Hi everyone, I'm quite new to selling assets online I was just wondering if some of you would be willing to share some guidelines on how you price your assets?

I think it would be good to have something like this for new users, regardless of my own curiosity.

There are no guidelines, but a basic retail formula could be applied.

First, you need to figure out how much it will cost you to develop an asset. This is referred to as the investment.

INVESTMENT = TIME * RATE

Where RATE is your hourly rate. That amount can be tricky, because how much you make as a 3D artist doesn't always equal how much you make as an orbolt author . If this is your first asset, then I'd recommend making this amount small, but if your assets are really well done then you can increase it. Setting the rate right, is tricky.

Next, you need to figure out how long the asset will be sold in the store. My experience with software says that most tools have a 3 year lifespan. So let's talk in terms of months. So that's an amortization of 36 months. You also want to make a profit. Most retail modals multiple the cost by 2 to gain a profit. Also, let's not forget that SideFX takes a 30% cut. So add an additional 30% to cover distributor fees.

We can now calculate our desired monthly return.

RETURN = (INVESTMENT / 32) * 2.3

That gives us our desired monthly return, or another way to say it is our total monthly sales.

Now you need to figure out how many units to sell in a month to equal that return. Basically, how many units will you sell in the next 3 years? Without having any data from SideFX on the store's performance, then this is really impossible to tell. Let's be conservative, and say about 100 in 3 years.

Now we can calculate the price.

PRICE = RETURN / (SALES / 32)

Where SALES is the total number sold over 3 years.

Now let's run an example, and see how good my formal is or if it's just junk science.

INVESTMENT = TIME * RATE
RETURN = (INVESTMENT / 32) * 2.3
PRICE = RETURN / (SALES / 32)

Let's assume my rate will be $25 per hour, and it takes 40 hours to make an asset and I expect to sell 100 units.

INVESTMENT = 40 * $25
RETURN = (INVESTMENT / 32) * 2.3
PRICE = RETURN / (SALES / 32)

—–

RETURN = ($1000 / 32) * 2.3
PRICE = RETURN / (SALES / 32)

—–

PRICE = $71.87 / (SALES / 32)
PRICE = $71.87 / 3.125
PRICE = $22.99

Well, there you go.

The problem here is that it requires several guesses, and it assumes you want to double your invest over 3 years.

Ok, cool. I see a lot of tools going for ~5,- though, but I guess if you expect to sell quite a few, didn't take much time to make it or simply charge a fairly low hourly rate (because you might do this as a hobby for example) that makes sense.

I am not very scientific. I basically ask myself how much I would be willing to pay for it so I wouldn't have to create asset “X” from scratch on my own (which may sound weird because I usually just did :? ). However, most of my stuff is tools that have no value outside of a node network, not higher level assets like the stadium generator, so most of my stuff ends up being between the $0.00-15.00 range.

Also, look at other 3D asset websites like turbosquid.com and see what people are asking for static versions of similar things.

Yeah, I think I'll mostly be focusing on tools that fit inside a bigger node network, so a $0-15 price range is kinda what I'm aiming for at the moment. Besides the fact these nodes aren't much use outside a network, they can be used many more situations, so you can also assume more sales than with higher level assets.

I don't know if you can see how many times your asset has been sold, but I assume you can or get a notification or something, so if an asset doesn't sell you can always try lowering the price a bit. If that information isn't available yet I assume it will be in the future.
Edit: You can see how many times an asset got sold in the “Overview” tab on your account So no real amount of money you made, but at least you can see if it sells and you can calculate your profit with that as well.

The comment was raised earlier: “What would you pay for it?”. I think this is a good self-check.

How much do you pay for the average ringtone or app, $1-5 maybe?
Or how much have you paid for a Photoshop plug in, $100?
Or an After effects plug in, $500?
….and for that price, what level of professionalism and support would expect as a customer?

There are several reasons to post free assets as well. Be seen and and have your Houdini work available online, for prospective employers to evaluate.

Some asset authors are motivated not by sales, but rather to share tools, information, and maybe establish a bit of profile (as a knowledgeable Houdini user) too.

Sharing your expertise with others also strengthens our Houdini community, which we all benefit from.

I have heard a wide range of feedback on this topic. People feel strongly both for and against free assets. How much to charge, is ultimately up to you. If you decide to charge at all. My guess is that there's a blend of free and paid assets which will work best.