Why must Envato take so much?

I agree with the premise of this threads topic, as I wish that we as the authors could have a little more control over the price of our product. For example, I was told my Clivo web application could sell at max $12… which was ridiculous and has since then been increased to a $15. I was told that the price can not exceed $15… yet Wordpress and other templates go for $30 regularly. Why is this?

I did the math, and even my best selling product rounds off to about $4/hour to create. For every hour I work, Envato gets 36 minutes. It’s like taxes, except even in America we are not taxed 60%. And on top of all that, we still have to pay taxes on our earnings, not on the cost/sale of the item. Which means if you sell an item for $10, you get $4, but then you have to pay taxes on that $4… so it ends up to be about $2.70.

I wish Envato would look at a Laffer curve.

No matter whatever reason you give, no commissioning agent deserves more than 40%-50%. 50% can be well used for marketing & promotion still leaving you with huge profits. I might sound rude but its nothing but exploitation. Thats why i don’t sell here, there are other great sites who are paying much better.

At such an increasing inflation rate around the world, My suggestion to envato is to increase the selling price upto $100 & must pay us flat 60% for exclusivity (scraping sales volume pricing). Envato is well known & established now & very much in position to introduce new pricing structure. Prices for everything are growing up so fast, we cannot keep on selling our stuff for $30 @ 40% forever, leaving us with just $12.

Envato, pls think again! Its time to act now.

No matter whatever reason you give, no commissioning agent deserves more than 40%-50%. 50% can be well used for marketing & promotion still leaving you with huge profits. I might sound rude but its nothing but exploitation. Thats why i don’t sell here, there are other great sites who are paying much better.

At such an increasing inflation rate around the world, My suggestion to envato is to increase the selling price upto $100 & must pay us flat 60% for exclusivity (scraping sales volume pricing). Envato is well known & established now & very much in position to introduce new pricing structure. Prices for everything are growing up so fast, we cannot keep on selling our stuff for $30 @ 40% forever, leaving us with just $12.

Envato, pls think again! Its time to act now.

It’s your choice and as you said there are many other sites where you can sell your files for larger commission rate so you should try those sites because nobody is forcing you to sell on a specific website

It’s your choice and as you said there are many other sites where you can sell your files for larger commission rate so you should try those sites because nobody is forcing you to sell on a specific website

I’m already selling there and making good money. It was just my suggestion to Envato.

They also have to take care of the fraudulent credit cards that come in every day. So be thankful they don’t deduct the loss from authors

Fraudulent credit cards can amount to about 20-50% loss in profits. Not sure about the guys at envato, but still, it’s a loss, and it sucks.

They also have to take care of the fraudulent credit cards that come in every day. So be thankful they don’t deduct the loss from authors Fraudulent credit cards can amount to about 20-50% loss in profits. Not sure about the guys at envato, but still, it’s a loss, and it sucks.

Fraudulent credit cards? What do you mean? They use PayPal and Moneybookers for money deposits, so PayPal worries about that, not Envato. Not only that, but we are stuck with $20 minimum deposits. I have had people from Florida, USA to Cologne, Germany call me asking if they can purchase my web application from me directly, because it was all they wanted. I would have made a profit if I did this, but ThemeForest exclusivity handicaps authors and doesn’t allow me to do this either.

I have had people from Florida, USA to Cologne, Germany call me asking if they can purchase my web application from me directly, because it was all they wanted.

thanks to envato

I have had people from Florida, USA to Cologne, Germany call me asking if they can purchase my web application from me directly, because it was all they wanted.

thanks to envato

nice touch

They also have to take care of the fraudulent credit cards that come in every day. So be thankful they don’t deduct the loss from authors Fraudulent credit cards can amount to about 20-50% loss in profits. Not sure about the guys at envato, but still, it’s a loss, and it sucks.

Fraudulent credit cards? What do you mean? They use PayPal and Moneybookers for money deposits, so PayPal worries about that, not Envato. Not only that, but we are stuck with $20 minimum deposits. I have had people from Florida, USA to Cologne, Germany call me asking if they can purchase my web application from me directly, because it was all they wanted. I would have made a profit if I did this, but ThemeForest exclusivity handicaps authors and doesn’t allow me to do this either.

have you ever worked with paypal as the one who sells a digital product in big numbers? I do this at a small startup, and let me tell you one thing: paypal sucks for vendors!

A User can deposit money from his or her paypal account, get the digital item and instantly claim his money back. paypal will always decide in favor of the customer, since as vendor for digital goods you cannot prove that they already got what they paid for. Money deposits with stolen paypal accounts? Happens every day. After an account is identifyied as stolen the account owner gets all his money back and guess who loses the money? The vendor. Even at a small startup you lose a few hundred dollars each month, cant even imagine how much they lose at envato.

After working in a startup for a year now I have learned one thing: there are much more costs involved than people imagine. Allthough envato grows and expands I am pretty sure that none of the business owners is even close to being rich. I am furthermore pretty sure that there are some authors here who already get a bigger paycheck than the envato leadership.

Of course it would be great if authors get a better comission and its also good to talk about it from time to time but people complaining here how unfair the 40% are seem to have no idea how much it takes to keep a business with lots of staff running.

The comission rate was raised a few months ago and I am sure it will happen again if envato can afford it. Until then keep discussing but stop demanding/complaining =)

They also have to take care of the fraudulent credit cards that come in every day. So be thankful they don’t deduct the loss from authors Fraudulent credit cards can amount to about 20-50% loss in profits. Not sure about the guys at envato, but still, it’s a loss, and it sucks.

Fraudulent credit cards? What do you mean? They use PayPal and Moneybookers for money deposits, so PayPal worries about that, not Envato. Not only that, but we are stuck with $20 minimum deposits. I have had people from Florida, USA to Cologne, Germany call me asking if they can purchase my web application from me directly, because it was all they wanted. I would have made a profit if I did this, but ThemeForest exclusivity handicaps authors and doesn’t allow me to do this either.

remember. amazon s3 cost $0.13 /GB.

running offices, ad campaigns cost money too, and btw, there is a curve on earnings.

i.e. newer authors sells less, because they have less file, and less ratings. taking 60% from the lower tier is not as much as taking 30% from the top tier, if you do the math.