Has anyone noticed any pattern to whether or not there are certain days or times when releasing a model makes it more popular? For example, just before a weekend? Or is it all just on the model’s merit and a little bit of luck to whether or not a model seems to trend?
I haven’t really done a big experiment on it, but my models have all been released at different times of the day and week. For me, work days around mid day works best. Mid day (around 12:00) is relative to where I’m located, which is Denmark (GMT+2 time zone). I suspect most of my downloads are from people based in the US, but there’s also a sizable amount from Europe, when I look at comments and reviews on my models.
I usually don’t care when I release a model. When it’s done and ready for upload, I just do it without giving it much thought otherwise. My latest models were uploaded in the evening, and they do pretty great by my standards. Enough so that I’ve now pulled out $200 in cash (exclusive points) and €80 of gift cards on top of that, during the past 3 days.
I like Thursday AM CDT. I feel like this gives it a little runway into the weekend which is when I see most of my traffic spikes.
I have noticed that between 4pm and 6pm Thursday has worked out best. BST.
This seems in line with the findings from @kertgartner
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Sooo… That’s Thursday between 3-5PM UTC (seeing as CDT is UTC-5)?
Darn, I need to adjust my upload times…
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@Johnny_Bit I forgot to add BST to my answer.
- BST 4pm - 6pm
- CDT 10am -12pm
- UTC 3pm - 5pm
- EDT 11am -1pm
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Day and time are crucial for a start point, but there is a lot of factors in play to get your design to be popular.
i’m doing my homework on which is the best time and day, but i can Not get a definitive result.
i have a design that i’m working on for a month now, and i don’t want it to get buried under XD i promise it’s not a stupid design.
i wish the best of luck for you and everyone here to get their chance in popular page.
Tip: be more active on the platform, and do not AI generate or flood upload, slow and steady wins the race (mostly).
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It make sense that the best time would be when US creators start the day (UTC 4pm - 6pm for us in Europe), but I am failing to understand the Thursdays
The european night time is not bad either, I guess because of the asian timezones
My best guess to the day is people looking to decide what to print over the weekend.
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Do you all do any other ‘promotion’ anywhere? I saw this vid recommending posting to facebook, after watching it I dusted off my decade+ unused FB login and posted to two bambu lab fb groups, and HOLLEEEEEMOLLLEEEEE did it help some of mine blow up, also posting to reddit in the two main bambulab subreddits, but gotta be careful in the 3dprinting subredit, some of those people don’t like bambu lab users and they tend to go crazy in there.
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I don’t. Probably should but to be honest I can’t waste any more time on social media 
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I posted some models before, and I’ve got great results promoting them on Facebook groups. Particularly finding more specific groups related to the model I’m posting, like posting a bottle opener to a group called “Functional 3D Prints”. I also like using self-promo or project sharing channels on some discord servers
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Nope, I’ve earned my points just “promoting” on MW 
I guess if I want that new printer I’d have to…
Hmmm… Now that you mention it, I did mention one of my designs on quite niche group (it still has 0 prints 
)but I guess I haven’t hit the “popular” ones. Good tip…
Reddit=crazy (at least for some time)
I had to drop from reddit for a bit for the amount of crazy there. I might go back mid-January when things settle… I curated my subreddit list quite a lot, removed “popular” ones and even on niche subreddits there were crazy people butting in with their [insert default country garbage political take].
Having a bit of break from social media, I honestly appreciate more focused places, like say this forum, freecad one etc.
One thing I do notice is… I don’t like self-promotion. I did mention it somewhere else here: for as long as I don’t treat this as a “points gathering” and just post things as a hobby and fun, it’ll stay fun for me. Once I try “promoting” my stuff I fear I might run into it becoming more of work and strip all the fun. The designs I’ve posted so far are things I wanted/wife wanted/I’ve got a stroke of inspiration and I’ve learned a lot. I wonder how can one “promote” while at the same time making sure it stays fun…
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I think a lot of people don’t like the blatant self promotion of models (even within the Bambu Labs subs). Things tend to be well received if they are high quality or novel models, but there are a lot that aren’t.
I don’t promote any of my models and I do just fine - Its definitely not a requirement.
Although a bit off topic for this thread, but the idea of social media promotion is interesting. I have never done any, not even on this MW forum. Is self-promotion allowed on FB and Reddit? I have always thought that it isn’t. Maybe if it’s done in moderation then it’s ok?
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Allowed? Yes and no, the fb groups have individual rules (as do the subreddits) what kinds of things you can post. Eg im pretty sure you can’t advertise a Patreon on most all, but some are limited to saying you can post a “check out my new model” with pics, and then if someone asks you you can give them a link; others are fine posting links to STLs that are free only (like those on MW) its very much a “read the rules” and “read the room” kind of thing. Coming at it earnestly such as “hi all I posted this project to makerworld, anyone have any feedback to improve it?” Tends to provoke a thoughtful discussion vs “DOWNLOAD MY FREE STL NOW! FAST PRINT!” Those usually get deleted by mods right away.
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Yeah I love the functional prints group too, I’ve posted one thing in there, but for feedback and the peeps in there were absolutely awesome giving suggestions and such. A couple dm’d me so they could test print and gave me pointers on reducing material with holes and diamonds and such. It’s how I came to the final design for my hot build plate removal tool for differently abled people.
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On MW, there is a topic called Share My Prints. So it’s not only allowed, it’s encouraged, even though I haven’t given it a try.
So it sounds like self-promotion may be allowed on FB and Reddit with some caveat? Another question: Does promotion on these sites result in more views only, or also more downloads, and more prints?