ThemeForest is an exclusive platform for designers and developers to grow their own personal brand and business. This article will be inside story about a ThemeRex Power Elite user on ThemeForest. The article will hopefully lead you to take that first action to your own success.
The digital industry is growing fast and I mean it. Looking at the statistics provided by EY, last year alone we have seen huge movement.
This article should be as an eye opener for those of you that still struggle to make the first step towards to become business owner. To become an exclusive WordPress theme designer or developer is a profitable market. It will be hard to understand the concept at first. However, if you read this success story, I am hoping to motivate you to take this first baby step towards independence or at least earn something for yourself on the side.
What exactly is ThemeForest?
ThemeForest is a marketplace for designers and developers. The marketplace offers exclusive place only for their authors to expose their authentic work, thus giving their authors more time to focus on what they do best and forget about the marketing strategy.
As you might know Envato charges a percentage on every item sold on their marketplace. There are couple of options available to start from. Exclusive and Non-Exclusive Author. Depending on which of the options, you select the percentage cut will vary from 12% -55%.
There is not real scientific secret here. Envato has clearly stated that Exclusive products sold on their market place will be first choice. This makes absolutely perfect sense. Since the company is investing millions in advertising and marketing. They would prefer no competition in any level for a product “X” and the full dominance on the market is their choice.
ThemeRex 5 years on ThemeForest
The team has recently shared inspiring story, how they started and what they did to get them, where they stand today. It has been 5 years already and at the beginning it was not easy as in every other business. It is not getting easier in the digital market. However, the growth is proportional and this should not worry you too much.
Henry Rise the owner of ThemeRex had, taken the decision to join the ThemeForest’s market place and become part of the family. By joining the marketplace it has opened a huge market for themselves. However, there are thousands of other talented competitors. Initially the team shares, about the impact of joining the market place. Once ThemeRex joined they did not have to worry about marketing strategy or any type of promotion. Instead the team focused on what they do best. They have created 140+ WordPress themes, 3D models, banners etc. The list of products goes endlessly. This only means that the opportunity is out there and is awaiting.
The Most Challenging Steps
Henry talks about his experience and what it took them to where his company stands today. Envato is very challenging platform and to become “Authority Author” on the marketplace, you need to have patience and constantly striving to improve your work.
Envato has very strict policy of approval. Apple also has very strict process of approving your app and this should not be as surprise for you. You as a developer and designer, must be with the mind set to deliver the best and only the best for your customers.
Furthermore, it might take time to approve a product and if you have submitted a bunch of products at the same time, there is not guarantee or specific order for the products to be approved. ThemeForest is the ideal place to start from, with smaller projects. Perhaps, it is good idea to start with PSD or HTML5 templates. By using this strategy, you stand the chance to better understand the complex guidelines ThemeForest has.
However, the best part is that you are not going to be disappointed, If you have put endless amount of hours and the theme is reject for “X” or “Y” reasons. I do get frustrated quite often if something like this happens to me, I get demotivated and finally discontinue my work. Trust me, you do not want to get to dark room of disappointment, you have just started and all of your ideas and inspirations are very fragile.
The Pros and Cons in being part of ThemeForest
One of the pros about being part of Envato is that you do not actually have to advertise your products or spend any money on marketing. Your store would receive regular traffic due to the size of the market place. However, when the multipurpose themes came along the rules of the game changed slightly. Nowadays, authors need to take extra actions on their own too.
The second good part is that Envato’s community is absolutely enormous and there are many other developers and designers like yourself. This means that the marketplace offers great resources, to learn, develop and become like the others authors.
One of the cons for Envato is that, if you want to build and grow your own brand. I suggest, you should move on with self-promotion. The ugly reality there is that ThemeForest is pretty big theme template market place. It is very difficult to distinguish the sellers. The market place had been designed cleverly. Every single product on the market place is under the ThmeForest umbrella brand.
On the other hand, there is the price war. There are plenty of other themes, probably as good as yours. The prices are driven down by the amount of similar products, which can be found on the market place.
Do I need self-promotion?
ThemeForest is providing great traffic and stable promotion. The exposure is enormous, due to the fact Envato is investing huge chunk of money for their marketing strategy and heavy advertising. The market place dominates the search engines with most of the profitable keywords out there.
However, becoming just another vendor on Envato, will not cut the “cake”. You have to take control over the situation and use every single resource available. Placing a marketing strategy on your own it is not an easy job. The process is very long and painful, fulfilled with disappointments due to the market size. However, this does not necessarily mean, new vendors will not become successful!
One of the best advice given by ThemeRex is to build your own website with a blog and perform self-promotion activities. They are also suggesting to take participation into the community life forum and this is one way to stay tuned and also increase your sales.
Advice for the beginners
Nowadays the market is oversaturated with themes. The reason for this is because there are already established vendors who are dominating the market. However, there are still ways to make it to the top.
The best way is to research your market well and if you think, that will be enough, you are wrong. Research it again and find a way to testify if your results are correct.
Perhaps one of the best way to start is to pick up something more specific. Pick up a niche that has the potential to grow. Patience and persistence pays off. Use self-promotion techniques and try to give the best customer service. If you manage to keep your customers happy, they will return and will bring recommendations.
I would love to hear your feedback on this topic, what it takes to become an author on Themefores. If you have any suggestions, or I have missed something very important. Please comment below.
