Does Anyone Get Paid On This Site?

Discussion in 'Newcomers Lounge' started by Silver_Forge, Apr 14, 2019.

  1. Silver_Forge
    Silver_Forge Active Member
    well i waited for any money to maybe come my way and so far nothing. i asked this before and i think someone said it was a monthly thing but i have gotten nothing. i havint gotten any comments. expect one bad review only cause a item was too small and lost contact with the designer and more who have already helped me. not even replies on items from other peoples item listing in the comments. how do designers and sellers make money besides taking commissions? do only the designers make money and those who pay for an item to get made yet sell it not make anything? im confused.
     
    DavidMapes likes this.
  2. barkingdigger
    barkingdigger Well-Known Member
    The business model is simple - if you upload a design and offer it for sale, you can add a mark-up to the price that the buyer pays and that's what you get paid by SW if anyone buys a print of your design. They pay monthly if your accumulated mark-ups from actual sales reach $30, or at least once a year to "clear the books" if you haven't managed to earn the minimum $30. I have not had any real difficulty getting paid - the trouble is getting folks to notice and buy your stuff. Buyers don't get any money - they just get the printed product. Whether you buy other folks' prints to resell is not important to SW, so you only get money if one of your own designs sells. And since you don't pay mark-up fees when you buy prints of your own designs, you don't earn anything from prints you order of your own models. Hope this helps make it clear.
     
  3. Silver_Forge
    Silver_Forge Active Member
    so the my sales page is TOTALLY useless cause i have made nothing
     
  4. barkingdigger
    barkingdigger Well-Known Member
    Sorry but that sounds correct. If you haven't uploaded any of your own designs for sale, you won't have earned any mark-up fees.
     
  5. mkroeker
    mkroeker Well-Known Member
    Several possible interpretations of this...
    does it record any actual sales, but no money earned ? In that case, you were selling at production cost and need to edit the product page(s) to set your markup.
    does it record zero sales ? Then you seem to be relying on people coming across your models by random search engine hits, or from anybody actually using the rather inconspicuous marketplace search box. (Note the latter case requires them to already know about shapeways, which is not a given.)
    You may need to do some advertising to get potential buyers to actually notice your models - or it could be that the price is too high for your target audience, they may be put off by any required post-processing (painting etc) or your market niche is too small to generate regular sales.
     
  6. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
    After ten years.. I'm just shy of $19,000
    Check your markups.
     
  7. rolsen01
    rolsen01 Well-Known Member
    Almost 3 years, 20,000+ parts sold, just a tick over $38,000. Yep, been getting paid
     
  8. MrNibbles
    MrNibbles Well-Known Member
    $141 dollars last year. Only about 7,000 years until I turn one million dollars!
     
  9. Temjin
    Temjin Well-Known Member
    Meanwhile... on another side of the planet, I'm still waiting for my unpaid $6 for almost 2 years. ...
     
  10. barkingdigger
    barkingdigger Well-Known Member
    Have you checked your profile to make sure they have the correct Paypal email? Mine changed and despite updating it the lousy thing somehow was re-set to the dead email, so my payments were going into the Void. But to SW's credit once I pointed it out they did fix it and found my money!
     
  11. Temjin
    Temjin Well-Known Member
    It was a joke, just saying I haven't got anything sold for almost 2 years... I think you have to reach $30 to get paid, not sure. If I really want it and ask for it, most likely they will give it to me.
     
  12. rolsen01
    rolsen01 Well-Known Member
    Yes. Still receive around $1000 a month. That's down from over $3000 a month 2 years ago before the price increases. my parts have gotten many through the pandemic and lock downs.
     
  13. MadBikeSkills
    MadBikeSkills Well-Known Member
    Without many hiccups, ever since I started (just over 6 years ago) I have gotten my payments from Shapeways. I haven't sold nearly as many parts as @rolsen01 or been here as long as @stonysmith (love both your stores, btw). It took me 3 months before I got my first payout, but been steady ever since, with a couple of memorable glitches along the way. One month there was an appearance of being double paid, but it was just a website glitch, and I only remember one month in those 6 years that I was paid a day late (past the 15th).
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2021
  14. woody64
    woody64 Well-Known Member
    Yes nearly monthly paid for 12-13 years now
     
  15. MadBikeSkills
    MadBikeSkills Well-Known Member
    Just as this topic was getting comments I experienced a second glitch in payments in 76 months. Of course I was paid on Monday but it was pending since Friday. Shapeways corrected the issue but did not send out any notification that there were any issues. Support said it was on Paypal's end not accepting the transfer from Shapeways but I only had to find that our by contacting Shapeways myself.

    This is when you wish Shapeways would be more transparent about its operations.

    Regardless, they are very good at making those payments and it was corrected on the next business day.

    BTW, since some mentioned how many prints they have sold in their Shapeways storefront, I thought I would check my totals, I couldn't believe it when I saw that I had sold 11,576 prints since my first payment from Shapeways. And like @woody64, this is basically a spare time gig.
     
  16. adbinc
    adbinc Well-Known Member
    I looked at your storefront, and I would be willing to bet that you forgot to add a markup for your products. Your little trident is only $5, and that is the base price for that material. You could sell a zillion of them and never get anything from Shapeways.

    Go to the circle in the upper right that is your profile picture. Right click it, then go to My Products. That should put you on a page with a list of your products.

    Click the Edit button under the first product. That should put you in a spot where you can edit what the customer will see. Across the top you will see

    Selling

    Details

    Discoverability

    Variants

    Materials

    Pricing

    Customization

    Images

    Click on Pricing.

    You'll see the materials you are selling the product in. The first price is the one that Shapeways charges to make the thing. The next is probably $0 because there is no markup. The last box has a spot to enter your selling price.

    For example, you might see:

    White Natural Versatile Plastic
    Default Material
    Cool trident thingie
    $5.00
    $0
    $5.00

    You want to change the last price to be more than $5. I always suggest ending in either .95 or .99 because it makes your storefront look professional. So let's say you want $0.95 for your hard work. Enter $5.95 in that last box.

    Then you will see

    White Natural Versatile Plastic
    Default Material
    Cool trident thingie
    $5.00
    $0.95
    $5.95

    Make sure you click on the red SAVE CHANGES button.

    Then you have to get out and promote the heck out of your store. Share it on your page on Facebook. Check with admins of group pages to see if promoting your stuff is okay. To be successful, add to your shop at least once a month. Promote your new stuff each time. If you can get painted samples of your work, add the photos to the listing.

    You have a great banner and a nice profile picture, as well as item descriptions, so you are off to a great start.

    Good luck!

    Jean