Beginner's Guide to Selling on Envato

Summary: We’ve currently paused new author applications and sign-ups while we improve our intake process. This means we’re not accepting applications for Envato Elements, and new Envato Market author accounts cannot be created at this time. When new author intake reopens, it will follow an application-only model. This will be focused on selected content types, based on customer demand and platform strategy. Learn more.

1. Get to Know Envato

Envato is a unique online community with a range of products and platforms to suit a variety of projects and customers. On Envato, you’ll find fellow creators (called Authors) who are passionate about being their own boss, working from anywhere in the world and most of all, earning a living doing what they love.

There are three different ways authors can sell on Envato including Envato Market, Envato Elements and Placeit. Here, you can also contribute a variety of content types across Code, Video, Music & Audio, Website Themes, Design Assets, Stock Photos and 3D Models.

Before you get started, please take a moment to learn about Envato's platforms and licenses to ensure we're the right fit for your creative work. Review our Author Terms and learn about our Licenses for selling on Envato to make sure Envato is the right place for you, your creative items, and your business.

2. Setup an Envato Account

Before you can upload your items, you’ll need to sign up and create an Envato account and complete your onboarding steps in your Author Dashboard. 

The onboarding steps are a compliance requirement, so you must complete them before you'll be able to upload or get paid: 

1. Fill in your tax form  - for help with Tax forms review this section: Tax Forms
2. Setup a payout method - for help setting with payouts, review: Setting up a payout method
3. Declare your trader status - for help with what this means, review Trader Status under the EU Digital Services Act
4. Complete an ID check - for help and troubleshooting, review Author ID checks. 

Once you’ve signed up as an author, you can get exploring the Envato Market site your choice: 

• ThemeForest for Web Themes & Templates
• AudioJungle for Audio & Music (temporarily not accepting new authors - see below)
• VideoHive for Video Templates & Stock Video
• PhotoDune for Stock Photos
• GraphicRiver for Graphic Fonts, Logos, Icons, Templates and more
• CodeCanyon for Code Script Items
• 3DOcean for 3D Print Models and CG Textures

Start by setting up your user page by uploading a display picture and some details about yourself or your company in the user profile page. This will help customers and authors to get to know who you are the sort of work that you create.

You can check out some examples of great Author Profiles by exploring some of our top Elite Authors like ThemeFusion, Pressmaster and Premiumilk.

Please note:

Audio & Music and Stock Photography are not included in the content types open for applications when intake does reopen.

We’ll share any updates via the Help Center.

3. Read our Author Glossary

There are certain terms and concepts that are unique to Envato and our platforms. As a global business, we believe it's important to explain and make these terms known so that our community can understand the language that is used throughout the ecosystem.

This will help you, our authors, to best navigate our Envato processes, requirements and systems going forwards.

For example;

• What are assets?
• What are subscribers vs. customers?
• What is the difference between technical requirements and other requirements?

Please take the time to view the Author Glossary. 

4. Review Our Quality Expectations

Once you’ve signed up to sell on Envato, there are a few key areas to review to ensure you understand what we’re looking for and most importantly, what customers are looking for when they come to Envato.

Like any online business or marketplace, you should think through the key areas in your selling workflow and what will set you up for success. This is where our requirements become important.

Our review process helps to ensure we only provide the content that customers want and so all items are evaluated and assessed across our main Item Quality areas. This includes:

• Item Presentation Requirements are about the aesthetics and how it is presented to customers. Have you got a cover image, or a great live preview? For some item types, have you watermarked your file? This also means following design principles, presenting your items accurately during the upload process.
• Item Information Requirements are all about marketing your item to a global audience and filling in all of the important details to help get your items found by customers during the upload process. This includes writing a title, a great description and choosing appropriate tags that will get your item found.
• Technical Requirements means the item is technically well constructed, compatible, easy to customize, and of course that it works! These are often specific to the content type, such as Video, Audio, Photos, Graphics, Code, Themes and 3D items. This takes place during the item preparation process.
• Legal Requirements are how an item meets our Envato terms. This is focused on ensuring the content of the item does not include any offensive materials, or breach the community standards. We may also identify potential copyright or trademark problems with your item during review, but it is your responsibility to ensure your items are clear of any potential legal issues before you upload.

Learn more about How to Get Through our Review Process.

5. Upload Your Items

To start uploading:

1. Sign-in to your Envato account, and make sure you have completed all 4 steps in your Onboarding page in the Author Dashboard. 
2. You can now begin the upload process by clicking on Upload and then choosing the item type. 
3. During the upload process, make sure you add your Item Information and Item Presentation requirements, so that your items look attractive to customers and they can find your items through search.
4. When you’re ready, click upload!
5. Once uploaded, every item submitted to Envato is sent through our review process. We’re looking for great items that work well for customers and follow our quality expectations (as outlined in section 4 above), which includes Item Information & Presentation requirements, Technical requirements and Legal requirements.

Note: Some item types have specialized pathways to make things easier and quicker (especially if you have a lot of items to upload) or if you are contributing them to other platforms (such as Envato Elements or Placeit).

Learn more about How to Upload your items, or see Upload Methods for those special pathways if you have a lot of items or are uploading to Elements.

6. Keep Track of Earnings & Performance

Once your uploaded items have been reviewed and approved, it becomes available for sale on Envato. You can track your overall earnings activity by signing into your Envato Market account and clicking on the Earnings tab. This will show your net earnings, sales earnings and any refunds in your account.

Envato Elements authors are able to access their earnings activity by logging into their Elements Contributor Dashboard and accessing their Earnings Reports and insights.

Learn more about the dashboards at Managing Sales at Envato.

7. Manage Your Items

Once your items are live on Envato, you can now manage your items through your Envato Market account.

If you’d like to update your approved items, you can do so by clicking on ‘Edit’ within the item page. From here you can make changes to description, pricing, tags as well as deleting your item entirely. Some of the updates will require reviewer approval, while others can be made without approval and take effect immediately.

Managing your items is an important part of the process to ensure that you have a fresh stream of new items being added to your portfolio and consider if any existing older items that may not be performing well for a period of time should be retired.

Learn more about Managing Items.

8. Explore Marketing and Promotion Opportunities

High quality items alongside a strong selling strategy is the key to the success of your Envato portfolio. Marketing will help customers find your items, make your items look more attractive to customers and give your items a better chance of being featured by our Envato teams or channels.

Tips for Getting Started with Marketing:

• Make sure your titles, tags and descriptions are optimized for Envato search. This means accurately describing your items across its specifications, subject matter, context and style, as well as doing keyword research to discover the most popular and relevant search terms currently being used.
• Make sure your cover images, preview images and preview videos showcase your item well and all of its features. The cover image is the first thing customers will see when determining if your item is right for them and is displayed in the search results. Similarly, preview images and preview videos allow you to further showcase your item with up to 15 images or a video.
• Look at what current and emerging trends customers are looking for by regularly visiting our Author Hub.
• Consider becoming an Envato Affiliate.
• Consider offering discounts to incentivise customers by using the Manage Discount Tool available in the edit tab of your item page.
• Level up your Author Marketing with these top tips.
• Explore the importance of branding for your author profile and examples of great branding on Envato Market, as well as branding resources in this two part series.
• Find your social media channels so you can feature your items in more places!