Confused about pricing

[nomuffinsforyou]

I need help about pricing! Maybe this thread can also help other people who are conflicted about their pricings?

Fiverr is a bit weird on pricing art for commercial use. I have a policy where commercial use is an additional 300% to the base art price, but in the box I can only put one number for all the packages where they all have different prices. Is there a way I can do a work around using the custom offer...? Or do I have to give a flat price?

The main thing about this topic is about the pricing for Fiverr, especially for art. I know Fiverr tells you that you should use social media to promote your gig, so I just did that so people can give some advice. When people saw the prices, they said something like "It's way too cheap!" and "You should think about minimum wage!" and "Try pricing it per hour instead!" When I think about minimum wage in my country (Indonesia), I could only think of that people are priced not per hour but per month of work. (Though I am not well informed, so please correct me on this.) Minimum wage here is much different than in example, USA! People can feed a family with $10 here for a week, and maybe there you won't have enough for one person in a week. (Again I can be wrong, please correct me on this.)

Most of the people I sell art to are people who are not from my country, this is why they say my art is too cheap. So I decided to price my art higher. But I looked at other people's gigs who do similar as me on Fiverr... the prices are very low! I think it is because most of them come from my country (I checked by sorting it from where the seller came from out of curiosity) and if the amount is converted from USD I can see why it is reasonable to price it that way. But the problem is that by making such low prices, it creates a community where other people also sell art for very cheap! 

I have asked around for many different people's opinions on pricing and I made my gig pricing as comfortable as I want it to be. The problem is if I can actually compete with other artists that offer lower price and they already have 5 star reviews. I really do not want to lower my price because I have to feel confident on my self worth, but I am a newbie with no reviews yet. Should I keep my ground or do I have to give in and make it less? 

And a little extra, for the source file Fiverr says it has to be layered... does not that mean people can just, steal your art and claim it as theirs basically? :') Why is it recommended for artists to give out their source file? Does that feel a bit weird or no? I know it is not a must but, it does feel a bit weird for me...

  I am slowly starting to see the disadvantages of opening art commissions on Fiverr... 😢 

[ozan_erdi]

Now i will give you some cunning advices if you dont mind.

I have been working here for 2 years, and some other platforms aswell. And im doing art. That being said, most of my clients are from USA or Europe, and rarely from Middle east. Almost no one from Africa or Asia. Of course that can change from person to person. But lets stick to that information for now.

10 dollars mean nothing in USA and Europe. 10 dollars mean a hamburger and couple of beers. It might be good for you to get by, but they dont know that. So i think you can set your prices according to those countries. Or Whichever country you get your clients from. After all, you wouldnt work for a hamburger and couple beers. Im not saying give prices specially for every costumer. But your standart prices should be working around the dominant countries of the clients.

Here are some couple of reasons and tips to determine your prices

1 - If you set your prices unreasonably low, you will seem desperate and unprofessional. And 10 dollars is unreasonably low unless its something you can do in 5 minutes. I wouldnt even talk to someone who asks for 5-10 dollars if im a buyer.(which at some point, i was) After all, you wouldnt hire someone for a hamburger and couple beers. You would hire a professional who knows what they are doing. Of course, assuming your client is a reasonable person who is not here to milk some hungry cows.

2 - Check your competitors at your level, how much they want, what do they give in return. Try to get close to those. A little lower, a little higher. You decide according to your position and advantages against them.

3 - Like you said, giving too low prices will lower the whole markets value. Not everybody can get by with 10 dollars a week. I personally, need 250 dollars per week just to get by. And im a single guy, a person with a family would need much much more. 

4 - Why wouldnt you get more money? You are here as a seller to make money after all. As long as you are doing honest and good work, you should ask for more if you think your prices are low. Im not saying milk your clients, but within the reasonable boundaries, you can ask for more. And you should.

5 - You can estimate how much time your work is gonna cost. And price them accordingly. How much money your time worths in your clients countries? Lets say USA, how much a begginner artist in USA makes in an hour? 15 dollars per hour? Im not sure, take a little time to do research. 

44 minutes ago, nomuffinsforyou said:

Is there a way I can do a work around using the custom offer...?

I do most of my work with custom offers. But i price my custom offers with a reasonable calculations of my gig prices.(I butchered english here, sorry) The reason im doing custom offers, its art. Everybody asks something different. I have a price for a single character design without a background. But the client asks for a 3 headed dragon, now its not same with a single character right? Dragons are much harder, and having lots of heads and wings makes it challenging. I'd price the 3 headed dragon as 3 characters. So its a custom offer. Yes the client asked for a single character, but is it really a single character? So i use my gig prices as a starting point, and scale up to the clients needs. I can explain nicely why a 3 headed dragon would be harder, and why would it take more time to a client. So they should be fine with that too.

44 minutes ago, nomuffinsforyou said:

And a little extra, for the source file Fiverr says it has to be layered... does not that mean people can just, steal your art and claim it as theirs basically? :') Why is it recommended for artists to give out their source file? Does that feel a bit weird or no? I know it is not a must but, it does feel a bit weird for me...

You sold your piece. You gave your source file. You get your money. They get the commercial rights. Its not yours anymore. What do they do with it, is not your concern. Its not stealing if they pay for it. Some people will charge extra for commercial rights, like you said. That is fine if you dont want to do this for now, since you dont have ratings and such. But consider that once you get a hold on your place in fiverr.

 

I hope it was helpful

[catwriter]

37 minutes ago, nomuffinsforyou said:

People can feed a family with $10 here for a week, and maybe there you won't have enough for one person in a week.

I doubt it would be enough for a day, let alone a week.

49 minutes ago, nomuffinsforyou said:

The problem is if I can actually compete with other artists that offer lower price and they already have 5 star reviews.

Offering lower price in order to compete is just a race to the bottom. You'd end up working a lot and feeling terrible.

I suggest looking at other sellers again, but at the quality they're offering. Find the ones who offer quality similar to yours and check how much they're charging. It's perfectly possible that you will find a wide range of prices even among the works of similar quality, because some will be afraid to charge much, while others, who have learned how to price their art, will charge more (it's possible that some will charge way too much). Then you can decide on the price that feels comfortable.

And if it takes you a week to complete a piece of art, as you've mentioned in another topic, definitely don't ask for just $10. Sure, you can offer something for $10, but only if it takes you much, much less than a week to finish it.

[dannykojima1]

When I was still doing freelance art work in the past 3 months before quitting freelancing on the platform -- I set $24.99 for line drawing only with full body character and environment with no revision. And so, $49.99 for (single) character with full body colors only without background environment and colors with 2 revision, however I will charge $50 more if the client wanted to add another character in the coloring version. Although with all full colors picture including complete background environment colors, the price was $79.99. These price usually drawn the clients to my service since it cheaper than I charged $799.99 for a clean 2D video game and film character concept art. And $1,000 for album art cover.

One the reason I decided to quit freelance on Fvierr because I couldn't catch up with 3 more in queue from clients which leave me under pressure, because most clients preferred ordering the $90 complete version for their book and music. If I continues doing the freelance art on Fiverr, this will lead me to abandoning my Deviant Art store completely and my buyers will be looking to buy elsewhere. This is why I don't like to create the art the clients wanted on Fiverr. But on Deviant Art, I can create any art I like and ready to release it for sales on there, then sit back and relax while buyers browsing the art they like, then pay to download. All your money will goes into the Deviant Art balance. I like doing commission on Deviant Art because they don't take % cut from you for themselves like Fiverr do. Once you done the job for a clients, the money is all yours!

Anyway, if you think you're ready for freelancing on Fiverr as an artist, you have to be prepare what kind of art style you could do for the clients. I still love Fiverr too, and maybe one day (if my sales didn't go well on dA store), I will definitely come back to freelance on Fiverr. But for now, I'm only just browsing on Fiverr as seller to look for hiring a creative writer to write for my comic.

Good luck and happy freelancing!

[dannykojima1]

Oops. I mean browsing as a buyer. Not seller. Darn it.

[nomuffinsforyou]

44 minutes ago, ozan_erdi said:

You sold your piece. You gave your source file. You get your money. They get the commercial rights. Its not yours anymore. What do they do with it, is not your concern. Its not stealing if they pay for it. Some people will charge extra for commercial rights, like you said. That is fine if you dont want to do this for now, since you dont have ratings and such. But consider that once you get a hold on your place in fiverr.

Oh I don't mind if it is for commercial use, they can do whatever they want with the drawing 😄 What I mean is for personal use (because in the terms of service I read that you can set it for personal use only if you write it down it in your gig somewhere) I don't like to give out layered source files for that because it feels a bit weird >u<

38 minutes ago, catwriter said:

And if it takes you a week to complete a piece of art, as you've mentioned in another topic, definitely don't ask for just $10. Sure, you can offer something for $10, but only if it takes you much, much less than a week to finish it.

Is ok my full one page art will not be $10!!! That is the price for one sticker or one Twitch panel, I can do those in a few hours >u<

29 minutes ago, dannykojima1 said:

One the reason I decided to quit freelance on Fvierr because I couldn't catch up with 3 more in queue from clients which leave me under pressure, because most clients preferred ordering the $90 complete version for their book and music. If I continues doing the freelance art on Fiverr, this will lead me to abandoning my Deviant Art store completely and my buyers will be looking to buy elsewhere. This is why I don't like to create the art the clients wanted on Fiverr. But on Deviant Art, I can create any art I like and ready to release it for sales on there, then sit back and relax while buyers browsing the art they like, then pay to download. All your money will goes into the Deviant Art balance. I like doing commission on Deviant Art because they don't take % cut from you for themselves like Fiverr do. Once you done the job for a clients, the money is all yours!

Anyway, if you think you're ready for freelancing on Fiverr as an artist, you have to be prepare what kind of art style you could do for the clients. 

Ah! I now understand from what catwriter said about that if you work for lower price you will start feeling terrible... 😞 

I do have a shop in a different website though where I want to sell wallpaper, phone theme and sticker sets! I don't put all on Fiverr because it is not good to put all your eggs in one basket 😮 And yeah commissions can be tiring ;w; 

I think I have a unique enough art style though!! People have said that my art is cute so I will be appealing to people who are looking for cute things >u< 

 

Thank u for the advices everyone!! I will make my prices for those dominant countries and then compare with other people's gigs!! I also want to do the thingy that I raise prices if I get many commissions! I hope it works 😄 

[ozan_erdi]

Just now, nomuffinsforyou said:

Oh I don't mind if it is for commercial use, they can do whatever they want with the drawing 😄 What I mean is for personal use (because in the terms of service I read that you can set it for personal use only if you write it down it in your gig somewhere) I don't like to give out layered source files for that because it feels a bit weird >u<

You can also have it ticked to give source files too. But if you mean, if they get it for personal use, get the source files, change it a little and sell to another? Well that is not your original piece anymore right? I think there are degrees to alteration, at which point its still your design and at which point it isnt. Im not sure of the answer tho.

I hope you get to do many thingies. 🙂

[gayanchamira]

very important topic with quite strange summery

[dannykojima1]

33 minutes ago, nomuffinsforyou said:

Ah! I now understand from what catwriter said about that if you work for lower price you will start feeling terrible...

That's true. Creating realistic character art took me 2 and nearly 3 weeks to complete. And sometime nearly a month to complete it before made a delivery to buyer. But some client can be impatient and pushy, but most give you a lot times to finish the artwork while they are busying creating music. I had a client once who needed the artwork complete for her film. However, I had to contact Fiverr Customer Support one time to cancel it for me since the client didn't respond the 5 days extending request. 1 month for $79 which ain't right for me to freelance on Fiverr platform, which is why my parents didn't want me to do freelance work on Fiverr. Ever.

[dannykojima1]

And please don't take my words for it (about commission work on Deviant Art). Not all artists success at what they do on Deviant Art (depend on their art style). Not all artists can sell well on Deviant Art with their art either. Because most art on there are anime, and furry art which not much people are looking to buy them anyway. I would suggest you try out freelancing work on Fiverr and see how it's goes, because to be come a seller on Deviant Art, you have to pay $9.99/month to become a Pro Membership to be able to sell your art on the platform. Then you can create Tiers where people can pay $19.99/month to become your subscribers. You can create how many Tier and set a Subscription price whatever you want!

I only set my price as $2.99/month on my subscription since no one could afford $19.99/month!

[ozan_erdi]

2 hours ago, dannykojima1 said:

And please don't take my words for it (about commission work on Deviant Art). Not all artists success at what they do on Deviant Art (depend on their art style). Not all artists can sell well on Deviant Art with their art either. Because most art on there are anime, and furry art which not much people are looking to buy them anyway. I would suggest you try out freelancing work on Fiverr and see how it's goes, because to be come a seller on Deviant Art, you have to pay $9.99/month to become a Pro Membership to be able to sell your art on the platform. Then you can create Tiers where people can pay $19.99/month to become your subscribers. You can create how many Tier and set a Subscription price whatever you want!

I only set my price as $2.99/month on my subscription since no one could afford $19.99/month!

I am interested in your deviantart journey without disturbing this topic. Would you care to inform what accomplishments/failures you have experienced trough a chat or something?

[newsmike]

6 hours ago, ozan_erdi said:

cunning advices

Of all the advices, the cunning ones are my favorites. 😍

[williambryan392]

12 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Of all the advices, the cunning ones are my favorites. 😍

[dannykojima1]

5 hours ago, ozan_erdi said:

I am interested in your deviantart journey without disturbing this topic. Would you care to inform what accomplishments/failures you have experienced trough a chat or something?

Hi ozan_erdi. Yes, I wouldn't mind sharing with you on what good and bad about Deviant Art compare to Fiverr through message or chat.

[moikchap]

If you can't compete on price, don't. Compete on your style. Make people want your style rather than someone else's. It's more rare so it's going to have better price tolerance.

I feel your gig needs to be re-arranged so that it better shows the keywords which relate to what people who want your style will be searching for. I'm not sure many people search for "doodle style". "Sticker style" may work better. Or possibly "children's art" or something. Ask people for ideas; "When you look at my art, where do you see it getting used? Who would want it?" then start tailoring your gig titles and descriptions in that direction. I can see this kind of art working on t-shirts or posters and other drop-shipping style items.

[nomuffinsforyou]

1 hour ago, moikchap said:

If you can't compete on price, don't. Compete on your style. Make people want your style rather than someone else's. It's more rare so it's going to have better price tolerance.

I feel your gig needs to be re-arranged so that it better shows the keywords which relate to what people who want your style will be searching for. I'm not sure many people search for "doodle style". "Sticker style" may work better. Or possibly "children's art" or something. Ask people for ideas; "When you look at my art, where do you see it getting used? Who would want it?" then start tailoring your gig titles and descriptions in that direction. I can see this kind of art working on t-shirts or posters and other drop-shipping style items.

Oh! That gig that I have up right now! It is my "miscellaneous" art gig and my first gig when I did not know the advice of "make the art for a specific use". I thought I would use it in case people message me just wanting prints of my art style. I might change the title to something like posters or prints, thank you 🙂 

I have some gigs in draft where I will publish when I am ready (after exams, I have to study first it is priority!) with specific use (like, stickers!). I still need to research and stuff and finish some of the arts that I am going to put in the gallery. I am also thinking about t-shirts! But I don't really know how to specifics of the design and make a mockup so I have to search on that as well. I'm doing lots of stuff soon 😄