Yeah it’s gotten to the point where nobody buys anything, even for online currency. Market is very over saturated. I follow some people who do sell adopts for irl money successfully but I have absolutely no idea how they manage it. I get zero traction on every platform no matter what I make.
If so, tell me about some experiences! I myself am new to toyhouse and adopts... I've only done about 2 commissions before, so I'd like to hear everybody's advice on the topic :3
meow meow have a meowwwwvly day!
selling art? i do wonderful. i got to cool milestones thanks to people buying me commissions, to the point i'm now full of them and had to close for a while. my advice for this? promote in a LOT of discord servers. join communities. talk with people. meeting new users and joining places on discord made me get some reach i didn't expect coming. but toyhouse alone for promoting your comms, it can be a little hard
for adopts though...no luck. i could be giving some characters for 3$, and STILL don't get any interest what so ever. everytime i put a design of mine on UFO it feels like a desert. i have some cold takes regarding this, considering that toyhouse adopt buyers (most of them, not everyone) rely on who's the designer that is making them. if you're not a pop designer, chances are your adopts won't have lots of interest. it is what it is, i think.
Toyhouse? Nobody gives a fuck lmao. Off site though, yeah! I get decent sales on my commissions and ych. It's constant advertising. Though some platforms just work better. For me, FA specifically works really well. I get all sorts of commissions there. Creatures, human, furry etc. however it has its ups and downs all the time.
Adopts? Boooh. I am not a designer really. I have low interest in designing other than my own OCs, so it's not something I frequently do. Not at all. If I do, it really depends. I had luck selling feral designs more than anything else. Yes even on Toyhouse. Might be because ferals were my strong suit and tbh, the most fun for me to design out of all as well. Some sold for 100-200€+ even though I'm a nobody. But yeah, adopts are extremely wonky when it comes to having actually success with them. I prefer commissions 100%.
Other than putting yourself out there, it's a luck game. You can analyse and study what performs and appeals though. There are definitely certain themes and niche's that make it easier, rather than 'no name' work or adopts. For example games, seasons, species, fandoms generally, aesthetics etc.
Curious about where my comms came from after reading this, so here are all of the recent ones. Most of the Discord commissions are from people met on FA, so FA and discord are the best for commissions, but you have to advertise a lot. Toyhouse isn't great. Also had some success on twitter a while back, but not sure how it is now. Never had any problem getting commissions (especially on FA/twitter) but in the past used to get way too many so ended up adding extra stuff to my "don't want to draw this" list to cut them down to a reasonable amount... Got a lot of followers back when I muti-streamed with people and their fans followed me, so if you post art with friends or other artists it can help get you started in building a following.
*Edit- despite not receiving that many TH comms, still going to advertise here because people on TH have characters that are interesting
Yeah tbh I find it a struggle I used to sell on Facebook in the past but I shut down my account due to some insecurities and inactivity I'm homeless rn and my country is going through a war, so I'm trying to go back to selling again, this time I'm only focusing on th since I'm still insecure to make Facebook or discord account, I'm actually too introverted to even have online friends lol xdd But I believe luck plays a big role in selling on toyhouse
I love making adopts but for the longest time I know it’s pretty hard or even impossible to sell pre- made things like that for the average person
i try not to complain because i DO have a small follower base at the least and i'm very grateful to have them regardless of support ^_^ but i've been struggling selling my adopts and just ocs in general since i started my account, and even way before that in places like adopts amino and instagram. i've gone through numerous art style changes throughout the year and imo it only seems like the people who are/have gotten on the hot page at least once get more sales.............. sometimes i had been completely financially struggling (i asked for help revolving getting my cat spayed and vaccinated because she's been untreated ever since i got her in 2022) and i would still get ignored
i did have a smidge of luck on discord with art commissions and ended up getting a month of nitro (since the person had an issue with their paypal at the time) as well as a commission all the way back in maybe 2019 on adopts amino, but those are the only two commissions that actually went through and got completed 😭 i was due for another comm on discord around the same time i did the fire person's but the dude ghosted me halfway through the custom discussion so i stopped drawing it
i've seen people earn over $300 for their art and i just don't get how they do it.... it has to be the hq/mq/lq culture and i hate it
Even really big artists on toyhouse struggle selling adoptables sometimes, usually I ask myself "would I buy this character for money" before I put anything up and I mean like genuinely really think about it. I try to only design adoptables if I'm really feeling in the zone to create character designs instead of trying to force them out. I find my more simple designs get higher bids
For these few months I’ve grown so much. I’ve turned like 6k all together from adopts since commissions stress me OUT. I used to barely get any sales and i would make them super cheap until I changed my style and it worked. I went with what was natural to with me and turns out people here liked it.
Highest an adopt I have made sold for around $125usd ? Ish and that’s like double in my actual currency I use but the normal is $60 each or $100 each or $80 but I do sell some I don’t like for less and I’ve had a lot of luck selling..
idk how to give advice to anyone much since I hear a lot and see a lot about people only selling for as much as $20 usd and the market is horrible as is, but I feel pretty comfortable with how I’ve built myself up..
I only have here as my main “social media” and all my sales come from here and I have a lot on waitlist for when I do open coms again but the best advice I think I could say would be raffles help a LOT I got my audience from them and people always say “no! Raffles don’t work they just unsub” but idk it made all the people that like the type of stuff I make, find me.
Raffles weekly gave me 100 subs here in a few days and I’m up to 800 ish now and I have regulars now which mean the world to me. I think it’s all up with the grind since I post (almost) 1 adopt a day and am very active with advertising.. idk I’m just proud of how far I’ve come and if i could give any advice it’ll be not to underprice yourself if you are struggling and don’t go and give a $50 worth of out for 10 because your time and effort is worth a lot more than you think, trust me :(