There is no support for EnvatoElements.
If anyone wants support for an item they should buy it from the marketplace (ThemeForest)
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The basic principle behind this is what DepositPhotos tried to do with our images (I’m a photographer). Basically selling out our products at very low prices to try and destroy the competition (and authors’ earnings too, logically). There was no opt-out for authors from the new model, so hundreds of contributors (including me) simply deleted all their images and closed their accounts.
The risk here is the same: if other agencies start losing buyers, they will start lowering their prices too in some way and that will lead to a disaster for us.
When photos are added to elements, if there’s no opt-out I will be forced to boycott this and close my account. I hope this doesn’t happen
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Quick question. Not sure if this has been covered or not… say you’ve got a guy who has a $49 subscription and he doesn’t download anything in a month. What happens to the $24.50 that would have been distributed to those he had downloaded files from? Is it…
A) Envato keep it.
B) It’s added to the ‘pot’ for next month.
C) It gets distributed equally to all authors. Unlikely, as when you have more than 2450 authors then that’s fractions. Although, I guess if there are multiple people not downloading then it could work.
D) It gets put into a special fund for moderators, so you can buy them lavish gifts.
I hope it’s D, but as long as it’s not A then that works for me.
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It is the advertising budget - margins that been spend to grow more the subscriptions.
This one 
Market just started mean also that there are very very very few authors into Elements, but anyway earnings are ridiculously low already now.
In the future the earnings will not grow but will be very lower. The best opportunity for authors is enter in a new market as first as possible, before the others, Envato gived this possibility to a very very very small number of authors but anyway the earnings are ridiculously low so when Envato will open the doors to other authors the earnings me be similar to free open source projects…
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Actually, it depends on, if subscribers growth is higher then authors then authors revenue should grow.
Current subscription model looks like Envato wants to rip-off their authors. $29 per month for unlimited downloads of WordPress and HTML templates? Are you serious? It would be ok for photos where unit price is relatively small and both can win by providing a bundle. But for web templates?
For example, I need a photo. I can purchase a one for $5-$8, or subscribe for 100 monthly items for $50 or so (current market standard). Now you are providing templates. Something that used to cost $20-$60. And you are providing a lots of this with unlimited downloads just for $29, and authors get just a small percent of your revenue. You just devaluate the job of web developers, and single-purchased items are getting redundant.
Can anyone from Envato explain their vision of subscription model? Are you so shortsighted? Or some economic genius recommended you to do this? Yeah, for you it’s an obvious profit as you have 12000 customers constantly paying you, but for authors? Do you even consider their concerns or they are just experimental rats for you?
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Authors chose to become “experimental rats”. No point blaming Envato. Move out or stick here.
And 50% of the money those 12000 customers are constantly paying… is given to authors.
Yeah, taking in account growing number of authors it’s like a $150-$200 for each one per month.
But how many items do these authors have? Have you done the research on how many items they have, how much they’re making per item per month, how that compares with how much they are making per item per month on the marketplace, if their presence on Elements has caused a hit on their marketplace earnings, if their overall earnings are higher before or after Elements?
I think it’s a bit too early days to write Elements off as a bad idea.
Its a bad idea if you’ll just look at some of their core principles:
No limits of downloads. Idea of long-term subscription is a giving small portions of available library so people will have real need and desire to prolongate subscription. Envato is going to give full access and unlimited downloads so when a library will be huge anyone can unsubscribe after first month of grabbing the whole library.
Available assets in subscription are priced so differently. It’s not fair for authors from cheaper-priced categories to compete with more expensive ones. $5-8 photos-images have less value and can’t compete with $20-$60 templates. And most of subscribers will come to get cheap web templates. So photo, image, fonts makers will have less percentage (if not zero) from shared revenue than web template makers.
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Of course they can’t… just like a photo on the marketplace is never going to make as much as a Wordpress theme. Unless it;s a pretty bad theme and an amazing image.
It’s not full access and unlimited downloads. They have to license anything they download if they want to use it. If they don’t register its use then they can’t use it. If they make up a usage, and use it fro something different, then they can’t use it. If they register it for use and use it when they don;t have an active subscription… then they can’t use it.
Yes, they can easily get around these things as it’s not like they physically cannot… it’s just that they would not have a valid license to use the item in the instances above, so would be breaching copyright law. The kind of person who doesn’t care about copyright law probably isn’t the kind of person who would want to sign up to pay for something they’d much rather steal or ‘borrow’ from Google images.
But still, I would like to see a justification of equal sharing photo download vs wp download? Or am I missing something? And also on other categories.
It’s a good point. I remember them saying something about some kind of weighting for different value items, but I can’t seem to find that on the page I posted. If one person downloads one image in a month, then yes, the author should get 50% of their subscription cost. But if the buyer downloads one image and one Wordpress theme… is it fair for each author to get the same amount? Probably not.
I’ll see if I can dig out where I red about the different value for different items bit… maybe I imagined it.
here https://help.contributors.elements.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/217377117-What-are-Item-Points-
Good find. So I’m guessing images will be between 1 and 3 points… and if Wordpress themes go on there it’s looking like they’ll be 8 points… or they might implement a new level at 10 point. Just guessing though… time will tell.
Hello guys,
Here is my report from Elements:
September
I’ve published 2 items in September, 1 HTML and 1 PSD. My PSD gots in popular.
Total earnings ($52.17) - Tax withheld ($13.04) = Total payout ($39.13)
October
In October I’ve published another 6 PSD’s and 2 HTML’s. My new PSD’s also got in popular, HTML didn’t make it.
Total earnings ($98.77) - Tax withheld ($24.69) = Total payout ($74.08)
Total
$113.21
How it’s affected TF sales
It’s hard to say exactly, because in December there are many discounts and sales as well. But compare to the previous year (2015) my total earnings drop almost 4 times lower + taxes
And now I’m feeling like a homeless collecting a bottles on the streets. Oh no, I forgot to say, I’m “Elite” Homeless. So, it’s time to move on, lesson learned.
Happy New Year to everyone
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Unbelievable.
I see you have many nice-looking HTML templates in your portfolio. But not many sales, up to 30 on the last couple of your templates.
Looking at the HTML category on ThemeForest, there are 350+ items added in the last month and the best seller does not even have 100 sales. Not even 70.
If you want to go broke, keep creating HTML templates for ThemeForest.
Or, make copycats. Lots and lots of copycats and upload them to Elements. If you had at least 10 items there, you might make it to $250 instead of $100.
Authors will become aware of this. The more there will be on Elements, the more items any one of them will try to upload. Yes, there will be more subscribers too, but in the end, the sales will be redistributed among many authors and many items, just as we see on ThemeForest right now.
Envato will grow and you, an established author, will be happy with your $100.
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