[sub]so, essentially i'm really starting to enjoy the way i paint now so i was thinking of opening some slots for commissions
the big question though is if anyone would be interested :o
the style in question would look like this:
[img]https://66.media.tumblr.com/6fceda0e2fd94d3913a24125d9bfaaef/ff05c3ae29b0b531-4a/s540x810/76b106233a2166f8e6f023dd6ec543375f162590.png[/img]
[img]https://66.media.tumblr.com/80635a33f6b152d917d3c93f35838c0e/4ea6bff0106f0172-83/s540x810/931d4d81b74848de39092a288492db9c94019f9d.png[/img]
ive also never been good at pricing my own work here but i was thinking like,, 100-200k each or (since im like in need of actual cash lol) 10 USD??
i'd appreciate some input :>
so, essentially i'm really starting to enjoy the way i paint now so i was thinking of opening some slots for commissions
the big question though is if anyone would be interested :o
the style in question would look like this:
ive also never been good at pricing my own work here but i was thinking like,, 100-200k each or (since im like in need of actual cash lol) 10 USD??
i'd appreciate some input :>
@
PastelBunne
Beautiful portraits! I'm 100% sure people will be interested in your painting style - it is very pretty and unique! :)
100-200kt will be underpricing - judging from the skills and details I'm sure you can do at least 300-500kt or 20-30USD (or more!)
Try and play around with prices and adjust according to demand - if too much people commission you for it it's a sign you're underpricing. If no one is interested for a long time, try lowering your price.
Good luck with commissions! :D
@
PastelBunne
Beautiful portraits! I'm 100% sure people will be interested in your painting style - it is very pretty and unique! :)
100-200kt will be underpricing - judging from the skills and details I'm sure you can do at least 300-500kt or 20-30USD (or more!)
Try and play around with prices and adjust according to demand - if too much people commission you for it it's a sign you're underpricing. If no one is interested for a long time, try lowering your price.
Good luck with commissions! :D
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND! 100kt = 100g = $1 so charging 200kt/200g (they are more than worth that but using the numbers you used.) is like asking for $2.
This means it would be very unlikely someone would commission you for $10 USD when they can buy 200g from the site for $2 and buy the same art from you that way. Please don't short yourself so much!
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND! 100kt = 100g = $1 so charging 200kt/200g (they are more than worth that but using the numbers you used.) is like asking for $2.
This means it would be very unlikely someone would commission you for $10 USD when they can buy 200g from the site for $2 and buy the same art from you that way. Please don't short yourself so much!
@
PastelBunne
No problem, happy to help! :D
I used to price a lot cheaper, so I understand the weird feeling of upping your prices - but I promise it's worth it ;) Plus if it doesn't work you can still adjust prices :)
@
PastelBunne
No problem, happy to help! :D
I used to price a lot cheaper, so I understand the weird feeling of upping your prices - but I promise it's worth it ;) Plus if it doesn't work you can still adjust prices :)
[quote name="OctoberRainstorm" date="2020-01-29 17:15:23" ]
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND! 100kt = 100g = $1 so charging 200kt/200g (they are more than worth that but using the numbers you used.) is like asking for $2.
This means it would be very unlikely someone would commission you for $10 USD when they can buy 200g from the site for $2 and buy the same art from you that way. Please don't short yourself so much!
[/quote]
I always figured that gems/treasure are hard to earn in-game so I usually don't think about 100g = $1. But I can see how someone can just buy gems with usd and then pay you with that.
Something to consider if you prefer usd commissions only is to make the gem/treasure price much much higher - so people would choose the usd option when paying.
OctoberRainstorm wrote on 2020-01-29 17:15:23:
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND! 100kt = 100g = $1 so charging 200kt/200g (they are more than worth that but using the numbers you used.) is like asking for $2.
This means it would be very unlikely someone would commission you for $10 USD when they can buy 200g from the site for $2 and buy the same art from you that way. Please don't short yourself so much!
I always figured that gems/treasure are hard to earn in-game so I usually don't think about 100g = $1. But I can see how someone can just buy gems with usd and then pay you with that.
Something to consider if you prefer usd commissions only is to make the gem/treasure price much much higher - so people would choose the usd option when paying.
@
PastelBunne
Yup! They'd be pretty high, I've seen prices reaching past millions of gems when using this method!
Unless you only want usd commissions maybe price normally with treasure/gems a bit higher in cost?
I find it confusing too, haha, because if we use the 1usd=100g rule then a 300g commission is 3usd... which would then be worth way too little USD.
But if you'd price something for 20usd, 2,000kt/g is too high.
So more like 1USD is worth 10-50kt/g??? 20g??? Maybe because most players don't purchase gems or simply cannot do online transactions the 1USD= 100g rule doesn't actually work?
I think it'll be bad if people purchase gems with the express purpose of ripping off artists from USD, but otherwise, in-game treasure/gems currency are actually worth less than expected.
I think I need to learn some economy to get under all of this, haha. My brain can't keep up with this XD Sorry about the rambling!
Maybe make a gems/treasure shop and a USD shop separate so that people who can and can't pay with USD are separated. I myself can only pay in treasure/gems for example, also, some people may be too young to get PayPal.
Pricing is pretty hard, and I'm soon going to adjust mine too! :)
@
PastelBunne
Yup! They'd be pretty high, I've seen prices reaching past millions of gems when using this method!
Unless you only want usd commissions maybe price normally with treasure/gems a bit higher in cost?
I find it confusing too, haha, because if we use the 1usd=100g rule then a 300g commission is 3usd... which would then be worth way too little USD.
But if you'd price something for 20usd, 2,000kt/g is too high.
So more like 1USD is worth 10-50kt/g??? 20g??? Maybe because most players don't purchase gems or simply cannot do online transactions the 1USD= 100g rule doesn't actually work?
I think it'll be bad if people purchase gems with the express purpose of ripping off artists from USD, but otherwise, in-game treasure/gems currency are actually worth less than expected.
I think I need to learn some economy to get under all of this, haha. My brain can't keep up with this XD Sorry about the rambling!
Maybe make a gems/treasure shop and a USD shop separate so that people who can and can't pay with USD are separated. I myself can only pay in treasure/gems for example, also, some people may be too young to get PayPal.
Pricing is pretty hard, and I'm soon going to adjust mine too! :)
The pricing here is a confusing mess, I know!
There are a few ways you can go about finding a price;
Look at other art shops: Find a number of successful shops and look at their prices. What are they charging and what are they offering? and what seems to sell the most? Find shops with art you feel is comparable to yours and see what they're charging and how many orders they're getting. Also pay attention to what else they're offering, how they set up their shop, and what kind of examples they post, lots of things affect the success of a shop, not just art and price.
Consider your own time and effort: How long does it take you to make that art? How much gold could you earn in that time? How much does it feel worth to you? Start with a price that feels fair to you and adjust up or down according to business; too many orders? Raise the price. Not enough orders? lower to a small degree if you are willing, but not too low. Try reorganizing your thread, adding different examples or even offering cheaper options such as sketches to generate more traffic and keep your thread near the front so more people will look at it.
Remember this is a dragon breeding forum: What I mean by that, is most people here aren't here to buy art. It's a big enough community that there's a high amount of traffic, but for the most part you'll find people pricing low to try to stay in front of the competition. Don't be discouraged if getting a foothold is hard. There are many other sites to sell on and advertise on as well, (such as Instagram I hear, but haven't tested. It's been a long time since I did commissions.)
Don't be afraid to price what you feel is worth it, or even a little high. I've opened up sketch commissions on here a couple of times and priced what I thought was high (100k/sketch, 200-300k/colored sketch because I didn't want to color them) and wound up swamped with more orders than I could keep up with -all colored- and never even got to my pinglist(oops!).
Also, side note, you'd be surprised how much treasure and gems some people have to throw around. I had someone do a pwyw for a colored sketch with minor background because I didn't have an example at the time and just couldn't pick a price. I was thinking, like, 400kt if they liked it? Once I sent it to them they gave me 1.5k gems (that's $15). I'm not saying that's common, but pointing it out.... ( Actually, I got a lot of tips each time I did PWYW or people thought I underpriced them which helped me feel more confident about raising my prices in the future.)
...
If it were me, since you haven't had a thread on here before, I would recommend starting with a 'experimental' stage where you offer it at a highly discounted price (2-300kt maybe? if that's your comfort zone.) in exchange for the understanding that it is a 'growing' style and/or you will use the piece as an example of commission work in the future. Make it clear that this is a temporary price and it will raise once you have completed whatever quota you set (3-5 is my suggestion). Make it clear what you're planning to raise the price to once that amount is achieved. (I suggest at least 500kt.)
This does several things; 1] You can feel more comfortable doing some low pressure pieces with the safety to raise your prices and it's not a surprise for your customers. 2] People with less currency can get a nice piece of art in exchange for letting you use it as practice or example 3] This gives your store more traffic straight out the gate and even the possibility of returning customers if they liked your work and interactions so much they'll come back and pay a higher price now that they trust you/know your work. 4] New customers will be more willing to pay a higher price now that you're a 'proven' artist who can deliver art at the promised quality at an expected speed.
The pricing here is a confusing mess, I know!
There are a few ways you can go about finding a price;
Look at other art shops: Find a number of successful shops and look at their prices. What are they charging and what are they offering? and what seems to sell the most? Find shops with art you feel is comparable to yours and see what they're charging and how many orders they're getting. Also pay attention to what else they're offering, how they set up their shop, and what kind of examples they post, lots of things affect the success of a shop, not just art and price.
Consider your own time and effort: How long does it take you to make that art? How much gold could you earn in that time? How much does it feel worth to you? Start with a price that feels fair to you and adjust up or down according to business; too many orders? Raise the price. Not enough orders? lower to a small degree if you are willing, but not too low. Try reorganizing your thread, adding different examples or even offering cheaper options such as sketches to generate more traffic and keep your thread near the front so more people will look at it.
Remember this is a dragon breeding forum: What I mean by that, is most people here aren't here to buy art. It's a big enough community that there's a high amount of traffic, but for the most part you'll find people pricing low to try to stay in front of the competition. Don't be discouraged if getting a foothold is hard. There are many other sites to sell on and advertise on as well, (such as Instagram I hear, but haven't tested. It's been a long time since I did commissions.)
Don't be afraid to price what you feel is worth it, or even a little high. I've opened up sketch commissions on here a couple of times and priced what I thought was high (100k/sketch, 200-300k/colored sketch because I didn't want to color them) and wound up swamped with more orders than I could keep up with -all colored- and never even got to my pinglist(oops!).
Also, side note, you'd be surprised how much treasure and gems some people have to throw around. I had someone do a pwyw for a colored sketch with minor background because I didn't have an example at the time and just couldn't pick a price. I was thinking, like, 400kt if they liked it? Once I sent it to them they gave me 1.5k gems (that's $15). I'm not saying that's common, but pointing it out.... ( Actually, I got a lot of tips each time I did PWYW or people thought I underpriced them which helped me feel more confident about raising my prices in the future.)
...
If it were me, since you haven't had a thread on here before, I would recommend starting with a 'experimental' stage where you offer it at a highly discounted price (2-300kt maybe? if that's your comfort zone.) in exchange for the understanding that it is a 'growing' style and/or you will use the piece as an example of commission work in the future. Make it clear that this is a temporary price and it will raise once you have completed whatever quota you set (3-5 is my suggestion). Make it clear what you're planning to raise the price to once that amount is achieved. (I suggest at least 500kt.)
This does several things; 1] You can feel more comfortable doing some low pressure pieces with the safety to raise your prices and it's not a surprise for your customers. 2] People with less currency can get a nice piece of art in exchange for letting you use it as practice or example 3] This gives your store more traffic straight out the gate and even the possibility of returning customers if they liked your work and interactions so much they'll come back and pay a higher price now that they trust you/know your work. 4] New customers will be more willing to pay a higher price now that you're a 'proven' artist who can deliver art at the promised quality at an expected speed.
