***YET ANOTHER UPDATE***

I stumbled upon [link] just now. It looks like a very nice place to get art-related freelance work! What happens is the buyer who needs an artist posts the project they need to get done and then the artists interested in doing that project bid on what they would charge to do that project. The testimonials all seem very positive for this site, I'm considering getting an account. It costs a tiny bit of money to join so I want to make sure I'd have time to dedicate to doing a project if I get hired. I'm still waiting to hear if I got another part-time job I interviewed for. :/

Thanks for reading and best of luck to all my struggling starving artists out there!


***ANOTHER UPDATE***

There are sites like yessy.com and etsy.com that let you sell your work online. They are both rather popular websites, it's just a matter of people being able to find you. Hence, advertise yourself everywhere you can. Have a link to your etsy or yessy stores on your facebook, gaia, myspace, blog, deviantart and more. Twitter is a great way to let your friends know that you just put your art online for sale.

Threadless.com sells t-shirts, and if they choose one of your designs you can get paid a nice amount of money. Some artists have been chosen more than once and have made a nice bundle. Submit some designs, what have you got to lose? Try cafepress.com too! Remember to advertise!

I just put up an auction on ebay to be hired for a commission. I just put up 3 examples of what I would be willing to do for the winning bidder (3 watercolor paintings) and started the bidding at $20 to make sure I'm not doing it for dirt cheap. Posting it cost me $0.25, so if no one bids then I haven't lost much. If you look at the completed listings, a lot of those commissions go for a good amount. Give it a try!

I think you guys here on DA are super talented and can make a lot of clients happy if they just found you. Show the world what you've got!



***UPDATE***

Turns out my computer looks pretty bad, it could be more than just a virus. It's pretty old, could just be the end of its road. Whatever happens, I just hope to get all my information back. A friend mentioned "backing up your files". Is that done online? With a huge jump drive? How can I do that in the future?

Thanks for the help!

*****************************

Hi friends! My daddy helps small businesses grow (works for the state), and so gets to meet a lot of people. He recently discovered through one of his clients that there are sites such as [link] which allow artists to submit artwork to them, and every time a company or business purchases the picture then the artist gets paid a commission fee. I'm not sure of how much you get paid, but if you browse around the pictures on that site you can see that some have been purchased/downloaded thousands of times. No matter what the pay, that has got to add up.

If anyone needs some extra cash (over a long period of time, of course) then give that a try. My dad said that there are tons of other websites like that too, so you have lots of options and lots of ways to have potential customers see your work!

FYI: Even though it's called istockphoto, they accept artwork of all variations of media. I personally will be submitting watercolor paintings if I decide to give it a go.

Tip: Look at which pictures get the most business or are downloaded the most by businesses to give you clues as to what people are looking for.

***PERSONAL UPDATES***

I got to hang out with my little sister Keli, and in Seattle yesterday. Loads of fun! Poor Keli was terrified of Fooray at first, I thought it was hilarious. She soon came to realize that he's a total teddy bear though. :3

On a sadder note, my laptop has been in the laptop hospital (aka someone's house until he fixes it for me) since Friday. What happened to it, you ask? I was stupid and was trying to download Pokemon games!! I got a horrible virus that was beyond my abilities to repair. From now on I'll just cop out the money to play my games legally. I miss my laptop so much!!!

Thank goodness for my family's computer. It's been slow for a long time but just today I deleted McAfee (DIE SPAWN OF SATAN!!!) and installed AVG and I can already feel a difference in it. I love AVG!! It's free and so effective. Now I'm just looking for a new firewall program that's free too.

I might lose all my information on my laptop because of the virus. The guy who's fixing it is doing all he can to save my information, but I'm trying to brace myself in case I do end up losing everything. Not only do I have tons of photos from college and scans of old drawings from close friends and such, but I have all my stories for all my future webcomics written in it. Sure, some of the parts are still in my head, but with maybe 4 or 5 stories I highly doubt I'll be able to remember all I wrote. I'm really learning a hard lesson on being prepared and backing up my work and NOT DOWNLOADING GAMES ILLEGALLY!!

Keep my laptop in your heart and prayers, guys!

Thanks bunches,

Beka

P.S.

Wait, are the Pokemon licenses expired? Are they illegal to download? *shrug* Whichever way, I'm still not doing it again!!