My First Item is rejected.

Hi!

I built something awesome and beautiful and Envato rejected it, giving me the generic “Your item sucks” message. :frowning: I’m not mad, but I’m really wanting to get something on Envato and I kno0w my item doesn’t actually suck Because I got feedback on it, put lots of effort into it, made it easy to use and even provided my own high quality art with the item.

I’m sure Envato rejected me for some other reason, like perhaps they already have too many Landing Pages? Or they don’t want authors to start including art? My title is too long? Because I didn’t use Bootstrap or . . . are all my testers and my own instincts wrong, does it actually suck?

see for yourself and yes, conspiracy theories are welcome (put in something serious and helpful alongside your awesomely creative conspiracy theory though please).
Link:
Coming Soon Responsive Landing Page Project

Is it just the text on different backgrounds? (with a couple of demos with a subscribe form or countdown?)

With all due respect you are way off…

As it is the typography on the different demos is not great

The bigger issue is that there is just nothing to it… because coming soon files are smaller and more limited then there is extra pressure to be more creative and demonstrate premium value and it needs to be flawless.

Take a look at the latest coming soon files already for sales - they all have a lot of attention to detail in design, unique or creative concept features, and numerous different elements

Wellcome to Envato :grinning:
Especially themeforest. I really dont know why they rejected my items again and again…

Thanks for your feedback. Maybe my demo page isn’t communicating well (It’s not a sales page after all). I have over 72 different layouts, 7 hand curated font sets, and more features (like countdowns, 3 different types of signup forms, social media etc etc), than any other coming soon template on theme forest, I know because I counted them.
And on top of that I included the art, all properly licensed, which I haven’t seen anyone do yet on ThemeForest. Maybe someone does, but I’ve purchased several items from Themeforest over the years and It’s always been art not included.

So you don’t like the fonts. Okay, thanks. What fonts do you like better?

AND I priced it cheaper (Maybe that’s why they rejected it? I priced it at $12)

Always consider quality over quantity.

Typography is not hust about the font choices especially in such a limited type of site.

You won’t get rejected based on pricing that is more or less inline with other files.

You also might want to be careful with some of that content in your many demos. I don’t know about all the images but at least one or two of the video BG versions are using stock which is either non-distribute or requires insanely expensive licenses which noone would buy for any template

It’s just my view but this is too far away from ever being approved as it is but good luck if you choose to push on with it.

Like what charlie said, I would concentrate on quality rather than have loads of examples. I made the same mistake a while ago, spent months creating a theme with loads of demos and it got a swift hard reject. Now i just try and concentrate on creating one or two killer demos and my themes are now getting approved. You can always add more examples after its been approved.

I know those videos look expensive, but I did include the license to them when I uploaded (and in my documentation). Thanks for the heads up though.

And just what is this “lack of quality” that you are seeing? What is it that that’s “too far away” I really don’t get it. Can you be more specific, I mean I know you don’t like the fonts, but even if they were horrible changing fonts is a really easy change. This is what makes me think that there is some other reason besides quality issues for the rejection.

I’m not going to push on with it. They asked me not to submit it again so I won’t. But I want in so I’ll make something new and submit again.

Thanks, I’ll keep that all in mind. Can you tell me something specific that you can see about this one that makes it so far away from good that it can’t be fixed?

Look, we all know it sucks to get rejected. Especially after spending a ton of time and effort to create our items. And to then have the standard message (“your item does not meet the quality standards blah blah”) thrown in your face; its hard to swallow…

Looking at the fruit of our labour objectively is very very hard. And the fact that you’re not seeing what @charlie4282 and others have pointed out, basically tells me that Themeforest is not the right place for you right now. Perhaps spend some more time improving your design skills rather then focussing on this rejection would be the right way forward.

As for your template; I definitely believe the reviewers made the right call in rejecting this. The quality standards are indeed pretty low. As was pointed out, it’s not about quantity and including a shitload of fonts and/or licensed art work. What you basically have here, is a bunch of different backgrounds with text on 'em… and just that won’t cut it I’m afraid :frowning:

If you’re serious about improving yourself and you really want to succeed in submitting work at Themeforest later, you need to start by accepting that this particular product is indeed subpar and the reviewers made the right call. Accept the fact that this is not personal, the reviewers are not out to get you, there’s no conspiracy, etc. Deal with that, accept that. Once you do, you can start looking objectively and critically at your work and try to start seeing how this product is way behind the general level of quality on TF. Then start working on improving yourself, do some design courses. When working on your next item, just create one awesome landing page, rather then several dozen subpar ones and try submitting again.

And what is that that they’ve pointed out so clearly that Ive missed? The only thing I’m hearing is that one person doesn’t like the fonts. That’s so not: “too far away to try again”.

But hey, clearly you didn’t even really look because this template is so much more than words on a background. In fact it’s not just a template, it’s a project. It literally has more features than any of the many other coming soon templates I researched (the best selling ones). And in essence that’s what a coming soon page is. A headline, a background, some text and a feature. If you really didn’t see those features somehow, okay, you made an honest mistake. But it sounds like you didn’t even look. Because you also can’t say even one specific thing. It’s got a countdown, 3 different types of signup forms, etc, How on earth could you miss that?

I don’t think this is personal, I don’t think the reviewers are out to get me, I DO think they have a real reason for rejecting my work and that reason is NOT about quality. Especially after seeing some of the other rejected works here in this forum. And far as conspiracy theories, what you don’t like fun? Fine I’ll be serious then:

Do you seriously think that after 25 years as a web designer I can’t look at my work objectively? Do you think I didn’t get others feedback?
It’s 's okay, I know that you know nothing about me and that are still so young you are seeing the world as a reflection of you. But I’m here for information, solid information, or even vague information about a company and it’s practices, not for you to pronounce whether or not you think I’m worthy to be here.

So if you have something honest and specific about this template or envatos practices then lets’ hear it but let’s just leave your opinion about me personally our of it.

I definitely did have a look at your item, if I didn’t I wouldn’t have bothered to comment.

Read back @charlie4282 comments and you’ll see these comments:

“The bigger issue is that there is just nothing to it… because coming soon files are smaller and more limited then there is extra pressure to be more creative and demonstrate premium value and it needs to be flawless.”

“Always consider quality over quantity.”

The reason I am not giving any item specific feedback is that, in all honestly, these pages are so far off the mark you’d have a better chance scrapping the project and starting from scratch. You also don’t seem to understand that slapping all the bells and whistles on a poorly designed product does not make the product high quality. Therefor adding countdowns, signup forms, 1000 different fonts, etc are all irrelevant.

Anyways, you’re clearly highly emotional (which is understandable). All I can say is please do not try to take this personal. Even though you say you don’t, you clearly do (again, understandable). Every single author who’s made it big on Envato has been through the same. I can guarantee you, those who were able to leave the personal out of it and look at their work objectively are the ones who are now earning good money on the market sites (and yes, I am one of those authors).

That’s my advice, take it or leave it.

This is very weirdly worded paragraph. When did I ever say you’re not worthy to be here? Dude, you have to take it easy and stop getting so worked up, honestly. I do appreciate the fact you think I’m young though; so thanks for that :slight_smile:

Breathe, grab a coffee/beer/single malt, forget about this and move on…

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On the content (as an example) the Ocean footage - obviously I don’t know where you got it from but http://www.videvo.net/video/ocean-waves-slow-motion/3577 does not permit you to redistribute or sell the footage.

Even on the biggest stock sites their editorial license (which are insanely expensive for a coming soon template) may allow commercial use but rarely ever allow redistribution especially for profit. The license is for your use and not anyone who feel like giving it to.

this is less of a problem but worth watching out for.

In terms of quality…

You have a ton of options however:

  • the visual execution generally is not great e.g. typography, spacing and padding issues, the blue bar on sign up one etc.

  • having these all spread across hundreds of demos make sit feel very very fragmented and like all of the demos are unfinished.

  • think about this from a UX perspective i.e. will beginner users without 25 years experience know how to incorporate different features together etc.

Beyond that:

  • As we said changing fonts might be simple but typography is a lot more than just font choice and in such a small site it has got to be pin point flawless in every aspect

  • You have all sorts of fallbacks esp. on video options which is good but in several cases necessary and might confuse buyers

  • Some demos don’t work on mobile e.g. countdown

  • If you look at successful other coming soon files for sale the designs and execution are in many cases simple but tend to offer something unique and feel ‘complete’ i.e. quality over quantity

  • I really do not think there is anything specific about rejection (it was hard rejected i.e. too much to feedback on, if it was something specific then it would have been soft rejected)

At the end of the day it is your file and your decision how to approach it. @chilly_orange and I can only point out what we see as buyer/author.

Good luck

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THAT’s where you told me I didn’t belong here. The rest of your “feedback” feels just as dishonest and hate filled as when you said you never said anything like that.

Thanks for specifics, that’s all I was after. Thanks.
Thanks also for your feedback that perhaps I had too many options.

Actually they do, I included the license agreement in my submission. That’s why I used their videos.