Well this is the main hub of where the Furry Art business goes, so it has to be sort of expected. Before all these other sites were around, the only major names were VCL, cause noone checked out Elfwood or any of the other 'anthro sites'. When ya leave here, your cutting a huge chunk of possible clients. :(

As for the under-selling, that's unfortunately what most of us have to do to get clients. I've been told I could raise my rates quite a bit and still make it, but I dont because I -know- the vast majority of the competition is keeping prices low as well. Basic rules of capitalism, unfortunately.

I'm going to offer some advice as a fellow free-lance artist, and more importantly, as a friend. You dont have to take it if you dont want to Mel, really. But I gain nothing by telling you all this other then hopefully seeing a friend pull herself out of a situation.

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Your to aggressive. Now I know that you have to be aggressive with so much competition flying around, but when you use alot of ALL CAPS, a crap ton of exclamation marks throughout the post, and very strong polar views, people tend to get defensive. It's a natural reaction. If someone walks up to you, calmly, and clearly makes a claim, or if someone runs up to you screaming and waving they're hands, your base instinct is to be defensive and possibly run away from the one screaming. Your journals, normally are packed with all caps, exclamation marks, and very polarized views on topics, so alot of times people put up they're defenses and will automatically shy away from what you have to say. This journal I think has been one of your calmest in quite some time. It's someone talking passionately, not screaming through an amplifier.

Instead of going "I WILL NOT DRAW THIS, and THIS, and THIS, because it's GROSS!!" (aggressive, polarized, definately in-your-face), try "I really would prefer not to draw this, this, and this, because it doesn't sit well with me" (passive, still polarized in it's view, but so submissive about it that it doesn't activate the person's defensive mechanisms, and comes off as a breeze instead of a hurricane's gust).

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Again, please dont take this the wrong way. I'm not trying to make you feel upset, mad, targeted, or bad in any way. I'm trying to help. I got a few bucks left in my PayPal, I'll try to send them over, feel free to hit me up in a note with your PayPal, and if you want to open a new journal that suggests some coloring prices and drawing prices, let me know the link and I'll try to get some people to help pimp it out.

I believe you know that I'm a friend, and friends try to help eachother when they can. I can't guarantee that it'll work, but it's how I conduct my business and I get a fair share of positive feedback from returning clients, so I'm just passing to you what helps me.



Also, I think I mentioned this before, but I mention this to anyone who mentions having a shitty job so I could be thinking of someone else. Go to http://www.expresspros.com/ . Punch in your zip code, go to a local office. It can take up to 3 hours to do the drug-test, background check, all that crap. Yeah, 3 hours sucks. They landed me a $10/hr starting job, which lead to a $15.50/hr job before that cleaning lady pulled that BS and got me fired. Have David try it too. Hell, have your dad try it as well, what's the lose, right? Three hours, a few phone calls, going pee and scribbling some data down, could just fix your problems, and all 3 of you doing it could make your situation improve dramatically. When you go there, if you could tell them I sent you, I'd appreciate it too. Just give it a shot though Mel, it could be an answer. :)

Good advice hun. YOu

Thanks :3