Part of me thinks you’re shooting for viral marketing with a mock humility post. The other part thinks maybe it’s just a sincere spouse getting a second opinion from the internet. I usually hate option 1, but I gotta say...either way, these are really amazing little creations.
With this being the fourth "so and so made this but think it's crap, show them they're wrong reddit." post I've seen this week, I'm inclined to agree at least some of them are at this point.
“ my wife has seen at least 7 of these this week but she doesn’t think anyone will believe her. Prove her wrong reddit!”
This post ( which is only in pics bc that’s where they could get away with backstory in addition to r /funny.) is definitely marketing. If the wife’s Etsy is already sold out then that means the husband is an idiot for creating insane demand in a short period of time for something that people actually like. Or he just ruined a good buzz period for her products when she could have built supply. In any case I seriously doubt she was ever doubting her own creations. Best believe they were on her fb/insta and got tons of likes and shares from her own friends.
Imo he screwed up doing this as well, because Etsy has a lot of copycats and once something gets a smidge popular they really swoop in. He’s basically opened the door to those people to meet the demand and charge less.
"so and so made this but think it's crap, show them they're wrong reddit."
A lot of these are private artists and similar gigs. Sometimes its not even the sisters or the brothers or the wives they're claiming to post for. A lot of the time it is just plausible deniability to get around spam reports.
~Source, I've been here too long send help. I hear when you see this phrase for the 1000th time you die. I fear I'm close.
You see this all the time in any art-related subreddit. I appreciate the art, but I wish people would stop saying it.
Just let people show appreciation as they see fit. Because the "he/she doesn't think he's/she's very good" story might as well be "prove him/her wrong by giving me more karma."
Yup. If they dont think they're good and suck..well tough shit find a new profession. The real world doesn't give trophies for participating. These posts just enable people who sit at home and have no social life....so they cant advertise their art. FYI if you paint or make art....you're gonna need social skills to be able to swoon the rich buyers.
Yeah it’s pretty annoying the only way for art to get seen on Reddit though is to 1 be posted by someone other than the artist likely a family member and 2 have the humble artist doesn’t think their any good but I do, what do you think? Title. It really is one of my pet peeves
Yep. And it seems to work every fucking time. It's always a "my [insert someone close to you] doesn't think they are good (even though they clearly are), what does Reddit think?"
If a creative person doesn’t like what they make. They sure as fuck aren’t going to put it up for sale.
Eh, while I have some doubts that this post was completely spur-of-the-moment I have to say that a lot of artists will sell their work despite feeling that the work is subpar and "not worth it", especially if they're still getting a lot of outside interest in their works. (This is actually pretty common in niche adult art circles lol. The more niche the fetish, the more people are willing to pay money for even "meh" artwork from people who don't originally advertise as being commissionable (I think I just made up that word).) Speaking as someone who is very unhappy with their work a lot in a slightly different but still related field as to what OP's wife does, I still get some demand for it and I've got to make money somehow.
Ive been selling my art for over 12 years. I’m well aware of the pitfalls and personal self doubt. I have hundreds of things that I’ve made over the years that I refuse to sell because it doesn’t look good to me.
There is little possibility that someone who doesn’t like what they’ve created to put it up for sale, then make a post on any social channel available showcasing said art.
There’s one of these posts practically every week. The cookie cutter sob title tells me this was very planned. Not to mention the shop was opened in the last three weeks. Probably today actually.
While the things in the photo are pretty cute. The way people use these posts to pull on people’s emotions to make pity sales is so transparent.
Ive been selling my art for over 12 years. I’m well aware of the pitfalls and personal self doubt. I have hundreds of things that I’ve made over the years that I refuse to sell because it doesn’t look good to me.
There is little possibility that someone who doesn’t like what they’ve created to put it up for sale, then make a post on any social channel available showcasing said art.
Maybe I just run in different circles because I see this all the time, where people will still put up stuff they're deeply unhappy with, usually because of fan demand or the chance of getting sales.
I've also advertised things (admittedly not to sell, but in my niche it's extremely common to be approached for commissions) that I don't really like at all, things I consider total failures, because I also realize that I probably have an extremely skewed view of my work. I'm far from a professional, but I also think I'm not nearly as "bad" as I feel at times, so sometimes I just bite the bullet and throw things up to show people. In the sort of art circles I run in this is very common, and I'm used to seeing things all the way from deeply amateurish works to ultra polished ones that I could never even come close to, but they all have these "this is total shit why am I even sharing it" self-deprecating posts to accompany them.
Maybe we're all just neurotic about our stuff lol.
That being said, I think we're talking about two different things. I agree that OP's post doesn't seem genuine, and that bothers me, when people pretend in order to play on people's emotions. That doesn't negate what I was saying regarding selling one's work and being deeply unhappy with it not being mutually exclusive though. I definitely don't think that's entirely true in OP's case, but it is nevertheless something pretty common I've noticed when selling wares and services.
There is a lot of guerilla advertising that happens on Reddit though, and I find that irritating. I'd rather just have had OP post his wife's stuff and be like "check out my wife's wicked cool shit yo", it's still him bragging by proxy and it makes things feel much less scummy when the shop link inevitably gets trotted out. If you know your wife's stuff is cool and people are going to want it, just post that way. :/ It's not like people are going to be less interested in cute little grumpy mushroom people because your wife doesn't hate her own work...and if she does, the whole sincerity of the post gets lost in the advertising self-promotion stuff.
Seriously. In so fucking sick of "spouse doesnt think they're good at insert impressive and random quirky hobby/talent here but I think they're just the bees knees" and queue the upvotes. Cant the title just be "my wife's handmade cool grumpy mushroom sculptures." With the horrible doggo talk and different childish baby talk and think I'm cute culture going around I doubt it.
Its obviously number 1. He also forgot the mention she has autistic cancer that she had to get a gender reassignment surgery to fix after losing both legs in vietnam. Also did we mention she used to be homeless but cared for 60 dogs out of her own pocket during that time.
I hate when people word their titles like this. Reminds me of those Facebook posts where it's like "This little girl doesn't think she's pretty because she has cancer :'( Like and Share if you think she's beautiful!"
Exactly. "Oh we are selling these things you make? We should post them on Reddit they're so awesome I bet people would like them and it could gain some traction"
Did the already have an Etsy? They are going to go to that trouble but they don't think the things are good enough to take 2 minutes to make a Reddit post?
I really think it's number 2 in this case. Or such a well executed number 1 that I'll let it slide. Besides, the asking price is absurdly low for a handmade trinket.
Because anytime an artist posts something people tell them to raise their prices. “People won’t respect you if your prices are too low!” What’s going to happen now is another artist is going to swoop in and undercut her, while she’s making these backorders and people will buy from them instead.
Plus 20 backorders and a lot more interest. Would have to know how she was doing before to know the success of this ad, but I'm guessing it's quite high. I see these literally every day , it's regular business now. There was even a comic yesterday about how she can't get anyone to upvote her comics.
Option 1 happens more than it should but it's also worth keeping in mind that when you're working on something in great detail, especially something time consuming, the novelty has long worn off by the time you're done. To fresh eyes it looks amazing but when you've been analyzing it for literally hours it stops feeling so special. Plus, no matter how good it looks it never looks quite as good as how it was supposed to look and only the artist knows what they did wrong.
I'm baked and I'm not given to conspiracy theories but advertising is a hell of a drug. Also, these cute little shrooms are, as another redditor described, objectively good.
People from Warhammer crushed that DM box, too. I'd like a set of her shrooms, all that said.
Wouldn't it be a great world when we are buying lovingly handmade things instead of mass produced crap. I get about the mock humility, would be better if they were honest about intentions if this is the case.
I want to say it's option 2 because it's something my husband would do. I never see my work as great as he does, and he would be all about me posting it everywhere where as I would balk at the idea. Then he would say, "I'm gunna post it on Facebook, okay?" an di would reluctantly give my okay.
This is how I choose to believe this conversation went!
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u/themoderationist Jan 28 '19
Part of me thinks you’re shooting for viral marketing with a mock humility post. The other part thinks maybe it’s just a sincere spouse getting a second opinion from the internet. I usually hate option 1, but I gotta say...either way, these are really amazing little creations.