my newsletter has 61 subscribers and made more money than my instagram with 14k
numbers check for anyone who still thinks follower count is the thing:
instagram: ~14.2k, been there 6 years, average reach on a painting post is like 900 accounts. sold 2 originals off it this year.
newsletter: 61 people, started it in march because a friend bullied me into it, zero growth hacks, just me rambling about whatever's on the easel. sold 4 pieces off it.
same paintings. same prices. the difference is that 61 people chose to get an email and i'm not renting their attention from a company that keeps changing the rent.
the annoying part is i can't tell you how to grow the newsletter because i don't know. half the list is people i already knew. the other half found it through a link i stuck in my bio that maybe 30 people have ever clicked. it's not a strategy, it's just a smaller room.
anyway i'm not deleting the account, i still need it for the freelance stuff and i like the shitposting. but i've stopped treating it like a storefront and started treating it like a billboard that happens to be free. the store is 61 people in an inbox.
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This is really interesting to me because my instinct has always been that the email thing is a waste of time when you've got no following. 61 people sounds tiny but 4 sales off 61 is honestly a crazy ratio, and 2 off 14k is basically a rounding error. How often do you send it? I keep thinking about starting one but I already feel like I'm stealing time from painting to write about painting, which feels backwards. Though I guess a short one is better than nothing. Do you put the new work in there first before Instagram or does it not matter?
The "stealing time from painting" worry is real but I think it's backwards. Writing down what you did and why is part of the work. I keep a notebook on every piece, short notes, no prose. When I have to explain to someone why a weld sits where it sits, I understand it better myself.
On first look: I'd put it in front of the small list before the crowd. Those 61 already decided they care. Give them the first look and they stay.
the notebook thing is a good call and i hate it a little because it sounds like homework, but "when i have to explain why a weld sits where it sits" is exactly the thing. the explaining IS the thinking. i've noticed i only really know what a painting is about after i've tried to type it out badly first.
the first-look thing though, i've been doing the opposite and didn't clock it. i dump new work on instagram the second it's dry because that's the dopamine, then mention it to the list a week later like an afterthought. which is insane given the 61 are the ones actually buying. flipping that this week.
every other week, mostly. sometimes it slips to three and nobody dies.
the "stealing time from painting" thing, i get it, i felt that for months before i actually started. but here's the thing, it doesn't take the time you think. i write mine in like 25 minutes, usually the night before, half of it is just me going "this underpainting looked like shit for four days and then it didn't." it reads like a text from a friend, not a blog post. the second i start trying to sound like a newsletter is the second i want to quit.
and yeah, new work goes in the email first. like a week early, sometimes just a bad phone pic before it's even varnished. that early access is basically the whole pitch. the 61 people get the thing before the algorithm does, and they know it, and that's why they open it.
the follower thing genuinely does not matter for this. you could start one tomorrow with zero audience and get your first five subs from people who already like your stuff in real life.