Artists/Designers - need exact image category requests by customer

RonR

This applies to artists in particular and the type of work these customers might be looking for. There is a big difference in a small company looking for product renderings and expecting to pay $300-500, and a grandmother at home thinking a drawing is going to cost $15. And not to mention all the moms that have written a storybook and are just trying to get an idea of pricing, and don’t go any further after the sticker shock of even the lowest of $40 per image for their 20-image book.

Customer leads NEED TO HAVE a budget amount entered (and specified per image or per project) and what TYPE OF IMAGERY, as us illustrators and designers have different specialties and things we don’t do.

1) First of all, small jobs that a customer expects to pay $15-20 for aren’t worthwhile as a $40 lead. If a customer was entering a budget amount, then the proper lead cost could be charged, which I would expect to be less than 25% per cent of this price. Leads simply cannot cost a majority of our profit. (Another associated problem with this is that since it’s such a simple job, not requiring a specific skill or portfolio review, the customer is probably going to go with the first person that contacts them, making all the other leads worthless. There needs to be a cap of two people on leads less than $100.)

2) Types of designs or illustrations need to be selected from a set dropdown, as people have NO IDEA OR CARE to exactly tell us the type of imagery they want done. A kid’s hand-drawing artist doesn’t do 3D technical renderings, and a fantasy artist may not have anatomy/biology knowledge to draw bio-medical renderings.

Suggested categories of drawings and illustrations: 2D architectural b/w CAD, 3D exterior/interior, bio-medical rendering/animation, caricature, cartoon, comic book, device/product rendering/animation, fantasy, mural, poster, storybook. And make sure it is strictly separated from design, which is more text and layout in vector graphics, such as brochures, letterhead, logos, catalogs, pamphlets, flyers, flat-color fill text/graphic posters/banners, etc.

3) After speaking with one potential lead and finding that they said I was way over budget, I asked if they had read my profile before selecting me. They said NO. This is ridiculous. They said they just clicked on all the suggested artists. So if we cannot opt out of appearing to them through a budget they post, then we need to have the ability for an auto-refund. And each selected artist should pop up the profile, and it be mandatory that the customer reads it first, especially with our big bold costs, so they can steer away from us.

Both the proper design/illustration category and budget would match us properly and stop having us artists paying lead costs that are not for any actual leads. If a customer's budget is already known and they ask for something we don’t do, THIS IS NOT A LEAD.

Matt

Welcome to the crappy side of Thumbtack. I have been suggesting the budget option since I first signed up back in 2022, and it seems like it isn't anything that is in the pipeline. My murals start at $3800 regardless of the size, and I have even put that in my company name, yet I still get people hitting me up with a $500 budget.

What I found is the only way to get the clients I want is to not offer services to homes, and focus on commercial. I used to offer Illustration services on Thumbtack, but the budgets are always super low and not worth the time.

Unfortunately Thumbtack doesn't really care if the user never viewed the profile before they select them, and the lack of transparency that each person that is selected gets a charge also makes it so TT makes more money at times than the pro doing the work.