Hi everyone! I’m wondering if you can help me better understand how our Author community uses their Elements Author Dashboard.
We know that thousands of our Elements Authors log in to their dashboard every day, but some Authors haven’t used it at all, and we’d love to change that.
I’m writing an article for our Author Hub to help Authors make the most of the tools and resources available to them, and would love some insight from people who are already using it.
I’m open to hearing anything that you think would be useful for other Authors to know, but a good starting point might be the answers to the following questions:
How often do you use the Author Dashboard?
What do you find most useful?
What tips would you give to a new Author who is learning about the dashboard?
If this is the first time you’ve heard about the Author Dashboard: Welcome! We’re glad to have you—and would especially value your insight as a dashboard newbie!
Hi Kristin! I’m always happy to give feedback on using the site.
I check my dashboard every day.
The daily “earnings” total is definitely the most useful, but I also use the Item Performance and Trending tabs to plan my next photo shoot.
The thing I have had to say to new users over and over is to not be freaked out by all the 0¢ amounts under Item Earnings. I’m fairly new to using the dashboard myself but I think those 0¢ are actually fractions of a cent because of subscriber share model. (Or because that image hasn’t sold yet this month.) And I think the reason there seems to be a discrepancy between the Earnings tab and the Item Performance tab totals is the Earnings tab adds all those fractions of a cent together for our real total vs. the Item Performance listing those fractions of a cent as 0¢. If I’m wrong on that, please explain it for me.
So, I’ve been talking about this for months here. Authors need to know how many downloads each item had. How many licenses the item had each month. I know that the system calculates that, they even show a progress chart bar. Why not display the amount of downloads for each item?
It can bring much more information and direction for the Author to understand what can sell more or not. Because now, a customer can pay more or less, depending on the amount of downloads he did that month. This breaks our way to think and understand if our assets are selling well or not.
Eg: My graphic template asset can be sold only 10 times, but for clients that did not download too many items. And another Graphic template asset can be sold 50 times, bur for clients that downloads a lot. I will have no clue of which one is best, is selling more or can bring more revenue for us (elements and me). We are on that together, 50/50 right?
Please, I really check the author dashboard daily and take several screenshots to keep track of everything. We need the number/amount of downloads for each item.
I use the Elements dashboard to check my earnings every day, but I must admit that other than that, I don’t find any of the other information very meaningful or useful, partly because nothing changes very much, and partly because I don’t understand how I’m supposed to find the information useful.
I use the dashboard everyday to check my earning and item performance, however the dashboard doesn’t show the exact number of item licenses, I had to always do some calculations to guess the number of those licenses.
In my case → 90% Elements Earnings checking (every day) + 10% Best performing Items (maybe twice a month).
This dashboard is actually good - it’s clear and I am able to check anything I need. For example - sometimes I need to check my last month earnings after tax - three clicks later I see what I want.
I tried to find something to fix here but for me this dashboard is good.
Do this Dashboard need improvements? - I don’t think so - Believe me, when it comes to money, everyone will learn how to use this panel at the speed of light I personally know this panel by heart, from cover to cover
I check the earnings first thing in the morning and it sets the mood for the rest of the day, I wouldn’t really recommend it
Other than that I use the dashboard only to check the performances of my items.
Something really important that I would love to see is Last Day earnings, Lifetime Earnings x item, and Average Earnings x item, just like on VH.
The Published Date refers to the day the item has been uploaded on the main market, but it would be better to show the date it went on EE.
Show New Items Only refers to the items uplaoded in the last 90 days, it would be good to have a timeframe so I can check the performances of a certain period of time.
I personally don’t use the Trends & Insight tab very often.
You sure this isn’t a bot account just recently created?
His/Her info says “joined in March 20”
Yet → seems very knowledgeable for someone
who’s hardly been around for a week @amiria2 - what’s your portfolio link?
@Kristinbrodie I agree. Seems to be a “help bot” that just regurgitates info from the original question or FAQ. It has responded in several threads. @KingDog and I were discussing it the other day.
thanks 