Hello Everyone,
There is an artist i'd like for you guys to check out,
 lodidah
She a great artist who is prompt with inquiries, does commissions in a fair timely order, her prices are reasonable, and the ordering process is pretty painless.

Other words;
I've known Lodidah for quite some time now and to be honest she was pretty awesome, and super kind.
I personally enjoyed working with her and I've commissioned her for more than several pieces. I personally haven't had a problem, and would recommend her to you guys.

So pretty much tl;dr go check out lodidah!

-mei5683

I received a good handful of applications, all of which I think would make great moderators! Unfortunately I only needed one or two, so I couldn't take you all.

I decided to go with  mei5683 on the grounds that she's been a moderator for this group before, knows exactly what needs to be done and how to do it without needing an explanation. And I chose  dowski, who is already familiar with Mei as well.

These two will help process notes, upload new and delete old price guides, moderate comments and shouts, and answer any questions you may have. It is my hope that this additional help will allow more price guides to be processed more frequently than once every two weeks or more.

Welcome,  mei5683 and  dowski!

You may or may not have noticed,  commissions has been pretty dead since February. I've been preoccupied with other unrelated things, and let this page fall by the wayside. For that I apologize, since I know this is a valuable resource for many people. and I don't want to see it turn into one of the various other groups that just cease to exist. I may have to recruit a moderator to help out.

And oh my god, all the notes and comments o_O;

Here's whats going on right now:
All the current price guides in the gallery have been deleted, since they're all over three months old. All the notes sent to this account during this month of June will be read and processed, guides uploaded as applicable. Any notes from BEFORE June will be deleted. I have decided not to process any notes from May and older because many people's priceguides have become obsolete by that point, and likely no longer relevant. So if you have sent in a price guide or note between February and June, you'll need to resend it.


MOD RECRUITMENT:
If you're interested in helping moderate this page, send a note titled "Moderator Application"
Please let me know your age, general times and days you're available to do maintenance tasks, and why you would like to help moderate this group.

A lot of artists have a hard time getting started every day, and likely just as many can get going easily but can only work in short bursts before losing interest/getting distracted.

I have a problem getting started every day no matter what, but once I do, I can generally keep going as long as I have my favorite shows to watch/listen to in the background, and a constant river of tea.

When you're feeling less than motivated, what compels you to push through and get things done? Do you bribe yourself with goodies for every time you complete something? Allow your favorite music/tv shows ONLY while working? Something else entirely?
What gets your butt in the chair and pencil/stylus in hand, and/or keeps it there?

There's an artist I'd really like for you guys to check out.
 mei5683
I've pimped her a few times before, but it's ok, because she's awesome. She does very nice work for affordable prices, along with pay what you want streams nearly every day. She's a huge supporter of this group (in fact, I met her through here), she donates frequently, and has even been a mod here a while back, helping me with submissions. I urge you to visit her page and give her some business! You can see her price guide here http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12190942/

______

So. About that FA "downtime". Certainly an inconvenience at best, and a financial disaster at worst. Many of you weren't able to conduct your usual business, contact clients, or get new commissions. And FA was only in read-only mode. Everything was still there, you just couldn't DO anything.

If you've been on FA for more than a few years, you know that this happens. It goes down every so often, sometimes days at a time. Many years ago it went down for a whole month.

So how do you keep your business running as smooth as possible when stuff like this happens? And it will happen again. And again. I'm not trying to talk smack about FA, because I do love this site. But it's been around for 8 years with the same code and little to no significant updates. It keeps breaking, and it will keep breaking until something better is done about it. Unfortunately, we as users of the site can't do anything about it. So we need to work around when "shit happens".

Preventative measures:
-DO NOT RELY ON FA NOTES FOR BUSINESS, DAMNIT! Use email. Put your email address in your profile, on your price guide, in your price guide description, in your journal footer/header. Put it EVERYWHERE. If a client needs to contact you about something, you'll already be in their address book most likely, or they can just reply to the last email you sent them. Same as when you'll need to contact a client. And if FA goes into read-only mode, people can still contact you for new commissions because your email address will be on EVERYTHING.

-Have at least one backup gallery on another site that is mostly up to date. There's Inkbunny, SoFurry, Weasyl, DeviantArt, Tumblr, and many others. Pick one or all of them. Keep at least one of your alternate galleries up to date for the most part. Put links to your other galleries in your FA profile/header/price guide description, etc. Likewise, link to your FA in the profiles of your other galleries as well.
Here's where I say "do as I say, and not as I do" for obvious reasons. I have other galleries, but I haven't kept them up to date. I know I SHOULD, but I don't because I'm an oxymoronic combination of lazy and busy. And because I don't, I'm going to be boned if FA goes down for a considerable amount of time. I have nearly 7000 watchers here, but only a measly few hundred across my other galleries. I am going to start 2014 with AT LEAST keeping my Weasyl and Sofurry up to date. You should too.

-Not mandatory, but recommended: Have your own website. Doesn't matter if you get your own web space and domain name, or if you get a free wordpress blog or tumblr. Put your commission info like your TOS and contact information on there too. Also doesn't hurt to have some art examples on it if you can.

These things won't cushion you completely. If your main site of business goes down completely for days, there's not really a whole lot you can do about it. So do try to build up your watcher base on other sites as well. The phrase "don't put all your eggs in one basket" is relevant.
---

Between my various work, I'm still writing the Artist's Selling Guide (and the Buyer's one too, though that one is less important). All the feedback I've gotten so far from the questionnaire that I posted a few months back has been very helpful. I am not sure when I'll be done with it, there's a LOT of information going in it, on topics from figuring out what sort of commissions to offer, to pricing, to things like setting up your workspace and staying motivated/productive. Because a lot of work is going into this guide, it won't be free, but it will be a very affordable $5 ebook. All I have to say is if you can't afford an investment that small for your business, you shouldn't be in business! That goes along with advertisement, such as getting an FA banner.

Remember when FA announced that we were no longer allowed to post multiple reminder journals for YCH/Auctions or pimp raffles, ect? Of course you do. What really baffled me is the outrage from some artists complaining about how they will lose business because they can't advertise that way anymore. And when reasonable people replied that they should just get FA adspace, there was always one of two responses:
1) I can't afford that; or
2) Everyone uses adblocker, so ads don't work.

First, if you can't afford $20 a month for an ad, you can't afford to be doing art for a living. If you even sell one commission that month for $20 (or a bunch of smaller ones to equal that), you've made your money back. If you can already draw half decently and some people have been giving you some money for artwork already, it's worth it. And it's exposure.

Which brings me to #2. On which I call bullshit. Yeah, some people use adblock. You know what kind of people use adblock? Those who won't buy your work anyway. They're not looking for new artists to commission. The people that DON'T block the ads are the ones who ARE looking for new artists. Those are the people you are targeting when you get adspace. And when I have an ad up, 10-20 new watchers per day tells me that shit works.

Their true excuse is that they're cheap. They want free exposure. But I'll let you in on a secret. Even if you pay no money for an ad, good exposure is never free. You still need to upload things. Which means you need to spend time making things to upload. Time is money. In fact, time is even more valuable than money, because you can never get that time back. That $20 worth of adspace saves you time. Plus it's always good to support a site that you use to support yourself. And as a BONUS, if your art is your home business and you make enough each year to pay taxes, all that ad money you spent is a WRITE-OFF! In the US, anyway. I don't know about elsewhere.

So yeah. Sorry for the tl;dr journal. I was supposed to be pimping  mei5683.
 mei5683
 mei5683
 mei5683
Go :V

I'm currently writing up a "Customer's Buying Guide" and "Artist's Selling Guide". I have a good idea of most of the things I'd like to put in it, but its always good to get input from other people and the way they do things. So here's some questions for you. If you're both an artist AND a customer (some artists like to buy art too!) you can fill out both sets of questions if you like. Either post your answers in the comments, or if you'd rather be incognito, send as a note with the subject title "Questionnaire"

If any of the scenarios have happened to you, please do not call out the offending party by name. If any of the scenarios have NOT happened to you, don't respond with what you would LIKE to do in that situation or what you THINK you would do. Often actual reactions in the "heat of the moment" differ from how you assume you'd act or would like to act. Either leave the question out or answer with "I have not experienced this situation".

Also, this questionnaire is pretty long. Don't feel as though you need to sit and spend an hour or more all at once to make your comment. Go ahead and copy the questions into a text file and answer them as you have time/mood strikes.


Questions for Buyers

1a) Is there a specific way you prefer to contact an artist? (email, on-site note, IM etc) If so, how? Why do you prefer this way?
1b) Is there a specific way you dislike? Will you still commission an artist if they prefer this method, or will you find someone else?

Do you have any questions pertaining to contact that I should answer/address in the guide?

2) At what stage in the process do you prefer to pay for your art? Do you prefer to pay all at once, or in installments? Why?
Do you have different preferences depending on the art type/cost? Why or why not?
Do you have different preferences depending on artist trust? Why or why not?

Do you have any questions pertaining to payment that I should answer/address in the guide?

3) Are you bothered when charged complexity fees for complicated characters/outfits/props? When charged an additional fee for adult work? Why or why not?

Do you have any questions pertaining to additional fees that I should answer/address in the guide?

4) You found the perfect artist to draw your idea. The price was right, and their gallery was amazing. But they turned you down because they didn't like your idea (or requested an absurd amount of money to draw the idea). How did you deal with the situation?
Did artist reputation/social status determine how you responded? Why or why not?

Do you have any questions pertaining to being turned down that I should answer/address in the guide?

5) You paid an artist for a piece, and they gave you a rough estimate for a completion date (or you requested a reasonable deadline they agreed to) which then came and went and you'd not heard from them since payment. You sent a polite request for an update. How did you respond when:
a) they completely and rudely flipped out. ("How dare you pester me", "Since you're whining about it, you just dropped down to the bottom of the list", etc.
b) they gave you a string of excuses which you knew were probably lies, exaggerations, or not nearly good enough to warrant the wait, and they had just been being lazy or forgetful.
Did artist reputation/social status determine how you responded? Why or why not?

Do you have any questions pertaining to dealing with rude/lazy artists that I should answer/address in the guide?

6) An artist was being difficult with you. Perhaps they got your character wrong even if all refs sent were correct and up to date, and they refused to fix it. Perhaps they initially agreed to draw a certain thing a certain way, then changed their mind during the work and refused to draw that certain thing that certain way. Whatever the case, something was wrong and the artist was a pain about fixing the problem. How did you deal with this?
Did artist reputation/social status determine how you responded? Why or why not?

Do you have any questions pertaining to dealing with difficult artists that I should answer/address in the guide?

7) You decided that you need a refund. What circumstances lead you to requesting:
a) a full refund
b) a partial refund
Was your request granted? Why or why not?

Do you have any questions pertaining to refunds that I should answer/address in the guide?

8) You received work and you were unimpressed in how it turned out for whatever reasons. How did you react when:
a) it was still a WIP
b) it was complete
Did artist reputation/social status determine your reaction? Why or why not?
Did your relationship with the artist determine your reaction? Why or why not?

Do you have any questions pertaining to dealing with disappointing results that I should answer/address in the guide?

9) An artist accused you of violating their TOS in some way.
a) You were quite certain you didn't, and had read their TOS thoroughly before commissioning them. Of what did they accuse you? How did you react to the accusation?
or
b) You did, unknowingly. What was the violation? How did you react to the accusation?
Did the artist's reputation or relationship with you affect your reaction? Why or why not?

Do you have any questions pertaining to TOS violations that I should answer/address in the guide?

---

Questions for Artists

1a) Is there a specific way you prefer customers to contact you regarding commissions? (email, on-site note, IM etc) If so, how? Why do you prefer this way?
b) Is there a specific way you dislike for customers to contact you regarding commissions? If they do contact you this way, how do you deal with it?

Do you have any questions pertaining to contact that I should answer/address in the guide?

2) At what stage do you expect the customer to pay? (Up front, when finished, after sketch, etc) Do you take partial payments, or expect it all at once? Do you have different preferences depending on the art type/cost? Customer reputation/trust (if any)?

Do you have any questions pertaining to payment that I should answer/address in the guide?

3) Do you have a flat rate per character for different types of artwork, or do you flexibly charge more or less depending on character details or lack thereof? Do you charge extra for mature/adult work? Why or why not?

Do you have any questions pertaining to additional fees that I should answer/address in the guide?

4) A customer asked you to draw a fetish or character you're not comfortable with and would really rather not draw. How did you deal with the situation?
Did the customer's reputation or relationship with you determine how you responded? Why or why not?

Do you have any questions pertaining to turning down commissions that I should answer/address in the guide?

5) A customer asked for an update on their commission. You either hadn't started or had nothing new to show yet for various reasons. How did you respond when:
a) it had been at least a week since you have taken their commission and this was their first update request.
b) it had been at least a month and this was their second or third update request.
c) it had only been a week and they'd already messaged you two or three times for updates.
Did customer's reputation or relationship with you determine how you responded? Why or why not?

Do you have any questions pertaining to customer updates that I should answer/address in the guide?

6) You had a customer who was being difficult. Maybe they were being overly (beyond reason) nitpicky about certain details, keep asking you to make huge changes to things "just to see how it looks", spammed you with messages about new ideas for the picture or cosmetic changes to the character, etc. How did you deal with this?

Do you have any questions pertaining to difficult customers that I should answer/address in the guide?

7) A customer asked for a refund. How did you respond if:
a) you were partway through
b) you hadn't started yet
Did the customer's excuse/reason affect how you responded? Did the customer's reputation or relationship with you affect how you responded? Why or why not?

Do you have any questions pertaining to refunding customers that I should answer/address in the guide?

8) You completed a commission and you learned (either directly from the customer, or second hand) that they were disappointed in the outcome. How did you react:
a)when the customer was rude about it to your face?
b) when you heard about rude things second hand?
c) when you heard about it second hand, but no indication of rudeness?
Did your reaction differ depending on the customer's reputation or relationship with you? Why or why not?

Do you have any questions pertaining to dealing with disappointed customers that I should answer/address in the guide?

9) A customer violated your TOS in some way. What did they do, and how did you react?

Do you have any questions pertaining to TOS violations that I should answer/address in the guide?

---

Do you, either as a customer or an artist, have any questions that don't fit into anything above? Have you encountered a situation that I haven't listed? Please let me know.

 lotix
Great art, beautiful coloring, affordable prices, and very hot smut. She's currently open for commissions, so grab one now. You can see her prices here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11477837/


And not to be self serving, but
 mosa
I'm also open for commissions, with an early September deal
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5015138/


Also a reminder that I do put featured artists in the Commissions tab. If you'd like to be featured, it's only $5 for one month or $12 for the full three months (plus you get pimped in journal). Check out the donations journal (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2620199/) for more info.

Hello, and long time no see, from your friendly neighborhood Commissions moderator. Things have been pretty dead here these past two months, completely through fault of my own. My only excuse is that I've been busy, and this account, while not completely slipping my mind, was placed on the back burner. I had a trusted moderator to help me for a little while, but you know how life gets in the way, and I am back to doing this again myself.

This account is a valuable resource for both artists and buyers, and rather than let it fall by the wayside, I will be trying very hard to find time each week to update, and am looking for ways to improve it overall.

What sort of improvements? Well, that's where I would like some suggestions.

I was thinking of some sort of newsletter journal, either biweekly or monthly, containing questions with answers, tips (for what, I dunno, give me ideas!), and other useful information. If there are any topics you would like to see an "article" about, or if you would like to write about a certain topic, please let me know.

So please, any ideas to improve this group, that could be implemented without too much trouble, I am all ears.


*Update*: Got all of june's backlog uploaded. Will tackle July most likely on sunday. Going to spend a little bit of time now reading through the information journals, updating stuff, hopefully to make the process easier to understand.

I just had a derp moment and realized that with the return of the commissions tab, it's now possible to feature multiple price guides at once instead of just using the "featured" submission option which can only be done one at a time.

This gallery is always free to use for both artists and customers, however just a reminder that there ARE donation services, namely getting yourself (or an artist you like who is currently in our gallery) featured.

I have just updated the donation service journal with new options, so please check it out and see if it's something you'd like to do!

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2620199/

That if you wish to post something in this gallery, or ask a question relating to this group, please NOTE this group with a relevant subject line. Do not note the moderators privately, or shout on their pages. It is against our rules, and will be ignored.

-

You know how there are some things that you just don't do? Even if there are no laws against certain things, we don't do them because we know people look down on such activities and judge us harshly for them. Sometimes for good reason, because some of those things are downright annoying.

For artists working online, there are a lot of dos and don'ts, but generally most of the don'ts are there because it IS illegal. Don't run off with someone's money without doing the work, stuff like that.

The Don't that I am going to talk about might not seem as obvious as other things, and I do realize that some people will see nothing wrong with it, but the majority of people find it annoying, and anybody who has been selling art for a while would not do this in a million years, because they don't want the stigma, and they KNOW better. It is the Unspoken Don't.

Solicitation.

Soliciting is when you enter someone else's space in order to advertise directly to that single person. It is not the same as general advertisement where you place your ad in a public space, or show and tell about your work on your own page or pages dedicated to advertisement. When someone is soliciting, they tend to leave shouts or send private notes to people who they do not know, telling them that they take commissions, when they were not asked about it. I've heard of this happening with growing frequency lately, and it just baffles me as to why anybody would want to paint themselves in that light.

Solicitation is what JWs do when they knock on your door, give you their pamphlets and try to convert you. It's what telemarketers do when they call you during dinner and try to get you to sign up or buy something. It's what street vendors do while you're on your way somewhere. It's what prostitutes do when your car is parked and you're waiting for a friend. As a consumer, I will automatically dislike someone who solicits me, and will not buy from them, purely out of spite, even if their product is good. I am also not the only one. There's a reason why people hang "No Soliciting" signs on their gates and doors. If you've got something worth selling, customers will come to you. Don't force yourself on them.

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.

Updated January 29th, 2012
I figured I'd write this up to help you guys out. This should be easy to follow, step by step, and tips on how to make your price sheet the best to your abilities.

D E S I G N
Designing a price sheet is not hard, per se, but there are some things you should definitely keep in mind while putting it together. Those of you who have been to college or technical school have probably had to take a portfolio class. Think of your price guide as a mini-portfolio. It reflects you as an artist, and you're trying to attract customers and get them to give you money. Half-assing your guide just looks unprofessional and leads potential commissioners to assume that you might half-ass your artwork as well. Treat your price guide as another piece of artwork.

1) Use harmonious colors. Pick ones that look good together, rather than ones that clash.

2) Organize samples of your work in a coherent manner, but don't be afraid to think outside the box and try something other than the rows or columns most everyone else is doing. You're a creative person, and now is the time to show it!

If you don't have a good idea for a layout, or just plain suck at layouts and want something relatively quick and easy to edit, check out the scraps here for templates that artists have kindly offered up for use.

3) Use a text type tool for important information, unless you are good at hand-drawn lettering. Make sure everything is readable. Don't make your information too small or cramped so that it is hard to read. Sloppy or crooked handwriting is not acceptable. Contrary to what you might think, it does not look good or remotely professional.

There are two basic types of fonts: copy font and display font. Using copy font in place of display font isn't bad, but it's rather bland. Using display font where you should be using copy font can make your information a nightmare to read.

What is copy font? Simple, easy to read fonts such as Times New Roman (ew), Arial (kinda ew), and Courier (also ew if not used creatively) are copy fonts. There are plenty of other fonts out there that are similar, yet differently designed enough to have a little bit of flair and are very easy to read. This is the sort of font you want to type your important information with.

A display font is a fancy font. Display fonts are great for titles and headers, but can be disastrous when used to type up information, oftentimes making it difficult to read.

And if you're trying to stand out from other artists, try to use fonts that did not come preinstalled on your computer, or fonts that you see lots of other artists using. Angelic War is a beautiful display font, certainly, but I see it being used by every other artist on SOMETHING, whether it's a price sheet, an auction submission, an ad banner, or a signature. If you really want to use a pretty font that everyone else is using, try warping or editing it in photoshop to make it a bit more unique on your page.

4) Check how your guide looks in gallery thumbnail form. Commissioners will most likely find your guide in the gallery, by picking out which sheets look the most promising from the thumbnail view.

I won't reject a price sheet if it doesn't follow the design guidelines (unless it looks absolutely terrible or I can't read it), but remember that you want to make a good impression.

What will I reject?

-Handwritten price sheets. Especially if it's not tidy. Bad handwriting on something that is supposed to be trying to make someone money is one of my pet peeves in advertisement. Handwriting, unless well-lettered, will be automatically rejected, and you'll be asked to fix it.

-A sheet with just an image(s) and no information on it. It's called a price guide for a reason. Sure, you might put all your prices in the description, but customers want to see your prices right there, next to your samples so they can see at a glance whether or not they want to commission you.

-Text and no image. Sorry, what am I supposed to do with this? All price guides are posted as submissions, so there's no way to post your prices without one. If you're a writer selling short story commissions, you can easily type your prices into a visually appealing sheet, along with bits of screenshots or copy/pasta of your work. If you're a musician, try making a flash guide and adding samples of your music to it.

-Flash sheets that automatically make sound without input or prompting by the viewer. Do you have any idea how annoying unexpected noises are?

-Artwork that is just plain bad. I don't have very high standards, and pretty much everything that is in the gallery right now passes those standards. If you send in your price guide and get rejected based on your artwork quality, please understand that it's nothing personal, and I simply feel that you should improve your work before attempting to sell it. Not everyone can make money by drawing, and those that can have worked long and hard to build their skill. You wouldn't let a toddler build your house, would you? I also do not have time to send critiques or reasons why your guide was rejected. If it has been more than a month, you've titled the note properly, and your guide isn't posted, then assume you need to improve.

-Price guides for writers who can't grasp proper spelling and grammar. Writing, like drawing, is hard to do well, but if you speak English and intend to write in English, then you have no business selling literature if your English grammar and spelling is terrible.

-Guides with no English. All guides in any other language must have an accompanying translation ON the sheet. If you cannot do this, find a bilingual who speaks your language to help you.

S U B M I T T I N G

This part is even easier than making the price guide.

Due to FA being FA, submissions won't be viewable in the gallery in alphabetical order, so since we are restricted to order of upload, pricemaps:
- can be updated once a month if you change the look or prices on your sheet. Send a link via note to your new sheet, and a link to the one here in this gallery. The image will be replaced. Make sure your note has the word "update" in the subject line.
- will be purged when they reach three months of age, regardless of whether you have updated that submission at any point. This keeps the gallery filled with only active artists.

As the artist, you are responsible for keeping track of when your guide is posted and when it is due to expire and submit it again.

1) Upload your price guide somewhere. To your own FA page, to photobucket or equivalent, to your own website. Just get it on the web! It's preferred to have it on FA so we can link directly to your original submission.

2) Write down whatever information you feel you need to put in the description that will better help customers hire you. Important things like how to contact you, or a link to your TOS. Make sure these things are in (or linked in) the description of your submission posted in your own gallery.
Since we include a link to your original submission, adding description to the note that is already in your own submission is redundant. The only reason we will include a separate description is if your price guide is hosted somewhere other than FA and has no accompanying information.

This account is a place of business, and so there is a "no baggage" policy. What this means is that any info given for commissions must be related to the commissions themselves, and nothing about your situation, or how you're poor or need the money for such n such thing, or even your reason for taking the commissions. You're taking them, and that is all anybody needs to know and all most customers care about. If customers are curious and wish to get to know you, they may do so on your own page. All shouts that contain personal baggage (even if the shout is otherwise legit) will be deleted. All priceguides that contain baggage in the image will be refused.

3) Send a NOTE to this account with a link to your price guide. Do not put your price guide in a shout, or as a comment on a journal or someone else's guide. If it's not in a note, it gets deleted. Please make sure that you have the words "price guide" or "prices" or something to do with your price sheet in the subject. Subjects "No subject", "Hi", and anything else equally as vague and non-relevant will be deleted automatically.

3a) If this is not your first time submitting a sheet, and your previous sheet is still in the gallery and is not expired, (please check first), then please add the word "update" in the subject. Be sure to send the link to your guide in this gallery so we can update it without spending too much time searching the gallery for it. Please do not resubmit your guide before it expires if you haven't changed your prices or your guide image, because we will just ignore it.

3b) If this is not your first time submitting a sheet, but yours has expired and been deleted, then proceed as though this is your first time. Do not add "update" in the subject. If you do, I will assume that you have a sheet in the gallery and I will write back asking you to link to it, thus delaying you further.

3c) If you have a question that needs answering, send it as a separate note, and title the subject "Question".

3d) DO NOT EVER send a price guide or question relating to this group to the moderator's personal accounts.

4) If you have a place where commissioners can submit a public review of their experience with you, please include a link to that in your original submission! Anybody can review you in this gallery, but after three months, your submission will be purged, and all comments with it too, so please encourage your customers to review you on your own page so that you get to keep everything.

5) Be patient. It might be up to a week or more before your price guide gets uploaded, or your note even looked at.

6) If your note has been read but your guide hasn't been posted after a week, it is because it was rejected. If you don't receive a reason, then please assume that you require more skill to be selling anything. If it is for any other reason, we'll let you know.

If it has been over two weeks but your note hasn't been read yet, then refer to #5. If your note title doesn't have anything to do with "price guide", "price sheet", "prices" or "question" in it, then it gets deleted.

7) Please only submit your OWN price guide. If your friend has a price guide and you want to help them advertise, then let them know about this account so they can submit it themselves.

That's about it. I hope this guide is informative.

If you're an artist with a price guide in the gallery, have you seen any increase in interest? Have you gotten any new commissions because of this group?

If you're a commissioner, have you commissioned any artists you've found here? If so, how many?

The only way to be sure that this group is meeting its purpose is to ask :P

I've started to put together an ad. You can see it as it is right now, here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/42622033/FAcommissions.gif

I'd like to feature more artists on the ad, if possible. If you want a frame, it is $5 for the month. Size of the frame must be 300x90px. Just make one and send it to me via note, and when I approve it, you can send the payment and I'll insert it in the ad. The font I used is Gill Sans Ultra Bold, if you want to match. If not, please make sure that it is at least legible, lists your name clearly, and uses whatever art and colors you'd like to represent you without being tacky or gaudy.

I will not accept frames handwritten in a sloppy manner. Use a text type tool, or at least be neat and creative about hand lettering.

If you want a frame but cannot make one yourself, I can do it for $8. Just send me the image(s) you want me to use on it.

I'd like to get the ad sent to Dragoneer by Monday, Oct 3rd, which should give anyone time to put together a frame and scrape up $5. I cannot guarantee when the ad will go live, but rest assured I will bug the everloving shit out of him if he takes too long.

I'm also considering putting a banner on SoFurry as well, which is almost exactly the same size and price. If you would like your ad in the SoFurry banner too, just multiply by two. If you want it ONLY on the SoFurry banner, please be sure to let me know not to put in the FA one.

Counting up each entry, we have thus the top three:

#4 with 10 votes
#5 with 17 votes
AND


#2 with 24 votes.

Congrats,  thestory !

We got five submissions into the Avatar contest, and this is the voting journal. Here are the entries.

1) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6306121 by  kardas

2) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6312276 by  thestory

3) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6377186 by  ladylyrebird

4) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6431733 by  iudicium_86

5) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6451833 by  leongon

Simply make a comment with your vote. Voting ends Sat Sept 10, 23:59 (11:59PM EST server time)
If you wish to change your vote at any time, you may do so before voting ends simply by replying to your own comment vote.

Just what it seems to be. Normal shouts don't belong on our main page, so do it here!

In order for this place to stay organized and allow people to get the information they need to run their business, I'll need to set a few ground rules of where comments can be made and what sort of comments go there.

Journals
Free game. I'll probably ask for feedback, ideas, other input.

Price guide Submissions
If you've commissioned the artist in question, please feel free to leave a review! Do keep in mind that price guide submissions are deleted from the gallery after three months, and thus all comments on the submission (even reviews) will be deleted as well. So it's always in your best interest to give your thoughts to the artist directly also, whether in note, their own specific review journal, or even just a comment on the copy of their guide in their gallery.

Any posts made on a submission that is not a review will be deleted. Sorry, but if you want to comment on the art in general, please do so on the artist's page! They'll appreciate it that much more :3

Shoutbox
Since the gallery is for price guides only, the shoutbox will be to advertise your sales, specials, auctions, promos, streams, or even premade products that aren't commissions. Please don't make the shout too long, just a link to your own submission or journal advertising your thing, and a very brief description. You're allowed to post ONE promo shout in a 24 hour period. No more than that, because spam will happen quickly.

Also, please keep all advertising shouts as neutral and as impersonal as possible. For example, sob or pity stories to garner clicks are not welcome whether they are true or not. If you feel you must explain why you are having such a sale, please do so on your own page.

DO NOT post the link to your priceguide in shouts. Notes are the only acceptable form of submission. If you post anything that is NOT in the shoutbox guidelines listed here, I will delete it! Direct links to your gallery are also not permitted. The shoutbox isn't to advertise your art in general, it is to advertise your special sales, etc.

ONLY ADVERTISE YOURSELF. If you want to promote a friend, let them know about this group and have them post their own promo. All shouts made that aren't advertising the poster will be deleted.

There is a "Shout Journal" link in the journal footer for people to post what other things they'd otherwise say in the shoutbox.

Seeing as how I just made this account today, it needs an avatar. Anybody is welcome to design one, or two, or however many they like. the contest will end on the 31st of August, and the winner will not only have their avatar used for this account, but they'll get a free frame in the upcoming FA ad.

What does it need to be? Well that's up to you!

Please send all submissions by note, so that I may favorite them and compile them into a voting journal at the end of the contest, which ends August 31st.

This gallery is 100% free for artists to submit their commission price guides. However, as this gallery is maintained by one who is also a full time commissions artist, donations always help.

$3 gets you pimped out in a journal. I'll say something nice about your art and tell people to buy it :V
$5 will get your price guide posted in the "Commission Info" tab as a feature for a whole month (or $12 for three months). In the description box beside your guide, I will likewise encourage customers to check you out. This is a huge step up from the previous price of $5 for a week of being the featured submission.

If you are not an artist of any sort but still wish to donate, you can pick your favorite artist(s) to be pimped in whatever combination adds up to your donation. One caveat however: the artist must have their guide in the gallery, so be sure to direct them here to submit if they haven't already.

The address to send payments and donations is facom@rainbow-mouse.net. Do not send as a gift.

If you donate in order to get any of those services, you MUST send a note titled "Donation" and tell me that you would like one of those services. If I receive money with no idea what it's for, then I'll just consider it a general donation, and you have my thanks.

ARTISTS! Want your work to show up in our gallery for potential buyers to browse? BUYERS! Looking for the perfect artist for your idea? Read on!
[updated Oct 3, 2011]

How this group works for Artists
The general idea is to have your work displayed alongside other artists. A potential commissioner who saw an uploaded price map from the front page, or who followed another artist's link to this page may browse the gallery and see your work as well. Your art might be exactly what they are looking for.

Twice a month, guides which are about to expire but are underappreciated (have less than a certain amount of views, but the art is otherwise good), will be pimped in a journal.

There is sometimes an ad, depending on interest in purchasing frames.

Check out this journal here, "Mosa's Amazing Guide on How to Submit Your Price Sheet": http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2932545/

It is 100% FREE to have your pricemap posted in this gallery, though there are pay/donation services that will extend what the group can do for you. Please see the "Pay/Donation Services" journal.

To qualify:
You must be an artist of some sort. Artist is a broad term, but in this case meaning anybody who creates and has custom work they are offering to sell. An artist can be a cartoonist, painter, sculptor, fursuit builder, craft maker, musician, writer, etc. As long as you have an artistic skill and do custom work, you can advertise here.
Artists must have a graphical price map that shows a good representation the types of work you offer, along with your prices. I also accept guides made in flash as long as you supply the thumbnail for the submission.

You must not have a poor reputation. If you've been posted about on Artists_Beware LJ, the dispute(s) must be resolved in your favor. If you have a public place for commissioner reviews (an FA journal works well for this), this helps your credibility. If you are found to be consistently taking money without completing your work within an appropriate time, and your commissioners need to resort to putting you on Artists_Beware, then you cannot use this service.

(Added Nov 27,2011) A shitty attitude about customers is sometimes worse than not being reliable for the work. If you end up on A_B or word gets out that you verbally abuse your customers, whether to their faces or behind their back, especially when they have done nothing to deserve it, I cannot promote you.

You should include this group's icon in your profile or journal header/footer. Not doing so tends to defeat the purpose of the group, which is to promote ourselves and others.

Pricemaps that contain adult content must be censored sufficiently, or they will be posted as mature or adult rated, which will limit your audience.

How this works for buyers
There's a distinct lack of any sort of commissions promotion on FA aside from an artist throwing down $20 for an ad. If you need a specific piece of art done and are looking for a certain style, you're restricted to those artists you already know, those who have ads up, or those you happen to stumble upon on the front page or elsewhere on the internet. It's almost random chance, and there are lots of really good artists on FA who either cannot or do not want to pay for adspace.

The gallery on this account is a free directory for artists who do commissions. Browse around and find someone you like, or watch this account for new price guides directly to your inbox.

Other Submissions
If anyone wishes to make their pricemap a template available for other artists to use to create their own, send a note to this account with the subject line "Pricemap template", and I'll put it in scraps.

If you have written, or want to write an article related to the business of furry commissioning, either from the artist's perspective, or the buyers, or any other useful information or experience you might have, please submit it via note, and upon review and acceptance, I'll post it as a journal.