Friday was a nerdy delight as Matt and I attended both the SuperCon and an Etsy Craft Party to celebrate the Etsy anniversary. The highlight of SuperCon for me was definitely meeting the guy who voiced Lion-O on Thundercats– considering Thundercats is the coolest show ever!

Later that night, we had a great time at the Etsy Craft Party mingling and eating amazing cupcakes. The cupcakes were seriously fantastic. The frosting was made of Oreo Cream. If you’re ever in Miami, check out the Sweetness Bake Shop and Cafe! At the end, we took a group shot– Matt and I are peeking out the back (I’m the suddenly tan one. How on earth did that happen?)

Since my goal is to eventually to not even be able to see my walls due to the amount of art slathered on them, I thought I should start preparing some ART I WANT before beginning acquisition! Here’s the first round, all gathered from Etsy. (The script is making the blog load slowly, so read the rest of the post to see it!) (more…)

Hey, Etsy sellers! Did you know that the 2.9% + $.30 fee on Paypal is not the only fee structure you can use for your Etsy shop? A few years back, Paypal quietly released their Micropayments plan to offer a way for sellers of low-priced items (under $12) to save on fees. I recently discovered this while trying to find a way to profitably sell individual pinback buttons and magnets for a low price. Take a look at Paypal’s chart for such an item:

To learn about Micropayments, take a look at Paypal’s Micropayment link.

The Problems, and How to Get Around Them

While offering a convenient, automated Micropayment option to sellers would be the best thing since sliced bread, the Micropayment plan we were given is neither convenient nor automated. There are several annoying caveats:

1. Your Paypal account can use either Standard or Micropayment rates, but not both. This is important because for purchases ABOVE $12, the Micropayment rate is more expensive than the Standard. If you want to take advantage of both Standard and Micropayment rates, you need two accounts. Which leads to number two…
2. Your bank account can only be attached to a single Paypal account. Since most people have one business account, they would not be able to directly transfer funds from both Paypal accounts.
3. Etsy doesn’t allow the use of two Paypal accounts on one store.

Unfortunately, we can’t do anything about number three. As an Etsy seller, you’ll have to choose the plan you want based on the sort of sales you normally receive. We can, however, do more to connect the two accounts, so that you have the option to use both accounts with the same bank. This can be great if you have two shops (one of which sells higher-priced items) or if you also sell in other avenues. I’ll explain how to set up and link your accounts below. (more…)

It’s been a few weeks now since sending out my most recent mailers, and since I have not received any bites yet I am getting increasingly antsy and wanting to expand into some other means of marketing. I know a few weeks isn’t a lot when it comes to getting responses from promo cards, but that– combined with the fact that I never received anything from my cards in December (and that the only response I ever got from my dummy book was one rejection)– is just a little disheartening. I don’t want to sit around sulking though, so I’m considering some other avenues for promotion.

My goal until now has been to spend as little as possible on marketing, simply because I don’t have a bunch of $ floating around, but I am finally understanding the whole “you have to spend money to make money” thing and I’d like to try it out with a paid portfolio site (not right now, but in the semi-near future when I feel my portfolio is as strong as it can be). The trouble is finding sites that are actually worth it. It seems better to spend more on a successful site, then spend less on a site nobody goes to, but I am having trouble finding out which ones those are. There are so many! I’m listing the ones I’ve seen… let me know if you’ve heard of any other promising ones!

The I Spot – I heard a lot about The I Spot during college, with professors (don’t remember which) saying that once you can afford it it’s important to get there because everyone goes there, and every big illustrator has a portfolio there. When I checked out the site, though, I found it to be extremely lacking in the navigation area. I wanted to test how easy it was to find images, so I decided to put some terms into the search box. When I searched “cat,” I got 0 results. Seriously. Whaaaaat? So I searched “animal” and again got 0 results. I honestly thought I must have been doing something wrong. Next I searched “woman” with 0 results, and I was further confused. When I started typing “people,” though, a little box came up under the search bar that offered to finish the word for me. With that search I got over 5000 results. After a while more of tinkering, I learned how the I Spot handled search, and that it was completely counter-intuitive. It appears that what they have is like 25 keywords which you can use to label your images. If someone happens to search for one of these 25 keywords, they get results. If you search for the other zillions of words in the english language, though, you get absolutely no results. How does this make any sense? If you only have an option of 25 or so keywords to look through, why is there is a search bar at all? Why not just categories you can click?

I can’t imagine how anyone would ever find my work over someone else’s, with such a horrible labeling and search system. I can’t picture myself spending $750 to be on such a poorly designed site, unless all the art directors already know something I don’t about searching The I Spot. If anyone reading this has a portfolio there, please, let me know if you get jobs from it! I’m really wary from what I’ve seen, even with the rave reviews of my professor.

The other sites I am looking at are ChildrensIllustrators.com, Picture-Book.com, Altpick.com, and FolioPlanet.com. But how on earth do you determine which one art directors go to most? The only thing they seem to have in common is being expensive.

I know this is something I want to do fairly soon, but with the cost and the risk it’s hard to make a choice. I know that just one good project would pay for the whole year of hosting at these sites, but which ones actually get you projects?

I’m thinking about waiting a bit to take the plunge on sites SO costly, and starting out with one of the less expensive, but still paid, sites. I’ve got a few nibbles from my free Creative Hotlist portfolio, and for $70 a year they offer better stuff (like actual pictures) and improved search ranking. They are run by Communication Arts, so people trust them, and it might be a good place to start.

If any of you guys are paid members of ANY portfolio site, I’d love to hear your thoughts about whether it’s been worth it! This stuff is so overwhelming.

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In other news, I ordered some awesome rounded postcards from OvernightPrints.com to use as notecards to sell. I used the coupon code BC100 to get $10 off the order, so it was super cheap. If any of you guys need to order your summer mailers or business cards or something, these postcards came out amazing. They are really thick, and the satin matte finish is gorgeous. Also, rounded corners = automatic awesome. I have more on the way of 5 or so different art pieces, and I think I’ll be back for my next promo mailers, too. I’ll be selling them here, and at the Market Bazaar!

Ack! My poor blog has been neglected recently– I’ve been focusing my efforts the last couple weeks on making a bunch of stuff for the craft fairs that were coming up, and the new SOI shop at the Savannah Mall.  I made so many dolls and was scared they would not be bought, but people seemed to really like them. An unfortunate side-effect is that I’m totally sick of sewing tiny legs and cat ears, but hopefully that will pass soon.

I’ve been wanting to practice my vector skills and expand my portfolio in that area, so lately I have been doing freelance work creating logos/mascots etc. for various Etsy members as a good way to get some new pieces. The fun thing is that via Etsy’s “Alchemy” request section, I can only bid on the requests that actually sound like fun… mainly adorable things! Once I’m totally comfortable with designing little characters and logos in Illustrator, I hope to move on to doing some graphic design projects as a way to get a design portfolio necessary for book design fellowship I REALLY want to apply to this December.

Here are two I just finished, with another on the way!

I just wanted to share this doll because I find her adorable… trying to make some specials for Easter! I should really be doing some more illustrations but sometimes you just wanna make dolls. I really need a brighter lamp…

I’m fascinated by totally weird stuff, and this Etsy seller I found today is a definite winner! Though I don’t see anything dirty about clay women’s peepees, some may find it NSFW so click “Read the rest of this entry” to, uh, read the rest of the entry!

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I just received a batch of buttons for including as freebies with my Etsy sales– I love them so much I wish I could keep them all! I’m hoping people will like them enough to use them or give them as gifts, and as they have my web sites on them it could be a good way to spread the word.

The best thing is that I didn’t pay a penny for these buttons. The absolutely awesome guys at Purebuttons.com have an affiliate program where you place a link to their site on your blog or website and you get some free buttons! I’ve actually bought buttons from them before getting free ones (and will continue to do so), and it was fast and super high quality so I have no problem recommending them to you guys!

In other news, I found a very twisted Etsy seller today (actually she found me!) and since it is full of cats and boobied goodness I wanted to share! Her name is Anna and she creates freaking weird ACEOs and other art, bags, and dolls. She even has a whole section for animal girlies *love* Check her out at her Etsy shop! Here are a couple of her cat ladies:

Though I have absolutely zero experience with vinyl toys, I couldn’t resist joining in when I heard the SCAD Illustration club was doing a Munny show. (Actually, I couldn’t resist when I heard that the Munnys were half off!) We are to paint a Munny and make a 12″ illustration to go along side it for a show.

The Munnys finally came in today and we had a super fun time trading the random accessories that came with them. I started out with a wrench, shuriken, beard, and lightning bolt… and ended up with a poop, another poop, another poop, and a teddy bear. Sweet!

I have no idea what to make, but have been trying to tell myself “No cats…no cats…no cats…no cats…!” How will I resist though, with three poops right there for a litter box? Hmmm..

Here he/she is in all his/her blank glory (and really awful lighting):

If you guys have any idea on what it should become feel free to comment!

Here are C and D of my ACEO animal alphabet! C is (Who could guess?!) Cat and D is Dog. Pretty mundane animals but you know I couldn’t pass up Cat and Dog was a good opportunity for butt-sniffin’. These can be purchased from my Etsy shop as well! They’re only 2.5″x3.5″ and the small space is a nice challenge in learning new techniques to increase painting speed.

“C is for Cat” Print Available

“D is for Dog” Print Available