I didn’t create this thread - this is some error of the forum @BenLeong
“They withdrew the bonus explaining it with a change to better marketing, but this marketing doesn’t seem to work.”
Did you believe in it? Hahaha.
The same here. Going down every month. I used to have 9~20$ a day, now 1~3$.
Also agree that this is super important.
“How many people liked, downloaded a given item and the price for downloading is written next to each.”
If you are reading my comment and agree, please copy and paste or express yourself here. They need to see more people asking for it.
Our data team has just advised that there’s a delay on today’s Item Earnings data update (for October 28th). I’ll share updates here as I find out more.
@voarcc I understand the frustration, and realise that you want to see faster results. Over the last few months we’ve gone through the largest restructure in Envato’s 16 year history, reorienting hundreds of staff across almost every team to focus on reaching, acquiring and retaining more Elements customers.
The payoff from all those changes will take time, though. Elements now has over half a million active subscribers, and the rate of growth is accelerating. We also have consistently strong customer retention, meaning each of those new subscribers will keep contributing to author earnings for multiple years.
That’s balanced against growth in the number of authors on the platform (affecting per-author earnings), and the amount of content (affecting per-item earnings). Both of those also need to grow in order to keep Elements attractive to customers - but it’s a balancing act, because if we grow the number of authors/items faster than we grow the subscriber base, the outcome is worse for individuals.
We want sustainable growth that results in a product that will be around for many years, which means it has to work for authors and customers - so we need to constantly balance the resources put into library growth vs. customer growth.
I’m afraid that in the next years Envato will need to restructure itself again in order to reach, acquire and retain more Elements authors…and to keep Elements attractive to…authors!
As always Envato main focus are customers and not us, who actually feed EE with our items that are downloaded for free.
All the efforts are on us, customers just have to pay 30$ to fix their problems, while we make literally cents for each download, and Envato gross 7.5million monthly.
What about authors satisfaction?
How many authors work on EE because they believe in it and how many are working on EE just because they got lured with false promises?
Why we have lost an average of 15% bonus but subscription price didn’t increase of 1 cent?
Poor subscribers, 4 years ago with 30$ they could buy a couple of items on the market, then they had access to hundred of thousands of items, and now with 30$ they have access to 11 millions items… I really feel for them.
I know Envato can’t answer this questions, they just don’t care, and it’s pretty clear to everyone.
Yes - that is the “key”.
And now a little bit of real numbers:
In January/February (2022) I had around 300 Graphic Templates Items. Now I have 260% more items. But my income now is 10%-11% less then in January/February and I am using only the “raw” incoming (before tax) without bonus which was there in January/February. If I would calculate the bonus part also - my income now is 26% less and I have 260% more items. I am talking (numbers are) only about Graphic Templates.
I understand that the January/February are probably the best months for the market and I will wait until reports for January/February 2023 but it does not look promise for me. The envato/elements is growing and that is nice - but it looks for me that number of items/authors is growing much faster then the number of customers.
And that is our reality here - we are working much harder for less and waiting for better tomorrow? When will be that better tomorrow?
I think the " unlimited items download " is the reason behind all of our frustrations. +50% of my portfolio is downloaded for 0.01$/download. One subscriber can download your entire portfolio and publish it for free on piracy websites and that will also affect our earnings.
If envato is serious about growing then they should consider their authors satisfactions.
The market is dead, now elements is going the same path. The only thing you need to restructure is Envato Elements Plans and pricing.
With that biggest restructuring of yours for Elements, don’t forget about Envato Marketplaces and authors there, so far it feels like you are abandoning Envato Marketplace in the long term (perhaps even earlier) and will stick with Elements only. Hopefully you are investing in proper marketing for the Envato Marketplaces as well.
I don’t think it helps that Envato is rejecting submissions that other platforms are accepting and successfully selling. Especially when it is a “hot topic” with few choices available on Elements. Submitted the same image to Envato and another site yesterday of a new up and coming technology threat. It has already earned me $1.20 on the other site. Envato rejected it with the standard “over processed / over filtered” explanation even though it was barely edited.
I agree with Authors - We need to see our earnings going up slightly → … this is hard work - we have to see fair earnings at the end. Envato → we heard words - now it’s time for actions. let’s go.
peace
i think envato should keep limitations to the no of downloads else there will be loss for creators. they should adopt models like no of downloads per month. a customer can literally download entire portfolio and sell it for free. they should think about authors as we helped envato to grow.
The stats freezed for 2 days. Any update @BenLeong please? EDIT: Updated
Hi @BenLeong,
Daily-earnings have dropped to about $1.xx for 4 days,
Also, the Item Points table seems to be missing in articles, have the points changed?
What is it going to take for authors to realize that on the list of Envato’s priorities, the well-being of content creators is very, very, very far down that list. No matter how much they sing their own praises in that regard, or try to convince you otherwise, they are focused on their business, their interests and the well-being of Envato. Period.
For those of you that have licensed your hard work through Elements, and are selling it for a tiny fraction of its value, the mountain you’re going to have to climb to earn a sustainable living as a creator is a tall one. Someone in this thread asked, in regard to earnings, “when will there be a better tomorrow?” I’m afraid the answer is “not soon” with this business model.
Subscription plans are not set up to enrich you. They are set up to serve the interests of Envato and its customers. Creators need leverage in order for that “better tomorrow” to arrive. By participating in this method of selling your work, you have given all that leverage to Envato.
I have been write a 2-3 years ago - Envato need to change the “unlimited” with some limited/point/coins system.
For example, for a $33 per month (or $16.5) you can download 30 WP themes or 1000 photos per month - in other words to have some limitations there which will be acceptable for real customers and for authors.
They will obviously not change the unlimited downloads method, but I do hope they bring back the bonus share. The earnings are going down really fast unfortunately
No way that they “go back” on the “old model” - I am 12-13 years with Envato and as I know that has never happened.
But with one thing we all agree - the numbers are low and Envato should change something.
“Unlimited downloads” model → Envato can’t change this because today’s top players on the market (Envato’s competitors) would eat them within a year (maximum). All of them are going to “unlimited” and every customer will choose unlimited instead of ANY limitations. Period.
I would like to earn more (maybe give us back contributor bonus? Maybe other ideas?) + I would like the Review Team to not reject my sumbissions blindly (today’s review process looks more like lottery for me → and I am using my logic and observations - not emotions. Doing 100+ items per week knowing 80% of them could be rejected is not a good motivation).
But anyway → what “I would like” is not important - the most important thing is to explain all of you that Unlimited Downloads Model have to stay - we can talk about different strategies and ideas but this one is just untouchable (otherwise competition will eat us alive).
EDIT:
@BenLeong (get well, I see you are sick), @KingDog
Actually I have an Idea → I recently got an email regarding customer expectations for diversity in our projects (like LGBTQ, African Americans and so on.) - > The good idea is not only tell us what people need but encourage us to do it → for extra money. Let me explain.
Envato could create some monthly/weekly challenges → for example this month challenge is to create as many LGBTQ related designs as you can → the first 100 creators with the most projects accepted on elements get a bonus (the amount of the bonus depends on Team Envato for each challenge).
Additionally - every challenge month is perfect opportunity to promote Envato in response to the customers. → Have you received a lot of messages about the demand for LGBTQ topics? No problem - Envato meets the expectations of customers and in the next month there is a challenge for authors and a campaign (for example email campaign for customers) about this topic and information that we now have a lot of projects related to it coming day after day.
Believe me - I would participate in EVERY challenge like this with pleasure
Forgive me - I’m a dreamer - this is only the brave idea
Peace
My humble suggestions:
Contributors/authors from all over the wolrd have to pay 30% for taxes to Envato, plus the taxes of their own contry. Then Envato takes 50% of it. While the autor only gets 50% of their own creations, Envato gets it from EVERYONE. Does not matter how may sales, they will get it.
They can balance it, if they want want to be more respectful and recognize the effort of creating amazing assets to give half to them. What about 60% author, 40% elements?
Everyone is stuck to 30% of taxes, why not find a better solution, if we never put a feet on their country, everything is online. 1/3 to their government? Does not sound so fair to me. Half of it is way more acceptable.
What about bringing back the contributor bonus?
And most important, TRANSPARENCY, about the number of downloads, earnings and reports? I dont like to just see a green bar with the total of the day. There is so many ways to have a more clear earning report. They know that.
Btw, I also spoke about the earning points on their articles, they just removed it from ther article in silence, and now we dont know the points system anymore. Why remove it? Why less transparency on it?
I have sent them email (support) 3 days ago about points system - I am waiting for the answer. I need that table and the numbers (points by each category).
This is the law → not Envato decision.
“if your country does not appear in Table 1 (below) then it does not have a tax treaty with Australia and the default withholding tax (WHT) of 30% is applicable.”
You are from Brazil and this is the “Brazil <-> Australia” problem that they do not have any tax agreements. This problem is “government level problem”.
This is how the world is today, unfortunately → Try to start own shop, register to VAT in europe and start selling you physical products to the people from around the world → you will see that the world is like a massive tax maze. I am deep into this topic with my company and I know what I’m talking about