I have an item that sells for $21, but in my earnings it say Price $16, then a $5 buyer fee.
Does this mean Im only making $11 per sale? Its just a bit unclear, I should be earning $16 per item. But it seems like they pay me $16 then take another $5 off…
No one makes $16 on a $21 sale as that is 76%. You should be making between 50-70% if you’re exclusive and 36% if you’re non-exclusive.
Hey UnionThemes!
That’s a great question, the fee model can definitely take a small amount of getting used to.
Essentially, the money you make on each sale can be worked out through with the following formula:
Item List Price (The price buyers see on item page) - 20% buyer fee - author platform fee %
In your case, an item sells for $21. A 20% buyer fee is deducted, leaving $16.80 . Out of this, you automatically pay envato a 31.25% (your platform fee), leaving your net earnings as $16.80-31.25% = $11.55
Your platform fee (in this case, 31.25%) reduces as your total sales grow. This handy .pdf gives a nifty breakdown of the percentages: http://d2mdw063ttlqtq.cloudfront.net/resources/rates/envato_author_fee_schedule_(sept_2014).pdf
Happy to answer any questions you might have 
Christian
MhW thanks for that. I did not know there was 20% buyer fee on top of the platform fee. So if you were non exlusive you would lose 20% + 55% only leaving you with 25% earnings?
I knew about the 31.25% platform (based on sales, right?) fee. That makes sense then. Thanks for the explanation. More incentive to get up to the 75k mark!
Do you know approx the current wait for approval of a plugin on codecanyon? Still around a week?
Hi again!
You’re welcome
Great question! If you were non exclusive you would indeed see the 20% buyer fee deduction, then 55% deducted from whatever is left after that. In layman’s terms, the net earnings for non-exclusive authors work out at 36% of the item’s list price.
Just had a quick look for you, it looks like the last WP plugin to go from submission -> approval without any Soft Rejects took ~2 days
Christian