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*Hi all, here's the second part and it's more about the business side of it, which to me is more boring but also is most important when it comes to paying rent. Sorry it has to start with a downer. =P*

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<h3>Sometimes it will get slow</h3>

I mean very slow. Sometimes commissions just don't come in your inbox and when you reach out nothing comes back to you. This can happen at any time and some times it certainly will. Other times you may be flooded with requests.
This should be a factor when it comes to pricing your work. Sometimes commissions will just not come at the rate you need them, so in some way you have to make up for those slow times while you do have work.

Many many artists look into different ways to produce income. Whether it is teaching your skills to other people, creating products that give you passive income, or something completely unrelated, living off of your art is difficult and chances are that sometimes you'll need to do one or all of these things.

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<h3>Consider Ads</h3>

Another way to procure yourself some commissions can be placing targeted ads. You can target writers, musicians, whatever your niche is, and let them know of your existence.

I haven't tried this very much but when I did place ads on Instagram mostly what I got was a lot more 'likes'. Can't say if it turned into a client or two, but either way it does work for many artists as much as it depends on how much you are up to invest. I'm currently thinking of AdSense, so if I ever try I'll let you know.

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![Untitled3.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rowye/alxthwvW-Untitled-3.jpg)

<h3>Passive Income</h3>

Passive income is great. Not like it's free money, but depending on how you do it, it can almost feel like it.

For me it's mostly prints, but that is also because of the type of art I create. This does definitely work for many people, albeit with certain dedication to the marketing part of the whole deal. 
This can go from T-shirts and caps, to bracelets, bookmarks or high quality photos of your wall paintings if that's what you do.

I use mostly [RedBubble](https://www.redbubble.com/explore/for-you/), which is a bit of the lazy way to go about it. Benefits are small, but also I only have to worry about uploading the art and they create all sorts of products out of it. [Society6](https://society6.com/) is also decent enough for that same kind of deal.

If you're more into being part of the whole process you can open an [Etsy](https://www.etsy.com/) shop and sell from prints to whatever you manage to put your art on. This is much more involved but also the margins are *way* higher than on sites that manufacture the product themselves.

If you create tools such as Photoshop brushes or shapes, or any other, even tutorial videos, a great outlet to sell them can be [Gumroad](https://gumroad.com/).

Whichever option you choose -and there are many more-, if you can get paid several times for the same artwork, why would you refuse?

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![Untitled2.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rowye/2cY1OkrH-Untitled-2.jpg)



<h3>Get Paid</h3>

"Working for exposure" can be totally fine if you're not ready to work but if you're producing professional results you should be paid for your work.
Sometimes it's people with little repercussion asking, sometimes it's larger companies. While the latter are cheekier, maybe taking one of those can give you a little push, but in general it's best to avoid for oneself and for other artists.

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Ask for a down payment unless you trust the client. Maybe half, maybe a third of the full price, so that the client has made an investment before you start working. This way you'll be less worried about whether they will pay the whole thing or not. Money's been spent and it's not likely they'll try to trick you.

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Never ever send your finished product until the commissioner has transferred the payment. Send a low res version that they could not use without the high res one, some artists watermark their drafts for that reason as well. 

I personally don't watermark unless I don't trust the client, but taking steps to make sure you won't be scammed is never a bad thing.

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<h3>Make your client happy</h3>

Do it, they'll come back.
This means create great art for them, but also treat them with respect and professionally, communication is key. Try to pay attention to your grammar and be as clear as possible. Ask as many questions as you need to make sure you are in the know of what the client expects.

If clients are happy with your work and with you as a person, they have no need to find another artist. Also, they will tell their contacts who may also reach out to you for work.

Both of these things happen a lot, especially the former.
Almost half of the work I normally do is from clients that came back. It can be hard to reach new ones so these are your aces, keep them close by.

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![Untitled4.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/rowye/qdiHVLlv-Untitled-4.jpg)



<h3>Be happy</h3>

Avoid having clients in your IM. It may be a pet peeve of mine, and the last thing I will rant about today but...
Clients in your instant messenger can be a terrible thing. Not always of course, but an inpatient person in your IM waiting for you to get stuff done can get on your nerves really fast. Not only you can't tell them they're driving you nuts, but they can also try to micromanage your work, which is almost always a recipe for bad art.

A large part of the job is communication with clients, and it can be hard to get in the zone to create art if you're constantly answering messages.

Try to get clients to either reach you by email, take it to emails as soon as possible, or hold off on replies to signal you won't answer every next minute. This way you can forget about the "instant" in instant messengers, and take your time to answer without looking like an asshole.

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*And with this last* great *insight I'm done for the day. xD
Again these are just my thoughts and experiences and I'm sure it's a bit different for everyone. If you don't feel like you're ready to work, that's fine too! Keep on practicing and don't look back.*

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If you enjoy my art, you can also find me in other sites:

<b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/digitalrowye/">Instagram</a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiOVaGb9mrBArt-ZIeu6s8w">YouTube</a>
<a href="https://www.artstation.com/rowye">ArtStation</a>
<a href="https://www.deviantart.com/rowye">DeviantArt</a>
<a href="https://www.behance.net/rogercreus9c71">Behance</a>
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/digitalrowye">Facebook</a>
<a href="https://twitter.com/roger_creus_art">Twitter</a>
<a href="https://makersplace.com/store/roger_creus_art/">Makersplace</a>
<a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/rowye">Prints and more</a></b>

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