Today we’re announcing an experiment that includes the use of a new landing page around ThemeForest WordPress item discounts.
For the period of the experiment a subset of visitors to ThemeForest will see a new item in the WordPress submenu for this new landing page. People who click on that link will be taken to a new landing page displaying discounted WordPress themes.
Why are we doing this?
Authors are regularly creating discounts and sales for their items. We want to see what kind of impact a specific landing page has on author earnings.
How will this work?
The experiment automatically identifies items that meet our discount and promotional pricing guidelines. That is, items that have had a stable price for at least thirty days and then are reduced in price. Those items are then randomly selected and added to the new landing page and may be removed at any time.
How do authors get on the sale page?
There’s no specific action authors can take to be chosen for the landing page. Our goal is to see what impact this has on items that are already on sale.
Next Steps
The landing page is already live and you can check it out here. The experiment will begin soon and will run for a few weeks.
We’ll be monitoring this thread for the next seven days answering questions in batches. Please remember our community guidelines as you post.
Hmmm, since ADP is not going away, I would rather focus on creating systems that prevent manipulations than just relying on fairness and reporting of authors, before going into any kind of experimentation for furthering the exposure of discounted items.
However at least this:
is encouraging
I hope Envato will be also measuring the impact on other regularly priced items and in the end share at least some statistics that come out of this.
Just curious what happens if authors decide to change the price right after they see their theme on that landing page…
I’m asking this because I already found two themes on this landing page for which when I click View, I am taken to their themeforest page and there the price is $59 (although on the landing page one is advertised with $29 and the other one is advertised with $39).
I wonder why Envato is promoting $13 to $30 themes? I mean, is it right to even promote these themes? What is the author earning through this? We need to see some price hike across WordPress themes and then add discounts on them.
Because Envato made sure they always make a minimum of $13 on theme sales, sadly Envato don’t care if this is a good move for authors or the market as a whole, only as an opportunity to get more sales for themselves with that lovely $13 minimum. I guarantee if they hadn’t set a minimum earning for themselves, this sales page would never have even been considered.
Very True. I don’t understand why they are not setting a bar for pricing like they are setting for code quality. How naive they can be to understand author is not earning a penny by setting discounts on $30 and below themes. If the author is not earning, he/she is not serious about the product and Envato is just promoting mediocre products at that price point.
Authors are changing prices, not Envato. There’s one thing to notice. Everyone that posts a WP Theme at 13$ usually does that because their item is dead and not making sales, as a last ditched attempt to get it resurrected, which almost always backfires with 1 star ratings and refund requests!
Envato is not committing suicide by advertising discounts, authors that are selling their work for nickels and dimes are
Envato is already committing suicide by considering such themes for their Promotional Campaigns. Don’t forget, 1 star rating to author affects Envato’s brand ultimately. Envato is affected and in return serious authors are affected.
Envato is not selecting these items. The authors are changing the prices.
If a market selling apple has 5 rotten apples and 500 good ones, you go to another market? Nope! You search for better apples in the pile. Don’t worry. Authors that commit suicide do it on their own items, Envato doesn’t suffer ( too much ) from this!
Actually, those 5 rotten apples are affecting the reputation of the marketplace, that’s a fact. All you need to do is google about it and you’ll find quite a few articles and youtube videos about people warning clients about envato and its all about few “rotten apples”
However, luckily it’s not that big of an impact yet… exposing those cheap items can bring the stat up. I think that is what worries @TheemWiz
Agreed with that, and I’m certain Envato is doing their utmost best since new staff are constantly being recruited to serve Customer and Author success!
