thinking of setting up a plant model website what do you think?

[lightning]

hey guys
now most of you may know i do tree modeling i have posted just a tiny portion of my collection.
now i am thinking setting up my own website for my models to actually sell.
now if i set up my website would anyone be interested in buying my models? im going to reasonably price them nothing like the xfrog plants $29 is just a rip of!
i was thinking 0f the 10-15 dollarmark us. for a pack of 3 trees and $5-10 for shrubs
i think this will be affordable for most users my aim would be to sell high quality models at reasonable prices with huge range of file types and species ill also set up a user gallery forum etc

also i will still have a large collection of free models

what do you think?

[choronr]

A splendid idea. You seem to have the drive and enthusiasm to set up such a site. Best of luck in this endeavor.

[lightning]

A splendid idea. You seem to have the drive and enthusiasm to set up such a site. Best of luck in this endeavor.

thanks
would you be interested in buying my plants though though

[choronr]

Certainly; if you have the type I was looking for I would. One of the things that is lacking in this field is a good, easy to peruse catalog of plants; trees, bushes, flowers and groundcovers. You would need to prepare such a catalog in advance of building your site.

[lightning]

oh yes of coarse i would i cant imagine an unorganized download/purchase section it just not in my blood to do be unorganized!

[rcallicotte]

This sounds like a good idea.

[sjefen]

what do you think?

I think it's great. Go for it

[chefc]

Money in the bank 

[Tangled-Universe]

Money in the bank 

I think it is a very good idea and like choronr said I wouldn't mind paying for it (preferably by PayPal) unless they're as expensive as the Xfrog plants. I think you would sell quite some if the pricing is about 10 bucks per model. Don't know for sure, just a wild guess

Martin

[FrankB]

As a pure hobbyist in this area, my images never really have a commercial background. Hence, just for getting a specific tree 15 USD would sound like too much for my purposes. I'm not saying it wouldn't have that value as such - in the end, lot's of your work went into making it.

Then, why not adopt a commercial model where the price depends on the use case?
For TG2 vegetation models, this could mean you keep the price high at 15 USD for any commercial use, but sell for 1-3 USD for private use. What about that?

Cheers,
Frank

[Cyber-Angel]

Maybe you might think about a price point structure based on intended use of the models (This would be requisite in random with the license) weather or not the plants are been brought for personnel or commercial use with commercial use been more expensive but not cost prohibitive for artists whom may wish to use them. Also with your packs you may consider some kind of discount rates when a customer buys x amount of packs say five or more.

You may want to have some kind of data base of customers (With an easy option of been removed form it at any time and it would be good customer relations to let people know about this up front) so that returning costumers maybe offered special rates or some thing.

Just some to think about.

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel

[moodflow]

I considered setting up a site like this myself, but I'll let you do it (and save me the trouble) 

I'd also be up for buying the plants too if there are high quality models that I lack, so count me in.  Hopefully they'd be WAY cheaper than the other stuff out there (Xfrog, turbosquid, etc).  I'm not sure why they are so expensive on these other sites, and I doubt they are getting many sales (and hence having to raise the price to stay in business due to lack of sales).  Who knows.

[peejay]

Hi Lightning

yes at $10 a pop, you'd definitely get me to part with my money, but I'd have to say, not that often. What would tempt me (and what is missing from the market at any price) would be large, mature trees, the oaks, beeches, chestnuts, (and the now sadly missing) elms of my childhood here in England. Most of the stuff I see from Xfrog or Onyx looks just too small.
I don't know how big a market you'd get though. Can I make a suggestion? Why not contact Dan Farr at DAZ3D with a view to possibly collaborating with him? He seems to have a vision for making good quality models available cheaply, and he already has a huge customer base. I know it means taking a hit on the percentage of the takings, but if you sell 3 times as much at only half the take - you still win. An excellent plant modeller called Lisa Buckalew seems to have sold some serious quantities of her stuff through them. Might be worth investigating....


good luck whatever you decide to do

[otakar]

Lightning,

I admire your models, but when it comes to paying it's a different game. I'd rather search the net for a free model (that I may still need to convert and tweak to make it usable) than pay for one that's easily available in the right format for download, even at a low price. Now, that's for renders I do for fun. If I should ever be so lucky to be renumerated for any renders then I would absolutely be prepared to pay for models, textures and such as long the expense is in proportion with expected revenue.

So looking at Terragen, I'd say you'll have a market, but it will only be a fraction of the Terragen user base. I don't know about other 3D applications, but many of those do not offer free or low-cost versions, so there might be more paying users to target for the time being. It probably comes down to marketing. If people can't find your site, you won't be able to sell your models. So it's not just about cranking out models and creating a good DB and user-friendly GUI.

Good luck!

[lightning]

thanks guys for a great response
will have a look into all your ideas
now some of you are saying about free models as i said i still have a large collection of free models