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I'm tired rant + a question!
2 years ago
General
The sob story ranty part.
I've been heavily struggling against the clock lately. Due to the full-time job that I work (and hate) alongside other things going on in my life, I can barely squeeze any time to the side to draw or do anything else. Anyone who has tried to reach out to me, make friends, etc will probably know that I rarely respond consistently. It's always "I'm sorry.", "I'm busy" or something in between hours apart each message. My job takes a lot of time from me, and has left me to feel on the verge of burnout pretty often with me staying up late at night to get things done, leading me to repeat a toxic cycle of staying up late and showing up to my job exhausted, just to get off a tiring shift and force myself to draw again for hours, getting the bare minimum of sleep, food, self care, socializing, etc required to barely function during the day which causes me to get even more tired, and more uninspired to do pretty much anything. My mental health suffers, my creativity dies, and I become bitter. The cycle repeats. This admittedly has made me feel hopeless for the situation to get better more than once, and I'm making this journal with some of the hope I have left.
Why am I doing this to myself? Basically, I feel stuck. I don't want to keep having to work this lifeless job that my family has forced me in, always feeling like I could be doing more fulfilling things with my time. My frustrations with my circumstances are what motivates me to improve my art, so I can make..something out of it. Because right now it's just something I do for fun. I absolutely love it, but if I'm not even rested enough to do what I want and am always forcing myself to work a lifeless job on the side, I really can't do anything. I'm sure a lot of you can relate with how abhorrent working a full time job can be.
The Question:
Because of this, I've been thinking of making a patreon/subscribestar, or some kind of thing for side income if those two are too difficult for me to manage. That way I can draw more while also keeping my income steady with plans on quitting my full time job, leaving more time to provide my art to you all and set up a schedule that allows me to rest sufficiently for more high quality art!
What do you all think? Would you be interested in that kind of a thing? I'm not even sure how to really...do patreon and all that stuff really, but I am open to suggestions. Thanks to whoever cares enough to read this, and double thanks to those who respond!
I've been heavily struggling against the clock lately. Due to the full-time job that I work (and hate) alongside other things going on in my life, I can barely squeeze any time to the side to draw or do anything else. Anyone who has tried to reach out to me, make friends, etc will probably know that I rarely respond consistently. It's always "I'm sorry.", "I'm busy" or something in between hours apart each message. My job takes a lot of time from me, and has left me to feel on the verge of burnout pretty often with me staying up late at night to get things done, leading me to repeat a toxic cycle of staying up late and showing up to my job exhausted, just to get off a tiring shift and force myself to draw again for hours, getting the bare minimum of sleep, food, self care, socializing, etc required to barely function during the day which causes me to get even more tired, and more uninspired to do pretty much anything. My mental health suffers, my creativity dies, and I become bitter. The cycle repeats. This admittedly has made me feel hopeless for the situation to get better more than once, and I'm making this journal with some of the hope I have left.
Why am I doing this to myself? Basically, I feel stuck. I don't want to keep having to work this lifeless job that my family has forced me in, always feeling like I could be doing more fulfilling things with my time. My frustrations with my circumstances are what motivates me to improve my art, so I can make..something out of it. Because right now it's just something I do for fun. I absolutely love it, but if I'm not even rested enough to do what I want and am always forcing myself to work a lifeless job on the side, I really can't do anything. I'm sure a lot of you can relate with how abhorrent working a full time job can be.
The Question:
Because of this, I've been thinking of making a patreon/subscribestar, or some kind of thing for side income if those two are too difficult for me to manage. That way I can draw more while also keeping my income steady with plans on quitting my full time job, leaving more time to provide my art to you all and set up a schedule that allows me to rest sufficiently for more high quality art!
What do you all think? Would you be interested in that kind of a thing? I'm not even sure how to really...do patreon and all that stuff really, but I am open to suggestions. Thanks to whoever cares enough to read this, and double thanks to those who respond!
- Make sure that some of your content still remains free and that you post this free content semi-regularly (whether you only post some work or post everything on a delayed schedule). This acts as a sort of demo that pulls in new subscribers while also letting people know what kind of content you're producing. On top of that, this also reminds non-subscribers know that you're still active, since people can easily forget about you if your work doesn't pop up across their eyeline now and then.
- Advertise often but not TOO often. You wanna pull in new people but you don't wanna annoy those who are already watching you. I advertise once or twice a month, but you could probably get away with once every week or two depending on what your advertisement involves. On that note, the advertisement becomes more appealing and less annoying if it brings with it something interesting, like a new art piece that can be enjoyed by both new and old subscribers.
- Whatever you do, make sure your audience knows exactly what your paid content is. I've seen too many artists delete their galleries and give no indication as to what they actually draw behind their paywall. What genders are you drawing? Is it vanilla sex or fetish-focused, and how? Even if people like your style and see little snippets that look adjacent to their interests, most aren't gonna subscribe unless they know what they're in for.
- Price your tiers appropriately, based on both your quality and level of activity. If people feel like they paid too much for too little, they're gonna leave disappointed and possibly not come back. Having a $1 tier with real benefits (not just "teehee thank u 4 the support") is imperative too, because this gives people a taste of the higher tiers and inspires them to pledge higher for more.
That was a bit longer than I intended it to be but I hope it's helpful! It may sound overwhelming but it's actually pretty simple once you get into the groove. Start small, gradually work yourself into it, and you should be fine. (By the way, Slowbro is my fave pokemon and your art is just SO juicy.)
I’ll go over the tips you’ve provided over and over in my head. I guess the biggest things holding me back from making a patreon is figuring out how often i’m actually going to post, what i’m going to post, and how to go about pricing. I’m not the most confident in my style at the moment so i’m not sure what the heck my work is worth, hhh
i’m sure i’ll figure it out though! Thanks for this again, truly ❤️
The best way to begin is to just do it, I guess! You can start cheap and simple with one or two tiers; could be a sketch tier and a full art tier, or perhaps a tier that shows art as you draw it and a cheaper tier that instead gives it all in a zip file once a month. Then as you learn what's up, you can expand from there and build a more thorough structure. It's not like whatever you do is set in stone, after all :3 Just let people know you're in the initial stages of setting things up and that things can change, and it should be fine!
at the very least I don't think it would hurt to try and see how many people on here are willing to support you just cause they enjoy your art~!