a niche market). All an author does is write code and offer support when needed. Envato does everything else. To name a few things:
I do content creation on the side. I’d love a 50% royalty rate. I actually need a much, much, much stronger word than love, but words escape me at the moment.
in my opinion … as a programmer, that calculation is not true because hard work is to get your project into codecanyon, then supporting is not that big part as you assumed that they worked for 17 months … hmmmmm i don’t think so … it will only need mostly 1 or 2 hours per day to provide support. that’s it !!
in my opinion … as a programmer, that calculation is not true because hard work is to get your project into codecanyon, then supporting is not that big part as you assumed that they worked for 17 months … hmmmmm i don’t think so … it will only need mostly 1 or 2 hours per day to provide support. that’s it !!
Cheers
Laith
Then why don’t you read what the author himself says on an other forum post. He has no time to create scripts anymore because he is so overwhelmed with support.
If the author has so mutch support, I think that it’s fault. If you got a good item with good documentation, then it lowers the support.
For mine items I only get a first installation support, maybe from 3-4 customers a week, and the questions are almost the same.
Another thing. Suppose this is a side income of this author, and he is working on a regular job.
In that case the money from envato is an additional income to his main sellary, and this is a signifficant add value.
Besides, not everyone lives in USA or in Europe, for some countries this is 21,000 a year is a significant income.
May I suggest reading it again and this time, try to understand the context.
What is your point, then? You pose the question, “Can You Make Money on CodeCanyon?” You then incorrectly analyze a particular situation. Then you make negative assumptions about the amount of work involved and end the assumption section with the phrase, “I know you can make all kinds of arguments pro and con but for me this just makes me feel a bit wierd.” (emphasis mine) Then you end your post stating that digging ditches is better than selling code on Code Canyon.
By the negative context of your post, the point of your post was to complain and try to steer authors away from Code Canyon.
Yes, Code Canyon “seems” to suck. But there is a catch for everyone. There are coders who tried with a script and two and hadn’t found the ROI reasonable, so they left; there are coders that worked on it (whatever the costs) to create a side income and there are coders that worked on it to showcase their skills, like me.
I made $200 with Code Canyon and had put 200 hours or more on it. That’s $1 per hour. However, as a JavaScript developer, I have difficulties finding work. I don’t have a portfolio, that’s my fault, so I went to Code Canyon and put a couple of items to demo my skills.
It worked out. I won bids with Code Canyon and also raised significantly my rates. So Code Canyon paid out for me, if though Envato didn’t pay me a check.
Back to your calculation, you are completely wrong. Code Canyon is not a freelance website. Code Canyon is a market. You build a product and you wait. Envato brings the customers, but they won’t buy anything, they’ll buy only what they need. Not all ThemeForest sells like mad, but a few ones sells for more than $30K.
So when you are an Entrepreneur, you need to be the Coder, the Sales Man, the accountant… all of them. You must study the market yourself. That’s one of your jobs and Envato just makes things easier for you, for 0$. (Yes 0$; bring customers yourself and you’ll get 30% for it, then snatch 50%-70%, so Envato takes the big money when you don’t bring the customer).
Plan, Work, Execute, Market your product and hope for the best.
May I suggest reading it again and this time, try to understand the context.
What is your point, then? You pose the question, “Can You Make Money on CodeCanyon?” You then incorrectly analyze a particular situation. Then you make negative assumptions about the amount of work involved and end the assumption section with the phrase, “I know you can make all kinds of arguments pro and con but for me this just makes me feel a bit wierd.” (emphasis mine) Then you end your post stating that digging ditches is better than selling code on Code Canyon.
By the negative context of your post, the point of your post was to complain and try to steer authors away from Code Canyon.
@jwmcpeak, If you have something intelligent to say, then just say it. Otherwise why don’t you get lost!
Yes, Code Canyon “seems” to suck. But there is a catch for everyone. There are coders who tried with a script and two and hadn’t found the ROI reasonable, so they left; there are coders that worked on it (whatever the costs) to create a side income and there are coders that worked on it to showcase their skills, like me.
I made $200 with Code Canyon and had put 200 hours or more on it. That’s $1 per hour. However, as a JavaScript developer, I have difficulties finding work. I don’t have a portfolio, that’s my fault, so I went to Code Canyon and put a couple of items to demo my skills.
It worked out. I won bids with Code Canyon and also raised significantly my rates. So Code Canyon paid out for me, if though Envato didn’t pay me a check.
Back to your calculation, you are completely wrong. Code Canyon is not a freelance website. Code Canyon is a market. You build a product and you wait. Envato brings the customers, but they won’t buy anything, they’ll buy only what they need. Not all ThemeForest sells like mad, but a few ones sells for more than $30K.
So when you are an Entrepreneur, you need to be the Coder, the Sales Man, the accountant… all of them. You must study the market yourself. That’s one of your jobs and Envato just makes things easier for you, for 0$. (Yes 0$; bring customers yourself and you’ll get 30% for it, then snatch 50%-70%, so Envato takes the big money when you don’t bring the customer).
Plan, Work, Execute, Market your product and hope for the best.
I see you’ve put a lot of thought into this, but have you read my post?
May I suggest reading it again and this time, try to understand the context.
What is your point, then? You pose the question, “Can You Make Money on CodeCanyon?” You then incorrectly analyze a particular situation. Then you make negative assumptions about the amount of work involved and end the assumption section with the phrase, “I know you can make all kinds of arguments pro and con but for me this just makes me feel a bit wierd.” (emphasis mine) Then you end your post stating that digging ditches is better than selling code on Code Canyon.
By the negative context of your post, the point of your post was to complain and try to steer authors away from Code Canyon.
@jwmcpeak, If you have something intelligent to say, then just say it. Otherwise why don’t you get lost!
I’ve read some of your other responses and I have to say - you’re a one-track man. For an author that’s a bit dubious.
Please can you stop being aggressive towards members of the community, especially when the particular members you are being rude to are reviewers. If you continue to be aggressive then i will be forced to lock this thread.
Forums are for discussion, if you start a thread that gives your opinion on something, and then not listen to anyone else’s opinion when they offer their input, then you should not be creating threads.
Keep the forums friendly please
EDIT:
hunzonian said
I’ve read some of your other responses and I have to say - you’re one-track man. For an author that’s a bit dubious.
I’m sorry to have to point this out to you, but maybe you should re-read some of your comments, and then double-check you don’t fit under the “one-track-man” category
@jwmcpeak, If you have something intelligent to say, then just say it. Otherwise why don’t you get lost!
There it is, then. You can’t defend your position when called out onto the carpet; so, you attempt to belittle those that point out faults in your original argument. Nice try, but it didn’t work.
Again I ask: what is your point, then? If I’m off the mark and unintelligent (remember your plea: “without starting a nasty name calling war”), then enlighten me.
@jwmcpeak, If you have something intelligent to say, then just say it. Otherwise why don’t you get lost!
There it is, then. You can’t defend your position when called out onto the carpet; so, you attempt to belittle those that point out faults in your original argument. Nice try, but it didn’t work.
Again I ask: what is your point, then? If I’m off the mark and unintelligent (remember your plea: “without starting a nasty name calling war”), then enlighten me.
My point was to find out for myself what the potential is for selling on CodeCanyon. I thought you read my post.
So I went about it and took the BEST SELLING AUTHOR on CodeCanyon as a good example and a very good indicator as of the possibilities.
I posted my findings and asked what you think about it. So I got attacked from every angle for daring to put forth my findings.
You have particularly offended me because I’ve seen from your other posts how you react this topic.
No one on the other hand has given any useful advice or insight, in fact I don’t think anyone went beyond the title.
The author did put a lot of time and effort on his application + additional support, And for all these he made really less money than what he would have expected to make.
But he did gain a lot of exposure from this, And being No. 1 on CodeCanyon is huge in itself, everybody knows about him (sadly i don’t) and he must have got a lot of Freelance work from this which in turn made all these a very big (not huge) success for him.
Though other marketplace dominate Envato for now., I haven’t seen any great application published here since i joined. They are good but not the best. (this might be 1 of the reason)
Not everybody want to code, thats the reason they look for feature rich ready made solution (WordPress in this case) and see how well WordPress themes are doing.
I saw your Product it’s good but not the best (that might be one of the reason why it’s not doing well and since it’s not doing well CodeCanyon is not doing well.)
Anyways your question was can we make money on CodeCanyon and my answer would be Yes.
Recession hit the World, and CodeCanyon is still recovering from it, That doesn’t mean it wont Recover.
