What are the must-have tools for your artist blog?

Thank you so much Alyson! I also use http://www.statcounter.com on my blog to see how many people are visiting, how many returning, how many new. Wednesdays are the day that most people visit. Not sure why but I’ll be sure to post something amazing on that day! Also seeing daily increases in visitors inspires me to write every day.

Thank you so much for the link to Feedblitz! This is precisely the type of thing I’ve been wanting for the blogs I read but everyone I know is much more technical and into the RSS feeds (which I don’t understand though my blog provides it). So now I can use Feedblitz on my blog and ask bloggers I know to use it too. Now I just need to find a way to get email notifications of updated podcasts.

These aren’t must-have’s but I like them. In the sidebar of my blog, http://joekaz.blogspot.com/ I use a few things: – Google Calendar – to show my schedule: what shows I’m in, dates of opening receptions, etc. You can customize the calendar to fit a narrow blog sidebar, or any size up to full screen. – ClustrMaps – just a small world map showing where your visitors come from. Not as useful as sitemeter for tracking things, but it’s some nice eye candy for the blog.

March 20, 2007 Hey Alyson, One thing I read at the end of this particular newsletter, sticking out in my attention, is the emphasis in the brief discussion of reimbursing teleseminars. It seems to me that focusing on the money, versus the convenience inherent in the technology, might just continue contributing to the unconscious money-controls-us tensions that the majority of human beings suffer from, albeit unconsciously. (It’s a thought particularly from the Yogic or Buddhist perspective.) Forgive my personal philosophy a minute to consider a focus instead, on the virtue in the technology if someone misses the live interaction of a telelsummit_ what can be highlighted to the best benefit of all really, is that they have the added resource included in the cost of the teleseminar, of the convenience of a recording that is most always available…kind of like setting the old VCR to record a favorite program that one will miss (but not really) at airing time, for one reason or another. Course the trick here, is that missing the live interaction in the teleseminar is not to be discounted. First-person (participative) experience in learning about new knowledge or even reviewing familiar knowledge is a great part of the whole learning experience_ and likely a very important part for most of us. Does this observation make sense? Then, I do want you to know that, I REALLY enjoy your newsletter…you won’t want to hear this but there can be some weeks when I really miss hearing the latest from you! I recognize that my own attraction to your kind of info experience and presentation, is because I am really new returning to my career fulltime as a working artist. One does initially have needs for re-orientation & some level of getting reacquainted through directions, in order to begin reorganizing the details of life from the studio and then to the marketplace again. After extended time away, perhaps especially for female artists who have in this case fulltime single-parented, when one has had to be away with a focus on family, upon returning, everything is new again. Note the ‘extended (as in years) time away’ context. Oh, and I do also recognize the description in your newsletter on blogspots this time_ that my blogspot posts are in the ‘dissertation category’…that is why my blog is headed as ‘…a journal for this artist’s reentry/reemergence into the main stream of life again.’ My past journey’s unique nature can only be shared in an openly processed way right now. Really this approach is what works for me in getting clear about beginning even in the studio again, and intimacy of a nature that translates well in public is also a priority in my work as an artist. Sometimes in life, one has to have a format to layout past accomplishments in order to understand more clearly how to move forward to be effective_ like stepping back from the canvas on the easel. Know that I am not personalizing the blog references in this week’s newsletter, only responding directly to put context around one artist’s approach for a first blog_ in this context for me, any constructive feedback is very welcome. Finally, thinking about efficiency and focus, as referenced in your newsletter about various blogging tools, is very much part of the experiences of starting my first blog just in January ’07. The input from this newsletter helps get one’s generalized state of awareness pointed toward specific tools, so that one can take action right away_ thanks for this! The suggestions have been great! In particular, lately I have been looking for that ability to count visitors. All my interactions with the technology as tools for the artist thus far, are reflective of some of the education focus I have accomplished over the past eight years while single-parenting, and most importantly the recent participation I had the good fortune to experience, in the smARTist Telesummit!! Since, I have only wondered briefly how long it might have taken me to stumble onto the great work you do, though I don’t really want to spend much time with that thought! The results for me, is that a whole world has opened up that IS enabling my own initial abilities, by saving a lot of deduction time on HOW to coordinate all efforts of real work as the artist that technologically also works FOR the artist, to then get the marketplace closer to that work being produced!! A BIG part of what this is all about_ yes?! From the get-go, I am far more coordinated as a newly returning career artist_ thanks again for what you do. Most Sincerely, Kerrie B. Wrye http://kerriebwrye.blogspot.com/ I challenge my destiny, my time I challenge the human eye I will sneer at ridiculous rules and people that is the end of it: I will fill my eyes with pure light, and swim in a sea of unbound feeling I have challenged tradition and my absurd position, and I have gone beyond what age and place allow. _ Al-Taimuriya, from Hilyat al-tiraz (Embroidered Ornaments, 1909)_from my studies of 100 years of Muslim Feminism!