Building a portfolio. -
Find people who inspire you and work for them (if you can)
Be different.
Promote yourself through competitions.
Always be professional.
Invest, spend money to make money. (Finding a way to do it for free is even better.)
Being a massive pain about money is vital. It’s hard to make a living off art, and it’s not helped by those who would avoid paying you altogether! Finding ways to save money and earn a bigger profit requires some underhanded tactics (never illegal or dishonest, though) and study in the field of business. You can even give a client the impression of control by adding in a few mistakes for them to notice and ask you to ammend. This creates a sense of teamwork, which makes a client feel more involved, which means they’re more likely to come back for more.
Business cards may get thrown away, but a sense of trust, friendship and reliability will stick with people. They are, however, much more difficult to hand out on a street corner. A well built website is probably the best compromise on that matter. Making a good impact on people by being friendly, charming, funny, well dressed, polite and impeccably British (Whether in real life or on the internet) is the true key to success. It doesn’t matter how good your art is if you manage to offend everyone’s sensibilities.
You can sell even the most mediocre of things with a compliment and a smile.
Being as professional as possible is the key to a successful career. Always meet deadlines, be polite and courteous. Being friendly and agreeable (up to a point) will usually sell you better than anything else. Even if the work isn’t your best at the time, show your client what you’re doing. They’re paying you to act like their imagination and delivering nothing will look a mile worse than delivering a rough idea of your concept.
Common sense tells us never to act shamefully in our work (or home lives). If your bosses emails to you are quite formal then return them with the same level of formality. Acting too familiar with a client might not be a good idea. Even your best friend becomes your boss when money is involved. Keep it that way and focus on the job at hand.
Most professionals use a personal website to promote their work. Some join with galleries (But never DeviantArt, art goes there to putrefy and die) Depending on where you choose to put your work you might get job offers, critiques or an opportunity to sell merchandise. Publishing work on sites like lulu.com or big cartel is easier than ever these days. It’s probably better not to put all your eggs in one basket. Spread your name around using as many (free) options as possible. Link everything back to whatever site you choose as your central hub. Cross pollinating and making a space for yourself wherever you go can be tiring, but spreading a wider net helps to catch more people who are adrift upon the internet. Drawing them into the heart of your work can be as simple as a button click, but you’ll never get it unless you bait a few hooks.
It’s like building an empire. You must merely march in and declare your presence. Eventually you’ll win over the hearts and minds of the native people (and if not, seek out a more suitable nesting ground, but link it to everything around it instead of letting old accounts go to waste.)
Spreading your name around these days is as simple as signing up to Tumblr, Facebook, linkedin or Twitter. The difficult part is not getting lost amid the noise. So make sure you stay true to yourself, stand out and always handle people with as much professionalism as possible. There will always be someone out there willing to bad mouth you and your work but sinking to their level will only make you look bad.
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