Just blabbing about commissions (where do you get customers?)

[thirty_smoke]

Hello crafters!!

I'd love to discuss a looooot of things about commissions!!
I know ewwwww money ewwww money-centered society ewww capitalism, but right now I'm literally depending on them for surviving (I don't want to get a real job,,)

Starting with...

Where do you guys find your customers??? 

Personally I use only discord art servers. They are sometimes really annoying and i wish people found me themselves and messaged me via email, cause using discord for me can be really daunting...

But!!! It's exceptionally effective because you can find customers there without having any audience, you can see ppl's requests and just message them (personally for me it just feels really good), and you will actually get commissioned there without waiting for an eternity for that to never happen by just advertising your comms on random social media. 

Very very recomend for ppl who struggle to actually get comms, it was a lifechanger for me!! (If someone wants, I can tell more about this and provide specific servers.)

Sooo, where do you guys get customers?

[Bede]

I get basically all of my customers from Vgen nowadays! It's a commission hub mainly used by Vtubers and streamers, but it's so easy to use that a ton of different niches of people use it. (A lot of yumeshippers, I've noticed!) I've seen people successfully selling coding, music, modeling, graphic design, drawing, writing, game modding and physical craft-related services.

I really love how convenient it is. You don't need an account to commission someone, and you can search artists by service type (ex: searching up every single listing for Discord bot creation). It's also great from the artists' side, because the website is anti-AI, and makes every customer fill out a form you create to commission you.

The only downside, I'd say, is the small service fee they take from your comms (5%), but they gotta keep the lights on somehow. Especially considering that it's currently ad-free.

[thirty_smoke]

I get basically all of my customers from Vgen nowadays!

Woahh, that sounds sweet!

I heard a lot about Vgen, and how good it is, but I can't use it because of my country's PayPal restrictions
Even though I think it's a really good service and I'm sad that I can't use it...
(however glad that I get full 100% of my money )

[totel]

never heard of vgen before! does anyone perhaps have a code? :0

personally i only get comms when doing porn on deviantart lol. i have masters degree in animation and slowly realized im so unhappy/miserable when depending on something as flimsy as commissions, and i dont want to work in a studio.

luckily, path lead me to become a screenwriter, which is what i currently do, and have a better paycheck than doing comms, and more free time, and i enjoy art more. 

[fablefound]

ooh, i'd also love to check out vgen! i don't know a lot about vtubers, but i imagine they're up there with furries as eager commissioners and generous tippers, given the quality of work i've seen... i'm a composer and writer/editor personally, so idk where to get gigs these days like at all @_@

[sphinx]

Your art is neat! I'd commission you! If ever you're free, let's talk!

Also... I compiled a list recently of useful sites for setting up commissions. I haven't used any of them personally and some of them look kinda meh, but maybe worth a look! At the very least if you set aside some time to cross-post on all these platforms, you'll be casting a very wide net!

artistalley.org
vgen.co
artistree.io
ko-fi.com
kirke.social
artdenapp.com
thedealersden.com (artwork category)
fiverr.com (cartoon illustration category)
buymeacoffee.com
artconomy.com
commissions-shop.tumblr.com
discord.com/invite/art

There's also always Etsy
and I think a few gallery sites like DeviantArt offer shopfront options now.

[ValyceNegative]

I first opened commissions in 2008: never stopped since, it's my main income, and as I grew up I worked to regulate it as a proper job that pays taxes and my retirement funds- though we all know we won't have any retirement as a generation xD

In that moment in time there was only Deviantart, Furaffinity with its forum, and Furbuy/Furbid but that was more for fursuiters that wished to auction off their premades. Back then, you'd create a journal advertising your prices and examples then hope for the best. In a way, it was so simple and primitive and exactly because of it, it worked like a charm. The Furaffinity Forums were a goldmine because a whole section of it, the Black Market, was dedicated to trades, requests and commissions. Other than artists having their main commission threads where they could advertise status and new compmeted pieces, you also had customers creating threads looking for artists for specific jobs, to which you could reply if the idea felt up your alley. It was an amazingly well built ecosystem and it worked like a charm. I have met so many long-term customers over there!

Another thing that really helped consolidating my market/audience was word of mouth: reccomendation among fellow commissioners helps heaps to have yourself known in a clique that's always expanding.

Goes without saying that taking your job seriously and being professional/treating the other party with respect is the prime rule to keep your customers close and ensuring a steady stream of work! I've had many such cases in which I was re-drawing a commission that was left incomplete by another artist who has quit because of personal reasons or simply run away with the money. Just... don't do that, come on...

Nowadays I wouldn't even know how to move myself if I was just starting out. There's an oversaturation of artists offering their services as well as an overabundance of places where to advertise oneself. The competition is as fierce as ever and online overactivity only ensures one's own posts get drown by others in a matter of minutes. I've also considered all these sites opening specifically for commission service to be full of just sellers and never buyers, but I might be wrong on that. What I mean is that it has took years to reach the name and stability I have today and with the headspinning rapidity the modern internet moves at, I'm unsure new artists are willing to wait that much to see if their commission job can really sustain them.

I've also heard, but that might just be fandom bias, that outside the furry fandom commission culture is still at its infancy and receiving jobs from other fandoms is so occasional it can't be turned into full time jobs. But I'll be happy to recieve replies that state the complete opposite!