Envato Notes |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2014 03:53 PM PST Whenever I get together with Ciprian Turcu (CleanScript), the first thing we talk about is, "How are your sales?" We’ve known each other since we were kids, and he introduced me to the Envato Marketplaces, telling me about "a ThemeForest for music"—AudioJungle. He’s always been an inspiration for me, a person who absolutely refuses to compromise or let himself become distracted from his passions. Most of our talks are about all things Envato, so I decided to turn one of them into an author interview. We met up in one of (our hometown) Alba Iulia's many chic cafes, and then took a walk around the city's newly restored citadel.
My name is Ciprian Turcu. I’m a 26-year-old web developer and web designer from Alba Iulia, Romania. I have a college and masters degree in programming, and web development and design is what I’ve been doing since I graduated. Actually, I started in college. I discovered ThemeForest.net by accident a while back (I found it on Google, of all places), and I started testing and studying the products there, and explored what I needed to do to become a part of the community. I started doing this exclusively in March 2013, and never looked back. My ThemeForest username is CleanScript.
Oh, man, where can I start? To sum it up in one word: “everything”! But to expand on that, whenever I finish a product, it’s instantly made available to potential clients. My Google Analytics shows a huge spike in stats the day the product is approved. ThemeForest deals with all the hassle stuff for me: things like payments, advertising, sales, and potential credit card fraud. I just come with the product, and I get the income. This way, I can focus much, much more on products. Then, there’s the community. A lot of people comment on your products, giving compliments and even pointers where they’re needed. (Usually, when I miss something.) The fact that each product is reviewed by a professional in both design and development is a dream. I try to bring the best finished products to the Marketplace, and the fact that there is someone who studies the code and the design, accepts or denies it, and also gives great pointers on what to change to improve each product before it’s added to the Marketplace, is just perfect. The feedback that was provided on most of my items has been really helpful, and I am incredibly grateful for that. I would like to thank the reviewers. You guys are awesome!
I first started selling vCard templates, to figure out what works, and to test the possibilities with smaller products at first. Then I submitted a WordPress one-page theme and a Ghost theme. My favorite item would be my one-page WordPress theme, which is called Lana. I’m proud of it because I made it from absolute scratch, have my very own page builder in it, and I built it to make things easier for the user. I also like the options in the menus, where you get to choose the icons you want for the menu, and get to set custom icons. And especially how everything is in the theme is organized. I’m constantly bringing new features to the theme, and fixing potential bugs.
Once I get to a place where I am comfortable with the updates of Lana, I’ll start thinking of a new product that will be better than what I’ve previously done. I think I’ll most likely stick with the one-page category. I’ve done enough testing with vCards and HTML products, and I just like the flexibility and possibilities WordPress has to offer more.
First, most major browsers: Opera, Chrome, Safari, IE8+ and Firefox. Since I started making all my products responsive and mobile-ready, I cover a few gadgets as well. I use and test on my iPhone 5, iPad Mini and Nexus 7, a Nokia Lumia 520 and an iPod Touch 4th generation, both in landscape and portrait. In the future I plan to expand even more in the mobile ecosystem.
Dribble, Forrst (I sometimes get good relevant feedback on part of a design from here), and other ThemeForest items mostly.
Give your best—even more if it’s possible—and never give up. No matter how hard or long it may seem. Keep at it, no matter if you get one rejection or six. Eventually you’ll get it right. Never give up! I had my own share of rejections at the beginning, and have only now come to appreciate and understand them. At first I just wasn’t good enough to get in. Now I’ve learned to review myself, and know approximately what to expect from a review or from sales. So never give up, and try to give 100% all the time.         |
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