No More Freelancers... I'm Using Penji Marketplace to Hire Professional Designers!

I had both good and bad experiences with Fiver. I had to give acess to my website. They upgraded my account and I was chagred money. I reported them and the issue was solved. I did get my money back.

Fiverr was a disaster. The people I hired did not know the various aspects of SEO and tags. One person listed all my AI work as Child Art and just cut and paste all the key descriptions. Also listed my items under one category and made a total mess of my Etsy

Did you say how much you paid? I must have missed it?

Fiverr is exploitative platform that encourages modern slavery with its algorithm.

As an artist (graphic designer, 3D artist, but mostly illustrator), Fiverr, Upwork, Guru, (I have been at those 3, not as a client, ofc... got nice projects in some of them) etc.. have this common issue (aggravated by the massive influx of lots of designers and artists from underdeveloped countries... Which I very much welcome and applaud as is their way to grow thanks to the coin exchange/cost of living, but at the same time, it affects negatively the whole thing in terms of prices) happening with at least a large chunk of bids, that it all becomes a race to the bottom, everyone and their dog undercutting everyone else in prices until is a non sustainable business for anyone. This is why you get quite some bad results when ordering there with some designers.

So, I have tended to prefer to find the clients myself, personally. A lot more work, soft skills needed, and super hard to find clients, but still...Yet though, let's be fair... If people go those places to pay the minimum possible, less than they'd use for beers in a weekend, for an important project for their side income (or full time), what then is it to be expected? :O

Now... actually vetting people (which Fiverr, Upwork and Guru do not do), always that the artists are paid fairly , then I am all for it . Those of us who do this seriously, since decades and with a passion, do benefit from such take. I don't know this platform, so I don't know if they do things right. Not gonna say names, but there are like two big companies who are actually known (in the field) for doing extremely hard vetting, specially one for which I have been in its selection process, and at least for that one I am SURE that those working there are real aces, and very reliable people. I don't work for that company, so, not gonna make any promo mentioning them. But just to say that I have seen from inside that quality and timely deliver is expected with companies that do good vetting AND care about a) the quality of the artists' work and b) pay them accordingly and provide with stability (but this means that the client has to pay more, too...nothing comes free), as you can't get everything in the same combination: good, cheap, fast (gotta pick only two, scratch the other). At least not in a project that you want to be any good. So... If this company does even just a little bit of that (I don't think is necessary to reach the extreme of the example I mentioned), that's good news not only for the clients, but also for artists and designers: it's what should exist instead of Fiverr or Upwork.

But I don't know how are the deals with the designers. One thing to me is clear, though: if final prices for the customer are cheap, the work can't be really good... That's a catch 22.... As skills cost money, and the hours of skilled people are not usually dirty cheap labor. Hopefully it is not the case, I will dig it (as an artist).

PD: Just checked the place... the monthly subscription is high enough for the work of the artist to be paid well, in the big scheme of things (not that itself covers the basic cost of living of... anyone)... Now... which are the work conditions? will keep digging. What I am seeing is a lot of designers not from the US ( but Philippines, Mexico, etc. Still not India or other place where the difference with the cost of living is even bigger). And from what I have read... you have to be both an illustrator and a designer ( they want 'jacks of all trades', to maximize output and hours), and it seems each designer gotta take care of 8 to 10 projects daily (now it makes sense, each designer is working for many clients...). That's quite on the high for a 9 - 5 job (is the job they provide to artists, remote), but it would depend on the complexity of the projects. They actually offer brand work, corporate image stuff for print (it's not about just making 8 t-shirt designs per day, that's easy and doable for a pro).. even 8 would be too much to do serious proper work.

But, whatever... :) ;) . Still... better than Fiverr, and provides an actual job for the designer (stability, huge issue for designers and artists). It is surely very difficult to pass their tests and interviews (impossible for a lot of people). The company I was mentioning earlier is in a different (quite higher) level: More thought for business to business contracts, rather than individuals... like really, as a fact, not an empty slogan, "hiring the top 2%", which is a slogan which was made famous by the company I mentioned, but also shows up at Penji's site (from what I have seen...I don't believe this other one gets the top 2%, by any means...but yep reliable and good quality ones, for sure). Those two or 3 other companies are WAY more expensive (than Penji). And surely not for the audience of this channel. Penji could do quite well, though, at least for doing a pair of months to get some stuff of decent quality, then not paying more months (as an idea...). And for whoever is making 3k monthly with the business it makes quite a lot of sense.

I think he sent you a text design since you ordered the "text only" package...

Just wanna point out on your Fiverr example where you paid for a pickle ball shirt, it looks like you paid the $5 option which says text only.

But he should’ve done some pickle ball related text lol.

Hi Ryan, I would ask about trademarks as I'm a little confused. I understand that if a word is trademarked for shirt I can't just put it on a shirt by itself, but can I make 2-3word or even longer phrases with that word in it? For example the word "perfect" has trademark for athletic apparel namely shirts etc. which also isn't really clear what exactly counts as athletic... Thank you very much.

What if I don’t have the money for that?

Ryan, I really wish I had your motivation and drive. I spent 3 years selling handmade shirts and hoodies on Etsy just to see them allow print on demand. The marketplace got totally flooded and my sales went down the toilet. I designed and promoted Sunfrog Shirts and was earning some decent coin until they changed the pay structure and ultimately crashed and burned and all my earnings ended. I've been on Amazon Merch since it started back when there were no tiers. I worked like hell night and day designing and uploading my designs. It was going well until a-holes started copying designs and driving down sales for the legit designers. Amazon was no help in stopping that. I watched my monthly earnings go from a couple thousand a month down to a few hundred a month. Needless to say I'm burned out at this point and can't seem to get going again. I'm selling digital designs on Etsy and even that is starting to slow no matter how many listings I post. I watch your videos to try and get inspired, but I'm just tired after 9 years of failing.

is there a way to work with penji? im a proffessional designer

hey man iv'e been looking for niches recently and i ve noticed that i lot of tshirt that sell well don't use any descrption ,sometimes not even bullet points,and i spend at least an hour for every tshirt to maximize bulletpoint and descrpition with kkeywords, and im still in tier 10,so im i in the wong here and should just rely on brand name and title?

I used Penji in 2020. I signed up for the "unlimited design" package and was a little frustrated because it wasn't "unlimited," however, I was more satisfied with the results than Fiverr (which I have been using since 2008). Penji has been courting me to come back by offering me "deals" and I haven't clicked through on any of the emails. Maybe I should check them out again because it looks like they've had some major overhauls. Thanks Ryan!

So cool! Question about PlaceIt - do they offer mockups of specific shirts/products, say for example Gildan 3100 or whatever?

It’s a bit pricey to start for many I think.

FIRST ONE