Why do artists follow the same unsuccessful paths when the evidence shows they don't work?

Most artists enter the industry and simply follow what everyone else is doing—they ‘follow the sheep off the cliff.’ They’re told to upload to online galleries, find local galleries, try marketplace sites, do some SEO. These seem like the obvious, accepted paths, so people assume they must work. The problem is that these are also the easiest paths—things you can do from your couch with minimal effort—which means they’re impossibly crowded with artists from around the world, making them ineffective. Additionally, many artists lack business expertise and mentorship, so they don’t know what actually works. They’re not learning from successful artists who’ve built real businesses; they’re learning from other struggling artists or from platforms with a vested interest in keeping them dependent. Breaking this cycle requires recognizing that common advice often leads to common (mediocre) results, and that building a real business requires doing the uncommon work that most people avoid.

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Asked by general teaching point · Answered by Nick Friend · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-06-03