[Progress Thread] Artists journey to Fastlane

[Nikorasu]

I’ve made posts here before about 5 years ago at the start of my journey to turn my art into a Fastlane business. Back then I was very naive to say the least and had no idea what I was in for. My posts came off more like deluded day dreaming than any concrete plan of action. But 5 years have flown by and in that time I’ve taken classes to improve my art skill and business knowledge, Have won some writing contests and even been self-published in a collaborative project.

With that said, even factoring in my day job and other responisbilities, I feel like I should be way way farther than I am now.


So with this thread I plan to actively record my journey to becoming a Fastlane artist. I’m confident that eventually I can make 6 figures or more from my art with a good percentage of that being passive and in line with the CENTS commandments.



My target this year is to make $5000 a month in sales from my art, with the ultimate target of making upwards of $30,000 a month in a creative business. A pretty ambitious target, I know. How do I plan to make this Fastlane dream a reality? Here’s a Birdseye view of my current art business idea:


- Improve my art and writting skills (complete)

- Find a niche (complete?)

- Start a project within that niche (in progress)

- Release project

- Marketing

- Build a reputation / known brand in that niche

- Sell and release products until $5k profit

- Create a course / educational material

- Scale an educational course driven business within my niche to $30,000k a month


So essentially I’m creating a moderately successful art business and brand, releasing a project, and then creating an Educational business to help other artists achieve similar success with their projects.
This business model is pretty common within the online artist community and in my opinion its possibly one of the only models that allows modern artists to achieve 6 figures following the CENTS commandments. I have a few case studies of this working successfully and I have a potential niche that is underserved that could lead to a decent profit.


My first obstacle is becoming a leader in my niche as an actual artist. So when I release the “How-to” it’s reputable and backed with experience.



So PHASE 1: Start a successful art business within my niche


Then PHASE 2: Create an educational course business of digital content and scale it to Fastlane


Phase 1 will be the most difficult. My first business idea is to release a series of prints within my niche and I plan to share that complete process in this thread.



I’m welcoming any feedback on what I have currently. I’m determined to be one of the few threads in these forums for artists who have dreams of going the Fastlane route.

Thanks!

 

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[Nikorasu]

PHASE ONE: Art Business
(April 13th 2024)

The game plan is the same as any business:

1 - Find / build a community

2 - Start a conversation

3 - Find pain points

4 - Offer solutions

5 - See if there’s interest

6 - Do a test run

7 - Get feedback

8 - Offer a product


The difference between an art business and other business is that an art business is typically solving the problem of identity.


Objectively any pair of pants will do, but what pair you choose says something about you. What you stand for, what you believe in, what “tribe” you belong to or what tribe you want to be perceived as belonging to. If that makes any sense. Its a problem of communication and identity.




So my goal with my art is to first become a part of a tribe and speak their language. Find my niche community and start interacting with them. The product I create is an accessory to a certain lifestyle.





Step one: Find and build a community
I’ve found my potential niche. Something that I naturally gravitate to and know a lot about already. The plan is to create a community of my own around these interests, and then sale my art skill through it, starting with a social media account focusing mainly on Instagram and TikTok.

Main focus: Instagram
Secondary focus: TikTok
Strategy:
Create a landing page / blog site
Put together 31 pieces of content around 1 subject consisting of 3 articles, 10 Reels, 15 carousel posts, 3 image posts.
Create a small art product to sell along side the content drop.


I don’t plan to post daily on these platforms but maybe 3 times a week so one subject matter should last about little over 2 months worth of content.
I have my first subject for this content and Im giving myself a month to put this together.



If anyone has any thoughts on my current strategy or advice feel free to chime in!

 

[StrikingViper69]

1. Have a cheap product, E.g. prints
2. Sell with ads
3. Advertise originals for a high price to the people that bought the cheap thing

So far you’ve mentioned nothing about the art you’re going to make, and your art seems to be an excuse to become a guru and teach artists online business.

Let’s see some art!

 

[Nikorasu]

My goal is to do a limited print run at first. Starting with a landing page for those interested to sign up and be notified when the series drops.

So would you say targeted ads to my niche is just as good as growing a following organically?

The end goal is to have a “storefront“ brand to sell my art through.

The storefront brand allows me to explore different subjects, products, and shamelessly market without harming my artist brand where eventually, the educational content will be presented.

Heres some Art I drew recently and the art style I'm going for for this project. This took maybe 40mins. The illustrations for this project will take 10hrs total each.



The subject is mostly targeting males ages 13-30

as far as my art being an excuse to become a guru, I’d say the digital educational content is a means to an end to create art with a reliable passive income source funding it.

I make art that sells, and then teach other artists how to do the same with a course.

That course brings in income so I can keep creating freely

the more projects I finish and sell, the more reputable my courses become

rinse and repeat.

 

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