Adoptable Sellers Help Guide

Adoptables have been going down hill lately it seems and lots of new creaters are emerging at the same time. So I thought a little help guide to selling adoptables would be nice.

1. Know your market!
Price and content should fluctuate based on how the market is at the time. If the market for bunnies isn't doing well then making an expensive bunny adopt wouldn't work out. If you were to make a bunny adopt it would have to be priced at a much cheaper price to get people interested.

2. Make your prices carefully and fairly.
This can be a bit tricky. When pricing you need to take in time, effort, materials, quality, and the current market. All theses things will be judged by the consumer. One thing people get confused with is effort and quality quite a lot. It is important to know where the line is drawn between the two. Lets say an artist is not good at drawing people. So they put a lot of effort into drawing a stick figure. They spend a lot of time on it and put in a lot of effort but, it is still a stick figure. That would not be considered high quality among anybody in the community and while praising them for their efforts and acknowledging the piece that doesn't mean it should be placed as an expensive adoptable. It's still just a stick figure.

You must also take into account, that if you use a base your effort and time are cut in half. A base is premade, and unless you made the base yourself, you aren't working from the ground up. It is unfair to charge an outrageous amount for something that you had a big help in making. Now if the base is made by you then that is different and you should price based on what was covered at the beginning. This doesn't include tracing a base over a premade picture. Please note that using a base is just fine. There is nothing wrong with that but, pricing fairly will get you farther. Everyone wants to price their adopts at a super expensive price but that can't always happen. Be honest with yourself and the quality of work you put out.

A similar thing must be taken into consideration with anything made on a maker. In this case none of the work is yours and the price of such an adopt, no matter how much you love the design, is should be very low. The most "socially acceptable" price of maker adopts is generally no more than 50 if that. Maker adopts are harder to sell because anybody can come in and create that design with the same maker and it wouldn't be copyright infringement.

3. Always set rules for your adopts.
This may not seem as important but seeing rules for your adopts not only clears up any questions a consumer may have but it makes you look more serious about what you have made. There are plenty of people who avoid purchasing adopts that don't have rules because most thieves don't bother with rules.

4. Advertise your creations.
When you upload an adopt to your gallery people see it. You can also link in journals if you like but these most effective way of getting your adopts seen is by submitting them to groups.

5. Have a variety of creations and prices.
If you have to many adopts of high prices people may be a little discouraged. If you place cheaper adopts of the same quality next to your expensive ones you will reach more consumers. Also having sales every now and again helps to boost popularity. Giving people deals and cheaper options can bring in more revenue over time then one expensive adopt.

6. Treat friends as customers.
This one can be hard to do since a lot of people want to spoil their friends. It's fine to give discounts to friends with commissions but doing so with adopts can hurt you. Showing favoritism in a sellers market will only make people mad. If you are going to give discounts make sure they can reach everybody not just your friends.

7. Make unique designs a high priority.
One thing that attracts consumers is the uniqueness of a design. If the design looks like something you can spot everyday then it probably won't sell that well. Researching current adopts and actual fashion lines can give you a good idea as to whats trendy and what isn't. It will also help you to understand the market for particular designs and help you piece together something more unique then the everyday sort of art people are bound to see countless times.

8. Always keep records.
It is important to keep a good record system of the adopts that you sell. That way if there ever arises any confusion on the matter you can look back to see who indeed bought your piece and any problems can be resolved quickly and without much incident.