While we’re not planning on introducing update renewals we are continuing to grow Envato Hosted. This is one way we’re addressing recurring revenue for Market authors outside of Envato Elements.
You’re right, support is one of the major factors for customers to buy more from one author. We think limiting support to Envato Market purchases creates a way for authors to generate additional revenue from a subscriber.
No, payouts will continue to be allocated monthly based on Subscriber Share.
At the moment, WordPress on Elements is invite only but we’re always interested to hear from authors that would like to be included. You can register your interest here.
Mostly for technical and process reasons. We’ve already got an established process of getting items reviewed, approved and published via Envato Market. So, as we’re doing a very limited release, we’re keeping things simple. Items will be uploaded via ThemeForest and CodeCanyon and then transferred to Elements.
You are right that we will have to do a good job communicating to subscribers that these items are offered as-is, with no support from authors.
Fresh is about keeping items current. You are right that some item types authors will interpret that differently. If a theme or plugin from 2012/13 is still relevant, well designed, regularly updated and providing a feature/service people are after, then it’s fresh. If it’s broken, not operating with best practices, out-of-date stylistically or irrelevant, it is not fresh.
Marketing and conversion efforts don’t stop for Envato Market just because Envato Elements exists. The kind of customer that wants a service like Elements will likely go to Elements or something like Elements elsewhere. A customer that wants a single-serve purchase, support or access to automatic updates will still continue to choose Market.
We are evolving authorship on Envato. It’s something we’re working on a lot. If you’ve been following the process on PhotoDune, you’ll see that we’ve introduced several new concepts to authorship there which we hope to be able to roll out across more marketplaces over time. Things we’re doing with PhotoDune authors are:
Raising the bar on quality through both technical guidelines and commercial demand guidelines (not just what is technically acceptable, but also what we believe will sell well)
Removing barriers to getting items published by reviewing authors at a portfolio level
Providing regular feedback and coaching to authors and holding them to a higher standard of activity
If a subscriber downloads a theme, either for project use or trial use, an author is still allocated subscriber share points. Regardless of whether they like the item or not or use it in the end. A subscriber will have no recourse to support for their item through their subscription. This is something our Customer Success team will also enforce.
The goal of pricing is to lock-in subscribers for longer periods of time. We want subscribers to sign up in the first place and see enough value in the subscription to stay for a very very long time. These goals are wins for both authors and Envato. That’s always been the goal of our pricing strategy.
WordPress items will only be available to subscribers on an annual subscription. That means all monthly subscribers will need to change to an annual subscription to access WordPress items.
Envato cannot force an author to not support an item. If an author chooses to support an Elements customer that is up to them but we will do our part to inform subscribers that support is not included and not to expect it from authors.
Elements has its own affiliate program that you can sign up for. Take a look at the program. Commissions for first time subscribers are really good.
Not sure I fully understand what you mean here but if you’re wondering if themes with many demos should be changed for inclusion on Elements, that’s up to the individual author.
Can you provide a bit more insight, I’m not sure I fully understand what you’re asking here.
Refunds are governed by our user terms which you can read up on here.