The BIGGEST Mistakes Artists Make Selling Online.

Getting to a place where you're making art sales online and not just in real life is hard. And I never want to downplay that. I never want to pretend like it's not a challenge. But there are some really simple things that artists tend to. I guess I'd call them mistakes. Like things that they tend to not do. And I just made an exhaustive list here. I don't even know how many are on this list. I know, you know, for the clicky clickbait things, I'm supposed to have an exact number. It's somewhere around 15 or so. But I'm gonna guarantee that you've done some of these or you're doing some of these. And I think it's really important to talk about it today because if you want to make more sales of your art online.

You need to avoid these. I'm being so serious. And sometimes we're gonna get it right, sometimes we're going to get it wrong. It's totally okay. It's not about shaming you. It's not about getting you to beat yourself up. It's about just the awareness. Because until we can be aware of where we're at and what we're doing, it's really hard to make the shift right. So let's jump into it.

Welcome to the Stop the Starving Artist podcast. My name is Lennon Bone. I'm so glad that you're here today with me. It's truly an honor. Yeah, I keep getting blown away by how many new subscribers we keep getting. How many? I haven't even done a count. I think we've seen like close to 80,000 views on the channel in the last 30 days, which is mind blowing to me. Super, super cool. I don't ever want to take it for granted. You know, I say this to my community, you know, all the time. It's like the artists that I get to work with, the talent that I get to see on a week to week basis, I don't deserve it, you know, like, I'm no different from anyone else. I'm grateful to have this job. I'm grateful to have this business. I'm grateful to get to do this for a living and to get to help you, even for free, even if you don't pay me. Like, I hope that you're finding this stuff helpful in our community. However, like, our goal is to get sales, and I'm on a mission to see a million dollars in sales inside our community. And so far, as of this week, we've seen $264,844 in art sales since January 1st. I feel really great about this. We're also in the middle of a big.

Email list, Basically a whole teaching on email lists and how to grow your email list, how to automate your email list so you're getting sales. So if you are in the community, please make sure you're coming to the calls and checking these out. It is only going to be available to the community for a while. Like, as we're doing it, we're doing it over the next three months. And then after that, I'll be offering it as something for sale. And it won't be expensive. It'll absolutely be affordable. Just something that I think is really, really important for artists to understand, which is, you know, how to use your email list. And of course, I'll be doing some free teachings on it as well, so be on the lookout for those. Okay, let's get out of that whole brain and let's get into these mistakes. Okay? So the biggest mistakes that I'm seeing, and this is no particular order, number one, you are discounting the views that you are getting. We talked about this last week, but this is, like, really, really true. You know.

In order to have a big art business, you first have to have a small one. And you cannot discount who is potentially watching your stuff. You cannot say that just because you're only getting 200 people that one of those people might not be willing to buy. So never, never, never discount the people that are watching you. Never, never, never take it for granted. Never, never, never feel like, okay, well, if I'm only getting 200 people or I only have 20 people on my email list like that, it's not worth nurturing those people, speaking to them like people, right? So that's number one. Number two, not telling people something's for sale. I know this is basic. And if you're like, give me the goods. Listen, this is the goods.

You know how often I hear artists. Like, we did a discussion in one of our community calls, and I said, how often in 2024 did you end up telling people that something was for sale? And it was less than 15 times on average. Less than 15 times. Listen, there are two things that if you just think about getting in front of more people, right? And the people that you are in front of, you think about giving them more opportunities to buy your stuff. You're going to make more sales. So tell people that something's for sale. And brings me to number three, tell them how to buy it, right? Give them Give them instructions. Right? Brings me to number four, make it easy on them. A lot of artists do not make it easy on the buyer. They expect them to do the work or to understand, oh, you got to go click the link in the bio, right? Sometimes you just got to tell people like, hey, the link is in the bio of my Instagram, or hey, the link is down below, right? You hear me? Do it. And then when they click the link, don't send them to some thing that has like 15 other things on there one place. Like, send them to one place. Make it really, really simple. I promise you, if you just made more of an effort to just make it so easy for someone to buy and you told them when something was for sale and you told them how to get to the place, you're going to see more sales, right? I mean, it's just in the age of the Internet, we're so easily distracted. And we have to keep that in mind as we're putting things out online, because if people are distracted, they will miss what's out there. You know what I mean? It's just guaranteed.

Number five, not repeating things that work. So what do I mean by this? I see a lot of like, literally in our call this week, and we were discussing emails, and one of the pieces of advice that I gave was make sure that, you know, you are repeating things that you're saying in your content. Repeat those things in your email. Don't make it harder on yourself, right? And someone said, oh, well, I'm worried that people are going to get bored or they're going to feel like they're just hearing the same thing over and over. First of all, you know, if you think about it, on average, your audience online, if you're doing social media, which if you're watching my videos, that's probably the goal, right? So on social media, 1 to 10% of your audience on a post is going to see that post, right? Sorry. 1 to 10% of your whole audience will see a post, right? And if you think about your email.

You have the opportunity to see 30, 60, 80% of your audience opening that email and clicking on it. So two ways there, right? It's like a small percentage is seeing one post. So why not repeat the same information multiple times, tell the same story multiple times, repost something that worked really well two months ago, right? And at the same time, be okay with telling the same stories on your email, putting that content in different places. Like, don't overwork yourself, because, I mean, that's the stuff that's killing you. That's the stuff that's getting you to burn out is you feel like everything has to be fresh, everything has to be new. It's not true. Right? So.

Stop feeling like you have to be something new all the time. Totally. Okay, Number six, seeing content marketing as a burden. This is a huge mistake, seeing content marketing as a burden. I watched a guy on YouTube, I think it was last week, and he literally said.

Given business advice. And he literally said, content marketing is like the worst thing that artists have ever, ever had to do. And, you know, it's like the.

Basically like the shit sandwich that everybody has to eat. And this really bummed me out. Like, he's totally okay. Like, I'm not shaming him for saying it or saying that's wrong. But, like, when I think about how, like, that really bums me out because that's how you see it, and you feel like you have to do it, then you feel obligated to do it. Right? And as I say all the time, obligation is a breeding ground for resentment. So you start to resent it. And the more you resent something, the heavier it feels. And the heavier it feels, the less likely you are to do it and the less likely you are to find a way that makes it easy and fun for you. So the more you tell yourself this story of, oh, this is such a burden, I have to be all these things, right? You know, you play the victim. I've done it. I'm not saying that it's something that I've never done. I've done it. I've done it this week. Right? But.

It'S just a very, very common thing. And if that's something you struggle with, I would advise you to be cautious of what you're watching on the Internet. Put things in front of you that are going to motivate you and inspire you and bring your nervous system some sort of rest, as opposed to, you know, people that complain about things and make everything seem like it's, you know, just this big task or that artists are a victim of something. Like, if you're running a business, you're running a business. I don't care if you're an artist or you're a hamburger flipper or you're a frickin, you know, wrench salesman. Like, all three of you have the same responsibility, which is to get your product in front of people. You know, as a business owner, in which as an artist, you are. If you're trying to sell your work, this is a responsibility you have. And so you can either see that as a burden or you can see that as a gift. You can see that as an opportunity. Right? And so be very, very careful about that. Number seven, not communicating with your warmest leads. So in our email call in the community last week, I asked who has an email list? And nearly everybody had an email list. And on average, I think most of them had between 50 and 100 people on their list. Some had hundreds or even over a thousand. But what I saw was smaller numbers, which maybe that's where you are. Maybe you don't have one at all. And if you don't, this doesn't necessarily apply to you. But if you have an email list of some sort, like the thing I saw, on average, people were not sending out consistent communication with their email lists.

This is a wasted opportunity. You've got people there, right, that could be willing to buy. There's a reason they're on your list. For some reason, those are like, what we would consider to be warm leads or people that are potentially interested in, like, paying you money. And you're not communicating with those people because you feel like the list is too small. Right. Big mistake. Like, don't overwork yourself. Keep it simple. Share a story from your life that week. Talk about one of the things we talked about in this class, and this is just a quick tip for your email stuff.

Instead of being a creator of new content, be a curator. What's something you found this week that was inspiring that goes with your mission as an artist that would allow, like, your ideal buyers to be to have value when they open your email? It's not just like a sales email every time. Right. I think it's really important. Okay.

Number eight.

Not collecting evidence. Okay, now these are kind of chicken scratch. I did, like, again, I wanted to go off the cuff and feel like these are really things that I'm hearing a lot. So what do I mean by collecting evidence? A lot of times, if you're running your art business, things feel like they're not working, you know, so.

The thing we have to do is collect the evidence that says it is. Now, this is not about.

Just, you know, being blindly happy about something or, you know, like lying to ourself. But for instance, if you have showed up and done the work that you need to do this week, then your business is working because you are working it. Right. Are you getting, like, the revenue that you want? Maybe not. But the more that you can see this side of it, the more motivated you will be to keep moving. So I think it's really important to collect evidence every week that says, a, I did the work that I was supposed to do, B, I saw some sort of results and I collected those results, right? And anytime you make a dollar, like, treat that with so much respect and honor. So, you know, it could be as simple as every week, just sit down and write down the things that you did, the things that you actually accomplished, right? And then every week, you know, if you just look at that and say, okay, there's some evidence that says this is working or I am doing the work, and even in terms of like, dollars made, if it's 10 bucks, if it's 100 bucks, if it came from an existing client, if it came from a new client, doesn't matter, right? You're building a business. And.

Don'T trap yourself by saying it all has to be one specific way that all the money has to come from new clients or that an old client isn't as valuable as a new one.

Business people will tell you that you are going to get the most money from your existing clients, right? So don't feel like you haven't done the job if you got a sale from an existing client, right? You've done the job even if your online part isn't working as well as you'd hoped. Right now, Totally. Okay? Collect the evidence that says your business is working and that you're making moves, because the more you can do that, the more you're going to feel comfortable continuing to go. There's a analogy of a flywheel. And the idea behind a flywheel is that sometimes it takes two people to get this thing moving. And then eventually once the momentum starts, right? One person can do it. And then just to keep it moving, it takes just a little bit of motion, like little strength because it's already in motion, that momentum happens. Building your business, especially on the Internet, in the beginning, will be the hardest. And then once it has momentum, it's so much easier. So much easier, right? So allow yourself to work for that moment and not shame yourself for not being there yet. Because on the Internet, business doesn't grow like this. It's not just a curve, right? It's usually feels very, very flat. A little bit of growth, little bit of growth, and then all of a sudden you see a spike, right? It's like the stock market. You see a little spot or a big spike, and then it levels back out. And then you see another big spike, and then it levels back out. But that can't happen if you're not repeating things if you're not continuing to move forward. So collect the evidence that says you are doing the work and that it is working in some way.

Number nine, you're not refining based on the evidence, right? So once you've collected this evidence, you're going to see some things that need improvement. And so the question that you have to ask is, what then needs refining? Okay.

I am a big believer, and I didn't used to be. I used to hate looking at numbers. I used to hate seeing, you know, how many people are visiting the website, how many, how much revenue is coming in from those visits, you know, all these kinds of things. Like, I hated it, but I hated it because I was afraid that it was a reflection of having a business that wasn't going to work. Right? It's like every time I looked at it, I was reminded of what wasn't working instead of looking to say, okay, that's not a bad thing, that's normal. And the only way I can get it to work is to understand these numbers, right? And see which ones need to be improved. So when you collect that evidence that says it is working, there's two things you can do. One, you can refine the things that aren't working as well as you want, right? You can throw away things that aren't working at all, and you can double down on the things that are working the best. There's an interesting story of a guy who had been doing social media for five years and consistently. Like, some of you think you're doing social media consistently, you're not doing it consistently. And that's not me throwing shade, it's just for real. If you're not posting three to five times a week, you're not doing it consistently. I'm talking. This guy was doing daily. I don't do it consistently three to five times a week. In the last couple weeks, I haven't, right? Because I'm trying to show up here. This is where I'm putting my energy. And so this guy was doing it for five years daily, and at some point he finally goes, I'm about to give up. And somebody on his team goes, wait a second. This one is getting twice the views as the others. What can we learn from this and how can we make this work for us? Like, what could happen here? So he looked at that, and when I say double, I'm talking like, that one got 400 views while the rest got 200. Right? I ain't talking like 10,000 and this one got 20. I'm talking 400 versus 200. And so he took that idea or that format, doubled down on doing that over and over and over again. And then it started to hit and it started to click and the next thing he knew, his business had grown so substantially, it was unreal. He couldn't believe it, right? All because he took the time, or actually someone on his team took the time to say, wait, this one works better. So look at the things that are working. What can you refine? What can you throw away, right? And what can you double down on? So that's number nine. Number 10, you have this gap mentality. You're looking all the time at.

Things that.

Like, there's a concept called the gap and the gain. And this book, there's a book that's co written by Dr. Benjamin Hardy. I would recommend this to everybody. But Gap in the gain. Great book.

But the premise of the gap in the gain is that.

If you walk into the mall and you're.

Trying to get to the food court and you see the map, you came in the south entrance from down here, and you're right here, and the food court is way over here. Meanwhile, your friend came in from the north entrance. And so they only got to go this far, right? So when you're living in the gap, you're constantly looking at, oh, well, so, and so's over here. They only got this far to go, right? And I have this whole route to take to get here. Meanwhile, you haven't looked at the game, you haven't looked at the fact that, like, you came through the entrance, like you've gone this whole way. Not to mention, you know, if you go move the map up, you came all the way from your home, right? And before that you, you came from another home that you lived in years ago. You've gone so far and you refuse to look at how far you've come. You're only looking at how far you have left to go. And the more that you can focus on the gain versus the gap, this is essentially like another version of collecting evidence. And I love this concept. So, you know, keep yourself out of the gap mentality. It's a dangerous, dangerous place to be. And that brings me to number 11, which is that you put pressure or shame on yourself. There is no room when you're building anything to shame yourself or pressure yourself. Why? Like, what do you have to prove to anybody? Nothing.

If someone comes and trolls you, who cares, right? It took way too long for me, you know, and I get a lot. I mean, you guys are on YouTube honestly, are the sweetest. Like, I get the best comments on YouTube, but on Instagram or on some other places where they don't get the longer context, they don't. It's not as nice. Especially when I run an ad. People are brutal. And that used to really hurt my feelings because I wanted everybody to understand me, right? And so I put this pressure on myself to try to get everybody to understand. And then I realized, like, not everybody's gonna understand. I finally got it right. And I would shame myself, and I would shame myself for the things I didn't do. I would shame myself for not being far enough along. I shame myself for all kinds of stuff. And when I stopped doing that and realized that I'm just a human being working on something and that none of this, like, it matters, but it doesn't really matter. You know what I mean? We put so much pressure on it. It's like, why aren't we putting just excitement into it? Why can't we just think, wow, what a cool thing that I get to work on building a business, doing something that I really love to do? I mean, that's crazy, right? So there's no need to pressure yourself. There's no need to shame yourself for what you haven't done or where you aren't. It's pointless.

Number 12, I think you're focusing on everything except getting in front of people, aside from your art. So put making your art to the side here. I see a lot of artists that will. That will think about. I need to do my website. I need to make sure that I have all this whole marketing plan in place. I need to make sure that. Listen, if you just focus on getting in front of more people and making them more offers, like, that's it. Because the longer you make your list, the more pressure you're going to feel. And this goes back to, like, adding pressure to your plate every day. You really have four things to think about. Maybe I'll do a whole video on this. There's a concept that I learned I really liked, but one, to take care of yourself in some sort of physical, spiritual way. Like, how do you feel? Right. Two, to make some.