Tips for commissions?

So, my only commission post that got traction here was a $3 holiday YCH, it probably took more than $3 worth of effort, but the majority of people actually paid me more than $3. What I gleaned from it was that people like themed unique commissions, they also don't like things that are expensive, but have no problem tipping if they like your work.

I make way more money selling adoptables, I get to draw things I want and sell them at prices I deem fit, I DO sometimes have 'upcharges' like the adopt is $X but for $Y I will also draw a ref sheet / full body / ect and some people bite, which is sort of like commissions, other artist I see do things like 'buy my adopt and get 10% off a commission from me' 

At this point I don't even have an official commission sheet, I just pop in on LF post occasionally, it seems that the same people spam every LF post, which means people most likely already know who they are, so I think if you stick with it and offer something unique people will catch on. I will also say I have better luck in the rarer LF character profiles instead of forum posts, often they don't want to offer money, but less people comment on them when they do.

I mean I'm in the same boat as you but I did get one commission (hopefully? It's pending) in my com thread, I've been open for 4 days + 1 I got immediately off of Tumblr (it's much easier there because the people commissioning you are the ones that actually follow you and like your art). I was contacted by another user through a lf thread but they ghosted payment after they approved the sketch. Overall I feel like skill doesn't play a part in it :\ it's literally just a matter of luck. From the tips I've gathered online I'd say the most important things are to have visual examples for everything you offer and to have them at the beginning of the thread (the wrongest thing people can do is have no info and examples and just link to a card), state everything your buyers need to know so they never have to guess or pm you just to ask, and most importantly don't lose motivation. I don't think toyhou.se is the most lucrative of places nor should it be the only place you market yourself in, but you can still get a couple buyers off of it, as long as you have the right mindset and expectations. Everyone will tell you about lf threads and I still post on them but after my last experience I really don't know. Some of them might just be looking for attention or to possibly get artists to lower their prices due to the increased competitiveness of it all, and still it would take them absolutely nothing to scroll down to page 2 or 3 and find out exactly what they're looking for. Also consider shifting the prices from € to usd. I'm from the eu but since this site seems to be majority American, you can guess they think $ are the only real currency in existence😑. PayPal offers automatic currency conversion so that's not an issue (remember to raise your prices accordingly tho if you do that) . And that's pretty much it? Remember to bump every 30 minutes I guess🤷‍♀️ you can link me your thread and I'll bump you manually if you want (oh and another thing I've seen sellers doing wrong is bumping themselves by commenting. It doesn't work you can only bump yourself via the button, but you can bump others by commenting even if you've just bumped yourself) 

Sorry if this isn't super coherent I'm a bit zonked out rn

Coming from a commissioner

There’s more people wanting to make commissions then pay for commissions. Anyone can open commissions but not everyone can pay for them, because of this a lot of people are picky with whom they get art from. With what the person above said also euros raise the USD price by quite a few dollars and so a lot of people try to get the lowest they can get. Also if the price is set to low they also consider whether the quality is worth it whether it’s good or not. Art style is another big factor, it doesn’t matter how good your art is not everyone is going to like it. Popular artists get a head start. There’s nothing you can do besides advertise because the art community is a very picky business and hard to make money off of if you can’t find your audience.

People tend to love cheap and simple stuff, YCHs are popular because aside from being themed (which is perfect for seasonal stuff like Halloween or Xmas), it gives a good idea of consistency that stays cute and having examples that people can exactly expect at the low price, plus it saves time from people from thinking up poses etc and they can just simply link you their OCs that fits a YCH

And back when I offered multiple options, icons/headshots were my most popular option for the same reason above. I know chibis are popular for this too, but mine didn't do fairly well as I didn't have many good examples with them haha.

And here's to add another point: Have as many examples!! Again, having consistency and a visible idea of what to expect of your style/art is important! Commission is a luxury, and people are extremely careful with what they want to spend on--no matter how low or attractive a price is--so they'd like to minimize the risk of getting a comm they don't envisioned as much as possible by this. Just writing what you can/cant draw is great, but a picture is worth thousands of words! It's useful for buyers that are seeking specific styles but I personally would buy a commission if I see a style that fits a specific OC among various that I have, if this helps! 

Edit: To add some of my personal experience, I once offered a 2$~5$ sketch commission in the past, and a 20$ fully rendered commission as of recent. Despite what I've been saying on "people prefer cheaper stuff", the 5$ one actually sold horribly...yet the 20$ has been pretty successful? You could argue that its the time gap between my style's improvement, but I feel like one huge factor is that I provided way, way more consistent examples for the latter, whereas my sketch comm had like 1-3 examples and they were all sloppy and inconsistent? That's at least what I assumed! But this kinda shows that underpricing yourself is not the solution to everything. Adding with all the risk-aversing factor I mentioned earlier, you definitely should be the judge to your own price, and most importantly, show as much confidence in what you're offering!

And extra tips: (for commissions in general cases)

- Put your price range in your commission title if possible! Its really the fastest way to "market" your commission

- If you're going to offer shading options like "flat / simple shaded / detailed shading" and the likes, that's 100% fine but from what I experienced second-handedly, most people tend to usually? pick the cheapest option for this, even if its only flat colors. I personally suggest not opting for shading options unless you have drastic difference between various shading styles for this reason (again, more examples are the key!), but its really all up to you if you think its worth it to offer them!

- When participating in LF threads, if the OP offers multiple OCs or an entire folder as an option; I will always mention which OC(s) from that folder that I'm interested in drawing the most. (e.g. "Your characters are so cool! I'm especially interested in drawing <name X> and <name Y>") I'm not sure if it increases the chances but it can definitely help narrowing down options for the OP and I like showing some interest on which of the potential customers' OCs fits my style the most!

But other than that, sadly the simplest answer is to participate in those LF threads, and ofc keep bumping your commission thread! The climb to reach any potential customers is the hardest part in opening commissions, I feel that (I was once in your place as well and frankly can't remember or even know how I even managed to reach some customers in the first place haha)

Good luck!

This may not apply for everyone but this is just my own experience so far but, for me my thread is not active at all, as i gotten nothing, it's a year old lol

 however, posting actively in the LF has helped me. you may not get anything when you are first applying to them. it's taken me a long time to get any responses for commission work but what i found helpful was just being actively posting in threads that i felt my services would be useful. not just posting in every LF thread you find.

especially posting samples in a spoiler, and having one site where you have everything such as terms, samples, prices, etc i find helped me and listing your prices in your post

so it's easy for the person to just see the post and have everything in one post.

I've only gotten one commission from here, but another from a different platform.

The key overall is just be consistent. it may be very hard and you may not get anything for a long time, but just be consistent in finding people who could use your services.

I've gotten a good amount of commissions here despite having a extremely small start. I'd say making connections helps a lot, having a niche or distinctness (ex: animecore/y2k aesthetic, being able to draw guns/tactical themes with barely any struggle is mine but i've seen others request pixels or semi realism as an example.), branching out on multiple social medias in case you just might strike gold somewhere else, studying how people hype themselves up and promote themselves, and having a great amount of patience and being persistent posting in looking for threads and bumping everyday. 

I've given pointers to my bf for starting commissions and we're pretty close to getting him a new laptop which is sweet. We don't get commissions for even a week at times and that's okay and it's not stopping us or being discouraged from keeping the offer open to those who may be interested in the future.

I usually comment on posts where people are looking for commissions (LF posts lol. I've never actually had anyone post on my thread tbh)! I find that helps a lot! I agree with the above post that having a niche helps! Mine was couple art for a bit, but I'm switching around my entire commission format and prices since I'm currently switching over to digital art so I don't really know what's going to happen with that tbh lolol