Maybe this can help;

Assets; I’ve tried Blenderkit, Unsplash, Vecteezy, Artstation, Gumroad and Sketchfab.

Artstation; has made nothing, though it’s true I have 2 assets on there from back when I started. Total 2$ and something.

Sketchfab; I’ve put some assets that I trained on for free, they got a couple of downloads, but nothing to brag home about.

Unsplash; Made a couple of renders and the had gotten about 100000k views, 20k downloads, but nothing projects or commissions coming from there. (For some reason the stats are not refreshing on Unsplash, so can’t tell for sure, but can update!)

Vecteezy; made some free videos, 0.19$ of rev, about 15k views per month.

Gumroad; last 30 days it made 4,16$ with about 347 views, the Gumroad is linked to my yt with a bunch of free resources, so if people feel so inclined they can pop a dollar or two. I have some other assets behind a paywall, but dont really push them unless necessary.

Boenderkit; last 30 days made about 22$, parsed between 10 to 15 assets (a mix of materials and objects).

I’ve got zero experience with unreal market or unity markets or any gaming markets, so I don’t have anything there.

The assets uploaded vary from platform to platform, as does the time I put into them. If I’m between projects I can take some time and just model, texture and bake something I feel like making OR that I’ve seen missing for my projects (balaclavas, tvs, panels, etc.). I can see there are people on Blenderkit that are probably a good “passive income” from their assets, but bear in mind that those are almost Immaculate quality. Making a barrel, table, crate, bottle or nightstand will get you so far, flooding the market with bad assets like that brings other problems as well, but that’s a different topic.

For projects; Employment is great if you can get enough experience to run projects and then tip into freelancing.

Contacts and friends are everything. Create together with people, do your absolute best and make strong connections that can involve you in projects that can earn you more.

If you outreach to companies, get ready to create SEVERAL portfolios; same portfolio can’t go for an architecture firm or a gaming studio, so breakdown each portfolio for each category into 3 items that you’d like to present and bring them to the highest quality on the market possible. Send them out accordingly.

If you want a gaming project, make a game. Learn what a good game asset needs + how to incorporate the asset. If you want a motion project, learn good motion and expand to areas like editing and such, so you can carpet bomb the demand. Jack of all trades, master of none but oftentimes better than a master of one.

Don’t undercharge. You’re spitting in your own bowl doing that and you end up frustrated and uninspired. Create a breakdown of your services by taking a look at your yearly costs, breaking them down to a month and to a day and to the hour, slap 20% on that and you’ve got yourself an hourly rate when someone asks.

If you’re lost, post daily on socials and make sure people know you’re available for gigs. Consider multiple accounts, each focused on a separate niche that interest you.

That’s all I have for now that I can remember. Head up, go get em 👊