This was in the craft cutter market, not 3D printing, but it was a similar situation. People had purchased the machines, and knew how to use them physically, but they had no idea how to design files for them. There was an unfilled niche for several years, extremely high demand for good quality files, and a lot of ladies with money to burn.Jadedwarlord wrote:.....it seems that you were marketing your prints/files to 3d printing networks like thingiverse and the like. It seems to me that this market is rife with those who already have access to 3d printers, hence the rate of low returns since almost everyone who frequents those sites are capable of printing their own stuff anyway. While I definitely will participate on those scenes in order to contribute to the community of 3d printers, I will not focus solely on them for that very reason...they already have 3d printers.
I plan on focusing my effort on my geographically surrounding area......
Filling a local niche is absolutely your best bet - you can probably make a nice little side income with folks who don't have machines yet. Again, Craig's list or an article in the local papers might be a good place to start with advertising. (And be sure to display at local craft fairs, tech conventions, whatever you can find. The more your work is seen locally, the more orders you'll bring in. We get copious quantities of craft fairs here every weekend in the fall.) Also might want to do a demo or two at the shows and local craft stores.
Anyway, have fun with it!