brianzajac

I've been using Bluehost for years and rarely have an issue with them. I also find that WordPress sites load twice as fast when I migrate sites from GoDaddy to Bluehost. Note the link is an affiliate link. I use it because at random times it goes on sale through that link. Hope that helps you out Ernest.

Operating since 2006, our production company 3DAS resides in Naples, Florida (east coast is Miami, we're on the west coast). http://3das.com/

Here are some of those results: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22stolen%20work%22%20cgarchitect&oq=stolen+work+cgarchitect&aqs=chrome..69i57.5572j1j7&bmbp=1&sourceid=chrome-psyapi2&espv=&es_sm=0&ie=UTF-8#q=%22stolen%22+site:cgarchitect.com

Unless he goes bankrupt, you have the power of reviewing his business all throughout the internet. It's the great "bully equalizer".

For us, new accounts with larger firms come from referrals so those fall under a different category and payments are dealt with on a case-by-case basis. In general if my referral has gotten good payment history from that firm, we will allow the 30 days payment after invoice without the watermark. I don't believe we've ever allowed 60 day payment windows from a new client without a watermark.

I find it amazing how quickly a new client pays once they get the final image with the watermark and in many cases, the payment comes to us in days. The key to this is to educate the new client from the contract start and before you complete the high-res render and/or final animation.

Great videos and infographic - a great way to start off my day since I'm doing the accounting. Our rule of thumb at 3DAS has almost always been for new clients: 1/4 - 1/2 up front (based on size of the project) & watermark the image / animation until the payment has been fully met.

Hello Antwoine, I'm one of the owners of CGschool. While I'll leave it up to the community for their review, I can direct you to some areas that might help with your decision: http://www.thecgschool.com/about/student-testimonials/ - Testimonials of past clients http://www.thecgschool.com/login/ - 1-hour previews of the bundled classes you're interested in (registration required, but is free). http://www.youtube.com/user/3das3dats/videos?flow=grid&view=1 - Click on "CG Training - CGschool" and "Training" to see more videos and comments / reviews for each video.

There's an updated Onyx Trees & Vegetation tutorial at http://www.thecgschool.com/login/

For those who are still interested, the 20% off CGschool recordings ends tomorrow.

From a language perspective, let's assume you know German and English. IMO, you should segment two separate channels - one in English for the main U.S.-based portals (YouTube, FB, etc.) and German for local / regional marketing efforts. The decision makers do mostly come from referrals / COI (Centers of Influence). However, their marketing staff, office assistants, and off-time from the owners do check out these channels (depending heavily on what they're looking for). And just because someone referred them, doesn't mean they will go with that firm. Having social channels, a good looking / functional web site, YouTube channel, etc. proves that you are an authoritative resource.

"Would it be worth maybe having this thread as a sticky..." Agreed. Having a concentrated area for social marketing would only help our businesses at this point. If it becomes a sticky, I'll be glad to add in some groups we follow.

I like where this thread is going - does social media convert to sales? For our production company, we did see direct sales coming from YouTube. Since we created a channel, the prospective client saw our animations and gave us a call. We always route our YouTube channel back to our site, so it makes it easy on the client to find us. For our training & books, it has been more branding and/or indirect sales. Our Twitter feeds keep the flow of jobs, news & tutorials. This keeps our readers interested. We get responses, answer in a timely manner & those lead to fans. From there, I find those fans either purchase and/or let others know about the information. At the end of the day, if the info is useful, people will sign up. One thing I didn't see mentioned about social media is the conversation between client & "fan". For us, this has been very helpful in planning future events and staying current with the trends. For example, we recently asked on FB if people were going to Siggraph this year. Most of our network of people said "no". That information, combined with our internal marketing / analysis, concluded we should not go this year. While it didn't make a profit, we didn't potentially lose a lot of time / money.

Thanks @bev.lynn for following us. For a list of popular / influential 3D twitter users, head over to http://wefollow.com/twitter/3d

@dande - You're right, there are some businesses that should not need to use social media. However, if you have a client base that wants to know what you are doing to improve their lives and or company, having a FB fan page can work. It's a great gateway to keep customers "in the loop". As for twitter, @notamondayfan (nice handle, do you like Tuesdays?) is correct. Twitter is more like a stock ticker or information streamer. You access data quickly. If you promote content in Twitter it's good to promote jobs, news, specials, and anything that people can digest information quickly and click on if they like the tweet. As you develop your skills within social media, you start up conversations that lead to relationships. Relationships lead to partnerships and/or indirect sales. Just make sure you put time into your day to keep up the conversations.