This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hi, social school listeners. Welcome back. I'm Chris Guillebeau. Interesting story for you today. There are a lot of artists out there and the majority of them don't make much money.
I don't think that's hugely shocking. And just making art and not making money is fine for some artists, but others do have the aspiration to sell more of their work. Well, today you'll hear about how a successful California illustrator has been able to make more than $25,000 a year helping artists accomplish those business goals. I'll tell you a story in a moment and I'll also include some show notes on other people I know who are doing something similar and having success with it. [Music]
Chris Wilson is a freelance animator and illustrator from San Diego, California, who also sells his art originals and prints.
And those two income streams are how he makes most of his money. But a few years ago, he found himself getting a lot of questions from other artists about the business behind his work. They had specific questions about how to sell their art online, how to grow their audience and get more creative clients. He started answering all those questions in a weekly newsletter. His subscribers found that newsletter so valuable that several of them told him they saved his emails in a special folder.
He figured he can make things easier for them by creating a PDF guide with all of his best answers in one spot. So Chris took a couple of weeks away from his regular artists work and put together a 100 page PDF guide with all the best questions he'd answered in his newsletter. He priced this product at $39 for the basic guide, or $99 for a whole set. This was an experiment and he added a landing page to his website and debuted it to his existing newsletter. In the first month, he made $1,200.
He kept a link to the guide in his weekly newsletter and would get enough purchases every week that over the first year, he averaged anywhere from $300 to $750 per month. After that first year of offering the PDF and continuing to send out the weekly newsletter, he was getting deeper and more detailed questions from the artists who'd purchased the guide. Now he would regularly go back and update the guide with his new information and soon the 100 page PDF had grown to over 200 pages. It was not only getting hard and time consuming to update, but it was becoming more cumbersome for people to navigate and find all the information. So once again, he took a couple of weeks off and created an online video workshop.
So he's gone from guide to online video. And now when a student has a new question, he can just make a new video or audio recording and add it to the course. He says the program is much more streamlined now. Students can search more easily through all the content and they're constantly getting access to new clips as I keep adding to the course. This course also costs quite a bit more than that original PDF.
During the second year of offering this art business workshop, Chris steadily increased the price to $599, which is where it's still at today. Three years in, he makes more than $25,000 a year off this hustle. And the workshop is actually easier to update and maintain than it used to be. So he can offer his students more individual attention. With the price of the workshop, students get access to him via email, phone, and in a private Facebook group.
Chris blocks out a few hours every Monday afternoon to be available. And it's also a benefit to him because he gets to connect with his students and learn how his content is working for them. So far, he's kept his marketing really simple. He uses ConvertKit for his email newsletter, just the same service I use. Once in a while, he posts that weekly newsletter to LinkedIn and Facebook groups.
And he's done a couple of guest posts on other blogs, but he hasn't done much else. The biggest way that his list has grown and he's been able to sell more product is that his subscribers often share his newsletter. To get new artists to sign up, he offers a 10 day email series with nine free lessons on how to use story to sell art. And then only on the 10th day, he pitches them on the paid workshop. Whether they sign up for it or not, he makes sure that the weekly newsletter always has valuable content.
And this free series is what generates the most sales for him. When Chris started this teaching side hustle, he was worried about imposter syndrome and the old stigma of those who teach can't do. Even though he was a successful artist and he was busy with commissions and clients every day. Eventually, Chris realized that his teaching business was growing because he cared. He cared about helping other artists sell their work.
He cared about having good information out there for those looking for answers. And he finally came to believe those who teach care. He loves getting excited emails from students who just made their first sale online. It motivates him to keep improving the course. And naturally, the $25,000 a year inside income doesn't hurt either.
[Music]
All right, so great story. Congratulations, Chris. Now this is not a unique business model. It's in fact a textbook example of what's called information marketing. It's a very classic sales process as well.
Chris shares some free information that is valuable. Then he also has premium information available for sale for those who want more. He also made a natural transition from selling guides to selling a higher priced course. The people who buy a $39 guide are likely different than the people who buy a $599 course. It's not just that they have more money or at least that they're willing to spend more money.
It's also a sign that people spending $600 are more willing to invest time and effort into mastering the material. I have probably purchased a bunch of different guides and books and smaller information products that in all honesty, I haven't really got around to going through and making a task list based off what I learned. But if I pay $600 for a course, I'm probably gonna make myself go through the material even if I get super busy just because I'd taken that investment. Now speaking of models, this model is changing a bit. As I said, it's classic.
He's providing free information. Then there's a premium upsell. He shifted from providing a guide to providing a course. Because this model has become so common, there is a bit more resistance to it than there used to be. And in some ways that means you just have to do a better job.
Like you have to make sure you're truly providing valuable information to the people you're serving. And whatever that premium product is does have real value. It really is gonna make their life better in a measurable way. So here's a couple of tips for you. If you want to create a hustle in this field, and I don't mean the field of teaching people to make money with art, I mean information publishing, information marketing in general, first tip is to provide a real unique selling proposition, which is sometimes called USP.
And that selling proposition, that benefit should be specific. It shouldn't be general. So if you're selling a fitness product, for example, the benefit shouldn't be get healthy or lose weight. It should have some kind of metric attached to it. It should have a clear goal.
Lose 15 pounds in a month, gain 10 pounds of muscle mass, feel better when you look at yourself in the mirror, train for a marathon in three months, whatever it is, the more specific the better. And related to that, it should be results focused, like Chris's project here. Not every artist wants to make money with their art. He's really focused on those who do, but are frustrated and have been unsuccessful trying to sell art online. And the results that he's focusing on, the outcomes that he wants to see, are all about changing that status quo for those students.
It's also important to be a legit authority in whatever field you're teaching in. In other words, do you actually do what you're claiming to show people? Do you have a track record of selling your work online, if that's what you're trying to show people what to do? Have you trained for a marathon in three months? Like there has to be a real connection between what you're offering and your qualifications.
And then lastly, if you can have some kind of wow factor or hook, that will make a big difference as well. Because it is harder to stand out these days. It definitely is an attractive business model with a lot of benefits. You just need to be prepared to work hard at it. But since you're listening to this show, I know you're busy, but you're also willing to invest in yourself and take action.
Speaking of action, if you listen to these stories and you apply the lessons you learned to your own hustle, you will see results. Inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is much better. If you wanna see today's show notes, go to statuswillschool.com/81. We'll link up Chris's work. I'll also link up a couple of other people I know who've been successful in helping artists sell their work.
Thank you for listening. I'm Chris Guillebeau. This is Silence Will School. I'll see you tomorrow. [Music]
