🌾 honey (#30473)
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Posted on
2020-05-23 15:58:55
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SELLING ART ON LIODEN:
a guide by honey
HELLO!
hi everyone! i'm honey, and i've been selling art on lioden for 8 years. before lioden, i took commissions on deviantart, other pet sites, and real life. i've been doing art for as long as i can remember!
over the years, i've learned a lot about selling art: what works, what doesn't, etc. while looking through the art sales forum here on lioden, i often see tons of mistakes related to selling art (i'm not talking about mistakes in the art itself!) and i always want to help. hopefully this guide will be beneficial to those who are considering selling art on lioden, or are struggling with getting customers!
as a disclaimer: my tips are just that -- tips! you don't have to follow them, and you can still be successful without them! there are tons of possibilities when it comes to selling art and designing your thread and whatnot; this is just what i've found works best in my experience. :)
PRICING
the standard conversion of currency on lioden is
1200  = 1  = $0.50 USD
i often see newer users selling full art pieces for extremely low prices because they're unaware of how much beetles are actually worth! while you might feel like 1 GB is a lot when you have none, keep in mind that you're putting time and effort into an art piece for the equivalent of 50 cents!!
i've been selling art since i was in elementary school, and i know that no matter how low you price your art, it will always feel like you're overpricing. unfortunately, our society makes us feel as if art is "lesser" work and shouldn't be paid the same as "real" work. and that's a load of bullshit!
"but honey, i enjoy doing art, so it's not work!" that's wonderful, but you don't really hear other professions saying that. there are tons of people who LOVE their jobs, LOVE going to work every day, but definitely wouldn't settle for less than minimum wage. so you shouldn't either!
if you're having trouble coming up with prices for your art, think of it this way:
if a shaded fullbody takes you roughly 3 hours to complete, then you should not price shaded fullbodies below minimum wage x 3.
here's a formula:
[minimum wage for where you live] x [# of hours it takes you to complete art] = MINIMUM price for your art.
don't forget that underpricing your own art can hurt other artists as well!
when people see art that is priced extremely cheap, they believe that other artists' art should be priced the same way. while one person's underpriced art might not ruin the market, when it becomes commonplace it can make selling art in a market almost impossible. i won't namedrop other sites, but there are many sites where selling art for minimum wage is considered overpriced because the market has been saturated with people underselling themselves. if you won't price your art correctly for yourself, at least do it for the sake of not hurting other artists!
MAKING YOUR ART THREAD
before you open your art thread, make sure you have examples prepared for every item you are offering! not only are people less likely to buy something that has no examples, but providing an example for every item prevents clients from buying something and then complaining that it "wasn't what they were expecting". of course, there can always be clients like that, but it's far more likely when there's no example for them to go off of.
now, html is not needed to have a successful thread, but damn does it help. there are tons of free html layouts available here on lioden, and guides to using html if you're new! it doesn't have to be showy, in fact it's better if it's simple. too much craziness happening in your html can detract from your art and even turn people away if it's too busy/cluttered.
here are some tips for your thread:
• don't use crazy fonts! seriously. if we can't read your thread, we won't buy your art. also, many copy-paste fonts don't work on certain phones, and mobile users will be left in the dark wondering what ☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐☐ ☐☐☐☐ means.
• don't use flashy/animated backgrounds or obnoxious colors. if your thread gives people a headache, they probably won't want to do business with you.
• put a favorite art piece at the very top of your thread! that way, when people open your thread, it's the first thing they see. this will draw them in!
• don't hide your examples behind links! when your examples are just a list of links, you drive away tons of potential customers just because opening links is annoying and time consuming and we humans don't like to work any harder than we have to. you can put your examples in a spoiler if you'd like to save space, but i highly recommend having IMAGES on your thread, not just links!
• when adding images to your thread, make sure the width is set to a decent size, or your pictures will break the page! i usually use width=500 or 600 max.
• i'd say put your prices at the top, but my prices are literally the first thing listed on my art shop and people still ask where my prices are, so don't even bother. expect people to ask for prices no matter what.
TAKING COMMISSIONS
so now you have an art shop set up and you're ready to take commissions!
every artist takes commissions a little differently, but the most important thing is to make it very clear how you will be doing it. people like to be sure about where their money is going and when it's going, and how it's going, and at what intervals, and are there refunds? make sure your process is very clear to the clients.
here are the main methods commissioners use.
payment upfront - client pays full amount before artist starts working.
pros: pretty much impossible for artist to get scammed.
cons: if you don't have a good reputation selling art, clients may not feel safe paying in full without seeing some evidence of work taking place.
payment after - client pays full amount once artist has completed the work.
pros: pretty much impossible for client to get scammed.
cons: most likely for artist to get scammed, especially if they don't heavily watermark the piece before sending it to the client.
half and half - client pays half upfront, and the rest once the artist has completed the work.
pros: makes both client and artist feel comfortable with the exchange.
cons: client may "lose" the other half of the payment ("oops i forgot and i spent it on applicators!").
some commissioners have more complex methods of taking payment, but it's completely up to you and what you feel most comfortable with!
CONCLUSION
i hope this guide helped a bit! if there's anything you'd like more information on, feel free to comment or dm me and i can answer it!
this guide is likely going to remain under construction as i remember more things to add later on. i'm sure i didn't fit my whole lifetime of art selling knowledge into this little post, so i might have to come back and add some more stuff as i remember!
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Edited on 25/06/22 @ 15:56:55 by 🌾 honey (#30473) |
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= 1 
= $0.50 USD
