I didn't think that I would be making a blog on this, as my Deviantart's commissions work have been going very smoothly for a while now , but a recent decision and the reactions that followed really highlighted the situation to me. First , for a bit of hindsight, I've been on Deviantart ( a art-sharing platform) for nearly 4 years now , and have started doing commissions on it since 2012. However , as I gain more skills and knowledge, I began switching to Patreon and their subscription-based services for a more stable source of income, and have been focusing on expanding my audience on it, which eventually meant moving the properties that have been opened to the public on Deviantart to it , limiting them to Patrons. This includes HD images, Work-in-process, tutorials, etc... and most recently, the ability to get commissions, which brings us to the argument at hand.
When I announced this on my deviantart page, It was met with very mixed reactions. Some of them was a general disappointment but acknowledgement of my priorities, as I explained that I wanted to focus more on university work instead, and so I would like to make the most out of my commission time, which mean doing it for those that are actually paying me monthly rather one-off. On the other hand, other commenters deemed it a terrible decision , most basing on the fact that I'm losing potential customers , to quote :
In business, they call that a bad decision. You're cutting off roughly 80% of your potential customers, restricting the potential cash inflow to just a select few that can afford to pay a monthly fee while receiving nothing in return 99% of the time. A better idea would be setting up a queue to a limit of 3-5 people on DA. This way, you are keeping your entire customer base (those who are saving up for a commission they want, but can't afford to pay monthly to receive, say moi) while restricting the flow. Once one commission is finished, it is up to the artist whether they want to move the queue up and open a slot or just shrink the queue and close it until the commissions are finished and payments are made. That is a much more simple solution, as you get income on 2 fronts, with Patrons still receiving Premium benefits, such as higher priority.
My arguments against this was first off, they are judging the position without context of my work ethics, outside influence and so-on , but solely on the "business" side of it. Right now, on top of my work for uni, which will take up 90% of the time, there's the remaining 10% divided between personal work, weekly fan art works, commissions, chores and socialising. As you can see, it is VERY tight, which is part of the reason why commissioning has always been a more of a back seat for me, and the reason why I switch to a monthly contribution system. So in this case, choosing between having 10000 potential customers , out of whom around 30 would actually have the money to pay for your commissions or a smaller but growing , who is constantly giving you cash regardless of how much work is done for them, yes , I'd choose to cater for the latter first. Moreover, combining that fact with the limited I have, I would always be inclined to pushed them up in commission "queue s" ( which to be honest would never reach over 5 at a single time ), therefore the crowds on deviantart would constantly be pushed back , risking that with the amount of work I have , the possibility of me completely forgetting their order. Therefore I think, the most logical way was to persuade them in joining my patreon. Besides, I AM focusing on expanding it, and you get various other benefits along with that subscription , so you're not just paying to get commission rights. It definitely raised the fact that you can not cater to everyone's need all the time, and there is a point in time where you have to pick and choose what you really want to focus on.
However, I can acknowledge the opinion stated above as a sensible one from a customer standpoint , as a large portion of my audience are those who are like who can not afford a monthly fee for what is considered a hobby. Besides that, It would be terrible for those who has tried to saved up and are now blocked by this paywall. The solution right now for me is to keep priorities in commission for Patrons, but have special "periods" say like a holiday where I can do devi commissions only, which will probably consists of 4-5 slots per period. Then, I can keep my Patrons happy, while not forgetting my deviantart audience
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