Developers left out in thriving theme market

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Envato, the company that created web properties such as FreelanceSwitch and PSDTUTS, added to its group of marketplaces this week with the launch of ThemeForest.

ThemeForest offers premium themes at affordable prices for anyone who needs a site built in a hurry--there's something for everyone from entrepreneurs to hobbyist webmasters.

The market for premium themes has been blooming, but many talented designers have been unable to take advantage of the trend because they have no business skills, or don't have the infrastructure required to distribute themes in exchange for money.

"We provide developers with everything they need to start selling themes," said Collis Ta'eed at Envato. "All they have to worry about is creating something that looks great and that people are going to love."

ThemeForest rewards authors using a tiered system. New authors start by receiving 25 percent of every sale, with the remainder covering operational costs and marketing. When authors have sold a certain number of files, they can become exclusive authors, where the payment rate rises to 35 percent, up to a maximum of 50 percent.

If authors do their own marketing for their files, they can add another 50 percent to their cut using referrals--meaning an author can make anywhere between 75 percent and 100 percent of the revenue from their files, depending on how much they want to do.

"Our goal has been to take the hard work out of selling themes away from the authors, but we give them the option to do that hard work themselves and earn most of the money in turn," said Collis Ta'eed at Envato.