How Fine Artist Sam Ryan Went Viral & Doubled His Monthly Revenue

What do Joe Rogan, Morgan Freeman, and Tulsi Gabbard all have in common?

They all shared artwork created by Sam Ryan on their social media handles.

SamRyanStudio Newsletter is a newsletter Sam Ryan uses to engage with his audience, share his artwork, and drive sales.

We recently sat down with Sam Ryan, aka “The Wolf of Art Street®,” to discuss his approach to building a successful fine art business from the ground up.

Sam was happy to share how he broke through the barriers as a new artist by leveraging Instagram and doubled his revenue two months after launching his newsletter.

Today we cover:

• How he flipped viral moments on Instagram into a successful newsletter.

• The ways he keeps his audience engaged (50% - 60% open rate).

• Mechanics on how he structures, writes, and leverages his newsletter for high-end clients.

• Advice for other creators.

Let’s get into it.

Sam’s Backstory: Breaking the Starving Artist Stigma

Sam’s journey as an artist begins in a small town of 3,000 people in Mississippi. While Sam had spent years drawing as a fine artist, he decided to cross over into painting as he saw there was real potential in earning an income.

“My name's Sam Ryan. I'm from a small town called Gluckstadt, Mississippi, right outside of Madison, Mississippi. About two and a half years ago, I picked up a paintbrush. I needed to pay for summer classes. I knew I could draw and switched to painting because I saw you could sell paintings for a little more.”

“I used to draw about three to four years ago and sell a few pieces every other month. But it's been consistent for about two years, selling paintings every week, doing print drops, and selling cheaper versions of my artwork every so often.”

Like many artists trying to make a name for themselves—or at the very least, make a living—Sam faced a barrage of skeptics. He was often met with unbelievers trying to pull him back into reality.

“I've had people tell me I couldn't be a full-time artist. Everybody's heard this: ‘You gotta get a real job, and you need your benefits. You're not going to be able to afford healthcare,’ and all types of stuff.”

But, Sam ignored the noise and instead leaned into his craft. By sharing his progress on Instagram, he was able to accrue a six-figure following.

“I think owning your own business really brings you a lot of freedom to branch out and make your own time. Make your own way.”

“I finally got my style and my prices up over the past two years while I became a full-time artist—like a full business. I didn't go to nursing school. I went straight into creating my Instagram account a year and a half ago. It blew up and got to 120,000 followers.”

The Modern Artist Is a Tech Solopreneur

While many believe it’s nearly impossible to “make it” as a fine artist today, Sam tends to think otherwise.

“I'm the manager, the CEO, the creator. I'm not hiring anybody else to help me produce pieces. Right now it's a one-person business model.”

“I make sure I make all my posts in a week on all my social media. I write my newsletter on Thursday and put it out Friday every week. I have a Shopify store and have a little chat box there for questions. It's been steadily rolling. It’s bringing me enough income to put away 80% of it and just live off the 20%.”

Going Viral: Shared by Joe Rogan & Morgan Freeman

Sam’s artwork started really taking off. And, so did his Instagram.

He shared, “My main social media—Instagram—is basically a log of what I've been doing for the past year. You know—a reel, a picture-a-day, something like that. A lot of processed videos. People like to see how I make my portraits and I paint usually iconic figures like Abe Lincoln, JFK, and famous women.”

His unique art style—large portraits of media icons painted in acrylic or charcoal-acrylic—has created quite a buzz online. So much so that he even started gaining the attention of the prominent figures he was painting.

“Damar Hamlin—I just recently reached out to him and shipped my painting to him. I knew he was a big art collector, so I got that to him when I started my Instagram.”

“A year and a half ago, my first viral video went to Joe Rogan, who saw it and reposted it for me. So I made a portrait—abstract style—of Joe Rogan with ‘BE THE HERO OF YOUR OWN MOVIE,’ etched in on it. He loved it so much. He reposted it, asked me if he could repost it, and said, ‘Thank you,’ and all that.”

The virality didn’t stop there. Renowned movie stars and political figures have also fuelled Sam’s social media growth, and in turn, his business.

“Then, Morgan Freeman reposted one of my paintings. Tulsi Gabbard—we did a reel collab on a few pieces. I kind of got connected to all these famous or just high-value people, and it's helped me start my business and actually do what I want to do.”

From Instagram to beehiiv: Launching the Newsletter

While Sam started reaping the benefits from his explosive Instagram growth and his art business was taking off, he knew Instagram was not forever. Soon enough, his Instagram growth and engagement seemed to slow down a bit.

“I saw my engagement start to drop. So I was looking for other ways to reach my current followers, not just my mom's friends and stuff that don't see my posts every time I put them out. I was looking around for different companies and I discovered beehiiv from Codie Sanchez on her YouTube video. And I thought I could do that.”

“I've never been good at writing. I was looking at examples of newsletters and they're really short—two to three-minute reads. You can add GIFs and pictures and everything.

Since I'm a visual artist, I thought it'd fit perfectly in the format. I started using beehiiv as a way to engage with my top fans and top buyers that come back every time.”

“Each newsletter would be different, but it basically recaps what I did that week in my art journey. I'll have ideas, new paintings, and new projects.”

Using Insights from beehiiv’s Polls to Optimize Art & Content

Despite Sam’s little experience as a writer—let alone newsletter publisher—he was able to leverage his newsletter to improve his content and artwork.

One of Sam’s favorite beehiiv features is the integrated polls. Beehiiv’s editor includes a native one-click polling feature that allows you to integrate polls into your newsletter seamlessly. beehiiv’s polls are an intuitive way to gather feedback from your subscribers.

Now that Sam could gain feedback in real-time from his subscribers, he could access insights into their needs and wants—and optimize his artwork and newsletter content.

“I put in polls and say, ‘What do you wanna see next? What do you wanna see in my next print drop?’ So it's all interwoven into my art business. I never thought writing would be a part of being a visual painter that just makes videos and reels and TikToks and all that.”

“I would say the easiest part about getting more sales with beehiiv was the 50% to 60% open rate. Subscribers will go down and click my poll and they say, ‘I want to see this piece in your next print drop.’

Most of my buyers are on my email list, and they're going to tell me exactly what they want. I pull JFK or Benjamin Franklin from this newsletter and add Marilyn Monroe to this one.”

Sam’s newsletter has not only allowed him to interact with his audience on a deeper level, but it’s also much less work than he anticipated.

“The constant engagement rate I get through an email (which I didn't know was possible) helps the most. Writing for an hour one day a week—on a Thursday—it's not that much work and I kind of enjoy it.”

Twofold Approach: Newsletter Sends & Instagram Stories

Two months into launching his newsletter on beehiiv, and Sam has figured out a streamlined content strategy that integrates both his Instagram handle and newsletter.

“I started my newsletter about eight weeks ago. I've accumulated 740 subscribers from putting it in my Instagram story. So I’ll say, ‘This is my newsletter,’ and I put a little snippet of it, make a video. I even make a reel of what's going to be in the next newsletter, a story I did, or where I went that week. I show people how to paint something like that. I do things throughout the week that I think they would find interesting.”

“I'll put a little snippet about who the person was, why I painted them, and the historical significance of the person. I'm still trying to figure out what's the most interesting subject that they would want to open and read about (instead of rehashing my paintings as pictures in the email, just like they saw on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok). So that's where the writing needs to come in. I'm hopefully going to improve what people want to read about the most.”

“Especially starting with 700, I feel like more people would open my newsletter. The people that subscribed to my newsletter were there with me from the beginning. They go and follow anything that I put out. So all these people are really interacting with me and are going to tell me what they want to buy in my next print drop—which I plan to do at the end of the year, November and December.”

“I'm painting all throughout the year. I’m putting out the best work that I can and I'm letting them choose what they want to buy. Instead of, ‘I have these available for sale. Hopefully, you buy one,’ they're telling me what they're going to buy in the future.”

“I feel like I've kind of conquered the Instagram algorithm at one point, and I feel like I just needed to branch out and do something else. Another thing from Codie Sanchez’s YouTube video—the statistics on sales through email compared to social media—is day and night.

Sam’s right. The average return on investment for email is $36 for every $1 spent. That means if you’re investing $500 per month into email marketing, you can expect an average return of $18,000.

Doubling His Revenue on beehiiv in 2 Months

Many people believe you need to have tens of thousands of subscribers for their newsletter in order to make an impact. But, Sam’s story proves that theory wrong. He’s able to generate five figures a month.

What’s even more impressive is that he doubled his art business revenue only two months after launching on beehiiv.

And you can get an idea of it all comes together to drive revenue from his engagement in this post (see the poll results at the top):

“This [March 2023?] was my highest monthly revenue since I started. My highest month in the past two years, before the newsletter, was about $10,000 to $12,000. Since I started the newsletter—it's been two months—but this month was the highest and I had the most engagement on my posts.”

“We’re almost to $20,000 in revenue for this month. I've had two high ticket sales, which I put in the newsletters. I feel like the newsletter is really helping me out there. It's really driving sales.”

Newsletters: The Key to Building a Premium Brand

So, what’s the reason for Sam’s success with his newsletter? How did he manage to double his revenue from strictly marketing on Instagram to leveraging email?

It all comes down to professionalism, trust, and engagement.

Sam shared, “I found that more of my original buyers, they'll buy my really big or expensive pieces. They go through the email route, which seems more professional, and they’re already getting a weekly newsletter from me. It's reinforcing that they're gonna interact with me more and want to ask about my original pieces. It's reinforced my little print drops, which are like $100 to $200 a piece, all the way up to my big ones, which can go like $6,000 to $8,000.”

“People are more likely to buy through back-and-forth emails because they feel it's more professional since I do sell some high price ticket items. Instead of texting somebody's phone number, or DMing me through Instagram, I feel a newsletter reinforces the artwork’s worth, its value. An email makes them want to buy a bigger ticket item than an Instagram DM.”

By integrating his newsletter with his Instagram, Sam was able to create a simple sales funnel that builds a deeper relationship with his audience, taps into trust signals, and allows him to brand himself better as an artist.

“My audience will know if they want to buy from my Instagram or Facebook. Then they’ll come in through email and subscribe to my newsletter. Then, once they read it—all the little kinds of stories that I did—I feel like it just reinforces a sale and that I’m a real person and I'm reputable. They're able to read more about me.”

Advice for Creators Considering Launching a Newsletter

If you’ve enjoyed this so far, consider subscribing to Sam’s newsletter here:

We asked Sam what kind of advice he had for artists and creators who are looking for ways to grow their businesses and careers with a newsletter.

He shared, “For your first newsletter, you need to put out a broad range of what you do and then niche it down. If you're already in a niche, whittle it down to really small subjects that somebody would find interesting and then get feedback.

“You could do that with writing too. I was never a big writer in high school or college, but you could write something short and simple using beehiiv. The format is so simple, and I make mine really short and quick. Just start with a wide range of what your business does or stuff about you.”

He shared that launching a newsletter doesn’t have to be scary. He shared how it doesn’t matter whether you can write well or not. It’s best to simply take action. And, it can even become something you enjoy that fuels your creative drive.

“Even me, I put it out on my writing ability. I was never good at writing, but I feel like I'm getting better as it goes along. Writing a newsletter is not like writing a book. It’s like you're talking to a friend or I'm trying to show my mom my next painting and I want to put it in word form instead of just an image on Instagram.”

“Just start one like you would start a YouTube channel. I was hesitant on starting my art account because I thought it was ugly at one point, two years ago, like nobody was going to like it. But the thing is, nobody's going to email you back a hate comment like they would on Instagram and just leave a mean comment. Nobody's going to do that.”

“But you can still get feedback from your analytics—what subject line opened the best, and use all that. You just have to start one, like you're starting something new.”

If you want to journey along with Sam and stay up to date on his latest art releases, you can sign up for the SamRyanStudio Newsletter. You can also follow him on Instagram and check out his online studio to browse his art prints and original pieces.