My guess would be that you can probably count the number of people who make their entire living from creating Poser content on two hands. I suspect that 99.99% of merchants have other means of support.

But selling in the marketplace probably provides a nice side income for many of them.

To me, Poser merchants seem to come in fairly easy-to-define classes:

1. Wannabes. Those in this category might have stars in their eyes -- but the reality is that they have a lot to learn.

2. Dabblers. Persons who just kind of hover around the edges of Poser merchandising. Merchants in this category might even be high-end 3D professionals in real life. But due to lack of time; lack of motivation; or lack of any real interest -- they only release 1-3 Poser products for sale in their entire Marketplace career. Others might be newbie merchants who released 1 or 2 products, and who were then disappointed that they didn't get rich immediately: so they either quit or else moved on to other pursuits.

3. Solid. Persons in this category are regular producers of decent quality products. They never quite manage to make it into the top tier of merchants -- but they are solid performers both in terms of steady sales & good products. My guess would be that they make fairly good money at the job.

4. Shooting Star. Merchants in this class burst suddenly over the horizon, burn brightly in our skies for a few seconds (relatively speaking); causing everyone to "Ooh!" and "Ahh!" and point in amazement -- and then they fade out as quickly as they appeared on the scene in the first place.

5. Innovators. People in this category are able to come up with something new & different. They have a unique idea that has never occured to anyone else: and they are able to successfully exploit it. Do this often enough, and they avoid the Shooting Star category; they might even move on up into the top-tier category.

6. Directors This category represents people who are actually better suited to managing markets than they are at creating their own stuff. What editors are to writers: these people are to merchants.

7. Niche. These types of merchants tend to want to pursue their own special interests, rather than being in the game to maximize their sales all of the way across the board. They might produce superb-quality products, but their products will tend to only appeal to others of the same passion or interest. On the other hand -- if their interests happen to coincide with the majority view -- then they might just make it into the next category:

8. Top-tier. Here's where every Wannabe wants to be. These people can actually make a nice living off of this -- should they choose to do so. Then again, they are usually so talented that they could probably make a very good living at working for some giant company or other........but there's always something to be said for being your own boss. Most people in this category will be courted by the larger stores for exclusives. The air at this altitude is pretty thin.....so it tends to be a small population found living here. BTW - not everybody can handle the praise well.

9. Crooks. These guys usually end up getting caught. Don't try it. It's not worth it in the long run: you'll end up paying out a lot more than you'll ever gain. Even if it doesn't cost a cent money-wise, the complete loss of reputation in the community can be worse than any purely financial loss.......not that any of these considerations have ever stopped any crooks of whatever stripe before. But it's still something to think about for anyone who is tempted by the lure of easy money.

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I'm sure that other people could add their own categories to this list....I might add more if I wasn't half asleep.

Good evening.

Message edited on: 02/18/2006 01:38

Something To Do At 3:00AM