Well, I Made Money Online - But Not in the Way I Expected

byL8Sunrise

269 followers

12 years ago

This house is worth $58.00. SOld for $23.20.

I realised I had somehow managed to earn $100 online from something I did back in September 2012. I worked as an Architectural Visualisation Artist in my last job and having been made redundant, I sought other ways of making money.

So I created a 3D model (pictured above) to see if people were willing to buy it. I sold it in many of the larger stock 3D model websites such as The 3D Studio, Creative Crash and Turbosquid.

Result? I've sold one model on The 3D Studio and two on Creative Crash over a period of a year and a bit, but that was it.

3D models of houses tend not to sell well, though and I guess I should have known this when I started. So I moved onto something else.

Fast forward to the present and upon checking Turbosquid - the one website I never bothered to check for royalties - I found I had $100 pending, having sold 5 3D models.

So I'm surprised - perhaps someone marketed the product for me (Turbosquid has an affiliate program of their own) or maybe Turbosquid is a little strict on what they deem as acceptable in terms of quality since they have a smaller database than The 3D Studio.

I'm now wondering if I should have kept doing this. There are artists who make a living just by selling 3D models, but the likelihood of succeeding is dependent on how well you market your products.

I knew nothing about marketing back then, but having joined WA, I'm a little more informed about the process - which now opens up the possibility for a business idea focused on 3D Architectural Visualisation.

That said, I'm not sure if I'm passionate enough. I've been doing this as a freelancing gig occasionally and it's a job. Nothing more. It's not something I wake up thinking about.

While I enjoyed producing the image you see on this blog post, I have trouble getting started on the next project. Initially, I intended to keep doing 3D images like these so I could build my portfolio and have a real crack at freelancing.

But once I finish, that's it. I clock off for another three months before I start another project - one that I started in September(?) last year and remains incomplete to this day.

Nevertheless, maybe it's something I can fall back on if my current website fails to pick up.