Is Videohive here just to Advertise Envato Elements?

[NeuronFX]

We have been making content for Videohive for over 10 years now, and Videohive has always been our main source of income and business. It is very sad for us to see it going downhill over the past few years.

Toolkit Style Projects & Elements

Our process has always been the development of very complex projects that take over 1 year of development. These unfortunately have no place on Elements due to the pricing structure.

The recent “Envato Elements Search Results” on top is just too much. How can we sell our bigger projects if when people search they are offered cheaper/ almost free options with a banner that takes almost the whole view area?

In this case, even if our project is better than what is available on Elements, we can never compete. This simply takes away the customer to a completely different site, and at that point it is too late for the customer to select a product from Videohive.

I know that the trend has been going towards Subscription models and Envato is just going with what sells. But replacing the Market with Envato Elements is not an option for Large Toolkit Style Projects.

These are of high value to customers and most of the times cannot be replaced by small separate projects on Elements.

Elements Commission Rate

More over, Envato’s commission rate on Elements is much higher, with Videohive taking around a 30% cut for elite authors to Elements taking a 50% cut. This is quite a concern for long standing creators that had been working on the Market for over a decade.

So my question is is there a place for Large Toolkit Style projects anymore?

Right now the most obvious answer is no… but…

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Possible Solution to this in Elements

Maybe yes, if there can be an effort/ new approach toward Big Projects on Envato Elements.

Maybe a separate higher priced subscription model that gives access to more complex projects. There could be a separate section in Elements specifically for these style of templates.

Of course this is just one idea, I am sure you can find a way to keep these style of Projects alive and that still rewards the amount of work that is involved in creating these.

Maybe others can share some thoughts on all of this, and maybe we can get some more official replies from Envato Staff… Would Love to hear your thoughts and the direction that Envato Elements & Market are taking towards these style of templates.

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Finally…

Effort to Market Videohive

Are there still marketing efforts going on to market Videohive and the other Market platforms?

Videohive rankings are always decreasing and right now it feels more like a site that bounces possible clients to Envato Elements rather than a Market on its own.

I am also leaving a few search ranking results for Videohive:

[Afterdarkness75]

I guess nobody cares about this anymore. it was talked about so much and envato did nothing about it. Instead, our new templates use it as ad page for the envato element.

[ThomasKovar]

I feel your pain, @NeuronFX. The market has shifted to favoring smaller, specific-use products over more extensive toolkits – this is coming from a guy who likes to make toolkits!

If you look at it from a business mindset, it makes sense. If the average sale is $20 on Videohive, they earn $6 (30%). Compare that to Elements, where if they convert a buyer to a monthly plan, they earn almost $20 (50% of $39/month), recurring.

They are aggressively marketing Elements on Youtube with “influencers”. I believe that’s where they shifted marketing gears a few years ago, and why we’re seeing a shift in traffic, though it’s more targeted traffic. Instead of paying for traffic (Google ads), they have a much better ROI from paying YouTubers.

From an author’s perspective, it’s annoying, to put it mildly. It makes me wonder if Envato predicted this years ago when they set the commission split at 50/50 for Elements as non-exclusive. I think authors have to consider what’s in their best interests, just like Envato is considering what’s in their best interests.

[arcoflight]

I agree with both!! Good points. I am a musician, artist, and use content to promote and build music videos, etc. I am having trouble finding great content now, it is all too cheap and only for quick ads etc. There use to be larger big cool projects where we could use it as a starting point for a music video, videos on web and more. Someone needs to start a better platform to help us get better content for fair price.

[FWDesign]

Yep it is, you guys figured out this a bit too late!

Envato has switched strategy now is about how many millions of items are in Elements instead of how good they are and encouraging authors to create better stuff…