We are announcing an important change to the way that we share revenue from some Elements subscribers.
Until now, we’ve used 50% of the revenue from inactive Elements subscribers (subscribers who don’t license any items in a given month) to fund different content-creation programs and Author incentives. The most significant of these programs and incentives has been the Content Bonus.
We’ve recently been taking a closer look at how we can update our strategic focus. As part of this, we have reviewed these programs and have made the difficult decision to discontinue the Content Bonus and the sharing of revenue from inactive subscribers in this way.
The Content Bonus was introduced to help support Authors in their decision to join Elements. It provided a boost to earnings and helped us rapidly grow our library by rewarding Authors who publish regularly.
Now, 6 years on, we have over 5,000 Authors on Elements and our publishing rate has grown strongly over time. With over 10 million items, Envato Elements has one of the largest libraries of any unlimited creative content subscription service in the world.
This success, driven by our talented Author community and the high-quality content we feature on Elements, means we have more and more subscribers signing up every day.
More subscribers equal more earnings for Elements Authors. In fact, the earnings we pay to our Elements Author community has more than doubled in the last 2 years alone.
We believe that funds previously provided for the Content Bonus are better invested in continuing to attract, retain, and grow even more subscribers. These investments will help to secure a strong future for Elements, and ultimately benefit Authors by increasing the overall amount and flow of future earnings.
We know that the Content Bonus represents a much anticipated component of many Authors’ incomes each month, so we’re providing as much notice as possible to allow you time to prepare for this change.
The last payment of the Content Bonus will be in September 2022 (covering the July earning month).
It is important to note that these changes do not impact our 50% subscriber share model at all. Our subscriber share model remains one of the most equitable and community-oriented in the industry.
If you have any questions about this, please raise them here and we’ll respond to these in batches over the coming days.
FAQs
Does this change affect my item earnings?
No. This change only affects the Content Bonus that was paid as an extra reward to eligible authors for new item publishing activity. Both new and existing items on Elements will continue to generate regular earnings via our Subscriber Share model.
We acknowledge that the Content Bonus currently represents approximately 10-15% of eligible authors’ total monthly earnings, and that for many this is a meaningful change. However, we strongly believe that investing this amount into subscriber acquisition and retention will lead to additional subscriber growth, and that this will generate a greater increase to your regular item earnings over time.
Why should I upload any new content to Elements now?
Not publishing any new items means missing out on significant earnings generated by new items. Every year, the Elements overall subscriber share earnings have dramatically increased – and fresh, in-demand items represent a significant proportion of those new and ongoing earnings.
As an example, new items added during 2021 generated more total earnings in their first year than new items added in any prior year. That’s quite different to many Envato Market categories, where sales are often dominated by older items.
Are there incentives planned for uploading high-quality content?
We don’t currently plan to pay a cash bonus for these items, but we do expect higher-quality and in-demand content to produce more earnings. There are a few factors here: improving how we match new content to customer demand, and improving how we show the right content to our customers.
For the first part, we’re continually refining the Trends & Insights data that we make available to Authors via channels like our new Author Hub, Author Dashboard and our Author emails. Our goal is to use our data and analytics to grow the Elements content library in areas that have high customer demand and relatively lower supply, allowing you to take advantage of the increased exposure. This means equipping you with more information before you start working on a new item, and increasing the volume and frequency of your new items getting licensed.
For the second, we’re investing in improving the way we expose relevant, high-quality items to Elements customers. Items only produce earnings when customers license them: improving search and discovery should ensure that the good items get more exposure, and earn more. Quality and relevance are both important here - in many cases, accurate metadata and effective preview assets are just as important as the quality of the item itself.
What does the future hold for Envato Market?
This one diverges a little from the topic of the Elements Content Bonus, but it’s still important to address given that so many Authors sell on both platforms.
To reiterate Hichame’s latest post about our Creative Stock focus: Envato Market will continue to be supported in the coming years, and our marketplaces remain an important part of our ecosystem. However, there is a significant industry-wide shift for content like video, audio, and graphics towards subscription services, and we expect that author earnings for these content types will grow much faster on Elements.
