Underrated

This is about the most underrated tools for illustrators and artists. Stop wasting your time on Instagram, the algorithm will not love you back.

Jun 22, 2023

We, as artists, put so much time and effort into Instagram. But what if there’s more out there? What if there are other cool tools and platforms we chose to ignore while giving it all we have to feed the evil Insta algorithm?

Keep on reading, and I’ll share with you my strategy, how to find clients and customers, and create artistic networks.

The Menu for This Week:

🌳 A tool to find Customers

🌳 A tool to find Clients

🌳 A tool for Networking

New Customers*

Let’s define customers as any individuals that would love to get the products you offer for their private use or brands/stores who are interested in wholesale.

The first one and the most ‘underrated’ one of them all is…

….Pinterest. This one wasn’t a surprise if you watched my last video! There I talk all about how Pinterest boosted my sales, drew traffic to my shop, and helped me make a living back when I was working hard on creating my portfolio and trying to get into the illustration world.

I’m strongly convinced that Pinterest gained such a strong place in our hearts as an “inspo board” that we forgot we could use it in any other way. Pinning stuff is a passion of ours (my ‘kitchen’ mood board is dated back to 2013), but Pinterest is so much more!

If you are an artist, maker or illustrator, and you’re not using Pinterest to showcase and promote your stuff, I think you’ve been missing out! Check out how you could introduce this simple tool into your marketing strategy in my video.

And don’t forget to subscribe, like & leave a comment if it’s helpful! Also, if there’s anything you’d like me to talk about in the next videos, let me know as well!

New Clients*

*Clients understood as companies, brands, editorials, publishing houses, marketing agencies etc., that could hire you and commission you for a job, acquire a license, or similar.

It’s not the first time I’m gonna share a few words about LinkedIn here in this publication. This only shows how much I think it deserves your attention. I myself had been avoiding LinkedIn like fire for years, as suited-up people in professional power poses don’t seem to be the kind of crowd who would enjoy illustrations of animals wearing overalls and chubby tigers smiling.

But you know who else is on there? Your potential clients! Art directors, brand managers, self-publishing authors, whoever you’re looking for, chances might be, they’re hanging out on LinkedIn!

Creating your space there means that you’ll have your own small corner to express yourself, share things you find interesting or important (not for blogging, just professional work), and above all, you might connect with your next dream client! Even if a collaboration doesn’t come up instantly after connecting, you never know who noticed you and saved your details for when the right project comes up.

And use it right, engage, comment, and share your achievements, talking to a very professionalized platform.

Just as with everything, I always recommend planning at least one post a week, a rule I should stick to more myself, but also interact with the community in a non-spammy way.

This way, you stay active, but remember to post things that might be relevant to the community you’ve been building on there. It doesn’t have to be exclusively your work or achievements, but also some interesting bits about the subjects that interest you and (maybe?) are reflected in your work.

Give it a try. And let me know if this is a video you’d like to see. I have a lot to share about this topic in particular.

Artistic Network

Every time I find out an illustrator I like doesn’t have a website…. I ask myself a big huge WHY in caps. Why? Where is your website? Where did you hide it? Where is it? Why are you staying in the shadows?

Your own website is the bare minimum of an online presence for an illustrator. It shows you’re taking yourself and your work seriously enough to have invested time and/or money and/or energy into creating and maintaining one. It doesn’t have to be anything super-awesome cool, just a regular simple website to show your work, projects and a few words about you. You can consider Zyro, Wix, Squarespace, or even Adobe Folio (which comes ‘free’ with an Adobe subscription). Watch out for WordPress if you’re not a website wizard. You can check out my struggles with WP a few posts ago.

Think about setting up your Behance if:

you’re taking your first steps in art, illustration, and crafts and still are testing the waters
you have absolutely no idea how to create a website and/or no time to dive into it at the moment
you’re gathering the courage to start showing and sharing your work online
don’t want to invest in your own website YET
have your own website, but want to improve your searchability
enjoy the super quick and easy process of uploading your projects
wanna be present in one more space. The more online platforms you can be present on (in a mindful and active way), the better

My personal experience with Behance was on and off. I had it when I was working as an interior architect and designer, I had it when I designed and made jewelry and I had it when I took my first steps in creating my illustration portfolio, only to abandon and close it sometime after.

I re-opened my Behance profile about a year ago, and even though I’m not the most active one there, I know it’s yet one more space where my work can be found and spotted online. One sneaky detail I noticed and always like mentioning - Behance is an Adobe product, so all the projects created with Adobe tools will receive more spotlight there. So if you work with Procreate (like me) or any other program or traditionally, ignore that and start sharing your work without any pressure!

Youtube=Money?

If you’ve ever wondered how much an artist makes on Youtube, that’s what my next publication (and the video) will be about, with a special guest.

Can you make a living out of it?
Can you get rich (cha-ching) by making videos?
Is it worth the time from a purely monetary standpoint?
Does the investment in the recording gear pay off?

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