Sitepoint 'Sell Your Template' listing fee.

I find this fee rediculous. Some designers can't afford to pay that for each post. And there isn't any guarantee that you'll even sell the template.

Blah. Stupid corporate jerkoffs. Now I can't even sell my templates there because I don't want to pay to post. If anyone knows a nice big forum that has an active marketplace for template design please share.

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=292992

Talkfreelance Well, we're getting there!

This is definatly one area that TalkFreelance can clean up Sitepoint in.

I heard they were also putting in fees for contests and stuff as well

What a way to lose members (and hopefully TalkFreelances gain)

Great. Finally no $5 amateurish wannabe "designer" sales. They'll desert to other forums

Originally Posted by Varelse Great. Finally no $5 amateurish wannabe "designer" sales. They'll desert to other forums

I am with you, this is going to greatly increase the quality of templates sold at sitepoint.

Obviously if you're a designer this isn't good news; although it could mean more exposure for your template if listed.

Originally Posted by jon (...) Obviously if you're a designer this isn't good news; although it could mean more exposure for your template if listed.

To be honest, now I am considering listing some of my works, which I wasn't going to do previously, when there was no fee. It was just PITA to browse through all the bottom quality or ripped designs - definitely not the company a real designer would like his works to be listed in.
Of course, I don't mean that all of the works were poor. No - there were many really stunning, professional designs. But in a crowd of the low quality ones, they were just lost and didn't get the exposure they deserved.

I don't see how a listing fee makes the quality of templates sold on sitepoint any better....if anything it's going to go the other way.

Quite simple - a "designer" who has just made his first design won't list it as a "Professional corporate template design. BIN $5", which is easy to do with no fee. When there's money to invest, the marketing starts to work - fee paid must be worth the potential income, so an amateurish design is NOT a product that will benefit from being listed. It's better to spend a few hours more and offer real quality product for the price that we'll easily accomodate the listing fee.
That's how the marketing strategies and plans work. Apparently SP decided to get rid of the bottom end, questionable quality sellers, which shows their long-term plans as being the place for professional web developers. Good move.
There are plenty of low price marketplaces and SP don't have to compete with them. Their audience is also different, so they can charge for something that's being offered for free elsewhere.

I'd be interested to see one of your designs Varelse?

You're saying that simply because people can afford to pay a listing fee it means their work is better than those who can't? It will cut down on the amount of cheap designs, sure....but what happens to all the people who are looking for a cheap template?

There is nothing to stop me ripping a site or making something of low quality and posting it for sale there, often than not...it's the older and allegedly "more experienced" designers who produce the half baked work and it's the younger designers who are pushing the creativity, if they're now being charged to sell their work, well I find that disgusting.

Sitepoint have changed quite alot recently, first with their sell your site fee, then the domain fee and now this....i've even seen ugly new pop up adverts appearing, it looks to me like they're trying everything they can to make more money.

I don't make templates, so if I have anything to sell, it would be old works, either variant design for a client who had chosen the other version, or lost contest entries.

Also if someone can afford the fee, it doesn't automatically mean that he makes better designs. Of course not. But the statistical factor of much better designs will rise for sure.

With the rippers the problem is of course harder to solve. But the fee that's being lost after the rip has been proven may also be discouraging. If moderator finds that the template has been ripped/stolen, he'll close the auction for sure. And moderating fewer, but the better exposed threads will be much more intensive.
So instead of easy $XX made on ripped design, the scammer will loose the fee. Scammers are not the enthusiasts of such "deal"

Of course the fee isn't a miraculous solution to all problems, it should work in majority of the cases, and there will be scams and rips sometimes, but they will be easier to track and more painful to the ripper, as they'll hit his wallet in the end.