How To Start Your Own Artshop - V.2.0

Buy or sell custom-made art - using CS pets, items or C$ as payment. This does not include pre-made character sales.
Forum rules
Art theft is not tolerated here. Do not copy/trace/edit/use anybody's pictures without their express permission.
If you are unsure, read the full art rules here.

How To Start Your Own Artshop - V.2.0

Postby ede » Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:33 am

How to start your own artshop (v.2.0)
New and improved!

This thread has been improved and updated with permission from Leriah., creator of the original thread.
Words by ede, based on the original article.


Intro
    Imagine you are walking along the street and you see a shop. What makes you want to go in? Is it the shop name? Or the products the shop is selling? Or is it how the shop looks?
    Artshops work in the same way, they are a business. The way you present your shop and your products will determine how many customers you’ll get. Just imagine the art shop forum is the street!
    Remember this is just a guide!


    One – Come up with a name for your shop. It can be something simple for example: [username]’s artshop or something clever. Something catchy that will catch user’s attention works!
    The title of the shop is a good place to tell your customers if you are open or not!


      + Make sure you update your open/closed signs as it’s annoying for customers to order some art when you are closed.

    Two – Show examples of your work! If you walk into a shop, the shelves aren’t empty, they will always have items on the shelves. You must include examples of your art as this will help the customer order.
    I have seen many artshops with no examples in their shops and this will turn off customers as they do not know what to expect. You can never have enough examples.
    Have pictures of your art all over your shop! Draw a banner up for your shop, place pictures everywhere. If the first post of your shop has art, people are going to want to scroll down. It helps if they can see what you can do and this will make them interested!


      + Have examples that show variety! For example: have examples that show humans, horses and birds. Let people know you can draw a range of things.


    Three – It’s very important to include a set of rules. To prevent spam, whiney customers or arguments, a set of rules will tell your customers what you expect from them and what they should expect from you.

      + Stay brief and to the point. Customers are going to be put off by a wall of rules.

    Example:
    • No spamming
    • Be nice
    • Send payment as soon as I accept your order
    • No ordering when art shop is closed
    • I should get your art done within 3 weeks


    Four – Prices. This is hard, as CS pets have different values to everyone. A good thing to do would be to check out other artists who have a similar art style to you, and see what they charge. (This doesn’t mean their prices are correct, just a baseline for you!) If you are having trouble, imagine what you would pay to get your art.

      + Remember, your shop MUST have an option for CS pets or CS currency! You can have an option for DeviantArt points/FlightRising currency/other virtual currency, but there must be an option for CS pets/C$! You are not allowed to sell your artwork on Chicken Smoothie for real money (USD, CAD, JPN, AUD, EUR etc). However, you are allowed to link users to another site to arrange specific commissions there at your own risk. The art rules can be found here.

      + Still stuck? This thread here is a good place to ask about prices of your artwork. Remember ultimately you decide how much you want to charge!


    Five - Have a clear ordering station Have a clear place for the customer to order. It's annoying browsing through your art, deciding to order and not being able to find the order station. Usually artists will put ordering stations straight after the examples and pricing.

      + Don't know how to create a form? Let me show you how! Decide what you are going to put in your form and then use [code*] [/code*]. (Delete the asterisks!)
      It should look like this:

      Code: Select all
      [code]username:
      type of art you'd like to order:
      payment:[/code]

    Six - Listing what you can and can't draw can be useful. This way people will know what to ask on an order and what not to. By having this list means you can or can't draw the following.

    Example:
      What I can draw:
      Wolves
      Lions
      Bears

      What I can't draw:
      Hooved animals


    Seven - Slots are a good way to tell your customers how many orders you are willing to take on.

      + Remember only take on as many orders as you can! It's exciting when you open your shop with 3 slots and you have five people posting forms. Stick to your three slots.

    If you’ve done all this, you should have a basic skeleton of your artshop!
Last edited by ede on Sun Mar 25, 2018 11:34 am, edited 3 times in total.
User avatar
ede
 
Posts: 3794
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:45 am
My pets
My items
My wishlist
My gallery
My scenes
My dressups
Trade with me

How To Start Your Own Artshop - V.2.0 - Do's & Don'ts

Postby ede » Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:54 am

Do’s and Do not’s

Some tips when running an artshop. These are some things I've seen when browsing through people's artshops and ordering art.


    DO NOT put other people’s art in your artshop. It gives a false idea of your art skills. It’s your shop, promote yourself!

    DO NOT use codewords. Yes, they are a good way to see if your customer has seen your rules, but if they are ordering, it is assumed that they have read the rules.

      + Codewords aren't that efficient, customers don't need to read the rules to get the codeword, they can just copy the codeword from the form above them.
      Atwood wrote a post explaining why codewords aren't the best.

    DO NOT have only DA points/FR currency as payment. This is Chicken Smoothie; you must have payment options for CS pets or CS currency at least.

    DO NOT over decorate your shop. Glittery, flashy, sparkly text is awful for customers to read. This will not get you customers.

      + This also goes with really light or bright text. If the customer can't read it, they can't order.

    DO finish commissions on time. Somethings in life can't forseen, but you are serving a customer.

    DO be mature and polite. You are a business. Imagine having a conversation with the cashier at a store, most of the time they are polite and it gives the store a good image.

    DO NOT ignore your customers. If someone posts and you don’t want to accept their order, tell them so. Leaving their order there makes the customer frustrated.

    DO post updates for your customers. This tells your customers you want to keep them informed and haven’t forgotten about them. Ex: I’ve been busy lately but have the weekend off to finish your art. Thanks for waiting!

    DO be consistent. Your examples should mirror the art you will give out to your customers.

      + I see a lot of examples that say ‘You’ll get something like this but better.’ To me, this says you are lazy because you haven’t taken time to draw up a nice example. I won’t order because I’m not sure what kind of art I’m going to get.

    DO NOT take on art if you know you have an exam coming up/something on. It’s not fair to your customer if you know you can’t get your art done right away. They are unlikely to come back if you take forever to finish their art.

    DO offer different art options. This way you can reach out to a bigger number of customers. Just think about all the different types of characters there are. Closed species, aliens, monsters, cats and dogs, humans … Tryout art is very popular!
User avatar
ede
 
Posts: 3794
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:45 am
My pets
My items
My wishlist
My gallery
My scenes
My dressups
Trade with me

How To Start Your Own Artshop - V.2.0 - FAQ

Postby ede » Tue Feb 07, 2017 11:21 am

FAQ

First set of questions taken from the original thread by Atwood.
Answers edited by ede


    How do I upload art? Image hosts like Imageshack, Photobucket, Tinypic, or Lunapic are good sites to upload all of your art. Deviantart has 'Sta.sh' which is also excellent for hosting images.

    How do I post art I've made in my thread?
    Firefox: Right click image -> Copy image location
    Chrome: Right click image -> Copy image address
    Once you've copied the address, paste the address and add [img*] [/img*] tags around it (Delete the asterisks!)


    How do I post codes in my art shop for people to pick up their art? Copy the image address of the image (see previous question) and use code tags around the image code.

    Can I use the Oekaki to make art for my art shop? Yes, I've seen many artist do that so yes. ^3^

    Can I use free linearts? Yes, so long as the lines are allowed to be used for profit, the lineart is credited with a link to its original page and all the artist's rules are followed.

    Can I accept commissions where the user wants me to draw CS pets? Yes, you can.
    Atwood wrote: For CS designs, the rules regarding art/adoptables depend on the situation. If someone specifically commissions you to make art of a CS pet or combination of CS pets, as in this case, it's fine to do so, whether it's free art or paid. What you can't use CS designs for is premade adoptables (i.e. you make the adoptables ahead of time and then others buy/adopt them from you), or combining CS designs to create premade 2nd gens to give away or sell, as the design isn't yours to adopt out to someone else. However, CS designs can be used for demos, ads or free-access freebies that anyone can use as opposed to being actual individual adoptables. :3
    Found here
Last edited by ede on Fri Feb 09, 2018 9:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
ede
 
Posts: 3794
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:45 am
My pets
My items
My wishlist
My gallery
My scenes
My dressups
Trade with me

How To Start Your Own Artshop - V.2.0 - Res

Postby ede » Tue Feb 07, 2017 11:21 am

Res
User avatar
ede
 
Posts: 3794
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:45 am
My pets
My items
My wishlist
My gallery
My scenes
My dressups
Trade with me

How To Start Your Own Artshop - V.2.0 - Res

Postby ede » Tue Feb 07, 2017 11:22 am

res
User avatar
ede
 
Posts: 3794
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:45 am
My pets
My items
My wishlist
My gallery
My scenes
My dressups
Trade with me

Re: How To Start Your Own Artshop - V.2.0

Postby persay » Wed Feb 08, 2017 8:22 am

Mark
he/him
LIVE right now join me
my da
part of the gucci gremlin gang, I am the gucci ofc
gremlin soft
gremlin gurt
gremlin liz
gremlin feather
User avatar
persay
 
Posts: 11927
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2015 9:16 am
My pets
My items
My wishlist
My gallery
My scenes
My dressups
Trade with me

Re: How To Start Your Own Artshop - V.2.0

Postby eckvanet. » Fri Feb 24, 2017 4:31 am

May I ask, what does it mean to 'buy' or 'sell' an image? What rights are given/ taken to/from the artist and customer?
(I'm so sorry if I'm not supposed to post here!)
Image


farewell, cs. selling all my pets for art
User avatar
eckvanet.
 
Posts: 4877
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 7:40 am
My pets
My items
My wishlist
My gallery
My scenes
My dressups
Trade with me

Re: How To Start Your Own Artshop - V.2.0

Postby ede » Fri Feb 24, 2017 2:40 pm

Hybrid Winters wrote:May I ask, what does it mean to 'buy' or 'sell' an image? What rights are given/ taken to/from the artist and customer?
(I'm so sorry if I'm not supposed to post here!)


No no, you're fine to post here!
To buy/sell the image, for example, someone wants to buy some of my art. They give me payment and then they may use it for their purposes. Selling a character for example, means that person can use that character, draw that character and breed it.

With the rights, it varies from artist to artist, each may state different terms. The artist will have the right as the sole creator of the work, and the customer has the rights to the work as they bought it, meaning they can use it in ways that artist has stated in their rules. For example, in my TOS I state that the customer can use the work for non-profit uses, ie. displaying on character pages, but no commerical use or printing out is allowed. Be sure to check out the artist's rules or TOS if they have it avaliable, otherwise message them.

Hope that helps! I'm not an expert but I hope that helps somewhat c:
User avatar
ede
 
Posts: 3794
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:45 am
My pets
My items
My wishlist
My gallery
My scenes
My dressups
Trade with me

Re: How To Start Your Own Artshop - V.2.0

Postby eckvanet. » Sat Feb 25, 2017 12:22 am

Thanks a lot!
Image


farewell, cs. selling all my pets for art
User avatar
eckvanet.
 
Posts: 4877
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 7:40 am
My pets
My items
My wishlist
My gallery
My scenes
My dressups
Trade with me

Re: How To Start Your Own Artshop - V.2.0

Postby ~ Shelboo ~ » Sat Mar 25, 2017 3:45 am

Mark
Tysm, this is very useful ^u^
Also, If I'd like to place my oekaki as examples, how do I change them to the image format?
(etc. [img]blablablaoekakiimg.Jpg[/img])
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Image
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"I always thought, I might be bad, now I know that it's true. 'Cause I think you're so good, and I'm nothing like you."
User avatar
~ Shelboo ~
 
Posts: 582
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2016 11:44 pm
My pets
My items
My wishlist
My gallery
My scenes
My dressups
Trade with me

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: P.J., ☆Wystana☆ and 0 guests

Click to claim your prize!