Hi! I wanna open up commisions and I've been told these prices are too cheap, but I don't really know what to charge that people would buy! What do you guys think is a fair price for these?
Jan '24
Jan '24
Well, the prices look pretty decent for me, very average and proper for someone that hasn't been doing commissions in a long time or is stepping on that field for the first time.
You are not ""underpricing"" yourself, it is a very reasonable price for someone that is likely not from Latam, Vietnam or Philippines, who tend to go from $25 and under if they are not popular or just started to promote themselves internationally.
I hope you're also keeping in mind is the fee for transaction / payment of the platform you're using.
For example, I use Paypal, and it takes 4,5% in fees whenever I receive a payment. For example, one of my items is $40, client sends the money, then what I actually receive is $38.20. So yeah, it is important you are keeping that in mind for when you set your prices depending on what you're using, besides other pricing techniques such as working hours or similar.
Avoid listneinig to the people that says those commissions are too cheap, if they think so, then they'll commission you, if they think you're underpricing then they'll send you a tip. If the one telling you is another artist, be careful, since some of them have this friendly act of encouraging others to raise prices so they remain the cheaper better option. Besides, if you with this prices struggle to get clients, then its likely you're going to struggle more if you raised the prices.
Consider it like this: You manage to get 3 people commissioning you once a month, that means even if art is a luxury and not a need, they can invest that bit on a treat, but if the price raises then it won't be accessible for all of those 3 people and if your public is still small, then it'll take more time to gain the trust of newcomers by sharing commission works less frequently.
I've also made other observations, so pardon the intrusion:
There doesn't seem to be much of a difference in athe PFP and the Half-Body due to the proportions, try to make it more notorious so people can feel the importance of each service. I won't recommend removing the Half-Body tier since its a good psychological tactic to either guarantee you'll be commissioned at least the cheaper option, or clients will be more inclined to actually go for the expensive one.
Be careful about the amount of text in your commission sheet, while it is nicely arranged for viewing in pc, if I look at it from my phone then I would require to zoom in or open it up apart. So avoid having others taking an extra step to build interest for you, even if it's mundane, but those thing do influence your presentation.
The samples are neat, still due to the previously mentioned issue they might not be well appreciated on mobile, which sadly is in what people see the most nowadays, except probably for those that still use the Forum. I believe you're ok with your first image and while promoting yourself you could link to the expanded version with all ToS, Add-Ons, TaT, Paymenth method and other offers and more there. Be it in the post or leaving that info to copypaste whenever a client asks for more information.
For example, here I have my Pricelist besides yours with the biggest preview in my file folder. (Ignore the file name, it was mostly to have them side by side without editing)
My personal idea of the arrangement would be:
This one is important to avoid people going through all the process of the commission and last second after raising your hopes just to say "Ohh.... I can't pay through that", it's also a way to avoid scammers who try to get your bank account or force you to enter other platforms to """pay you""". Besides, nowadays even if its written on the post or the image, if you ask for DMs its highly likely you may end up receiving scam messages than actual clients.
I would personally recommend using a security wall, be it processing orders through Ko-Fi, Google Form, or others, that would require the client to them send your information instead of the other way around. Since you don't make NSFW or at least nothing Obscene, you can always encourage people to ask you questions in the comments if they have any doubts, that also raises the trust in the Artists and others can see you solve doubts and such.
Start yourself at minimum wage. (I recommend using US minimum wage even if you live outside the US, you should be going based on what your highest-cost-of-living clients can afford, not based on what your cost-of-living is)
give yourself a dollar raise for every year you have been practicing/training your skills
3 dollars if you took actual classes/school for your work
Guestimate the rough average number of hours it takes you to complete a piece of work
that's you baseline.
Do not actually charge hourly: that punishes you for getting better and being faster at what you do, but once you have a rough concept of 'this is about what I can accomplish in x hours of work', you have a general idea of what you should be charging for any given piece. Continue to give yourself raises as the value of your time and skill increases.
I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone who does this for a living, and I know there are a lot of younger people or hobbyists who don't take it that seriously.
To that I say A: why would you not make more money if you can, and
B: if you're good enough that you could be doing this for a living, then it can actually cause issues for other artists who are trying to make an online art career their primary source of income.
When young, highly-skilled artists charge peanuts for high-quality work, it drives the price floor down for ALL artists, as it lowers client expectations for what art """should""" cost. This isn't to blame you or any specific artist for undercharging and 'screwing over' those who try to do it professionally, it's just a fact of economics that I think is important to keep in mind when you start thinking about art as a way to make money rather than just for entertainment.
That's all very heady and philosophical, the TL;DR is that based on the quality and style of your work you should probably double your prices.
I wouldn´t mention the "won´t do"
just mention what you will do.
When someone asks for i.e. obscene nsfw then
you can still tell them that you will not do it.
I tell customers that I will or can´t do some things
all the time and sometimes I do other commissions for them.
And from my customer pov it makes you sound difficult
The prices are ok but I have the feeling of getting the same/less for the 25$ than
I´m getting for the 15$
I base my prices on what my currency is (canadian) and then I look online on what others with my skill level and or style are doing too within my country.
Then if its Paypal using international I have to add in fees onto it for normal processing and international currency conversion fees. If its local its a direct deposit canadian app so no fees.
My prices compared to my Phillipino or US friends are different based on currency worth.
So Canada is higher cost of living so US might be 80 but mines 100. Because Canadian dollar is worth less than the US dollar.
I keep a TOS on my studio site for FAQs about how the creation process will go and payment options and downpayments, ownership, etc. Helps me with dealing with scammy chargebacks I then have actual proof.
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