How To Become A Successful Freelance Artist

Pulled from http://www.artsyshark.com/2013/04/19/successful-freelance-artist/

Once and a while I do some research/ reading up on my general field and make sure i'm doing stuff right or see what others approaches are. And when I stumble upon generaly good advice I like to share for others out there. I think customers/ and comrades alike out there can benefit from these following tips. Be sure to visit the author's page for the full article. But heres the main points and I think they all apply. I especialy like 1, 2 and 5. These are ones to live by as far as EWG is concerned! Poppin this post in the ol' 'reference' section for whenever i need a little inspiration.
Enjoy!

"...1.  Work hard. Work really hard. Work really, really, really hard. This career is not for the half-hearted. It takes a tremendous amount of effort and devotion to succeed.

2.  Keep at it. I know plenty of people who could have been great, but simply gave up too soon. Success is never overnight and rarely comes as quickly as we might like. You might be doing great work but just need to keep trying a little bit longer to find success.

3.  Get your work in front of the right people. Far too many people create great work but never show it to people. Sadly, art directors cannot magically find you if they don’t know who you are. So make sure they do. Get your work in front of their eyes. Put it online in every place you can and send personal emails to the clients you really want to work with. Do the leg work to put your work out there.

4.  Network like crazy. Networking seems sort of scary to most of us. It’s a weird, sleazy-sounding activity that we’d much rather avoid. But it’s not all that bad. Networking is just making friends. Go to conventions, local meet-ups, and classes and start to connect with your fellow artists. These connections will be mutually beneficial and are essential for maintaining a successful career.

5.  Do the work you love. As you begin to get work you’ll soon find yourself wrapped up in commissions, never doing work for yourself. Make the time to do personal work. These will be your chances to do work that you’re truly passionate about and will most advance your career. Even though I’ve done plenty of work to fill a portfolio with, half of my work that I show is still personal work

6.  Be a pleasure to work with. Be on time, be polite, be professional, and communicate clearly. An artist who is fun to work with gets a lot more work than an obnoxious artist. Be a nice person and nice things will happen to you...."