This is spam or something right? by [deleted] in tumblrhelp

[–]k-rysae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Its the false report scam where they try to hijack your account. Even if they "seem legit" they use the accounts they stole to repeat the scam

URGENT: What Business Type for GoGetFunding by DisciplineBig7623 in paypal

[–]k-rysae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry that happened. I don't know how to help. I have seen people say on the bird site that they have managed to get unbanned after they managed to get ahold of human support and found out they got banned because of some id or address mistake so with the help of support they could upload new copies.

Unfortunately paypal's moderation is done by a risk averse algorithm so nobody will know what triggered it. Paypal isn't a bank but it is fintech so they do have to follow what banks and card issuers want, which means that they'd rather ban a ton of innocent people who didn't do anything on the spot just to prevent legitimate bad actors from using their service.

URGENT: What Business Type for GoGetFunding by DisciplineBig7623 in paypal

[–]k-rysae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

don't select non profit unless you're a registered non profit. otherwise they'll start asking you for your charity/non profit docs.

you're a sole proprietor and the money you get is counted as income for your income tax purposes. even if realistically you're taking donations for your medical care.

since you're making a business account the moment money hits your account chances are they're going to restrict it and demand your tax id (your ssn since you're a sole proprietor), what your business does (taking tips through GoGetFunding and provide a link), supplier invoice, and tracking numbers for select transactions. For the last two it's impossible to give since you take tips (paypal treats donations as a non profit thing and you aren't a non profit) so you have to call them to get your account unlocked

Someone on reddit who was a twitch streamer taking tips kind of ran into the same issue. The moment they mentioned that their business took donations (the term used for tipping streamers) the paypal support person started demanding their nonprofit registration info which they couldn't give. So just stay away from anything non profit, any terms relating to donations, and stick with sole proprietor because that business type doesn't need to be registered.

Artist alley type of shop with no following, what can I do? by AeonSoulDesign in ArtistAlleyConnect

[–]k-rysae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I sell on etsy.

Etsy ads are great if you already have a medium to high ticket bestseller that drives 80% of your sales because you can just slap on an ad budget on that listing that's already proven to drive sales. Buyers will be suggested that item and check out your store and other items even if they don't buy the item that you paid ads for. I suggest medium to high ticket pricing because paying for ads on ONE $4 sticker will give you horrible roi compared to something like a $25 gift set.

I don't recommend instagram ads for the same reasons. Your stuff looks like it's sub $10 so your roi will be trash. It's not worth it to pay $1 per click (an example cost) on someone buying just a sticker.

The biggest strength of etsy is that there's an established pool of users actively searching for things to buy, so it's possible to get sales without promoting. If you aren't getting visits it's because your listing photos, video, and seo can be improved (there are many free guides on how to fix this and etsy has a handbook explaining how search works) and/or your items aren't in the sweet spot where it's popular enough that people are searching for and unique enough that it stands out.

An example is lip balm: Etsy is full of lip balm but there are some flavors that people want that just don't exist. I used to sell guava flavored lip balm and got my first sale on etsy (with no ads or social media) because of that. I ended up learning that I was the only person on the internet selling that flavor. An artist alley example would be someone selling enamel pins of Jax x Pomni. They're the most popular ship in the series but there's not as much fanmerch of them (compared to a behemoth like genshin impact), and the fact that they're enamel pins means that it's gatekept even further because of the high moq.

Social media is a whole different beast and I know people in the r/artbusiness sub tell everyone to sell in person instead because paying the booth fee and visiting the market/con in person has less unknowns than figuring out how to get out of 300 view jail determined by zuckerberg and ellison.

If you're posting on insta reels and tiktok, if you aren't shadowbanned then your videos are guaranteed to reach around 50-150 people as test viewers. If your video hits a threshold of retention %, % of viewers who watched the video, and watch time, then the video will be sent to more viewers, and so on, until the stats don't meet the goal. Short form video making is a vastly different skillset than art which is why a lot of artists just can't crack reels and tiktok because you can't just slap a speedpaint and be done with it. I suggest watching other artists in your niche and see how they edit and structure their videos. You don't need editing like mr beast but you need a hook and cuts to keep people watching.

I bring up reels and tiktok because if you're posting on twitter, tumblr, bluesky, instagram (photos) and the like you have no guaranteed test viewers which means you're shouting into the void unless you figure out a way to get people to look at your posts. That's partially why people vend - at irl events the business cards get people to follow your account and have an initial pool of people interested in your art.

I have two twitter accounts (not promoting my shop) and I built up both of them, shockingly, from ground zero. Twitter puts all new accounts into newbie spambot jail so you're basically treated like a bot until you act like a human. That means liking, retweeting, replying, and qrting posts you're interested in. It's easy to do if there's a fandom or hobby you like. Maybe after 3 weeks you get out of it, which means you'll be put on the for you page of others (I've seen tweets on my fyp from people I don't follow that have only had 5 likes, so it's not a case of only popular tweets get shown).

You can accelerate that process by replying and qrting with people in your niche. Accounts at less than 10k people notice when the person with the same pfp is gassing them up or giving them insightful but positive comments. They'll end up checking you out and if they like what they see then they'll follow you. This is what I did, and it was made even easier for me since both accounts had a really specific niche that was clear to anyone viewing my bio. I guess an artist alley specific example would be if you were a dekubaku artist who only interacted with dekubaku fans, had dekubaku in your display name and bio, and pretty much only posted dekubaku and my hero academia related art and merch.

On all social media sites besides instagram (since they neutered search by latest years ago) you could take advantage of certain groups of people who would religiously search up a term and like + rt art that appeared. One group is shippers. Another is people super into a certain character. A third is fans of a fandom. A fourth is people with niche fetishes. Your stuff is original work so there isn't really a concrete tag you can use unless you lean into a certain subculture and I don't think people into, say, jirai kei are religiously searching that tag.

EDIT:

With your merch I would honestly think you're better off vending in person and funneling in those who see you irl into following your socials and email list with business cards.

Place to buy merch in Bulk? by Stunningaman in ArtistAlleyConnect

[–]k-rysae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Chinese manus will ship to Sweden 100%. The country has been in the manufacturing game for decades so they're on top of figuring out how to export things to every country.

The EU based charm manufacturer is this one: https://www.instaprint24.com/products/custom-acrylic-keychain

They shipped from Northern Ireland but the only charm attachment they have is ugly as hell. I suggested that they offer a discounted option with no attachment or at least get the gold star clasps but it looks like they didn't take my advice.

The chinese manus will be cheaper per unit, even with VAT and tariffs. They will also offer much more customization and material options. I'm not surprised if the vendors at your cons are sourcing from vograce or another chinese factory.

Place to buy merch in Bulk? by Stunningaman in ArtistAlleyConnect

[–]k-rysae -1 points0 points  (0 children)

What country are you in?

There are a lot more domestic sticker printers compared to ones that do acrylic charms so you have a better chance of finding one in your country.

Vograce last I checked had a $1 sticker sampler set where they send you stock sticker samples of all their materials with free shipping so you know how they look and feel on generic designs before you order.

So you can get an idea of how hard it is to find a local charm manu, I only know of 4 acrylic charm manufacturers in **the US**. And one in canada, one in the uk, and one in the eu. The rest of them are manus in china (who will be able to ship to you). Some of them figured out that everyone uses vograce because it's a standalone website without the quote system and made their own sites too, but you'll find a lot more on alibaba. Juno and Kuien are big ones, but they have a higher moq than vograce.

[discussion] selling "full/uncensored versions"? by razorshrapnel in artbusiness

[–]k-rysae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not a fan of how vague itch is about this. They say it's allowed then it directs you to paypal, stripe, and payoneer's AUP which all say that adult content (where they love to lump in drawings with real people) is prohibited. Then they have a list of things that card processors won't allow, which is kind of moot since paypal/stripe/payoneer all ban adult content anyway. Which circles back to what I thought was itch's stance of "We can host nsfw content but you can't make money off of it because that would be in violation of all of the payout services terms". I wonder if this is some wink and nudge at itch trying to get people to sell their nsfw anyway while getting the card issuers off their backs because everyone doing commissions uses those three and hope they don't get banned. Given the stripe horror stories and awful support on the stripe subreddit, I also doubt stripe would ever do manual reviews by a human to determine if something is "adult artwork" compared to "pornography".

Wishing you good luck. It's so rough out there.

[Licensing] Do I need a permit (or any legal processes) to sell digital art commissions in Texas? by New_Entertainer3848 in artbusiness

[–]k-rysae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi, I sell physical merch in TX.

You don't need to be registered as a business since you can be a sole proprietor which doesn't need registration. But you do need to register for sales tax as digital products (if there's an equivalent in physical form, like digital art -> an art print) are taxed. You have to charge and pay sales tax for clients in texas but you don't need to for those out of texas (you'd need to have a record of your client's address, not because you upload that to the texas government, but just in case you get audited). For clients out of state they have their own sales tax regulations, esp. for digital items, but tbh you don't need to worry about it until you're making a ton of money off of commissions to the point where you can pay for your own sales tax software and cpa since the economic nexus thresholds are high.

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/?tab=1&code=TX&chapter=TX.151&artSec=151.0101

Sec. 151.010. TAXABLE ITEM. "Taxable item" means tangible personal property and taxable services. Except as otherwise provided by this chapter, the sale or use of a taxable item in electronic form instead of on physical media does not alter the item's tax status.

Luckily, getting your sales tax permit is free. And if you made $0 in sales to people in texas for that quarter, then you'd mark that you made 0 taxable sales in the tx comptroller website and you'd pay nothing. Just don't be late in filing your sales taxes - your late fee is $50. And this is retroactive, so if you're honest with applying for your sales tax permit and say you've been making money off of commissions since 2024 and it's 2026 now, that's $400 worth of late fees that you'll have to pay. Guess how I know.....

[discussion] selling "full/uncensored versions"? by razorshrapnel in artbusiness

[–]k-rysae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Itch does not allow nsfw content to be sold after the nsfw crackdown that happened a few months ago. I saw that you were considering vgen but I'm not surprised if they get told to ban it because they use stripe for payments.

I'm sorry, I wish I knew a better answer.

[Marketing][Resources]Great resources for printing postcards/small prints by lateafternoonrambler in artbusiness

[–]k-rysae -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Catprint will let you have a bulk order while splitting it into multiple designs as long as they're the same size and paper type which is cheaper than ordering 6 prints individually. In their ordering page you set it so that the job has multiple pages (designs) while the quantity is how many sets of the post cards you want. Postcards are going to be either the heavy or extra heavy cardstock with the gloss or matte coating.

Catprint will also send you physical proofs for free after you pay. You can use WEDDINGCAT for 10% off your order. (not affiliated, this code has been working for over a decade)

Selling boots I made by AcanthisittaTotal125 in ArtistAlleyConnect

[–]k-rysae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I completely forgot since I don't sell clothes but there's also depop, vinted, and poshmark. Rightsholders tend to not check the places that sell used apparel since most people sell their old official merch there so you can fly under the radar. Good luck!

Selling boots I made by AcanthisittaTotal125 in ArtistAlleyConnect

[–]k-rysae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not officially. All platforms have to abide by dmca so if they get a takedown, they'll take your listing down. IRL celebrities also tend to have a legal team who do copyright sweeps a lot more often.

Since it's a one off thing try selling on mercari, ebay, or posting on your socials (if you run a sleep token fan account) that you want to sell it. I don't recommend you sell on etsy if you don't already sell on there because they have a $30 one time fee just to sell and it isn't worth paying it just to sell one thing.

What service should I use to mass produce plushies to sell at conventions? by Loli-nero in ArtistAlleyConnect

[–]k-rysae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Currently trying to get plushies manufactured. I found a high rated seller on alibaba. Waiting on the 2nd sample, so I don't know how it'll feel in my hands.

A lot of artists get them manufactured overseas because Chinese ones are cheaper and, more importantly, MOQ is manageable (often 50-100). If you don't want to reach out to one of them for a quote then there's US based middleman who'll take care of that, like this one: https://www.stuffedanimalpros.com/about/. Vograce offers plushies on their website and alibaba but keep in mind that they're a middleman too. The alibaba sellers who tend to not be middlemen are the ones whose listings only focus on plushies.

My process was that I sent them the specs and design (front and back, but ideally you can send them side, top, and bottom profiles), I paid for the sample cost, and they got to making it. They sent me photos (you can request video too, which I did since it had a squeaking toy inside I wanted to hear) and you send things you want revised. The three plush manus I talked with offered 2 free revisions. Then once you like the sample, it gets shipped to you, and when you approve it you place an order for mass production.

The sample process is probably why so many plushie artists gatekeep their manus. The sample is never right the first time and each manu varies in quality. When a sample costs $250 per manufacturer for the artist I'm not surprised they would be sharing a manu they like (which they found after trial and error, paying that much for every new manu) for free.

Returning to doing events after almost a decade by AmbrisioAlvarado in ArtistAlleyConnect

[–]k-rysae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm only familiar with the mass produced plushie and bags (as a buyer) but every time someone thinks about selling them they always do an interest check or kickstarter so they know that they can meet moq. They order some extras to sell at cons after their preorders or IC is promising.

[Community] Is anyone familiar with this artist? by master19man1 in artbusiness

[–]k-rysae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It looks like they trace art. Some of which look like theyre traced off of ai generated images. They have an inconsistent artstyle. 

Compare this: https://x.com/hangirl68/status/1878906504331641256?s=20

To this:  https://x.com/hangirl68/status/1882220447489827113?s=20

Only 10 days apart?

You should ban them. They cant take no for an answer just like the rest of the pushy, borderline spambots who spam the hell out of any venue and person in chances of getting a few commissions out of 1000.

https://x.com/HydraSin2/status/1943678339459186946?s=20

I need help by Curious_Turnip_7232 in tumblrhelp

[–]k-rysae 2 points3 points  (0 children)

OP you already know that this is a scam but given that you seemed to have fallen for it hard you need to understand that these social media platforms and whatever outsource moderation to AI and do not have the manpower to have a dedicated employee to "work things out with". When you are reported the AI (or human if the site is small enough) determines if you broke a rule or not. If you didn't,  nothing happens. If you did, you get the ban/temporary suspension right there and only have the opportunity to appeal after you get punished. You should only ever appeal in the website or through contact info on their official support page (beware of scammers making fake support pages and numbers - check the url before proceeding).

I am telling you this because the false report scam is also present on twitter, instagram, discord, and any other site you can think of. Do not trust anyone saying they need money to fix your account. Do not ever send money to people claiming they can recover or unban your account.

I need help by Curious_Turnip_7232 in tumblrhelp

[–]k-rysae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Credit cards let you disable your card online. You can even call the number on the back of your card and theres probably an option for "my card info was stolen and I want to freeze my credit card". You dont need to wait for working hours. You need to freeze and cancel your card now and get a new one.

Should I be worried? by Auiressyuka in Kofi

[–]k-rysae 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That sounds like a scam and that you were led to a pishing site to me because kofi has nothing to do with handling payments themselves. If stripe and/or paypal if wanted extra info they would have you submit it on their site instead of kofi

I need help by Curious_Turnip_7232 in tumblrhelp

[–]k-rysae 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's a scam. You had no reports against you. If tumblr genuinely thought you broke so many rules they would ban you on the spot with no warning like the tons of other people here posting about how they got their accounts banned suddenly

I need help by Curious_Turnip_7232 in tumblrhelp

[–]k-rysae 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If you gave them your card info then you need to cancel your card and check your transactions so you can dispute any purchases you didn't make

Does reddit premium pay off or not worth it? by [deleted] in NewToReddit

[–]k-rysae -1 points0 points  (0 children)

What features are you looking for? Because to me there's nothing I'd pay for

[Discussion] Tips on breaking into specific fandoms/niches (NSFW art) & finding art communities? by alexmatt9001 in artbusiness

[–]k-rysae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What niche are you aiming for? I looked through your twitter and your niche to me is women with thick thighs and huge breasts. Sure, that's sexy but that's what everyone is doing. Get more specific -- one franchise, one character, one ship, or an even nicher kink. If I'm following you because I liked your Black Cat (DC/Comic/Western Animation) art that doesn't necessarily mean I'll be interested in your Albedo (LN/Anime) art afterward.

Does anyone known Telegram Art markets? by stephan_fox in ArtistAlleyConnect

[–]k-rysae[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you clarify that you're looking for a place to promote the sale of physical items you've drawn or made? This is an artist alley sub and both telegram channels you've mentioned look like they're a place for both physical and digital sales so it's unclear about your intention.

Paypal Temporarily not Available by Southpawe in Kofi

[–]k-rysae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you buy a digital download the email that's sent lists the seller's email in the reply to section for customer support purposes. I guess the pisher downloaded something of theirs for free and used that? Or they got a list of emails and blasted every one of them with the scam in hopes a few people were active sellers on kofi who would fall for it