Pain being a Envato Author

One common theme I’m seeing is a lot of people saying that Envato get the same whether it’s a $59 theme or a $13 theme. They seem to be forgetting the author’s fee. If you do the math (I would, but it’s too early), you’ll see that Envato would much rather have people selling at $59 than they would $13.

I’ll give it a try… so it’s $12 fixed buyers fee? And if you’re elite then it’s 12.5% authors fee? So from a $13 theme, Envato get $12.12 if I’m not mistaken.

Then if it’s a $60 theme, there’s still the $12 buyers fee and the 12.5% author’s fee comes to $6 making a total of $18.

Sure, it’s not a massive monetary difference, but from a percentage increase/decrease, it’s quite a jump. And if they hadn’t have implemented the fixed buyers fee, then they’d be getting $3.90 on a $13 theme… not to mention that the lack of a fixed buyers fee would mean authors could reduce the price even further. Can you blame them for trying to mitigate the risk somewhat?

$1 themes with Envato getting $0.30 a sale would be the beginning of the end.

Personally I had different experience. As a codecanyon author I put the price up. As a result I received fewer sales but the same revenue. Incidentally I also do less support now since buyers who pay the higher price also seem to be more experienced and need less support from us.

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Nonsense, please back this kind of information up before stating such things. Illegal would be if Elite authors would secretly have a price agreement, like “We don’t go lower than 50 for a theme.” for example.

I can understand this point of view: “The Market regulates itself”. This works in real economy, but sadly not in the digital domain. Someone who starts to grow (or let’s say copy) oranges in his garden for a hobby and tries to sell it cheap on the market is free to do this, but commercially he will have no chance gainst a big corporation which does this on a big scale. And that’s OK for the hobbyist, he has his day job. What he has not is the knowledge and the recources to compete against the professionals.

With digital goods however, It’s a whole other story. Many people out there like to treat music and software like it’s a free good: Another hobbyist comes into play, he likes themes/or music and he copies some of his favorites, sells it for 1/3 of the regular price on a marketplace. His knowledge may be limited, but his recources are not. See the difference?

OK, you can always argue with “Quality will stand out!”, but in an oversaturated market, where creativity like titles, composition and instrumentation are almost worthless, where people can copy AND set their own prices, where visibility is a matter of luck due to the BS search engine, in this environment there will always be limited room for quality.

Envato knows this and they are already branching out with Envato Studio and Elements. Other business models which devalue digital goods even more.

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That’s something I have tought about too. This would tackle the motivation to get to the Top Authors List by lower pricing, but it won’t hold back another race to the bottom.

We’ve seen the outcome on Envato Studio: Comissions are rare and the only ones who get them are the ones who have the lowest prices. Envato has to decide wheter they still want to attract those who look for cheap digital goods, or if they want to attract consumers who are in for uniqueness, quality and bigger projects. Their growth policy tends more and more towards lower prices and free items instead of growth by attracting quality authors and items with bigger prices and customers. This is growth Envato, not devalueing digital goods more and more by blowing out free items.

A lower price limit is necessary.

I’m not an author, I am using Envato as my primairy shop to buy premium wordpress themes and plugins. I support fair pricing policies and are willing to pay for more quality. Searching through an overload of not quality checked items wold cost me more time = money.

I have seen other creative marketplaces going downhill because the prices dropped
It would be sad if a institution as Envato would go as well

Tjerk Zweers, Amsterdam

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And again, we won’t get an answer from Envato with a solution of some sort, I’m sure.

Revenue base is not a good way tho, you say this because it seems to me that we’re all are working on WordPress as it brings the most profit here.
However what if Envato set it by the revenue?
There is no way a HTML can be on the list (imho, some admin templatex, or multipurpose deserve to have a position).
Magento with the price of $99 so 2x is enough to be on the list.

Hello, If in your country to impose an unconditional income, you will be happier than now :grin:
The market is developing. Perhaps in the future the price will be adjusted again, but it did not happen in the next few years=)) In many countries declined payment ability in humans. Are you listen about Uber taxi, shop without sellers, artificial women RealDoll, cars without drivers, factories without people etc? So dont cry and be happy, be strong man. :muscle:

What’s the question?