Our friends, over at AudioJungle are celebrating their 10,000th audio file submission. To spread the happiness, they’re raffling off some great prizes that you’ll definitely want to check out.

“AudioJungle is celebrating its 10,000th audio file! Our library of outstanding, royalty free, stock audio has now grown to over 10,000 items. We reached this huge milestone in the past couple of days and we would like nothing more than to celebrate this outstanding achievement, with you, our authors and customers!”

Competition Ends September 24th!

A big congratulation goes out to the AudioJungle crew. Great work!

Finalist 1: Life In The City

by ahmednaguib

“A collection about cities, modern buildings, industrial sounds, videos of a town in motion, or a building in color, you will find it here, brought and made by some of the greatest authors in their fields, enjoy!”

Finalist 2: The Eco-Friendly Collection – Web and Print

by idrawdesigns

“The Eco-Friendly Collection (Web and Print) is a compilation of items across the Envato Marketplaces that relate to going green and being environmentally friendly. Templates can be used as a base for websites and printed material that promote recycling, preserving nature, and anything that has to do with being eco-friendly. Sounds and flash animations can be used to accompany work created on the web.”

Finalist 3: Admin, the Ultimate Collection

by Gr0in

“A collection of files to help create the ultimate Flash/Flex content management system.”

Finalist 4: Must-have to Create a Masterpiece

by Leas

“Some sounds, graphics, and stock footage to give a masterpiece the perfect feeling.”

Finalist 5: The Final Frontier

by circuitbomb

“Space. It is colorful. It is infinite. These are the voyages of the starship Envato. It’s continuing mission…”

Finalist 6: The Colors Of The Rainbow

by drarock

“This collection has the most colorful resources you’ll ever find. Here you can find icons, vectors, website templates and business cards full of joy and fun, just like a rainbow!”

Finalist 7: So Cute it Hurts

by drarock

“All the cutest resources from GraphicRiver, and a couple from FlashDen are the cherry on the cake.”

Finalist 8: Web Designer’s Toolkit

by epicera

“This library showcases the best & most useful products in regards to general web design. From Flash to Photoshop to fully coded templates, these represent the best that the Envato Marketplace has to offer. In short, these products should be on every web designer’s shopping list!”

Finalist 9: Urbanism

by Arezoo

“The Urbanism collection contains the best urban inspired themes, web elements, and design templates.”

Finalist 10: Rokband Pack

by iLLeT

“Rock band objects, textures, graphics, product mock displays, and more.”

Each one of these finalists will win a single use licence to every file in their collection!

But who will win US$3,500 for their ultimate creative set-up? That’s up to you! So pick your favourite and vote for it below!

Please note that only one vote per user will be registered. Voting will close at 12 midday, Australian Eastern Standard time on Monday the 6th of July. The winner will be announced the following day, and then all finalists and winners will be contacted via email to receive their prizes!

So stay tuned to find out who wins Envato’s biggest competition ever!

Before I officially launch this competition, I’d like the community to have as large a role as possible in this one.

1. How would you prefer that we judge these themes? The goal is to make as many sales as possible. If the designs are too strange, no one will purchase them. We must remember this.
2. Assuming we offered $1500 in cash prizes, how would you like this to be divided. Top 3 … Top 10?
3. Should we limit the category to site templates only? I don’t feel that PSDs should be accepted for this competition. An amazing Photoshop design that is monstrously difficult to convert to HTML/CSS is worthless.

If you’re interested in participating in this competition, please take a moment and let me know your thoughts! I want the community to have a large and deciding roll this time — should be fun!

I was so glad to see so many of you participating. This contest was unique in that you can’t lose, to a certain extent. Except for a small handful of you, EVERYONE received referral commissions. So congratulations to you, and please continue making the sporadic tweet/blog posting in promotion of your templates and ThemeForest! Now…to announce the winners!

Congratulations to Our Top 5 Referring Members!

5th Place: Pandemic

4th Place: settysantu

3rd Place: sixshootermedia

2nd Place: nuvru

1st Place: KoNieK

Thanks so much to everyone who participated. Excluding the top three referrers, it was a close race! As I mentioned previously, even if you didn’t win the $200 bonus, nearly all of you earned some commission! So keep at it.

If you’re a winner, please contact sitemanager@themeforest.net to arrange your award.

Note: The competition has now ended; we are currently in the process of judging the templates. Because the Wordpress spam filter removed some entries, we will be adding all public collections created in the competition entry period to the official competition entries whether they appeared in a blog comment or not.

Create a Collection

When you find files on any of the 5 Envato Marketplaces including ThemeForest you can bookmark them and add them to a collection of bookmarks. Those collections can be made public for sharing and showing off. All you need to do to go into the running to win our huge prize is create a public collection of your favourite files. That’s it!

$3500 to Spend!

One lucky entrant will win US$3,500 paid to a PayPal account of their choosing to spend on the ultimate creative setup of your choice! Think a brand new Mac, software, books from Amazon … you can buy an awful lot with $3500!!

And on top of that we’ll buy you all the files in your winning collection AND we’ll throw in a year’s subscription to the Plus program here at Tuts+.

9 Runners Up

For 9 runners up we’ll buy you the entire set of Envato Marketplace files you put into your winning collections. With files priced up to $25 and up to 30 items per collection, the potential value of this runner-up prize is a solid $750 each!

How to Enter

To enter, you’ll need to be a member of our marketplaces, so if you aren’t already create a free account on any of them: FlashDen, AudioJungle, GraphicRiver, ThemeForest or VideoHive.

Then here’s how to do create your public collection to enter:

1. Decide on the theme of your collection (e.g. Best Vector Illustrations, Killer WordPress Themes)
2. At the top of the page where your username is, click the Bookmarks link
3. Name your new collection in the Create a New Collection box
4. Add an awesome image to represent your collection
5. Add a description for your collection
6. Make it publicly viewable (this is important!), then click Create.

Then all you need to do is find up to 30 of the best files across the marketplaces that fit your theme and add them using the Bookmark This Item feature on the right of each file page!

To make sure we know about your collection, link to it in a comment at the bottom of this post by June 15 2009 to enter.

How We Choose the Winners

We’ll be looking for collections that possess:

* An original and useful theme (eg. holiday related, colour related, functionality related)
* A great image
* A useful and informative description
* A great selection of files

We will choose the 10 best collections based on those criteria. Each of these will win all the files in their collection (up to a maximum of 30 files).

Then we’ll publish an online poll for the public to vote on their favourite of the top 10. The poll will be published on the 5 marketplace blogs – FlashDen Blog, GraphicRiver Blog, AudioJungle Blog, ThemeForest Blog, VideoHive Blog.

The collection with the most votes will win US$3500 to spend on the ultimate creative set-up, the files in their winning collection, plus a one year Tuts+ membership!!

FAQs

Can I enter more than once?
Yes, you can enter as many times as you like with each public collection counting as an entry.

Can I put files from different marketplaces into one collection?
Yes, absolutely. For instance you could have a "corporate" themed collection with files from every marketplace in it.

Do I need to be a member to enter?
Yes you do. You have to be a member to create a collection, but joining the Envato marketplaces is completely free and only takes 30 seconds.

Can I include my own files in my entered collection?
Yes you can! You can include any files you think are great – whether they’re yours or not!

How do I enter my collection into the competition?
Just place a comment with a link to it and the title.

When does the competition close?
You need to put a link to your collection by June 15th, 11:59pm Australian Eastern Standard time to be considered. Remember to make sure your collection is publicly viewable so we can see it, too!

Terms and Conditions

• Staff from Envato will select the ten finalists, our decision is final.
• Entry is open to anyone who is NOT an Envato employee.
• Payment will only be made via PayPal. To receive the grand prize you must have a PayPal account. You can however enter without and be eligible to win the Tuts+ subscription and items in your winning collection.
• Entries close 11:59pm June 15th, Australian Eastern Standard time.
• If you are suspected of attempting to rig the contest by spamming entries or votes your entry(ies) will be disqualified
• Please contact Envato support (http://activeden.net/support) with any questions or clarification.

Good Luck!

How Do I Enter?

Each author has his own referral account. When a new user visits ThemeForest via your unique url, you’ll earn 30% of his or her first deposit! This is a year-round agreement that we have. BUT – to spice things up a bit more, we’re also going to give an extra $200 cash prize to the top five referrers between now and May 31.

To enter, you MUST email sitemanager@themeforest.net with your ThemeForest username. Once you do so, I’ll mark your current stats, and send you a confirmation email. Once that’s done, you’re free to be as creative as you like!

How Can I Promote My Templates?

There are dozens of way to promote your themes.

1. Make a posting on your blog.
2. Add a ThemeForest banner to the sidebar of your website.
3. Don’t be obnoxious, but inform your followers of your themes on Twitter, Myspace, Friendster, and Facebook!
4. Add a link to your profile as your email signature.
5. Upload more templates!
6. Write a tutorial for Nettuts+ or “In the Woods”. Then, use your author bio to link to your ThemeForest page!

Any I missed? If so, leave a comment for the rest of us. Remember – even if you don’t refer enough people to earn a space in the top five, you’ll still earn 30% of any new users’ deposits… year round!

Get Started! The Clock Starts…Now!

• Step 1: Email sitemanager@themeforest.net with your username.
• Step 2: Review our “Referrals” page to retrieve your unique URL and ThemeForest banners.
  
• Step 2: Use your UNIQUE referral url to promote your themes.
  
• Step 3: Check back on June 1st to see if you’re a winner! We’ll choose the five authors/buyers who bring in the most visitors who deposit funds.

Good luck!

• Please subscribe to the Theme Forest RSS Feed, and follow us on Twitter.

What’s Required?

Prepare a template for either the Joomla or Miscellaneous category. Once you’ve perfected the design, submit it in the same way as you always would.

The authors of the first five accepted submissions will receive $200 each, via Paypal. Additionally, these items will be featured on the “In the Woods” blog.

Should I Even Bother?

Absolutely, you should! For example, I haven’t received a Joomla submission in weeks. Considering this, your odds are fantastic!

May I Enter More Than Once?

Unfortunately not. One entry per user.

How Will I Know if I’m a Winner?

You’ll be emailed immediately after your submission has been accepted. Once all of the slots are full, an announcement will be made on the blog.

Terms and Conditions

• Entry is open to any Envato marketplace author who is NOT a paid staff member.
• Payment to the five winners will be made via Paypal and will be in US dollars.
• For questions and/or concerns, contact the site manager at sitemanager@themeforest.net.

Other Ways to Earn Through ThemeForest

If you’re looking for additional ways to line your pockets, don’t forget to use your ThemeForest referral url any place you can find – Twitter, MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, Yahoo Answers! You’ll earn 30% of the user’s first deposit. For more information, refer here.

What Must I Do?

Simply create a posting on your website that, in some way, links back to ThemeForest. You’re free to choose the topic. Perhaps one of the following ideas will suffice:

• My favorite templates from ThemeForest
• My favorite WordPress video series (links to blog)
• How I make referral income from ThemeForest by displaying their banners.
• Check out all of my themes.
• The best postings from the “In the Woods” blog.

Bottom line, it’s 100% up to you.

What Do I Get?

As a way of saying thank you for your referral, we’ll deposit $20 into your account. But there’s a catch; you must be quick! This bonus only applies to the first 15 emails that show up in the site manager’s inbox! So be quick and send a link to your blog posting to sitemanager@themeforest.net.

Also, don’t forget to use your unique referral id when referring your readers to ThemeForest. That way, you’ll potentially earn much more from referral deposits!

Terms and Conditions

• The date of your blog posting must be no older than March, 1, 2009.
• Entry is open to any Envato marketplace author who is NOT a paid staff member.
• Deposits to the fifteen winners will be made within a maximum of thirty days.
• Winners will be chosen on a first-come, first-serve basis.
• For questions and/or concerns, contact the site manager at sitemanager@themeforest.net.

I’m Too Late. Any Other Ways to Earn Money?

Absolutely. Why not consider joining our referral program? If a person clicks your referrer link and proceeds to sign up for a new account and deposits money via any Envato Marketplace, you will receive 30% of that person’s first Cash Deposit. So if they deposit $20 into their account, you get $6.00; if they deposit $100, you get $30.00!

Learn More…

• Subscribe to the ThemeForest RSS Feed for more daily web development screencasts and articles.

What Do I Need to Do?

Simply design a Shopify template and submit it to ThemeForest in the same way that you would any other template. If accepted, you’ll be paid $100, via Paypal.com. If four of your designs are accepted, you’ll receive $400. It’s as simple as that.

Nine Slots Left

We only have nine slots left for this bonus, so hurry up!

Need More Information?

For additional information, please review our original posting.

After much thought and deliberation, the winners have been selected! Trust me when I say that this wasn’t an easy task – by any means! The quality of the templates this month has far surpassed anything that ThemeForest has previously seen. So without further ado, here are the best ten site templates of January, in no particular order. A huge congratulations goes out to the winners.

• Live Performance Premium Template

  

  “We built the Live Performance Template based on the 960 Grid System (http://www.960.gs) to suit those in need of a website template for their band, group, comedy tour, venue, or anything requiring a schedule, really.”

  View Theme

• Great Portfolio

  

  “Great Portfolio is a one page portfolio and a very clean template. It has 2 color options to choose from namely, dark blue, and dark brown. It also has a smooth scroller to each menu of the page. Contact Form is functional and ready to use.”

  View Theme

• Portfolium

  

  “Portfolium is aimed at creative professionals including but not only : graphic and web designers, photographers, developers and artists of any kind. It puts accent on your work and features a nice jquery slider on the homepage.”

  View Theme

• Coffee

  

  “This theme is a fixed layout based on 960px grid. It uses no tables for layout. The main page has three columns whereas sub pages have the left-most columns merged.”

  View Theme

• Business Portfolio 960

  

  “I built this Business Portfolio template based on the 960 Grid System. It’s one of the few templates on ThemeForest that are based on this system and it’s just one of the many things that makes it unique.”

  View Theme

• Ultimate Animated Portfolio

  

  “This is a complete, fully featured, animated portfolio template that includes two skins, a dark one (black/blue/orange) and a bright one (white, gray, blue).”

  View Theme

• Core 3

  

  “The Core 3 template is very simple, clean and effective. It is incredibly easy to modify and can easily be used for business or personal. Theme coding is very well commented and easy to read.”

  View Theme

• Business | Portfolio + Blog

  

  “A stylish design ideal for a web dev company or a business. The design can be modified to work with other types of websites, such as a blog. And you don’t need to worry about fonts! This design uses only one font, I bet you’ve heard about Lucida. I’m draw this illustration (apples).”

  View Theme

• Silver Spoon

  

  “This is a modern template which uses a lot of jQuery and CSS to create great user experience.”

  View Theme

• Nothern Lights

  

  “An amazing colorful and very functional site template that can be used for general business or a sweet portfolio.”

  View Theme

And there you have it! We considered many factors when making our choices.

• Practicality: How “real world” is it?
• Uniqueness: Does this template stand out among the others?
• Sales: How many sales has this template made, per day?
• Construction: Does the template validate and follow best practices?
• Options: Did the author supply different CSS “themes” for each template? Has extra value been added?

Though no one factor cemented our decision, each was considered when deciding. To those of you who weren’t selected: Just remember – we had an EXTREMELY difficult time making our selections. All of your templates were crafted superbly; but unfortunately, we were only able to select ten.

Once again, congratulations to the winners! Wonderful work.

So..until next time!

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