Feedback Request: My HTML template got hard rejected

Envato Authors Theme Authors
,
1

Hi everyone!

I submitted my first item a few days ago & received an email from envato today. Unfortunately, they said they “found it isn’t at the quality standard required to move forward” and that I could get feedback in the forums.

I wanted to ask the community what to improve because I “think” I did everything right: Mobile first, commented & clean code, neat design, comprehensive documentation file included, all assets optimized, 96+ lighthouse scores, etc. etc. all of my quality requirements are met. But I have no idea what is the thing that I’m missing which renders this template utterly unacceptable :smiley:

So I would highly appreciate any feedbacks on what to improve. Thanks!

Here’s the live preview link of my template: https://nestor-template.netlify.app

2

There is nothing massively wrong with it (typography could be better), but it lacks anything premium that could not easily be found in hundreds of exising items fo sale and several freebie type downloads.

You need to bring features/design/functionality to be more stand out and unique that sets it apat

3

Thanks for your reply!

I actually did an extensive market research & tried to include sections/characteristics that are found in other popular premium templates in addition to stuff I thought should be included (smooth scrolling, automatic swipers, data counters, etc.). So could you elaborate on what you mean by “lacks anything premium that couldn’t easily be found in hundreds of existing items”? If a feature in my template (e.g. data counters) can be found in another template, does that really render my template useless for the customers? If that’s the case, majority of the templates in ThemeForest would be rejected :smiley:

Also as a follow up question: Isn’t carefully designed, highly/easily customizable, fully responsive, clean & commented, documented, and optimized template enough to make it premium? Because these are exact features most previous customers of ThemeForest are complaining about.

4

It’s important to understand the difference between developing or designing for stock marketplaces and for other purposes.

If you look at big selling items, they all share one similarity, which is extensive options, features, layouts etc. Many also have robust and clean coding but fundamentally, a big % of buyers would never know the difference, and it is the versatility, functionality, and presentation which captures attention and crucially maximises an items appeal and relevance to the widest possible choice of buyers.

To you point using data counters as an example – this type of functionality does not render something useless and can of course be included. But approval is based on item quality, as well as market competitiveness, sales potential etc.

This is what makes finding more unique features that don’t already exist in hundreds of other items so important. Otherwise, the marketplace would flood even more than it already is which can only serve to drive down author earning potential and buyer experience and choice.

What would sell more –
A) a landing page like yours with good and well commented code and the same useful features as many other items, OR
B) a landing page template with multiple demos e.g. for an app, an agency, a resume, or other uses, and a choice of design layouts or technical features which are not seen on other items?

Look at something like this or this (chosen at random) - both are, while arguably not as well commented or cleanly coded as yours, are fairly well designed, with significantly more features and demos, etc. yet neither have barely any sales despite having been for sale of several years. What chance does something with less of the same elements have?

For what it’s worth, personally I would prefer more focussed templates that ae built with a purpose in mind, but that is not where stock success comes form.

5

Thanks a lot for your insight & time, truly. Gave me lots of stuff to think about.

I also welcome other people to express their opinions too. Because, though I’m not particularly rejecting the notion that including presentational alternatives in a template would result in increased sales, I still find it hard to believe that’s what’s expected from new authors and that it’s one of the primary factors that decide whether a template appeals to a customer or not. Because there are many examples (in ThemeForest and in other markets) where focused templates succeed too.

I hope you’ll understand that getting into the template market by creating focused templates makes way more sense for a newcomer than creating a template with N alternatives. The time investment required to create the former is far less than the time investment required to create the latter. By creating focused templates, newcomers have a way of verifying the market’s value & get motivation to invest even more time into creating even more templates.

With my experience so far, I’m thinking: What’s the point of investing weeks of my personal time creating template(s) with N alternatives if there’s a probability that my work will get rejected without disclosing to me any specific reason? What motivation do I have to do that, in ThemeForest?

Idk, perhaps ThemeForest is just not for me :tipping_hand_man: The motivation to pursue authorship further on this marketplace is just not there. Good luck to everyone else.

6

It is very static, it lacks some hover effects and animations, it would also work more for the footer section, the counter up and the newsletter. The carousel also has a problem. You could try another typeface for titles as well.