This journal is just me rambling to pass the time. Might be disorganized.
I've moved to taking my commission discussions through email (from my website) instead of taking Private Messages from whatever site I am on for a good while. I have a lot of reasons why, and also want to ramble about how it has effected me as an artist since I started doing it that way.
The most obvious reason is that I tend to roughly 10+ art sites regularly. Let me tell you how Chaotic it got when I wanted to open comes and take via PM from that site. I only ever advertised on a max of 2-3 of that pile because it took too long to flip between them all to see if I got a note. That means I would have to neglect notifying the watchers on most of the sites I reside about commission openings in order to keep efficiancy in responding to interested people. I remember one time I missed a commission opprotunity forgetting to check on one of the sites for too long.
Oh and organization without a central singular talking zone for commissions was insaine. Note threads on different art sites are all pretty different, and some don't keep a singular thread where I'd need to search notes for all the info I need instead of just click the latest. Organization via multiple sites done individually is rediculously difficult for commissions, and even more so if you also have regular conversations with Notes too. Picking a singular place that all people can access to discuss commissions has really helped me keep incredibly organized, and there won't be any "But I don't have x-site-account" to contact. Emails be nice. Folks got emails. Oh and sending files for the work? Just plop it into the email, too. It's beautiful. All in one place.
And the big boy reason that has had the biggest impact on me has actually been related to anxiety. I have an email dedicated to business. It all goes over there. That has effected my feelings towards the art sites that I reside significantly well. I am not anxious to open up my DA or FA expecting business notes or comments. its all regular social comments now. Putting all the work related stuff serperate from my social medias has created a better environment for me on my own platforms. I don't really get stressed seeing a note wondering if its a com or a helllo, because that actually stressed me out a whole lot more than I realized.
And finally, I'm glad that I can get folks to fill out my form for commissions. A lot of the above stress sometimes came from having to ask for more basic information I would ask for originally about the work that people wanted me to do for them. The biggest missing information tending to be a character reference sheet so that I know what I am drawing. I don't know if other artists have to deal with this, but I used to get notes all the time that would detail a commission they wanted, but I would have to ask for What characters I was supposed to be drawing in the first place all the time. I can't accept a com if I don't know what I am drawing, so when people did that sort of thing it always felt like they wanted to try to spring something extra on after locking a price quote in place. When I would list a Form before on each site individually I think maybe 1 out of every 8 people actually filled it out. Nah man, now everyone be required to fill it out to email so I don't have to pull teeth for basic info. It beautiful.
OH gonna go back to being on different platforms: the commissioner's desired username cedit. It's minor, but I much like that my form asks for what you want to be credited as for where. Some folks be on DA and FA, but maybe they would rather only DA, or even as Anonymous or from a completely different social media or all of them. Much better. I can credit to the owner how they feel most comfortable.
Yeah, I think I'm done rambling.
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