Market Research
Aug. 5th, 2014 09:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinI'm looking at very much belatedly getting on this 'internet artist' bandwagon and turning some of my hobbies into something that could challenge me artistically/prfessionally and give me a little pocket change between jobs. There are two problems: self-promotion runs entirely against my grain, and I don't know the first thing about how to go about doing any of this. So I reach out to you, O internet, faithful friend and ally, to offer some sort of feedback. Please please chip in your two cents on anything you have an opinion on, I am out for data.
1. What would you, or people you know, be most interested in buying if I were to offer it in an online shop? (e.g. sketchbooks, prints of nice finished artwork, prints of existing rough artwork, original artwork, phone cases, tote bags, cupcakes, whatever)
2. Do you have any suggestions for new things I could make that there would be interest in? (e.g. an illustrated cookbook, nicely formatted and illustrated art tips, 'art books' for things I tend to return to a lot (as if they were actual animated productions))
3. Do you have any experience with monetizing your art? What would your advice be? Do you have any strong feelings on one online shop host over another?
Any and all feedback is appreciated (including 'stay pure! don't do this!') so please take a moment or two to tell me what you think, even if it's a general comment that doesn't address any of those three points.
THANK YOU!
1. What would you, or people you know, be most interested in buying if I were to offer it in an online shop? (e.g. sketchbooks, prints of nice finished artwork, prints of existing rough artwork, original artwork, phone cases, tote bags, cupcakes, whatever)
2. Do you have any suggestions for new things I could make that there would be interest in? (e.g. an illustrated cookbook, nicely formatted and illustrated art tips, 'art books' for things I tend to return to a lot (as if they were actual animated productions))
3. Do you have any experience with monetizing your art? What would your advice be? Do you have any strong feelings on one online shop host over another?
Any and all feedback is appreciated (including 'stay pure! don't do this!') so please take a moment or two to tell me what you think, even if it's a general comment that doesn't address any of those three points.
THANK YOU!
Hiiii this is Sabrina
Date: 2014-09-13 05:47 am (UTC)1) I have yet to really understand commissions (it feels weird to charge random people on the internet the kind of money that you would get at a paid art job) but if you can get an audience for it, then go for it! Personally I'd love to see a sketchbook from you- b+w sketchbooks are pretty cheap to produce and you can experiment with short digital print runs. I highly recommend using a local shop (you can generally find much cheaper and don't have to pay shipping).
The same goes for art prints (although the site catprint gives pretty competitive rates). I would definitely recommend offering some art prints on your more popular pieces and seeing if you make any sales. Art prints can bring a higher profit margin than sketchbooks and, even if they're not as popular, are really easy to make, store, and sell. I would only recommend investing in your own high-quality printer once you are confident in pretty steady sales from prints alone (but also remember that nice paper + ink gets HELLA expensive.... personally, I have yet to be convinced to switch over yet). Do a short run of prints from a local place or catprint and try it out! You can also probably do a poll first to see what people would like to buy.
I also sell bookmarks and charms but they don't sell as well as the books and prints. XD I make them because they're pretty.
2. Dude I would kill for an art book/concept from you of like.... any story XD I would like to see a mix of art and writing together (kinda like the ones Disney puts out- not that exact printing format obviously but that mix of art + insight). I'm not sure how much other people would like to see that but a risk-free way to test this out is to release a digital PDF.
3. Here's the common store breakdown:
-Etsy: very common, charges a small fee for each product AND for the store itself, and requires a renewal fee every six months to keep EACH product online. To me this was a dealbreaker because I have a LOT of products and also I am just miserly in general and hate sharing money. Supposedly people favor Etsy because they have a very large "marketplace", meaning you can draw people in from the main Etsy site, but I think that mostly serves craftmakers rather than artists.
-Storenvy: It's like Etsy but 100% FREE and with easily customizable layouts. It's less well known from Etsy but I usually draw more people in through my tumblr account anyway- I don't really expect people to just go to Storenvy.com or Etsy.com and stumble across my store (I assume most casual shoppers at those stores are looking for, like, cheap craft supplies or christmas presents.)
-BigCartel: The SUPER PROFESSIONAL-Y one, but it's more expensive than either Etsy OR Storenvy AND it does require some coding skills to get a nice looking site. IT CAN look super nice, but you gotta put in more work. I'd consider this a good "upgrade" once you've got the hang of things but not a good choice for first timers.
I'd be super excited if you started up an online shop! I probably wouldn't be selling stuff myself if it hadn't been for your encouragement so ummmm yeah! Do the thing!
Re: Hiiii this is Sabrina
Date: 2014-09-13 09:58 am (UTC)