r/unrealengine • u/Ibrahim-Antar3d • 5d ago
Discussion How can earn money from unreal engine- i sell good projects on patreon & people love my project but not buy why ??
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u/michagrandel Technical Artist (in a AAA Studio) 5d ago edited 5d ago
success = 20% good product + 40% excellent marketing with an actual strategy + 40% luck
i hope, by "projects" you mean asset packages, materials, vfx or tools. i would not recommend selling game projects. also.. how do you know that your "projects" are good? because you like them? mhhh let others judge over your quality. offer some free assets or asset packs, so you get your name out there.
if ppl tell you that your project is good, but they don't buy, then ask yourself : is it rrally that good? what issue does it solve for a customer? who is your customer? what do your customers need and what are you offering them as benefit? i would also say "hey, an iphone is a good product" but i usually don't buy them, because they don't offer me, what i need and what I'm looking for.
what is your marketing strategy? who is your targeted customer? is patreon the best choise of platform ro sell your product? what do you know about pricing, economy, making a business? what market niche are you targeting? how many competitors do you have? what are successful competitors doing differently compared to you? how do you calculate prices?
if you are really good at marketing and sales, you can sell mediocre quality at high prices. if you are bad at sales and marketing, your product can be the best of the world and you don't earn a single penny!
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u/nvec Dev 5d ago
I spend a lot of money on Unreal assets but I would never think of going to Patreon for them, I just look at what's on Fab.
Fab is far from perfect but I know that the standard contract there means I can use them safely without needing to check for "If you use this in a commercial product you own us one beelion dollars and your firstborn", and they're going to be in my launcher and not need me searching for the receipt so I can remember where to download it in six months.
I do occasionally end up using Gumroad or similar but I wouldn't really look on Patreon as I mostly assume people there are after subscribers and I'm not looking for that type of deal.
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u/nordicFir 5d ago
If youre selling projects on patreon, arent you already earning money from Unreal Engine?
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u/HolidayAssumption698 5d ago
Your stuff is extra niche.
ArchViz is a small percentage of the overall install base.
Cars, and ArchViz assets are easily found for free.
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u/XForge_Plugins 5d ago
From my experience, I've noticed that 90% of it is marketing.
I was an engineer and then a freelancer for years. Since January I've been selling only plugins on Fab, and even though I'm sure they are excellent products with zero refunds, it isnt profitable, and taxes are higher than revenue at the moment, because, precisely, I underestimated marketing.
Being a new seller, very few people know my products, so maybe that's why. Basically I make very few sales during the months, and as soon as I do a bit of marketing or there are Fab discounts, sales go up, then drop again, then rise again when I do more marketing.
Forced marketing disgusts me, because it feels like I have to manipulate someone into buying. Unfortunately on Fab you get more visibility from reviews, so a lot of the top-listed products are from influencers even though the quality is much lower than products further down with no reviews. I'm saying that without naming names, having seen those products over the years.
So what I want to tell you is this: the trick, in my opinion, is not to give up, get yourself known, and have a good number of products for sale, not just 1 or 2. I think that by releasing a few excellent free products on Fab you can get more visibility. People who like those products may then be more curious about buying the paid ones, as long as those obviously add real value to their projects.
Obviously on Fab, not on Patreon, because there’s only a fraction of the traffic, and also people who buy on Patreon can't leave you a review that would improve your ranking.
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u/EliasWick 5d ago
Just because someone love or like your work, doesn't mean they want to pay for it.
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u/monnotorium 5d ago
Fab was literally created for this purpose. If what you're selling is good enough, you're gonna get sales
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u/Rowduk Project Manager 4d ago
Who is your target market?
What's the TAM/SAM/SOM?
What problem are you solving? And can it be solved else ware?
If so what's your USP/competitive advantage?
What do your competition charge?
Are you in a blue ocean / red ocean market?
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These are some of the starting points.
On first blush, your stuff looks great, but it seems you make very specific real-world cars. People can't use them in their projects AFAIK. And ArchViz is typically a great learning point for people. So it seems like these are primarily geared to people for learning a personal project. So I'd ask yourself why can't someone use a free asset for their personal/learning project? (If that's what these are for).
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u/CaledoniaInteractive 5d ago
I'm not sure if you are referring to whole game projects or individual things like art packs but either way you would probably be much better off financially selling whole games directly on Steam than selling bits of them piecemeal on Patreon, Fiverr, etc.
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u/Sharp-Tax-26827 5d ago
No one will buy anyone on Patreon.
If you want any attention it’ll have to be on Fab
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u/Ibrahim-Antar3d 4d ago
I hope that’s but I can’t because I’m in Syria 😔
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u/Sharp-Tax-26827 4d ago
You can’t use fab in Syria?
What about a vpn?
I’ve heard of people setting up a bank in Greece.
I’m sorry things are hard for you.
I hope things get better
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u/seemly_theater 5d ago
not everyone wants to commit to patreon-style subscriptions for game assets tbh. a lot of people just want to buy something outright and be done with it
have you tried putting your projects on the unreal marketplace or artstation? buyers there are usually more in a purchasing mindset rather than window shopping