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Damage Control: What to try when your advertisements fail
14 years ago
No matter how hard we push our works, either by running an ad, bribing others to pimp us, or using a free service such as 
commissions , sometimes we find that we are not getting the desired amount of interest or buyers. This is worse when our watcher level is very low, because it takes time and effort to build up watchers to a point where you'll get at least one taker every time you open commissions.
If you find yourself struggling with keeping work incoming, consider some of these points.
Your prices may be too high
I know most everybody wants to price themselves at what they personally feel they are worth, and nobody wants to work for below minimum wage. Plenty of artists can nab $50 for a single character colored image, so what makes you so different? Especially if it takes you 5+ hours to do the work.
If you're just starting out on a site like FA, your watcher level is going to be low, so even if your work is great and totally worth $50, you might have to start a little lower just to gain some sort of reputation.
If you've been around a while, and you still are having trouble selling your work at that price, you need to take an honest look at your work, and the work of others selling at similar prices, and ask yourself if the quality can compare. If you are honest with yourself, you should be able to find artists with similar skill levels as you who can consistently sell their work, and see how they're pricing themselves or what they are selling. Chances are they are either selling much more cheaply than you, or they have a bigger pool of watchers to pull from.
In the end, it is your buyers who determine your worth. This holds true for even mediocre artists who have a lot of fans, because there will always be someone willing to buy their work and even "overpay" for it. If you don't have the luxury of a large fanbase, you might have to accept a lower market worth, at least for a little while. Would you rather sell no commissions at $50 each, or five of them at $30?
You aren't drawing what people like
If you haven't yet realized, the world revolves around sex. There is absolutely no getting around it. Wars were fought and empires were built and destroyed in the pursuit of just getting laid. While you and only you can decide what you prefer to illustrate, and draw the line at specific content, sometimes you have to consider alternatives, especially if you rely on your artwork to feed you.
If you don't draw adult work, and you're the legal age to do so, try it at least once. Try it as a special, or an auction. If you're still uncomfortable with it after that, then you don't need to continue. But I assure you, that if you are any sort of decent artist, and you suddenly offer porn, and are good at body language and facial expressions, people will start lining up.
You don't have enough variety or pricing options
A lot of artists offer the simple three or four tier treatment (sketch, ink, simple color, complex color), with perhaps something else like icons or badges, all with fixed prices. And that's good. But what I've discovered lately, is that people who wouldn't normally buy from you because they can't afford the prices you've set in stone for particular levels of work, will jump at the chance to throw what they can afford at you even just for a half hour doodle.
In August, I started doing a pay-what-you-want sketch stream every Sunday, with a set minimum of $5. Five bucks is super affordable, and very inviting. I put $5 as minimum and encouraged tips or paying more if the buyer thought the work was worth more than $5, and because of that, I still expected people to take advantage of me and just milk me all day for $5 sketches.
An amazing thing happened. At first, most people dropped me five to eight bucks, and after they got the sketch, tipped me a bit more, which was unexpected but very much appreciated. Then some people started dropping $20 -$30 up front on just a single sketch from me. Which is crazy, but extremely appreciated. Being able to set their own worth, plus watching the work unfold during a stream AND having it done and uploaded that same day really appealed to people. Mind you, there are still people who pay me only the minimum, and if that's all they can afford, I can still give them something.
So consider offering pay-what-you want commissions, or "by the hour" options, where your customers can scale the price to where they are comfortable, and you do what you can for the price offered or time available. Even better if they get to watch you work. People seem to love streams.
You aren't drawing enough
I've been drawing and selling furry art since 2000, and if I had been consistent about it and as prolific as I am today, treating it as a job, I'd be a hell of a lot more well known. But my uploads were few and far between, and between the years of 2005 and 2008, I had very little output, and I also changed my name in 2009, almost completely abandoning my old moniker earlier this year. Not surprisingly, during those years where I hardly drew anything, my watcher list crept upwards at the rate of cold molasses, and it was almost a struggle to get any of my commission slots filled. I still relied on auction sites like Furbid and Furbuy to sell my work. Sometimes I got lucky, but many times my offers would end without even a sideways glance.
I was never really one to draw just for the sake of drawing. There are other things that I enjoy doing more, so you guys already have one up on me because I know you love to draw more than I do. I don't take the time to practice. All the art I do is exactly what it turns into and ends up in my gallery as. I don't have sketchbooks full of gestures or life study, half-finished sketches, practice drawings, self portraits, or flights of fancy. AND THIS IS HURTING ME.
I've always offered commissions, but I've also always had a job outside of artwork, and so the commissions were just a supplement. I didn't NEED to do them, but I didn't want to go stagnant like I did during those three years. Commissions WERE my means of practice, but at the rate I was doing them, it wasn't enough to garner much attention. So when I lost my CS job almost exactly a year ago, art suddenly became my full time job. Chaosie thought we were completely fucked, because I had been the major breadwinner, and suddenly half of our income was gone. I was adamant that I could make enough money in a month to keep us afloat, but he did not have the same optimistic outlook. He was of the opinion that furry artists simply did not make the kind of money needed, and me, as a relative unknown, would fail.
One year later, and I am now making over a thousand dollars a month JUST on commissions. Since commissions became my job, I've had to draw more, which in turn attracts more fans who then commission me, and become repeat customers too. But it was only since August that I had been able to double my monthly income. What changed in August? That's right. I started doing the weekly pay-what-you-like sketch streams, which brought in at least $100 in a single day, and still does.
What is the point to this story?
Because I'm doing so many sketches every weekend, my skill is improving and I'm attracting more watchers with more frequent uploads. I am uploading more artwork in a month now than I ever have in my life. In fact, in this year since I lost my job, I have drawn and uploaded more than I have in the nine years previous combined. No joke.
You've heard the saying that the rich get richer, and the poor stay poor/get poorer. Which basically means that if you have the money, you can invest in other projects that will make you money, etc, whereas if you're poor, you can't even afford the supplies to work your craft. This is true, but only to an extent. The great thing about art, is that it comes in many forms, and it's absurdly cheap or even free for materials. You have the capability to create money out of almost nothing, and you're persistent enough to keep pushing, keep improving, keep drawing, and uploading. It's always slow to start, but if you keep going, making improvements, things will eventually snowball. In art, the rich do get richer, but the poor don't have to stay poor. Your only obstacle is time, and you've got nothing to lose by drawing.
My biggest mistake in the ten years of my artistic career is drawing only when I needed to do so, and because I rarely needed to, and also left a community where I was well known, I again became unknown. Commission offers dropped, and I drew less. It took me losing my job, the threat of losing my home and having to move in with in-laws, to push me into action.
It's not yet the new year, but one of my resolutions for 2012 (aside from 1920x1200) is to do more personal art to upload, and more practice.
I know I'm not the best person to be dishing out business advice, but if you have any questions about anything or would like my opinion or input, you can send me a note on my account
mosa and I'll be happy to talk shop with you if you're serious about your work.
commissions , sometimes we find that we are not getting the desired amount of interest or buyers. This is worse when our watcher level is very low, because it takes time and effort to build up watchers to a point where you'll get at least one taker every time you open commissions. If you find yourself struggling with keeping work incoming, consider some of these points.
Your prices may be too high
I know most everybody wants to price themselves at what they personally feel they are worth, and nobody wants to work for below minimum wage. Plenty of artists can nab $50 for a single character colored image, so what makes you so different? Especially if it takes you 5+ hours to do the work.
If you're just starting out on a site like FA, your watcher level is going to be low, so even if your work is great and totally worth $50, you might have to start a little lower just to gain some sort of reputation.
If you've been around a while, and you still are having trouble selling your work at that price, you need to take an honest look at your work, and the work of others selling at similar prices, and ask yourself if the quality can compare. If you are honest with yourself, you should be able to find artists with similar skill levels as you who can consistently sell their work, and see how they're pricing themselves or what they are selling. Chances are they are either selling much more cheaply than you, or they have a bigger pool of watchers to pull from.
In the end, it is your buyers who determine your worth. This holds true for even mediocre artists who have a lot of fans, because there will always be someone willing to buy their work and even "overpay" for it. If you don't have the luxury of a large fanbase, you might have to accept a lower market worth, at least for a little while. Would you rather sell no commissions at $50 each, or five of them at $30?
You aren't drawing what people like
If you haven't yet realized, the world revolves around sex. There is absolutely no getting around it. Wars were fought and empires were built and destroyed in the pursuit of just getting laid. While you and only you can decide what you prefer to illustrate, and draw the line at specific content, sometimes you have to consider alternatives, especially if you rely on your artwork to feed you.
If you don't draw adult work, and you're the legal age to do so, try it at least once. Try it as a special, or an auction. If you're still uncomfortable with it after that, then you don't need to continue. But I assure you, that if you are any sort of decent artist, and you suddenly offer porn, and are good at body language and facial expressions, people will start lining up.
You don't have enough variety or pricing options
A lot of artists offer the simple three or four tier treatment (sketch, ink, simple color, complex color), with perhaps something else like icons or badges, all with fixed prices. And that's good. But what I've discovered lately, is that people who wouldn't normally buy from you because they can't afford the prices you've set in stone for particular levels of work, will jump at the chance to throw what they can afford at you even just for a half hour doodle.
In August, I started doing a pay-what-you-want sketch stream every Sunday, with a set minimum of $5. Five bucks is super affordable, and very inviting. I put $5 as minimum and encouraged tips or paying more if the buyer thought the work was worth more than $5, and because of that, I still expected people to take advantage of me and just milk me all day for $5 sketches.
An amazing thing happened. At first, most people dropped me five to eight bucks, and after they got the sketch, tipped me a bit more, which was unexpected but very much appreciated. Then some people started dropping $20 -$30 up front on just a single sketch from me. Which is crazy, but extremely appreciated. Being able to set their own worth, plus watching the work unfold during a stream AND having it done and uploaded that same day really appealed to people. Mind you, there are still people who pay me only the minimum, and if that's all they can afford, I can still give them something.
So consider offering pay-what-you want commissions, or "by the hour" options, where your customers can scale the price to where they are comfortable, and you do what you can for the price offered or time available. Even better if they get to watch you work. People seem to love streams.
You aren't drawing enough
I've been drawing and selling furry art since 2000, and if I had been consistent about it and as prolific as I am today, treating it as a job, I'd be a hell of a lot more well known. But my uploads were few and far between, and between the years of 2005 and 2008, I had very little output, and I also changed my name in 2009, almost completely abandoning my old moniker earlier this year. Not surprisingly, during those years where I hardly drew anything, my watcher list crept upwards at the rate of cold molasses, and it was almost a struggle to get any of my commission slots filled. I still relied on auction sites like Furbid and Furbuy to sell my work. Sometimes I got lucky, but many times my offers would end without even a sideways glance.
I was never really one to draw just for the sake of drawing. There are other things that I enjoy doing more, so you guys already have one up on me because I know you love to draw more than I do. I don't take the time to practice. All the art I do is exactly what it turns into and ends up in my gallery as. I don't have sketchbooks full of gestures or life study, half-finished sketches, practice drawings, self portraits, or flights of fancy. AND THIS IS HURTING ME.
I've always offered commissions, but I've also always had a job outside of artwork, and so the commissions were just a supplement. I didn't NEED to do them, but I didn't want to go stagnant like I did during those three years. Commissions WERE my means of practice, but at the rate I was doing them, it wasn't enough to garner much attention. So when I lost my CS job almost exactly a year ago, art suddenly became my full time job. Chaosie thought we were completely fucked, because I had been the major breadwinner, and suddenly half of our income was gone. I was adamant that I could make enough money in a month to keep us afloat, but he did not have the same optimistic outlook. He was of the opinion that furry artists simply did not make the kind of money needed, and me, as a relative unknown, would fail.
One year later, and I am now making over a thousand dollars a month JUST on commissions. Since commissions became my job, I've had to draw more, which in turn attracts more fans who then commission me, and become repeat customers too. But it was only since August that I had been able to double my monthly income. What changed in August? That's right. I started doing the weekly pay-what-you-like sketch streams, which brought in at least $100 in a single day, and still does.
What is the point to this story?
Because I'm doing so many sketches every weekend, my skill is improving and I'm attracting more watchers with more frequent uploads. I am uploading more artwork in a month now than I ever have in my life. In fact, in this year since I lost my job, I have drawn and uploaded more than I have in the nine years previous combined. No joke.
You've heard the saying that the rich get richer, and the poor stay poor/get poorer. Which basically means that if you have the money, you can invest in other projects that will make you money, etc, whereas if you're poor, you can't even afford the supplies to work your craft. This is true, but only to an extent. The great thing about art, is that it comes in many forms, and it's absurdly cheap or even free for materials. You have the capability to create money out of almost nothing, and you're persistent enough to keep pushing, keep improving, keep drawing, and uploading. It's always slow to start, but if you keep going, making improvements, things will eventually snowball. In art, the rich do get richer, but the poor don't have to stay poor. Your only obstacle is time, and you've got nothing to lose by drawing.
My biggest mistake in the ten years of my artistic career is drawing only when I needed to do so, and because I rarely needed to, and also left a community where I was well known, I again became unknown. Commission offers dropped, and I drew less. It took me losing my job, the threat of losing my home and having to move in with in-laws, to push me into action.
It's not yet the new year, but one of my resolutions for 2012 (aside from 1920x1200) is to do more personal art to upload, and more practice.
I know I'm not the best person to be dishing out business advice, but if you have any questions about anything or would like my opinion or input, you can send me a note on my account
mosa and I'll be happy to talk shop with you if you're serious about your work.
I soon moved onto 3D stuff with Daz studio as I failed at 3D Max, Daz has a load of pre-made (cheap/easy) models that anyone could use; still with that I was low end, in the grand scheme of things. But I got a nice load of ppls who loved the simple yet effective artwork. I still remain confused at how it was like catnip.
I had started a chat bot, but with my motivation down hill I haven't down anything with it for sometime, still people play with it.
Ah its all interesting and fun, I just hope I feel better soon and get back to writing, drawing and 3D stuff.
Anyway I am looking at doing some free University Maths and English classes, that hasn't been easy. I right now am waiting for two people to take me there and sign up, so far when i want down there by myself I was treated like a yo-yo and no-longer have the will for that, even when it comes to employment.
Porn isn't the only alternative.. Artists can still make money off good clean art. If someone doesn't want to draw porn, they could consider the route of tame fetishes. I mean hell, look at how many people like to commission vore! I don't deny that porn is the "quick and dirty" way to get money, but I think since this is an advice journal, it shouldn't be the only suggested option.
Things that sell, aside from porn: Cute, funny, vore, cubs, feet, etc.
In the end, it's up to the artist to figure out what their audience likes, and what they're comfortable with and draw to fit that niche. If they've got a vore following, then they'll have a better chance at selling vore. I suggested porn as a universal, because some artists who have never drawn it don't realize how much more interest that gets than tame stuff, even if it is fetishy.
But you are right... drawing as if it were a job in and of itself is how draw attention. ^.^