I covered Layers, by Obox, when it launched. The page building theme showed promise, and it was a big hit during launch. It was downloaded thousands of times, due in part to a very successful run on ProductHunt. They blogged about that experience, which was interesting on its own.
Today, Obox announced their monetization strategy that they would only tease before. It’s pretty much what was expected, in that they are selling child themes, but they have gone exclusive on Envato, which due to a custom landing page and framework category will offer them compelling exposure.
Layers now has its own framework category for “style kits” on ThemeForest, and for compatible plugins on Code Canyon.
Searching the go.themeforest.net subdomain, the only other product Envato has done such a landing page for is Visual Composer. They’ve really invested in the potential success for Layers.
Obox said this in the announcement:
So what does this mean for you? Well, ThemeForest will be the official, curated marketplace for all your styling and theming needs and CodeCanyon will keep you in good supply of quality extensions to enhance your Layers site with more power and functionality.
But even more than that, this partnership is about taking Layers itself further by building a solid community, ecosystem, and roadmap for the future. We’re working on the long game here and with the backing of Envato, we’re here for you, our users, to continually improve, evolve and give you the most joyful site building experience possible.
I don’t know if this means Envato is open to more deals like this (I’m sure plenty of product makers would jump at the chance) or if it’s based on good past relationships with the Obox team, but this is a good way to stand out with a new product, especially if you hope to monetize quickly to an existing audience.
