Do you want to showcase your 3D Print Designs all over the world and want them downloaded? Tom and Tracy Hazzard show you the best ways in this episode. Hoping your designs will easily get downloaded once you upload them on a 3D Print Content Site is not realistic. Rise among other print designs by hearing Tom and Tracy’s tips!
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Best Ways To Get Designs Downloaded
Our Ask Us Question is, what are the best ways to get my design downloaded?
To me, I think a lot of this is about the presentation on these websites, especially your design. You don’t expect people to download a CAD file if you don’t have a picture of it having been printed. That makes a big difference.
Even if you have to pay and have it printed somewhere, you don’t have one, that’s fine, but proof that it can be printed because it’s hard to take a risk.
There are many files out there, hundreds of thousands of them that have not been printed. I know personally, a lot of people that when they look for files, you’re going to go right by it. They’re not going to download it if they don’t see that it’s been successfully printed.
If somebody didn’t print one, you know that they downloaded it or a friend printed it or whatever, ask them for a picture.
Ask them also for a review or a testimonial. A lot of these sites let people who have downloaded it post, “Did it work successfully for me?” “Did you print it okay?” Having those things, those reviews up there also makes a big difference.
The other thing is that I think you have to step back all the way to the point of deciding whether or not your design even belongs on the site, to begin with. The number one thing is that a lot of these sites have unsophisticated categories. It’s like jewelry gadgets. They’re simple. If yours doesn’t fit in the category, probably don’t stick it up there. It doesn’t belong.
I think you should be choosy about the sites you put it on and find what might be the best fit for your type of item.
Another thing to do is to stick it on all those sites because each site has, in and of themselves, their own audience. I find that there are people who are dissatisfied and they can’t find what they’re looking for because they’re looking for a specific type of gift or object. When I was looking for Father’s Day or Mother’s Day, it was hard. What did I do? I checked out every single site. Spreading yourself around is great too.
You’re bringing up another good point about the different reasons people might be looking for a file. If you think that your file is appropriate for a Mother’s Day gift, a birthday gift, or a Father’s Day gift, you should tag that file because people are searching not based on, “I need this type of an item.” They may not know what item they’re looking for, but they know what they’re looking for, a gift for him or for her.
Get Designs Downloaded: You should be choosy about the sites you put it your 3D Print design and find what might be the best fit for your type of item.
Get out of the mindset of labeling like a model. Nobody wants to know how many polygons the thing has. They’re not going to find your model by that.
People who want to go looking for these models are shopping, aren’t they?
It’s a shopping site. Keep that in mind. If you don’t know how to tag it, if you’ve never done this before, go on Etsy and find the same kind of product. If it’s a belt buckle, I had a mustache belt buckle for Father’s Day. People loved it. It was super cute. Go on Etsy and type in belt buckle and then see what shows up. Type in the next characteristic of it if it’s mustache. You would type that in next and then you see what they tagged because they have a limited set. I think they only have 10 or 13 tags and use them.
If you think about your file a little bit differently, not from a creator’s perspective, but maybe a shopper’s perspective, it might help you to think a little bit differently about what to say and how to get people to find your file and download it.
I spoke to Vicky Somma who has a Shapeways shop. She has a great little item that’s a breastfeeding pendant that you would hang on a chain. She said that in this case, you printed, but she gets the most sales off of social media. If you’re not rotating your items through Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram, you should be printing them out and take a picture of them. There’s also an influx of fails. When your print fails, you should post it too. People are interested in that.
Being honest and being real about it will get some good attention and lend credibility to what you’re doing. I hope that helps answer your question.
If you want to build a 3D print business, we want to help you.
It’s not too late. You could still do it. It doesn’t take long to do. Go to our homepage. You’ll see there is a banner there to click on where you can fill out the form and there are a few different ways you can do it.
It’s HazzDesign.com.
You can find us everywhere on social media. Thank you for reading.
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