1. Politeness. Set up *Thank you* responses after someone adds you as a friend. Or initiate the contact yourself. Make it a habit to address people by their names.

2. Avoid being a bore. When someone only talks about themselves, it gives off an air of indifference to the other person. What does this look like? Messages solely about paintings, invitations, advertisements, and messages that are only interesting to you.

3. Entertainment. Why do people hang out here? Drop a funny line, share a humorous picture—there are plenty out there. Any video that interests you. Your personal opinion. When you share information, explain why you liked it, why it caught your attention. The phrase *I liked it because* works wonders; it introduces you as a person. Or describe your emotions: "Oh, what a seaside! Lovely flowers! Beautiful view. Unusual voice for the singer," and so on. Such messages often get retweeted, shared, reposted.

4. Interest, retweets, likes, shares. Visit your colleagues/friends' profiles and generously share information from there. You'll get noticed and remembered. Comments in interest groups work the best, and they should be well-argued, including posts. Again, express your emotions.

5. Events. You have a workshop, a new painting, a new series of works— it's appropriate to talk about and invite people to them. Events in your life, where you've been, what you saw. Then write about how everything went and add photos; it'll make for good post promotion.

6. Posts from your blog. Set up automatic posting of blog messages to your page. This is important. Don't know how to do it? Either add them manually or ask me. There are special services and search engines for this.

7. Tell about yourself. But be careful. Very careful. There are boundaries to communication and to your territory. Only you decide where they lie. How is it done? In different ways. Talk about others.

8. Share links from other sites. Information from other pages. Read an article? Watched a video? Something interesting happened to a friend? Then give it a like! Repost!

9. Propose a discussion topic. Ask questions, respond to comments. Organize contests, polls. Help solve other people's problems. And to do that, you have to respond to messages. Gradually, you'll attract regular readers who are interested in what you write and find you interesting as a person. So, write and behave in a way that makes you interesting to others, and they will read you, even if it's not reciprocal.

What's the main mistake people make? The simplest one. They only talk about themselves and their paintings. Solely "I'm an artist" and "buy my paintings." It's a good theme. It's a shame it's only interesting to the author.

For some reason, it's believed that everyone is ecstatic and should immediately want to buy something. Do you seriously think people are seeing and hearing about your profession as an artist or the opportunity to buy paintings for the first time? Do you really think so? Think again. And now, let's think together—why do people come to the network? Are you personally interested in reading only ads? How many *likes* and shares does such information get? Go in, look, think, compare. And what do you yourself read? What do you share? The conclusion is obvious.

It's like a soccer comment. The pass was good and strong! It's a pity the field suddenly ended! I wish you only make passes on the field and score goals!

What's also astonishing is the belief that everyone owes something to the artist. Especially striking is the audacity of statements like, 'Galina, you know how to sell paintings. So sell mine for a percentage of the sales.' Yes, I do know how to sell. But why should I do it for you? And do you know what they say to me afterward? 'But I've been told by internet experts that la la la.' Well, if they said so, let them sell it themselves. And when I ask for specifics, it's either silence or 'Galina, you don't understand. Internet experts have valued my works at …' Well, good for them. Let them buy or sell independently.

What's my role in all of this? And here's where the plot thickens even further. Because nobody owes anything to the artist. And fundamentally, with his deep inner world and everything he wanted to express, he's not particularly interesting to anyone either. I know it sounds harsh. And it's only after realizing these fundamental positions that movement towards sales, money, and recognition begins."

1. Why do you think you're losing customers?

2. What do you believe could be the reason for the low conversion rate between viewers and sales?

3. What methods do you use to attract customers?

4. Do you think it's necessary to ask questions before offering products or services?

5. What criteria do you use to identify customer needs?

6. What are your thoughts on which questions should be asked before offering products or services?

7. What are your preferences in terms of art style, direction, and color palette?

8. What criteria do you use when selecting artwork for your collection or gifts?

9. How do you typically go about purchasing artwork: do you plan in advance or make spontaneous decisions?

10. How often do you purchase artwork for your home or office?

11. How familiar are you with the specific artist's work?

12. What criteria do you consider crucial when evaluating the quality of artwork?

13. How do you ensure that you're viewing original pieces of art?

14. How many pieces of artwork do you typically have in your home?

15. What are your expectations when purchasing artwork?

Feel free to add to the list.

Why is it necessary to know your painting buyers? Why is it necessary to understand how customer flows are organized towards your paintings? Why is it necessary to pay attention to and assign tags? Because money doesn't come from nowhere, from nothing. Usually, money before becoming yours belonged to someone, belonged to someone. And money always comes to us from people.

Please pay attention to my words. All this means that you somehow motivate other people to give you money. Think. What is there in your paintings that other people are willing to give you money for? What is there that your customers bring you money for?

Sales, especially at the stage of your professional development, have nothing to do with pure and noble creativity, if you thought otherwise.

Creativity. Wildly complex activity that will require significant effort from your brain.

Imagine that you have a bag of parts weighing two and a half tons, from which you need to manually assemble a car. That's what awaits you. Do you really think you can just sit down with your muse and quickly paint a top masterpiece for the last 2,000 years and the next 5?

If you've never drawn before, it might take you several weeks to create a decent landscape, still life, or portrait. And all because you'll have to pay attention to the quality of the watercolor drawing, think about accents and lines, follow the rhythm, composition, light, and air, and maintain the viewer's interest. It's not as simple as it may seem. And if you make a mistake somewhere, it will be noticeable right away, not only to an experienced artist but to anyone who has heard of watercolor. Approach it like your favorite job.