A month with The3dStudio.com
Just last month I joined 3dStudio as a contributor, here is my Affiliate Link if you would like to join up as a contributor, I really liked the site as it does not come with the normal start-up hype I have seen so often, as they are already trading with other digital products they have an existing customer base that are used to paying more then micropayments, which is important to any new business.
I was not expecting to much so I uploaded 86 images on the 27th July 2009, as a non US contributor I will need to fill out an W-BEN or suffer a 30% tax on any licenses sold to US buyers, I joked on the MicroStockGroup forum that I would not need to do that for a while.
The3dStudio.com looks a little quirky and different when you visit the website, they are already well know and trusted in other circles as one of the largest and oldest companies on the Internet offering 3D and 2D resources.
I like several things about this site, they are nice and friendly and will answer any questions, they do listen to the contributors and will try different things that may help the business, the contributors and buyers, they have just scrapped the $50 payout limit for PayPal, so if you are owed any revenue at month end you can get it, this was not a great big announcement but a simple email, they have other programs to launch to benefit the contributors and add value to the business.
My images are a mixed bag from trying different sites from Microstock, PhotoShelter to Alamy, so not the typical microstock portfolio, I have found it hard to find the buyers where my content fits in, but I may have now found them a home, and I am getting a good contributor experience.
The image upload was nice and smooth via the website pages, with the image metadata embedded in the images used putting them live was a simple process of assigning any releases and selecting a category which was just one or two clicks, I chose to accept the default pricing of $4.00 small, $8.00 medium and $12 large, the images were instantly live as ‘editorial’ until they were checked by the 3DStudio staff who assign the correct licence.
The proof is in the pudding so what are the statistics for my first month, I only have 86 images online so this is good:
| Detailed product sales | 7/28/2009 – 8/23/2009 | |||
| Date | Product | Media type | Selling price | Your royalties |
| 08/20/09 | Staring Leopard | Stock Photos / Images | $8.00 | $4.80 |
| 08/11/2009 | Horse Head Through Door | Stock Photos / Images | $8.00 | $4.80 |
| 08/07/2009 | Teen Girl with Cell Phone | Stock Photos / Images | $8.00 | $4.80 |
| 08/04/2009 | Amur Tiger | Stock Photos / Images | $12.00 | $7.20 |
| 07/31/09 | Colorful Wooden Toy | Stock Photos / Images | $12.00 | $7.20 |
| 07/29/09 | Young Boy | Stock Photos / Images | $8.00 | $4.80 |
| Total royalties: | $33.60 |
I like to look at statistics over thirteen 28 day periods and not calendar months, as with calendar months statistics are distorted by the number of days and weekends, so $33.60 royalties in my first 28 day period, download RPI of $5.60, $1.20 a day and a portfolio RPI of $0.39.
They have a good watermark and your watermarked images can be shared from the 3DStudio preview page to social networking sites allowing you another opportunity to market your own images.
In conclusion I do not normally promote new services, but I am quite happy to contribute to 3DStudio and wish them well, and with 60% commission, 20% Affiliate and 5% referral programs, I hope many others have a good selling experience as well, and it also proves that buyers will pay more than $1-$2 a download.
Great blog post. I was not aware of this site up till your post. I am new to microstock and have only found luck at Fotolia and Dreamstime. Some of the smaller sites are easy to get photos accepted, but never get sales. I uploaded a few photos to 3d studio and actually had a lot of views allready. I agree it seems like a great site, its too bad we didnt get these kind of royalties on every site!!!
Thanks for the post. I guess it was a while ago not but I hadn’t seen it before now. I have seen lots of discussion about 3dStudio on Microstockgroup but haven’t ever uploaded any images. By the looks of your numbers they have a decent return. Have you received continued downloads since your post or how has it gone the last couple months?
Actually I uploaded my full portfolio there, and after every upload I had loads of extra views, which didn’t increase time going by and not uploading. So I guess it’s just a glitch or a trick.
The site isn’t fit at all for Commercial RF stills. I can’t find my images by keywords. They are clearly ignorant as to what RF stock means. I never got any indication at all that my images Model Released images were accepted as commercial RF or as Editorial.
Today, and after 2-3 months ignoring them, I looked and I had 0 sales. Another mistake wasting time that I could have used flipping hamburgers on a beginning or sub-par site.
I just canceled my account there.