boundless-ennui - Tumblr blog

[boundless-ennui]

When I'm left alone this is what happens.

[boundless-ennui]

Trying my hand at new patches. One being for an oppressed people and the other for a dear friend and her husband. I'm still tweaking both but I'm pretty happy with these first passes!

Shopify is magical and awful. Help. boundlessennui.myshopify.com

[boundless-ennui]

Hi hi! First and foremost your art is really, really cool! Secondly, I was browsing your website and noticed your Beribboned Pendant was listed as 0 dollars. Idk if that was done on purpose or not, but I just wanted to send you a heads up just in case. Sorry if this is a bother, and I I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!

You're not the first to notice! Shopify is a strange magic and I'm not very good at it. I've tried setting the prices but some listings insist on being free. Much as I'd love to be able to give things for free I do gotta pay that rent.

Thanks for telling me and I'll go hit the site with sticks tomorrow!

[boundless-ennui]

I've been meaning to write this down for some time because there are some fundamental errors that people keep making in crowdfunding/sales that shoot their campaigns in the foot. So here's a list of easy principles.

Who am I and why should you listen to me? I am a freelance chaos marketer who has raised well over $100,000 when totaling up various crowdfunding campaigns, mostly for aid to Afghanistan. In addition I've managed to successfully market everything from stuffed plush koalas to hydration salts. Why am I putting this out here for free? Because despite a years long track record of success in social media marketing no one will hire me because I don't have a college degree, so I might as well help people out who can't afford to hire full time marketing. 

If you'd like to hire me to help you evaluate your marketing and sales and teach you better skills on a 1 to 1 basis then hit me up, I am often willing to barter, esp with artists in a variety of mediums! 

Anyway on to HOW TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO GIVE YOU MONEY:

TL;DR: use positive messaging that humanizes everyone involved and make it as easy as possible for people to give you money.

1. Shame and guilt are demotivators. They will not inspire people to give you money. “Why aren't people helping” “I guess people don't care” “This isn't getting enough shares/donations” etc etc. Online fundraising is often frustrating, heartbreaking, and will make you angry, especially when there's a humanitarian crisis involved. It is critical that if you are raising funds for someone else that you have a place to vent that is not the audience you would like to donate to the cause. 

2. Use motivating messages instead! “You can help!” “Even a small donation is important because it tells Recipient they're not alone, and people care” “We can't fix the whole world, but we can make this one thing right, and that means something”. Emphasize that this is a problem that the reader can help fix with even a small effort. With items for sale, tell a story. "I drew this thinking about how safe I always felt under a tree in my childhood backyard". "I chose the colors in this shawl to remind me of sagebrush and piñon pine in my favorite place."

3. Make it easy for people to give you money. Never talk about your product or cause without a link that leads directly to where people can give you money. They should be able to click one link on your post and land at the fundraiser or your shop. Every required click is going to lose people, so minimize the number of them required. This also means if you have a list of fundraisers for people to choose from the ones at the bottom will be neglected - people will hit the ones at the top. Be sure to take those off when they're met or periodically shuffle the list around to make sure everyone gets a chance to be in the first 5 spots. In online stores people will often only look at the first page or two of items so be sure to shuffle things around and remove out of stock items that are taking up prime real estate.

4. Humanize the recipient - this can be tricksy when raising charitable aid because you don't want to be exploitative. But to use my last Afghan campaign as an example, “We need to raise $500 for an Afghan family” is less effective than “This Afghan family's home was damaged in heavy rains that caused extensive flooding. They only need $500 to repair and rebuild so they can stay in their home and not become displaced.”  If possible, tell as much of the recipient's story as they consent to. Eg “Fred is seven and loves dinosaurs. His favorite is brontosaurus, and he carries a stuffed one with him everywhere. He wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up and discover a complete brontosaurus skeleton that he can give the same name as his stuffed friend. Unfortunately he's also a trans boy living in Texas and his family needs $1500 to rent a Uhaul and get to Colorado so he can grow up in safety and do that.”

5. If you're not the recipient, humanize yourself while you're at it! “I'd be really grateful if you all could share or donate” “This fundraiser really means a lot to me because…” “Thank you so much for any help, whether sharing or donating” 

6. Treat the audience like humans. Speak to them like they are people you're having a conversation with, not ATMs. This ultimately is the goal of not using shame/guilt and humanizing yourself and the recipient. 

7. Set low goals and bump them up when met. One of the weird things about people is they prefer to give to successful fundraisers. Yeah I don't know either. So you're more likely to get the full amount you need if you set a partial goal initially and then raise it when that's met. Raise it in small increments and raise it repeatedly as those goals are hit to keep momentum going. You can't always control this so if you're boosting someone else's fundraiser you can do it artificially via asks like “Hey y'all can we get together and put $500 on this?”

[boundless-ennui]

Trying to sell handmade crafts in this economy is so. Like. Hey guys I know we're all broke as fuck but do you want my silly little things. I'm very good at it. For the time it takes to make them + skill + materials it's gonna be 30$ per silly little thing. But also shipping costs 12$ for reasons outside my control so it's actually 42$ now. Sorry. No I really can't charge less than that. Yeah I know. Ok. Bye

[boundless-ennui]

Do ya like eyeballs

Do ya

It's in my shoooooop: boundlessennui.myshopify.com

[boundless-ennui]

Finished!

A strange thing about these is that to me they're far easier than anything else I make. It's just shapes, over and over. Pick any one section and you can see this is lines or triangles or circles or waves and such.

Yet and still people talk about how they could never make such as this. You can indeed! Shapes! Just shapes!!!

[boundless-ennui]

I made some pins! These were originally buttons but I've always found those useless as a way to enjoy a fandom thing. Pins, however, are another story.

They're in my shop! boundlessennui.myshopify.com

[boundless-ennui]

If anyone ever wonders why I make abstracts that are ridiculously detailed know that I saw Muslim art in Spain and have never been the same. My mind yearns always for intricacy so I must Make It.

Hypnotic arabesque patterns from Albert Racinet’s L’Ornement Polychrome (1869–73), a book showcasing decorative arts from around the world in woodwork, metalwork, architecture, textiles, painting, and pottery. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/albert-racinet-s-l-ornement-polychrome-1869-73

[boundless-ennui]

And this is how much I got done after I took the other photo. Doodling!

[boundless-ennui]

This is me doodling for fun. I don't really draw Things anymore. I just smoosh shapes together for fun. Then I go back and fill in every space I can with dots and lines. No empty space!!!!

This is.... Three days of drawing very sparingly.

[boundless-ennui]

As someone who tormented my own self to make a shark pendant, I second the motion. Sharks are cool as hell.

It’s the time of the year where I defend sharks as if my life depends on it while my family watches those stupid fucking shark shows where they villainize them

VALID!!! JUSTICE FOR SHARKS ALL MY HOMIES DEFEND SHARKS!!!!

I love sharks so fucking much and I wish they got the love they deserved instead of always being treated as scary monsters :(

[boundless-ennui]

My first time working with water based paint pens and I can't say I'm a fan. They're just not shiny enough! Need me some shiny or my magpie brain is displeased.

On sale in my shop! Boundlessennui.myshopify.com

[boundless-ennui]

You like click _and_ clack????? Well then have I got the necklace for you! It's full of bones, just like you! Boy howdy you should buy this now or sooner, especially since it's in my shop!

Boundlessennui.myshopify.com

[boundless-ennui]

I tried so many times to list my Palestine pride patches on my Etsy shop but the listing would immediately be deactivated. When I tried to ask for help in getting that to stop I just got the same rote email replies over and over. It was maddening to say the least.

I've quite a number of pride patches I sell but for some completely unknown reason this one was objectionable. How weird! Wonder what's up with that (I really don't). That whole issue is what made me go to Shopify instead - Etsy supporting genocide so obviously just wasn't doing it for me, as the kids say

I'm not buying from Etsy now

[boundless-ennui]

A necklace that jingles and jangles! Truly the pinnacle of necklace. Also oww my hands. Bone isn't always very fun to work with.

It's in my shop! I'm getting better at posting things there before putting them here.

Boundlessennui.myshopify.com

[boundless-ennui]

I will never make this ever ever again, despite my deep love for them sharkies. Getting the fin to project through the back took so much work!

Also Vincenzo kindly agreed to model for me. He's a very photogenic kitty.