3DOcean

After a quick beta to get some initial content onto the marketplace, we’re letting 3DOcean out into the wild. It’s still early days but we’re looking forward to building the site into a must-visit marketplace for 3D Models, Materials and Shaders and Textures!

Along with its sister site Cgtuts+, we hope 3DOcean will introduce a whole new group of creatives to the rapidly growing Envato community. So a warm welcome to our 3D brothers and sisters!

CodeCanyon

Since we introduced PHP and Javascript onto ThemeForest, the two categories have been racing along. With the top selling code file rapidly approaching a thousand sales, it was clear that code deserved its own marketplace.

So today we’re happy to be migrating all 176 scripts and snippets over to their new home at CodeCanyon, complete with an awesome orange motif and an angry bird mascot! We’ve thrown in two new categories – ASP.NET and Java – to get the site pumping and in 2010 we’re looking forward to building CodeCanyon into the best tech marketplace online!

Jason Ellis

Finally I’d like to also introduce a new face to the marketplaces in the form of a brand new Marketplace Manager who will be filling some big shoes when he takes over from Cyan next week. His name is Jason Ellis, he’s a super guy and he’s from New Zealand! Jason will be heading up our team of stellar site managers and working to grow and develop our marketplaces even further.

In the meantime Cyan, having hung up her "Queen of the Marketplaces" badge, is moving over to take over marketing for Envato. She’ll be applying her usual ninja-like efficiency to take our marketing to the next level of awesomeness!

… More Updates

Things have been moving pretty quickly around here lately, with Buy Now and 2 new marketplaces. Well that’s not all that’s happening either! Today we rolled out some homepage improvements including a further 10 recent items and a return to having featured authors on the homepage. We’ve also added in a showcase of three of the featured author’s recent items to bump up the exposure they get. And we’ve brought Free File of the Month officially into the marketplace codebase so that we can get more marketing mileage out of those awesome freebies!

And that’s not all, Jason will be overseeing the roll out of a very highly requested author feature in the very near future. Keep an eye out over Christmas as it comes to a marketplace near you!

What’s an “API”? A Pink Igloo? A Pig Itching? Not quite.

The Marketplace’s Application Programming Interface (API) allows the development of applications with access to a range of data from all the marketplaces such as the most popular and latest files. More sensitive data such as your account balance, recent sales, and monthly statements can also be accessed securely using your individual API key!

So what? I’m a designer – why should I be interested in geeky code interface stuff? Well, using the API you can develop apps/sites for your mobile, your desktop, or even your blog. Did I mention you can even design and style your applications however you want? Now that’s pretty cool, right?!

Since the Marketplace API was released about 6 months ago, several authors have jumped in feet first to develop some outstanding contributions for the community.

Let’s see what’s been going on…

Envato Marketplace Mobile

by: hagdesigns
link:http://www.hagportfolio.com/envato/

The Envato Marketplace Mobile is a gorgeous site that displays recent & popular files, popular authors, and the most recent blog posts for each Envato marketplace. As well as looking super stylish from the word go, when browsing each of the 5 available marketplaces the site is re-skinned for that marketplace, making you feel right at home.

In addition to browsing the marketplaces’ files and blog posts in such stylish fashion, using your username & API Key, you can securely access your most recent sales, account balance, commission rate, and monthly sales statements. There is even an upcoming feature where you can have your statements emailed to you! How could you top all of this? Well, you can view all of this whilst skinning the site to the Marketplace of your choice! Seriously cool.

Designed specifically for the iPhone, this site works great on most mobile phones and although I will soon be stroking a shiny new iPhone, it even looks great on my old Sony Ericsson K800i!

This site is definitely the top contender right now. Superb work by

Envato Marketplace Items WordPress Plugin

by: Derek Herman (Valen Designs)
link: Down the Foxhole: Working with the new Envato Marketplace Items Wordpress Plugin

For those of you with blogs and/or sites powered by WordPress, this plugin is a MUST have. In less than 5 minutes, you can have a neatly formed grid displaying a marketplace’s popular files or the recently uploaded files from a specific category (i.e. music-players on Activeden, wordpress on ThemeForest or icons on GraphicRiver). You can also display a specific user’s latest files (i.e. Bitfade). You can use the plugin multiple times per page so if you’re torn between two categories of files, you can display both!

As well as being able to promote files, this plugin also provides the opportunity to earn referral money by adding your referral id to the hyperlinks!

Awesome work by The WordPress Ninja

iEnvato AIR Application

by: mpc
link: http://www.blog.mpcreation.pl/ienvato-1-0-released/

iEnvato is a gorgeous little app made with Adobe AIR allowing installation on both MAC and PC! *applause*

This gorgeously-skinned, resizable app, which supports skinning and shortcuts for all 5 marketplaces, displays your 50 most recent sales, which can then be sorted by file name, amount made, or time and date of purchase. There is also a page devoted to statistics, showing your last 50 sales and the income made from each of those sales – a really nice touch for those of us who don’t make 50+ sales a day!

As well as having a slick design, this app also features shortcuts to your author dashboard and chosen marketplace forums, and notifies you of new sales! There is also a very worthy donate button.

Great work mpc, looking forward to more.

Envato Product Sales Web Report

by: jernigani
link: http://www.israeljernigan.com/themeforest/iphone_api_report/

Another really cool site that’s been targeted for iPhone users is Jernigani’s Envato Product Sales Web Report App that focuses more on your account details and sales than on browsing the marketplaces.

With recent sales statistics, monthly sales, earnings statistics, your current commission rate, balance, and total earnings, this site provides a lot of information for you.

But wait, there’s more! All the files you have for sale on the marketplaces are displayed along with all the comments for each file so you can easily check your comments whilst checking your sales stats and balance! Awesome!

This app will soon be for sale on the ThemeForest MarketPlace and there is a considerable list of future plans so keep a sharp eye out for it!

Envato App

by: Emroni
link: http://emroni.com/EnvatoApp

This slick Envato app not only shows your balance and number of sales but also your rating, your referral/file earnings, AND all your badges! Love it! Super smooth page transitions will also reveal a list of your last 50 sales and the most recent comments made on your items whilst also providing a link to that item comment from the app. Gorgeous and exceptionally clever work from Emroni!

NB: Due to the awesomeness of this app, you have to be logged into your account in either Safari or Internet Explorer whilst using it to provide the extra information not provided by the marketplace API.

Nvator iPhone App

by: DenonStudio
link: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/nvator/id337047746?mt=8

Nvator is a very sleek native iPhone app that allows you to keep a tab on your Envato account wherever you are. Although it’s a relatively new app, Nvator has already got a slick feel to it and boasts several cool features with the promise of more to come! The current version (v1.1) displays your balance, commission rate, recent sales, and monthly sales in tabular and graphical formats! Upcoming features include viewing buyers’ comments, popular items, and more stats! Awesome work by DenonStudio – definitely keep an eye on this one!

Mac OS X Sales Notification App

by: uDesignStudios
linkhttp://salesdonkey.udesign.sk

SalesDonkey is an app for those MAC users out there who want a better way of finding out our account balance than hitting ?R in Safari over and over again.

When minimized, you can decide whether to display your total earnings or account balance alongside the Super Sexy SalesDonkey system tray icon! Once maximized, the app shows your recent sales and, most importantly, how much you’ve made. You can also browse recent comments as well as opening the comment for replying in your browser straight from the app!

Great Little App, Heeee Hawwww!

Envato Sales, Twitter Notification Service

by: danharper
link: http://danharper.me/salesnotifier/

For those of you who user Twitter, which is almost everyone, the Envato Sales Twitter Notification service is a great little app that will send you a message on Twitter every hour on the hour if your balance has changed, keeping you up to date without the need for any other program. For those who don’t use Twitter, what are you waiting for?! This makes it worth signing up for!

Make sure you remember to follow @salesnotifier once you’ve signed up!

Conclusion

There’s some really impressive work beginning to emerge with the use of the Marketplace API, so hats off to all the authors mentioned and those who have apps in the making! For those of you who want to get your hands dirty with the API, here are some links to get you started.

Introduction to the Marketplace API
API Official Documentation
Make An iPhone App Using the Envato API – Nettuts+
Display Anything You Want From The Envato MarketPlace API Using PHP

…not so fast. Traditional universities lend themselves to a number of learning opportunities and experiences, in a relatively safe, student-friendly environment (not to mention resource-FULL) – if you have an ounce of creativity and know where to look. And if you’re not careful, you can leave stacked with development fundamentals, experience, AND a piece of paper showing potential clients that you have the life management, commitment, and discipline skills to back it all up. What better place to learn and grow than in a place designed for that very reason – an institution of higher learning?

Using my experiences, I’m going to show you how to USE your university to walk like a student (which makes mommy and daddy happy) but work your way to web ninja status (which makes you happy). Shall we begin?

Introduction

My first foray into programming was with BASIC many, many years ago. Then I learned HTML when I was 12 and won my first computer in a web page contest later that year. I didn’t really stick with it too much after that and four years later found myself at the University of Delaware majoring in computer engineering. That is, a traditional university and *not* your cutting-edge school. So how did I end up developing web apps for various campus departments and receiving a $2000 custom PHP contract with another department on campus?

1. I got Involved

Outside of the normal freshman computer science/engineering regimen of C and C++ (the latter of which provides a good object-oriented development foundation), plus a math and a humanities thrown in for good measure, I chose a couple of student organizations in which I wanted to get involved. I’d always been active in causes I believed in throughout my high school career and I wanted to continue community involvement while in university. One was a technical society but the two others were not. Now, here’s where you need to take notes: most non-technical student organizations are not overflowing with budding web designers. So if you need somewhere to get started, here’s the perfect place. More often than not, there’s no one else to either create the organization’s website or update it, much less understand how to FTP files back-and-forth from the server. And the organization needs a space for interested students to be able to obtain information about the organization, including meeting times and events.

So, I became the one. I dusted off my HTML skills (thankfully the core of HTML has stayed the same, for the most part – it’s still html, head, title, end title, end head, body, end body, and end html, plus a few other tags) and taught myself a little Photoshop (through tutorials), CSS (w3schools), and PHP (for web forms). As a result, a student group I was involved in recorded a live CD and I was chosen to design the flyers, website, and CD packaging. Imagine that!

I am currently a university teacher and it seems the opportunities are abounding. I just finished speaking with the editor and adviser of our college newspaper practically begging for someone in IT to help them get a website up – which would be a really good opportunity for a student to cut their teeth on some Wordpress (or CodeIgniter) and graduate a total rockstar. Had WordPress been available back when I was in college (year 2000), I would have been unstoppable!

2. I got Connected

During an event for one of the student organizations I joined, I had an opportunity to meet and talk to the adviser. As it turns out, the adviser was a manager for the university’s MIS department – the very same department that developed all of the university’s web applications. When she found out I was a computer engineering major, she set up me up with an interview for the student Java programmer summer internship. I told her I didn’t know Java but she seemed to believe that they would teach me. Well, I received my first experience in a gang, I mean group, interview process. And I did not get the job. Because they did not teach Java. But, they said to go learn Java then come back. So I did. And a year later I was hired as a student programmer, developing web apps in JSP and J2EE, making twice as much as my minimum wage university computer lab “consultant” job. All because I got connected. by getting involved. And I must say, I made some very nice paper (translated: money) for those 6 months.

But it didn’t stop there. Another department on campus needed a website and was looking for a *student* to do it. Note: universities and the surrounding areas are *very* student-friendly. They are *looking* for students to give opportunities to. Apparently the director of this department was in this same advisor’s circle of influence and I found out later that she told them to contact me. This connection turned into a $2000 custom PHP contract job (Notice I said PHP, not JSP. Once you learn some solid principles of programming and cut your teeth on one language, it’s a skill that stays with you and makes it pretty easy to pick up others). Not bad for a university student.

The moral of the story is: a university campus is ripe with opportunity. One of my classmates started a business. Had I gotten to know him and engaged with him, I could have possibly created his website. You never know who you know so get to know who you know (even your classmates and professors)!

And with a little bit of my next point, you will be hangin’ with the best of them in no time.

3. I got Creative

After I was told to learn Java and come back, I started on my own but got busy with classes (an engineering curriculum is no joke). While preparing to register for the next semester’s classes, I noticed the school was offering a brand new class called Java for engineers. Not quite what I wanted, but close enough, AND it would fulfill some graduation requirements. Then I found out about a “real”Java class offered in the computer science department, but I couldn’t take both at the same time, and the latter was full. So I spoke with the professor and he allowed me to sit in and participate. And that’s where I learned the bulk of my Java programming skill. Where I learned to love the API. Note: when you have a goal and something seems to block your way, get creative. A university campus is one of the best places for you to stretch your educational boundaries. I was *known* for using independent study credits to make up my own courses that allowed me to pursue what I wanted.

The university then extended the program by offering a follow-up Java class, for the enterprise. And this is where I learned J2EE and how to build web apps w/ JSP, which set me up for my web applications programming job.

A few years later, I found myself almost done with my university career and in need of another job- but there were no jobs listed on the student job board. So I put those critical thinking skills to work, looked up a couple of departments on campus that I thought might want to hire me, and before long, I had a job as a web designer for the campus creative services department. Honestly, I never even thought I’d get anything as good as I did. They hadn’t advertised that they were looking for anyone but I just emailed my resume and asked if they would be interested in giving me an internship. And they did.

I’m famous for telling anybody: Don’t take no for an answer. If you can’t get in through the front door, try the back. If the back’s not open, try the side. If the side door’s locked, then *make* your own door! Try some of your professors. More than likely, you’ll have some that will be very willing to let you create a site for them and they just might have a family member who owns a business that also needs a website. The opportunities are out there, you just have to position yourself with a little creativity.

Conclusion

My experiences during university have carried me long after and I’m grateful I had the opportunity to not only learn the technical skills but also the skill of finding opportunities for myself in a relatively safe and student-friendly environment.

And did I mention I did all of this on the University’s Macs with their copies of Adobe and the (then) Macromedia design suites? That’s what I call resource-FULL.

USE your university and walk out with a piece of paper (for mommy and daddy to frame and hang on the wall) AND your ninja stripes (for you to take all the way to the bank account).

Disagree? Hit the comments!

In this interview, we’ll dive into his work process, and hopefully steal some tips and inspiration!

How long have you been in the web design business?

About five years ago, I started the Multimedia and Web Design Course at SAE Vienna in my home country, Austria. Back then, I did mostly Flash stuff (almost every piece of work was REALLY horrible to tell the truth) and I also had some interest in html coding (I loved table design back then ). With every course I took, I lost a little interest in Flash and got more curious about HTML and CSS. When they handed me my Bachelor Degree a few years later, I was pretty decent with HTML and CSS whereas my Flash skills were lousy at best.

I did some small projects for an event agency during that time and as soon as I finished College, they offered me a full time Job as a Front-end Developer, which I gladly accepted. I’m still working at this Agency

When/How did you first come across the Envato marketplaces – specifically ThemeForest?

I was a regular reader of the TUTS-PLUS Websites and therefore was aware that there is a marketplace called ActiveDen, where people sell all this neat Flash stuff; but since I was only a Front-end Developer with HTML, CSS, and some PHP Skills at that time, I didn’t really bother.

When Envato announced the opening of ThemeForest, I thought I could give it a try, and uploaded my first WordPress theme. The theme flopped really hard and only earned me 30 Bucks during the first month. Out of pure boredom, I created a second theme.

The second one did a little better, really just a little, but it was enough that I became curious if I could do better with each theme. =)

You’ve been particularly successful when it comes to WordPress theme sales. When developing a new item, do you try to plan for PSD, Site Template, and WordPress submissions? Or do you prefer to focus only on one category per design?

When I started creating templates, I almost always only planned for the WordPress version. I was thinking that the HTML Templates are far to cheap to earn a good amount of money, which is actually not true.

I did this until I invested countless hours into a Wordpress theme which underperformed to a point where I had worked for about 3$/hour for a whole week. Since then, I usually create a HTML template as well, to test if customers like what I have designed.

I still usually don‘t do a PSD version. Unlike other people, I only design to a certain point in Photoshop; many of the small improvements and details that customers see in the final HTML version are added while I code the HTML and CSS.

Though encouraged, we do not require that authors provide support for their items. Do you? Considering how well your items sell, how do you manage to provide quality support to so many different buyers? Any tricks/short-cuts?

It is indeed really hard sometimes to support all customers, especially those not familiar with WordPress, but I try to answer all questions. I think it’s crucial if you want customers to return and buy your themes again. The big problem I guess is providing “Quality Support”. I simply don‘t have the time to do more than 90 minutes of theme support each day, so if I see tons of requests on my Author Dashboard, answers usually (and unfortunately) get a little more generic :/

There are several “tricks” that worked out pretty good for me:

• I am trying to encourage all customers to use the item dashboard and not the mail contact form. That way, other customers benefit from the answers as well and I only have to check one place for requests.
• Updating the documentation file that comes with the download regularly helps a lot as well. I also save answers that I have given more than 2 or 3 times into a text document for copy/pasting on demand.
• Overall I can only suggest to find your own method of streamlining support; the best way to cut down support time of course is to create themes and documentation that are so easy to use, that support requests drop to a minimum.

Do you or have you considered selling on the different Envato marketplaces as well?

Yes. I have tried to upload a flash file once last Christmas, since I had a pretty neat Santa animation. Those who have checked my portfolio might have already guessed it… it seems it wasn’t that neat. ;D

Many successful authors have noted that the biggest advantage to selling their designs through us is that it takes the client completely out of the design process, and instead allows the author full control. Would you agree? Any other advantages?

I agree, it is indeed great to be in full control of all decisions. I have worked with too many clients over the past years who thought just because they can use MS Paint they are great designers But you should never underestimate the positive impact of a second opinion when creating your themes. Therefore I almost always ask some of my colleagues at the agency to make suggestions on my designs before I release them.

I also love the fact that I don’t have any deadlines here and can try new stuff with every theme I release

Do you take advantage of our referral program, or promote your items in any additional ways to increase sales?

Only a little; I promote my themes on my blog and on Twitter when I release them. But since I make postings rarely on my blog, the impact on my sales ain’t that big. ;D I will try to post more often in the future when my sites redesign is finally done, but to tell the truth I am not a very persistent writer.

Without giving away any of your key techniques, if you could only make one choice, what would be the most important thing to keep in mind when selling on ThemeForest?

Study and improve. There are very few authors here that did a great job from the beginning. Almost everyone who is selling a lot nowadays has heavily improved over previous months. I am no exception, I can’t believe how much I have learned about web design and coding during the last year, and I think that’s the best weapon we have. Learn from your mistakes, listen to reviewers and customers and improve with every file you release.

A new member signs up with ThemeForest and is hoping to upload his or her first item. Any advice?

Use the help of the community to get your items uploaded and to improve yourself. Authors, customers, reviewers, almost everyone here is very helpful; so don‘t hesitate and ask Don‘t give up if an item gets rejected several times, it happened to almost all of us!

Final question. What’s next for you? Any special items planned before the end of the year?

I will try to invest more time into my themes, which basically means more themes, hopefully better themes, more updates and better support. I am already in the process of designing the next two items, but it’s been a very busy month at the agency so I haven’t been able to release anything new for a while now.

Last but not least, I wanted to take the chance and thank everyone who purchased one of my themes! I appreciate it more than you probably can imagine. Earning money here is great of course, but its equally amazing to be part of such a great community!

• Follow us on Twitter, or subscribe to the Nettuts+ RSS Feed for the best web development tutorials on the web.

Last week Adobe asked us to change our name and URL so that it would no longer contain the term ‘Flash’, which is a registered trademark of Adobe. We know that the success of our sites is about the community and content, not the names. So here at Envato HQ we’ve been busy thinking up new names and we think we’ve found a great new home for both our marketplace and our Tuts+ blog on Flash.

As of today the two sites now live at ActiveDen and Activetuts+.

The new names amend the use of the word Flash, open us up for adding other technologies and are short and memorable! To kick off the new names I thought I’d round up a few of the best tutorials and items on the sites:

Kick Ass Flash Files – ActiveDen

Without a doubt the leading marketplace for Flash files, ActiveDen has some really popular files. Here are a few of the latest:

More Popular Items on ActiveDen

Killer Flash Tutorials – Activetuts+

Though it’s one of our newer Tuts+ sites, Activetuts+ is already brim full of quality Adobe Flash, ActionScript, Air and Flex tutorials and gaining momentum with every passing week. Here’s a few of the standout tutorials:

1. Build a Fluid Website Layout
   A fluid web layout uses 100% width (and height) of the browser, floating all the contained elements into certain positions. This is opposed to fix-width layout where contents remain fixed no matter what the browser size is…

2. Create an Attractive Digital Clock in Flash
   ActionScript 3.0 is a very powerful language, capable of creating anything from simple and light utilities to full-featured desktop applications…

3. Build a Mini Golf Game with ActionScript 3.0
   In this tutorial I´ll show you how to create nice Mini Golf Game with ActionScript 3.0. We´ll work with Event Handlers, Functions and also the Timer Object which is a really cool feature in AS3…

4. Build a Dynamic Flash Gallery with Slider Control
   In this tutorial, we’ll create a gallery which displays all image files in a given directory. A slider is used to browse easily through the images…

5. Create a Shuffle Gallery in Flash Using XML and ActionScript 3.0
   In this tutorial I’ll explain how to access and use the Display List whilst creating an XML based image gallery with ActionScript 3.0 …

6. Create a Glowin Mouse Trailer in Flash
   Mouse Trailers are objects which follow the mouse cursor as you move it. In this tutorial, I’ll help you create a blue and shiny mouse trailer using ActionScript 3.0 …

More Flash Tutorials on Activetuts+

More About The Change

You can read more about the change on the ActiveDen Blog or on TechCrunch. There’s also a super long discussion thread on the ActiveDen Forums.

I’d also like to take a moment to say thanks to everyone for helping us with the transition and supporting FlashDen through three years of amazing growth and community, here’s to many more as ActiveDen!

In only a few steps, I’ll show you exactly how to implement this plugin into your own project.

Screencast Version

Written Version

Step 1: Install the Plugin

We begin by accessing the control panel of our WordPress installation. Next, within the sidebar, we choose “Add New”, under the “Plugins” widget.

Once the page loads, search for “Envato Marketplace Items.”

Look far to the right, and click “Install.” A modal box will pop up where you can then officially install the plugin. Once the installation has completed, simply click “Activate!”

Step 2: The Settings

The next step is to choose your settings. Don’t worry, it’s simple. Refer back to the sidebar of your control panel, scroll to the bottom, and under “Settings,” choose “Envato Marketplace.”

Most of the options are self-explanatory. You have the ability to choose your marketplace, select which kinds of files to display, and the text for the heading of your widget. An additional nifty little feature is the ability to append your referral id to the end of every link. This means that you’ll receive 30% from your referred user’s first deposit! Please refer here for more details.

When choosing which files to display on your blog, you have three options:

1. Files According to User
2. Files by Category
3. Popular Files

If working with one of the first two options listed above, you’ll need to fill out the following textbox, “API Set Parameter.” The value within this box should reflect your desired outcome. For example, if I wanted to display only WordPress templates, I would type “wordpress.” Alternatively, if I only wanted to display my personal items, I would simply type in my username.

Step 3: Add the Code Snippet

The final step is to place the provided code snippet (available in the “Envato Marketplace” settings page) anywhere within our project:

<?php if (function_exists('envato_marketplace_items')) { envato_marketplace_items(); } ?>

Most likely, you’ll choose to place this snippet somewhere within your sidebar, as I have.

Once you’ve added this snippet, save it, and upload the revised file to your server! That’s all! It’s as easy as that.

Questions?

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and we’ll try help you as soon as possible!

Please note that this tutorial assumes that you’re using WordPress 2.8 or newer. If you happen to be using an older installation, you’ll need to manually download the files, and then upload them to the “Plugins” folder of your WordPress installation.

In this tutorial I’ll introduce you to OS X’s Finder toolbar and droplets as well as how to customize them to look great and amp up your workflow productivity.

OS X’s Finder Toolbar

If you’re not already familiar with it, this is the Finder toolbar in OS X (outlined in red).

As you can see, it definitely doesn’t look “stock”. There are several new icons there and some of the default ones have been moved or removed. You can easily customize the toolbar by right clicking the top section of your finder window and selecting “Customize Toolbar…”. You’ll get a menu like this.

All you have to do is drag and drop to customize the toolbar however you would like. However, there are many more advanced features you can add to the toolbar using applications and applescripts as “droplets”.

Droplets

Droplets are applications or applescripts integrated into the Finder toolbar for addtional functionality, shortcuts, etc. There are many applications you most likely use every day that include or support many droplet functions. These are quick and easy but won’t always solve the workflow problem. That’s where applescripts come in very handy.

Application Droplets

Here is an example of an application droplet provided by Panic’s popular FTP application Transmit.

Many applications like Photoshop, Transmit and others have support for this. If I’m not mistaken, I believe this is also possible in Windows (creating a droplet, not the finder stuff).

Once you’ve created the droplet, you simply drag it into the Finder toolbar.

That’s not all you can do though. You can also drag an entire application (well, the icon) into the Finder toolbar. This is really useful if you drag documents over applications in the dock to open them.

Then you can drag documents onto the application icon to open them, right from the Finder toolbar. Or in the case of the Transmit droplet I created, I can drag and drop files onto the droplet and the custom application droplet will automatically upload the files. Much faster! We’re picking up speed now.

AppleScript Droplets

For those of you more familiar with OS X, you’re probably yawning by now since most of you probably already know about droplet functionality. So, we’ll step it up a notch and get into customizing our workflow with applescripts.

The best definition of applescript for those of you unfamiliar with it is from the Apple Developer Connection website.

While applescripts are powerful and versatile, we’ll be using them in some very basic ways so you’ll need to research it more on your own for more complex tasks.

Creating An AppleScript Application

There are an infinite amount of tasks you could perform with AppleScripts so I’ll go through some of the ones I’ve created or downloaded for examples.

I open 100+ HTML, CSS, PHP, JS, etc. files on a daily basis. I have Finder set to view files by name from A-Z so I can quickly find files alphabetically. The problem I run into is that I need to select all the HTML or PHP files in a downloaded website template and open all of them in Coda or another application.

This means either scrolling over to the “Kind” column, reorganizing by the file type then Shift + clicking to select them all or Shift/Cmd + clicking the files as necessary to select them all. This may seem silly, but perform this task 30, 40 or more times per day and it slowly eats away at your time.

So here’s what we’ll do. We’ll open the AppleScript Editor application and enter the following in a new document.

This applescript will select all the files of the same extension as the current file selected. Next, we need to create the application by File > Save As, name it and select “Application” for the File Format.

After being saved, the code will change colors and look like this.

Then all you need to do is put the application in your Applications directory (I put all my droplets in a “Droplet” folder) or wherever you would like to and drag it into the Finder toolbar. Then when you select a file and click the droplet, it will run the script and select all the files in the foremost Finder window with the same extension.

Open In Editor Droplets

Now that I can quickly select all the files of the same extension, I want to be able to open those files in Coda or TextMate by clicking a droplet. We can drag Coda or TextMate into the toolbar but that requires us to drag the files onto the icon. We want to have this ability as well.

We can create a new droplet ourselves or, for some common editor droplets, we could head over to Shiny Frog and download their Mac Editor Droplets collection which also includes custom icons to match Leopard or Snow Leopard.

If you really want to create it yourself, use the code below (setup for Coda) to create the droplet as described above. If you use another application, replace “Coda” (in both spots) with the name of your application of choice.

As you can see, I have droplets setup for TextMate, Coda, V.A.C. Validator and way over to the right (away from all the commonly used ones) AppZapper.

With these droplets I can quickly select all of the same extension files and open them in TextMate, Coda or V.A.C. Validator. I can also quickly delete apps with AppZapper with this droplet.

File & Folder Droplets

The last two droplets I haven’t covered yet are pretty basic, but still useful. The first is the “Downloads Folder” directly on the left of the Finder search bar.

This isn’t technically a droplet I suppose. All you need to do is drag a folder of your choice into the Finder toolbar. I use my downloads folder very frequently and placing it in the Finder toolbar allows me to quickly navigate there in the current Finder window or hold Cmd + Shift and single click to open it in a new window.

The next one creates a new blank file (named New File.tmp). This is a droplet called “Touch”, which I downloaded from Manas Tungare. There are some other great droplets there as well. I also customized the icon, which I’ll cover later.

To create an applescript to do this, use the following code (use in Manas’s Touch droplet, public domain).

Customizing Droplet Icons

As you probably noticed, all the droplets I have in my Finder toolbar use custom icons. Most of you probably already know that you can customize the icons for pretty much everything in OS X but I’ll go through customizing them for droplets real quick anyway.

Right click on the application (or folder) that you want to change the icon for and select “Get Info”. Once you have the icon you would like to use, open it in “Preview” (the OS X application). Click the icon and push Cmd + A (select all). Copy (Cmd + C) the icon and go back to the application (or folder) info. window. Click the icon (it will outline in blue) in the top left and push Cmd + V (paste).

Once you paste the icon it will replace the old one and update in the Finder toolbar. All the icons I’ve used for my droplets either came with the original droplet application, I created it myself or I found a set on the web. Here are some really great ones.

• ToolBar Extras 4.1 – (droplets and icons)
• Unified Finder Toolbar – (droplets and extra icons)
• Flow and Transmit Toolbars – (icons only)
• My (Jarel Remick) custom Download, Checkmark and Plus icons – Download

If you want to create your own, you can create a PNG or similar in something like Photoshop and use iConvertIcons.com to convert them into .icns, .hqx and other file types (size options also available).

Conclusion

So there you go. Some quick and easy ways to customize your Finder toolbar to work better with your workflow so you’ll spend more time working and less time navigating around Finder or selecting/moving files. The possibilities are pretty endless so dig in!

If you have any custom applescripts, icons or droplet ideas that you think would help others, please share them in the comments below. I hope you enjoyed the article and I appreciate all your comments!

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I’ll make this short and sweet: YES! If you live in the United States, you owe taxes on any money you make, whether it be online, offline, or in some alternate universe that the IRS has an ability to track (and they will be able to track it, I promise).

Contrary to what your best friend’s cousin’s sister-in-law’s friend Bob may have said, money made online isn’t different from money made anywhere else. In fact, the only difference between the money that you make online and the money you might make from a US business is that the online company (ie: Envato) won’t be sending you a 1099 at the end of the year – which means it’s your responsibility to record those earnings.The fact is that you are responsible (by law) to report and pay taxes on all income, regardless of its source.

A short preface: This article includes information that is specific to the United States of America’s tax laws only; if you live in another country or are not a US citizen, you’ll need to do your own research. Furthermore, I urge everyone (including US citizens) to speak with your own CPA regarding your specific tax situation; This article is only intended to lay out the generalities of this particular subject, and the advice given here may not be right for you. I am not a professional tax expert. However, to write this article, I did a LOT of research into tax rules. I also personally interviewed a handful of professional CPA’s (the folks in America responsible for actually navigating our tax law) just to be sure that I’m not blowing smoke. Like it or not, what follows are the facts regarding how the US government treats income made from online sources.

Rule Number 01: You Owe Taxes on Everything you Make.

In the US, you are required to pay taxes on any income that you receive, even if money is passed through Paypal accounts or is sent from a foreign entity. Let me be clear: As a United States citizen, you are responsible to document and pay taxes on quite literally any income that you make, ever.

It gets worse though: not only do you owe federal and maybe state taxes, you also owe Social Security & Medicare taxes! How much is that? Another 15.3 percent on top of whatever you already owe for the federal and state taxes. So, depending on how much you make in a given year, you likely owe somewhere between 40% and 50% of it back to the government! If that’s not that the financial equivalent to a punch in the stomach, I don’t know what is.

In my own case, I actually owe about 52% of my income back to Uncle Sam. Yikes! That means that out of the $200 that I was given to write this article, I get to keep just $96. That’s right – the IRS gets to keep $104 of my fee for writing an article that basically tells you to pay them. You’d think I’d get some sort of an IRS kickback… nope, but if they did offer me a kickback, you can be sure that they’d want to tax it.

Rule Number 02: Don’t Think you Can Hide it; Don’t Even Try.

Some have alluded to the fact that money moved around online is somehow able to evade the reach of the IRS. This simply isn’t true, and acting as though your online accounts are magical tax shelters is one of the quickest ways to place yourself into the boiling cauldron that the government calls “tax evasion”. The IRS considers a failure to report income from these accounts a crime – punishable by fines, interest, and imprisonment.

Paypal hasn’t ever officially reported income to the IRS… until now: Starting in the year 2010, Paypal is required by the US government to report all earnings over $20,000 a year. That might seem like a lot of dough for some of you… I can already feel a few of you breathing a sigh of relief. Wait, wait, wait! $20,000 is just the start – in the future that number can almost be guaranteed to drop as low as $200. What’s more is that that number represents all money going in and out of your Paypal account, NOT your total income for the year.

There’s also no guarantee that if the IRS is auditing you, that Paypal or any other company won’t be subpoenaed for records from previous years, which very well may still bind them to turn over past records even if they don’t officially do this on a yearly basis. Rather than play dumb or hope for less income, your best bet is just to assume that your records are completely visible to the IRS. The IRS is not naive to your Paypal or any other account with your name attached to it.

Rule Number 03: What the IRS Doesn’t Know Only Makes them Curious.

Now initially, the IRS will not necessarily know whether transactions made across Paypal are taxable because it can be used for so many things… but the IRS will still have full access to that information, which they can then investigate further if they think it is appropriate to do so. Chances are, the moment your name shows up on that list, the IRS will be undoubtedly more critical of your reported earnings in past years unless you’ve been diligently declaring your online earnings. The IRS can audit you for as far back as 7 years… that’s further back than a lot of us can even think.

It’s not just Paypal either. The IRS might be slow to hop on the online bandwagon, but once they smell blood in the water, you can be sure they’ll go into a frenzy. If I were a betting man, I’d say that most online transaction websites will be under intense scrutiny within the next few years (if they aren’t already).

Despite the temporal success of places like The Pirate Bay, these supposedly private sites just won’t be able to fight the IRS. If Swiss banks can’t fight them, what makes you think Payoneer or Google Checkout will? If the Pirate Bay were up against the IRS, that ship would have sank years ago – thank the pirate gods that the RIAA isn’t nearly as competent in their ruthlessness as our wonderful revenue service.

The notion that the IRS doesn’t know how to track online sources of income and therefore don’t care actually backfires in this case. Instead of shrugging and going on their merry way, the IRS is actually more likely to scrutinize anyone with a decent amount of income or expenditures online. Why? Because the IRS is inherently untrusting of citizens, and with every other guy on the street having his own personal brand of tax-evasion philosophy, you can imagine why.

This means that instead of being less-mindful of your online money management, you should actually be MORE mindful. Print receipts, invoices, payment stubs, etc. The IRS will very politely demand them if you are ever audited. If you can’t provide proof of what you actually earned/spent – the IRS will be kind enough to tell you what you earned using their own fuzzy logic, then hand you a bill for more than you probably make in a year.

Conclusion: Just Do It

Many people think that by just not doing the proper paperwork, you somehow fly under the radar of the IRS. Let me be clear about this: this strategy is only good until it fails (and let’s just be safe and assume that it will fail in the next 50-80 years of your life); and when it fails, it will blow your life into a massive pile of stink that most people wouldn’t touch with a 100 ft pole (even on the internet). Like my momma used to tell me: Evading taxes is real funny until someone gets stuck with a bill for $200,000 in back taxes + penalties and interest.

So What Can You Do?

To save yourself from fire, brimstone and tax debt, it’s not hard. Start with these steps:

1. Find a CPA that’s right for you. Your CPA can help you to maximize your deductions and keep as much of your hard-earned money in your pocket as possible. Check out this article on how to do this.

2. If you haven’t already, file your formal business declaration paperwork. Every state has different rules, so do the research (or better yet, let your CPA do it) and file the paperwork that’s right for you.

3. Get a bank account specifically for your business.

4. Begin documenting and saving all financial paperwork, from that receipt for ball-point pens to the Newegg.com invoice for your new liquid cooled computer, to the payment stub from Envato for your monthly earnings.

5. Report all of your earnings on your next tax filing. Yep, all of them. Then put the copy and all of your paperwork from step 4 for the year into a folder. Save it in a safe, dry place for at least 7 years.

6. Consider making quarterly tax estimate payments. Your CPA will tell you about these.

Finally, if you live in another country, seek out the professional advice of whoever it is in your area that is an expert on tax-law and filing taxes. While the specifics of your country’s tax laws might be different, there’s a good chance that your government still wants you to, at the very least, declare your income – my best guess is that they’ll want to tax it as well! Seek out a pro, get their advice; you’ll be better safe than sorry.

Don’t Shoot the Messenger!

I’m an author at ThemeForest (check out my account here) and I’ve been freelancing for about 6 years now for various companies both inside and outside the US. I also live in California, which boasts some of the highest taxes of any state in America, so believe me, this article has been written with as much sincerity and honesty as you can imagine.

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All this before the end of September

We’re on a bit of a roll at the moment, what with the birthday celebrations, the launch of the new Envato.com website, lots and lots of recent upgrades to our server infrastructure and the launch of Phototuts+ … but it doesn’t stop there. Nope, in the next 6 weeks we have a rather huge amount of stuff planned which in turn means we’re all going to be working some serious overtime! Here’s what’s coming before the end of September:

• Plus coming to Aetuts+
  Since its inception Aetuts+ has been flying along. Now Skellie and new editor Adam Everett Miller are going to be taking things up a notch with the addition of bonus Plus content for members of our $9 a month Plus program.

• Email Templates coming to ThemeForest
  If you’ve ever designed HTML emails you know how painful it can be even with programs like Litmus. But soon you’ll be able to pick up affordable, high quality newsletter and email templates over at ThemeForest!

• Brand New "How to Be Awesome at Work" blog … a
  One of our most enduringly popular sites is FreelanceSwitch a site to make you better at freelancing. Well we’ve been thinking, what about everyone else – they probably want to be awesome too! So we’re launching a brand new blog called WorkAwesome.com. FreelanceSwitch editor Joel Falconer is at the helm and is compiling content for the new site for its imminent launch.

• 2 New AppStorm sites about Web Apps and Air Apps
  In 2009 thousands of Mac software junkies have discovered our little Mac Apps blog – Mac.AppStorm well we’re expanding out into two new areas – Web Apps and Adobe Air Apps. Look out for the first of these next week!

• The BIG one … Envato Marketplace Redesign
  This has been in development for almost three months now and finally the new marketplace design is approaching readiness. It’s a total overhaul of the look and is packed with all sorts of features, including forum improvements, interface improvements, author following, and much, much more. It’s going to be massive!

So look out for all this and more! It’s going to be a big couple of months!