Life, randomness and sales
We all like to think that life is guided, destiny or gods will. But in truth life is random. The counter-argument is I make my own luck or I have worked hard to get to where I am. I met the love of my life, it was meant to be. But statistically, to find your ideal partner it's only 1 in 100. Knowing this you could successfully find the ideal partner for you to mate with, marry or find your so-called soul mate in the dating game. Not very romantic but never the less true. The same goes for your success, statistics never lie, they just aren't sexy.
In a nutshell, you have to make your own luck, you have to be in the right place at the right time for luck to strike. Sitting behind a desk or watching tv isn't going to help you find that perfect someone, the dream job or that gallery representation just from posting content on social media. Nope, the real secret to getting people to see your work isn't in talent… it's in money… advertising. Do you think you meet your soul mate by chance or do you meet them by displaying yourself on dating platforms and presenting yourself at a bar with make-up and/or nice clothes, etc? It's wasn't chance it was because you put yourself out there, you put yourself in the right place at the right time infront of enough people for luck to strike. They same goes for people seeing your work, money and advertising defines the majority of our success. It's sad but true. I came to this realisation not too long ago.
I have a website, I've got a store, an email newsletter, social media platforms, a blog and I also guest blog on other websites. After all this constant work and coverage how many prints do you think I've sold… not a single one. You could say that my work is crap, no one wants it, or my prices are to high or low. These are all great excuses but I'm not going to use them. The reason I haven't made any sales from my artwork is that I haven't been seen by enough people. I haven't put myself out there enough.
So how does one get more coverage, how does one get more airtime? The truth is through ads. Putting money down on the table to promote your platform, your work, your craft. Think of it like investing in yourself. They say that you need to be seen 3 to 7 times before you're remembered or recognised. They also say that out of 1,000 people seeing your work you might get one sale. That's tuff but true. I have only got as of this time 2,700 followers on Instagram, and you know what I've only sold two prints. Statistics tell the truth but the truth hurts.
This is the hard truth, we love the storey of the underdog that makes it big because that could be us one day. The truth is they are the exception and we are the rule ('He's just not that into you' movie reference). So I have to eat my words, I have to swallow my own pill. I get a lot of feedback about people loving my work, and a few people wanting to buy it, but never action. Action that I can't leave up to chance, I can't leave up to randomness. I have to put my chips into unromantic statistics and pay for it. Pay for advertisements to tell and show people what I do, make and sell. It's not sexy I know but we all have to stop putting these underdog artists on pedastools that we can never obtain. We have to be realistic as artists. We have to start looking at ourselves as a business and not as poor romantics.
What do you think, am I wrong?
Have you failed with ads? Have you found success through ads? Or are you one of the lucky?