/diy/ - Do It Yourself

If you can think of it you can make money doing it. If YOU can make money doing it depends on how good you are at doing whatever it is you want to do or how business savvy you are. I made a shit ton of fixing cell phones. I know people that make money doing art and music. You could make money selling paperclip chains if you are a good enough salesman.

Bumping for interest

bumping out of interest.

I picked up a bunch of papier mache skulls at my local Michaels. They were 70 percent off so they cost like $1.24. I've seen day of the dead skulls sell for up to $40 on Etsy, so I thought I's paint these guys up with some unique designs and see if I can move them. Will I be able to quit my job? Doubtful. But if I can sell an original piece of art, I'll feel better about calling myself an artist.

I can sew. I can crotchet. I am learning how to knit. I can draw and paint 'til the cows come home. I can do all these things but I lack the confidence to try to sell stuff I make. How do I even know people will buy my shit? I was thinking of exploiting the My Little Pony fad and making GOOD plushies and figures since I can also work with hair (for awesome styled manes made of wefts and extensions). Do you think people would be stupid enough to buy it?

I had an idea for an ongoing money making/art project.

It's called "The Daily Art Project" and it works like this: Starting on January 1st, I produce a piece of art in one day and post the piece on Etsy with a link to a youtube video describing "The Daily Art Project" as well as the process video for the piece of art in question. On January 1st the piece of art I list has a selling price of $1. On January 2nd I produce another piece and video showing the process and list it on Etsy for $2. And then so on and so forth for the entire year.

The challenge is that the piece must be produced on the day and a date and a time-stamped video of the process must be uploaded. If I sell every piece from January 1st to December 31st, my total income would be just over $60K.

The artwork in question can be anything from a painting to small sculpture or drawing. I have some talent so I think I could produce some pretty interesting stuff, but would it all sell? Or would I just be able to sell the stuff from January and people will just pass on the rest of the year. Anyway, if I can find the time to do it, I might actually make an attempt in 2012.

You're not going to make any money on Etsy. You might make enough to cover costs for a hobby.

Etsy is full of stay at home middle-aged moms who want to play "lI have a stay-at-home business LOL!" They run at a continuous loss and make just enough to feel 'empowered'. You will be competing with these amateurs who do not make a living, do not need to make a living, and don't care to make a living, but are smug and vindictive about their cottage industry just the same.

That's 75% of Etsy. The other 25% of Etsy morons are just outright frauds.

You want to be associated with that? Fuck man, even eBay is less of trainwreck than Etsy.

>>53748
It's not hard to make money at arts or crafts. Simply sell your pieces for more than it costs to make them. Can you make a living at it? That depends on what kind of markup you can get by with. Etsy charges you to list items (I think it's like $0.20 each item). Plus they take 3.5% of each sale and charge to your PayPal account. If you factor those costs in then yes you can make money. Will you sell absolutely every piece you list? Maybe. If people like your stuff.

>>53742

Just post your stuff on DeviantArt and see how people respond do it. If people like your stuff, consider selling it.

>>53755
This is how most people I know got by doing this kind of stuff back before etsy was really a thing. Find a niche then do commissions.

Just have to be willing to od a lot of free work on places like dA and hope you're good enough for people to start noticing.

There was a thread quite some months ago on /ic/ which dealt with freelancing. If you're srs about this, OP, then I suggest you get on deviantart and furaffinity (no joke, you will find buyers there), make a fanbase, get social and shit like that. Being known is crucial, you can't just show up and be like "hay guise buy mai stuf" and expect shittons of money,
After that you could set up an etsy or furbuy account and start really making deals.

>>53931
Forgot link, not the one I mentioned and it's about drawing and shit but still applicable:
http://chanarchive.org/4chan/ic/8063/freelance-artists#842242

I don't make a living online but I do bring in a few bucks. I have an etsy shop but nothing in it at the moment. I also have a large shop on cafepress that got me about $2,000 last year.

>>53966
Does CafePress make decent quality items? I had thought of using it, but really I just wanted to make custom clothing.

Or is there somewhere better for clothing? i.e. making a design on Photoshop and using it on clothing.

Blogging?

I use fiver sometimes to sell shit for $5 a piece and have made a couple of hundred bucks relatively easily.

>>54751
There is a large selection of clothing on cafepress, each lists the material and thickness, cheaper = thinner of course. There are also zazzle and spreadshirt that I know of that do clothes.