True Quality Models and What is considered to be a top quality model on CG trader?

I agree with you totally about the market research... as a seller, without it there is basically no point in trying to build anything because unless there is a market for it it won't sell.

Fact is even outrageously poorly designed stuff can sell if there is a market for it but it is so hard to find out what those buyers are truly after... I guess the everyday small time modelers like us will never know.

I just wish there was a way we could get CGtrader to sell 3D goods at places like Walmart by partnering with them. Think about it. 3D artists could make small time custom 3D prints for kids based on their favorite toys.

Online 3D is just too small a market but Toys that people can buy where they shop every day and require 3D artists to make them would really make a huge difference in earnings. That would be the way to make a fortune but I have no idea how one would go about introducing something like that...

I have been wanting to get into that for years but I just don't have the financial resources or connections to get it up and running.

Basically we could bring custom 3D printable toys to Walmart or shopping malls. One could even partner with the Apple or Microsoft stores too who already have clients interested in 3D.

I'm talking about more generic copycatting. In fact, the idea thieves even check here on CGTrader for potential things to imitate.

Once I did a hidden upload for a model on TS and just launched one normally on CGT, an ordinary everyday non-brand thing that I've noticed haven't been done anew for the last 5-6 years, there were just 3-4 outdated versions.
Lo an behold, the rip-offs launch 4-5 models of the same object within a month after me, they hardly noticed it on TS as it never appeared in the "new models" listing, but certainly on CGTrader. One of the ripoffs was that infamous TS sweatshop "3d-molier" by the way, that one is desperate to corner the entire market it seems.

Market research is king. Giving it away on the website is like killing 30-40% of the business for
a lot of more serious people. Not that I claim to be serious.

The biggest problem with copycats and I experienced that on "Turbosquid" a lot is that they really go un noticed (on other sites, not here) making the hard working modelers loose a lot of money.

You should also however look at things from this perspective. The reason the copycats get away with selling those models is because the website often finds it hard to establish who they really belong to and they don't leave much of a paper trail to go on since everything is digital these days. Also artists like myself forget to put their brand on all their products which is a really stupid thing to do...

This in turn makes it difficult for peers who have your back, the website itself and even the rightful owner spot the copies and report the thieves . Remember that if everyone knows what the best models look like it is very difficult for copycats to want to copy those models because they know they will get caught easily.

The more people are aware of who you are as an artist and what you sell the less likely it is for someone to be able to just copy your work and get away with it.

Just imagine people trying to sell you a fake Ferrari, Tesla, Maserati... it isn't likely that they'd get away with it and if it is stolen you know someone's going to be after you because of the high visibility and brand of the product. On the other hand selling you a knock off Mustang would be easy because there are so many of them out there and they aren't a rare high performance product.

So people stay quiet about which models sell because they are worried people will just copy them.

That makes sense in a way but not really since there are copyright laws on CGtrader for that and the copies get taken down very fast.

I think that the real reason is that selling 3D has become super difficult and so whoever actually sells something keeps it quiet because even they don't know what buyers will want and there aren't a lot of return buyers to begin with.

The studios are always looking for something different every time based on what they are producing so there is no real way of knowing what they will buy next.

If you people knew how many copycats and idea thieves that are sailing out there, you would keep quiet about anything pertaining not only to your sales, but even to what products you decide to launch.
Yes, this is from personal "intimate" experience, he he.

"We see a bunch of top model lists both in free and paid sections of the site and the art is beautiful but there also needs to be a list based on sales because that would be far more useful for business. "

No, we don't need a bunch of copycats producing 20 versions of the same model. It is not beneficial in any sense whatsoever.

I love that Idea IterateCGI !!! That would be fantastic!!

Also I want to point out that it would be great to acknowledge the artists that are selling well every week.

Think about how those group sessions at dealerships boost people's sales moral. Not everyone has worked in sales but those of you who have will know the great feeling of gathering around and discussing how many sales they made that week etc...

People also help give pointers to those who didn't sell as well to improve productivity... After all the more overall sales the company makes the better it is for the community and site as a whole.

I suppose people have lots of reasons why they may or may not share information.

Whatever reason, it is probably personal, so jess maybe a system that can display sales statistics of others, but (for example) the individual keeps to decide whether he wants to share this information or not (check/uncheck it in profile settings).

As a consequence, when you uncheck visibility of this information to others, then you will also not have access to this information from those others. So it would be a two way street (you sent no information you would receive no information and vice versa).

I believe openness has benefits but closeness also have benefits.

Agree it would be a good feature for people hoe need the information.

Like the link! It is a pretty good start! Thanks Captainmarlowe! I am always happy to see you share on here :) I wish more people would join in because the more of us share the better global understanding we would get of what is truly selling.

Charts like the link you provided are good but it is even better to get insight directly from the "horse's mouth" or Sellers in this case. I have spoken to a few sellers her and their models are impressive and yet no sales... so at this point I am drawing the conclusion that specific content is just not appealing to the CGtrader buyers.

From the data I have collected so far buyers don't seem to care for low poly game characters and creatures but I would love to hear more people's opinion on this because one can't generalize and there may be others who are selling well.

It seems it is very difficult to get people to share on this topic but it works against the entire community because without a proper understanding of what is valued by customers people will just build models with a gambling sort of attitude and that is counterproductive in business.

I think there should be a top sales list on CG trader not just a top model list.

We see a bunch of top model lists both in free and paid sections of the site and the art is beautiful but there also needs to be a list based on sales because that would be far more useful for business.

I haven't sold enough models here to answer. But on my other selling sites, my bestsellers are the VBCI and the XVIIIth century castle from Saint-Malo : two completely different models with different goals and textures, but the same price range (75-99$). Sci-fi models come third.

Have you seen this on the CGTrader blog ? It is a good place to get an idea :
https://www.cgtrader.com/blog/infographic-exclusive-data-on-how-to-sell-3d-models
It reflects quite nicely how I sold models on other sites, if not here.

Well no it wouldn't really invoke random answers because I am only interested in hearing sellers success stories and what they have been selling well.

This would also be a great opportunity for the entire community to learn what the buyers on CG trader are most interested in.

I think a lot of people think they know what sells and what doesn't but unless they have been selling certain things on a consistent basis they really don't have a full picture of what the true reality is. There is a big difference between one time sales and return buyers. It would be interesting to see who the return buyers are because the one time off sales don't really lead anywhere in business.

There are also a lot of people such as myself who are clueless about what really sells well because let's face it... it isn't obvious or easy to get to that information. It would be great if CGtrader members could get a list of what models have been selling well each week or month. This would help artists focus their energy more appropriately if their objective is to make money. For the hobbyists this wouldn't matter a whole lot but not everyone is a hobbyist.

We all get the generic list of top models or competition winners etc... but does anyone know if those top models have been selling or not? I doubt that people would know that and that would be true gold right there because money talks and the rest... well you know how it goes lol...

Most people who are new to online 3D selling and haven't sold anything don't have a clue about what actually sells and what doesn't.

"Woman" as you said is a keyword that is really popular however I have noticed from personal experience that it is also a free loader type category. There aren't a lot of people buying the female 3D models instead they tend to just download the free versions. I am interested in hearing about all the success stories... For instance I have had pretty good luck in selling my Cow Boy, Gym environments and Music stand models but my high detailed women never sold even when priced accurately or even super low.

I sold a lot of my rigs, female and car models a whole lot better in the past and almost none of those in the past couple of years.

Knowing which models are selling successfully and repeatedly each week or month is therefore key to all 3D sellers and yet that is the one piece of information that no site that I know of gives out to their sellers.

I mean when you work in sales at any company, be it door to door selling solar, at your local car dealership and even at Walmart the sales force gets together each week to discuss how sales are going and which items are not doing so well.

Every other business does it so I don't understand why it isn't something that could be implemented here.

In my opinion CGtrader would be at the forefront of 3D sales websites if it took this into account. Quality wise it is already way ahead of Turbosquid so why not take it to a whole new level?

This sort of questions will invoke random answers, you will get lots of very different personal opinions.

If it's only about the money then creating 3D art is probably not the business to be in at all. But if you're looking to get most money on 3D model/products creations then you definitely need to be in educational visualizations.

Things like internals of the human hearing system, the hard and lungs, internals of the eye, visualization of germs and viruses and the inner workings of the cells, etc.

Also molecular visualizations, atomic/quantum effects, plasma dynamics, nuclear energy reactors and fusion reactors like iter/tokamak and NIF, things like electron microscopy, particle accelerators like LHC, etc.

Also electronic engineering, things like internals of the CPU, quantum computers and its workings, etc.

Also in the field of energy and sustainable engineering, things like inner workings of wind turbines, solar arrays and other alternative energy supplies, etc.

Astronomy and deep space travel, for example curiosity rover, rosetta mission, kepler telescope and its inner workings, mars mission, and other anticipated missions, etc.

Basically things we would need mass education about.

If you can do things in this field, visually appealing and in great details, then those are rely valued items and people are willing to pay more for that sort of things.

Ps. "women" is the keyword used most often ;-)