ThemeForest Updates – TechCrunch, Competition, WordPress Book + Stats!

on Sep 22nd 2008 with 39 comments

It’s been three weeks since we launched ThemeForest our marketplace for Web Templates & WordPress Themes and a lot has happened! Since NETTUTS is sort of the unofficial blog of ThemeForest, I thought I’d write up some updates here.

Crunched!

Since we started Envato some two and a half years ago, I’ve always hoped we’d get featured on the super popular (and my favourite) blog TechCrunch. And on Saturday morning I was reallllllly pleased to wake up to find that ThemeForest had got us there! The traffic isn’t huge (about 1000 visitors) but it’s a great boost for our little company, and lends us some credibility.

WordPress Book

9 months ago, I started work on an ebook – How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer – and recently with the help of NETTUTS contributor Harley Alexander, the book is finally complete. I’m editing the last two chapters now and then as a very special promotion we’re going to offer it completely, totally freely via ThemeForest. All you will need to do is be an “author” on the site (which takes just a few minutes).

We’re hoping it will encourage more people to try out authoring themes. The book is 9 chapters long, includes 3 WordPress themes and is pretty extensive. After the two weeks of promotion it’s going to be on sale for $29. Naturally we’ll announce the book giveaway right here on NETTUTS!

File Numbers and Sales

So far we have 110 Web Templates, just under 40 WordPress Themes, 8 Joomla themes and a handful of miscellaneous themes for PHPBB, Vanilla and other CMSes.

Our highest selling file is Our Community by Kai Loon which has sold $1800 worth – not bad when the site’s only just launched! Of this the author has taken a third of that with a long tail of income still to come and exclusivity %’s kicking in.


Our Community by Kai Loon

It’s early days yet, but Kai Loon’s is not the only file selling really strongly. Visit the Popular Files page to see some of the others. Here are a couple of my favourites:


Business Professional Package by JScheetz

Night Media Portfolio by JJenZz

One Page Portfolio by onuro

7 Days left to Author and Win $1800

Our ThemeForest Launch competition has just 7 days to go, and the leaderboard is wide open. So if you’ve got a few days with not much work on, perhaps now is the time to build a little portfolio of items!

More Marketing :-)

In case you hadn’t guessed, I’m in charge of marketing ThemeForest, and I’ll be working hard to push the site out there. In October watch out for a huge $50,000 giveaway, the WordPress book, some NETTUTS theme tutorials, as well as lots of regular promotion like advertising.

 
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Hello! I'm a web and graphic designer who loves blogging, startups and everything about the web. You can find me on Twitter and I blog at The Netsetter  

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  • Nouman Saleem

    “completely, totally freely”
    I love your choice of words :)

  • http://craigsnedeker.blogspot.com/ Craigsnedeker

    I can’t sign up because I am under 18. :’(

  • http://www.crysfel.com crysfel

    im working on my templates rigth away :d

  • http://wickit.be/ K3v

    Great to hear the book is finally done! :)

  • http://eden.cc Collis Ta’eed
    Author

    Yeah it certainly took me a while! Thank goodness for Harley, otherwise I’d still be at Chapter 5 I think :-)

    When I started the book we were at WordPress 2.1 and now we’re at 2.6 with 2.7 imminent :-D

  • http://www.lnahinu.com/blog Shortshire

    I signed up but I don’t see the book anywhere, I am an author and the book will definitely help me.

    Thanks for making the book, I bought others and they didn’t cover the intricacies, only how to install and the basics.

  • http://www.ben-griffiths.com Ben Griffiths

    $50,000 – damn thats a give away and a half! Good luck with it all :)

  • http://baffleinc.com/ Harley

    @Craigsnedeke: You SO don’t have to be 18… I’m only 15 and I wrote half a WordPress book *high fives Collis*

    God Damn, $50k! No way!

  • Bakari

    I looking forward to downloading the book. Will it be posted on the ThemeForest site in a day or two? I signed up to be an “author” but I don’t see a link for the book.

  • http://www.insicdesigns.info insic

    wow thats quite a lot of money.

  • http://laminbarrow.com Lamin Barrow

    I am glad Envato got featured on Techcrunch, you guys really deserve it and more.

  • http://baffleinc.com/ Harley Alexander

    Bakari – it’s still in the works. Collis is finishing off the editing of the last couple of Chapters, then it’ll be posted in max. 2 weeks. Or that’s what I was told :P

  • http://www.freshclickmedia.com Shane

    I bought “How To Be a Rockstar Freelancer”, so I’m looking forward to reading “How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer”.

    Thanks for the info.

  • http://www.simpleeffect.com Snorri3D

    looking forward to see the book

  • http://www.jasonlarosedesign.com Jason LaRose

    You guys are awesome. I feel like a kid waking up on Christmas morning with every new update and other news you report. You’re hitting every nail on the head with your network of sites, and I can only expect it to get better. I can’t wait for the WordPress book to come out.

    Keep up the great work, you guys deserve all the success you can get.

  • http://D2webdesigns.com Dennis Stevenson

    I’m really looking forward to the book… I’m hoping it will be exactly what I need to get me over this hump. I have just shy of a billion designs (maybe a lot shy of a billion) but porting it to WordPress has been less than easy for me. I can’t wait for the eBook!

  • http://www.1pixelbrush.com Dan

    Can’t wait for the book.

  • http://www.makedesignnotwar.com Make Design, Not War

    Ditto on the book – totally looking forward to it after the very useful Freelance Rockstar book – I’ll definitely take some time to become an author just for that. Cheers!

  • Joel

    book book book! :D

    I’m not going to lie, tough: I’m glad it’s free, but I’d very much like a printed, hard copy :p

  • Sam

    Good news :)

  • http://www.tomstardust.com/ Tom

    I bought “How to be a rockstar freelancer”, and I subscribed to Theme Forest as author during the beta.

    I’m just working on my first theme for Theme Forest: I’ll wait for the book release. Thanks for your work! :)

  • http://www.Oskard.be Jbcarey

    Grrr I’m working on getting a Imac at home…. then I’ll be turning out Templates like crazy I guarantee.

  • Ur2slow

    9 Months is too long to wait for this ebook. Get your priorities strait. It should be included for free in the psdtuts subscription. It has been a while since you have added anything of value to that site and I plan to cancel before it renews.

  • Max Payne

    waiting for the book…

  • Joe

    Yea, what gives? You make the announcement and here we wait! Mabe in another 9 months.

  • http://iamunr.com Paul unr

    Wait wait, the books going to be e-book only?

    Not like Rockstar Freelancer? :O
    Not going to have a lulu.com version? I bought it instantly, and was dying to buy this one too. :(

  • Chandra

    Great! I am waiting for one.

    Is there a tentative date of launch of the book? It would be great to know if there is.

  • Ur2slow

    It’s been 2 weeks since this post. When is this book being released?

  • http://www.rhynodesign.com Ryan

    It looks like the book will be released on November 3.

    http://rockablepress.com/books/rockstar-wordpress-designer/

    However, I am not sure if that’s when they’ll post it for free on ThemeForest? I’m hopeful it will be posted soon. I am looking forward to giving this a read.

  • Joe

    I’m moving on. I found other material that covers blog design and I’m not waiting for this any more. You guys just lost a customer. I’m unsubscribing to both this site and PSDTuts and canceling my PSDPlus subscription.

  • http://URL(Optional) tlschef

    What’s the status on the ebook? The Rockable website says it will be released on 11/3/08. Collis says in this post that you will be able to get it for free two weeks prior by becoming an author on Themeforest. You need to keep your readers better informed on this stuff.

  • http://www.detacheddesigns.com Jeffrey Way

    @tlschef – I’m not 100% in the loop, but I believe it’s still scheduled for next week. However, with the release of WP 2.7, they might delay it a bit in order to update the book to reflect the changes.

    But take this with a grain of salt, I have no idea either way…just speculating.

  • Chandra

    Hmm.. its been so long but I think you guys need to update on the status of the book. Everyones waiting eagerly..

    Please Please!

  • http://www.rhynodesign.com Ryan

    The release is delayed…

    http://rockablepress.com/books/rockstar-wordpress-designer/

    How long? And why? is anybody’s guess. My suggestion is that the folks do a better job of communicating this. It’d be as simple as an email update from the Rockable Press site. There are simple steps Envato can take to improve their customer engagement and will need to if they hope to keep and actually increase Plus subscriptions. I cancelled my subscription until that day comes.

  • http://themeforest.net/user/JeffreyWay Jeffrey Way

    Ryan – Be careful or that vein in your forehead will pop out!

    The book was delayed for obvious reasons. WordPress 2.7 will come out soon. Collis and Harley will need to update the book at that time.

  • Chandra

    so looks like nov end for 2.7 and then perhaps the book will only be launched sometime after that..

    yep.. we have subscribed the rockable guys should have emailed for better communication.. as for now, i have started to learn on my own.. the wait has been too long now!

    you better do the same.

  • http://www.rhynodesign.com Ryan

    @Jeffrey, No veins popping out. I’m quite fine. Thanks for the concern. :-)

    If the reasons are so “obvious”, why did you have “no idea either way”. I’d think you’d be able to communicate with the folks you write for and be a bit more enlightened as to the goings on there so that you could be more of a resource and add a bit more value in your comments.

    Anyway, no hard feelings. I still think the site is a great resource, but definitely not the ONLY resource. There are many other great tutorial sites out there.

    Here’s a thought, release the version you have so far to the folks who belong to ThemeForest and they can provide you with some constructive criticism before updating the final version? Just a thought.

  • http://www.rhynodesign.com Ryan

    @ Chandra – I agree and will find another resource for now…

  • sdsasdsa

    good work :))