Hi everye -

Well, the title says it all.

Is it colors, flashy renders that are crammed into a small space as possible, or just a simple enough render that just shows the product?

Thanks in advance for your opinions. 

since I cannot deal with the product itself, I have to do with the best possible substitute: high quality well lit renders that show me all the relevant feautures (and do not show features which aren't part of the package).

Success

As old Al supposedly said, "as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler."

Enough to show the item itself, with as much context as it needs.  A shirt should be on a human figure in a position that shows how the shirt bends; a hair should be on a human head with some appropriate expression on the face.

It depends on what I am looking for at the time but in general a good quality render with examples of the features of the product.  For example, if it is a scene I want to see the expanse of the scene, if it is a building with internals I want to see each of the rooms.  If it is a character I want to see both a close up of the face and a full body render.  I want to see the options too.  For example I will not use a characters eyes if all of the options have burnt in reflections.   I can, and do, change the eyes in such instances so I might still buy but the price becomes a bigger factor.

I want to see the a list of the other items used in a promo.  If it is a character I want to see the hair used in the promo and the clothes.

Big turn of for me is poor materials, if they are I rarely buy unless the model is good and also cheap, that way I buy and work on changing the materials.  I am not going to pay top notch if I have to work hard to make it useable.

I do still sometimes risk a purchase even with a poor promo and have had some pleasant surprises.  On the whole though I buy from form a small nimber of vendors i know will give me good quality products. 

I know any tutorial purchased from Fugazi1968, any character from Mihrelle, Freja or Godin, any item from Fabiana or Vyktohria and any scene from 3-d-c is gong to be high quality and my runtime is full of their products.  I have other favorites but than iI have been buying content for a number of years but the vendors above know how to put a good promo together.

For clothing?
On a figure, in a typical pose for the figure wearing the clothing.
A wireframe. I wanna see the wireframe.

And as already mentioned? As simple as possible.
No need for a gazillion polygons doing nothing in 3D.
Every polygon has to have "its task" in 3D.

Textures? Stick to the standard dimentions.
And choose; Bump, displacement or normal map, but do not start a mix and run chapter using them all for "something".

And last but not least: It has to be special. Something no body else can build.
Most of us have Blender or similar, most of us can build what we need.

And what do you ask? ?
Look around for similar objects and what they cost.
Be competitive or you"ll sell none. LOL.

When I see what can be bought for a dollar or 2? WHAW.
Even some freestuff items are of spectacular quality lately.

And first of all :
Build  free stuff first. Build a reputation before you start to sell.
No reputation usually means ; "No sales" either.

Vilters has hit on a major point that I omitted, these days it has to be different. 

For example Agatha by 3-DArena, there are a few older V4 characters out there but not many.  For M4 how about Alvaro by Tempesta3D for someting different from the twenty something male pin up or Nalfaar by Vyktohria, 3D needs some villans as well as hunks.

I think this also become more imprtant as you progress.  In the recent sale here at rendo they 65 pages slae items.  Scanning that many V4 chracters the front promo page has to look a little differetn to stop you continuing to scan.  The same can be said when scanning new items, the more you buy the more smoething has to be different to get you to reach for the credit card.

You should do background reading on general marketing and sales.  As others have mentioned, setting up product for appeal is very important, however, you should learn how to advertise your product for attraction.  What color combinations should you be using to command visual attraction, posing and perspective which will direct the shopper's eyes into the image and the product.  Don't forget lighting; this should be simple and easily duplicatable across different app versions.

seeing 3 in a row instead of 2, then 1, then 2, then 1.

and i'm prolly gonna spend all my saved pa sale money in the rmp and rdna this month,

soooo, what ya got?

i write high fantasy and fantasy scifi, on the raunchy side.

needs stuff like medusan men, women, children. naughty tentacles. krackens, hags, satyrs, swampy stuff, futuristic highways, bridges, tickler toys, dragon-ish wings, gobo lights, caustic trickery, scifi vehicles, atmospheric cameras. something like the rainforest cafe giftshop with a tikibar in it.

Misty - keep an eye on my shop. I plan on having alot of stuff like you mentioned even.  Say, like a Stretched 2014 Corvette Stingray Limousine?  

This is just a small sample of ideas that are popping into my head for products. 

Thank you for everyone's input.  I appreciate the time you all took to answer, and will try to do it according to your suggestions.  Thanks again everyone.

I want to see the object from all relevant directions. What does it look like from behind?

With eyes or skin products that include eyes, I want to know if the eyes have burned in specular reflections, because then I probably won't buy the product.

As others have pointed out, I want to know what is part of the product and what isn't. If it is a model of a room, I want to see at least one image with no furniture in it, unless the furniture is part of the package.

honestly, i'm not shopping for 2014 at this point.  more like 3014 or a rpg-ish medieval wizard's stretched magic-drawn carriage version.

and i need a baby kracken. :)

Normally the preview attracks my eye in how it relates to what I am working on today or plan to in the future. Most of what everybody said above makes the purchase decision easier.

If there are items not included that they be called out prevents disappointment after purchase.

Links or a list of the items not include that were used in the promo render which attracted my attention so if I want I can buy those too even if they are not made by you.

If you want to add a bouns to attract users to buy your products, then from your preview renders, save off the lights and the pose if the product is a prop or a room, or something other then clothes or hair and include those. You took the time to go to the effort to light the scene for the promo render. It takes minutes to save off the lights or the pose of the character using a prop or postioned in your room or car ot whateever promo render. Hightlight that you are saving me the time to duplicate what you spent an hour perfecting in the pose.

Tell me if I get the templates or not.

If you went to a lot of trouble to set up specific materail zones to add accents to your product, then show those off too.

Another thing I really like is the word PRIME marked across the top right corner.  Only kidding, I do also buy full price items if they are really good.  I even buy what others call slutware, but only if I see potential as as Sfi-fi or fantasy outfit with a change of material.  What all items have to have in common is that they have to excite me enough to click on the thumbnail and draw me in and have a look.

I'd view the venders of the month ,year stores and copy there advertisement style.

Something I like seeing is straight out of the box renders. If it's clothes, show me what it looks like, fron and back, without a bunch of morphs. If it's dynamic, show my what it looks like before it's draped. If there are more than one item, show them separated. Don't layer the tunic over the pants over the boots in every shot. It's a room show and empty room and each peice of funiture. They don't need to be all in separate pictures just apart from each other in the picture. If a room is modular, show a pic of that too. Also a shot with stuff untextured is nice. I might not like they way something is textured but if I can see how I can texture it myself, I'd be more atp to buy it.

I respond to clever advertising design and pretty renders, like most customers.

But, ultimately, if the product is something I want or have been looking for, what I want to see is lots of renders. As many renders as you're allowed to upload (including the 'editorial' tab). They don't have to be great renders. Just different. 100 renders of the same thing from a slightly different angle isn't what I mean. But if you have 20 different textures, put 4 renders on each of 5 pics and show me ALL 20. 

Now, as for what I've been looking for that might be right up your alley: Old and busted vehicles. Cars, trucks, boats, bikes that have been through the apocalypse. Burned, wrecked, squashed, rusted, flat tires, broken windows, and any combination of those -- you name it. Additionally, some vehicles that have been almost destroyed, but are still barely running. Like cars in a demolition derby, or vehicles that are in the middle of a very long and damaging chase. 

Of course, I have no idea how much demand there is for such things. It's a niche that isn't being filled. But I could be the only person who wants this kind of stuff. I have to say, my post-apocalyptic streets are looking very empty, what with only Stonemason and Dzfire's busted vehicles to work with. Maybe this doesn't bother other people who do such renders. Can't say.

I would go for a few beat up cars and realistically damaged building and streets.  I have a couple of Sci-Fi outfits that have materials that look 'well worn' yet there is little around to build a scene where such outfits are not massively out of place.  In one instance the only material option was worn and dirty and I spent a long time modifying the images to make it look like new just so I could use the outfit.

Forget the dents and destruction....Every car looks like it just came off the showroom floor, or from an auto detailer or through the car wash 3 minutes ago.Waxed and shined to perfection.

No dust, dirt, grim sprayed up on the lower panels behind the tires or water spots from a recent rain shower.

Quote - Forget the dents and destruction....Every car looks like it just came off the showroom floor, or from an auto detailer or through the car wash 3 minutes ago.Waxed and shined to perfection.

No dust, dirt, grim sprayed up on the lower panels behind the tires or water spots from a recent rain shower.

Just like me real car then....I wish

I like the ones where vendor knows how to do renders properly (no nostril glow, no empty scenes, good IDL et al.).  there are two in the ad column right now, as I'm typing, where vendors apparently still using poser 4.