I was thinking of doing CWs but I'm not really sure how to start! Did you all start with items you wanted, or items other people wanted? Did you already have ideas? Did you just open a shop and go for it? Gah! I'm so stuck haha. :)

Sorry if I waffle...

Personally I started with items I wanted, then kind of... learnt how to work the system from there. If what you want is very specific, you might have trouble selling it, even my personal-aimed backgrounds don't sell as well as my generic ones and masculine items rarely sell as well as feminine items (it's also often harder to find people who are both interested AND able to buy). Whenever I want something for myself, I usually make and sell something more generic (for me it's BGs that people seem to want), sometimes I sell it myself, or I'll make the design and auction it off, that way I have the csc to get what I want on site. The was one of my first items, and while it would probably fill up quite quickly now, at the time I struggled, I wanted it to be private, but couldn't afford 5000csc so I sold of the other few slots, but never released any more, so public but VERY limited, if you think you're going to struggle with an item you want personally, limiting it to a batch can /sometimes/ jog people into buying slots they otherwise might have forgone. Obviously if you have people who routinely buy from you it's easier again, so getting started can be hard work. As for ideas I just kind of wait for them to appear XD

If I was starting new now, I think I'd maybe start by releasing two or three items, a couple generic, feminine items, maybe put some lace on it if you can pull of lace, I can't XD or backgrounds, partial foregrounds can be good too, and release whatever it is you're after along side it, there are a few ping groups. Customwear <-- for general releases CSCW <-- for CWs you've put into the CS BackersCWA <-- for background items Though some of these have time limits, I know CSCW doesn't like to be pinged more than once in 24h by the same person.

If you're not used to Subeta standards I and a few others started This Thread to help people out and give them crit before the submission process, since we're all comparatively seasoned CW makers now, though I've been pretty busy as of late, I have no idea how the thread is doing I should probably make sure no one is being neglected. We all see a lot of new CW makers with items way below standard, but no one actually being willing to tell them, even though it's pretty obvious staff are going to deny the item and denials are always kind of painful ;_; us at Wits will crit AND give you a hand to fix the item, where as staff denials will only tell you roughly where the issue lies. It's important to remember not to take them personally though.

Thank you so much!! That was super helpful. Yeah I was sort of thrown when I realized how rigorous the standards are but I'm definitely still interested. I guess I'm not really sure what I'd want XD which is my biggest problem. I'm thinking of just trolling pinterest to see what items I like and then cross-referencing subeta. My biggest thing is definitely the cost, so I'd definitely do group releases. Also your thread is excellent and I will be subscribing in case I need some help. Thank you sooooo much again. :D

You're welcome, I ramble when I'm stressed so I'm amazed XD Once you've gotten your head around them it's usually worth it and does force you to be very rigorous with your own personal standards, which is normally a good thing. That sounds like a pretty good way of starting, just find something that looks nice and see if you can draw it =3 No problem, looking forward to seeing what you come up with ^^