You can’t make money as an artist!
That may seem a little crazy for me to say since this blog is all about helping artists make money, but its the absolute truth.
Most artists will never make real money until they realize that they must be a MARKETER first and an ARTIST second.
An artist by definition creates art. That’s it. Art does not sell itself.
A marketer can take that art and tell its story to the right audience in such an effective way that the audience comes clamoring to buy.
Stay tuned. I’ll be posting a ton of info on how to be a marketer first and an artist second. You don’t need to take college courses, you don’t need to learn any sales techniques. What you need to do is learn how to tell your story and find the tools that will help you tell your story to as many people as possible. It really is that easy.
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[...] I couldn’t agree more with facts 1-4, but I completely disagree with fact #5. You definitely can make a living of the sale of your work, but this requires that you be a marketer first. Refer to my post a few months ago about focusing on marketing. [...]
[...] more than ever, is the time when you should be focusing on evolving as a marketer. I’m currently seeing so many great photographers leave their businesses just to go apply [...]
Hi Tyler,
All this is so appropriate.
Recently I read a book by Richard Sennett, The Craftsmen, in which he writes, “The good craftsman is a poor salesman, absorbed in doing something well, unable to explain the value of what he or she is doing.” This was written in the context of the London Great Exposition of 1851 as a response to what an economist of the time called, “a first exercise in mass advertising” by large companies machine-producing products. Not much has changed.
As of now, I am a marketer first.
D.A.Wagner
[...] Photography Marketing | You can’t make money as an artist! http://www.thinkbigart.com/blog/marketer-first – view page – cached That may seem a little crazy for me to say since this blog is all about helping artists make money, but its the absolute truth. Most artists will never make — From the page [...]
Great point. Marketing is sooooo HUGE!!! And there are so many facets to focus on…
A great read to get yourself started: The 21 Immutable Laws of Marketing
Well, I’m just trying to “make it” online right now, thanks for write-up, it looks like you got it all figure out, no?
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So true!!! You end up doing 10-20% art and the rest marketing and business.