I have heard recent news about PayPal "changing their policies" and "modifying their TOS to punish adult artists". I don't know how big a deal it is! PayPal has been shutting down artists and stealing from them for 20 years. They will still be doing it 20 years from now. Adult artists have always been against their TOS. I am lucky that nothing bad has happened to me yet! But, it is good to be prepared for it.
As of this morning, I should be able to receive payments through PayPal, commiss.io, Square, Google Pay, and Venmo (although Venmo is US only.) ...This does not technically fix anything, because of these other services also prohibit "adult oriented products or services" -- but, it is a little band-aid fix in case something goes wrong.
A lot of other artists deal with this sort of thing too! If you have any other recommendations or anecdotes I'd love to hear them. I am not trying to change the world, I just want to stay out of trouble.
Direct bank transfers maybe? Since every bank now has a online bank, it not that much of a hassle to go that route instead of paypal. On the flipside you could change what you get paid for. I'm sure they can't shut you down if you take money for drawing to specification of the hire. Imo they can't shut you down if you get paid to draw instead of you getting paid for selling a drawing. Since whatever you draw is not yours in the first place.
Direct bank transfers maybe? Since every bank now has a online bank, it not that much of a hassle to
I'd never considered that option but that's a good one! It feels scary and personal but people who send me money over PayPal already see my real name anyway, so maybe it's not a bridge too far
I'd never considered that option but that's a good one! It feels scary and personal but people who s
TransferWise always has the best exchange rates/fees but Western Union may be accepted in more countries.
Still, PayPal gained its dominance by being a "sent me email and its done" service, These direct bank/card transfers require a lot more details and seems a lot of people rather keep sucking Elon's cock than changing with effort.
TransferWise always has the best exchange rates/fees but Western Union may be accepted in more count
They way I use PayPal is with creating Invoices and never mentioning adult art in it, just art presented as safe for work. That way the commissioner received it via link, or as they seem to have changed now, via email. I think this is the best way to do it on PayPal as it doesn't show any proof of the art being adult oriented. PayPal would need to investigate to find that out and I don't think they would spend their time and work doing that for each person who sells digital goods.
Though having alternatives is something I've been looking for too. So it's great to see you mentioning a few. Even if they might prohibit it as well. Maybe the other companies aren't as strict as PayPal.
Commiss.io does allow nsfw though, from what I remember. It still seems to have the setting to show content labeled as 'not safe for work'. But I haven't used that site in a long time so I'm not sure if something changed.
They way I use PayPal is with creating Invoices and never mentioning adult art in it, just art prese
> PayPal would need to investigate to find that out
This makes sense, but it just takes ONE asshole to report you to PayPal and say "this artist has been doing porn commissions via paypal; here is their twitter and here is their paypal account."
> Commiss.io does allow nsfw though, from what I remember
That's interesting, thank you! Gumroad and other sites often have a "Not Safe For Work" toggle -- but is still against their policies, and they will still ban you for it, shut down your payments or keep your money if you try to sell adult material. Maybe commiss.io is the same!
> PayPal would need to investigate to find that out This makes sense, but it just takes ONE asshol
Yeah, there can always be one bad person who reports you, but that can happen anywhere, I think.
Gumroad does that? I didn't know. I've just seen artists using it to sell nsfw art there and I never heard of Gumroad banning anyone. If they have a nsfw toggle, then I think there might be other reasons why people get banned for posting nsfw art there. I can't really see them having this option but banning it. Doesn't make sense to me, so I think there might be something else.
Yeah, there can always be one bad person who reports you, but that can happen anywhere, I think. Gu
Yes, Gumroad does that. Here is the text of the email they sent me:
> Hi, My name is Matan and I work on payments, risk, and compliance at Gumroad. I wanted to thank you for choosing Gumroad to sell your work. It has come to our attention that your account, including Megahorn Art Pack, violates our Terms of Service. Due to agreements that we have with our banking partners, we cannot currently support the sale of adult content on Gumroad.
This is supported by Gumroad's list of prohibited materials which include sexually-oriented or pornographic content. Gumroad threatened to suspend my account within 7 days if I did not remove the art pack, so I did. To their credit, they said that any remaining Gumroad balance would be transferred to my PayPal account -- so they did not plan to keep my money.
Yes, Gumroad does that. Here is the text of the email they sent me: > Hi, My name is Matan and I wo
This is really unfortunate. Thank you for sharing this. If you find some alternatives, I hope you'll share them with other artists, because this seems to be a constant problem unfortunately.
It's really unfortunate that nsfw art is so frowned upon these days and it just makes it harder and harder for us to earn something with what we as artists love doing. I hope this will change someday.
This is really unfortunate. Thank you for sharing this. If you find some alternatives, I hope you'll
I haven't found anything to do specifically what gumroad does (acting as a storefront for premade adult art?) but honestly I'm not really looking for it!
I'm just looking to accept payments from people for commissions, and so far it sounds like there are six good alternatives:
For what it's worth, as a writer, I also do the invoice of "keep it extremely vague as just (Commission)" and never had any problems from Paypal. Considering they can't verify what I put in invoices beyond "a commissioned work", they really can't do anything when it is actually just that.
Besides, I thought the new ToS was specifically targeted towards people peddling "misinformation" which basically means conspiracy groups or aspiring terrorists.
That said, paypal is already the Amazon of digital pay services and being utter garbage as they are, having a backup alternative would be a good idea.
For what it's worth, as a writer, I also do the invoice of "keep it extremely vague as just (Commiss
The acceptable use policy and $2,500 fine #1 applies to many different things including "Mature Audience Content" which unambiguously applies to sexually oriented digital goods or content delivered through a digital medium, such as downloadable pictures or videos #2
With that said -- I haven't heard of anybody being fined, but I've heard of many people having their accounts terminated
As far as whether the new ToS was specifically targeting misinformation, I don't quite understand the logic there (did they add the other 17 categories as a joke?) but it seems like baseless optimism
The acceptable use policy and $2,500 fine #1 ( https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/acceptableuse-full
Do not use Commiss.io. The admins are almost entirely gone and no longer supporting the site. It still functions, but it seems like only a matter of time before it starts eating payments or something. Commiss.io has recently been making the rounds because a couple people looking for PayPal alternatives thought, "This looks nice," before checking for anyone's actual opinions of the site.
https://artconomy.com/ is what I switched to, after eventually giving up on Commiss.io a few months ago. They're both almost exactly the same service. They're run by furries, they support adult content, they have a dispute resolution system, and they use Stripe, which is supported in a good handful of countries now.
There are three main differences between the two services.
First is that AC payments are held in escrow until commissions are completed and approved. The client still has to pay at the start of the comm.
Second is that AC has no service for selling digital downloads, like Commiss.io and Gumroad have.
Third is that the AC admins are actually active and regularly working on the site features.
If you give Artconomy a try, I hope it works well for you.
Do not use Commiss.io. The admins are almost entirely gone and no longer supporting the site. It sti
Thank you for this recommendation. I'll be checking it out. :D
From taking a quick look it seems to have a similar problem with other sites that have a way to blacklist tags. It's a good feature to have and I'm thankful for it. It's just that some people don't seem to do it properly or even at all, which is something I haven't quite understood yet why that is.
Thank you for this recommendation. I'll be checking it out. :D From taking a quick look it seems to
The problem I have is that no service seems to be available for my country, even paypal is broken, they don't allow you to associate a bank account and instead they make a transfer to a "credit card", but that's the only way to get your money out from the account.
When trying to use any service the information they ask doesn't match the format the local banks seem to use. Even asking the banks they simply don't know.
The problem I have is that no service seems to be available for my country, even paypal is broken, t
Cryptocoins as long as they aren't outlawed? High value fast-fluxing cryptocoins like Bitcoin or Etherium are likely not an option. Cryptocoins like Litecoin and DASH where the difference is as much as a Euro a hour are more realistic options.
You might try those physical? Money couriers like MoneyGram, Wise or Western Union. But I don't have any experience with them.
Cryptocoins as long as they aren't outlawed? High value fast-fluxing cryptocoins like Bitcoin or Eth
the overhead on paypal transfers is around 3% and it involves two steps (someone sends me money and i put it in my bank)
while i have no idea what the overhead on litecoin transfers is, i'm guessing it's something like the sender buys LTC for cash and pays 2% overhead, exchanges LTC for litecoin and pays another 2% overhead, sends me the litecoin and we pay another 2% transaction fee, then i exchange litecoin for LTC and pay another 2% overhead, and finally sell my LTC for cash and by now we've paid like $15.00 in transaction fees for a single commission, and i want the past 30 minutes of my life back 😅
i love the idea of crypto but it is too hard and too expensive for me right now
the overhead on paypal transfers is around 3% and it involves two steps (someone sends me money and
It seems that fee is for US citizens who got a card from them only, I made my account years ago and never got something like that charged to me or been informed about it yet,
Skrill and Stripe might be your best options then
It seems that fee is for US citizens who got a card from them only, I made my account years ago and
I fully understand your concerns about PayPal's policy on adult artists. This has been a longstanding issue, and many authors have faced account restrictions due to violations of PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy. Diversifying payment options is a smart move, although platforms like Square and Google Pay also have restrictions on adult content. Speaking of financial solutions, I recently came across an article from Dashdevs that discussed major banking solutions that can offer alternative payment processing options. It's worth researching to find the services that best suit your needs. Stay safe and proactive!
I fully understand your concerns about PayPal's policy on adult artists. This has been a longstandin
yeah you're right! i specifically mention those restrictions in my journal, and I wouldn't trust any payment provider in the long term. diversification is the way
yeah you're right! i specifically mention those restrictions in my journal, and I wouldn't trust any
Now there are plenty of alternative payment options out there that work just as well, and sometimes even offer way better terms. Honestly, I think people really need to start using new solutions and tech, alternative payment systems, and cloud-based products https://emcuk.co.uk/tech/the-benefits-of-cloud-based-legal-practice-management-solutions. It’s not just about convenience and speed and it’s also about data and transaction security.
Now there are plenty of alternative payment options out there that work just as well, and sometimes
Yeah, it's great that alternatives exist. And it's not like reinventing Bitcoin or Facebook where you have to hit critical mass. It just takes two users to send money to each other! Find one that works for you.
Yeah, it's great that alternatives exist. And it's not like reinventing Bitcoin or Facebook where y
