Is Envato Dying...? Am I too late?

Hello All,
I’m one of the oldest Authors, pretty much here since 2009 I made Audiojungle, VideoHive and other products when Envato was friendly until few years ago when they hired more reviewers that pretty much reject 99% of my high quality original productions (I’m a professional animator and music producer since 2006 working at the studio).

About few years ago when I started to get many not-make any sense rejections from reviewers of almost any high quality content I tried to upload, it was really different than what it was and I had some discussions with the community (which I really like) about how things changed for the bad of the Authors just because newer Authors joined the party, Envato felt that they can’t approve “trash quality” in other words which I respected, but it was far from what actually happened on the reviews… again, and again…
So after I scratched my head for a while seeing that Envato isn’t going to improve but only get worst I decided to move to different marketplace and dedicate my spare time to create and upload my high quality content there.

I’m not sharing the name of the marketplace but all I can say is that I’m there for a while now and it’s very successful with less items and have more sales a week than the sales I have in Envato per month… it was a smart move after all.

The reason for this thread is, since I still have a decent amount of content on Envato which keep selling, I noticed that the sales reduced dramatically for the last few months, and even almost stopped.

I wondered if it’s only on my side, because on my 8-9 years around I never seen such thing… this is very weird, so I asked two of my Audiojungle and Videohive friends who are also here for a while (no names as they request).

And they said that Envato is dying and it’s getting worst, it seems like new clients and authors are moving to different marketplaces, so it wasn’t just my profile income who reduced dramatically but 2 others… I’m guessing maybe it happened to more authors.

Am I planning to come back and upload new content to Envato? Maybe…
For now I’m afraid not, the review process may changed but I rather not risk spending my time creating exclusive content for Envato marketplace while 99% it will get rejected for really bad unprofessional decisions (no offence to reviewers)
While I’m creating exclusive content for other marketplace and 99% accepted just like it used to be in Envato.

I’m curious are there other Authors here who feels the same reduce of income from Envato or it’s just a really bad time for Envato?

Feel free to share your opinions, you don’t have to to name names or enter specific numbers but your experience is interesting for me and maybe others to share and learn about Envato and if it’s… dying? (hopefully not because I like this community a lot)

Thanks ahead and sorry about my bad English. :blush:

3 Likes

Hello,
I am of the same opinion. The last months are bad for us. The sale is not stable as it was a year ago. Sometimes the sale is very good sometimes it almost stops.

1 Like

You’ve not released anything new at 3DOcean since 2009, VideoHive since 2012, GraphicRiver since 2013 and AudioJungle since 2014. So with thousands more authors and tens of thousands of more files you’re competing against… the only way to go for your sales is down.

It’s highly unlikely Envato is dying. They’re probably growing year on year… it’s just that the slightly increasing pie is being shared among the greatly increasing author base. That happens everywhere and it will happen at your new place too.

I’ve you’ve already done this and it was rejected, then fair enough… but the best piece of advice I can offer is to make more animated explosions. Make it bigger and better than the current top seller, and you’ll be getting an extra $750 in sales every month.

8 Likes

This is a loop issue happens ONLY on Envato, I know that… I’m here since 2009, that’s the main reason for this thread.

What do I mean about a loop?
Your advice about the animated explosions is a great example! I tried that twice with much more smooth, high quality and extra variety than the current one because my goal is always to bring the best quality and not just drop items and wait for miracles.

Guess what happened when I tried that? Rejected, no specific critiria explanations back than, nothing inspiring to even fix… because there was nothing to fix the most common excuse for the reviewers is: “we already have these on the marketplace” in other words of course.

So what? why not adding more variety to let the buyers decide which style of whatever item they want? most of the people who purchase my items, come back and purchase my other items because they like my specific touch / style.

This is a never ending loop and BTW… the rejected items are selling more than well on the other marketplace I’m using for the last 2-3 years.

I notice that my sales just stopped since January… it feels like my profile is unseen anymore, like a manual staff decision for 2018… while it did sale every month since 2009… even if I did add more items or not, it never stopped but reduced as I explained… now it’s the worth thing, looks like Envato is not doing well at least on my profile and my friends who also get the same results so I don’t just compare it for my profile because it won’t be fair and accurate.
It’s still not accurate because just me and my friends on Envato but it’s better than just assume something is wrong on my specific profile.

I hope to hear more opinions and thoughts from other users because I’m afraid I’m not alone here, Envato is far away from what it used to be… the other marketplaces I’m using are growing bigger and bigger as well, but the reviews are not harsh and blindly decision as in Envato (not just Audio Jungle or Video Hive but in general).

For me it’s discouraging, but I keep creating amazing original content for the other marketplaces I’m using because I do earn much more than Envato and I don’t need to upload a lot, but just upload high quality content as I prefer doing and also the buyers are happy with their purchase and come back to get more of my content.

Feel free to keep sharing your thoughts, experience with Envato on the last few months or in general, maybe some of you will be able to encourage me and other to give Envato another try.

After all, the reason I made this post is not to complain, is to share my true thoughts and personal experience and hear from other Authors as well, I love Envato I just hope to see some changes if it’s still not changed… especially on the blind careless review department.

2 Likes

Same for me, it’s like some profiles (mine. yours, my fellow Envato authors) have the same results… either our profiles are dying or Envato is dying.

Thank you for sharing, now I’m even more sure that something strange is happening and it’s not just me. :slight_smile:

1 Like

but I keep creating amazing original content

image

Yeah maybe you need to take a step back and evaluate your work honestly. And it’s EXTREMELY unreasonable to expect sales from projects you made 6 years ago. The industry didn’t come to a halt back in 2012, quality keeps increasing every day.

3 Likes

Again… suddenly stops selling in 1 day for few months.
SUDDEN STOP… not only for me, but to other Authors,
9 years in a raw with dynamic sales, and since the STOP… it’s having 0 sales, yeah that make sense. :slight_smile: (not really).

And it’s EXTREMELY unreasonable to expect sales from projects you made 6 years ago.

My music have a time limit? so what you’re saying is that if my music is from 6 years ago (or more) it won’t sale anymore SUDDENLY while it did sale until few months ago for 9 years?
Yeah that make sense you’re right (this is a very sad fact if it’s the truth).

Same for other content I made, Yeah… it makes totally sense that 9 years of steady income stops immediately… NONE of my content fits because it’s “old” and not only for me as I said but for my fellow Authors.

I hope to see a reason to get back and upload my content to Envato one day, I have more than 60 new re-usable items fit for VideoHive… more than 50 new soundtracks for Audiojungle and just thinking about get rejected automatically because really weird “reasons”, unfortunately I’ll upload them to my other marketplace I have a few but I always have 1 favorite that have most income for exclusive content which is what I used to do here at Envato.

I strongly believe that if my items wouldn’t get so many rejects in Envato while selling on other marketplace, I could add my “taste” to the mareketplace, after all every Author have they’re own colourful style which is great for buyerst to choose from.

oh well… :slight_smile:

Well, your results aren’t surprising and asking you to publish new content is surely not the solution. I do not have any answers as well but I think it’s mainly due to market saturation.

There are just too many items, it is no longer possible for them to market each and everyone of us. But there is still a lot of value you won’t find else where.

  1. They do still provide a marketplace with tons of existing customers. Just being part of the marketplace and showing up in search is reason enough to want to publish here.

  2. Trust. A lot of customers like to buy items here and use existing credit.

  3. Most authors are also freelancers and will use their earnings to buy other items from within the marketplace.

  4. API. As basic as this seems, Envato exposes an API you can program against which is quite helpful. Things like purchase code validation, support validation etc are quite helpful when you are selling code.

  5. They do minimize a lot of friction involved during the purchase and you end up with your share of the earnings with no work on your part. This is not new in itself however the payout options are favorable and many eg: bank transfer/paypal/payoneer.

  6. Regulation. They make a huge effort in regulating the marketplace and providing a fair playing field for all authors.

Basically, you cannot expect them to bring you sales. Instead they evolved with the growth they are experiencing and introduced 6 month support renewals, vat, brand new API, author driven prices, trusted updates, managing refunds etc. These are all features designed to make you autonomous. The ball is in your hand now.

I suggest you grow along and focus more on building a user base around your items (youtube, soundcloud, facebook, blog posts etc).

Yes, the solution is for Envato to market just your items to ensure your sales. Do you think they will/can market each and every one of us?

1 Like

Hi KrazyKartoons - I am having a very similar experience at Envato as you my friend. I have only been here for a few years though. Started getting a TON of rejected tracks even though I know they are good enough (usually better than older tracks that had already been accepted and sold well!) which was annoying but the worst thing was the huge drop off in sales site-wide.

Audiojungle at least went from being a good 2nd income source to basically a bit of a waste of time very quickly, and sales never recovered after that which left me scratching my head too.

Glad to hear you are having success at other marketplaces, I may have to make a similar switch in the near future, as it stands its just not worth the effort of spending 3 days on a track only to have it rejected randomly. A friend of mine who shall remain nameless frequently just uploads the same rejected files again, as-is, and they get accepted a second time.

To be honest I think Envato have made some really poor boardroom choices and have ended up doing themselves a lot of damage, driving away customers and producers alike. Lets hope they work out how to fix this before the point of no return.

1 Like

Hi MidnightResistanceAu, I couldn’t describe it better.
Thanks for sharing your experience!

Unfortunately, I feel the same about dedicated my time creating my content for other marketplaces instead of wasting my time and get rejected for almost anything I produce for Envato.

I take back what I said originally. My eyes are wide open now. It’s all a plan by the evil masterminds at Envato to target you and your friends specifically. You are not responsible for your own lack of success. Ever. At all.

The top authors that are selling like mad? Obvious partisans in this grand scheme by money hungry executives at Envato.

Game over. Pack your bags

1 Like

Dudes, it’s not just black and white. Sure, Audiojungle is crowded with items, some of them bad, some of them good. The point is that they are not interested in tracks which sound similar to what’s already in stock, regardles how good they are. I can understand that. On the other side, they don’t really care about Authors who won’t upload or already have strong but old tracks in their portfolio. Badges, community involvement, etc. doesn’t mean much to them if your items aren’t selling.

They are not an evil company, but they’re still a company.

1 Like

I agree with you, I never said Envato are evil or anything like that, actually I did mention how I love Envato but it’s nothing to do with how things are working around.
I’m sorry that Voxyde took it too personal and felt the need to defend Envato. Sharing other’s experience is a good thing to know and maybe even understand what’s going on around Envato compare to other marketplaces while keep it clean without promoting others.

"Jelly-jelly-jelly-jelly-jelly-jellyfish! Jelly-jelly-jelly-jelly-jelly-jellyfish! Jellyfish! Jellyfish! Jelly-jelly-jellyfish!"
This song stuck in my head! :smiley:

My sales are fine and growing from year to year. But today, it’s much harder too earn money then few years before. Because of huge increase of new authors and items. Also market is over-saturated of similar templates, it’s a problem. I don’t know why reviewers doesn’t reject hundreds copies of the same item, maybe because clients still buy those pieces of cr***. But with ADP I think everything will be fixed soon.

As for your work. IMHO it’s not for stock. Yes, it’s original, but has less commercial potential.

1 Like

hehehe Jellyfish!!! I’m glad to hear that your sales are growing! it’s good to know, because it means Envato isn’t dying! :smile:
I don’t know much about that upcoming ADP you’ve mentioned (I’ll read about it) if this will change the the reviewers decisions of what to reject and what not… maybe it’s a really fresh and better new system, I hope.

not sure what the Jelly reference is… but Ok, lets see how the ADP
plays out. As for the critique…
I don’t disagree… yes, the commercial potential I wish was better,
as that is the only reason I am here pushing this stuff.
“not for stock” thanks for the compliment. But, its here and making some $.
Sales per amount of projects is just little under yours… and I noticed
you too have an “idea” approach
as opposed to taking one style template and milking it to death which
seems to be a very successful approach for many.
One should give themselves a certain amount of credit for commercial
success here… it takes a lot of work and dedication,
but keep it in perspective, it isn’t art.

I’m confused. Are you replying to DOGmotion by mistake? His response was to KrazyKartoons, unless I’m missing something.

1 Like

Don’t pay attention. This guy is a little bit out of reality. Here you can read more.

I received this email to my inbox from Dogmotion. So naturally I
presumed its from him address to me.
As “out of reality” I presume you mean a broader perspective,
taking more factors into account.
Keeping on course to sum up our basic disagreement, you champion this
model of exploiting the work force to
what the market will bear. Anything else is just “charity” to its
workers. A what we can get away with model.
I on the other hand think its a terrible, short term gain model. It is
ruining society and not just
hurting but killing people. If I offended your intelligence personally,
I apologize, however I do wish to offend
this particular belief system.