Resigning to making 4 star files

Download a theme from 5 star author and copy all his ideas

Joost said

pezflash said
Anyway, i don’t one customer will think twice to buy a file even if it’s rated on 4. But maybe 3 makes a difference regarding customers fears.

I agree. At least here on AD I don’t believe there’s much difference in customer experience regarding 4-star or 5-star files. I could be wrong, I’m not a well-weathered buyer around here, but I don’t think it really changes sales drastically.

yeah, 4 star is just fine even at the 1st week of upload. But the way author responds on critical comments (if any) really matters.

Joost said

pezflash said
Anyway, i don’t one customer will think twice to buy a file even if it’s rated on 4. But maybe 3 makes a difference regarding customers fears.

I agree. At least here on AD I don’t believe there’s much difference in customer experience regarding 4-star or 5-star files. I could be wrong, I’m not a well-weathered buyer around here, but I don’t think it really changes sales drastically.

yeah maybe not aiming for 5 stars (i.e. blood sweat and tears) is a bad idea. Because if you aim for 4, you’ll end up with a 3 star rating in some cases.

Honesty – forget about the star rating system. It’s flawed in so many ways and does not give an accurate representation of how good your product actually is. For example, some may give it 1 star to troll, others because it doesn’t work on IE 6 .

You should always aim for 5* quality as that would help set a precedent for your future files.

CodingJack said
yeah maybe not aiming for 5 stars (i.e. blood sweat and tears) is a bad idea. Because if you aim for 4, you’ll end up with a 3 star rating in some cases.

How do you “aim for 5 stars” or “aim for 4 stars” ? You’re trying to break it down to a formula and that’s just not possible.

Hypothetical situation -> You could release the exact same theme at two different times, and with release A your first few buyers are the straight-up, understanding type who realise what they’re getting for such a low cost, and they rate you generously. With release B, however, your first few buyers are impatient, short-fused and demanding of your time, and when you don’t succumb to their every whim they bite back and rate you poorly.

Hypothetical result -> same theme, same code, same quality.. two different sets of buyers.. two very different ratings.

There’s only so much you can do and to a certain extent. Beyond that, your ratings are completely out of your hands.

I personally don’t worry myself at all over my ratings. I really don’t lose any sleep over my 4 stars.

I will say, though, that if the likes of Orman Clark and Kriesi can receive 4 star ratings every now and then.. surely that’s enough to show you all you need to know? We’re all aware of the standard of quality these brings to the table AND they both manage dedicated support forums with staff!

pau1winslow said

CodingJack said
yeah maybe not aiming for 5 stars (i.e. blood sweat and tears) is a bad idea. Because if you aim for 4, you’ll end up with a 3 star rating in some cases.

How do you “aim for 5 stars” or “aim for 4 stars” ? You’re trying to break it down to a formula and that’s just not possible.

In the context of my posts, it means going above and beyond the call of duty, (blood sweat and tears) vs. just making a high quality file (a 4 star file)

Anywho, the purpose of starting this thread wasn’t to complain about ratings, although I realize some will interpret it that way. Instead, (I thought) I raised a legitmate question:

Is it worth slaving over each and every upload? At least that was my point. But I understand if it got lost in the funny

CodingJack said
In the context of my posts, it means going above and beyond the call of duty, (blood sweat and tears) vs. just making a high quality file (a 4 star file)

In a perfect world, a “high quality file” will get you 4 or 5 star ratings. But that’s my point – it’s just too subjective. The majority of buyers don’t rate your theme on code quality, couldn’t give a sugar about valid markup or whatever else it is that makes your theme a “quality item” ..

You could work your beans off to make sure you cover all bases, and still be slapped with poor ratings when they discover your theme breaks in IE5 . It’s just that simple.

There are plenty of themes with 5 stars that maybe you wouldn’t call a “quality item”, and plenty of themes that you would, but they’ve been kicked at the knees with 3 stars.

Your rating is just simply a by-product.

Case and point: I received an email last week from a buyer letting me know that he’d rated me 3 stars because my “portfolio creation tool” was too confusing for him.. it was a custom post type!

CodingJack said
Is it worth slaving over each and every upload? At least that was my point.

That’s a million dollar question. Not necessarily related to buyer / rating / feedback but more about authors preference and ability/fitness.

For example, if an author has 100 files and 60 of them doesn’t makes sales and 30 going ok and 10 making top sales, I would recommend turn on your full throttle towards the top selling files. Means, spend your productive time on where you are proven strong. Again it doesn’t related to how the buyers respond but how we manage to concentrate on proven area.

A 4 star file can be any HTML template… because buyers think at first they bought a wordpress theme. Or simple jquery plugin versus wordpress version for the same plugin.
The point is… any little misunderstanding or misconception about your file can cost one star and you may not even be aware of that.
Also, luck can be an important factor.

Well, that ridiculous rating system here on themeforest is just to stupid. When a buyer doesn’t get support within 30 minutes then they rate the item 1 star.

5 start, 4 stars, they all mean s..t. These ratings are not based upon quality nor based upon features. It’s purely based upon BUYERS FROM HELL

My 2 cents