Author Topic: First Sales @ 3D Studio "Edit: 5 Sales" (Read 7209 times)

Magnum · « **Reply #25 on:** August 09, 2009, 00:43 »

Anyone else sold anything?

The3dStudioDotCom · « **Reply #26 on:** August 09, 2009, 18:41 »

I just got an email from somebody reading this thread and asking to clarify what a "view" is. I haven't read this entire thread yet but nice to see everyone talking about us, much appreciated! I figured I would paste my response in here as well...

A view on The3dStudio.com gets added when (and only when) the "details" page of a product is viewed, for example, this page...

http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=97483

...any time that page is loaded a view is counted. If you view your own product then a view is counted. Views are not intended to count unique visitors but are intended to be a good measure of the overall traffic each product gets and is especially useful for comparing one product view to another product view to spot trends in what's popular (and we have some newer reports in the works to show more info there as well).

It's important to note that views are not counted simply by turning up in search results or via the RSS feed (unless somebody from that feed clicks the link and views the details page). Views on our site is very high and that is normal, we get a lot of traffic though stock is still new and thus we are still ramping up our stock buyers.

It's also good to note that when you add a product you are on our home page for a while (until you get bumped out of the newest 10) and thus you may see initially higher views during that time.

Hope that helps...if anybody has any additional questions please let us know (support@the3dstudio.com or use our contact form on www.the3dstudio.com) and we wll get back to you right away. I can't gaurantee that I will keep up on this thread though, sorry

LSD72 · « **Reply #27 on:** August 10, 2009, 09:06 »

Quote from: Magnum on August 09, 2009, 00:43

Anyone else sold anything?

Not yet but still a small port. Usually Lumaxart (I think) buries my new images with a crapload of their own. Not upset about it...just saying that seems to happen with no upload limit there.

Magnum · « **Reply #28 on:** August 10, 2009, 10:13 »

Quote from: LSD72 on August 10, 2009, 09:06

Quote from: Magnum on August 09, 2009, 00:43
Anyone else sold anything?

Not yet but still a small port. Usually Lumaxart (I think) buries my new images with a crapload of their own. Not upset about it...just saying that seems to happen with no upload limit there.

If people want shiny golden small people, they know where to go

. I don´t think You need to worry about your work being burried. And this is not like SS I guess? I´m not sure. Is the search based on newest?

willie · « **Reply #29 on:** August 10, 2009, 16:16 »

Quote from: Magnum on August 10, 2009, 10:13

Quote from: LSD72 on August 10, 2009, 09:06
Quote from: Magnum on August 09, 2009, 00:43
Anyone else sold anything?

Not yet but still a small port. Usually Lumaxart (I think) buries my new images with a crapload of their own. Not upset about it...just saying that seems to happen with no upload limit there.

If people want shiny golden small people, they know where to go . I don´t think You need to worry about your work being burried. And this is not like SS I guess? I´m not sure. Is the search based on newest?

lol.

Who was it ? Sean? who said something about somebody with x,000 images and no downloads?
I think if you flood the site(s) with 1,001 variations of one image, you really don't increase your chances of dl. Instead you increase the chances of being another person with x,000 images and
very little downloads.
Once again, I think it was Sean (sjlocke) who also said it's best never to upload too many samey-samey images .

LSD72, I guess that person at 3D studio did not pay attention to what Sean said.

But what surprises me even more is that 3D studio actually encourages this flooding of same images... I think that person was Featured Artist or something like that lately.
Not good ... especially when one of the Big 6 only recently went on a giant cleanup to get rid of such over-duplication.

LSD72 · « **Reply #30 on:** August 10, 2009, 17:25 »

Like I said...not upset about it. I just remember uploading a few images one time then immediately checking the home page.....My last shot was at the end of page 2 or 3. The variations was same shot with a little gold guy, then Blue Guy, then silver or something like that. It's the same at Most Photos and some people flooding with 20 of * near the same pic.

Just seems to me like you would be competing with yourself by doing something like that. I also don't know how they run their search engine either. I dunno though...still a newb basically. I just keep doing my thing and trying to get paid that way.

cascoly · « **Reply #31 on:** August 10, 2009, 19:05 »

i started uploading to 3d last week - have about 350 images & 8800 views, with first sale last friday netting $4.8

and, the support so far has been excellent

s

dnavarrojr · « **Reply #32 on:** August 11, 2009, 00:40 »

As someone who sells 3D models, let me also point out that TurboSquid has made some major policy changes that have ticked a lot of people off. And T3DS is getting a lot of new sellers and visitors as a result. So now is probably a pretty good time to join.

I'm in the process of moving my models off TS this weekend and onto T3DS.

Microbius · « **Reply #33 on:** August 11, 2009, 05:39 »

Whenever Alexa gets mentioned their stats are dismissed out of hand. Often by admins from new sites with very little traffic/ sales (though not in this case). I for one see an absolutely excellent correlation between Alexa stats and my earnings on any given stock site.
I would recommend everyone tried comparing the sites they upload to on Alexa to see just how well this works.
For this reason alone I recon they are a brilliant tool for checking potential sales from a site. It's really odd that this is first site to buck this trend (?)

Adeptris · « **Reply #34 on:** August 12, 2009, 14:47 »

Quote from: Microbius on August 11, 2009, 05:39

Whenever Alexa gets mentioned their stats are dismissed out of hand. Often by admins from new sites with very little traffic/ sales (though not in this case).

I am shell shocked my images did not suit the microsites so I pulled them, I tried PhotoShelter then they popped, I have had sales on Alamy, now today there is another sale at 3DS of a 'horse's head through a stable door', not microstock but it shows there are plenty of buyers out there for non micro looking images.

As the recorded views are zooms to the comp size, I am getting far more activity here than from Alamy, whatever they are doing they are doing it right for me!.

Royalties yesterday: $4.80
Royalties this month: $16.80
Royalties owed: $28.80 (5 sales $5.76 Ave)

Total active products 86
Total product views: 2,523

$0.33 RPI in 15 days!

David.

The3dStudioDotCom · « **Reply #35 on:** August 14, 2009, 22:16 »

It's hard to keep up with everyone on this post but I guess that's a good thing! Maybe I can jump in and clear some stuff up.

Although we do remove some images if they are too similar we don't think the solution is to disallow what some people call "too many of the same" unless they really are the same. A gold is not a blue guy is not a silver guy and all have markets. That's just how we feel. Instead, we have a different approach in mind and we would much rather instead keep updating our search systems to best handle that sort of thing.

Imagine if somebody went to google and said "You guys have too much stuff that's the same, you need to remove some of your indexed sites". Doesn't make sense right? Instead, google simply refines their search processes to show the most relevant results. Oh, right, that's the new thing at msn.com...er live.com...er bing.com...yea, bing.com...well, we'll see how well that works for them

While I wouldn't say we are on a google level yet, we do the same thing and results returned are based on how well the search matches the keywords and are then sorted by a rank much like google would do. There are other factors involved and we are adding even more to the mix now so as the collections grow the searches will still show the best results. We also have systems in place for tie breakers and one of those even includes seniority so now is a great time to add your products!

It just always seemed odd to me that larger stock sites would remove images if two were similar (unless they were near identical). To me that means that they don't have the know how to correctly handle that and show their customers the right searches. Like many things at The3dStudio.com, we just prefer to try things a different way that makes sense to us (and it's been working for us on the 3D side for years). We'd rather not do things like another site simply because that's how "they" do it. That's not slam against any of them, if what they do works for them I would say they should stick with it....we just work a little different and different can be good.

So, even if you see Lumax (etc) bumping you off the home page your results aren't actually being impacted by that unless the customer performs a search and then chooses to sort by date. But all searches are first based on keyword relevancy.

Oh, and as dnavarrojr wrote...there is a major upset over at the SlimySquid on the unethical way they are running their business (into the ground) and thus we are seeing a huge surge in new sellers and buyers which is great. There really is no better time to get started with us...we're not on an iStock or SS level yet but we have our own market and it's doing well for some and will grow over time as well. We will get there with your help and we truly appreciate all the support everyone here is giving us so far!

sjlocke · « **Reply #36 on:** August 15, 2009, 06:10 »

While that's all good in theory, I think we've seen Alamy suffer the backlash of "let it all in". 20 slightly different views of the same thing does not really benefit the designer and could possibly drive away customers due to search frustration. I think that new sites are more likely to take this approach to build their collections and eventually end up turning about. If I found in a search, five different color versions of the same shiny guy, I'd take my business elsewhere.

krimi · « **Reply #37 on:** August 15, 2009, 07:32 »

...why not just pick the best one?

The3dStudioDotCom · « **Reply #38 on:** August 15, 2009, 10:53 »

Well, again, I think there are different types of customers out there. Some who want a lot of choice and some who don't and as our stock section grows we will simply adjust our search engines to accommodate that.

Any time I see "too many results" in a search engine the solution to me is better programming, and that will put the burden on us to make sure we are constantly updating our results in a way that works best for our customers.

We already have data showing how customers either save to their lightbox or cart a few different views of a similar shot before picking one they like to buy. That may not be the case every time but even at this early stage we have data supporting our theories...and that makes sense because our 3D side works much in the same way.