Since I follow lots of local artists, I see their grievances about being a local artists almost every day through my Twitter and Facebook feeds. At least twice a day I see “I’m so slept on," “I don’t know why people promote ______ but don’t promote me” or “why am I still at square one?” Well, since I’m a fellow starving artist as well, I don’t have some secret book full of “keys to success," but I do have some pro-tips that I’ve acquired over the years!

Social media presence matters.

Your social media presence should show who you are as a person, but I would avoid relationship/friendship drama or hurtful language. Unless you want your fan base to be a compilation of reckless people, I would say clean out your feeds.

Get connected.

Being good at something is not enough. It’s not about your ability and what you know. Who you know matters too. Expanding your creative network will make you one step closer to your goal and may even open up more opportunities for you to showcase your talent. Refusing to network is refusing to be successful.

Don't converse about your next move.

Nothing sucks more than having an innovative idea, tweeting about your excitement, then someone stealing it before you could pursue it. I understand that your plans make you happy, but did you see Beyonce tweeting about how she would accompany a visual representation of her album? Discretion is key.

Promotions.

How do you expect people outside of your social circle to know about your art? Short answer: they won’t. You have to get your art on literally any platform you can think of (blogs, radio, YouTube channels, etc), and these things don't have to be mainstream. As long as you know that their fanbase is different than yours, I say go for it.

You have to spend money to make money.

This goes especially for music makers. The cheap route is almost always not the best one. Recording in your friend’s closet sounds very different than recording in an actual studio, and if you have to save up extra money for the materials you need, do that. Quality is key.

Manage your time.

If you love your art enough that you want to make it your stream of income, you have to spend time on becoming better at it. Everyone has room to be better, right? So that means you have to take time from extraneous things in order to chase your dreams.

Before you go on, ask yourself lots of questions.

As you can see, the process of being an artist is a very extensive one. There are questions that need to be asked. Why do you do it? Is it because of the idea of the glamorous life? Or because you actually love the craft that you are pursuing? Is the reason why you do it enough to keep doing it as a full-time career? Would you sacrifice time and money just to pursue this craft? Are you willing to wait or do you want results now?