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Why Every Artist Needs a Blog & How to Create an Artist
Blog
As an artist, the key to selling more artwork is maximizing
its exposure. The internet is an increasingly popular tool for
promoting original art, and if done properly, can be quite
profitable.
One of the most effective (and free!) online marketing tools
for artists is the blog. Artist blogs provide an easy way to
display your art, discuss your creative process, post exhibition
announcements and more. Best of all, blogs require no working
knowledge of HTML and the search engines love their dynamic
content.
What is a blog and how will it sell my art?
A "blog" is a web-based diary or journal. The author of a
blog, also known as a "Blogger", publishes content on a regular
basis about a focused topic. These regular postings typically
provide a "community" feel by allowing site visitors to post
feedback to your journal entries. This mode of communication can
deepen relationships with potential art buyers, leading to
increased sales.
Blogs also have the ability to archive all of your previous
posts, dynamically creating an individual page for each journal
entry. The feature is great for art buyers using search engines
to find original art. For example, if you have a blog post
describing a painting that you just completed of the Golden Gate
Bridge at sunset and an art buyer in Florida goes to Google and
searches for "painting of Golden Gate Bridge at sunset", there is
a very good chance that your blog entry will appear pretty high
in the rankings. Cha Ching!!
Many artists have felt the pain of email marketing losing its
effect due to spam filters, junk email overloads and virus
paranoia. Blogs provide a new way to communicate with clients,
fans and industry professionals. This trend can support your
email marketing efforts by allowing blog subscription options for
site visitors so that they are notified whenever your blog is
updated along with providing a permanent place on the web for all
of your postings as opposed to newsletter emails that are
typically deleted.
How to start a blog
To begin, visit some of these free blogging sites, all
offering unique template options that even an artist can
appreciate, image uploads and syndication ability.
- Blogger.com (blogger.com) - Simple to set up and multiple
authoring ability
- MSN Spaces (spaces.msn.com) - Create your own mini site,
with an exceptional blogging feature
- Live Journal (livejournal.com) - Requires a bit of
'blogging knowledge' to get it set up
- Blog Drive (blogdrive.com)
If you're interesting in reviewing additional blog features,
these sites require a small monthly fee to maintain.
- Typepad (typepad.com) - starts at $4.95/month
- Tripod Blogs (tripod.lycos.com) - starts at
$4.95/month
Note to artists with MySpace accounts: MySpace provides
members personal blogs, but it is important to know that MySpace
blogs are not currently listed in search engines, which as noted
above, is one of the main reasons to get a blog. While MySpace
works to remedy this issue, it is recommended that you blog using
a tool that is accessible to search engine spiders.
- Decide on a title for your blog
The title of your blog should be brief and to the point. You
can get creative with your language in the blog description / tag
line. A focused title will help with higher search engine
rankings and make it clear to visitors what the blog is
about.
For example, the title for ThePauper.com blog is "Diary of a
Pauper". The blog description is "Rants and raves about the
careers and lives of starving artists." The title is concise,
stating exactly what it is, while the description is a bit more
creative.
It's important to establish yourself as a professional working
artist if you want to use your blog as a vehicle to sell your
art. Blog theme involves the layout and color of the page,
quality of the artwork images displayed and verbiage used for
blog postings.
Select your blog template carefully and make a habit to review
your blog from the perspective of a potential client. Is the page
visually appealing? Do the images of your artwork provide a link
to an extra large version to see detail? Does your content have a
consistent theme?
Here's a good example of a working blog by mix engineer, Ken
Lewis: http://protoolsmixing.com/blog.html
The content theme is exceptionally consistent, plus the colors
and page layout match his website.
What's beautiful about blogs is that there are no rules on
what to write, but if you want to attract and keep an audience,
you might consider some of these suggestions.
- Keep your posts creative and interesting. Move and inspire
your readers by being completely honest about your creative
process.
- Use keywords in your blog title and post. Using the example
mentioned earlier - if your post is about a Golden Gate Bridge
painting, be sure to use that exact phrase in the title and
body of your blog. Think about what people might type into
search engines to find your content and then use those keywords
in your blog. This technique will help increase the ranking of
your web page on search engines.
- Post daily, or at least twice a week. If you publish blog
entries frequently, you will see more return visitors,
subscriptions to your blog and comments from site
visitors.
- Proofread and preview your blog entries before posting.
Some blog HTML editors have a way of creating weird symbols out
of certain characters and a quick spell-check never hurts.
(Note: be sure to create your blog entries using Word or some
other text editor. Many blogging tools tend to "time out" after
a certain amount of time and you could potentially lose hours
of work.)
Finally! Your blog looks great and has unique content. Now,
depending on the blogging tool that you selected, follow the
steps to publish it to the World Wide Web. Test the live URL that
now houses your blog. If all of your graphics appear correctly
and the copy is flawless, then you want to make sure that you
promote your blog on your personal website, in your email
signature and by word of mouth.
Using the tools you already have to spread the word while
testing your dedication to frequent posting is the best way to
get started. Part 2 of will unveil tons of ways to promote your
blog online.
Kristin Royce is a search engine optimization and online
marketing professional contributing online marketing and
promotional content for artists to The Artrepreneur E-Zine and
newsletter.
The Artrepreneur offers articles helping artists focus on
proven techniques to accomplish any goal. Read More: http://www.theartrepreneur.com
Copyright © 2005 Arctic Mouse, Inc. All rights
reserved.
MORE RESOURCES updated Mon. December / 02 / 2024
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To Blog Or Not To Blog -
A Laymans View
We have now entered the world of blogs! Sounds kind of
Harry Potterish, doesn't it?If you're over 20 years old,
you probably think this is some crazy sci-fi phenomenon, or
I've simply lost my mind. Don't fret, the vast majority of
people don't know what a blog is all about and more
importantly, why it matters to them.
Its A Blog, Not A Sales
Letter
The recent spurt of interest in blogging has begun to
ignite the hope that people can make a full-time income
from blogging. Although there are a few people actually
doing this, there aren't too many business models yet that
can support someone making a full-time income from their
blogs.
Snob-Bloggers: You Just
Might Be A Snob If You Publish A Blog
You Might Be A Snob-Blogger If?According to Jupiter
Research, about 2 percent of the online community has
created a blog. That works out to millions and millions of
blogs, and in turn, millions and millions of snobs who
publish them.
Who Would Use
RSS
My previous two articles "What is RSS and Why use RSS"
focused on how we can give our customers a better online
experience while lessening the hassles for the online
marketer. In this article I'm going to offer you another
way to look at RSS - from the standpoint of a new emerging
profession: the channelmaster or newsmaster as Robin Good
calls it.
Strategic RSS
Positioning: How to Hotwire Your Site to
Google!
There's no denying it, the Internet has changed. The change
was so subtle most people missed it.
RSS - How to Promote and
Profit From Your Feed
Let me ask you three questions to get you thinking. Does
your website offer an RSS feed? Are you promoting your feed
effectively? Are you seeing an increase in profits as a
result of offering a feed to your visitors?I'm going to
outline several actionable steps you can take to promote
your RSS feed both internally on your own website and
externally on other websites.
Utilize The Power Of
Blogs To Market Your Business On A Budget
Budget marketing with blogs is one of today's top methods
for cost-effective advertising to the consumers you want to
reach, whether they're in your neighborhood or across the
global community.'Blogging' is a fairly recent addition to
our vocabulary, and it's exactly what you'll be doing if
you pursue budget marketing via blogs.
Details of Getting a
Blog
Blogs, the abbreviation of Web Logs (online journals), are
becoming more and more popular all the time. People are
starting new blogs at an astounding rate so it's safe to
assume that there are constantly people out there who want
to know how to get a blog going.
Make Money with Your Own
Blog
Well, basically, setting up a blog means that you are
creating a little space of your own on the Internet where
you can make posts about anything that interests you. Of
course, if you are going to be blogging on a variety of
topics, the best way to make money with it would be to have
different blogs for different topics otherwise your blog
will be just one big jumbled mess that nobody would want to
read about.
A Blog Isn't Just For
Christmas
I was watching the news on TV last night and there was a
warning about buying puppies as Christmas presents. There's
nothing worse than visiting the kennels in the new year and
seeing all those unwanted dogs that were chosen as presents
because they were so cute at the time.
Making Money with RSS
Feeds
First it was banner ads, then Google AdSense and now, the
latest way to make money on your web site could very well
be RSS feeds. Say what? I said: RSS is hot and you should
be using it to drive eyeballs to your site.
Marketing With Blogs -
Part 4
In the first three parts of this article series on
marketing with blogs, I discussed the reasons why blogs are
excellent tools for marketing, and provided some tips on
using your blog to brand yourself, boost your reputation
and sell your products and services online.In this article,
I provide specific tips on using your blog help you boost
your marketing ROI and visibility online.
Use RSS Feeds to Improve
Search Engine Optimization and Ranking
RSS is rapidly becoming a "must have" for a proper search
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Site Syndication (or Really Simple Syndication, depending
on who you ask) is a file format similar to XML, and is
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others in a format that can be universally understood.
Comparing Free Blogging
Software
With the increased interest in Blogging (web Logging), many
web hosting providers now provide an assortment of free
usage, open source blogging software packages. Among the
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WordPress and Nucleus.
RSS Can Keep You In The
Loop
When webmasters first hear about RSS they tend to
concentrate on the promotional side of things. They want to
know how it will bring more traffic to their site and get
them higher rankings in the search engines.
Are You Thinking of
Republishing RSS Feeds?
There is lively debate about the republishing of RSS feeds
on other sites. The argument surrounds the use of RSS feeds
from the feed publisher being used in an unfair manner.
Find Out How Microsofts
Plans Could Make Your Subscribers Beg You for RSS
Content!
Microsoft recently announced that they will be releasing a
new browser version sometime this summer. The new browser
version was to be released with Longhorn, the code name for
their next operating system to replace Windows XP, but they
decided that they needed to release it sooner than that.
Blogging for Profit
Using AdSense
This article is designed to teach you how to profit from
blogging, writing to a website in the form of regular
posts, without spending anything. The keys to this idea lie
in two of Google's programs, Blogger.
13 Steps to Successful
Blogging
Blogs can be a very marketable and very profitable tool if
used correctly. Profiting from blogs is just a matter of
grabbing the attention of an audience and not doing any
actual salesmen selling.
The Language of
Blogs
I read over a lot of blogs each week, casually surfing one
or two of the blog exchanges I belong.I realized yesterday
that I seldom read the whole entry unless it's very short.
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