In our last ArtisticPreneur blog entry and newsletter we talked about how to make money as an artist. We covered income streams for creatives of all kinds including musicians, writers and filmmakers etc.
Today we’re going to continue that train of thought. We’ll be exploring strategies to sell your art online in the form of mp3s, eBooks and even movies etc. It is an exciting time in regards to media access for the motivated creator.
It is assumed you create terrific work and only need help with marketing. Also, you might be a creative person who is thinking of starting or has started a small business possibly related to your art.
We will follow the same format as we have before and provide you with a series of bullet point items to consider integrating into your promotion plan.
The bullet points are in no particular order and for this week include topics such as building your brand, creating a portfolio, getting a job and even starting a business.
These bullet points will ask you questions and provide you with food for thought as well are designed to help get your creative marketing juices flowing.
• How will you get people to purchase your digital art? You can do it by building yourself up as a brand. Think of ways you can build your brand.
• The more visible your brand is, the more likely someone will buy from you.
• To succeed in building a brand you need to keep consistency in every aspect.
• Make sure that everything you do is based on making your brand visible and soon you will reach a stage where people will want to purchase your digital art online.
• Should you purchase social media ads?
• The benefit is that you can very specifically target who you are trying to reach. Always make certain ads cost you less than what you are making per customer.
• Depending on where you are with your art, one way to make money is to get a job in a field that is related to your art. This is especially good if you are just starting out.
• Make a list of the ideal jobs you would want as an artist.
• Seek out jobs of this kind. You can even make your presence known to those not looking to hire.
• There are some who will say, “How the heck am I going to get an art related job when I can’t even get a non art related job?” And to this we say that it is all in the way you present yourself.
• Remember to build up your online portfolio.
• Make it easy to link to portfolio.
• You do need to have a certain amount of confidence.
• Remember, you can even create a job where one might not exist.
• Present yourself to the person who has the knowledge you want and show them creatively why they should hire you.
• Another way you can make money with your art is to start an art related business that offers some product or service that is going to be of interest to someone.
• A good guideline here is thinking in terms of offering a solution to a problem and your product/service is a part of the solution.
• Write down every single source you can think of where you might make money and where you might find clients.
• Don’t jump right out there though and incorporate. Test your idea first as a freelancer and then build from there.
• Try out your idea on people you speak with.
• Do you get a positive reaction? Which aspect do they seem to be most interested in?