Verillas and AI... or the lack there of!
Oct 07, 2026
A news update on our fight to keep our doors open without being forced to participate in AI advertising, invasive tracking, stolen art, and energy consumption.
Verillas started as a side project to a music shop I once owned. I just wanted to get to be at the renaissance faire (maryland!) as often as possible, and designing clothing was a way to combine my hobby and my way of making money. I never wanted to do anything corporate, and I deeply value the freedom over where and how I work versus shorter hours or job security.
Fast forward 15 years, and we have become a bit reliant on paid ads to keep traffic on our site, and paid apps to make it easy to use. Unfortunately, over the past year or two, AI is making everything a slop fest. Meta ads report false data and "accidentally" turn on their AI features even if we turn them off daily. Other platforms quietly charge you more for ads NOT using their AI automations. It has lead me to down size a bit, and to work on a human touch, community building, and a bit of SEO magic to keep the lights on. I really don't have any interest in AI for anything art related. If energy use wan't being mishandled so badly, I might even love for AI to handle my spreadsheets, my taxes... things no one wants to be doing at Verillas! But alas, its just not being done sustainably.
And in 2026, our SEO and human outreach is paying off! ... Mostly. I would love your feedback on how and where you want to shop about Verillas, and how you have found us in the past.
Should we:
A) Push our products onto Amazon.com?
B) Advertise on Google, Pinterest, or some other platform you tend to be on?
C) Can we offer sweet deals for customers that stay with us on email or SMS since we can do that business without budgeting for expensive advertisements?
D) Would you be more likely to check our site weekly if I started publishing my TTRPG content for free use?
I want to hear from you! Please join our community discord and comment in #help-verillas-with-marketing, or email me directly at alice@verillas.com with your opinions. I will do my best to read every single one. https://discord.gg/xrupBdaKQ
