- You know what?
Disney, Heman, Transformers,
these guys have been using the same strategy
for the last 40 years and it's always worked.
Hey, everybody, this is Roberto Blake of robertoblake.com.
Helping you create something awesome today.
So, today, I wanna get into more of creative career advice.
I wanna specifically talk to online animators and artists.
And I know that a lot of you
are hurting and struggling right now
because of things like the YouTube algorithm.
I get questions about how to be
a successful online or digital animator today,
all the time.
And it's interesting to me because,
you have to remember for context,
that I became a graphic designer and web designer
and then it went into marketing
and video and all these other things.
Because when I was trying and wanting to do animation,
about 15, 20 years ago,
this is a very different version
of the internet and the online world.
The barriers to entry into technology
was like a whole different category.
And there was no open source.
There was no DeviantArt, there was no YouTube.
None of those things.
So, to me, the idea that it's hard
to make it as an artist today, I don't see it.
I understand though that some people don't have
the business or the marketing nuance
to understand what to do.
So, I'm gonna provide you with those answers.
I'm gonna tell you exactly what you would
need to do today to be successful
as an animator or as an illustrator,
using social media and using online marketing tactics.
Because I see creatives,
whether it's photographers, filmmakers.
I've done it producing content, as well.
Whether it's the YouTube channel,
the podcast, or whatever else I'm doing.
I've seen it, I've done it,
I know exactly what you would need to do.
And if you have the artistic talent,
the odds are, if you did this right,
you could make a ridiculous amount of money.
Alright, Roberto, so how do I actually do it?
Well, it's actually really straightforward.
The problem is that a lot of people are romanticizing
and focusing on individual platforms.
Instead of building an overall brand.
Part of that is a lot of animators and artists
are focused on YouTube
because you can monetize there
and make quote, unquote easy ad money.
And that's not the answer.
Ultimately, you have to remember that all these shows
that we grew up watching on television,
Transformers, GI Joe, all the Disney stuff,
they didn't make any money being on television.
They made money by using television,
as 20 minutes, an hour of free content
that ultimately would create brand awareness
and use that to drive sales of a product.
Meaning all the action figures and toys
that we used to play with.
And if you're me, like, that was a lot of them.
That was like, I was a little spoiled in that regard.
I got every Ninja Turtle and every GI Joe
and a lot of the Transformers.
Not the Voltron Lions, unfortunately.
So, it was a thing, right?
So, if I were trying to do this now,
if I was like 20 or 18 right now,
in the golden age of the internet
that we currently have between
YouTube and Instagram and Facebook,
I'd be killing it.
Because the way that I would approach it is this.
Even if I couldn't make a crap ton
of money on YouTube right away,
I would be distributing Instagram as well,
doing like 60 second shorts.
And I wouldn't be doing it to promote my YouTube channel
and get traffic over there.
Instead, I would be sending people to
like my online store like Redbubble
or to my DeviantArt or something
or to Cafe Press to buy posters
of the characters.
Because I would be doing world building.
So, I would be selling posters,
I would be selling like shirts,
I would be selling merchandise,
using my Instagram and using my Facebook.
So, that means, when I get the traffic from Instagram,
I would be using my bio link out
and sending them to like my online store
with all the t-shirts and posters and mugs
and all the things for
whatever their favorite character is.
I would be using Facebook to be able to get people
to either come to my website
and ask me for commissions or to hire me.
And I would also use some of my Facebook posts
to push out to my YouTube channel
to get more traffic that way.
And I would also be using my Facebook
sometimes to sell the merch, as well.
So that's how I would be using
those social media platforms.
By posting 60 second videos directly to the platform,
not linking out from YouTube.
And the other thing that I would be doing
is I would be posting stills.
I would be posting character sketches behind the scenes.
And I would be doing all of that
and producing content and building brand.
Even as an animator, as much as animator is hard work,
I'd also consider doing a very short web comic on my site,
as just another piece of content to build more traffic.
And I could always film myself
doing the behind the scenes of that web comic.
And if I'm not an animator, and I'm an illustrator,
than I'd definitely build a web comic.
But then I'd also build a YouTube channel
around the behind the scenes of the web comic
and also drawing tutorials and illustrations tutorials.
Not unlike Draw with Jazza does, Josiah Brooks.
I met him, he's a great guy.
He's one of my favorite creative YouTubers.
Guys should definitely check out his stuff, if you haven't.
I'll link it up here in probably an info card.
But like, Draw with Jazza is one of the best examples
of how to build a brand and a business
around your creativity that I think I've ever seen.
And so, you could do things like that.
Some of my favorite online comics
are like, you know, stuff from
Tim Buckley, Ctrl+Alt+Del.
Back in the day, Apple Geeks by Mohammed Haque.
Megatokyo by Fred Gallagher.
Just all kinds of stuff.
So, I know that this has been successful,
even in a time where we didn't have nearly as much benefit
to be able to use social media
and content platforms like YouTube
and was much harder to monetize them.
So, by building out a whole brand here.
And again, everyone on YouTube,
when they get started, no one makes money.
Like, for the most part, as far as AdSense.
So, by doing and building from the very beginning,
your characters and your merchandise
and setting that up and using social media
from the very beginning, the odds are,
you probably initially make more money doing that
than worrying about the YouTube ad revenue.
So, worrying about competing in YouTube
versus uploading short animations
directly to Instagram and Facebook
that then get people to buy your merchandise
because then they care about the content,
the characters, and the world building.
See, that's the mistake.
And then, even from a YouTube perspective,
artists are getting this wrong
and thinking that they always
have to show a finished product.
IE, I always have to show the animation thing that I made
versus you could be showing behind the scenes
as you're working up to that.
You could also be doing tutorial content
that's search-friendly, as you're building up to that
that also helps the rest of the community.
And then, you could be showing the finished product.
And what this does,
is it gives you more opportunities to make money.
Because if you're doing tutorial content,
you can do affiliate marketing
for all the tools that you use as an artist.
On your website, if you're an artist
and you're doing the web comic,
you could be doing affiliate marketing.
Again, list all the tools and all the gear
that you used to produce the web comic
in addition to maybe selling something
that's print on demand in terms
of an anthology of your comic
or going directly to Amazon
through its Print on Demand service,
create space and you could like
put an actual print anthology out.
There's just so many opportunities
and things you could do.
You could do a digital ebook of the web comic
if people just wanna collect it.
And that costs you nothing up front.
And again, all the merchandising opportunities,
in terms of t-shirts and mugs and other things.
So, this is about building a business
and building a brand.
Instead of just trying to get popular
and then get ad revenue as your single source of revenue
as an animator or as an artist.
Artists try doing web comics and thought
that they were just gonna make money
off the Google AdSense too.
And that wasn't the answer.
The answer is to always have multiple revenue streams
and to build brand.
And also, on the back end of this, you do commissions.
Because then you have a service.
And the more you elevate your brand
and you're reaching awareness,
the easier it is to justify raising the price
of your commission to artwork.
Whether that's doing it to individual people
or you doing commission artwork for a company.
Like doing a magazine cover or a book cover
or something like that as an illustrator.
So, you know, that would be my advice.
If you're an illustrator or you're an animator,
these are the kind of things you need to do
and that you need to be thinking about
from a content strategy standpoint
and from a brand building and business standpoint,
if you wanna be successful in the digital age.
You gotta take advantage of native social media platforms.
It's gonna be Instagram, Facebook, even Twitter.
And I would use those platforms
instead of trying to get people
over to your YouTube channel
so you can get all the subscribers
so that you can make that sweet YouTube Ad money
that doesn't exist.
At least not anymore.
Then, I would say, instead, you actually sell a service.
What most people fail to understand
is that digital and the physical world,
the way you make money,
is the same as it's always been.
The best and fastest way to make money
is to sell something.
Selling product or selling service.
That's always been the best and most guaranteed
fastest way and best way, overall,
most sustainable way overall, to make money.
If you're relying on just trying
to make money passively through ads,
you know, that's not necessarily guaranteed.
That hose can be turned off any time
and you have no control over it.
Selling a product or service,
that's a little bit more scalable.
That's a little bit more practical and it will work.
I'm not saying you only have to do that.
I'm saying that if you have a product and service
and you have the ad revenue
and maybe you get supporters through Patreon, as well.
And on top of that, if you actually are getting clients
and if you have affiliate marketing, there you go.
You got like five revenue streams.
That's a lot better than just having one.
So, ultimately, that is my advice
for illustrators and animators and artists, overall online.
You could apply a lot of this same context,
if you were a filmmaker.
So, if you guys still have questions about this stuff,
if you're still struggling after this,
let me know in the comments.
Did I not cover something?
Was there something else
that you still can't wrap your head around?
Or that you need help with?
And again, it's not to be condescending.
I just, for me, I don't see how creative people,
who can do so amazing work,
can't apply the same problem solving
and critical thinking skills to these problems in context.
Because that's really all you have to do.
Is you have so much creative ability,
you can use it to think your way out
of any problem in your career.
That's your real skill.
Your real skill is not just being able to draw
or to write or to make music or to click a shutter button.
It's that you have the ability to truly be creative
and see things with a different perspective.
And you just need to apply it more
to the context of how you grow your brand
and grow your business.
And I guarantee you that
that will probably make you more money
and more successful and give you more freedom
than getting even 10% better at your craft.
I think just being able to apply
your creative brain to business context.
Game changing for you.
Anyway, like this video if you like it.
Don't forget to subscribe.
Check out the other awesome content on the channel.
As always, you guys, thanks so very much for watching.
And don't forget, create something awesome today.
Take care.
(upbeat music)