is the market more in demand for Poser7 or PP12 stuff?

is it worth it to do the exclusive thing?

thanks!

the weather is making it a hardship to get to my dayjob. but my rent doesn't care about that >.<

my 51 bday coming up, working from home is toootally attractive option.

I hear people make a living out of it, but I wouldn't give-up a day job unless I already had enough money coming in off it.
But working from home is great if you can find something to pull it off successfully.

is the market more in demand for Poser7 or PP12 stuff?

I'm at the point where I pretty much have everything I need. I mostly buy scenes and props now. (How many bras does Vicki NEED?) I will say that I do look at which version the content was designed for, because I believe I get better features and textures in those pieces that do not feel they have to be backwardly compatible. If it's Poser 7  and it's what I need, it's not a deal breaker, but if it's between something touting Poser 7 and Poser 10, 10 wins every time.

As a minor content merchant, I'm not sure it's something you can build an income on. I've just got one item that I made (for myself) and then decided to sell. It's a male character, so I'm sure that has impacted my numbers. However...Over the 5 year life of the product I will candidly tell you, I've sold about 175 copies of it. It's an $8.95 piece, and I get 50%, so you can compute what I've made on it. I'm sure that the vendors who are better at it than I am, who post more products, and who target V4 make a lot more, but for most I'm pretty sure it's not a living.

 My view is much along the lines of basicwiz, I have more than enough content for V4 and I don't use Genesis so I am not really in the market for clothes although I might purchase the odd M4 outfit if it appeared.  Much more in buying scenes, props and materials.  I am also more likely to buy something that was made with the latest versions of Poser in mind, I use PP2014 so I want to get the benefit as much as possible.

 I do spend a lot each month on content but some of the prices are crazy and I really don't see how vendors make any real money but then I have never been a vendor. 

i no haz pp14.  

"is the market more in demand for Poser7 or PP12 stuff?

I'm at the point where I pretty much have everything I need. I mostly buy scenes and props now. (How many bras does Vicki NEED?) I will say that I do look at which version the content was designed for, because I believe I get better features and textures in those pieces that do not feel they have to be backwardly compatible. If it's Poser 7  and it's what I need, it's not a deal breaker, but if it's between something touting Poser 7 and Poser 10, 10 wins every time.

As a minor content merchant, I'm not sure it's something you can build an income on. I've just got one item that I made (for myself) and then decided to sell. It's a male character, so I'm sure that has impacted my numbers. However...Over the 5 year life of the product I will candidly tell you, I've sold about 175 copies of it. It's an $8.95 piece, and I get 50%, so you can compute what I've made on it. I'm sure that the vendors who are better at it than I am, who post more products, and who target V4 make a lot more, but for most I'm pretty sure it's not a living."

it's tough to find stuff in the rmp, once it falls off the what's new

maybe if you made an add-on for it would bring more attention?

Poser isn't the only market you can make content for. Other content markets pay a lot higher, and the demand is only increasing. 

sounds interesting.  ... i don't have the poser game s/w.

fear of failure is ridiculous, isn't it?  what's the worst can happen?

** All depends : I live in Belgium-Europe
**For starters, I have an income, so no "money issue" here, but look at it from this way.

You sell at a site, Rendero, DAZ, RDNA, CP, whatever, and you sell for -10- dollar.

That is 5 dollar for the site
And 5 dollar for you.

Belgium has a tax agreement with the States.

I have to declare my 5 dollar as extra income and pay taxes. (Second income gets a higher tax rate).
2 dollar for Belgian State
3 dollar for me.

But I now have 2 incomes, and they are added up at the end of the year, and total tax is re-calculated over total income.
When I become a very good vendor, I will climb up the tax scale ladder and , yep, you'v got it.

I'd be happy to get 0.50 cents out of my 10 dollar sale on a good year.

Do I wanna become a vendor... BWOEAHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!
Not in a gazillion years. + taxes on that one too. LOL.

Poser will stay a nice hobby, and I"ll gladly offer  a free stuff item now and then.

i'm only a part time temp to start with, because of this weather i'm home not earning.  

besides, lathing and lofting is fun.  is the uvmapping is tedious. doh

I've looked at the same thing just for fun.  I have a comfortable military pension, a wife who works, a fun part time job, my house is (finally!) paid off and the kids are long gone (Yippee!) so money isn't a problem.  I love making stuff and feel that there's still plenty of room for original content.  I feel that the fantasy items are overdone and there's a yawning chasm begging to be filled with period clothing, formal wear, vintage stuff, and regular day wear.  We could also use a bigger variety of architecture.  CGBytes seems to have the best deal as a broker, with no requirement to be exclusive. Being Canadian they also have the lowest corporate taxes which translates into a better deal for vendors.  They are also the only broker who does anything about pirates.  There's a gent ('Doc') who spends his days sending take down notices to the torrent sites.  I rarely see Renderotica or CGBytes items in the sharing sites. 

Looking at the vendors who are most successful (those that appear in the top vendor categories consistently), they seem to have a few things in common: a big back catalog, an extremely fast paced production cycle with very regular releases (at least weekly, sometimes more frequent), outstanding promo art and good (if obvious) marketing text, and frequent sales.

I don't think it matters what you make, as long as it meets quality standards and isn't too obviously niche. What seems to matter is how often you can release something. You need to stay on the front page, with either a sale, a special offer, a new release, or someone else releasing an add-on. 

No doubt this leads to a lot of rehashing of old styles and a lot of products that are very similar to already existing items. It can't be easy to keep up that kind of pace.

If you really want to make money  with Poser or Studio, I suggest doing props and or scenery. Doesn't matter which program you make that for.

Figures mainly drive this industry, if you really want to make money, develop content for the mainstream figures, I don't have to mention who they are. Don't waste your time supporting ones that are already dead consumer wise. The second part, sell at a store that generates high volumes of traffic. The formula is quite simple, but peoples "brand loyalty" stand in the way and most wouldn't be caught dead developing for "rival" software and their platforms. Well I have news for you, if your primary goal is to make money, you have to adapt:) You can make money creating anything, but it has to appeal to the market, eg. good promos and high quality construction, be it for a figure or an environement set, and has to be sold at the correct storefront. Selling content also requires a lot of research, eg watching what type of products are released and when. This way you can avoid similar type releases within a similar timeframe which could potentially eat into your sales.

Figures mainly drive the Poser and D|S side of things, but this industry is much bigger than Poser and D|S. There are a good number of content artists making very healthy livings building content for game engines like Unity, Unreal, etc., who don't even use Poser. And with their real-time rendering, physics, etc, those engines are being used for much more than just game creation these days. Poser is a good starting point though. And it does take time to build up a sizable catalog. It also takes a lot of dedication and self discipline, along with a lot of research and learning new software. You have to treat it like a full time job if you intend on growing it into a full time income. It won't happen over night but it doesn't take long to start making some decent coin. There are a number of store fronts you can sell at too, each with their own rules and payment structure. I've found that several of the stores outside of the Poser and D|S markets pay higher commissions even without being exclusive. However, just because a store pays a higher commission doesn't mean you're going to make more money there. If it's a store that only gets a fraction of the traffic that a store like 'rosity gets, then you're going to make a fraction of the money. And the more professional quality you put into your work, the better it will sell, even if it is an item that has already been done. The market is nowhere near saturated, as every artist has their own unique style that will appeal to someone. So it is no more saturated than any other aspect of the art world is. I don't see many sculptors decide to quit sculpting because there's already so many sculptures out there. Or painters that quit painting because there are already so many paintings out there. Pretty much the same concept. If your work is good and well designed, it will sell, regardless of what it is. It just takes finding the right market for it. 

If you really want to make money  with Poser or Studio, I suggest doing props and or scenery. Doesn't matter which program you make that for.

This is what I would do. There are an infinite number of things you can make. Lots of untapped niches big enough for a full time income. If you release props in obj format as well, they can be used by any software, as you say. I've spent a lot on props and scenery, and there are still things I'd like to see made. Plus, if the models are high quality, they will be good to sell for years, regardless of which figures are popular at the time. So, yes. Totally agree. 

To make money at this, full time living money, and not pocket change you need to develop a large catalog, release often, and find a way to stand out from the crowd.

Only people who consistently get a product in top few of what's hot lists are making  money above minimum wage.

You have to treat it as serious business, with product planing, researching and understanding the market, keep up with tecnology, beautiful marketing and product presentation, and quality product.

Props and scenery are not a sure sell.  Follow the brokerages for a few months and take note of who and what keeps hitting the top spots.

Make friends with a few vendors, offer to test or help eith things here and there, and you will gain an invaluable mentor.

Props and scenery may not be a sure sell in Poser and Daz marketplaces, but as noted by others above, the 3d world is much bigger than that, and an outfit for V4 won't sell anywhere except the Poser MPs.

As for how well props and scenery sell in Poser and Daz MPs -- I suppose we could ask Stonemason and Jack Tomalin, or even folks like Maclean, and certainly Danie and Marforno, about that. :)

When things are well made, and well thought out, they will sell. My point was that props aren't any easier of a sell then charactets or clothing in poserdom. Medium quality props won't sell better or bring you more money then medium quality charactets or medium quality clothing.

Sure, there are other 3d markets, but MistyLara has asked about Poser related content. Different 3d markets have different dynamics. That falls under researching your target market.

Some of the prop makers you listed here, I talk to on regular basis, and a few othes, not listed here, and I've done props myself and have first hand sales numbers too. Lot of content makers talk to each other, hang out, or on occasion collaborate. By all means, I would encourage that you verify the veracity of what I'm saying. This is not about who is right on the forums, I'm just offering some of what I leraned over the years of being a content maker. If you don't want the knowledge, or prefer to make your own mistakes, go for it. It only makes it easier for me (and other vendors) to stay competetive.

I have serious reservations about armchair quarterbacking someone's interest in making a living out of this, because there is a significant amount of misconceptions in forums, and I hate seeing people learning the hard way, and suffering losses.

When things are well made, and well thought out, they will sell. My point was that props aren't any easier of a sell then charactets or clothing in poserdom. Medium quality props won't sell better or bring you more money then medium quality charactets or medium quality clothing.

Sure, there are other 3d markets, but MistyLara has asked about Poser related content. Different 3d markets have different dynamics. That falls under researching your target market.

Some of the prop makers you listed here, I talk to on regular basis, and a few othes, not listed here, and I've done props myself and have first hand sales numbers too. Lot of content makers talk to each other, hang out, or on occasion collaborate. By all means, I would encourage that you verify the veracity of what I'm saying. This is not about who is right on the forums, I'm just offering some of what I leraned over the years of being a content maker. If you don't want the knowledge, or prefer to make your own mistakes, go for it. It only makes it easier for me (and other vendors) to stay competetive.

I have serious reservations about armchair quarterbacking someone's interest in making a living out of this, because there is a significant amount of misconceptions in forums, and I hate seeing people learning the hard way, and suffering losses.

I don't think anyone is disagreeing with what you've said here.  Most everyone that has commented has offered some solid advice. Misty didn't specify exactly what she meant by exclusive, and Poser isn't the only market available for content artists. If someone is interested in building a business as a content provider, then it's advisable they consider all their options. Limiting themselves just to Poser and D|S is ignoring a large chunk of potential profit in other similar markets, which often tend to command much higher prices per item - especially considering the process of making content for Poser requires relatively the same skill sets, so why wouldn't someone branch out and take advantage of that? Learning Unity or Unreal, or many of the other free and low-cost game engines out there is no more difficult than learning Poser. But I don't advise trying to jump into all of it at once. If you're most familiar with Poser, or DS, then that is what you should focus on to start and decide if it's really something you can see yourself doing full time. It's not exactly the easiest work and often requires long hours just to reach a satisfactory level of quality. But with time and practice things become easier and faster to complete.  

Notice also, Renderosity now offers extended licenses for their content artists as options - so that the content can be used in games - meaning that content needs to be designed to work efficiently in those engines with little to no additional effort on the end user's part. These additional licensing options, combined with Poser's Game Dev upgrade, should be seen as a sort of merging of two ends of the spectrum that have traditionally remained separate until recently. 

As for armchair quarterbacking, I suspect you mean speculation without experience, none of which is true from what I've said at least. I make my living as a content artist. I'd be making a lot more if I was more dedicated, which I intend to be. It's my new year's resolution, lol.

When things are well made, and well thought out, they will sell. My point was that props aren't any easier of a sell then charactets or clothing in poserdom. Medium quality props won't sell better or bring you more money then medium quality charactets or medium quality clothing.

Sure, there are other 3d markets, but MistyLara has asked about Poser related content. Different 3d markets have different dynamics. That falls under researching your target market.

Some of the prop makers you listed here, I talk to on regular basis, and a few othes, not listed here, and I've done props myself and have first hand sales numbers too. Lot of content makers talk to each other, hang out, or on occasion collaborate. By all means, I would encourage that you verify the veracity of what I'm saying. This is not about who is right on the forums, I'm just offering some of what I leraned over the years of being a content maker. If you don't want the knowledge, or prefer to make your own mistakes, go for it. It only makes it easier for me (and other vendors) to stay competetive.

I have serious reservations about armchair quarterbacking someone's interest in making a living out of this, because there is a significant amount of misconceptions in forums, and I hate seeing people learning the hard way, and suffering losses.

I don't think anyone is disagreeing with what you've said here.   

I'm the one disagreeing with specific statements (without elaboration) that props make it easier to make it in the business.

What helps one 'make it' is understanding the market segment where they want to sell. It's not always props.  What bothers me is that I hear more and more about props being an easier sell, and I know that is not the case. There is a number of different paths that can work well. Some people may have preference for making props, some people have preference for other things. 
I just don't like throwing newbies (to the business side of it) to the wolves.

 Two words:  Great. Hair. 

 The best hair hasn't been made yet.  Make it, make money.

 I think that's it. 

by exclusive, i meant the agreement wouldn't sell something in more than one store.

trying to shift my workflow to new modeling tools.  i keep hitting the spacebar >.< doh

I'm the one disagreeing with specific statements (without elaboration) that props make it easier to make it in the business.

What helps one 'make it' is understanding the market segment where they want to sell. It's not always props.  What bothers me is that I hear more and more about props being an easier sell, and I know that is not the case. There is a number of different paths that can work well. Some people may have preference for making props, some people have preference for other things. 
I just don't like throwing newbies (to the business side of it) to the wolves.

Just for the record, when I suggested props and scenery, I wasn't and didn't indicate that they were an easier sell. Just that, for the most part, they are not tied to any one particular figure. Genesis, V4, Roxie, Dawn or Michelle can all drive a car or shop in a mall or live in the DAZ Dream House. And also, for the most part, they work in either program.

 I'd say for a lot (most) of us this is a hobby and in the current financial state hobby's are the first to go so money is tight

spread out as much as you can  get models everywhere you can ~one annoyed budgie{TM} on blah could make you more then a lottery win lol

maybe a comic site if you have that sort of mind set  to make funny stuff day after day

without knowing more then your name in here ;-) your as likely to make a million selling cupcakes (ok I sorta like 2 broke girls)

its your DRIVE that will make you a success (but a good product helps) 

by exclusive, i meant the agreement wouldn't sell something in more than one store.

trying to shift my workflow to new modeling tools.  i keep hitting the spacebar >.< doh

DAZ, Rendo or DNA, while they say you can go non exclusive really prefer exclusive stuff. I tried non-exclusive route in poserdom, and place things in smaller third party stores, and you hardly get any sales (compared to the big ones i just mentioned). I have not seen any advantage to going non exclusive. For the most part, it's the same people who shop at the stores, so you are not getting any new audiences (not significant anyway).
Also, going non exclusive means more promos and more store pages to make, and making each needs to be worth your time. If it takes you half a day to prepare an extra product page, and you make 5 sales on a 10 dollar item, at 50%, that is $25. Do you want to spend four hours working for $25? I don't.

Now, when you go and rework your product to function in a game engine, for example, it's no longer the same product. Similar, but not the same, so exclusivity rules are different on that.  Mesh prepped for 3D printing isn't the same thing as a piece of conforming clothing for Poser or DS, even if the design is the same or shares some of the textures.

I thought exclusive, in that regard, meant that you only sell at that store, as in, being an exclusive vendor to that store.

It seems kind of silly to sell the same item at multiple stores. Kind of competing with yourself in that regard, if the commission rates are different from one to the next. 

I know other stores do require exclusive vendoring in order to get the higher commission rates. I think squid is one, (not 100% sure though). 

I'm the one disagreeing with specific statements (without elaboration) that props make it easier to make it in the business.

What helps one 'make it' is understanding the market segment where they want to sell. It's not always props.  What bothers me is that I hear more and more about props being an easier sell, and I know that is not the case. There is a number of different paths that can work well. Some people may have preference for making props, some people have preference for other things. 
I just don't like throwing newbies (to the business side of it) to the wolves.

Just for the record, when I suggested props and scenery, I wasn't and didn't indicate that they were an easier sell. Just that, for the most part, they are not tied to any one particular figure. Genesis, V4, Roxie, Dawn or Michelle can all drive a car or shop in a mall or live in the DAZ Dream House. And also, for the most part, they work in either program.

And this is exactly what I was agreeing with. People who would never dream of touching a Daz figure might still love Faveral's buildings, even though many of them were made almost a decade ago. How many ten year old outfits for V3 are still selling, I wonder? If Poser died a nasty death or if Daz vaulted every figure that isn't based on Genesis, then 80% of Rendo's clothing and accessory catalog would become near worthless for any new customer. But props would still be good. Many very old props need only a higher resolution texture upgrade and/or new shaders, and they'd are as good as brand new models. As long as we're still using polys for meshes, if the modelling is solid, the prop will be useful.

I'm looking at it long term. If all you make is female clothes, your catalog depreciates in value quickly. And when a new figure becomes popular, the value can potentially plummet to zero. I wouldn't want to work for a month on a product I couldn't sell five years later. But that's just me. 

I'm sure they don't give vendors that initial fast sale boost that you can get from female figure du jour slutwear. But, as a customer, I don't want to encourage people interested in becoming a vendor to add to the growing list of skimpy clothing manufacturers (many of whom seem to primarily make money by converting their old products into fits for new figures, with very few changes.) If that's how they want to make money, it's certainly their prerogative -- though there are probably a million better ways to do it -- but they don't need our opinions. They already know what they want to do.

And if anyone is serious about becoming a vendor as a living, they had better do a LOT more research than reading a single bloody forum thread. LOL.

Another thing. I'm absolutely sure that half the reason back catalogs don't sell well is that many vendors who are not running their own site are totally unaware of how many customers have searched and searched for a product and eventually gave up because they couldn't find what they were looking for -- when it was sitting right there in the catalog. We get posts in the forums frequently from people who want this or that hair, or this or that outfit, or prop -- but they don't know how to find it. And it's only by the luck of the gods that some of us remember seeing something like it somewhere and can find it. Only the admins here know how many people made searches that didn't lead to sales -- and who didn't post in the forums.

It's not magic, though. Google indexes every catalog page on Renderosity, for instance. And I'm sure the site search works in a similar fashion. If you actually take the time to put enough appropriate text in your description, it's a MILLION times easier to find. People think it's a waste of time to describe in words exactly what your promo shots show, but until computers have very good and fast image searching algorithms, they are going to rely on that TEXT. Additionally, titling the text in a way that makes clear that it's an addon. Linking to that addon. Listing promo credits. All these things can lead to sales that otherwise wouldn't happen. But all this falls under marketing, and a lot of vendors seem to think that, other than making some pretty promo pics, it's all up to the brokers to do it. Hence, sales while product is one first page and then nada after -- unless you're a top vendor.

No, I'm not a vendor, and I don't know anything about selling Poser content. But I'm an extremely experienced as a purchaser of such content, and I did make a living selling products on the internet from my own site. So I have some experience in making product promos, descriptions and keywords, and coding a site for indexing optimization (and high ranking). And one thing is constant, no matter what or where you're selling, whether on the internet or in a brick n mortar store: if the customer can't find it, they won't buy it. :D

Firstly, I am not a vendor but I admire those that are when I look at the price I have to pay for something a vendor spent days or even weeks creating.   As a very large portion of my renders are Sci-Fi based I am always ready to reach for my credit card if a decent space craft becomes available and, even if it is three of four times the price of a V4 outfit, the chances are that it will still end up in my cart.   As others have pointed out, none of these are locked to a figure so I can use them with genesis, V4, V3, Dawn, anything in fact which is part of the reason I pay the higher price.  The other reason is, if I am in the market for an outfit, it is fairly easy to find something cheap that meets the need or I can adapt that is not the case for a lot of props or scenes.   

Firstly, I am not a vendor but I admire those that are when I look at the price I have to pay for something a vendor spent days or even weeks creating.   As a very large portion of my renders are Sci-Fi based I am always ready to reach for my credit card if a decent space craft becomes available and, even if it is three of four times the price of a V4 outfit, the chances are that it will still end up in my cart.   As others have pointed out, none of these are locked to a figure so I can use them with genesis, V4, V3, Dawn, anything in fact which is part of the reason I pay the higher price.  The other reason is, if I am in the market for an outfit, it is fairly easy to find something cheap that meets the need or I can adapt that is not the case for a lot of props or scenes.   

 

Me too, Hornet. I don't want to come off as though I'm badmouthing vendors, because -- as we know -- we're not paying Turbosquid prices, even though, we probably should be. Marketing is a PITA, and few people really enjoy it. But -- and I could be wrong -- but I think it's worth doing a few things in addition to what I listed above. I just did some Google searches for Poser content. Generic things like "Poser mini skirt" or "Poser corvette V4 poses". Nobody's search results will be identical, but I found some eye opening things.

Top sites for Google search for Poser content are (not necessarily in this order) ShareCG, YouTube, Daz3D, and then -- growl -- about a thousand file sharing sites. Gack. The pirates should not be winning this. 

One vendor's own site showed up, however, near the top. So it's possible to fight back. He's going to capture sales from anyone using Google to find content (Does anyone do that? Yes!). Depending on the keywords in his site and on his page, me may even get quite a few people who don't own Poser or Daz Studio -- yet. If the promos on his site are as mindbendingly attractive as some of the promos here, he's going to be adding to Poser sales/DS downloads, and possibly getting sales for himself. Every vendor should have a blog or frequently updated site with two way links to their content plus information on what Poser or Daz Studio is, a Facebook page that updates with every new product release, as well as upcoming releases, a Twitter account that does the same, a YouTube channel with a tutorial or two or even some trailers for product releases (I've never seen this for typical Poser content, but why not?), some freebies on ShareCG, and helpful posts in 3D forums that are indexed and permit a signature banner link.  That's kind of a minimum. The number of places and ways you can use to promote your work -- without spamming -- are almost infinite.

Descriptions in all of these places should be a detailed and imaginative as possible. Where possible, images should be named and tagged with something that can be recognized in search engines and apps (not "promo1.jpg" but "v4_mini_skirt_promo.jpg"). Where you can use alt tags on images (your own site particularly), they should be detailed: "Product Name V4 in a black snakeskin and white leather mini skirt showing voluptuous, utopian, and young morph and lace netting t-shirt with a rose embellishment, facial piercings, including one gold eyebrow piercing and a gold ring lip piercing. Character Name in promo is wearing Product Name hair.... etc etc etc" ) Links should crisscross and go back and forth between all these sources, and it'd be even better if every vendor who had his/her own site linked to each other. High quality linkage is still a powerful force for search engine ranking. Facebook is also huge for driving site hits. Arguably, it's even more important. But isn't going to do much unless it gets beyond a fairly high minimum amount of activity -- and that's where vendors could really help each other.

I know that lots of vendors have their names in many places, like YouTube and ShareCG, etc. But where it all comes together is when you have a clear marketing strategy, so that you have a coherent set of words and descriptions that keep popping up in relation to the vendor name and the links to where you can buy the products. So much space in so many of these venues for bios and descriptions that get used to apologize for the quality of an upload rather than promote the vendor -- IF the space gets used at all. :) 

I know a lot of people hate to promote themselves. I'm such a person. I'll apologize for something I've created and point out all its flaws before I'll say anything else. If a vendor has a similar problem they should probably get other vendors, and/or their testers and customers to write some promo text for them. Other people can be way more enthusiastic because they're not worried about being modest or humble about someone else's stuff. :)

Anyway, all this would do wonders for a regular site selling -- whatever. I have absolutely no personal evidence to suggest that it would help Poser content sales. Only the broker admins looking at search words and site referrals would know that. So..... take it all with however many grains of salt you like. 

I thought exclusive, in that regard, meant that you only sell at that store, as in, being an exclusive vendor to that store.

It seems kind of silly to sell the same item at multiple stores. Kind of competing with yourself in that regard, if the commission rates are different from one to the next. 

I know other stores do require exclusive vendoring in order to get the higher commission rates. I think squid is one, (not 100% sure though). 

Daz, Rendo or RDNA don't require or even ask about exclusive vendoring. Only exclusive items.  You get higher percentages by having higer sales numbers. You get a smaller percentage boost for exclusive items. It's also quite possible a brokerage may turn down a non exclusive item, especially if you are trying to place the same item at Rendo and DAZ. Lot of vendors choose personally to sell at only one store, because you get higer perventage when you sell more and because content making is sufficiently time consuming that in most cases you spread yourself too thin trying to have product at several places.

Also, having a back catalog plays a significant role, every time you release a new, likeable item, people look at your other stuff too, and good 20% sales will come from the back catalog. If your back catalog is not huge, that effect is lost very fast. Releasing at one, or at most two brokerages definitely has benefits.

Me too, Hornet. I don't want to come off as though I'm badmouthing vendors, because -- as we know -- we're not paying Turbosquid prices, even though, we probably should be. Marketing is a PITA, and few people really enjoy it. But -- and I could be wrong -- but I think it's worth doing a few things in addition to what I listed above. I just did some Google searches for Poser content. Generic things like "Poser mini skirt" or "Poser corvette V4 poses". Nobody's search results will be identical, but I found some eye opening things.

Top sites for Google search for Poser content are (not necessarily in this order) ShareCG, YouTube, Daz3D, and then -- growl -- about a thousand file sharing sites. Gack. The pirates should not be winning this. 

One vendor's own site showed up, however, near the top. So it's possible to fight back. He's going to capture sales from anyone using Google to find content (Does anyone do that? Yes!). Depending on the keywords in his site and on his page, me may even get quite a few people who don't own Poser or Daz Studio -- yet. If the promos on his site are as mindbendingly attractive as some of the promos here, he's going to be adding to Poser sales/DS downloads, and possibly getting sales for himself. Every vendor should have a blog or frequently updated site with two way links to their content plus information on what Poser or Daz Studio is, a Facebook page that updates with every new product release, as well as upcoming releases, a Twitter account that does the same, a YouTube channel with a tutorial or two or even some trailers for product releases (I've never seen this for typical Poser content, but why not?), some freebies on ShareCG, and helpful posts in 3D forums that are indexed and permit a signature banner link.  That's kind of a minimum. The number of places and ways you can use to promote your work -- without spamming -- are almost infinite.

Descriptions in all of these places should be a detailed and imaginative as possible. Where possible, images should be named and tagged with something that can be recognized in search engines and apps (not "promo1.jpg" but "v4_mini_skirt_promo.jpg"). Where you can use alt tags on images (your own site particularly), they should be detailed: "Product Name V4 in a black snakeskin and white leather mini skirt showing voluptuous, utopian, and young morph and lace netting t-shirt with a rose embellishment, facial piercings, including one gold eyebrow piercing and a gold ring lip piercing. Character Name in promo is wearing Product Name hair.... etc etc etc" ) Links should crisscross and go back and forth between all these sources, and it'd be even better if every vendor who had his/her own site linked to each other. High quality linkage is still a powerful force for search engine ranking. Facebook is also huge for driving site hits. Arguably, it's even more important. But isn't going to do much unless it gets beyond a fairly high minimum amount of activity -- and that's where vendors could really help each other.

I know that lots of vendors have their names in many places, like YouTube and ShareCG, etc. But where it all comes together is when you have a clear marketing strategy, so that you have a coherent set of words and descriptions that keep popping up in relation to the vendor name and the links to where you can buy the products. So much space in so many of these venues for bios and descriptions that get used to apologize for the quality of an upload rather than promote the vendor -- IF the space gets used at all. :) 

I know a lot of people hate to promote themselves. I'm such a person. I'll apologize for something I've created and point out all its flaws before I'll say anything else. If a vendor has a similar problem they should probably get other vendors, and/or their testers and customers to write some promo text for them. Other people can be way more enthusiastic because they're not worried about being modest or humble about someone else's stuff. :)

---

Anyway, all this would do wonders for a regular site selling -- whatever. I have absolutely no personal evidence to suggest that it would help Poser content sales. Only the broker admins looking at search words and site referrals would know that. So..... take it all with however many grains of salt you like. 

ROFL, spending all the time it takes to accomplish all this means no vendor has even an iota of time to create new models, much less rig them. You do realize you're talking about a full time job just updating social websites, right?

It's not as much an aversion to self promotion, it's the hours on a clock.

Me too, Hornet. I don't want to come off as though I'm badmouthing vendors, because -- as we know -- we're not paying Turbosquid prices, even though, we probably should be. Marketing is a PITA, and few people really enjoy it. But -- and I could be wrong -- but I think it's worth doing a few things in addition to what I listed above. I just did some Google searches for Poser content. Generic things like "Poser mini skirt" or "Poser corvette V4 poses". Nobody's search results will be identical, but I found some eye opening things.

Top sites for Google search for Poser content are (not necessarily in this order) ShareCG, YouTube, Daz3D, and then -- growl -- about a thousand file sharing sites. Gack. The pirates should not be winning this. 

One vendor's own site showed up, however, near the top. So it's possible to fight back. He's going to capture sales from anyone using Google to find content (Does anyone do that? Yes!). Depending on the keywords in his site and on his page, me may even get quite a few people who don't own Poser or Daz Studio -- yet. If the promos on his site are as mindbendingly attractive as some of the promos here, he's going to be adding to Poser sales/DS downloads, and possibly getting sales for himself. Every vendor should have a blog or frequently updated site with two way links to their content plus information on what Poser or Daz Studio is, a Facebook page that updates with every new product release, as well as upcoming releases, a Twitter account that does the same, a YouTube channel with a tutorial or two or even some trailers for product releases (I've never seen this for typical Poser content, but why not?), some freebies on ShareCG, and helpful posts in 3D forums that are indexed and permit a signature banner link.  That's kind of a minimum. The number of places and ways you can use to promote your work -- without spamming -- are almost infinite.

Descriptions in all of these places should be a detailed and imaginative as possible. Where possible, images should be named and tagged with something that can be recognized in search engines and apps (not "promo1.jpg" but "v4_mini_skirt_promo.jpg"). Where you can use alt tags on images (your own site particularly), they should be detailed: "Product Name V4 in a black snakeskin and white leather mini skirt showing voluptuous, utopian, and young morph and lace netting t-shirt with a rose embellishment, facial piercings, including one gold eyebrow piercing and a gold ring lip piercing. Character Name in promo is wearing Product Name hair.... etc etc etc" ) Links should crisscross and go back and forth between all these sources, and it'd be even better if every vendor who had his/her own site linked to each other. High quality linkage is still a powerful force for search engine ranking. Facebook is also huge for driving site hits. Arguably, it's even more important. But isn't going to do much unless it gets beyond a fairly high minimum amount of activity -- and that's where vendors could really help each other.

I know that lots of vendors have their names in many places, like YouTube and ShareCG, etc. But where it all comes together is when you have a clear marketing strategy, so that you have a coherent set of words and descriptions that keep popping up in relation to the vendor name and the links to where you can buy the products. So much space in so many of these venues for bios and descriptions that get used to apologize for the quality of an upload rather than promote the vendor -- IF the space gets used at all. :) 

I know a lot of people hate to promote themselves. I'm such a person. I'll apologize for something I've created and point out all its flaws before I'll say anything else. If a vendor has a similar problem they should probably get other vendors, and/or their testers and customers to write some promo text for them. Other people can be way more enthusiastic because they're not worried about being modest or humble about someone else's stuff. :)

---

Anyway, all this would do wonders for a regular site selling -- whatever. I have absolutely no personal evidence to suggest that it would help Poser content sales. Only the broker admins looking at search words and site referrals would know that. So..... take it all with however many grains of salt you like. 

ROFL, spending all the time it takes to accomplish all this means no vendor has even an iota of time to create new models, much less rig them. You do realize you're talking about a full time job just updating social websites, right?

It's not as much an aversion to self promotion, it's the hours on a clock.

Yep yep, I was about to say the same thing. Making content is a full time job and then some, one that does not give you time for extensive marketing efforts, and not enough money to hire someone. You have to rely on the brokerages, and maybe sub groups of vendors pooling resources. There are only so many hours in the day. And if you don't finish your product, there is nothing to promote.

Me too, Hornet. I don't want to come off as though I'm badmouthing vendors, because -- as we know -- we're not paying Turbosquid prices, even though, we probably should be. Marketing is a PITA, and few people really enjoy it. But -- and I could be wrong -- but I think it's worth doing a few things in addition to what I listed above. I just did some Google searches for Poser content. Generic things like "Poser mini skirt" or "Poser corvette V4 poses". Nobody's search results will be identical, but I found some eye opening things.

Top sites for Google search for Poser content are (not necessarily in this order) ShareCG, YouTube, Daz3D, and then -- growl -- about a thousand file sharing sites. Gack. The pirates should not be winning this. 

One vendor's own site showed up, however, near the top. So it's possible to fight back. He's going to capture sales from anyone using Google to find content (Does anyone do that? Yes!). Depending on the keywords in his site and on his page, me may even get quite a few people who don't own Poser or Daz Studio -- yet. If the promos on his site are as mindbendingly attractive as some of the promos here, he's going to be adding to Poser sales/DS downloads, and possibly getting sales for himself. Every vendor should have a blog or frequently updated site with two way links to their content plus information on what Poser or Daz Studio is, a Facebook page that updates with every new product release, as well as upcoming releases, a Twitter account that does the same, a YouTube channel with a tutorial or two or even some trailers for product releases (I've never seen this for typical Poser content, but why not?), some freebies on ShareCG, and helpful posts in 3D forums that are indexed and permit a signature banner link.  That's kind of a minimum. The number of places and ways you can use to promote your work -- without spamming -- are almost infinite.

Descriptions in all of these places should be a detailed and imaginative as possible. Where possible, images should be named and tagged with something that can be recognized in search engines and apps (not "promo1.jpg" but "v4_mini_skirt_promo.jpg"). Where you can use alt tags on images (your own site particularly), they should be detailed: "Product Name V4 in a black snakeskin and white leather mini skirt showing voluptuous, utopian, and young morph and lace netting t-shirt with a rose embellishment, facial piercings, including one gold eyebrow piercing and a gold ring lip piercing. Character Name in promo is wearing Product Name hair.... etc etc etc" ) Links should crisscross and go back and forth between all these sources, and it'd be even better if every vendor who had his/her own site linked to each other. High quality linkage is still a powerful force for search engine ranking. Facebook is also huge for driving site hits. Arguably, it's even more important. But isn't going to do much unless it gets beyond a fairly high minimum amount of activity -- and that's where vendors could really help each other.

I know that lots of vendors have their names in many places, like YouTube and ShareCG, etc. But where it all comes together is when you have a clear marketing strategy, so that you have a coherent set of words and descriptions that keep popping up in relation to the vendor name and the links to where you can buy the products. So much space in so many of these venues for bios and descriptions that get used to apologize for the quality of an upload rather than promote the vendor -- IF the space gets used at all. :) 

I know a lot of people hate to promote themselves. I'm such a person. I'll apologize for something I've created and point out all its flaws before I'll say anything else. If a vendor has a similar problem they should probably get other vendors, and/or their testers and customers to write some promo text for them. Other people can be way more enthusiastic because they're not worried about being modest or humble about someone else's stuff. :)

---

Anyway, all this would do wonders for a regular site selling -- whatever. I have absolutely no personal evidence to suggest that it would help Poser content sales. Only the broker admins looking at search words and site referrals would know that. So..... take it all with however many grains of salt you like. 

ROFL, spending all the time it takes to accomplish all this means no vendor has even an iota of time to create new models, much less rig them. You do realize you're talking about a full time job just updating social websites, right?

It's not as much an aversion to self promotion, it's the hours on a clock.

Yep yep, I was about to say the same thing. Making content is a full time job and then some, one that does not give you time for extensive marketing efforts, and not enough money to hire someone. You have to rely on the brokerages, and maybe sub groups of vendors pooling resources. There are only so many hours in the day. And if you don't finish your product, there is nothing to promote.

And that kind of thinking is what separates the hobbyist from the professional. I don't mean any disrespect, but honestly, I have to agree with Moriador here. Many of the points she lists are quite possible, along with a few others I can think of that she failed to mention, and some of the more dedicated vendors do accomplish them and still manage to have a life outside of content creation. Granted, everybody's schedules and personal lives are different, but it comes down to time management and setting priorities. If it is intended to be a full time business then you have to treat it like a full time job - actually two full time jobs, or even three, if that's what it takes, especially in the beginning, just like any other business, if you expect it to produce a full time, livable income. Yes, it is hard work, and many long hours, and it will probably require going without sleep here and there - actually no, not probably, it DOES require going without sleep here and there. Sometimes more often than not. But again, it's all about how dedicated you are and how much time and effort you're willing and able to put into it. If it was easy then everybody would be doing it. Granted, I don't have the same vendor experience that you have. Most of my work comes from private commissions, but I still have maintenance on those commissions. I still have to keep up with all my clients. I don't have the help of a brokerage to handle all of the problems that customers might run into, I have to do all of that myself. Part of why I'm not (yet) a vendor is due to keeping up with my clients and meeting their needs, which often cuts into current projects I have with other clients and sets things back, so I have to set priorities and schedule when I'm going to be working on various items. And its in the down times that I get to work on the projects that are intended to be vendor items. I don't mind going without sleep if that's what it takes to get a job done. If I'm not working on something then I'm not making money. Yet I still don't feel like I'm producing at the rate that I should be producing, and that's my fault. Something I'm working on correcting. 

But this line of work often does require working round the clock, and it's not something that can be taken as a hobby if you intend on making it a real profession. And if you don't love it then you'll learn to hate it pretty quick. There are content artists that make $50 to $100K and more per year, doing exactly this kind of work - not necessarily for Poser or DS though. For most, definitely not. The ones making that kind of money may still be working in Poser and DS at times but have branched out into the bigger scene and are selling their content at Turbosquid, or Unity, or any number of the other content markets, or their own websites. They've built up a solid customer base and a reputation for themselves and their work. And when they're not making content they're working on freelance jobs, animations, etc., because they take their work seriously and put every minute of free time they have into it, because they don't just treat it as a hobby, it's their livelihood. 

And it always helps if you have no life. That just means you have more time to work. Afterall, in this business sleep is a luxury for the weak. ;)

---

Anyway, all this would do wonders for a regular site selling -- whatever. I have absolutely no personal evidence to suggest that it would help Poser content sales. Only the broker admins looking at search words and site referrals would know that. So..... take it all with however many grains of salt you like. 

ROFL, spending all the time it takes to accomplish all this means no vendor has even an iota of time to create new models, much less rig them. You do realize you're talking about a full time job just updating social websites, right?

It's not as much an aversion to self promotion, it's the hours on a clock.

Yep yep, I was about to say the same thing. Making content is a full time job and then some, one that does not give you time for extensive marketing efforts, and not enough money to hire someone. You have to rely on the brokerages, and maybe sub groups of vendors pooling resources. There are only so many hours in the day. And if you don't finish your product, there is nothing to promote.

And that kind of thinking is what separates the hobbyist from the professional. I don't mean any disrespect, but honestly, I have to agree with Moriador here. Many of the points she lists are quite possible, along with a few others I can think of that she failed to mention, and some of the more dedicated vendors do accomplish them and still manage to have a life outside of content creation. Granted, everybody's schedules and personal lives are different, but it comes down to time management and setting priorities. If it is intended to be a full time business then you have to treat it like a full time job - actually two full time jobs, or even three, if that's what it takes, especially in the beginning, just like any other business, if you expect it to produce a full time, livable income. Yes, it is hard work, and many long hours, and it will probably require going without sleep here and there - actually no, not probably, it DOES require going without sleep here and there. Sometimes more often than not. But again, it's all about how dedicated you are and how much time and effort you're willing and able to put into it. If it was easy then everybody would be doing it. Granted, I don't have the same vendor experience that you have. Most of my work comes from private commissions, but I still have maintenance on those commissions. I still have to keep up with all my clients. I don't have the help of a brokerage to handle all of the problems that customers might run into, I have to do all of that myself. Part of why I'm not (yet) a vendor is due to keeping up with my clients and meeting their needs, which often cuts into current projects I have with other clients and sets things back, so I have to set priorities and schedule when I'm going to be working on various items. And its in the down times that I get to work on the projects that are intended to be vendor items. I don't mind going without sleep if that's what it takes to get a job done. If I'm not working on something then I'm not making money. Yet I still don't feel like I'm producing at the rate that I should be producing, and that's my fault. Something I'm working on correcting. 

But this line of work often does require working round the clock, and it's not something that can be taken as a hobby if you intend on making it a real profession. And if you don't love it then you'll learn to hate it pretty quick. There are content artists that make $50 to $100K and more per year, doing exactly this kind of work - not necessarily for Poser or DS though. For most, definitely not. The ones making that kind of money may still be working in Poser and DS at times but have branched out into the bigger scene and are selling their content at Turbosquid, or Unity, or any number of the other content markets, or their own websites. They've built up a solid customer base and a reputation for themselves and their work. And when they're not making content they're working on freelance jobs, animations, etc., because they take their work seriously and put every minute of free time they have into it, because they don't just treat it as a hobby, it's their livelihood. 

And it always helps if you have no life. That just means you have more time to work. Afterall, in this business sleep is a luxury for the weak. ;)

While you say you don't mean disrespect, you are being quite disrespectful, especially considering you are quoting me in your post. You may need to leave it to me how much time and professionalism I have and how much time, or how I invest it or at least put a little effort into learning about it before being down your nose judgemental about it. 
Just because you don't see people doing what you think they should be doing it doesn't mean it is not happening, or that they are being lazy or not dedicated and whatever else you said or insinuated here.  You're not exactly privy to what I do or what kind of money I make, or at what effort.
I'm surprised this kind of invalidating and disrespectful posting is acceptable especially by a moderator of the forum. sigh

This sort of reminded me why Vendors don't usually frequent forums, I seem to forget that about once a year when I'm in between projects.

I'm with Connie on this.

What was just described is a function of our respective brokerages' Marketing department. This is one of the reasons we give them a portion of our sales for, so it frees us to focus on making content. If they aren't on their jobs, we let them know. 

This sort of reminded me why Vendors don't usually frequent forums, I seem to forget that about once a year when I'm in between projects.

hehe

I think content creators are better off letting the stores do the promotion, all you can really do is make good looking promos and hand it off for them to use their channels for promo, it's kind of what your paying them for, anything extra that an individual does is minimal and just eats into production time(facebook posts,forum posts etc don't generally equal sales), same goes for support ,if you can find a store that handles that for you it'll equal more production time.

This sort of reminded me why Vendors don't usually frequent forums, I seem to forget that about once a year when I'm in between projects.

hehe

I know, some old habits still pop up on occasion... go figure.
I think I was avoiding doing homework.

Wow. I'm not being judgmental Connie. I apologize if you took it that way. My comments weren't directed specifically at you but at the conversation as a whole - notice how you weren't the only one whose comments I quoted - and I wasn't trying to start or perpetuate an argument, or step on anyone's toes, vendor or otherwise. I specifically never said it was an easy field to get into - in fact, I've stated multiple times that starting off slow to test the waters and see if it's really something you can see yourself doing full time is the best way to go ('you' being in general here). Because a lot of people try and soon discover they just don't have it in them. Many think it's easy work that most anyone can do and make a quick buck "if they just learn the software", until they actually start trying. It's not for everybody. And I wasn't intentionally implying that you're lazy or don't approach your work the way you should, because again, my comments weren't directed at you specifically. I don't have the first clue how you, the individual approaches your work. (I've looked at your catalog and you have a solid body of work and definitely some strong talent). But at the same time I know the kind of work and hours it entails because I've been doing it for a number of years now - 3 of those years were spent in school, working in a nose-to-the-grindstone production environment where work days were anywhere from 12 to 16 to 20 hours, 6 to 7 days a week with zero tolerance for excuses, because that's how most studio environments are in this industry. They don't want to hear "there aren't enough hours, or there isn't enough time". You make time, or you get replaced. And yes, I do make my living as a content artist. So you aren't speaking to a novice here, or someone who "hasn't done their research" or doesn't communicate with other vendors and content artists. But I don't want to argue with you about it. If you say the (pretty much universal) laws of business and promotion don't apply to being a vendor then I'll take your word for it. 

Wow. I'm not being judgmental Connie. I apologize if you took it that way. My comments weren't directed specifically at you but at the conversation as a whole - notice how you weren't the only one whose comments I quoted - and I wasn't trying to start or perpetuate an argument, or step on anyone's toes, vendor or otherwise. I specifically never said it was an easy field to get into - in fact, I've stated multiple times that starting off slow to test the waters and see if it's really something you can see yourself doing full time is the best way to go ('you' being in general here). Because a lot of people try and soon discover they just don't have it in them. Many think it's easy work that most anyone can do and make a quick buck "if they just learn the software", until they actually start trying. It's not for everybody. And I wasn't intentionally implying that you're lazy or don't approach your work the way you should, because again, my comments weren't directed at you specifically. I don't have the first clue how you, the individual approaches your work. (I've looked at your catalog and you have a solid body of work and definitely some strong talent). But at the same time I know the kind of work and hours it entails because I've been doing it for a number of years now - 3 of those years were spent in school, working in a nose-to-the-grindstone production environment where work days were anywhere from 12 to 16 to 20 hours, 6 to 7 days a week with zero tolerance for excuses, because that's how most studio environments are in this industry. They don't want to hear "there aren't enough hours, or there isn't enough time". You make time, or you get replaced. And yes, I do make my living as a content artist. So you aren't speaking to a novice here, or someone who "hasn't done their research" or doesn't communicate with other vendors and content artists. But I don't want to argue with you about it. If you say the (pretty much universal) laws of business and promotion don't apply to being a vendor then I'll take your word for it. 

Once again, vendors that sell their products through stores give a portion of their sales to the brokerage in exchange for several benefits including promotion of their products and visibility. How well those products are seen is dependent on how good their Marketing Department is in getting their store into promotion channels and direction they give their vendors on how to set up their products so that they are seen in search engines. Brokerages should have way more reach in promotion than an individual vendor would themselves, as the things they could do would only minimally impact their sales. This frees the vendor to devote their time for production of their products and building their stores. If they were to do the amount of promotion that has been detailed in this thread, there would be absolutely no need to pay a brokerage a fee.. you may as well set up your own store and sell there. So it's a bad idea to devote that much time to promotion and taking away from your own production when you're paying someone to do it for you. So it's not a matter of professionalism or not, vendors are paying for a service in exchange for a cut of their product sales where the result should be beneficial for both the store and the vendor. I hope that makes things clearer, as I don't think many seem to know this.

Vendors are happy to hear suggestions... from those that actually had experience from vendoring through brokerages. Otherwise, honestly, you're just speaking without basis, giving suggestions that most often cost us money and production time rather than making more income.

Ambient sahde, I never said marketing wasn't important.

Wow. I'm not being judgmental Connie. I apologize if you took it that way. My comments weren't directed specifically at you but at the conversation as a whole - notice how you weren't the only one whose comments I quoted - and I wasn't trying to start or perpetuate an argument, or step on anyone's toes, vendor or otherwise. I specifically never said it was an easy field to get into - in fact, I've stated multiple times that starting off slow to test the waters and see if it's really something you can see yourself doing full time is the best way to go ('you' being in general here). Because a lot of people try and soon discover they just don't have it in them. Many think it's easy work that most anyone can do and make a quick buck "if they just learn the software", until they actually start trying. It's not for everybody. And I wasn't intentionally implying that you're lazy or don't approach your work the way you should, because again, my comments weren't directed at you specifically. I don't have the first clue how you, the individual approaches your work. (I've looked at your catalog and you have a solid body of work and definitely some strong talent). But at the same time I know the kind of work and hours it entails because I've been doing it for a number of years now - 3 of those years were spent in school, working in a nose-to-the-grindstone production environment where work days were anywhere from 12 to 16 to 20 hours, 6 to 7 days a week with zero tolerance for excuses, because that's how most studio environments are in this industry. They don't want to hear "there aren't enough hours, or there isn't enough time". You make time, or you get replaced. And yes, I do make my living as a content artist. So you aren't speaking to a novice here, or someone who "hasn't done their research" or doesn't communicate with other vendors and content artists. But I don't want to argue with you about it. If you say the (pretty much universal) laws of business and promotion don't apply to being a vendor then I'll take your word for it. 

Once again, vendors that sell their products through stores give a portion of their sales to the brokerage in exchange for several benefits including promotion of their products and visibility. How well those products are seen is dependent on how good their Marketing Department is in getting their store into promotion channels and direction they give their vendors on how to set up their products so that they are seen in search engines. Brokerages should have way more reach in promotion than an individual vendor would themselves, as the things they could do would only minimally impact their sales. This frees the vendor to devote their time for production of their products and building their stores. If they were to do the amount of promotion that has been detailed in this thread, there would be absolutely no need to pay a brokerage a fee.. you may as well set up your own store and sell there. So it's a bad idea to devote that much time to promotion and taking away from your own production when you're paying someone to do it for you. So it's not a matter of professionalism or not, vendors are paying for a service in exchange for a cut of their product sales where the result should be beneficial for both the store and the vendor. I hope that makes things clearer, as I don't think many seem to know this.

Vendors are happy to hear suggestions... from those that actually had experience from vendoring through brokerages. Otherwise, honestly, you're just speaking without basis, giving suggestions that most often cost us money and production time rather than making more income.

Well said, thank you! For many of us, we pay several thousand dollars per product for brokerage marketing.

Well, you can just release a product with promos and let the sites marketing team do their bit, but nothing stops you from starting a product thread to gain traction or add a promo vid showing the product in action. I have found that extra effort has really helped. People know before hand what is to come and it generates some hype instead of just being drawn to their attention when it is released in the stores. So yes, you do pay these sites to handle marketing for you, but nothing stops you from giving your work more exposure. That does require more effort, but that is strictly up to you if you feel it is worth it or not.

Let me add a few things....... First of all, forget about making a living from Poser content :) Yes you can, but only a few do and you need to put a lof of work into creating items. If you want to live from Poser/DS content you need to be able to create a lot of quality products om a short time. you need to build a catalog and add very frequently to it. You  may be lucky enough to make a living then. But prepare to give up a lot for it.

Second.... most vendors that make a living, don't only do Poser/DS stuff. They also focus on other markets or do custom work, or sell art work and so on. Even some of the big names we know don't make enough from their content. The Poser/DS market is relatively small and it is oversaturated with vendors, so it's a constant strive to get to the top and stay at the top. Also take in account the whole myth and hype surrounding being a vendor. It's not the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It's not money easily made. I know vendors who pretend to make a living, while in fact they have a (part-time) job next to creating content or at least another source of income as well.

Thirdly, pick you store well. Rendo favourites top vendors a lot and tends to support new and small vendors really badly. To protect their top vendors, they determine prices for the content you sell, which gives a beginning vendor a huge disadvantage. The tend to allow top vendors to set their prices lower then others, again a huge disadvantage for top sellers. Same goes for promotion. RDNA is a lot better for beginning vendors, they are really helpful, but I did find them quite controlling in many things. DAZ is a whole different story of course. Selling at Hivewire3D is quite pleasant, but they are still small. My contacts with yurdigital have been pleasant as well. I've been at CP for many years now, the easiest store to work with, they demand little, but also help little. They sure give a great return, they only keep 30%. Find a store that suits you.

Also keep in mind the economy. The content market is infuenced by it very much. Vendors are struggling. Then there's the whole odd seasonal sales problem. Some months sell very well, while other are very quite. October - January (and if we're lucky up to March) sell well, then it's quite and often just before the summer it picks up again, only to see a drop in sales during the summer again. Then there's the weather. That may sound odd, but it is of influence. Nice weather for a long period of time..... less people buying content.

Then there is the matter of content itself. If you do clothes, you need to constantly follow the market. What figures are in? What figures are out? Which figures are constant?  Props and scenes are less influenced by figures. I've done clothes and props and scenes. My props and scenes sell better and I find clothes a bit tidious to create. I stopped doing it, it was no fun for me. But others love it. Create what you like to create. Then there's the matter of technology when it comes to figures. Poser 7/8 use a certain figure technology, while Poser 9 is different and Poser 10 is different again. Some figures like V4/M4 work in all, but other figures depend on newer versions. That counts for clothes as well. The process for universal figures is different then it is for version specific figures. DS is of course a whole different matter altogether. Props and scenes depend less upon version, most of it works just as well in older versions as it does in newer versions.

In wrapping up..... to give you the best advice I can :) Create something you like. Pick a marketplace you like. See if they want to sell it and help you out getting it ready for the poser market. Start selling it and see here it all ends up. You maybe surprised. My first item was an instant best seller. It has been created over 5 years ago and it's still selling a few copies every month. I haven't created new poser content for over a year now. Still the store with the catalog I've build up over the years is generating sales. Granted, not as much as in the time when I added new content regularly, but still it's selling nicely. In a bad/slow month I sell 30 items or so, most months around 50 items and in the holiday season I sell well over that. Without adding new content to my store. If I add something new, the sales figures double easily. So, create what you like, that's the best start!

Good luck :)

I have recently considered becoming a Vendor, so thank you for the helpful advice. I guess my main concern is that all my skills revolve around Poser and V4, but I can see that a number of Vendors have jumped ship to Genesis. If back sales are important, would it be best to spend months now acquiring the necessary skills to focus on Genesis or jump in immediately with V4 stuff ?

I have recently considered becoming a Vendor, so thank you for the helpful advice. I guess my main concern is that all my skills revolve around Poser and V4, but I can see that a number of Vendors have jumped ship to Genesis. If back sales are important, would it be best to spend months now acquiring the necessary skills to focus on Genesis or jump in immediately with V4 stuff ?

I'll hit yours and aeilkema's post at the same time. It comes down to this:

Pick your figure and platform wisely if you're going to sell. That's ultimately going to determine the money you make in the future. I've heard from other stores that vendors are struggling and aeilkema may be correct when it comes to making items for Gen4. But, that's not true at one of those stores. You can guess which one if you see your favorite vendors starting to make Genesis items. Even props are being passed over by customers if they don't have DS material support as they're no longer wishing to "adjust materials settings" on items they pay for; they have a store full of native items to choose from, so it will pay to learn to how to make those shaders just as vendors using DAZ Studio had learned Poser to create native materials.

As BadKittehCo said, there really no magic product that will make you money. It's all about finding your niche and working with that. Mine is custom (mostly) male head and body morphs that people use as a base for their own characters. Since they fill a need in a mostly female render-oriented market, I usualy top out in sales with the female items and some props, and my sales have increased as other say they are struggling.

Then you find the store that aligns with your goals. I sell at DAZ because they have a solid history of supporting their male characters when others flounder after a few months. The level of content for the males may be lower, but there enough tech to compensate for that. Also always keep learning and growing because technology and innovations do not stay in one place. You don't want to dig yourself into one spot then find that you have to all of a sudden switch gears because you've misjudged the market and where it was going.

mho, do what you know but keep on learning.

don't forget Aiko3. :)

I think a vendor now needs to cater to both Poser and Daz studio even if it is only supplying some Daz compatible materials.

A broker is a good start, since they can help with product testing, and help tidy up readme and advertising material but I dont know any site that actually willproduce an advertising image of a product.

Running your own site can be very time consuming and has its own issues with ecurity, but a group of vendors may be successful working together. One modeller, a couple people doing conversions to Poser, Vue, Studio , and a texture artist may be more productive than doing it all yourself.

You need to find a unique niche though. Summer frock 1,956,728 is not going to sell well compared to Nipple Morph Pack 1. 

It can be a good supplemental income.

it's too late by now to get anything in the rmp for Valentine's day?