Why create resources?
- Last updated Last updated:
-
Our resources manager allows for creators to sell licenses to products non-exclusively. This article explains many of the pros and cons of offering non-exclusive licenses to your creations rather than being paid by clients for exclusive commissions.
Becoming a resource author on BuiltByBit is a great opportunity to build a business and an audience. Here are just a few reasons why authoring resources may be right for you:
Make what you want, when you want, how you want
Being commissioned by clients means that you must work closely with them to ensure they're happy with the final product within the timeframe they specify. Alternatively, releasing resources on BuiltByBit allows authors to create whatever you want, even if you don't have a particular client in mind when publishing. There are no deadlines when creating a resource so you can take as long as you'd like to release your product to the market. Because creating resources doesn't rely on finding a client, you can continue doing what you love and being paid for it even if you don't have anyone commissioning you. Once you make a product and publish it as a resource you can sell it forever, so you could be making significantly more money per hour when accounting for all future sales.
Retain ownership over your creations
Unlike with most commissions, once you publish a resource you retain full ownership rights over your product. You can control how your product can and cannot be used. For example, you may wish to specify that licenses to plugins can only be used on a single server and cannot be transferred between people if the server is sold. Importantly, BuiltByBit takes no ownership stake in your product; your product is completely yours and you can change it or remove it from our platform whenever you'd like. We avoid introducing arbitrary limitations like other platforms have, such as a maximum price limit of $20 per resource, and instead provide as much control to authors. Click here to read more about how we compare to other marketplaces.
Every new creation that you publish is a new asset for your business, increasing its value and your total revenue. Many of our largest authors have created businesses generating thousands of dollars of revenue each month from sales and eventually being able to resell the rights to their resources to others for a large sum.
Sell unused assets
Unfortunately, it is very common for freelancers to finalise a commission, only to have the client back out or chargeback. In these cases, publishing the product as an BuiltByBit resource is a great way to recoup some money or release the product as free as a marketing tool. Another situation where you may have unused assets sitting around is with tests and experimentations that were successful but weren't made for any particular buyer.
Create resources as marketing tools
If you're struggling to find clients for your freelancing business then releasing resources is likely a great opportunity to build a solid reputation and customer base. Many authors find that offering purely freelance services or resource products does not work as well for them as offering both in conjunction with each other. Authors who release high-quality resources become recognised by customers. Offering resources for free can be great for building a portfolio or as a lead magnet to find people to hire you, and so they create a powerful synergy.
Learn new skills
Creating resources is an excellent way for freelancers to transition to business owners, learning the skills necessary to maximise profits. These skills, of course, translate well to any career and can become impressive career prospects to mention on your CV. A few skills that authors learn through publishing resources on BuiltByBit include:
- Marketing and product promotion strategies
- Understanding industry trends and which product types will be the most successful
- Project management and planning
- Networking and communication
Our resource manager makes selling products super easy
All of the benefits we've listed sound great on paper, but if it's difficult to offer products non-exclusively then it would be impractical to do at scale. Luckily, BuiltByBit's resource manager is specifically designed for this purpose. We have many custom features and tools specifically for authors on BuiltByBit A full list of features and benefits of our resources manager for authors can be found here.
Of course, making resources isn't right for everyone at every stage of their business. A few things to consider before publishing resources on BuiltByBit are:
Resources must work as advertised
We require that all resources on BuiltByBit work as advertised. This means that if you're selling a paid server setup listed as compatible with Minecraft version 1.17 for example, the setup must work exactly as described and function as buyers expect. This is primarily a concern for more technical products that could have compatibility issues or bugs such as Minecraft plugins and server setups. For builds, graphics, and models this is far less of a concern as generally there is no need to ever update your product as long as it still functions exactly as described.
Products can be leaked
Unfortunately, leak sites are popular in the Minecraft community due to the young demographic and poor understanding of the risks associated with downloading leaked products. BuiltByBit's resource injector is the best on the market and can work incredibly well at finding leakers to punish and revoke licenses from, but it does not prevent leaks from happening in the first place. On BuiltByBit we allow for DRM licensing systems to be used where a license is validated before the product can be used, but these are largely inapplicable towards builds, graphics, models, server setups, and configurations.
We have quality expectations for resources to be published
To avoid our marketplace becoming saturated with low-quality products, we have quality expectations that we require a resource to exceed before it can be published. For example, uploading a dirt hut build, nearly default configuration file, or hello world plugin will be denied.
Success relies on marketing
Just like with finding clients for commissions, finding buyers for resources involves marketing to achieve significant success. Many of our largest authors have been successful through promoting their work to their friends and on social media. Other ways to promote your resources include creating a linked thread, pinned resource advertisements through our Ads Manager, and advertisements in our Discord server through points.
Want to learn more about resources? Click here to read our resources overview for creators.
