Product submission, how long does this take?
omedhue_196e22b81c
Posts: 0
Hello every1!!!
This is my first post in the forums. Please excuse my impatience, if that is what it is, lol.
Ok, so I submitted my first product over a week ago and I have heard absolutely nothing back. Did not even get an email saying they got anything from me. Is this normal? How long does the process generally take? Am I wasting my time? I've already started on a few other products but I would really love to know what it going on so that I don't further waste any time. I've noticed a couple other sites that sell things for Daz, but I would rather post my first few products here to start with. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
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Comments
What did you do? The usual system is to send some screenshots/promo images to pa @ daz3d.com (without the spaces), though it does help to have established yourself as a provider of freebies or a vendor at another store first so that people have an idea of your skills - as a complete stranger it's going to be much harder to assess your offerings.
That's exactly what I did. I got no failed delivery when I sent it, so I assume Daz got it. As far as establishing myself, I've been a fulltime animator in the world of Secondlife for over 5 years now. In SL, I'm known for my motion capture, animal animations, and I'm the main person that answers questions about animation creation in SL's forums.
I actually just posted a tutorial on the SL forums about how to make SL animations in Daz.
I have heard people say they couldn't get responses from DAZ, so I'd say this is normal.
It is easier to sell products at some other sites.
Well, I wanted to, at least, post some of my items here first, as they did make a nifty program. 50% seems like a crazy commission to pay, but I figured, I was giving back to the programers and staff at Daz. I'll give it a few more days but then I'll just go elsewhere. It does seem a bit weird how some companies respond quickly and others don't even give you an email saying they got something from you.
Well I think the popular stores all take 50%... DS stuff at DAZ is supposed to sell quite a bit better than selling it elsewhere, so if you can get in it's probably worth it
I think the usual response time (as far as I've heard) is about two months.
At the moment I bet everybody at DAZ is just trying to get the store and forum working.
How long it takes them to contact you (if they do) depends on how often they are doing review of new submissions and so forth. Right now a week isn't bad. But..the truth is I don't think they really have the heart to say "no" always so sometimes they don't respond back. One of the key factors in getting something accepted is really good promo images. If you can't sell the review team with the promos odds are the product will not sell well to customers. If you don't hear back consider redoing the promo images and trying again.
And yes pretty much everywhere takes 50% unless your a top seller or can get them to give you a special deal (rare) or something.
Thanks for the replies guys!!!
Well, 2 months is kind of crazy. I'm the kind of creator that makes hundreds of animations a month. In 5 years of animating, I've created well over 10 thousand animations. The product I submitted had 77 items with most of those being animations or pose keyframes to build an animation. Within days of sending the submission, I jumped this up to over a 100. I don't skimp on what I sell, and try to give the customer everything I can think of that they might need for the character. I don't think my promo images are awesome, but the point is to show what you get, which is the selling point. That said, the promo images are comparable to anything on the site now.
All this brings up a good point. Time and time again I see companies create these long drawn out submission processes. I understand the need to have some quality control, and some regulation of what is on their site. What does not make sense is to create a process that will surely overwhelm your staff, which sounds like what we have going on here. This was the only issue that I saw when reading the submission process, which looks very similar to other sites that sell 3d content. When I look at the Daz Marketplace, I see many of the same creators, who obviously are very capable artists, and don't actually need much regulation. I would think, that once an artist goes thru a detailed merchant process, than it would make more sense to allow that artist to essentially post products at will. This would lower the overall cost of doing business and bring hundreds of products to the market a month. As it is, what they have done is created a ton of cost to the whole process, which massively takes away from their bottom line. This is probably why taking 50% is needed.
When you create more work for yourself than is actually needed, you also create problems in other areas. Much of this becomes obvious in the support of all those products. If it takes 2 months to submit something, I can't even imagine how they can handle support. Personally, I'd rather handle the support of my own products. I would never allow a customer to go more than a day without getting back to them and helping or correcting an issue as soon as physically possible. Every minute that you allow your customer to be frustrated amounts to hundreds of dollars in lost sales. Considering that Daz wants to take 50%, this also makes it harder on the merchant to provide that personal support, and it sounds like Daz doesn't want it's merchants to even talk to the customers at all. Yes, I understand that there will be merchants that are not so polite, but if that merchant has more control over the issues and recieves a greater portion of the profits, it's likely they will be much more understanding, and way more knowledgable than some support guy they pulled off the street.
Sorry for the long drawn out comment. I'm really liking DazStudio and I'd love to help them be the leader in 3d content, as well as helping all those creative people out there get the content they need to create amazing videos and promos. That said, It is difficult to imagine a future for me here when, at best, I'll get a handful of products up in a whole year.
Some of the things your thinking are bad business are actually why DAZ is a better place to sell. Content Paradise takes pretty much everything and there is no review. I don't hear great things about sales there. Rendo has a 10 day max on review (I think) and does not refuse as much as DAZ does. But unless your a top seller you have to hustle to get sales because things drop off the first page so fast. DAZ accepts less but PA's can expect to make more.
It isn't the review time that costs brokerages the most it is the testing time and all dealing with PA's and customers.
Bad business is not the terms I used.
I can understand that a company doesn't know the artist, and doesn't know their workflow or standards. I would think tho, that once an artist establishes a reputation for quality, then Daz wouldn't need to hold their hand or be so extensive with the submission process, freeing the PAs to test other things from new artists. Maybe they do have a process like this. I guess I'll find out, or maybe not. I would suggest they at least add in some automatic email reply when they get a submission, cause I'm very much in the dark here as to what is going on, or what I should do from here. What I'll probably just do is create my own website, which I should have done years ago. Then I'll just put all my products there. If Daz accepts a submission of mine, then I will decide whether it is worth taking that product off my site and accepting the 50% commission. It not in my nature to wait around for corporate types to make decisions. When I get interested in a program or platform, I go at it full speed ahead, trying to ride the wave of my creative juices. This submission process is a huge creativity killer.
It took well over a month before I got my first product accepted at daz. I also took several tries with several packs. They are very picky on the products they want. But it is well worth the fight it takes to get in.
I think your laboring under the idea that they need/want/should have a massive number of new products in the store. While that may sound good its really bad for the content creators when the store works that way. Its like the difference between selling at a great boutique and a store the size of a super walmart. You want your products out front on eye level as long as possible before it goes on shelves further back. And you don't want 1000 other similar things on the shelves around it. Having your own store is great if you have the time to do all the marketing necessary and can deal with the little hassles, but odds are never good it will get the same traffic big stores do.
And just so you don't think I am yanking all of this out of the air.. We sell here, renderosity and through our own store.
Thanks again guys! Looks like Daz has a very active community, which is very good. I don't mean to sound arguementive at all, and I greatly appreciate any and all comments. I've been selling and being my own boss for over 5 years now and I have my own ideas of what makes for a good environment for me and for my sales. I'm not saying Daz is wrong in anyway, just that maybe they could streamline some of the process. They obviously know what they are doing. I would question the thought of exposure being all that important, because it is my experience that people buy, not just what is popular in the moment, but what are sound solid products that are timeless in the market. Exposure is great, but if it is not what people are looking for, all the exposure in the world is not going to sell it. It is also worth noting that no1 knows what is going to be hot. To think you can pick the winners is somewhat arrogant. A few months ago, I created a huge set of animations for a guy to walk with a walking stick. It's like my hottest product now and sell 10 times more than the Zombie animations I made the very next week. What is important to me, is a good customized search engine in a marketplace. It makes all the difference in the world, IMHO.
But they can only buy what they know is there... And that is the difference between most brokerages. How much time people will have to see your product before its shoved on the shelves. Not that there are no sales on those products mind you, but in this little corner of the world most products will see best sales overall during the time it is first out. I have some products that I sell regularly every month, but it will take well over a year of those monthly sales to match the amount I sell in the first week or two the product is out. And that is fairly standard behavior for most products in this industry.
well if you make your site you might want to see how this site does it - He gives away some free stuff in the free forum here to get people to look at what there . you also might want to post some of your animation at youtube with links so people can see what you have .
link -
http://www.most-digital-creations.com/freestuff.htm
Yeah, I actually already have that site bookmarked, and I've had a Youtube account for many many years now. I've never really used it to promote with, just as a place to put demo videos of some of my SL products. I started posting more things I was doing in Daz about 6 months ago, but I need to put more finished videos up there instead of mostly test renders. Just search for Medhue. Since I plan on making more finished videos and maybe a little animated series, I've already set my page up for adsense where I can also make money off the advertising. We'll see how that works out. Good thoughts tho, and thanks for comment.
@Khory - I'm just saying that as a business man, I don't think it is right to base your business on promotions or new releases when how many and how often is completely controlled by another company. I think it is best to make things that I know people are looking for and be on a site that has a good search engine where my product can be easily found. If people can find it, it will sell. IMHO.