How Realistic is $500 A Month?
Discussion started by Lore-3D
Howdy CGTrader people! Just wondering, as you might suspect from the title of this post, how realistic is it to earn $500 a month selling models? Obviously, this is going to depend on the type of models you sell, but for an average model maker, how attainable is this? I'm curious to see what others think, because $500 isn't crazy high, (5x $100 sales, 10x $50, 50x $10) but $500 for some is a significant amount. How difficult do you think this goal is? How long before sellers could reach it? Discuss.
Answers
0
You should look at the highest earners and see what they produce in terms of quality and how much they sell their models for. Look at creators already making what you are looking to make. I can say through my research that very few creatives make $500 dollars a month on their own.
1
The world is full of people who get rich with the most unusual things, they all have one thing in common, they work tirelessly on their own.
The 3D model market hardly exists in itself, since there are a thousand ways to obtain a model, but there are all kinds of untapped niches where a good designer can find gold, yes, at the cost of an intense and sustained effort , just like any other human activity.
I would never have imagined a spaghetti sandwich, but there is someone who got rich selling them.
there is no spaghetti sandwich 3d model.. you know... ;]
Tomorrow there will be 10 spaghetti sandwich models.
Working on my spaghetti sandwich today.
A lot of peoples will buy spaghetti sandwich just to taste it (if they aren't already), no one will buy 3d model just to see what it looks like when is loaded in 3d software. Exclusivity is what you need and you won't find that here on cgt.
10
To be very honest, with over 200 models in your profile and based on the obvious quality of your products, you should be very close to that goal already. If not, then it may be time to reevaluate a few things. Of course, you can always just keep grinding away and making new products, etc. However, sometimes you can be really hurting yourself by pricing items far lower than what is necessary to make a sale, resulting in payments that seem underwhelming.
True story: When I started out, I used to believe that lower prices mean a higher volume of sales, so I used to sell some models for $2 or so when I started out. Yes, I was making sales on those products, but my income was still very low. Sometimes I did not meet the minimum monthly payout, despite having sold dozens of models that month. As I continued to add new models to my portfolio, more sales would come in on certain models, but still, my income was frustratingly low.
So with nothing to lose, I reluctantly decided to change the price of my models from a minimum $2 to $5, just to see if it would impact sales. To my relief, it did not affect my average sales at all. So, I decided later to increase my prices again to $10 minimum. Again, I did not see a noticeable decrease in volume, but I did see a dramatic INcrease in profits for the month. My payouts were now almost 4 times what they were before.
So ultimately it occurred to me that I was really shooting myself in the foot when it came to my own potential earnings and from that point on I decided to really pay much closer attention to what I was charging for the models. As a result, my income became much more sustainable.
That is exactly what I've been doing over the years.
Same to me.
I remember some time ago LemonadeCG said that my pices too low but I said that if I increase prices nobody will buy my models.
And I was wrong.
Maybe now my prices not 100% correct but at least not 2$.
Well, yeah. Probably not. However I'm not asking for my specific circumstances, I'm looking for other people's perspective on $500 a month goal. As I mentioned, there are going to be factors that make that goal easier or harder, such as models offered and model pricing. I'm not looking for advice on my own models, I'm interested wether or not that goal is realistic based on other people's perspective and experience on the site.
3
You had spent ~2 years on this market and made 226 models, check how your sales go for that period and do the math.
If you hope that some magic will change things for the better, that's highly unlikely.
There will be more competition, quality requirements will go higher, new software will come up and models will become outdated.
To keep the level you have to make new ones.
Check your stats, extrapolate and decide if you think that it's worth the time you invest.
I can easily form an opinion from my own experience, but without other people's input, my opinion may not be accurate. You've been on the site for about 1 year, and you have over 400 models. Your experience is completely different from mine. You have more models available, at a higher price, and less time on the site. So your opinion on "Is $500 a month realistic?" will be different.
That's exactly why all of the replies you will get are irrelevant. If there are 100 people that say that's not realistic and 1 that say it's possible, you will choose to believe to what you like to believe - you will pick that 1 guy and continue to waste your time.
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