Here's my first interview with an American painter, Mario Lorentz from Denver Colorado. As any entrepreneur minded person, he invested himself completely when he decided to start a career as a painter a few years ago. I was astonished by the number of followers he had on Facebook (about 4,000). He is going to tell us more about his artwork and how he managed to build such a large list of contacts.
Jean, I live in Denver, Colorado and just moved here last year from Colorado Springs, Colorado. I have worked hard all my life to become an entrepreneur and when I started achieving some goals, the bad economy wiped out those dreams, so I got into painting. I figured that it was "Now or Never" to paint. You have to like what you do in life, so I am going for it. I started with watercolor paints and started doing scenes of Croatia. I had gone on a trip to Croatia to visit friends and took a lot of photos. I got these photos out when I started painting because I thought they would make good paintings. I then started doing some sports scenes. I describe under the photos of my paintings which each one is in my facebook photos. This year, I started doing oil paintings. They are also of Croatian scenes.
2- How do you use the internet overall to promote your artistic work? Do you post your images on many online galleries? If so, which ones?
The only art site I have posted my paintings on is Art Bistro. I have not been on there in awhile though. It appears to me that there are only artists on this site for the most part. Other artists are not going to be interested in buying one of my paintings. I heard there were only like 40,000 people on this site. So, I thought that I would just try and build up my friends on social sites instead, because anyone and everyone are on these sites. I was on Myspace as well, but have not logged in there in 6 months because at least 90% of the members don't use it anymore. So, I have just been focusing on building up my friends lists on my facebook page and my fan page. There are over 500 million people on facebook, so this is a site to be to market anything. Everyone is joining.
3- I noticed you have many many followers on your Facebook Page. How did you get so many followers on Facebook?
As for my many followers on my regular facebook page, I have sent out many friend requests during my time on this site and have slowly built up my list. I also receive many requests from people, but the majority on my list have been requests I have sent out. I also have a fan page with a lot more people and I built up my list there through advertisements that I paid money for.
4- and when did you stard promoting your work on Facebook? How much did you spen on ads?
I don't remember exactly when I started on facebook. I think I started putting my paintings on here 1 1/2 years ago.
Well, for the 7,000 fans it cost over $3,500. The thing is, advertising here in the USA would be very expensive. I did most of my advertising outside the USA. Since I did Croatian paintings, I ran ads there and it cost as low as 7 cents per click, but here in Denver where I live, it costs 10 times that. I also ran ads in Italy that cost between 19 and 30 cents. I figure I would build up the fan base in other countries and then slowly add them here. I think I ran ads in like 20 countries because I wanted to add people all around the globe. It has really been interesting to see how the facebook advertising works.
5- Are you satisfied in terms of sales with the internet? with Facebook? Do you make a living from selling your art work?
I have only sold one painting. I guess it is too early to tell if I am satisfied with facebook. I definitely do not make a living with my paintings.
6- Do you sell your artwork through real-life galleries and shops ?No, I don't have any paintings in any real-life galleries.
7- Do you sell prints of your work? Through which websites?
I don't sell prints either.
Note from the editor: since we're on this topic, I recommend your read this post Save Loads of Time on Facebook with Friends Lists. It is all the more necessary if you are trying to expand and build a list of contacts. When you reach thousands of contacts like Mario, you'll be glad to have followed those recommendations.