Lolita Budgeting

Start with cheaper lolita brands??? If you can find stuff from Taobao brands, you can get dresses for pretty cheap (at least cheaper than burando prices) - and you could still satisfy your desires.

As for making money at home, if you can draw you can make quite a bit of money through online sales/commissions and Patreon. Lower tier artists I know are able to get several hundred per month from Patreon while the more popular artists make thousands. I just sell my art on Etsy and bring in around $2k per month $3-4k on busier months.

You can also learn coding and take freelance jobs over the internet.

I mean the "get money fast" things you can do online (like taking surveys, fiverr, etc) are not gonna get you a lot of money. You need to have some sort of marketable skill.

>>9387457
You could always try camming. It's easy money.

>>9387457
Ngl it sounds like you're just making excuses. I have terrible social anxiety and depression but I still go out and work.
I know I sound callous, but I do know how you feel anon. It's really hard, the hardest part is doing that first day on the job. Medication really helped me, I've been on SSRIs for over 2 years now (probably shouldn't still be on them oops). Are you taking any medication currently? It's good that you're getting medical help though.
The thing is, social anxiety can be worked through with counselling and meds, it's not a permanent condition. The more you go out into social situations, like a job, the easier it gets.
I wish you the best of luck anon

>>9387469
this

>>9387462
He used to buy me Bodyline dresses but it is fucked up now and even Taobao can be pricy with agent fee and shipping (not to mention we live in a 3rd world country)

I know my art is not anything mind blowing but I have an art degree. But I'm not sure where to start?? Honestly several hundred sounds awesome to me, it is more than I could imagine.

if you can sew or make other art, sell that. might be a bit more work, but it's easy to do from home

>>9387470
Thanks for honest opinion anon. Yes, I'm on medication but I started taking them only a couple months ago. Also at first I applied some jobs but none of them were interested in me and everything went downhill from there.

get off your ass and work? i hate people like you who use social anxiety and depression as an excuse. i pulled myself out of that bullshit so i could get what i wanted. never use ~muh depression~ as an excuse. you're not going to get the results you want if you put in zero effort and make zero sacrifices.

>b-b-b-but anon, you don't understaaaaaand
even when i was terminally ill i went to college fulltime and did work online. you're doing yourself absolutely no favors.

>>9387480
what sort of work did you do online, anon?

>>9387462
I just sell my art on Etsy and bring in around $2k per month $3-4k on busier months.
How?
I'm not good at art but I need money.
I do surveys, I've made about 30-50 dollars a month but it isn't worth it.

>>9387484
OP here. I'm even okay with 30-50, where did you do the surveys?

>>9387480
The thing is they are not excuses. I'm not ready to get out there just yet but I don't want to sit and wait for something good to happen either. That's why I'm looking for something I can do.
Thanks for very helpful comment though.

>>9387484
Well, first you need to get somewhat decent at art. But I sell mostly prints and charms - stuff that you would see at a convention. It's not something I would 100% recommend unless you have the skill or have a lot of time to invest. You need start up funds to produce merch/prints too - unless you plan on taking online preorders and using the preorder money as business capital for production. Like I said, it's a marketable skill. Drawing is hard but you can teach yourself if you have patience/time.

>>9387473
Try looking into FB lolita groups and posting the dresses you have up for trade? That way you can get new dresses w/o spending extra money.

>>9387489
How decent is "decent"? Example?

>>9387486
Opinionworld
I mentioned it before on here and someone claimed I was shilling but it really is a pretty good site, I get my money direct in PayPal instead of coupons like I did in other sites. If you never leave the house you might struggle to find surveys to complete.

>>9387469
yeah this honestly

>>9387480
>was terminally ill
>was
Um

>>9387492
>>9387486

I use PaidViewpoint too, you can't cash out until you hit at least $15 and it's kind of slow going, but free money is free money and the surveys are really short.

>>9387490
That's a pretty hotly debated topic and based pretty much solely on opinions, anon. But a basic grasp of anatomy and composition is a good place to start. Chibis are an easy sell but anatomy (especially the placement of facial features, so many newbies get this wrong) and clean linework are important for figure-focused work since chibis don't usually come with backgrounds.

If you have examples of your art feel free to bring it to the AA thread for critique/whether or not you're ready to sell. If you've been to conventions or follow internet artists you should have an idea of the quality of work that sells. I don't mean to mislead you and say that you can earn the amount of money I'm making right off the bat. I've been selling my art for 7+ years now. But even when I was a small fry artist just starting out, I made ~$400 per con my first year. And before conventions, I could open online commissions and earn about $100 with 5 slots.

It's not a get rich easy scheme - it takes time and practice but I thought I'd suggest it to the OP since it sounded like they had a lot of time on their hands. Just drawing and posting a little something every day is guaranteed to net you followers on places like Tumblr which will go toward marketing your art and making money.

Surveys will definitely provide more immediate results but less money overall.

>>9387470
It's not the same for everybody. I have a severe anxiety condition and it's gotten worse and worse as I've aged, and gets worse the more social contact I have. I think it's sort of a case of having more old negative experiences to draw upon the older I get, and more fresh ones when I'm dealing with people all day every day. Mine got so bad that I developed a severe case of IBS (which I still have) and I lost my job and career because of it.

I really need to see a therapist and get on some meds before I've totally run out of time to straighten my life out, but the thought of doing it is a huge source of anxiety itself.

>>9387514
OP here. Same, honestly. Only difference is my partner helped me to get therapy and meds before it go that bad, otherwise I don't think I could ever do it myself.

>>9387457
It depends on what your skills are but consider, depending: good at writing? you can try writing articles for places depending on your interests, or can try submitting short stories to various places looking. there's also surveys you can take for money. less viable but still good for free shit: enter instagram giveaways, enter enough you'll prob win something. you can also start up an instragram or youtube for reviews or diys, but ofc that requires certain equipment and skills based on the niche market you're targeting. ad revenues from popular youtubers can be quite good, but the market is oversaturated so the hustle it takes is a LOT. there's also crafting, it can take a bit of time to hone your skill, but it's doable. there's so many types too, resin crafts, knitting, crochet etc. check if there's a site or network in your area for dogwalking or housesitting. just be aware that finding a preexisting job/demand will be easier than making one, because crafting or making tote bags or tshirts with art on them can take investment money. but also just look/ask around for weird shit, like my aunt used to quality check the plastic menu things that go over the fronts of ovens/dishwashers (yknow, where it says the temperatures and stuff next to the dials, those overlays) at her house for extra cash on the side. she'd just have a box of em to do.

>>9387494
..... You're obviously talking to a ghost anon.

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So basically, you
- have mental problems but not physical ones
- want to stay home and be kawaii all day
- have your needs met (by your partner) and won’t die if you don’t make money for awhile
is that right?

Cos it’s a good setup to go learn a craft or two — you can drop by the resin thread and learn how to make accessories, or look up how to make the basic rectangle skirt. There’s also breading, crochet, knitting. I don’t recommend leatherwork, though, a lot less resources on making kawaii things out of that. There’s some amount of costs up front, and you’ll probably take a few months to get good enough.

But otherwise, it’s perfect — you’ve basically got loads of time to practice, practice, practice, and you can stay at home all day taking cute selfies and photoshoots to promote your online shop that you’ll eventually open once you get good enough. If you don’t mind playing the mental health card you could even dabble in menhera fashion.

>>9387522
I wish that had been the case for me. I spent 5 years in an emotionally abusive relationship with a partner who used my anxiety to manipulate and control me and isolate me from the friends and family who could have helped.

They then went and cheated on me, and after I found out and dumped them for it they spread a huge pack of viscious lies about me to cover their own ass, and because they were a prominent cosplayer with a huge social media presence my reputation was completely destroyed in the community. It's been four years and I still can't talk about it to anybody except when I'm anonymous, and as recently as a few months ago have been visciously attacked by their followers when I said something that was misunderstood as criticizing them.

Before that person I had moderate anxiety and was awkward, but they took the loose thread and unraveled the whole sweater and turned me into the emotionally paralyzed wreck that I am today.

>>9387514
How did you even get to be such a failure at life? Like what did your parents do wrong? I mean I was born with autism and severe epilepsy but I still manage to be a functioning member of society instead of a crybaby leech.

>>9387529
Funny thing is, I'm actually good at sewing & crafting. I can draw cute art. Opening a kawaii store is my ~~ultimate~~ ideal.
I just don't believe I would be successful. There is no demand for kawaii stuff where I live and I have no idea how to market my stuff overseas.
And yeah I'm scared too. If I try that and fail, I feel like there won't be another chance.

Doing something I don't really want to do (like survey stuff upthread) sounds much easier than doing something I actually want to do. If that makes sense.

>>9387547
You pretty much won't know until you try. Yes it is a gamble but a lot of us had to start somewhere when opening a shop and selling stuff online. Also starting out doesn't have to be expensive, I know artists who started out selling bookmarks and then once they got more money moved onto making more profitable items.

>>9387556
Thank you. I was procrastinating this idea for months but I think I will go and start doing something, even if it's small.


Do anyone have suggestions about making a webshop stand out more? Do I buy ads? Do I send free shit to e-famous people? Something else?

>>9387534
I was born with a rare neurological disorder that made it nearly impossible to write and which wasn't diagnosed until late in my school career, and until then my teachers, counsellors, and parents thought I was refusing to cooperate. I was punished severely by everyone in my life and rejected by all of my peers, who particularly liked to bully me by seizing on everything they could find that was weird about me or things I said and rip me apart over it.

It tainted my entire upbringing and the life after that with feelings of complete worthlessness and inadequacy and the expectation that everybody I encountered in life would hate and reject me by default and that any social mistake or abnormality would just fuel that hatred and rejection.

I started to get over it in my early 20s, even after the budding career I'd gotten into had fallen apart when my industry collapsed, and then for the first time I met somebody of the opposite sex who "accepted" me and told me they loved me, and it resulted in the events outlined in >>9387530, events which reaffirmed all of my childhood fears and left me in a worse state than ever.

I don't expect you to feel sympathy for me, and I know that most things that have gone wrong in my life are my own doing. However, I also don't expect you to be able to understand what it's like to be at the bottom of a hole that took 30 years to dig and entirely crippled in terms of the abilities I need to get out of it.

>>9387534
>autism
Well, that explains a lot.

>>9387547
The key to being successful is 2 things: find the niche you're going after, and then either do what you do better than others who do it, or offer something different than what they offer.

If you're scared, start by brainstorming just for fun. What would you name your store? Is it a catchy and easily rememberable name? Write down 3 products you would sell, and analyze them carefully, why are they different than other products like this, etc. IDK where you live but I'm in the EU and I would be so excited for more online kawaii shops to pop up that aren't from North America. I'm sure others in other regions feel the same way. But focus first on making a good brand. Shops I really love usually have had strong branding from the start, the name & logo give you an idea of what you're going to get from them, and then they do what they do well. Google about branding, learn about good branding and logos. It will really help you in the long run. Think about webshops you are drawn to or like, and pinpoint why that is. That's your starting point, figuring out your "it" factor. I'm personally more likely to buy from a shop that looks prefessional than I am from a shop that sent some e-famous kawaii instagrammer free shit.

Also for marketing overseas, you also always have the option to ask Lolita Collective or other shops to carry your product. You could probably email them asking what sort of cut they take and for general info on getting stocked there, that's usually alright.

I hate to break it to you anon but if you aren't going to work you need to sacrifice luxuries like Lolita. I know it's hard, I struggle with severe anxiety and depression myself but you really just need to work hard at coping with it.

>>9387584
you know that not all jobs require going out and interacting with people, right ?

>>9387588
Yep I work at one. What I'm saying is that it's not just the fear of interacting with people that is preventing anon from working but just the prospect of getting a job as a whole, because that part is scary at first too

>>9387561

That’s the thing about being home all day, you have time to create a constant stream of content on social media to attract people who like your aesthetic. And when you have followers who like your aesthetic, you’ll have better chances of one of them actually buying your stuff when you do post something for sale.

You don’t necessarily need to make a million things/selfies, you can set up a cute teacup and flower petals or a cute biscuit or something. Just make sure the images’ aesthetic/content is consistent with what style of crafts you make for sale. Don’t be shy to promote other shops as well, it gets your followers used to the idea that they can buy the pretty things you post, including your own crafts.

WIPs need to be handled, though. Ideally you want to get across that your stuff isn’t easy to make so it’s worth the money, but don’t oversell this into “years of research” territory. Crafts that you mess up can be posted with a positive spin, say it’s subpar and you’ll never put it on the shop because you don’t want your buyers to be disappointed — makes people think your items have good quality control, and sometimes someone will offer to buy it at a discount anyway.

What style you want to make and what group to appeal to is a whole other issue, though. My suggestion is not to pigeonhole yourself too deep, for eg- if you’re into mori kei, maybe add classic lolita and country lolita into the mix. If you’re into sweet lolita, a bit of fairy kei. That sort of thing.

This post got me. I have Fibromyalgia, Celiac, and BPD. Every day is a struggle. I still force myself to work at least part time because I know that someday the pain will get so bad that I won't be able to. I'm not ready for that day. Lolita is my treat to myself for pushing through it.

While I get that you want to make money from home, you really need to work on stuff that gets you out. Enabling your anxiety issues won't work in the long term. And while there are small things to do, nothing will be job experience you need or worth it. Most at home jobs are a lot of hustling that you probably won't see from the outside.

Try going for part time jobs, maybe at a store you don't mind or anything that is not going to get you a ton of hours. Shit for surviving on but great for trying to get into being used to going out, having a job,etc. Then you can use the rest of your time on whatever hobby you are trying to make into a job.

>>9387457
I anonymously run a semi-successful YouTube channel that brings me some money with ad revenue, do work study, have a sugar daddy, and am going to open an Etsy store soon to sell my crafts.

>>9387667
how much does your SD give you?

>>9387667
>anonymously run a semi-successful YouTube channel that brings me some money with ad revenue
How successful? How many subscribers/views? I'd like to start making videos, have some content already.

>>9387667
how much do you get from youtube?

>>9387476
Seconding this. If youre decent at all at art start taking furry commissions immediately. There's gold in those crazy degenerates

>>9387590
>is afraid of getting a job at all
Either you need some serious anxiety meds or you are just being a big baby, desu. You aren't going to make money without some sort of job, whether that's camming or coding. If you dont like that then I wouldn't be looking for ~tricks~ to make money. You're not going to find a different answer anywhere else.

Pick something that sounds like it won't trigger your social anxiety and give it a shot. If you fail as long as you didn't put too much capital in it it doesn't matter. It's better than not doing anything at all (which won't teach you any skills or make you any connections),

That, or just accept that you will have to be supported in life. It happens. But you won't bring in any income without a job. That's just silly.

>>9388334
It's on a visit by visit basis so the amount I get per month varies wildly and I usually don't see him while in college because I go to school in another state.
>>9388347
>>9388350
I have about 60k subs and make about $700-1000 a month depending on how much I upload and how successful my videos are. YouTube doesn't pay that well honestly unless you're big enough to be a household name.

>>9387667
>>9388383
What kind of YouTube channel is it, and how do you stay anonymous? You don't have to go to detail. Is it an ASMR thing?

>>9388354
I see people toss this around all the time but it's not really the case. To get sfw commissions for a high asking price regularly, you need to be popular. Even very talented artists still get jack shit for commissions because they're unknown. You can get popular with porn, but that still has to be good and you need to pander pretty hard for a following.

It's not impossible, but it really isn't as easy as people think. For as much money as furries have they're still really fucking cheap unless you're drawing their dream porn. It's alos really easy to spot who is just from tumblr or something and trying to make money. I rarely see those people filling their commission slots.

>>9387494
You know it's possible to be terminally ill but still make it through, right? You use the word for when an illness that isn't likely to be cured to treated will very likely lead to death, but it doesn't have to be certain. My mother was terminally ill with heart disease but miraculously fought the odds.

Anon may still be bullshitting because it's pretty rare but essentially if a doc tells you "you most likely will not survive past x months" or something - essentially giving you a death timer that may or may not tick, you're terminally ill.

>>9387457
Learn to draw furry yiff crap. Find a furry community. I hear they pay well even for shit tier art.

>>9387457
>having a bf
>lolita is the only thing that makes me happy

I don't want to think about that kind of stuff

>>9388717
Came here to say that

If you can draw start taking fetish porn commissions (just be very careful about what you draw and know your country's laws), you can make fucking bank off fringe communities. I did furry porn for awhile and made $20-$40 per drawing, also took a lot of OC commissions and MLP shit. The weirder and more socially awkward the group is the more money there is to be made. Along that same vein you can make a ton of money if you make fursuits/fursuit components seeing as you can already sew.

>>9388598
I don't show my face, it's pretty simple

>>9388768
What kind of videos are they, though?

>>9388749
Fursuit sewing is way more complicated than regular sewing and often requires expensive machines; I don't recommend this unless you already know what you're doing or have experience working with leather (some of the machines are the same)

>>9388718
Now I feel bad. Well to be fair we're together since 7 years, while I still love him deeply it doesn't really bring an excitement to my life desu. I should appriciate him more though.

>>9388749
>>9388783
I tried taking regular sewing commissions but it was too stressful and customers are generally shitty. This was 3 years ago and some of them still didn't pay me kek.
I'm okay with porn art though. I'm gonna look into it.

>>9388781
ASMR. I hate it and think it's cancer but people watch that shit

>>9388806
>too scared to work
>sewing commissions too stressful

I think you need a reality check.

>>9388981
I dont see a problem?