• News about all Envato Sites
• Interviews of authors and people from the community
• Case studies about Envato Authors
• Competitions
• Announcements about New Features and Categories
• News from the Envato Dev teams
• How-To articles for our sites
• Staff Interviews from the Envato team
• Polls, Discussions, Contests, Features, Photos, Plugs, Freebies, Reports, Tips, Giveaways, Guest Posts, … you name it, we’re going to have it!

So be sure to head over and check it out now at Notes.Envato.com!

27 Free Christmas Illustrations

The best thing about the holiday season is getting presents, so we asked the very talented Kai Loon to put together a special set of completely free illustrations to give away. The set includes 27 illustrations to mix and match with everything you need to make cards and promotions. Download the set for free, to use in personal or commercial projects.

Seasonal Files!

Around this time of year you often find yourself in need of some creative assets themed for Christmas, new year and the holidays! We’ve assembled some of the best seasonal files from around the Envato Marketplaces into 5 great collections:

1. Top Holiday Flash Files
2. Christmas & Holiday Music
3. Seasonal Vectors and Graphics
4. Holiday Themed Motion Graphics
5. Seasonal Email Templates

$7000 of Giveaways over 24 Days on AppStorm

Enjoy apps? Well our two App review blogs – Mac.AppStorm and Web.AppStorm – are running giveaways every single day for 24 days leading up to Christmas! It’s a total of 138 licenses worth over $7000 up for grabs, and David’s even thrown in a few free AppStorm holiday wallpapers! And if you enjoy AppStorm, look out for our third AppStorm site which is due to launch right after the giveaways, along with a redesign and a hub site at AppStorm.net!

Winter of WordPress

Selling WordPress themes has rapidly turned into a cottage industry allowing web designers and developers everywhere to earn a steady stream of income ranging from hundreds to many thousands of dollars a month. Because the quiet winter months are one of the best times to invest some time theming we’ve put together a little showcase site called Winter of WordPress to tell you all about the opportunities in WP theming!

96 Tuts+ Giveaways + Wallpaper + Caricatures

For 12 days starting on December 21st, Tuts+ is going to be hosting a massive set of 96 giveaways across all 8 Tuts+ sites including pillows, books, Amazon vouchers and Plus memberships. On New Year’s Day there will also be a special 2010 wallpaper by James White and our very own Ian Yates is putting together caricatures of the entire Tuts+ team

Special Edition Comics Plus ThinkGeek Giveaways

Over on our work blogs FreelanceSwitch and WorkAwesome we’re celebrating the holiday season with ThinkGeek and Marketcircle giveaways along with our annual NC Winter’s FreelanceFreedom and Memo:random special comic strips!

Happy New Year from Envato!

So keep an eye out for it all happening across the Envato network throughout December! And from all of us here at Envato, have a lovely holiday season and a happy new year!

• Author’s Username: imaginem
• Member Since: March, 2009
• Location: Undisclosed

How Come?

Imaginem, though only a member since the first quarter of 2009, already has over a dozen popular templates for sale on ThemForest. Imagine the kind of income that is possible when you have so many products to draw income from! He’s 100% deserving of this week’s feature, and represents what’s possible on our site.

Portfolio Sample

Clockwork 7 in 1

“Clockwork is a premium CSS HTML template most suitable for business and portfolio websites. It’s designed with a clean interface, catchy featured cycle (pause on hover) which has two styles to display your products and works (with a single image or with text and description along with images).”

Vortex Portfolio

“Vortex Portfolio Wordpress theme is designed for the creative professionals who wants to showcase their work online. Vortex theme can display your work (images and videos) in a lightbox gallery. It can also showcase your work inside a Post via a slide gallery.”

Crisp Business Portfolio

“Crisp is a clean theme that will put your work in the spotlight. Includes three skins. Blue, Orange and a dark version Brown-blue Combo.”

Photo + Blog

“Photo + Blog Premium is a two-column WordPress theme ideal for the photographer who wants an online gallery along with a blog.”

How Come?

Especially in the past few months, the percentage of users who are still browsing with IE6 has dropped dramatically – to the point of a 1% decrease or more each month! This is in no doubt due to the growing Google Chrome userbase, as well as the recent release of Windows 7.

What this Means

In short, we are no longer requiring that authors compensate for Internet Explorer 6 when uploading new templates. With that said, we still urge you to consider your buyer before your time when designing.

When Should I Include IE6 Support?

• Many buyers of corporate/business templates will need one which compensates for this browser, due to company restrictions. To not do so might force them to skip over your item in search of a more suitable purchase.
• When you want to be super awesome, and compensate for as many of your viewers as possible – even the ones who still utilize this decade-old web browser.

Who Should I Skip IE6 Compliance?

• If developing more of a personal blog with a target market of a younger, more technical audience.
• If you want to make a statement, and help bring down the fall of IE6!

In Conclusion

Use common sense when determining whether or not to add compliance for IE6. Remember – just because it is no longer required does not mean that you shouldn’t still take the extra hour or so to work out some bugs. While IE6 now represents less than 10% of all browsers, that can still potentially represent a very large number. We trust your judgment.

Until further notice, “Internet Explorer 6″ will still be listed as an option within our “upload template” section.

This month’s free file of the month comes courtesy of JimmyMe. Please join me in thanking him for providing us with this single page template!

Author : JimmyMe

File : My Portfolio: One Page Theme

My Portfolio: One Page Theme

This is a simple, clean and professional template, great for freelancers, photographers and any professionals who want to showcase their work.

This theme has it’s own design PSD and also a separate PSD for the logo for easy customization.

Template Features

- Working AJAX Contact Form

- Valid XHTML /CSS
- Tableless Layout
- Page Scroller
- PNG fix for IE6
- jQuery lightbox
- One page theme
- Awesome Documentation.

Download Here

Usage:

You are granted ONE free usage of the item in a project either commercial or non-commercial. You may not use the file in multiple projects unless you purchase licenses in the usual way. You may not redistribute the item in any way. If you need a different license for this file, you may purchase it here (link).

More From JimmyMe

Simple Solutions

Corporate Business

Amazing Business

A big thank you goes out to JimmyMe for generously offering this template to the community! Please join me in thanking him!

Don’t Forget the Other Marketplaces! More Free Files.

1. Buy Now! (Without Depositing)
   Easily one of the most common complaints on our marketplaces is that people need to use our depositing system, often meaning they need to deposit more than they might actually want to spend. While the system rocks for repeat users – something we really like to encourage – it does have its drawbacks.

   We’re currently beta testing our Buy Now system which will let users buy items one-off without depositing a minimum amount. It’s going to make life a lot simpler for first time and one off users.

   That said, our preference will always be to push buyers towards depositing, because that way they are more likely to be repeat users, to join in the community and to buy more! So we’re introducing a $2 price difference for Buy Now purchases that will be split at the usual %’s between authors and Envato.

   So an item that is currently priced at $10 will be $12 for Buy Now customers and $10 for prepaid deposit customers. Similarly an item that is $3 to Buy Now will be $1 for prepaid deposit customers.

   This also makes it possible to offer one-off purchases on items that cost just one dollar – given that payment fees could eat up most of the price otherwise.

   All in all, Buy Now will mean more flexibility, additional sales for authors, additional commissions for authors coming out of the extra $2, and most importantly happier buyers!

   Buy Now should be out of beta testing *very* soon!

2. Better Deposit Expiry
   When you deposit cash on the Envato Marketplaces it has a one year expiry date. In other words it’s a time-sensitive credit that you need to spend. We send out notifications as the expiry date approaches and given customers the ability to extend the credit should they wish.

   Since last week we’ve also upgraded the system so that a new deposit will automatically extend any previous deposits so that the whole balance has a single expiry date.

   So if you deposited $100 on Jan 1st 2009, then you deposited $100 on Nov 1st 2009, your total account balance of $200 would now be set to expire on Nov 1st 2010.

   This is a subtle change that ensures we don’t expire credits unless a user really has just gone away.

3. Introduction of Fees on Bank Transfer Author Payouts
   Authors on the marketplaces have always had the choice of payout via PayPal/Moneybookers or Bank Transfer. While PayPal/Moneybookers automatically add charges, for three years we’ve kept the bank transfers charge free, despite the bank fees and considerable time it takes to organize transfers to dozens of banks around the world.
   

   Unfortunately this is no longer sustainable as the number of authors requesting transfers has grown large enough that it requires Jun who manages all our payouts to spend days at a time processing the transfers, while the bank charges mount up on top. Given how fast the marketplaces are growing it’s clear that it’s finally time to add a charge.

   As a result we’re going to be introducing a processing fee of $35 for each withdrawal via SWIFT transfer. This is to cover both bank fees and administration time.

   The fee will be applicable from the January 15th 2010 payment cycle onwards. In other words, if you withdraw your December earnings via bank transfer, when it’s paid in January the fee will be applied.

   We’re exploring additional ways for authors to be able to withdraw their earnings, and will hopefully be able to add additional useful options for payouts in the future.

In related news over the December/January period we’re going to be carrying out some major performance tuning and infrastructure upgrades. Since the redesign the app has been humming along, but experience has taught us that it’s better to improve things *before* they need an improvement

So it’s onwards and upwards around here as we round out what has been a very big year with a slew of upgrades and improvements! Thanks, as always, for buying and selling with us!

The Initial Offering

We’ve launched with only a handful of beautiful choices; however, if you don’t find the one you need today, remember that we’ll be adding to this list on a daily basis (hint hint, authors).

Airmail

“Airmail is a professionally built and designed custom HTML email template! Perfect for just about anyone – usable for everything from newsletters to eFlyers to whitepapers.”

Atlantica

“Atlantica Mail is a professionally built and designed custom HTML email template; perfect for just about anyone – usable for everything from newsletters to eFlyers to whitepapers.”

CleanMail

“CleanMail is a simple yet sexy email template package with 5 different color schemes!”

TheClub

“theClub is a darker color two column template geared towards the nightlife! With this template, you get the original CSS as well as the ready-to-mail inline CSS .”

Quantum Email Newsletter

“A modern & clean HTML email template; comes in three colors: green, blue & pink.”

So if you Have a Moment…

Pay a visit to our newest category on ThemeForest, and considering picking up a new template. On the other hand, if you’re an author on ThemeForest – time to create some tables! There’s money to be made!

An enormous, awesomeness-filled congratulations goes out to ThemeForest’s very own, Kriesi! Last month, Kriesi smashed the record for most sales in a single month, across ALL of the Envato marketplaces, as he accrued a whopping 954 sales! This makes him a superstar among superstars — and at twenty-seven years old, I’m in awe of such talent. Please join me in sending out a much deserved congratulations to one of our very own: Kriesi.

What our CEO Tweeted:

“Can you imagine earning 5 figures a month in your spare time?” – Collis

And don’t forget: records are meant to be broken! A bit of friendly competition never hurt anyone. Who’s next??

With the closing of every month comes the arrival of a new free file! This month’s template comes courtesy of DDStudios. Please join me in thanking him for providing us with this beautiful PSD theme for free!

Author : DDStudios

File : Nova – PSD Theme

Nova

Nova is a simple and clean PSD template that is most appropriate for a portfolio or business.

Download Here

Usage:

You are granted ONE free usage of the item in a project either commercial or non-commercial. You may not use the file in multiple projects unless you purchase licenses in the usual way. You may not redistribute the item in any way. If you need a different license for this file, you may purchase it here (link).

More From DDStudios

A&D HTML/CSS

Magnifico HTML/CSS

Nova – HTML – 6 Color Skins

A big thank you goes out to DDStudios for generously offering this PSD template to the community!

Don’t Forget the Other Marketplaces! More Free Files.

How do I follow authors?

To follow a particular author, simply visit their user page and click the Follow button on the right hand side. Once you are following an author, you will begin to see their items for sale on your home page within the grid to the right hand side of the page. Simply click on the thumbnail to view the full item page.

If you no longer wish to follow an author (ie. no longer see their items on your home page), go back to their user page and click Unfollow. Simple as that!

How can I encourage others to follow me?

If you’re an author, having as many people following you as possible is a great way to gain lots of exposure for your files! If you want to request that members follow you, you can use the Follow Link:

http://themeforest.net/user/[usernamehere]/follow

All you need to do is place your username where it says [usernamehere] and any member who clicks on the link will automatically be following you!

Please ensure you make it clear what the “Follow” link is for whenever using it.

More questions?

Don’t forget to refer to the Envato Wiki if you have additional questions.