Tag: business

Instagram for Artists – How I got 10K Followers | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 62

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Hi there, Liron here! Today I will give you my BEST advice for success on Instagram, aimed at ARTISTS in particular.

This is based on an article I wrote that you can find here: How I Got 10K Followers on Instagram.

Instagram & Other Social Media Platforms

Let’s talk a bit about Instagram in the context of other social media platforms.

Instagram is undoubtably one of the HOTTEST platforms at the moment. Great engagement, very active users and a huge potential for success.

But before we dive head first, I want to provide a little caveat. Never put all of your eggs in one basket. Instagram is great now, but it won’t last forever.

Competition increases, engagement goes down and the organic reach will probably also go down with time.

So diversify and try to produce content for as many platforms as you can.

With that being said, let’s get started with the advice! (:

1. Posting A LOT

This is a no brainer. If you want to build an audience, you have to post regularly and post A LOT!

How much? As much as you can.

I think one post a day is the minimum. I personally do 3-4, but less than 1 a day is really little.

2. Hashtags

Hashtags are the main means for making your work discoverable. Make sure to use as many as possible (the maximum allowed is 30).

Also do your research and figure out which ones work for you. Rotate them around and try out new things.

3. Stories

Stories are really important for improving the connection with your audience. But I do believe they also help you reach new audiences.

Their reach is much higher than posts, and they are more easily accessible from the top area of the app.

So many people passively scroll through stories, but will never see most of your posts.

Also try using hashtags in stories. It increases their reach even more.

4. Engagement – Inside and Outside

Inside – by that I mean with your own followers. Reply to messages and comments.

Outside – engage with other peoples’ posts. Leave comments and likes. And make sure it’s all GENUINE. Fake comments are easy to spot, and hurt your brand.

5. Business Account

Not sure about this one, but it seems to me like the moment I switched to a business account my engagement and reach improved.

However, the irrefutable advantage of a business account is the access you get to the Insights feature.

This shows you your top performing posts and a whole host of useful information.

6. Buffer and Efficiency

Make sure to streamline your work process in whatever way possible.

Buffer is a really useful app for scheduling posts to different social media channels. Plus, for Instagram you can’t schedule posts, so it’s really my only way of reaching my audience at times when I SLEEP (haha, different time zones…).

Conclusion

I hope you found this episode helpful.

Instagram is such a hot platform at the moment, so I’m trying to squeeze everything I can out of it, while I can.

In the future it’s going to become harder to build an audience. It will be much more challenging to grow.

It was easier 2 years ago. And it was still easier 1 year ago. And it’s easier now than it’s going to be a year from now.

So go for it!

And with that being said, let’s move on to the artist corner.

Artist Corner

In this episode I talked about Dean Mitchell, and incredible painter working in several mediums.

His oils focus on people, while his watercolors feature scenes more often. I love all of his work, but his figurative paintings and portraiture are spectacular.

You can check out more of his work on his website: Dean Mitchell

Here’s where you can find me

Check out my YouTube Channel – Liron Yanconsky

Or ask me questions on Instagram – @LironYanIL or Snapchat – @LironYan3

I hope you enjoyed this one. Take care, and we’ll talk again really soon,

– Liron

Real-Time Narrated Painting Tutorials – YouTube Experiment Results | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 60

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Hi there, Liron again here! Today I want to share with you my recent YouTube experiment – posting only real-time narrated painting tutorials – and talk about the results.

Let’s get going!

YouTube Experiment

Over the last few months, many viewers mentioned how what they are missing are full painting tutorials. Meaning – they didn’t want time-lapse vids. They wanted to hear my thoughts as I painted.

Following these requests, I decided to give this a try for six videos, which are two weeks.

This means that for the past two weeks, I’ve been only posting longer (40+ minutes) tutorials.

Feedback I Got

The vast majority of feedback was very positive. People were commenting how hearing my thought process is really useful, and how real-time allows them to follow along the action.

On the other hand, there were probably one or two comments saying how the videos are too long, and how they preferred shorter vids.

Results on YouTube

This is more about my YouTube analytics. I noticed several interesting things here.

First, one of the videos has done really well, gaining over 10K views. This is a lot for me, as I average at around 2K views, I would say.

Aside from that one, two other videos show some promise, and will perhaps gain more views with time.

I did see an immediate increase in watch time, which makes sense – as I was posting much longer videos.

But with that, there were also more views in general. This could be attributed to the 10K views video, but I’m not sure about that.

Also, I did notice an increase in subscribers growth, which was very slow for a while now. I averaged for a while around 40-50 new subs a day, and then increase temporarily moved the average to around 70, with the peak at 100+.

These are great results.

YouTube Channel Future Direction

My main insight from this experience was that I MYSELF am interested in variety. After such a long time period of posting only these longer videos, I started craving making shorter videos.

Another insight was that you can’t please everyone, which is 100% okay. So I might as well do what interests me.

My plan is to now incorporate what I learned over the last two weeks into my routine. We’ll go back to the normal series (The Paint Show, Painting Masters), but I’ll also try and do at least 1-2 full processes every two weeks.

Conclusion

I hope this experiment pushed the needle a little more in the direction of me improving as an artist and a teacher. And I’ll keep you updated on future experiments and new ideas I get.

And now, it’s time for today’s Artist Corner!

Artist Corner

In this episode I talked about Jasmine Huang, an incredible Taiwanese watercolor painter.

Her paintings have a beautiful realistic vibe to them. She uses a very unique color palette and is very well-versed in wet-in-wet.

Coincidentally, she is also the wife of Chien Chung Wei, who I featured in a recent episode of Painting Masters. I believe I will dedicate an episode to her as well (:

The best place to check out here work would be Facebook:
Jasmine Huang on Facebook

Here’s where you can find me

Check out my YouTube Channel – Liron Yanconsky

Or ask me questions on Instagram – @LironYanIL or Snapchat – @LironYan3

I hope you enjoyed this one. Take care, and we’ll talk again really soon,

– Liron

Anchor Podcast, Sales Funnel & Patreon | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 47

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Today I want to give you a quick update about my work and what I’ve been up, especially in regards to my new podcast on the Anchor app, my sales funnel and quitting Patreon.

Anchor Podcast

There’s this app for podcasting called Anchor. This month I decided to go all in on it and see what happens.

So for the entirety of November 2018, I plan on posting an episode a day on the app.

Unlike this podcast, there I’m posting shorter and quicker snippets, talking about how my day was, what I’m working on and so on.

I want to taste it and see if it has potential in addition to this podcast. You can actually find me there by searching (any podcast directory – iTunes, Google Store, Alexa, iHeart Radio, anywhere) for “Liron Yanconsky”.

Sales Funnel

This one’s going to be quicker. I finally finished and launched my third course, called Sketching People MASTERCLASS.

It’s more robust than the other courses, and so I priced it at 97$ (you get a 7-day free trial to try it out first).

I sold 3 of these so far, which is really nice, as the profit margins are much better (;

And I’m currently running Facebook ads and they are starting to pop and work for me.

This is one of my main sources of income, so it’s nice knowing I can start relying on it a little more.

Quitting Patreon

I talked about this on YouTube, Instagram and now here on the podcast as well.

I quit Patreon because (1) I don’t like to ask for money – tip jar style. I’d much rather have you buy a course or a book and learn something you want.

And (2) It stifled my ability to share in other platforms (as I would think to myself – hmm, this is good, maybe I should “save” this for Patreon).

I didn’t like that feeling of creating a wall between my content and you.

And by the way – I have NOTHING against the platform or the people on it. For some it is actually a GREAT match, and allows them to monetize their art and creation and actually make a living.

But I feel like it’s just not for ME (:

And that’s basically it for today’s episode! Now let’s move on to the artist corner.

Artist Corner

Today I talked about Lena Amstrand. She is a Swedish watercolor painter who works very loosely.

She loves to portray mood, atmosphere and especially – water.

You can check out his work here: Lena Amstrand

And here’s where you can find me

Check out my YouTube Channel – Liron Yanconsky

Or ask me questions on Instagram – @LironYanIL or Snapchat – @LironYan3

I hope you enjoyed this one. Take care, and we’ll talk again really soon,

– Liron

My Morning Routine | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 38

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Hi there! Today I want to share with you my morning routine, and talk about how it saves my life on a regular basis.

Morning Routine

My morning routine is something that slowly and naturally developed over the last 2 years.

Here’s what it ended up being like.

  • I meditate for as long as I feel like it (usually 10-20 minutes). I try to observe my thoughts without judging them.
  • Then I write down anything and everything that came and comes to mind in my notebook. This helps me revisit memories in a more emotionally detached state of mind, and learn about myself.
  • I write down things I’m grateful for. This is my daily exercise in gratitude, and I find it to be incredibly important.
  • I watch a Gary Vee video (usually close it after 5 minutes because I have to start working).

This morning routine is really helpful in getting me started with my day, and organizing my thoughts.

How My Morning Routine Saves My Life

When you are your own boss, there are challenges that accompany that.

I am very grateful for having the freedom in time, and doing what I want. This is not to be taken for granted. But with that, sometimes it’s a challenge staying on the right path. Sometimes it’s a challenge even knowing where to go.

This is what this routine helps me with. It helps me observe myself and understand my patterns, thoughts and fears. It also helps me practice gratitude.

This is crucial when you are the person at the top / independent. It’s a lonely place at times, and you need all the strength you can get.

Artist Corner – Fabio Cambranelli

Today I featured Fabio Cambranelli, who’s an incredible Brazilian watercolor and acrylics painter.

He does many florals, and has a very interesting technique. He lifts A LOT, uses wet-in-wet a lot, and makes the most out of each wash. He works with watercolor the way they were meant to be used, pushing them to their limits.

You can check out his work here:

And Here’s where you can find me (:

You can support me on Patreon

Check out my YouTube Channel – Liron Yanconsky

Or ask me questions on Instagram – @LironYanIL or Snapchat – @LironYan3

And this is it. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and I’ll talk to you again real soon!

– Liron

I’m Visiting The USA | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 37

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Hi there! Today’s podcast episode is a personal / blog update about my upcoming visit to the USA, and some additional updates.

Visiting the USA

I will be visiting for the entirety of August (2nd – 29th). I’m visiting family in Cleveland, Ohio.

I’m really looking forward to this time. It will give me an opportunity to recharge and reset, and perhaps refresh my vision for the future.

In addition, I’m pretty happy to visit my family! (: We may also visit Canada.

YouTube Channel VS Painting

This is something that’s been on my mind for a while now.

I feel like I’m putting A LOT of work into the YouTube channel, and not enough time into painting and making art.

I think I need to rebalance this. I’m unsure if this means going down to 2 vids a week, or less, but it’s something in that range.

I’m actually considering taking 2 weeks of a complete break from YouTube for a hard reset, but we’ll see.

I don’t want to give up the possible upside / potential, but I do want to make sure I don’t burn myself out.

Results VS Expectations

This is something that pops from time to time. I sometimes feel like my progress isn’t “fast enough”, or that I’m not getting better as fast as I can.

This is of course a little ridiculous. I am working as hard as I can, and I am doing my best. I need to re-sharpen my gratitude and acceptance skills! (:

IGTV

Finally, just wanted to mention this awesome platform.

Instagram created an additional app called IGTV. It’s like YouTube, or a TV, only made for mobile. The videos are vertical, and it’s just fun to use.

I’m posting A LOT there (almost every day), so make sure to check it out. You can get there by visiting my Instagram page, and clicking where it says IGTV.

Artist Corner – Tim Wilmot

Finally, today I mentioned Tim Wilmot. He is an incredible watercolor painter from the UK.

He has – what I think are – some of the best YouTube tutorials out there. Be sure to check out his work:

And Here’s where you can find me (:

You can support me on Patreon

Check out my YouTube Channel – Liron Yanconsky

Or ask me questions on Instagram – @LironYanIL or Snapchat – @LironYan3

And this is it for today, I hope you enjoyed this one, and we’ll talk soon!

– Liron