The Business of Blender | How to Succeed in an Increasingly Competitive Market

The adoption of Blender and the market for Blender products continues to grow with Blender reporting 20 million downloads in 2023. This growth can make it challenging to stand out in an increasingly competitive market, but there are steps you can take to bring your work to the front. 

When talking about the business of Blender, first it is important to recognize that you can build a Blender business and that the Blender Foundation is in full support of this.  Blender will always be free and open source, but that should not be translated into the work that you do with the software.  You should absolutely be integrating it into your professional work and are welcome and encouraged to make a living with Blender.  We hope that you do.  And when you do, we hope you give back to the Blender Foundation to continue to support the growth of the software we are building our business upon.

Our best suggestion when getting started working on a Blender product is to work together with other Creators.  Blender is the only software in the world where community comes first.  That community is very willing to support newcomers, so if you are new, WELCOME!  We're glad you're here. 

Those who have been creating and working in Blender are the true experts.  For that reason, we reached out to some of our Creators to get their thoughts on what works, how you can improve your chances of success and what traps to avoid along the way when starting your Blender business.

Success Tip #1 - Have a high-quality, useful, compelling and unique product!

Richard from TrueVFX knows a thing or two about compelling products, 

"The best place to start when creating a Blender product is to understand the needs of the community.  Is there already a product that achieves the same thing and does it well?  Is this solving a unique problem and offering the community a new improvement to their workflow?  Do you have the resources to build and commit to maintaining a stellar product?"

I would like to highlight his comment on maintaining that product.  This is something that some Creators just starting out may not be factoring in to the time they will spend on what they are building.  When customers purchase a product from Blender Market, what they are really purchasing is the dedication of the Creator to offer support and keep the product functioning and even improving.  We love how often Blender is updated, because that means it is always improving, but that also means that you will be updating your products just as often.

"Take an idea and expand on it if you need a starting point, but the best results come from addressing challenges you’ve encountered yourself. This approach ensures your tools provide real value, making pricing secondary to the impact your product delivers." 

Success Tip #2  - Build community

We saw this happen with Lens Sim, which is one of the fastest growing products we have seen in a while.  The Creator, Havard Dalen, grew a small idea to a wildly successful and valuable product.  At the same time he was working on his idea, @zircron45 released lens tutorial which prompted Havard to reach out.  From there a cohort of self-described "lens nerds" was formed on discord working through testing and ultimately becoming champions of the product itself.  

While Havard modestly attributes much of the success of what started out as his passion project to luck and good timing, he also shared that, 

"During the development I saw the enthusiasm around what I did and that made me want to go the whole way to a sellable product. I also compared what I had to other products and discovered that there was not much competition on the blender market. That was a big motivator for making a full product out of it."

Blender artists have a unique knack for sharing and supporting each other rather than turning into competition or beating out the other guy.

When talking about that community, you should also consider your place in it.  What are your giving back and how are you building and fostering your own relationships within that community?  According to Richard,

Equally important is building a strong community and fostering brand loyalty. Over the past six years, we’ve prioritized keeping promises, meeting expectations, and exceeding them. TrueTERRAIN started in 2018 as a solution to the lack of an easy way to create full environments in Blender. Today, it’s grown into a comprehensive suite with infinite creation possibilities.

Success Tip #3 -  Offer stellar support

The way you manage your community is present your brand is guided by how you handle your customer support.  As we mentioned earlier, it is truly product and customer support that you are selling, so make sure you are managing that aspect of your business well.  Not great at customer support?  Consider adding a support person to your team.  Want some tips to improve on your own?  We've got you!

When it comes to mastering customer support, we know that Mark Kingsnorth is one of our most well-loved Creators according to his customers.  He will sometimes go so far as recording private videos for his customers to guide them through their roadblocks.  This type of personal, dedicated, human interaction is what really sets a high bar for product and customer support.

Mark shares how to tackle even the toughest conversations:

"Treat every conversation, especially the more challenging ones, like an opportunity to learn more about what you can offer or improve upon in the future for the users of your work.  When responding to negative feedback which might sting a little, never send the first message you write. Take a few minutes to see things from their point of view which will help you formulate a response you won’t regret when you look back on it."

Creators who build a relationship with their Customers, offer stellar support and continue to listen to the user experience to improve that experience and their products are leveraging the community to build goodwill and praise of their products, service and overall experience.  Building this trust within the community will allow Customers to purchase your products with confidence knowing that you are behind it!

Mark takes it even one step further by getting a little weird,

"It may sound strange, but always think how might you have been at fault: was the documentation not clear? Does the add-on or Blender not work that way and are there alternatives? Think about what were they hoping to do and how might you be able to help them, even when you might not always see an immediate benefit.

It won’t only feel good to help them, but builds your reputation amongst the community and people are more likely to come back to you in the future. Remember, you wouldn’t be where you are if not for the users. Their success is your success."

Success Tip #4 - Avoid the race to the bottom

When highlighting successes it is also worth noting some pitfalls to avoid.  Richard mentions one trap that is especially common around the time of site-wide sales.  Some creators will offer severe discounts on products leading up to the sale in an attempt to hit the front page. 

"Success in a competitive market isn’t about racing to the bottom on price—it’s about delivering exceptional quality and solving real problems. Customers value tools that inspire creativity and enhance workflows, and they’re willing to invest in products that stand out. Instead of copying what others have done and making it cheaper, focus on finding genuine problems to solve."

We can write an entire article on this alone to really dig in, but speaking with SMOUSE about their attempt using this tactic we find that it hurts their brand and bottom line in the end.

"We also had a few outside creators reach out and warn us that they tried similar tactics back in the day, and it took them a long time to re-establish their value in no longer doing sales like that. That was heard but we still did it anyway because we thought, "Well it worked REALLY well for us this last time, so maybe we have something different?

Nope! The truth is that even if it works once, as soon as someone else joins in, their discount now seems more enticing than yours, so you're pushed to lower yours even further until you're both making pennies per sale. It's always a race to the bottom."

I love that Blender Market creators reach out to each other with this kind of advice.  In fact, I know that SMOUSE recently shared their cautionary tale with another Creator who was shorting their products prior to our last site-wide sale.  Sharing between creators what has been learned through their experience is 🥰

According to SMOUSE,

"In the end, we learned that heeding our fellow creators’ advice, having open communication, and working together to establish a sort of maximum discount only strengthens all of our products' value, and ensures we can all succeed."

Here at Blender Market, we are in the business of fostering Blender Artists.  We hope this article gives you the extra inspiration you need to keep going.