Referral Program

First of all I just wanted to say how great Envato is, and how much I love the blog sites and of course the marketplaces. Keep up the great work guys!

One thing I did want to know however was whether or not the referral program will ever be changed to allow earnings from each sale that an affiliate generates through a referral. As many of you know email marketing is a huge tool in the online world. If somebody has an email list, they can only send out one email to their subscribers about some sweet themes or items on one of the marketplaces, because once the person signs up and makes their first deposit, the affiliate can no longer make income from that user. I am not saying affiliates deserve a 50% cut of every sale or anything, I am simply stating that wouldn’t it be more beneficial to allow a 15-30% cut of each sale to go to the affiliate, because in the end it just means more promotion and more sales. If envato would be taking too big of a hit by allowing a cut of every purchase (of a referred user) to go to the original affiliate, perhaps it could be based on a cookie system where the cookie lasted for 30 days. That way if an affiliate does email marketing or runs a website they can get paid for the sales that they in fact generate time and time again.

I hope this makes sense, if anyone is interested I can provide an example too that would maybe help. What are your thoughts?

Hey guys,

I wouldn’t count the idea out just yet – I think it’s a good idea to have on the table. Here is why: Eventually I believe AudioJungle (I will speak from my marketplace perspective, but feel free to substitute your own) will be in the position to start attracting some bigger named producers, which will in turn drive even more sales to the marketplace as a whole…(+ they want to keep the ones they already have) – a good way to do this is by offering some type of referral program that is balanced, and allows authors to receive a percentage not based on first time buyers, but based on either volume of legitimate referrals or individual tracks.

I mean, in the end, if the buyer is only finding the authors song/file from their website in the first place, why have AudioJungle or any marketplace when you can make 100% on your own? The current system is only good for an author who’s exposure to the industry is in all honestly, relatively low – medium. There are some bigger producers yes, but even those producers/composers are at a certain levels and have not capped out here yet.

When (IF) your exposure outside of AJ becomes greater then on AJ, it no longer makes sense to sell music here, when you can then simply receive all of your revenue. Also, an author who has reached the maximum percentage has by that point done their fair share to be granted the freedoms of a better referral rate. So how to reconcile the two? Allow better referral rates for individual purchases….this 1.) Attracts bigger names 2.) Keeps prominent authors on the marketplaces because it’s not detracting from other money they could be making, but is still seen as a valuable resource. If an author can for example, sell certain non-exclusive files on their website, with their exclusive entavto items right beside them (knowing they will get a cut now of every purchase that is made through their site no matter which way the buyer chooses), it really make staying on the marketplace a no-brainer.

I agree that we have to be careful to not simply demand demand demand more increases. At the same time we must remember that the relationship between buyers, Envato and it’s authors is symbiotic… the benefit of the sum total is dependent upon the equal and fair benefit for each individual ( or group in this sense ). In other words, when each idea is weighed, it must always be weighed in light on these three relationships. Without buyers the company cannot run…..without the company the authors have next to no where to sell their files….without the files, the buyers cannot effectively maintain their profit margins… etc…

So, I have no direct solution, but can say that at some point this will need to be addressed, but in a way that is balanced and promotes the financial growth of all involved.

Bad idea? Why would encouraging users to promote the marketplace more be a bad idea?

I’m not saying it wouldn’t cost Envato, but this is a long investment, not an expense.

Anyway, instead of this, I’d be happier if that darn rule

If you have visited one of the Envato Marketplaces before and then click a referral link, it doesn’t count

would just vanish. Envato pays, perhaps, tens of thousands for marketing. I’m pretty confident they’re very good at it. So, if they do marketing so well, they get people to visit the marketplace(s). How is that motivational for me, as an affiliate? I’m only acting like a free squeeze-page that ‘seals the deal’... that convinces that returning visitor to sign up

Every other theme marketplace in the world gives you a commission/theme sale. With Envato it’s a different story, I understand, the numbers are huge in comparison to other places. But just dropping the ref. commission from 30% to say, 10% or even less, with a per theme commission, would be much more motivational for affiliates.

Think about it. If a user has reached 70% , and gets another 30% then he makes 100%. Envato would loose money in the process [...]

I suppose you’re talking about authors that refer customers to their own themes.

That’s only partially true, because in that process Envato gets a customer. With so many great files, that customer is going to buy more for sure. I do realize that, as per reidknorr’s idea, this would still mean the referring author would get 100%. That’s why I said it doesn’t need to be 30% and that a better idea would be the aforementioned rule being bashed.

Anyways, this is an interesting topic [at least for me], so I’m looking forward to seeing more affiliates chime in

Hey Guys,

Excellent input so far.

@Enabled – I totally understand your viewpoint and thought of the same things you pointed out when I was writing the original post. I want to say in all honesty that I am not thinking or going about this in a greedy way, that is in no way my intention. I have the highest level of respect for everyone at Envato, and especially when you take into consideration the amount of hard work that has gone into the entire company and website network. That being said I feel that Envato fully deserves the 30% that they take away, because as you said they do have a lot of responsibilities and costs and therefore they deserve a cut of what they offer to us as authors each and every day. Furthermore I am so thankful for the money and opportunities I have earned through themeforest, and when they bumped up the rates I was extremely thankful for that. I think it is really hard to decide how this split would work between the author, affiliate, and Envato. My final goal/vision, however, is increased earning for everyone involved. Marketing is everything, especially because of the vastness of the internet. I am not thinking of just authors promoting items, I know there are other people out there with huge websites and email lists that can generate a huge amount of sales just by one blog post or one email. In the end that means more money spent on the marketplaces, and that benefits everyone doesn’t it? I’ll be quick to point out my idea is by no means flawless, but that is what I am putting on the table, an open idea for discussion. Again thank you for your input, please feel free to add more.

timmcmorris said
So, I have no direct solution, but can say that at some point this will need to be addressed, but in a way that is balanced and promotes the financial growth of all involved.

@Timmcmorris – It sounds like we have a very similar vision especially with the long term goals, that being financial growth, which benefits everyone involved. Thank you for your valuable input!

On one final note, I just want to summarize and say that my final goal is to see buyers coming to the Envato marketplaces to spend their money, instead of spending it somewhere else. Lets face it we know about the competition out there, if we can make it more appealing for affiliates to promote the Envato marketplaces and send users here, that is more of a benefit to everyone involved.

Please keep the input coming! I love to hear different ideas from everyone.

The affiliate scheme currently is rubbish – there I said it – authors have been trying to get this changed for years.

Reduce commission – affiliates earn per sale = probably an instant 30% increase in business for everyone – it’s how the rest of the affiliate world works because it’s proven.

But I doubt it will change to anything like this anytime soon I’m afraid.

EDIT : just a note also – if the affiliate changes were made they would seriously need to extend the API and also the reporting for affiliates so they can track click through rates, hits, which items they earned most on – graphs to show stats over time etc – a lot of work but then again the increase in exposure through affiliates websites, social pages, you name it would easily pay for the up-front dev costs – or go with a proven solution already out there – there is no lack of affiliate software or solutions etc

Hi all, i do quick analysis for my account, for 7-8 months I generated over 12 500 hits. Of these 53 are registered, which means that traffic that I generate approximately every 230s is a customer or member. On average, each of them laid a deposit of $ 20 where I got $ 5.80 as its ref.cut. Regardless of how many of these 53 member / customer deposits continue to carry out I’m finished with them, that is what is the worst in the system. A 30 % deposit is quite a decent sum for the affiliate.

The fact is that Envato near by and got a percentage of people who would only work as an affiliate and thus would be a certain percentage of the sale, of course there would have been the most successful ones who know the area of internet marketing.

Maybe I do not have proper follower on twitter or visitors of my web site do not go to Videohive or GraphicRiver to buy or register but can not make a logical sense to this statistic:

July 2010 5 Clickthroughs 0 Registered Members 0 Deposits $0.00 August 2010 70 Clickthroughs 0 Registered Members 0 Deposits $0.00 September 2010 313 Clickthroughs 0 Registered Members 0 Deposits $0.00 October 2010 1474 Clickthroughs 0 Registered Members 0 Deposits $0.00 November 2010 2083 Clickthroughs 0 Registered Members 0 Deposits $0.00 Totals: 3,945 0 0 $0.00

Maybe someone have suggestion or this is waste of time.