Huge Author News!

For four years the Envato Marketplaces have helped authors around the world earn an income selling their digital wares. Along the way we’ve grown from one marketplace to seven, with more on the way. We’ve gone from hundreds of members to hundreds of thousands. Items from our marketplaces have appeared in projects for companies big and small, all around the world. And most importantly of all, we’ve had thousands of authors cash out earnings, ranging from a bit of money for a big weekend to sums in the tens of thousands of dollars a month!

It’s been an amazing ride, and here at Envato we are completely committed to making these the best damn marketplaces around. That’s why I’m very excited today to announce that as of the end of September we are rolling out some dramatically improved rates for all our exclusive authors!

As the sites have grown, so has our revenue. As we increase in volume and size we’re able to push back more and more to the authors. This is in fact our third rates increase now, and it’s always a really happy day when we get to make the changeover and start putting more money in author’s hands.

The new rates have TWO major improvements over the old system which will make for massive benefits for authors.

New Baseline: 50% – 70%

The first thing to know about the new rates is that all exclusive authors will start at a baseline of 50%. This means starting authors walk away with one fifth more than they used to right out of the gates.

The new baseline also means that for a new author the split is dead even when they arrive. Then over time as they sell more and become a more acclimatised author who understands how to submit, what needs to be done to get approved, what sells well, and so on, these rates go up to hit a maximum of 70%.

While we haven’t changed that max rate, I do have some more very good news:

70% is Now MUCH Quicker and More Achievable

In our old rates system you needed to sell $300,000 worth of files to reach the legendary 70%. Despite the difficulty this entails, we’ve actually still had a handful of authors reach those lofty heights.

However it’s become clear that this range was just too high, especially for marketplaces like AudioJungle and GraphicRiver. So I’m thrilled to tell you that in our new rates system, we’ve reduced this path down by an enormous margin of $225,000.

As of the end of September authors will need to reach a much more achievable target of $75,000 of gross sales to get to 70%. This is still a big amount, but a huge reduction.

This is Thanks to the Site Managers!

Wondering who was responsible for pushing the new rates through? Well this is a good time for all authors to say a big thank you to the Site Manager team.

While the board and myself were understandably hesitant about the massive financial consequences of this change, it was our Marketplace Manager Jason and his whole Site Management team of Lance, Jeffrey, Scott, Mark, Amanda and Matthias who really pushed for the changes to happen and for them to go through sooner rather than later!

The Site Manager Team

So if you’d like to attribute this change for authors somewhere, please say a big thank you to all the Site Managers. They do an amazing job championing the marketplaces in the company, pushing not just for rates but for fixes and improvements, changes and features to make their sites work better and be the best sites they can be. Sometimes things take a while to happen, and I know sometimes in the past year they have had to front up to some frustrating issues on the marketplaces. It’s important to remember however that these guys are responsible for much of the good stuff you see around our marketplaces.

So I think this is a good time to give them some big kudos and props for representing all authors and bringing home the bacon!

The Full Rates Table

Starting midnight September 30th, all exclusive authors will move to the new rates table (shown below). All exclusive authors will see an immediate jump as well as a quicker progression up the ladder. Best of all, many authors will suddenly be catapulted up to the 70% rate!

As in the past, we’re very focused on creating unique marketplaces of digital content. As such, the rates for people selling their work on our sites as part of a large portfolio of places they sell through, will remain at the same previous non-exclusive rate of 25%. We always welcome these authors to switch over and join us as exclusives to take advantage of the new rates! And remember you can still sell other things elsewhere, we just want the files you have with us to be exclusively available through Envato.

The full rates table, effective 11:59pm September 30th 2010 (Melbourne AEST time):

Happy Birthday Authors!

So on the fourth anniversary since our first marketplace FlashDen first hit the web, I’d like to take a moment and say Happy 4th Birthday to all our authors. Thank you so much for choosing to sell with us. Thank you so much for being a part of our amazing community. Thank you for helping us make the Envato Marketplaces what they are.

One More Thing …

To borrow a line from Mr Jobs, there’s just one more thing. Next week, I’ll be back with a very exciting announcement – a whole new Envato Marketplace! Yep it’s one heck of an August for us here at Envato, so stay tuned to Envato Notes for even more big news!

Woohoo!!!