Working as a professional violinist, discovering a love for composing music, and having perfect pitch. This week we meet Timofey Ostanin (TimofeyOstanin) from AudioJungle.

Introducing Tim

Hi. I’m Tim Ostanin, a 21-year-old music composer from Russia. I’m a violinist by profession, but my passion is composing music.

In my childhood, my mother recognized I had perfect pitch, and took me to a violin class. I found it easy to learn the violin, and went on to learn guitar, piano, balalaika, flute, accordion, and how to conduct. Later, I realized that I was born for something more interesting than playing music—creating it.

I now belong to AudioJungle, where I sell romantic compositions, epic intros and corporate logos. Getting started on the Marketplace was very slow – I waited more than a month for my first sale, but now I feel like I am getting closer to success. In spare time, I design violins and study ancient history.

Composing Masterpieces

I have an i7 quad-core Windows 7 DAW with 8 GB of RAM. My sequencer is FL Studio 10. I don’t need MIDI, because I have perfect pitch. I sit down… I smoke… I drink coffee… I use my imagination. The masterpiece is ready.

To create a successful portfolio, first of all make sure you’re spending the time on what you love. After that, get some traffic coming in—place links to your Marketplace profile everywhere you can.

At first I tried to market my files by magic. That was joke. My actual marketing strategy is to make my items as professional as possible.

Tim’s Favorites

Fracture

This composition is my favorite. I’m proud of it because I wrote it in 10 minutes.

Life in 5 Minutes

I take pride in this track. It is a cycle consisting of four parts, where I show that it is possible to show the course of a life through music: birth, youth, maturity and old age.

Illusions

This is my first Dubstep composition.

My favorite Marketplace author is Alisiya. Besides being a wonderful composer, she inspires me.

At Envato our mission is to help people to earn and to learn, online. We’re a young online company, internationally known in our market. Our marketplaces have millions of members who buy and sell digital goods and a network of educational blogs where millions learn creative skills.

The Envato Marketplaces are growing at an incredible rate! Not only has there been explosive growth among authors, but buyers are also signing up in droves. To stay ahead of that growth, we need ambitious, bright, knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff.  I’m proud to say that our current staff meets that criteria, but we need more! 

Specifically, we’re looking for someone to come join the team as a Growth Officer. The growth team does exactly what it sounds like it does – we grow the marketplaces.  In short, we do that by discovering new item types, creating categories, filling those categories with quality content, and promoting them. This is a great opportunity and is no ordinary job.

Though this is a telecommute position, you need to be able to attend Skype meetings in both US and Australian timezones.

Key Duties

• Managing a list of potential new items types to sell, triaging each and identifying those with high value
• Take ownership of the new item process from start to finish, while coordinating specific tasks with the rest of the marketplace team. These tasks may include:
  • Pricing
  • Logically grouping items into categories or attributes
  • Working with other growth team members to generate seed content
  • Working with developers to launch new item types
  • Promotion
  • Tracking category success
  • Manage existing item groups that need to be reorganized
  • Support the rest of the growth team with pricing, seed, promotion, or anything else that leads to marketplace growth

Essential Requirements

We’re looking for a whole lot more than just the ability to accomplish the above tasks. Here are some traits we want to see in a candidate:

• Passion for the Envato community, buyers, authors, and staff alike
• Solid commercial instincts that will help you make fast, accurate decisions
• Experience consulting and communicating with diverse groups of people across a business
• Experience using web analytics insights and SEO knowledge to drive new items forward
• Ability to collect, organize, and communicate information and ideas clearly and from a remote environment
• High level of initiative, independence, and self-management in a remote working environment
• Excellent organizational skills
• Excellent English written and verbal communication skills
• Though you don’t need to be a designer or developer, you must be intimately familiar with the industry
• Ideally familiar with the Agile process

I’m Interested!  What Now?

If you have these traits and are excited at the prospect of joining the team, we’d love to hear from you!  Send a cover letter and resume to jobs(at)envato.com.

The following things will work in your favor:

• A cover letter that talks about why you would be a good fit for this role, and gives us a sense of what you’re passionate about and what drives you
• A resume that shows us your strengths, rather than just listing everything you’ve ever worked on

Using stock content is a quick and sure way to get a job done faster, and often ensures a more professional look while keeping the budget under control. The items presented here are best purchased as a batch—they’re hand-picked to fit a certain theme, and sure to obtain jaw-dropping results when used together.

Keep your eyes peeled for future articles, where I’ll continue to recommend handy collections of items that fit together like a glove.

We get started with some useful models from 3DOcean’s Architecture and Design category. They’re sure to improve your workflow, as well as the look of your project.

These models are perfect additions to any minimal architectural interior scene, either as an accent for that extra touch of style, or included multiple times. You can even use them in your portfolio as an example of your lighting and rendering skills.

Eastern Arc

by JCreater



A high detail model (1,370,000 polygons) for that eastern highlight in any interior scene that might require a bit of extra flair! It only costs $10.

Decorative Candleholder

by kozioo



A nice candleholder for that great close-up shot for any kitchen scene, or romantic setting! And to think it only costs $5.

Murano Due Deluxe S Lamp

by koizoo



Now this designer lamp is sure to capture the attention of any more pretentious client looking at your renderings. All for just $8.

Eames Chair

by dutchbird



While speaking of designer furniture and highly attractive assets, no scene is complete without a highly realistic Eames chair model for as little as $10.

3D Designer Lounge Table

by Theot



This minimalist designer lounge table is sure to get the best out of any similar minimally furnished interior scene, while also costing a minimal $8.

Congratulations to team Pexeto who have reached Power Elite status by selling an incredible one million dollars worth of items. Since joining ThemeForest in August 2009 they have amassed over 30,000 sales and 1,524 followers. And all of that achieved while working whenever and wherever they like, focussing their attention on projects that interest them. Well done!

Happy Pexeto Day!

We asked the duo behind Pexeto a few questions about the journey to the $1,000,000 milestone. Read on to find out the secret behind their success, what makes Pexeto special, and how it feels to reach a million dollars worth of sales!

Congratulations on becoming a Power Elite author! Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves and how you got here?

Thank you, it’s a great honour for us to get to the Power Elite level. Pexeto consists of two developers—one of us is the main designer and front-end developer, and the other one is a front-end and back-end developer.

Before we started creating themes on ThemeForest, we were studying Computer Science at university and working as a developer and designer for another company. We have always had the dream of setting up our own business and creating our own products, which would allow us to work on what we want, and realize our own ideas.

Initially, one of us started creating graphic designs on GraphicRiver. This was a very good experience in stock marketplaces, so after a while we decided to join our forces and start creating templates on ThemeForest. We decided to test the market as it was just starting to peak.

We both had some experience with WordPress, so it made sense to take the next step. Although we had never worked on joint projects before, it was very easy for us to start working together—luckily we made a good team.

How does it feel to have sold over $1,000,000 of items?

It is truly unbelievable! Everything happened so fast. We can still remember the days when we were refreshing the browser every minute and getting so excited when we got a single sale. It is an amazing feeling to know that there are so many people all over the world that use our themes.

What does this milestone mean for you both as an author and designer?

It means a lot to us. It was a tough decision to quit our daily jobs and start working full-time as authors on ThemeForest. It’s an incredible feeling to see that the risk we took and all the hard work we invested, eventually paid off.

We see this milestone as a confirmation that we made the right choice and that we should continue following this path.

How many hours do you spend on designs that you sell on the Envato Marketplaces?

It really depends on what we are working on. Sometimes, especially a few weeks before we release a new theme, we work about 15-17 hours per day. The rest of the time we try not to work more than 8-10 hours per day.

Generally, creating a WordPress theme takes us a few months. With every new theme we try to improve our existing framework and implement new functionalities.

Have you had any designs rejected and what did you do about it?

Yes, some of our items were initially rejected, especially in the beginning when we were new to ThemeForest. Nowadays we spend a lot of time—during the development of the theme and after the theme has been finished—performing multiple tests before releasing a theme.

We think it is very important not to get disappointed when an item gets rejected, but to look at it as an opportunity to create a better product. We value the reviewer’s suggestions and view them as a helpful tool in improving our themes.

What words of encouragement do you have to any budding authors who want to make it to the Power Elite level?

If you are really keen to become a Power Elite author, you need to look at it as a long-term job. You need to be persistent and willing to work hard. Take care of your customers. It’s very important to provide good customer support service and always listen to the customers’ feedback.

Also, when creating a theme (or another product), try to implement something that will differentiate it from the others. It may be the design style, or new functionality. With so many themes out there, it’s hard to create something unique. Invest a significant effort in doing so.

What is your office space like?

We don’t have a standard office. Most of the time we work from home—we just have regular work desks in the living room. We also travel a lot, and work from different locations.

We like to think that our office is where our laptops are.

How do you get inspiration for your designs?

The inspiration usually comes from different sources, which are very often not web-related. Besides the usual web galleries, we also love package designs and print designs. Sometimes it is the functionality that comes first, and then we try to create a design that will suit it well.

We usually have at least two projects that we work on at the same time, and very often while working on one project we get ideas for the other one. We also get some of the ideas (mostly functionality-related) from our customers’ feedback.

What is the best thing about your job?

We love this job because it gives us the freedom to work on what we are passionate about, and realize our own ideas. Sometimes we spend months developing a new theme or creating functionality, and it is the most rewarding feeling to see our customers appreciating our products.

Another component of our job that we really enjoy is the flexible working hours and ability to work from home. It’s great to be able to work on what you like, whenever you like, and wherever you like!

If you could choose any space in the world and create a design for it, where would it be and what would you make?

There are many interesting ideas that we can think of, but if we have to choose one, that would be to design the floral carpet of the Grand Place Square in Brussels.

How do you keep motivated and inspired?

We don’t really need anything specific to motivate us—we love our job very much, and that’s the main thing that keeps us going.

And of course, Envato does a great job with the Elite program, which adds to our passion to get to the next level.

What is the hardest thing about your job?

The hardest part of the job is product support—both customer support and after-release maintenance of the product. We provide customer support to our theme users, and try to help them with any inquiries they have, which takes a significant amount of time. Fortunately we have two great support members that help us with all of this work, and we can dedicate more time to updating our themes or creating new ones.

In addition, maintaining the themes after release can sometimes be difficult. We always have to ensure that our themes are compatible with the latest WordPress release, third-party code, and all major browsers and devices, which often requires a large portion of our time, and lots of additional work.

Is there anything else you would like to add or say?

We would like to thank Envato for giving us the opportunity to be a part of this community and for everything the Envato team does for us, the authors. Our lives have changed significantly since we became authors on ThemeForest, and we are very appreciative of all the efforts everyone puts in to improve and develop this Marketplace.

Also, we would like to thank all of our customers for choosing our themes, and for their support.

We’re putting a $4,500 bounty on the heads of Envato’s most wanted file type – Crowd Funding themes on ThemeForest. The first 15 Crowd Funding themes uploaded (and subsequently approved) each get $300. There’s a maximum of two winning files, or $600, per author.

There are also 2 bonus prizes up for grabs thanks to IgnitionDeck. If you use the FREE, special contest developer version of the IgnitionDeck plugin in your Crowd Funding theme there is an extra:

• $100 up for grabs for first 10 themes submitted and approved.
• $50 for the next five.
• A maximum of two prizes per author.
• Paid via Paypal.

Details

In short, it’s a race to see who can quickly submit quality content based on the following criteria:

• Date Posted: May 14, 2013
• Prizes: 15 winning files will get a share of $4,500 of prizes! 15 x $300 “cash” prizes are payable ONLY via either PayPal or Moneybookers/Skrill. Not only that, all winners will receive the much-desired Most Wanted Bounty Winner Badge.
• Bonus prizes are available thanks to IgnitionDeck. Check out the prize details here.
• Maximum Prizes per Author: 2
• Closing Date: Tuesday July 09 2013 (12 pm Central US Time) or earlier should all prizes be claimed and verified.
• Post your entries in this thread, so we can keep track of all entries as they appear in each category.
• Winners will be announced 1-2 weeks after the event closes to ensure any late entries are processed. Prizes will be sent out 2-3 weeks after the winners have been announced. Make sure you have completed our authorization form. Please do not submit inquiries about prizes in the forums, via support or directly to staff, we promise we won’t forget your prize!

What Crowd Funding Plugins To Use:

You can choose any crowd funding plugin you want to use. We do recommend the following, but the choice is up to you!

• wordpress.org/extend/plugins/appthemer-crowdfunding
• ignitiondeck.com/id
• premium.wpmudev.org/project/fundraising
• github.com/chrislema/WooSponsorship
• Do not use wordpress.org/extend/plugins/crowd-funding as it is no longer supported by the developer.

Files We’re Looking For:

• Fundify – Crowdfunding WordPress Theme
• Mission – Funding and Commerce For Churches
• GoodWork – Modern Multi-Purpose Responsive Theme

File/Contest Requirements:

• Multiple submissions from the same author must all be different to one another.
• Normal ThemeForest upload instructions apply.
• By entering this contest, you must sign and agree to keep any winning entries online for a minimum of two years. See form for full details. This form must be completed once your item has been approved on ThemeForest if you wish your item(s) to be eligible for Envato’s Most Wanted.
• Post your entries in this thread, so we can keep track of all entries as they appear in each category.

Where Files Should be Submitted:

• Any WordPress sub-category.

Simple Summary of How To Enter

1. Read our full Terms & Conditions.
2. Submit your item to the WordPress category on ThemeForest.
3. Complete the authorization form once your item has been approved. This form must be completed. Please take care entering your payment details! Your entry will be invalid if (a) the authorization form is not completed and/or (b) you did not provide the correct payment information on the authorization form. Please take care entering your details!
4. First 15 approved/published submissions with a completed authorization form will win!

It’s as simple as that! The first 15 files to be uploaded (and subsequently approved) based on the above requirements win!

Please note that we have some more specific rules to outline and clarify. Please read the full Terms and Conditions here.

Good luck!

The subtle art of the landing page is the inevitable evolution of an internet full of stuff. With so much competition, you’ve got just a few seconds to make a good impression on a potential customer and tell them your story. A good landing page tells them everything they need to know in one place.

Landing pages help the audience focus on what they came to the website for, whether they searched for something, were brought in via social media and referrals or were sent by email.

Did you know: According to a WebTrends/Marketing Sherpa study, 92% in a survey of 2,673 companies found landing pages to be effective? You can read all 233 pages here if you’re so inclined.

Check out this handy infographic about the anatomy of a great landing page, notably:

• Use clear and concise headlines
• Use buttons and calls to action to stand out
• Keep it above the fold

We didn’t have to look far to find some great landing pages. Many authors on the marketplaces use them for their personal sites, to great effect:

PierreBorodin | DryThemes | SupView | GoThemeTeam | Astoundify| WS-Theme

Ready to build your own? Alright then! We’ve put together our first mini bundle, packed with 10 new and exciting landing page templates on ThemeForest, to equip you to promote all types of products and services.

We can’t wait to see what you create! If you build a landing page using one of the templates in the mini bundle, link us to it in the comments. The first five get our admiration and $10 Marketplace credit!

This mini bundle will finish on the 29th of May AEST, so act fast!

We’re putting a $1,000 bounty on the heads of Envato’s most wanted file type – Aperture & Lightroom Plugins on GraphicRiver. The first 20 Aperture & Lightroom Plugins uploaded (and subsequently approved) each get $50. There’s a maximum of three winning files, or $150, per author.

Details

In short, it’s a race to see who can quickly submit quality content based on the following criteria:

• Date Posted: May 13, 2013
• Prizes: 20 winning files will get a share of $1,000 of prizes! 20 x $50 “cash” prizes are payable only via either PayPal or Moneybookers/Skrill. Not only that, all winners will receive the much-desired Most Wanted Bounty Winner Badge.
• Maximum Prizes per Author: 3
• Closing Date: June 14, 2013 (12 pm Central US Time)
• Winners will be announced 1-2 weeks after the event closes to ensure any late entries are processed. Prizes will be sent out 2-3 weeks after the winners have been announced. Make sure you have completed our authorization form. Please do not submit inquiries about prizes in the forums, via support or directly to staff, we promise we won’t forget your prize!

File/Contest Requirements:

• Multiple submissions from the same author must all be different to one another.
• Normal GraphicRiver upload instructions apply.
• To enter this contest, you must sign and agree to keep any winning entries online for a minimum of two years. See form for full details. This form must be completed once your item has been approved on GraphicRiver if you wish your item(s) to be eligible for Envato’s Most Wanted.
• View our Aperture Preset Submission Requirements for details on submission requirements.
• Post your entries in this thread, so we can keep track of all entries as they appear in each category.

Where Files Should be Submitted:

• Aperture plugin files should be submitted to: Add-ons > Aperture Presets.
• Lightroom plugin files should be submitted to: Add-ons > Lightroom Presets.
• Please note: Both categories are only visible to staff and authors, not to customers. Items will not appear on the Marketplace until we make the category visible.

Simple Summary of How To Enter

1. Read our full Terms & Conditions.
2. Submit your item to the Add-ons > Aperture Presets or Add-ons > Lightroom Presets categories on GraphicRiver.
3. Complete the authorization form once your item has been approved. This form must be completed. Please take care entering your payment details! Your entry will be invalid if (a) the authorization form is not completed and/or (b) you did not provide the correct payment information on the authorization form. Please take care entering your details!
4. View our Aperture Preset Submission Requirements.
5. The first 20 approved/published submissions with a completed authorization form will win!

It’s as simple as that! The first 20 files to be uploaded (and subsequently approved) based on the above requirements win!

Please note that we have some more specific rules to outline and clarify. Please read the full Terms & Conditions here.

Good luck!

Twitter has become one of the best tools for social messaging to date. Each day millions of people around the world use various Twitter clients to update their status, and read tweets. Twitter is appealing to use because it’s informal, on point, and conversational—yet requires very little commitment for users.

CodeCanyon has well over one hundred Twitter plugins, widgets and scripts specifically designed to help you integrate Twitter into your website. Most Twitter plugins are divided into two categories—those that display Twitter feeds on your site, and those that allow others to share your content in their Twitter feeds. So when choosing the best Twitter plugin for you, consider what you’re going to use it for.

This featured collection was put together by Marketplace Growth Officer Josh Sprague. Take a look at a few of our top-selling Twitter plugins.

Tweet 2 Unlock for WordPress – Twitter Plugin

Increase traffic of your WordPress site by using this Tweet 2 Unlock plugin. It allows you to lock specified content on the web page until a user clicks on the Twitter button.

Tweet to unlock is an honest proven method to increase site traffic. Lots of websites already use it to lock downloads, discounts, special offers, links, videos and so on. This plugin helps you increase the number of tweets and generates additional traffic from the Twitter social network.

Live Tweets jQuery – Twitter Plugin

Live Tweets is a jQuery plugin that lets you easily create a live Twitter feed on your website. It allows you to search on hashtags (#apple), usernames, @mentions and more using Twitter operators. All results will be pulled into your website, resulting in a up to date feed.

Viral Lock – Like, Google+1 or Tweet to Unlock Twitter Plugin

Make your site go viral by requiring your users to Facebook like, Google+1 or tweet about your site to reveal premium content. Simply wrap the content you want to protect with the [viral-lock] shortcode, and the content will be protected until the users shares your page.

Twitter Reactions – Pure JavaScript Twitter Plugin

Twitter Reactions is a quick and easy method of displaying on a website tweets that mention the current page. It is a simple script that can be easily integrated into any website, as long as your have access to the source code.

PHP Twitter Feed – Twitter Plugin

This plugin allows you to display a Twitter timeline from a specific user, search keywords, or mentions, and display the results. It includes an option to cache the results for a certain amount of time, and the display can be easily customized with CSS.

It includes a style sheet that will style your feed exactly like the examples below. If you’d like to use it, simply add twitter.css from the download to your site. It will still work if you don’t include a style sheet, but won’t look as nice.

My Latest Tweets- A Pure JavaScript Twitter Plugin

My Latest Tweets is a simple and easy-to-customize Twitter display. It is pure JavaScript—no PHP is needed.

With My Latest Tweets you can:

• Display tweets from a specified user.
• Display tweets with a specified #hashtag.
• Display tweets with a specified word or sentence.
• Set the number of tweets in your box.
• Set the language of tweets.

Twitter Ultimate – WordPress Twitter Plugin

This WordPress plugin features a realtime Twitter feed, multiple instances, auto-play, speed control options and more. It is easy to customize.

There are plenty of other dubstep tracks in the collection. Check them out here. Which is your favorite?

We’re putting a $5,000 bounty on the heads of Envato’s most wanted file type – RapidWeaver Themes on ThemeForest. The first 20 RapidWeaver themes uploaded (and subsequently approved) each get $250 (with a maximum of two files or $500 per author).

Details

In short, it’s a race to see who can quickly submit quality content based on the following criteria:

• Date Posted: May 8, 2013
• Prizes: 20 winning files will get a share of $5,000 of prizes! 20 x $250 “cash” prizes are payable only via either PayPal or Moneybookers/Skrill. Not only that, all winners will receive the much-desired Most Wanted Bounty Winner Badge.
• Maximum Prizes per Author: 2
• Closing Date: Monday July 1st, 2013 (12 pm Central US Time) or earlier should all prizes be claimed and verified.
• Submissions can either be brand new themes or conversions of existing themes.
• View our Knowledgebase article for details on submission requirements.
• Winners will be announced 1-2 weeks after the event closes to ensure any late entries are processed. Prizes will be sent out 2-3 weeks after the winners have been announced. Make sure you have completed our authorization form. Please do not submit inquiries about prizes in the forums, via support. or directly to staff. We promise we won’t forget your prize!

File/Contest Requirements:

• Multiple submissions from the same author must all be different to one another.
• Normal ThemeForest upload instructions apply.
• View our Knowledgebase article for details on submission requirements.
• By entering this contest, you must sign and agree to keep any winning entries online for a minimum of two years. See form for full details. This form must be completed once your item has been approved on ThemeForest if you wish your item(s) to be eligible for Envato’s Most Wanted.
• Do not post your entries in this thread, we will be keeping an eye on all entries as they appear in the category.

Where Files Should be Submitted:

• CMS Themes > Miscellaneous .
• Be sure to tick the RapidWeaver Attribute when uploading your items.
• View our Knowledgebase article for details on submission requirements

Simple Summary of How To Enter

1. Read our full Terms & Conditions.
2. Submit your item to the CMS Themes > Miscellaneous category on ThemeForest.
3. Complete the authorization form once your item has been approved. This form must be completed. Please take care entering your payment details! Your entry will be invalid if (a) the authorization form is not completed and/or (b) you did not provide the correct payment information on the authorization form. Please take care entering your details!
4. The first 20 approved/published submissions with a completed authorization form will win!

It’s as simple as that! The first 20 files to be uploaded (and subsequently approved) based on the above requirements win! Please note that we have some more specific rules to outline and clarify:

Please read the full Terms and Conditions here.

Good luck!

Wow is it that time already? A new month always means a new Community Superstar. This author has been around the Marketplaces and the forum for a long time now. Let’s give a big congratulations to Wickedpixel!

The Deep, Dark Secrets of Wickedpixel

OK, so I don’t really have any deep, dark secrets about Wickedpixel. Despite his name, he’s not actually wicked. Or at least he’s never been caught.

Wickedpixel joined the Marketplaces way back in 2007, which makes him one of our early authors. During this time he’s been selling products on ActiveDen, ThemeForest and CodeCanyon. He’s also been super-active on the forums racking up a huge number of comments.

His profile page also indicates that he lives in Italy and Romania. Which means that he either has two houses or else a very long house that straddles the borders of both Italy and Romania. My bets are on the really long house.

And if you ever wondered what a Wickedpixel actually looks like, wonder no more!

Actually, looking at his photo I don’t think I wan’t to mess with Wickedpixel and his extra long house. He looks tough.

And here’s what he has to say for himself:

Thanks a lot for the nomination!

All I can say is that I’m really happy about being a member of such great community. I’m a longtime member, and I enjoy seeing Envato grow and transform over the time. It’s quite an interesting place and I like hanging around, while working on some killer files. Peace!

Some of Wickedpixel’s work

Along with the ultra-cool gold superstar community badge (that only lasts for 12 months!), the prize this month is a six-month Tuts+ Premium subscription, a $30 Rockable eBook voucher and $20 of Marketplace credit. Congratulations Wickedpixel!

And be sure to check out Wickedpixel’s profile page for more of his work.