After graduating from Art School I had no idea how to make money or how I was going to make a living as an artist.
When I saw other artists succeeding on Instagram I decided to give it a try myself.
It seems pretty crazy when I think about it, but over the last two years I’ve made roughly $20,000 on the side doing freelance work and selling art to people I met on Instagram. (Roughly $15k from freelance work and $5k selling art and doing commissions.)
Now freelancing is just like any other job – you really have to work hard at it to succeed. But I never would have met any of my freelance clients had it not been for my Instagram.
The funny thing is, as I reflect back, I had no idea what I was doing when I started out. It all happened accidentally.
In fact, when I started out I had zero business or marketing knowledge, and I literally didn’t even know what an invoice was. And to a large extent, that is probably why I have been so successful…
From Clueless Artist to Thriving Freelancer
So I in the beginning of 2016 I decided to quit my office job and start doing full-time freelance work as an artist.
I was so excited to be out on my own and doing what I loved!… but I quickly realized that I had one big problem:
Nobody knew me, and nobody was offering me work.
So I starting thinking about myself more like a business, and the burning question I asked was:
How am I going to get people in my doors and doing business with me?
Around this time I stumbled across a few artists with really big followings on Instagram.
Two of the artists that really inspired me were @samlarson and @1924us (who is now @1924house).
Both of these artists did pen and ink illustrations centered around mid-western imagery, and both of them had a really strong style as an artist.
Here is an Instagram post by @SamLarson:
And here is a post by Christian Watson of @1924US:
What really shocked me was that they both had 400k to 500k followers!
(Note: Christian deleted his @1924us Instagram to start @1924house and only has ~30k followers at the time I am writing this article)
When I looked at the work coming from these two artists I thought their work was good, but I didn’t think they were that much better than me.
So I started to ask the question “How did they get that many followers, and how can I do the same for myself?”
I mean seriously! If I had 400,000 Instagram followers I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have a problem finding freelance work or selling my artwork.
Bingo.
I found an answer to my original question. I now had an idea for how I would get people “in my doors” and hiring me to do freelance work.
So I set a goal to get 10,000 followers by the end of the year and then set out on a journey to figure out how I was going to accomplish that.
Instagram: The Art of Getting People’s Attention
As I started studying Instagram more and more I realized that success on social media really just consists of one thing: getting people’s attention.
Whether you are promoting your art, selling a product, or just building a fan-page, it all boils down to attention. And if you want to build an online business then you need to master the art of getting people’s attention.
The reason websites like BuzzFeed do so well is because they are masters of getting people’s attention.
They write really catchy (sometimes shocking) headlines that grab your curiosity and get you to click on their content.
Then once you click on the article they follow-up with content that is relatable, interesting, and share-worthy.
And to take it even further, once you are on their website they have other links to relatable articles and quizzes that you just can’t help but to click on, and pretty soon you’ve just spent 45 minutes taking quizzes on BuzzFeed when you should have been writing your essay!
Sound familiar?
When it comes to social media, he who gets your attention, wins.
When it comes to social media, he who gets your attention, wins. Click To TweetAnd it just so happens that Sam and Christian are two of the best examples of Instagram Artists that create really amazing attention-grabbing content.
The reason Sam Larson (@samlarson) and Christian Watson (@1924house) both had over 400k followers is because they constantly created content that made people say “Coooool!”.
They built really strong brands by using illustration, photography, and storytelling to come up with some really creative content ideas.
Here are a few of their more memorable pieces of content:
Content by @SamLarson:
Content by Christian Watson (@1924House):
As you can see they both put out really incredible content that stops people dead in their tracks when scrolling through their Instagram feed. Their content definitely stands out from the crowd, and they both do a really great job at keeping a consistent brand identity.
After seeing their work I thought, all they are doing is using Instagram as their medium for getting people’s attention and getting their work noticed, so I figured out how I could do the same.
I Got 18,000 Followers in the First Year by Copying People
So after studying what worked for these artists, I started to copy them and create similar content on my Instagram page.
If it worked for them then it would probably work for me.
Something that was really interesting and pretty easy to make was the flat-lay photos.
Flat-Lays
I used a yard-stick to draw some straight lines and then I laid everything out in an organized fashion and then took a photograph.
Each of the flat-lay photographs I posted have gotten anywhere from 400 to 1200 likes.
What is great about this is that I can easily create one of these photographs in roughly 30 to 45 minutes. And with a little practice I could probably create 3 or 4 in an hour.
This is a quick and easy was to create original content that attracts attention and gets people to follow you.
Quality Photography
Another technique I picked up was adding interesting elements to my photographs by “modeling” my work instead of just “displaying” it.
If you look at this drawing I did back in 2013 you’ll notice a huge difference between the 2013 version of the photo and the 2016 version of the photo.
Here is the photo I took in 2013:
The photo is plain, there is harsh yellow lighting, and you can tell that I really didn’t put that much effort into photographing it. (I was so excited about finishing it that I couldn’t wait to get it up on Instagram!)
Now compare that to the photo I took in 2016:
I stepped up my game a few different ways:
- The lighting is brighter and more natural
- I added pencil shavings and a key for effects
- The pencil in my hand was rubbed with graphite to make it more interesting.
The 2016 photo does a much better job at capturing people’s attention and getting them to notice the work.
The major difference between the 2013 photo and the 2016 photo is the amount of time and effort I put into taking a quality photograph of my work.
Back in 2013 I didn’t have any patience for taking quality photos or presenting my work well, and in 2016 I was willing to take the time needed to actually get a quality photograph.
When it comes to sharing your artwork on Instagram, a bright and high-quality photograph of pretty-decent work will beat a low-quality photograph of amazing work.
A crappy photo of the Mona Lisa will never inspire anyone. Click To TweetSo if you think you are making pretty good work but are failing to get the attention you think it deserves, then try spending some extra time photographing your work in it’s best light (pun intended).
Now this next tactic is one that I personally struggle with…
Consistency
One of the most important tactics to growing an Instagram audience is to stay consistent.
Both Christian Watson and Sam Larson were posting photos on their Instagram feed almost every single day, and sometimes multiple times a day.
People got used to looking for their new post every day and it built a community around their work.
If you just take a minute to scroll down Sam Larson’s Instagram feed then you will notice that he consistently gets 50 to 200 comments on every one of his posts. He also regularly does giveaway contests where people have to leave a comment and tag their friends, and these posts get thousands and thousands of likes.
Now I know there are so many more angles I could explore as far as what makes these guys popular on Instagram, but I’ve outlined the basics in a previous blog post that you can use to grow your Instagram from scratch.
So if you want to grow a stand-out brand on Instagram, staying consistent is probably one of the most important things you can do.
Just like the news comes on every night at 11, you want to pick a consistent time to post to Instagram once a day or once a week (or twice a week, etc.).
When your content starts to show up consistently in people’s feeds then people are much more likely to become familiar with you and your brand. This is truly the way to build lasting relationships with your audience.
Now I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the best at posting on a consistent basis, but I’d like to think that I make up for the lack of consistency by posting highly detailed “Epic” content as often as I can.
I would prefer to post one jaw-dropping piece of content every month instead of posting mediocre content every day.
But how you approach your content creation and posting schedule is up to you.
Patience
So there is one more very important part to growing your Instagram audience that I didn’t mention yet.
In order to succeed at building an audience of loyal fans then you need patience.
I have been working on growing an audience on Instagram since the beginning of 2016. Now it is the middle of 2018 and I am roughly at 31,000 followers.
If you want to succeed at anything in life then it is going to take a lot of hard work and discipline. So instead of working really intensely for a short time and getting burnt out, I recommend showing up every single day for the next two years and putting in the work.
After two years of consistent effort you will be amazed at the results you get.
In the words of Bruce Lee:
Long term consistency beats short term intensity.
If you apply what you read in this article and take action every day then I promise you will start to see results.
And if you are interested in learning more about how to build an audience for your artwork, then I recommend signing up for the SAI email list by clicking on the green button below.
I promise you that my emails are unlike any other emails you have gotten before in the sense that I do my very best not to hype things up. I simply share everything that I learn along the way in hopes that other artists will benefit from it.
So I hope you enjoyed this article, and be on the lookout for future articles about growing your audience right here on SmartArtistIncome.com.
See ya!
-Brandon Mikel Paul
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