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Brainstorming help for my daughter's site

by WarrenPeterson
16 replies
Hey all,

I'm normally a very creative guy, but am a bit too close to this subject to look at it independently, so I'm hoping for some brainstorming....

One of my daughters is an aspiring artist. She is young, just turned 13, but is pretty good at what she does (I know, as her Dad, I can't be totally objective but I do have art and design in my background as well to use as a gauge). Anyway, she loves drawing what most girls at her age draw, horses, dragons, and recently chibi characters (I had to look that up).

She is kind of interested in starting a site and making money (yes! the entrepreneurial gene has been passed on!).

I'm used to helping people start 'bigger' projects and companies, and so on. Taking something tiny like this is causing my brain to get writer's block.

I'm kind of thinking she should skip the money side entirely and just go for fun, but she has expressed to me that she really does want to earn some money there to pay for her stuff.

So help me brainstorm here please. What sorts of business models work in this kind of scenario?

Thanks!
#brainstorming #daughter #site
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Just a thought: have you looked at the possibility of having giclée prnts made of her art-work, and offering them for sale on the site (and/or submitting them to some of the art-print-selling sites)?

    (It's what my father keeps telling me to do, myself).
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    • Profile picture of the author WarrenPeterson
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Just a thought: have you looked at the possibility of having giclée prnts made of her art-work, and offering them for sale on the site (and/or submitting them to some of the art-print-selling sites)?

      (It's what my father keeps telling me to do, myself).
      Nope, had never looked into that. I'll bring it up to her. Same with the print selling sites. Thanks!

      PS - Always listen to your father!
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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        Originally Posted by WarrenPeterson View Post

        PS - Always listen to your father!
        Don't encourage him, please: he sometimes reads this forum to see what I've been up to. :p

        There are a number of art gallery sites that allow new artists a free page with up to some-limited-number of prints offered for sale. Some take a commission; others don't. And there are several others with similar/better facilities for a few dollars per month. They do have a lot of traffic, and it might be a way to see whether there are any potential customers?
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  • Profile picture of the author Auctiondebteliminator
    Perhaps do a 'commission me!' button?

    I mean, she does have the 'I'm young/cute angle going for her and that could market itself.
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    • Profile picture of the author WarrenPeterson
      Originally Posted by Auctiondebteliminator View Post

      Perhaps do a 'commission me!' button?

      I mean, she does have the 'I'm young/cute angle going for her and that could market itself.
      I was thinking about that. I guess we would need to be pretty specific on what the commission could be. Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author SurrealPSD
    Hey Warren, awesome post - I love this kind of stuff

    Please please please don't think about money in the here and now, encourage your daughter to just enjoy the creative process and the sharing of her art.

    As your daughter is 13 years old, I believe she is eligible to sign up for DeviantArt - it is the world's biggest art community (over 14million members), and young artists make up the bulk of the user base.

    I have been an active member for 8 years, and it literally launched my art career - Im now a fulltime digital artist and university lecturer. The Chibi genre is wildly popular on there, and she'll have plenty of peers to share her work with and also get feedback.

    By and large, it's a very safe community, but as a responsible parent Im sure you'll monitor her activity on there.

    Once she has built a 'following' as it were - any site she builds will have an active audience of her DeviantArt supporters. I know this to be true, as it's the path I took myself (I have nearly 4000 followers on there, the bulk of referral traffic for my tutorial site)

    I wish her luck with her endeavours

    Conzz


    My deviantart: conzpiracy on deviantART
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    • Profile picture of the author WarrenPeterson
      Originally Posted by SurrealPSD View Post

      Hey Warren, awesome post - I love this kind of stuff

      Please please please don't think about money in the here and now, have your daughter just have fun with the joy that art brings.

      As your daughter is 13 years old, I believe she is eligible to sign up for DeviantArt - it is the world's biggest art community (over 14million members), and young artists make up the bulk of the user base.

      I have been an active member for 8 years, and it literally launched my art career - Im now a fulltime digital artist and university lecturer. The Chibi genre is wildly popular on there, and she'll have plenty of peers to share her work with and also get feedback.

      By and large, it's a very safe community, but as a responsible parent Im sure you'll monitor her activity on there.

      Once she has built a 'following' as it were - any site she builds will have an active audience of her DeviantArt supporters. I know this to be true, as it's the path I took myself (I have nearly 4000 followers on there, the bulk of referral traffic for my tutorial site)

      I wish her luck with her endeavours

      Conzz


      My deviantart: conzpiracy on deviantART
      I appreciate this, thanks. I've browsed that site, but it never occurred to me that she could join there to showcase, that is what I meant by being too close!

      She really wants to sell, I'm the one pushing back on that (which is odd, because as an entrepreneur I usually see everything as a potential business!).

      Right now she is just learning the 3D world. She has been a pencil artist up until now. This summer I got her Bryce and she is learning that now.

      thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look at that.
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      • Profile picture of the author SurrealPSD
        Originally Posted by WarrenPeterson View Post


        She really wants to sell, I'm the one pushing back on that (which is odd, because as an entrepreneur I usually see everything as a potential business!).

        If she is that eager to sell, DeviantArt has a built in selling platform, which means any of her art pieces can be made available as a print. A very good testing ground to gauge her audience and demand.

        Aside from selling, it's the community aspect that will aide her the most. She will become 'competitive' - being driven to create artworks of better quality, to meet the progressions of her peers. This is priceless.

        Once her skillset reaches a certain level, she can positively dominate with an audience built up from the age of 13. A lot of the principles of IM are the same over there; relationships, trust, brand equity - there's even indepth metrics to gauge the popularity of certain works!

        ..As you can tell, Im a fan lol
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    • Profile picture of the author Will Edwards
      Originally Posted by SurrealPSD View Post

      Hey Conzz

      I love your work - how do you make those images? I genuinely have no idea.

      Will
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      • Profile picture of the author SurrealPSD
        Originally Posted by Will Edwards View Post

        Hey Conzz

        I love your work - how do you make those images? I genuinely have no idea.

        Will
        Hi Will, thanks so much for the kind comment

        The images in my gallery are advanced composites - created using Photoshop. They're created by cutting out multiple photo-elements, and then seamlessly blended in the software to create new 'composites'. For more elaborate effects I use a Wacom graphics tablet to manually paint in details / scenery / features etc.

        Think of it as glorified collage with digital painting thrown in!
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  • Profile picture of the author SurrealPSD
    Also.. Throw her a copy of Photoshop and see what happens. With enough drive, any kid can make $$$. I started freelancing at 14 years old, producing flyers for Drum n Bass parties
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    Here is the blueprint that comes to mind (just off the top of my head based on my past and current projects):

    1) Find an art niche she really likes. Get a top 10 list going.

    2) Look for other providers of such art. Filter out the saturated ones from your list.

    3) Which can be DIGITIZED? Filter your list some more.

    4) Analyze the value proposition of the art service and figure out the NEEDS it appeals to

    5) Where do people with these NEEDS hang out online?

    6) Go to those sites and float the idea. You know you have something if you get some interested buyers.

    7) Fine tune the service some more and offer mostly via small sites and forums until you have enough customer validation to build a site

    8) Build a site

    SHORTCUT: I'd create 10 variations, put it on fiverr. Pick the one that gets the most orders and build on that. Keep refining it then build a dedicated site offering the service at a higher price, of course.
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  • Profile picture of the author YasirYar
    Have you guys considered using her designs at cafepress or create something similar? Or join threadless so she can have her designs bought and printed on tshirts they sell over at the website?
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  • Profile picture of the author John Jonas Phil VA
    You're a lucky guy, Warren! Good luck to you and your daughter! I'm so looking forward to seeing her work!

    Your post reminded me of my nephew. He's only 9 but he's studying programming because of Minecraft. He wants to build a better Minecraft.

    In a few years, our kids will probably meet up in this forum and talk about of the stuff we're talking about right now. But for sure they'll be better and savvier at it =)

    Don't you just love how amazing kids are with computers and business nowadays?
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  • Profile picture of the author kaytav
    Your Daughter is really getting in entrepreneurship very early. I guess she should not think about money at least for a couple of years and should excel more in her talent. She can think about it later when she becomes extremely perfect.
    This is just what I think....
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