Wow, is it really this "easy"?
Huh... who would have thought? If you sell/provide a service people want to pay for, people will buy.
I thought there was supposed to be more voodoo involved than that. ;)
Huh... who would have thought? If you sell/provide a service people want to pay for, people will buy.
I thought there was supposed to be more voodoo involved than that. ;)
It's simple, very simple. Yet, it is not easy.
+1 for swapping "easy" for "simple". I perfectly understand the formula for getting people to pay for my thing, and yet...
Good point. :)
No, it isn't. Cause if it's a really good idea( and it seems to be easy) and maybe it's some kind of innovation then soon you will find that there a lot of competitors.
You’re right. It isn’t easy. This was a bit tongue’n cheek.
But the reality for me is that I knew what I wanted to build... that was a bit off the mark from what clients actually wanted. But they usually didn’t say it in feedback, but more in their actions.
It really is as simple as creating something people want — but the execution of getting there certainly isn’t easy.
Great stuff, I'm guessing your timing must have also been a determining factor in the fates aligning in your favour!
Probably so. And a bit of watching how potential clients acted versus what they said. Actions certainly speak louder than words.
Can you share more? What do you do?
Chad accepts photographs from clients and makes his own style of art from them.
He runs https://paintedreality.io/ (as per his profile) and I am going to tell @Chaddeus off for neglecting to include a link to his website in his post.
Chad - how many times!
Having said that, I, too, would like to know what has prompted this sudden burst of excitement.
Haha, thanks Thomas. I know... I didn't link because I just didn't want to be self-serving in this.
I posted it because after finally completing my business model flip and re-opening, things have been going very well.
It's clear that clients wanted prints and not digital -- often getting requests like "oh, this isn't a print? Can I get a refund please?"
Now it's only prints, all handled through FastSpring, which handles global sales and VAT taxes for me.
Also the flipped model means clients see the results before buying (I know, sounds like "duh" right now).
It's good to see your changes are producing such rapid results!
Can you ship globally yet or are you still restricted to the States?
No comment with respect to the "preview" thing .... 😉
Haha... yep, fully global compliant. GDPR, VAT, sales, etc... and can ship worldwide (free shipping too).
Can even purchase in your own native currency. :)
Bloody hell! You have been moving fast It seems like only a few short months ago you could only ship to the US, the lead times were measured in eons and you couldn't accept foreign currency!
I'm really chuffed it seems to be going so well for you (especially given living costs in Tokyo!).
Yep!
And in the middle of that I perfected a technique that virtually eliminates noise during the creation process... making it possible to push print sizes to some incredibly crazy sizes.
Want 30x45”? It’s possible, but shipping starts to get weird with massive metal prints needing crates. :)
Hi Chad,
Why don't you include specific pricing details on your pricing page? At the moment it says:
Price varies depending on the size and material you choose.
How do you get customers? I should imagine people don't 'need' a painting, but they figure they 'want' it based on seeing a post online about it? Or an advert for a gift?
I saw an earlier post from you a while back, the paintings look great! (at least they do digitally)........ That's a thought, how about a picture of a real painting on your homepage? Perhaps on the wall of a nice apartment or office!
Nick
Thanks for the feedback @Nickk81.
I had thought about adding a table of the print prices to the pricing page. But I wonder since it is out of the context of the piece itself, would it distract potential clients more than inform them?
I want them to know it is free to jump in, get something done, and check it out. Only paying when they want the print.
I get clients right now via Facebook groups. And you're right, they don't "need" artwork, but they want it -- and it turns out many aren't confident enough to get their own stuff printed at high quality.
I just added a "before-after" slider to the homepage -- will probably add more. In the client's private art gallery they do get to see a mockup of the piece hanging on a wall -- but you're right, maybe having something on the homepage too would be great.
I appreciate you took the time to write. Thank you.
Are there any art galleries near you where you could put up some actual prints and do an affiliate deal with the gallery owner? All he would need is a webpage pointed to your website with the affiliate ID and he could even talk his customers through the process.
A nice big poster next to the print to show how it is done ....
I love the idea. And yes, there are hundreds of galleries in Tokyo. :)
There are also thousands of flea markets per year too. A giant print of a piece showing off before-after, and a poster next to it showing how to get it done is so smart.
Thank you!
You're welcome"!
You could always take a picture of a Japanese flea market showing you showing the Japanese how to do this stuff ... it could become a right Hall of Mirrors!
So meta. It’s meta of meta. :)
It does sound simple until you put it in context. 😉
Maybe my service is selling ice cream. Should be simple, people like ice cream and research says they eat xx amount per person per year.
You make ice cream and wait for people to turn up to your house and buy from you at whatever price you want. It shouldn't matter that you live on an island, it's winter, you've only made liquorice ice cream and your milk-producer wants to up his costs next month... 😄
A yes, but people don’t typically want
licorice ice cream in winter while on an island.
But maybe if you wrap that in a crepe they would? ;)
Perfect 👌
Chad,
Do you use machine learning or AI in the backend or is this completely manual?
I do. However it’s only a step in the process. Most of it is in Adobe Photoshop. Some Lightroom. If needed we’ll even pop it over into an iPad Pro to sketch on in Procreate.
The AI based tool is in-house created. :)
Nice.
Two more questions, if I may:
Is the AI model trained on your own artwork?
How much manual labour, does the AI solve?
It’s trained on the photos we turn into art, yes. Not wide scale against lots of pictures. It’s been 8,637 pictures at this point.
The tool does two things for me.
Things like major over/under exposure, blurring, lighting, color vibrancy, etc...
—
After that everything is manually done.
Hope that answers things for you.
Thanks!
I love the idea for your service. Would be nice when you mention that 'it's manually done by hand' to be more transparent and actually show it being created. That is if the 'manual' part is an important selling point. Otherwise, why not just say we train our own robots to paint for you (that maybe you can even customize later) and send you a print? That might just be my personal view though. Choosing a robot artist to send me a painting :D
Hehe... a robot artist. Hmm... 🧐
I took the part out describing the manual process. And I added sections with some before and after sliders.
Also, I like the slider UI in general, but it'd be nicer if you actually saw a picture of an actual print (w/ frames, boxes..etc) so that people immediately understand that I upload a photo > get amazing physical one-of-a-kind painting delivered :)
Would be even cooler if on the homepage, I can upload a photo and then see the painted result in context hung on a wall, in a frame with hands holding it..etc. Anyway just some ideas!
This reply is to your other post, but it is nested too deeply in this conversation so I guess IH only allows replies down to a few levels.
I will definitely show it to random people and gauge their reaction. UserLook looks pretty awesome. I'm going to be making some changes... so perhaps in the future? :)
Appreciate the offer, and the feedback. Thank you!
Interesting... you don’t think the homepage conveys the fact they get artwork delivered to them? Hmmm.... I’ll have to dig into that. :)
In the client’s private gallery, when they are viewing a piece, they can see a mock-up of that exact piece hanging on a wall.
On the homepage I do have a mock-up of a piece on a wall above a sofa.
Thanks for the ideas!
No problem! I'm just one person and also I'm looking at it from a designer's perspective as well as first time user. Show it to some random people that's never seen it and just ask them to think out loud their first impressions and what they think it's for. I also happen to run a remote user testing platform, so free user video on me if you think it'd be helpful :)