In my current Promote Your Art with Confidence class, Daniel Sroka opined:
Blogs are best (in my opinion) not for attracting people, but for convincing them to stay. People hear about you, get curious, check out your site, see your work, and then (best of all) hear you "speak" though your blog. To put it in the words of our current class, it is like having an ongoing "public speaking" opportunity that is available 24 hours a day.
True?
Image: Daniel Sroka, Photo #5-6.
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8 thoughts on “Artist blogs are good for . . .”
My blog entries bring people to my site. But they don’t necessarily bring new CUSTOMERS to my site, and that is the audience I want to actually promote my art to. Because I blog about my process I attract folks already interested in particular techniques and ideas. I love my readers, but potential customers don’t seem to be searching for the things I talk about regularly, so I am in the process of writing new pages that I hope will get their attention long enough to dance around my site and become intrigued by my art and blog. I do like the analogy of the blog as a continual speaking opportunity, though.
I suspect the majority of my readers are other artists. While I believe it would be possible to write a blog to attract specific potential customers, in which case I might agree with Daniel’s comment, this is not what I’m currently writing about. I write about my life as an artist – while a potential customer might want to read a little bit about this, I suspect over time they would get a little bored reading about my goals over the long run. I view my blog as a way of interacting with a community of artists (among other things), which has it’s own set of advantages, not all marketing related. One of my favorite artist’s blogs right now is by the Lone Beader (http://thelonebeader.blogspot.com/). Her posts are amazingly interesting – and I believe her style of blogging would definitely attract potential customers and fit more into the style of blogging Daniel is referring to. As she is working on her current piece about firetrucks she has been blogging all about fires and fire departments, etc. She should be getting all kinda of hits from searches from people that might be interested in this specific piece. But the best part is it doesn’t feel like advertising or marketing – it’s just very interesting topical blog posts. I believe the biggest value of a blog is how it effects the blogger – not how it effects the external marketplace. I am a different artist today because of my blog – I have changed how I do things because of the things I have learned about myself through the process of blogging. And to me this is the real value of blogging.
My blog is still my best marketing tool. I use it to talk about my work and to raise awareness of the issues surrounding my genre. My blog didn’t bring in too many visitors when I purely discussed my own work but by adding news editorials that could segue into my work and using social networks properly I increased my readership dramatically.
I just started my blog today on google (Bucks County Art)-taking the advice of ArtBiz coach Alyson Stanfield. I have no idea what to expect or actually how it works- but I have an open mind and am waiting to see how things take form.
Awesome, Kathryn! Just dive right in!
Kathryn, I tried clicking on your link and got a commercial looking place holder page. Is your blog up yet? I’m curious because I live in Bucks County, PA and was wondering if you were nearby. Please feel free to click over to my website and contact me to reply, if you are so inclined. Thanks, Beth
I have been blogging for awhile now, in many different places (Myspace, Blogger, WordPress, and most recently, Vox). I find that the best way for artists and creative people to use blogs is to be REAL. Don’t just talk about you and your art. Open up discussions, talk about current events, things that are happening in your world and the world in general in relation to the experience of being an artist. Talk about the pitfalls as well as the good times. It’s also crucial to add tags to your blogs to attract as many people as possible. Blogs (and also podcasts) are really the wave of the future when it comes to getting yourself out there and building a solid relationship with both potential fans and clients. http://www.asymmetricbizcult.com
I started a blog at the beginning of the year on my website which is hosted by Clint Watson at http://Fineartstudioonline.com While it hasn’t generated much traffic as of yet, I believe it will be one thing that keeps people coming back to my website on a regular basis. Now, I just have to learn how to post interesting blogs. :-o} BTW, I am opening my first solo exhibit this Friday evening, “Southern Heritage” at Blount Mansion http://blountmansion.org in Knoxville. It is through things that I’ve learned by taking classes with Alyson and reading her posts, that I was able to get this together. Thanks Alyson! BTW, if you are in Knoxville, stop by March 2 from 5-8pm (local tv will be there!) or during the month of March.