You’ve tried everything the experts tell you to do about how to sell your art online. Open accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and 14 other sites. You have an email list. You’ve thrown some money at Facebook Ads. And an armful of other things.
But you’re still not happy with the results. You feel more exhausted than ever, and you’re left wondering “what am I doing wrong? Why can’t I seem to sell my art online?”
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
You deserve to have your art cherished by fans around the globe (and get paid in the process), so here are 10 reasons why you might not be getting the results that you want, and what to do instead.
1. You Aren’t Narrowing Your Focus
You ever heard of the phrase “a jack of all trades is a master of none”?
Yeah – that applies to artists in a HUGE way. Niches are our secret weapons when it comes to success.
Art can be considered a luxury product (I beg to differ), and rarely do luxury products become successful and sought-after by being scattered. No, their popularity blows up when they pick one thing and get really good at it.
Same goes for artwork. Don’t be afraid to niche down and get tight on what you paint. Strengthening your art style will bring in success, because you will be memorable.
Get clear on what you want your art style to be, and lean into it hard. Choose a small handful of related subjects to be the center of your paintings, rather than being scattered and painting whatever your heart desires. Build yourself a solid art series revolving around this, and watch your audience start to grow & become more passionate about your work.
Color is also a powerful tool – choosing a single colour palette to work with will work wonders to forming that solid art style that you dream of.
2. You Are Getting Distracted
I get it – artists tend to surround themselves with pretty things that make it SO easy to lose hours with that thumb-scrolling addictive viewing. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
Same goes for jumping into new projects or paintings without taking a hot minute to make sure this is a good move for us strategically.
Falling prey to Shiny Object Syndrome will not only sweep your time away from you, but it does so without delivering any results. Total time & energy sucker.
So the next time you see something inspiring and your heart is all a-flutter with the “I must paint this immediately!” line, take a moment to ask yourself if that is a good move. Will changing tracks to embrace this sudden burst of inspiration benefit you? Or will it take away focus from the current projects and ultimately drain my time and energy?
Limiting distractions when it comes to time is also a power move as well. Settling in to have a solid painting sesh?
Put your phone on silent (or in the next room, even better), pop some music on, brew yourself a hot cup of tea get focused.
Set a timer so you can allow yourself the luxury of digging deep into your work without having the thoughts of “I wonder what time it is?” bubbling up to distract you.
Have a long laundry list of things that you need to get done? Checklist that baby out!
Map everything that you need to do out onto a checklist, breaking each step down into as many mini-steps as you need, and actually check them off as you knock them out.
(I’ve heard that actually filling in a box rather than putting a checkmark in a box gives you more of a dopamine surge – worth testing!)
3. You Are Pretending to Be Someone Else
We’ve all had that thought at one point – drooling over the art of our favorite artist, and the thought bubbles up of “if I do what they are doing, I should find success too, right? It’s working for them, it should work for me too”.
Then you might find yourself leaning too much into the inspiration and edging uncomfortably into “copying territory”. Or maybe you analyze the hashtags they’re using on Instagram, or their stories, their website, their post styles.
It’s tempting – if it works for them, it has to work for you, right??
In the end we always learn that this is sadly just not true. Because that artist that you drool over has embraced who THEY are – and despite your efforts, you are not them. But don’t let this come as a blow to your heart – this is not an insult. This is a fact. And its also a license to embrace your own secret weapon that only you have – YOU.
Pretending to be someone you are not is not only draining, its not sustainable. But what is sustainable, and rich in energy, is being yourself. Embracing your own radiance, your personality, your magic.
Be undeniably and unapologetically you, and the success will be inevitable.
4) You Are Ignoring the Numbers
Maybe it’s because we’re creative spirits that tend to think more abstractly than analytically, but artists don’t naturally drift towards a numbers game.
But here’s the thing – we should. Numbers don’t lie.
Analytics might not be the most fun & creative thing in the world, but they are absolutely key towards achieving success without draining all of our energy (and money) unnecessarily.
The Pareto Principle is an absolute powerhouse tactic, but its hard to understand and implement without looking at the numbers. So take the time to make digging into analytics a part of your art biz strategy. Figure out what 20% of your efforts make up 80% of your results, and do more of that.
The business accounts on Instagram allow you to peek into your analytics – so take a moment to analyze what style of posts your audience likes best, which hashtags are performing like rockstars and the time of day that most of your followers are scrolling through their feeds.
5) You Are Trying to Please Too Many People
Here’s a little #truthbomb for you that is always hard to swallow at first – when you try to be liked by everyone, you end up being adored by no one.
Yikers, right? But don’t let this get you down – in fact, take this as a license to be bold and true to yourself.
Niche-ing down and getting specific with your work and your message is one of the best things you can do to surge yourself towards success. Stick with a project for long enough that it has impact, and narrow your focus onto the things that actually make waves in your art biz.
Be yourself, and don’t be afraid of pushing people away. Because those people that will fade away because they don’t resonate with you – they were never part of your perfect audience anyway. You’re making room for the people who DO love your work, and that’s a beautiful thing.
6. You Aren’t Putting Yourself Out There
A few years ago I was letting those dark tendrils of negative thoughts wrap around my mind – “I didn’t make as much money on my art this year as I wanted to, poor me”. Pity party for one.
After I gave myself a few moments to wallow in that pity, thankfully I had the good sense to actually follow my own advice and look at things with a critical eye. What went wrong? How can I do things differently?
Then I noticed a something – I barely painted that year, and hardly put out new work for my fans to buy. Its no wonder that I made few sales, I didn’t give them anything to buy! Even my social media presence and email marketing nearly ground to a screeching halt – so in hindsight it is no shock at all that I didn’t meet my lofty goals. I didn’t put in the work to achieve them!
Don’t make the same mistake I did – set yourself income goals and actually make a plan to get yourself out there and achieve them. Put yourself out there, be beautiful and bold.
7. You Are Censoring Yourself
Hands up if you love pretending to be someone you aren’t.
I don’t know about you, but just the thought of that makes my soul tired. Putting on the act is draining, and for what purpose, really?
Why strive to be someone you aren’t, when you can lean into your own personal magic and thrive? Dig deep into your heart and soul and embrace your personality and spark.
Not only does this save energy, it’s your key to attracting your perfect audience AND creating art that radiates with personality.
Be true to yourself, and stop censoring your truest form. Talk about the things that you love, even if you’re afraid that people might think it’s strange. Guess what – some will, but there will be tons of people out there that completely resonate with it and will adore you for it.
Talk about the things that you’re passionate about, what makes you tick. Artists are not boring people, so don’t censor yourself!
8. You Don’t Have A Strategy
Strategy sounds like something for big marketing firms & lawyers – but it isn’t.
Artists aren’t exempt from rocking a solid strategy to achieve their dreams. In fact, they depend on it.
There are a million and one options out there for striving towards success, which is both a great thing and a hindrance. Overload and overstimulus are just too easy to fall prey to, which is where a strategy comes into place.
Map out what you intend on doing, and what you want to steer clear of. Maybe you want to embrace Instagram but you don’t resonate with Facebook so you’ll stay away from creating a Facebook Page. Or perhaps the thought of exhibiting in galleries exhilarates you, but teaching classes in person doesn’t.
Set yourself an income goal, and reverse-engineer how you will achieve it. Set yourself a goal for follower count or email subscribers, and map out how often you’ll post and produce content for your audience.
9. You Aren’t Taking Action
Part Two of the “why am I not selling more art boo-hoo” story is another one that happened last year. I was painting pretty prolifically, posting a lot in stories and to my feed. But the sales were pretty non-existent, same goes for the engagement with my audience. Each new post brought nothing but cricket chirps.
So Science Dani took a look at the data, and the problem became so painfully clear. While I was posting visual content, my captions were nearly bare, AND I wasn’t telling people that the art was even for sale (hell, I didn’t even list it for sale on my website).
I was embarrassed about my ignorance here, but thankfully it was an easy fix. I wasn’t taking the actions that would bring in art sales. So the answer was to change that up, and take those actions instead.
10) You Aren’t Getting In Front of the Right People
By now we should be feeling guilty about pretending to be someone we’re not, and are now turning our sights onto what makes us so beautifully us.
That’s half the battle – the other half is getting in front of the right people who will resonate with us and our message.
When your audience is filled with followers that are lukewarm towards you and your artwork, disappointment will always be on the horizon. But on the other hand, when your audience is filled with even a small amount of your perfect fans…beautiful & powerful things happen.
Success happens.
Sit down and dig deep to figure out who your perfect audience is. Who would like the type of art you create? How do they spend their time? What might their hobbies or professions be?
The clearer you get on who will love & resonate with your art, the easier it will be to find them.
Target them through hashtags on Instagram, post your art to Facebook groups they may hang out in. Target them through Facebook ads, or even hang posters of your artwork at the local clubs that they are part of.
Getting the RIGHT eyes on your work is a surefire way to get your key to your dream art biz.
Ready to focus in on what’s working for you and build on towards success? Let me know which of these mistakes you’re totally guilty of! I’ll be sitting over here in my Team Distracted shirt.
Want to take an even bigger flying leap towards your (inevitable) success as an artist?
Watch my FREE masterclass training, Scale Your Art Sales.
It’s the online class for beginner artists that are filled with a fiery creative passion, and want to grow an audience online that actually want to BUY their artwork