More in stainless

Very cool dude.

If it helps, try these out. They are not technically surfaces of constant width, they're just intersections of spheres, but the difference between them and true Meissner bodies ought to be insignificant at this scale. There are 36 in this item.

One Year later...

The video Twin Rail mobius pendant with balls! is now getting about 9k views per day... and this is translating to 70-90 model page views per day, but no recent reported sales

Does anyone have any pointers how I can (or what I might need to change) to increase the sales?

Cheers,
Paul

I don't know your background, so I don't know if you have a lot of experience selling jewelry or not.

I have been designing and selling jewelry for some time, and have found that people generally don't like buying a piece that requires any thing that isn't included. Even a lack of chain can, in many cases, kill sales. So since yours needs both the chain and the balls, my guess is that that is the reason for a lack of sales.

Another possibility is that people don't like to wait. So it's possible when they go to order it and realize that it could be a month before they get it, they give up.

Sadly, I don't have an easy solution for you since, obviously you can't include that stuff via shapeways. You could however get a bunch made, buy a bunch of chains, and bearings, put them together along with a gift box, and then sell them yourself.

You could put a link to your own site that sells them on your youtube page. Of course then you need to lay out a bunch of money, and keep stock as well as mail them out yourself. So, it is a lot more work.

Lincoln
www.craftosterone.com

Novaking has good points there.

It's looks a bit too much DIY/experimental now.

And if you don't already have, I would put up a pack of matching (S&F) balls in your shop.

If you stack them closely with enough space and a mesh cube around it, it would make it easy for handling and shipping to make sure none go missing.

Perhaps also offer quarter/half-packs so people can mix and match colors.

The (short) description on your model page is a bit dry:
And on youtube you also have an elaborate description where the link is not visible in the shortened version.

As far as I can tell from my experience, long and elaborate descriptions are not very useful in promotion and sales.

I recommend adding only the following line to the youtube video description:

"Info and purchasing: http://shpws.me/D6g"

And remix your current descriptions to a short and snappy one.
Perhaps followed by the more in depth description below the more button and a separate <h1> heading or similar.

I think the first four lines of text are crucial to making a sale or stir interest.

A twin-rail mobius pendant<br>
An endless and mind-warping cage for a train of 6 mm ball-bearings. Or better yet, or get the colored </link>supermarbles</link><br>

<h1>
What why how.
Etc

And then read it back as if you are completely new or find someone who is
Do the sentences read swiftly?
Is it to the point?
Does it say what you mean to say?

Cheers!

novaking & virtox, thank you for the tips

Carrying stock is something I am trying to steer away from, but it is looking like I must go that way to succeed!

@virtox, the long & elaborate youtube description is for matching the keywords for advertising revenue purposes - I have added the short "Info and purchasing: http://shpws.me/D6g" so that it is the only thing visable before clicking more info

Personally I'd like to see the design shown packed full of the stainless steel balls, and one brightly colored glass ball, like orange. Then you'd have a good reference for movement & rotation of the balls.

just sharing ideas...

Cheers Jeff, funnily enough a YouTube member commented the same but with a yellow ball earlier today. I wear this pendant on a daily basis with a single blue ball (+30 normal steel) and I do get comments about how effective it is.

Paul

@virtox @novaking Sounds like good advice.

One thing that always catches my eye whenever I'm browsing is products which are presented with some sort of story.

Doesn't have to be elaborate, but something that paints of picture of the product in the context of everyday life. For example, Paul, what inspired you to make this particular design? You say you wear it often. What have people's reactions to it been?

Hi Ana,

The inspiration for twin rail came from TerraCotta's One ring to rule the ball - Twin Rail is a take on that but with 6 3 wires that have loads of balls.

When I'm wearing the pendant, people's reaction vary from wtf to wow, where can I get one... but sadly as yet no one has walked up to me and said I've seen that on the internet as happened with one of my LEGO creations at an exhibition a few years ago.

Paul

[edit] call it what you want... maybe cynical, but, what kind of story need to be attached to a product? Surely, it is what it is, how do stories affect sales?

I don't think "I was inspired by another artist's work" makes for a very meaningful story. So, I wouldn't go with that one.

Lincoln
www.craftosterone.com

dunno how else to put it without fibbing and fibbing is not me

@novaking, Agreed.

@stop4stuff Certainly no one would want you to fib. Don't stress it if you don't have the perfect "story" to tell about this particular design. I just wonder if there's some written way to share what you think is so awesome about it, which helps others to understand why they NEED to get their hands on it.

I guess TerraCotta's description (from your link above) is about as good as they get - perhaps you can take inspiration from that as well. There's no fibbing there, just a little story and a great description of the product. Do you think it may be worth the $$ to hire a copywriter to put a description together for you?

$ or £ are in short supply just now, I'll sleep on it, and to quote Hawkwind "...let's see what tomorrow brings" (from Hurry on Sundown)

Ana, Lincoln, Marcus & Stijn, thank you for your help.

After some sleep and sunshine this morning, I think I cracked it

Comments welcome.
Paul

Picasso once said something like:
"Mediocre artists borrow, great artists steal"

Meaning, it is a delusion to think that anything a person does is completely without influence or inspiration. How a person interprets, employs and expresses these messages will always separate the wheat from the chaff.

-G

Well, a couple of more month further on and I've lost count of the amount of sales for the Twin Rail mobius, but the video Twin Rail Mobius Pendant - with Balls! 3D printed metal @shapeways is fast approaching 1 million views with still a sustained 10k+ views per day.

I've made another video, Twin Rail Mobius Pendant - with Balls! - Answers., that answers some questions from the comments left on the first video. The good news is that 1/4 inch balls also fit!

As yet, I've not added a model for the balls, but an experimental 'ball dispenser' will be in my next order along with another mind bending mobius design

Cheers,
Paul

Well nearly eight more months have passed by, and my YouTube video, Twin Rail Mobius Pendant - with Balls! 3D printed metal @shapeways, has now had an astounding 2.6million views.

The view count fluctuates a bit from 2.5 to 8k per day, but its looking good for 3 million views by Christmas time

Paul

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