My apologies if this is not the right forum to be asking this, I'm little unsure where to ask. I decided to ask here since it seems to be the most active forum.

Few questions for you merchants of renderosity, while I'm contemplating whether I want to test the waters in that direction.

What is your time and effort investment in being a merchant...

Are you doing it full time, or part time?
How much time do you spend modelling and creating, vs. handling customers and the business end of things?
Are you partnered up with someone? Two, three people?

While I realize that some people just have an intuitive knack for what will sell, I would still like to hear ... do your models result as byproduct of your own scene creations and you turn them into a product?
or
Do you research and see a need for something and deliberately set out to make a product to fill it?  or something in between? or something completely diferent?

There's modeling quality consideration, when creating something that is likely to be used across several platforms, one that may not be needed when creating a scene for your own one or two-time personal use, or handing out a freebie.
At the moment, when building my own models I tend to take program specific shortcuts that may make the models 'not so conducive' to import/export, but faster to build in the app of choice.
How do you approach your modelling? Did you have 'clean cross platform modelling' habits from the beginning, or do you find yourself retrofitting things, so to speak?

What was your motivation for becoming a merchant?

good question(s) connie.
i'm interested in this path as well.

Quote - Few questions for you merchants of renderosity, while I'm contemplating whether I want to test the waters in that direction.

Well... there are merchants at Rendo who are far more qualified to answer your questions than me, but for what its worth... heres my view on things...

Quote - What is your time and effort investment in being a merchant....

Personally... I spend as much free time as I have modelling for the fun/challenge/pleasure of it... then... if I come up with something that I think I might be able to sell... I do so.

Initially... my models are not made from the point of view of selling them... that decision comes later... if I think it may be of use to other people and I feel it is good enough to attempt to sell.

It also depends on how much effort has gone into making a model... if it is fairly simple... I will make it a freebie, but if a lot of effort has gone into a model then I think it only fair to be compensated for that effort.

As for investment of time and effort in 'being' a merchant... lots in the modelling... very little in merchanting.

Quote - Are you doing it full time, or part time?

All the time... but certainly not making a living from it... just I have a lot of spare time.

Quote - How much time do you spend modelling and creating, vs. handling customers and the business end of things?

99% modelling/creating... 1% handling customers. Other than making promo images and packaging my models as per Rendo guidelines, I leave the business end to Rendo.

Personally... I have never had to 'handle' customers. Other than the very rare question, I never hear from them. Which is a little disappointing. It may sound weird, but I would prefer the odd criticsm or complaint, rather than a wall of silence.

Other than the (few) reviews I get... I just don't know what customers think of my models and being neurotic by nature... it often worries me that customers are not satisfied but remain silent out of politeness.

Quote - Are you partnered up with someone? Two, three people?

I work alone. Not by choice I might add... as I have asked around for people to collaborate with often over the last few years.

I have sooo many models that I think would be of use to people and that are worthy of selling, but my weak point is texturing. Not the UV mapping/texturing as such... just that I am useless at the 'artwork' side of things and making the actual textures.

Quote - While I realize that some people just have an intuitive knack for what will sell, I would still like to hear ... do your models result as byproduct of your own scene creations and you turn them into a product?

or
Do you research and see a need for something and deliberately set out to make a product to fill it?  or something in between? or something completely diferent?

Personally... as I said previously... I make my models for my own pleasure/use, but... I did notice a gap in the market for medical based models and my models suited that gap.

Many of my models were made specifically to open requests in the Poser forum, but I make those as freebies as they are generally fairly simple.

Quote - There's modeling quality consideration, when creating something that is likely to be used across several platforms, one that may not be needed when creating a scene for your own one or two-time personal use, or handing out a freebie.

At the moment, when building my own models I tend to take program specific shortcuts that may make the models 'not so conducive' to import/export, but faster to build in the app of choice.

How do you approach your modelling? Did you have 'clean cross platform modelling' habits from the beginning, or do you find yourself retrofitting things, so to speak?

As I have only ever used Poser for posing and rendering scenes... I make them Poser specific, but always in obj format so that they can actually be used in other applications even though that isnt intentional.

I have always had clean modelling habits... from the point of view that my models must work within Poser. I just keep modelling and remodelling until something works within Poser correctly, then I am satisfied.

Quote - What was your motivation for becoming a merchant?

The desire to share those models that I thought might be useful to other people, with... err... other people. And... to get some recompense for the effort that went into making them.

I realise that I may not have answered your queries to the extent that you required, but just wanted to give my personal view of things... and your post looked kind of... lonely and all unanswered....

ziggie

I'll play. 

"Are you doing it full time, or part time?" 
Like most folks. part time. 

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"How much time do you spend modelling and creating. vs. handling customers and the business end of things" 

Creation. Thats because I try to ensure the product is good enough quality (example: lots of options or extra maps), has explict useage instructions and is easy to use. 

Most customer service questions don't usually relate to the product. but using poser. 
It's easy to forget that not every one is a poser expert. For example: I've had mails asking how to pose a figure or how to install a freebie. 

Customer service must come top of the list. You should always help wherever possible. I even help with stuff that I've not created. 

Sometimes what appears to be rudeness is sometimes down to the fact English isn't their 1st language. 

NEVER be rude to a customer. Even if they are rude 1st. 
Rude merchants usually never get my business again. 

"Are you partnered up with someone?" 
Yes.
 ---------
 "some people just have an intuitive knack for what will sell" 
Not always. Some things are totally original yet sell slowly. 
Other things just get a ziest and take off. 

--------- 
"do your models result as by product of your own scene creations and you turn them into a product" 

Not usually. I might think when making a scene this or that would work well. 

"Do you research and see a need for something and deliberately set out to make a product to fill it" In between. 

Sometimes you see a gap in the market and try to provide stuff for that gap. But I also design totally original items from scratch. 

For example the snubnose fighter was designed from a series of sketches, scanned and sent to the modeller. 

--------- 

"across several platforms" 
For most apps it's not a problem. As the product has an OBJ. 
So that can be used in Vue/Max/L-Wave etc.. 

"motivation" 
Intially to pay for other poser stuff.

Thank You guys, I really appreciate the feedback :)  It's very interesting!

Thanks Ziggie, it was looking all lonely and unanswered... I must be asking some awkward questions :( sniffle

I have a few considerations/concerns about taking the merchant route...

• I like the idea of sharing the models if people end up liking them, probably more for the ego compensation then a monetary one, for now, since I do have a full time job.

• I like artsy things, and I particularly like doing it with other people.

• I like to test and stretch my skills, and putting packages for others to use would certainly do that, and is also likely to keep my motivation higher.

- One of the drawbacks would be that my time is limited, with a CAPITAL L Limited, and in my mind, to sell the product, I would have to up the quality. That translates to more time...

• I could do freebies, which is what I plan on doing for the time being... but some of the things I end up modelling may be of the similar type that others are trying to sell... So, just because I'm learning, or building a portfolio, or don't have time to treat it like a business, I don't want to contrubute too much to devaluing other people's efforts...

Well, just thinking out loud here, thanks for reading... :)

Yes... I suggest trying out some freebies first and see how people react to them.

However... do not be fooled by the number of times your freebies might be downloaded... cos I am convinced that a lot of people collect them like Imelda Marcos collects shoes...! 

My freebies have had literaly 1000's of downloads here at Rosity and direct from my site... yet... I can count the number of times I have actually seen them having been used on... mmm.... 4 fingers.

And... don't expect a lot of feed back on your freebies... as I certainly got very little. Not that that bothered me tooo much as I made them for my own pleasure initially.

I shouldn't worry too much about your models being too similar to other peoples products... just look through the marketplace at how many are already very similar. After all... how many sets of undies does V3 really need..??

The more choice the merrier though and I guess a little competition helps drive the market... and make merchants strive harder to make yet better models to stave off the competition.

Just my thoughts on the subject again...

"probably more for the ego compensation then a monetary one"
Nice to see your being realistic there. 

"number of times your freebies might be downloaded"
Good point there Ziggie. I've been stung by excess bandwidth fees a few times. Not fun. 
You can use rapidshare or other free file hosters but that's not popular and it takes effort to maintain these types of hosters. 

"the number of times "
Folks will use your stuff - but they don't always credit you. Easy to forget where you got something from. Guess I've been lucky here - many artists who use my signature piece credit it.

"feedback"...
If something doesn't work or the person needs help you'll get feedback. 
But another regular question for freebies is often "is commercial useage OK". 

Though my favourite ones are from teenagers who use your stuff on a school project and call it theirs. They always ask you to "turn off" your website so their classmates don't find out!    

Another strange one is cease and desist notices from folks who buy a "boxed " mobile ringtone-wallpaper website. But I don't get nasty in return they are victims as well. 

When you explain all they've bought is a collection of images stolen by taggers, most are quite rightly very fed up and usually you end up trying to help them.

Really good questions, let's see if I can add anything to what's already been said.

Quote - How much time do you spend modelling and creating, vs. handling customers and the business end of things?

Assuming you have a sound product, I think that 99% of your customer support is already taken care of if you put a lot of effort into writing a comprehensive readme file. That way the customer can see in advance how complicated it is to use the product, what problems or limitations they may encounter and your suggestions on how to solve them.

Quote - Are you partnered up with someone? Two, three people?

I work alone. I like the idea of collaborating, but it would be difficult for me to team up because my job often requires my full attention for weeks or even months and poser has to take a back seat. 

Quote - While I realize that some people just have an intuitive knack for what will sell, ...

I make models for my own purposes of things which interest me. I turn them into products when enough people see them and nag me to make them available. Doing it this way my target market is very small, so I'll never make real money from my efforts. I have a few ideas for some products that would have a much wider appeal and might earn some money. They are still things I would like to see or things I need, I don't think I could put this much energy into something I really wasn't interested in simply because it would sell. Then this hobby would become a job and I already have one of those  :o)

This isn't a very smart way to get rich (in fact it's a pretty stupid way), Poser products are absurdly underpriced. Just take a look at places like turbosquid to see the sort of prices you could be getting for a textured model without any of the considerable effort involved in turning it into an idiot-proof poser compatible product with a zillion options to give the pack more bling. 

Remember that there is MUCH, MUCH, (MUCH) more work involved in making a saleable product than there is in making and texturing the very same model just for your own use. Modelling a prop is easy when you know how, mapping and texturing it is easy enough, and if you're the only person who will be using it you're ready to go. If it's a figure or clothing, basic rigging it is a pain but not too difficult, and you're done. But if it's for sale, that's only the beginning. 

You have to get it to work well in all possible situations others might use it, not just the situations you might personally use it. Then you have to make it idiot proof. For example some users will want to pose a figure by dragging on the limbs (rather than using the dials). If you haven't enabled limits on every dial and set the limit values the figure will turn into a pretzel. You need to hide unused dials and rename certain ones. You need to fix things like poke-through which you might just work around with your own models but you can't expect your customers to do the same. There are thumbnails to make, MAT poses, morphs (and not just morphs you personally use, but morphs you think other people would want). And you need to test exhaustively, again not just in ways you would use it, but in ways others might (mis)use it.

...and then you sell it for $5, of which you only get half    :o)

Quote - How do you approach your modelling? Did you have 'clean cross platform modelling' habits from the beginning, or do you find yourself retrofitting things, so to speak?

I tend to model as clean as I can anyway with the lowest polycount I possibly can because I like the challenge. If I know I'm modelling for poser I'll do it as a straight poly model (rather than SDS) and I won't use fancy stuff like edge weighting within my modelling app because poser doesn't support it.

Poser 4 was about the worst application to model for because of the way it handles smoothing, it necessitated a lot of extra work to control hard edges (splitting, bevelling etc) and prevent those ugly smoothing 'shadows'. P6 allows you to adjust the smoothing angle on a per-object basis so it's a lot easier, but if you want to make stuff that is backward compatible you still need to jump through those hoops.